I want us to read this scripture
to see why this story of Queen Sheba coming to Solomon is so
important. Our Lord himself told us there's
a very important lesson for us in this picture of Christ our
King. The title of the message is The
Half Cannot Be Told. In Matthew 12, verse 42, this
is where our Lord says, the Queen of the South, that's the Queen
of Sheba, 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." This is where our Lord is telling
us those who refuse to come to Christ will be judged by how
this example of the Queen of Sheba, how she came to Solomon. She put forth a lot of effort.
She traveled for weeks, maybe months, to get from where she
was to Solomon. How often do we not want to travel
20 minutes to get to the surface to hear of one greater than Solomon?
She made a lot of effort and she came to Solomon to be taught. She came with a teachable attitude. How often can we not be taught
because we know it all already? You can't teach a know-it-all
anything. I've heard this before. We'll
never learn of Christ with that attitude, really. The lesson
for us here is the importance of coming to Christ and coming
to him for everything that we need. Now, 1 Kings, much of this
book is written to show us the results of disobedience. You
know, when Israel had a good king, a king that followed the
Lord, all of Israel was blessed. And when they had a king who
was disobedient, like King Ahab, who didn't follow the Lord, all
of Israel suffered. You think how blessed Israel
was to have David as their king, Solomon as their king. All of
Israel was blessed, weren't they? But one greater than Solomon's
here. How blessed are we to have Christ as our king, to have Christ
as our sovereign? A believer is blessed to have
Christ as our king for this reason, because of God's love for sinners
that's in his son. In 1 Kings 10 verse nine, listen
to what the queen says to Solomon. She said, blessed be the Lord
thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of
Israel. How God the Father delighted in his son to set him on the
throne of all. And because the Lord loved Israel
forever, Therefore made he the king to do judgment and justice. Spiritual Israel is blessed because
God loves them. He sent his eternal love upon
them and made Christ our king. Now we're commanded to come to
Christ. Every person in this room is
commanded to come to King Christ and bow before him, to come and
beg him for mercy. And when we're disobedient and
do not come, we will suffer. But when we do come to Christ,
by God's grace, we're enabled to come to Christ. We're blessed
more than human language can ever express. That's why the
queen said, Solomon and a half hasn't even been told. Well,
if half the glory of Solomon couldn't be told, I promise you
only a fraction of the glory of Christ can be told. And that's
part of the great difficulty in preaching. You men who preach,
you know this. You go home and you just sigh. Your wife says, what's wrong?
I could have said that better. I wish I said this. No matter
how well you preach, You can't begin to tell the glory of King
Christ. No matter how well you preach,
I promise you, you cannot begin to do the subject justice. But
you know, also in a way, that takes a lot of pressure off of
preaching. All you got to do is just come
tell what the Lord showed you. Just jump in there in the deep
end and just swim around for about 40 minutes and get out.
You haven't plumbed the depths. But God's people will be blessed
if Christ is preached. Just preach Christ, what God
showed you, and God's people will be blessed. So I've got
five things, questions I want to ask here about the Queen of
Sheba. First, why did the Queen come to Solomon? Well, she came
to Solomon because she heard something. She heard about Solomon's
glory. Look in 1 Kings 10 verse 1. 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.
Now, the queen somehow heard of Solomon. Could be she was
in her own country and there was an ambassador from Israel
and he came to her and told her about Solomon. Well, when people
hear of Christ, you know how they're going to hear of him?
They're going to hear from one of God's ambassadors, one of
his preachers. Paul said, we're ambassadors
for Christ. That's the job of the preacher, to tell people
about King Christ, to tell people about the glory of our Redeemer.
Maybe she heard from an ambassador. Maybe she heard from a traveler
in her country, someone who was from Israel. Maybe they were
in her country on business. She happened to meet them and
she heard about this King Solomon. How many times have people heard
of Christ from someone they work with? Maybe someone they know
socially. We ought to always look for opportunity. to tell people about Christ,
invite them to come to service with us and hear of our King.
We ought to be ready to give people a CD or, you know, there's
an article you particularly love in the bulletin, cut it out and
save it, give it to somebody. Maybe that's how they'll hear,
who knows? We never know if we're talking to one of God's elect
or not, do we? The only way we'll ever know is if they come to
Christ. The way we know we're one of
God's elect is when we hear of him, we believe him and we come
to him. The queen heard about Solomon
and she came to find out for herself if these things were
so. But now she heard something specifically about Solomon that
made her come to him. She heard, verse one says, she
heard the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. She came
to Solomon not to establish a peace treaty between their countries.
