May God be with us now as we
turn together to his word this evening. I'll direct your thoughts
to the Gospel according to Matthew and chapter 12 and we'll read verse 42. The
Gospel according to Matthew chapter 12 and verse 42. The Queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with 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'm sure we can all think of
times in our lives when we have been on a long journey. Perhaps
a long flight. Perhaps we've driven to Scotland
or somewhere like that and we've known what it is to sit for a
long time or many hours being travelling on a long journey.
And perhaps at times while we've been in the middle of the journey
we've started to wonder, I hope the destination's worth it. I
hope the end point is worth the long journey that I'm having
to make in order to get there. Well, we maybe have been on journeys
for many hours, had to sit on a plane for a long time. But
the Queen of Sheba that we read of, she went on an immensely
long journey. She travelled for probably about,
possibly up to six months, all told, before she got back again. She
was travelling across hot desert. Sheba, where she had come from,
is in the, they believe, in the south of what today would be
Saudi Arabia or possibly just over the border into Yemen. It's
a long way across the desert up to Israel and that was the
only way across the desert. And she travelled all that long
distance for weeks, probably months before she came to Jerusalem. She was so keen, so concerned to meet and to speak
with King Solomon, that she was willing to make that long, hot,
difficult journey, dangerous journey. And she didn't come
easily, as it were. She brought many things with
her, many possessions, many animals, many others came with her. There
was a great train of people coming across the desert to find Solomon.
She was so concerned to hear what he had to say, to meet and
to see him for herself. And now Jesus takes up that occasion,
which would have been well known to his audience, and he speaks
of the Queen of the South, or he's clearly referring to the
Queen of Sheba. And he takes that as an illustration
of those coming to him. He says she was willing to travel
from the outermost parts of the earth, or a great way off, to
find and to hear Solomon. And he says that is what we should
be willing to do, to hear and to find Christ. For he says that
a far greater, a greater than Solomon is here. Compared to
Christ, Solomon is really nobody. As wise, great, powerful and
blessed as he was, compared to Christ, he is so small and insignificant. A greater than Solomon is here,
he says. And she was willing to go all
that way to hear him. Is this generation willing to
go to hear Christ? And of course he was speaking
to a particular generation at that time, the Jews that he was
ministering amongst. And of course she particularly
would rise up in condemnation against them because to a large
extent they wouldn't hear him. But I believe this goes much
further than that. It speaks to us today. as well. It asks us the question, will
the Queen of the South rise up in judgment against us? Have
we sought this greater than Solomon like she did? Have we come and
desire to hear his wisdom and know his blessing like she did
to Solomon? Well, I want to Consider this
visit then, the Queen of Sheba, and what that means to us today,
in the light of us needing to know the Lord Jesus Christ for
ourselves. Firstly, I want to consider why
did she come? Why did she come? Secondly, what
did she bring? Thirdly, what did she find or
what did she receive? And thirdly, Where did she go
or how did she get there? Why come? What bring? What receive? And where did she
go to find him? Well, firstly, why did she come
then? Why did this Queen, so many miles, around about 1500
miles, why did she travel all that way to Jerusalem? Well, she went to ask him questions. We read that she communed with
him, that is with Solomon. We read this together in 2 Chronicles
9. She communed with him of all that was in her heart. She came
to prove Solomon with hard questions. She had questions to ask him
and she wanted to prove his wisdom. she wanted to find whether he
really was as great and as wise as she had heard of. And she
had questions, I believe, in her own mind, in her own heart,
that she desired to be answered. In addition to this, I believe
she also wanted to see something of Solomon's kingdom, of his
grandeur, of his possessions, of the blessings that God had
given him in a material sense, but I believe primarily her concern
was to hear his wisdom, to have her questions answered. So she travelled all this long
way. She realised that Solomon could
tell her things that she did not know. She realised that in
herself she was lacking something. She was lacking this wisdom that
Solomon had. She was lacking answers that
Solomon could give her. And it must have been a sincere
concern and a sincere problem or desire that she had. because
