If you could turn with me to
1 Kings 10, that lovely passage that we were reading earlier.
I was reading through this a few weeks ago as part of my normal
reading, and I was very taken with this account, and of course
the whole life and account of Solomon. I have in recent weeks
been working through a commentary on 1 Kings. The commentary is
titled, glory to ruin. It talks about what happened
to Israel and Solomon of course there was the fullness of the
glory of that kingdom and yet it was brought from Rehoboam
onwards to ruin. It's a sad tale and we learn
much from it. There is an enigma of course
in Solomon, we have his lovely writings in the scripture, God
did much in him and through him and yet there is great and great
sin. He has so much to teach us. And I read those lovely words
also from Revelation chapter 1 because I want us to centre
our thoughts as we look this morning at this account. on to
the glories of Christ, really. That's what we're really about. I was encouraged in Solomon. Sometimes when we pray, and perhaps
you've got that from when I was praying just now, there are things
that are immediate needs that press upon us. We feel we must
come to the Lord. We're in trouble or we're not
well or something's difficult. But Solomon asked, the first
thing he wanted was a spiritual thing, he wanted an understanding
heart, he wanted wisdom, he wanted spiritual discernment, and there's
a great lesson in that, and we see the Lord was so pleased with
that, because he said, I've got to rule this great kingdom, and
I'm not sure how old Solomon was, but he was one of the younger
sons, and he says, I don't really feel up to it, is really what
he's saying. and the Lord granted that. Now it comes in the form
of a dream, a revelation, but the Lord granted that prayer. And we should be encouraged to
pray for the right things. Will not the Lord hear us and
answer us? I trust that is the case. And so there's a parallel here,
a parallel of course to the seeker and the enquirer coming to Christ. And here we can think of one
who knows Him not yet, and we can also think of those who walk
in Christ, that desire to come. Perhaps we will see something
of that in this lovely narrative that's history, of course it's
history. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about the Queen of Sheba,
or the Queen of the South, rising up in judgement, when they came
to him, the Pharisees, and said, show us a sign, and he said,
you're a wicked and adulterous generation, you'll just be shown
the sign of Jonas, how he was three days and three nights in
the belly of the great fish. Or the Queen of Sheba, the Queen
of Asaph, will rise up in judgement also against you, because she
came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
to come and seek the things of God. So, we should understand
that. Now, Sheba, where was Sheba? There are those I think the Ethiopians
think that they claim that Sheba was Ethiopian, but actually it
probably isn't. In the scriptures you do find
references, if you look in a concordance or an online bible, you will
find references to Sheba or also to Seba. Just read one in Jeremiah
6 and verse 20. To what purpose cometh there
to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Sheba was known for its incense
and its spices, and you see something of that in the account of the
Queen of Sheba. As best as we can determine,
it was in southern Arabia, Sabaeans. And where we would perhaps locate
the country of Yemen today is possibly where the Queen of Sheba
came. But it was still a goodly distance
across not hostile and difficult terrain for her to come. So this was somebody known, it's
not just a mythical character. a person and this is a place
in history. As you know the Bible is an accurate
book in terms of the history and the places and the facts.
People in the 19th century said there is no such place as Nineveh.
Then they found it. Archaeology found it. And so
it is. If you go to the Quran, the Quran
contains nothing historical that you can lay your fingers on.
You can't prove or find anything. They don't really know where
anything to do with the Quran is, yet the Bible is packed,
it's not just spiritual truth, it is packed with all sorts of
facts and truths and evidences. It's the most accurate and remarkable
book that God has preserved to us. Now she had heard of wisdoms,
glory and power, and it's wonderful. And it also led me to think of
something I also preached on here in the past, somebody else
in the New Testament, who came as an inquirer. And that, of
course, is Nicodemus. If you go to John, in that great
chapter 3, what wonderful words are there in chapter 3 that were
said to Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, a ruler of
the Jews, and he came to Jesus by night. People have criticised
him for that, but I think that was quite understandable. He
was an inquirer, he was one of the rulers, and it was quite
difficult and dangerous for him to come and speak to Christ.
