It saves me from the grave. It saves me from the grave. He makes me triumph over death. Saves me from the grave. We'll
say in that day, those in Christ will say, O death, when we get
to our deathbed, we're going to say, O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God that giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes me triumph
over death. Alright, go back to 1 Kings with
me again. 1 Kings 3. Read again with me verses 23-25.
1 Kings 3. Then said the king, One saith,
This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead. The other
saith, Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.
And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. And the king said, Divide the
living child in two. give half to the one and half
to the other. Now, this is much more than an
interesting story, much more than the story of the wisdom
of a man named Solomon. I hope that we will see in this
story how that God helps us, how that we may know the truth
as opposed to a lie, how that we may know the true gospel false
gospel, how that we, each of us, if we're really seeking,
searching, that the Lord will show us through this, will tell
us, bear witness with our spirit, that I'm a true child of God
and not a pretender. You can know. This is how we
know the true from the false. Whose is the living Son? And
whose is the dead? This is how you know. If we examine
ourselves in life. Now Solomon, this begins with
Solomon, back where the tie red beginning with verse 5. Solomon is a representative of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Son of David, Solomon. And that's
why this story was written. That's why every story is written,
to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The greater than Solomon.
Bear witness to show forth his glory, his wisdom, his righteousness,
his person, his work. Much greater than Solomon. The king of kings. Solomon got
his wisdom from Jesus Christ. That's who was talking to Solomon,
the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. And so
this is a picture of Christ. In verse 5, in Gibeon, the Lord
appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what
I will give thee. Does that sound familiar? In
Psalm 2, the Lord said, Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen
for your inheritance. And Christ was given everything
by the Father. Verse 6, Solomon said, You have
shown unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy." According
to this, he walked before thee in truth. And in your great kindness,
you've given him a son to sit on the throne. He says, I am
thy king. You put me here, Solomon. And
again, in Psalm 2, God said, I have set my king on my holy
hill of Zion. He said, ask of me what you will,
and I'll give it to you. Solomon said, Thy servant is
in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a people that
cannot be numbered. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's chosen King. He's exalted one chosen from
among a chosen people, a people that no man can number, yet he
has them numbered. Verse 9, he asked the Lord, Solomon,
asked him to give him an understanding heart, a hearing heart that he
may be able to judge so great a people. Give me understanding.
Verse 10, And this was all pleasing. The speech pleased the Lord that
Solomon had asked this thing. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
said to be well pleasing to the Heavenly Father. God said it
from heaven. This is my beloved Son. in whom
I am well pleased." So the Lord Jesus Christ is God's King whom
God has set on His holy hill of Zion in the midst of His people. That's why we're here this morning.
That's why I was trying to draw our attention to these hymns
we're singing. Arrest Lord Jesus. We're here to sing His praises
and to learn from Him. He's set in the midst of His
people and He has all wisdom. All wisdom. He has made unto
us wisdom. There is no wisdom. We can have
no wisdom. We know nothing except Christ
revealed it to us. Solomon said this, speaking of
our Lord, verses 12 and 13, God said, because you have asked
this, I will give it to you, and I will not only give you
wisdom so that there will be none like thee, but I have also
given you riches and honors, and there will not be any king
like you." Now, who could that be speaking
of except the Lord Jesus Christ? All wisdom, to please the Father
that in Christ should all fullness dwell, all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge, the riches of the glory of God's grace are
all in Him. All riches, unsearchable riches
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There never has been any before
Him, and there never will be any after Him. So that's who
Solomon represents. Alright, our story. Our story
begins in verse 16. Our story begins with the tale
of two harlots. But we had to see that. We had
to see that. Solomon represents crime. And he is the one before whom
we stand. He is the one that decides all
cases. He is the one. Is he not the
one that says to the sheep on his right hand, enter in, to
the goats, to cast them out? He's the one. All judgment and
all authority is given unto men. Alright? Two harlots. The story
of two sinners that came before Solomon. One of them is true,
though a sinner, yet a true seeker, a lover of the Son. And the other
is not. It's false. Two harlots. A harlot. You ever notice how
often the Scripture speaks of harlots? You think of a harlot,
you think of a person that could not go any lower, don't you? A person that could not be more
in the depths of sin any more than a harlot, a prostitute,
a streetwalker, one who sold themselves. Body, mind, soul,
and spirit sold themselves to sin. Prostituted themselves. Everything that they are. Brought
nothing but absolute reproach and shame upon themselves, their
families, everything. Just a forlorn, Low. You couldn't get any lower, could
you? Wretched. Miserable. They put on a good
front. They have to paint their faces.