she was willing to travel such a hard long journey to Jerusalem. She had these questions and I
believe the questions she had were not just philosophical or
certain bits of knowledge that she hadn't yet attained. It was
deeper than just questions in her head because we read that
she communed with him with all that was in her heart. She had
questions deeper than just natural knowledge. Things were in her
heart. She realised she was missing
something and she believed that Solomon knew what she was missing. Solomon had great wisdom and
Solomon could answer. these questions. That is why
she came. Because she had a need. Because she had questions. Because
she was missing something. And she travelled all that long
distance to Solomon. Well, for us today, Jesus says
there is a greater than Solomon here. Why come to Jesus? Why believe. Why desire his blessing? Well we need Jesus, we need the
Lord because we are all by nature missing something. We all have
a gap, we are all missing the blessing of God, the knowledge
of God and by nature all of us are empty. spiritually, we are
empty, we are dead, there is no life in us and as a result
of what we are by nature, spiritually dead, we are spiritually ignorant. Ignorant. We do not know the
Lord, we do not know his blessing, we do not know his work in us,
we do not know life within us, we are ignorant. And we need,
we must have answers. We must have a blessing from
the Lord. And she had these questions for
him. And what is our greatest need
then? What is our greatest need that only the Lord can give us?
It's not just natural ability. It's not just knowledge or understanding. Our greatest need is life, salvation
for our souls. That is our greatest need and
it's something we cannot give to ourselves and it's something
we cannot give to each other. Clearly she couldn't find this
wisdom anywhere else. She didn't travel anywhere else.
She went to Solomon and we cannot find this blessing, salvation
from anyone else or anywhere else. We are missing something
by nature. The Lord speaks when he speaks
to the people of Judah through the prophet Zephaniah. In chapter
3 he describes Jerusalem, his own city, his own people, And
he describes them like this, her that is filthy and polluted,
the oppressing city, filthy and polluted. And that was rebellious
Judah in those days, but what an apt description of what we
are in God's sight by nature, filthy and polluted and we desperately
need His wisdom, His grace, His blessing, His work. Do we realise our need? Do we
realise that without Christ we are ignorant, we are empty of
life, we are empty of God's blessing. Do we realise our need? That is why she came, she had
these questions. That is why we must come. Now we all have a need. We are
all born spiritually dead. We are all sinners. And whether we acknowledge it
or not this evening, the truth doesn't change. That is what
we are. And therefore we all have this
need. That is why she came. Secondly, what did she bring? What did she bring? Well, we read together that she
brought many things. She brought gold. She brought
precious stones. She brought spices on camels. And also later on, verse 9, we
read that she gave the king 120 talents of gold, spices of great
abundance and precious stones. Neither was there any such spice
as the Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. She brought gifts, expensive
gifts, treasures to the king. Now Solomon had many things already.
He didn't need these things, but she brought them. and it
was a great company that came across the desert as a result
of all these gifts that she brought to Solomon. She brought all of
these gifts and they were worth a lot of money. It was a sign
of how much she respected, how much she wanted to hear what
he had to say. She brought all these precious
gifts. Now what do we, what can we bring
the Lord? In our need, our emptiness, with
our need for salvation, what can we bring to the Lord? Well, we can't bring our gold,
can we? Or our spices, or our stones,
like she did. We can't bring our possessions. We can't bring anything that
we have earned. We can't even bring our good
works, our righteousness, or our good deeds, what can we bring
to the Lord? Nothing but sin. Aye, thee can
give. Nothing but sin. We can't bring
these things to, as it were, impress the Lord or to earn his
favour. We can only bring sin. We can present our failures We
can bring a lifetime of disobedience. We can bring a hard heart, a
sinful heart, a heart prone to wander. We can only bring our
unbelief, our blasphemy, our backsliding. What can we bring
to the Lord? How dare we come to one who is
far greater than Solomon when all that we have is sin and filthiness
to bring to him. And yet that is all we have,
isn't it? That is all we really have. That is all we really are. We can come with our sin and
we come in our sorrow. Sorrow for sin. Sorrow for what
we are. Confession for what we have done.
