I want to read another passage
of scripture about Solomon. If you'll turn to 1 Kings chapter
3. If you've never read this portion
of scripture, this will be a special blessing to you. 1 Kings chapter
3, beginning with verse 5. 1 Kings 3.5, the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall
give thee. 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 in uprightness
of heart with thee, 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. 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, 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 him, 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 an understanding heart,
so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee
shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that
which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there
shall not be any among the kings like unto thee, all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways
to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk,
then I will lengthen thy days." Now turn back to 1 Kings 10, and if you'll read it home later,
all of 1 Kings 10, but I just want to read a portion of it,
verse 21, and all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold,
and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were
of pure gold. None were of silver. It was nothing
accounted of in the days of Solomon. The king had at sea a navy of
Tarshish, and then go down to verse 23, the king Solomon exceeded
all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. Verse
24, And all the earth sought the face of Solomon to hear his
wisdom which God had put in his heart. Verse 27, And the king
made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he
to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale for abundance.
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt and linen yarn.
You just go on talking about his in chapter 3 of his wisdom,
and then in his riches in chapter 10. And down in Sheba, the Queen
of Sheba heard about Solomon. She heard about his wisdom. She heard about the glory of
his kingdom. She heard about his riches. And
so she came from a great way off. She came a long distance. We know what a distance it was
due to the means of travel. She came by camel, or she came
by chariot, and it took a long time. And through great personal
sacrifice, great personal sacrifice, she left her home, she left her
kingdom, she left her family, she left the things that were
dear to her, and she came all the way to Jerusalem. to hear
the wisdom of Solomon, to see the glory of Solomon's kingdom,
to see the riches of Solomon. And she communed with him all
that was in her heart, and it says here in chapter 10 of verse
1, it says, and she came to prove him with hard questions. Hard
questions. I don't know what the questions
were that she She put to Solomon. I think, like one writer said,
they had a lot to do with the natural and the moral and the
civil, since they were both rulers, since they both had great kingdoms.
She had a great kingdom, too. But I just believe that she had
some things to ask him about God. Because she poured out,
it says, all that was in her heart, she poured out to Solomon.
And he kept nothing from her. It says, verse 3, that Solomon
told her all her questions, all her words, not anything hid from
the king which he told her not. Now, Christ our Lord said this
woman, this woman, was going to rise up in judgment against
this generation. against this generation. He was
talking about, of course, his generation, I'm sure talking
about our generation, that she was going to rise up from the
grave and be a witness in the judgment, a witness against,
against this generation. For he says, she came so far,
she came with such great personal sacrifice to hear the wisdom
of Solomon and see the glory of Solomon. And he said, Behold,
one greater than Solomon's here. And you won't cross the street
to listen to him. You won't ask him a question.
In him are all the... You take in Solomon were great
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, but in Christ are all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Solomon had a lot, but Christ
is everything. Solomon had glory, but Christ
is all glory. All glory. And as I sat today
and thought about this message and studied, it just kept coming
back to me, that first verse. She came, she came, and I'm just
sure she pulled her chair up. After he had escorted her around
the kingdom and showed her some things, you know, and her breath
was taken away and no spirit left in her, and she realized
that she was in the presence of the wisest man on earth. And
she just pulled her chair up and she sat there and she confronted
him with things that she'd been wanting to know the answer to
all her life. She just confronted him, many
hard questions, hard questions. I got some hard questions tonight,
and there's only one place that I can find the answer, and that's
that one that's infinitely greater than Solomon. Just suppose, just
suppose right now, as Brother Cecil prayed a moment ago, may
the presence of the one who's infinitely greater than Solomon
be here tonight. May his presence be here. And
he said where two or three are met in my name, I'll be with
them, I'll be in their midst. Suppose we had the reality of
his presence and we could just, every one of us, sit down at
his feet and gather around him, what would you ask him? What
would you ask him? You see, this is what's interesting
when I looked over there at 1 Kings. Solomon had some wisdom before
God gave him wisdom. The Lord said, what do you want,
Solomon? And he was wise enough to ask
for wisdom. He was wise enough to ask for
wisdom. And there's going to have to be some foundation on
which to lay something that God is pleased to give. And I know
that a lot of people today, if we were to say, he's here and
we can ask him anything, it would be questions like this. When
will you restore the kingdom? Or will the church go through
the tribulation? I had a fellow who wrote me that
the other day, wanting to know if I thought the church would go
through the tribulation. He's real disturbed about it.
