God's Glory - Kings - And us Today

We'll take your Bible and turn to Proverbs chapter 25. Proverbs 25, we had one message in chapter 24, but in my study, chapter 25 has really grabbed me and I have shared over and over and over my approach. I'm just seeing what comes to the surface. I'm leaving plenty of good study out there for you. As a matter of fact, some of the verses that I really meditated over on Tuesday, I was able to share with one of the men here tonight. It just really applied to a circumstance that we were discussing. And you know, think about this. We've gotta be good students of God's word in two different arenas of life.

When we're here in the life of the church, when we're here on a Sunday morning or in a small group, no matter what context, when we're in the context of the local church, when we're studying the Bible together, we need to be good stewards of what's put before us. And then in our own time, we need to be good students. Discipline your life. Maybe you're better in the mornings, maybe you're better in the evenings. We're all different. What really matters is if we're studying God's word. And my desire is just for us to go through Proverbs, see what comes to the surface, and I hope and pray that you're studying ahead, studying behind like I am.

Really and truly, I'm seeing a lot that I would like to teach on, but I have to leave something for you. Now, well, you might not realize it, but we have a transition here in the book of Proverbs. Now, there's a lot that I have not covered. I have not covered all of the context, all of the transitions. I just, there really is so much. We could be here for years. But we do have a transition in the book that I do need to point out. This is really part of the introduction, but there's some good application here. Look at verse one with me of chapter 25. These also are Proverbs of Solomon.

And notice, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah copied. Now, verse one tells us that these are Proverbs of Solomon. We've been knowing this all along. They're Proverbs of Solomon, but the verse says that the men of Hezekiah were the ones that copied them. Now, when we come across things like this, we need to get good at asking questions. I mean, these are relevant too. You could probably add a question or two to what I'm going to give you. First of all, who was Hezekiah? Second of all, who were these men that the verse speaks of, the men of Hezekiah? And then also, what does this mean that it says they copied the Proverbs of Solomon?

And so we need to ask investigative questions. Maybe they're questions of curiosity, that's good. And see, to learn what's going, we need to learn what's going on in God's word. We need to learn the information. Maybe it seems like educational for you, but that's where accurate application comes from. When we understand what's in God's word, when we understand what's going on in God's word, then can we make application? Let me show you where I'm going. First of all, who was Hezekiah? Some of you might know. Hezekiah was the king of Judah, some three centuries and really many kings after Solomon was king over Israel.

Now it is important to know that Solomon, after Solomon died, the nation of Israel did split. Some of you do know that. It did split. Israel became the Northern kingdom and then Judah became what was called the Southern kingdom. Now, ultimately Hezekiah was a good king and he came to the throne at the age of 25. That's pretty young in my estimation. Now his grandfather was somewhat a good king, but notice the digression. His father was much worse. I'll give you an example.

One of the evil things that his father Ahaz did, he led the people of God to follow the religious rituals of the Moabites and one of the awful things the Moabites did was they literally sacrificed their children to one of their pagan deities by throwing them in the sacrificial fire. Imagine, think about that. God's people who were supposed to worship the one true God and yet they are worshiping a pagan God by throwing their children into the fire. You can go look at that for yourself in 2 Chronicles 28 verse three. But along comes Hezekiah. And Hezekiah brought about many religious reforms in the nation.

He opened the temple, he cleans the temple. His father had desecrated the temple and closed the temple. He destroyed many of the pagan altars and what they call the high places. When you see that in the Old Testament, those are pagan places of worship. And he destroyed those. He reinstated the Jewish feasts and the celebrations such as the Passover. And much of what Hezekiah did can be seen in 2 Chronicles starting in 29. I would encourage you to go read. Those are short chapters and you can see briefly some of the things that Hezekiah did. But one of the things that Hezekiah did, he employed scholars or counselors.

Some scholars say he maybe even used some of the prophets and they were to write down and preserve other proverbs, teachings and sayings that were attributed to King Solomon. That's who these men were. See that in the verse? The men of Hezekiah, that's who these men were. So scholars, Bible scholars say that these proverbs, these teachings, these sayings were handed down, some of them orally and some of them were written down. They were in written accounts. And simply these were trusted scholars who gathered these teachings, gathered these sayings that they knew to be from God. They preserved them by writing them down.