He called him Rabbi and he had respect for Christ. We know that
thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these
miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus speaks
to him about being born again and Nicodemus has trouble with
that. Christ says Marvel not, he says. The wind blows where it wants
to, where it is listed. Nicodemus is all, his breath
is taken out of him, rather like the Queen of Sheba's experience.
He says to Christ, how can these things be? How can man be born
again? And what became of Nicodemus? We don't know, but we know that
wonderful words were spoken to him. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever will perish
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." That's in that third chapter. So, perhaps it's Nicodemus who
relayed these things to John. Now, what about this man? Well,
we do know something about Nicodemus in chapter 19 of John's Gospel
and verses 38 and 39. We can take, perhaps, encouragement
from this. I've always done that. After
Christ had died, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly, for fear of the Jews, rather like Nicodemus, he besought
Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. He went public
as a supporter, because Jesus would have been cast in some
terrible grave otherwise, but he went public, and Pilate gave
him leave. And when he reached here, he
came there and took the body of Jesus, and there came also Nicodemus,
which at first came to Jesus by night. At first he came to
Jesus by night. Now he's coming, isn't he, in
day. He's coming dangerously to take the body of Christ. And so they carefully bound the
body and he was placed in that rich man's tomb. We have hope
for Nicodemus. We're not sure about the Queen
of Sheba. We'll see some of the things
in this chapter to do with her. Well, it's like the Gospel, isn't
it, that we're reading here, that God comes in power and wisdom. He surprises us. God comes to
reveal spiritual things to our souls. Are we hearing? Are we
listening to them? She'd heard of His fame, if we
read again in another little passage in 1 Kings. This time
in chapter 4, if you go to verse 29 of chapter 4, we see that
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, we read, excelled the wisdom of all the children of
the East Country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. for he was wiser
than all men, than Ethan the Ezraite, and Heman, and Chalcol,
and Dada, the sons of Mahal, and his fame was in all nations
round about." He was wiser than all men, his fame was in all
nations round about. Now in preaching on this you
can find in books and commentaries many people take the vision of
Solomon in his glory They say, it's like a revelation of Christ.
We often do that and Mr Santa sometimes in his preaching set
forth to us those types in scripture. I think there's one here, Solomon
in his glory. It speaks to us something of
Christ in his glory. That's why I read from Revelation
chapter 1. Words could not describe what
John was seeing. The radiancy. of this vision
of Christ and so it is as God and his power moves upon this
king even though the king then we don't send later we see that
the nations his fame went to all nations and his fame went
to Sheba and the Queen of Sheba came to him. And again, this
reminds me that it's important to proclaim these truths. The
fame went out. We have to live, each of us,
we have to speak as we have opportunity for gospel. This is a message
to go out, to be proclaimed. and Romans in chapter 10 in verse
14 or verse 13 I should say for whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without
a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as
it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah said,
Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard?
Yes, verily, their sound went in all the earth, and their words
unto the ends of the earth." We've got to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how people hear. In our
day, you can go to other Christian places of worship and they'll
be doing all and every other thing other than preaching. But
I thank God that we're here, we concentrate, we focus here
on the Gospel, on the Word of Truth. That is how people's lives
are going to be changed. We give thanks that there were
those who took a good account of Solomon We know who it was,
maybe it was traders. She heard a good ripple, and
the Gospel is good news that we should take out. And she came,
and we read here, she came with this very great train. I had
to explain that to the children at Hedgen last week, what a great
train was. All these camels, and the spices,
remember it's famous for incense and spices, Sheba. And she brought
gold and stones. She came to make a gift to Solomon. She was holding him in very high
regard. And she communed with him all
that was in her heart. There was a lot in her heart.
What's in your heart? What is in my heart? When you come to
Christ, are you full of things that you want to bring to him?
You want to ask him. You want God to reveal to you. She had such a heart. Maybe God
was working in this lady's heart and working good things. She
communed. Do we honour Christ in that? And Solomon, amazing
Solomon, told her all her questions, everything she asked, he gave
an answer. And we read, there was not anything
hid from the king which he told her not. And we know that Solomon
was wise, as we read the accounts of Solomon, apart from all the
proverbs he wrote, and all the songs he wrote. He was also a
man who understood animals and nature and science is the word
of God. He was absolutely full of wisdom
in a way we perhaps can't understand. In a sense he was like a type
of Christ. There was Christ who knew all
things. He was God, Solomon was not.
but only that which God revealed to him. And you can see she was
quite taken with all these things. in the gospel is all that we
need. Now there are those who tell
you you need more than the gospel, you know, we won't rehearse it.
