In verse 5 of 1 Kings 3, the
Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And he said to him,
God said, ask what I shall give thee. The power of God to change
someone's life is a fascinating thing. God doesn't appear in dreams
anymore. Now that we have his word, he
speaks and presents himself in the preaching
of the gospel to his people, communes with us, we gather in
his name and he gathers with us. But he does change lives
every day. And you know and I know that
people dream about that. In very selfish and worldly ways,
they dream about that. They make up stories about genies.
That's what's entertaining. You know, I'm going to run across
a lamp and rub on it and the genie's going to come out. That's
fine. I'm not making fun of that, but
you see what people's mindset is. Things like that are what's
entertaining. The thought of buying a lottery
ticket and making all your dreams come true. It doesn't necessarily
work like that. But God Almighty can actually
change your life in a blink. And nobody cares. Not very many people care about
that. What's real doesn't matter to people. It's the fantasy,
it's the dream. People believe in luck. And with a genie, see, here's
the difference. With a genie, you control him. That's what they like about it.
All of a sudden, you have control over this person that can make
all your dreams come true. And it's up to you, you know,
what do you want? It's up to you. Well, it's not like that
with God. It's the other way around with
God. That's what people don't like. They aren't interested
in the God who controls them, even if he does have everything
we need and gives it to whomsoever he will. People won't have it,
won't have him. Now religious people do look
to a God, but that's the false God who is nothing more than
a genie. If you wish for something hard
enough, you know, he'll make it come true. and they have control of him.
He has to do what they want him to do. The sovereign God of the
Bible is offensive to people. But can you imagine the true
God, the God of heaven and earth asking you this? He asked Bartimaeus
a similar question. The same question, just in different
words. Jesus stood and commanded Bartimaeus to be brought unto
him, and when he was come near, he asked him, saying, what wilt
thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may
receive my sight. What if God said that to you?
What can I do for you? It's hard to think about, isn't
it? I'd have to give it a lot of thought. I could ask for wisdom
like Solomon. I'll tell you this, Solomon said,
he that increases wisdom, increases grief. But he also was the only man
that ever had that much wisdom. And he said, you need to get
some of it. With all that getting, get some of it. So that would
probably be the right thing to ask, I suppose. I know it pleased the Lord, and
I'm not sure anything else much would. Look at verse 6 in our text,
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 has kept for him this great kindness that thou has
given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. David
walking before God as he did was mercy from God. As we say
so often, it wasn't David doing something for God, it was God
doing something for David. And that's what Solomon acknowledges
here. And that's so important. Solomon was already wise in the
way that's most important. He knew that. He knew that the
reason that David was able to walk before God as he did was
because of God's mercy. He knew God, we've already seen
in the context of our scripture tonight, that he loved God because
God loved him before he was ever born. To be wise in the things of this
world would be a great blessing, and Solomon was. We read where
he was able to talk about different animals and different, he was
a mathematician like no other before. He could do great things
in this world. That would be a great blessing.
Especially, see, we're to honor God in everything. It's not separate. It's not, oh, you know, yeah,
we're good at other things, and then we worship God, and that's
a whole separate thing. Our whole life is worship to
God. It's got to be. Even plowing our field is worship
to God. But the greatest wisdom that a man can possess is when
Christ is your wisdom. And again, most people will never
understand what that even means. How can a person be your wisdom? If you have any, he is. And his
people understand that to some extent. Verse seven, look at
verse seven. Again, for just a second. And
now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king
instead of David my father. and I'm but a little child. That's
what Moses said. You remember when God spoke to
him from the burning bush and told him to go? He said, who's
gonna go with me? I'm just a little child. I can't
even talk right. I'm just a little child. I know
not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst
of that people which thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot
be numbered nor counted for multitude. I thought when I was reading
this that, you know, if God asked you, what do you want? What do
you want me to do for you? It would take some thought. You'd
have to think about that for a while. You'd be not real smart
to just, say the first thing that come to your mind, but it
almost seems like Solomon had already thought about this, hadn't
he? He'd already thought about this. Look, you've chosen me
to be king of your people and I can't do it. I can't do that.
