if you will, to 1 Kings chapter
10. When Todd was preaching on worship,
I remember, I hadn't been where I am very long,
and was learning the gospel, learning it. And it's a very
tough way, it was very hard for me, because I'd been a legalist,
strong legalist, fundamentalist, If anything was wrong, I was
against it. I was against makeup, pants,
televisions, you name it, I was against it. Anything you could
enjoy, I thought it was wrong. And the Lord blessed me to go
to a meeting one time where some brethren were preaching the grace
of God. And I've seen how folks had such
a reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ, such a reverence for
the Gospel, such a reverence for the Word. And I went back
home and we had such, you know, there was lots of times I'd go
to the service and have to wait on Wednesday night to see if
anybody was going to show up or not. And that went on for a while. But I do remember on Sunday morning,
I came up and there was, I think there was nine or ten of us.
And I asked this question, I said, do you suppose we've ever worshipped
God here ever in our lives? And I was broken hearted to think
that we had never ever worshipped. A lot of flesh, a lot of bragging,
a lot of scripture quoting, but I asked the question, And
the first thing I said was this, if we ever, if we do worship,
we got to have the right sacrifice. We got to have the right sacrifice.
I remember that very vividly when you were preaching that.
And for two years, for two years, all I preached on there was how
in the world could God be just and justify a sorry, miserable,
sinful bunch of folks like we were. There. That's all I preached
on for two years. I'd sit and think of it at the
house. That's all I could think about. And I preached that for
two years and still preaching it. Still preaching it. Oh, it's been such a good meeting
and I thank you so much. The Lord's blessed you with such
a beautiful building. Lord Will and Shirley's going
to take some pictures of this and this is going to be our next
project, putting some We just finished the kitchen down home,
and we try to do something every year, so we got something new
to look at now. I want to bring a message out
here, if God will enable me, out of 1 Kings 10 here, the first
10 verses, and talk about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. And when
the Queen of Sheba heard of the famous Solomon concerning the
name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.
And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels
that bear spices, and very much gold and precious stones. And
when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all
that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her
questions. There was not anything hid from
the king which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,
and the meat of 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 unto the house of the Lord,
there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It
was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believe 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. Happy are thy men, happy are
these thy servants, who stand continually before thee, and
hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne in Israel,
Because the LORD loved Israel forever, therefore made He the
King to do judgment and justice. And She gave the King a hundred
and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and
precious stones. And there came no more abundance
of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to the King
of Solomon. This is so plain to me. Solomon
in the Queen of Sheba. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He said,
look at the lilies of the field. They don't labor. They don't
toil. They didn't do anything to make
themselves look as beautiful as they do. He said, but Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like these. But look what happened
here. She heard the fame. The first
thing she heard about Solomon was there in verse 1. When the
Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, She heard of His
fame. And that's what we try to do
in preaching the gospel. Is tell about the Lord Jesus
Christ. And tell about the fame. He's
the one that gets all the glory. He's the one that has all the
power. He's the one that has all the
glory. And when she heard of His fame,
And wouldn't you love to somebody come to you and say, I've heard
that you all talk about this Jesus. And I've heard that you
talk about how glorious He is, and how wondrous He is, and how
powerful He is. Would you tell me about Him?
And she heard of His fame. And I'll tell you some of the
things she heard about Him. She was worried about His wealth.
Look what it says down in verse 21. And all King Solomon's drinking
vessels were of gold. And all the vessels of the house
of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold, none were silver.
And there was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. You heard
about how wealthy he is. And how wealthy is our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, the riches of His glory. The riches of His grace. The
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. How much have we taken
from the Lord Jesus Christ that He has given us? And yet he's
as wealthy today as the day he gave Abel that faith. As the
first day he'd done something for any sinner, he gave all of
out of his riches, and he's still as rich today. I'll tell you
what, when we get to glory, people talk about streets of gold, and
people here make so much about gold. And I like to watch them
fellows go out and get all this gold and weigh it out. They get
so excited when they find a bunch of gold. But you know what God
thinks about gold? We're going to walk on it when
we get to glory. Everybody worries themselves
to death about getting gold and getting wealth here and they
advertise all the time. Buy gold from this fellow, buy gold from
that fellow and put it in this portfolio. Listen, God said,
you know how little I think of gold? He said, if everybody wants
it, I'm going to make it streets that our people walk on. I'll
make it just something for them they can walk on. That's how
wealthy our Lord Jesus Christ is. Unsearchable. The fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Him. And not only should she hear
the fame of His riches, but she heard the fame of His wisdom.