You can go to churches where they say you've got to do this
thing, you've got to do that thing, you've got to add to the
gospel, you've got to make penances or whatever. There are all sorts
of things that people can lay upon you, but that is not the
case. Everything that we need is in the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I know when I try to explain
to people our distinctives here at Salem, they make a great point
about that. We've got all that we need in the Gospel and in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't need to add to that.
Our religion is a spiritual religion. John says at the end of chapter
20 of his Gospel, many other signs truly did Jesus, in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
So there are many things we don't know, isn't there? Wouldn't we
love to know them? But, these are written, that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. We have the Word of God,
that's why we have it. I was accused once of, people
said to me, you're Father, Son and Holy Bible. That's what they
said to me. I found that offensive. On the other hand, there was
proof in that he saw that I had a very, very high regard for
the Word. All we need is here. All the
revelation we need of Christ is here. We don't need to do
and to seek to add to this. In fact, the book of Revelation
rather says that that's a very dangerous thing to add to the
Word of God. And the Queen of Sheba saw that
wisdom and she saw all that he had. We don't know so much. We
see in scripture something, but he had an amazing, powerful kingdom. There were not other nations
coming to fight and to threaten Solomon. He was very powerful. Remember promises were made to
Israel for the extent of the kingdom and in Solomon's reign
he filled that area. Israel was a big and strong nation
and mighty and all those things that God had promised about the
promised land were true but remember they were conditional. They were
conditional on obedience, they were conditional on faithfulness
as we read earlier and he said if thou wilt keep and observe
said God to Solomon and we know that alas that wasn't the case
And later in his life, through Rehoboam, his son, things degenerated. But God kept his promises. And this kingdom was an amazing
kingdom. And as we read in verse 5, she
saw all that he had. And it must have been sensational. And the house of God, of course,
was a wonderful thing. That temple, inside and out,
there was gold. It was a glorious thing, you
see, and again that points us to the glories of Christ. It
points us to the glories of the Gospel. It was meant to be to
the honour and glory of God. It wasn't just a pagan place
of worship. This was meant to glorify the
true and living God. And this is what she says. After
all that she's heard, all that she's seen, It was a true report
that I heard in my own land of my acts. And that's what we want. We want ourselves to come to
the Gospel. We want others to come to this Gospel and to say
it's true. It's a true account. The things
that God promises to us, they are right. And we love them. And it's more than that, she
says. How be it, she says. I believe not the words. And
that's often the case, isn't it? People don't believe. I believe
not the words. And so I came. We have to come
to Christ. We have to believe. We have to
see. We have to taste for ourselves.
Yes, the Gospel is proclaimed, but we've got to come. There's
invitations, aren't there, in the Gospel. Jesus says, come
unto me. We come to Christ. And then she
says, And behold, the half was not told me." Isn't that amazing?
She said, I've heard all people told me and built up your reputation,
but the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and thy prosperity
exceedeth the fame which I heard. And therefore we cannot come
often enough. That's the message this morning
in this world. We cannot, as it were, receive our fill of
the things of Christ. Whatever our spiritual condition,
whether we are seeking or whether we are walking in Christ, we
need to come. Because we need to understand
that the wisdom and the prosperity that exceeds all that we have
heard before exceeds our expectation. We need to come and to be filled
with that. We need a zeal. We need enthusiasm. I need an enthusiasm for the
things of God. And by the grace of God that
I believe is what we are all about here at Salem. People may
not like us, they may criticise us. But this is the thing that
we want to proclaim, and it's been proclaimed ever since I've
been here faithfully, is we want the Word of God, we want to see
Christ. We want to set forth Christ as
He is in all the Scriptures. And that is what we need. And
that is what will save us. God will bring faith through
it. And that is what will keep us walking in the way. I'll be
like Paul, wasn't he? These eyes were firmly fixed.
