It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Cuba Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. I've entitled this message, The
Queen of Sheba. I will summarize what God is
teaching by this woman as follows. We learn from the Queen of Sheba
that we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we learn that
when we do, we see the glory of God. This is the main point
of this message. Let's look at the details. I
would like to refer to two texts of scripture in this sermon.
The first is in Matthew. The second is in 1 Kings chapter
10. In Matthew 12, 42 we read, The Queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn
it. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. The religious leaders in Jesus'
day saw His miracles and heard His words. They saw Him. They
heard His teachings. They saw and heard how He welcomed
sinners and healed their bodies and forgave their sins. They
saw that He only did good. But for all this, they did not
believe Him. In light of this, Jesus said that the Queen of
Sheba would rise and condemn them in the final judgment. Many
saw and heard Christ while he was on earth. Some believed.
Some did not believe. This is always the case when
the gospel is preached. Jesus warned them and he warns
us what will happen if we do not believe him. Let's summarize
what Jesus said in Matthew 12, 42. First, she came from the
uttermost parts of the earth. Second, she came to hear the
wisdom of Solomon. Third, the Lord Jesus Christ
is greater than Solomon. Fourth, unbelievers will be condemned
by this woman. Now, because Jesus said she will
judge unbelievers in the day of judgment, therefore she must
have been saved by the Lord. Question. Since the Queen of
Sheba was saved by the Lord, did Solomon save her? Was she
saved by hearing wise sayings from Solomon about philosophy,
science, medicine, or other things? No. Sinners are only saved by
hearing about Christ and Him crucified. We are only saved
in believing Him. The Apostle Peter said this by
the Holy Spirit, Salvation is not by any man,
not even by Solomon, the wisest man to ever live. Nor is salvation
by hearing man's wisdom. God saves in one way alone, by
hearing of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is vitally important. Whatever we learn from the Queen
of Sheba, we must understand that in her coming to hear Solomon,
she actually heard and believed the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
the Queen of Sheba teaches us how God saves sinners by hearing
Christ and Him crucified and coming to Him. All of Scripture
is written to teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ. When He
came into the world, Jesus said to His Father, in the volume
of the book it is written of Me to do Thy will, O God. The
volume of the book is the entire roll of scripture from the top
to the bottom of the roll. One preacher put it this way,
the Bible is a hymn book, H-I-M, it's about hymn. The Old Testament
says, someone's coming. The Gospels say, he's here. The
rest of the New Testament says, he's coming again. Christ rules. He is bringing his people from
far. The Bible is about who he is, what he accomplished by his
death on the cross, where he is now, and what he is doing
there. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the Son of God who
humbled himself. He was born as an infant. He
took human nature into union with his divine nature. He is
both God and man. He came from heaven to earth.
He fulfilled the will of God. He saved His people from their
sins. He rose from the dead. He ascended
to glory. He sat down on the throne of
heaven. And His glory is seen in all
that He did in His life and death. and it is seen by His bringing
all for whom He died to glory to be with Him where He is and
to see Him in His glory. Therefore, the first principle
by which we must understand all of scripture is that the Bible
is about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the Almighty
God, the all-successful Savior, the all-glorious King of Heaven. By His mighty acts on the cross,
He saved His people from their sins. By His glorious rule in
heaven, He brings His people from the ends of the earth to
where He is to see Him in glory. The Bible has this message in
Psalm 21.5, His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty
hast thou laid upon Him. Truly, Christ's glory is great
in the salvation God the Father gave Him to accomplish. Now here's
a question. What happened before the Queen
of Sheba came to Solomon? The answer is, before she came,
Solomon prayed for strangers like her who were far off and
who were not Jews. This is recorded in 1 Kings 8,
41-43. Solomon prayed to God. He asked
God to hear the prayer of any stranger, though he was not a
Jew, but who had heard of the great name of the Lord and came
and prayed to him toward the house of the Lord. There are
two truths we learn from this. First, Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners out of every nation under heaven,
both Jews and Gentiles. And second, before God saves
any sinner, the Lord Jesus Christ prays for them. Is this not amazing
grace? Before sinners hear and come
to Christ, while they are wandering in the night of their rebellion,
Christ prays for them. Christ prays according to the
purpose and will of God. God purposed to save His people,
and Christ prays for them according to that purpose, and He is always
heard. We know this is true in the case
of the Queen of Sheba, because before she came, God moved Solomon
to pray his prayer. Solomon prayed God's will. Before
Solomon prayed, it was God's will to save strangers who were
far off. And the Lord records Solomon's prayer for our learning
and for our comfort. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