She didn't come there to establish a trade business, increase trade
revenue. She didn't come to learn how
to build these big buildings Solomon was building. She came
to Solomon with a religious interest. She came to find out about the
Lord, who He is. And she came to Solomon, she
knew this about Solomon. He knows the Lord. Now I want
to know Him. And she came to Solomon to find
out who the Lord is. And when a sinner comes to Christ,
when I tell you, you come to Christ, I don't mean come to
religion. I don't mean come to religious
ceremonies. I don't mean come to certain
doctrines that we all hold to. I mean come to Christ. You come
to the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. You come to him because
you've heard about him. You've heard about his glory
and forgiveness. You've heard about his glory
and showing mercy and grace to sinners. You've heard about his
glory and putting away the sin of his people. You come to him
because you need him. You need his person. You need
him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. That's why the
queen came to Solomon. Well, secondly, how did the queen
come to Solomon? She came needy. She came with
some questions that she could not answer herself. Look at verse
two. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with
camels that bear 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. Now the queen came empty. Now I know verse 2 tells us all
these presents that she came with, and that's just the right
thing for her to do. You're a queen, you go visit
another head of state, you bring these presents. Remember now,
this is just a picture. Just a picture. A sinner does
not come to Christ this way. All these spices and gold and
precious stones that you got, you count them as dumb. and you
leave him at home and you come to Christ empty-handed, as an
empty-handed beggar. And the queen came to Solomon
empty, just like a sinner comes to Christ. She came and the first
thing she did was she told him everything that was in her heart.
She just laid it all open bare to Solomon. That's the way a
sinner comes to Christ. We come to Him and lay open our
heart. There's no point in trying to
hide anything. He sees everything. No point in hiding it. Just lay it all open before Him.
Confess our sin and our need to Him. We confess not just what
we've done, but we confess what we are. We're empty, needy sinners. We're rebels against Him and
we need mercy. Just confess it all. Lay your
heart open to the Lord. And then the queen came to be
taught. There's so many things she heard. She didn't understand. She just didn't understand. Well,
there's so many things a sinner cannot understand. We cannot
understand until we know Christ is the answer to everything we
need to know. So the queen came to prove Solomon with some hard
questions. She had hard questions, questions
she could not answer. That's what she came to Solomon
with. That's the way a sinner comes to Christ, with hard questions,
problems that we cannot answer. And you know, Solomon answered
every question. Every question she threw up,
he knew the answer, because God gave him wisdom. Every question a sinner has,
every question, is answered by Christ. Not just that he gives
us the answer, but Christ himself is the answer. He is the wisdom
of God. And there are some hard questions.
There are many of them. I just got four. There are many
hard questions that ought to be asked. These are questions
we should be asking. And they're questions that God's
prophets should answer. Here's one Job asked. How can
a man be justified with God? How? Now you tell me, how can
he be clean, a man be clean that's born of a woman? Well, the law
can't do it, can it? By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in the sight. Religious ceremonies
can't do it. Israel observed the Passover
for how many years? Salvation, justification, forgiveness
of sin was never in that ceremony of the Passover. It wasn't those
Passover lambs and putting the blood on, that's just a picture.
Justification is in Christ our Passover, who sacrificed for
us. The waters of baptism. Don't
look at that as a ceremony. That doesn't save anybody. It's
a confession of what God's done already for you, but that ceremony's
not gonna save you. Christ saves. The one who died
and was buried rose again. He's the savior. See, it's not
in ceremony. It's not in law. The only way
a sinner can be justified, made without sin, is in Christ. A sinner is made righteous because
Christ took the sin of His people. He took it in His own body on
the tree, and He put it away through the blood of His sacrifice.
And He gave His people His own perfect righteousness that He
earned as a man, and He made them righteous. That's what Scripture
says, for He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, that we might
be justified in Christ. That's the only way that God
can remain God, that God can remain holy and just and still
justify the ungodly. It's through the sacrifice of
the substitute. How can a man be justified with
God? Through the sacrifice of Christ. Look over Romans chapter
three. How can a man be justified with
God? Well, it's going to take grace, isn't it? We're justified
by grace. Romans 3 verse 24. Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
How can a man be justified with God? It's by faith in Christ. In Romans 3 verse 28, we're justified
by faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Look in
Romans 5 verse 9. How can a sinner be justified?