They have to put on a good front to put their wretched creatures. Harlots. You know, that's all
of us. That's why the Lord speaks so
much of publicans and harlots. Publicans are all about money.
Well, a harlot is the same. There's a lot of physical pleasure
in God. And we've all sold to sin. Sold ourselves to sin. Well,
these two harlots came. Both of them sinners. Forlorn
women. And they stand before the King.
As do all of us. All human beings stand before
the King. We all live before the Lord Jesus
Christ. His eyes behold, His eyelids
try the sons of men." And they're all to Him forlorn. They're all
wretched sinners. Alright? They stood before the
King as we all do now. In verse 17, it says that the
one woman said, one woman said, Oh my Lord, The other woman never said that. They're both standing before
him, but this one woman had come to the king to plead her case,
to plead for mercy. And she calls upon – the other
woman never did call him Lord. This woman did. Why? No man, no woman, no person,
no sinner can call Him Lord but by the Holy Spirit. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This woman
is going to be saved. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Why do they call? Why does anyone
call? It's to whom the Lord our God
shall call. evidently loved this woman before
the foundation of the world. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate. This meeting was purposed by
God. Whom He did predestinate, He called. She wouldn't have
come if He didn't call her. Whom He called, He justified.
That is, by faith. Whom He justified, He glorified.
So two harlots come, one of them, one woman. It keeps talking about
one woman and then the other. one woman than the other. We're
either one or the other. We either come to the Lord, brought
by Him, call on the Lord, plead for mercy, have a love for the
Son, or we don't. And it's by grace. Such were
some of you. Not calling, not looking, but
she did. She came. She called, One came to Solomon
to plead her case. One called upon the king for
mercy." Oh, my Lord, she's pleading for mercy. Can you hear? The
life of her baby is at stake here. And you know what? The life of our babies are at
stake. Some of your babies are sitting here today. Enter in the straight gate this
morning. It had a different urgency for me like never before. Rather
than just look at what's wide and what's narrow, what struck
me was the Lord said, Enter in. Don't go that broad way. Enter
in. Now. Enter. It's an imperative. It's
a command. It's a now. It's an imperative. It's an urgency. Enter in. I would have loved to have heard
him say that. I'd like to hear him say it now, tonight. Enter
him. Call on the name of the Lord.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord. Oh, my Lord. This
is life or death for this woman, isn't it? Her life is wrapped
up in this Son. Are you getting the message here
before I'm told it? Her life is in the Son. Oh, my
Lord. I've got to have the Son. Don't take the Son from them.
