If you have your Bibles, tonight,
open up to the first, back to 1 Kings, and let's be turning
to chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10, and while
you're turning there, let me say this, that while I was studying
this week and preparing, there's a lot of effort that goes into
that, but I thought that our pastor this week, preached one
message Wednesday night, preached one Friday night, preached one
Saturday, and then preached two today. And I'm just so thankful
that this congregation is supporting our pastor and sending him to
preach the gospel. And it's a great blessing to
these little congregations, especially the small congregations, that
we can send our pastor to and for them to hear him. I love
to hear him. And so anyway, I just am thankful
for his labors, and it's a tremendous labor. To prepare and study is
just, I just got just a little taste of it, and he gets it every
day it lays upon him. I'm just so thankful that the
Lord has put our brother Gabe in the ministry, and has made
him our pastor. But anyway, just wanted to mention
that. So 1 Kings chapter 10, and I
wanna read beginning in verse one, and we'll read the first
nine verses. And I think you'll quickly see the topic here. In verse one, 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 came to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her
heart. And Solomon told her all her
questions. there was not anything hid from
the king which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,
and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
and his assent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord,
there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it
was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts
and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes have seen it, 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
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 loved Israel forever. Therefore made he the
king to do judgment and justice. This is one of my favorite passages
of scripture. And oftentimes if I'm down or
if I just am looking for something to lift my heart, I can turn
here to this passage and I can read it and it blesses my heart. Because when I read it, or when
I have read it, I've always read it in this sense, that one day,
there's coming a day in which all of his people, we're gonna
be gathered around his throne in our bodies, in our glorified
bodies, and we're gonna witness our Lord in all his glory and
all his majesty. What a blessed day that will
be. And that is the approach when
I started reading this that I wanted to take. But as I began reading
it, I began to see that there's also a gospel message or a gospel
story in this passage. So we know that in the Old Testament,
oftentimes there's pictures and there's types. And surely as
I was reading this, of Solomon's glory and this visit of Sheba
coming to Solomon that you could perceive the glory of Christ. So obviously Solomon in our text
is a picture or a top of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to Psalm 72. And what I want to do here for
just a moment is to look at some of these types as Solomon is,
as he pertains to our Lord. First of all, in Psalm 72, look
at the last verse, verse 20. This is written by David. The prayers of David, the son
of Jesse, are ended. He wrote this Psalm. Now look
at the heading. Right above verse one, it says
Psalm 72. A psalm for Solomon. So David wrote this psalm concerning
his son. And if you'll look, let's read
the first verse. Give the king thy judgments,
O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. Verse two,
he shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with
judgment. Now, is this speaking only of
Solomon? Look with me at verse five. They
shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure throughout
all generations. Do men today fear Solomon, the
man? No, he's dead and gone. But there
is another Solomon pictured here. Verse eight. He shall have dominion
also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the
earth. Verse 17, his name shall endure forever. That is our Lord
Jesus Christ. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun and men shall be blessed in him. All nations
shall call him blessed. That is our Lord Jesus Christ.
So Solomon is a picture of Christ. He is also a picture in this
way as a son of David. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is
the son of David, but Solomon as his son is a picture. And then also, Solomon is a type
of our Lord by his name. The word Solomon means peaceable. Ephesians 2.14, for he, our Lord
Jesus Christ, is our peace. We have peace, Romans 5.1, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in
Luke 2, 14, when the angels announced his coming of our Lord, they
said, glory to God in the highs and on earth, peace, goodwill
toward men. You see, as King Solomon determined
the relationship of the people with God. And so as long as Solomon
served the Lord, there was peace between the people and God. So his name meant peaceable. Also, Solomon is a picture of
our Lord in his wisdom. In 1 Kings 3, 12, that Gabe read,
it said, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart. so
that none name like thee before thee, neither after thee any
rise like unto thee. Naturally speaking, there never
was another man like you and me who walked this earth that
had the wisdom of Solomon. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ was
greater than wisdom. but he was more than a man, he
was the God-man. So Solomon in wisdom is a picture,
but also it says a greater than Solomon is here. And this glorious
passage that we read in 1 Kings chapter 10, after we read that
and see how beautiful and how wondrous it is, Matthew 18, 42, It said, behold, a greater than
Solomon is here. So these are some ways that Solomon
is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. But as I looked at this
passage, I began to note that the Queen
of Sheba is also a picture of somebody. The Queen of Sheba
is a picture of you and me, the sinner. First of all, it says
she was far from Solomon, like we were. We were far from Christ. And as I looked at this passage
and began to do some research, I said, now how far, where was
she from? Where was Sheba? And I get to
looking and then she was either from Ethiopia or from Yemen. And that's like between 1,300
and 1,500 miles. Imagine today if somebody was
to ride from California all the way to Kingsport so they might
talk to Gabe about things concerning the Lord. So the Queen of Sheba,
she was 13, 15, a long way, far away from Solomon as we were
from Christ. but also it says that she hears
of Solomon, just like when we were lost and we heard, we heard
about Christ. And then she reminds me that
of Blind Bartimaeus, when it said, when he heard it was Jesus
of Nazareth passing by, he began to cry out. Well, the queen,
she heard of Christ. And then it says, she comes to
Solomon. And just like ourselves, we come
to Christ. And in this way, she reminds
me of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, in which it says, he sought to see
Jesus, who he was. Well, that's what Queen Sheba
did. When she heard, she come from
afar off that she might come and see Solomon. And so it is
with us. Now, let's read again verses
one and two, or one through three. It says, and when the queen of
Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,
verse Kings 10, Verse one, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with
a very great train and with camels that bear spices and very much
gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him all that was in her heart. Verse three,
and Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything
hidden from the king, which he told her not. So the first thing
I want to note in verse one, it says that she had hard questions. These were not foolish questions.