Where was his goal? You read Paul. Christ Jesus. He was running the race. Where
was the finishing line? What was the goal? Christ. Who was the author and finisher
of faith? Christ. And I like to feel, as it were,
the picture we see here of the Queen of Sheba is the seeker,
the disciple, the follower, coming to Christ, sitting at his feet
and saying, I believe not the words, until I came and my eyes
were seen. You've got to come yourself.
You've got to come and taste. You've got to experience things
for yourself. You've got to walk and live the
life of faith and understand. that the wisdom and prosperity
that God will bring us spiritually will exceed our expectations. I'm sure that's God's will. It's
greater than our preconceptions. People have preconceptions about
what is the gospel, what is the Christian life, what is the life
of faith. It is greater than you and I
can conceive of. We have not the half, as it were,
understanding of what it is that God desires to reveal to us,
to do in our lives. And so we must look to Him. And
we have many fine books, Cliff has them at the back, and you
have books at home with people who have gone on in the faith
and have had deep and great experiences of God. That should be our encouragement. It's a sovereign work of God. It's through this great Gospel. We don't need techniques, we
don't need to do all the things that people think you need to
do today, all these extra church organisations and organising
special rallies and meetings, we don't need those things. We
need to be firmly feet on the ground taught in the Church of
God. Remember Paul's first letter
to the Corinthians, that first chapter. He was dealing, as you
know, with the Corinthians, who were a very difficult, rebellious
people. They didn't like Paul. It's remarkable. They said evil things of him
and they exhorted themselves. They were all puffed up. And
that's why you find in the first and second chapter, Paul has
to address wisdom, what is true wisdom. He says, verses 19, first
chapter, he says, where is the wise, where is the scribe, where
is the disputer of this world? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. He says, you know, you
think you know all the wisdom of the world, but I've come to
you, he's basically saying, with the foolishness of preaching,
and that is wiser than anything that you believe. The Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. That's what we've got to tell
people about. That's what they need to hear.
That's what we need to hear. We need to hear about Christ. He's the power of God and the
wisdom of God. Is that, in a sense, what we
are seeing as a parallel in the account of Queen of Sheba? She
came because she sensed there was, as it were, the Church of
God represented by Solomon and the Temple. there was the power
of God, there was the wisdom of God and we should be encouraged
she felt she needed that, we don't know about this woman's
soul but we know that it made a huge impact upon her, we trust
it was a good impact upon her because we read here also that
the foolishness of God is wiser than men And the weakness of
God is stronger than men. Paul is dealing with those who
thought they were wise, but they weren't really. They were actually
doing, as we know, and we're not going to go into it, but
we know they were doing many, many foolish things. She had
a profession. You've got a profession. Have
I got a profession? When you're confronted with people,
and we do have opportunities, do we say, I'm a Christian, I
don't believe that. Or I believe this. Or this is
how I conduct my life. Or, sorry, we're not available,
we keep Sunday as the Lord said. Or whatever the issue is. She
said her profession was that, what she heard was a true report.
And is that how we feel about the Word of God? We hear these
things, and in our souls, this is the truth. There's a lot of
competition today, as you know out there, a lot of competition
of ideas for truth. There are people who are trying
to totally change our nation. They're trying to change the
customs, the beliefs, the traditions, so many things. They want to
turn this country upside down, inside out. And it is disruption,
isn't it? We can see that. But where are
we? Do we say this is the truth?
What is our profession? What is it we really believe?
And that's what we should be doing. We should be pressing
to Christ. Are you pressing? You can't stand still as a Christian.
Because the world and the devil, they're always there. There's
a battle. We live in a spiritual warfare.
I can't remember who it was, I can remember someone preaching
a sermon that had a big impact to me about you can't tread water
as a Christian. It was like all the influences
around us are like a river and they will drag you along. You
can get dragged in the wrong direction. You've got to, as
it were, be like Paul. You've got to have that zeal.
You've got to be pressing on to Christ. Now she brought questions.
