Turn back to 2 Chronicles 9. We have the story here of the
Queen of Sheba. And I was thinking, sitting there,
that this whole story, her hearing of Solomon and coming to see
Solomon and to hear his wisdom, that whole event, So that when
the Lord Jesus Christ came, He said, a greater than Solomon
is here. This whole story right here.
Her making this trip and all that went on is for this one
purpose. of the Lord Jesus Christ talking
about the Queen of Sheba coming all the way to hear the wisdom
of Solomon, and a greater than Solomon is here. If we miss the
Lord Jesus Christ in this portion of Scripture, we miss the purpose
of this whole situation. Let's completely miss it. So
the whole purpose of it this evening is to see Christ in 2
Chronicles 9. Now we have here the queen of
Sheba. She's a Gentile woman. She has
a great position being the queen. But yet she's a Gentile woman
who comes to Solomon, who comes to Jerusalem. And she comes there
because she heard God had sent a messenger and
she heard of the fame of Solomon And she said, I've got to hear
this man. I mean, is there such a person as this that has such
wisdom? And so she packs her bag, gets
her servants, and has this train following her to go see Solomon. When God is pleased to save one
of His sheep, He will cause that sheep to hear of the Lord Jesus
Christ, That sheep will hear of His wisdom, He will hear of
His glory, He will hear of His person, is what He will hear. And the Lord will enable him
to hear. Remember that woman with the issue of blood? It says
she heard of Him, and then she went to Him. The Lord will draw
that sheep to Christ as He did the queen of Sheba to Solomon.
He will create an interest that was not there before. But now
there's an interest. There's an interest in the Lord
Jesus Christ that was not there before. Now this trip that she
made was not an easy trip. In those days, you know, it was
a difficult trip. It was not easy. Coming to Christ
is not easy. There are many obstacles in the
way. I was thinking my first thought was sin, but no, then
I changed that. My thought changed to this, self-righteousness. That's the biggest obstacle to
coming to Christ is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness will not let
you see your need of Him, because you don't think you need Him.
You're all right, you're okay. But coming to Christ is not easy.
You've got not only self-righteousness, you not only have your inward
self to fight, but you have the outward influences. You have
Satan. You have an unseen world that's set against you. But our
Lord brings His sheep to Himself. He brings them. And then secondly,
she came to prove or to test Solomon with hard questions. When I read that, with hard questions,
hard for her. Not hard for Him. You know, there's
questions for us that are hard. How can God be a just God and
save a wretch like me? How can God be just and justify
me? That is absolutely clear me of
all guilt. How can He do that? How can He,
it's written over in Job, how can He be clean that's born of
a woman? How can a clean thing come out
of an unclean thing? How can I, who am born an enemy
of God, be reconciled to God? How can that be? Well, without
Christ, these questions can't be answered. And apart from Christ,
these questions are hard and difficult. But I tell you what,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's easy. It's through His blood,
His person, His righteousness that God can do all this. That
God can be a just God and a Savior through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it says here in verse 1, she talked to him about all that
was in her heart. David said this in the Psalms,
he said, Pour out your heart before God. Pour out your heart
before God. God is in the heart business.
God deals in the heart. She talked to him about all that
was in her heart. Everything was on her heart.
She laid it out before Solomon. And that's what we do before
the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, our Lord, our God. We
lay our hearts out before him. Lord, could you save me? Can
you put away my sins? Would you forgive me? We lay
our hearts out before you. And Solomon, it said, told her
all her questions. She didn't have one question
that stumped him. Not one. And there was nothing
hid from Solomon, it says. Nothing was hid from Solomon
which he told her not. Nothing is hid from the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's a God of knowledge. He knows
all things. He is infinite in knowledge.
There's nothing He does not know. In any realm, there's nothing
He does not know. And there's nothing too hard
for Christ. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord, the Scripture says? Is there anything too hard for
Him? Was there any demon too hard for Him to cast out? Was
there any disease too hard for Him to heal? Is there any sin
too hard for Him to forgive, to put away, to cleanse? No. No. Our Lord, He says in the
Scriptures, is the wisdom of God. That's more than just having
wisdom. The Lord gives us wisdom, but
He is wisdom. Apart from Him, wisdom does not
even exist. He is wisdom. We sing that song, take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. There's nothing too
hard for him. There's nothing that he doesn't
know. He's already got the, you know, whatever my problem is,
whatever your problem is, he's already got the answer. The answer
is there, it's already there. It's not like we're trying to
figure this out. He's already got it. And then notice here, what she
saw. If you'll notice, I want you
to notice, I want you to notice something as we go through this.
