You can be turning to Matthew
12. Good morning. Alright, let's ask the Lord to
bless this day. Father in Heaven, thank You for this day. So glad
to be here and thankful that you've brought us here and thankful
that you've given us a desire to be here. Oh, that we might
set our affection on things above, not on things of the earth. All
our affection, all our desires, Lord, is before thee, all our
groanings. But it is the one thing needful
and one thing that your people desire, to dwell in the house
of the Lord and hold the beauty of the Lord. inquire, ask, commune
with thee from our hearts to hear from thee like this woman
did with Solomon. So we ask that you would speak
to us, that you would commune with us and bless us this day. Speak, Lord. We're here to hear
what God has to say to us. And may it be so with every person
in this room. Lord, it's nothing too hard for
Thee. We ask that You be pleased for
Your glory and honor and our salvation to call us into Thy
kingdom. Speak, Lord. Lord, forgive us
of our sins, and we give thanks for everything in Christ's name.
Amen. Matthew chapter 12. We've studied this often, and
yet I hope it will still be. gospel news, good news to you
and to me. I often envy those who hear these
stories for the first time. I don't know if anyone in here
has not heard this before, but I envy those who hear these stories
for the first time. And I want to hear it. as if it were the first time,
don't you? Matthew 12, verse 42, our Lord
speaks of this Queen of Sheba. Verse 42, He says, The Queen
of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it. She came from the uttermost parts
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, A greater
than Solomon is He. Now go to 1 Kings 10 with me. Now, this woman came, we think,
around 800 or 1,000 miles to hear this man, Solomon. And our Lord said, she will rise
up in the judgment. I believe the Lord saved this
woman. I believe she's one of His elect. Certainly Solomon
didn't speak of himself. It says that he spoke concerning
the name of the Lord. Solomon is the one who wrote
the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and all of that speaks of Christ.
So she heard about the Redeemer from Solomon's Now, but what
does this say about those who go to great lengths to hear mere
men and won't come, will not come to hear God's Word? And people do. They travel, go
to great lengths to sit and hear These, you know, musicians and
stars and celebrities and all that, they're not worth crossing
the street for. But our Lord is worth going to
great lengths to hear, isn't it? Solomon, his name means peaceable. The Lord said, it's said of Solomon
when he was born, that the Lord loved him. So he was loved of
God, and his name meant peace. What a picture he is of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And he was the wisest man to
ever live. Well, he got his wisdom from
Christ. He spoke of Christ. And so Christ is the greater
than Solomon. Look at verse 1. There's the
story. Now, 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. This queen heard, and she came
to hear. Now this was a woman, which made
it all that more difficult for her to travel. She apparently came on her own. When she's queen, that means
her husband is king, right? You know, in olden days, and
I spoke with one of the brethren about this, I asked him, can
you think of any queen in the Bible that actually reigned over
any country? And neither one of us could really
think of one. Because in olden days, queens
didn't really reign. Kings did. The queen was beside
the man. But men reigned and ruled as
king. It only was corrupted in modern
days when England and all of that, Scotland, Queen Mary, and
so forth. That's not scripture. And what
a picture this is, what a type this is. This woman's going to
represent us. The scripture says we are kings
and priests, but we don't reign over anybody, do we? No. We're, as it were, his queen.
He's our husband. He's the king of kings. It says
we're going to reign with him. Well, what are we going to reign
over? It just simply means that he's
our king and we're his family, sons of God, so we're royalty. But he's the one reigning, right?
So this queen came. Now, she's a noble person. Scripture
says, not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. It was a queen of England. I forget which one it was. It
doesn't matter. But she said one time to, I may
have spoken to one of those, there have been many men we know
that were chaplains to kings and queens, men we know, well,
good preachers. But she said to her chaplains,
she said, I thank God for the letter M. And he said, what do you mean?
She said, it doesn't say not any noble, but not many noble. So God, and you know the scriptures
tells us to pray for kings and rulers and so forth. For God
will have all men be saved, meaning that he saves all kinds, from
kings to paupers. From presidents to peasants. He will. He does. Nebuchadnezzar,
we believe. The Lord saved that man. Amazing. Amazing grace. So this woman
was a queen and she came. Now she's a queen of Sheba, which
is a pagan foreign country. She's a foreigner. She's a stranger
to the covenant, to the things of Israel. But the Lord brought
her. She's a Gentile. But the Lord
chose her, the Lord called her, the Lord brought her to hear
the truth, the covenant of grace, as have we. We've been brought,
we've been called, we've been chosen. Where was her husband?
