In 1 Kings 10, we read of the
Queen of Sheba and how she comes to visit Solomon and how she comes to question
him and to observe and to discover over what she has heard of his
great wisdom. It's true. 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 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 attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
and his assent by which he went up unto 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 it. 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, and
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 120 talents
of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones. There came no more such abundance
of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. And the navy also of Hiram that
brought gold from Ophir brought in from Ophir great plenty of
almog trees and precious stones. And the king made of the almog
trees pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king's houses,
harps also and salt trees for singers. There came no such almog
trees nor was seen unto this day. And 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. And 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 having asked, being answered,
she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in
mine own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom, howbeit I believed
not the words, until I came and mine eyes had seen it, and behold,
the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I heard. Who is this Queen of Sheba? Why does she come onto the pages
of scripture here? What does she illustrate? This
Queen from a far country of which we know little. a great queen, a powerful queen,
a wise queen, a rich queen. She comes to Solomon with many
questions and with costly gifts. She'd heard of the fame of Solomon
concerning the name of the Lord and she came to prove him with
hard questions. in her visit to the king, her desire to hear of his wisdom and her own questions and bringing
her own wisdom before him. We see a likeness to those wise
men from the east who came when they heard of the birth of the
king of the Jews in Bethlehem, they came seeking him. and they
came bringing gifts of gold, myrrh, frankincense. They came
seeking him out at his birth. She comes like them from a far
country to see the king. But in many ways she is a picture,
an illustration of mankind as a whole. and mankind's approach
unto the king of glory, mankind's treatment of Christ and his gospel. When we hear of Christ, when
we hear the fame of the king concerning the name of the Lord,
when we hear of Christ, We approach unto Him the way she approached. We come unto Him with hard questions. We approach unto Him arrayed
in our own glory, with costly gifts. We come unto God as it
were, full of our own wisdom. full of our own righteousness,
bringing before him the works of our own hands, and full of
hard questions. We doubt him. We doubt the report
of him. We do not believe him. She said, 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 it and behold the half was not told me. Until God by faith
brings us to Christ the king of whom Solomon is but a picture
until he brings us under him and by faith we see him and we
hear his wisdom we are like the queen of Sheba we believe not
the words we come full of doubt and suspicion We come full of our own wisdom. We ask hard questions. And it's not until we meet with
him and he answers every question and he brushes aside all our
unbelief and he breaks down our arrogant, haughty spirit and
he brings us down to nothing so that there is no more spirit
in us as there was no more spirit in her at the end until we're
brought to the end of ourselves the end of coming in our own
wisdom pitching it against his until all our hard questions
are taken away and brushed aside We are just in unbelief and blindness. But should he bring us there
as he brought her there, we will confess like her. I believed
not the words until I came and my eyes had seen it. 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, and
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 for ever. Therefore made he the king to
do judgment and justice. You see the queen of Sheba's
encounter with Solomon transformed her. She came full of her own
wisdom, her own might, her own works, her own righteousness
and all the spirit within her was brought down to nothing.
and all her unbelief was brushed aside and she confesses the half
was not told. Oh how unbelieving I was. In this she is seen not just
as mankind approaching unto God in his own self-righteousness,
his own wisdom with hard questions and doubts and mockery and scoffing. But she is seen as one who is
transformed, changed by her encounter with the King. As one who is
saved. She's a picture in this sense
of Christ's bride. The Queen comes to the King. and is left full of wonder at
His glory. When she first approaches she
comes in her own glory, her own splendor, with her own wisdom
and her own questions. She comes as it were to put the
King on trial. She's heard of Him, she's heard
of Christ. and she has some hard questions
for him. She puts him on trial. Does he
meet her approval? Can he answer her hard questions? She's a woman. approaching unto
the king full of her own wisdom, having her own riches, coming
from a far country who on hearing of this king comes with many
hard questions. And we see how her wisdom is
pitted against the king's wisdom. She comes unto him full of her
wisdom, full of herself, full of questions, Isn't this like
you and I? And doesn't this remind us of
what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians? The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. She comes,
as you and I do, with the wisdom of man, the wisdom of this world. And the foolishness of the cross,
the preaching of Christ in his gospel, of which Solomon and
his wisdom and his answers to her hard questions are a picture,
breaks her and brings her to nothing. The
foolishness of the preaching of the gospel changed her to
the point that she says she did not believe, but now she sees. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness
but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. Do you come unto Christ as it
were with hard questions? Does your heart say well if there's
a God wouldn't he do this and shouldn't he be like that? If
Christ is real why is this like this and why is that like that?