infinitely greater than Solomon. He is as much greater as the
Creator is greater than man whom he created. He is as much greater
as God who is worshipped is greater than man who worships him. In
John 17.9, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for his people. He said
to his Father, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Before
Jesus came into the world, Isaiah said, He bare the sin of many. He made intercession for the
transgressors. And on the cross, Jesus prayed,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Thus,
Jesus prayed God's will. And God always does His will. My counsel shall stand, the Lord
said. I will do all my pleasure. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Isaiah 46, 10. Therefore, God
forgives all those for whom Jesus prayed. The centurion and those
with him who crucified Christ are proof of this fact. When
they heard Jesus' words on the cross, and when they saw all
that God did in the events while he was on the cross in the earthquake,
they cried, truly, this man was the Son of God. In them Christ's
prayer was answered. Therefore we know that in Solomon's
prayer Christ prayed for the Queen of Sheba. Now what do you
say to this? What do I say? I lift up my voice
to the King of Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I say, Lord,
advocate for me, intercede for me, plead for me, bring me, show
me your glory in the salvation of your people. God's promise
is He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7.25 Now let's turn to the account of the Queen of Sheba
recorded in 1 Kings 10. 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. The Queen of Sheba had heard
of Solomon's fame concerning the name of the Lord. She did
not come to Solomon to learn science. She came to know God. She came to be saved from her
sins by the Lord's strong hand and his stretched out arm as
Solomon prayed in 1 Kings 8.42. Paul told Timothy, the scriptures
are able to make you wise unto salvation. The wisdom we all
need is how God saves sinners. Now, the name of the Lord is
who God is. When you speak of someone by
name, you refer to their person, their reputation. For example,
if I say Abraham Lincoln, you think of the 16th President of
the United States. You recall his reputation, his
words, his actions, and so on. Now, the name of the Lord is
who God is. His name gathers together all
that is true about Him. What is that name by which God's
people know the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ? Remember, in Matthew
1.21, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. Therefore, if you know God, you
know Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe Christ, you know
Him as your God and Savior. If you do not know Jesus Christ
as Lord over all and the only Savior, you do not know God. Psalm 9.10 says, They that know
thy name will put their trust in thee. The Queen of Sheba came
to Solomon to know God. Is God wise? His wisdom is seen
in Christ and Him crucified, how He can be just and justify
the ungodly. Is God just? His justice is seen
in Christ. When the sins of God's people
were laid on His Son, God did not spare His own Son. Romans
8.32 Can God be just and merciful to sinners? In Christ, God is
a just God and a Savior. Is God love? Romans 8.39, the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, God's
love to sinners is only in Christ. If you see Christ, you've seen
God. If you know Christ, you know
God. If you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, you believe God. He is the express image of his
father's person. He is one with his father. The
father is in him and he is in the father. He is equal with
God. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in him bodily. Now the Queen of Sheba came to
Solomon to ask him hard questions. What are hard questions? Hard
questions are questions that God answers in Christ, which
sinners cannot live without. Hard questions are those questions
only answered by the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. The Apostle
Paul told the Corinthians, Did you catch what Paul said
his only sermon was? He said, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2. By preaching
Christ alone, Paul preached the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Therefore, the wisdom of God
is known only in Christ and Him crucified. Solomon was very intelligent. So was the Apostle Paul. Yet
Paul determined not to know or preach anything among the Gentiles
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because the gospel of Christ
is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation.
In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Colossians
2.3. Isn't that what we need? Salvation? Do you or I need more than this
wisdom of God that He has made known in His Son? Do we need
to go beyond Jesus Christ? If we do, we will never know
God. We will never see Christ. We
will remain blinded by the darkness of our hard heart and unbelieving
mind. We are easily distracted by the
voices of this world. We hear of terrorists, political
corruption, and moral debauchery. We may read the Bible and listen
to sermons our entire life, but we will remain in darkness and
confusion until we see that God's wisdom is in Christ and his salvation
of sinners. There is nothing greater than
the glory of God, and His glory is seen when by faith in Christ
we know how God saved His people from their sins by the death
of His Son on the cross. It says in 2 Corinthians 4.6,
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We will never
come to Christ until we come to Him with our hard questions,
We will never know Christ until our questions are answered in
Him and what He did, where He is now, and what He's doing to
save His people from their sins. What questions should we be asking?
