Open to the same passage we were
at just a little bit ago. 1 Kings chapter 10, part 2. I didn't
know what else to call it. Part 2, that'll work for me.
Now we're going to continue in our text. We have more to speak
of regarding the precious gospel of God's amazing grace. And you're
familiar with the passage that we just looked at. In verse 1 and 2, my first point,
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.
She came to Jerusalem with a very great train Camels that bear
spices very much gold precious stones and when she was come
to Solomon she communed With him of all that was in her heart Now one first thing that struck
me is the distance The distance that this woman and her caravan
Traveled According to current information The Queen of Sheba, Ethiopia
area, I don't know if they know exactly the Yemen area, to Jerusalem
was 4,200 plus miles one way. Over 4,200 miles one way. A camel caravan A camel caravan traveling nonstop
could travel between 18 to 25 miles a day, nonstop. Now you
know they stopped. So if we just went 18 to 25,
and if we went 25 miles, divide that into 4200, she traveled
over 168 days, which is over 5 months, which is more than
24 weeks. How far is too far to hear the
glorious gospel of God's free grace? We have some who've traveled,
moved. God honors faithfulness. That's
all I can say about that. We've got a couple, several folks
in the church that travel about two hours. How far is too far
to hear of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. To hear, as
she said, the true report. Now, I don't know this area.
Now, I say I don't know this area. I know Shelmah. Years and years and years ago,
there was a group in Monett. It disbanded. They had issues.
It disbanded. Can I safely say? There's no
truth around here? I mean, you all live here, I
don't. The truth is being preached here.
You have men in, you listen, you know the truth is being preached
here. How much are we willing to sacrifice to keep the vision alive? That's my question for our group
over there all the time. I'm up and down. I get encouraged, and then I
get discouraged. You see somebody come, somebody
come, we had a couple of families come, they had a bunch of kids
come and come, and then it seemed like after two years, I get the
phone call. I get the phone call. It's usually
at night. And I think about Nicodemus who came at night and was afraid.
I get a phone call at night. And they said, we want to learn
more about church history. I said, church history never
saved anybody. Well, we know. We understand
the gospel. But we're going to leave and go, we want to hear
more about church history. Well, now that family, they're
divorced. This is another family. They're
divorced. Who knows? It's just... How far is too far
to hear of the true report? I'm talking to David Pleasure,
Bruce Crabtree, Mike Walker, Donnie Bell. It's all the same
thing. How hungry are we? How thirsty are we? If somebody's thirsty and there's
a water fountain, they will find the water fountain. Seeing the multitude, Christ
went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, he opened his mouth, and he taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
They shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely.
For my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad." Remember that last two
words, exceeding glad. Just remember that, put that
back here. For great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted
they, the prophets, which were before you. Now that's out of
John 5, verse 12. I go back to our text. Were not
all her questions answered? Verse 3. Solomon told her all
her questions. The only thing that we could
even come close to in this country was the westward expansion. The
men and women who, on the wagon trains, travel, travel. I don't
know anything about this. I could sit in my car and turn
on my air conditioner in the summertime, or the heater in
the wintertime, or go home to my house that's heated and cooled. How hungry and how thirsty are
we? When we find That pearl of great
price. Sell everything. Sell everything. And it's not
just the preacher. I mean, it's not just the guy
who's leading or going to lead or whatever the Lord has for
you all store here. Henry made a comment, what is,
you know, to be a Christian, it's a lifelong commitment to
the to the Lord Jesus Christ. A lifelong commitment to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Over job, over friends, over appearances,
over money, over all that stuff. All this stuff is nice. But as
I go back to Martha, she chose the one thing needful. And even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed. the fields, or the sparrows.
And He continually reminds us, are we not more valuable? The
Son didn't die for animals. Are we not more of more value
than they? So I ask you, were not all her questions answered?
Yes. Did not her spirit of human merit, duty, and worth melt into
insignificance at the presence of such a king as this? She came
I told you that story last time I was here about Tad Lincoln.