Why didn't he come? You know, the Lord saves whom
He will. Doesn't He? Maybe he wasn't interested
in Solomon. Apparently. Maybe he didn't need
Solomon's wisdom. He thought he had enough. The
Lord chose her, didn't he? He reckons she went home and
told him about Solomon. We're thankful that the Lord
has called us. We're amazed at His mercy and grace in choosing
and calling us and bringing us to hear Christ, to hear His voice. But we still pray and ask Him
to reveal Himself to those that we love and have a burden for
them. All right. Verse 1 says, She
heard. She heard. Faith cometh by hearing it. Hearing
by the Word. She heard of the fame of Solomon
concerning the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord. Now, this
is all of God's people. They're going to hear. They're
going to hear from Him. They're chosen and they're called
by the gospel and they're going to hear. Now listen to Isaiah
43. This is one of my favorite passages. He said, I will say to the north,
God said, I will say to the north, give up to the south, keep not
back, bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends
of the earth. I don't know where you came from.
Well, some of you I do. This woman from New York, that's
a far, foreign country. California, wherever. The Lord
brings his people from afar, doesn't he? From the ends of
the earth. Everyone that is called by my name, I have created him
or her for my glory. I have formed him, yea, a new
creature. I have made him. Bring them, the blind people
that have eyes, the deaf that have ears. Let them come, let
them hear. You are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, that I have chosen that you may know and believe me,
that I am." So she came, she heard, and she heard the fame
of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. So we come, we hear
of our Lord by the preacher of the Gospel, and we come to know
Him. Alright, but she came, it says
in verse 1, to prove Him with hard question. To prove Him with
hard question. You know, most people come for
the wrong reasons when they first come, don't they? The Lord brings
them. The lot is cast in the lap. People
say things like this, we're looking for a church. I've heard it so
many times, we're looking for a church. Well, how did they
end up here? A lot is cast into the lap, the
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. We may think we're
doing what we will, but we're doing His will. And so she came
to prove Him. People often come for the wrong
reasons, and when they come to hear the truth, they may not
like it. So they think, I'm going to prove
him. This is what our sister Robin
did when she first came. I'm going to prove him wrong.
Didn't he? So she went home like the noble
Berea, and I'm glad she did, and studied her scriptures. She
said, I'm going to prove. She started studying, and you know
what she found? The God is true. Every man is a liar. Prove him. As a young rebel teenager,
I thought I knew everything. I thought I knew more than my
father did. What a young fool. But Lord, I'm sure glad he brought
me to here. Hard questions. People think
they have hard questions for the Lord. Something that He can't
answer. When this was over, Solomon was
telling her. Look at verse 3. Solomon told
her all her questions. Meaning, you're asking the wrong
questions. You're asking foolish questions.
Did you hear the radio message this morning? They all thought,
we can stump him. And he just asked one question,
and none of them could answer. Such is the wisdom of our Lord. But she came to prove him. She
came, verse 2, She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with
camels that bear spices, very much gold, precious stone. She
came bringing things to Solomon. She thought, he might need this. I want to give Solomon, I want
to do something for him. Oh my. And you know, people come to
church, so to speak, and false preachers have told them so long
that church can't be church without you. God can't do anything without
you. And if the Lord is pleased to
reveal himself to you, you find out that you don't have anything
that he needs. In fact, everything you have,
he gave it to you. All right? And then when you
go home, you're going to go home with more than you came. You're not the giver. He is.
You're a recipient. You're a receiver. You're a taker. He's the giver. You find out
by the grace of God, I am what I am, have what I have, know
what I know, if the Lord has pleased. Like this woman, to
show you himself and his riches. Maybe she wanted to bargain with
him. Well, I'll pay him for this, for his wisdom. You know, people
try to make bargains with God. Salvation is by pure grace and
mercy. So she came, bearing all these
gifts and all that. And you know, our Lord said in
Psalm 50, He said, If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you.