Here are those questions that we should be asking. First, how
can God have mercy and save a sinner like me? Scripture answers this
question. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1.15 Here's another
question. How can God save me? Here's the
answer from Titus 3. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Salvation
is of the Lord, Jonah 2.9. Christ saved his people from
their sin. Therefore, he is God our Savior. Jehovah is salvation. His name is Jesus. Here's another
question. How should I pray to God? I don't
know what to pray. The Lord gives us the words in
Hosea 14, verse 1 and 2. He says, Return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with
you words, and turn to the Lord. Say to him, Take away all iniquity,
and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. But he
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, thee,
sinner. Here's another question. Is there
any hope for me? I cannot repent. I cannot believe. Here's the answer for you, my
friend. In Acts 5.31, God says, And here is the final question
that burns in your conscience and mind if the Lord has called you If we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, what answer can I give to God? Only this. Romans 8.34 Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. You see,
if you or I have anything but Christ as our answer to God,
we have no answer. A sinner cannot answer God in
judgment. Psalm 115 says the ungodly shall
not stand in the judgment. If Christ has not answered for
me at the cross, and if he does not now answer for me in my conscience
in looking to him, then I have no answer in judgment. But if
Christ and Him crucified is all your answer to God in your conscience,
then your advocate will answer with himself in that day because
he has already answered God's justice with his obedience unto
death. Lord, answer for me. You are
the wisdom of God because you are my only answer. How far were
you from God before God saved you? The Queen of Sheba came
from the ends of the earth, the uttermost parts of the earth.
How far was I? The answer is, we were as far
as we could be. Our sin created a bilateral separation
between us and God. on God's part. His justice demanded
that He separate Himself from us because of our sins. Isaiah
59-2 says, Your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not
hear. God cannot look upon sin. We have broken God's law by failing
to do what He commands and by doing what He forbids. We have
dishonored God's law. We have offended His justice.
And on our part, in our minds and by wicked works, we separated
ourselves from God. Our very minds are enmity with
God. By nature, because of our sin,
we are the very enemies of God. Romans 8.7 says, The carnal mind,
what we are by nature, is enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Our own mind and our
wicked works indicate that we hate God. Jesus said, the greatest
commandment of all is to love God with your whole heart, soul,
mind, and strength. Yet we fail to keep this commandment
all the time. Therefore, we constantly break
God's law. Our sin appears in its true light
at the cross. When God turned His Son over
to the will of man, what did man do? He stripped Him. He covered His head and hit Him
with His hands in the face. He mocked Him and spit on Him,
flogged Him and pressed on His head a crown of thorns, and murdered
Him by nailing Him to the cross. The death of Christ is the greatest
hate crime. And that is what you and I are
by nature, haters of God. Because on God's part our sin
separated Him from us, and because on our part we are the enemies
of God, two things are required to bring us to God. First, God
must reconcile us to Himself. His justice must be compensated. His law must be honored. It must
be fulfilled. God must be glorified. His justice
demands wrath. His justice must be satisfied
and his wrath appeased. His law demands obedience. His
law must be honored. And the second thing is this,
we ourselves must be turned from our ignorance and hatred of God
to faith and love. We would not and could not reconcile
ourselves to God. We do not make peace with God. Christ made peace. He is God
and man. By His wisdom, He magnified God's
law with all of His heart, mind, soul, and strength by laying
down His life in love to God and in love for His people. and
Christ satisfied God, he bore his people's sins as his own.
And with those sins, in his own body on the tree, bore the full
curse of God in his own person. God removed his wrath in Christ's
death. First then, to bring his people
to himself from far, God reconciled them to himself in the death
of his son. Romans 5.10, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. The Queen
of Sheba came from far. Even so, we were as far from
God as we could be. We were dead in sins. But in
Christ, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ, for He is our peace. God laid all the sins
of all of his people on Christ. In justice, he poured out his
curse on him. Christ endured that curse. He
made peace by the blood of his cross. And having made peace,
God raised him from the dead. In one single act of obedience,
Christ both satisfied justice and fulfilled God's law for his
people forever. Now, he sends his ambassadors
in his name, proclaiming peace to sinners. And this is how God
addresses the second part of our estrangement, by removing
our enmity against him. God reconciles sinners in their
minds and by their works. Paul said, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you,
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him,
the Lord Jesus Christ was made, sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God gives sinners
life in their souls. This life is simultaneous with
his gift of faith. When he gives them faith in Christ,
he gives them faith to see that Christ is all. Faith, faith in
Christ, is a change from a stony heart to a heart of flesh. It
is a new mind. Faith sees what God has done
in His Son. Faith comes to God by Christ.
