I have on several occasions reminded
you of the remarkable grace of the Lord. It's called Pravenian
grace, isn't it? Grace that precedes the grace
that we see and experience. And of course, what else would
we expect from our God, who never changes, who has loved His people
with an everlasting love from before the foundation of the
world. As Psalm 65 says, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest,
and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy
courts we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple. It's remarkable,
isn't it, the journey the Lord took our friend Elizabeth on,
from Africa to Europe, from Europe to Bermagui. Remarkable, the
journey that he took Henry Mahan on, destined to be one of the
leading figures in the Southern Baptist Churches in America,
remarkably saved after having been a pastor and hearing the
Gospel from Ralph Barnard and sending Henry all the way to
Australia for Owen and others to hear the Gospel in Tumut. And for that Gospel to go from
Tumut back to Bermagui, and for Egloff and Isabel to hear that
Gospel there, and for that Gospel to have captivated Isabel in
a remarkable way. It is just so typical of the
journey the Lord takes His people on, isn't it? Out of lands, He
gathers them from the ends of the earth and He gathers them
to Himself and He reveals Himself to them. This week I've been
spending a lot of time captivated by a simple story told four times
in the scriptures about the Queen of Sheba. You can read it in
1 Kings 10. It is the most beautiful picture
of the Lord drawing one of His own. As I often say, when we
have pictures of women in the scriptures, we have so often
a picture of the Church, the Lord Jesus drawing His bride
to Himself. And it's just such a simple story,
such a remarkable story in so many ways. When you think of
where this woman was, and you think of the status of this woman,
Now you know what 1 Timothy is referring to when God requires
the salvation of all people. It's all positions, people are
in all positions in society. He saves kings and queens as
well as beggars. There was a queen in England
who seemed to have been enlightened by the Lord and she was asked
what she's thankful for. And she said, I am very thankful
for the letter M. because it says, not many wise,
not many noble. If it wasn't for the letter M,
it would read, not any. Here we have an amazing picture
of this woman. And we have Just a simple, simple
story. And like all of the Lord's simple
stories, they have a depth in them which is so profound. And
I suppose what caught my eye as I was thinking about it during
this week is that she says, In verse 7 she says, I heard this
report, I hadn't believed these words until I came. My eyes have
seen and behold, half was not told me. Thy wealth and prosperity
exceed the fame which I heard. Such will be the passage of the
Lord's people into heaven's glories. Just imagine, just imagine what
it's like. The scriptures paint us the most
remarkable pictures and in many ways they shield it with a veil
from us. But what awaits God's children
when they leave this body which hinders their view of the Lord,
this body of death, this body of sin, when we leave this body
as God's children go to eternity? What remarkable things. God says
we don't die. Our death happened 2000 years
ago. We don't die, we just lose the
encumbrance here. It is a serious and grieving
thing, death, and God wants us to know it's serious. But for
believers, It is a remarkable transition. And then there will
come that great day, that great day of the judgment, that great
day where the Lord Jesus will be vindicated and all of creation,
the angels, the demons, Satan, the reprobate, and all of God's
children will see that the Lord has been good, the Lord has been
just, the Lord has been majestic. And on that day, according to
Matthew 12 and Luke 11, on that day we will see the Queen of
Sheba. The Queen of Sheba, this Queen
that we're reading about this morning, will be held up before
that world that world that rejected the Lord Jesus, and she will
be held up as an emblem, an emblem, a trophy of His grace, an emblem
of the fact that God will be seen to be just and the justifier
of His own. He'll be seen to be just. It's
a beautiful picture. It's a beautiful, simple story.
And it tells us in the beginning why she came. And then it tells
us what she heard, and then what she saw, and then what she confessed. And then the end result of it
is what she really saw as the source of all of what was before
her. She praises God. And then remarkably
in verse 13, she is sent away with her little wagon laden,
her heart's desires fulfilled. What are your heart's desires?
What are your heart's desires? in that psalm earlier, didn't
it? David just had one desire, isn't it? One thing I have desired
of the Lord that I will seek after. That's what he will seek
after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
His temple. to live with Him, to commune
with Him, and to behold His beauty. Let's begin in verse 10, and
we can but simply follow the story through, and pray that
God the Holy Spirit would write the lessons, and when I'm finished
I'm sure you'll go away and say, oh there's so much more in there.
