If you will, let's open to 1
Kings chapter 3. 1 Kings chapter 3. I was trying to work on a bulletin
article and I didn't get it put together right, but someone said
something to me this past week. They say act like a Christian.
And I thought, do I act like a Christian? Do you act like
a Christian? It's acting, right? That's fake. Am I in Christ? That'll prove itself. Can we
know if we're a child of God? Can we know if we love him? Old
Newton wrote in a day of sadness, and I'm sure a lot of days of
joy, do I love the Lord or not? Am I his or am I not? When we
ask those things, and I know some people, they don't care.
They're just okay with it. We'll see that. In this text,
this story that's laid before us, I'm just confident. I've
been excited to preach this. I'm confident that the saints
of the Lord are going to be comforted. And one of two things are going
to happen in the reprobate. Either they're going to be confounded
and mad, or they won't care. And they'll go on about their
lives as harlots with Babylon. There are some
characters in this historical event. This isn't a parable.
This is something that happened. This took place and it was recorded. The Lord gives us this to read
now. I want to cover these characters in this historical event so we
can know who they are. There's a king here, King Solomon,
that's Christ. He's the king. And there's harlots,
there's two harlots, there's two whores, two prostitutes. That's us, born of Adam. And
there's only two designations. There's one or the other. There
ain't one that's halfway. There ain't one, no, no, we're
pretty good on this one. No, there's one and there's another
one. That's it. Just like there's
sheep and there's goats. You love or you hate. The world says you spare the
rod and spoil the child. God's word says you spare the
rod, you hate your child. Well, I love him less. One of
our forefathers loved his wives less. The very next verse, the
Lord says he hated Leah. He hated Leah. That's one or
the other. So there's the king, that's Christ. There's two harlots,
that's us, born of Adam. And there's one and another one,
we'll see which one we are. And there's a baby. There's a
dead baby and there's a living baby. That living baby is the
gospel. and multifold, all the aspects
of that glorious gospel we have and a person. That baby is real. That baby is a living being,
but it's got a lot of members. It's got a lot of parts. There's
a whole lot of that body, isn't there? So King's Christ, the
harlots, that's us. And there's a baby, that's the
gospel. And we'll see how much we care about that. Here in verse
three, I'm sorry, verse five. It said that there were none
that worshiped but Solomon did. He worshiped God. Verse five,
and then give in, the Lord appeared unto Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall
give thee. I'm sorry, ask what I shall give
thee. You ask, I'll give it to you.
Who does he say that to? We read in Psalm 2, the Lord
said, ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen of thy
inheritance. Lord Jesus Christ is one that
will ask purely. He'll ask rightly. And he'll
earn it, he'll deserve it. Verse six, and Solomon said,
Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy,
according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness
and uprightness of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for
him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to
sit on his throne as it is this day. You've been good to my father
and you've made me king. To honor David, I'm king now. Also in Psalm 2, the Lord said,
I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Verse 7, 1 Kings 3, 7. 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. great people that cannot be numbered
nor counted for the multitude. You put me right in them. You
make me one of them. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart. Understanding heart. If you have
a marginal reference, that's a hearing heart. I don't want
to listen to sermons. I don't want to listen to messages.
I want to hear them. I want to hear them. And that's what's
needed. That's where wisdom comes from,
isn't it? I want to hear him. He said,
give me a hearing 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 passed this thing. It pleased him. It pleased him.
Made him happy. Made him happy. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ. This isn't just some king. This
is Christ. This is portraying. And he says,
I'm young and I don't know how to handle these things. How could
that be the Lord? It says in Luke 2, Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature and in favor with God and man. He pleased the Father,
and he grew in understanding, wisdom, and learned how to read
and count. I can't enter into those. That
gives me goosebumps. It's so. It's so, isn't it? Verse 11, and God said unto him,
because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for
thyself long life. What would you ask for? I want
to be healthy, wealthy, and wise and live a long time. I want
this old wrecked down body to be good. That's what we talk
about a lot, isn't it? I want my bank account to be
good. We talk about that a lot too, economies and stuff, don't
we? I want to be a good standing in the community. We worry about
those things. Talk about our neighbors a lot, don't we? Good
life. He didn't ask for those things.
