Back in verse 1 first Kings 9
or 10 1 first Kings 10 1 when the Queen of Sheba heard of the
fame of Solomon Concerning the name of the Lord she came to
prove him With hard questions now this
story Verses 1 through 13 is a rich and beautiful picture
of Christ and his gospel and Solomon represents Christ in
this story Queen of Sheba had heard of him And she had to see
for herself What people described as the the glory of Solomon and
his wealth and wisdom? and When she came and spent some
time with him she realized that nobody could even express it
in words and Queen of Sheba here in this story as we'll look through
it. We'll only look at a couple of verses Tonight but um We'll see that this Queen represents
a sinner that God saves This is a sinner upon whom the Lord
has bestowed his grace coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and
and Being enthralled with him and
falling in love with him Even before a sinner hears the gospel
and is converted The grace of God is at work in the case of
those whom God has loved From the foundation of the world and
chosen and predestinated to be like his son Grace begins before
the sinner even knows who the Lord is this Queen is Was interested
she wanted to hear more and she wanted to go and see for herself
What she was hearing about And she wasn't interested When she
went to saw Solomon. I remember he's wise in everything. He's a he's the wisest man that
ever lived according to God That was mere mortal man The wisest
sinner that ever lived But the queen wasn't interested in learning,
you know, better farming techniques, for example. She might want to
learn because as queen of a country, you know, that might be something
she'd be interested in, or a better system of labor management and
things like that, having to do with running the kingdom. Solomon's
amazing fleet of ships that was bringing so much wealth back
to the country, she might have wanted to learn more about that.
But no, it says she wasn't interested in any of that. things that most heads of state
might well be interested in, but Solomon was wise like nobody
and would be a wealth of knowledge on all of that, anything like
that. But God had given this queen,
she's the sinner that God saves, the sinner that God has mercy
on, because God had given her an interest in the man himself. That's what happens when you
hear of Christ for the first time, really, when you really
hear, you hear the gospel for the very first time and you begin
to hear the truth of Christ himself. She wanted to know concerning
the name of the Lord. What do you know concerning the
name of the Lord? The character and attributes
of the God of Solomon. That's what she was interested
in. And all of those, all of God's attributes, his character,
is seen and magnified in the person of Christ. That's where
you go. Solomon, remember, is Christ.
If you want to know who God is, and that's what she was saying,
I want to know what you know concerning the name of the Lord.
Where are you going to go? Go to Christ. Christ is God in
human flesh. Christ, it says, declared God when he
came. He declared God, he made manifest.
No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son hath
declared him or revealed him, I think it says in the King James.
It says declared or revealed one, and they mean the same thing
here. the Lord, the only way you're
gonna find out who God is is to find out who Christ is. So every attribute of God is
magnified and glorified in his son. You remember John 17, when
the Lord said, the hours come, now glorify me that I may glorify
you. And the people see the glory
of Christ, they're seeing the glory of God in his face. And
then at some point in every believer's life, by the grace of God Almighty,
it comes to pass that it's not about getting to heaven anymore.
You know what I mean by that, you believers? It comes to pass
at some time in your life that it's not about just getting to
heaven anymore. It's not, the whole religion
is in the wrong business. The religion of this world is
in the wrong business. It's not even about that anymore. At some
point, you're not interested so much in the benefits of being
saved. that religion so much majors
on, the idea of walking an aisle or rededicating your life or
making a decision for God, all of that means nothing to you.
At some point, if you're this person, if you're the sinner
that God has mercy on, at some point, none of that, at some
point, religion is vain. And everything they talk about,
God gives you a hunger for the bread of life himself. God causes
you to hunger and thirst after righteousness, not your own.