A desire for repentance to turn from what we are by nature. True sorrow. What can we bring
but our sorrow for sin to the Lord? Our confession of what
we are. You see, this isn't impressive,
is it? We'd say what's impressive, what's
grand, what's valuable about a confessing, repenting sinner? But it's not just an outward
show, is it? It's not just a show of certain goods and what we
have and what we can give. True confession, true repentance
is heartfelt, it's from the heart. It's an acknowledging of what
we are within, of the problem inside us, the problem within
us, not just an outward show. And in that very act of confession
of what we are before the Lord, it is in itself, in one sense,
also an act of worship. Because it acknowledges that
God is holy, but we are not. That God is just. and we have
fallen under his justice. The God is great and almighty
and we are insignificant in comparison. It acknowledges his authority
over us and that we have failed and we have broken his law. Even
a sense of sorrow for sin is an act of worship in that sense. What do we bring to the Lord?
What can we bring but sin? Are you striving this evening?
Are we striving to present something that we think is acceptable?
Something that we think earns God's favour? He is more likely
to bless us. He is more likely to save us.
If only we can show Him how good we've been or how diligent we've
been. Then He will save me. Then He
will bless me. And yet you find, I'm sure, that
each day there is still only sin to bring. There is only sorrow. There is only disappointment
to offer to the Lord. Do we realise our need? But more
than that, are we sorry for it? Are we sorry for what we are? Are we willing to confess it
before the Lord? Not just a notion of, well I'm
a sinner like everyone else is. Deeper than that, communing with
all that is in your heart, like she did. She brought all these
things. What can we bring the Lord but our sin and our failures? Thirdly, what did she find? Or what did she receive? What did she find? What did she
receive? Well, she came to Solomon, Across
the vast desert, she came into Jerusalem and we read that she
saw the wisdom of Solomon. She spoke to him. She experienced
his wisdom as he answered her questions. She told her all her
questions. Solomon told her all her questions.
There was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. He answered
her. He heard her. He didn't dismiss
anything. He didn't say that that's unimportant.
He didn't dismiss her and say well I'm not going to speak to
you or anything like that. He listened and he answered her
questions and she saw his wisdom. She experienced his wisdom. She
was amazed by his wisdom that these answers were given her
and someone could tell her these things when no one else had been
able to before. She saw his wisdom and she also
saw other things. She saw the house that he had
built. She saw his great riches and his possessions. She saw
the meat at his table, how the Lord had provided in plenty for
his table. She saw the sitting of his servants
and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel. She saw a
well-ordered house. She saw servants and ministers
that wanted to serve him, that served him with joy, which experienced
his wisdom every day, knew the wonderful favour of hearing his
words, of being in his presence and so forth. She saw a happy
and well-ordered court, his servants and ministers, and his cupbearers
also. and their apparel. She witnessed
the blessing upon Solomon's kingdom because of the Lord's blessing
upon Solomon. She also saw his ascent by which
he went up into the house of the Lord. He didn't just show
her natural things. He didn't just show her the house
that he had or the palace that he lived in. He also showed her
the way that he went up into the temple. He must have therefore
shown her the temple and all that that meant and all the things
that occurred in there and the worship of God and the sacrifices
and the high priests and so forth in the temple. He must have showed
her as he showed her the way that he went up into the house
of the Lord. He brought the conversation into religion as well, into spiritual
things. She saw all of these things.
She heard his words and he must have answered them before the
Lord. He must have witnessed of the
Lord and what the Lord had done for him and where his wisdom
had come from. She saw his natural possessions
and how God had made him a great and wealthy and powerful king.