And that is what we have starting in verse 25. Now, some of you might say, "Well, brother Chris, that's historical. "How relevant is that?" This is a lot more relevant than you might know. Step, take a step back with me. Look at big picture. What we see here is God gave His word to Solomon. God did that. All scriptures inspired by God, we know that. So God gave His word to Solomon, then God sustained and preserved His word, some of it orally through other sacred writings and then ultimately through Hezekiah and his men.

And then God provided His word to His people in Hezekiah's day and all the way through history, church history, straight to us. Now, question. Do you see how just that small of information in verse one concerning the next portion of Proverbs applies to us? God gave His word, God sustained His word, God preserved His word and God provided His word. And I'm telling you, chapter 25 is really, really, really rich. Now, before we get into the verses, we're just gonna look at a couple of verses. Before we get into the message, the verses, I wanna introduce you to an English word that describes these verses. I ran across this with a scholar.

He describes these verses as esoteric. It's a good word for you to learn. What does that mean? That simply means this is difficult for us to understand. It's difficult for the ordinary. What I mean is this. In these verses, we see language about earthly kings, the hearts of kings, thrones, thrones of righteousness, kings' presence, nobility, and now how does all that relate to us? That's strange, that's odd, that's esoteric. We also see words like the heavens and their heights, the earth and its depths, God's glory, dross, the silver, a silversmith, and a vessel. Again, that's odd, that's strange.

And if we're not careful, when we read through verses like this, we just say difficult to understand, it's out of the ordinary for us. But see, these verses can seem like they might apply to another place in another time and another people. But these verses are more relatable than we know. And sometimes this kind of stuff can sneak up on us. And that's my prayer for you, 'cause it has really snuck up on me this week. Now, for God's people in their day, these things were not that odd, because in Hezekiah's day, just like in Solomon's day, God's people lived under a king. They would have understood kings and thrones and such.

But in this day, this seems strange. It seems esoteric. It seems like it fits another time. But there's timeless teaching and principles here in this woven in this language. Now, we're really gonna look at two things out of verse two and three. It's really, to me, big information. And then I'm gonna make very quick application out of verse four and verse five. I'll go ahead and put the information up there for you. You see the title of the message. I call this God's glory, kings and us today. Two things we're going to look at, major truths, big truths, the greatness of God, and then the duty of kings.

So right here before us, we have what I call the greatness of God. Look at verse two and verse three. Comes out of the beginning of each of the verses. It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable. Here we see that God in his glory and his greatness, it is described as higher than the heavens and deeper than the earth. Solomon simply is saying that God in his glory and his greatness is immeasurable. Finite, man, finite man is unable to fully comprehend the one true infinite God.

God, his knowledge, his ways are above human understanding. Man may try, man may try very hard to understand God, but really man can never understand God. Listen to one verse, Ecclesiastes 3.11. He, that's God, has made everything beautiful in its time. Also he, that would be God, he put eternity into man's heart. Doesn't that sound a little bit like what we learned back in Romans when we learned in chapter two that God put the law of God in man's heart? Notice, and he put eternity into a man's heart yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. What, man can never fully understand God.

Now think about these things. I'm gonna give you some of these unsearchable, ununderstandable things concerning the greatness of God. This is a few examples and some of you here could add to these. Listen to these questions. Who can fully comprehend the person of the Godhead that we call the Trinity? We might explain it, but we can only understand it to a certain degree. Who can comprehend the fullness of the incarnation of Christ? Who can understand the election and predestination of God concerning men and eternal life while at the same time understand man receiving Christ and believing in Christ for eternal life?

Theologians have been arguing and trying to explain those realities and truths for years. Who can comprehend the providence of God which pertains to God's perfect four ordained purposes for human history and the choices of men and their sin within those four ordained purposes? Who can understand God's perfect judgment of kings and rulers and nations? Who can understand mankind being accountable to God for every word, thought, and deed, even the motives behind those words and thoughts and deeds? Paul knew how to approach these subjects and more. Really the big subject here, Paul knew. Listen to what he says in Romans 11, 33 and 34.