He laid down his life for who? The Lord's people. He said, so
I can judge them. This is for their benefit. What we look at
last hour, the good shepherd did what? Laid down his life
for the sheep. And that pleased the Father. He said, because
you've asked for these things and not for a long life for yourself,
second part of verse 11, neither hast thou asked for riches thyself,
nor hast thou asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked
for thyself understanding to discern judgment, to discern
judgment. Behold, I have done according
to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise
and understanding heart, a hearing heart, so that there is none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like
unto thee. I tell you this often, this is
the wisest man born of Adam. Physically, of us, the smartest
one, the best judge, the best wisdom that ever was, because
he heard God. Well, he's real smart. He went
to engineering school. No, he knew what God did. That
reminds me of what the Lord wrote over here. There ain't never
been one like him. Nobody. And who's this depicting?
Who's a God like any of thee? There ain't never been a God
like you. There ain't a God like you now,
and there never will be a God like you. You're an everlasting one. You're the great I am. That's
you. Thou shalt never rise any like
unto thee, verse 13. And I've also given thee that
which thou hast not asked. You laid down your life for the
people. You willingly, as their kinsmen redeemed, or you were
related to them, you were able to, and you willingly went and
saved those people you died for. Now on top of that, gave you
those people. But thou hast not asked both
riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings
like unto thee all thy days. He's the king of kings, he's
the Lord of lords, all honor, and the cat on a thousand hills
is his. It's all his. And if thou wilt walk in my ways
and keep my statutes, my commandments, as thy father David did walk,
I will lengthen thy days. Solomon awoke, and behold, it
was a dream. He came to Jerusalem and said before the ark of the
covenant of the Lord and offered up burnt offerings and offered
up peace offerings and made a feast unto all his servants. He provided
for them. That's a good king. I'll tell
you what, if there's a business owner, big business, little business,
it don't make a difference. And the Lord saves that person,
they're going to be good, good employer. Employees are going
to want to work there because they're going to know these things.
They're going to be given the ears to hear, and they're going
to know what the word Lord says, and they'll know what the gospel
is. And they'll apply that in their daily life and say, well,
that reminds me of what I heard two minutes ago. I might preach
on that. You know what? We will do that. They'll be fair, generous, won't
they? Why? Our great King's generous.
They'll be merciful. Why? He's merciful. Here is the proof of this wisdom.
What gave Solomon this wisdom and understanding. Here's the
proof of it. He's going to prove it. He gives us something. He
gives us faith. He's going to prove that faith.
He gives us belief. He's going to prove that belief.
And a lot of times for us, that's what will come at a great cost.
The pain, loss of family members, loved ones. If the Lord gives
it, he's gonna prove to you that it ain't of you. That's where
the pain comes from. It's a hint. And if he gave it,
his gifts and calling without repentance, he ain't gonna take
it back. And that's comforting. That's good to know. That's good
to know. Verse 16, we come on the scene. Then came there two women, harlots. Harlots. Until the king stood
before him. Is that us? Well, I'm a good
person. Well, I've seen that on the news.
There's harlots downtown, right? Certain areas of San Diego. Well,
Florida brought one of them here. And they just got off work. They're
still in their work clothes. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. That's me. I got a suit and tie on. Whoop-de-doo. You ain't been inside this head.
wicked evil thoughts I think and the glory hound that I am. Look at me, drinking that wine
of Babylon. I'm no different. The floor don't
make us know we ain't nothing but prostitutes, selling ourselves
for the benefit of ourselves. We'll never get there. We have
to know that we're grass. There came two women, harlots,
under the king and stood before him. And the one woman said,
now we're already seeing the difference. Oh my Lord. Lord. Lord. Could he be the Lord of a harlot?
He came to die for sinners. That's good news for sinners. One harlot came to the king,
and in truth, from her heart, she said, O my Lord, in honor
and in reverence to him. His right title, the other ones
never said that. The other harlot never said it.