And this is how you know these false preachers. They tell people
everywhere that God needs your this, God needs that. That's
not in the Bible anywhere. It doesn't say anywhere God needs
anything. It doesn't say God wants. To
want is to be without. To want is to desire something
you don't have. It doesn't say that in the Bible. Don't ever say that. God wants
me. God wills. God does. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. But, you know, God says, if I
were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. And he said in Haggai 2,
he said, all the silver and the gold is mine. In the article, in the bulletin,
we don't give God anything. We return a portion of what He
gave us, right? He loaned it to us. We don't
own it. We don't earn it. He gave it,
and He loaned it. So He tells us, you loan it without
interest, without usury. That's the way our Lord is. So she came, and it says in verse
2, I like this, she communed it with Him of all that was in
her heart. After she'd been there and seen
and heard, she began to commune with Him. She opened up. She
began to talk to Him. She began to ask Him. All that was in her heart, she
poured out her heart to Him. When she saw something of His
glory and she heard His voice, apparently Solomon spake like
no man spake. He had wisdom like no other.
He had glory. He had power like no other. You
know why Solomon existed in history? As a type of Jesus Christ. He's an enigma. Solomon's an
enigma. Why did the Lord allow him to have what was 300 wives
and 700 concubines? Why? That's wrong. God never condoned or sanctioned
polygamy, no. One wife, right? Adam had one
woman. A man and a wife, these two become
one. But God allowed it, and God allowed
Solomon to have more than any other. Why is that? Because our
Lord has multiple wives. How can this one man please so
many women? How could all these women feel
so loved by this one man? Well, because he represents Christ. That's why. It's the only reason
for that. The only reason. Well, she communed with him when
she heard his voice, when she began to trust him and his wisdom
and see his wisdom and his honor. You know, Scripture says that
God gave Solomon the largeness of heart, meaning he had a big
heart. He would commune with, he would
talk to, he would speak to anyone that came to him. I love the
thought of this, that anyone, doesn't matter who it was, no
matter how poor they were, they could be a nothing and a nobody
from nowhere, if they asked to speak to the king, he'd say,
bring them in. He had a large heart. He loved
many. And so she found that out, and
so she opened up her heart to him. Oh, may we open up our heart. Pour out your heart unto him,
people. Our God is a refuge and strength. You know, out of the heart are
the issues of life. We must come with the heart. This is what he says. Now, he
says this to his people. My son, my son, give me thine
heart. He's not saying that to unregenerate,
unsaved people. Give Jesus your heart. He's not
speaking to unbelievers. No. He has to give you a new
heart. Somebody said, what's he want
with that old heart? Don't give him that old heart. It's deceitful above all things.
He gives us a new heart and it's that heart that she speaks to,
that she communes with and tells us, set thine heart. Find affection
on things above. My son, set thine heart on me. Give me thine heart. If riches
increase, set not your heart upon them. Set your heart on
things above, my son. Don't let your heart go up to
anyone or anything else but me. That's what the Lord just said.
Out of the heart are the issues of life. With the heart, man
believeth unto righteousness. The heart is the affection. The
heart is the desire. The heart is the groaning. The
groan is inner man. That's the real you, the heart. The heart. We need to pour out
our hearts to the Lord. We need Him to speak to our hearts. We need Him to break our hearts. We need Him to heal our hearts.
We need Him to speak to our hearts. The Lord told the preacher in
Isaiah, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Speak ye comfortably. And the margin says, to the heart. And this is what I pray all the
time. Lord, would you speak to my heart with this word? Bless my heart that I in turn
may speak to the hearts of the people, not the heads. We don't
profit if we go out of here with just some knowledge. But what
we need to do, what we need is to know Him. And that means much
more than about Him. That means to come to understand
Him, to trust Him, to look to Him like the Queen of Sheba did. She probably, like so many other
women, fell in love with Solomon as she had asked him to marry
her. Ask Him. You'll marry Him. You
sure will. There's room for one more. So
she came to prove Him with hard questions. That's what people
think they can do. And Solomon told her. She heard. She came
to ask and she ended up being told. She came to prove. She
ended up being told. She came to give. She ended up
receiving. Much more than she thought. She
came with her little pittance. She thought she was bringing
great gifts to him. She received of Solomon double. Double. I love the story of Joseph's
brethren. Remember? Sacks? They started
out with sacks. When it was all over, they were
going home with wagon loads. Well, I can live. And so do we,
don't we? Of His fullness have all we received. Grace. The grace. How much grace
does the Lord have? Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. Pearls that the poorest may wear.
