2 Samuel 23:13b-17a

Three of the thirty chief men came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. "Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it.

It speaks of people serving others. David didn’t ask anybody to go but the three, David’s mighty men, heard and saw a need, and immediately went, broke through the Philistine lines, and brought David some water. You can say, "Well David shouldn’t have poured it out after they went through all that," but the idea is serving. Someone took the time and said, "No matter what the obstacles are, I’m going to serve." These three went and served David.

Philippians 4:18b-19

I am amply supplied, now that I have received … the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Serving others is a sweet aroma and sacrificial offering to the Lord. When those of you took time to prepare food or make a call, something spiritual happened. There was a sweet aroma from you, doing that act of service, to God. God received it and it pleased Him. In the Old Testament, they had the burnt offerings. In the New Testament, we have acts of service for other people. It’s a very key growth item for a maturing Christian. You have to be involved with other people to grow in a spiritually mature way. So I appreciate what you did.

1 Kings 12

Last week we talked about idols. 1 Kings 12 is a chapter you will want to earmark because it kind of tells you what the rest of the Bible is about. We talked about the kingdoms splitting. They split in two—the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. I asked you to remember this because that helps your reading on everything else in the Bible. You’ll see that it’ll say, "This is the king from Judah or this is the king from Israel." You need to be reminded of that.

Also remember the incident that caused the kingdom to be divided. It goes back to Solomon and his giving in to his wives and idol worship. He built some "high places" for worship of other gods. God said, "It won’t happen to you but when your son starts to reign as king, the kingdom will be torn from him." This split is what leads us to the beginning of the New Testament. The split occurs. We’ll see that later on, this Nation, the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes are taken into captivity and deported. They are wiped off the face of the earth, if you will, in terms of losing their identity. The two tribes of Judah last for another 120-130 years and then their taken into captivity—the Babylonian Captivity. Assyria was the world power that took over Israel. The Babylonian Empire takes Judah into captivity. The people return from captivity to rebuild the Temple in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. That is the chronological end of the Old Testament. It’s around 430 BC. We have around 400 years of silence and then the beginning of the New Testament.

We are going to pick up in 1^st Kings 12. We mentioned that Jeroboam, the king of the Northern Kingdom, established worship places in Dan and Bethel. He did this so that the people would not have to go to Jerusalem (in the Southern Kingdom). They were supposed to go down there 1-3 times per year to worship. Jeroboam said, "I don’t want that to happen. I want you to stay here." So he built golden calves in these places and said, "Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

1 Kings 12:28-31a

After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there. Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people,

You have to know history and I hope you know a little of it. Who were the priests of the tribes? The Levites. What does this say? Jeroboam said, "Forget all that. I will appoint any priests I want from any tribe. It doesn’t matter." That’s the point I want you to see here. He goes against everything that God has put into place.

1 Kings 12:31b-33

even though they were not Levites. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.

One of the things I want you to see as you go through Kings is whether the kings were good or bad in each kingdom. I want you to pretend. If you are someone living in Israel, what’s going on? OK, now you are someone living in Judah. What’s going on? I want you to get an idea of what it was like to live back then.

We know what it is like to live in the United States today, don’t we? If you had to describe to an alien or to someone unfamiliar with the U.S. what it’s like to live in this country, what kinds of things would you tell them?

Freedom. Taxes. Fair. Good roads. Traffic. Mostly friendly people. Freedom of religion. Choice of jobs.

It sounds like a great place to live, doesn’t it? Is that what everyone is hearing? It’s a great place to live. What would one expect in terms of what’s wrong with the U.S.? Terrorism. Crime. Dishonest politicians.

How would you describe religion? You can worship freely anywhere at anytime, right? But you can’t go into a public school and pray. You can’t go to a ballgame and have a prayer. You’re living in a country that says, "You can’t do certain things in certain places at certain times." You can’t do certain things in public schools. The pledge of allegiance is taking a lot of heat lately with "under God," or "not under God."

How would you describe this to a foreigner? "Well, you can do just about everything except what the government has said you can’t do." Correct? "You can’t do these things." I want you to keep thinking about living in the U.S. today.

