Turn with me, if you would, this
morning to 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 10. It's a joy
to be here with you all again. I've been looking forward to
this. It's been a crazy week with the holidays and cooking
and eating and all that kind of stuff, but it's always good
to be here. Be remembering the group in Jackson,
Sovereign Grace Church of Jackson. Nathan and Bruce are taking services. I've got a few more folks actually
moved from Don Fortner's church, trying to find a place over by
us, two women. It's been a tremendous blessing
so far. And then I talked to David Pledger, and there's a
gentleman that lives in St. Louis. Actually, he's the son of missionary
Lance Heller. His name is Ryan. And I met him. He came for the first time. He
looked us up. He said, well, you're only an
hour and a half away. So he came. I hope he's there. He said he
would start to continue to come. He'd been going to a Presbyterian
church, and David said, you're not going to hear anything there.
He said, well, I'm not. And he said, you're not going to hear
anything. So I said, well, give me his number. And I called him,
and he's been coming. So he's an engineer. He comes from a long... They're
all, wow. It's like, okay. So it is good
to see him. Like I say, it's my wife Melinda
and I are thankful that you asked us to come here again. 1 Kings. We're going to look at the Gospel
in 1 Kings. I'm going to read chapter 1 through
verse 10. I'm sorry, chapter 10 verses
1 through 10. 1 Kings chapter 10. And you'll be familiar with
the story. There's at least four messages
in here. We're going to look at two. So
we'll listen to this one, and by God's grace, then we're going
to see some more in the next gathering. And when the Queen
of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of
the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. 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 on 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 into 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 mine own land of thy acts
and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes had seen, and behold the half was
not told me, thy wisdom and thy prosperity exceeded the fame
which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are
these thy servants which stand continually before thee, and
that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel,
because the Lord loveth Israel forever. Therefore made he thee
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. There came no more such abundance
of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Now obviously King Solomon is
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And blessed be the Lord thy God
which delighteth in thee. God the Father always delighted
in his Son. And to set thee on the throne
of Israel. He is a King from everlasting.
So the typology is set forth in wonderful type and picture
here in 1 Kings. But what we have here is what
happens when God is drawing a sinner, the Queen of Sheba, unto Himself. And like I said, I'm reading
from the Word of God. There's no error here. So I'm
not going to make anything up. I'm just going to read. And you
see just the wonderful, glorious Gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace as it is found in the whole Scripture, especially here in
1 Kings. The first thing I want to notice
is when the Queen of Sheba heard She heard. When God the Holy Spirit begins
His marvelous work, He uses means, and the means He is pleased to
use is the proclamation of Christ and Him crucified. She heard. She heard something. We're going to see specifically
what she heard about. We don't have to guess. Spurgeon has a
wonderful wonderful message on this and he says that she came
to prove him with hard questions and questions like how can man
who is born in sin be made just with God? How can God be said
to know everything and be everywhere yet he doesn't remember our sins? He didn't forget anything and
yet he says he doesn't remember our sins. Another question would
be, Job, how can man that is born of a woman be clean? How
can God be both just and justify the ungodly? I'd say these are
some questions that she had on her mind. Because it says she
had questions concerning the name of the Lord. I don't know.
She probably asked him some political questions. How do you run your
kingdom? And maybe compared her kingdom
to his kingdom. I'm sure they may, perhaps, Maybe
talked about the weather. Maybe she had some questions.
Proved him with hard questions. But the questions she had on
her mind was concerning the Lord God. Concerning herself. So the first thing is she heard.
She heard something. Turn to Romans chapter 10. There's numerous passages, but
we'll just look at Just one, I guess there may be a few others,
but just one in particular. Romans chapter 10, Paul says,
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their
own righteousness, and have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law, for righteousness through everyone that believeth. For
Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth these things shall live by them. But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth the scripture?