And then two of the disciples, one wanted to sit on his right
hand and one on his left hand when he came into his kingdom.
So many questions. Would you be concerned about
those things? Let me give you about five or
six questions that, as I thought about it this morning and this
afternoon in preparing this message, I believe these are the five
or six most important questions. These are hard questions. These
are unanswerable questions except by him and in him. The first
one is found in Psalm 8. Psalm chapter 8. This is the
first question that I think needs to be considered as we sit at
the feet of one infinitely greater than Solomon. Infinitely greater
than Solomon. The whole one greater than Solomon
is here. You know what I'd ask him? I
need to know the answer to this question. David asked it. He
said in Psalm 8, verse 3, Lord, when I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, when I look at the heavens, the greatness
of them, the sun and the moon and the stars which thou hast
ordained, when I consider the greatness of creation, when I
consider the greatness of God's power in making these things.
Do you know, my friend, do you realize just how great are the
heavens? The heavens declare the glory
of God. We stand here and look at a little old star twinkling
there. There are millions of stars back of that one just as
far away as that one is. It's so vast, it's unexplainable. It's so infinite. And yet the
heaven of heavens will not contain God. Man," this is what he asks
in verse 4, "'Lord, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon, the stars, which thou hast ordained, what
is man that thou art mindful of him?' What is man that thou
art mindful of him, and the Son of Man that thou visitest him?"
Now, I know when we're sitting in our easy chair in our rocker
at home and and the wife's in the kitchen, the children are
playing around the floor, and the telephone rings, it's for
us, and maybe down at the plant they've had a breakdown, they've
got to have you. We feel pretty big and important,
you know. Cecil, you get called out every
once in a while, they make it sound like the plant's going
to close up if you don't get down here, you know. It makes
you feel pretty important, but David, he says, Not when I consider,
is this phone call for me, or is this my wife and my children,
but when I consider the heavens, whoo, that's different. When
I look at the vastness of God's universe, the vastness of the
creation, the vastness of the empire, of the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, and then think of myself, my question is, Lord,
what am I? that you should even be mindful
of my existence." It's infinitely this question
of man in the presence of God greater than a little old ant
in your presence. That ant is bigger to you than
you are to God. He said he holds the nations
as a drop in the bucket. He holds the nations as a drop
in the bucket, and considereth the inhabitants thereof as grasshoppers. What is man? Isaiah says he's
grass. All the goodliness of man is
as the flower of the field, the grass withereth and the flower
fadeth. David said in Psalm 62, 9, man's
a liar. Now you notice this, I looked
that up. You look it up with me. Psalm 62 verse 9. He didn't
say man's a liar. He didn't say man is a prevaricator. He didn't say man doesn't tell
the truth. He says in Psalm 62 verse 9,
look at it. Surely men of low degree of vanity
and men of high degree are a liar. Man is a liar. He's not only
a liar, but he's a liar himself. That's when we read over in Romans,
a natural man, somebody quotes it this way, is at enmity with
God. That's not what it says. It says
a natural mind is enmity. Man is a lie. David said we're
dust. Paul said we're aliens, foreigners,
strangers, ungodly sinners. And that's when David, David
says, Lord God, sitting at the feet of him who is infinitely
greater than Solomon, wisdom personified, Lord, when I consider
thy kingdom and glory and throne and might and power and wisdom
and creation, what is main? Why, Lord, why? Tell me, I want
an answer for this. What is a human being? What is
one single person that thou art mindful of him? I think the answer
would come back, nothing, except for one person,
and that's Christ. And that's the reason he turned
to Hebrews 2. I really believe, my friends, that God has taught
me this truth, that the only regard that Almighty God has
for man is in Christ the Son of Man. I think the only way
that God can look upon us, can regard us, can consider us, can
love us, can accept us, is as we are in Christ. I really believe
that. That's the reason I believe when
Paul chose to quote that scripture from Psalms, he applied it to
Christ. When I consider thy heavens the
work of thy hands, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou made him a
little lower than the angels, but thou hast," look at verse
8, "...and thou hast put all things in subjection under his
feet. For in that he put all in subjection unto him, he left
nothing that is not put unto him. But now we see not yet all
things put unto him, He's not talking about you and me there,
he's talking about Christ. Verse 8, but we see Jesus, who was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man. Every man whom God loves
is in Christ. Every man, Cecil, of whom God
is mindful, he's mindful of them because he's mindful of his son.