I'm out of my depth. I'm way over my head. Give therefore,
verse nine, my servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. You see, it's for the glory of
God. And that's what pleased the Lord.
What we want is for God to be honored. That I may discern between
good and bad. Whenever a case is brought before
him, it's hard to know sometimes. If the Lord hasn't specifically
revealed something in scripture, it's hard to know sometimes.
What's the best way to handle this? He's not talking about
how to know whether something's right or wrong in the usual sense
that we talk about that. He's saying, I'm gonna have to
dispense judgment on a million different matters. Help me to
know what's right and wrong, what's good or bad in any given
situation. For who is able to judge this
thy so great a people? More evidence and very strong
evidence that Solomon already had wisdom is that he knew he
needed it. How many people do you know with
that attitude? Honestly, I'm an idiot. I need God. I need God. I'm a little child. I don't know how to come in or
go out. Do we know that about ourselves?
This is important, young people. You need to understand that about
yourself. Oh, I'm gonna take on the world and I'm gonna paint
the town red and all that. You're not gonna do anything
without the grace of God. What you're gonna do is end up,
your whole life will be an absolute disaster. And if you don't think
it's a disaster without God, it's an even worse disaster. And he said, my responsibilities
are bigger than I am. Another sign that he realized
what a great honor and privilege God had put upon him. That's
another sign that he had some wisdom from God already. Do we
understand that? All of this applies directly
to each and every one of us. He understood that God had honored
him greatly in making him king over his people. He said, I don't
want to mess that up. First Timothy 111, according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed
to my trust. First Peter 4.10, as every man
hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Do you realize
the honor that God has bestowed upon you that you should be called
a son of God? That you should know him who
very, very few in this world know. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. Let him say what God said. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth. If God gives me the
ability to say something that honors him, that's where I want
my sermon to stop right there. As the ability that God giveth,
and that's it. I don't want to mess that up. that God in all things may be
glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion. I want to praise him and I'm
real glad that he's on the throne forever and ever. Amen. Think about how this applies
to you. Solomon saw what God had given
him to do. What has God given us to do?
When Solomon contemplated what God had given him to do, he said,
Lord, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. James 1.5, if any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God. You're not gonna get it anywhere
else. This world can't help you with that. And I wanted to say something
about that because I said something the other day, I was talking
the other day and it sounded like I was saying just everything
bad I said about school and school is the devil and we hate school. Let me say something to the young
people for a minute. School may be very imperfect and of course I feel like I could
improve on it. And you may think, boy, none
of this is, I'm never going to use any of this. That's not what
you're learning at school. You're not learning how to do
algebra just. You're learning that. But what
you're really learning is how to overcome difficulties, how
to solve problems, how to persevere and do what you're supposed to
do. That's worth learning. It's not about whether you're
going to use that 10 years from now. You're not, probably. I learned most of what I needed
in life by the third grade. Let's be honest. But it's about overcoming difficulties
and being a winner. Let's just be honest with ourselves.
We want to do well. And it doesn't matter what the
subject is. It'd be nice if it was something you could use.
That's where I think I could do better. I'd probably mess
it up horribly, though, in reality. But you see what I'm saying?
I don't want you to think I think that school is bad. I think a
lot could improve. But what you're learning is how
to do what's right and be determined to overcome and succeed. That's
worth learning. So let me move on from that,
but that's just, but the most important thing
now, and the most difficult and actually impossible thing that
you need to learn is to honor God in all things. Worship him. He made you, he runs everything. He's gonna decide what your life
is, he already has. And I highly recommend bowing
to him, acknowledging him, honoring him, asking him for what you
need, including wisdom. So think about how this applies
to you. Solomon had given him great responsibility
and he said, Lord, it's way too much for me. We gotta be honest with ourselves
about that. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, what do you
have that you didn't receive? He does that for everybody. And
upbraideth not, and it'll be given him. That's the problem with some
people that give, they It's, they don't upbraideth not. Just
look that word up and see what that's talking about. And God said, I'll give it to
you. I'll give it to you. God may not make you the smartest
man in the world. He's already promised Solomon
there wouldn't be anybody else like him, so he's not gonna do
that. But I believe he'll give you the wisdom you need when
you need it, if you ask him. I believe that. That's what he
promised. And one more note on this passage,
the word understanding means to hear. If you look that word
up, that's what it means. It means to hear, to listen to,
and obey. Think about that, understanding. True wisdom means to hear what
God says. to listen to it, to listen to
him and do what he says. Only Christ was ever perfectly
wise, but I'll tell you this, his people want to be like him.
