Turn with me to 1 Kings chapter
3. Before we begin, let's ask our
Lord's blessing. Our Father, this evening, we
call upon You, thanking You, blessing You, praising You for
who You are. Lord, I pray, bless the Word
to our hearts. Teach us afresh of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of His glory, and the redemption and salvation of sinners. These things we ask for Christ's
sake. Amen. 1 Kings chapter 3. I'm going to be looking at most
of the verses in this chapter Not in detail, obviously, but
just to set forth the beautiful picture of the redemption and
salvation of God's elect. Solomon. The heart of Solomon
was summed up in verse 3 of chapter 3. It says this, and Solomon
loved the Lord. walking in the statutes of David
his father, only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places."
Now is that not a, what a, what a marvelous epitaph. What a,
what a marvelous statement of the memory of this man Solomon. Here's what it says, Solomon
loved the Lord. And the reason that he loved
the Lord is because the Lord first loved him. And he walked,
the scripture says, before God honorably. He believed God. Like his dad, David, did. And
he sacrificed and burnt incense in the acceptable places. In the high places. Look at verse
4, and the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there. For that
was the great high place. A thousand burnt offerings did
Solomon offer upon that altar. And then this man Solomon had
a dream. And verses 5 to 15 reveals This dream that he had, it says
in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night,
and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. You think about this. The Lord came to him in a dream
and asked him, What do you want? What do you want? And Solomon
said, Thou hast shown unto thy servant David, my father, great
mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in
righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou
hast kept him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son
to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my
God, thou hast made thy servant king, instead of David my father. And I am but a little child,
I know not how to go out or come in, and thy servant is in the
midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen a great people that
cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give, therefore,
thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that
I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge
this thy so great a people?" And the speech pleased the Lord
that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because
thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life, neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast
thou asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself
understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according
to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise
and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee
before thee, neither after thee shall any rise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that
which thou hast not asked. both riches and honor, so that
there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all
thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways
and keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk,
then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and behold,
it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and
stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt
offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to
all his servants." Now, returning back to Jerusalem from Gibeon,
he had gone to Gibeon to offer the sacrifices unto the Lord,
While he was there, he dreamed a dream that was not just a vain,
empty dream. It wasn't a foolish dream that
just doesn't make sense like we have. But this was a divine
dream. A dream wherein God spoke to
him, asked him a question, and in that dream Solomon answered
him. Gave him an honest answer. That was the desire of his heart.
And that desire was of the Lord. And God blessed it. God blessed
that which he had given unto Solomon. And the scripture says
after he had come back from Gibeon and he had gone back to Jerusalem
and stood before the ark and offered the burnt offerings,
peace offerings, obviously from the wording of the scripture,
the very next day, he'd had a dream at night. So he comes back to
Jerusalem. And obviously, right at this,
it says, verse 16, and this is an account of something that
God permitted, sent Solomon. And it was going to be afterwards,
by the good providence of the Lord, the Lord's immediate proof
to Solomon that God had given him exactly what God said He
gave him. He said, I've given you an understanding. I've given you some judgment
and some wisdom. So here's what happens. An actual
event. Here's Solomon. He had a dream. The Lord told him, this is what
I've given you. Next day, obviously. These two
women. It says in verse 16, Then came
there two women that were harlots unto the king and stood before
him. And the one woman said, oh my
Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. And I was delivered
of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third
day after that I was delivered that this woman was delivered
also. And we were together and there
was no stranger with us in the house save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in
the night because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight
and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and
laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And
when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it
was dead. But when I had considered in
the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. The other woman said, Nay, but
the living is my son. The dead is thy son. And this
said, No, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.
Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, thy
son is dead, and the other saith, Nay, but thy son is dead, and
my son is living. And the king said, Bring me a
sword. And he brought a sword before the king, and the king
said, Divide the living child in two. Give half to the one,
half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the
living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her
son. And she said, O my Lord, give
her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other
said, let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then
the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in
no wise slay it. She is the mother thereof. And
all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and
they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was
in him to do judgment." Now, that's an amazing story, isn't
it? I've heard of that story back
when I was real young and going to Sunday school and Southern
Baptist churches. I'd heard of this story. It was
a story about these two women and each had a baby. But let
me tell you this. This beautiful story is a marvelous
display of the grace of God in the redemption and salvation
of his people. This is the first, this was the
first event after God gave Solomon wisdom. And this is the message,
this is the message that was preached. Now here's what we
know. If we fail to see Christ and
in His glory, of the redemption and salvation of His people in
a passage. If we fail to see that, then
we've missed the message of the passage. It doesn't matter what
you think you see. If we don't see Christ and His
honor and His glory and His praise in the salvation of His people,
I'm going to be the first to admit We might not see it, but
that doesn't mean it's not there. It's there. You remember the
Lord Jesus Christ told the Jews in John 5.39, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. Do you know the only scriptures
that they had when he told them that was the Old Testament? Luke 24, 27, I love this passage
of Scripture. Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures. How many of them? All of them. The things concerning Himself. Can you imagine hearing Him bring
Himself out? in those scriptures. Those two
disciples said, didn't our hearts burn within us as he opened unto
us the scripture? Now here's what happened. Two
women, each had a child. Three days apart. And they came
and related their story to Solomon. Obviously, immediately there
was a fight at the house. You can only imagine. And so
what they're going to have to do is they're going to have to
go before the king and they're going to have to talk to the
king. And here's the thing that was
kind of perplexing. Verse 18 said while they were
telling King Solomon this story, it says, It came to pass the
third day after I was delivered that this woman was delivered
also and we were together and there was no stranger with us
in the house save we two in the house. You know what that means?
It's one of them's word against the other. I dare say they had any way of
proving for sure without an uncertainty which child belonged to her word
against her word. There was nobody else here. Well
as these events unfolded, Solomon found out that one of the women's
child obviously had been smothered by the mother. That's what it
said. She overlaid it. She was asleep. She didn't realize
it. You know, it could happen. I realize that. You say, I don't
think that that could happen. Obviously it could because she
overlaid this child and this baby died. and the woman whose
child had not died in telling the story to King Solomon related
to him her conclusion. She said this other woman overlaid
her own child and smothered it and she got up in the middle
of the night and took my baby and laid her dead baby beside
me and for whatever reason, guilt, fear, she said, she took my baby. And so the true mother explained,
she said, when I got up, I woke up the next morning and I was
going to nurse my baby. And she said, and then I discovered
that the baby that was laying next to me was not my baby. Now she would know, that mother
would know. Now you mothers, don't tell me,
I remember when our kids were little. And how a mother, she's
gonna look at those fingers, she knows exactly, she's done
counted those fingers, she's got five fingers on each side,
five toes on each side, she looks at them and every little quirk,
every little knot on the ear, if there's a little birthmark
or something, that little, that nose, she's looked at that baby,
she has a birth, you know exactly what I'm talking about, you know
your baby. That's my baby, she wasn't on a, three days, or if
she was the one that had the wife, whatever it was, she knew
that is not my baby. And immediately when she knew
that that's not my baby, she looked over there and saw that
live baby and she said, that's my baby. And the other one told
her and started arguing with her and she said, no, no, no,
it's mine, yours died, it's not mine. Well, they listened, rehearsed
that to Solomon, and it was back and forth. You saw the thing.
You know, one said, no, that's mine. No, that's mine. No, yours
died. No, yours died. No, no, no, no,
no. Solomon said, wait a minute.
Hold on just a second. Bring me a sword. Verse 24, 25. He brought a sword to the king,
and the king said, cut that baby in half. divide the living child
in two, and give half to the one, half to the other. And the
scripture said, in verse 26, Then spake the woman whose the
living child was unto the king, and her heart was broken. She yearned upon her son, and
she said, O my Lord, Give her the living child and
then know why I slay it. Don't kill that baby. Go ahead
and give it to her. And the other woman that didn't
have the child, it wasn't her child, look what she said in
the latter part of verse 26. The other said, no, go ahead
and do it. Cut that baby in half. Let it
be neither mine nor thine. Go ahead and kill it. Now in this story, I've got four
short points. And here is the marvelous display
of God's grace. Here's my first point. And I
want you to, I'm going to just go ahead and tell you right here.
