This is, here in 1 Corinthians
chapter 10, I think is one of the most intriguing passages
of scripture in the history, the historical parts of the Bible. And you know what we learn from
history in the Bible, biblical history, is we see the glory
of God just shining forth in all the workings of history.
And I always, I think many of you know, I always, if you want
a summation, of the historical works of the Bible, the historical
revelations. Look at passages like Isaiah
46, nine through 13, that's where he says, remember the former
things of old, for I'm God, there's none else, declaring the end
from the beginning, and the things that are past, not yet done.
God is in control here, and we see so much that brings out the
truth of the gospel. And here, you know, Solomon is
king. Solomon was rich in wisdom, rich
in power. He was rich in his kingdom, the
buildings and the gold and the silver. And Solomon's fame had
spread all over the known world. And it says in verse one here,
when the Queen of Sheba, now the Queen of Sheba was probably
a queen in an area that was about 1,500 miles from Jerusalem, south. In fact, she's called the Queen
of the South by the Lord. And it's probably in an area
we would think, if you'd look on a map of the Middle East,
it's probably Yemen. Y-E-M-E-N, probably, but we don't
know for sure, but it was about, it was a long, arduous journey,
and it says, and when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of
Solomon, and notice this, underscore this phrase, concerning the name
of the Lord. So, in other words, what the
indication here is is that Sheba not only heard, the Queen of
Sheba not only heard about Solomon himself, but she heard some things
about Solomon's God. the God he worshiped concerning
the name of the Lord. And it says, she came to prove
him or to test him with hard questions. And so understand
that, how this is all bringing out. This is not just a search. It's not only, I've heard of
Solomon's gold and silver and buildings, and I wanna see them
for myself, that's included, but I wanna ask him some questions.
and it says hard questions. And those hard questions indicate
that more than simply seeing the sights of the kingdom and
the man Solomon, she wanted to test his wisdom by asking him
some serious questions. Now we're not really told specifically
what the questions were, but over in the book of Matthew chapter
12, and I have this listed in your lesson here, The Lord himself
spoke of this event, of the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of the South
coming to visit Solomon. And listen to what he says here.
This is Matthew 12, 42. And what I believe this proves
is that these hard questions, and that word, that phrase, hard
questions, indicates that probably she wanted to talk about issues
of life and death and judgment and even eternity. And I think
it's not a stretch to say that because listen to what the Lord
said in Matthew 12, 42 when he referenced this in showing himself
to be the Messiah. The Messiah of the Old Testament,
the Messiah who was to come, and the Messiah who's already
come at the time that he's speaking. And he says in Matthew 12, 42,
the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment with this
generation and shall condemn it. The queen of Sheba is gonna
rise up and condemn it. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And if you
wanna know about the wisdom of Solomon, read the Proverbs that
he wrote, read the book of Ecclesiastes, all of that. And behold, a greater
than Solomon is here. Speaking of himself. Solomon
had wisdom. And it was wisdom that God gave
him. And she asked questions that only Solomon could answer.
But we have one who is greater than Solomon. That's why I entitled
the lesson One Greater Than Solomon. We have Christ who is the embodiment
of the very wisdom of God concerning issues of life, concerning issues
of death and judgment and eternity. Where are we gonna find the answers?
to such questions and such issues so that we know that when we
leave this world, we'll live forever with Him. And that's
the kind of issues that are coming forth here. Look at verse two.
He says, he writes, she came to Jerusalem with a very great
train. In other words, she didn't come
alone. She came with a very great train,
with camels that bear spices, very much gold, precious stones. Now listen to this, and when
she come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her
heart. Now that's an interesting way
to put it, isn't it? She had some issues she was struggling
with, issues of her heart. And the indication here is that
these, probably these were matters that were laid upon her heart
by the Lord. You know, over in Ecclesiastes
3, Solomon wrote these words. I've got this referenced in your
lesson too. It's Ecclesiastes 3, verse 10 and 11. And here's
what Solomon wrote. He said, I have seen the travail,
which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. And you know what travail is,
don't you? That's a struggle. Birth pains, like a woman having
a baby. That's the travail of birth.