Well, there's people who say, well, Christ is Lord. And I have
it embroidered on their Bibles and on their bumper stickers
and on their lots of plate covers and all that other stuff. And
he said, you'll say, Lord, Lord, I don't know you. Get away from
me. They're just saying it. This one said it from the heart,
didn't she? Oh, my Lord, my Lord, my God and my King, just like
Thomas did. How can that be? Paul wrote there
in 1 Corinthians 12, no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by
the Holy Ghost, to truly say it from the heart. These women,
both of them say a lot of the same things out of their mouth,
verbatim, word for word. They sound just a lot. How can
we know what's true? Holy Ghost is a woman. Verse
17, and the one woman said, oh my Lord, I and this woman dwell
in one house. Oh, ain't that the truth. And
I was delivered of a child with her in the house. We both had
babies on the same day. And it came to pass, the third day after
that, I was delivered. How long could we spend there? Anybody, I lose you? Could you
imagine the king preaching this to us? The great I am, we're
gonna go in glory. And he said, sit down, I'm gonna
teach you something. Look, open up here for Kings three. Oh,
buddy, he's about to talk. It came to pass the third day
after I was delivered, that this woman was also delivered, also. And we were together, it was
in the same house. There was no stranger with us in the house,
just us. It's like we two in the house. And this woman's child
died in the night. because she overlaid it. She
had a baby, I had a baby. These babies were three days
old. And this one rolled over on her
in the middle of the night and smothered it. Smothered it. Maybe
she's drunk. She's a harlot. She's probably
using drugs. Probably unconscious. Drunk on
the wine of Babylon and trotting down this gospel. Carelessly killed a child, just
disregard, just flip it. Oh, I'm gonna talk about something
important now. No caretaking, no love involved. Physically, that's a terrible
thing. How could somebody do such a thing? It can happen.
It could happen, couldn't it? I remember we brought Jaylee
home from the hospital, and we went to sleep at night, and we
woke up at six o'clock the next morning, frantic. I mean, losing
our minds. She slept all night. We thought
she's dead. I mean, them covers went flying,
buddy. We ran into the other room. She slept in another room. There's things we can learn from
the Lord's Word. Children don't need to sleep with you. She slept
in another room. We ran in there, check on her. Wake up, make her
cry. I want to hear her cry. She didn't sleep through the
night for my 6.5. I should've left her alone. How could that
be? Could somebody roll over on her
child and kill him? Yeah. Could you forget your child?
Well, I love him. You could forget him. God's Word
says that, too. In Isaiah 49, can a woman forget
her sucking child once she's breastfeed? That she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb? Yeah. They may forget. You just might. Yet will I not
forget thee. You may forget me, I ain't gonna
forget you. That's where hope is. Verse 20, this woman rolled
over on her child and said, she arose at midnight, took my son
from beside me while thine handmaid slept. I'm your handmaid. I'm
a harlot, I know. I'm your servant. Oh my Lord. You see this? This
was consistent. I'm not my own, I'm bought with
a price. I'm your servant, I'm your handmaid. While your handmaid
slept and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead child in my
bosom. She swapped them on me at midnight. What about this
one that doesn't know the Lord? This one that isn't a handmaid.
This one's just a harlot. Her child died, she rolled over
on it and killed it. What's recorded here? There's
no tears recorded. There's no grieving recorded. I mean soul trouble. Just heavy eyes. And all she
wanted, she just wanted a son. It doesn't matter if this is
bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. It doesn't matter if it's
Calvinism or Grace or Arminianism or Catholics or whatever, Buddha.
I just need a son. People are supposed to have sons,
right? We're supposed to have gospels, ain't we? I got a creed. I have a London Baptist confessional
of faith. No remorse. This child, this
gospel, doesn't mean a hooey to her, as long as she has one.
That looks right. Close enough. Verse 21. And when I rose in the morning
to give my child suck, I woke up early to feed this baby. Behold,
it was dead. It was lifeless. It was cold. Look at that room temperature,
cold, bed littered, no life in it. How's she going to know that? But when I had considered it
in the morning, behold, this was not my son, which I did bear.
How did she consider? How did she see that this wasn't
her son? Close your eyes. Can you see if that's your son
or not? It's dark. When the light came, three days
took place. I was delivered. Now I have life.
And now in the light of Christ, I can see this gospel ain't mine.
He gave me eyes to see that this ain't true. And there's either
alive or there's dead. I care for your souls. This ain't something to tinkle
with. It's plain, it's clear cut, it's life or death. And
when that light came, she said, this ain't mine. I had this child
for three days. I know what my babies looked
like. You could see her that morning when the light was shining.
