Some of you have sin patterns in your life that can be traced to your mother and father, maybe even your grandparents or great-grandparents even longer. I have forebears in my family for generations who were drunks and worse, generational sins that seem to get worse and worse generation by generation. This should never surprise us. since the Lord has repeatedly stated that he will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. Immediately men howl and say, this is so unfair that God would pass the sins of my grandfather and father down to me. Compare this with God's blessing. When the Lord has said he will visit the sins of the fathers on the third and fourth generation, and people think that's unfair, but they never seem to mind when God says that he will show his mercy to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Nobody howls then or complains. Notice how much more rich and full of God's mercy is than his wrath. God passes on mercy for hundreds of generations but wrath only for a few. But it's our own hard-heartedness that makes us so quickly gloss over the undeserved mountain of covenant mercies and fixate on the three or four generations of sin. Tonight, we're going to see this principle up close. And if you've never been here before on a Sunday night and you've never sat under expository preaching, what we're going to seek to do is open the Bible to 1 Kings 11, which we just read, and go into some detail explaining it and applying it. Several weeks ago I was talking to a young minister, a very young minister, and he asked what I was preaching. And by the way, he told me, he said, I've been at my church three years. I think I'm about to run out of material. And I said, how? He said, I finished the Gospel of John. And so he said, what are you preaching? I told him the life of Solomon on Sunday evenings. He said, well, what is there to preach there? So I began to spell that. He said, oh, yeah, yeah. And when I came to this, I said, we're going to talk about the covenantal principle, generational sins, the sins of the fathers being visited on the sons. He said, wow, well, that would be important for my people to hear, wouldn't it? It is important for your people to hear. And so what I want you to see is this principle of generational sins, how they work and function. Is there mercy for if we've been a fool, if we've been wicked and foolish, is there hope for my children and grandchildren? Well, one month ago we examined 1 Kings 9 and I stated this premise for the sermon. Our text teaches this principle. God blesses obedience and curses disobedience. Solomon knew this principle. He'd had a front row seat to the life of his father. And in that text that I quoted, look just backwards for a moment at 1 Kings 9. And I want you to see where we stated that principle, 1 Kings 9. We saw the Lord appearing, this is Solomon's second revelation, direct revelation. In 1 Kings 9, verses 3 through 9, we see the Lord appearing to Solomon with a warning. And that revelation was stated in if-then language. Look carefully at this. In verse 4 and 5 of 1 Kings 9, the Lord says, if, conditional, if you walk before me in integrity, do my commands, keep my statutes, look at verse 5, then, Then, I will establish the throne of your kingdom forever. These are the blessings for obedience. And then, the Lord in the same revelation, look at verse 6, he tells Solomon what will happen if he's disobedient. He says in verse 6, You or your sons turn from following me and don't keep my commandments and go and worship other gods." Verse 7, then, this is another if then statement, I will cut off Israel from the land. There are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Now, in spite of these warnings, and my head still spins every time I read this, in spite of these warnings, Solomon began to marry foreign women, not one, but 700. These were women who we are told specifically in 1 Kings 11, the first eight verses, they were idol worshipers. He even went beyond that. He went beyond marriage, but his heart went out to their idols. We're told in 1 Kings 11 verses one through eight that he built high places for their idols. He funded and subsidized the worship of Chemosh, Milcom, Astereth, Molech, and hundreds of other false gods, non-entities. Of course, we would say to him, Solomon, God is not mocked. What men sow, that will they reap. Now, I want you to think before we even look at this text, I want you to think about what Solomon is guilty of, what his status is with God. It's bad enough that Solomon repeatedly broke the seventh commandment. Remember, the law of God is divided into two tables. The first four commandments have to do with our obedience to God, and they're much more heinous if you violate them than the second table. But Solomon repeatedly broke in the second table, the seventh commandment, adultery, hundreds of times. He broke the second table when he engaged in murder because he practiced with his wife. That'd be wife number 341. He practiced the worship of Molech, Molech, which involved child sacrifice. So Solomon would have been guilty of murder. But then we're clearly told that he broke the first table. He engaged in false worship, so he worshipped and acknowledged false gods, and he worshipped the true God in a false