And what he's saying, I have seen the struggle, the pain that
human beings naturally go through. And it says here, he hath made
everything beautiful in his time, In other words, God has set all
these things in order, creation, life, the human body, I mean
all of these things, and it says also he has set the world in
their heart. Now, what does it mean he set
the world in, most scholars, if you go to the original language
here, what he's saying is eternity. And what he's saying here is
that man by nature has a sense that there is an afterlife. There's
going to be an eternity. Now, I know a lot of people deny
that. If you would go back and you
look at atheists, famous atheists, when they died and listen to
their words, some of them, you see them struggling to hold on
to this life. Some of them come to the point
where they admit that they're going to meet a God and be judged. It's a desperation, much different
than the last words of David. God has made a covenant with
me that's ordered in all things and sure and this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Much different than the last
words of the Apostle Paul, I've fought the good fight, I've ran
the race, and now there's a crown of righteousness, crown of life
laid up for me, not an earned crown, but one that God has given
me. I'm ready to die, he says. But these atheists, they struggle.
Their whole life was a struggle. And the struggle became so much
for them that they denied God. They denied that there's an afterlife,
but when it came to the end, they struggled again. And that's
the natural struggle that men go through. I think it was John
Calvin, I'm not sure, but he called this, from this verse,
he called that God-shaped void that God has given every man.
And man's gonna try to fill the void. Now, the majority of people
fill the void with what? False religion. False hopes. Something, work salvation. Experience-based
salvation. Some fill it with denial. There
is no God. There is no judgment. Some say,
well, I just don't know. But man's gonna fill that void.
But only God can fill that void with the truth of his grace in
Jesus Christ. And when he fills that void,
it stays filled, because we're full up with Christ, being in
him. How can a sinner like me, and
we'll talk about this in just a minute, but how can a sinner
like me live forever in glory? Well, there's only one way, and
that's by the sovereign mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that fills the void. But
here's what he says in Ecclesiastes 3, he says that, he hath made
everything beautiful in his time, also he hath set the world in
their heart, this sense of life and death and judgment and eternity,
and listen to this, so that no man can find out the work that
God maketh from beginning to end. And what does he say in
there? Well, that describes the man's
natural hatred and fear of death, and his natural love and awareness
of life and eternity, and the fact that in our natural sin
and depravity, we cannot find the answer. Man with his natural,
in our natural state, none righteous, no not one, none that seeketh
after God, no not one, none that doeth good, no not one. In our
natural state, we cannot find the proper knowledge, the truth
that solves the mysteries of life, death, judgment, and eternity. And so what has to happen? That
knowledge can only be revealed to sinners in the Lord. as God convicts us of our sin
and our depravity and drives us to Christ. And that's what's
happening here in picture. The queen of Sheba has to go
to Solomon. God had set things in her heart
that drove her to Solomon to find these answers. And that's
what God does. See, this is a picture of a sinner
being brought to Christ for salvation, to find the knowledge of God.
Apart from Christ, what are we? We're ignorant of God's righteousness,
and what do we do? We go about trying to fill that
void by establishing a righteousness of our own. But God brings us
to Christ and reveals the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus
Christ, the glory of his person, the glory of his finished work,
and he shows us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Now man's not gonna find that
on his own. even though he has that void. But God's gonna bring
his people to see that, and that's what the Holy Spirit does to
God's elect. He gives us spiritual life and
knowledge. He brings us directly to Christ. Christ said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me
I will in no wise cast out. And remember what he says there
in John 6, 44, he says, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last
day. And he said, he goes on in John 6, 45 there to show how
the Father draws us. Those that have heard and have
learned of the Father. Just like the Queen of Sheba,
she had heard about Solomon. And so God brings her to Solomon
to learn by revelation from Solomon the wisdom concerning these hard
questions, whatever they were. And again, I sincerely believe
that they were the questions of life, death, judgment, and
eternity. And that's what God does to us.
That's what he did to us, isn't it? He brought us to Christ.
Everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto me, Christ said. We go to Christ because he is
the embodiment of the wisdom of God. You want to know anything
about God, look to Christ. Look unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith. And so he brings us directly
to Christ, just like God brought the queen of Sheba directly to
Solomon. And it says in verse two, she
communed with him of all that was in her heart. You know, in
the new birth, there's a lot of controversy about that, I
know, and there shouldn't be. But what happens in the new birth?
Well, the new birth is first an act of providence. And what
is that act of providence? It's the Holy Spirit in the providence
of God, the power of God, bringing God's elect who are by nature
ignorant and lost, bringing us under the preaching of the gospel. and then giving us new hearts,
the mind, the affection, the will, new life, and bringing
us to understand our sinfulness, our depravity, our deservedness
of damnation, and showing us salvation. Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation, that which is in Christ. And that's how God
brings us to Christ. He brings us to a place where
we hear the gospel, Gospel is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Well, look at verse three here.
It says, Solomon told her all her questions, all her words,
there was not anything hid from the king which he told her not.
You know what that means? That means Solomon had the right
answer for every question she had. You know, I can't imagine
somebody coming to me with a lot of questions, and
you know, if we're talking about the gospel, or if we're talking
about life, death, judgment, and eternity, I can't imagine
me having all the right answers, but I know where the right answers
are. They're in here. Sometimes I may not have seen
them as clearly as I do now, Maybe later on I'll see some
things hopefully more clear than I do now. But isn't that amazing? I know this, Christ has all the
answers. There's not a question or an
issue of salvation that we can ask that he is not and has not
the answer. And you can think about it, what
kind of questions do we have? And I'm talking about us. I don't
know, as I said, I don't know the specific questions that the
Queen of Sheba asked Solomon, but the issues of life and death
and judgment and eternity, think about this. Let me give you some
questions. I've got them on the back of
your lesson there. Think about this, how good and
how righteous must I be to have and to enjoy eternal life? What's
the answer to that question? Well, men have different answers. Well, you just have to be as
sincere as you can be or try to be as good as you, that's
not the right answer. Where am I gonna find the answer
to that? Well, what did Christ say? He told his generation in
Matthew 5.20, he said, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then he showed
them the standard of righteousness in the law. You've got to keep
the law perfectly. And then you think about passages
like Acts 17.31 that I quote all the time about judgment.
Upon what basis, what standard, what measure is God going to
judge me by? And it says, God has appointed
a day in which he will judge all men in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained and that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. Christ,
as long, listen, the answer to that question is the measure
of righteousness and goodness is Christ. And how in the world, it goes
on. The second question, what is
it to do good and be righteous in God's sight? Well, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. If
I don't keep Christ in mind, in my heart, as the standard
of goodness and righteousness, it will always descend below
what God requires, and it'll be that sliding scale of false
religion that people love to deal with. Oh, I know I'm not
the best, but I'm not the worst either, that kind of thing. I
know I've sinned, but I've not done this. The Pharisee, I thank
God I'm not like other men. Well, my friend, if that's your
answer, if that fills the void for you, you're in false religion. Christ is the only righteousness
that God will accept. And think about this, here's
the next question. How can sinners be just with
holy God? How can he be clean that is born
of woman? Well, it's only by the grace
of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. His righteousness imputed
to me. Here's another one, how can God
be just and true to himself and still be the justifier of the
ungodly? Same answer. It's only in Christ,
by his grace. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here's another one,
how can a man be born when he's old? Remember, Nicodemus asked
that question. You must be born again. How can
man be born when he's old? Can he enter into his mother's
womb again? We're not talking about physical
birth here. We're talking about spiritual
birth. And that comes by God, the Holy Spirit, who imparts
the life of Christ into his people, gives a spiritual life. Here's
another, if a man dies, shall he live again? Well, the Bible
says he will. God's word said that we're gonna
spend eternity somewhere. Here's another one. How does
God know all things, yet does not remember a believer's sins?
Well, what does it mean when God says, I'll remember them
no more? It means he won't charge us with our sins. It means he
won't hold them against us. He will not impute them to us.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's love? Now, think
about that. He imputes to us righteousness.