Look what she said in verse 6. She said to the king, it was
a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. I heard about your wisdom. Down
in verse 24, look what it says here. And all the earth sought
to Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.
Oh, this wisdom! You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's called the very wisdom of God. What does he mean by being
the wisdom of God? That means that God, from all
eternity, purposed to do all things through Christ, and give
Christ all the power, and all the wealth, and all the wisdom. How many times did they say,
never man spake like this man. Where did this man get this learning?
Where did this man get these letters? He's never been to any
of our schools. But God said he's the wisdom of God. You know
where all the wisdom of God's at? The Scripture said in Colossians
3, 3, it says, In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. And James says this, If any man
lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to
all. And beloved, the wisdom that
we want to know is the wisdom. We want to know Christ as our
wisdom. Paul said it like this, Christ
is our wisdom. our righteousness, our sanctification,
and our redemption. And He said, under the Jews,
under the Jews when we preach, He's a stumbling block. Stumble
over Him. But under them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, Christ is
the wisdom of God. Now let me ask you something.
When we say that Christ is the wisdom of God, I'll get to this
here in a minute, but when it says Christ is the wisdom of
God, what do you take that to mean? To me, Christ is the wisdom
of God, shows how God can stay holy and just and righteous and
dwell in holiness and inhabit eternity and be all alone in
His glory and His power and His majesty and at the same time
come down here and slay a sinner through His Son on the cross
and at the same time give Him life when He slays Him. Condemn Him for His sin and then
justify Him for His sin. Make Him clean and righteous
and at the same time, punish Him for everything He ever done
wrong. That's where the wisdom of God is seen, in Christ. And
that's why we say, is Christ your wisdom? Is Christ your wisdom? Oh listen, she heard not only
about the fame of His riches, the fame of His wisdom, but the
fame of His power. Look what it said again in verse
1. She heard the fame of Solomon, and listen to this, concerning
the name of the Lord. Oh, you know, he knew God. Oh, concerning the name of the
Lord. She said, I want to know this.
You know, I hear about God and how wise you are and how God
gave you a heart to know Him. She said, when you as a child,
you said you prayed when God made you king. You said, Lord,
I can't go in and I can't go out. I'm just a child. And He
said, well, ask of me of riches, whatever. And He said, all I
ask for, all I ask for is wisdom. to walk before you and judge
your people. That's all I want. And he said,
since you didn't ask me for wealth, didn't ask me for power, he said,
I'm going to give you that wisdom. And how many things did Solomon
say about the Lord? How many things did Solomon say
about God? How many things did he say about
the power of God, the glory of God, the name of God? And God
gave Christ. Solomon had fame. God gave Christ
a name that's above every name. That at His name, at His name,
at His name, every knee's gonna bow. Every tongue's gonna confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And I've done bowed the knee. Have you ever bowed the knee?
I bowed the knee. I don't care to bow the knee right now in
front of everybody here. Talking about confessing. I've
done bowed the knee. And I bowed every day before
Him. I tell you what, that name, that name, that name, that name
of Christ, God said I gave it a name above every name. You
want to talk to me? Come in His name. You want to
worship me? Come in His name. You want to
talk about anything? Talk about His name. You want to preach the gospel?
Talk about His name. You want your heartworm? Talk
about His name. That's what he's talking about,
boy. That's what he said. Name of the Lord. And oh, look
what she did. Look what she did. You know,
a lot of folks, it says there in verse 2, And she came to Jerusalem
with a very great train. A lot of folks make light. How
many times have we asked people to come to the services? How
many times have we invited people to come? And boy, she didn't
do that. She didn't make light of it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said He made a great supper. Ben made
a great supper. And He asked a whole bunch of
people to come. And the first fellow said this. This is what
I call two fools and a hen-pecked husband. The fellow is invited to supper
and he said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I got to go try them
out. And another one said, listen,
I bought a piece of ground and I got to go look at it. And here's
the henpecked husband. He said, I can't come because
I married a wife. And old Felix said, he told Paul,
he says, you wait a while and I'll hear you again in this matter.
But this woman didn't make light of it. She wasn't a fool. It
says, when she heard of His fame, concerning the name of the Lord,
she came. And oh beloved, that's what we
want people to do. We want them to come. When you
hear about Him, what keeps a man from coming to Christ? What keeps
him? When you hear of His fame, you
hear of His glory, you hear of His power, you hear of His wisdom,
you hear of His riches, you hear of His name. Oh my! And she came to Him. And look what it says, she came
to Jerusalem with a very great train. She came to Jerusalem
to see Solomon. And then it says back up there
in verse 1, she came to prove him with hard questions. She
came to prove Him with hard questions. And I'll tell you, there are
some hard questions that we have to answer in the Scripture. Nicodemus
didn't know them. Our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus
he must be born again. And here's the master of Israel.