Now, this morning, are there questions that you feel you want
to bring to Christ? Things that you want to resolve
about the truth? Well, we should have an earnestness
and a zeal that they should never abate within us. We should always
be wanting to read and to know and to find out my experience
of 50 years walking this way. This is like an inexhaustible
mine of truth, the word of God. You will never come to the end
of it. You will never know it all. You will never know everything
about God, because God's wisdom is infinite. But we should always
have that desire to press on, as long as we have breath, to
be those who come. And we might have questions in
our heart like, well, can we be right with God? Can a man
be just? We might feel, can God forgive a sinner? I'm too bad. I've heard people say, oh, I'm
too bad. I can't never be a Christian. I've done too many wicked things
in my life. And you have to say, well, the
Gospel's for you then, if that's how you feel. You are just the
sort of person who needs to come to seek the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near.
If he's working in your soul, we can't We live in sovereign
grace. We can't put that desire in a
person's heart. You can't manipulate people. So much of so-called
evangelicalism is manipulating people. And we can't do that.
We have to let God work in people's souls. Ah, but if they feel that
need, if they feel something, then we should encourage people.
We should encourage ourselves. She came to see and to hears
and it was a judgment on others who didn't and judgment on those
in Jesus day we read that in Matthew 12 40 to 42 that they
didn't come and there was Christ he said I'm here and you don't
believe me you can see me face to face and yet you reject me
and yet the Queen of Sheba came from the uttermost parts of the
world to seek me and I can remember talking to Arminian people and
They would say how you persuade people to make a decision for
Christ. I felt, and I'm sure I've used
this argument in the past, that Pontius Pilate was face to face
with Christ. And he did not want to condemn
Christ, as you know, initially, and not for ways perhaps to let
him go, but the people prevailed. They used arguments, they prevailed,
and he gave in to the mob. Why wasn't Pontius Pilate converted? Christ stood before him and spoke
to him. Why didn't Pontius Pilate realise
this was the Son of God? And the answer was, the grace
of God was not in him. But if I'm an Arminian, I would
say, oh well, you know, we've got to persuade people to believe. Jesus tried to engage Pontius
Pilate in the truth. He'd say, I'm here to speak my
Father's words, I'm here to tell the truth. And Pilate said, what
is truth? Now if you can't be persuaded
face to face with Christ, how can we persuade people by our
natural ability? We can't. We believe in sovereign
graces or God's gracious will. We trust there was something
in this lady and she's a passion for the inquiry. So we need to
have our hearts opened by the Holy Spirit. And I love this,
what she says, she says, the half has not told me. And that's
an encouragement to go on into looking for that wisdom that
exceeds. And then her conclusion, isn't
it good to see her conclusion, I love this. Happy or blessed,
same word, happy, blessed or blessed are thy men or thy servants. Happy are these thy servants
which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. Is
that how we are in Christ? If you are a servant of Christ,
you should be the most happy in the world. Who could be happier
than being a Christian? and being a servant of the true
and living God and being a knowing of salvation in Christ. There
is no greater place to be and there are other parts of the
scripture that make that known. Jesus says a little of this of
course in that great sermon on the mountain in Matthew 5. There's
just two verses there, verses 6 and verse 8. And it's in the
same line of thinking. And these are wonderful words. Matthew 5 and verse 6, we read,
blessed or happy, it is the same thing. Are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Is
that how we are? Do we hunger and thirst after
righteousness? And again, the Queen of Sheba,
there's a pattern, somebody who came out of the ardent desire
to know these things. Is that how we are? We should
be. And verse 8, blessed are happy, are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Oh, we've got that desire for
purity, that desire to see God. And our pastor did preach on
this and it was very good to hear that. I was just thinking
of Psalm 1, I'm sure you all know Psalm 1, and that again
is very much the happy man. Again, I think the pastor has
preached on that not so very long ago, the happy man. Who's
the happy man? Blessed or happy is the man that walketh not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, for there is his delight. It is in the law of the Lord
And in the law he doth meditate day and night. What sort of person
will he be? He will be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in season. How
are we going to bring forth fruit in Christ? Christ said, By their
fruits ye shall know them. We need to understand that. There
is fruit of the life of faith. So are we happy? The Lord loves
the true Israel. and the Lord desired only the
best again for historic Israel we know they sinned and fell
but he is true Israel that is the true church the true people
of God he loved them sent his son to die for them sent him
as king Solomon is perhaps a poor representation but Christ he
was perhaps the greatest king of Israel and yet Christ is king
of kings and Lord of Lords. What more could we say than that?