Only by the blood of Christ. Much more then, being now justified
by his blood, we should be saved from wrath through him. One more
scripture, Romans chapter 8 verse 28. How is a sinner justified? Only
by the eternal purpose of God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom he called,
then he also justified. and whom He justified, then He
also glorified. That's how we're justified, it's
in Christ. It's by the grace of God, through
faith in Christ, through the blood of Christ, by the purpose
of God. That's how a sinner's justified. Well, here's a question
that must be asked and must be answered. What is this business
I hear about the new birth? What are you talking about when
you talk about the new birth? You said a person's gotta be
born again. But how can a man be born when he's old? The queen
might have asked you, she said, I've already been born, I'm old.
How can I be born? What are you talking about with being born
again? Well, the new birth is not like the first birth. You
know, being born a second time, just like you're born the first
time won't do you any good. You'll be born a sinner again
because you're born from sinful seed. The new birth, is new in
every way. It's the birth of a new man,
a new spiritual man, not the birth of a fleshly man, a birth
of a spiritual man, a man who's never existed before. And he's
born in a different way. He born from new seed, from a
new father. So he's got a new nature. Look
at John chapter three. This is what our Lord told Nicodemus. What is this about the new birth?
Why is this so important? You tell me I must be born again.
John 3, verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. A man in the flesh doesn't
have the ability to see or understand or enter the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.
See, we're not talking about a fleshly birth. He's gotta be
born of the water and the Spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. It'll only
ever be useless flesh. And that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. So marvel not that I said unto
thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeneth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. That's the new birth. You must
be born again by the Spirit of God. This is a work of God that
he does in the hearts of his people. Look at Hebrews chapter
10. Here's a question. How can God, who sees everything,
not see my sin? How can God, who knows everything,
how can he not remember my sin? I told you already, Christ is
the answer to every question. It's in Christ, isn't it? The
sacrifice of Christ for His elect is so powerful and so factual
that the sin of God's elect doesn't even exist anymore. That's how
God doesn't see it. See if this is what the writer
of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10 verse 14. For by one offering,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Well, the
Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that, he had
said before, this is the covenant thou will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts,
and I'll write them in their minds. And in their minds while
I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more, because of the blood of the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now look at Matthew chapter 23.
Like I said, there are many hard questions we can look at. We'll
just look at these four. But this is a good question.
A question that ought to be asked. And a question that ought to
be answered. Matthew 23, verse 33. This is our Lord speaking to
the Pharisees. He says, you serpents and you generations of vipers,
how can he escape the damnation of hell? How could you escape
the damnation of hell? That's a good question, isn't
it? Well, the answer is Christ. The only way we can escape the
damnation of hell is if Christ suffered hell for you as your
substitute. As Christ hung on the cross, the Father had made
Him guilty of the sin of His people. At that time, the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered hell for His people. Hell is not so much
fire and brimstone as it's separation from God. That's hell. Separation
from God. Separation from his love and
his affection, his grace, his presence. As a savior, a substitute,
hung on Calvary's cross, he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? It's the cry of hell itself.
He suffered hell for his people. And if Christ suffered that for
you, You'll never suffer it. That's how you escape the damnation
of hell. Separation from the Father because
Christ suffered it for you. See, the answer is always Christ.
If you find Christ, you've got the key. You've got the answer.
We were talking about this the other day. Mike was mentioning
about subbing in a math class. Give me the answer book. That's
the only way I'm going to be able to do it. Give me the answer
book. If you've got Christ, you've got the answer book. You've got
the key. He's the answer to everything regarding salvation. Christ is
all in eternal life. He's all in redemption. He's
all in acceptance with God. Now you come to Christ and you
come to be taught. Come to learn of Him. You learn
who Christ is and you'll have eternal life. Well, here's my
third question. What did the queen learn when
she came to Solomon? She learned who Solomon really
is. She didn't just see the buildings
in his government. She learned who Solomon really
is. And when Christ reveals himself
to his people, you're not just going to learn points of doctrine.
You're going to learn who Christ really is. Now, we already saw
the queen. She learned about the wisdom
of Solomon. He answered her every question.
