All right, as we continue our study through 1 Kings, we're at 1 Kings 2, verses 12 to 27, titled this, The End of Adonai and Abiathar the Priest. And make sure you keep your Bible handy. We'll be looking into 1 Chronicles, and then we'll be looking into 1 Samuel to see a few things. And so keep your Bible handy. And we'll be looking at that. And so with the scriptures I've printed off there, let's read a couple of verses here and then we'll go to the Lord in prayer and we'll get started with this. And so in verse 12, it says, then sat Solomon upon the throne of David, his father, and his kingdom was established greatly. So God had established Solomon Greatly, that means all the people had accepted him, the people around him had accepted him, and God had accepted him. All right, verse 13. And Adonai, the son of Haggath, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. And she said, comest thou peaceably? And he said, peaceably. And we'll stop right there and go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we come to you right now in the name of Jesus, we thank you, dear Lord, for mercy and grace. And we thank you, heavenly Father, for this time of study tonight. We pray that you'd open our understanding, that we might understand the scriptures. We pray, heavenly Father, for the presence of the Holy Spirit tonight. Dear God, if we've grieved him or vexed him in any way, we do ask for forgiveness for that. We pray, Father, that the word of God would speak to the hearts now of all of us. Teach us from your word. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Well, we know that Adoniah was going to try to become king, and that didn't work out. And he got mercy from Solomon. Solomon said, I'm not gonna kill you, but go home to your house. There's something about a wicked heart. It just can't sit idle, can it? It's always going to try to manipulate and connive and work around. There's always something. And this passage of scripture is gonna teach us several very interesting things. And so, as we start off here, we find that Solomon has been established as king. And now, Ed and I, he's still thinking and plotting. All right? And so he said, well, I can't do this, but let me see if I can get Solomon's mother Bathsheba to do this. And so in verse 14, he said, moreover, I have somewhat to say to thee. And she said, say on. And he said, thou knowest that the kingdom was mine. and that all Israel set their faces on me. That's a lie that I should reign, he says. Now that's nothing but a negatistical lie, isn't it? He's lying to himself, he's lying to her, okay? So the wickedness of this is still there. All right, now he's going to try to manipulate Bathsheba to go to Solomon and ask something, but there's something about this. Howbeit the kingdom is turned about and is become my brother's, for it was his from the Lord. Now stop right there, I want to show you something. Adoniah hadn't accepted anything about the Lord. And when you get to this point right here, you realize that Adoniah had not accepted the Lord's decision either. For he says, thou knowest that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel set their faces on me that I should reign. Howbeit, the kingdom is turned about and become my brothers for it was from the Lord. Now he should have just left it right there. That was it, done. This is what God wanted. But a wicked heart that does not consider the Lord is not going to consider the Lord in any way. the wickedness of man is exceedingly wicked. And for those that doubt God, they're gonna continue to doubt him. And so now here's what he's going to do. Let me explain this to you. Let's read verse 16 and 17. And now I ask one, petition of thee, deny me not, and she said unto him, say on. And he said, speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, for he will not say thee nay. In other words, no. That he give me Abishag, the Shunammite, to wife. Now, who was she? Do you remember who she was? All right, go back to chapter one. All right, 1 Kings chapter one. And let's see what we find in verses two, three, and four. 1 Kings chapter one, verses two, three, and four. All right. Wherefore his servant said unto him, let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin and let her stand before the king and let her cherish him and let her lie in thy bosom that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coast of Israel and found Abishag, a Shunammite. and brought her to the king. And the damsel was very fair and cherished the king and ministered to him, but the king knew her not." So now what we have here is she was officially one of his wives. As we read, if we keep on reading, we'll find out that she was officially one of his wives, but he never knew her. And that means they never had sexual relationships. And so, but she was there. Now, Adonai wants King Solomon to say, okay, you can marry her. Now, what that does in this culture is this, that would establish him in the kingship. Okay? In other words, that would make Adam, if he married her, all right, that would tie him to the kingship. And so, Adoniah is still trying to manipulate the situation. He hasn't stopped. And so, if What he was doing was hoping, number one, that Bathsheba wouldn't recognize what he was doing. Two, he was hoping that Solomon wouldn't recognize what he was doing. Because if Solomon would have recognized what he was doing, and done that, oh, then the fight would have been on. So now, what you find is he talks Bathsheba into doing this, And now go to verse 18. And Bathsheba said, well, I will speak for thee unto the king. Bathsheba therefore went unto the king, went unto King Solomon to speak unto him for Adoniah. And the king rose up to meet her, bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right hand. Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee. I pray thee, say me not nay, And the king said unto her, ask on my mother, for I will not say thee nay. In other words, I'm not going to tell you no. Now watch what happens here. And she said, let Abishag, the Shunammite, be given to Adonai thy brother to wife. Now, the question comes up. Did she know what she was doing by asking that petition? You see, either she didn't know what she was asking or she knew what she was asking. And letting Solomon know that Adoniah was still a snake in the grass. Do we know? No. The only thing we know is that Solomon knew. Now, so she asked the question. Now, it's been turned loose. Watch this now. And King Solomon answered and said unto his mother, and why dost thou ask Solomon? Abishai, thy Shunammite, for Adonai, ask for him the kingdom also. For he is mine elder brother, even for him. Now watch this, and for Abiathar, the priest, and for Joab, the son of Zeriah. The three culprits here that Solomon's gonna deal with. And Solomon recognized this. Now, look what Solomon says in verse 25, 23, I mean. Then King Solomon swear by the Lord saying, God do so to me and more also, if Adonai have not spoken this word against his own life. Whoa. Solomon recognized what he was trying to do. Verse 24. Now therefore, as the Lord liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, who hath made me in house, and as he promised, Adonai shall be put to death this day. Time was up. He recognized the wickedness of Adonai. Solomon was kind enough to let Adonai live, but Adonai was still trying to work his way around things. He knew the culture. He knew the power he would have if Solomon would let him marry Abishag. And so, Several things I want you to see. One, the Bible says to the wicked, all things are wicked. And even though Solomon granted Adonai a life, he was still looking at conniving on how he could become the king. Never underestimate the wickedness of the heart, the blindness of the heart. He should have known that if Solomon finds out about this, I'm a dead man. The other thing is this, is when wicked people want to manipulate somebody, they don't care who they manipulate. as long as they get what they want. And here he was manipulating Solomon's own mother. And manipulation is a disgusting thing, isn't it? Well, so we find here that Adonai, he's made a terrible mistake today, hadn't he? As you read this. He thought he could do this and get away with it, but he didn't. So now we're going to find somebody else here, and we're gonna find what happened to the priest. So now let's just take the time and look at that. In verse 25, when King Solomon was sent by the hand of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he fell upon him and that he died. Wow. Listen, when you read about Benaiah, he's everywhere. I mean, this guy was faithful to David. Let's do this. You got your Bible? I want you to turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 11. 1 Chronicles chapter 11, verse 22. I want to just show you a couple of things about this guy and we're gonna talk about him. First of all, we've got to see who's involved here. So we understand Adonai, he's over with, it's done. He's just a backstabbing snake, he tried to become king with David, now he's trying to manipulate the situation so he can become king again. So Solomon said it's over with. Now, 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles, 11, 22, it said, Benaiah, the son of Jehodah, the son of a valiant man of Kabziel, who had done many acts. He slew two lion-like men of Moab also. He went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. And you read other things about him. And stay right there where you're at. We're gonna go over to chapter 18 in just a minute. But I want you to know something about this man, Benaiah. He was born well, and he sought to live well. He was born, if you read this verse, Benaiah, the son of Jehudah, the son of a valiant man of Kabziel. His dad was a valiant man. And so, as Benaiah was born well, I want you to realize something. He sought to live well, as his father was a valiant man. He was going to become a valiant man himself. And so you find that when you start looking at the life of this guy, he was there. He was there for David all the time. Now he's there