I remember I told you that. About Tad Lincoln. There are
some people who go to the White House and never get to see Lincoln. Well, this guy stumbled upon
his son, and his son grabbed him and took him right in to
see the President. How did she know when she went there, even
though she was a queen, he may have not been there, he may have
been out with his troops, who knows? She went there, traveled
all this way, all this time, Her questions were answered. She had no more spirit within
her. Saul realized, I've got nothing to offer this guy. And
as I said, even Solomon all his glory was not arrayed like our
great king of kings. So that was just the first. These
are just some thoughts. The second thought. I only got
three. The second thought, verse 7,
is truly seen, we look in amazement and wonder, and we still don't
fully know everything. How many times... I'll take my
own... How many times have I went through
1 Kings, and I know the story, I was telling Scott, I know the
story of the Queen of Sheba. But I didn't see five messages
in there, and there are more. And I was like, okay, I'm done
with that, and all of a sudden, bam! I'm going through Joshua,
I'm like, well, there's nothing here. And all of a sudden, I
was going through just like Joshua 15 or something like that. It's just a bunch of names. Kings. Kings that were conquered. It's
over. I'm like, I'll just skip that.
And in the last verse, it said there's 31 kings that Moses and
Joshua conquered. And they still didn't conquer
all of them. And I thought to myself, right there. 31 kings. In 31 kingdoms. 31 nations? 31 countries? 31 tribes? All's I know is that
everyone who put their trust in an improper representative
died without mercy. Except for the Gibeonites, and Joshua made a league with them,
and they didn't die. Who's Joshua? Joshua's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, that motive was horrible. They beguiled the
children of Israel. Are our motives ever pure? Based on a league that Joshua
thought up, he said we'll make a league with you. They wanted
a league. And all the Israelites and the elders were skeptical.
Joshua made a league. Based on that covenant agreement,
they were protected. Thereafter. Thereafter. But 31. I couldn't get over that. It broke my heart. I'm like,
31 nations. And everybody who trusted in
their wisdom, in their might, in their worth, as kings, as
presidents, whatever, similar situation here perhaps. Trust
in man, you're going to die in man. And I thought, well, the
Gibeonites, what's the story there? Oh, my. We don't do this
to gain God's favor, to go in there lying and telling the false. They went in there with wrong
motives. They lied. They beguiled and said they beguiled. But I'll
tell you this, God overrules all that. How many decisions
What have we made that are just ridiculous? Even as believers,
like, why did I do that? And we'll pay for it, but on
the other hand, the Lord overrules it for our good. Okay, the Gibeonites. They go in there and they get
a league. The next chapter, all the kings, they're ticked off. They say, well, Joshua's going
to wipe us out. So what they do, they turn their attention.
They didn't go after Joshua. They went against the Gibeonites.
They went up against them. The Gibeonites said, Joshua,
Help us. He was there immediately and
wiped him out. Because he was going to honor
the covenant. Something else about the Gibeonites,
I should start doing a little more research. They're, in the
scriptures, they're termed later on in the scriptures, they're
termed, I can't remember the word, it's like Nephila. It's
a different term. And that word in Hebrew means
temple servants. Because Joshua said, because
you guys have begot us, you're going to be serving in the house
of my God. forever. Now let me ask you this,
what was the death? Because Joshua was going to kill
all the inhabitants. Death? Or now, they get to hear
the oracles of God, they get to see the covenant, they get
to see the tabernacle, they get to see the showbread, they saw
things, they saw the oracles of God, they saw things they
never had seen before. So God took what they'd done
and blessed. What did Davis say? I'd rather
be a doorkeeper in the house of God. And that's what he made
them. They were ignorant of the ways and the grace of God. And
now they heard the gospel. They got to see the gospel and
type every day. That's just a side note. What
an amazing God we serve. So once we see this gospel, Once
the Holy Spirit has the heart, the soul, and the mind, we still
only know in part and see in part. That's what the New Testament
says. This superabounding grace is more than our dull brains
can handle. And yes, we do now love Him,
and we adore Him, and we worship the King. But as it says, we
don't know the half of it. I have not seen or ear heard
the things that He has prepared for us. Cody Gruber. You know Cody? 57 years old. I'm 57. His sight is 100% clear. We are set to look through a
glass dimly. We don't even know the half. Matter of fact, the scripture
says if all the works that Christ did were written, the books couldn't
contain them. We know what's needful to know.