As we look at these two kingdoms, you’ll say, "Well that is so foreign." I want you to hear what’s going on in these places. What did Jeroboam do? He built two places to worship. He said, "Go here. Don’t go to Jerusalem." Do you hear what I’m saying? We would call Jeroboam a politician, the government. We would say, "Here’s the government telling us, ‘Here’s what you do and here’s where you do it.’" He built shrines in high places. See. You live there. You get to live, work, and worship based on what the politicians and government have mandated.

I want to show you how to read 1^st and 2^nd Kings and also 1^st and 2^nd Chronicles.

1 Kings 14:19-20

The other events of Jeroboam's reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his fathers. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king.

I would suggest that all of you do this. I’m serious. Some afternoon, get your Bible and a sheet of paper. I know you can cheat with your workbook or your Bible. But I want you to make a list of the kings of Israel and Judah, how long they served, and whether they were good or bad. I want you to do it because it means that you are studying the Bible. You’re not just reading the product of someone else.

You can build a line of the kings of each kingdom. You can build this timeline. I know that’s a lot of work. I know you’ll ask, "Why should I do that? It’s already in here." It’s because you’re going to hear and read some things that you wouldn’t see otherwise. Trust me with this. To learn, you need to study. To study, you need to apply some time and brainpower to what you’re doing.

Jeroboam has been replaced by Nadab. If we continue with this, we’ll find there are 19 kings until Assyria wipes them out (which is about 200 years). Of the 19 kings, how many of them were good? None. Zero. (In the Northern Kingdom).

Now that I’ve said that, anytime you read about a king in Israel, what do you think you’re going to read about? What about the high places? The Bible will say that they’re there and the king didn’t remove them. They will keep Dan and Bethel. In other words, they’ll continue looking at this religious culture in a way that says, "This is how it’s going to be. This is the way we’ll continue to worship even though it’s away from God." It is removing God. When Jeroboam set up what he did, what did he do in effect? He said, "I’m going to remove ‘Under God’ from the pledge of allegiance. We don’t have to have that in there. You don’t have to go to Jerusalem anymore. You can go to Dan or Bethel."

Do you see the similarities? I think it’s unbelievably similar. It’s the same thing that’s happening today—politicians/rulers say, "Here’s what you don’t have to do," and they take God out of it. That’s what Jeroboam did. He took God out of everything. He said, "You don’t have to do that. You can do this." What are kids taught today in the public school system about Creation? It’s Evolution. "You were not created by God, a Supreme Being, an Intelligent Designer of the universe. You came out of some seaweed that was lying on the shore one day. The heat from the sun just hit it a certain way and life crawled out. When it crawled out, it started growing and developing and pretty soon, you became who you are." What does that mean to you?

It says, "Well, I’m really nothing, then. I’m just something that is just like every other animal. I’m not different or unique. I’m the same." Because of that kind of philosophy (when it’s man only, without God), you are robbed of any attempt at having any value. You are just like anything else that has evolved. You’re just another animal. You’re born, you live, you die, and that’s it. Nothing to it. There are a lot of philosophical/psychological things behind that which I wish we had time to get into. But I want you to start thinking along these lines as we go through this.

1 Kings 14:21

Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.

This is very interesting and unlike anything we’ve seen in the Bible. If you look at the genealogies of Jesus, you’ll read about the fathers. In the genealogies listed in Genesis, you read about the fathers. Guess who’ll be referenced with every king? The mothers. Why? Most were not Israelites and they had great influence on their sons. What we’re going to find is that a lot of the kings were assassinated by the succeeding king. That’s how bad things were. If somebody wanted to be king, they would just kill the guy and take over. It will be stated who the king was and who his mother was because she was the greatest influence on the king. Let’s keep reading.

1 Kings 14:22-23

Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

Does everybody know what a "high place" is now? I told you that you would read about "high places" all over the place. Remember that it’s a place where who knows what kind of worship was going on—child sacrifice, prostitution, other gods, etc. It was worship of anything other than God on a high place so that everyone could see it.