Alright, look at verse 1. Now let's talk about the king.
Enough about the queen. Have you heard of the fame of
Solomon? Oh, my Lord. My Lord is famous,
isn't He? I don't like the word so much,
but it's in the Scriptures, you know that? Famous. Fame means
known by all. Though not loved by all, known
by all. Paul said, have they not all heard? Yeah, they've
heard. That sound has gone throughout the earth. The name of the Lord. is on everyone's lips, whether
it be in cursing or praising. All men without excuse. Those
that say they don't believe in Him, use His name. Like our Lord said to Herod,
when Herod said, Art thou the Christ? He said, You said it. That's all He said. I remind
you, people don't use fictitious names to curse with. Why is that? He's forcing people
to acknowledge God. Isn't that something? There are
no atheists. I say there are. I've read so
many stories of people dying in unbelief. It's horrible. It's
frightening. The King, oh my, the name of
the Lord. Our Lord said, I am come in my
Father's name. Now in my Father's name. In verse
5, it says the Queen of Sheba, verse 4, the Queen of Sheba She
heard and she came and she saw. What she saw was Solomon's wisdom. She saw his wisdom. You know,
wisdom is not just words. It doesn't say she heard his
wisdom. She did. She saw his wisdom. Wisdom let a wise man show out
of meekness his works. When our Lord one time said,
if you don't believe what I say, believe my works. And even Nicodemus
was forced to say, you have to be from God, because no man can
do what you do, except God be with him. So she saw his wisdom. She heard his wisdom, yeah, but
she saw his wisdom. We hear of it, and then when
we see what the Lord does, We experience it. We enter into
it. We see what the Lord has done. Then we really do experience
His wisdom. Oh my, His works. His works of
creation. His works of salvation. Oh, His
works of providence. Don't we see the wisdom of our
God in all things that have transpired thus far and in our lives? Don't we see? Something of the
purpose of God in our own lives and everything He has done. Aren't
we amazed by what He has done? Because she saw His wisdom, and
it says in verse 4, in the house that He built. Now Solomon built his own private
house, personal house. He spent longer on that than
the temple. That temple is going to be torn
down. I can't help but think that this is representative of
two houses, you know, temporal temple, but God's true house,
his own personal house where he dwells with his people, that's
the new heaven, new earth, new, his kingdom, we're all going
to be a part of that, it'll never be destroyed. And he spent more
time on that house, Solomon, his personal house, than the
temple. I can't wait to be in that house,
dwell in the house of the Lord, the eternal house made in heaven,
made without hands. But she saw the house that he
had built, and what a glorious place it was, the temple. And he had to be on the inside. Apparently Solomon let her in
on the inside. She asked him, can I see? Can
I see your house? Sure you can. Come on in. He
took her to her. One time the disciples, remember
the disciples, they were impressed with that temple. It's going
to be torn down real soon, especially after they said, isn't this wonderful? Our Lord said, not one stone
going to be left standing on another. There's going to be
a stone left. One stone left. What was it? The chief coroner's
done. But they were impressed and they
wanted to show the Lord the temple. Oh, later on, He showed them
His temple, didn't He? Himself. He said, there's some
standing here that will not taste death until they see the Kingdom
of God. The Kingdom of God is a person.
A person. His dominion is the King. Alright,
it says in verse 5, She saw the meat of His table, His provisions,
all that He provided. Turn back quickly. to chapter
4. You've seen this, but maybe someone
hasn't. She saw the meat of his table. 1 Kings 4, look at this. As said, Solomon had a largeness
of heart, a gracious man, a loving man, a merciful man, a generous
man. In verse 22, 1 Kings 4, Solomon's
provision The bread or the meat of his
table for one day was 30 measures of fine flour. How many loaves
of bread could you make with that? Thousands. Why would you
need to make thousands of loaves of bread every day? Because so many people wanted
it, and needed it, and desired it, and hungered for it. Whoever
was hungry, he could say, come, and all blessed are those that
are hungry. They'll be fed. They'll be filled, as Scripture
says. What is the bread? We don't live by bread alone.