Do you ever find yourself going over a passage in the Bible that
you've gone through over and over and then all of a sudden
you see something? What about those two believers
on the road to Emmaus? They were believers. Christ was
walking with them. And until he revealed himself
to them, even believers, they didn't know who he was. And once
he did, they said, didn't our hearts burn within us while he
talked and opened the Scriptures? We do see, says this book, but
through a glass dimly. The old man is still present
with us. And I love this passage in Galatians
chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 in verse
20. I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless,
I live yet not I But Christ liveth in me and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me By the Spirit of God's grace we
understand what that says, but do we fully? understand what
it says And again, the Scripture says that we are to grow up,
I'm sorry, that's what the Scripture says, we grow in grace in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's what 2 Peter says. And
Ephesians 4 says, we are to grow up in Him in all things. So,
we grow in grace. And here, the way I look at it,
is encouragement for each believer. No matter how weak, and how feeble,
or forgetful, or poor we are, if we are found in Him, we're
going to be taken care of. We're going to be taken care
of. He will perfect that which concerns each and every one of
us elect. That's what Psalm 138 says. He
will perfect that which concerns me. We cannot fall eternally. We
cannot be harmed above that which He allows. and we are in His
strong, omnipotent hands, and who can lay anything to charge
if God selects. When I think about that passage
in the New Testament, where we're in His hands, I just think about
His goddess. No man. And I thought, well,
no man. They've got to go through His
omnipotent hands to get to me. Am I a man? No man. I can't even do it. That's sovereign
protecting grace, indeed. None shall lay anything to charge
of God's will. The third and last point. Verse 8. Happy. He's been happy. Happy are thy men, happy are
these thy servants. Men, women, boys and girls who
understand the grace of God are happy. That word could be blessed
as well. Which stand continually before
thee and adhere thy wisdom. By God's free and indisputable
grace we are happy. I thought I'd look up indisputable.
Unable to be challenged or denied. They can say what they want to
say. Our God still rules and reigns. Every person and thing. We are happy. Sin is pardoned. We who were the offscouring,
we who were feeble, we who were vile and corrupt, sin is pardoned. We have the very righteousness
of Christ. Are you happy? We stand complete
in Him. What does that mean? I don't
know. Complete. I don't know. It means what it
says it means. God is our God. Christ is our elder brother.
He's our friend, our refuge, our strong tower. He is the cleft
in the rock that we are hid in. He is our balm and Gilead. I've
been fascinated by that phrase forever. Balm and Gilead. So I thought I'd look it up.
Now hold on, I'm not making this up. Hold on. If you've got seat
belts, put them on. This balm is from a very specific
tree species. Very particular. Isn't that Christ? A very particular Redeemer? Did
He not particularly die for a particular people? A peculiar people? The
second thing I noticed about this tree is in order to get
the resin from the tree, and this is, being a degree in forestry,
I understand a little bit about this because this is common practice. In order to extract the resin
from the tree, you must hit the tree, you must bruise the tree,
you must wound the tree. And in these places, in the Forest
Service, where they have walnut production, they have lots of
walnut trees, or acorn production, if they want a bumper crop next
year, they'll go out there and they'll beat the bark of the
tree, use it as a baseball bat or something. They'll bruise the side of the
tree and it will produce heavily. Now that's just horticulture. But they must, in order to get
the healing qualities from this very specific tree, they had to bruise it. And was
not Christ bruised for our iniquities? Yes. This third thing about this,
in ancient Egypt, in Roman's time and in Turks, they held
this particular species at such high regard, high value, that
in the orchards they would set a 24-hour watch. That's how highly
they regarded it. Do we not highly regard the Lord
Jesus Christ? And I'm getting this stuff from
a Bible dictionary, and the guy's giving me all this stuff, and
he's just listening out. I'm saying, boy, you're missing
it. This is Christ. This is Christ. It was so highly regarded that
they set a watch on it. Oh, how far will we travel to
hear the true report? The fourth thing about this tree
is it was such a rare tree, it's now extinct. It's now extinct. The Gospel's not everywhere.
