But a dear, dear friend of mine,
a preacher brother of mine, I don't know him longer than I know anybody
else, Bruce Crabtree, his father died last year. Bruce would go down and stay
with him for days at a time, talk with him, take care of him.
And Bruce would always witness to him about the righteousness
of Christ, facing God only and the righteousness of Christ.
Well, the old man got ready to die. He was in his nineties.
And Bruce, you know, said, Dad, you don't want to go into eternity
with your own righteousness. You've got to face God only in
the righteousness of Christ. And he preached the Gospel to
him over and over. And then he got ready to die.
And he said, Dad, can you trust Christ? Well, he said, I'd be
scared to death to face God with just Him without something of
my own. And that's the last thing. Scared to death to face God without
something of my own. I'm scared of death. I'd hate
to stand here and face God with anything I'm on right this moment.
Yeah. Some people say they've got a
weak spot. I ain't got no strong spot. I'm weak on my right, on
my left, behind me, in front of me, on top of me, in the bottom
of me. There's no strength in me anywhere. So one fellow said,
God take care of my blind spot. I'm blind all the way around.
He's got to take care of it all. God take care of it all. If He
don't, what are we going to do? What part did He leave undone
that we'd have to do? I don't want to do that. Well, we'll read the first ten
verses here and talk about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. We'll
make a few comments about it. And when the Queen of Sheba heard
of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came
to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with
a very great train, with camels that bear great spices, and very
much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her
questions. There was not anything hid from
the king which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built,
and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
and the attendant of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
and his assent by which he went up into the house of the Lord,
there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It
was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts
and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes had seen. And, behold, the half was
not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are
these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, that
hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighted in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel.
Because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he thee
king to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king a hundred
and twenty pounds of gold, and spices of very great store, and
precious stones. And there came no more such abundance
of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to Solomon." Well, it's obvious when I read
that, I'm sure that many of you all have seen the gospel, seen
our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, our Lord Jesus, one
day the fellows was looking at the of the field, and they said,
Oh, how pretty they are, how beautiful they are. And our Lord
says, They neither toil nor spend, they don't do anything at all.
And the Father dressed as them. And they got greater glory than
Solomon ever had. And He said, Behold, a greater
than Solomon is here. And then He told about the judgment.
He said, The Queen of Sheba shall arise, the Queen of the South
shall arise. and condemned this generation, the people he was
preaching to, the Jewish nation, said she'll condemn these people
because she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
And that's what if we got to see the greater Solomon right
here. Now, here's this Queen of Sheba, this Queen of the South. She came to Solomon. And what
does she come for? Well, first of all, she came
because of what she heard. And that's what you come for.
You come because you hear. If you come to Solomon, if you
come to Christ, you come because you hear. And that's what she
heard. It says here, when the Queen
of Sheba, verse 1, when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of
Solomon. She heard of his fame. She heard
of his glory. She heard of his power. She heard
of his majesty. And, beloved, that's what the
Scripture said. How then shall you call on him of whom you have
not heard? And how shall he hear of him without a preacher? You
know, so many people, they get folks to the front to accept
Jesus, and they don't have no clue who He is. But here she
heard the fame of Him. What kind did she hear? Well,
first of all, she heard the fame of His power. And she said she
heard the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. You see,
that's where the power comes from, the name of the Lord, the
authority of Christ. That's where God gave Christ
all of His authority. All power in heaven and earth
has been given unto me. And it's the nearness to the
name, it's the nearness to God, it's the oneness with the Father
that gave Christ all of His power and all of His glory. He says,
you know, I do always those things which please my Father. And our Father said to him, said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear Him.
And you know, I came down from heaven not to speak of myself,
but to speak of Him. And that's why she heard of Solomon
concerning the name of the Lord. He knows God. He knows God. I'm going to go over there because
he knows the Lord. And oh, that's what our Lord
Jesus, He's got His glory. Because God sent Him into this
world. God gave Him the authority. God gave Him the power. God gave
Him the glory. God said, if you're going to
do business with Me, you're going to come to Him. And then look
here, not only that, but the fame of his wealth. Look down
at verse 21. She heard of the fame of his
wealth, the fame of his riches. And all of King Solomon's drinking
vessels were of gold, and all of the vessels of the house of
the forest of Lebanon were pure gold. None of it was silver.