And of course there is. There's an infinite amount in
here, and infinitely beautiful it is. And when the Queen of
Sheba... The scholars are not sure where
Sheba is. We just know that it's probably
either Yemen or Ethiopia. What we do know for sure is that
it was at least 2,000 km away from Jerusalem. And 2,000 km
whichever direction you go in, 2,000 km across deserts. It's the most miserable bit of
country. I haven't seen much of this world,
but I've seen a little bit of it. And flying across Australia,
you fly across some pretty miserable bits of it. And America has a
big chunk of pretty miserable stuff across the bottom of it
as well. But there is a miserableness, there is a depressing horrible
grayness about that Arabian Gulf. It's far more mountainous than
you think, especially along the coast, the only bit that I've
seen. But it's a horrible, dark, unappealing gray, and you wonder
how on earth people lived there. But she had to come across that
land with this great train of camels. But there she was in
this land, 2,000 kilometers away from Jerusalem, and she'd heard
of the fame of Solomon. But just note these next words. She'd heard the fame of Solomon
concerning the name of the Lord. She'd heard about Solomon, but
she'd heard about Solomon because of who God is. Isn't that something that our
heart's desire is? That people would hear of the
fame of our Solomon, of our Prince of Peace. That the Lord Jesus,
as He really is, would be famous. He would be renowned. He would
be renowned amongst us. It's a shocking thing. We should
be horrified when we hear blasphemy about our Saviour. And we should
be even more horrified when we know from the Scriptures that
when we hear blasphemy about our Saviour, the heart and the
root of that blasphemy is what churches say about Him. It's because of you, says this
Bible. You Jews, because of your activities,
because you have turned the grace of God into legalism and rules
and rituals and traditions, you've taken people's eyes off the real
Jesus. And the Jesus of modern religion,
the impotent Jesus who tries and fails, is not a Jesus who
can be famous. He's not a Jesus. He's not the
Jesus of this Bible. This Jesus really is God. He really is the Lord. And it's
not for nothing that the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament
gives him his title as always. Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is a God of renown. He's a God who will be famous. He's a God who ought to be famous
in our sight. And may He make us a church that
proclaims Him as worthy of fame." But she'd heard of this fame.
She'd heard of what the Lord had done in Solomon's life, how
the Lord had placed Solomon on a throne, how the Lord had created
from that little nation, that one person, Abraham, with his
old wife, He'd created that family of 72 that went down to Egypt,
and He'd nurtured them and grown them into a mighty nation down
there in Egypt. And here He'd brought them out
with great signs and wonders that went right round that world,
and He'd planted them in this land, and He'd defeated their
enemies, and He'd raised them up. after battle, after battle,
after battle. It had all been by the work of
God and by the hand of God. And he came to Solomon's father
who was just a shepherd boy, a young shepherd boy like Jack,
out in the fields looking after sheep. And he came and he placed
his hand of love and providence and protection upon David. David had had this son Solomon,
and this kingdom that David had established had flourished. under Solomon and all of those
wealth and all of those riches and all of those things that
David had stored in Jerusalem to build Jerusalem and to build
that magnificent temple were there now completed and fame
had spread concerning the name of the Lord. And so she came. She came to Jerusalem, verse
2, with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, very
much gold and precious stones. So she came a long way. She was a wealthy woman. She
could have very easily and much more quickly gone to the famous
cities of Egypt. She could have gone somewhere
else. But this woman had laid on her heart something far more
serious than the riches of this world. She had plenty. She could have sent emissaries. She could have sent others up
there to draw the pictures of Jerusalem and bring her back
with wonderful travel records and great stories about the things
that had happened in Jerusalem and about Solomon. But see, she
had come for reasons of her heart. Just read it there in verse 2. See, she came and she communed
with him. It's a lovely word, isn't it? however long it took for her
to get there, she came traveling months across that desert land
on camels. I've been on camels for a few
hours and you don't want to do it very often. But to do it for
months and months on end, then you have to turn around when
you finish in Jerusalem and you have to go back again across
that desert, all that dust. all of that difficult terrain.
