planning on bringing some guests
and I hope you will let her know about that also Jill also is
helping Jennifer and there's a sign up sheet on the on the
what do you call that little shelf in the back okay all right
good morning Bert's gonna come and lead us in the hymn on the
back of our bulletins I was just thinking about what John the Baptist said when
he said, I must decrease and he must increase. Oh, how I hope
he'll be increased in our hearts this morning. Let's stand together.
Brother Burt. Jesus, lover of Thy nation, Savior
of Thy people free, Visit us with Thy salvation, Let us, Lord,
Thy glory see, O revive us, that we may rejoice in Thee. O revive us, that we may rejoice
in Thee. Pause, my soul, adore and wonder,
ask, O why such love to me? Grace has put me in the number
of Thy Savior's family. Alleluia, thanks eternal Lord
to Thee. Alleluia, thanks eternal Lord
to Thee. These are springs of consolation
to converted sons of grace. Finished free and full salvation,
shining in our Savior's face. All the glory shall rebound to
Thy free grace. All the glory shall rebound to
thy free grace. You be seated. All the glory shall rebound to
thy free grace. Have you ever heard grace defined
as unmerited favor? It's so much more than that. I mentioned this illustration
Wednesday night. If you are waiting for a light
and a homeless person is standing there and you roll your window
down and hand them a dollar bill, you have shown them unmerited
favor. But the grace of God is so much
more than that. If that homeless person had murdered
your only child, and you turned around and gave them everything
you've got. That's dismerited favor. That's
grace. That's grace. John chapter 3, verse 13, And no man, and no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, which is
in heaven. No one knows what heaven's like
except him. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, We are thankful and rejoice that
you were pleased to send your only begotten son. We thank you for the accomplished
work of redemption that he performed on Calvary's cross, shedding
his precious blood to atone for all the sins of all thy people. We thank you for the blessing
of your Holy Spirit, who you send in power to make those for
whom Christ died willing. Oh, how we pray that your spirit
would work in our hearts, open the eyes of our understanding,
and cause us, Lord, to be willing. Make this day to be the day of
thy power. and give to our hearts the hope
of everlasting life. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. We're going to sing again from
the gospel hymn number 44. You can remain seated in this
one. Number 44, Friend of Sinners. Number 44. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? ? We ask such to Thee drawn near ? ? Let Thy Spirit dwell
within us ? ? With that love that casts out fear ? Matchless
Savior, let us know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now Thy precious
treasure, let Thy word hear freely. Give to us a gracious measure,
Tis Thyself we long to know. Amen, claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Would you please turn with me
in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 10. I know that we all come here
this morning with needs, broken hearts, disappointments,
fears, trials, troubles. And how I hope that the Lord
be pleased to comfort our hearts this morning in whatever, whatever
troubles he's ordained for us to experience in this world. But I also know That the comfort
of all comforts, the hope of all hopes, the thing that will
sustain you and cause you to rejoice in Christ Jesus in whatever
trials He's ordained for you, will be for you to have hope
of your eternal life. So much of religion is fixed
on trying to fix men's temporal problems. I want you and me this morning
to set our affections on things above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. For I know that there will come
a day, if you're a child of God, there'll come a day when like
the queen of Sheba, you will say to him, the half was not
told me. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we should be made like him. But we shall see him as
he is. Second Corinthians chapter 12,
Paul was caught up into the third heaven. He called it paradise. And here's what he said. He heard
unspeakable words, which are not lawful for a man to utter. He saw things that no language
could describe. That's what I'm hoping. The Lord Jesus Christ said He's
coming for those who are waiting for Him. I want you and me to be waiting
for Him. Oh, I want us to be responsible
in whatever we have given to us by God in this life, but over
and above everything else, I want us to see this world for what
it is. Vanity of vanities. When Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes,
all is vanity, that wasn't the musing of a depressed man. It was the word of God. It was
a word of truth and a word of hope, causing us to realize that
this world's not where it is. Tricia and I were watching a