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom "and knowledge of God, "how unsearchable are His judgments, "how inscrutable His ways." Verse 34, "For who has known the mind of the Lord "or who has been His counselor?" You see? I want you to notice the second part of verse two though. Go back to the verse. It is the glory of God to conceal things. See that phrase, conceal things. To me, we have another layer. The things God has spoken about are in His word. They are unsearchable. We have just seen that fact. But the end of verse two speaks above and beyond what we've just seen. Here we see that God keeps things to Himself.

God being God and needing nothing from anyone or anything or any being keeps truths and realities to Himself. So notice what we've seen. Just a rock skipping across the water. The greatness of God. Known things about God are unsearchable. Man can never fully grasp them no matter how hard he may try. And then on top of that, there is much that we do not know because God has not made everything known to man. Simply God is great. And His greatness and glory can be known only to a limited degree, a very, very limited degree. Now, I didn't flesh it out like this, but notice what we have.

This broad big truth here, the greatness of God, and notice the known things about God are unsearchable by man. And then the unknown things about God are unsearchable by man. Let me read verse two again. It is the glory of God to conceal things. And then the beginning of verse three. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth. Paul had it just right. Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and how unscrewed His ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor. The greatness of God, that's what we see here.

Now we're gonna come back to some application and I want us to continue. I wanna look at the second part of these verses and I'm calling this the duty of kings. You have that in front of you. This is what I'm calling the duty of kings. Notice, but the glory of kings is to search things out. So the heart, this is the end of verse three. So the heart of kings is unsearchable. Again, strange language, but it is different, much different. Believe it or not here, the role of an earthly king is compared to the role of God. You might think, wait a minute, we just learned how great God is.

But God being God, He rules and He governs the affairs of men. Likewise, earthly kings have the responsibility to do the very same thing. Now I can't help but think about what we learned back in Romans 13, that earthly authority is established by God. We read this back when we covered chapter 13, but listen to what Paul says. Let every person be subject to the governed authorities for there is no authority except from God. And those that exist, that would be authority, have been instituted by God.

And on down in verse four, it talks about that authority and it says, "For He, that authority is God's servant "for your good." See, earthly authority has been given by God for the good, or it should be. But that helps us in the comparison. We can say it like this. Earthly kings are God-like, might surprise you. Earthly kings are God-like in that they govern men in the affairs of government as God does. And the position and the authority earthly kings possess, it's from God and it is supposed to be for the good. But here we see that earthly kings, they have a sacred duty. The duty of a king is to search out the things of God.

Isn't that what we see? But the glory of the kings is to search things out. The things seen and those things that are unseen that we talked about earlier. The earthly kings engage in this duty by searching what? The word of God? To observe the laws of God within the word of God so as to rule according to the laws of God. The earthly king has the responsibility to see that earthly laws are in agreement with God's laws and to make sure those are enforced. And also that earthly king is to search the word of God so as to attain personal wisdom. The earthly king needs the wisdom of God to rule like God.

This comes from searching the word of God, from praying and from submitting to God himself and having the spirit of God work within the heart of the king. So we see that work and that process and you know where we see it all through Proverbs 'cause it's talking about gaining wisdom from God's word and God working in the individual. So we've seen the responsibility. Now we see the result. Look at the end of verse three. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth so the heart of kings is unsearchable. If the king exercises that responsibility then a supernatural work takes place. His heart notice becomes God-like.

He will have a God-like heart therefore he will have an unsearchable heart as well. And oh, the greatest example is Solomon. Solomon, God did this very work in Solomon. He had a heart so large and so wide it was as the sand on the seashore and this great immeasurable heart from God enabled Solomon to govern greatly. I'm gonna talk about Solomon in application. So notice what we have here, the duty of kings. The responsibility of the king to search out God's word in the ways of God for himself. So as to govern like God as God would have him govern and then the result there is this mysterious God-size word.

