Do you remember that name? I first heard it down in Franklin,
Wisconsin. All right, back to 1 Kings 4
now. Now, if you heard that in our Bible conference
this morning, you might have come up from front to center. All right, 1 Kings 4. Most persons do not believe in
the all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent God. Most people
do not believe in such a one as that, who completely reigns
and rules over everything, down to the smallest detail, down
to the ant movement. Most people don't believe that
because they cannot conceive of such a woman. Men do not believe
in what they cannot understand. People refuse to believe that
God controls all things, that somehow or another he's left
it up to creation to come out all right. I like what Charles Spurgeon
said one time. He said, I don't want a God I
can understand. That means He's like me. I need
a God I cannot understand. I need a God who's so much greater
than me that His ways are passed by me. But do you know now through years,
down through history, down through the years, there have been great
men overseeing great, vast kingdoms, such as Solomon, and who have
overseen everything in those vast kingdoms. It says in verse 20 that Judah
and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in Moses'
Apparently, at this time, it was greater than it ever had
been or ever had since then. The greatness of sand and sea
and multitude. Eating and drinking and making
merry. Millions of people. Verse 21,
and Solomon reigned over all the kings, from the river and
so forth. Solomon rained over all of it.
You know, a good and wise ruler will delegate authority in a
vast kingdom of whatever that a man rules over. They will delegate
authority and they will appoint men like themselves, who think
like them, who will do his bidding. And yet, now, a really good ruler
will personally oversee everything. Somehow, he's got hands on all
of it. Right? I mean, right now, you're
in management, and the others, you have a business, Roy and
others have overseen workers, and a really good, especially
a man who owns a business, he will not leave it up to others,
or he'll go rogue on them. His name's on the line, his reputation. and so forth. So he will oversee
everything personally, right down, especially down to the
small details. Right, Brother Lawrence? Down to the smallest
details, no details too small for the owner and ruler to look
into. And you can bet Solomon did this.
You can bet that he did so. Well, it's absolutely certain
that our Lord does. That's the point I'm trying to
make. Will you look with me at just a few passages of the scripture?
Psalm 104. Psalm 104. It's absolutely certain that
our Lord does not leave anything to chance or leave anything to itself, although
he does delegate authority. and put over his work's men and
so forth, as Romans 15 says that, as Romans 12, the authority of
God. But our God reigns and rules
and controls everything down to the special of the smallest
detail. Psalm 104, verses 10 and following,
he sends the springs into the valleys which run among the hills.
They give drinks every beast in the field. He waters every
single beast in the field. Wild asses quench their thirst.
Fowls of the heavens. He waters all the birds. Verse 13, he waters the hills
from his chamber. Every blade of grass he sends
to the hills. Verse 14, he causes the grass
to grow for cattle, earth for the service of man. Verse 16,
trees of the Lord, full of sap, which he had planted. Verse 16,
he planted every tree. I've got a little farm, and I'm
going to make mention of it a few times tonight. And I planted
every tree around the house and so forth, a lot of them. Hard
work. But I did it. Yes, I did. The
Lord planted every tree on this planet. That's what it said that
she planted. Verse 17, that's where the birds
make their nest. He planted the tree in order
for the birds to nest in it. And he appointed every tree for
a particular bird. You know, a lot was cast into
the lap. Birds fly around looking for
a tree to lie on. They'll lie on the tree that
God's hurtin' them on. Verse 18, the high hills are
a refuge for the wild goats, the rocks for the commies to
be pointed to the moon for seasons. So wonderful is our Lord's creation. The sun is going down. It makes
darkness in its night, and all the beasts of the forest do creep
forward. The young lions roar after their prey. They seek their
meat." Where? From God. God gives them their
meat. Look at verse 24. Oh, Lord, how manifold are thy
works, and wisdom hath made them all. The earth is full of thy
riches. Verse 27, he just talked about
the way, or the vibe, from playing in God's ocean. They all wait
on thee, that thou mayest give them their meeting to the Spirit.
