We're still looking at the promises
of God. This is part four. The promises,
part four. And that included an introduction.
1 Kings 3. 1 Kings 3, as I said, we're looking at the promises of God
for all His people. And tonight we're going to look
at God's promises. God bound by His own Word. God is bound by His own Word. Let's look at 1 Kings 3, and
we'll start in verses 5 and go through 12. 1 Kings 3, verse 5, In Gibeon the
Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, what
I shall give thee. And Solomon said, thou has showed
unto thy servant, David, my father, great mercy, according as he
walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness
of heart with thee. And thou has kept for him this
great kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on his
throne as it is this day. And now, oh 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 to
come in. And 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, for who is able to judge this thy so
great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord
that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto Solomon, Because
thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life, neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast
thou asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself
understanding to discern judgment. I have done according to Thy
words. Lo, I have given Thee a wise and understanding heart,
so that there was none like Thee before, neither after Thee shall any
arise like unto Thee." Now this is what we're going to look at.
This is the main text as it were. We'll be going to other passages
of Scripture. This perhaps may be a shorter message than some of the others,
but we'll just kind of press forward. But what we see in this
lesson tonight is we observe Solomon. He's taking over where
his father had left off. He's a lad of roughly 20 years. He's 20 years old. Now he's called
king. What a lofty title for such a
young man or such a young lad. He's been raised up in the king's
court from birth, with all its privileges, wealth, unlimited
power, and prosperity. And none of these things are
really conducive of learning worldly wisdom. He was doted on, I suppose, by
his father, David. We could say spoiled, perhaps.
Spared the things other youths, other people, less fortunate
than him, would grow up to know and to live by. He just had privilege. Another quality, also not very
conducive of acquiring wisdom. For we have a saying, usually
with age and experience comes knowledge and wisdom. No doubt
Solomon had tutors and teachers to assist and to train him up,
yet these in and of themselves are not highly useful for wisdom. Knowledge, trivia, knowledge
of the world perhaps, yes, but wisdom There's a difference between
knowledge and wisdom. You can know a lot of things.
You can go to college and you can graduate and you can learn
a lot of facts and trivia. But wisdom, wisdom comes from
experience. Experience. Well, Solomon had
little experience, which again is the best teacher and look at Solomon's own words. Verses 3-7, and now this is Solomon
speaking to the Lord. 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 in or to
come out. Being a king of so great a people
was a tremendous responsibility. And he may have learned the art
of war, which would be knowledge from his father, when to retreat,
when to do this, when to do that. He may have heard the stories,
the legends of his father and Goliath and these different things.
But wisdom comes, it comes, humanly speaking, it comes from experience. We read of Solomon and his exceeding
wisdom in all manner of circumstances and situations. Solomon taught
and helped queens, kings, and sages, or intellectuals, the
whole world over. His fame was worldwide, such
as the world was. I ask the question, how did this
occur? as such wisdom, as the Lord said,
would never be seen again, wasn't seen before this time, it would
never be seen again. So that, in verse 12, so that
there was none like Thee before Thee, neither after Thee shall
any rise like unto Thee. So He had wisdom. There's absolutely
no question about it. So herein lies the answer. 1
Kings chapter 5, And verse 12, now we're talking about promises.
And look at this. 1 Kings chapter 5 and verse 12,
And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as God promised him. And there
was peace between Hyrum and Solomon, and the two made a league together.
The Lord gave Solomon wisdom as He promised him. God says, what do you want? He
says, wisdom, and the Lord gives him wisdom, and he's not going
to take it back. The Lord bound, hence, as God
promised him. We see God bound by his own words,
or another way to put that, God, he is the keeper of his word. He says he's not a man and he
should lie. He's the keeper of his word, and we're talking about
promises. He told Solomon, He was going to give them wisdom
at that age. It's a remarkable, supernatural
miracle, if you want to say it that way. And He did it. He is bound up,
as it were, by His own Word. And we serve the same God. We worship the same Christ. He
is not any different. Let's just look at a few passages
of Scripture. I'll go through them, and then
we'll look at some passages of Scripture after. I'll list these
off, but we won't turn there. As God has promised, God promised
salvation through a substitute, Genesis chapter 3. God promised
to Noah, Genesis chapter 7, if Noah entered into the ark, he
would have rest and not destruction. We all know after the fact because
we've read the history. But God promised first. God promised
to Abraham and his seed, there'd be a number that no man could
number. There would be a blessing. Genesis chapter 12. God promised
to bless Jacob at the brook Jabbok and said, thou shalt be no more
called Jacob, trickster, but Israel, the prince of God. God
declared it and he was. He bound himself by his own word. God promised to Moses that deliverance
was sure and certain and Canaan was their inheritance, their
objective. And in Exodus chapter 3 it's
where the Lord says that and then we know through the wanderings
they ended up in Canaan. Our great sovereign's history
is packed full of, and He has said, or as He, God, has promised. Now we'll take a step back from
examples and let's look at our own life. You look at your own
life, personally and practically. You and I, we can look back upon
our own histories and we must surely agree God has been good
to His Word in our own life's circumstances. He has been good
to His own Word. God has been true to His Word
in my own life and in yours as well. His proofs are in this
book. We see in this book the Son's
sacrifice. He shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins." And He did.
So we see in the book, the Word of God declaring the Son, perfect,
pure, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, dying
a sinner's death, substituting His righteousness for their ungodliness,
giving unto us His righteousness, We've seen in this book the Son's
glorification. He didn't lay in the grave. He
rose and is at the right hand of God now. Thereby, we see our justification, our
sanctification and our righteousness because of what God has said.
