I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of 1 Kings chapter 10, 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 10. I'd like to just read the first
verse scripture, which will be the place from which I'm gonna
spring. I've entitled this message, Five
Hard Questions. Now I'm going to tell you right
now, you're not going to hear me say one thing, Lord willing,
that you've never heard before. You're not going to hear me say
one thing that I didn't just deal with in this past message. Five hard questions. First Kings 10 and 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. She came to prove him, to test
him, try him, to make absolute. with some hard questions. Now the Lord's will, His good
providence, caused the Queen of Sheba to hear about the fame
of Solomon. But it wasn't Solomon's natural
wisdom. He was the wisest of all men
born in Adam. And she wasn't concerned with
the natural wisdom of Solomon, but according to the scriptures,
she heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. She was prompted, and again by
the grace of God, with a desire that was placed within her heart
by the God of all grace. Now, grace before grace, you
know, I've heard me talk about prevenient grace. That's a word
that was very, very popular years and years and years ago. The
old period of prevenient grace. What does that mean? Grace before
grace. When Nicodemus came to the Lord
to ask Him some questions, God drew him. Zacchaeus, when he
went up the tree, because he was short of stature. He wanted
to see, the Lord heard about him, but grace before grace. God bringing a man, bringing
a woman. Almighty God brings his people
unto the sound of the gospel. Well, this woman, she came to
prove Solomon concerning the things of salvation. The name
of the Lord, that's what she, you know. And the Lord was going
to teach her something. The Lord even made mention of
this woman in Luke 11 31. He brought up what she did. He said, the Queen of Sheba shall
rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and
condemn them. For she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. What was he saying? He said she
made an effort to come hear the gospel, as we said. You've heard
me say when we'd be down in Mexico how travel around there can be
treacherous. There's some good places, but
most of it's not. And some of those people traveled for hours,
walking, whatever, to assemble themselves together. He said,
this woman will rise up in the judgment because she came. Now,
the words hard sayings, hard questions. Actually, what it
means is a puzzle. It means dark saying, obscured,
a proverb. A riddle. How many proverbs have
we looked at over the last 12 years, whatever? And when you
first read it, you read that proverb, and you think, I don't know what it means. Believe
me, I know. I've done that many times. A proverb. It means something
that is hard to be perceived. Hard questions that can't be
answered by man's natural wisdom. It's questions whose answers
must be revealed from heaven in this book. Things that you
could not know. Questions that are concerning
the eternal well-being of my soul. That's what she wanted
to hear. Now today I've got five questions,
five hard questions that every sinner made sensitive to their
need of Christ, their need of their soul, wants answered. I want this answered from the
Word of God. Like I said now, I'm going to
tell you what I've told you before. I want to, but I gotta know.
Here's my five questions. I'm going to go ahead and tell
you what they are. Number one, what happened eternally? This is all
concerning salvation. Salvation. The salvation of a
sinner. What happened eternally? Number
two, what happened in the garden? Number three, what happened at
Calvary? Number four, what happens in time? And number five, what's
going to happen in the day of judgment? Now these are, these
These five questions relate to all of us. We're all going to
be found. These questions are going to
be relevant. Now remember, I'm considering these dark sayings,
these puzzles, these hard questions that cannot be answered except
from the Word of God concerning salvation of needy sinners. What happened eternally? When we start talking about salvation. It didn't start here. It didn't
start today. It didn't start after man was
created. This was eternal. This never
started. Because God never started. And
nothing is ever new with God. So this is eternal. What happened
eternally? Number one, here's what happened.
2 Samuel 23 5, David said, although my house be not so with God,
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. This is all my salvation. and
all my desire, although he make it not to grow." Now what does
the Bible say right there? All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. David didn't come up with that.
The Spirit of God told him to say that. Everlastingly, eternally,
there was a covenant, a pledge among the three persons of the
Godhead. Now this is what the scripture. According to this everlasting
covenant of grace, he made with me an everlasting covenant, a
pledge. The scripture reveals and sets forth all three persons
of the Godhead, one God, all three persons of the Godhead
in absolute agreement with all these points that I'm going to
say. But the scripture distinguishes which person The Spirit of God
relates that event to, all in agreement. But the Scripture
reveals that it was the Father. 1 Corinthians 1, 4. The Father hath chosen, elected
a people in Christ. That's what the Scripture says.