She heard, she came, she saw, she believed, she praised, and
she gave. Now you're going to see this
process as we go through this. We've already seen where she
heard and she laid her heart out before Him. Now it says in
verse 2, or verse 3. Here's a revelation. Notice what she saw, not just
what she heard. It says in verse 3, she saw His
wisdom. Do you see the wisdom of God
in Christ? Do you see the wisdom of God
in the Gospel? Some people hear of it. They
hear a man standing in a pulpit, They hear him preaching the gospel,
and they hear of the wisdom, but then some of you see it. You see how God can be just.
You see how that in the representation of Christ, in the substitutionary
work of Christ, you see the wisdom of God. You see it. She saw it. It says, She saw
His wisdom before she had only heard of it. But she really didn't
believe all of it. She says that, she said, I heard
the report, but I had to come see this for myself. But now
she has met Solomon and she sees. Remember in the scripture, it
is written in the gospel, never man spake like this man. The
Lord said to Peter, blessed are your eyes for they see and your
ears for they hear. Job said, by the hearing of the
ear, I've heard of thee, but now mine eye seeth thee. I see, I see. I have heard of Jesus Christ
from my childhood, just as you have. And not all that I heard
when I was young was true, but I heard of him. Then there came
a time when I really heard from him. It's one thing to hear of
Him, and then it's another thing to hear Him. And I don't know
how many times I've heard Henry say this, and I've heard other
men say this. If my voice is the only voice you hear, you're
going to be in trouble. You've got to hear His voice.
You've got to hear His voice in the message. His voice. There comes a time when you must
hear Him and see His wisdom in the gospel. See Him as your all
in all. I understand the gospel. I thank
God for that. And you understand the gospel.
You understand it. You know how many people live
just around this area right here that do not understand the gospel? They believe another gospel,
another Jesus. They cannot understand representation. They cannot understand what real
substitution is. They do not understand the true
intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the High Priest.
They don't understand it. But you do. You do. That's because the Lord's given
you sight. And He's given you understanding. He revealed Himself to me as
He has to you. And just as the queen of Sheba,
God brought her from a far country to meet Solomon, and to hear
the wisdom of Solomon, God brought us from a far country. It's called
the kingdom of darkness. It says over in Colossians that
He translated us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
His dear Son, the kingdom of light. Do you know those two
are poles apart? They're like the East and the
West, they can never meet. And God brought us from the kingdom
of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. That's what he's done for us. He's done that for us. And then listen, she saw the
house that he built. She was sitting there looking
at this huge house, this house that he built. And she was just,
had never seen anything like it. She had never seen anything
like it. Not where she lived. She was
so impressed. We see by the Spirit and Word
of God the house that the Lord has built and is building. The
church. The church. Look over in Ephesians
chapter 2. Over here in Ephesians 2, in
verse 19. 19 through 22. Now therefore, ye
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are builted together for a habitation of God through
the Spirit." Now one day, one day you and I are going to see
the completion of this building in heaven. When all this is over,
when all this is over and the church is gathered together in
His presence, that's the building of God. That's the building of
God. And it's gonna be so impressive.
So impressive. It's made up of living stones.
This building is made up of dead stones. There's not an ounce
of life in those blocks. But the building that God is
building, the whole building is alive. The whole building
lives. And God lives in it. God lives
in the church. We are the building of God. And
then she saw his servants, how they conducted themselves, and
the clothes that they wore. She was so impressed. Everything
about Solomon, everything that Solomon had to do with, his servants,
even down to the way they dressed, she was impressed with. She was like just standing there
in awe. In awe. We see how the Lord's servants
conduct themselves in a godly manner. They do. Now, God's people
are a godly people. They conduct themselves in a
godly manner. They no more live after the flesh and their apparel. You know what their apparel is?
Kindness. Humility. Clothed with humility. Meekness. Not jealous. Not envy. Not strife. That does
not characterize the Lord's people. Kindness does. Love. Generosity. The fruit of the
Spirit. That characterizes His people.