And you know what he said? How can a man be born again?
Should he enter into his mother's second womb and come out again? Is that what you're talking about? No. Oh, he asked her, she pulled
her out and asked him, If a man dies, Solomon, if a man dies,
is he going to live again? Solomon, how did God justify
you, Solomon? How are you so wise and how are
you so glorious and how are you so wealthy? How did you get all
this and how did God justify you and why did God bless you?
She asked him all these hard questions. And, oh, she came
to Him. And, oh, my! And this is something. Marvin said it last night. Anybody
that's ever come to Christ, one thing they always do, they're
always coming, coming, coming, coming, coming, coming to Christ.
Always coming. And, oh, listen. Our Lord Jesus
Christ stood in that last day, that great day of the feast and
said, If any man's thirsty, Let Him come to me. And I'll
give Him to drink. I'll give Him to drink. And oh,
not only did she come to Him, but look what it says in verse
2. And when she was come to Solomon, last part of the verse, and when
she was come to Solomon, she communed with Him. With all that
was in her heart. She came to Him and she communed
with Him. With everything that was in her
heart. Everything that was in her heart and soul, she communed
with Solomon. Do you do that? Oh, don't we
do that with our Lord Jesus Christ? To have communion with Him? To
have fellowship with Him? To talk with Him? Embrace Him? Maurice Montgomery used to say,
Hug up! Hug up to the Lord Jesus Christ. And she told him all her heart.
And beloved, we can bring things out of our heart. to the Lord
Jesus Christ that we can't possibly bring out in front of anybody
else. And she can tell all, we can
tell all that's in her heart. Lord, You saw me when I thought
this. You saw me when I did this. You
seen me when I fell into that mud hole. You heard me when I
said that thing. And oh, look what it says there
in verse 3. And Solomon told her all her
questions, answered all them hard questions. And it says there
was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not. Nothing hid from the king. You
know, that glass, you know, I can't see when I hold it in front of
you. And I just see a blur. But God don't see things blurry.
He don't see things blurry. That's what Solomon, he said,
he told her all her heart. And he, beloved, he saw nothing
was hid from him. And ain't you grateful? One of
the most blessed, encouraging, assuring things that I understand
for myself It's not how much I know about God and how much
I know about Christ. It's what He knows about me. That He knows me. And saves me
anyway. Saves me anyway. Look what else
happens here now. Look what she saw. This is what
she did. She came. She came. She heard and then
she came. Then look what she saw. In verse 4, And when the
queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he
had built, and the meat of 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, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to
the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of
thy acts and thy wisdom. She saw His wisdom. Oh my! She saw His wisdom. And the wisdom
of God in salvation and how He saves a sinner still amazes me. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. And
beloved, that's what the fact that God, she saw the wisdom
of Solomon. And the wisdom that God, the
wisdom that God gave us and used in saving us from our sins. And
keeping us saved. The wisdom that He had from all
eternity. Invested all that wisdom in His
blessed Son. It still amazes me This salvation
still amazes me. I'm amazed by it. Never have
got over it. And then she saw his house. It
says down there, when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's
wisdom. Saw his wisdom. And look here,
the house that he built. Now when she talks about the
house that he built, she's not talking about the building like
this. She's talking about His servants and all the people,
His children and everybody that's in His household. That's what
the Scriptures talks about. The house of Jacob, the house
of Abraham, the house of David. That's why David said, What is
mine house that Thou hast brought me hither to? And so when He
talked about His house, and He's talking about the people in His
household, and He's not talking about the building. And beloved,
the Scriptures tells us in Hebrews 3.6, that we are the house of
Christ. Every house is built of some
man. And Christ, we are His house. And He's the Son over His own
house who we are. We're all of His kin, folks.
We're His house. If she saw us, she'd say, Oh,
look what a wonderful house you have here. What a blessed house
you have here. People are building a house.
All you fellows have seen this. When you get ready to build a
house, you go buy a bunch of material. And they'll bring out
a whole two or three stacks of bundles of two-by-fours, and
then they'll bring out several bundles of siding and sheeting,
you know, and they'll bring out all kinds of nails, and they'll
bring out all kinds of stuff, and they'll lay it around here.