But she came because of issues that were in her heart. She communed
with Him all that was in her heart. And she is commended by
God because she came to Him to prove Him, to prove Solomon,
verse 1, with hard questions. How often have we had discussions
with people and when it comes to things that they see as hard, they run away. This lady is commended
for asking hard questions. Hard questions which lie on our
hearts. Hard questions about the character
of God. Hard questions about election
and predestination. Hard questions about salvation
from eternity. Hard questions about the nature
of man. What was her heart? What was in her heart? Hard questions. that demand hard answers. But the hard answers are true
answers. And true answers are the only
comfort, the only comfort that will do you any good when you
come to situations like our dear friends in Canberra. All of us
will go there one day and it's only True answers to hard questions
to do with our hearts that will satisfy us. So many people are satisfied
with char. We need the wheat. They're satisfied
with dirt. We need diamonds. They're satisfied with the paddock,
we need the Pearl of Great Price. These questions need to be asked. It's a great lesson for us, isn't
it? It's a great lesson that if Satan can stir up some controversy
as he has throughout the history of God's Church, generally what
people do is that they run away from it and they fudge the difficult
things. The answer from the scriptures
and the answer from this lady's experience is that you go. She didn't go to someone else.
She went directly to Him. You have an invitation which she doesn't
appear to have. The Lord Jesus says to you and
to me, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Learn of me. This woman who had every reason
with all of this gold and all of these special stones and all
of these spices, she came with every reason to be a proud woman. She could have come and she did,
no doubt, with this very great train, with much pomp and ceremony,
but she came with a heart that was humbled. She came to be honest with God. Oh, that God would open our hearts,
that we might be really honest with Him. Just really honest. Just come to Him and come to
Him personally and lay the things that are on our heart before
Him. Does He know everything about us? He knows us better
than we know ourselves. What's the point of trying to
hide from Him? What on earth can we ever gain
from playing games with Him? We come because He's invited
us in the most remarkable way, and He's come as she did. We come to commune with Him,
to lay before Him what's on our heart, to lay before Him the
hard questions. Verse 3, what did she hear? And Solomon told her all her
questions. And there was not anything hid
from the king which he told her not. He dealt with her questions
as they really were, and she was answered. She was
answered by Solomon according to that remarkable wisdom that
he was promised. In 1 Kings 4, Solomon is commended
when he is asked and given an opportunity to ask of the Lord
what he might have. And he asks for wisdom. He asks for wisdom. He asks to
know how to manage this land and this people. Verse 29 of
chapter 1 of chapter 4 of 1 Kings. And God gave Solomon wisdom and
understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart, even
as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled
the wisdom of all of the children of the East country, from the
East, from Babylon and out to India and places, and all the
wisdom of Egypt. Solomon's wisdom exceeded all
those. But Solomon had another wisdom,
a wisdom that she came to seek, a wisdom which the Lord had laid
on her heart. Solomon had a wisdom about the
things of God. He had a wisdom about who God
really was. He'd met Him. He had seen Him
in the temple. He'd had God come and bring promises,
promises to His Father that were fulfilled in Him. He had that
remarkable promise from God. In 2 Samuel, just turn back a
few pages and you will see after the death, After the death of Uriah, Solomon was born. David had done
that despicable thing, the thing which the Lord had hated. And David comforted Bathsheba,
his wife. He took her to be his wife. He
went in under her and lay with her, and she bare a son, and
he called his name Solomon, which means peaceable, peaceful. And the Lord loved him. As a baby he was loved by the
Lord. He was loved by the Lord from
eternity. And he sent, verse 25 of chapter 12, 2 Samuel, and
he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, And he called his
name Jedidiah because of the Lord. Jedidiah means Beloved
of the Lord. Beloved of the Lord. Solomon
knew God. Solomon had God's promises on
his life from the time he was young. And Solomon had been blessed
by God according to those promises that Nathan the prophet had made
to David about that kingdom and about that house that Solomon
had built. And she has come at this special
time when those promises are fulfilled. And what did she say? Verse 4, And when the Queen of
Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he
had built, and the meat at his table, and the sitting of his
servants, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel,
and his cupbearers, and his assent by which he went up to the house
of the Lord. When she saw all these things,
there was no more spirit in her. She was overwhelmed. She saw
His wisdom. She saw that His wisdom had come
from God as a promise and it was above and beyond the wisdom
of men. She saw that house, the house
that He had built for Himself and the house that had been built
for His God. And she saw the provision of
the Lord. Just think of these things in
terms of the Lord Jesus. She saw the food at his table.
