Back now to 1 Kings chapter 3. I want to just jump right into
this. My title is my divisions. The Judge, the Judged, and the
Judgment. And I want to look at these three.
The Judge, the Judged, and the Judgment. Now first of all, the
Judge. is the risen King Jesus typified
by Solomon. It says there in verse 16, Then
came there two women that were harlots unto the king, and stood
before him. Solomon is the son of David,
the son of God. Christ Jesus is the son of David,
the son of God. He came through David's lineage
and he is the only begotten son of God. Now in the earlier chapters
a great battle had taken place when someone tried to usurp the
throne. And that's what the devil has
been trying to do since the garden. He's been trying to usurp the
throne of God. And yet Solomon was victorious. Solomon His Father gave Him the
throne and the scepter so that all judgment was given to the
Son. God loves His Son. God loves
His truth, His righteousness, how He can be just and the justifier
of His people. And God loves His people. And
God purposed all things throughout time and He worked all things
so that His people fell into sin And that is how God would
honor the Son of His love. That's how God would save the
people He loved. And that's how God would manifest
the truth He loved. And that's what we have a picture
of. We have a picture of this having all taken place, Christ
having come, Christ having conquered all His enemies, and then Christ
ascended to the throne. And all judgment being His now.
This is a picture of Christ after He won the victory on the cross
so that God gave Him the throne and He gave Him the scepter.
You remember whenever Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he said,
Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's risen. He's seated at God's
right hand. And after putting down his enemies
and ascending to the throne, the first thing Solomon did,
and you might find this amazing, the first thing Solomon did when
he ascended to the throne of Israel is he took a bride from
among the Egyptians, a Gentile bride. But I thought God said
not to do that. Well, God did say not to do that
but if you go back and read chapter 1 and 2, God didn't rebuke Solomon
for doing it. Why? Because it's a picture of
what Christ did as soon as He ascended to the throne. He turned
and began taking His Gentile bride, His elect from among the
Gentiles and calling them to Himself. That's what it pictured.
That's what it pictured. That's the first thing Christ
did. And when Solomon ascended the throne, God said to Solomon,
ask what I shall give thee. When Solomon went up on the throne,
a few chapters before this, God said, ask what I shall give thee.
Remember whenever he said, I've set my king in my holy hill of
Zion? In Psalm 2.8, God said to Christ,
ask of me. and I shall give the heathen
for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Ask me whatever you will, I'll give it to you. So what did Solomon
want? Go back to 1 Kings 3 verse 8.
It said, Solomon answered and he said, 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. and it pleased the Lord. Look at verse 12. Behold, the
Lord said, I've done according to thy words, lo, I've given
thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like
unto thee. What a picture of Christ. Christ
is the wisdom of God. He's the wisdom of God. There's
none like Him before, there's none like Christ after. Verse
13, And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked
for, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among
the kings like unto thee all thy days. When Christ arose,
God not only said He has all wisdom, He also gave Him all
power. as the God-man, all power over
all so that there's none like Christ. He's the King of kings
and the Lord of lords and there's none like Him. There's none like
Him. So, we see here the judge is Christ Jesus who is the power
and the wisdom of God. Christ is the judge. He's seated
upon His throne. He's ruling everything in this
world and He's doing it for the good of His church and He's ruling
in the midst of His church. He said, The Father judgeth no
man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Christ
Jesus is pictured here in Solomon. He's the judge. He's the one
ruling. He's the judge. Judging all things
right in this earth. Now secondly, let's see who the
judged are. The judged are sinners. They're typified. by two harlots. It says in verse 16, 1 Kings
3.16, Then came there two women that were harlots unto the king,
and stood before him. And ourselves, due to our fault
in Adam, you and I are harlots. We are nothing but unfaithful
sinners before God. That's all we are. Harlot is
a good picture of you and me as sinners. One harlot represents
a true child of God. One harlot in this picture represents
a true child of God. The other represents a false
professor. Now verse 17, it says, And the
one woman said, O my This woman came bowed down addressing the
king as Lord. She came showing reverence to
the king and she came with urgency. She was the first to come. She
came. She came to the king herself
and she came with expectancy. This woman came believing that
Solomon could make the proper judgment in the matter. Now that's
how a true believer comes to Christ. one that God's given
a new heart, one that has the love of God in our heart, we
come to Christ showing reverence to Christ. We come bowed down
and addressing Him as Lord. That's who He is. He's Lord.