way. And so, here's Solomon's slide downhill. We were told earlier in his life in 1 Kings 3, verse 3, that Solomon loved the Lord. By the beginning of 1 Kings 11, verse 1, look where his love is now. We're told he loved many pagan wives. How did this happen? Before we begin to deal with the consequences, I want you to think about the anatomy of sin. How does somebody go from Solomon, a man who as a young man seems to be filled with promise, filled with piety, we're told he loved the Lord in 1 Kings 3. engaged, he's married to a thousand unbelieving women, 700 wives, 300 concubines. Well, it doesn't happen overnight, that's for sure. Solomon begins early and this is the anatomy of sin every time in the life of a believer. Solomon first made small concessions to sin. minor changes in belief and behavior. And he wakes up one day and he's married to 700 women. He's consorting with 300 more idolatrous concubines. And he's filling his days now instead of the affairs of the kingdom by visiting and patronizing and constructing new shrines to false gods. simple lessons to learn from the life of Solomon, at least the middle portion of his life. And we're going to, in the coming weeks, to advance the thesis that Solomon's early life is when he writes Song of Solomon. And yes, we will spend at least one evening on Song of Solomon. You may want to leave your kids at home that night. But we will look at the Song of Solomon and that This is in Proverbs by and large as well, but this section characterizes the middle portion of his life. And then Ecclesiastes is written in the later portion of his life when he's sad, sadder, but wiser. But the lessons that we are going to find that we learned from the middle portion of Solomon's life are, first of all, that the believer has to fight against sin as though your life depended upon it, because it does, no matter what stage of life you're in. I can't tell you how many 50, 60, 70-year-olds who, when I'll talk about spiritual warfare, mortifying sin, they'll say, yeah, I did a Bible study on that when I was in my 20s. So are you putting on God's armor every day? Are you fighting against sin? Carl, I've done that. And so one of the lessons we learn is that you may never rest in the battle against sin. And Solomon is Exhibit A. He's a perfect picture of what happens when a man rests in the battle against sin. But we also are going to see one of the great lessons that we learn about Solomon. is we learn the priority of the heart. Even the greatest intelligence and wisdom will not keep you from sin if your heart turns away from God. At the beginning of his reign, Solomon's heart, we're told repeatedly, was in the right place. He understood the first table of the law. Deuteronomy 6, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. But Solomon left his first love. He didn't take the Lord seriously when the Lord told Solomon to stay away from unbelieving wives, because they'll turn your heart away to other gods. Look at 1 Kings 11 verse 2, and we'll see the springboard into our text. 1 Kings 11 verse 2, where the Lord, we read, had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. So tonight what we will see, and I hope you're paying careful attention, stick with the text. I encourage you to discipline your mind. Walk through the text with me because there's actually a blessing. There's mercy at the end, but we need to walk through the difficult parts of this text. We'll see the Lord's generational chastening about Solomon's descendants. for his sins of idolatry. This is something we don't think about often when we engage in sin. No matter what it is, this little lie, that little pornographic episode, whatever, we don't think, this will have implications for my children and grandchildren. We just think, just me and maybe implications for five minutes. And what this text will teach us is your sin you're engaged in now will echo down the corridors of generations for three and four generations. We'll need the help of the Lord to hear this word rightly. Let's pray. Our Father, we're weak in faith, we're curious about things that you tell us are secrets, and we neglect the things that you reveal to us in your word. So we ask now that you would pour out your Holy Spirit to come and strengthen us in our belief in and understanding of your Holy Word. Enable us especially to shut out the distractions of the evil one and deeply drink from your truth. Give us understanding. We pray in the name of our mediator, our prophet, our priest, our king, the Lord Jesus. Amen. The first thing I want you to see is the Lord's anger. That's how it's characterized for us. I'm not stating the case too strong because that's how the context begins beginning in verse 9 of 1 Kings 11. We're told the Lord became angry with Solomon because... So we have cause and effect here. because Solomon's heart had turned away from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. What we see there is a little bit of the accountability. According to verse 9, Solomon had had two direct revelations, extensive revelations from God and even in spite of those revelations. So your charismatic friends who tell you, I'm bulletproof against sin because I get new revelations. New revelations don't keep you from sin. Look at verse 9. We're told that the