The Greater Key Of Solomon Book 2 Pdf
Janeth Counter
"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Matthew 12:42
Dr. Robert G. Lee said those Pharisees must have wondered at Jesus' bold statement. After all, Jesus was a carpenter's son. Solomon was born in a palace; Jesus was born in a stable. Solomon was born in Jerusalem, and Jesus was born in little Bethlehem. Solomon had many servants to wait upon him hand and foot. Jesus had none. Solomon wore his kingly robes, but Jesus wore His peasant's garb. Solomon drank from vessels of gold. Jesus had to get a drink from a Samaritan harlot. Solomon was rich beyond compare while Jesus was a pauper. Solomon had great armies, but Jesus only had a few stragglers following Him. Solomon lived in mansions; Jesus was homeless and sometimes didn't have a place to lay His head. Solomon had thousands of horses and chariots and rode in splendor. Jesus walked. How could Jesus be greater than Solomon?
Now, you talk about a wise man - Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs. He knew 3,000 proverbs and had memorized 1,500 songs. What a mind he had!Solomon knew all about the created universe. But Jesus had greater wisdom. You see, Jesus made all of the things that Solomon knew about.
We read in the Bible where Solomon studied ichthyology. He knew all about fish, but Jesus knew more. Jesus put enough fish in two empty nets to sink two boats.Solomon knew all about the cycles of the wind, but Jesus knew how to rebuke the wind and cause the Sea of Galilee to be still at His command.
Solomon built many things and employed many workers. And he was a great man to work for. Can you imagine serving in his court in all the lavish wealth? Solomon's workers were happy, but Jesus gives me joy unspeakable and full of glory.
King Solomon was incredibly wealthy. King Tut, Bill Gates, and Donald Trump will have to stand aside when it comes to wealth. Tons of gold, along with ivory and spices, were poured into Solomon's coffers. But Jesus' wealth is greater. The cattle on a thousand hills belong to Jesus, and all of the diamonds and the rubies in those hills. Every star in the sky belongs to Him.
Finally, Jesus is greater in worship. Solomon was there to lead the people in worship. That's why he built the temple, and God gave him a throne. But there's another throne, and Jesus sits upon it. Friend, Solomon no longer sits upon his throne, but Jesus sits on His! And He will never, ever be dispossessed.Like other great kings, Solomon has come and gone. All that he had is gone. But Jesus is here. He will supply you with His wisdom. He will give you water so you will never thirst again. He's preparing a place for you in heaven. And Jesus will give you joy day by day. And that's why we worship the One, the Lord Jesus, Who is greater than Solomon. He's the everlasting King and our great Savior.
Dr. Adrian Rogers, preacher/teacher of Love Worth Finding Ministries, and one of America's most respected Bible teachers. Under his 32 years of pastoral leadership, Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN, grew from 9,000 members in 1972 to more than 29,000. Most important to Dr. Rogers have been the tens and thousands of believers who have had their faith strengthened and thousands of others who have for the first time entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Dr. Rogers passed away on November 15, 2005.
So, I'm going to just tell you, I had a lot of different ways I was going to begin the sermon, but I'm just going to tell you my strategy today. I'm just going to tell you the nuts and bolts of the sermon, so you can just know right away what I'm going to try to achieve. I'm preaching today a sermon of contrast. I'm going to set up a contrast, and I'm going to contrast Solomon to Jesus Christ. And I'm going to make much of Solomon, so that I can make even more of Jesus Christ. I'm going to talk about the greatness of the wisdom, the gift of wisdom that God gave to Solomon, not so you think highly of Solomon, but so that you think highly of Jesus Christ.
I want to talk also from Proverbs 8 about the greatness of the wisdom of God displayed in physical creation, in the physical universe that surrounds us, so that you may marvel in the wisdom that God displayed in the physical universe but so that you can marvel more in the cross of Jesus Christ, because I think the wisdom of God displayed in physical creation is small compared to the wisdom of God in the cross of Jesus Christ.