God the Father chose. Then it relates redemption. all in perfect agreement to the
Son. The Son himself, according to
this everlasting covenant of grace, covenanted. I will. I will earn their righteousness. I will become a man. I will go
to the cross. I will die for the elect. It's
a covenant. This is what I'm going to do.
You make a contract. All this stuff is written down
in the contract. Go over this contract. Make sure everything
looks okay. Sign it right here. Date it. We'll notarize it. That notarizing right there,
that was his blood. Sealed it with his blood. The
Spirit of God said, I will regenerate every one of them. I'll bring them under the sound
of the gospel. I'm gonna give them a new heart.
I'm gonna take away that stony heart. I'm going to make them
willing. I'm going to put a new man in
there. I'll make them willing in the day of my power. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
concerning that work, all that the Father giveth me, they're
going to come. Here's the covenant. That's the
covenant right there. God made a covenant with himself, everlasting
covenant. And this covenant, and not David's works. David's
works, he knew better than that. He said, He's made with me an
everlasting covenant. That's all my salvation right
there. Not my works. David knew a little bit about
himself. He knew what it was. And here's
that covenant with all that the law demanded. It's ordered in
all things, this covenant is. Christ is going to bear all the
guilt. He's going to absolutely put
away their guilt. And it was a particular covenant. David said, He has made with
me, made with me an everlasting covenant. You know that God has
made a covenant to save a people, that's wonderful. But that doesn't
give me any hope if he hadn't made it with me. And again, that
only sign, what's the one mark? What's the one mark of a believer? What's the one mark, I just said
it, a believer? They believe God. They trust
Him. He's made with me. Do I have
an interest in His will to show mercy and compassion Whomsoever
He will. He hath made with me. He has set it in place, established,
constituted, determined, and fixed. It's fixed. He hath made
with me an everlasting covenant, an alliance, a friendship, a
pledge based on the Word of God, and it is ordered, arranged according
to His perfect counsel. in all things, and it's sure. It is sure. As sure as his word
is sure, that word that shall never pass away, heaven and earth
will, but his word won't. And David said, now, now, now
this is salvation. Here's salvation. God saves his
people on purpose, according to his will and desire. And let
me ask you this, what else you got? What else have you got? And then that last part, I bring
this up every time. Although he make it not to grow,
that's still, every time I say it, it's still a hard one to
understand, but here's the, shall he not cause it to spring forth?
If God's purpose to save a people, and Christ died for them, the
Spirit of God calls them out of darkness, you think God's
gonna keep them? Yeah, he's gonna keep them. So according to the
scriptures, this is what happened eternally concerning the salvation
of God's people. God has made a covenant. And He's going to save them. He's purposed it. He's accomplished
it. Accomplished it. What does that
mean, accomplished it? It means He finished it. He's
done it. He said, well, yeah, but I'm not called out of darkness
yet. Well, I understand people are called out of darkness. I'm
gonna deal with that in time on that hard question. But Almighty
God has declared 2 Timothy 1, 9, who hath saved us, rescued
us, and called us with a holy calling, an effectual calling. Now, which came first according
to God's word? Who has saved us and called us,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, when did it start? Eternally. Number two, what happened in
the garden? Here's another hard question.
When God was pleased to create the heaven and the earth, the
last thing he created was man. And he created man, the scripture
says, ecclesiastes, he created him straight. He was created
upright, level. And man stood secure only as
far as he was obedient to God. Adam was alive unto the Lord
only according to the best that Adam could do. And in the day that he disobeyed
God, what happened? He died spiritually. He died spiritually. He didn't
die physically immediately, but 930 years later he did. He died. So he died spiritually. When
he sinned against God, something happened. That light, that love,
that fellowship, that bond, that communication that man had with
God was gone. It was gone. It was gone. That's what happened. He died. What happened in the garden?
by one man's sin, one sin. What was it? He ate of that forbidden
fruit. That's what he did. You mean
to tell me that Adam eating of that forbidden fruit caused Adam
to die? No, that's not what I mean. I
mean everybody died in Adam's loins. Everybody was coming from
him. I mean everybody died. He was now totally depraved. He could not produce a man or
a woman that had fellowship with God. He died. He could not. Now, by one man's sin, the scripture
said, death reigns upon all creation. Death reigns. All are born now
spiritually dead. What does that mean? That means
when a man or woman, a boy or girl, whenever a child is born,
that child does not know and cannot know God in themselves. Cannot. He cannot. Why? He's dead. He's now totally depraved. What does totally depraved mean?