And we come with urgency. Any matter that we need Him to
judge, we come to Him and we come with urgency because He's
the only one that can judge for us. And we come expecting for
Him to judge right. That's what we come with. The
other woman represents a false professor. It says in verse 22,
the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son and the
dead is thy son. See the difference in the way
these two came. The only reason this woman came before the king
was because the other woman came. Otherwise she wouldn't have come.
She only came because the other woman came. But she was so concerned
with defending herself, she didn't address him as Lord. She didn't
even bow down to the king. Why? She had one thing on her
mind. Herself. defending herself. And that's
the heart of an unregenerate sinner, a vain professor of Christ. They never look to Christ. They
have no fear of God in their heart. The unregenerate is only
concerned with defending self and having their way. But now
look at this. Both claim to be telling the
truth. I won't read the whole thing
for time's sake. Verse 17, the second part there, This woman said, I and this woman dwell in one house and I was
delivered a child with her in the house. They both dwelt in
this one house. They are true and false professors
in God's house, in the one house of God. They are true and false.
In the one kingdom of Christ our King, they are true and false
professors. They were both in one house.
Both harlots bore fruit. Both of them had a child. Both
had an infant, but only one had love in her heart for her child. Only one. Only one. Many in God's house appear to
bear fruit. Many appear to bear fruit, but
only those born of God, given love in their heart, truly have
the love of God in their heart. They're the only ones. That's
what we saw in John this morning. That love which is of God is
stronger than a woman's love for her newborn child. You hear
me now? This is a good illustration of
the love of God put in the heart of a believer to see the love,
how strong it was, this mother for her child. Because the love
that God puts in the heart of a believer is stronger than that.
It's stronger than that. What is it that a believer loves? They love God, our Father, and
His Son. They love Christ, whom the Father
loves. They love the truth of the gospel.
They love the truth that God loves, His righteousness, His
justice, His mercy. And they love their brethren,
who God loves. God and His people have the same
in common. We love what God loves. He loves
His Son, we love His Son. He loves His Gospel, we love
His Gospel. He loves His people, we love
His people. He's made us one with Him. That's
what it is to have the heart and mind of Christ. That's why
John said in 1 John 4, 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for
love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. God makes us to love what God
loves. He gives us a oneness with Him
to love what He loves. But notice who came to the king. Notice who came. It was the true
mother. That's who came to the king. Those who are true believers
are the ones who come before Christ and lay out the matter
before Christ our judge. We come to Christ and lay out
the matter before Christ our judge. Now, there were no witnesses
to see the truth of the matter. There were no witnesses. Verse
18 says, she says, there at the second part, she says, there
was no stranger with us in the house save we two in the house. They were the only ones in the
house. and each told their story, and each claimed the child was
theirs, and each claimed the dead child was the other one's.
Look at verse 23. Then said the king, The one saith,
This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead child. The
other saith, Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the
living. Have you ever noticed that the true and the false professor
Each used the same scripture with the same arguments. Each
one of them. And each one claims that the
scripture's description of the true professor describes them. We say the scripture's description
of the true believer describes us. Those who are false say the
scripture's description of the true believer describes them.
We say that Scripture's description of a false professor describes
them. They say that Scripture's description
of a false professor describes us. We are like these two women,
aren't we? Each one claiming the other one
is true or the other one is false and claiming themselves to be
true. And there are no witnesses. Nobody can see the heart to tell
which one is true and which one is false. But where did they stand? They
stood before the king. They stood before the king. This was the first test. After
God gave Solomon all this wisdom, this was the first test he faced.