God reveals to you that salvation is a person and you need to know
him. God causes you to cry. With the
blind man in John nine, when the Lord said, do you believe
on the son of God? He said, who is he Lord? Who
is he? That should be our cry all the
time. Who is he that we might believe on him? Reveal yourself
to us. that we might fall more and more
in love with you. And then it says that the queen
of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions. And this
is the point in my studies at which this became not a sermon
on the first 13 verses of chapter 10, but on the first verse of
chapter 10. She came to prove Solomon with
hard questions. Can you imagine what they might've
been? It doesn't much matter what they were, or the Lord would
have had that recorded. But there is a desire to learn
that comes with faith. How many times has just in my
limited experience, someone who just comes to know the Lord,
they come with questions, they come several, I guess they don't
wanna be, you know, And I was the same way. I don't
want to just be a nuisance, but, you know, a lot of people ask
me, what books can I read? What are some good books that
I can read, you know? And I don't get that so much
from people who have been around a while. They know what books
to read, but somebody that just believes on the Lord, they're
wanting to soak up knowledge. They want to find out who he
is. The gospel teaches you that, but that hunger, it just, it's
kind of overwhelming in the beginning. You're saying, Lord, I believe,
but help my unbelief. I wanna know more. I wanna, who
is he that I might believe on him? Lord, teach me to pray,
increase my faith. And the questions, At that point,
when God shows you who salvation is and not how I can get saved, that's when the questions go
from foolish ones that miss the point. I've had people that don't
know the Lord, evidently, ask me some real humdingers. Where
did Cain get his wife and things like that? What difference does
that make, really, honestly? But they go from foolish ones
that miss the point to vital ones that must be answered. They must be answered. And these
are difficult questions to answer. You can't answer them without
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know what she asked
him. She may have asked him, of course, she came with, remember
those words, concerning the Lord. And I'm sure she was asking things
like, does he speak to you? Does he appear to you? What does
he look like? And things like that, as well
as maybe some really good questions. I don't know. But I know some
of the hard questions that are represented here. I know some
of the hard questions that when God does begin to show a sinner
who his son is, that have to be answered. Remember that John
9 blind man? I think of him when I think of
how much do you need to know to be saved? How much do you
need to know? He said, I don't know. I can't answer any of their
questions. I don't know. But I know this. I was blind,
and now I see. And he knew who made him see. He knew who made him see. That's what he said. Before I
met him, I was blind. Now that I've met him, I can
see. So the questions go from stuff
that misses the point, you see. Things about the Bible. How do
you reconcile this and this? And they go to things that have
to be answered. Things, some foolish questions
I thought about that I have asked, and others have too. How can
I know, and this is what they would always, the soul winners,
you know, that I used to sadly associate with, would always
ask people this. Do you know if you died tonight,
you'd go to heaven when you die? And so this is one of the questions.
How can I know that I'll go to heaven when I die? That's the
question that free will, man-centered, anti-Christ religion, Asks and
loves to answer that's basically what the rich young ruler said
what must I do to inherit eternal life? How do I get the benefits
that others are getting in this thing of salvation? Sign me up
for that But when the Lord gives you an interest in the things
of God the questions are more like this how can God be just
and How can God save me? He wouldn't be God anymore if
he saved me, isn't that true? How can he save me? Wouldn't
he be compromising his own holiness to save a wretch like me? He
can't just pretend I never sinned. Job asked a question very similar
to that in Job nine, in verse two, listen to this. I know it
is so of a truth. But how should man be just with
God? Now that's a question. His friends
kept saying to him, you know, if you were just right with God,
if you hadn't sinned, if you were, you know, the believer
you ought to be, none of this bad stuff would have happened
to you. You know, you have to be right with God. And Job got
tired of hearing that. You know how I know that? Because
he asked him this question. He got tired of hearing, if you
were just good enough, if you could just be perfect with God,
if you could be just, if you didn't do bad stuff. And he said,
I know it's so true. I know a sinner can be just with
God, but how does that happen? You tell me. By me doing better? by me straightening up my egg,
by me turning over a new leaf, by me making some decisions.
