Address—Josh Costron
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Just ask the Lord's help by loving God and Father. We're so thankful today for thy many mercies to us. We thank Thee for providing so much for us and our enjoyment, temporal needs, and for the spiritual refreshment that we've received this day. We thank Thee for the Lord Jesus, our loving Savior, my beloved Son, who loved us and gave Himself for us.
We pray that what we have sung tonight, this hymn prayer might search our hearts and that we might ask ourselves these questions and that we would walk before the in a way that is pleasing to Thee, having the Lord Jesus as our object. We look to Thee now as we consider Thy word for a few moments this evening, asking me for clearness of mind and a simple message for all to take it in and understand and gain some practical.
Instruction by it, the speaker included, And we look to Thee for Thy help and direction. So we ask all of this in Thy most worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I'd like to turn to a couple introductory verses, the first one being in Romans chapter 15.
Romans chapter 15 and verse 4.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And over to 1St Corinthians chapter 10.
First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11.
Now all these things happened unto them for in samples or types.
And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
I read these two verses to show.
To us, clearly from the Word of God, that what we have in the Old Testament is not simply just a historical narrative to give us a lot of details and to tickle our interest.
No, God has not only give us a historical account of things that have actually happened, yes, but God has a deeper purpose behind it.
And that is that he wants to teach us moral and spiritual lessons through the lives of those who have gone on before, through incidents in history, through the lives of his earthly people, Israel, and so on. And so for us as Christians to ignore the Old Testament Scriptures, we will become very unbalanced in our understanding of the ways of God and His truth in general.
And so we need all the scriptures and we're thankful for the Old Testament. The Old Testament is.
Definitely a picture book, isn't it? And without the light and instruction and what we have in the New Testament, many of what we understand in the pictures that we see in the old would not be made clear to us. And so we are thankful for the entire Canon of Scripture that God has preserved to us and given to us for our learning.
I would like to look into the Old Testament tonight, and I would like to speak primarily of one individual. His name is Solomon, and we all know who that is. And what I would like to take up tonight is Solomon from the standpoint of moral instructions.
And Solomon, as we are, many of us know, furnishes to us a most wonderful type of Christ in his millennial glory. And we get a lot of prophetic truth in that regard. And we see wonderful pictures throughout Solomon's reign of the millennial Kingdom under the reign of Christ. But I don't want to take things up from that perspective tonight. We also get in the Book of Kings, wonderful administrative lessons that we can get.
As how to apply these things in the assembly administration and all that kind of stuff, I don't want to look at it from that perspective either.
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The Word of God is amazing, isn't it? It's exceeding broad, but what I want to look at is it's moral application.
I think it would be helpful to perhaps define what we mean by moral. And there's a good number of kids here and young people, and sometimes your brethren will speak of moral principles. Or for example, how often have you heard it that Luke is written from a moral perspective? And you probably scratch your head and wonder what does that mean? So I'm hopeful that I can maybe clear the, the air a little bit, make it a little more simple to understand what we mean by way of moral.
Default to a definition that a brother back home would recite quite often, and he had gotten this from Mr. Clarence Lundeen. And he says what moral means is that it's excellence in spirit and in practice with your conduct right and proper. I'll repeat that. Excellence in spirit and in practice.
With your conduct right and proper. So when we talk about moral things, moral principles, moral teaching, moral applications in the Word of God, what we are saying is that it touches on how you and I conduct ourselves, how we carry ourselves, and if it's acceptable to God or not. Whether our spirit is right before the Lord and acceptable in His sight.
That's what we mean by moral. And looking at Solomon, I tell you it's been quite exercising for me.
I was thinking of not only Solomon, but for the sake of time tonight, I don't think I could get beyond just him alone. And there's enough there that I think we can get something for our souls. But primarily what God? My thoughts going down this road with the Lord's help was being real exercised about starting well.
And ending well.
You know.
It's extremely important. The world has a saying out there and they say it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.
Well, it sounds good, but for the Christian I would like to suggest that it matters how you start and it matters how you finish.
And each one of us, as believers, we don't want to end this life.
Whether it be through the article of death or what, we all look for the coming of the Lord Jesus to take us home. We don't want to leave this world.
In failure, we want an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom, and we want to enter in doing the Lord's will and finishing our course with joy. And how often, brethren?
We've seen.
We've seen far too many.
Of those whom we love, who start so well and end poorly.
And you know, to think in our hearts that while that could never happen to me.
And to come at it from the standpoint that that I would never do such a thing or I would never go down such a course is not to have learned our hearts well.
It's not to have learned our hearts well.
And so I believe we see in Solomon.
Some principles that we can draw from, and I want to focus tonight on how he started and granted the things, the thoughts I'm pulling out here. We're going to go from chapter 3 to Chapter 11, Lord willing.
Are is not probably a complete list, but these are just some things that stand out to me that I'd like to bring out. I'm sure there's probably another brother who could stand up here and, and, and bring out more, but I'd like to look at a few things and I want to focus in on how he started and some moral principles that we can get from that and some practical instruction and then focus on what his downfall was.
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And then, if the Lord will, I'd like to suggest a remedy as to how to avoid an ending of failure and being maybe, as the New Testament puts it, making shipwreck of the faith.