Now, the Pharaoh knows what he's doing, but it's just laying there. There's not a house there. Not
a house there. But you let a fellow who knows
what he's doing, he'll take all those two-by-fours and all that
stuff, and next thing you know, he'll put some over here, put
some over there, put some here, put some there, put this all
on the side, and next thing you know, he gets the rafters, put
them up, and then next thing you know, all that stuff has
looked like nothing could ever happen with it. It's all put
together, and you look at this beautiful building. And God says
this, that we are building fitly framed together, built upon the
foundation of Christ and the prophets. He took all this mess
and built a house. Took people like Don Fortner
and me and built a house. But it's the foundation. He's
the one who built the house. He's the one who built the house.
And then look what else she saw down here in verse 5. And she saw His table. She saw
the meat of His table. She saw His provisions. How He
provided for His servants. For the people that was just
in His household. Oh, what provisions! Oh, look
at all this meat. I've never seen the lack of food.
Well, oh my! What provisions we have in Christ.
What a portion we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what
we have in Him? Righteousness, justification,
redemption, wisdom, forgiveness, holiness, completeness, perfection. All the provisions that we have
in Christ, what God gives, every blessing that we get, every blessing
that we get, it comes from Christ. God never, ever, ever, ever blessed
anybody for anything they did. If you ever get a blessing, it'll
be for Christ's sake. Now that's right. You say, well,
I'm going to do this and God will bless me and I'll do that
and God will bless me. God already blessed us before we ever were.
He blessed us in heavenly places in Christ. And then the first
thing He says that the blessing was that according as He had
chosen us in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the
world. That's the first blessing. Did you earn that? Did you get
up at 4 o'clock in the morning and pray over that to get that? All the provisions we have in
Christ. And then not only that, but look at what it says in verse
5 again. And down in the last part of
the verse, and she saw His ascent, which He went up unto the house
of the Lord. She saw how He ascended. And that means she watched how
He carried Himself to go up to worship. She saw how He carried
Himself and how He walked and how He acted like somebody that
was going to go up to worship God. Somebody that had God on
his mind and worship on his mind and the glory of God on his mind.
And she said, look at how he carries himself. Look at how
he walks. Look at how he ascends up to
the worship of the Lord. And she was just in astonishment.
Look at Adam. Look at that man walk. Look at
the glory. Oh, look at how he carries himself. Old Bunyan's holy war. When Christ assaulted Seargate, He
took the city of Mansoul. He took the heart of the man,
took the city of Mansoul. He took understanding and He
cleared out everything and He took Diabolus off the throne
and He ascended the throne of the heart. And it says that when
He ascended to the throne of the heart, that when they watched
how He carried Himself and how He walked after He ascended to
the throne of the heart, they beheld Immanuel and how He walked. And they said they wanted to
walk in the steps of Immanuel. And that's what we want to do,
walk in the steps of Immanuel. And oh, and listen, our Lord
as He ascended up to the worship, our Lord Jesus Christ was standing
out in Jerusalem one day, outside Jerusalem, remember, all of it,
and gravity started losing its hold and up away He went. He
ascended. He started to ascend. And them
fellas, all of them, all but Judas was standing looking up,
watching Him go. And all of a sudden, two men
appeared by him and said, Oh, you men of Israel, why stand
you gazing up into the heavens? This same Jesus that went away,
He's going to come back just the same way. So quit forgetting
about looking where He went. Look for Him to come back. That's
what we're doing. We're looking for Him to come
back. And then, not only that, but let me hurry. I don't want
to hold you too long. I know you're tired. But she
said here in verse 5, not only did she see the meat of His table,
the way He ascended up, but look what she said, she saw His servants. And at the meat of the table
and the sitting of His servants, she saw His servants. And what
was they doing? They were sitting. They were
sitting. You know, you'd think that they'd
have them out doing something. No, His servants get out here
and get busy. Nope. He said, just sit down. Rest. You know, Solomon is so wealthy.
He said, sit. And that's what they were doing.