She saw his religion. She saw his observance. She saw
the temple and all the blessings that were there. She saw all
of these things. She received all of these things. And she says, it was a true report. There was no more spirit in her,
we read. No more spirit in her. She says,
it was a true report that I heard in my known land of thine acts
and of thy wisdom. It was right what I heard. I
haven't been deceived. I haven't had a wasted journey.
The destination isn't a disappointment. It's true all that I've heard.
Habed, I believed not thy words until, their words rather, until
I came. Mine eyes have seen it, I saw
it for myself and behold the one half of the greatness of
thy wisdom was not told me for thou exceedest the fame that
I heard. I wasn't told half of what I've
seen now. I wasn't told half of the wisdom
that I've heard. I knew that you were great. I
knew that you were wise. I knew, I believed you had answers
for the questions in my heart. But I've seen more than I ever
expected. I wasn't told half of what I
would find. She received and she heard abundance. She saw abundance of blessing. She received abundant wisdom
and answers. and her spirit left her, she
was utterly amazed at what she heard. What does the confessing, repenting sinner find when the Lord enables
them to come to the Lord Jesus Christ? What does the sorrowful
sinner find when they truly and rightly come by faith to the
Saviour, the greater than Solomon who is here, the greater one
who makes Solomon pale away, whose wisdom falls away in his
presence. What does the repenting sinner
find when the Lord comes and they see him for themselves while
they join with the Queen of Sheba? One half of the greatness of
thy wisdom was not told me, for thou exceedest the fame that
I heard. I heard about the Lord. I heard
the gospel. I heard testimonies of people
of how they've been blessed by the Lord. I heard of what he
could do. I heard of how he does bless.
I heard of how he answers prayer and how he gives new life. But
I hadn't heard half of it. As when I came to see him for
ourselves, then we realized what a wonderful blessing he can give. As you see, Solomon He showed
the Queen of Sheba many things. She saw the houses, the possessions. She saw the ascent into the temple.
She heard wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
just show us and then send us on our way. We don't just observe
for a few weeks and then we're sent back again. The Lord gives
us. He gives us. his blessing. And once we've received it, it
cannot be taken away. He gives us wisdom. He doesn't just display wisdom,
he gives wisdom. He gives himself, who is of course
the embodiment of wisdom. He does much more than Solomon
could ever do for the Queen of Sheba. What does the repenting
sinner find when they draw near to the Lord and look upon Him
when they find that He has done for them what they couldn't do
themselves. They've come with the heart problem. They've come
with the questions. They've come with the emptiness.
They've come with something missing. But they've also come with sin.
with guilt, with transgressions. They brought that to the law
because it's all they have to bring. And what does the Lord
show them? He shows them, I've taken that sin away. I've borne
the price. I've paid the price rather for
that sin. That sin which you carry, which
is such a burden, has been laid on him. And He has carried it
and He has borne it and He has taken it to the cross at Calvary.
That sin, that guilt has been borne by me. The wrath of God
that you deserve because of the sin you present. I've endured
that wrath. I've been forsaken of the Father. I've known the experience of
hell that you deserve. That's what the sinner finds
in Christ. The greater than Solomon that
is here takes all that sin away when that's all that we have
to bring. He takes it all away. What does he give? He takes the
sin. He gives his righteousness. Now Solomon gave the Queen also
gifts. We read that King Solomon gave
to the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked,
beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned
her weight to her land, she and her servants. He gave her whatsoever
she desired. The Lord gives us all that we
need, takes the sin and clothes us in his perfect righteousness. so that they stand as if they
lived his life, as if the church lived a perfectly obedient life. It's imputed to them, it's given
to them, the riches of Christ put upon them. They receive all
that they could never have done themselves and they receive it
all by His grace. Solomon lavished his wisdom and
also these gifts upon her. So the Lord lavishes His love
and clothes us in His righteousness. This is what the sinner finds.
Half wasn't told me. I was told that sin could be
removed. I was told that one could be brought back to God.