Who has to leave that report? He was wounded and bruised for
our transgressions. What people call the Gospel,
what people call right, is wrong. And what we call The truth, they
call it. It's not such truth. It's rare. It's rare. And this one, I'm
like, you've got to be kidding me. You've got to be kidding
me. Listen to this. Once the tree was bruised and
the sap came out, the color was white. Are we not robed in the
white robes of his righteousness? And once it dried, it dried red. the blood of Christ. You call
me, call me, stretch it a little bit, I don't know, after the
Scripture says it's spiritual, all things are spiritual. And I remember
one preacher, I don't remember who it was, it may have been
Marvin Stoniker, he made a comment, he says, you come in, he says,
the Gospel's everywhere. He says, you walk in, you turn those lights
on, and you can see, wow, who's the light? Christ is the light. I mean, you could spend eternity
seeking these things out and understanding more about Christ.
He is our Balm in Gilead, and we're happy. Happy, it says,
verse 8, are thy men. Happy are thy servants. Plural.
Happy. We now have communion with Him
and with one another. Servants. Happy are thy servants
is when they gather together and they're listening to the
Gospel. We are no longer strangers and foreigners of the grace of
God, but we are nigh to God and not destroyed. These are all
things to be happy about. The Spirit now dictates our walk,
talk, and manner of life. We presently love the kinsman
because he first loved us. We're happy. As that song goes,
I think it was Horatius Bonar, he saved the wandering sheep.
We were wandering, and we just kept on wandering. Bondage. We would have still been in bondage.
Had something not happened, I would have still been in bondage to
our former pastor, who is no different than anything that
was going on, just different extremes. Legalistic, he didn't
believe the law was the rule of life, but his law was the
rule of life, so what legalism are we talking about? It's the
same thing. He saved the wandering woman.
And we in and of ourselves would still be duped. My, oh, my. He saved the wandering
boy. I want to close with two more
thoughts. I guess maybe three. Under this
verse 8. Happy are thy servants. Where are these servants, these
people said to be happy? Which stand continually before
thee. Turn to Acts chapter 2. Those who endure to the end,
the same shall be saved. There's a lot of people who walk
and talk and fellowship and then something happens at the end
of their life and then they that endure to the end shall be saved. Those who are kept. But look
at Acts 2 and verse 41, "...and they that gladly received his
word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them
about three thousand souls. And they continued..." What's our text say? Happy are
thy servants which stand continually. It's not a one-time, it's not
a Sunday only. It's not a one-time fair show
in the flesh. That's more like the parable
of the sower. They believe the Lord and then
the cares of the world choke them out and they're gone. It's
only one of those out of all those examples the Lord redeemed. The people though, we'll play
religion. And we'll fit in or try to act
this and that. But they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine. Fellowship. Breaking of bread. And in prayers. And fear came
upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were
done by the apostles. And all they that believed were together
and had all things common. They sold their possessions and
their goods. They parted them to all men as every man had need.
And they, continuing, daily with one accord in the temple, breaking
bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness,
there it is again, and singles of heart, praising God and having
favor with all people, and the Lord added to the church daily
such as should be saved. Why not here? Why not here? Why not Jackson? Why not? I'll tell you one thing, I may
have already said this before, but the church in Jackson, we've
been meeting there 91, I've been longer than that. I've been a
pastor since 91, I think. Any time a decision has been
made, I say a decision, a major decision, you know, paint, what
color to paint, you know, stuff like that. 100% agreement. The men and women.