What mere sinful human being, even the best of us, could have
ever come up with an answer like that? Think about that. That's what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
1. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard. It hath not even entered into
the mind of the princes of this world, the things that God has
freely given us. See, this is not man's message.
Paul said it. This is the gospel of God. I
didn't receive this from men, I received it from God. I'm gonna
talk about this in the message today at 11, how God uses men
preaching to reveal these things to us, but it's not the preachers
who do it, it's God who does it. It's God's work. And sometimes I preach and people
walk away in unbelief, sometimes I preach and people walk away
being blessed with the gift of faith. Who makes the difference? Not me. God does. And that's the issue, see. Here's
another one. Who and what are the main subjects
and themes of the Old Testament? What's this Old Testament about?
Well, this is about Christ. Now there's a lot of people who
think that when we go to these Old Testament scriptures, the
types and the figures, that we shove in what's not there. And
I disagree totally. And I have biblical basis for
doing that. When Christ sat down with his disciples before he
ascended into glory, what did he do? He showed them what Moses
taught in the law. He showed them about the Psalms,
the poetic books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms.
And he showed them the subject of the prophets concerning himself. And it's my contention in preaching
that if you go to the scriptures, Old Testament or New, and you
don't see something there of Christ, his glorious person,
his finished work, or something at least that will drive you
ultimately to Christ, you've missed it. Now he told the Pharisees
that. He said, you search the scriptures,
in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify
of me. You missed it if you had. What good is the Bible to us
if it's just a moral, a lesson of human morality? You could
read any religious book and get that. But this is a book of Christ. You know what I, the main thing
that I believe that Christ was teaching the disciples at that
time before he ascended, he was showing them, they knew the gospel
at that time. They knew Christ. So what was
he opening their understanding to? How to preach the gospel,
how to preach Christ from those Old Testament scriptures. The
types and the pictures and the shadows. And the stated prophecies
of Christ. Well look at verse four. Queen
of Sheba says, when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's
wisdom, and seen the house that he had built, and the meat of
his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance
of his ministers, their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent
by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, that's the
temple, there was no more spirit in her. Now what that's talking
about is she was awestruck. That's what it's saying. It's
not saying that her spiritual life was taken away. It's kind
of like saying, you know, the word spirit is often the word
breath. She was breathless. She was so
impressed with this that it left her breathless. And verse six
says, and she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard
in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. What I heard
was true. And look on verse seven. Howbeit,
I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen
it, and behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity
exceedeth the fame which I heard. Isn't that a good description
of when God brings us to see the glory of God in Christ? We
might hear of it. You can hear the gospel. And
without the spirit of God, giving us life, we're not gonna see
it with the eye of faith. God has to give faith, isn't
that right? By grace, so you say, through
faith. And when he brings us to Christ, and we see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we learn of that wisdom and that
glory and that prosperity, and we see that half of, the half
hasn't been told. The half hasn't been told. Fame
which I heard. Verse eight, happy are thy men,
happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before
thee that hear thy wisdom. Oh, they're so blessed, you see,
that they can stand and hear this wisdom. Verse nine, she
says, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee,
to set thee on the throne of Israel because the Lord loved
Israel forever, therefore made he the king to do judgment and
justice. So she acknowledges how blessed
they are. And can't we do the same in Christ?
I've got in your lesson here the last part. Think about it,
how God has delivered all things into the hand of Christ our Lord
and Savior, He delights in Christ and gives him the preeminence
in all things. Made him our surety, our prophet,
our priest, our king, our deliverer, our keeper. And we're so blessed. We're blessed that God chose
us from the beginning. Because if he hadn't chosen us,
we wouldn't choose him. Blessed is the man whose sin
is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
God imputed the righteousness without works. Blessed are the
eyes that see and the ears that hear. All of these blessings,
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Well, as great as Solomon was,
as great as what all of his possessions and works were, we have and believe
in one who is much greater than Solomon. we have the Lord Jesus
Christ, the very wisdom of God. Okay.