See that, God? Beans and waters and plants and
everything. And there he speaks, that thou
givest them, verse 28, they gather. Thou openest thy hand, they are
filled with good. You hide your face, they are
troubled. You take away their bread, they die. Verse 31, the
glory of the Lord shall endure for ever. The Lord shall rejoice
in his work. And he did, didn't he, in the
beginning. We'll go back there in a second.
So Solomon, you know, had a hand in everything. He oversaw his
vast kingdom. He did not leave anything up
to anyone who was greater than Solomon's ears. And neither does
our Lord leave anything up to man or chance, but it purposes
all things. All things work together for
him to be perfect. It says in verse 20, I like this,
it says that Judah and Israel were eating and drinking and
making merry. Sounds like it was a happy time on the Sabbath
day. Sounds like everybody was just having a good time. They
were. They were. Sheba, the queen of
Sheba, we don't know her name, she's the queen of Sheba. That's
going to be our last study of chapter 10. I can't hardly wait
to get to it. But you're going to have to wait. I agree. But Sheba said this
of Solomon. She said, because the Lord loves
Israel forever, therefore he makes thee, he makes you king. Did you hear that? I know you
didn't hear it. He said, Because the Lord loved
Israel forever, therefore he made Solomon king. Because the
Lord loved his people, blessed is the man whose path chooses
and calls to approach unto thee, that you dwell in thy court.
Because the Lord loved you, Robert, he made Christ your king. Happy, the scripture said, happy
is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. That's Jacob. Happy,
listen to this, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.
Happy is that people whose God is the Lord, not want to be.
He is happy. I don't see how anybody could
have any peace otherwise, do you? Well, look at Solomon, the
great provider, and if I had to type in this message, It would
be that Solomon was the great provider and protector. Verse 22, this is Solomon's provision
for one day. Now, multiply all this 365 times. One day, look at it with me,
verse twenty-two, one day thirty measures of flour, five of flour,
three, four measures of meal. That's nine and a half tons of
flour, nineteen tons of meal a day. How much flour does it
take to make this? What will one stack of Martha
White make? How many pieces? Tell me. Five pound stack of Martha White
buckets. A million? At least. A couple thousand maybe, huh? A million and a half tons a day. A lot of bread. It's significant,
isn't it, that he mentions bread first and then what's the final I sit prepared alive. What a picture this is of our
Lord's Word, which man truly lives by, and how he provides
it to everybody. Everybody needs it all over the
world. Why so much? Why did it take
so much? Well, the answer is simple. Apparently,
Solomon entertained a bunch of people every day. Nine, did he? Look at this again
now. Nine tons, nine and a half tons
of flour, 19 tons of meal every day. There must have been an
excited people at his table. Well, there weren't. Look at
verse 29. It says, God gave Solomon wisdom
and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart. In other words, he was so magnanimous,
had such a receptive spirit and attitude and heart and was just
so given to hospitality that he just, come one, come all. Come eat. Back in verse 7, he
said there were 12 officers over all Israel just to take care
of the food. Just to take care of the food.
These were officers. These weren't cooks and table-waiters and so
forth, bellboys and bellhops. How many were at Solomon's table?
Every day. How many? Well, I can give you
a slightest one. I know for a fact there were
700 wives and 300 concubines. How many children did they all
have? And grandchildren. And I guarantee you if Wilma
wanted her mother-in-law to take with Solomon up to Anaconda Field,
she'd come up to Anaconda Field, and Anaconda would just keep
multiplying that. Friends, Solomon had a lot of
friends, and your friends, my friend, Henry. Friends. All disturbance, rulers, captains,
their families. Thousands and thousands of people
every day. Never turned anybody down. I'll bet you anyone who asks,
I'll just tell you, that anybody who came, hung me. I bet you saw my face. Hung me. You reckon? I know it
sucked. And I bet you that he'd tell
us to leave town. Sorry to impose it on you, King
Solomon, but can I have one more note? One more note? Look at
the next line, verse 23. Ten fat oxen. Twenty just average oxen out
of a thousand. A hundred sheep, besides the
deer and roe bucks, fowl deer, fowl, hundreds of thousands of
doves, and quail, and pheasants, and everything. Can I have one more? You might
have to have another helping. We've got plenty to go around. Oh my, how does our Lord take
care of all of His people, how He has taken care of them, and
how He does take care of them, and what largeness of heart our
God has, huh? The scripture says the Lord is
full of compassion and gracious and long-suffering and plentiful
mercy and truth and delight. This is speaking of a greater
insolence, who entertains, who is hospitable to, who provides
for much greater insolence. David wrote this, he said, these
all wait on me, everything waits on me. God gives them their meat
in due season. Solomon wrote, he rejoiced in
the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights were with the
sons of men. Our God has provided a table
for his people on the day. Come one, come all. And anyone
who wanted to could sit at this table. Anyone who wants to could
sit at this table. Whosoever would. Who could sit at this
gospel table? Whosoever would. Whosoever would. He said, come,
all ye that lay from every way. He said, woe, women and first.