The mother of the living child is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The living child is a picture of God's elect. God's true children. Somebody would say, well, I don't
see how this harlot, this mother can be a picture of Christ. Well,
let's just look and see. Let's just see if the Lord's
words when he said he expounded unto them in all the scriptures,
those things concerning himself. Let's just see if that's so.
I want you to notice first the knowledge, the knowledge of mercy,
that the Lord Jesus Christ has for His people, the knowledge
that He has. The mother of the living child
said in verse 21, When I rose in the morning to give my child
suck, behold, it was dead. But when I had considered it
in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did bear. Here's one thing I know. The
Lord Jesus Christ knows His own. John 10, 14, I am the good shepherd
and know my sheep and am known of mine. The Lord is the good
shepherd. He's good for he is holy. Good master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? Why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. The good shepherd, good in mercy,
good in his word, good in his providence to his people. He
knows those that have been given him in electing grace from before
the foundation of the world. The Lord told Jeremiah this. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. For thou camest forth out of
the womb, I sanctified thee, ordained thee a prophet unto
the nations. You know, remember those, that
group that'll stand before the Lord and they'll say, Lord, we
prophesied in your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We've done many wonderful works in your name. And he'll say,
I never knew you. I never knew you. Does that mean
He had no knowledge of them at all? Oh, He knew who they were.
But He never knew them in mercy. He never knew them in grace.
They were never given Him by the Father before the foundation
of the world. It was not for them that He prayed. It was not for them that He died.
I never knew you. 2 Timothy 2.19, Nevertheless
the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal, what
is it? The Lord knoweth them that are
his. My people that are called by my name. God's people. That's the first thing. This
woman said, I looked at that baby. That's not my baby. That's not my baby. She knew
her baby and the Lord knows his people. Secondly, Here's a truth
that I know. The Lord's people fell in Adam. The mother who laid and smothered
her child, what did she do? Well, I'll tell you exactly what
she did. She came under the cloak of darkness, middle of the night,
and with a lying tongue and deceitfulness in her heart, she came and captured
the love of that mother. That's exactly what she did.
She took that live baby, put that dead baby there, and now
holding that live baby in her arms, now captive, I got it,
with no intention whatsoever of letting that child go, not
any intentions whatsoever to give that baby back to his mama.
It's going to be mine. I got you. What happened in the
garden? Satan came to Eve in subtlety,
lying, deceitfulness. He came to her and said, have
God said? Have God said that if you eat all the fruit that
you're going to die? She said, yeah, that's what he
said. You're not going to die? You're not going to die? If you eat
of the fruit, you're going to be like God. You'll be as wise
as God. You'll have the mind of God.
And Eve came to Adam and she gave him of the fruit. being
beguiled, fooled by Satan. But Adam, with his eyes wide
open, took of the fruit and ate, the Scripture says thereof, and
plunged not only himself, but all mankind into the captivity
of sin. Through the subtlety of Satan
came he, beguiled her, and Adam ate. And the scripture says that
Satan himself now had him captive. He was a strong man. Had him
bound in trespasses and sins. How are any of God's people going
to be released unless one that is stronger than the strong man
come in and bind the strong man? And take that which is captive,
captive to himself. He led captivity, captive. Took him back. How'd he do it?
Through the shedding of his own blood. It was made sin. And here now, all mankind, just
as that lying mama came and, her dead baby came and took the
live baby, now this is mine. This is mine. You ain't getting
it back. Now, obviously, men are born
in captivity to sin. Ignorant, blind, darkness, with
no desire whatsoever to be free of themselves. Here's a baby. That baby now is in the arms
of this lying mama. It's just her word against hers.
How you gonna prove it? How you gonna know? That baby's
captive to whoever's got it. Here's the third thing. Consider the love of the Lord
for his people. Consider God's love for his people. Whenever King Solomon had finished
hearing the argument, he wisely said, I don't believe for one
second that he meant cut that baby in half. I don't think so.