You get that when truth's revealed. And she knew that wasn't her
child. You mamas, you wouldn't have
had babies. You have that baby, and you look
at that baby, and you just can't keep staring at them. And you have
that baby for three days. If you fell asleep and took a
nap, and they swapped that baby on you, and you didn't feel it,
and you look down, could you tell if that's your child or
not? You better believe you can. You just adored that face. You
stared at it. You just soaked it in, in adoration
and love. You're linked to it. Bone in my bone, flesh in my
flesh. Made one with it. You could tell. Three days. You
could distinguish that. After lots shown, verse 22. And
the other woman said, nay, but the living is my son, and the
dead is her son. And this one said, no, but the
dead is thy son, the living is my son. Thus they spake before
the king. Both of them come saying the
same thing. Now one's confessing. She's giving the account, the
details, the one that says Lord, the one that's a handmaid. She's
telling the truth of what happened. And the other one's just doesn't
know truth and just have some, I'll just say what you say. I'll
just regurgitate all the things that you've said. And how do
we distinguish such a thing? I've been accused of that. I'll
regurgitate what Henry Mahan said. Well, let me tell you a
little secret. He regurgitated what Spurgeon said, and he regurgitated
what Gill said, all the way back to what this book says. It says
the same thing. I was listening to a message
yesterday on the last text we looked at during the first hour.
And it was, he said, I'm the way, the truth, and the lie.
And you know what that pastor said? He goes, that's what we lost
in the garden. It's the truth, isn't it? It won't change. And
other people just say things. Before both of them say the same
thing, one sounds exactly the same. One is meaning what they
say and saying what they mean. And the other one really can't
tell you. Who can determine what's true? I can't look in their hearts. I wasn't, nobody was there. Just
these two women. That baby can't talk yet. How
will we know? I can't take it to the king. Take it to the king. Look at
verse 23. The king saith, then saith the king, the one saith,
and that's all they're doing. This is my son that liveth, and
my son is dead. And the other one saith, Nay,
thy son is the dead one, and my son is the living one. People
say a lot of things, don't they? How many people walking up and
down these streets say, well, I love the Lord. I never hated God. How many people do I know that
say salvation is by grace? Not because I'm so sweet and
you got to do something and it's conditional. It's got nothing
to do with grace. A lot of people say those things,
don't they? How can we know? Let's prove it. Try the spirits. See if they're of God. I'm telling
you stuff. Go home and look it up. I don't know about that. How about you got the Marines
get you a Bible home study? It's been a week on it. See if
that's what see if that's true or not Go to some say not the
hen pecking sharp shoot the Lord's preachers that we know faithful
of good report, but look it up Bring it verse 24 the king said
bring me a sword They brought a sword before the king. What's
a sword? What's a sword the king uses to determine what the true
gospel is? Oh What he uses to determine
everything. Everyone says it's mine, I'm
right, you're wrong, all these things. How am I gonna know?
This sword is gonna tell it. Paul said in Ephesians 6, the sword
of the spirit, which is the word of God. You know how many times I've
told people, well, there's what the word says, and that's not,
well, I know it says that, but, and I've had people actually
tell me the truth. They were honest, I'll give them that,
I'll give them credit to it. They say I don't care. So, it's gonna determine it. This is the word of God, the
sword is. In Hebrews 4, it says, the word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Well, it's sharp,
isn't it? Piercing even to the dividing
of son or soul and spirit and the joints in the marrow to discern
the thoughts and intents of the heart. This cuts all the way
to the bone. And then the bone to the marrow.
This word. What are we going to do? How
are we going to know? Bring me the word. How are we going to
know if that gospel is true? How do we know they're preaching
the truth every time? And if they don't speak according
to this word, it's because there's no light in them. Who's the light? I'm the light. We looked at that
last time. Is that so? How do I know? Here's the source. I like that. I hate that. It's
so. Verse 25, and the king said,
divide the living child in two and give one half to one and
the other half to the other. Cut that baby in half. Solomon knew there wasn't gonna
be bloodshed that day. It won't give him understanding
and wisdom. He wasn't like, well, let's shoot for a hit and see
what happens. He knew what was going on. There
wasn't gonna be bloodshed that day. This living child cannot
be slew by the word. This true living child, you could
take that dead baby up and it ain't gonna feel a thing. But
this true and living child, it's according to this word. Christ
is not divided. He's not divided. People are
divided. Denominations are divided. His body is not divided. He's
not divided. His words are not divided. They're
one accord. One accord. of one accord. They see eye to eye on things.
Well, we just disagree on that. No, you don't. Not if it's on
this baby. Not if it's on this gospel. This baby represents
the gospel. Now, what part, as the Lord has
through us, and we've been doing this many, many years. Everybody
here has been hearing this for a long time. What part of the
gospel can you do without? and still have a baby. A complete,
total baby. What part can we cut off? Total depravity. Can we cut that
off? No, I mean, man ain't that bad.
We spoofed up this old man. There's no old man, new man.