for Solomon. And he was trusted. Boy, that's worth a fortune, isn't it? He was a trusted man. His dad was a valiant man that could be trusted and he raised a young man that could be valiant when he was trusted and be trusted. He was a respected man. He was respected because of his courage. He was respected because of his bravery. He was respected because of his ability to war. He was respected. Just think, Benaiah started off when he was a young man. And this was a time of war in Israel. And by the time you got to be just any type of a middle-aged man at all, you were an old veteran. But here you've got this young man And he was marked because he was fearless. As it says here, that he slew both these lion-like men of Moab, then went down and killed a lion in a pit. No wonder him and David got along. David killed a lion too, didn't he? But it says here that he was the son of a valiant man. That's so important for you and me. You see, what we find, it was said of this when you look in the history. Why do you find this type of history in the word of God? Because they wanted value, valiant men to raise valiant men. And so you find these little details stuck in the word of God. And so what you have here, you have the son of a valiant man that is trustworthy, respectable, fierce. And what a way this man was raised. He was born well and sought to live well. And so he realized three things in the Jewish history of things. Number one, you've got to be trusted. And remember something, respect is earned and not given. And trust is earned and not given. And so he understood this. What makes a valiant, courageous man, a valiant, courageous man, is that when he proves that to the people around him, he can do all kinds of things in private, nobody ever sees it. But when he does those things openly, That's when other people look at him and say, I respect him. He's fearless. He's courageous. Why? Because they saw him and they witnessed his lifestyle. They witnessed his courage. They witnessed his integrity. They witnessed his trustworthiness. And so the word of God says he was the son of a valiant man. How did his dad get that type of testimony? Because the people around his dad witnessed his courage, witnessed his trustworthiness, witnessed his fearlessness. And so this boy said, if my dad has that type of testimony, I want that type of testimony. And so off he goes. And so he was born well and he sought to live well. His dad was going to make a man out of him. And he wanted to become a man like his dad. And so even at this point, after he had gone through all these battles, all these fights, everything, but David, look at him. He's still standing by Solomon now. And without a doubt, we're gonna learn some more amazing things about him in the next few chapters. But this guy, He was just right. Now look at this, and King Solomon's sitting by the hand of Ben-Ananiah. Go kill him. Poof, he's gone. Solomon's daddy trusted this man. And now Solomon trusts this man. You see, let's do this now. Turn over to 1 Chronicles 18. 1 Chronicles 18. And verse 17. And Ben-aniah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites. And the sons of David were chief about the king. You know, when you read about those Cherethites and Pelethites, when David was running from Absalom, who went with him? Who was part of David's 600 men and so on? The Cherethites, the Pelethites, and Ben-Nahar. In other words, He, King David, had somebody around him that he could trust. And King David could trust Benaiah. And then Benaiah trusted the Cherethites and the Pelethites, because they're always together. You see, What I see here in this when I realize and look at every time I read in the Word of God, there's Benaiah, he's doing something. I've got a lesson on Obed-Edom that I'm gonna share with you. And I think you'll find that extremely interesting. But here we find though tonight, the heritage of courage, the heritage of integrity, the heritage of fearlessness, the heritage of that. I was reading, you've heard me say it before, but I was reading an old Jewish book and the Jews They had the saying, the only thing you make a man out of is a boy. And that's why when they got a certain age, they broke from mama, went to the field and worked and done and learned things. A heritage. of heroes. David's mighty men. Who were they? Well, one of them was Mr. Benaiah. He was one of the three the Bible talks about. You see, ladies and gentlemen, When I get to this point, I want you to know something. Solomon needed somebody that would be faithful to him without question. And so when Adonai tried to stab Solomon in the back by saying, give me Abishag, his wife, And Job ben Ananiah, the man that was faithful to his dad and now faithful to him, go kill him. Worthy of death. Verse 25 is a verse that I think I can stay and preach on it for a good hour and a half without ever going anywhere else. Because it said, the King Solomon was sent by the hand of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and fell upon him and he died. No questions