Why is the world the way it is? he rules over all things why
doesn't he prevent this from happening and why does that occur? Oh how many hard questions we
throw at him in our wisdom. And oh how we ridicule the preaching
of the cross, the preaching of Christ. Oh how dull it seems
to us. Oh how apathetic we are to it. Oh how irrelevant Christ seems
to the modern man in his modern world. We've moved beyond such
things. We've moved beyond these old
myths and tales. We don't need religion anymore. We have science for our God. The foolishness of God is wiser
than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. She
came pitching her wisdom against Solomon's. Is that how you approach
Christ and his gospel? Pitching your wisdom, your knowledge,
your understanding against his? you see your calling brethren
how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not
many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
have God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. She had heard of Solomon's wisdom,
wisdom and power, unlike any that had been seen in the world
before. But she approached unto him with
her own wisdom and her own questions, seeking to bring him down to
her own level. She'd heard many great things,
But she didn't believe. She'd heard of his kingdom. She'd heard of Jerusalem. She'd heard of the house he built. She'd heard of the temple. She'd
heard of his navy that he brought gold from a far country over
unto his kingdom with. She'd heard of the wisdom of
Solomon. Have you heard of Christ? Have you heard as it were of
his navy? Of how he brings his gold, his
people from a far country across the waters, the waters of death,
the waters of judgment, the waters of sin, how he brings them from
a far country across the waters into his kingdom. What a navy
Christ has built, how many he brings from the four corners
of the earth, how he saves them by the preaching of his gospel,
how he brings in his gold into his kingdom and builds his church. you may have heard of him you
may have heard of his gospel you may have heard of his mighty
works but do you come like the Queen of Sheba is the approach
of your heart one that is full of your own glory your own wisdom
your own righteousness your own riches your own works you come
and visit him as it were full of riches look at me He should receive me because
of how great I am. Look at my glory. And you come
and you sit him down, as it were, with your hard questions. How
he can't answer. These people that believe Christ
and preach him, they don't have answers for this and answers
for that. We come with our doubts and our suspicions and our ridicule
and our scorn. but how everything that she asked
was answered how Solomon in his wisdom had an answer for every
riddle every hard question she placed before him she was overwhelmed with his
wisdom overwhelmed with the glory of Solomon when she came face
to face with him It transformed her. See, as we read in 1 Corinthians,
God has chosen the base things of the world, the things which
are not, in order to bring to naught things that are, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. We can come before
Christ full of ourselves. full of our own self-importance
full of what we've done and what we are and the decisions we've
made and what we think about the scriptures and what we think
things should be and how we think God should be full of our own
ideas of the world around us full of our own self-importance
our own glory the riches and the works of our own hands but
God won't share his glory with a sinner like you and I. No matter what kind of a name
we have made for ourselves in this world, she was the queen
of Sheba. She came with mighty train, with
camels, with an entourage. Oh, how important she was. And he brought her down to nothing.
There was no more spirit left in her. And we may come unto Christ in
the same spirit but he won't share his glory with a feeble
man or woman like you or I. He won't share his glory with
wretched sinners full of self-righteousness which stinks in his presence. He'll bring his people to naught
and give them faith to see Christ in all his majesty. Of him, he
says unto his people, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. That's where we need to be brought. But just like the scribes and
just like the Pharisees, when Christ comes unto us, we meet
Him with our questions. She brought hard questions. They
came unto Him and questioned Him and sought to trap Him in
His words. Because what a fool he is. Look
at us, we know the scriptures. We have wisdom in these things. So they try to trap him. When David's son should come,
whose lord is he? They try to trap him. They've
got the answers to every puzzle. And yet when he spake, it was
said of him that no man spake like unto this man. He spake
with a wisdom, Christ spake with a wisdom and an authority that
no one had ever heard. He had an answer to every question
put to him. He could brush aside the unbelief
of sinners, the unbelief of religious hardened sinners that know it
all and yet are blind to the very God that stood before them. Are you like them? When Christ
is preached, and stands before you as the majesty of God, the
son of God, the king in all his glory, when he's made known unto
you, are you like a Pharisee, full of unbelief, full of hard-heartedness,
seeking to stone him because he brings you in your spirit
to nothing. We don't want to be brought down. And when the Queen of Sheba came
unto Solomon and questioned him, and questioned him, and questioned
him. He answered every question until
there was no more spirit in her. Yes, she'd heard of all Solomon's
wisdom. 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 attendance 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. She was brought to nothing. Nothing. before a mighty king. We come before God in all our
spirit, all the wisdom of man, all our self-confidence, with
our hard questions, with our unbelief, with our doubts, with
our suspicions, full of ourselves. And then when the king in his
wisdom by his gospel makes known unto us just what we are, as
wretched, vile, unbelieving sinners before our holy God, when he
brings us down by his gospel, until there is no more spirit
in us, we are emptied, we are brought to nothing, when that
word breaks us. We have nothing to confess except
that we are wretched sinners before a holy God in need of
mercy. She'd heard and seen all Solomon's
wisdom and she confessed that it was a true report that had
been given unto her. She said to the king, it was
a true report that I heard in my known land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. When God sends his gospel our
way, when he preaches of Christ, his son, and his sovereign grace
in saving sinners, his free grace, when God preaches his elect in
grace that he has a people chosen from the foundation of the earth
that God before this world was created chose a people who were
given to His Son and laid upon His heart, that Christ in the
fullness of time came into this world, made a man, made a little
lower than the angels even for the suffering of death, when
He came and lived as a man amongst men, when He was rejected by
all, you and I included, when all mankind sought to kill Him
and slay Him, when we said crucify Him, crucify Him, And when God
had his own son nailed to a cross and laid upon him the sins of
all his chosen people and when God poured out the wrath of his
fury against sin upon his own son to take that sin away And
when Christ suffered in the darkness, rejected by man, forsaken by
the Father, because of the vileness that He was made to be, because
of the iniquity He bore, because of the horror of death that He
endured, because of the sins of His people, when He cried
out in victory, it is finished! when he rose again the third
day, when he ascended unto glory and power and sat down and preaches
the gospel from on high that declares that he came for that
people, that he saved that people, that his name is called Jesus
because he shall save his people from their sins. When that message
is preached unto fallen sinners like you and I, We have hard questions. We say,
how can God be like this? How can he come and save some
and not others? How can he be the one that determines
who is saved? Why is it not down to me and
my choice? Why can't I take him or leave
him? Oh, how we hate this message,
how we despise it. We don't want a God who rules. We want to be God. We want to
decide whether he saves us or not. We want to sit on the throne
of glory. So we come as it were, like the
Queen of Sheba, full of our own glory, used to sitting upon a
throne, and we put him to trial and we quiz him and question
him until his gospel breaks us. And then we have to confess.