The word is nigh thee, even thy mouth, and in thy heart, That
is the word of faith which we preach. Which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth that Lord Jesus, that thou shalt believe in thine heart,
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scriptures
say it, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For
there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 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? How shall
they believe on him of whom they have not heard? How shall they
hear? without a preacher. 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, that bring
glad tidings of good things. I'm not saying that, I'm not
going to, Henry would always say, I'm not going to put God
in a box. You've got to hear the message from a man standing
behind the pulpit here. When you go out, if you know
the gospel, tell them the gospel. Witness. Evangelize. I will say one thing. Bring them
here. There's something about the preaching
of the Gospel. When you're with somebody one-on-one,
you've got to listen to what they say. And then you tell them
what you believe or what the Scripture is. When they come
here, at least so far, at least right now, it's one way. There's not, there's not what
I think. And that's why I think these Bible, my opinion is these
whole Bible studies are, I don't think they're sanctioned by the
Word of God, but everybody's got an opinion. But who's in
charge? Well, it depends on whose house you're at. No, no. Bring
them here. Well, I don't know what you're
saying. Well, come here, come to Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
of the Ozarks. Just come. Whether it's somebody
standing here, or you have a video stream, but the Lord uses, He
uses. Remember, we may look at it here
a little bit later, remember what happened, how He heard?
There was a little Jewish girl, was taken captive. Now, that's
horrible. I think of my daughter, if somebody
would have taken her away from me, that's not good. We say that's
bad. The Lord overruled all that situation. And she heard what was going
on with Nahum. He was a great guy, a great captain of the army
of the Babylonians. But he was a leper. And she said,
would God, my Lord, which is my Master, He knew that there's
a God in Israel. There's a prophet in Israel.
And it was told him that this little girl told him that there
was somebody in Israel that could help him. He used That little
girl. He used... He heard. He heard. And we'll see, he went
to the prophet's house expecting like Queen Sheba. But the first
thing is that she heard. It is Christ that says, by grace
alone, through faith alone, and He uses the vehicle of His declared
truth. Now, notice what it says, when
the Queen of Sheba heard, of the fame of Solomon Christ concerning the name of the Lord.
I don't want to get too intricate, but I can't help it. She didn't
hear about the law. She didn't hear about tradition.
She didn't hear about dead orthodoxy. She didn't hear about mere intellectualism. She heard specifically about
the fame, the glory, the splendor of the King. And that's what
we are here doing. I'm not here to promote me. No,
we're here to promote the fame of the King. So she heard of
Solomon, and she heard of Solomon. You must hear the truth regarding
Christ, Emmanuel, the Son born, the Governor, the Mighty God.
You remember Simeon, and I may have said this the last time
I was here, I can't remember, but when Simeon, who was waiting
for the consolation of Israel, which is another name for Christ,
when he saw Christ, he picked up a human being. He picked up a baby. And he says, let me die in peace. I have seen thy salvation. He's looking at a person. He's looking. at a person. And
I know from fact that we can have our doctrine right, we can
dot the I's, we can cross the T's, we can have all this together
and still miss Christ. So she heard, but she specifically
heard of the fame of Solomon. How can we trust an unrevealed
Savior or one who is unable to save them who come to Him to
the uttermost? We must hear and hear of the
fame of Solomon. Now this third point is redundant.
Concerning the name of the Lord. Concerning the name of the Lord. Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. And verse 12. Neither is there
salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." There
is no other name. Name. God incarnate in the flesh. John
1. We beheld the glory of God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The name. Pick a name. Pick a name of Christ. Pick a
name of God. And therein you will see the
gospel. Let's just try it for you. Jehovah
Shalom. Judges chapter 24. What does
that mean? God our peace. How can sinners who are fallen
by nature have peace with God? Christ. Exodus 17, 15. Jehovah Nisai. The Lord our banner. What does it say? His banner
over us is love. What act of love has anybody
seen that compares to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, suffering
and bleeding and dying for us? Genesis 22, verse 14. Jehovah
Jireh. You're familiar with the story.
That is the Lord our provision. He's our altar. We come to God. We have access to come boldly. Why? He's made that provision. He is that provision. Father,
I see the wood. I see the fire. But where's the
sacrifice? The Lord will provide Himself
a sacrifice. Jehovah Jireh. Jeremiah 23.6
Jehovah Sidkidnu. The Lord our righteousness. Now
who here wants to stand before God on their own righteousness?