So let's turn to 1St Kings Chapter 3.
First Kings chapter 3, we'll start at verse three. We'll just read a part of this verse and Solomon love the Lord walking in the statutes of David his father. Verse five in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy.
According as He walked before the in truth and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with Thee, and Thou has kept for Him this great kindness.
That thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
The first thing that I'd like to bring out here is that Solomon.
Had an appreciation for the goodness of God.
You know, brethren, our God is so good, isn't he? He's so good, Brother Tim and I were talking prior to this meeting.
And.
You know, we've made, we're commenting on that quote that we often hear that every failure and Sinner and St. stems from unbelief in the goodness of the heart of God. And if you and I doubt the goodness that is in the heart of God, we are starting off on the wrong footing.
Our God is so good. He's merciful, He's kind, he's gracious. And brethren, where would we be without God's goodness in our life? And Solomon looks at the past with his father, and he says, Thou has shown my father great mercy.
You know we are the objects of His mercy, we are the objects of His grace, and you know the more we get into His presence.
And the more we really sit down under the conscious sense of what he is, in his greatness and goodness, mercy and grace, it's incredibly humbling.
It's often been said that and I've appreciated the definition of mercy, and it is this, that mercy is great in the greatness of the need.
Grace is great in the greatness of the giver.
So mercy focuses on our need and grace focuses on God the giver.
And God has poured out all His goodness upon us, brethren. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We lack nothing. He has not left us here to fend for ourselves, but He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And bless His precious name.
He is so good.
He's so good.
And so he says in.
Verse seven. And now, oh Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in thee, in the midst of thy people which thou has chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered, nor counted for multitude.
This is another thing, and that is he had an understanding, or at least a feeling of his own nothingness.
Do you realize that you and I are nothing?
That we are not sufficient of ourselves. That without him.
We not only have nothing, but we can do nothing.
The Lord Jesus said that without me you can do nothing.
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And when you contemplate that and you think about that a little bit.
It makes one feel quite small.
But in a good way. It's good to have a sense, brethren, of of the fact that that we are nothing and He is everything, that we are completely and utterly dependent upon Him.
We get ourselves into too much trouble when we lose that humility, and Solomon had a sense of this. When we have a sense of our own nothingness, we have a it brings us into that, that humility that God can then work with.
That is the proper Christian place, you might say, in this world is one of humility.
He said to I think often he says to his disciples that accept ye be as a little child.
Shall I know wise enter the Kingdom?
Little kid, Little child is one who is totally dependent, one who believes his parents what they say.
That's the truth. That's the way it is. There's no preconceived notions typically. And it's it's a place of ultimate humility. And the Lord Jesus says you need to be like this little child.
Are we seeking our own greatness in this life?
Because if we're seeking greatness, the Lord Jesus says that that is not greatness.
A true greatness comes from a place of humility.
We all need it. How often we would be spared from all the heartache and problems amongst us. If brethren, I speak my own heart, if just you and I would take a low place. The Lord Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest and your souls.
He was the greatest.
He was the greatest and yet he became nothing. And I speak with all reverence, but he put himself into a position whereby he would wash his own disciples feet, He would he would gird himself with an apron and he would get low and he would clean that defilement.
Office servant, office disciples feet. He got into a place, a position of loneliness.
And he taught his disciples what true service is, and it emanates from humility, lowliness of mind, meekness.
All seen in our blessed Master.
Blessed Lord Jesus.
And then he says in verse 9, Give therefore thy servant and understanding heart to judge thy people.
That I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great a people.
He asked the Lord for discernment.
He looked at his responsibility as king and realized that he was not sufficient for this in his own strength and power.
He needed discernment. He needed to know what the Lord's mind was. He needed understanding. He needed an understanding heart.
The place where our affections lie.
And that is the place from which true understanding and knowledge is acquired.
The Lord Jesus is knowledge and wisdom embodied personify.
And has he grabbed our affections, brethren? Is he everything to us? And you know, when I go through these few first few verses, what I see.
Is fertile soil for proper spiritual growth.
We have one Who?
Has an appreciation for the goodness of God. We have one who has a sense of his own nothingness and humility, and he has one. Here's one who realizes that he cannot make a decision, a right decision, without him.
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He is completely cast upon God in all facets, and here is good ground and dear young people and children.
Let me mention this while I'm thinking of it.
It's my understanding, and I believe it was Mr. Faraday who commented and said that Solomon at this time was hardly out of his teens.
He was a young man.
And he started well.
How are you going to start your life?
I want to ask your heart and mind.
How are you starting?
It's important that we see these things, these principles, because if you want to start off on a good footing, I can't stress enough the need for humility, loneliness, a sense of our own nothingness.
That is what God can work with. That is good soil, that is the clay that he can mold and fashion into something that is useful for him. And let me tell you this, that God wants to use you. He wants to use you, and you're not insignificant. And if you belong to the Lord Jesus, he's given you a gift.
And he's given you something to do.
And are you using it? Are you doing what the Lord has put into your hands to do today?
And so in verse 10, it says in the speech, please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And so again, this pleases God, this disposition, this this, this standpoint from which we can be fruitful and and be used of God. This is pleasing to the Lord.
This is very pleasing to the Lord.
And God said unto him, verse 11 Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment be.