And Solomon had great glory. It took her breath away. But
when we come to Christ, spiritually, it is as it were that we should
have our breath taken away. We should be able to, by faith,
come to the Word of God. And we see in Revelation 1 and
other places something of a glorious revelation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now she gave gifts she was a
very wealthy lady and of course in those days that would have
been common when monarchs met they wanted to live at peace
with each other and therefore they brought gifts and if you
study history you'll know that's happened even in not so distant
history gifts and treasures were brought as an offering of peace
and so she came to show her respect Turkey and she gave him 120 talents
of gold. By today's standards that's an
incredible amount of wealth. And the spices of course from
Sheba and precious stones. There was such an abundance of
these things and we are reminded of abundance that Hiram also
brought. She brought all these things.
We don't need to bring anything. to Christ, we bring ourselves,
we come, as the hymn says, just as I am, without one plea. We
just come as we are. That's what Christ says. We come,
alas, with our sins, with our weaknesses, our failings, but
by grace he receives us and we don't need to give those gifts.
The wonderful thing is we read Solomon gave her gifts, she gave
all her desire, whatever she asked, Solomon gave her of his
royal bounty. We have a wonderful saviour.
Haven't you tasted that? He gives us of his royal bounty. He gives us wonderful gifts. The greatest gift of all he gives
us is the gift of faith. Isn't it? It's by grace you are
saved. Ephesians 2 verse 8. My faith,
that is a gift of God. That is the greatest gift. You
can't give anybody greater than that. That's the Gospel. God
comes to us. And it's not of ourselves, is
it? It's all of Him. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. We are made new people in Christ
Jesus and prepared for those good works that God has ordained
for us. We come to Christ Queen of Sheba
came to Solomon and there's a bounty, there's an abundance. That's
what the Gospel is. I've talked to people and they
see Christianity as some measly thing, some sort of thing that
takes away from people's lives. You don't go to church on Sunday,
you're not all caught up with that, as though we're losing
something. We could be out having a great time and doing things
instead of which we come to church. On the contrary, I'd rather be
here than anywhere, anywhere in the world. I've often sat
with Mr Sam before the service and we talk about things we've
been reading and where we are and we say, you know, this is
for us the greatest thing we do in the week, we come here.
There may not be many of us and people may despise us and say
evil things of us, but this is where we want to be. This is
what we want to hear and there's nothing at all greater. It's not measly. We complete
in Him. In the Gospel we have everything
that we need. We may think we need lots of
things, but these are the things that we really, really need.
Philippians 4 and verse 19. It's a great verse. It's a great
encouragement. It says, Paul, my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Out of his riches in glory he
will supply all your need. What is it we really need? God
will supply us. Is it a measly incomplete thing?
Is it inadequate the gospel? Of course it's not. Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 9. For in him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in
him. complete, mature, whole in him,
which is the head of all principality and power. We have such a gospel. It is the perfect religion. Men
have invented all their clever religions, but in Christ, in
the setting forth of this gospel, however poorly I try, we set
forth perfection. This is perfection. You will
not find anywhere in God's universe and revelation anything more
perfect than the setting forth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we thank God for such a Gospel. And He gave her whatever she
asked. And in the Gospel there is invitation. There are remarkable
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I think our pastor preached
on this not so very long ago. And it's a challenge to us. I find it a great challenge when
I read these words. Yet I read them, and when I'm
praying sometimes, I reflect on these words. And these are
the words, as we just go off to a close. Matthew 7 and verses
7 and 8. This is what Jesus says to your
eye. Remember, the Queen of Sheba
came to Solomon and asked, Jesus says to you and to me. Ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh, perceiveth. and he that seeketh findeth and
to him that knocketh it shall be opened. And it will be if
you come and you seek and you ask and you knock for those lightnings
that God wants to give us. You will get them and they will
come in abundance and we shall be complete in him. So we thank
God for this glorious Gospel. Have we heard the Gospel? Have
we responded? Have we come to Christ? Solomon
received the Queen of Sheba. She came to him and he told her
everything she asked him. Amen. Now we're going to sing our last
hymn, number 723. And the tune is Regent Square
684.