Christ must be our righteousness. Exodus 48, 35, Jehovah Shammah,
the Lord is there. The Lord is there for us. This
work will go on if the Lord is here. Jehovah is Jehovah Shammah. If He's here, if He's in Jackson,
I don't care, Danville, Louisville, New Guinea, These works will continue if
God is there. Remember what Moses said with
the pillar? If you're not going to go with
us, we don't want to move. That's what when Bruce and I, when we
were gathered together and we were first starting the thing
out, we were scared to death. We don't want to do anything that
would dishonor our Lord and we just want Him to meet with us
and to continue to meet with us. Because when God's not there,
you just have form and legalism and ceremony. That's all you've
got. Oh, the Queen, this sinner, she heard of the fame of Christ,
of Solomon, concerning the name of the Lord. And then she came to prove Him
with hard questions. Hard questions. How can man who
is old be born again? Let me tell you. He must be born
again. The next thing I see and hear
is, this is the problem of our flesh, right here, verse 2. And
she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels, bare
spices, much gold, precious stones. She came to Solomon and she communed
with him with all that was in her heart. Now that's the good
part. The first part, she comes bearing gifts. Oh my, this is
our unenlightened, natural reasoning. to bring something. Can't I just
bring something? It's getting close to Christmas.
I know. I'm going to bring, I'm like
that little drummer boy, and when I was a kid I loved that
song because I played drums. I'm just going to play my best. I'm
just going to do my best for Him. He's going to notice it.
He's going to see it. And He's going to have favor
on me. And you tell me what religion doesn't do that. That's what
we do by nature. God told Adam, he had taught
him the Gospel, taught him right, and he had two sons. He taught
them the same thing. But one of them thought, I'm
not going to bring the sacrifice. I'm going to bring the best.
I'm a hunter. I'm going to bring them the best.
God rejected it. And He always rejects. Our best,
because what does Isaiah say? Our righteousnesses, our righteousnesses,
plural, is, righteousnesses, is, is, is, is, filthy rights. We cannot please God on our own. We cannot please God based on
our worth, our merit, our ability. But we're going to bring something
to God by way to impress Him, by way of merit, recognition
of worth. No, this is man's religious efforts
to please God. It's foolish and foolhardy. Isaiah
tells us, this is how we come. Everyone that thirsts us, come
to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
and buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. There's another question. How
can you do that? You can't. But God does provide
a sacrifice and a provision. Jesus paid it all. All to Him
I owe. But we're constantly, and as
believers we still do this, we get in a little trouble and first
thing we do is, I can bail myself out. I'm going to make sure Scott
doesn't know about this. I'm going to make sure the rest
of the church doesn't know about it. I'm just going to take care of
this. Nobody will know. While we're young, we're strong, we're
going to do this, we're going to do that. And until the Lord
sets us flat on our back, we can't do anything physically.
Mentally, while we're still sharp, we're going to figure these things
out. No. Why, yes, why do you spend money
for that which is not bread. And why do you labor for that
which satisfies not? The woman with the issue of blood,
she figured that out only after she spent everything she had
and grew worse. But that's a picture of salvation.
Worse and worse and worse. And then a friend, a neighbor,
tells you to come. tells you something you've never
heard. The gospel of the grace of God is so contrary, it's like
people accuse us of just, it's the new. It's new. It can't be
true. New. No. We can go to the annals
of church history, go way back, and pull up and say, no, this
is what was being preached when this country was founded. Edwards. Bunyan. We can go back. Well, then they don't want to
hear that. I've never heard that. Because it admits You're bringing
something. You're bringing your gifts. You're
bringing your things. This is old man religion. This
is the way of Cain. This is Ken, and brother to Nahum's
attempts to please God and the prophet of old, like I mentioned
in 2 Kings 5. He comes before... Remember him? He comes with his horses and
he comes to the prophet's house. And he's sitting there waiting,
and Nehemiah sends out Gehazi, I think it was, he sends out
his servant. And he says, go awash in the river Jordan, three
tithes you be made. And he gets all mad. If a governor came in here, blunt
or whoever, would we get a better chair? Now there's a leather
chair. Would we bring that leather chair
out? What would we do? No. You should sit down. You're a
sinner, like everybody else, and you hear what's got to be
said. But he said, it's so typical of man's religion. He gets upset
and gets mad, and he says a few things. He says, I thought...