No, we're totally done. There's a new creation. That's
what the Word says. He said, I made a new creation in you,
right? That means there's an old man and a new man. What about
unconditional election? The Lord chose a people in Christ
without anything to do with Him. It was for His glory. And actually,
the worse off we are, the more glory He gets. Not that it should
be sin that grace may abound. Oh, God forbid. No, of course
not. We can't cut that off. What about
limited atonement? He died for a certain people
and just some people. He didn't die for everybody. If one drop
of the Lord's blood could be wasted, that's a dead baby. That's a dead gospel. There's
no life in it. I'm dead too. That's it. That's
our hope. Well, if anybody could be lost, I'd be the first one.
Can you cut that part off? Irresistible grace. You did not seek God. He came
to you through the chief harlot of the town preaching. I know
what this is. I've lived it. And you said,
that's right. That does tell me the truth. That's what that
word says. God's right, I'm wrong. Can you cut that off? Why didn't
that work in our experience? Well, you're still dead. Perseverance of the saints, you
have to keep yourself. You have to make yourself holy. That's
an abominable, damnable heresy. You will die and go to hell believing
such things. It's all him. Now, that's from
the Senate of Dort after Calvin had died. I give you a whole
history lesson on it. Don't want to waste the time because it's
a waste of time. Those of Joseph Arminius said, here's five things
we believe. And then those that studied under Calvin said, we
believe the exact opposite of everything you just said. That's
a horrible way to argue. That's like he's women. I'm just saying
the opposite of whatever they said. That's what these harlots
did, wasn't it? that no flesh or glory in his
presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Christ does all those things
to his people, to his harlots. Which one of those can you call?
Can sanctification be done? I'm learning. Or how diluted our DNA is. I
bet we bump into Adam. He's, this is my offspring. We're
fools! Which one of those can we cut
off? That according to it is written, he that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. This is the Lord's agenda. Which of those
three are you going to be okay with cutting off? If you divide
it at all, you're dividing the glory of God. I've said these things a lot.
Somebody's trying to work towards whatever. Pick one. Sanctify
yourself or clean up your life or clean up your outside cup
or whatever. You're taking God's glory. That's what the sword
says. It's so. Now we'll either be
affable and just go on about our day, go back to our snake
oil or we'll bow and we'll rejoice. You know, Isaiah 42 says, I'm the Lord,
that's my name, and my glory I will not give to another, neither
my praise to graven edges. He won't share it. He won't share
it. Now this baby, Solomon knew there wouldn't be bloodshed that
day. He's bringing me a sword. This physically happened. I had
a physical sword, physical baby, two physical women. This took
place. He knew it wasn't gonna shed
that, but you know, it was almost exactly a thousand years later. The gospel,
not five point Calvinism. If somebody comes to the doctrine,
I was saved and I came to the doctrines of grace. That's all
you come to is a doctrine. This gospel is a person. Do you
get that? This is life and death too. A thousand years later, Christ,
the great I am, this living word came to this earth and he was
bruised and he was pierced. Water and blood come out, huh?
For what? Us. Because of us harlots. That's why. And he lives. They'd
have killed that baby. Not this one. Not this one. Oh, they ain't a God like him.
Ain't never a God like him. Ain't gonna be a God like him.
Our God is God. Verse 26. Then spake the woman
whose the living child was unto the king. This woman who's the
living child. I have the living son. For her
bowels. Yearned upon her son. And she said, Oh my Lord, give
her the living child. And you know why I slay it. Don't
you take anything from this child? Take it from me before you take
anything from that child. That's what love does. Her heart
burned within her at that soul, at that word. She was melted
and she said, let me be cursed. Don't let me bring reproach or
any harm on this gospel. Don't let me do anything to tarnish
it or to wound it. Give it to her. Well, isn't she
the bad harlot? Well, we're all bad harlots.
I ain't no different. that melted her heart, her bowels
yearned. Well, I agree that that's correct.
That's not bowels yearning. I gotta have it. This can't stop. It's too wonderful. It's too
wonderful. That's what the word says, did
you know that? He sendeth out his word, Psalm 147, verse 18. He sendeth out his word and melteth
them. He melts them. There is no indifferent
mothers in this room. There's no indifference. Would that benefit that other
harlot? How could she do such a thing? Paul said that in Romans
9. He said, for I could wish that
myself were a purse from Christ for my bread and my kids milk
poured into the flesh. He said, as long as this gospel goes forth,
I just, I, I wouldn't all men be saved. I wouldn't my brethren
in the flesh, those physical Jews who have all these things,
they have the temple, they have everything that points to Christ,
all the tops, all the pictures from birth, they've had them.