We want to be like him. How many people's lives are destroyed
and even their souls lost forever because God spoke to them in
the gospel and they just didn't listen? They didn't hear it. They heard
it, but they didn't hear it. Not with their heart. He said,
give me an understanding heart, a hearing heart. I believe I'll
title the message that tonight, a hearing heart. Boy, not many people have that. And then verse 10, in the speech,
please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing, And it wasn't just what he asked
for that pleased the Lord. I've always thought that, well,
it was the right thing for him to ask for wisdom, and that's
what pleased the Lord. It says his speech pleased the Lord.
The way he asked for it was part of it too. The reason he gave for needing
what he asked for, that was part of it too. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And Solomon's saying, please
the Lord. So he asked it by faith, didn't
he? He asked it by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith just has one object. Solomon
believed God, especially concerning his son. And he thought and acted
and spoke accordingly by the grace of God. That's a believer
now. Now verse 11, and God said unto
him, because thou hast asked this thing, hast not asked for
thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor
hast 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 arise like unto thee. Now when did God give him an
understanding heart? He said, I've already done it.
Does that mean he just had done it? Or did he do it before he
said, what do you want? That's a pretty good question,
isn't it? That could say a lot. Interesting
that God mentions some things that Solomon didn't ask for. Why does he mention that? Why
even think about what he didn't ask for? Well, because that's
what most men wouldn't ask for. And God knows that. It wasn't just what Solomon asked
for that was impressive to the Lord, that pleased him. But what he didn't. So God gives Solomon what he
asked for, probably before he ever asked
for it. That'd be like God, wouldn't
it? God completely changed his life
in a moment. Solomon went to bed that night
out of his depth and he woke up not just the smartest man
in the room, but the wisest man anywhere in the world. In verse
13, 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 you walk in my ways to
keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk,
Then I will lengthen my 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. Now that's where we are right
now. The only place that God said,
I'll meet with you there and commune with you. not destroy
you and put you in hell. I'll meet with you there and
commune with you there was the mercy seat. The only place he's promised
to meet his people today is right here where his people are gathered
in his name. In both cases, it's Christ. It's
not the location. It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's where Christ is our mercy
seat. So God gives Solomon more than
he needs. He needed wisdom to do what he
had to do. He didn't need to be rich. He didn't need to have the honor
of men. David didn't very much, not for
very long anyway. Most people hated him most of
the time for one reason or another, and always plotting against him. But God gives him more than he
needs, just like he does us. He gave Solomon more than he
asked for, just like he does us. And Solomon, as soon as he
awoke from that dream, he goes to Jerusalem, he goes to the
place of worship. and stood before the mercy seat
and honored the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether God gives you what you
want or doesn't give you what you want, that's the thing to
do. That's the way to react to it,
to go to the place of worship and honor the Lord Jesus Christ
the way he said to do it. He acknowledged before the Lord
by faith that every blessing received from God is because
of the blood of the innocent sacrifice. This is the source
of all of my blessing from God, the mercy seed. Whatever else I have or don't
have, do or don't do, I have every blessing there is
in Christ. Because of Christ and him giving
himself a ransom for my sins, I have all spiritual blessings
and every true blessing from God. How do you know if something
in this world is a blessing or a curse? Because what some people call
blessings are curses, and what other people call curses are
blessings. How do you know which one it is? Do you belong to him? That's how you know. If you're
his, it's a blessing. Every time. Now, just like faith, when God
gives it, he tries it. And that's what he did with the
wisdom that he gave. He tried it. He put it on display. He put it into action. Verse
16 we didn't read this while ago, but I want to look at it
for a little while here 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 am this woman dwell in one
house And I was delivered of a child
with her in the house and And it came to pass the third day
after that I was delivered that this woman was delivered also.