And so, I'm going to talk to you also about the gift of the book of Proverbs, and the wisdom displayed in the proverbs of Solomon that we have, and the nuts and bolts of it, and the rubber meets the road, and trying to understand how to live a wise life and the value that there is in that. I want to make much of that, but I want to make even more of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, Solomon is great; Jesus Christ is greater. The wisdom of God in creation is great. The wisdom of God and the new creation and the gospel is greater.
The wisdom of God in the book of Proverbs is great, but the wisdom of God displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ is infinitely greater. That's the sermon. And so, if you get that, you get it all. So now I have to go do it. I have to find a way to make you think great thoughts of all of these things, and I'm trusting in the Holy Spirit and the Word of God simply to do it. So, let's start with Solomon. Let's try to understand just how great he was, and we'll start with the Queen of Sheba. You know who she was. She had heard a reputation, by reputation of Solomon, of this Jewish king living in Jerusalem, raining in Jerusalem - how there didn't seem to be anything that he couldn't explain.
She had this reputation from other kings, perhaps in that region, she was down in perhaps modern-day Ethiopia, somewhere down in that area, Eritrea, somewhere there, and she had by reputation, this man, Solomon. And she resolved she was going to believe enough with that reputation to make the 1,200 or so mile journey to Jerusalem and see if it was really so. I have a feeling she was a brilliant woman, and she wanted an intellectual challenge. And she wanted to go and test him with hard questions, see if she could best him, like she'd probably best all the men in her life.
So, she wanted to see if she could take Solomon on and win the chess game of conversation with him too. I don't really know what her motives were, but I do know she made the journey. She came from the ends of the earth, for a thirst for wisdom, a thirst knowledge, a seeker of truth, and she's willing to spend herself and of her resources lavishly to get it. And so, she came and maybe she came across the burning sands of the desert. In any case, you have to imagine that a 1,200-mile journey would have been arduous and difficult in that day, and so she arrives to see and to meet Solomon. Solomon, his court was arranged, she saw all of the arrangement of how his servants worked, and she brought with her gifts of spices and gold and precious stones. I don't think she realized just how common gold had become in Jerusalem at that point, but she brought it anyway. And I wonder if Solomon's advisor said, "Put it over there with the rest," but she did bring some spices that he hadn't had before, and she brought her questions. She came to ply him with difficult questions.
Now, you have to know how infrequently this happens in life - how rare it is that reality exceeds great expectations. It doesn't happen often, but it happened in this case. There was no breath left in her. And she said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true, but I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes, indeed not even half was told me, in wisdom and wealth, you have far exceeded the report I heard, how happy your men must be, how happy your officials who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom" (1 Kings 10:6-8).
Now, just stop there. I just want to jump ahead to my purpose in the sermon: how happy will we be to stand in Jesus presence and hear His words for all eternity? Just to stand in the presence of the King of kings and listen to Jesus speaking. Oh, what joy that will be for us, just to hear him speaking to each one of us who have believed in him individually. But she's just saying to Solomon, how happy they are to stand and listen to you. "Praise be to the Lord your God," she said, "who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel, because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, He has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness" (1 Kings 10:9). She was a woman deeply satisfied by her journey. She was happy she made the journey; she went away filled with praise for the Lord, who had given such wisdom to a man.
Solomon was indeed the wisest man who had ever lived. But a thousand years later, one of Solomon's own descendants was born, 26 generations later. He was supposedly the son of a carpenter; He was before his calling into ministry a carpenter himself. He went around teaching and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Of course, I'm speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, and this is the claim one day that Jesus made concerning Himself. In Matthew 12:42, speaking to his fellow citizens there in Capernaum, who knew Him well - had kind of watched Him from the very beginning, who understood who He was in a physical sense, but who greatly underestimated who he truly was -4 He said this, "The queen of the south will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here." And it's in the name of that one, the one greater than Solomon that I stand and preach to you today.
Jesus is infinitely greater than Solomon, and I want to explain how. I want to show how Jesus is the wisdom of God for us. Not merely that he speaks wisdom or He displayed wisdom, or He lived a wise life, but how He actually is wisdom from God for us. We're going to see that in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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