Our risen Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who knows the heart
of sinners. He's the only one. Christ our
judge has something with which he judges, that is a great discerner
of the heart. Something that he uses that is
a great discerner of the heart, a true discerner of the heart.
Look at verse 24. And the king said, bring me a
sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. Go to Hebrews chapter 4. What is this sword that's in
the hand of Christ Jesus our Solomon that He uses to discern
the heart? What is this sword that's in
His hand? Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12. The Word of God is
quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." In other words, there are no witnesses. Nobody knows
which one is true, which one is false. But the king has something
with which to discern. That's the sword. The sword. And do you know what the sword
of the sword is? You know what the word of the
word is, the gospel of the gospel? You know what the heart of it
is that is the discerner? That which pierces deepest and
discerns the true thoughts and the tense of the heart is the
sword of justice. It's the righteousness of God
that pierced our dear Savior on the cross. Remember Zechariah
13.7, God said, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I'll turn my
hand upon the little ones. The sword, the Word of God, and
the very heart of this sword, the sharp edge of this sword,
the very gospel of the gospel that discerns the thoughts and
intents of the heart is the righteousness of God, the sword of justice
displayed on Calvary's cross. I was talking with somebody the
other day, I can't remember who, but we were talking about no
matter what men disagree on, it really always comes back to
what do you think of Christ and what happened on the cross. This
is the sword of justice. This is the sword of the sword.
It's the justice of God, the righteousness displayed on the
cross. Here's what I mean. First of all, this gospel makes
us ask, for whom was Christ smitten with the sword? For whom was
he smitten with the sword? This is going to determine who
is true and who is false. This is going to discern the
thoughts and intents of the heart. Who was he smitten for on that
cross? Some say it was for all sinners
without exception. What does God say? What does
the Word say? The Word says, Christ said in
John 10, I laid down my life for the sheep. I lay down my
life for the sheep." Christ said, I give eternal life to as many
as thou, Father, has given me. John 17, I give eternal life
to as many as thou has given me. So it wasn't for everybody
that Christ laid down his life. He did not lay down his life
on that cross and he was not pierced with the sword of justice
for every man without exception. If he was, then everybody must
be saved. I'm going to show you that. This
is the sword that discerns the thought and intents of the heart.
What one believes and confesses concerning who Christ died for
tells whether or not he understands and discerns the righteousness
of God or not. What's being displayed on the
cross is righteousness. When a man tells you Christ died
for everybody in the world, That Word of God is discerning the
thoughts and intents of His heart, but He does not know what took
place on the cross. He does not know righteousness
was being displayed on the cross. He doesn't have a clue. Or He
wouldn't say Christ died for everybody. Here is another question
that Sword of Justice pierces deep and discerns the thoughts
of the heart with. Why was Christ smitten with the
Sword of Justice on the cross? Why was He smitten on the cross?
This is the gospel itself. This is the heart of the gospel. When this is attacked, the gospel
is attacked. You take this away, you have
no gospel. Christ was smitten on the cross,
Romans 3 tells us, to declare the righteousness of God. That's
why He was smitten on the cross. You can't preach the gospel without
preaching this. This is why I preach it every
time I preach and I hope I do until the day I die. You can't
preach the gospel without preaching this. Man hasn't bowed to this,
he hasn't bowed to God. He's manifesting the righteousness
of God on the cross. That is how God can be just and
the justifier of His people. Now the righteousness of God,
what is that? Put that simply to me, Clay.
Here's what it is. The righteousness of God is that
God will by no means slay the innocent and God will by no means
to clear the guilty. He said, He that justifieth the
wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
an abomination to the Lord. Now get that. The judge that
justifies a wicked man says he's just. And he that condemneth
the just. God said both are an abomination
to me. Both are an abomination to me.