But when we see the Lord and we see Him in His beauty, half
wasn't told me. He gives us a new heart. A new heart. Takes away the stony
heart. The heart which despises the
Lord. The heart which turns from Him
and He gives a new heart. He makes His children a new creature. Born again. And now a heart that's
alive. Now a heart that feels. Now a
heart that knows. That knows Him. Has received
His wisdom. knows where to look, knows what
to cling to, knows who to plead before the throat of God. He
gives a new heart. How vital it is to be born again. You must be born again, the Lord
says to Nicodemus. How vital it is that we are changed,
that we become new creatures. He gives a new heart. What else
does he give? He gives His promises. His promises. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. He gives His promises to guide us, to show us the ways
that we should go. He gives His promises to give
us strength, to hold us up. He gives His promises to eternally
love us. He gives His promises that one
day, though we see Him now by faith, we shall see Him by sight
and then We will say afresh, with fuller understanding, that
half wasn't told me of the greatness of his wisdom. This is what he
gives. He takes the sin and he gives
his righteousness. He gives a new heart. He gives
his promises. He gives his presence. I am with
you always, he says, even unto the end of the world. She received
much blessing. She was amazed at what she heard
from Solomon. And the Lord's people, when they
realised that all they've brought is failure and sin, stand amazed
that there before them, as the Lord reveals Himself, is a loving
Saviour, all-wise, all-glorious, who has finished the work of
far, far greater than Solomon. That is what she found. That
is what she received. Fourthly, where did she go? How did she get there to find
Solomon? Well, as we have considered already,
she came from Sheba, probably in the Yemen area, about 1500
miles. She came a long way. She was
determined to come. She needed to come. She had to
come. to have these questions, to have
these things answered. She had to come to see Solomon
for herself. But you see, she left Sheba uninvited. Solomon hadn't invited her to
come. Solomon hadn't written to her and told her to make the
long journey. He hadn't sent people to help
her across the desert. She left uninvited and she came
across for many months across the desert, all those miles uninvited,
not knowing what she would find on the other side, not knowing
how Solomon would perceive her, not knowing if she would be disappointed
when she got to Jerusalem. And yet she went. She went all that way. She went many miles for many
days. That's where she found Solomon.
Where do we find the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is he? Now in one sense, like for her,
the way to Christ for the sinner is not easy. It's not easy. It's against our nature to repent
of sin. It's hard and painful to know
our flesh being crucified. It's a humbling time to acknowledge
what we are in our need of the Lord Jesus Christ and in that
sense it is hard It is hard to be bowed under the weight of
sin. It is hard to confess our need of a saviour. It is hard
to stop looking within and look without. And we need God's grace,
we need faith to do it. It's not easy. It's not something
we can just turn on one night. It's not something that comes
naturally. In that sense, it is hard. But the way is also clear. and the way is also near us. It is near us. Now especially
in the time of the Lord Jesus Christ that he spoke these words
in Matthew. It was very near them, wasn't
it? He was there. The Saviour himself, the greater
than Solomon, was with them, was speaking to them, was revealing
himself through his miracles, through his words, through his
teaching and so forth. It was clear who he was. He was there before them. Now he's also here before us.
He's blessed us with his word, which reveals Christ. He blesses
with His Holy Spirit which comes to His people and opens their
understanding and opens the word to them. He is near. We do not need to go on long
pilgrimages to find enlightenment. We don't need to go to Mecca
to earn the Lord's favour. We don't need to scale the heights
of the Himalayas to find understanding. We don't have to go on these
long pilgrimages or long journeys to find him. You see, when Moses
said to the people in Deuteronomy, he says, this commandment which
I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither
is it far off. It is not in heaven that thou
shouldst say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it
to us, that we may hear it and do it. neither is it beyond the
sea that thou should say who shall go over the sea for us
and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it but the
word is very nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou
May's do it. The Lord came to ancient Israel
and gave them his word and they didn't have to scale great heights,
they didn't have to go long journeys. The Lord came to them, he spoke
the word to them. It was nigh unto them. And in this same sense, we do
not have to go long distances, high mountains, far across the
sea in order to find the truth, in order to find the way back
to God. Because here it is, the Lord
says, a greater than Solomon is here. He is here. He has come. He has come and revealed himself
as the saviour of sinners. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
Joseph was told, for he shall save his people from their sins. He has come. And for us especially, what a
blessing to be brought up in the Word of God. What a blessing
to hear the preaching of the Gospel on a regular basis. And yet for us especially, we
know the way of salvation. We know that life can only be
found through Christ alone. We know there is no other way.