I said, come on, drink. Come on. I said, can't you drink? He said, bless this day to come,
and during the first, I have to write seventy blocks. How much can you say at the end?
Well, try to open your mouth. We love that verse, don't we,
Nancy? God said, open your mouth, and I'll fill it. Like a little
bird, you know. Have you ever seen a bird just
be gorged on food in its little belly? And it would just fall
over and swim. Our Lord provides for all of
His people, and the things He provides for us are from His
Word. And they speak of, well, all of verse 23 speaks of bloodshed. Can you imagine how much blood was
shed to provide meat for all those people? Rivers of it. Every day. Every day, everyone
had meat in season. Because blood was shed. Innocent
animals were killed in order to provide need for everyone. And how that speaks of the Lord's
great sacrifice. Infinite sacrifice. His precious
blood. Precious blood. Great sacrifice. I thought about this. You know, who could come to the
table? Well, anybody. Like Joseph's brethren. That's
your favorite story? Joseph's brethren. Be like Boaz,
don't you? Ah, ah, ah. Joseph, for instance. Right now, that's not him. Joseph,
for instance. They were worthless. They were
guilty. They sold their brother. Yet,
when they came to you, Brother Henry, and Joseph was on the
throne, they came to get something from Joseph. If it had been you
and me, We would have put him in stocks
and bonds, we would have let him, put him in prison, and had
him hung behind a, yes we would have. Not Joseph, he had a great
largeness of heart. And though guilty, he had them
sit at his table the whole time they were there, and he sent
them home, not with your sacks, Who can sit at this table? Well, that's Ruth. Ruth, set
low by a woman, a poor, beggar, heathen woman, no right to be
there yet, the great Redeemer, not only allows her to sit at
the table, but personally hand-feeds her. That's a German word. Here's another one. Have another
one. Personally. Who can sit at his table? Well,
like Old MacPherson. Old MacPherson, deserving to
die as one of the king's former enemies, lame on both legs, of
no benefit and no profit whatsoever to the king, unable to do anything
for anyone, unable to come even. But the great king stands and
fetches him to sit at his table. Now, as a guest, That's one of
the reasons. And he's there right now. And
we could go on and on. Gideon is greater than Solomon.
Go back to our text. In verse 23, it said, all that
food speaks of Christ's sacrifice. Verse 24, and he had dominion
over all the regions. And I like this, in Romans chapter
14, this is what that speaks of here. A greater than Solomon
says, to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that
he might be Lord, both the dead and the living. Our Lord hath
dominion over all. God hath given him authority
over all flesh. Let's look at the great protector.
Solomon the Great Protector, Solomon the Great Provider, and
Solomon the Great Protector and Peacemaker. Verse 24 says he
had dominion over all the region on this side of the river, from
the tipside even to the eyes of all the kings. See, he's the
king now, king. Solomon, oh, but he's not Lord. Our Lord, King of kings and Lord
of lords, and He had peace on all sides around that man. He
had peace. A man this great can command
peace, right? You can start the peace. Proverbs 16 says, 16th of the
Lord made his setting upon the nation, the last ones in the
soul of this world and the rest of the people of the Father. You know, a man this great can
command this. He can command this. He can ensure this. A man with
this much power cannot hear one person disturbing the peace. He'll send his officers down
the bus. He has commanded peace on all
sides. Peace. He said, yeah, the lion
will lay down for the lamb, and the wolf will suckling. That's right here in Solomon's
character. He had commanded peace, and that's the reason I say God's
church doesn't have an answer to that. God's Church. There's nothing wrong with God's
Church. There's no problems in God's Church because He demands.