You come to Christ and you're going to learn who he is. Who
is he? He's the wisdom of God. When
a sinner comes to Christ, now I see God's wisdom in salvation.
The only way it's possible for me to see how can God save a
sinner like me is when I see Christ. Now I see God's wisdom. He can save me in Christ my substitute. That's divine wisdom. And then
the queen, she learned about the house that Solomon built.
Look at verse four. When the queen of Sheba had seen
all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he built. Now the
house that's referred to here is the temple. It's the house
of the Lord that Solomon built. And Solomon's temple is famous
for its grandeur, isn't it? But you know, the temple is a
picture of Christ. And it's also a picture of Christ
dwelling in his people. Let me show you that, 1 Corinthians
3. The tabernacle or the temple,
it's a picture of Christ dwelling in his people. That's his house.
1 Corinthians 3 verse 16. Know ye not that you are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If the
Spirit of God dwells in you, then you're His temple, aren't
you? A believer is the temple of God, because Christ dwells
in the hearts of His people, just like He dwelt in His Shekinah
glory in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. And that temple,
Solomon built, I mean, it was one of the glorious buildings
in the history of this earth. But you know that the house that
Christ had built is much more impressive than Solomon's. One
greater than Solomon's here. When Solomon built his temple,
he used the best materials from all over the world in it. Wayne,
I bet when you built your house, you used pretty much the best
you could buy, couldn't you? You didn't want cheap stuff.
You didn't want to put your wife and children in this thing. You
didn't want to fall down. You know when Christ built his house, He used the worst, the worst
material he could find from all through his creation. He used
sinners. He used dead sinners and he made
them living stones. And that's how he built his house.
Now that shows you the true glory of Christ the builder, Christ
the architect of his house. Solomon used the best materials
he could find. Where's his house now? It's gone. Christ used the worst materials
He could find. Washed Him in His blood, caused
Him to be born again by His Spirit, and His house will stand forever.
What a house. When she saw that temple Solomon
built, she saw the glory of the wisdom and talent of the builder. Then verse 5, she learned about
the meat of Solomon's table. She saw the meat of his table.
I want you to look back at 1 Kings chapter 4. This is what she saw,
the provision of Solomon's table every day. 1 Kings 4, verse 22. And Solomon's provision for one
day was 30 measures of fine flour, three score measures of meal,
10 fat oxen and 20 oxen out of the pastures, a hundred sheep,
besides harps and roebucks and fallow deer and fatted fowl. Now I'm telling you, that's a
lot of food. And that wasn't just Thanksgiving
now. Every day, that was the meat at Solomon's table. That's
what he had to feed the people in his palace. If you ate at
Solomon's table, you had plenty to eat, didn't you? And plenty
of good food to eat. Well, there's one greater than
Solomon here. Christ our King has a table that's much more
glorious. Christ is the table. The head of the table, the king,
he is the meal. He is the provision of the table.
We eat his flesh and drink his blood. And that's meat indeed.
And drink indeed. It's eternal life. We eat at
Christ's table freely. All you can eat. There's a lot
of food on Solomon's table, but there was a limit to it, wasn't
there? You come to Christ's table, there's no limit. It's all you
can eat every day. Then the queen, she learned about
Solomon's servants. Look here at verse five. She
saw the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and
the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers.
Now you notice the first thing she noticed, she saw, she learned
about Solomon's servants. They're sitting. The sitting
of the servants. Who ever heard of a servant sitting?
Servants don't sit. They scurry around and serve,
don't they? These servants were sitting.
That's a picture of the servants of Christ. Servants don't sit. The high priests in the tabernacle,
they never sat. But Christ's people sit. They sit in complete rest in
Christ. And they rest because the Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of glory, came to this earth as a servant. He appeared in the form of a
servant. The King appeared in the form
of a servant. And as a servant, he finished
all the work that the Father gave him to do. He never sat
down until the work was finished. He hung on the cross, and he
cried, it is finished. The work was done. What did he
do then? He went back to glory, and his
father said, sit here on my right. Sit, because the work is finished.
And his servants sit in him. What are you up scurrying around
for? The work's finished. There's nothing left to add.
The work of redemption is finished. Now you sit and you rest in Christ. She saw His servants resting.