For a time, the Lord Jesus Christ was made a little lower than
the angel. Yes, he was. He was made flesh. For a time,
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is man? Lord, when I consider
the heavens, when I consider the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the things that thou hast made, thy kingdom,
thy greatness, thy holiness, thy righteousness, thy righteous
judgment, what is this grasshopper? that you are mindful of him.
One reason, because he who is my son, my beloved son, was made
in the likeness of that man and representative for that man,
and that man was chosen in him and regarded in him and loved
in him, and for a time Jesus Christ was made man. And that
got God's attention. I don't know how to word it in
any way but that. Because we were in his son and his son represented
us. If it had not been for that transaction
and for that covenant of grace and for that act of mercy, he
would have regarded us like he did the fallen devils who were
reserved under chains in everlasting darkness. What is man that art
mindful of him? Man is considered, chosen, loved,
saved, accepted in Christ. who was a man, lower than the
angels. But our Lord left this earth
and went back to glory, and positionally, that's where we are now. We're
seated in Christ, the right hand of God. I can't stay on that one any
longer. Let's turn to Job. Another question I would ask
him. These are hard questions, and these are questions that
Job chapter 9, that should be dealt with. We've
been led to believe, we've been led to believe by religionists
and by teachers of religion and theology. It's whoop-de-doo,
whoop-de-doo hollers and make your decision for Jesus and you
don't want to go to hell, you want to go to heaven. Believe,
believe, believe. There's got to be some answers
for the serious heart, for the determined heart, for the inquiring
heart. Who is the Lord that I may know
him? Who is the Lord that I may serve him? Who is the Lord that
I may find in him a saving interest? There's got to be some serious
answers to some hard questions. That's the reason we're exhorted
to study, to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need it
not to be ashamed. You don't have to make it complicated,
you don't have to reveal your intellectual accomplishments,
you just have to The Spirit of God become your teacher. The
Lord Jesus Christ, just like this woman came to Solomon, and
he was, Solomon in all his wisdom yet was with simplicity in his
dealings. Like the harlot and the woman
brought him the child, you remember the story? That was wisdom. He said, just cut it in half
and give one of them half and the other one half. That's simple,
wasn't it? But he brought out the truth,
you know. Let her have it, you know, the true mother, let her
have it. His wisdom was simplified. And when you come to questions,
what is man? On the basis of thy creation
and glory and greatness, now on the basis of, I'm good as
some of the folks down at your church, you're right about that.
You're absolutely right. You're probably better than a
lot of them, because this is a hospital for sick souls, you
see. This is a place for sinners.
You're probably better than a lot of them. Anybody that says that
to you, I'm good as you are down at church, you sure are, I'm
sure you are. But we're sinners down there, you know. God saved
sinners. We're ungodly, and Christ died for the ungodly. That'll
put a fellow back on his heels, you know. But we've got the thing
is, he said, what is man compared to one another? We're pretty
good fellows, but when I consider thy greatness, what is man? Well, I'll tell you, he's nothing.
But in Christ, who was made a little lower than the angels, he's accepted
and loved and chosen and redeemed. by God Almighty. Now watch the
second question, Job 9, verse 2. Then Job answered and said,
I know it's so of a truth, but how should man be just with God? How can man be just with God? That's a pretty good question
to handle, isn't it? That's a pretty good question.
Let's look at Job 25 and we'll run into it again. Job 25. Verse
4, this is a pretty good question to handle here. And you know
the amazing thing is that about 90% of the church members who
claim to be on their way to heaven and claim to be saved and claim
to be children of God can't answer that question. They can't answer
that question. Verse 4 of Job 25, how then can
man be justified with God? You know what justified means?
It means without guilt. It means without guilt. That's
just as if I had never seen it. It means without guilt, without
charge, without condemnation. Read on. How can he be clean,
C-L-E-A-N, clean? Not half clean or partly clean
or almost clean, but clean. Clean hands and a pure heart.
