Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: solomon

  • WE do not presume

    God’s Righteous Judgment

    Romans 2:

    .. do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

    So I ask you: are you repentant? Are you sorry for your sins? Shouldn’t we confess our sins against God? Yet repentance demands both confession and turning back to the way of righteousness.

    The LORD is God and we are not! Bow down, o man of dust, to the One Who IS and was and will be forever, the LORD!

    WE seem to have forgotten

    Listen to the lyrics of our music. Much ado about ‘us,’ or ‘me,’ some about ‘you’ and even a little about God. Not so surprising in our worldly wireless abyss of media, but subtly self-centered in an emotional entertainment of worship music. Paul cautions the church at Rome in the preceding verse:,

    3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 

    Who are we to claim Christ with words rarely mentioning Jesus by Name?

    While we rail against the outside world, ‘christians’ claim WE are a people favored by God. Was fallen Israel so different after Solomon? A fallen nation abandons God’s favor for freedoms of over-expression. We accuse each other of forgetting our roots, never once claiming that we have forgotten the Lord.

    Prayer of Humble Access

    We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.  …

    What presumption that the Lord God should accept our everyday sin without just punishment or consequence. Most certainly this age-old problem of sin confronts every created being of every generation.

    13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

    Regardless of your church traditions of worship and the law, the Lord must judge rightly. Listen to law or ordinance with indifference or never consider it, yet the Lord must judge sinners.

    Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this Law.

    God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. – Romans 2:16b ESV

    Presumption

    Look to today’s news  (or news of any era); presumptuous leaders rise to prominence, replacing our presumptions of yesterday. I speak not only of a president, leader or another country or political party, but of all ambitious men and women. 

    Can any stand before the Throne of the Almighty with a claim of innocence? The time of their judgment will soon enough be at hand, as it has been in every generation.

    Ecclesiastes 1(ESV)

    All Is Vanity
    1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

    We hear accusations and counter-claims from the rich and powerful. Yet even Solomon recognized the inevitable fall of a mighty kingdom given to his leadership. Solomon advised:

    Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake…

    [to the messenger of the media, if you prefer]

    For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear. – Ecclesiastes 5:6a,7

    WE presume much in the contention of carefully-crafted words and excesses of mistaken condemnations. Agendas of man will fail without the purpose of the Lord.

    The antonyms of presumption are knowledge, truth and humility.

    God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

    psalm 5:

    Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.

    For there is no truth in their mouth;
    their inmost self is destruction;
    their throat is an open grave;
    they flatter with their tongue.

    Make them bear their guilt, O God;
    let them fall by their own counsels;
    because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
    for they have rebelled against you.

    Truth

    Who can we believe?

    Only God; only the humble. (May the Lord make us humble before Him.)

    John 1:

    14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

    Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6

    And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Matthew 23:12 KJV

    Confession of the humble before God

    Prior to communion with our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus; prior to our confession: “We do not presume…” Our hearts ought to have come to a more complete acknowledgement of our sin.

    Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness..

    Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake…

    The simplicity of Christ’s Sacrifice for us: humility on a cross does not presume forgiveness, but the love of God for repentant sinners.

    Father, forgive us, for we do not know the Sacrifice of Your love.

     

  • Banquet of the King in the House of Wisdom – 7

    Banquet of the King in the House of Wisdom – 7

    A casual quest for wisdom’s banquet

    We have explored wisdom in this series for the most part from the Bible’s book of Proverbs.  Solomon’s fame, fortune and riches brought leaders to his court seeking ‘words of wisdom.’ 

    I suppose they would ask: What can I learn about the success of this wise King? Perhaps if I could be wise like Solomon I could replicate his riches.

    Powerful leaders point uninformed others to places which will keep them in their place. The masses of humanity for the most part have remained uneducated and therefore cared little about wisdom.  Even the faithful have not been told God’s truth. So few have have read the truth recorded in scripture.

    A thousand years after David and Solomon the Messiah Jesus came into this world and proclaimed:

    “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ – John 14:6

    Just like those who had come to Solomon for wisdom, people often asked Jesus about the Kingdom of Heaven, His Kingdom.