Oh, my Lord. Blessed is the man whom God hath
chosen and caused to approach unto Him. Blessed. Our Father chose a people, gave
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not just doctrine, this
is grace. gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and our Lord said, All that the Father giveth me shall come unto
me. And he that cometh unto me, I
will in no wise cast out." At the end of this story, John,
he said, In no wise. In no wise take that child from
her. In no wise. Whosoever shall call
on, Oh my Lord, and they've got a world full of people, men,
women, and children, saying, Oh my God, Young people, if you don't say
from the depths of your heart, Oh, my Lord, save me, you won't
be saved. Old people, if we don't say it,
all our days, all our days, whosoever shall call, that means keep calling,
keep asking, keep knocking, keep seeking. Well, I sought the Lord,
but I've got other things. No, you didn't find Him. This
woman, her life is in this child. She's not going to live if she
doesn't have this baby. She can't go on. She can't go
on. This is urgent. She's crying,
oh my Lord. Can you hear her voice? Can you
hear her calling on Solomon? You're the only one. You're the
only one. Oh my Lord. She called him Lord. A lot of
people do that with their lips. We're going to see that in Matthew
7 real soon. Not everyone that says, Lord,
Lord. Oh, I believe He's Lord. The devil does. But that's those
who call on the name of the Lord. That means you've got everything
and everyone in your hands. That's including me, my soul,
my children. Oh, my Lord, please, please. Can you hear it? Oh, my Lord. And she told her case. She told
her case. Now there are some clues here.
We already see a clue there. She called on him, called him
Lord. The other one never did. She never did call Solomon Lord.
Look at verse 20. She arose at midnight. She's
telling her case against the other woman. That other woman
arose at midnight and took my son, just my son, from beside
me while thine handmaid slept. I'm your handmaid. You're my
Lord and I'm your handmaid. Solomon, in his prayer to the
Lord, kept saying, Thy servant, thy servant, thy servant. You know, most people treat God
as if He's our servant. Not God's people. Not a one of
them call on God as if He ought to come running. No, sir. Servants
come running. Servants are the ones that do
the asking. Servants are the ones that keep pleading. She
said, I'm your handmaid. You're my Lord. I can't do anything
unless you say so. That other woman never did call
herself the handmaid. Never did call Him Lord. Never
did. And she told her case. She told
her case. Now, the one woman, the true woman. Here's
the whole story. The true woman is interested
in one thing. The reason she came to the king
was for one reason. God had a son. The other woman, all she wanted
to do was justify her own self, clear her own self for her neglect. She didn't care anything about
her own son. She killed him. She was dead. But she came to the king to justify
herself, and she has to lie, she has to act, It's just to
pretend she's going to do it, to justify her own neglects. I believe, you know, both of
these harlots were with child, a harlot. Neither one of them
probably became pregnant by choice, did they? And the one woman lost
her child, she killed it. She rolled over on it. I've never
heard of a woman doing that. That's a rare thing. You must
have very little concern about your child if you smother it
in the middle of the night. Can you imagine? I remember when
ours was born, you know, you didn't sleep much that night,
did you? The grandbabies. So, you know, this is, oh my,
it's my baby. I love this child. I'm going to protect it. Let
this woman just sleep. Was she drunk maybe? Just rolled
over and smothered this baby and woke up with apparently no
remorse, no sadness? And with cold, calculated moves,
she took her child and swapped it with another woman's child
to cover up her own neglect? How could somebody do that? They
must be dead in sin, huh? To put on such a charade as that. And that's the way it is with
a lot of religious people. Is that the way it is with me?
No. I hope you'll know by this that
it's not that way with you. But I believe the one woman who
lost her child, I believe when it was all over, she went right
back to her harlotry. and was glad that she lost that
child, she'd go right on back to what she was doing. I've seen
it many times. People put on a charade of religion
and pretend, and then when it ends, they're really glad it's
over. They don't have to play the part anymore. Can you know? Can you know if it's real? Know ye not your own selves? He said, examine yourselves,
whether you be of the faith that is Christ in you, the hope of
God. Know ye not your own selves,
that Christ be in you, except ye be reprobate, mind void of
judgment. Everyone saith. You see, both
of these women, look at verse 23. The king said, one saith,
this is my son, and the other saith, no, this is my son. Everyone
saith, don't they? Everyone that's religious makes
a profession of religion. No, everyone saith, I believe
in God, I believe in the Bible, I believe in Jesus. Don't they? Everyone does. I believe in even
things like this. I believe you must be born again.