Let me give you a little sideline on the "sacred stones." This is fascinating. In Mecca, in the middle of the Sinai peninsula, Mohammad was there and Islam was born. He led a war against Mecca and took it over. Islam came about around AD 630 through Mohammad. Before that, the only monotheistic religions were Christianity and Judaism. That’s all there was. You can find this in archaeological books…it’s not in the Bible. But before AD 630, there was a temple in the city of Mecca that had an unusual, beautiful black stone. Over time, people of this religion (not Christianity or Judaism) would come and worship, touch, and kiss this black stone. They called it a "pilgrimage." Guess who was involved in this? Mohammad. He was part of this group making a pilgrimage to this temple. The point I’m trying to make is that when it says, "sacred stones," it is referring to these religions that worshipped these rocks. If you read about this black stone, this pilgrimage that Mohammad was making and that they still make today really wasn’t because of Mohammad. It was going on before Mohammad with this black stone in this temple in Mecca. Mohammad was just one member of this sect. That’s just an example of "sacred stones." A black stone led Mohammad there and Islam was created.

Whenever you see "Asherah poles," it’s usually a reference to the god, Asherah. It was a fertility, prostitute (male and female) god. If you wanted a good crop this year, you went and had sexual relations with one of the priestesses or female prostitutes in worship to this god, Asherah. That’s what an Asherah pole is.

1 Kings 14:24

There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

So what had these people done? They had removed God. Why? Because of the influence of the inter-marrying with the Canaanites and Ammonites. God said, "Don’t do it. You’re going to contaminate yourselves." We contaminate ourselves today when we don’t stay in God’s word, don’t associate with Christians, and don’t go to church or Sunday School. What happens to your influence? You’re being influenced by the world. There’s no other way around it. You’re either being influenced by the world or by Christianity, one or the other—wherever you spend most of your time. What happens overall today with where we’re going with this? What happens to us? The more we remove God, the more we get away from God. That’s what they were doing and that’s what the United States of America is doing. I mean you can’t call it any other way. I’m not making this up. Read the newspapers. It’s there. "Remove God! Remove God! Take God out of this. Do not have God in this. Everything is relative. Situational Ethics. It depends on the situation. There are no absolutes." What is going on here? "Let’s worship ourselves. Let’s just be our own gods." That’s what’s going on. That’s what God is telling you as parents to tell your children—who created the universe, the history of God, salvation through Jesus Christ, etc. It gives them meaning in life. Otherwise there is no meaning.

1 Kings 15:1-3

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.

In the 18^th year of Jeroboam (king of Israel), Abijah became king of Judah. This is how they recorded the history of the kings. They would reference the opposite king’s reign. You can track it through. They will tell you exactly who is king when and where.

What does this tell you about the king? He’s bad. Things just continued (in Judah).

1 Kings 15:9-12

In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother's name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made.

In the 20^th year of Jeroboam (king of Israel), Asa became king of Judah. Do you see how this works? This is repeated in the rest of 1^st and 2^nd Kings. I could show this to a third grader and he could outline it. It’s the same thing over and over.

How does Asa’s reign sound? Good. He was a good king. The fathers were making idols. It says so here.

1 Kings 15:13

He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

What does this tell you about Maacah? She was a bad influence.

1 Kings 15:14-16

Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life. He brought into the temple of the LORD the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated. There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.

When it says that Asa did not remove all the high places, this is where you need to read Chronicles as a companion to Kings. In 2^nd Chronicles 14, it says that he removed the high places that were dedicated to the pagan gods. He did not remove those built for God. But 2^nd Chronicles goes a bit further. It says, "Yeah, he didn’t remove them all, but he did remove those dedicated to pagan gods."

1 Kings 15:25-26

Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

You can read on.

1 Kings 15:33-34

In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

Do you get the picture? You can keep reading these one after another. There were 19 bad kings in the Northern Kingdom. How many kings were there in the Southern Kingdom? 20 total—5 good kings and 3 outstanding kings—those who wanted to go back to the Lord. "I want to go back to what David did. I want to go back to what God has said. I want to remove the Asherah poles and the high places." This is what you’re going to read. We don’t have time to read it all, but I challenge you to read it all and outline it. You’ll find that it’s very, very informative and helpful in understanding how countries can get away from God. Remember that we’ve been asking this question from day one, "How could they refuse God? How could they reject God? How could they get away from God?"

