Our Heavenly Father, we come
before you once again as beggars, begging for your grace and mercy.
Lord, we find one in this world, in this place, that delights
in mercy, that brings us here to hear the gospel preach. Lord,
it's not just mercy that you will love, So, we ask for a little
while. We turn our eyes to you and our
attention to you. We give it up in our hearts and
receive your word and we show ourselves in the name of the
lord. We ask that all of those that
can't be Amen. Turn to 1 Kings 10. The subject this morning has
to do with Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. And the title of the message
is, The Half Has Never Yet Been Told. And that's so. I preach here week after week. And I have not even really scratched
the surface of the glory of Jesus Christ. I haven't even began. And in a little while, you and
I will be there, by God's grace. And like the Queen of Sheba,
after she saw all that Solomon had and heard his wisdom, she
was speechless. She was speechless. And I think
that's the first experience we will have when we stand in glory
is speechless. Makes me think, makes me think
of that scripture revelation where there was silence in heaven
for a half an hour. It's like the whole host of heaven
standing there speechless at the glory of Jesus Christ. Now here we have a picture in
Solomon and this Queen of Sheba. We have a picture of Christ in
the center, saved by grace. And I want you to note the process
in these first nine verses. That's what we'll look at. The
process in these verses goes like this. She heard Look in
verse 1, and when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon,
is that not what happens when God saves a sinner? They hear
of the fame of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God. This
man is God. This man is the creator of heaven
and earth. This man is the wisdom of God. This man is life. He doesn't just give life. He
is life. If you and I have eternal life,
it's because we have Jesus Christ. He is life. He is eternal life. You see, life is a person. Eternal
life is a person. Most people, when they hear of
eternal life, they are thinking of a long time or where there
is no time, it's just eternal, eternity. Well, there is an eternity,
but that's not eternal life. Eternal life is the Son of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
God in human flesh. And so she heard OF THE FAME
OF SOLOMON, CONCERNING THE NAME, AND SEE NOW, SHE HEARD OF HIS
FAME, BUT IN CONNECTION WITH THE NAME OF THE LORD, L-O-R-D,
CAPITAL L-O-R-D, SHE HEARD OF THE FAME OF SOLOMON IN CONNECTION
WITH THE NAME OF THE SELF-EXISTING ONE, GOD, IS THAT NOT HOW WE
HEAR OF CHRIST? WE DON'T JUST HEAR OF A MAN WHO
WALKED OVER IN JERUSALEM, WE HEAR OF HIS DEITY, If he's not
God, he's useless to us. He's useless. He's as useless
as any man on this earth if he's not God. That rich young ruler
came to him and said, good master. And he said, hold up here. Why
do you call me good? There's none good but God. So
if I'm good, I'm God. That's what he's saying. If I'm
good, I'm God. Because there's none good but God. And so she
heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,
and she came to prove Him with hard questions. See, she heard
of the fame of Solomon. Someone in that country or someone
passing through that country had met Solomon or knew something
about Solomon and reported it to her. And when she heard this,
she was drawn to Him. You see, when we hear of Christ,
when we hear of Christ in power, we are drawn to Christ. We have
an interest in Christ. Do you have an interest in Christ?
You know whether you do or not. Every person in here knows whether
they have an interest in Christ or not. If you have an interest
in Christ, here's one of the evidence of that interest. You
want to know Him. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
Him. You want to know Him? I want to know Him. I am not
completely satisfied with my knowledge of Christ because I
know there's much more to know. As Paul said, I'm not apprehended.
I haven't arrived yet. I'm not perfect right now and
I'm in His flesh. And my knowledge is so limited.
Paul said, it's like we look through a glass darkly. It's
like we're looking through a glass darkly. Even now, even with the
whole Word of God, there's just so much we can't grasp because
we are in this flesh. Our minds are so limited because
of sin. Sin limits our intelligence,
our spiritual intelligence. Even though we'd be born of God,
there's just so much we can know. But there's a lot much more than
we can know, much more. We can know much more of fellowship
with Him. Sweet fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here's the second thing,
here's the process, here's the second process. She heard, now
listen, she came. Every sinner who hears of Christ
in power, the gospel comes to you in power, that's Christ coming
to you, that's hearing of Christ in power, that sinner's coming. You don't have to drag them down
an aisle. I've seen that done in my early,
early years before I heard the gospel. I've watched people at
the end of the service, they stand and sing, then somebody'll
get up and they'll go back and they'll talk and they'll talk.