But what a picture this is of how our Lord provides and feeds
every single person and animal on earth. You remember a whale
eats how many tons of food a day? A ton of food. A ton of fish
a day. One whale. Every day! Well, who feeds it? Well, sure it's going to run
out if it hasn't yet. The Lord said it won't. This is our God. He's amazing,
isn't He? His provision one day of thirty
measures of fine flour, three score measures of meal, ten fat
oxen, twenty oxen in the pasture, a hundred sheep, Beside the deer,
and the robux, and the fallow deer, and the fatted fowl, pheasants,
fatted pheasants, and fowl, for his fine friends. Anything. What do you want? What
do you want? It's all there. Nothing you could
think of that you wanted, any desire. Oh, hasn't the Lord given
us above all we could even ask for, think. We not only have
all that we need, we have more than we could want. No, we shall
not even want the Lord as your shepherd. Right, John? Not want
for anything. My, my. And brethren, I couldn't
help but think of what all we have tasted and saying of our
Lord Jesus Christ in the scripture, of which every single thing mentioned
here represents in it. The Word of God is spoken of
and likened to meat, milk, honey, on and on it goes, salt, bread. Can you just taste him? Oh my. Nobody who came hungry went away
hungry. You think there's enough? Somebody
came in. King Solomon, you think there's enough for me? Come look. Now eat. Open your mouth. Scripture said, wide I'll fill
it. Oh my, those who hunger and thirst
for Him will go away full of His fullness we receive. Now look at His reign. She saw
His reign in 1 Kings 4. Look at this, verse 21. It says that Solomon reigned
over all kingdoms from the river and the land of the Philistine
and to the border of Egypt, all kings. And verse 24, he had dominion
over all the region on this side of the river, from Tipsa even
to Asa, over all the kings on this side of the river, and he
had peace on all sides around the battle. But his dominion
was everywhere, over other kings. He was a king and he reigned
over other kings. There's another, I forget where
it is, I didn't write it down, which says how many kings came
to Solomon. The wise men came from all the
ends of the earth to here. They were kings, but they came.
to hear the King of Kings. And that's our Lord, the King. And it says that in the Revelations,
that kings will bring their glory. What kings will bring their glory,
their crowns and all, in glory when they come to see Christ
and behold His glory? Well, that's where the analogy
is, the allegory is, that we're going to cast our crowns down. I'm going to take that crown
off of his head and throw it at the feet of the king of kings,
Solomon. Solomon's going to say, I didn't
know anything. I didn't have anything to see
what he said. Like this queen. And he reigned. Now look at chapter 10. Chapter
10. She saw His power and His protection. It said back in chapter 4 that
there was peace all the days. He had peace on all sides round
about Him. And I love this. Don't you, Ron? It says that every man dwelt
safely under His vine and under His fig tree. Whose vine? Solomon's vine and his fig tree. It doesn't necessarily mean every
man had a vine and a fig tree. But that means whoever wanted
to come sit under his would be safely, would dwell safely. Isn't that what our Lord said?
I'm the vine and you're the branches. And come, you dwell safely. We
dwell in him, don't we? Every man. He reigned, he ruled, his power,
his protection, everyone that came to Solomon lived in peace
and safety. Every scripture, every epistle
begins this way. Grace and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be unto thee. Isn't that
what our Lord said after He arose from the grave? The first thing.
He said this three times. Every time He came again to them,
He said, Peace, at the end of the day. Meaning, He made peace,
brethren. Do you fear God's wrath? Do you
fear God's judgment because of your sin? Peace, at the end of
the day. Christ made peace. He's angry
with the wicked every day. He made... Do you believe Him?
Do you trust Him? Do you? Do you look to Christ
and Him crucified? Is He your Lord? Really? Really? Peace at the end of the day. God loves you. If you love His
Son, look to His Son. Yes, He does. His power, His
protection, His servants. Look at verse... I'm going to
take all the time I want. Verse 5 says, She beheld the
meat of His table, the sitting of His servants. Don't you know? Why was His servants sitting?
I thought servants were supposed to be, you know, walking around
serving everybody. Well, could be Solomon was serving
them. Do you think that? No, surely
not. The king got up and served them.