I believe salvation by grace. Well, who's true and who's not? Who's true? One had a living
child. The other one had a dead one.
No getting around that. The king's going to find out. The king knows. He knows when
they approached him. See, Solomon's not judging strictly
by his eyes or by his ears. These women walked up. He has
wisdom such as never been. The way these women approached
him, he knew. He knew. Both of them are probably crying,
you know. One was crying from the depths of her heart. Her
life was wrapped up in that Son. The other is like Esau, crying, but it's because
she's just lost something. The King knows. He knows. He looks
on the heart. He looks on the heart. Very wise. Our Lord is all wisdom. Both
crying. Both seemingly true. How is He going to discern? How
is He going to divine? Talk about divining the truth.
That is, using the judgment from above. Wisdom from above. How
is He going to divine this? The truth from the cross. Which
is the living child? Which is the dead? He said in
verse 24, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. Does that ring a bell? This book all through talks about
sword. The sword goes out of his mouth.
What is that? The Word of God. It's quick. It's powerful. It's sharper than
a two-edged sword. Piercing through the dividing
of thunder of soul and spirit. of the joints and the marrow
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, Christ's
sword, the Word. All things are naked and open
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, before whom we
stand, who is true, who is false, who is sheep, who is goat, who
is a Christ-lover, who is not. The sword will determine it.
The sword. Now stay with me. Stay with me. All right? Solomon said, and
he has that sword. I believe he has it in his hand.
And Solomon said, verse 25, divide the living child in two. Cut
that baby asunder. Give half to her. I believe that
the one woman was on his right hand, quite sure of that, and
the other on his left. And he said, take the sword and
cut that child in two and give half to her, to the one, and
half to the other. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. I had never seen
this before. That is, I never really understood.
Now, there was no blood shed this day. Solomon knew there
wouldn't be. He knew. No blood was shed. The sword was stained. The sword
was not used. The child was not divided. No
blood was shed. But a thousand years later, you
know, almost exactly a thousand years later, the Son of David
came. The Son of God came. And it pleased God to bruise
His own Son. God made Him to be sin. And the
sword of divine justice pierced Him. God shed His own Son's precious
blood to punish the sins. Can I preach without talking
about the blood? No. There's no blood shed here.
But there was blood shed at Calvary. And it was to punish sin. The
Son was pierced. The sword spared not God's Son. And in doing so, He's not a divided
Christ, It divides the people. The sacrifice is what separates
or sanctifies the true people from the false. As we're going
to see here, the sun is what separates the true from the false. Now look at it, verse 26. Then
spake the woman, just as soon as Solomon said, cut the living
child in two, give half to the one, half to the other. Then
spake the woman whose living child was under the king, whose
living child was. Spake unto the king. Who is she
going to go to? Who is she talking to? One hope,
the one in whose hands that sword is. And her bowels yearned upon
the sun. This woman calls Him Lord. This
woman comes and calls upon Him. This woman pleads her case with
Him. She needs mercy from the King.
This woman casts all her care into the hands of the King. All
her hope, all her health, all her life is in the King's hands. And this woman hears that the
King is going to slay her child, and her bowels yearn. Now her bowels, her innermost
being, yearns for that son. How do you reckon she said this?
How do you reckon she cried after this? Huh? To the Lord. Oh my
Lord. Don't. Give her the child. Give her the child. Don't slay
it. And nobody slay that child. Give
her the child. Let it be hers. Don't divide
it. Don't divide that child. Whatever you do, don't do that. And the king said, give her the child. She's the
mother. Don't take it from her in no
wise slate or take it from her. She's the one. Now, what's this all about? Well, the true child of God.
Is this you? The true child of God. The true
lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, he or she is not
willing to part with one word from this book. Don't take one
word out of this book. While the world is willing to
just cut it asunder. Chop it up, cut it up, take out
the offense, take out the cross, take out election, take out God's
sovereignty. Take it out. Take out all of
God's sovereignty and just talk about our responsibility. Cut
it up like the evil king, aren't they? That's what the world.