It's like you have to come forward to get them to shut up. Because they won't stop. I've
seen it. They won't stop. You gotta have
a badge, a star on their crown. But you give me a center. who's
heard the gospel in power, just get out of the way. It's the
Holy Spirit that brings sinners to Christ. Now, there's a sense
in which I, in preaching the gospel, how do I say this? I bring Christ
to you, is that the way to say it? In preaching the gospel,
I do. Now, the Holy Spirit applies it to the heart. I can't do that,
but I set forth Christ before you in the preaching of the gospel. But it's the work of the Holy
Spirit to reveal Christ to the heart. Well, she heard of Him
and then she came to Him. She says, I've got to, like Zacchaeus,
you know, went up that tree, I got to see who this man is.
He heard of Christ and he just had to see Him. She heard of
Solomon and she goes, can there be such a person? Can such a
person exist that has such wisdom and whose God is God of heaven
and earth, whose God blesses in such a way? I've got to see
this man. I've got to meet this man. I've
got to prove him. I've got to talk to him. I don't
want to just hear what this one says, but I want to hear him
myself. I like what those people said when they came from the
city where the woman at the well lived. And she went to town and
she told them, come see a man who told me everything I ever
did. And they came out. They came
out to hear him. And I like what they said. Now
we believe, not because of your word only, but we have heard
him ourself. There's a difference. There's
a difference in believing because of what I say and truly believing
because you've heard Him yourself. And I tell you this, if you have
heard Him yourself, nobody, nobody will be able to convince you
otherwise. I know the gospel. I know the gospel because I know
Christ. And I know the gospel when I
hear it. I know it. And so she came to prove him,
it says here, she heard, she came and she came to prove him,
to see if this is so, to see if it's so. She wanted to know him and she
wanted to know what he had to say. I want to read you what
I've read in Henry's commentary on what a man said here. There
was a man named Robert Howey who was asked by a man, and this
man asked him, please write down in black and white what I am
to believe. There are so many texts, give
me one to read and believe. And Howey replied, it is not
any one text nor any number of texts that save. Any more than a manslayer could
be saved by reading the signpost on the road to the city of refuge.
Isn't that good? You're not saved anymore by reading
a bunch of text and believing them per se, no more than the
man going to the city of refuge saved by the signpost. Listen,
he must go and enter the city. Salvation is in Christ and in
coming to Him. God gave that man wisdom in answering
that question. When a man is thirsty, he's not
satisfied by studying the well. You can study the well all day
and die of thirst. His thirst is quenched when he
drinks of it. Christ said, drink, come and
drink, whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of
life freely. We can study Christ. Christ said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me, do that. But there is
this drinking of Christ. There is this spiritual eating
of Christ. You remember in the Old Testament,
the Passover lamb, all of it was to be what? Consumed, to
be eaten. We don't just eat parts of it. We eat all of it. We have a whole
Christ or no Christ. It's either a whole Christ or
no Christ. So she came to prove him with
hard questions. I thought, well, there's hard
questions for her and others, but not for Solomon. We come
to speak to our Lord with hard questions, but they're not hard
for Him. Is anything too hard for God?
Is any question too hard for God? You know, He knows the answer
to every question. I don't. I don't. You know, I've been several times
over the years, somebody said, what does this mean here in the
scripture? I don't know. I don't know. But the Lord does. He knows the
answer to every question. He knows it. But when a sinner,
listen, when a sinner is awakened, when a sinner is given life,
when God saves a sinner, here are some of the questions that a sinner is gonna ask whom
the Lord has saved. How can God be just and justify
me? How can God be a holy God? How
can He be a just God? How can He do that and not deal
with my sins? How's He gonna deal with my sins
and save me? How's He gonna do that? That answer can only be
answered by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our substitute, our sacrifice,
our sin offering. God in human flesh hanging on
the cross. That's how God can save me. That's
how God can justify me. He was delivered in Romans. I
believe it's Romans chapter four, but he was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification. He paid for
the offenses. They're not on the books. You
can't, you know, if you go to court, they can't condemn you
for what's not on the books. Does it not say in Revelation
that He opened the books, and they shall be judged out of those
things in the books? Well, when they open the book
and my name comes up, there's nothing there. Justified. Justified, no charge, no charges
whatsoever. Isn't that amazing? We can charge
each other, and too often we do. We can charge each other,
we can charge ourselves with a lot of things, but God doesn't.