She did not ask about Adam's belly button or other foolish
things. These were hard questions of
things concerning the Lord. Her questions were concerning
the name of the Lord. They were questions that the
natural man could not answer. Isaiah 55 verse eight and nine
says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts. She come to Solomon with hard
questions concerning the Lord. Now what is the root? of all questions concerning man. How can man be just with God? How should he be clean that's
born of the woman? I believe that is a question
that she come to Jerusalem with. And I want you to turn with me
now to Ecclesiastes chapter 1. So you have Psalms, Proverbs,
and then Ecclesiastes. So the queen is coming to Jerusalem
and she comes. And she comes with questions
concerning the Lord. Now look with me at our heading
of Ecclesiastes. It means Ecclesiastes or the
preacher. Who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes? Solomon. When the queen of Sheba
left Sheba and come to Jerusalem with her hard questions, she
came to the preacher. Verse one, the words of the preacher,
the son of David, that was Solomon, king of Jerusalem. Now what was his response to
her? What thing did he tell her? Look at verse two. Vanity of
vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Verse three, what profit hath
a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? Queen
of Sheba, all of your works, all of your efforts toward God,
nothing but vanity. Nothing but vanity. Salvation is of the Lord. Psalm 68 20 says this, he that
is our God is the God of our salvation. And when I found this
passage of scripture, that is Psalm 68. The preacher had this Psalm when
Sheba came to see him. Not only did he have this psalm
and all these other wonderful psalms that declares God's salvation,
but he had Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. He also had the book of Job.
And then I'm certain he had most of these psalms. So when this
woman, when she came to Jerusalem, considering the things of the
Lord, she heard a preacher. She heard a preacher that God
had given wisdom to. What is all wisdom concerning?
Is it not concerning the things of life? And what is life but
the Lord Jesus Christ himself? Now, Solomon had a heart to discern
good and evil. And so, When we read that the
Lord would give him a heart of good and evil, what is good?
God is good. What is evil? The heart of man
is evil. Everything about man is evil.
He is fully corrupt. So do you see that when she come
to Jerusalem, she come to hear a preacher, and that preacher,
I'm certain preached to her the gospel. Now, after she come, and after he
had declared all these things to her, she's seen some things. Now,
read with me, let's go back to 1 Kings 10. and reading verses four through
five. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all of Solomon's wisdom, those things that he had declared
to her, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his
table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance
of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his assent
by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was
no more spirit in her. First, The sinner hears. The sinner hears of Christ. The sinner hears of where there's
bread. Well, that's what Sheba, she heard of Solomon. And then the sinner comes to. Then the sinner hears the gospel. Then the sinner sees, that's
what we just seen right here. After she heard, she seen all
of these things about Solomon. So what did she say? Well, first
of all, she seen Solomon's wisdom. There was not anything hid from
the king, which he told her not. God's wisdom, she seen God's
wisdom in salvation. And then also the second thing
she's seen, she's seen the house that he had built. What is his
house? What is the Lord's house? That's
his church that he has built. So when the sinner comes to Christ
and the gospel is revealed to him and he shows him these things,
one of the things he's shown is the house in which he's built.
But also another thing that she's seen that the sinner sees when
the Lord opens their eyes is the meat of his table. Now, when
I first read this, I thought meat, I thought ribeye. But this
thing of meat is speaking of the food, the food of his table. Well, what is the food of our
Lord's table? Is it not himself? Is he not
the bread that come down from heaven? Did he not say, eat of
my flesh? So the sinner sees the meat of
his table. And then also, the sinner sees
the sitting, when the Lord opens the eyes, when the Lord reveals
Christ, when the Lord saves the sinner, he sees the sitting of
his servants. Well, what is the sitting of
his servants? That's their habitation. That is their habitation or their
dwelling with Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, one says, we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. But also there's yet another
thing she says. It says the attendance of his
ministers. Well, what is the attendance?