It’s just like we do today. We say, "Well, they had God’s presence. We don’t. That’s one change." Well, I agree with that but God is working through peoples’ lives today. There are miracles happening all the time. Why do people do it? It comes back to self again. It comes back to "I want to do what I want to do and this fits my lifestyle. I like this lifestyle." Jeroboam said it, "I like my lifestyle—being king. I don’t want to lose my kingdom, so I’ll build Dan and Bethel and keep all the people here." It’s all predicated upon, "It’s what I want to do. It fits my lifestyle."

The major reason that people don’t accept Christ today and the major reason that Christians don’t grow spiritually today is that it doesn’t fit their lifestyles. They will have to make some changes and we know it. There are some things that God has told every one of us, individually and uniquely, something that represents an obstacle to us growing in Christ. It will remain an obstacle until we come to an agreement with God, "OK, God, I understand this and I need to get away from it. As long as I hold onto this stronghold or taproot of sin, it produces pride, envy, lust, or jealousy in my life. I have to get rid of it or I will not grow as a Christian." That’s why we don’t see a lot of on-fire Christians today.

<We also tend to blame the kings for everything that happened, but people did not teach their children.>

Absolutely. The sin keeps right on going, generation after generation. Judgment is coming, though. God says, "I’m going to put up with this for so long and then I’m not going to put up with it any longer." God told them exactly what would happen under a king and they still said, "No. We want it because it fits our lifestyle."

1 Kings 16:29

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.

Ahab is king of Israel. Remember that this is how it goes. I know it may be complicated at first but eventually you’ll say, "Oh. This is a snap. It tells you the Israel king and the Judah king. I just have to remember which is which and how long they reigned." You can track it. They just follow one right after another. I bring up Ahab because he married Jezebel and…

1 Kings 16:32-33

He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

In other words, it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Understand that these are the descendants of Abraham. These are not Canaanites, Ammonites, or pagans. These are Jews. These are Israelites. Do you understand that? We didn’t all of a sudden lose our identity here. This is the Nation of Israel that God brought up out of Egypt. What are they doing? Bad things. They’re getting further and further away from God.

Why do we sin?

<Why is it so easy to learn bad things and so hard to learn good things? It’s like when you’re teaching your children. You can emphasize "please" and "thank you" but they’re going to say the things you don’t want them to say. It’s so hard to teach them to say "please" and "thank you.">

We believe it’s because of the sin that is passed down from Adam. We believe we’re born with it. As a result, we have this desire to rebel. We have this desire to be disobedient. We have this desire that says, "I want to do what I want to do and when I want to do it." Every one of us in this room has been there. We have been confronted with sin, we knew it was sin, and we said, "But I want to do it." We go ahead and do it.

My personal weakness is ‘Reese’s Sticks.’ If the doctor told me, "The next Reese’s Stick you eat will cause you heart problems," do you know what I’m going to do? Have heart problems. Ignore the doctor. Change doctors. The flesh in me says, "I want that." Where did that come from for me to rationalize this? I can find all kinds of ways to get around this.

Who taught your children to disobey you? Nobody.

It all comes back to that one, individual decision, "Do I do this or am I going to do that?" Each king had that decision and some responded, "No, I want to build those high places. I like them. They give me revenue and they please me." Some politicians say, "No, I want the power. I’ll just look at the polls." We’re picking on the kings but don’t forget that you’re in here too. You’re supporting all this. You choose to obey the king. It’s not that we rebel against the king but we rebel against the flesh within us and say, "I will not do that."

Are you free?

<Our church has a ‘non-profit’ standing. If we choose a political party, we’ll lose that ‘non-profit’ standing. The government has squashed our ability to speak out through this kind of legislation.>

We talked about freedom in America. Really, a lot of freedoms have been taken away. We can argue and get political if you want to, but the fact is that a lot of things have been taken away because the government has taken, not necessarily an ‘anti-God’ position, but there is no God. Why do we twist and contort the laws to avoid God? I think it goes back to the Adam nature. We’re born with it. Every one of us has it. When we come to Christ, what do we say? We say, "God, I have committed sins. I have been away from you. Would you forgive me of these sins and clean me up. I accept your Son as the mediator, the one who has gone ahead and taken on the penalty for these sins. That is my faith and belief. Because of that, I can now live a different and abundant life." Right after that, what do we start to do? We go right back to, "Well, there has to be a list of laws or rules that I have to obey or disobey." We’ll get to that in the New Testament…there is not. You are free. Wherever Christ is, there is complete freedom.