And there was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. Everything he has is made out
of gold. And oh my, the fame of his riches. And guess what
we get to talk about? Guess what we have? We have the
unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. How rich is our
Lord Jesus Christ? I'll tell you how rich he is.
He has been supplying his people out of his storehouse. From Adam
all the way to the day until the day of the end of his coming,
and he's got as much today as he had when he started, and when
we get to eternity, he'll have just as much as he did from the
day he made this earth until it comes to an end. He's wealthy,
keeps taking out of his store, and he's just as wealthy as he
was when he started. He just gives out handfuls, handfuls,
handfuls, handfuls, and he's as wealthy now as he was when
he started. I was at a funeral the other
day, The fellow said, I thought this preacher and his wife would
be there. And I said, but you know, they've got lots and lots
of money now. The daddy left them, they're millionaires. He said, I guess they're out
taking care of their investments. And I said, well, I've got a
heaps of better inheritance than they've got. All their daddy
could leave them was money. God gave me the riches of Christ
in His glory, the wealth of His power, the wealth of His love,
the wealth of His grace, the wealth of His justification,
everything that God has. He has just blessed us abundantly,
that's what He calls it, abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
over in Ephesians 2 it talks about the exceeding riches of
His grace. That means more than enough. In Him, in Christ dwelleth the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. All that God is dwells in Him. No wonder that's all we need,
Milton. And then not only does she hear the fame, and you hear,
you've got to hear, got to hear. You've got to hear the fame of
His power. Hear the fame of His wealth.
And oh, beloved, the fame of His wisdom. Look down in verse
6. And she said to the king, it's
a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. The fame of His wisdom. And look
down in verse 24. And all the earth sought to Solomon
to hear his wisdom which God put in his heart. And oh, beloved,
listen. Do you know where the wisdom
of God dwells? In the Lord Jesus Christ. To
them which are called, Christ is the power and wisdom of God.
In the Lord Jesus Christ we see the wisdom of God and how God
can be just. and justifier of them that believe."
Oh, the wisdom of God to make a world and sustain it. But you
read it this morning, quoted it this morning. That everything
that God, that wisdom of this world and all how it's sustained
and all that it goes on in, that God made it by Christ. Christ
is the Creator of this. And the wisdom that went into
creation. The wisdom that God made in this world. And the wisdom
that God made in saving sinners like us. How did the bar of justice
call us all to stand for? Give an account of yourself.
Give an account of your sin. Give an account of your thoughts.
Give an account of your heart. And God in wisdom said, well,
truth and justice must win out. I must damn that man. I must
punish that man. But love and mercy and grace
and wisdom stood up and said, I know a way. whereby I can stay
true to justice and truth and righteousness and save that sinner
and punish him and slay him for his sin. And it was Emmanuel
himself shall stand up And I'll accept Him and I'll accept His
righteousness. I'll accept His power. I'll accept
His death. I'll accept everything He gives.
And I'll take Him and I'll slay Him in their place. And I'll
charge my sin to their account. And I'll take His righteousness
and put it on their account. And so they are punished. They
are slain. And they all have life at the
same time. and all the wisdom of God in
Christ. Oh, bless His holy name. I mean,
beloved, standing now in the very presence of God because
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His infinite wisdom, that God
can stay true to Himself in His glory, stay true to His righteousness,
stay true to His truth, and yet at the same time magnify His
grace. magnifies justice, magnifies
love, magnifies power, magnifies glory in saving sinners like
us and making us stand before Him without any sin whatsoever. Oh, God bless him. I, you know,
I never get over this. I never get over this. I never
have got over this shit. How that I have not got by with
one sin I've committed. I have been punished for every
single one of them. I have suffered death for every
single one of them. God has poured out His wrath
on me for every single one of them. I have suffered separation
from God for every single one of them. Sins that I don't even know that
I've ever committed because I'm ignorant of them. Sins so partial
of me that I don't even know I'm committing them at times.