Wisdom was speaking here. He said, I'm going to draw this
out. I'm going to draw it out. He
said, bring me a sword. Cut the baby in half. Divide
them by, you know. When that King Solomon finished
hearing that argument, he took that sword and brought it and
let those two women look at it And when faced with her son's
death, that mama, because her vows, her compassion, her tender
love yearned for that son, she said this. Now here's to me,
this is the key statement of this whole passage right here.
She said, Oh my Lord, Give her the living child and in no wise
slay it. Now you think about what she
just said. She had just been saying, give me the child. The child is mine. She lied. Don't give it to her. Give it
to me. Give me the child. That's my
child. when she saw that child faced with judgment and justice
from King Solomon, her heart broke for that child. Shall it be that child to die? Shall that child suffer the penalty
of death? at my expense, immediately this
woman humbled herself, willing to say before the king, it's
what she said, since justice means the death of that child,
let me then bear the position as a deceiver. I was lying. I've been a huckster I'll bear
the punishment that the king sees fit, only in no wise slay
the child." Don't slay the child. I'll take my place as a liar
before you. That really was the mama. But
I tell you what she did immediately, when that child was faced with
death, that mother humbled herself. and said, for the sake of that
child, I'll take the responsibility and be made in the eyes of the
king to be one that was lying. For the sake of that child, right
there. Listen to Philippians 2, 7, verse 5, verse 8. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. and took upon Him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross." That woman, that mama,
was willing to be surety for the one that she loved, willing
to give herself and let herself be made in the eyes of the king
as a deceiver. You think of me whatever you
want to. You think I've been lying to you? Give it to her.
Give it to her. You think I've been trying to
finagle this court? In other words, this woman was
ready to present herself as a conniving sinner before Solomon that her
son might live. And likewise, concerning the
justice of the law being satisfied, And God's sheep being delivered
from the bondage of sin, the Scripture says, for He hath made
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
upon that cross, there was Marvin Stoniker the liar. There was
Marvin Stoniker the cheat. It was Marvin Stoniker, the conniver.
Whatever you can say about me, whatever I am, that's what he
was made. He was made sin. And he did it
for God's glory and for the good of his people. Oh, her heart
burned for that child. Give her the child. Give her
the child. You think I'm a liar? It's fine. That's fine. You give
her, just don't hurt the boy. Don't hurt the boy. Lastly, the
Lord is a just God and a savior. Solomon beheld, he saw the love
of that true mother. That sword that she looked at
in the hands of the king, that sword of justice and judgment
had already pierced her heart as she considered the helplessness
of the child. and the surety of his end, unless
she was willing to be an intercessor on that child's behalf. That
child could not speak for itself. That child is going to be the
victim of whatever happens. And that mama, because of her
love for him, interceded for that child. Give her the baby. Give her the baby. I'll go without. But at least my baby won't be
dead. Give her her life or the child's life. One's going to
suffer. And that mama had already suffered.
And the child didn't have sense enough to even know what he was
going to suffer. She did. She was willing to forsake
all for her son. All. Even herself. What if the king throws me in
prison? What if the king kills me for
lying to him? Might be worse now than lying
to a judge now. Might be death then. Whatever
the consequences, you give it to her. Whatever you think, give
it to her. Kill me, but don't kill the boy. Solomon, by his
answer, said this. This is what he was saying. He
said, by your actions that you've exhibited, You've proven yourself
to be the one that truly loves this child. You do. The other
one said go ahead and kill it. You don't love it. That's not
your baby. This is your baby. Give her the living child and
in no wise slay it. She is the mother thereof. You know, for the redemption
and salvation of God's elect, The scripture says, when the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. How much did God love his own?
The scripture says, for God so loved the world, the arrangement,
the order of man, that he gave his only begotten son, he who
came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost,
his people. He shall save his people, call
his name Jesus, he shall save his people from their sins. Slay
not, slay not the child, don't slay him. What did he do? He
gave himself. Slay me, take me and let this
one go free. Remember what he said in the
garden? It came Judas and that group of soldiers and he said,
whom seek you? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I'm he. If I'm the one you seek, you
let these go free. You know, I pray the Lord bless
these words to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.