From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF.
We have been studying the story of King Solomon for the last few months. Today we will read 1 Kings chapter 9, which is near the end of his story.
Solomon had spent the last 20 years building the first permanent temple, a magnificent building he dedicated to God. Chapter 9 is about how God responded to Solomon after he completed this grand achievement. Let us pray before we begin.
[Read 1 Kings 9:1-9]
I’d like to reflect on 3 ideas today: First, God desires our faithfulness. Second, sin is costly. Third, our salvation is secure but we must persevere.
God desires our faithfulness
Let’s start with faithfulness. Today’s passage says that God appeared to Solomon after he finished building the temple and royal palace. What did God say?
Did He say, “Well done, you scored an A+ in architecture”? No, instead God wanted to talk about the condition of Solomon’s heart, the condition of people’s hearts.
But first, He said: I have heard your prayer; I accept this temple you offer. In verse 3, He says, “My eyes and heart will always be there.” I’m sure Solomon was glad to hear that.
Then God gave him a promise and a warning. In verse 4 and 5: “If you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness . . . and observe my decrees and laws . . . I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever.”
The first time God appeared to Solomon was in a dream at Gibeon, recorded in chapter 3 verse 5. At that time, too, God promised to reward Solomon if he was faithful.
Like in many parts of the Old Testament, the promise comes with a warning. God warns that He will be angry with unfaithfulness. Chapter 9 verse 6 says God will be upset “if you or your sons turn away from me . . . and go off to serve other gods and worship them.”
In other words, God’s main concern was the condition of people’s hearts. He didn’t say, “If you don’t clean this temple every week, I’ll be upset.” It’s not about the building. It’s not about Solomon’s achievement. It’s about being devoted to God, and God alone.
Biblical writers used marriage as one analogy of our relationship with God. When we marry someone, we promise to be faithful to them. And today, God has not changed. He still promises to hear us and always be there for us. But at the same time, He desires us to be faithful. It is a two-way relationship.
Sin is costly
You might ask, “I thought God was supposed to have unconditional love. So why does God say he will punish Israel for unfaithfulness?” I would say that God’s love is unconditional, but his blessings are conditional.
With that, I’ll talk about the second idea for today: Sin is costly.
God was willing to withhold his blessings and punish Israel’s sin to help them understand sin’s dangerous consequences.
Going back to the marriage analogy, it is a good but limited analogy. Yes, God loves like a faithful spouse, but at the same time, He is not a human spouse. God is also God. As God, He needs to show us the destructive consequences of sin. What is sin? It is rejecting God, or His words, His values, His desires for us.
We are in a relationship of love, but we are also in a relationship between Creator and the created. The universe and everything belongs to Him. And yet, He gives us a choice: whether to love Him or keep Him out of our lives. What happens when we push God away?
Because He loves us, He will keep seeking us – though, He never force us to love Him. He seeks us because, in our sinful condition, we forget there is ultimately no good life apart from God. All true goodness comes from Him. If we reject Him, the Bible says that at the end of our earthly lives, God will finally allow us to live in a world without His presence – and that is called Hell. Do you believe this?
It’s hard to believe without some kind of proof. Do you have proof of the afterlife? I can’t take you on a field trip to Heaven and Hell and say, “There, see? God is real.” And because God loves us, He’s not going to wait until we die and say, “There, see? You ignored me this whole time, and now you will spend the rest of your life in Hell.” No, God is not like that.
That’s why, in 1 Kings chapter 9, He was trying to teach the people of Israel that He is real.
What did God say in verse 7 and 8? He warned that if they sinned, “I will cut off Israel from the land . . . I will reject this temple . . . Israel will become an object of ridicule among all peoples.” In verse 9, God warned that if they sinned, Solomon’s beautiful temple would be destroyed. Other countries would look at Israel as a sign and say, this happened “because they have forsaken the Lord their God, . . . and have embraced other gods – that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.”
This was a serious warning. Israel could lose their land and their temple.
In those days, land was very important. Land meant food and livelihood, belonging and community, history and culture. To be taken away as slaves by a foreign invader meant the end of freedom, peace, and identity.
To lose the temple would be another blow. Solomon’s temple was not just their pride. It was a symbol of God’s presence. In those days before Jesus came, the temple was their way to offer sacrifices and ask God to forgive their sins. If God destroyed the temple, it would symbolize a broken relationship with God and Israel.
That’s exactly what sin does. It damages the relationship between us and God. That’s why God gave Solomon a promise to inspire him to be faithful; along with a serious warning to keep him from sin.
Our salvation is secure, but we must persevere
What does this mean for Christians today? Will God punish us whenever we sin? Can we lose our relationship with God? With these questions, let’s talk about the third idea: Our salvation is secure, but we must persevere.
First, I don’t believe that God is waiting to punish us whenever we sin.
Like a father, he doesn’t taken pleasure in punishment. But He does discipline us when necessary, for our growth and holiness. As Hebrews 12 says in verse 6, the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. It’s important to remember that God wants to forgive us and help us change.
Second, can we lose our salvation? Or our relationship with God?
I believe not. Our salvation from sin, our new relationship with God, and the promise of eternal life with God is a gift from Him. We didn’t earn it by doing good works. Likewise, we don’t lose it by doing bad things. Ephesians 2 verse 8-9 says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
We receive these gifts purely by believing in Jesus, the one God sent to atone for our sins. God forgives us and chooses to see us as righteous and pure. Theologians call this “justification.”
Does that mean Christians can do bad things and live any way they want?
No, because if you have truly believed in Jesus, the condition of your heart will change. You will still sin, but the direction of your life will change. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The more you know Him, listen to Him, and obey Him, the more you will become loving and holy like Jesus. This change also is a gift from God. It is the work of God’s Holy Spirit within you.
How do you know the Holy Spirit lives in you? Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 lists the some signs or “fruits of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
It’s not that we will become perfect in this life. But we will see a pattern of growth and change over the years. Theologians call this process “sanctification.” In the next life, sin will be completely removed from this world and our lives. Theologians calls this “glorification.”
Meanwhile, we will be faithful to seek God and spiritual growth. There is an element of deliberate, conscious choice.
Philippians chapter 2 has an interesting verse. Paul writes in Philippians 2:12, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
In this verse we see a mysterious paradox: On our human side, we make a conscious decision to persevere in the faith. Meanwhile, on God’s side, he changes our hearts and minds to act in a way that pleases Him. In the previous chapter, Paul writes in 1:6, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, it’s not that we can lose our salvation by sinning. Rather, people who are truly saved have received new hearts. Through God’s Spirit, they receive the desire and power to change. But since God has also given them free will, they consciously make choices every day to live in a way that pleases Him.
He desires us to be faithful to Him. So we must persevere. But at the same time, He will enable us to do it. Let’s give thanks.