special on TV, The Men That Made America. And J.P. Morgan and Westinghouse and Rockefeller
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and the billions that these men amassed
in their lives and the majority of them spent the last few years
of their life. I've noticed this with a lot
of very wealthy people. The majority of them spent the
last few years of their lives giving everything away in an
attempt to atone for all the dishonest things that they had
done to accumulate the wealth that they had. Atoning for their
own... What does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What will
a man give in exchange for his soul? I want you this morning to be encouraged. To know that this life is a vapor. We're just passing through. We're
pilgrims. We're strangers in a foreign
country. It's not our home. It's not our home. When the Queen
of Sheba finally saw Solomon, Solomon is a picture of Christ,
Christ and His church. Look what she says in verse seven,
how be it I believe not the word, so I came and mine eyes had seen
it and behold, the half was not told me. The half was not told me. Now
that's true when the Lord brings us to Christ in this life. The stories that we heard about
him, the child of God, says from his heart, oh, the half was not
told me. The glory, the peace, the comfort,
the hope that I now have in Christ, I couldn't imagine it. And as
he grows me in his grace and reveals more of his glory to
me, and I taste more of his sweetness, oh, the half has not been told
me. But this is also going to be our confession when we see
Him in the glory of His splendor. We're going to say like the Queen
of Sheba. Now, in Matthew chapter 12, the
Scriptures describe our Lord declaring who He is to the Pharisees,
and they refuse to believe. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to them, the Queen of the South will stand in judgment against
this generation. For she traveled a long distance
to hear the wisdom of Solomon and one greater than Solomon
is here among you. The one that Solomon told the
Queen of Sheba about was standing there in their presence and they
would not believe. Oh Lord, I don't want to be left
like that. I don't want to be found wanting. I don't want to
be found as an unbeliever. This life, some of you have watched people
die before, haven't you? We're doing that right now in
our lives. And it just reminds me so clearly
of where each and every one of us are going to be very soon. Very soon. And in that day, nothing
else will matter. Nothing else will matter. Do
I know Christ? Do I have eternal life? Do I
have an acceptable standing before God? The Scripture makes it clear
that the Queen of Sheba came asking Solomon hard questions. Hard questions. Questions concerning
her soul. How can God be just and justify
a sinner like me? How can I have assurance of salvation? How can I know that I'm saved? How can a man be right with God?
A man born of a woman, how are we gonna stand in the presence
of a holy God? And Solomon, the scripture says,
answered all her questions. I want to read some verses from
Ecclesiastes chapter 1 before we get into this text. Would
you turn with me there? Because as I said a few moments
ago, these are not the dark, depressed musings of a man who
was without hope. This is the truth. This is the
word of God. This is something that you and
I need to be reminded of in the midst of whatever trials God
has ordained for us in this life. To cause us to come to this conclusion. Look what the words of the preacher. Solomon was a gospel preacher.
And he's a picture of Christ. And he says, the son of David,
king of Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, empty, empty, empty. All the promises of this world,
the deceitfulness of riches, the world promises to make you
happy. It promises to make you satisfied.
It promises to supply your needs and it's unable to fulfill its
promises. And Solomon says, vanity. All is vanity. What profit hath
a man for all his labors which he taketh unto the sun? One generation
patheth away, and another generation cometh. But the earth abideth
for all those men that I just mentioned a moment ago. Where
are they now? Where are they now? You say, well, their names
are all over the world, yeah? So what? So what? What does that mean to them?
What does that mean to them? means nothing. The sun also riseth, the sun
goeth down, and hasteth to a place where it arose, the wind goeth
toward the south, and turneth again to the north, it whirleth
about continually, and the wind returneth again according to
the circuits. All rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is
not full. Unto the place from whence the
rivers come, thither they return again. And all the rivers of
prosperity can flow into your account, and you won't be full. You won't be satisfied. Not if
God has put on your heart a concern for your soul. Now, let me say
this. A lot of folks are completely
satisfied with the things that this world has to offer. They
are. They're content. They're happy.