Don't you? Your little family, if you had
the power to insure it, if you had the power to make it, you
would, wouldn't you? I've got a little kingdom over
there. Sixteen acres. That's not much
compared to your spread, Dr. Henry, but it's all I want, more
than anything. Anyway, I've got a little kingdom
over there, and it's a miserable little kingdom. I'm not sure it is. Nobody has
nothing. It's going to make, it's going
to serve a purpose. And if you come around any old time, you'll
see dogs lying around and cats. Yeah, you will. Play them together. We have a cat that chases our
dogs. Yeah, we do, don't we? And they
let him cause I won't let those dogs chase the cat. We had chickens for a while there,
brother Patrick. And, you know, dogs kind of like
chickens. Well, they didn't touch our chickens. We let the chickens run free.
So my neighbor's dogs got into the chickens. My neighbor doesn't
have that dog anymore. But my dogs didn't touch our
chickens. As a matter of fact, we had a
dog that would wrestle with one of our dogs. I mean, it's the
funniest thing. They would just roll around together. I wish I sent it into that animal
video. Horses and humans. Blair, when
you brought her over and we went out, she wanted to see the horses.
So we walked out there. We got four or three big horses,
growing daily. She wanted to see them, so I
let her walk out there. She was walking in and out of
those big old horses in one long move, you know. But I was standing
there. And I had their attention. You
see under the red head? Don't leave a great drop on her. Peace! Now if I can ensure peace
in my little case, so does God in His vast kingdom. He ensures
it. He ensures it. Peace on all sides
around the back. In all the world it's not at
peace. God's people are at peace. Religion's not a beast. There
it is. Oh, there's turmoil in Catholicism,
but not the Church. There's turmoil and problems
in various religious organizations and denominations, but not the
Church. God won't allow it. No, he won't. Verse 25, I like this. It says,
Judah and Israel dwelt safely. Oh, they didn't have a constitution. They didn't have Bill of Rights.
They didn't have Declaration of Independence. They didn't
have any baggage like that. They did not have democracy.
Men didn't write anything. How could you have peace and
safety and very little in any crime at all? How can you have
all of that? It depends on how strong the
king is. Right? A monarch is the best form of
government. This is the way the Lord ordained
it to be. Men can't reign over themselves.
Men can't rule themselves. Democracy doesn't work. It really
doesn't. The best form of government is
the monarchy, provided you've got a good king. Provided he's
got laws of the heart and wisdom above any other, above especially
the common people. And provided he can provide,
right? He's got to have the ability,
he's got to have the will, he's got to have the wisdom, greater
than stop. He reigns and rules, and all
Israel dwells safely. You are an immortal land, O Israel.
Yes, you are a thousand to call thy side, ten thousand to thy
right hand. It shall not come nigh thee.
You shall not be afraid to play here by night, or to terror by
day. You shall not be afraid of one
million terrorists. until God gets to the point where
you're immortal, and then he just stands a little back, adjourned
the period. A quarter-inch move in the spirit
world is gone. If we know that we could see
the devils and the demons and the things around us that would
strike terror in us, but then again, if we could see what a
life we serve, so that they would be for us and more than they
would be against us, that God has ten thousand upon ten thousand
of his angels. His saints gathered about, and
we dwell safely. I like this, verse 25. Every
man under his vine. Every man under his vine and
under his victory. I sat last night on my back porch,
under my grapevine, and a souvenir Indian panna left, and I fixed
me a big ole thick, juicy steak, got some baked potatoes, I had
a glass of something real good to drink, and bread, and I had
some mice music playing, and the birds were a little touch
of chick mice and black cat chickadees, and feeding them right there
in the side of me, and the great vines were growing, and the winds
were blowing, and the skies were blue, and I was thinking, God
is so good. So, every man is bind. And that bind, you know what
that speaks of, don't you? Christ said, I'm the bind. I'm
the bind. Every man dwells, every one in
Judah and Israel dwells in him, in Christ, under his patronage. I don't know much about a fig
tree. I don't think it's the kind of figs we used to have
down in Alabama when I was a kid, but maybe it is. I don't know,
but awful good eating. I know David and all of them
sure ate a lot of figs. That's what was provided for
them when they were famous, figs. Well, our Lord provides His people
with All right, verse 25, it says, "...all the days of Solomon."