God is saying this. The day a judge slays an innocent
man. Now listen to me. The day a judge
slays an innocent man or the day a judge clears a guilty man,
then he ceases being a just judge. Isn't that clear? Isn't that
good enough? We would own that in our day if we stood before
judges. God says the day a judge slays an innocent man or clears
a guilty man, then he ceases being a just judge and becomes
an abomination to the Lord. There would be no reason anyone
could trust such a judge to judge what's right. Could you? If there
was a judge on the Supreme Court and just one innocent man came
before him, and without any cause, he declared that man guilty. or if a guilty man come before
Him and without any cause He declared that man innocent. Would
you ever trust that judge again? You couldn't. He's not just.
That in no way, shape, form or fashion speaks of righteousness. Not at all. But Christ manifest
that the just judge of heaven and earth always does right.
That's what we're being told on the cross. God would by no
means slay His innocent son. until somehow He was made guilty. And God will by no means clear
His guilty people until somehow we're made innocent. That's the
righteousness of the cross. God will by no means slay His
innocent Son until He's somehow made guilty. And God won't declare
you justified unless it's a real fact and you're innocent. God
doesn't play pretend. He's not treating people as if
anything. What God does is just and right.
He wouldn't have sent His Son otherwise. Think about that.
The answer is found right here. He hath made Him sin for us who
knew no sin. That's how He was made guilty
before the law of God. He hath made Him sin for us. that we who knew no righteousness,
He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we who knew
no righteousness might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the answer. This is the
sword of the Word that discerns the thought and intents of the
heart. What one believes and confesses concerning God's righteousness
tells whether he understands and loves the righteousness of
God or not. Maybe he just learned false doctrine
and that's what he's hanging on to. And so when he sees what
God's Word says and it's contrary to his false doctrine, he won't
bow to plain English and just say, I'm going to trust God's
Word. It discerns the thoughts and
intents of the heart. And then here's another question that
is always presented when you preach the gospel. This is the
sword of the gospel right here. What did Christ accomplish by
being smitten with the sword? What did He accomplish? Most
say Christ made salvation possible. And all that is, is a way to
put it in your hands and say now, unless you make it effectual
for you, then He didn't accomplish anything. That doesn't offend
anybody. That's no offense to anybody because that makes you
the end-all be-all of salvation. That's not what the Scripture
says. The Scripture says Christ accomplished the salvation of
His people. The Scripture says with His stripes we are healed. The Scripture says He was numbered
with the transgressors. That's not that kangaroo court
numbering Him with the transgressors and charging Him to be a transgressor.
That's God numbering Him with the transgressors. He was numbered
with the... When He made him sin who knew
no sin, though he never sinned in himself, even when he was
hanging on that cross, he never sinned in himself. But God numbered
Him with the transgressors. Christ said this must be accomplished
which is written. He's reckoned among the transgressors.
This is so vital. This is the gospel. And he bare
the sin of many. He was numbered with the transgressors.
Here's why he was imputed with the transgressors. He bare the
sin of many. And here's what he did while
he stood in that place. He made intercession for the
transgressors. You go read Psalm 41, I believe
it's verse 4 or 5, and you'll hear him doing that. I'm going
to preach on it soon. You'll hear him making intercession
for the transgressors. What does it sound like? It sounds
like you asking God to forgive you. but He stood there as the
head. You don't think God forgives
you and me because we're so righteous in the way we ask for repentance
and the way we confess our sin. You think He forgives us? You
don't think there's enough sin to condemn us to hell even in
our asking for forgiveness of sin? Christ did it for His people
perfectly. Perfectly. And what did He accomplish? What did He accomplish? when
He had by Himself purged our sins. He sat down at the right
hand of God. By His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. By one offering, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. So when God says to you, in the
court of your conscience, when He brings the Gospel, purges
your conscience to hear the gospel for the first time and He says
to you in the court of your conscience, you have no sin. He's not saying, I'm just going
to pretend it's that way. Nope. Before God, before the
law, in His Son, by what His Son accomplished, we have no
sin. We are the righteousness of God
in Him. In 1 John 4, we're going to come
to the passage very soon where it says, this is our boldness
to stand before God in the day of judgment as He is. So are
we in this world. It's a reality. You can have
that as if doctrine. You can have it. I'd say run
into it headlong and take it. But if you want something to
be just God pretending and there's no righteousness in that period,
You want an unjust judge, go at it. I don't want that. I don't
want that for you. I want you to bow to the Word
of God and know this thing is a reality. That's what I want.
