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THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Kings: The Kings Of Israel And Judah From Solomon To The Babylonian Captivity

I. The United Kingdom, 1 Kings 1:1-11:43

F. God's Call For Uncompromising Uprightness In Leaders

(1 Kings 8:1-9:9)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Many leaders today practice wayward compromise in their oversight, what really harms their subordinates:

(1) In the business world, Tracy O'Shaughnessy ("Smartphones are hurting our children" (Rep.-Am., Jan. 12, 2018, p. 1D) told how "Sean Parker" who introduced the smartphone to the public claimed "the company knew it was creating something addictive that exploited 'a vulnerability in human psychology.'" Tracy added, "So, entrepreneurs flood the market with a device they know will compromise their health. Where have we heard this before?" (Ibid.)

(2) It occurs in government: Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. ("A Year in Trump-Russia Hysteria," The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 30-31 as cited in the Rep.-Am., Ibid., p. 6A) told how the FBI personnel who worked on the Clinton email probe also handled the Trump-Russia investigation, expecting Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in the election, but when Mr. Trump unexpectedly won, they realized their work would be subjected to greater scrutiny, so "'Obama intelligence officials began sprinkling deniable innuendo about the Trump campaign in the media.'"

(3) It occurs in evangelicalism: Typical of what often occurs in evangelicalism today, John C. Whitcomb, Jr. and Henry M. Morris in their landmark work, The Genesis Flood, 1978, p. xix-xx, that was first published in 1962, claimed, "Even evangelical Christians, though still professing belief in the divine validity of Scripture, have often capitulated to uniformitarian scholarship, denying the universality of the Flood" versus Scripture's literal teaching!

Need: So, we ask, "What does GOD direct regarding wayward compromise in leaders, and WHY?!"

I. Solomon's dedication of the temple was an impressive celebration to the glory of God, 1 Kings 8:1-66:

A. Solomon gathered all Israel at the Feast of Tabernacles to bring the ark of Moses' era up from the City of David to the new temple accompanied by much sacrificing, 1 Kings 8:1-9; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 503.

B. God responded by filling the temple with His cloud to indicate His acceptance of the temple, 1 Kings 8:10-11.

C. Solomon's dedicatory ceremony that then followed was an impressive service to God's glory, 1 Kings 8:12-66:

1. Solomon acknowledged how the Lord had accepted the temple, signified by His cloud, 1 Kings 8:12-13.

2. The king then blessed the people and rehearsed to them how his father David had wanted to build the temple, but of God's plan that he, Solomon, build it, and its resulting construction, 1 Kings 8:14-21.

3. Solomon then gave a long, moving prayer of dedication to the Lord before the people, 1 Kings 8:22-53.

4. This was followed by Solomon's final blessing of the people (1 Kings 8:54-61), the resumption of many sacrifices (1 Kings 8:62-64) and a great feast hosted by Solomon and the nation's people, 1 Kings 8:65-66.

II. However, GOD'S PERSONAL RESPONSE to SOLOMON's DEDICATION shifted Solomon's FOCUS from the NATION'S duty to HIS duty as KING to exercise UNCOMPROMISING UPRIGHTNESS:

A. Solomon's long prayer of dedication had REPEATEDLY referred to the NATION'S future need to confess its sins to the Lord at the temple to obtain His forgiveness and restoration of blessing, 1 Kings 8:28-53.

B. However, GOD'S later RESPONSE to Solomon shifted the focus presented in his dedicatory prayer from the NATION'S duty to HIS duty as KING to exercise UNCOMPROMISING UPRIGHTNESS, 1 Kings 9:1-9:

1. After the temple had been dedicated, God in 1 Kings 9:1-3 privately informed Solomon that He had heard his dedicatory prayer and thus had hallowed the temple, forever putting His name and affection there.

2. Yet, at 1 Kings 9:4, God began a sentence in the Hebrew text with the personal and hence emphatic pronoun "you!" ('attah) coupled with a waw conjunctive that translates, "As for you," Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 524; 1 Kings 9:4a ESV, NIV. God thus emphatically SHIFTED Solomon's focus in his dedicatory prayer's emphasis on the NATION'S responsibility to considering SOLOMON'S responsibility as KING!

3. The Lord then referred to Solomon's brief 1 Kings 8:25 remark in his long dedicatory prayer of his responsibility as David's heir to the throne to pay attention to his way that he might order his life as David before him for the Lord to bless his reign as king, 1 Kings 9:4b.

4. However, God EXPANDED on Solomon's 1 Kings 8:25 brief remark to claim Solomon and all the kings were to show [UNCOMPROMISING] " INTEGRITY" (tom, B. D. B., A Heb. and Engl. Lex. of the O. T., p. 1070) of HEART and "UPRIGHTNESS" (yosher, Ibid., p. 449) to heed Scripture, 1 Kings 9:4b,c.