He is true to His own Word. Everything that He speaks in
this book, and that's all we have to go by and that's all
we want to go by. It's the simplicity in Christ.
We see what He has promised. And we look in history and we
see that it is so. But even more importantly, what
I desire for us to do is to take these personally and practically.
To look in this book and find a promise, or if you're just
daily reading and the Lord gives you a promise, His Spirit bearing
witness with your spirit, that we are His children of God, therefore
all the promises in Christ are yea and amen for all His people
and His people only. And we'll see that he's been
true. We see that he's been true. He, that is God, is always, as
with all things grace, is the first cause of everything. Let me read you something by
Mr. Spurgeon, an out-of-face checkbook. And he's quoting it at Genesis
28 verse 13 referring to Jacob. The land wherein thou liest,
Jacob, to thee will I give it. No promise, says Spurgeon, is
of private interpretation. It belongs not to one saint,
but to all believers. If, my brother or my sister,
you can in faith lay down upon a promise and take your rest
thereon, it is yours. Where Jacob lighted and tarried
and rested, there he took possession, stretching his weary length upon
the ground. With the stones of that place
for his pillows, he little fancied that he was thus entering into
ownership of the land, yet so it was. He saw in his dream that
wondrous ladder, which for all true believers unites earth and
heaven and surely where the foot of the ladder stood he must have
a right to the soil for otherwise he could not reach the divine
stairway. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Christ Jesus and as he, Christ, is ours, every
promise is ours if we will but lie down upon it in restful faith. I like that phrase. I'm going
to reread it because I like it. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Christ Jesus and as Christ is ours by covenant
agreement before the world began every promise is ours if we will
but lie down upon it in restful faith. Well that's something
I've got to do. Faith is a gift of God. It's all Grace from stem
to stern from a to Z. It's all of grace. He puts the
desire in the heart Why do we desire to pray? Why do we desire
to gather here together? Why do we desire to to fellowship? Why do we desire to continue
here the same message because he's put in our hearts. He takes
Tony heart cast out He's put a new heart in that beats and
pants after righteousness Now that's not to say that flesh
is not still present, but it doesn't rule and reign over us
Come, weary one," closing says Mr. Spurgeon, come, weary one,
use thy Lord's words as thy pillows. Lie down in peace. Dream only
of Him. Jesus is thy ladder of light. See the angels coming and going
upon Him between thy soul and thy God. And be sure that the
promise is thine own God-given portion. and that it will not
be robbery for you to take it to yourself as spoken specifically
to you." And again, people may argue,
even believers may say, well, you can't do that. How can they
argue? How can they argue? This is what
God says. I believe it. How can they argue? Well, let's look at a few examples
of God speaking His Word, and obviously it's come true. Isaiah
45. Isaiah 45, verse 22. This is God speaking. Isaiah
45 and verse 22, "...Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." We know
that people have looked unto God and they are saved. And this is all, these promises
do not, the promises are in harmony with the whole Scriptures of
God, the whole context of the covenant, the whole context of
grace, mercy and peace, the whole context of Christ and His substitutionary
work. So, you know, all the earth,
well, you're speaking about those elect that are in the earth.
We know that. His promises are not contrary
to any of His doctrines. As a matter of fact, they substantiate
them or they all work together. They're all in harmony. It's
just one big circle. He died for the elect. He loves the elect
only. Those who look unto Him, He'll be saved. They shall be
saved, he or she. Look at John chapter 6. John chapter 6. And verse 29, Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he has sent. It's God's work in you to cause
you to believe on God. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. That's a promise. It's
God's work. So ask God to do a work in you
to believe on the Son. But he also says, and I'll just
read you this one, he also says in 2 Timothy 2 and
verse 13, if we believe not, yet God abideth faithful, He
cannot deny Himself. So I don't know if that promise
is for me. He cannot deny Himself. He's put the Word out. He's put
the Word out. And whether we believe it or
not, What he's saying is he's solitary, all by himself, he's
infinitely, matchlessly holy, and he can't deny himself. And
it's true. It's definitely true. If we believe
not, yet he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. And he
will have you. If you're one of his, he will
have you. He will get you. But you will believe. You will
believe. He hears his own petitions coming
from our mouths. God hears His own petitions coming
from our mouths, placed by sweet sovereign grace in the heart
by His own Spirit. It's basically, that's what fellowship
with God is, that's what communion, that's what abiding, when He
says abide with me and I, it's basically we are answering back
and forth. You know, you call, example,
you call a dog that's yours, that you purchased, that you
bought, or you adopted, or whatever, and that dog comes to you. Where
would he go? Would he run away? No, it's obvious.
You own that dog. That dog loves you now. He sees
you're feeding it, taking care of it, whatever. You call, he's
going to come. It's face answering to face. That's what he's done
for us. And on top of that, He's bound himself up by his
word. He hears his own petitions. To believe his promise is to
trust him to the saving of our souls. Or as Luther said, here
and I stand, I can do no other. The believer can do no other.
It's like when you get your back against the wall and everything
is against you, God is for you. He's for you. Well, oh, for God
to honor His own words to us. What mercy this is indeed. To
see the promises fulfilled for us, and they're everywhere. They
are everywhere. Well, to the Lord be the glory.
May He add blessing to His word. Nathan, would you close us? which, if we think about it,
it was provided by the promise. The promise so long ago, and
you cannot lie, that your people would hear your voice, in your
time, that they would hear your voice, and we all have. Every
one of your people have heard your voice. And then they have
responded, they have come out, and with that new heart you've
given them, they have sought your word, don't, we are glad that it is
not dependent upon our salvation for us to remain. We ask, Lord, for a hunger to
return here and a thirst to hear your work again.