What does Christ accomplish in His redeemed through His righteousness? This is the next question concerning
this. This is the discerner of the heart. What did He accomplish
in His people through this? The very justice that once demanded
we die due to our sins now demands we be given eternal life due
to Christ's righteousness. To give His elect life through
the righteousness of Christ is the very reason God sent forth
His Son. The whole purpose of the cross
and the righteousness of the cross was to create His people
entirely new in righteousness and holiness. That was the purpose
of it. I want you to get that. Listen to this. And this was
manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent His
only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. That's why He sent Christ. Listen
to this. 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. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Listen to this, not by works
of righteousness we've done, but according to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. that having been justified by
His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. And when God makes this life
in you, God doesn't do anything halfway. He doesn't send forth
His Spirit and give you faith in your flesh and let your flesh
play a part in this. He doesn't do that. If He did
that, then you could say some part of Adam had contributed
to your salvation. God says He comes and creates
a new man in righteousness and true holiness. Now, that new
man is one with the Spirit in you. There is no doubt about
that. It is Christ in you. But there is a new man in you.
There is a new Spirit in you. The Spirit of God does not believe
for you. He gives you faith to believe. And you believe. And
you do it in that new Spirit. What's the big deal about that,
Clay? Otherwise, you're doing it in your sinful flesh. If a
man only has one nature, you're doing it in your sinful flesh.
That's a total denial of what Christ came to do. Heaven is
going to be us perfect in spirit and in body, righteous and holy. But for now, He's begun that
work by putting a new heart, a new spirit in you. Isn't that
what He said? I will circumcise your heart, I'll put a new spirit
in you so that you'll love the Lord God with all your heart.
We saw Thursday night. In that spirit is no guile. That
means no hypocrisy. That means we love God in our
new man. We love God with all our heart
and we love our brethren with unfamed love. That's what the
scripture said. So God, one day we won't have
this flesh at all and we won't have this sin at all and we'll
love God with all our heart, body, soul, everything and our
brethren the same way. but praise Him for what He has
begun. He started that in our spirit. Now, let me move on.
Now, here's the judgment. So, here's the sword. He brings
forth the sword and the sword's what's going to discern what's
going on in our heart. The sword's what's going to discern if we're
truly a believer or we're false. the sword of the Word. Alright,
that's what's been pictured here. So the king Solomon, they bring
him the sword and now here's this child in verse 25, and the
king said, divide the living child in two and give half to
the one and half to the other. Now this living child was the
object of the true mother's love. This living child was the object
of the true mother's love. What do we say when God puts
His love in our hearts? What is it that we love? We love
God, our Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. We
love the Gospel which gives God and Christ all the glory, reveals
His righteousness, and gives Him all the glory. We love our
brethren for whom Christ laid down His life, with whom we are
united by the same Holy Spirit. That's what's pictured in this
child. Just similarly to how this mother loved this child,
we love Christ, we love the Gospel, we love our brethren. And we
don't want to see Christ divided, any part of Christ's glory removed.