But every one of them has been done. Where at? In Christ. Now, oh, the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. I ain't getting
by. And now, I've got the very righteousness
of God Himself. Oh, you see, she heard of these
wisdoms. Heard of His wisdom. And listen, God made Christ unto
us wisdom. You know, you fellows tell me
if I'm wrong. You preachers tell me if I'm
wrong. But when I see there that Christ is made unto us wisdom,
to me that means that how am I going to know God? How am I
going to know Him in His attributes? How am I going to understand
this Bible? How am I going to understand myself? How am I going
to understand the wisdom of God? How am I going to understand
The Scriptures. How am I going to understand
my own heart? And Christ has made unto me wisdom whereby I
can know something about God, have a spiritual grasp of God,
have a spiritual understanding of spiritual things. Christ has
made unto me wisdom where I can have some of the sense of God
and His Scriptures, and myself, and the nature and character
of God. If Christ hadn't been made wisdom to me, I wouldn't
know straight down falling out of a tree. And you wouldn't either. Ain't that right? Now, soul,
what she heard, let's look what she did. And it says there that
when the Queen of Sheba, verse 1, heard of the fame of Solomon,
concerned the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard
questions. She came to Jerusalem, and with very great train, best
prices, and was prescient, and when she was come to Solomon,
she's come to Solomon. See, she heard about him. She
said, I want to go. I want to go see this man. I
want to go hear this man. I want to go sit at his feet.
I want to go. And see, she didn't make light
of it. She said, well, I've heard about him. He's no doubt a wonderful
man. He's no doubt a powerful man.
He's no doubt a wise man. And she didn't make light of
it. She said, I'm going to get up and go. I want to go. I want to see for myself. I want
to hear for myself. I want to talk with Him by myself.
I want to set at His feet myself. She wasn't like Felix. It wasn't
like Felix when Felix told Paul, he said, you know, depart from
me and I'll bring you to more convenient seasons and listen
to what you've got to say. She said, I want to go and hear
for myself. She didn't postpone it. And then
look what it says back up there in verse, she came to prove Him
with hard questions. That's some hard questions to
answer in this world. I'll tell you, there's a lot
of questions in the Bible, lots of questions. And our God asked
the first one, Adam, where are you? And when God asks questions
and Christ asks questions, He does not ask for information.
He asks questions to give us information, to let us know something. But He asked a question in Job
chapter 9, He said, How can a man be just with God? That's a good
question. How can a man be just with God?
The heavens are not pure in his sight. Behold, the moon and stars,
they don't even shine. And oh, here's another hard question.
When a man dies, shall he live again? Oh, that's a good question,
ain't it? And when our Lord went to Nicodemus
and said, you must be born again, the first thing on Nicodemus
said, how can a man, when he's old, be born again? How can it
be? My father's lost 75 years old
before he ever got converted. How would he be born again? Is
he going to be like Nicodemus? I'll get in my mother's womb
and start all over again. He said, if you do that, you're
going to be just like he was the first time. Everyone, you've
come out with the wrong nature. So you must have a new nature.
You must be born again. You must be spiritual. And in the new birth, God takes
and brings into existence a person who never existed before. He
makes a new creature. He created in Christ Jesus. Only God can create. And you
must be born of the Spirit. And you know, beloved, that this
idea, you know, that a person's made of... You know as well as
I do, did you ever have a problem with sin till you got to new
nature? Did you ever have any problem
with sin? Now your thoughts become evil to you. Huh? Your eyes become
evil to you. Your feelings become evil to
you. I never had any problem with my thoughts and feelings
before I got to birth. Oh, no. And all of a sudden,
he brings it up. She came with this, how can a
man be born? How can he be born again? Oh, and then what about
this question? When the angel came to Mary and
said, you know, you're going to have a son. The Holy Ghost
is going to come on you and that holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of the Highest. She said, how
can these things be? I've never known a man. So, all
of these come with all these hard questions. And oh, beloved,
as she came to Him, she didn't just think of Him. And you know
why she came to Him? And you know why, if anybody
else comes to Him? All that the Father gives me. And they shall
all come to Me. In the day of His power, the
day of what power? The day that you hear of Him,
in the day of His power. He makes His people willing,
and they come to Him, beloved. Blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest and causes to approach unto Thee. Oh, come unto Me,
our Savior said. Come unto Me. You want to know
the Father? You've got to come to Me. And oh, listen, if any man's
thirsty on that last day, that great day of the feast, if any
man's thirsty, let him come to Me. And then it says there in
verse 2, and she came to Jerusalem, in the last part of the verse
when she was come to Solomon, she communed with Him. She communed
with Him. What did she do? She told Him
all her heart. Told Him all her heart. Ain't that what we do when we
come to Him? We just lay our hearts bare? Nothing's hid from
Him. We just lay our heart bare. She
poured out her heart to Him. She told Him all that was in
her heart. I told her all that was in her soul. And beloved,
that's what we do. We come to Christ. And when we
come to Him, our hearts are just laid open before Him. Everything
about us is just open with Him. We just pour out our hearts.