She saw the way the Lord had so wonderfully and liberally
provided for him. She saw that his servants were
sitting. His servants were at rest, and
the attendance of his ministers, and he saw how they were clothed,
and she saw his cupbearers, and then remarkably, she saw, it
says, his ascent, by which he went up into the house of the
Lord. That word ascent can mean some
sort of a stairway or an arch as some commentators put it.
But many of the translators in the Hebrew says it means whole burnt offering. that Solomon knew that the only
way into the house of God and the only way to be right with
God was by sacrifice. Who provides that sacrifice?
Solomon's great, great, great, great, great granddad Abraham
had taken his son Isaac up onto that mountain for that first
mentioning of burnt offering in the scriptures. And the Lord
will provide himself for a burnt offering. She knew and Solomon's
wisdom had told her that this burnt offering was a representation,
a picture of the one whose house it was. You cannot go into the
house of the Lord without a suitable sacrifice. The only way into
the presence of God, the only way to have those things that
are on your heart dealt with, in the courts of God is through
a mediator, through a sacrifice, through a sin-bearing sacrifice,
through a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings a sweet odour up
to God in His house. And the whole result of it was,
it says at the end of verse 5, there was no more spirit in her. Isn't it remarkable? She had
been drawn by the Lord to go on that remarkable journey. She
had met and seen God and His promises kept before her eyes
and she was humbled. She'd seen all of this and she
was humbled, emptied of life it can almost mean. emptied of
that life which in the world's eyes brings great acclamation,
what it was to be a queen in those days, what it was to rule
absolutely by the word of your power, to have that whole kingdom
under your control. There was no more spirit into
her. And then she makes this beautiful
confession. And she said to the king, it
was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and
thy wisdom. It was true. I'd heard of the
fame. of Solomon. I've heard of the
fame of this place because of the name of the Lord, and it's
true. It's true what I have heard.
The words that have been reported about your God and His provision
and His temple and His sacrifice and His people and His land,
it's true. The report is true. Who has believed our report,
says the Prophet. Who has believed our report?
You see a report is given when the job is done. You get the
report at the end of the examination. Who has believed our report?
We report on what is finished, on who God is and how He saves
His people. It's a true report. We have a
true report about our great God and His work. And then she says,
what so many of us would say, wouldn't we? How be it I believe
not the words? Why didn't I believe? Why didn't
I believe? It's so much better. The Gospel
is so much better than I could possibly believe. How come I
don't believe the words? But there is a time, isn't it?
There is a time in the lives of God's people when we do believe. Until I came and my eyes had
seen it, and behold the half was not told me. It's much better
than you can imagine it is. Just think back, brothers and
sisters, when has the Lord ever let you down? When has He failed
in one of His promises? When has His word ever failed? When has His arm been too short? O that we would see by the eyes
of faith, as we will one day see by the eyes of sight, and
we will see, as our dear friend Isabel will, that God is true
and God is faithful. The report is true, and it's
far more magnificent than we could possibly imagine. The wisdom
and the prosperity exceed the fame which I have heard." There
is this famous report that we give out, but how little can
we give out unless the Spirit takes it and makes it a living
thing in people's minds. But even then, for us brothers
and sisters, there is just so much more in the glory and in
the grace and in the wisdom and in the wonder of our God that
we don't see. But, just read the next verse. happy are thy men, and happy
are thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and
hear thy wisdom." You see, she came, verse 2, and she communed
with Solomon what it is to stand continually before the Lord and
to hear His wisdom. how much it makes a folly of
all the wisdom of the world. Happy, blessed are these, your
servants. Happy are thy men. Happy is your family." And then
she goes further, doesn't she? John's disciples, They heard
John speak about the Lord Jesus and they followed him. They hear
all of this and she saw all of this. What a remarkable testimony
she makes in those last verses there. See, she knows. She knows from this teaching.