    An uncomfortable truth

    One day I saw a friend preparing for a great banquet for a wedding of important guests. As guests began to arrive in their tuxedos and gowns I asked a well-dressed guard at the door if I could enter briefly to greet my friend. The attendant guard of the door graciously agreed.

    I became increasingly uncomfortable as guests arrived, knowing that I had not dressed in the formal attire of arriving guests. We didn’t belong at this celebration for the bride and groom, which was about to begin.

    At the time I couldn’t help recalling  the uncomfortable ending of Jesus’ parable about the wedding feast.

    Just as the truth of wisdom makes us a little uncomfortable, so do the truths of death, judgment and eternal life.

    Until the days of Luther (and Gutenberg) most men could not read the Bible. Women rarely could read at all. Yet even now men and women who claim to seek wisdom fail to read the wisdom of the Bible.

    Perhaps a few will make brief inquiry about God in an uncomfortable place, a church. Doesn’t it make us feel like the uninvited wedding guest?

     Matthew 22

    2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast…

    As pointed out previously in this series:

    • “they would not come.”
    • Other servants invited them again, but the invited guests refused.
      • Some ignored the invitation and went back to work.
      • Others of the chosen killed the messengers!

    7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

    • He sent messengers to invite as many as they could find.
    • Other guests filled the wedding hall.

      Now the King enters the festivities. As he looks about the room with joy the King notices a man like me (not appropriately prepared for the great feast).

    11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants,

    ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.

    The outer darkness of the fool

    Are you fearful? Here is the wise and all-powerful King and He judges you unfit for the feast. The King’s servants cast you into eternal darkness.

    Solomon and the Bible have had much to say about darkness, which is always contrasted with light and good.

    The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know over what they stumble. – Proverbs 4:19

    Surely the deep darkness of which Jesus speaks is Hell!

    In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

    14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

    Are you invited?

    Such a staggering thought that the King of Kings would judge your sin!  (And mine, as well.) Therefore we fear Hell, the place of eternal punishment so much deserved by all.

    In fact no reprieve can be bought, which was a catalyst of the Reformation.

    Are you an ‘outsider’ who is invited, OR do you just tiptoe in the door of the King to hear His wisdom?

    Because no family ties, riches or religious displays will get you into the banquet of the Lord, an invitation is required.

    Other wisdom of the Son

    Jesus IS the Son of Man and Son of God! Christ came to sinners as a sacrifice for our innumerable sins. Jesus frequently speaks wisdom to the crowds and Apostles, even explaining the meaning of parables.

    Have you read the Gospel? Find your invitation to the banquet of the King and embrace His righteous wisdom in this Good News for all.

     

     

     

  • Banquet of the King in the House of Wisdom – 5

    Banquet of the King in the House of Wisdom – 5

    Wisdom and King Solomon

    2 Chronicles 1:

    Solomon the son of David established himself in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

    In case you came into our series late, Part 1:

    We have explored great wisdom shared with us mostly from Proverbs, wisdom of kings and of leaders. The Bible’s wisdom whispers to the wise, yet our experience resounds with shouts of fools.

    How did a wise and powerful King Solomon begin his reign over a united Israel at the height of its glory? In prayer.

    9 O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

    2 Chronicles 1:10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”

    Leadership and Wisdom

    Would a king or president, prince, premier or prime minister pray now to God for wisdom? Though we might hope for our leader’s wise guidance from God, political leaders and kings lead the people astray, rarely calling on God for direction.

    1 Kings 4:

    29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men…

    32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005…

    34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

    Yet an older King Solomon would lament:

    Nothing is new under the sun.

    What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9

    Certainly for kings and presidents: All is vanity. 

    No man can accomplish in this brief breath of life even a portion of what God can do.

    Ten centuries later (AD 1st c.)

    The LORD, therefore, would send to us another son of David. In Person and in power, a Son of Man would speak the words of life in parables. His words show the way, are the truth and will be the life for those who believe. He invites common sinners to the banquet table of of the King. 

    This son of David, son of adam invites you to the wisdom of heaven. You with ears to hear hear the living word from the house of eternal wisdom. Hear the good news of the King who invites you to His banquet.

    To be continued…