That's exactly what our Lord did. Got up from his table, took
off his robe, and put on a towel to wash their feet. And someday, amazingly, marvelously,
he said he's going to serve us. It's like Boaz walked around
the table and, Ruth, you got enough cornbread? So they were sitting and they
sat there in peace, they sat there in amazement as they were
hearing their king, they sat there reverently, didn't they? Respectfully, like I see you
sit here now, this is the way worship is supposed to be. Reverence
with respect under our King. Silence. We're not all speaking
here. We come to sit in silence and
hear Him speak. Right? So, they've sat. What have they got to say? They
came, they want to hear Him. and the attendance of his ministers
and his cup bearers. His cup bearers. You know the
one that lived, the butler and the baker, remember that story?
You know, it's a picture of the butler and the baker? The baker
died. The baker baked up all sorts
of things for the king. He didn't need what you make
or bake for him. But the butler merely brought
the king's cup, the wine. He was the cup bearer of the
king. He brought to the king. The wine in the cup, that's a
picture of all of God's people. We'll live if that's what we
bring to our God, faith in Christ and His blood. We'll live. I'm
a cup bearer. I'm a cup bearer. I'm here to
bear witness of the cup which Christ bore, the cup of His wrath,
the cup of His blood, His ship, the remission of our sins. They're
apparel. their apparel. She saw their
apparel. Everybody was wearing the same thing. Everybody was
wearing these glorious... And this is Psalm 45, Psalm of
the King, which David or Solomon 1 wrote, but they weren't speaking
of themselves. But it says in Psalm 45, it says,
The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought
gold. She shall be brought unto the
king in raiment of needlework, which is a picture of all the
robe of righteousness which our Lord himself made with his own
hands. So she beheld everyone was robed
in this same apparel. She thought, I don't know what
she was wearing when she came. She may have thought she looked
pretty good. She may have put on her best garments. But when
she saw what Solomon provided for all of his servants and his
cupbearers and his ministers, she thought, I'm dressed in rags. She said, I'm ashamed of myself. She asked him, she said, could
I have one of those robes? I want to look like that. And
so he did. I think she went home with one
of these robes, with this apparel. And his ascent, oh don't you
like that? She saw him ascend the throne, and the throne of
Solomon. Oh my, read it sometime, what
it was, the picture of his throne, which is all a picture of Christ.
She beheld his ascent, that is, how he went up, he went up. He rose up to sit on His throne. And that's what Hebrews 1 says,
doesn't it? When He had by Himself purged our sin. He went back. He sat down. He ascended, came
low. Who is it that descended? Who is it that ascended? It was
He that descended. Well, He ascended after He did
that great and glorious work on Calvary's tree. God lifted
Him up on the cross for us to look to like a serpent on a pole.
But God, after He did that, God lifted Him much higher. We see
Jesus made a little lower than the angel for the suffering of
death, but we see Him now. He ascended, He arose, and He
sat down, the Scripture says, on the right hand of the Majesty
on high. And Revelation says we're going
to see on the throne a Lamb, as it had been slain. So, see,
when she heard, and when she saw, and when she tasted, Ah,
it says in verse 5, there's no more spirit. No more spirit. She was emptied of self. But
boy, she's full of him. She may have thought something
of herself when she came. Now she thinks nothing of herself. It's all about him. His glory. Now here's her testimony. I love
this. Her testimony. Let's just read
these verses. She said to the king, it was
true. It was a true report. It's all true. Everything I heard
in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom, what you've done,
what you've said, who you are, it's all true. How be it? I believe not. I didn't believe
until I came and mine eyes had seen. Isn't that what Job said? He said, I heard of you by the
hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee. Wherefore?
No more spirit in you. He said, I abhor myself. I repent
in sackcloth and ashes. But he went from ashes, John,
in the end. Have you heard the end of Job?
Twice, double what he started with. He's not sitting in ashes
anymore. He's robed and in glory. And that's God's people, all
who see nothing in themselves, and everything in Christ. They
hear His voice, they see His glory. And that's what Christ
said, I will that they be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory. And she said, mine eyes have
seen the King. And behold, she said, the half
was not told me. Have you learned anything this
morning? Have you seen anything you haven't seen before? You
ain't seen nothing yet. I haven't told a half of it. You're talking about His fullness?