It’s up to you.

Understand that what I’m saying is that what they’re going through is what we go through today. By learning, reading, and studying what God is doing with these people, you are going to learn about not just the United States, but especially yourself. When we started with the people leaving Egypt, I said, "Just think of these people as you." It’s a Nation but just substitute your name for Israel. See how you go along with Israel.

Ahab and Elijah

Ahab is interesting. He takes about 7-8 chapters. None of the other kings took this much space in the Bible. Ahab does. Does anybody want to guess why? It’s not because of Ahab; it’s because of Elijah. It’s not because of the king; it’s because of the prophet. The prophet’s name is Elijah. Elijah is the major prophet in the Old Testament.

1 Kings 17:1

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."

Elijah is a prophet. We think of "prophecy" as something predicting the future. That is not technically correct. A "prophet" in the Bible is one who speaks God’s word. It could be, "If you don’t change your ways, this is what’s going to happen. God will judge you." We look at that and say, "Oh, that’s predicting the future." No. It’s God saying, "I know all. I know what’s going to happen. I’m giving my word to a prophet to tell you now so that hopefully you will change your ways before my judgment comes." That’s what a prophet does. The reason I mention prophets now is that there is a third line that you can track: kings of Israel, kings of Judah, and prophets. This is the most exciting one for anyone who really wants to study the Bible. This one is great. It will tell you who was telling these kings to get right. The prophets were saying to the people, "Enough! It’s time to get right."

1 Kings 18:16-17

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"

They always thought of prophets as being troublemakers. Why? Nathan was David’s prophet. What did Nathan do? He came up to David and said, "David, do you know what you did? Let me tell you this story…" David said, "Oh, I’d kill that guy." Nathan said, "Well, you’re the one!" People don’t like to hear that, do they? They don’t like to be confronted with their own sin and that’s what a prophet does. He does it for the Lord. He doesn’t do it for any personal gain. God says, "Tell this person such and such because I don’t want them to continue."

Prophesying to Others

Do you hear the ministry of one Christian to another today? Be careful with this. I am not talking about judging. This is the influence of "relative" philosophy on all of us in this room—that we can’t deny we’ve learned growing up in the U.S.—how can you tell another brother or sister that they’re in sin? I’m sure a lot of you right now are saying, "Well nobody had better come tell me that," or "How could I tell someone that?" all because there’s this "relative" philosophy that’s been ingrained into us. If God has shown you something about someone else that is to help them grow spiritually, what are you supposed to do with it? Don’t put it in the newspaper and ask, "Did you read the newspaper today?" No. You go to that person in love, with all possible humility, alone. You don’t tell people. You don’t gossip to people. What we do is minister to one another. What are we doing? It’s not to say, "You better change your act. You’re going the wrong way." It’s to go over and say, "I want to encourage you in your spiritual growth. I want to do anything I can to help you. Let me help you. But, did you know that your anger is out of control?" Now that’s hard to say to somebody. That’s what a prophet did. God would tell a prophet to say something and the prophet would say to himself, "Man, that’s the last thing I need to tell anybody. They’re going to kill me." That’s what you’re going to see and that’s what the kings do with the prophets.

Mount Carmel

Read chapter 18. It shows you how God empowered Elijah. Elijah took care of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

Elijah Flees

Read chapter 19. Elijah flees because he feels like he’s the only one; the only one who could have ever told anything about God. Read that.

I hope I’ve done enough this morning to encourage and entice you to say, "You know, I want to read 1^st and 2^nd Kings. I want to read them. Not because the teacher says so or because I just want to learn, but that God may show me something that I need to hear or see." It’s a lot of history. I’ll agree with that. Read the history, outline it, and look for how God intervenes with prophets and what He wants to say. Elijah is a very interesting character.

1 Kings 22:41

Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.

If you’ve ever wondered about "Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat," here it is. Jehoshaphat becomes king of Judah.