See, she looked at His servants And she was just amazed. I'll
tell you another thing she was amazed at. How happy they were.
How happy they were. But it says here that she saw
Solomon's ascent. She watched him. And what this
means here, she watched him with a burnt offering. This has to do with a burnt offering.
And she watched... She watched that burn off and
be offered. And she watched the service and the sacrifice. And
I have no doubt that many of her questions had to do with
that right there. With his God, Solomon's God, and the sacrifices,
and what all this meant. Solomon answered her questions. We see We see the Lord Jesus
Christ who was sacrificed for us. We see Him risen from the
dead and ascended on high and seated at the right hand of God. He's not in the grave. He's ascended.
He's ascended. We watch Him in the Scriptures.
I know we didn't physically see it. There were some that did.
I'll tell you what, watching Him in the Scriptures is just
as good if not better than seeing it with our physical eyes. Because
I tell you what, God honors His word above His name. And whatever
God has given us right here, you can stake your life on it. Stake your life on it. And when she saw this here in
verse four, it says, there was no more spirit in her. She was breathless. She was standing
there with her jaw dropped, her mouth wide open, it was like, Jesus Christ far exceeds what
we can ever think or hear. He far exceeds anything that
we can think of Him. However glorious we think He
is, He's far beyond that. He's far beyond that. He is so
glorious that it cannot be put into words. I can't find the
words to describe it. in human language. But here's her response here
in verse 5. She said to the king, it was a true report. What does
Isaiah 53 say? Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? She said, it's
a true report, which I heard in my own land of thine acts
and of thy wisdom. The gospel is true. The message
that I stand here and preach and that you've heard over the
years, it's a true message. The gospel of grace, the gospel
of mercy, the gospel of forgiveness, the gospel of justification,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified is true. It's a true message. Sometimes
it sounds too good to be true. That's what she thought when
she heard of Solomon. She said, I can't be anybody
like this. Not really. It can't be anybody
like this. But the Lord Jesus Christ, God
in human flesh, that's who he is, is a true message. God incarnate
is a true message. Righteousness in Christ is a
true message. Justification in Christ, it's a true message. Paul said this in 1 Timothy 1.15,
that it's a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. That's a true saying. That's true. When we stand in glory, we are
going to confess that all that we heard and read of Him was
true. And although at first she said,
I didn't believe it, I didn't believe all that I heard, she
must have believed some of it because she came. And she said, now my eyes have
seen it. I've seen it. And we confess
at first we didn't believe, we didn't believe until we were
confronted by the Lord Himself and He revealed Himself to us,
made Himself known to us. Until then, we just heard of
Him. But when we met Him, when He crossed our path, like He
did Paul on the road to Damascus, when He crossed our path, we
believed. We believed. The message is true. And look what she says in verse
6. She says, "...and the half of
thy greatness and thy wisdom wasn't even told. There is no way that I can stand
here and express the real greatness and wisdom of Jesus Christ. It's not humanly possible. And
I love that portion of scripture. She said, the half of your greatness
and wisdom wasn't even told. We have not even scratched the
surface of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, most people,
I think most, especially, I mean, in false religion, in false religion,
people make a profession, they get themselves fixed up for heaven
and they're not gonna go to hell, and so they try to live out the
rest of their life as good boys and girls. And that's it. There's
nothing of coming to know Christ. There's nothing of growing in
grace and the knowledge of Christ. It's just trying to live right.
That's what false religion is, just trying to live right. It
has nothing to do with union with God in Christ and coming
to know God. Eternal life is to what? To know
God and Jesus Christ to me is sin. That's eternal life. That's what eternal life is. We haven't even scratched the
surface. When we see Him, when we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
It will exceed everything that we ever thought or heard. It
will exceed it. My feeble attempt won't even
begin to describe the greatness or plumb the depths of the wisdom
and person of Jesus Christ. Can't do it. And then she notices people.