That means no part of his being His emotions, his heart, his
desires, no part of him is left unspoiled by sin. We're totally,
from the sole of the foot even to the head, there's no soundness
in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have
not been closed. You know, I told you what that
meant. Squeezed. Popped. Or bound up, neither
mollified with ointment. So what happened in the garden?
Man died spiritually. And because of his spiritual
death, eventually he's going to die physically. He's going
to die. Death. The wages of sin is death. Number three. What happened at
Calvary? Now, I have worded this to cover
the entirety of mankind. The reason I'm saying that, the
Lord came in time, but there were a lot of human beings that
lived before he came into this world. I mean, Adam was the first,
you know, created being, and the Lord didn't come later, but
what happened at Calvary covered the totality from the creation
to the second coming of Christ. This covered, you know, after
the fall of man in the garden, The Lord Jesus Christ, who had
everlastingly loved and stood for his people, according to
that everlasting, there's still a covenant. God has a covenant.
Everlastingly, he's betrothed his elect bride to himself in
righteousness and in judgment and loving kindness and mercy.
And when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his
son, the scripture says, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. Now remember this, God
everlastingly chose a people in Christ according to an everlasting
covenant. They're all in Christ. They're
in Christ. That's a mystery that I can't
explain. I'm just telling you that that's what the scripture
says. All have been chosen in him, represented by him, in him. Whenever they fell in Adam, did
they really die spiritually? Yes, they did. Yes, they did.
Were they still in Christ? Yes, they were. Still in Christ. Fallen, fallen creatures now.
Here again, I'm just telling you what the scriptures declare.
God's got a covenant. And Christ, in His part of that
covenant, according to these scriptures, He's the Redeemer.
He's going to establish redemption and righteousness by living a
life for them. He came into this world, made
flesh, and He walked in this world being the Messiah of God,
the Savior. Who's He going to save? Call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. I'm just telling you what Scripture
says. This is what the Word of God says. So he comes into this
world and he lived before God as the representative and federal
head of all of his elect. And he obeyed God as a man by
faith, by faith. He believed God, his Father. He humbled himself, made himself
of no reputation. And as a man, he obeyed God,
and the righteousness that he earned as a man is given to, or imputed to, or
charged to his people that believe. And it is the righteousness of
God. As a man, a man obeyed God. The God-man mediator, he obeyed
God. And God said of him at his baptism
and on the Mount of Transfiguration, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased with him. I'm
well pleased with him. You hear him. You hear what he
has to say. And so he comes into this world. And 2 Corinthians
5.21, if you want to turn there, turn there it says, for he, the
father, hath made him sin. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now what happened
at Calvary? I'll tell you exactly what happened
at Calvary. At Calvary, hanging on that cross,
spear stuck in his side, nailed his hands, his feet, stripped
naked, beaten, his visage marred more than any man. hanging on
that cross, right there. The Redeemer was made sin. He was made sin. And God Almighty,
in absolute justice, being made sin, He's burying all of the
sin. He's made His people, He's buried
all of their guilt in His own body. He was made what they are. And God Almighty, now listen
to this, in absolute justice, absolute justice, He did what
was right. He forsook Him. That He would not forsake me
or you that believe Him. Somebody's gonna be forsaken.
Somebody's gonna die. He wasn't dying as a martyr.