How can he be clean? It's born of a woman. Behold,
even to the moon it shineth not. The stars are not pure in God's
sight. Now this is the cleanliness we're talking about. Cleanliness
in God's sight. A righteousness so pure that
even God's holy eyes can find no fault with it. How can a man
be that clean? justified to such an extent that
even God, who sees spots on the stars and spots on the moon,
and even the stars are not clean in His sight and shineth not,
in the sight of Him, we must have a purity and a cleanliness
and a holiness that God can't find any fault with. Now how
can that be? Verse 6 says, How much less man
that is a worm in the son of man. Well, the law can't do it. The law can't do it, and my works
can't do it, and there are no ceremonies that can do it. Let's
see if we can find the answer at the feet of Christ. Romans
3. In Romans 3, I want to go back to verse 19, just briefly. Romans 3, 19. that what thing soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mount
may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Guilty. Therefore, this is established
by the deeds of the law, shall no flesh be justified, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of
God, this righteousness I was talking about, this purity, this
cleanliness, this holiness that even God can't find any fault
with, Without the law, it'll have to be without the law because
we can't keep the law, it's manifested, it's revealed, and even the law
and the prophets have told about it. It's the righteousness of
God, verse 22, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. There's no difference. For everybody's
sinned and comes short of the glory of God, but we're freely,
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, and this is the way it was done. God sent
forth his Son, he sent his Son into the world through the virgin's
womb in human flesh to be a propitiation, to be a sin offering, to be a
mercy seat through faith in his blood to declare God's righteousness
for the remission of sins that have passed, even for those in
Old Testament days. through the long-suffering of
God. He put up with their sins through his long-suffering, awaiting
the coming of his Son. To declare, I say, at this time,
God's righteousness, that God may be just and the justifier
of him which believes in Jesus. That's the way God can be just,
holy, and yet he can accept folks like us, because in Christ we
justify. In Christ we have that righteousness.
It's imputed. It's reckoned our account, it's
charged unto us, it is much ours as if we did it ourselves because
Christ did it for us as our representative. And he died and his blood cleansed
us from all sin. The blood of Christ cleansed
us from all sin. We sit there at his feet. Lord,
how can one so dirty be so clean? How can one so ungodly be so
holy? How can one so guilty be so innocent? Because in Christ, all of your
guilt is put away, and all of your filth is put away, and you
have a righteousness, you're robed in a perfect, spotless
righteousness. The just for the unjust, that
the unjust might be just. The sinless became sinful, that
the sinful might be sinless. Substitution. All right. Here's
the third question, over here in John 3. And a lot of times
preachers preach from this, have done it myself, and probably
will do it again. Because it makes good preaching. But we
Nicodemus asks a question here that's a hard question. It's
a pretty hard question. In fact, there's nobody here
can answer it. The Lord Jesus only one that can answer it. Christ said in John 3 verse 3,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Here our Lord is standing here talking to a full grown man.
And though this man was a religious man and a theologian and a teacher
of the scripture and a ruler of the Jews, he didn't understand
spiritual things. He didn't comprehend mysteries
of the kingdom and the grace of God and regeneration and righteousness. And Christ said, you've got to
be born again. And he said in verse 4, how can
a man be born when he's old? How can a man be born when he's
old? That's a good question, John.
How can a man be born when he's old? Christ said you must be
born again. Well, turn back to John 1. Our
Lord gives us the answer. These are hard questions. How
can a man be born when he's old? It says in John 1, verse 12,
as many as received him, to them gave he the privilege or the
right or the power to become sons of God. even to them that
believe on his name, which were born, which were born, not of
blood." That is, it's not by family inheritance. It's not
something that daddy and mother can pass on to their children.
You just have to admit that, I don't know whether I'd want
it that way. You know, we think, well, we'd sure like for it to
be that way, but some of you here didn't have saved parents,
did you? And if you hadn't, you wouldn't
be saved yourself. See what I'm saying? It works
both ways. If some of you here got children,
you'd like to see them saved and you wish you could pass it
along to them, but you think back now, maybe you wouldn't
be saved yourself because your mother and daddy might not even
have known the Lord. He says it's not of blood. It's
not a family inheritance. It's not something you can pass
along to your children. Read on. It's not of the will
of the flesh. It's not by self-determination. No man is going to say, well,
I'm going to be saved. I'm going to determine that I'm going to
be saved. No, sir, it's not that way. It's not of the will of
man. That is, we can pray for our friends, but we can't regenerate
them. We can witness to our friends, but we can't regenerate them.