And we were together, 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, she rolled over on it in
the night. Everybody that has children thinks
about that. 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. 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.
And the other woman said, nay, but the living is my son and
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. They sat there arguing about
it. No, no, you're wrong. Then said the king, the one saith,
this is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead, and the
other saith, nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the
living. Solomon, you see his wisdom already
in this. He repeated back what they said.
In effect saying, let me see if I understand this right. This
is what you're saying. You're saying the live child
is yours, and you're saying the live child is yours. The dead
one is hers. And then he said this, and then
all eyes were, I imagine, on him, whoever was in that room.
Boy, can you imagine? And he didn't say anything they
expected him to say. He said, bring me a sword, bring
me a sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. And the king said, divide the
living child in two and give half to the one and half to the
other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the
king, for her bowels yearned upon her son. Her heart was breaking. 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. That told Solomon all he
needed to know, didn't it? To everybody in that room, Solomon
looked like a cold-hearted brute. But he wasn't. What he did was
the one thing that was best for that child. He found out who
its real mother was. That's how it is with the gospel.
You preach the gospel, a lot of people say, well, you know,
that's pretty hard, that's a hard saying, you know. I don't believe God ever gave
everybody a chance. That's not fair. They're so cruel. They
got a cruel God. No, when we're preaching the
gospel, we're doing the absolute most loving thing we can possibly
do. We're doing the one thing. It's
the one means that God will use to save a sinner in this world. Then the king answered and said
give her the living child and in no wise slay it He wanted
to be clear about that too, didn't he? You just heard me say, you
know cut the child in half don't And all Israel heard of the judgment
which the king had judged and they feared the king and They
saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. Now this is a very simple story.
There's no use complicating that. We understand what was being
said by these women. And the representations here,
the spiritual truth of this is pretty simple too. What does
the baby represent in this story? And clearly what we're trying
to find out is who has love in their heart?
for that precious child? Who's the believer and who loves
and who don't care? And who's just pretending? Who's
the genuine person and who's the fraud? Pretty evil fraud. Real evil fraud. So the baby represents what is
precious to a believer, to a true, genuine child of God. The true mother is the believer,
and the other woman, what a wretch she was. Not only was she cruel
enough to take somebody's baby away from them and try to get
away with that, but she was evil enough to watch that baby die
out of jealousy against the true mother. That's the only reason
it could have been, isn't it? Think about this now. How much
easier would it have been for the false mother to say, well,
go ahead and give it to her then. If it's going to be like that,
just go ahead and give it to her. Then it was for the true mother
to say, give it to her. It would have been a whole lot
easier for the fake mother to say that, but she wouldn't even
do that. She wouldn't even let the baby
be spared when it wasn't hers to begin with and she knew it. If you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you are truly a member of the family of God, what is
most precious to you? Well, of course, it's Him, it's
His gospel, and His people. Which you can't distinguish a
whole lot between those three, can you? It's Him, His gospel,
and His people. Christ, his church, his word. And the wisdom of Solomon was
in knowing that love will always do the very best that it can
do for the object of love. Every time. Even at the expense
of self. Lord, depart from me. You'd be
better off not being with me. I'm a sinful man. The true mother of that baby
was willing to live without the one she loved rather than for
that baby to be destroyed. Either way, she wouldn't have
had the baby. So she thought in her heart,
it's better for her to take him. Solomon never had any intention
of hurting that baby. He just needed to know who loved
that baby. There are so many lessons in
this. When that baby was found dead
in that true mother's arms, she didn't know it till the next
morning because it was dark. What a night that must have been
for her to think that she had smothered her baby. And then
in the morning, of course she knew it wasn't her baby. what
mother wouldn't know what her baby looked like. She knew exactly
where every head on that baby's, every hair on that baby's head
was. She knew the exact shape of its nose. She even knew the
sounds it would make. She knew everything about that
baby. She knew how it felt in her arms. There was no question. In the morning light, she said,
this is not my baby. And then of course she had to
look at the baby that was hers and see that someone had stolen
her child and deal with all of that. I wonder whose idea it was to
come to Solomon. You ever think about that? That's
the last thing that fake mother wanted. She wanted to get on
with her life, with her baby. That which is precious to you,
with regard to what is most precious to you, nobody can fool you.