Then she also noticed this about Solomon's servants. She noticed
their attendance. And that word means standing. Only in Christ can you rest and
serve at the same time. Only in Christ can you rest and
stand at the same time. These servants were always ready
to serve Solomon. And she noticed this. They were
happy to do it. You know what she says in verse
eight, she says, happier thy men, happier these thy servants,
which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. When
you read that, don't you get the idea that the queen of Sheba
was envious of these servants. The queen was envious of these
servants. She just thought, I wish I could
be as happy as those servants. How happy they are to stand in
Solomon's presence all the time. Hear all these wise Proverbs
that come from his mouth. Well, all that is a picture of
the believers standing before God. If you're in Christ, what
you're standing before God. Acceptance. Not called a servant. but a friend. You're my friend.
What is standing with God? We stand accepted in Christ our
substitute. And here's the third thing she
noticed about Solomon's servants, was their apparel. Now she knew
what heads of state looked like in other countries. And she thought,
wow, look at these servants. They're dressed better than kings
in other countries. That's the riches of Solomon. Well, you know, the servants
of Christ, they are dressed exactly like the king because they wear
his robe. They're dressed in his righteousness.
So they look just like him. But now here's the fourth thing.
This is the most important thing that the queen of Sheba learned
when she came to Solomon. She learned of the sacrifice
of sin. At the end of verse five, she
saw in his a sin by which he went up under the house of the
Lord. She saw Solomon go up to the
house of the Lord. She wasn't impressed with his
church clothes or whatever, I don't know what he wore to go there.
She wasn't impressed with that. You know what she's impressed
with? He went up to the house of the Lord and what did she
see when Solomon went to the house of the Lord? She saw the
high priest come and offer a sacrifice. She saw the burnt sacrifice.
Now she saw the heart of the matter. She came to find out
about the Lord. Now she saw the heart of the
matter. God can only be worshipped through
a sacrifice. He's not worshipped through my
obedience to the law, my doing all these following ceremonies.
God can only be worshipped through the bloody sacrifice, the burnt
offering. Atonement for sin can only be
made by the blood. And how glorious is it that a
sinner can approach God through the blood of the sacrifice. Sinners
can come before God in the blood and be accepted. Now that's a
picture of the great glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest
glory of Christ is his sacrifice for his elect and he gave himself
for his people. The sacrifice of Christ is glorious
in his mercy. Christ didn't die for good people.
What's the scripture saying? Christ died for sinners. Oh,
what mercy. The sacrifice of Christ is glorious
in its scope. Christ died for sinners from
every generation and every nation. The sacrifice of Christ is glorious
in its cleansing power. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. Have you ever heard anything
more glorious than that? Wash free from sin. The sacrifice
of Christ is glorious in its drawing power. Christ lifted
up. He said, we'll draw all unto
Him. What draws God's elect to Him? The sacrifice of Christ
is glorious in its drawing power. I love not having to talk you
into doing anything. Just preach Christ. If you're
His, you'll come. If He died for you, you'll come.
The sacrifice of Christ is glorious in its completeness. Those high
priests, after the order of Aaron, they offered millions of sacrifices. Christ offered one. One sacrifice
per sin forever. The sacrifice of Christ is glorious
in its preciousness. The sacrifice of Christ is so
precious, it satisfied the Father. And it satisfied the need of
every sinner. Oh, what a precious sacrifice.
And it is my great prayer that the Holy Spirit will enable us
to see the glory of Christ and His sacrifice for sin. If we
see that, we'll come to Christ, just like the queen came, and
we'll see the glory of the person of Christ. Here's my fourth question. What was the queen's reaction
to what she saw? Look here at the end of verse
five. When she saw all this about Solomon, she saw the person of
Solomon. There was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king,
it was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. How be it I believe not the words
until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half
was not told me. Thy wisdom and thy prosperity
exceeded the fame which I heard. When the queen saw who Solomon
really was, when she learned what she came to learn, when
she saw God, she came to learn about the Lord. She was speechless. That's the believer's reaction
to seeing Christ. Just speechless. What can you
say about it? John, the beloved apostle, who
leaned on the master's breast, was on the Isle of Patmos, and
he heard a voice behind him. He turned to see who it was,
and he saw the Lord. He didn't run up to him and shake
his hand. He didn't run up to him and slap him on the back.