The king will have an unsearchable heart like God. He will be God-like. Not actually like God. I know it sounds contradictory but God-like. Now notice, you can add to this. The duty of kings, the responsibility of searching out the things of God and the results of searching out the things of God. Now I'll say this with strange language but there's a lot of application here. But before we can really get into application, we need to see that God has instituted three spheres of government in the world. We've already seen one. The first is civil government. The first is civil government. Now think about this.

What might happen if our government officials were just to obey these passages? Think things would change? I mean, we've learned that, second Timothy, we're supposed to pray for kings and rulers and those who are in authority over us. I mean, maybe we should pray that our government officials would stumble upon these passages and begin to pray like this. God did that for Solomon. And what might happen if our government officials were to obey these passages? But think about it. Might we apply these timeless principles, this teaching in our work? And in many of our jobs, we are king-like. We govern.

Whether we're a banker, a school teacher, a businessman. And we can do the very same thing. Think about Daniel. Think about Daniel. When he lived there in Babylon, did he not do this very same thing? He had the heart of God and God enabled him to govern there in Babylon. And we see many examples of this in scripture. And so what I'm trying to show you is you and I might not ever be a king, but no matter what we do, we could drive the space shuttle or the garbage truck. And if God does this work in us, guess what? We will govern wherever we are, biblically, God-like. But the second sphere of government in the world, the family, you see?

There's the sphere of civil government and then there's the sphere of family government. And what might happen if men and fathers were to obey these passages? You see? Should we as men and fathers diligently be praying and obeying what we see here? And you know, I thought about it today as I was finishing up. I think a lot of Christian men make the mistake of governing their families just by being in neutral and just by being, you know, like it's just gonna happen by osmosis. It's just gonna happen. But no, what do we have here?

We have a picture of a king who is diligently working hard to search out the things of God, the heart of God, the word of God, the wisdom of God. And even those unseen things, I see a king with their sleeves rolled up working hard and might we as men in our families and as we lead our wives and lead our children and lead our homes, maybe we need to just quit expecting it to happen just by us being there. And maybe we need to take the advice and the instruction of what we see here. But the third sphere of government in the world is in the life of the church. You have civil government, family government, and church government.

Should a pastor be obeying these passages? Should elders in the life of the church be doing the very same thing? I shared with you a passage that I pray often. This is kind of one of my ministerial, personal verses. It goes back to Exodus chapter 33. Moses is leading the people of God, the Israelites. If you know that story, they tested God 10 times. God finally got to the end. He said, "I'm Moses, I'm tired of him. I mean, I'll take you and I'll make you into a great nation." And what do we see here?

Moses said to the Lord, "See, see, you say to bring me, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me." See, God was saying, "I'm not going into the promised land. I'll kill these people." Yet you have said, I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight. Therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people. What is he saying? These are your people. I have to know you and know your ways. What is Moses saying?

I cannot lead these people unless there is something that happens in me that is beyond me. So look at our application. This applies to us in many different areas in life. Now, briefly, I wanna use verses four to five to show us there's another layer here. Look back at Proverbs 25. Look back at Proverbs 25. I'm gonna start with verse two. I'm gonna go on down to verse four and five. "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out." See, rolling up the sleeves, working hard.

"As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is immeasurable." See, God does this work whereby they become God-like. "Take away the dross." See this strange language from the silver. "And the smith has material for a vessel. Take away the wicked from the presence of the king and his throne will be established in righteousness." But here what we have is an example. Again, this is foreign to us. We have the example of a metalworker and he's making a vessel of pure silver and the dross would be any impurity in the metal. Many of you have heard how they would work.

They heat the metal and the dross, the impurities come to the surface and they skim the impurities all throughout. And so for the silver to be a pure vessel of silver, the dross had to be removed. I think you can understand that brief explanation. But for the king and his throne, the dross represents sin. It represents sin. "For a king to rule in righteousness, the dross of sin must be taken away." Go back to verse four and five. "Take away the dross from the silver and the smith has material for a vessel." See those who knew about metalworking, they knew what that meant. They knew exactly what that was.