They live as if death is never coming. But if the Lord does
for you, and I hope He does, I hope He does it for me, if
He puts on our hearts the revelation that He has made of this world,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It all just keeps going around
and around and around. What profit is it to your soul? What hope do you have for eternal
life? Go back with me to our text. Verse one of first Kings chapter
10. And when the queen of Sheba heard
of the fame of Solomon, Now Solomon's a type of Christ. His name means
the man of peace. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
prince of peace. The only hope that you and I
have to have peace with God is to know the Lord Jesus Christ. to have Him stand in our stead
before God and to present Himself to God for all our righteousness,
for His death on Calvary's cross to be the only means by which
our sins can be atoned for. All the attempts that men make
to atone for their sins are vain. She had heard of the glory of
Solomon. Have you heard about Solomon?
Solomon was David's son. David was not allowed by God
to build the temple, but you know what David did? Now, some
of you men and ladies have been in construction or had some experience
in construction. I cannot imagine going to a construction
site of a major construction and every single thing you needed
to build that building was there on the site. You didn't have
to run to Home Depot. You didn't have to go down the
street. You didn't have to call somebody and say, well, I need
this. Everything you needed to build that building was there
on the site. That's what the scripture says
about the temple. David had accumulated all the materials and put them
there. But David was restrained by God
from building the temple because the scripture says he was a man
of blood. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't build his church
while he was here on earth. He was a man of blood. But what
did he do? He provided everything necessary
for the church to be built. And the scripture says when Solomon
started building the church, Solomon's a picture of Christ
building his church. Upon this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail
against it. The spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost.
That's when the church started being built. And you know what
the scripture says in the building of that temple? That all the
stones were cut to size before they were brought to the job
site. And there was not the sound of a hammer in the full construction
of that building. All they did was stack the stones,
one on top of the other. And that's exactly what we're
doing right now. The Lord is building His church
through the man of peace in the power of His Spirit. And we're
not putting our hands to the stones. We're not working our
way to heaven. God, the Holy Spirit, Solomon,
is building the temple. He's building His church. She had heard about him. She
heard about his glory, his wisdom. She heard about this temple that
he had built. And she travels all the way from
Sheba, which is down on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in
the same place where Ophir was located. And the scripture says
in the previous chapter that Solomon had already built also
not only a temple but he built ships and he sent those ships
down to Ophir with his servants to get gold. And the Queen of
Sheba heard about Solomon from the servants that came on these
gold ships. She stood there and she thought,
what kind of man is that? I've got to go. I've got to go.
I've got to go see him. Why? Because he's got to have
some answers. She, like that woman with the
issue of blood, I'm sure had spent everything that she had
on physicians. She had investigated every religion
of the world and could not be satisfied. She had everything
the world had to offer. She was a woman of means and
power and influence and yet she had a concern for her soul and
she wasn't happy. She wasn't satisfied. She was
not content. Does that describe you? Are you not able to be content
until God speaks peace to your heart and gives you hope? Beyond
this life and gives you assurance of your salvation It's all bound
up in Solomon the man of peace Look what she says she heard
of the fame of Solomon Concerning the name of the Lord now make
that make make sure you understand that she wasn't interested in
just meeting another king she wasn't interested in comparing
her wealth to his wealth and She had heard from these servants
on these ships that he had a God that could save, save her soul. Look what she says. And she came
to Jerusalem with a great train and with camels, I'm sorry, the
latter part of verse one, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with
a very great train and with camels to bear spices and very much
gold and precious stone. And when she came to Solomon,
she communed with him of all that was in her heart. She had problems just like you
had problems, just like I have problems. And you think, well,
if I had that sort of fame and prosperity, I wouldn't have any
problems. No, they'd get worse. They'd get bigger. They would. She didn't have just personal
problems, problems with the kids. She was responsible for a nation.
She had problems with people who wanted to go to war against
her and wipe her out. I mean, and she had problems
with people who wanted to come in and steal everything she had.
She had, oh, your problems would just get worse. But she wasn't
asking those kind of questions. How am I going to protect my
possessions? How am I going to elevate my nation? How am I going
to be prosperous and successful in this life? No. She heard that
Solomon had a God that could save and she had a concern for
her heart. And she asked him hard questions. And Solomon told her all her
questions, and there was not anything hid from the king which
he told her not. He answered all her questions.
Do you have some hard questions? I mean really hard questions.