As long as Solomon lived, as long as Solomon reigned through
Judah, we'll see. Every man of his mind, the priest,
John Solomon, was true to God's law. Everything was all right. Well, there's a greater than
Solomon that reigns over us. Solomon sinned. In chapter 11, we're only going
to go as far as chapter 10, because chapter 11, Solomon failed miserably. Same chapter in 2 Samuel, where
David failed miserably. Because every man in this day
falls into that. Every man, no matter how great,
no matter how wise, is just a man, and is a failure, and is fickle,
and finite, and fallible, as was Solomon. But there's a greater sorrow
that reigns and rules over us. How long are his days? Well, it says on the Hebrews
7, he has no beginning or ending of days. And he said to them, with all
thanks to God, how long? As long as Solomon lives. As
long as Mary of Florida lives. And he reigns, he said, I hold
up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever. And so will we. So will we. He reigns forever. Look at this, all the beasts
of burden of Solomon. I know a couple of you didn't
notice this. Verse 26, Solomon had 40,000
sepulchers. I said, how did you guys get money? You know, one horse produces,
one horse decides my grandfather, you know, you don't believe it. So, up to 12 tons of manure a
year, one horse. I know each other, I have children
that love me. $40,000, Mac, $40,000 to claim
that. How many people does he have
working for him? Can one man handle a hundred horses to tell
if he made it or not? Fifty? Twenty is really pushing
it. What's the manageable level?
About ten? Ten. Okay. Forty thousand divided
by ten. Help me. Four thousand people? Just amongst us. And feeding
water to horses. That's the story. It's not counting
the mules, and the she-asses, and all the doves. Barley, verse 28, straw, and
the horses. Oh, my. Officers over them, had
to have a barn manager for every ten. My, my, what of all the
help, all those who served Solomon, is the point I'm trying to make.
What of all those who did his bidding? But of all those who
were worshiped under him and served his purpose, served his
kingdom, every single thing on the cross side of Nazareth served
his purpose, whether they know it or not, even the life of man,
Christ, every man, every beast, every fowl, every worm, I happened
to be in my garden the other day, and in six years now, it's
taken to turn that red soil into something good. You can turn
over a shovel and there'll be 25 worms in one shovel. It's
just one. Just one. Those worms are good,
aren't they? Good thing. Now I go over to
the Red Secretary of Worms. What about the sons and daughters? However, everything serves its
purpose down to the worms in the soil to aerate it and heat
it and make it nutritious. Everything serves our God. And
look at this. Verse 29 and following, God gave
Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much. We've already
seen that greater than Solomon is wisdom, is understanding,
and largeness of heart. Oh, as the saying goes, how much
mercy is our Lord having His heart? How much grace? How long shall it be? How much
love does he have for her? Largeness of heart. Read on. Solomon's wisdom excelled the
wisdom of all the children of this country and all the wisdom
of Egypt, that is, the world. In other words, he was so much
wiser than the world. And the world could not understand
or withstand his wisdom. The greater than Solomon's here
in not the wisdom of this world, but He told one of those rulers,
if I told you earthly things and you don't understand them,
how are you going to understand them? He was wiser than all men. His fame was in all nations round
about. Yeah, y'all have heard of Iron
King. In verse 32, he spake three thousand
proper verbs, and his psalms were a thousand and five. And
as we've noted, There have been more songs written in the history
of our God as the subject than all of the songs put together.