We know that he is greater than Solomon. We know it and we hear
it and in our head we all understand it. The question is, will the Queen
of Sheba rise up in judgment against us? Because she went all that very,
very long way to find just the wisdom of a man. And yet we here today know the
way. We have heard the gospel. We know the saviour of sinners
has come. And yet so many do not know him. So many are not willing, not
willing to come, not willing to acknowledge their need. They're
not willing to confess any of their sin. See, the Lord Jesus Christ, these
people find, is still willing to hear us today. He doesn't
turn the sinner away. Yes, they may only bring sin.
They may only bring their guilt. He does not turn them away. Solomon
didn't turn her away. She came uninvited. The Lord
Jesus Christ says, come unto me. Come unto me. The repenting sinner doesn't
come uninvited. There's the invitations of the
Lord. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. I
will give you rest, he says. Invitation to the repenting sinner. Come unto me. As the blood that
once was shed on that tree at Calvary, the blood that washed
his people clean, still has power to speak today. It speaks pardon. A greater, far greater than Solomon
is here. Many, many will not come, will
not believe because their heart remains filthy and polluted,
what it is by nature. Zephaniah goes on to describe
the outworking of that filthiness and of that pollution. He goes
on to describe really the sign of the unbeliever. She obeyed
not the voice. They do not obey God. She received
not correction. They do not hear his word. They
trust not in the Lord. They will not yield to him. She
drew not near to her God. They will not pray. They will
not seek him. That is what an unbeliever is
by nature. That is what we are by nature. It describes us. We will not
hear. We will not obey. We will not
trust. We will not pray. And so many
are left in their sin. And so many will not come because
that is what they are and sadly that is how they are left. They
don't see their need. They don't see that they have
questions that need to be answered. They don't see that they have
emptiness that needs to be filled. So why make the journey? going. If the Queen of Sheba
thought the reports were all wrong, she wouldn't have gone.
And yet she did hear. And she did want answers. So she went. This evening, let
us ask the question, do we realise our need Do we realise without
Him we have nothing? Do we realise our need for life,
our need for His wisdom, our need for salvation? Do we realise
that? Or do we think it's not important
and therefore we're not willing to make the journey? If we do
realise tonight, if we do see something of what we are, then
the Lord says a greater than Solomon is here greater than
Solomon. Well, will the Queen of Sheba
accuse us, I wonder. I hope she never will, as it
were. I hope we'll never be able to
fall under this condemnation. She came from the uttermost parts
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. She went to hear
him. We know so much are blessed with
so much in our heads and yet sadly many are left to
know so little or really to know nothing because they have no desire.
Will she rise up in condemnation against us when the apostle was
speaking to the Athenians and tells them of how he found that
place for an altar for the unknown God. He says this, God hath made
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face
of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord. If haply they might feel after
him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and
have our being. He be not far from every one
of us. We do not go across the desert.
We do not scale the mountains. We do not sail the seas. He is not far from every one
of us. May we, what it is called today,
be found looking unto Him, be found crying unto Him, be found
trusting only in Him, acknowledging our need of Him and rejoicing
in this One so much greater, so much wiser, so much more glorious,
so much more loving, so much more holy and perfect, the altogether
lovely, the chiefest of ten thousand, the greater than Solomon, the
Lord Jesus Christ. May he have his blessing tonight. Amen.