And there's an old preacher who used to say, he says, God does
not send honest men to hell. And He doesn't. God makes you
honest. When she sat before Solomon,
She understood Solomon and all of his wisdom and all of his
power that he saw right into her heart. And that's what Christ
does. He sees into her heart. And we lay it bare. We tell Him
all our heart. In fact, once we start ever telling
Him all that's in our heart, He's the only one we'll ever
tell Him all that's in our heart. I wouldn't think about telling
you what's in my heart. I wouldn't tell my wife what's
in my heart. But I'd tell Him everything that's
in my heart. That's so assuring to me that
God knows me. I'm just as transparent to Him
as a clear glass that might appear right now. And you know, there
it is, Lord. Lay it out. Lay it out. And look what it says down here
now in verse 3. And Solomon told her all her
questions. He answers your questions. How
are you going to be just? He'll answer that question for
you. Will a man live again? He'll answer that question for
you. He that believeth in me shall never die. How can a man
be born again? You come to him. And well, listen,
you won't come to him until he gives you the new birth. He's
got to give you the faith. You won't ever call on him until
he gives you that new birth. When a baby is born, the first
thing it does is cry. It already had life, but the
crying out is what gives evidence of its life. And when Christ
gives you life, you start crying out to Him. Have mercy on me. Look at my heart. Oh, God is
so wicked. Take my heart. Give me a new
heart. Give me a new spirit. Oh, and the king hid nothing
from her. And oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, He answers these questions
and He opens our heart and He keeps back nothing of Himself
concerning Himself. He lets us know Himself. Oh,
bless His holy name. Now, let me look at what she
did. Look what she saw when she got
there. She came to Him. She heard about Him. She came
to Him. All these questions. He told
her heart. He told her and answered all
of her heart. Look what she saw. First thing she saw in verse
4. And when the Queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom. Saw his wisdom. Saw his wisdom. You know, a fellow told me years
and years ago, if you'll ever see Christ as the wisdom of God,
you'll understand the gospel. You'll understand the gospel.
She saw his wisdom. She saw the wisdom of God. She
saw the wisdom and glory of God in him. And she saw all of that
infinite wisdom. She saw the wisdom of God of
salvation that amazed her and still amazes us today. I'm still
utterly and absolutely amazed. When God first taught me the
gospel years ago, the first two years, all I'd done was that's
all I preached on. How can we be just with God?
How can we be just with God? That's all I could think about.