They were sitting. And we sit in Christ. We rest in Christ. Oh my! And I'll tell you what,
you sit in that chair. You reckon that chair will hold
me up? You reckon Christ can hold me
up if I rest in Him? Old John Bunyan said, if I fell
off of a cliff, Christ would catch me, I know He would, before
I hit the bottom. And that's what happens, beloved
Christ. We sit in Him, we rest in Him, and we sit together with
Him in heavenly places right now. And not only that, but look
what else you saw about Him. Not only their sitting of His
service, but look what it says, and their apparel. They looked, they saw how they
were dressed. What kind of apparel you reckon
they had on? Well, not the same apparel we have on. We are dressed
with the very righteousness of Christ. Such a glorious garment. Another story about old Bunyan
and his progress. When they, him and faithful,
Christian and faithful, start out together, and they come up
to the cross, and when they got to the cross, their burdens fell
off. And a shining one came and put these glistening garments
on him. These glistening garments, white
garments, glorious garments on him. An old Christian looked
at Faithful and said, Oh my, my, I've never seen such a beautiful
garment. Oh, you're dressed so glorious.
That garment is just beautiful. And he said, Aren't you? And
then he turned around and said, No, yours is prettier than mine.
Yours is more glorious than mine. They saw it in one another, but
they didn't see it in themselves. And that's why, look at their
apparel. Oh, look at that glorious apparel.
And that's why the prodigal, he said, bring forth the best
robe. Let's see if it will fit him. Let's see if it will work. Let him try it on, see if it's
going to work. No, the father said, put it on him. Put it on
him. And then look at the privilege.
He saw their privilege in verse 8. And she said, Happy are thy
men, happy are these thy servants, that stand continually before
thee, and listen to this, and hear thy wisdom. Oh, their privilege,
continually hearing the wisdom of God. How blessed we are. How blessed we are to be able
to meet time and time and time again, wherever we are, whether
we're here, whether we're at home, whether we're at any worship
service that God allows us to meet, and the preacher gets up,
and he preaches on Christ, and His glory, and His majesty, and
His wealth, and His power, and His righteousness, and oh my,
You go away thinking, oh. They were privileged. And then
their pleasure. She said again, not only are
they privileged, continue hearing His wisdom. But look what she
said here in verse 8. Happy, blessed are Thy servants. Happy are Thy servants. They
are happy. They are blessed. They are happy
to be in Solomon's presence. They are happy. And oh, how blessed. Happy is the people. who have
the God of Jacob as their God. So what's the God of Jacob? Well,
He's the God that loves before you're ever born. He's the God
who chooses before you're ever born. He's the God who meets
you and lays hold on you and gets you to confess and changes
your walk and blesses you all the days of your life. And oh
my! Well, look what happened after
she saw this result. She saw all, she saw what she
saw. Look what followed then. And it said here in verse 5, And when she saw His ascent which
went up unto the house of the Lord, look what it said, there
is no more spirit in her. She was humbled within. She sat
up. Oh my. She just was humbled. There's no more spirit left in
her. She just, as you said, she bowed down here and she saw.
And that's the way we are with Christ. Her comeliness turned into corruption. Our comeliness turned into corruption.
When John saw the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory, he fell
as a dead man. And then look what a confession
she made. And she said to the king in verse 6, it was a true
report. It was a true report. What they
told me about you was true. Everything they said about you
was so. Everything they said about you was so. And oh my! That I heard in my land everything
you said was a true report. But she says in verse 7, But I had to see for myself.
How be it I believe not the words that I heard about you. I didn't
believe them until I came and my own eyes saw it. I seen it
for myself. And you know what she said? The
half. Whatever they told me, the half
of it wasn't told. And then I want you to see this
and then I'll be done. Look what she said here in verse
9. Of course, she said, Oh, she
blessed the Lord. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighted in thee. God delighted in His blessed
Son. God says, This is My Son in whom
I am well pleased. This is My Son. Hear Him. He said, God delighted in you.
And you know what? He set you on the throne of Israel.
He's so delighted on you that He made you king. And look, why
did He make him king? Because God loved Israel. And because He loved His people,
He sent Christ over us. And what a blessed, blessed,
glorious King we have. Huh? What a glorious King we
have. And she, she said, The Lord delighted
in you. And He loved Israel so much,
He made you king. And He loved His people so much.
You know, the fundamentalists, they say that, and premillennialists
say, Christ is going to be a coming King, He's a coming King and
He's going to set up a throne back over in Jerusalem. I'll
tell you one thing, if He ain't King now, He ain't never going
to be King. And what kind of King would leave glory, a throne
in glory, And everybody here that already
worships Him, and get off that throne and go sit on an earthly
throne. That don't even make sense, does
it? But oh my, we worship the King. He's on His throne. And
God put Him there because He loved us. And oh, what a blessed
King we have. Oh, the wisdom He has. The riches
He has. The wisdom He has. Oh, my. And look at how he dresses. I don't want to be sitting here
with his righteousness on. Well, thank you. Appreciate it.