She knows from the answer to these hard questions. She knows
from the answer of all the things that were in her heart. She saw
the answer, verse nine, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth
in thee. Blessed be the Lord God who delights
in you now, delights in you continuously. His delights are with the sons
of men. As Psalm 16.3 says, But to the
saints that are in the earth, right here, right now, and to
the excellent in whom is all my delight, brothers and sisters,
in the Lord Jesus. You are the delight of God the
Father. You are the delight of God the
Son. It is the delight of God the
Holy Spirit to take the things of the Lord Jesus and reveal
them to you. And not only that, in this world
we are made to be kings and priests. Blessed be the Lord your God,
which delighteth in thee, and set thee on the throne of Israel. And look at this next line, brothers
and sisters, isn't it wonderful? Because the Lord loved. finished and past and perfect
to complete. The Lord loved Israel forever. The Lord loved Israel forever. When did He begin to love Israel? When will He ever stop loving
Israel of God? He loves Israel forever. I just
love that verse in Romans. Romans 11.29, isn't it? It says, for the gifts and the
calling of God are without repentance. They are unchangeable. When God gives, he never gives
to take away to his people. Blessed They're the Lord God. Because the Lord loved Israel
forever and he's made Solomon to be a king. He's made him to
be a king to do judgment and justice. God's king rules on
a throne of perfect justice and perfect judgment. And then her
response. She came with issues of her heart. And she had all this gold, a
remarkable amount of gold, 120 talents of gold. It's a lot of
gold. And it's spices are great store
and precious stones there. Came no more such an abundance
of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.
She came She communed, she saw and she saw beyond the things
of this world and she saw God on His throne and eternity and
she says you can have all of these Solomon. And then remarkably
in verse 13 we have a wonderful word, a wonderful promise from
our God King Solomon gave unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire. When our great King Solomon comes,
he will give to us all our desire, because all our desire will be
him. He not only gives, but he satisfies. Every good and perfect gift is
from above, and comes down from the Father of Light, in whom
there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own
will begat He us with the Word of Truth. And whatever she asked
beside that which Solomon gave her out of his royal bounty,
God gives us according to his riches which are in Christ Jesus. And so she turned, she turned,
she turned a transformed woman and went to her own country,
she and her servants. What a remarkable picture of
God drawing His people from the ends of the earth and bringing
them to the foot of His King and showing them the wonders
of His King, showing them the wonders of that sacrifice and
that temple, showing them the wonders of the glory of the Lord
Jesus. What a remarkable testimony that
she has, which will be the testimony of God's people, won't it? That it's the true report, and
it's much, much better than I had been led to believe. It's beautiful. And there is, twice in the New
Testament, we are told that this woman, as I said at the beginning,
will be raised up at the judgment. of this generation and shall
condemn it. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold
a greater than Solomon is here." I love the way Acts begins where
it says that these are the beginnings. of the things of the Lord Jesus,
the works of the Lord Jesus. They are works that continue
to this day. The generation that the Lord
Jesus is talking about obviously had its immediate context with
the Jews of that day. But has the Lord Jesus departed
from His people? Is He here bearing witness to
Himself? Is He still in our day? getting
a name for himself in the gathering of his people. Is he still today
treated as he was in those days? You see, wherever God's children
are, wherever God's children are in this world, wherever they
bear witness and bear a true report of this great God and
this great salvation, this great grace, wherever that's raised
up, at the very same time that there is the delight of God's
grace at work in the lives of His people, there is a testimony,
isn't there? There is a testimony to those
who are on the outside. If she travelled at 40 kilometres
a day, it would have taken her nearly two months to get from
where she was to Jerusalem. We reach out to people and it
grieves us, not that they don't come to us, but they won't take
these hard questions and they won't disclose and come to Him
and lay their hearts bare before Him and say, I need to get to
the end of these hard questions. I need to search these things
out. How very few do, brothers and
sisters. What a remarkable gift of grace
it is. And of course at that day that
the Lord Jesus is talking about, it will be seen, brothers and
sisters, that He is just, He is perfectly just, and it will
be seen that salvation is purely grace. Grace from eternity, powerful,
effective grace in the lives of His people as that wonderful
work and that eternal covenant, that glorious Lord Jesus is seen
to be victorious. And we will see, this world will
see, that God's judgment on the reprobate is perfectly just. It is perfectly just. Salvation
is entirely of grace. Eternal destruction is entirely
man's responsibility. What a great God. Solomon was
wise, but our Jesus is the wisdom of God. Solomon was rich, but
our Lord Jesus possesses all things. Simon's name means peace. Our Lord Jesus is the Prince
of Peace. Solomon had great dominion. Our
great Solomon sits on the throne of this universe ruling all things. Solomon's name was changed to
one who is beloved of the Lord. What a great beloved saviour
we have. Beloved of the Lord, beloved
of the Lord's people. And remarkably, according to
John 17, the love with which the Father loves him is the love
that he has for us. What riches are in store for
God's children called out of this wilderness world. Let's
pray.