"Take away the wicked from the presence of the king and his throne will be established in righteousness." Or purity, you see? So what do we see here? "For a king to rule in righteousness, the dross of sin and sinful influence must be taken away." Go back to government, civil government, kings, rulers. Did not Solomon permit the sin, the dross of sin to come into his life? I've said it like this. He was a foolish wise man. What was his downfall? Immorality, women, foreign wives. He took foreign wives and made allegiances with pagan peoples. And then ultimately he ended up worshiping their pagan gods. You see how that happened?

He let dross, the dross of sin, come into his life. And that ultimately was his downfall. But think about family. What about Lot? Did not Lot do the same thing? Remember the story of Lot? There was a conflict between Lot and Abraham. I'm paraphrasing. It starts right there in Genesis 12 and moves on. What happened? There was a big conflict. They had a lot of herds and didn't have enough pasture land. And Abraham said, "Let's not fight." And he said to Lot, see his great humility, "You go to the right, I'll go to the left.

You go to the left, I'll go to the right." And it said that Lot pitched, the scripture says that Lot pitched his tents near Sodom. And then the next thing you know, he's in Sodom. And then the next thing you know, Sodom is in him. Because Sodom is in him, he's at the city gate. He was in a position of authority. And it was in his wife's heart because when they fled, she looked back. You see the downfall with Lot? Ultimately the dross of sin ruined his life and it ruined his wife and it ruined his daughters and it ruined his family heritage. You wanna see how far sin will take a family?

You know the rest of the story, Paul Harvey, rest of the story with Lot? Ultimately his daughters slept with him, that's incest, to preserve their family line. And if you do their history, ultimately the descendants of Lot became enemies of God and the people of God destroyed them later. Going back to Solomon, what happened? Ultimately his sin led to the breakup of the nation and such. See the dross of sin. And we can see it in the church. Think about how much I have led you to study the church. I've done that purposely and prayerfully. Think about the seven churches.

We know that two, there were two that were not reprimanded but yet five were. And remember the letters to the angel of the church, oh, that would have been the pastor, the elder. And all scholars believe there were multiple elders in those churches that would have received that instruction. But what is the instruction? What is part of the instruction? Get rid of the dross of sin in the church. And ultimately we know that sin can destroy. I've been studying 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 13 in my own personal life.

One of the greatest problems that you see at the end of the second letter of the Corinthians is Paul is still dealing with division in the life of the church. And see that dross of division was hurting the church. And ultimately at the end, when he basically says, some of you won't deal with division and you need to question if you're truly saved. See the dross of sin. So look what we've seen here. It is the glory of God to conceal things. As the heavens for height and the earth for death. Our God is a great God. Although God has given us so much, we can never mind the depths of the truths of God's word.

And yet there are things that he's concealed and he never will tell mankind. But then what do we see? It is the duty, the responsibility of kings to search out the heart and the mind and the ways of God. And then there's this great work whereby the heart of the king, it can be God-like immeasurable. And then we see that this is applied in many areas of life, probably more than you know. Now, before I wrap it up, I wanna show you again the approach, the posture. It's rolling up sleeves. It's searching, it's working hard. Lots of Bible study, lots of prayer, lots of repentance, lots of confession.

Late into the night, early in the morning, praying over God's word, crying out for knowledge and understanding and not just knowing in our minds, but letting it be worked out in our life. See, knowledge can be attained, but yet wisdom has to be worked out in time and experience. You see, it's hard work. And men and women who are on this path, they have calloused knees and worn elbows and wrinkles on their face because of the late nights and the lack of sleep. And they have a different look in their face and a different countenance about their life.

And ultimately, when you get to know these types of people, they have a heart that's different from everyone else. Now, what do we have? The title, "God's Glory, Kings, and Us Today." Now, I don't wanna hurt your feelings, but chances are you're not gonna be a king or a queen. I'm not either. But this really does apply. Strange language. If we're not careful, we can read right over that. And chapter 25 is loaded. And I do challenge you to study, not just chapter 25, but the verses ahead and behind.

May God help us govern rightly, no matter where we are in life, and may we seek God, work hard to become God-like, and we can do this the way God would want us to. Let me pray, and then I want us to mention a couple of prayer needs, and then we'll pray and dismiss.