He's the subject of more songs than all the rest put together. And He sprang from trees, from the cedar tree down to the
hyssop, sprang down to the wall. He didn't go to anywhere. And
we're going to see if he did that. She can't prove it with
hard evidence. He could go to that with any
question, and he knew it. He could tell you that. He could
tell you all about it. He was a botanist, he was a,
he was an ists, ists, knowledgeist. of Solomon. Read his words, you'll
see. Read Solomon's Proverbs, you'll
see how he did speak, actually, of these things. And line upon
line, we're full of profound wisdom about these things. Wouldn't it have been interesting? Wouldn't you have loved to hear
Solomon speak of some of these things? And when he loved her, Nancy,
oh, but he got his wisdom. Who taught him? And all of them
put together. Oh, my. What would it have been
like to sit with our Lord as the disciples did, the greater
disciples? He spake of also the beast and the fowl. If you want
good reading, I'm going to preach on this some day. Proverbs, oh,
over about chapter twenty-eight on where he talks about He talks about some amazing things,
chapter 30 particularly, horse leech, and ants, eagles, serpent,
and these things, locusts, spiders, conies, ants. Wonderful. speaks of all things. Verse 34,
And it came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from
all the kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom. And the Scripture says of Christ
the greater than Solomon, it says, If everything he said and
did was written in books... Now, we just have recorded...
Look at this. We can't scratch the surface
of this in a lifetime, the wisdom of it. Scripture says, if everything
this thing did was written in books, the world could not contain
the books. If everything between the lines
it's given us was written down, we'd carry a Bible around this
table. Our Lord, we get out of marvels
thinking about this, how all His days with the disciples,
there was never a moment He wasn't teaching. Unless He was in silent
meditation. Don't you know, walking through
the woods and showing them things. And we're going to see Sunday
morning, but they were just amazed. They were just amazed. He was
the most amazing man that I've ever met. Wisdom for someone. And he said these things and
taught these things in such a way. We love Brother Adam Kever, those
of you who've gotten to know him well. He is a rocket scientist. That's what he is. You know what he is? I think he's a rocket scientist. Adam is. He's a nuclear physicist. He's forgotten more than I let
him learn. Well, I haven't had any notice. First time I met
him, 13 years ago, you all may remember when I came here. We were living in a little house
on 9th Street. I came to visit us, and I knew
he was a lover of classical music. And so, you know, I was his. I liked to make notes and skip. I went to the library and I got
this back when I was a college grad student, a 33 scale I got
an encyclopedia of classical music. It had about 15 albums
in it. Each album contained about 40
songs, with a visionary, or an encyclopedia, that told the history
behind the composer, and the movement, and where it had come
from, and how long before, and all that. And I put a stack of
those albums on, and looked at them, Alan and I were sitting
over there, talking, and while I was praying, he was really
interested. And I was going like, that's
funny. I didn't think you'd know, but you did. That was my favorite. What were you doing? Really didn't
make a guess. He said, this is what sort of
deer are you talking about? And Deborah spent several days
with him, got tested, and he's very, very hungry. But he will
not, he's not obnoxious with it. He will not divulge that
information unless you ask him about it, and he does it in such
a way that it's just... You can sit and listen to him
talk all night. Oh, I'm greater than I am nervous. However, he
does know that. He did know that. He does know
that. And he would say those things
in such a way that gave me the loathing and heartache to sit
in there. Tell me more. You ever been around somebody,
Barbara, that ain't said the word of your name? And you say, I don't want to
hear no more. Well, the disciples say it couldn't
get enough. That's why we're going to have
an eternity. And he's going to do all the
streets. And we're going to operate at the top of the history book.
We're all going to be there. How many are going to be at that
table? How many are going to be engaged
in that? How much food do you buy? And, oh, it's going to be wonderful.
Solomon said it would have been a nice place to be. But there's
a grave in the south of here, and we are going to sit there. Solomon said it, and I'm happy. It's marvelous, ain't it? My brothers, thank you for your
words, and as Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, we thank you
for the life of Solomon, Thank you for raising up such a one,
Sidney, but much more, much greater than he. We thank you for making
Christ our King. We say this, we do it because
the Lord loved us, therefore he made Christ our King. After the other day, we watched
the five days of the post-divide over. Now we thank you for spreading
this table. We ask that you would now just
enable us to chew on a little bit of this for a few days and
bring us back to receive another portion of your day. In Christ's name we beg you. Amen. So many. I wonder how far that is from
what we have in Carolina. The Lord is with thee. The Lord
is with thee. Thank you very much.