And how can He not do that? There's a hard question for a
sinner, not for God, but how can He not? They're not there
no more. You know that my sins in Christ
are literally not there no more. All my sins, now listen, this
is grace. Even the ones I haven't even
committed yet, they're not there. When Jesus Christ died for my
sins, They were all future. I wasn't born. That's 2,000 years
ago. It's 2,000 years ago. He put
them all away. That's why God can come to me
in grace. He's satisfied toward me. That's
why He can call me. He's satisfied toward me. And then listen. Here in verse
three. But I want you to notice, let's
go back here to verse two. Notice how she came. And we got to lose
all this stuff. We got to lose our self-worth,
don't we? Before God, before God, we lose
it. How do we come when we come to
Christ? Empty handed. She came to Jerusalem with a
very great train. That's like that rich young ruler,
how he came to Christ. How he came to Christ with a
very great train of obedience he thought he had. All these
have I kept from my youth up. You haven't kept one of them.
And the Lord proved it. He said, go sell all you have.
And he went away sorrowful because he was rich. The Lord exposed
the covetousness of his heart. With camels that bear spices,
We have to learn we stink. Now, our brethren, we stink before
God. We stink. Skunks stink to us. They don't
to each other, but they do to us. We may not stink to each
other, but we sure do to God. And very much gold and precious
stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him with all that was in her heart. And she's
gonna realize that all that she brought to him in light of him
and all that he has was nothing. Nothing. When we realize who
Christ is, all of our comeliness, all of our gifts, all of our
talents are nothing. Right? They're nothing. And Solomon
told her all her questions. All her words. He wasn't stumped
by any of them. Cast all your cares upon Him.
He can answer every one of them. Every one of them. Every question
you had, He can answer them. And there was not anything hid
from the king which he told her not. Is anything hid from Christ? He said, As I hear, I speak.
All things are given to the Son. There's nothing that Jesus Christ
doesn't know. Nothing, nothing. He told her all her questions,
nothing hidden. And when the Queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built, you know, I never really thought
much upon the church when I was younger, like I do
now. Have you really stopped and thought
of the house the Lord is building? What a beautiful house it is.
It's a house of love, joy, peace, kindness, longsuffering. That's
a house now. That's a house I want to live
in. That's a house I want to be a part of. I don't want to be
a part of a house that's where they're bickering and complaining.
I don't want to be a part of that.
But the house our Lord is building, and here's good evidence of the
Lord's children being a part of that house. Love, joy, peace,
kindness, long-suffering. This is the house He's building.
It's a beautiful house. It's a beautiful house. It's
made up of lively stones. It's not made up of dead bricks
like this. You know this building right
here is made up of a bunch of dead stuff. It's all dead stuff. That's why I don't, you know,
I mean, I thank God we have a building to meet in, but we can meet in
a house or we can meet in a barn and we can, it wouldn't be any
difference to me. It really wouldn't. This house is built of dead stuff,
but the house of God is built of lively stones. Lively stones. Stones that, now how would you
like to walk in your house and your house praise you? Seriously,
think about it. You walk in your house today
and your house bows to you. And your house praises you. And
your house gives you the glory. You have more glory than the
house that was built. And the house that you live in,
that's His house. That's His house. It praises
Him. This house right here, this morning
is praising Him, glorifying Him, and bowing to Him. We are His
house. He's building us. And it's not
done yet because the church is still here. When that last lively
stone is put in place, it's over. This is over. I hope how soon
it is. I do. John said, come quickly,
Lord Jesus. But he's not going to until that
last one is, that last lively stone is put in place. And then where was I at? And
then listen, and the meat of his table, What's the meat of
our table? Christ, Jesus Christ. Oh, she looked at the meat of
his table and the sitting of his servants, how they were,
there's so much reverence here. She noticed the reverence here
that's in God's house. They're not just making noise
and up and running about. No, they're seated and listening. They're in order, there's order
in God's house. She notices the order. She noticed
the meat on the table, the seating of His servants and the attendance
of His ministers, how they conducted themselves. God's preachers conduct
themselves in a godly manner. They do. And their apparel, the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our apparel, His
righteousness. And sometimes I like to think
of it like this too, their attitude, their attitude toward one another.
You show me a bad attitude toward others and I'll show you someone
who doesn't know God. Cupbearers, butlers is what that
is. These are the servants and his
ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, the way
he I thought of the resurrection of Christ, the way he went up,
all his ascent. And there was no more spirit
in her. When she saw this, she was speechless. The word has
a meaning of ecstasy, just like, whoa, there is such a person
and there is such fame. He is real. And she said to the
king, it was true. It was a true report. It was
a true saying that I heard in my own land of thy action, thy
wisdom. The preacher told the truth this
morning. Brethren, you're not going to be saved until you hear
the truth. Until God, until you hear the truth, you're not saved.