How about you? Are you willing to do without one word in this
book? No, sir. Oh Lord, my Lord, don't
take thy word from me, not one word of it. Even the word that
pierces me, even the word that convicts me, even the word that
condemns me, don't take it. I believe all that you've said,
everything you've said, don't take it away. The child of God, the true child
of God, the true lover of Christ, the lover of God, is not willing
to take away any of God's glory and share it with another. God
said, I will not share my glory with another. Don't let the wise
man glory in his wisdom, the strong man in his strength, the
man in his will. And the true lover of God's glory,
a true lover of Christ's glory is not willing to share His glory
with anybody else. David, as we quoted Wednesday,
David said, Lord, they've made void Your law. Do something. Lord, they're twisting and perverting. A true lover of God's Word, lover
of the truth tied, a lover of God's glory, they just can't
stand what they're doing to God's Word. I can't stand what they're
doing to His glory. A man sharing it. Oh, no. The true child of God, the true
lover of Christ is not willing for one bone of Christ's body
to be broken. Salvation is 100% completely
in, of, through, by, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it all. It's all His work. All righteousness
was fulfilled by Him. All sins were put away by Him.
Man had no part in it. To Him be all the glory. You
see how they're picking it apart. Don't do that. Can't bear it. Can't bear it. The true child of God is not
willing for one drop of Christ's blood to be shed in vain. They
say Christ died for everybody. That kills my heart to hear them
say that. That kills my heart. Because
you're taking away all my hope, Brother John. My hope is in nothing
less than Jesus Christ's blood and His righteousness. Now if
they say He died for Adolf Hitler and died for me, I have no hope. No hope. But here's my hope,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses. When God said,
I see, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's all
my hope. And if they're saying that His blood is just on everybody,
you've taken away my hope. Is this doctrine? Are we just
contending for doctrine? Particular redemption. We're
Calvinists. We believe in particular redemption. You don't. That's
all right. We're all going to heaven anyway. No, we're not.
Christ's glory is at stake here. God's glory is at stake here.
The blood of Christ. is at stake here. The wisdom
of God is at stake. The love of God. They say God
loves everybody. No, He does not. No, He does not. I'm not trying
to exclude anybody, but we're trying to glorify the love of
God is all we're doing. We're interested in God's glory,
the glory of His love. Salvation, Psalm 3, verse 8,
salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy
people. You see, perfect love casts out
fear. That's His love. His love. And whoever God loves, He saves. My hope is in the love of God
that if God loves me, nothing shall separate me from the love
of God. And if you tell everybody God loves them, you've taken
away my hope. Not willing. Not willing to be
separated. Not willing to separate, but
willing to be separated from Christ for the brethren's sake.
Can you imagine this? This woman had such a love for
Christ, her child, not wanting to see that son die, that she
was willing to give it to this terrible woman rather than see
it die. This woman was a fraud. This
woman was a wicked woman. The other woman was a charlatan,
wasn't she? A no-good, wretched woman like her. What did Paul say in Romans 9?
Here's preaching. Here's the love of Christ. Here's
the love of the brethren, really. I could wish myself a curse from
Christ for my brethren, my kingdom. But they're no good. I know that. Well, neither was I. Neither
am I willing to be separated from the Son. And with all her
heart, with all her heart, says her bowels yearned upon her Son. With all her heart, she wanted
that Son to live. All her being. The other one
wanted it to die. You know, when we talk about Christ,
You're talking about his people. You can't separate the head from
the body. When we're talking about Christ, we're talking about
his church. That's who he died for. That's who he loved. That's
who he loves. That's who he said, if you've
done it to them, you've done it to me. All right? His church is dear to him, and
it is to those that love Christ. The brethren are dear. unto them. He that loveth him that begat
loveth them that are begotten." And with all her heart, she wanted
that son to live. You know, I believe there are
some people who would, maybe not in here, but some who would
like to see this church die. Our Lord said this of the Pharisees.