In verse seven, I just made a brief mention of this, but she said,
happy are thy men. You know, she's probably standing
there and said, I wish my men were that happy. I wish the ones who followed
me were that happy. They were a happy lot. And she
noticed their apparel, they were not running around in rags. They
were not running around in clothes like slaves. They were moving
around well-dressed. They were well-dressed. I have
no doubt. His servants were well-dressed. Just as we are in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. We are well-dressed. We are. But happy are thy men. They may
be under trials, but they are genuinely happy. We have our
trials and our heartaches, but we are genuinely happy in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We know this. We know that all
trials are of God. We know that all trials have
an end. And we know that our end is good. We have a good end. It may be tough getting there,
but we have a good end. We may have to go through the
water and the fire from time to time, but our end is good.
And we have a real joy in the Lord. It's real. It's not fake.
It's real. And here's what makes them happy.
Here's what makes the Lord's people happy. They stand continually
before the Lord and hear His wisdom. You hear it every week. Not everyone does. But His people
do. They hear His wisdom. And it
calms their fears. And it comforts their hearts.
It encourages their hope. They hear Him. They hear the
Lord. They hear grace pouring from His lips, week after week. And notice here in verse 8, who
gets the glory. Here's a Gentile woman, the Queen
of Sheba. She comes to see Solomon. And
she does not say, Blessed be Solomon! She says, blessed be
the Lord thy God. Because there's not a doubt,
not a doubt in my mind, their conversation had a lot to do
with the Lord God Almighty. And she said, blessed be the
Lord thy God. It says in Ephesians 1, blessed,
Paul says this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Bless His holy name. God is getting the glory. Listen,
when Jesus Christ gets the glory, the Father gets the glory. And
when Jesus Christ gets the glory, the Father gets the glory and
the sheep are fed. I have learned over the years that
to feed the sheep, all I have to do, as glorify Jesus Christ. If I lift Him up and glorify
Him, you will be fed. You will be fed. And notice this. She said, Blessed
be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on His throne
to be king for the Lord thy God. It pleased God. It pleased God
to set His Son on the throne because He loved Israel, us,
the true Israel of God. Jesus Christ sits on the throne
for you, for you, for your good. Take care of you because God
loves you and He loves you with an everlasting love. It pleased the Father to make
Christ our King and set Him on the throne, and give Him all
authority in heaven and earth to rule it for our good." And
here's the reason in verse 8, "...because thy God loved Israel."
She looked at Him and looked at all that had been done, looked
at His servants, and she says, God loves you. God loves Israel. "...to establish them forever."
That's why Jesus Christ came into this world. To redeem a
people and establish that people forever. Ever. We were going to live on a new
earth. This was going to be dissolved. I don't think about growing old
until something hurts. When something starts to hurt,
I think about aging. But until then, I think I'm just going
from here to there. I'm going from here to there. He established us forever, therefore
made He the King over them to do judgment and justice, and
that's exactly what's going on. The Lord is ruling in judgment
and justice for you, for His people. God the Father loved us in Christ,
He gave Christ to be our King, that we might be established
forever, never to fall again, never to die again, never to
sin again, never to do these things again. And He's going
to reign in righteousness, and we're going to reign with Him
forever and ever and ever. Now let me close. In verse 9,
look what she gave. Spices. None like it anywhere. Those fragrant spices. We give Christ all the praise
and all the glory for salvation. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you. Only the church praises the Lord
Jesus Christ. No one else. No one else. Over
7 billion people in this world. And there's only a small remnant
on this earth that praises the Lord. Only a small. And you'll notice what Solomon
does there in verse 12. He gave her all her desire. Plus, that which she gave Him,
He gave it back to her. You know everything we have,
everything I have, everything you have, God gave you. And what
we give back is what He's given us. That's all. It's just what
He's given us. We're just given just a small
portion back of what the Lord has given us. Our Lord gives us the spiritual
desires of our hearts. If you really desire forgiveness,
you got it. He'll give it to you. You desire
pardon, acceptance? He gives us the real desires
of the heart. Plus more than we can really
imagine. What we have, God gave us. God's
given me everything I have. And you too. She stood there breathless. And she just saw a man. And that's really... I mean,
Solomon was just a man still. At the end of the day, he's still
a sinner saved by grace. That's it. How much more should
you and I stand in awe of Jesus Christ? How much more should
we absolutely just Her spirit was melted in her, she just like,
ugh. How much more ought we, on a
much higher level, stand in awe of Jesus Christ, God manifested
in the flesh. He is our Solomon. He is.