And as you've heard me say on so many occasions, any problem
that time or money can solve is not a problem. Not compared
to the problem of the soul. The problem of sin, the problem
of standing before God, that's the hard question. And when the Queen of Sheba had
seen all of Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built, have you seen something of the
wisdom of God? The scripture says that God made
Him the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who's pictured here by
Solomon. To be unto us our wisdom, all knowledge and truth, all
hope and salvation is bound up in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He speaks the truth. He is the
truth. Lord, to know Him is to have wisdom. The fear of God
is the beginning of wisdom to bow before Christ and trust Christ. She saw his wisdom. She said,
the stories that I heard of you, the half has not been told me.
One day we're gonna see the full splendor of the wisdom of God.
And those words that were unspeakable, and the words and the things
that John saw, John heard seven thunders. And the scripture says
that in Revelation chapter 10, that he was about to write some
of the things that he heard, and the Lord told him, write
them not. John, these words are, they're
great. Eye has not seen, nor is ear
heard, nor is there in the imagination of man the things that he's prepared
for us. John, put down your pen. You
can't describe what you're seeing. When we see him, Has the messenger, has the servant
of Solomon come to you and told you about a king who is wisdom? He is wisdom. Not he's going
to show you the way, he is the way. And the house that he had
built, that temple, we just saw in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 that
our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. this is the
temple of God and she's now looking at this temple that David had
prepared everything for his son and Solomon had built and her
breath is taken away when you look let me ask you
a question when you look at the Lord at the at the Lord's people
the church you look at your own conversion you think Where did
God bring me from? Why would He do this for me?
What fellowship I'm able to have with my brothers and sisters
in Christ that I can't have with anybody else? Nobody else in
this world can I have this bond with, this union, this fellowship. I'd heard that there's a love
among God's people. And I had seen some of it and
now I've experienced it and not the half was told me. And when
I get to glory and I see him in his full wisdom and I see
the full results of what he did in redeeming his church. Tens of thousands upon thousands
praising God and worshiping him in the fullness of his spirit.
How glorious that's going to be. And we're going to say then
what we're saying now. The half was not told me. There
was no way that I could fully imagine. I couldn't comprehend
how glorious this is. Nothing in this world has satisfied
me but oh, His glory and His splendor. I could sit here for
the rest of eternity. And that's exactly what we'll
do. and be satisfied the house that he built this is his church this is his
house and he builds it Blessed art thou Simon Barjona flesh
and blood didn't reveal this unto you My father which is in
heaven has made it known unto you what that I am the Christ
the son of the Living God and upon this rock I Will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not be a prevail against
it. I And don't think of the church as some sort of medieval
castle surrounded by a moat. No. A gate is a defensive force. And God's people are held captive
by Satan and the Lord said the gates of hell are not going to
prevail against this gospel. I'm on the offense. The church
is not defensive. The church is offensive. The
church is looking for those that God chose in the covenant of
grace. Those for whom Christ died. Preachers
are just, someone said preachers are sheep dogs. That's what they're
doing. They're just rounding up the
sheep. We're not trying to make goats look like sheep. We're
just looking for God's sheep. And we're sure that when God's
sheep hear the gospel, they're gonna come. They're gonna believe. And they're gonna say, the half
has not been told me. Oh, what wisdom he has. He has
comforted my soul. He's taken away my sin. He's
given me hope. I can rest in him. And he's made
me a part of his house, of his church. And God's people don't have a
take it or leave it attitude about the church. I can't wait for Wednesday night.