Faith loves Christ for what He did. Faith looks to Christ because
faith sees that He took my place before God, bore all my sins
in His own body on the tree, bore the full curse of God's
holy law in His own body and soul, and both satisfied God's
justice and fulfilled His righteousness in my place. He died in obedience,
therefore we are made the righteousness of God in Him by this great transaction
between God the Father and God the Son. In the Old Testament,
those who were bitten by the serpents in the wilderness were
told to look at the serpent on the pole and live. From this
very account, Jesus taught Nicodemus and us that sinners must look
to Christ crucified. In looking, they live. Dear sinner,
Be reconciled to God. God himself gives you and me
warrant to look to his son, to believe him. He says, look unto
me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and
there is none else. And Jesus said in Matthew 11
28, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, I
will give you rest. All of our need is met in looking
to Christ. Now, the Queen of Sheba came
from far to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but a greater than Solomon
is here. When the Queen of Sheba, it says
in 1 Kings 10, verse 4, when she saw 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 ascent by which he went
up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
1 Kings 10, 4 through 5. What the Queen saw teaches us
what sinners see when they believe Christ. They see the glory of
God. When we come to Christ, we see
the glory of God in His mighty conquering acts in saving sinners. He put away their sins. He conquered
death and hell and the devil. In seeing this, we see His glory. Christ is the brightness of God's
glory. When God gives us faith in Christ,
we see the glory of God. She saw Solomon's accomplishments. The Lord Jesus put away the sins
of His people. He obtained their eternal redemption. He established their everlasting
righteousness and secured their eternal inheritance. By His one
offering, He sanctified and perfected them forever. And when He had
thus finished their salvation, He sat down with His Father on
His throne. a greater than Solomon truly
is here. The gospel makes sinners see
that Christ's glory is great in his father's salvation. Therefore,
honor and majesty he has laid upon him. Psalm 21 5. The Queen
of Sheba saw the seating of his servants. All who believe Christ
rest in faith and are satisfied with him. If God is satisfied
with Christ, you can be satisfied with him. and she also saw his
provision for his servants. according to Genesis 22.8, provided
Himself the Lamb. Christ is the Lamb of God. God
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Christ gave
Himself for our sins. His body and blood are the food
on which our souls depend. He is our life. We find satisfaction
and delight only in looking to Him and what He did. Now the
Queen of Sheba also saw Solomon's attendants, those who attended
to him in service. All nations, according to Psalm
72.11, shall come and serve him. All whom Christ redeemed confess
him. They confess him in their heart,
they confess him in believers' baptism, and they worship God
in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. They serve him
in love for what he has done. And yet they trust nothing about
themselves or their own works in order to please God. They
love by serving one another. The Queen also saw the apparel
that Solomon provided for his servants. Here we see that Christ
clothes his people with the garments of salvation. He puts on them
the robe of his own righteousness, and nothing can be added to what
he has done. Not even God can find spot or flaw in the robe
of Christ's righteousness. Nothing can be taken from it,
nothing can be added to it. We are holy and blameless before
him in love. In Christ, believers are the
very righteousness of God. and she saw his cup bearers.
Cup bearers provide wine to the king and his guests. True servants
of Christ preach what he accomplished when he shed his blood. Jesus
told his disciples, this cup is the New Testament in my blood
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. It's the blood
of Christ that makes remission for the sins of his people. All
of the New Testament blessings All of the covenant of God's
grace is put into force by the shedding of Christ's blood. Dear
believing sinner, by faith take, drink, live upon, and rejoice
in what Christ has done. What is your hope? That God will
accept you in the day of judgment? All of my hope is that Christ
died for me. It's not what I do. It's not
even what I fail to do. It never will be about me. I trust Christ's blood and His
righteousness alone. His blood cheers the heart of
God and man. It's about Him. Therefore, we
preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. And when she saw
all these things, it says in 1 Kings 10, there was no more
spirit in her. When we see Christ as our Savior
and our glorious King because of His work and our salvation,
all of our strength and goodness becomes nothing and He becomes
all. John the Baptist said, He must
increase and I must decrease. Finally, in the 13th verse of
1 Kings 10, it says that Solomon gave her all her desire Are you
a sinner? Is Christ enough to satisfy the
deepest thirst and hunger of your soul? Is His life and death
and intercession at God's right hand all that you need to save
you to the uttermost? Do you see that His glory is
great in His salvation? Then He has given you all your
desire. May God give us such a sight
of Christ, the greater than Solomon. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.