How can I be just with God? I sit on my porch and all I can
see is my sinful. How can I be just with God? How
can God accept me? How can God have any dealings
with me? How can God look in my direction? How can God speak
to me? How can God have anything to do with me? And the only answer is Christ. That's the only answer. You know,
He chose me in Christ. Didn't he? Before the foundation
of the world. He loved me in Christ, and in
love he predestinated me so that I'd be one of his children. And
why did he do it? Because it was according to his
own good pleasure. And he made me accepted in the
Beloved. Made me redeemed in his blessed
Son. And all this salvation amazes
us, those who have come to Christ, those who have set themselves
at the Lord's feet. It's just amazing. Never get
over it. Never get over it. The word grace. Have you ever
got over that word grace? Grace. Grace. Nothing in us. Grace. Nothing
we do. Grace. Nothing we think. Grace. Nothing we feel. Grace. Everything
is by grace. Grace is in Christ. We never
ever want to earn the first blessing from God Almighty. Not the first
time. We've never earned and never
will earn a blessing from God if God blesses us for Christ's
sake. You say, well, if you don't pray,
He won't bless you. If there's ever anything that
keeps God from blessing you, that means that there's something
wrong with you or something right with you. And there ain't nothing
about you that causes God to ever do anything for you or me. He does it strictly for Christ's
sake. One of the preachers preached
the last Sunday morning of our meeting, Greg Elmquist, and he
was preaching out of Zephaniah, and he said he loved to sing
over you and rejoice over you, and he loves you. He said, he
made this statement, he said, we sometimes feel like God just
puts up with us, endures us, for Christ's sake. But no, he
said, that's not the way it is. He said, God loves loving us. He loves loving us. He loves loving us. He's not
just putting up with us. He's not just endearing us. He's not holding his nose. You know, he said, there are
sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Why? Because they're
not there. You can't remember something
that ain't there. Something that never had a stone. Oh, my. And then not only did
she see him, where's the book down here in verse 4? And she
saw the house that he had built. Oh, you mentioned to him in the
beginning, the house. This is a church building. We're the
house of God. You know, Moses was a faithful
servant over his house, but he was just a servant in the house.
Christ is the Son over the house whose house we are. And a house
means everybody involved in that house, the servants and the sons
and everybody. That means the genealogy. That
means the progeny. That means all the people that
come from that house. And we're the house of Christ.
Huh? Look with me over in Ephesians
2. Look at Ephesians 2. Oh, here's where we're at. This
is where we're at. We're a spiritual house. Spiritual
house. Spiritual building. And we offer spiritual sacrifices
made acceptable to God in Christ. Don dealt with that soul so well
last night, spiritual altar, spiritual sacrifices. But here
in verse 19, look what it says, Ephesians 2, Now therefore you
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, and that means on what
they taught, on what they preached, upon the doctrine that God gave
them. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief coroner, in whom all
the building in Christ fitly framed together groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also you are built together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit. All of us believers
here right now, we're just a building of God, and God dwells in this
building. You know, it always amazes me when somebody's getting
ready to build a house or something, they'll bring three or four bundles
of two-by-fours and two-by-sixes and lay them down there, three
or four bundles of wafer board, and they'll lay it all down there.
Somebody will take all that stuff and they'll take all that in
those big piles and in a little while, those piles will be gone
and there will be a house here. They took a pile of nothing there,
you know, something that's just a pile of lumber. Now how are
they going to take all that and turn it into something like this?
So that's what God done. He took all that and built Him
a house and me and you in that house. We're of that household. That household. And oh, beloved,
let me show you something else you saw back over here. I don't
know how long I've gone here. Not only did she see his house,
but she saw his table. Look down here in verse 5. And she saw the house that he
built and the meat of his table. Oh my, when he sets the table,
oh what a table he sets. He sets the table, you know he
sets this wonderful table, right in the middle of it. That in
the middle of it sets Christ. And all that's in Him. There's
His righteousness. There's His wisdom. There's His
glory. There's His love. There's His
justification. There's His forgiveness. There's
His long-suffering. There's His patience. There's
His election. There's His power. There's His
compassion. There's His mercy. And all the
tables sit with all of these wonderful things. And we just
sit and just enjoy them, eat them. And oh, and lo and behold,
she sees the table, and look what it says. She saw His provision.
That's His provision. And oh, God has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Folks, you
know, in Pentecostalism and all that, they ask if you've got
the second blessing yet. I've got them all. Got them all. Got them all at one time. You
know, but he just doles them out to me as I need them. Oh, John Bunyan said he has bags
of mercy yet unbroken. And then look what else she saw. In the setting of His servants.