I can't wait for Sunday morning. I want to be here. I've got to
be here. This is his house that he built. This is where I hear about him. We're not interested in shaming
folks about coming to church or manipulating them or entertaining
them so that they'll come. Lord, give us the grace to lift
up Christ. And he said, and I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men to myself. She saw his wisdom. She saw the
house that he had built. Have you seen his house? Are
you looking forward to seeing the fullness of it? I mean, can
you imagine? I mean, here we are. This is
heaven on earth. This is it. This is as good as
it gets. And how good it is. How sweet it is. There's no place
else that we're going to see His wisdom. Can you imagine? I mean, here we are, just a few
of us. What it's going to be like when
every believer from every generation is gathered in one place singing
glory and praises to Him and you're going to be a part of
that? And you're going to see His house and you're going to
say, the half was not told me. My breath is taken away. Are your affections set on that? Or are you like everybody else
in this world, just scratching and clawing to get through another
day and make a name for yourself here in this world? Look what she says, verse 5, and the meat of his
table, now I mention this in the first hour, meat is used
in the Bible to describe food. The Lord Jesus Christ said, my
body is your meat indeed. And my blood is your drink indeed. And unless you eat of the flesh
of my body and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. And
the scripture says that the one that were hearing him say that
said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? And they departed,
they left. You're telling me that the only
hope that I have is to look to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the life that we talked about restraining our flesh so that
it doesn't break out in our bodies. He didn't have that flesh. He
didn't have that sin nature. He was holy and undefiled and
separate from sinners. And so, He didn't have to restrain
His flesh, His body. His body is the son of God. His body, everything his body
did was perfect and holy and pure and righteous. And that's
what God requires of you and me. Can you say that about your body?
Has everything your body done? Has anything your body done been
acceptable to God? Everything his body did was acceptable
to God because unlike us he didn't have that sin nature and Then
at the end of a perfect life He willingly laid down his life
for the sheep and bore in his body the sins of his people and
suffered the full wrath of God's judgment to put away our sins
once and for all that's drinking his blood and Unless you look
to the life of Christ for all your righteousness and look to
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for all your justification before
God, you have no life in you. All you've got is this world. Oh, but what? She looked at the
meat of His table. Don't you rejoice at the meat
of His table right now? This is His meat. And then in
that day, We're gonna see his body. We're gonna see him in
his body. And we're gonna be in our resurrected
bodies. What a glorious day that'll be and we'll say then, the half
was not told me. Oh, I dreamed of it. I believed
it. I read about it. But I could
not possibly comprehend what I'm now experiencing. What a
glorious day that'll be. the meat of his table, the sitting
of his servants. A lot of us came out of religion,
where we had, you know, committees and jobs and, you know, and responsibility. We, you know, we kept everybody
under, I was telling someone this morning, The Catholic Church doesn't even try to make works grace. They just come right
out and tell you, you're saved by works. The person I made reference to
is my own dear mother. She's had no interest in the
gospel, and she just keeps saying, I don't know if I've done enough.
Don't know if I've done enough. I need to do a little bit more. And that's religion. And there's
no difference between Catholicism and every other form of free
will, works religion. They're just more honest. The
rest of them call works grace, but really they mean works. Make
a work out of faith. When we come and hear the gospel,
the sitting of His servants? You mean there's nothing for
me to do? You mean all the work's already been done? You mean I
can rest in the finished, accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and God's not looking to me for anything? Whoo! What peace! What hope! What comfort! What joy! And the more we learn about Him,
the more we say, the half was not told me. And when we see
Him in that day, we're going to declare, oh, the half was
not told me. What rest we have. He has finished the work all
by Himself. She saw the sitting of His servants.
They weren't running around in some sort of nervous frenzy trying
to figure out, well, what can I do more? What can I do? No, they were sitting in the
presence of Solomon. Are you able to rejoice in your
ability to sit, to rest in Christ? And the attendance of His ministers One day, we're going to see what
Isaiah saw. You remember the four seraphim
that were hovering over the throne of God? And they had six wings,
and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered
their feet, and with two they did fly, and they cried continuously,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth
is filled with His glory. And in seeing that, right now
we see it through the eyes of faith, but faith's gonna cease
to be. Faith's gonna cease to be. Hope's
gonna cease to be. It's gonna be our experience.
Faith's gonna be your sight and hope's gonna be your experience.
You're gonna see it. You will see Him. And you know what you're
gonna say? You're gonna say it with the
Queen of Sheba. The half was not told me. There
was no way I could imagine this. And right now, when you hear
of Christ and you come to Him, and He's pleased to show you
His glory sitting upon that throne, you say in your heart, the half
was not told me. And their apparel, those are
the ministers, the ministers of the angels, ministering angels. And in the scriptures, The book
of Revelation, particularly in the first chapters, you remember
the Lord Jesus Christ is holding in his hands those seven stars,
which are the seven angels. An angel is just a messenger.