It says this new birth is of God. God can give a man new life. The Father wills it, the Spirit
affects it, and the Son purchases it. Let's go on, chapter 14 of
John, quickly. Here's another question that
I want to put to the one greater than Solomon. As I think about
this woman who's come from so far, she's nobody's fool herself,
or she wouldn't be the queen of Sheba. But she's sitting at
the feet of the wisest man on earth, and she's asking him some
hard questions. And here we are at the feet of
our Lord and I've got some, all of these men have given me some
hard questions. And he satisfies them one at
a time. He satisfies them through his
word. The answer's right here. The answer's right here. We use
other books, commentaries and all to help us. To help us translate,
help us interpret, help us do, but the answer's right here.
Make much of the word. Don't come to this place where
you say, I can't understand the Bible. The Bible's a hard book
to read. You know, these passages I've
read tonight, weren't they beautiful? I don't see anything hard about
them. They're just so rich and beautiful. I think the devil throws up a
smoke screen for us to hide behind, you know, and excuse our laziness
about the Scriptures. Let's look at this in John 14.
Here's a question here. Our Lord said in verse 3, And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I
will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may
be also. And where I go, you know, and
the way you know. And Thomas said, Lord, we don't
know where you're going. How can we know the way? How can we know the way? Isn't
that a good question? Lord, what is the way? What is the way? I go over here
in this preacher saying, if you want to be saved, I'll tell you
what you've got to do. You've got to make this kind
of restitution. If you've been divorced, you've
got to get divorced again, go back and dig up your wife and
marry her again. And if you've done this, you've
got to make a restitution for that. Another preacher says,
well, the thing you've got to do is be baptized, you know,
obey the gospel by being baptized. And another one says, you've
got to be a Catholic, you've got to be sprinkled and then
confirmed and then catechized and then You've got to be a faithful
Catholic, another says you've got to be a Baptist, another
says you've got to be a Presbyterian, another says you've got to have
hands laid on you to receive the Holy Ghost, another one says
this. And I sit down at the feet of him, who is my Solomon. And he says to me, you believe
in God, believe in me. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places, and I go to prepare a place for you. And
where I go, you know. Where I go, I go to the Father.
I go to the right hand of the Majesty on high. And you know
the way." And I said, Lord, I don't know the way. I've heard so much
confusion, so many strange voices, and so many people, like Bob
the Mormon, say one thing to you this afternoon, and the Jehovah
Witnesses come with some other. Tommy Wright and the Baptists
come with something else, and the Methodists with something
else. Just what is the way? All right, listen, verse 6. And
Jesus said unto him, I'm the way. I'm the way. That's sufficient hermeneutic.
I'm the way. I am the way. I don't need to
study Joseph Smith. I'm satisfied with Jesus Christ.
I don't need to study Pope John Paul. I'm satisfied with Jesus
Christ. I don't need to study Mary Baker
Eddy or read anything she ever wrote. Christ Jesus is my Savior
and I'm complete in Him. If he's not the way, there isn't
any way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. A man said to Spurgeon one time, you show me a verse
of scripture and I'll believe it. And Spurgeon replied, it's
not one verse or a thousand verses that'll save you, it's Jesus
Christ that's your Savior. And he said those people who
fled to the city of refuge were not delivered by reading the
signs, they were delivered by entering the city. You follow
me? Well, I read Signpost number
4 down by number 7, and it says this. Well, you can get shot
right out there reading those signs, and you can perish standing
here reading the way in black and white, because the way is
not words, it's a person. The way is not a doctrine, it's
a person. The way is not a system of theology, it's a person. And
I see that fellow out there reading the signpost there, you know,
John 14, 12, the city of refuge is that way. Well, I believe
that, I sure believe that. And I go over here, Romans 10,
9 and 10, arrow pointing that way, that's the Roman road, and
he's going to get killed standing right up there. He better ski-daddle
down and get in the city of refuge. He better get down there where
the rock is, where the blood is. He better get down there
where the gates close about him and protect him in Christ, in
Christ. Christ said, Thomas said, we
don't know where you're going. What's the way? He said, I'm
the way. I'm the way. I'm the way. All right, there's another, there's
another question. 1 Corinthians 15. This is a hard
one. This is a hard one. This is a
hard one, Lord. If you'd give us the answer to
this one. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 35, some man will say,
how are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?