She saw His servants. Look how His servants are. They're
sitting. Who ever heard of servants sitting? The Master does everything in
this house. That's what you know when you're
talking about resting in Christ. That's what it means. It means
reposing. It means reposing. And every one of you men's got
an easy chair, don't you? Every single one of you's got
one. Most of them's got a footstool in them. You just push a button
and a footstool comes out. And when you get in that thing,
you don't want to be bothered. When I get in mine, my wife says,
can I bring you anything? Because she knows I'm not getting
out. And here we are. This is what it means to be in
Christ. Repose yourself. He that has ceased from his labor
has entered into his rest. Christ ceased from His labor.
He said to God's right hand, and if He finished the work,
then I'm going to sit down and rest in Him. And that's why we're
preaching all the time, ain't we, Don? Quit working. Rest. Stop. Don't do nothing. Well, I need to come to the front.
No, you need to come to Christ. I need to get on an altar. Christ
is your altar. I need to have a feeling. You
need Christ. I need to do something. No, you
don't need to do nothing but in your heart and soul say, Lord,
I'm coming to Him who is everything. Them preachers told me that He
did it all. And I'm going to stop working
and, Lord, here I go. I'm going to fall back. And if you don't catch me, I'm
going to perish. But just as the minute you fall,
He'll catch you. He'll never let you fall. And
that's what we do. We throw ourselves on Him. And
oh, we're setting. Oh, my. Oh, my. We're setting. Oh, she saw them setting. And
then look what else is in here. And she saw their apparel. Saw
how they was dressed. Oh, they didn't have old butler's
apparel. The king, you know, when Solomon
dresses his servants, they got the best clothes on. He's the
one with the king's robe, but oh my, we have got the best robe. Oh, son, come here. Take the
best robe. And you know what it says there
when they're probably going to come home? Take the best robe and put it
on him. Put it on him. They didn't say stick your arms
out here and see if it's going to fit. Put it on him. Put it on him. Then it says,
put shoes on. He didn't have to do nothing
but stand there and be dressed. And that's what Solomon put.
Dressed him. And Christ dresses us. Where
God himself can look at us. Listen. Who is he that can condemn
us? We can face angels. Face the
holiness of God. We can face the law. We can face
the devil. We can face our conscience. We
can face the Word. And absolutely nothing can find
a spot or flaw in our dress. Can't do it. Can't do it. Oh my, not only that, but look
what this says down here in verse 8. They got to continually hear
His wisdom. And it says here in verse 8,
Happy are thy men. Oh, ain't you happy? That word
happy means blessed. I'm happy as if I had good sense.
Happy are these thy servants. Watch this, Stanley continued
before thee, and oh, they get to hear your voice, get to hear
what you've got to say. And over in 1 Kings 3, 9, it
says there that God gave him an understanding heart, and that
means He gave him a hearing heart. Oh, God, give us a hearing heart.
Give us a hearing heart. And oh, in their pleasure, they
were so happy, it says, happy are they, you. And you know,
happy is the people that has the God of Jacob as their God. Who is the God of Jacob? First
of all, He's the God that lays hold on you. Jacob was asleep
that night, wasn't he? And a man, it said a man came
and laid hold on him. And they said, God of Jacob,
He's the one that comes to get you. He's the one that lays hold
on you. And He's the one, once He gets
a hold of you, He says, I'm not turning loose to you, bless me.
And then when he turns loose, he gives you a new name that
nobody knows but you and him. And then not only after he does
that, he changes the way you walk. Ain't that right? You walk different after that. He walked, you know, you could
tell he wasn't a supplant or he wasn't a deceiver anymore.