We don't want to see His Gospel cut up in any way. We don't want
to see our brethren done that way. Because when you do that,
there's nothing but death. just like this child would die
if Solomon cut him in half, there'd be nothing but death. We don't
want to see a half gospel, or a half Christ, or a cut up brethren,
or harmed brethren. There's death in that. This is
the object of our love now. And the love of God, I believe,
the heart makes us love these three stronger than a mother
loves her infant. We love Christ by His grace,
we love His gospel by His grace, and we love our brethren by His
grace. Stronger than a mother loves her child. And when the
object of our love stands to be harmed, be it Christ, the
gospel, or our brethren, it stands to be harmed. Those who truly
have the love of God in our hearts are manifest from those who do
not have the love of God in their hearts. How? Look here. The true mother loved that child
and so how did she respond? Verse 26, then spake the woman
whose the living child was unto the king for her bowels yearned
upon her son. Just imagine, if you were in
her shoes, you know what love would constrain you to do. Don't
kill the child. but you are fixing a sacrifice
and lose something you dearly love. I am willing to do it because
of the object of my love. And she said, Oh my Lord, give
her the living child and in no way slay it. Her heart yearned
for her son and so she was willing to suffer the greatest loss to
her own self that the object of her love remain unharmed.
God saw His people fallen in sin, and the love of God yearned
for His people. And the love of God sent His
Son, and His Son's heart yearned in love for His people. And rather
than see the sword of justice plunged in His people, and His
people slain and cut in two with the sword of justice, Christ
said, plunge me under that sword, and slay me, and let them go
free. because he loved his brethren. He loved his brethren. So he
suffered the loss of all things in love to his people. And when
God who is loved dwells in a sinner, and that sinner dwells in love,
the love of God makes a believer's heart yearn for the object of
our love. We yearn for God our Savior.
And if you hear anything that's taking away just a little bit
of His glory, and saying, well, it's just as if He was made flesh.
I'm not going with Gnostics, are you? I'm not going with Doceticism. It just seemed as if He was made
flesh. No, He was made flesh. I'm not
going to deny a part of His glory and claim it brings greater glory
to Him. No! That's the subtlety of the devil. I can't do it. Why? Because I
have a heart for Christ. I was reading some commentaries
this week and we were talking about old men of the past and
some of those old men of the past said, oh, we dare not attribute
this to Christ saying He was made sin. We tremble to do that. Others said, we tremble not to
attribute it to Christ. because it takes away His glory. Love controls us. Love controls
us. We want to see His gospel intact.
We want to see our brethren unharmed. Paul said if we are beside ourselves,
it's to God. If we are sober, it's for your
cause because the love of Christ constraineth us. We thus judge
that if one died for all, then all are dead. And so now that
you live, you live now so that you henceforth live not unto
yourself, but unto Him which died for you and rose again.
My personal feelings don't play into it. They're not a part of
it. It's about living for Him. And that's what love of God wants
to do. A believer may suffer for standing
with God our Savior, but the love of Christ constrains us
to say, so be it. So be it. We'd rather suffer
reproach than save ourselves reproach and deny Him. We may
suffer the loss of our dearest loved ones for the truth of the
Gospel's sake. The love of Christ makes you
say, so be it! I'd rather suffer the loss of
my dearest loved one than see the Gospel cut up and turned
into death by men. We may suffer the loss of our
own wants to keep peace between brethren. The love of Christ
constrains us to say, so be it. We are willing to suffer the
loss of anything short of compromising the gospel to maintain unity
and the bond of peace. That's the love of God. What
about the mother who didn't have love in her heart? What did she
do? Here out she responds, verse 26, the other said, let it be
neither mine nor thine, but divide it. A moment ago, she was making
all these arguments, claiming, this child is my child. Oh, this
woman is lying. This child is my child. In the
next breath, she says, let it be neither mine nor hers. Divide it. Men will argue and
defend and claim their crime for the glory of God in the next
minute if it's going to benefit them in some way. And it's going
to put down somebody else in some way. that they don't like,
they'll say, yeah, let's do it that way. Why? Because they got no love
in their heart, that's why. She didn't have love in her heart.