He said they suffer, they won't go in, and they don't want anybody
else to go in. She had a dead child, dead works,
dead religion, a dead profession, dead, dead, dead. She was dead
in sin. She had a dead profession. And
this other woman had a life, and she wanted her to die right
with her. She didn't want anybody to have it. It would make her
look better, wouldn't it? It would make her look better. Oh, no. God's people. The church, the people of God,
our children, our grandchildren, Lord, don't let this place die. And the true woman, I like this,
it says she arose, verse 21, considered. She looked and beside
her was that dead baby and she considered and she said, that's
not my son. That's not my son. You think you could have told
Catherine, when your son Andrew was born, if somebody had swapped
babies, do you think you could have? After three days, do you
think you could have? I know you could have. You know
that son. That's your son. Right? That's your son. Belongs to you. This is my son. That's not my
son. That one's dead. Are you with
me? That's not my God. Is this too
narrow? What they're saying about God,
that's not my God. They're praying unto a God that
can't save. My God lives. That God that does what they
let Him do, that's not my God. My God reigns and rules among
the armies of heaven and the heavens here. My God owns all
things. I am in His hands to do with as He pleases. No, it's
not just doctrine here. It's knowing somebody, knowing
a person. That's not my God. That's not
my Christ. That Jesus, He's outside your
heart door. That's not the Son of God, and
that's not my Christ. Mine is sitting on the throne.
right hand of the majesty on high, expecting his enemies to
be his footstool, reigning and ruling. And my times are in his
hands. That's not my son. I know my
son. See, this is the faith of God's.
It's not a matter of, as we said, opinion. No, no, no, no. This
is the faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. It's delivered to the saints.
The faith of all of God is delivered, given to here. Here's this precious
faith. This light, precious faith. That
all the saints have it. Saving faith in the one true
God, the one true Christ. Here, He gives it to you. He
doesn't offer it. He bestows it. Now here, this is yours.
This is yours. And they all know, now this is
my God. This is my Christ. This is my
Gospel. This is the truth. No, you're
too narrow. This is the truth. This is it. And you know the
difference? The real difference is this,
a four-letter word. Life. Life. Life. The one woman, the true woman,
He that hath the Son hath life. This true woman, the life of
that Son, was her life. She loved that son. She needed
that son. She wanted to hold that son.
She wanted to live with that son forever, never be separated
from that son. Life, that's what that means. Either have the son, have life.
I've got to have Christ. I've got to have this gospel.
Don't take him from me." God said, I won't. He said, Give
him to her and in no wise take him from her. In no wise. That's the truth. Did you notice that last verse?
Oh, how wonderful God's Word is. Look at that very last verse.
It says, All Israel heard of the judgment which the King had
judged. All Israel, God's Israel, all
Israel be saved. How? By hearing. They'll hear. What? That's the king. They'll
go plead their case like this woman. And they all feared the
king. True Israel hears and they fear
the king. And it says they all saw. They
heard, they feared, they saw. What would they see? The wisdom
of God is in him. No, everything's in Him. How do you know the truth from
the false? Well, the truth says in Him. It's all in Him. What's your hope? In Him. What's
your salvation? It's in Him. How were you called? Him. How are you kept? Him. Is it your righteousness? Yes. It's in Him. That's how you know.
It sounds simple enough, doesn't it? No. God has to give that to you. Make it plain. Do you love the
Son? Do you need the Son? Do you not want to be separated
from the Son? Do you not want to see His glory
cut asunder, divided, His church die? No, no. Okay. Brother John, if you'll
come. Number 466, I think it is. 466. That's it, isn't it? 466. This goes well with that. Christ liveth in me. Christ in you, the hope of God.
466. Stand with me. God Bless.