He had a new name, Israel. Israel, Prince with God. These
people are happy. They're happy. And then look
what else she saw about him there in verse 5. Not only does she
see the attendance of his ministers, the setting of his servants and
their apparel, but his ascent by which he went up into the
house of the Lord. She saw the way that he ascended. She saw the way that he carried
himself. And beloved, you know, when those
apostles stood outside Jerusalem that day and the Lord Jesus was
standing there talking to them, And he started ascending. Started
going up. And they just stood there looking. Christ lost gravity. He's going
back where he come from. And he started ascending. And
all of a sudden, those two fell to him. Simon said, you men of
Israel, why stand you gazing up into the heaven? Said, this
Jesus who went up like this, the same one, he's coming back
the same way. He went up in the clouds, he's
coming back just like he was. And where did he ascend to? sat
down after he purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of
the majesty on high. We've seen him ascend. We saw
him go back up there with the victory. We saw him with all
the, he went back up there and led captivity captive. And he
said to God's right hand, all power vested in him right now. Oh my. And then look what happened
after that happened. After all she saw and all she
heard and all she did. Look what followed now. It says
in the last part of verse 4, she was humbled. There was no
more spirit in her. I ain't fighting no more. I'm
just giving up. There's no more spirit in her. Oh, she was humbled. She was
humbled. She was like Paul on the Damascus
road. He was put down. He got down in the dust. Nothing
else to do. And oh my, it's like Daniel said,
he'd come and it turned into corruption. And when John saw
the Lord Jesus Christ, he fell as a dead man. That's the way
she was. After she'd heard and she'd saw. Now all the questions
in her heart was told. She just fell down. And then she confessed that everything
she had heard was true. Everything that everybody told
me about you was exactly the way it was. And she said to the
king, in verse 6, it was a true report that I heard about you.
Everything I heard about you is right, it's true, it's so.
And look at this. Of all your acts, the things
you did, the things you do, and of your wisdom. And watch this
now. How be it I believe not the words,
Ain't that what it says when that woman left her water pot
and she came running and said, come see a man who told me all
things ever I did? And many believed because of
her testimony, but many believed because they saw for themselves.
And she said, I heard. But she said, and then I came,
my own eyes see me. And guess what? Everything I
heard was so, but listen, they didn't tell the half of it. And
we always feel, don't you fellas feel, that we just never told
the half of it? I wish I could tell, don't you
guys wish I could tell the way I feel it? I wish I could tell
it out the way I understand it. I'm like old Lloyd-Jones, he
said he preached twice. Twice in his whole life. And
he said, I was dreaming both times. And that's the way I feel. How
do you tell it? How do you tell it? We come short. How do you tell about Christ,
what he's really like to a believer's heart? How do you express what he's done for you? How do
you tell about his How do you tell about His grace? How do
you tell about the tenderness? And how do you tell about how
He opened your heart? How do you tell about how He
enlightened you? How do you tell about what He means to you and
what you understand about Him and the love that He has for
you? And how do you tell these things? How do you tell? I don't
know. But whatever we say, we're so far short of it that we just
barely touch the hem of the garment. But I'll tell you what, I'm going
to keep telling as long as she gives me breath. I'll tell my
little half. I'll give you half a report and
I'll be nice to her. I'll tell you half of it. I enjoy
telling you my half. And I love to hear these fellas
tell their half. You tell your half, you tell
your half, you tell your half. And after a while, Between your
half and my half and his half, we'll end up having a hole. Oh, my. She confessed and she
said, I had to come see for myself. I had to come see for myself.
And then look what she done. Down there in verse 9, here's
what she said, Blessed be the Lord thy God. He delighted in
you. Oh, God delights in His Son.
And that's why we say, blessed be the Lord God, which delights
in you. What's this? He's the one that
set you on the throne of Israel. He's the one that made you come
up. Who is this that cometh? Open up, you old everlasting
doors. Open up, you gates. The King of Glory is coming.
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, mighty in battle. The
Lord, glorious in victory. He sets you on the throne. God
set Him on His throne. And here's why He done it. Because
the Lord loved Israel forever. Don't that make you happy all
over? Why did He set Him on His throne? Why did He delight in
Him? Because He liked us. I love Israel. I'm going to give them hell.
How long have you loved them? With an everlasting love. Oh my, ain't that something? Look what she's done now, and
I'm through. Verse 10, And she gave the king
an hundred and twenty talents of gold and spices. Now what
this tells us is, we don't give him anything to add to him. She
never added to Solomon at all. And whatever we, you know, And
all we are to give to Christ is ourselves. I beseech you by
the mercies of God, Paul said, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. He doesn't
need anything we've got. The Beloved, we give Him all
we are and all we have. You know, if He saves you 90%,
you give 90%. If He saved you 50%, you give
Him 50%. If He saved you all over, give Him all you need. Huh? Ain't that right? The Lord bless
you.