It's a preacher of the gospel. And whenever God gives you an
opportunity to tell someone else about Christ, you're being an
angel. You're being a messenger. And I hope that we'll be ready
always to give an answer. To anyone that asketh for the
hope that's within us and that will do it in a spirit of meekness
and fear And we see the ministry of the angels will say oh the
half was not the preacher didn't tell me everything He couldn't
he couldn't put it into words. He couldn't he couldn't describe
it well enough, and I know I can't That's why we're so dependent
upon the Spirit of God just to take our feeble efforts to preach
Christ and make them Effectual to the heart The half was not
told me preacher you didn't you didn't go far enough you didn't
tell me enough I Rejoice and I'm thankful for you But but
oh the Lord has spoken so much more to my heart than what you
were able to say Is that your experience? Can you say with the Queen of
Sheba the half was not told me I And their apparel, you see that?
Their apparel. What is your apparel? The Lord
told a parable about a man who gave a wedding feast for his
son. And everyone that came in, they
put a robe on him. And then after the doors were
closed, they found a man walking around that had his own clothes
on. I'm sure that when he came to the door, he looked at what
everybody else had on, he looked at his own clothes and he said,
you know what, I kind of like what I've got. And the king found him and cast
him out into utter darkness where there was weeping and wailing
and the gnashing of teeth. Oh, don't come before God in
your own clothes. They're filthy rags. Don't care
how good they might look to you if the Lord shows you Christ,
you'll know You'll be like blind Bartimaeus. You'll take that
filthy rag and you'll throw it on and you'll run to him naked
You'll run to Christ naked Lord, I'm fully exposed before you.
I need you to clothe me. And then when you see the apparel
that he puts on you, the lamb that was slain before the foundation
of the world is that lamb that God slew in the garden in order
to put a proper robe on our father Adam. Oh, how we need to be robed
in the righteousness of Christ. And when we see that apparel,
it's beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful. And I'm not looking
to you and I hope you're not looking to me to try to see righteousness
in our lives. But when I hear you talk about
Christ and what he is to you, that apparel is beautiful to
me. The words that you declare about your hope in Christ for
all your righteousness, that's your apparel. By your words,
you'll be justified. And by your words, you'll be
condemned. She saw his ministering angels. She saw the apparel that they
wore. And his cup bearers, his cup
bearers, the offerings of the prayers of the... What was the
cup bearer? Took the drink to the king. And what is it that
goes before God from us? The prayers of the saints go
before Him. And they're made acceptable in
the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cupbearers. Oh, we do, we pray the best we
can. Like Michael every time he leads
us in prayer. Let let's pray If we can or best we can or something
and that's the way it is It really is that way isn't it every time
we pray Lord. I just I'm But all they are brought before
him One day we're gonna see All those prayers come before him and his ascent by which he went
up. The Queen of Sheba saw the procession
of Solomon going into the temple to worship his God. And she was
blown away. I mean, her breath was taken
away from her. She saw that procession, the
beauty of it, the glory of it, the sound of it. Let me ask you
this. When you saw the Lord Jesus Christ
ascend up on Mount Calvary, can you say, the half was not
told me? You mean He bore away all my
sins? Everything? He satisfied all
God's requirements for me and everything that God's looking
for from me, He's able to look to Christ for? Oh, when she saw His ascent. And
then when she saw His ascent from the grave, The Queen of Sheba is the church.
She's the bride of Christ. She's every believer. God would
not allow His Holy One to see corruption. He was satisfied
with what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in His death on
Calvary's cross and was obligated to raise Him from the dead. And
when He was raised from the dead, we were raised from the dead.