And men can take life, but they can't restore it. And I'm a dying
man. I know I'm standing here tonight
and I've stood here for a lot of years and talk about 29, 30
years and so forth and reading John Calvin died and he's one
year older than I am, Charles Spurgeon died and he's three
years older than I am. And it brings me to understand
that I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And I'd like
to have some answers to some questions that I didn't even
think about years ago. And how are the dead raised up,
and of what body do they come? Men can take life, but they can't
restore it. They can bury dead people, but
they can't raise them. All we can do is take them down
and put them in a box and put them in the ground, and that's
all we can do. We can talk about resurrection, but we don't know
one answer to resurrection. We don't know one answer to life
after death. We don't have one answer to how
the dead are raised. But I'll tell you who does have
it. The one who has the answers is the one who said, I am the
resurrection and the life. I'm the resurrection. Now turn
to Philippians chapter 3. I am the resurrection. He's the
resurrection. And you know, he gives us some
answers. In Philippians chapter 3, verse
20, Paul says that our conversation, our citizenship, is in heaven. From whence also
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself, who
shall himself change our bowel body. He's going to change it.
He's going to change it. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. For
the trumpet shall sound, and the Lord shall come, and the
dead shall be raised, and they which are living shall be changed.
And our vile bodies are going to be changed from corruptible
to incorruptible, mortal to immortal, from weak to strong, from shame
to glory, and it will be fashioned like unto his glorious body. That's what the dead are going
to be like. With what body do they come? A body like unto his
glorious body. according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. In closing, I think there are
some other questions that we deal with. I believe that we
were sitting at the feet of him who is infinitely greater than
Solomon. The disciples and others ask
him, one day Peter said, How many times shall I forgive my
brother? That's important to him. That's important. How many times shall I forgive
my brother? And you know old Peter thought he was going a
long ways. He said seven times? He thought that's pretty good.
I imagine he felt real good about that, Ronnie. Seven times? That's
a lot of times. I think you really stretched
it a little bit. I think you wanted to say two
or three, but you said seven? And the Lord said, Peter, 70
times seven? 490 times? That's the essence of love and
grace. Somebody said our faith determines
our attitude, and our attitude determines our action. Three
things amaze me. This is what our Lord is saying
in Matthew 12. Three things amaze me. Number
one, that men have no more interest than they do about these questions. This Queen of Sheba was so interested,
so interested, curious about the wisdom of Solomon. the wealth
of Solomon, the glory of Solomon. She came so far, so far at such
great personal sacrifice to sit at his feet and listen. And yet
we don't have that kind of interest. And then this is what bothers
me. Secondly, three things amaze me. That's the first one. Here's
the second thing that amazes me, is the sources to which men
go to find the answers for their spiritual questions. That amazes
me. and how men rest their souls in the hands of such weak men,
such foolish men. They rest their souls in the
hands of these men. I see this fella, this pope,
dressed up in the hat and the long robes and carrying that
stick, you know, and all that gold around him and carrying
him around on that thing, and I say that I try to picture the
Apostle Peter allowing men to do that, to kiss his ring and
to bless people, stuff like that. And I say, he wouldn't even be
a party to this horrible stuff. And yet folks rest their salvation
in that. But they won't come to Christ.
And then here's the third thing that amazes me and bothers me.
Those who claim to believe Christ who claim to love Christ, who
claim to know something of his wisdom, seem to rest content
where they are. There's so little hunger and
thirst for righteousness, there's so little desire for spiritual
growth, there's so little desire for more knowledge. As Paul said,
oh that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Paul
knew him. But he wanted to know him more
intimately, more personally, wanted to know more about him.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
they shall be filled. I've got so many questions, and
I know you have, and I want them answered. I know in part, I prophesy
in part, and that which is perfect is come, and I shall know as
I have been known. But I'm still hungry, aren't
you? I want some answers.