The object of her love was herself. Jealousy, envy, malice ruled
her depraved heart. She said, let it be neither mine
nor thine, just divide it. A pretender is willing to deny
the glory of God by denying some part of the gospel because the
unregenerate loves self and really hates Christ and hates his brethren,
even though he pretends to love them. Now, here's the point of
the whole thing. If we profess to be Christ, at
some point God will try us. You can bank on it. And He will
force His child to come down off the fence on Christ's side
with His brethren in truth, making us deny ourselves our greatest
loss for Him. If you see a turtle on a fence,
a man put him there. And if you see a believer on
a fence, a man put him there. But if he's God's, God's going
to knock him off. And He's going to knock him off
on Christ's side. And on the side of His brethren. It don't
matter what it cost Him. How do you know that preacher?
Because 1 Corinthians 3.13 says, Every man's work shall be made
manifest, the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is. 1 Corinthians 11.19 says, There
must be also heresies among you. Why must there be heresies? That
they which are approved may be made manifest among you. We which
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. Why are
we always beaten black and blue and put in these terrible positions
so that we have no strength and we're just despairing even of
life? Why are we put in that position?
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. That it might be known that we're not doing this by
ourselves. Christ is living in us and holding us up and keeping
us. and making us take the side we're
on. That's why. They went out from us, John said,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, listen
to this, they would no doubt have continued with us. Why? Why did they go out then? But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. Is God true or
is He lying? Are we going to say let God be
true and every man a liar or let some men be true and God
a liar? Which side of the fence are we
going to come down on? In this the children of God are manifest
and the children of the devil. Here it is. Black and white. No gray about it. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness Whoever doesn't continue believing on Christ
and trusting Him alone is not of God. Neither he that loveth
not his brother. Is it love to forsake your spouse?
Is it love to forsake your children? Is it love to forsake your brethren?
Is it love to forsake God's house? Is that love? But the children of God, they're
going to believe Christ. And they're going to continue
believing Christ and loving their brethren. And sacrificing whatever
they have to sacrifice because this love is in their heart.
Stronger than a mother's love for her infant child. And that
love is the love of God in His people. But you'll never be the
loser for suffering loss for Christ. Ever. Look at this. Verse
27. Then the king answered and said,
ìGive her the living child, and in no way slay it. Sheís the
mother thereof.î Iíll tell you what youíll find. When you come
down on the side of Christ and His people, everything you stood
for, Christ will give it to you. Heíll give you Christ, Heíll
give you the gospel and truth, and Heíll give you faithful brethren
that will stand with you. She stood for that child. She
said, don't cut that child up. I love it. And God said, give
her the child. Give it to her. And then here's
what we'll do. Who are we going to praise in all this? Are we
going to praise ourselves for this? Nope. We're going to say, we're
going to praise Christ who did it. Look at this. 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. I've seen a lot of things go
on in the church. I've seen, since 1985, I've seen
people come and go. I haven't heard a single new
argument that men come up with. They came up with these arguments
back in the late 80s. Oh, Henry was lost, he wasn't
preaching the gospel. Don was lost, he wasn't preaching
the gospel. Scott Richardson was lost, he wasn't preaching
the gospel. They just went down the list, you know. It died down
a little bit, comes back again. And after every time, you know
what God's people end up seeing? God is so wise. He is so wise. He's done everything right. Everything. And kept His people
together and increased our love and made us behold the wisdom
and the power of God in the face of Christ Jesus. That's all He
ever does. And we just come out the winner
in the whole thing. Just like that woman did with
her child. That's the Christ we're remembering here today.
When you remember Him laying down His life and shedding His
blood, don't think of Him as a victim. You think of Him as
a successful, triumphant, conquering King who works this wisdom in
His people. This is what He does. Alright,
let's remember Him. Brother John, Kevin, would y'all
pass these elements out?