Nobody can fool you. Somebody preaches another gospel
for three seconds, you're on to them. That's not my gospel. That's not my Christ. You know the Lord Jesus Christ,
so if somebody says, lo, here is Christ, or there is Christ,
you know. They're lying to you, you know better than that. You
can spot by God's grace a false Christ from a mile away. A false
gospel. How can you do that? Because
of love. Because of love. If it's just
a point of argument with you, you might be a whole different story.
It's not just a doctrinal creed to you, it's a person. It's the
one that you love. Because he first loved you. Turn
with me to 2 Thessalonians 2.8. Why is it that way? Why are you
able to discern? Paul said, we know all things. Of course, he didn't say we know
it all. We know what matters, what counts. We have the mind
of our Savior. In spiritual things, 2 Thessalonians
2.8, then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and them that
perish because they received not the love of the truth. They're gonna be deceived because
they don't love the truth. To them, it's just an intellectual
exercise. It's a question of points and
taking a stand on issues. But if you love the truth, you're
gonna know right away what's not the truth. And for this cause, They receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. This is
life and death. This is spiritual life and spiritual
death. To love the truth of God, and for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had
pleasure in unrighteousness, but were bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
you're smarter than that. That ain't what it says, is it?
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you. There's the difference. God's gonna get all the glory,
one way or another, to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. He gives you faith to believe. But it's God's choice. Where
unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. False religionists are perfectly
satisfied with half a gospel. Give me half the baby, give her
half the baby. They're just fine with that.
But a true believer knows that a half gospel is no gospel. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
If God has done all he can and left the rest unto you, that's
a divided gospel. It's not either him or you, it's
both. That's no gospel. Paul said,
God forbid that you be removed unto another gospel, which is
not another, there's just one. If you are satisfied with half
of a gospel, which is a dead gospel, it's because you have
not the love of the truth. Many have taken a sword to the
word of God. They cut out the parts that they
don't like. In fact, there's no life in that.
Christ laid down his life only for his sheep and they shall
never perish simply because it's Christ that died for them. Cut
that out, we don't like that. Cut that part out. You've killed
your only hope. You've killed that which is most
precious in this world. And it's dead as far as you're
concerned. Acts 24, 14, Paul said, but this I confess unto
you that after the way which they call heresy, those who had
accused him, they called the gospel heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers. What they call heresy is how
I worship God. That's true of us. Believing all things which are
written in the law. in the prophets. Everything that
God has said concerning his son, by his grace, I believe, I believe. We mentioned also that Christ's
church is precious to Christ's church. Listen to 1 Corinthians
1.10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. but that
ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of
Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? What a question. Was Paul crucified for you? Or
are you baptized in the name of Paul? He said, I thank God
that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should
say that I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also
the household of Stephanas besides. I know not whether I baptized
any other. It's not about that. He didn't
keep a record how many are baptized. That's what they do now. And why? How come it doesn't
matter that much to you, Paul? For Christ sent me not to baptize. He didn't send me to get people
to make decisions, to get people saved, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved. It's the power of God. Well,
our text is all through that. Ephesians 4 1 turn over there
with me. We'll close with this Ephesians
4 1 I Therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you That you walk worthy of the vocation of the
calling wherewith you were called with all lowliness and meekness
with longsuffering, now think about that. What's the first
thing he's gonna say? He said, walk worthy of God calling
you. How do you do that? Get down
low. Get as low as you, with meekness
and lowliness and longsuffering for bearing one another in love. You see how your calling has
to do with other people who were called by God? endeavoring to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's
one body, one spirit, even as you're called
in the hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all. We have every basis for unity
that you could possibly think of. And no excuse for division. May God give us a holy jealousy
over that which is most precious to us, like this mother. That we may honor him even at
our own cost. Let's pray.