5. Such obedience by the kings would lead to stability and God's blessing in their reigns, 1 Kings 9:5.

6. However, were Israel's KINGS to DISOBEY God, the WHOLE NATION would be LED to SIN and thus be SEVERELY PUNISHED, the new, magnificent temple Solomon had dedicated being destroyed with Israel's testimony among the nations being that she was punished for disobeying God, 1 Kings 9:6-9.

7. In other words, the KING'S responsibility was to exhibit [UNCOMPROMISING] INTEGRITY in HEART to be PERFECTLY UPRIGHT, for it AFFECTED the WHOLE NATION'S WELFARE!

III. As we learned in our last message in this series, this divine EMPHASIS on SOLOMON'S need for [UNCOMPROMISING] INTEGRITY in HEART to practice PERFECT UPRIGHTNESS rose from God's awareness that Solomon was ALREADY FAILING to HEED Scripture with such INTEGRITY:

A. We noted in our last message that Solomon was (1) already violating Deuteronomy 17:17a in having married a pagan Egyptian princess (1 Kings 3:1; 7:8b), he was (2) already violating Deuteronomy 17:17b on multiplying wealth to himself in building his massive palace by enslaving his countrymen when Hiram had already given him a good palace (2 Samuel 5:11), he was (3) already violating Deuteronomy 17:20a in lifting his heart above his countrymen in excessively using them as slaves to build his palace (1 Kings 12:1-4), he was (4) already violating Deuteronomy 17:16a in multiplying horses for himself (1 Kings 4:26) and he was (5) already violating Deuteronomy 17:18-20 by neglecting his daily personal reading of Scripture, which neglect according to that passage would have led to his disobedience of God's Word on these four other issues!

B. So, God in 1 Kings 4:4-9 pointedly charged Solomon as KING with HIS need for [UNCOMPROMISING] INTEGRITY of HEART to act UPRIGHTLY for the good of the NATION, for God could see trouble for Israel on the horizon were Solomon as KING to CONTINUE in his COMPROMISE of HEART!

Lesson: Though Solomon dedicated the temple in an impressive ceremony, he functioned with a heart that was COMPROMISED in its INTEGRITY, a fact state that THREATENED the NATION'S WELFARE, so GOD CONFRONTED him with his need to practice UNCOMPROMISING INTEGRITY in HEART!

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation, John 3:16. (2) May we who lead realize that the degree of INTEGRITY we have in our HEARTS will affect our SUBORDINATES' WELFARES, that we rely on the Holy Spirit to exhibit UNCOMPROMISING INTEGRITY of HEART to act PERFECTLY UPRIGHTLY! (Gal. 5:16)

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

Events that have occurred especially within the last month have been used of the Lord to cause me to recall God's charge to us pastors in 2 Timothy 4:1-5. That passage solemly commands pastors to preach the Word of God especially in view of the fact that many hearers in time will turn away from Scripture to other sources for instruction.

We as a body face several challenges in this realm, so to exercise uncompromising integrity of heart and act with perfect uprightness as your pastor for your welfare as this sermon directs, I must address these challenges:

(1) First, a tendency exists in the Church to develop ministries that go light on Bible exposition and heavy on other things. Such programs may be good for mobilizing others to serve God, but they are NOT good for me since they lessen my focus on expounding Scripture opposite God's strong call that I minister His Word opposite the tendency in Christendom to supplant Scripture with extrabiblical things. I must not get involved in such programs.

(2) The same applies to involvement in parachurch groups. Some of them have tried to get me involved in them so as to influence you to get involved in them. However, if I get involved in parachurch ministries, it detracts me from my ministry of the Word here, so, to heed 2 Timothy 4:1-5, I must not to get involved in parachurch groups.

(3) There is a tendency for some guest speakers to depart from using the Bible alone to using Scripture plus extrabiblical sources to disciple others in violation of God's 2 Timothy 4:1-5 calling for me. If God directs me to use Scripture to disciple in countering the tendency of people to turn from Scripture to extrabiblical sources, to exercise full integrity in my heart, I must condone only those who use Scripture alone in discipling to speak in our Church.

This stand does not itself affect our Church's financial support of anyone. I have no jurisdiction in that matter. However, I must condone only those who use Scripture alone to disciple others to be guest speakers in our Church.

(4) At times, extrabiblical error is taught in our Children's Conversations, and I have received reports that such events have troubled some listeners. To practice full integrity as a pastor who is commanded by God to expound Scripture versus extrabiblical views, I will start regularly, publicly and respectfully correcting such error within a week of the teaching event, trying to protect both the speaker's honor before the congregation as well as our children's beliefs. The aim is to edify our children and to impress those who teach them to use only Bible truth.

May we trust in Christ for salvation. Then, may we rely on the Holy Spirit for uncompromising integrity especially as leaders that we might function perfectly uprightly for the blessing of our subordinates!