Lord had appeared to Solomon twice, but he became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord. Now let me quickly defend the Lord as though the Lord needs my defending of his holiness. Anger in itself is not sinful. We learn this from Paul's careful Holy Spirit inspired statement in Ephesians 4.26 when Paul gives us the imperative, be angry and do not sin. There's a careful distinction made between being angry and sinning. It is possible. I'm not sure that I've ever done it. It's possible to be angry and not sin. But we know it's possible because God is angry and does not sin. For example, in Psalm 7, we are told that God is angry with the wicked every day. and yet his anger is not sinful. We're told in John 2.17 that our Lord Jesus was angry with the money changers, yet we know he never sinned. The God of the Bible, and what verse 9 teaches us as you look at it carefully, the God of the Bible is a God of holy wrath as well as love. Why in our text does God become angry? Verse 9 tells you. It's always for the same reason. Now, do you know why I become angry? I become angry for the dumbest reasons. I become angry sometimes when somebody pulls in front of me and slams on their brakes on Woodruff Road. I become angry for foolish reasons. And many of you become angry for maybe even worse. If I've ever been righteously angry, it was rare, but I've been sinfully angry on plenty of occasions. So you see sinful anger, the distinction is all about me. I'm being thwarted and woe to anyone who gets in my way. Sinful anger always takes it personally because it's about me. Sinful anger gets upset when there's a slight to my honor. damage to my reputation, disrespect to my person. These are frequent anger triggers. The underlying message of all angry people is things ought to go my way. Angry people feel that any blocking or changing of my plans is an unbearable indignity and I should not have to suffer this way. God's anger is always holy and it's always for one reason, the exact same reason. God's anger is brought about always and only by sin. by lawlessness. It's not an unworthy character flaw. When you read verse 9, you're thinking, well, God's seeing red there. That's unworthy of him. No, it's not. This is a holy anger. It's always God's personal revulsion against lawlessness. God had told his people in Deuteronomy 6 that idolatry would result in his anger. God never goes back on his promises. I want you to, as we look at this chapter, I want that to be very much in the forefront of your mind. You're thinking, how can God do this? He promised Solomon, he promised David that there would be a descendant of his to sit on the throne forever. Of course, the ultimate promise fulfillment of that is by Jesus Christ. So after Solomon's idolatry, when the Lord is chastening him, as we'll see momentarily, God still preserves a little piece of the Davidic dynasty, enough to keep his promises. God would indeed take Solomon's kingdom away, yet his justice was tempered with the mercy of his steadfast love in two ways. Look at our text in verses 12 and 13. First of all, the Lord says, the wrath of God that's coming, Solomon, I'm going to delay it. I'm going to delay my judgment upon your house. He says in verse 12, nevertheless, I will not do it in your days. For the sake of your father, David, I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Do you know what Solomon had to live with for the rest of his life? Knowing that his son would have the kingdom taken out of his hand because of his, the dad's, sin. Then in verse 13, we see more mercy. Not only is God going to delay judgment upon Solomon's house in verse 12, but the Lord says, I'll not tear away the whole kingdom. Do you see that in verse 13? The Lord says, I'll not tear away the whole kingdom. I'll give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant, David. By the way, if you're trying to do the math in this chapter and you're thinking one tribe, 10 tribes, is God missing something? It's because Benjamin is so small that it's always just kind of subsumed under Judah. And so it's 10 tribes and two tribes, but Benjamin is so small. It's the pick in South Carolina of Israel. So, um, so the Lord, would not wipe out all the tribes of Israel. Look at verse 13, he'll preserve one tribe, really two, Judah and Benjamin. Jerusalem had become, under Solomon, a hotbed of wickedness, adulterous lust defiling the palace, idols in high places, on every corner and hillside. I mean, think about this. 700 wives, 300 concubines, who all, or mostly all, have their own gods. And so everywhere you look is a shrine. Every corner you turn is an opportunity to break the second commandment and the first, to worship a false god in a false way. I want you to think about this principle, what we're seeing tonight. Sin is sin, no matter who commits it. Because one of the things that we, because of our sensitivity, well, he's getting away with something. Nobody ever gets away with anything. Sin is sin, no matter who commits it. The Lord never winks at sin. This is one of the most powerful autocrats ever in the history of the world. And he's being called to account for his sin. The Lord is just as much displeased with sin in Solomon as he is when a lowlife drug dealing bank robber commits it. And by the