asked. There's something about a valiant man. A valiant man understands the rules. A valiant man lives according to the rules. A valiant man is fearless, trustworthy, and he has to be respected. We find that a valiant man raised a valiant man. And so we see then the word of God says the son of a valiant man of Kabziel. Every father should have that type of testimony that he was a valiant man, a hardworking man. A fearless man, a trusted man, a respected man. Young men need that type of man in their lives. Listen, we never compromise roughness with softness to develop roughness in a man. We never compromise truth. Never. Even though it causes stress. What we're doing, we're trying to make a man out of a boy. How do we get a boy to become fearless? How do we get a boy to become trusted? How do we get a boy to become a respected man? Not by compromising roughness with softness. That happens when we deal in truth. and the roughness of truth and reality. When you read the history of some of this, you realize these young men were raised up to be defenders of the faith, defenders of the land. defenders of God. When it says that Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabziel, I want you to know that that man had to earn that reputation. It wasn't given to him. And this this young man, his son, understood my dad has earned that reputation. Listen, what's the value of that? You can't place a value on it. When a young man can look at his dad and say, my dad's earned that reputation, Then the dad can look back at his son and say, yeah, my son has earned that reputation. The reputation you presently have as a Christian, the reputation you presently have as a saved person, the reputation you presently have as a father or a grandfather, that's the reputation you've earned. So look in the mirror and ask yourself, what type of reputation do I have? You see, what a question that is. Some of the old writings, especially in the Jewish world, they were almost like a monk. You look at some of them old monks that I've been around in the Orient and other places. It's kind of weird when you see a monk or you see an old Buddhist sitting around looking at a skull. Just an old dead skull cut off from a body. He's sitting there looking at it, staring at it. And you say, why in the world is he sitting there staring at the skull of a dead man? because it's introspect. He's thinking this, in a few years, that's me. And so they have the habit of looking at a skull, realizing that's me. What kind of reputation did he have? What kind of life did he have? What kind of life did he live? What did he leave behind? So they would sit there and observe the skull for a while. You see, ladies and gentlemen, listen, just because everybody pats you on the back and calls you a friend, you better ask yourself this question. What type of reputation do you really have? What do they really think about me? Are you mousy or are you a man? Are you a real Christian husband or are you just married? Are you a real Christian or are you just acting like it? The reality of it is this with all of us, men and women in here, boys and girls in here. Everybody in this room's got a reputation. But a lot of people don't want to look you in the face and tell you what kind of reputation you have. So they lie to you by patting you on the back and saying, oh, you're a good boy, you're a good girl, all that stuff, when you're not. They don't want to deal in truth because truth hurts them. We look at some people and boy, we say, he's a coward. Buddy, when time got tough, he took off running. He done this, he's a coward. We look at another person and say, give him a Medal of Honor. He's a hero. We look at people and say, man, look at the reputation they have. I want you to realize something. When you read about that verse, that verse 25, and then up in 1 Chronicles 11, you're looking at what God thinks of them. They have a reputation with God. Don't you understand how you act, what you do, how you say, how you live? You're gonna develop some type of reputation. American Christianity's got to the point to where they just want to have a reputation of something, don't know what. But there's a reality to this. And it's true. What type of reputation do you have tonight? Men and women? Moms and dads? Grandpas and grandmas? What kind of reputation do you have tonight? Have you thought about that? Do you have a Christian reputation? Are you known for being a prayer warrior? Are you known for loving the Word of God and reading the Word of God? The reality is this. All of us, all of us have a reputation. But what is it? What type of reputation is it? What are you developing? Listen. Remember this, this man was a respected man and a trusted man and a fearless man. Now, the reason I chose those three words, because those three words are worth a fortune. Number one, trust is earned, isn't it? I've been around some people that I absolutely trusted. I've been around other people that I wanted to make sure they walked in front of me. The reality of it is this, that's the