He wasn't dying to make salvation possible. He died bearing the
sins of his people. He said in John 10, 15, I lay
down my life for the sheep. I'm dying for them. I am satisfying
the law of God for justice. Justice is gonna be served. I'm
a just God. And now by his stripes, God's
stripes upon him, not the Roman soldiers, no. God smote him. We are eternally healed by his
stripes. He made him sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. What happened? The
Lord Jesus Christ now is bearing the debt of what happened in
the garden for his people. That's what he's doing. God made
a covenant. Man died, and now Christ is gonna
give back that which he took not away. I'm gonna give it back. I'm gonna pay their debt. I'm
gonna give them righteousness. Oh, but this time it won't be
righteousness that can be lost. We're sealed. What happens now,
fourthly, in time? The gospel. that which declares
what has been done, not to do, not to do. What has been done,
this gospel that we're preaching, the gospel declares what God
has done in the redemption and salvation of his people. This
gospel is going to be preached all over the world. The Lord
commanded his disciples to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature, Mark 16, 15. And all that the
Father has given the Son, they're going to hear the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace. They're going to hear it. They're
going to hear it. Let me prove that to you. John
6. John 6, 43 to 45. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to
me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise
him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
has heard and has learned of the father cometh to me. Now let me ask you this. How many of God's elect are gonna
be under the sound of the gospel? How many of them are going to
be taught of God? All of them. How many of them are going to
come to Christ believing this gospel that He's preached? All
of them. How many of God's elect is He
going to save? All of them. All of them. They
shall all be taught of God. They'll all be made willing in
the day of God's power. And him that cometh to me, the
Lord said, I will in no wise. I will not in no wise. What if we slip? Solomon did. Marvin did. You did. We all did. But God's people
believe him. They believe him. They trust
him. There's sheep all over this world. Every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue. And they're going to be found.
They're going to be converted. And they're going to be kept
from falling. Fifthly, last point. What's going to happen in the
day of judgment? What's going to happen? Well, it's going to
happen pretty quickly. I can tell you this, 1 Corinthians
15, 52, in a moment. The scripture says, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump For a trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. The
Lord said in Matthew 24, 27, as the lightning cometh out of
the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be. First Thessalonians 4, 16, 17,
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Everybody
that has ever lived is going to be at the judgment. Everybody
that's ever lived, well, everybody's gonna be there, 2 Corinthians
5, 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body according
to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. We're all
gonna be there. Everybody's gonna be assembled.
The Lord himself is gonna separate. The Lord knows His people. Matthew
25, 31 to 34 says, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory,
and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the
throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations. And He shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He
shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, come,
you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.
from the foundation of the world. We're going right back to point
one. Then shall He say, verse 41,
unto them on His left hand, depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. At that moment,
every person that the Lord has given faith, called them out
of darkness, given them life, Granted them faith to believe
Him. And by faith, they've come to Him. They're willing in the
day of His power. Are they robots? No, they're
just brand new men, brand new women. They're doing what they
want to do. Let me ask you this, do you want
to believe Him? I sure do. Well, I tell you this,
He made you willing then, in the day of His power. And those
that say, I'll not have that man rule over me, that's not
the God I worship. That's not the God I worship.
He'll say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Refusing
to kiss the sun, that center will be cast out. But those that
have come and have a good pleasure to come, He'll say, come in.
Enter in. For that which was prepared for
you from before the foundation of the world, just like that
woman of Canaan. came and begged for her daughter, the Syrophoenician
woman, admitting her unworthiness to the Lord, fell at his feet
and admitted herself. She said, I'm a dog, I'm a dog,
but the dogs eat the crumbs. At fall, you know, Mephibosheth,
he knew himself, he knew himself to be worthy of death. It was
his daddy and his grandfather, Saul, His grandfather, not Jonathan,
Jonathan was David's friend, but Saul, Jonathan's daddy, he
tried to kill David. You know what normally happened
to the lineage of a king when a new king took over? He took
out the family. But for the sake of Jonathan,
David's friend, Saul's son, Jonathan, David said, I'm going to show
mercy to you. for your daddy's sake. You know why any sinner will
ever have a place in glory? It's gonna be for Christ's sake.
For Christ's sake. He shed his blood for his people.
And the father said, when I see the blood, I'm gonna pass over you. I pray
God bless this to our heart for Christ's sake.