And they don't care. They don't see him. That's preaching. Paul was preaching to them, wasn't
he? He cared for the soul. Babe is also the church of Christ,
right? He's the head, we're the body. Can one member be separated? Could a pinky finger come off?
Wouldn't be whole, would it? Verse 26 says, but the other
said, the one said, my bowels are within me. Give it to her. Don't hurt the child. Don't tarnish
it. I'll give my life for this. What'd
the other one say? I told you there's two harlots,
right? There's a goat and a sheep here. What'd the other one say?
But the other said, let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide
it. She don't have it. I don't want
her to have it. You know that there's people
and demons and everything else that don't want this work to
continue. And we just say, well, that's just, we're just doing
okay before, or when we give our lives for it. The other one said, let it be
not mine or thine, but divide it. We're all going to the same
place, just take different ways, right? We just know a little
bit higher doctrine than those brethren that we came out of.
No, we don't. No, we're not. They'd be dead.
They'd be dead. This gospel is a person and it's
all Christ or it's nothing at all. It's the totality of his
word, and his person, and his work, or it's nothing. What's
that called? Well, there's just a little bit
of living in there. The Lord said, watch out for it. Watch
out for it. That's wolves coming. I'll send
you somebody that'll cry wolf and they'll tell the difference
and look out for you. Verse 27, then the king answered
and said, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. She's the mother thereof. She was given the child that
was rightfully hers. She was given that life, wasn't
it? And with no eyes slain. Now she has the son. Does she
have a dead baby? She has a live baby. He that
hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God
hath not life. If it's corrupted at all, there's
no life there to be had. And it's a cornerless word. That son that she's holding is
harlot. It's bone of her bone and flesh
of her flesh. He is hers and she is his, and
that's never gonna be taken away. I thought too, she's a prostitute.
Next, this was a planned pregnancy. You know what I think next month,
I think I'm gonna have a baby. She didn't know she was coming.
I didn't want it. Now she has life in her. She has life in her. What about
that other gospel? Always has been dead in her.
Still dead. This is the living God she has. This is the living word. Our
living redeemer, our living king. They got all that too. All those
other gods people call, lowercase g gods. Buddha, dead. Muhammad,
he's in the grave. Every one of them's dead. That
other one that's corrupted by lies and is pretty pleased, wishes
you'd come help him out and give him a hand, dead. Ain't nothing
but dead. This is the living one. And it
shall not be taken away. It shall not be slain. Does that
woman get glory for telling the truth? She told the truth all
along, didn't she? You know what, get her a plaque
or something. Let's get a trophy for her. Maybe have a special
day in honor. We'll hang out flowers every
time it's her birthday to all the people at church. No. We're supposed to tell the truth.
Do you know that? I told the truth. You're supposed to. I
took care of my children. You're supposed to. I raised
them right. I'm supposed to. There's no glory
in that. Who hears this and who's on it
for? This next verse is beautiful.
Verse 28. Who hears it? And all Israel
heard. All Israel heard. I didn't hear
that. I wasn't blessed by that. You didn't hear it. Maybe you
ain't Israel. Israel heard. They heard. Of what? Of judgment. All Israel heard of the judgment
that that woman made. No. Which the king had judged. He does all things right. All
of Israel is going to have the same confession. He does all things right. And
they feared the king. They honored the king. They didn't
honor that woman. They honored the king. For they
saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. He's finished
it all. He's right. It's good. Who hears
that? Oh, the Israel hears it. You
reckon that woman is holding that baby her? You better believe
it. She said, that's right. And I'm happy. That's what happens when we are
convicted by the Holy Spirit. When he's come, he will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Why of sin? Because they did bad things and
they read bad books and they went to bad picture shows and
they drunk bad alcohol. No! Of sin because they believed
not on me. That's a time I didn't believe
God. I believed Kevin. I didn't believe Christ. Of righteousness because I go
to my father and he see me no more. He ascended, the one that
descended. And of judgment. That's what all of Israel rejoicing
and honoring the king. A judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. All the evil, all the lies, all
the death, all the sin, all the everything is put away by his
word and his commands and we live. Isn't that story a whole lot
better than, well, y'all tell the truth and sleep in a different
room than your children. Don't let your children sleep
in the back. That's us, isn't it? Can we have this divided?
Can we take it or leave it? Well, it was good while it lasted.
Oh no, God forbid. I must have it. I must have it. All right, let's sing again.