reputation they had. Trust is earned and not given. Respect. There's one thing about male ego, and that's this. They all strive to get some type of respect. But the reality of it is this, respect is earned and not given. Listen, firemen earn respect because when they fight fires, they're respected as a fearless firefighter. Right on down the line to the soldiers. The reality of it is this, but to be a respected Christian, You're going to have to know the word of God, then live according to the word of God. Do you have a reputation? Do we have a reputation of living according to the word of God? What's our reputation? You see, that third word, fearless. To live godly in a godless world, you've got to be fearless. Remember something, fear is one of the best controllers of humanity there is. If the people around you can get you to be afraid of them, they can control you. But the Bible already told us, Jesus, if they've hated me, they'll hate you. If they've persecuted me, they'll persecute you. You'll be hated of all men for my name's sake. The Lord's already told us that. Well, let me ask you a question. If you know that, do you have the courage to live that type of life anyway? If you know that, can you live that? That's rough. Go down to verse 26 now, 26 and 27. 1 Kings 2, 26 and 27. And unto Abiathar the priest, said the king, get thee to Annathos unto thine own fields, for thou art worthy of death. Now, you realize Abiathar followed Adonai in this rebellion. But I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou bearest the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord, that he might fulfill the word of the Lord, which he spake concerning the house of Eli and Shiloh. Well, turn to 1 Samuel 2. Let's read verses 30 to 35. 1 Samuel 2. Now, this, the first time I ever read this passage of Scripture and some of this, it was just amazing to me. what took place. I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read two passages of scripture to you. We're gonna read this out of chapter two, and then I'm gonna take you over to chapter three and read verse 13 and 14. 1 Samuel chapter two, starting at verse 30. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, talking to Eli, that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, be it far from me, for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thine house forever. He's passing this on to Eli. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart, and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. Verse 34. And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two sons, and Hophni and Phinehas. In one day they shall die, both of them. and I will raise me up a faithful priest that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind, and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever. Now watch this. Now go to chapter three. Let's look at verse 13 and 14. Well, let's start in verse 11. And the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every man that heareth it shall tingle. In that day, I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also make an end. Now watch this. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever. for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not. Get it? His sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not. Verse 14, and therefore have I sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. And the Lord says, you've just disgraced me. You've cared nothing for me. You've honored your sons above me. And so what you see here in verse 27, so Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord. Abiathar was a relative of Eli, that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which he spake concerning the house of Eli and Shiloh. Wow. Listen. When God pronounces something against an individual, a family, or a nation, it might not happen right then, but it's gonna happen. Mark it down. It's gonna happen. You see, even the Bible addresses the fact that we humans, we think, well, since I got away with it, God didn't see it. And God said, you actually think that because I haven't killed you yet, beat you up yet, that I didn't see it and you're gonna get away with it? The answer to that's no, you're not. Nobody gets away with it. Nobody gets away with it. When it comes to God's judgment of things, God has a 100% success rate because he sees everything. He knows everything. He knows the heart of every one of us in this building right now. Listen. You can't have truth without Christ. You can't have Christianity without Christ. You can't be a Christian without knowing the Christian book. The reality to that is this. If we want to look it up, and I read a verse and used it the other week. And the verse said, if a man got a word, let him speak a word. But if the preacher's got a word, let him preach it, right? If he has my word, let him preach my word. But the word faithfully is stuck in there. In other words, let him preach my word faithfully. Do you know what that means? That means if I get up here and preach the word of God and it