This beloved apostle fell at his feet as dead. He saw Christ
and there was no more life left, no more spirit left in him. And
when we see Christ by God's grace, we see him in his gospel. We
see him in his word. And we must see him in awe and
wonder. the awe of His person. Heaven
can't contain Him. And wonder His grace that someone
like Him would die for somebody like me.
What wonder, what wonder. Christ is so high and I'm so
low. He's holy and perfect and I'm
completely sinful. He's so glorious and I'm so shameful. Yet He has mercy on me anyway.
He gave Himself for my sin anyway. All in one. And I'm sure the
Queen's right. Half of Solomon's glory couldn't
be told. Like I said earlier, I promise you a fraction of the
glory of Christ can't be told. It's impossible. You know, when
Christ was first revealed to me, I remember those. I don't know when I first came
to know the Lord, but I remember that time frame. And it seemed
to me like every single message I heard was just life altering. I just, oh, what I could see.
Lord, so merciful. And I thought, where have I been?
I wanted to ask Henry sometimes, how come you didn't tell me this
before? How come you didn't tell me? How glorious peace with God
is in Christ. How come you didn't tell me the
peace of forgiveness of sin in His blood? Just look and rest,
look and live. How come you didn't tell me? I go back, I listen to a lot
of old messages on Sermon Audio. And it confirmed what I thought.
He told me. I was deaf and couldn't hear.
I was blind and couldn't see. But when God gave me ears to
hear, oh, I heard. When He gave me eyes to see,
I saw. And I just overwhelmed, overwhelmed at who He is and
what He's done. And you might wonder, Frank,
why have you told me just half of this? Just half? Well, it's
because I don't know half. I don't care how long and how
well a man preaches, he'll never tell a fraction of the glory
of Christ. But you know what? That ain't
gonna stop me from trying. I'm gonna keep trying. Because
we can't take more than a fraction of the glory of Christ right
now. We just couldn't take it. We just melt. But what God has
been pleased to reveal to us, just that fraction of what He's
been pleased to reveal to us is enough to say. It's enough
to comfort. It's enough to give us everything
we need. So we keep preaching, even though we can't tell a fraction
of that, we're gonna keep preaching. Well, here's my third question,
or fifth question, last one. How did she leave? We saw why
she came. We saw how she came. We saw what she learned. We saw
her reaction. Now, how did she leave? Verse
13. King Solomon gave unto the queen
of Sheba all her desire. Whatsoever she asked. Beside
that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned
and went to her own country. She and her servants. The Queen
of Sheba, she gave to Solomon a lot, didn't she? All these
things that she brought and gave him as a gift. But I know this. She left with a whole lot more
than she came with. She left with a whole lot more.
She left with an understanding of who God is. She left with
a whole lot more than she came with. Solomon, it says, gave
her everything she asked for. She just going through his kingdom.
And she liked that. She won. He said, sure, take it. Everything
she asked for. He gave her. And more. There are some things she didn't
ask for. And Solomon says, you need this, you take it. Aren't you thankful? There are
things I don't even know to ask for. And God in His mercy says,
you need this, I'm going to give it to you. He gives us everything
we ask for and more. Now I know we give, we bring
an offering, we come to worship. But I promise you, We leave with
a whole lot more than we came with. We leave with a whole lot
more than we gave. King Christ gives to His people everything
we need. Forgiveness of sin, eternal life,
peace with God, acceptance in Him, and more. He gives us everything
of His royal fountain. God doesn't need anything from
us, but we need everything from Him. and He gives it freely to
His people. Christ gives His people Himself. Now that's the unspeakable gift.
You just can't tell the value. If you have Christ, you've got
it all because He is all. Now I implore you, you do what
the Queen of Sheba did. She said, I heard So I had to
come see this for myself. Now you've heard a fraction of
the glory of Christ. Now come to Him. Come to Him
and see for yourself. You've heard He forgives sin. Come to Him. Prove Him with a
hard question. Would you forgive my sin, Lord?
Would you forgive me? Come to Him for yourself. One greater than Solomon's here.
Come to Him with your need. Come to him empty-handed to be
your Savior and be your King. And I can tell you right now,
you know how you'll leave? You'll leave full. You'll leave
with it all because Christ is all. One greater than Solomon
is here. The half cannot be told. What a sight we do. It's just
a fraction. You imagine what's going to be like there with nothing
between. The half can't be told. Let's
bow in prayer.