way, the Lord was not the least bit impressed with Solomon's economic power, his splendor, because here's the issue. He looks on the heart. We're told in 1 Samuel 16. Usually in scripture, when a believer falls into sin, we see him come to a distinct place of recognition of that sin and repentance. We see it in the life of David. We see it in the life of Peter. But 1 Kings doesn't tell us of the wise man Solomon getting it, intellectually grasping his sin and turning from it. For this, this is why we will look at not only Solomon's biography, but his writings. Because for this, we will see in the book of Ecclesiastes, this is Solomon's journal of repentance, where he finally concludes that wisdom consists in fearing God and keeping his commandments. So notice how the Lord responds in his anger to Solomon. The Lord raises up adversaries against Solomon. Now if you look at verses 14 through 40, it's a lengthy section. It will become easy to understand. I hope you're looking at it and you can even draw these divisions in your text. The Lord is in active judgment upon Solomon and the generations who followed. He raises up three adversaries against Solomon and his descendants. Three distinct adversaries. They are all of the Lord's doing. Because remember, the Lord is the one who raises up kings and presidents, raises up one and puts down another. And so look at the three adversaries the Lord raises up against Solomon. Look at verse 14 through 22. The first one is, hey dad, now what you're meant to see, there's a little bit of a directional ploy here. I started to bring a map tonight, but I thought, no, that'd be two maps in one day. And so I better just be happy that I got by with one map. But let me just paint the picture for you mentally. The first adversary the Lord raises up is Hadad. If you look at verse 14-22, Solomon married Edomite women who weakened Israel from inside the palace. And so he already has Edomites inside weakening, but then there's Hadad, an Edomite who weakened Israel from far away. Hadad being an Edomite, that meant he was a descendant of Esau, as in Jacob, have I loved Esau, have I hated? He's a descendant of Esau and of the king of Eden, we're told in verse 14. And Hadad had fled to Egypt when King David was executing 18,000 Edomite males. He grew up down in Egypt. hating Israel and the household of David. And while he's down there in Egypt, Hadad marries a woman from Pharaoh's family. He names his son that's born down there in Egypt, Ginyabath, which means to steal, since Hadad thought the kingdom of Edom had been stolen from him. And he spends his days there in Edom, in Egypt, nursing this bitter grudge against Solomon. And eventually, Hadad returns to the southern border to harass Solomon. That's one adversary the Lord raises up. He's in the south. But then there's the adversary in the north. And what we're going to see is the Lord turns out has adversaries in the south, in the north, and inside the kingdom. The Lord raises up so many adversaries that Solomon, every direction he looks, he's being opposed. This is God's judgment upon his sin. So look at Raisin in verses 23 through 25. When King David defeated the Syrians, Razan fled to Damascus with his soldiers and set himself up as the king of Syria and waited. And Razan began to harass Solomon from the north. And so when a messenger would come into Solomon's throne room and say they're at it again. So I don't think, okay, is that from the South with hay dead? Is that from the North with raisin? And then there's the third, and this is the big one, because this is what shapes and changes the history of Israel forever. This is now when the sins of the fathers will be visited on the sons for generations afterwards. Look at verse 26 through 40. Jeroboam, the insider. Jeroboam wasn't a foreigner. Not an Edomite or Assyrian like Hadad or Razon working to bring Solomon down from the outside. Jeroboam was an Israelite from the tribe of Ephraim, an insider in Solomon's palace. Look at verse 28, what we're told about him. This man is a mighty man of valor. And so this is a respectable man. He had administrative skills. Solomon put him in leadership. Solomon didn't realize when he elevated Jeroboam, kept promoting him. that he was elevating the man who would replace his dynasty. Elevating the man who would take 10 tribes away from the kingdom. Jeroboam goes for a walk one day outside of Jerusalem. Look at verse 29. Who does he bump into? Ahijah the prophet. And the prophet from Shiloh is doing something that's unusual for a prophet. Look at verse 30. He's wearing a new garment, and it's a nice garment. And in front of Jeroboam, He begins to disrobe. And he takes this robe, this nice, attractive, new robe, and he begins to tear it into pieces. And he counts as he tears it into pieces. Twelve strips, to be exact. And the prophet orders Jeroboam to take ten pieces, any ten. The prophecy is an illustrated and a spoken prophecy. Jeroboam, we're told, takes the ten pieces. the symbol and illustration of the prophecy. Ten strips of fabric. Now, by the way, this is not an unusual action for a prophet in Israel. Think of some of Jeremiah's acted prophecies. There was the time that he buried a linen belt and then dug it up. Or he bought a brand new clay pot and shattered it into a thousand pieces. But Ahijah, along with the acted out prophecy of the torn robe, He delivers the word of God beginning with the prophetic formula. Look at verse 31. And this is when Jeroboam knows he means business. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. Now the prophecy of judgment is lengthy. Some folks will have a hard time persevering. Let me encourage you to be a Calvinist and persevere. I want you to look at how lengthy the prophecy is. I keep being struck every time I read it. This is a long prophecy. along, thus saith the Lord, from verse 31 through 39. It's extensive. And it tells in this prophecy, Ahijah the prophet does, that the Lord is going to give to you, Jeroboam, ten tribes. And Ahijah announces beforehand what direction the history will go under the Lord's sovereign design. Look at verse 31. He tells Jeroboam this. The kingdom is going to be torn. It's a word of violence. Torn. from Solomon's hand, and Jeroboam placed in your hand." This kingdom is not going to be a peaceful transfer of power, but it's going to be a violent removal from Solomon. Look at the keyword, torn, in verse 31. Then the Lord tells, through His prophet Ahijah, tells Jeroboam, the Lord will leave one tribe, in verse 32, for Solomon and his heirs. Actually, as I said, the combined tribe of Judah and Benjamin. They will become known as the Southern Kingdom or just Judah. And the Lord's reason for judgment upon Solomon is stated again. Look at verse 33. because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, Milcom, the god of the peoples of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my eyes." The Lord tells Jeroboam the reason for this snatching away the kingdom. Sin. The Lord's not arbitrary. If you ever think the Lord's wrath, His judgment, His chastisement is arbitrary, it's not. It's always for the same reason. sin, especially sins breaking the first table, sins of idolatry, false worship, taking the Lord's name in vain, and Sabbath breaking. The Lord's anger is aroused. The Lord then informs Jeroboam, if you look at verse 37, over 10 tribes. They'll be known as the Northern Kingdom or Israel, just not yet. Up until now, for hundreds of years, and you need to see what's happening in this moment because it's an astounding moment. Up until this moment. For hundreds of years, the Confederacy of Israel has hung together, the 12 tribes, and they've been united. As of this moment, as of verse 37, Israel will be irreparably shattered. Now, I want you to notice the terms that the prophet gives Jeroboam, and your jaw is going to drop. Look at verse 38. The Lord, through his prophet, says to Jeroboam, Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments as my servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house as I built for David and will give Israel to you, and I will afflict the descendants of David." And so the Lord states the same promise to Jeroboam that he had stated to Solomon. Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. Exact same principle. Now, notice what's tucked away in the prophecy. I want you to notice very carefully are these covenantal generational aspects of judgment. Look carefully at the text with me. I hope you're hanging with me in your Bible. If you look at verse 35 and 36, the Lord says to his prophet, I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you. To his son, I will give one tribe. And so the sins of the fathers are being visited on the son, that Solomon's descendants will be deprived of ten twelfths of the kingdom and only given one tribe, Judah and little Benjamin. And the descendants of Solomon, look at the principle here because here it's stated almost as clearly as any place in scripture. In verse 39, the descendants of Solomon will be afflicted. And you have to ask the question, why? Because of Solomon's sin. Look at verse 39. I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever. Generational transmission of sin. We see the sins of the fathers falling upon the sons and the grandsons. Now, how does this end, this little encounter? Somehow, Solomon hears of God's prophetic word to Jeroboam. And what should have Solomon done upon hearing about this? He should have fallen on his face in repentance. But instead, notice what Solomon does in verse 40. He tries to execute Jeroboam. Jeroboam escapes to Egypt, which is where everybody went when they wanted to escape, to Egypt, until Solomon would be dead. How do we apply this to us tonight? I want to make three applications to us. This is a lengthy principle. I thought about this being its own mini-series, but I'll try to be succinct. The first is, if there's anything this text, but it's not an unusual text, there are dozens of texts that teach the same thing in the scriptures. If there's anything this text teaches us, it's the rise and fall of nations and leaders is firmly in the hands of a sovereign God. Why does Israel ascend? Because God blesses them. Why does Israel fall apart and descend? Because God is taking the kingdom away from them. Think of how often we're taught this in scripture. Proverbs 21, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like rivers of water. He turns it wherever he wishes. But then we are told in Daniel, if you want to study this principle of God sovereignly raising up presidents, governors, kings, empires, rising and falling at his behest, The book of Daniel is the principal place to study. Daniel says in Daniel 2, wisdom and might are the Lord's. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. But even more clearly in Daniel 4, Daniel says, his demanding is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? We're told repeatedly when we look at Solomon in Solomon's day, there are people, political scientists who are writing the books, well, Solomon had a nice run, but his kingdom seems to be falling apart. Why is that? They look at economic reasons and military reasons and political reasons. You're given the reason, 1 Kings 11. The Lord says, this is why I'm tearing, ripping the kingdom from Solomon because of idolatry. Israel falls and falls apart for one reason, the sin of the ruler. Well, God will even chastise rulers by raising up rebellions because we'll see that's what he'll do with Jeroboam. He will chastise Solomon by raising up somebody to stage a rebellion. Now, this is so important because right now, as if this wasn't the case yesterday and won't be the case tomorrow, but right now, world affairs are tumultuous. Nations in front of our eyes are rising and falling. Many are attributing this to superior military might or negotiating skills or treaties and alliances. But my friend, you know better. You know that the sovereign Lord is exalting one ruler and pulling down another. It is he who sits on the throne of heaven and does his will. Hey, dad. Razan, Jeroboam, adversaries are not just accidents who popped up, rather their place and time and impact took place at the moving of Jehovah's sovereign hand. You could say the same tonight for Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping. The Lord has raised them up and he will put them down. The Lord is on his throne. A second application that we should see. Even in the midst of judgment, God shows mercy. His severity does not negate his tenderness. When he chastises Solomon, and who would at this point complain to the Lord and say, Lord, you can't chastise Solomon because everything is dependent upon him. Don't chastise him. He just had a bad day. 700 wives? 300 concubines? When he chastises Solomon deservedly, instead of wiping Solomon off the face of the earth, look at the Lord's mercy, look at verse 12. The Lord says, he will wait. The Lord will delay chastisement. I'll not do it in your day. And then not only does the Lord show his mercy by waiting, Then he says in verse 13, he will not wipe out all of Solomon's kingdom completely. He'll still, in his mercy, leave his sons a tribe, really two tribes. And hasn't that been the case with you when you think of the Lord's chastising hand upon you and you want to complain about this or that chastisement? My friend, you are here tonight. You're here tonight knowing the mercy of God. And so even in the midst of chastising judgment, God always shows mercy, even if it's a severe mercy. But the third application I would have us see tonight is a weighty one. I want you to see where sin leads. This is all rooted in one simple fact. Here it is. Solomon could not be content with one believing wife. That's it. That's the bottom line. Solomon was discontent. I don't know who the first wife's name was, nor do I know number 700 or any of the ones in between. But Solomon could not be content with that first believing wife. He knew Genesis 2. He knew that marriage was to be between one man and one woman for life. He knew that all his affection and love and sacrifice was to be for that woman. but his desires, everything is rooted in this, he could not be content. with one believing wife. His desires, sinful desires, are at the root of pursuing pagan wives, and that's what turns his wife away from the Lord. And because of his sin, which led to idolatry, the nation of Israel is ripped apart. Ten tribes, because Solomon could not be content with one believing wife. Ten tribes are carried off into Assyrian captivity, and two tribes will be taken and changed to Babylon. All for one besetting sin. My friend, if you are the type who likes to poo-poo and downplay your sin, oh Carl, it's just a little of this. It's a white lie. It's a little theft. My friend, it was one heart sin of Solomon. Discontentment with his believing wife. And the consequences were felt by Solomon's descendants for the next 450 years. Your sins now, unless repented of and dealt with and mortified, your sins now will be passed on to your children and your grandchildren, and they will perfect them. And so the lesson of Solomon to us is, Deo will send fast and hard now, before they're passed on. Let's pray together. Our Father, how we thank you for the revelation of your character. We delight to hear not only of your overflowing mercy, but we delight to hear of your absolute wrath and anger over sin. We praise you for being a holy God, always hating sin. And so Lord, we confess that just like Solomon, we have sinned and held those sins close to our bosom. and have not repented of them. Lord, we ask you to give us grace now to repent, in tears, in bitterness, but to repent, to mortify our sin, to not fall prey to passing those sins on to the next generation and the next. And so Lord, give us grace as we do business.