You keep talking about being just with God. How does that
happen? I don't see anywhere that they
answered that question, his friends. And then Job 25, four, listen
to this. How then can man be justified
with God? Now, most people wouldn't consider
that a hard question, They just say, well, you know, you live
the Christian life, you walk an aisle, you know, you go down
the Roman road, whatever it is that they have in their head
that they've done to get saved. Religion will tell you exactly
what you need to do. I guarantee you, you go ask them,
they'll tell you exactly what you need to do to be saved. When the disciples asked our
Lord how can who can be saved he said with men it's impossible That's not what religion says
it's not what they say I was in it long enough to know How then can man be justified
with God or how can he be clean that is born of a woman That's a good question That's
an eternal question. That's a hard question in a sense. But that's a question that has
to be answered. It's no longer at some point
about whether God loves everybody or not. At some point it's not
about that. I've said this so many times. You're going to come to the place,
if God has mercy on you, and many of you have already been
here, at some point, It's not going to be a matter of whether
God loves everybody or not. It's going to be this. Does he
love me? And if he does, how in the world
can that be? How can he love me? How can he
love me? How is that even possible? He's God
and I'm me. How could he love me? Here's a question the disciples
asked. This was a hard question. It
took quite a bit to bring them to the place of asking this question.
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the seas obey
him? You ever think about who you're
dealing with? Oh, you'll spend your whole life
learning the answer to that one. Here's a hard question that none
of the religious leaders could answer they kept asking the Lord
a bunch of questions He said let me ask you a question You
see he's not accountable to us He don't have to answer our questions,
but you will answer his you are accountable to him He said let
me ask you a question, and then I'll answer your you answer me
this and I'll answer your questions And he asked this If the son of man is David's
son, how then does he call him Lord? Saying, the Lord said unto
my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. How can David's son be David's
Lord? Now if you're interested in who
he is, and that's what his queen came, she wanted to know, concerning
the Lord, if you're interested in who God is, that question's
got to be answered. Got to be answered. Now all of
the questions that the queen asked, Solomon answered in verse
three. It says there was not a single
thing that he couldn't answer. When the Lord Jesus Christ gives
us an interest in himself, he's able to answer all of the hard
questions, but more than that, he is himself the answer to them. every question we just talked
about. How can God be just and yet justify
me? You wanna know the answer to
that? Look at Romans three with me. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three. How can God be just and yet justify a wretch? You understand
the premise of that question. If a judge You know, this might be so hard
for us to imagine because this never happens, right? A judge
just lets somebody off that's totally guilty, just lets them
off with a slap on the hand. They kill somebody and they get
a couple of months, you know, and what would you say about
a judge like that or a prosecutor? That's common. That happens every
day now, doesn't it? You know what you'd say? There's
no justice in that. There's no justice in that. God don't just let people go.
So how can he be holy and strict and uncompromising in his righteousness
and yet let the worst sinner on this earth go free? How can
that happen? Romans 3.24. Being justified
freely by His grace. Well, that's the first part of
the answer. He justified us freely. There was no reason to do it
in us. No reason. Freely, by His grace. That's how free, by the grace
of God, just because God is gracious. I went free because He wanted
me free. Well, how can a judge do that? How can you be God and
justify a sinner like that? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Because somebody suffered the
penalty for my sin in my place. It's not complicated, is it?
It's not complicated. through the shed blood of my
Lord Jesus Christ, whom Christ God has set forth to be a sin
offering through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past. Now, how does that
declare God's righteousness to set forth a sin offering? Well,
if he had just let us go free just arbitrarily, where's the
righteousness of God? But you look to the Lamb of God
and see what he suffered on Calvary when he cried, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And the whole earth went dark.
And people cried, truly, this is the Son of God. And he gave up, when the Son
of God, who was perfect man and perfect God, gave his soul an
offering for my sin. That sets forth the righteousness
of God. God can't just wink at my sin. There's got to be suffering and
there's got to be death. For the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God, that is looking forward
to the cross, no sins get swept under the rug there. To declare, I say, at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him that believeth in Jesus. That answers the question, and
Christ is the answer. He can give you the answer to
that because he is the answer to that. How can man be justified with
God? How can he be clean that is born
of a woman? Here's how, Ephesians 5.25, husbands
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. How can he be clean that is born
of a woman? Christ gave himself for his church
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. That's how, that's how you can
be clean. That's born of a sinner. Dogs beget dogs, and sheep beget
sheep, and sinners beget sinners. So how can I not be a sinner? Christ gave himself for his church,
that he might wash it, that he might present it to himself
a glorious, spotless, holy church. One of the questions that we
ask from the scriptures is, what manner of man is this, that even
the winds and waves obey his will? Turn with me to Colossians 1,
chapter 12. Now you know he has to be himself
the answer to this question, because the question is, who
is he? Colossians 1.12, giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son. I think about that. He made us
worthy to be partakers of the inheritance. Again, the rich
young ruler, what must I do to inherit eternal life? You don't inherit by doing things.