There's the problem. He says, I thought the prophet
would come out, clap his hands, And make a big show. That's what
the old man wants. Pat me on the back. Make a big
show. And then finally, his servant said, if he'd asked you to wash
yourself in one of the great rivers of Babylon, you'd have
done it. He said, what's the difference? And he did it and
he said, OK. So the Lord humbled him and he washed and he was
clean. But we always got to... I thought,
I thought, And that's what we do. But God has her heart. And once God is fetched in the
center as that old sheep takes that sheep and he throws it all
behind his and he's got it on his shoulders and he's going
to bring it back to the fold. So we go back to our text. And
she comes with all this stuff, and then she communes with Solomon,
all that was in her heart. You see, Proverbs says, give
me thine heart. He's going to have the heart.
And when he has the heart, he'll have the attitude, the actions,
the thoughts, and the mind. But he's going to have the heart.
Bless God for precedent grace. Making us, as Psalms 110 says,
making us willing in the day of His power. She comes and she
communes with Him of all that was in her heart. She couldn't
hide anything, and we can't hide anything. We can hide stuff from
Mom and Dad. We can hide stuff from our fellow
students, neighbors. We can hide stuff, but we can't
hide from God. She communes with Him all that
is in her heart. And look at verse 3. And Solomon
the king told her all her questions. And there was not anything hid
from the king which he told her not. Solomon, Christ, tells her all. Now, that's why I had Scott read
John 4. Because in John 4, that woman
at the well, what did she specifically say when she ran back and told
the people, the town folk? She said, Come see a man that
told me everything I did. Now, did he tell her everything?
Did he start when she was paid? No. No, he didn't. But he told
her all things needful. And that is, we have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. There's no way whether we try
to build a tower of Babel, we'll be confused. Or whether we try
to work our way to heaven, however we try to do it, there's no way,
it's not in our ability, it's not in our wheelhouse to approach
God. However, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He has the heart, and He will not stop until the communion
is sweet and precious. We will look upon Him, says Zachariah,
Christ, whom we pierced, and we will be in bitterness of tears,
that's repentance, And every house apart, every man apart,
salvation is very personal. And then after that's happened,
the next verse is in Zechariah 13. Then there's a fountain open
for sin and uncleanness. And then there's that joy of
the fellowship. We understand that the Father chose, the Son
redeemed those whom the Father chose, and the Holy Spirit quickens
those for whom the Son died. He reveals to us His valued person. and his achievements upon Calvary's
tree. Our sin is seen, his grace is
known, and his love is finally experienced. I've heard about
this love. It's the love that the world
talks about. I just call it fornicated. It's not the truth. It's horrible.
It's ugly. But then we understand how God
could love Someone such as us. It amazes me. People get so upset
about election. It opens the door of heaven.
It doesn't shut the door of heaven. It opens the door. And they get
so upset about sovereign discriminatory grace. And yet we, the chosen
of God, are those who love Christ. We can't understand how He could
love anybody. Because we have seen. We came and we proved Christ
with these hard questions. And they're not nebulous questions.
What about these guys over here? What about this denomination?
No, it's personal. And I can't make it personal.
And I don't want to make it personal, but God the Holy Spirit, He has
to. And we'll leave it there. But then look at the next thing.
Verses 4 or 5. And when the Queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built,
the meat on his table, the sitting of his servants, the attendance
of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his assent,
by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was
no more spirit in her. When the Queen... Now, as the
Queen, in the caravan that she brought, the camels and all that,
She had people with her. She couldn't do it all by herself.
It's personal. When the Queen... She, not anyone else. Salvation
is extremely personal. Let me read it to you out of
Job. Job chapter 19 and verse 25. Job chapter 19, starting verse
25. Job says, For I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me. I shall see for myself." Have
you seen Christ in all His fame, in all His glory, in all His
splendor for yourself? And then once you see that, you're
like the woman at the well, go. And she went and she told, come
see a man who told me everything that ever I did. Now, the eyes
of faith, now fully fixed upon Him who we need for all and everything,
or else we perish. And it says, it's interesting,
and I noticed that in verse 5, the last part, there was no more
spirit in her. I know there's a lot of said
about this, but to me, there's no more spirit in her. That means
I'm nothing and He's everything. And I'm going to bring my puny
gifts? You get ashamed of it. It's like, I'm going to bring
my baptismal certificate? It's like, what am I going to
bring? And then she goes on and says,
when I saw it, I didn't know the half of it. So, there's true biblical confession,
but she had no more spirit in her. That means that self is
seen as it is. Insignificant. And He is seen
as our all in all. Well, then we have true biblical
confession, verses 6 and 7. And she said to the king, it
was a true report. It was a true report. Doesn't
that sound like Isaiah 53? Who hath believed our report?