makes you mad, that's your problem. If I get up here and tell the truth and you don't like it, that's your problem. That's between you and God. I've got the responsibility to tell the truth and do it faithfully. You see, those three words have put a lot of men out of the ministry. I read a book years ago, and the title of the book was Get Out of the Ministry. And he had these three words, and through the chapters, he took these three words. He said, can God trust you with his word? If you can't be trustworthy with God's word, get out of the ministry. Can you be fearless with the word of God, even though it makes people mad and upsets them? But what do you expect worldly people to do? To hug the word of God? No, of course not. Compromisers don't like it. Weak, cowardly people don't like it. Gutless men don't like it. Nobody does. Why? Because it reveals the truth to you. Then the last word here was respected. Guess what? Abiafar the priest, All of a sudden, look at this now, what type of reputation did he have? He stayed with David through all this, but boy, when we find that Adonai come on the scene, he forsook David and followed him. So now he went from having a reputation of following David to having a reputation as a traitor. You see that? And he was, now look at this. He was reaping, he was reaping his family heritage. Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest to the Lord that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which is spake concerning the house of Eli and Siloam. Do you see that? What I wanted to do here is to show you the difference between the two. On one side, I've got Benaniah, whose daddy was a valiant man. He had a reputation. And now his son had a reputation. of being trustworthy, respected as so, and fearless. But on the other side, you had Eli, who compromised the word of God, honored his sons over God, ruined his family heritage because of it, and the people down the line, had to suffer for it. The Bible says that the sins of the fathers goes to what? The 10th generation? Listen, this, this is no game folks. You might live in America where you think you can go down to the cafeteria and have a cafeteria-style religion, but I hate to tell you this, you can't. You want to pick and choose, it don't work. No cafeteria-style religion is accepted. Sorry. It don't work for me, it ain't gonna work for you. A little preacher said, get up and preach hard. Be faithful to the Word of God. They might say, well, he'll preach it, but I don't have to be there when he does. The old preacher said this, preach hard and you'll preach them out. He said, enjoy your small congregation, but they'll be faithful. What a truth, huh? There's a reality to this, folks. Now listen, Adonai was a snake, wasn't he? And even though Solomon let him live, Solomon knew at some point he'd show his colors again. But then Solomon knew this. Ben-Nahiah, he was faithful to my dad. Him and the Cherithites and the Pelethites, he was a ruler of them. Man, this was a group of little gladiators around my dad that were fearless. And I can still trust him. His dad was a valiant man. I can respect him and his dad. And now he's here. Go kill that lying, manipulating scoundrel. Get him out of here. And now here's this priest. Guess what? Eli, look what Eli did. Eli was more faithful to his sons than he was to God, and God said so. You've honored your sons over me. That brought a curse to the house. Now here we go down the road a little ways, and here's Abiathar. Look at him, look at what he does. Listen, the curse back there created a weakness in that man up there. And the weakness was the lack of loyalty. Abiathar was loyal to David through a bunch of stuff. But then when David got old, here come Adonai and Abiathar just forsook David and followed him. Do we understand? We can create a weakness in the people around us. It might not show up right now, but it'll show up sometime. It always does. But his dad, but now his dad was a valiant man. He didn't create a weakness in his son. He created strength and fearlessness and trustworthiness and honesty and integrity in His Son. What are we creating in the people around us? What are we creating and the people around us, are we creating weakness in them? Or are we creating strength in them? It's not neutral. Compromisers always want to say, well, I'll just be neutral in this. You can't be neutral. You cannot be neutral with the word of God. Either you're obedient to it or you're not. That's it. And I'm done. I have enjoyed preaching this to you tonight. May the Holy Spirit drive it into the hearts of every man and woman in this congregation tonight. Because you're going to wind up with a reputation. You surely are. Ask this question. Are you creating strength or weakness in the people around you? You're creating something, and you're going to have a reputation for something. Amen? All righty. Well, I've had fun with this. Hope you learned something out of it. Let's all stand, if you would, please. God is good. Amen? Brother Floyd, lead us in a verse, please.