And then His ascent back into glory. to take his rightful place
before God Almighty. And the Word of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Living Word, did not return unto God void. He took with Him those for whom
He lived and died, and He ever lives to make intercession for
them before God. We are in the heavenlies, in
Christ Jesus right now. If you're a child of God, you're
already there. You just got to mark a few more
days in this body, in this life, but you're already there. The
half was not told me. Look at, uh, look at the last
part of verse five. There was no more spirit in her,
no more spirit in her. Her breath was taken away. That's
what that means. She couldn't breathe. You ever had your breath knocked
out of you? Maybe some of you guys play football and haven't
remembered why. I hated that when that happened. Just laying
there. That's where she is. Lord, I can't breathe. This is
so glorious. And she said to the king, it
was a true report that I heard in my own land, and thine acts
and thy wisdom, 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 thy prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Oh, this is so much better than
I thought. Happy are thy men, and happy are thy servants, Now
listen, the whole world's looking to be happy. I introduced this
message by saying, you know, I know you've got problems and
things in this world and in this life that are a challenge and
heartaches. And the rest of the world thinks,
well, if I can just get rid of that, if I can just fix that
problem, then I'll be happy. And everybody's in a pursuit
of happiness, aren't they? This is true happiness. This is true happiness. You can
be happy in your heart without one single thing changing in
your life. Is that the kind of happiness
you're looking for? Or the rest of the world is looking for just
temporary happiness, just give me a reprieve. They stand continually before
thee, and they hear thy wisdom." Is that you? You're so happy
with Christ that you just want to be before Him and hear Him. Lord, just speak to me. Just
speak to me. I'll be satisfied if you'll just
speak to me. 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. Oh You see the gospel. There's
a whole gospel message right there in there You see the gospel
in that don't you? God Almighty puts you on the
throne and This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. He set
him up on the throne to do what? To exercise judgment and justice. Why? Because he loved Israel
forever. There was a never a time, never
has there been a time or even before time. eternity Scripture
says that God has loved us with an everlasting love He didn't
just decide to love you because you made a decision for Christ. No, he loves his people from
the beginning Christ came because he loved us In verse 10, and she gave the
king 120 talents of gold and a spices very great store and
a precious stones. And there was no more such abundance
of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. I suspect
that she probably brought a whole lot more with her than she was
planning on giving him. But in the end, she gave him
everything. Everything she had. And so will you. And so will
I. Lord, You've given me everything.
All I can do is acknowledge Your ownership of everything. Lord, make me a willing servant. God loves a cheerful giver. Lord,
make me a willing giver. If you have as your experience
what the Queen of Sheba had with Solomon, you'll be just like
her. Lord, it's all yours. It's all
yours. What have I got in this world? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the revelation that you have made of Christ in this story. And oh, how we pray for your
Holy Spirit to make it effectual to our hearts. Thank you for
this table. Remind us by your spirit and
give us the faith to look to the life of Christ as we receive
this bread and the death of Christ as we drink this wine. For it's
in his name we pray. Amen. And ask the men, please,
if they'll come. Number 17, just remain seated. Burt's going to come lead us
in number 17 in the spiral hymn book. so See the table spread before you,
see the feast of bread and wine. These are symbols of our Savior,
tokens of His love divine. Bread that's broken is His body,
crushed beneath the wrath of God. Wine for doubt is a reminder
of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. remembrance of our Savior. Eat the bread and drink the wine. Jesus came, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross He made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us ne'er forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us home to glory. Praise his name with this hope
and expectation. We rejoice to keep this peace,
Celebrating our redemption, Till we lean on Jesus' breast. celebrating our redemption until
we lean on Jesus' breath. One day, this is heaven on earth. This is it. And we're caused
in our hearts to say, Lord, half was not told me. But oh, that
day, that day when the table's spread and the wedding feast
of the bride is our experience, what a glorious day that'll be.
Right now, through faith, we take this bread in remembrance
of Him. The cup of the new covenant.
The cup of grace. Not just unmerited favor, dismerited
favor. He shed His precious blood as
a covering for our sin. And we do this in remembrance
of Him. All God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Rich, would you dismiss us, please? We would hear of thy riches,
that we would be blessed, not based upon anything we have done,
but based freely upon thy grace, freely upon thy works this hour. May I ask that you would just
keep us lean to thee, not looking to our own affliction, but we
would look to thee for this week. There's these things that Christ
our Lord said, Thank you.