You inherit because somebody who's got something wants you
to have what they have. But God makes us worthy, worthy
heirs of the saints in light and has delivered us from the
power of darkness, which whether people realize it or not, Satan's
got you right in his hand. And you're captive to his will.
Not a popular notion in religion. And yet the truth of God's word
But he delivered us from the power. A stronger came along
and bound the strong man. And I'm free. And translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son. It almost sounds like salvation
is of the Lord, doesn't it? In whom we have redemption through
his blood. even the forgiveness of sins. Now you think about that. In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. Redemption and the forgiveness
of sins is one and the same thing in that statement right there.
What do you mean we have redemption through his blood? Even this,
our sins are forgiven. who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created. What kind of man is this? What
manner of man is this that even the winds and the seas obey him?
He created everything that's in heaven, that's in earth, whether
you can see it or not. Does a tree make a noise if no
man is there to hear it? He's made things that you never
even saw. Whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him. Why? Does he let these petty
tyrants take over these countries and destroy them and people suffer?
He does it for himself. That's all I can tell you. He
does it for himself. They're created by him and for
him. Why does he let men stand in pulpits and lie? And be complicit in the damnation
of the souls of men? He does it for himself. They're created for him, and
they're given the power that they have for him. But he also,
every once in a while, every here and there, gives a man the
ability to preach the gospel and save sinners. He does that
for himself, too. And he is before all things.
He's preeminent among all things. And by him, all things consist. That's what kind of man he is.
There's a lot of all things, all things, all things when you're
talking about him. How can the son of man be David's
son and David's Lord? Romans 1.1, if you'd like to
turn there. How? Can the son of man be David's
son and David's Lord? Romans 1.1, Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel
of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the
holy scriptures, The gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according
to the flesh, David's son, made by God to be the seed of David,
according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God, declared
not to be the son of David, but declared to be the son of God,
David's son and David's Lord. According to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead May we like the Queen of Sheba
come to him who alone Can answer the vital questions of eternal
life and eternal death And may we find by his grace through
faith that he is the answer to those questions I With me to
Luke 1131 In closing 1131 of the book of Luke Luke 1131 the Queen of the South
shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation
and condemn them She came from the uttermost parts of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a Greater than Solomon
is here Hmm Christ is the answer to every
question that there is and He's the only one that can answer
Now that's important to Christ is the answer, but are you gonna
get it? Are you gonna? understand Are you gonna come
to the place where, that's right, I know now. I know the answer
to that question. Christ's gotta do that for you.
Got to do that for you. But how far will we go? The Lord, that generation then,
I suspect ours is kinda like this one, don't you? That's talked
about in our text. He said they're gonna be condemned
by the Queen of Sheba. Because she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom Behold a greater than Solomon
is here. How far will you go? To hear
the wisdom of the Son of God, and you know, I'm not just talking
about How far your house is from the church building? You know,
that's not what I'm talking about. How important is Christ and his
gospel to us. That's the question posed by
our Lord's statement here Are you hungry are you thirsty? When the Queen of Sheba came
into Solomon's presence it says she communed With him of all
that was in her heart How far would you go to commune
with God Almighty I What would it take? What would be something that would stop you?
What could be more important than that? She communed with him of all
that was in her heart, and he told her all her questions. I believe that's what happens
here. Have you ever laid your heart bare before God? He is himself The answer to every dilemma Every
problem every question Everything we need to know and everything
we need This Queen By God's grace she
represents all of us and Those who know Him come to Him, to
know Him more.