God doesn't save by a lie. And when she heard Solomon for
herself, you see the preacher who told her about Solomon, I'm
going to call him a preacher, I don't know who he was, whoever
it was, but there comes a time when the preacher is set aside. And you do business with the
Lord Himself. You're doing business with Him
personally. That's salvation when you do business with Him. And she said, it was a true report,
true sayings, I heard my own, how be it I believe not the words
until I came. Faith is not real and genuine,
listen, until you come to Christ. Until you come to Christ, you've
not yet believed. She said, in my own land, I didn't,
I just thought this can't be. But it stayed with her and she
had to come. Now listen, I believe not the
words until I came and my eyes had seen it. A revelation, this
is a revelation. You might believe my words, you
might believe what I'm saying, the preaching here, you might
believe it. But not until God gives you a revelation of Himself
will you actually believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and embrace
Him and love Him. You'll confess Him at a believer's
baptism. You'll take the Lord's table and you'll know what you're
doing. You'll know why you're doing
it, and you'll know the one you're doing it in representation of. And then she said this, and everyone
whom God saves will say this, Behold, the half was not told
me. Oh, the ones who told me about you, they didn't even scratch
the surface. You know, there's a real difference
when you hear someone talk about somebody, and then you meet that
somebody, and you sit down and have a conversation with them.
And then you really find out who that person is. And you find
out, you know, we always have, you know, before you meet somebody,
you have an imagination of them, if you've heard of them, you
kind of have an imagination of them. And then you meet them,
and boy, how everything changes. That's what you call knowing
the person. Knowing the person. Do you know
Christ? Do you really know the Lord Jesus
Christ? And notice here what she says,
Behold the half was not told me, thy wisdom and prosperity
exceedeth the fame which I heard. That's right. Brethren, when
we get to glory, when God finally brings us home, It's going to exceed anything
we could ever imagine. HAPPY ARE THY MEN, HAPPY ARE
THESE THY SERVANTS. Let me ask you something. And I ask you because I asked
myself this morning and yesterday. If someone were to describe me
in my family, in my family, and my dad did say this about me
and Vicki when we moved down here. He said, I can say they're
truly happy. That's what he said to my brothers
and sisters. He said, they're really happy.
Would you be described as happy or morbid? Happy are thy servants. I'm happy
to be, you happy to be the Lord's servant? You are, I know you
are. And I tell you, when someone
describes us, we ought to be described as happy. Not this
giddy, laughing, goofy stuff. I'm just talking about a general
happy spirit. I quit looking at Johnny and
Tommy when I say that. All right, where am I at? Well, let me get back here, get
myself on track. Happy are thy men, happy are
these thy servants. There's something I wanted to
point out. Go back to verse five here real quick, I skipped it.
She went and noticed the house that he built there in verse
four, and the meat of, I want you to notice, I underlined every
one of these, his, it's his. THE MEAT OF HIS TABLE, THE SEATING
OF HIS SERVANTS, AND THE ATTENDANCE OF HIS MINISTERS, THEIR APPAREL,
AND HIS CUPBEARERS, AND HIS ASCENT BY WHICH HE WENT UP INTO THE
HOUSE OF THE LORD." Underline that, His, His, His, His. They're
the only ones that are happy, really. Everybody else is not
happy, not really happy. I'm talking about a deep happiness. In sorrow, there's joy in the
Lord. Can't explain it. Blessed be
the Lord thy God. Now here's what she does. And
do we not bless our Father? Do we not praise our Father?
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set
thee on the throne. I'm sure glad and happy for Jesus
Christ. I'm glad that God the Father
chose God the Son to be our Redeemer, our Savior. Our everything, our
all in all. Aren't you glad God chose him?
Blessed be the Lord God, our Father, for what He's done for
us in His Son. Because the Lord loved Israel,
that's why He did it. The Lord loved you, that's why
He chose His Son to be a substitute to die in your place and take
your torment and rise again for your justification because the
Lord loved you. He loved you with an everlasting
love. Because the Lord loved Israel.
He loved His spiritual Israel forever. Forever. From eternity to eternity. Whichever
direction that is. Therefore made He the King to
do judgment and justice. Our King. He made Christ our
King. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that a beautiful story? Alright. The half has never yet
been told.