We hear, it is a true report that I heard, there's that word
again, in mine own land of thine accent and thy wisdom. Howbeit,
I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen
it, and bolder half was not told me thy wisdom and thy prosperity.
exceeded the fame which I heard." She heard the true report. She
acknowledged it. It must be the true report because
the scriptures declare there's only one gospel, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism. And notice this. Notice this. And I didn't see this until recently. Very recently, like a couple
weeks ago. So, we're growing together. We're learning together.
Look at this. Look at what she says here. It
was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts and
your wisdom. Okay? Look up here. Acts and
wisdom. Acts and wisdom. That's what
we call Christ and Him crucified. Is that not true? The acts of thy acts. I heard of Christ. But the wisdom of God, the wisdom
of Christ, will save no one. His acts did. Now the wisdom
and the providence of God, and the sovereignty of God, and the
foreordination and foreknowledge of God, it set everything up.
But Christ must literally act upon what the covenant states. There you have it. The wisdom
and acts. Christ and Him. crucified, nay, risen. God's
wisdom never saved anyone, but combined with the actions of
a crucified elder brother, or Christ, we are reconciled to
God. Truth, plus the living vital
reality of blood shed for transgressors. Therefore, God is honored, and
we are recovered. His acts, and His wisdom, and
His Son is glorified. The acts, and basically the acts
of God The Son dying, suffering and expiring upon the tree and
raising from the dead ratifies or certifies the wisdom of God. We could read about who God is
and everything, but if He didn't do anything that He said He came
to do, it wouldn't ratify a thing. We worship a crucified Redeemer,
a risen Redeemer. So I just thought that was just
like, I had to back up and rewrite my notes, I'm like, Man, that's
amazing. What do you mean the Old Testament
saints didn't understand Christ and Him crucified? You bet they
did. The last thing, and we'll skip
to verse 10. Now comes the proper motive for
gifts. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighteth in thee, verse 9, to set thee on the throne
of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever, and made thee
king to do judgment and justice. See the clock anywhere? There
it is. Okay. Verse 10, And she gave
the king a hundred and twenty pounds of gold, spices very great
store, precious stones. There came no more such abundance
of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Now is proper gift giving. It's done out of love. It's done
out of an amazing gratitude for such grace given to such sinners
like us. It's not out of duty, not out
of obligation, but thankfulness and humble adoration. Or as James
says, works flowing from grace imparted. There's a reason for
James being there. Works after faith, in the heart,
after we've communed with Christ our Lord. She communed with Him
all her heart, and He told her everything. And now, we can't
outgive Him, but we're not even thinking that. We're just so
thankful and so amazed that His grace, while on others Thou art
calling, He didn't pass us by. He didn't pass us by. I'm going
to give. Support the ministry. Support
missionaries. Support whatever you've got,
whatever you've got going on. You're going to do it willingly.
And thankfully. Because... Blessed be the Lord
thy God. She sees it. She sees it. She
sees it. Sign me up? Where do I sign up?
Well, may the Lord give us grace to trust in Him. And confess
Him in believers baptism. If need be, but just... just
to be a part of this gospel, to be a part of this Christ,
the Christ. And struggles, oh my word, we
don't know struggles until the new creatures there. And the
old man, he's not going anywhere. Actually, that article by Spurgeon on these verses,
He's got a really good section about the old man and the new
man. He carries them on like a conversation, and I thought,
boy, if that isn't the truth. The old man says, what right
do you got to be here? I'm going to stomp you out. And
the new man says, I'm here for good. He says, well, I'm going
to make it hard. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do that. I'm going to get people to talk about you, this and all this
other stuff. I'm going to hit you. I'm going to do this and
all this stuff. I know, but here and where I stand, I can do no
other. And thank God that there's a struggle. Thank God that there's
a struggle. And thank God that he that is
in us is greater than he that's in the world.