Now the men gather together and we'll, you know, make certain
decisions and stuff like that, but we always tell the women,
because I thought they were spiritual helpers. That's why we start
having silent prayer because we don't have a spot. Most of
these churches, like I said before, the men will gather. Ours isn't
conducive to that. So we'll have a time of silent
prayer before the services start so everybody can pray. I bet
you Moses coveted Marian's prayers. They're believers. They go to
the same throne of grace. They're our helpmates. They're
our helpers. They continue. Where are these people said to
be happy? This band of brothers, this band
of brothers and sisters, these less than the least of all people,
these chief sinners. They are said to be happy, standing
continually before Thee. They're standing together continually. before Christ. And our standing
is not of us, but it's in the Blessed One, Emmanuel. It's got
to be in Christ. But, they stand together. Stand fast,
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. Happy. I know, I know as sure as I'm
sitting here, stuff's going to happen. Cars are going to break
down. Our loved ones are going to perish. It's going to happen. They're
going to die. They may die in the Lord, they may not die in
the Lord. It's still hard, regardless. We're not excluded from any of
these hardships. And it's harder on the believer,
perhaps. But we don't weep as other people weep in the Scriptures.
Why? Because we step back and we know
who's on the throne. I don't know what the Lord's
got in store for this country. As far as I'm concerned, it's easy to
shake it up. It's just horrible. I don't care
who's up there. I mean, I got my preferences
for sure. And I thought to myself, do not
put your trust in man. Careful. Careful. Don't put your
trust in man. Not even one another. but we are standing continually.
We are standing together in Christ and He is our standing, not ourselves. But thirdly, that's the first
one, where are they at and in whom are they standing? They're
standing together continually before Thee and look at what
they're doing. What are these happy people doing
together? Hearing, there's that word again. That used to really bother me.
I'll be honest with you. It's been a number of years ago,
but, you know, faith comes by here and I was like, you know what? You don't have to hear.
And then I started looking and looking and it's just got me
hemmed in. It's a good thing we've got hemmed in. And I'm
not so foolish as to hem God in and say it's got to be an
ordained guy behind the pulpit. That's not what I'm saying at
all. Though our former pastor, he headed that. There's only
two people, him and another guy in the whole country preaching
the gospel. It's like, you know, get out of here. We don't need
to hear any more of this stuff. What are they doing? That here,
the high wisdom. Hearing, faith comes this way. They're hearing of the wisdom
of the King. It goes back to that again. Blessed,
happy for the soul cleansing transforming grace of God in
us and through us. They are hearing and it could
be a home. It doesn't have to be 6 or 10
or 8 or 20 families. As far as I know, the requirements
were 2 or 3. 2 or 3. And I know you want to
do certain things for either someone that the Lord raises
up, a man among you, or a pastor. He's God's man. He's concerned
about telling about the King's wisdom. and let those other stuff... It'll happen. I don't mean to discourage you,
but, and I don't know it all, down in Kingsport, Tennessee,
where the Lord called Gabe Stoniker to pastor those people, they
were looking for six years. They were meeting for six years
without a pastor, and they were doing what you're doing. They
had people in, and they were having younger folks in. I gave you
a couple names. They were doing that. But they
were standing together. They knew unequivocally who they
believed and why they believed. They already had those hard questions
answered. And they were glad. They didn't have a pastor. There's
nothing in this world perfect. The flesh is constantly there.
But they were happy. See them in a conference? They
were happy. They were rejoicing in Christ.
That here thy wisdom. and happy, as I said, for the
soul-cleansing, transforming grace of God in us and through
us. And I close, and I apologize if some of you have heard this
story. I love this story. I heard it from Henry years and
years ago. The story is told about an auction. And in that auction was an old
violin. They brought the violin up. He
kind of struck the cord, you know, just out of tune, just
horrible, just old, dilapidated looking violin. And the auctioneer
says, will anybody give me a dollar? Two dollars, three dollars, four.
Four, I've got four dollars, going once, going twice. And then somebody in the back
of the room said, hold it. There's an old man, walked up, took the violin and started playing the most
gorgeous, lovely melody that anybody in that room had ever
heard. He gave the violin back and walked
back and sat down. And the auctioneer said, $1,000,
$2,000, $3,000, $4,000! Sold! And everybody was, what just
happened? What happened? And someone was
heard to say, it was the touch of the Master's hand. Have you
been touched? By the sovereign grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He makes a difference. And you can go, come what may,
and be happy. Because All things are working
together for good to them who love God and are called according
to His purpose. Bless the Word to our hearts
this day. Amen and Amen.