That is their standing. And if you had looked, if you
look at the center margin, you'll see that their attendance is
their standing. They're standing with God. And
what is our standing? It is a standing of perfect righteousness. The Lord's people in his kingdom
have a standing of perfect righteousness. They have a standing of being
redeemed. Romans 8, 28, 29 says, for whom
he did foreknow, for whom he loved, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of him son. Them he also justified. They are in a state of justification. Them he also glorified. Their
state is also a state of glorification. And then another thing that she
saw was their apparel. What of their apparel? Well,
so let me say this, that during
this time period, so you have from Moses to our Lord Jesus
Christ. And during that time, these Jews
were under the law. We fall in that time in our text
here. So, Let me read a passage of
scripture to you. In Deuteronomy 22, 11, it says
this about apparel. And so before I read it, let
me say this, that I can tell you with certainty what Sheba
seen or what she didn't see, okay? In Deuteronomy 22, 11,
it says, thou shalt not wear a garment of divers' sorts, as
of woolen and linen together. Now, what that passage means
is that you cannot weave cotton and linen and wool together and
wear it as a garment. That's sin, that's wrong, under
the law. Well, I didn't understand that growing up. I would read
that. Now, my family took it really seriously about a woman
not wearing the apparel of a man. That was under the law. But you
look at your tag and say half polyester and half cotton. You
see what I'm saying? But anyway, so what does that
have to do here with their apparel? Their apparel was not mixed.
The apparel of these people, of his servants, there was no
mixture in it. Wool represents grace. Wool is
from the sheep. And linen, and I looked this
up and I discovered this while studying this, linen is actually
a vegetable, technically. Linen is from the ground. Linen
is from the sweat and the works of man. And you have to weave
the linen together. Now, it's all of works. It's all of works of linen, or
it's all of grace. Christ. Now, so what apparel
was they wearing? I can only say for certainty
that it wasn't mixed because literally they were under the
law in this picture or in this story. But this I know, if it
was the works of our Lord Jesus Christ, if he is the one who
does the weaving, if he's the one that does the works, then
the garment's okay. So their apparel is his righteousness. What they wore is a picture of
our Lord's righteousness upon herself. And then the last thing
she saw, well, no, not the last, but yet there's another thing
that she saw. She saw his cupbearers. Now, Psalm 116, 13 says, I will
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
The cup that these cupbearers bore is the cup of his wine,
the king's wine. And these cupbearers in this
time, they were highly trusted, and they were highly regarded. It's the job of the cupbearer
to bring forth the wine. But there's yet another responsibility. They are to protect the wine. You see, there are many who will
pervert this wine. and they will pervert it with
works. They will pervert it with anything that they can. But the
cupbearers of the King, the cupbearers of our Lord Jesus Christ, they
bring forth the cup and declare the salvation, and they're careful
not to let anybody put anything into it other than Christ himself. And then there's one other thing
that she's seen, and that was his ascent. It says that she,
at the end of verse five, it says, his ascent by which he
went up unto the house of the Lord. So in my mind, in my thoughts,
I had thought all the time that I have ever read this, that she's
seen him as he climbed the stairs, went up into the temple to worship
God. And that's partly true. But there's another element of
this. And if you go and you study and look into the commentaries
and even read some of the translations, the Young's Literal says this,
his burnt offerings that he caused to absent in the house of the
Lord. This ascension is not about going
to the house of the Lord, but it's about the burnt sacrifice.
At any time in the scripture, anytime that you read or see
that there is a sacrifice. That sacrifice is always our
Lord Jesus Christ. If he is not in that, then it's
nothing but the blood of bulls and goats. So she's seen as the
sinner sees, they see the burnt sacrifice. They see substitution. They see his death. And then
finally, let's look at her response. In verse five, it says, verse
five, and the meat of his table, and
the sitting of his servants, the attendance of his ministers,
their apparel, his cupbearers, and his assent by which he went
up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. After she had seen all of these
wondrous things, after the sinner, After the Lord opens the eyes
of a sinner, and he sees Jesus Christ in him crucified. He sees
that righteousness. He's labored his whole life trying
to come up with his own righteousness. But he sees this perfect righteousness
that the Lord gives his people. Oh, and he sees the house that
he's built. He sees the brethren of this
house. Oh, and he sees these wondrous things. And there's
no more fear. Oh, how glorious. How happy.
Well, that's the next response. Look what she says. He went up into the house. There
was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it's
a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of
thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words
until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, half was
not told me." Now, the half about Solomon has not been told. Imagine
what we have awaiting for us. She says, happy are thy men,
happy, happy are thy people. And is that not the state of
the Lord's people? They are happy. Verse nine, she said, blessed
be the Lord, thy God, which delighteth in thee. The Lord loved Israel
forever, therefore made he the king. The Lord's love for his people is so wonderful
and so deep that he has given to us the Lord Jesus Christ to
be our king. How the Lord loved us. No wonder the Lord's people are
happy. No wonder we are called the blessed. Brother Eddie.