The ocean of His fullness? It's kind of like that man who
first saw the, the man who saw the Pacific Ocean for the first
time. He came up to, you know, you can only see so much, and
he came up to the Pacific Ocean for the first time, he said,
hmm, not as big as I thought it was. You can't see it. You can see
a little bit of it. The rest of it, two-thirds of
the world, you can't see it, but you will. And a half has
not been told me. And she said, Thy wisdom and
prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. You know, we hear,
we believe His wisdom, His providence, His purpose and all that, and
we say we believe it, yet we murmur, we complain, don't we? We think, why, Lord, why, why,
why? When we see, when we're there,
no more why. We're going to see why. And we're going to see. He says,
well, no, as we've been known. It's going to all completely
dawn on us. It's all true. How could I have
doubted anything? Silence for 30 minutes? Only the Lord could put the silence
in. And she said, verse 8, don't
you love this? Happy are thy men. Oh, blessed,
happy is he that the God of Jacob preacheth. Happy are these thy
servants. Oh, to be just a servant in his
kingdom. And he called his servants. Happy
are those who stand continually before thee, and that hear thy
wishes. Happy, happy, happy. People want to be happy. Are
you happy? Are you blessed? The word means
blessed. Are you blessed? What is the greatest blessing
to you? Seriously. Really now. Let me ask you. When
you count your blessings, when you name them one by one, what's
first? My dear sister back there, smiling,
nodding her head, she said, Christ. He is Israel. Yes, he is. So she said, Blessed be the Lord
thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne
of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever. He made you king. Our Lord reigns over a kingdom
of misfits, of peasants and paupers and no good rebels that He changed
into servants. Why would He come down from reigning
and ruling over angels to come to this place? He sure didn't
need us, did He? But we needed Him. Oh, blessed
be the name of the Lord. He must have loved us if you
see that He is indeed your King. And oh, the judgment and the
justice that He has brought us, done us, for us. And she gave
the King, she gave Him all of this that she brought, you know.
And they gave it to Solomon, and so do we. When we're here,
we give, we give. But again, we're just bringing
back what he loaned us, and it's nothing. But look at this. And it starts to tell about what
Solomon got in every day. There was a navy full of ships
that brought him gold. Ships full of gold. You know, our Lord said, cast
your bread on the water. You'll see it again after many
days. He gave you the bread. He says,
cast it out there. Sow. Sow to the flesh, you reap
flesh. Sow to the spirit, you reap spirit.
Double. He said, give. It shall be given to you. We
don't give for this reason. Well, we give Will and Lynn,
love and Lynn and because he's been so gracious. He says, give
and it shall be given to you. Press down, shaking together. Have you ever filled up a bag
full of leaves, you know? What do you do? You put your
foot in it and press it down. Shake it. You want to fill up
all the holes in the bag and then you stomp it down again.
There's more room. You put more in. More in. And
our Lord said, Give and it shall be given to you. Press down,
shaking together, running over. John, our cups, run over them. We're recipients, receivers.
Our glass is never half-full or half-empty. It's full and
running over. Running water, fresh, continual. He's grace every day. And it
says, verse 12, the king made almond tree pillars for the house
of the Lord. We're pillars in the house of
the Lord. And it says, verse 13, And the king Solomon gave
unto the queen of Sheba all her desire. All her desire. She communed
with him from her heart. She opened up her heart, poured
out her heart to him, and he gave her everything her heart
desired. Now remember, she came with all
this stuff to bring something to Solomon. And she ended up
hearing Him and seeing Him and receiving from Him. And now she's
taken up with Him. And this is the way it is. If
you ever hear Christ, if you ever see His glory, if He ever
speaks to you, if you ever call on the name of the Lord, you're
going to hear the name of the Lord. He's going to make all
His goodness pass before you. He's going to give unto you of
His fullness. And if you ever see and hear
Christ, you're going to go away taken up with, in love with,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to see any glory
in anyone or anything. She went home with the king's
royal bounty. Far exceeded her little pittance. And so she went home to her own
country. She and her servant. What do you reckon she was talking
about? Huh? What do you think she talked
about, or rather, who do you think she talked about from then
on? When she got home, what did she tell her husband? Like that
woman at the well. Come, you, honey, you've got
to see this man. You've got to hear his voice.
You've got to see his house. I tell you what, let's just pack
up and move. and go sit with his servants.
I'm tired being a queen. I'd rather be one of his servants.
Wouldn't you? I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
a house of God. Okay.