that that gospel which we once despised, which we once rejected,
is true. It was a true report that I heard
in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. This gospel
of Jesus Christ that we preach of his free and sovereign grace,
of his electing love, of His abounding grace unto sinners
is a true report. But until we hear the King, until
we hear His wisdom, until we hear Christ preach it unto us,
we remain in unbelief. And we come in our own glory,
with our own riches, our own works to present unto Him. and
our own wisdom and our own hard questions. But she wasn't left
in that state. There was no more spirit in her.
She was humbled and broken. She saw what she was as it were. She saw that she was nothing
compared to Solomon. She saw that she was a sinner
in need of salvation. And she recognized that that
that she had heard of him before was but a glimpse, but a drop
in the ocean. of all that he truly is. The
half was not told. How bid I believe not the words
until I came and my eyes had seen it and behold the half was
not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I heard. The half was not told me. We
could preach Christ faithfully to sinners. Christ could come
and preach his gospel to us. We could hear this gospel preached
by faithful preachers that God sent day and night for the entire
length of our lives to a very old age and the half would not
be told. We never grasp the height and
the depth and the length of His glove, of His glory, of His mercy,
of His majesty, the riches of God which are found in Jesus
Christ. We but see it through a glass
darkly. We but see a glimpse of it and
we see nothing of it. Until we're brought before the
king and we hear his voice in the gospel and he gives us faith
to believe. Until then we're just full of
unbelief. The half was not told her. As
we read at the end of John's Gospel concerning Jesus Christ,
John recorded the works of Christ. He recorded those signs that
depicted His glory, all the majestic work of Christ, the divine Son
of God, coming to the world as a man, all that He did to save
sinners. And at the end of his Gospel
he writes, And there are also many other things which Jesus
did, the which, if they should be written, every one, I suppose,
that even the world itself could not contain the books that should
be written. Amen. The half was not told. We have four Gospels that depict
the works of Christ. in his time upon the earth. We
have the epistles and the acts of the apostles, we have the
entire Old Testament scriptures, we have the entire Bible and
the half is not told us. The whole of the scriptures make
Christ known. Constantly we see in these Old
Testament scriptures pictures of Christ and his glory and his
gospel. Constantly we see how the writers
of the scriptures, a multitude of writers throughout thousands
of years, from multitude of countries, all testify to Christ, and we
see the harmony and unison of their message. They all preach
Christ and him crucified, and yet throughout the entirety of
it, the half is not told. Have you but heard but a few
words of Christ's gospel? Has a tenth been told you? A
hundred for thousand has God spoken unto you. Until Christ
himself speaks, it's all words which you doubt and which you
respond to with hard questions. But when he speaks, you say,
I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen
it, and, behold, a 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, and
that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord 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. The Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore made he the king to
do judgment and justice. Oh, what a blessing it is to
be brought to hear this king, to hear Christ and his gospel,
to truly hear his voice in the gospel. to be brought to the
end of ourselves, to have no more spirit left in us, to have
ourselves broken. What a blessing it is to be brought
there and to be given faith to behold the King in His glory. How happy are thy men, happy
are these thy servants which stand continually before thee,
and that hear thy wisdom. Has God brought you to stand
before Christ, to be in his presence, to hear his wisdom? Has he blessed
you as he blessed the Queen of Sheba by bringing her to Solomon? David writes in Psalm 32, of the blessing of the man whose
iniquity is taken away. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Blessed is the man who trusts
in the Lord. Blessed is the man who knows
this Saviour, this King, His Gospel and His Wisdom. O how happy were those that stood
continually before Solomon and that heard his wisdom! But O
how happy, how blessed are those who by faith stand before Christ,
and hear his wisdom in his gospel day and night, who have his righteousness,
who have had their sins blotted out by his blood, for whom he
died and suffered upon the cross, who have been washed in his blood,
who have his righteousness, his life, who are one with him, who
have his wisdom, and the riches of God in Christ, the fullness
of God. Oh how happy, what a blessing
to be brought there. When she was brought there, she
was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with Solomon's glory,
overwhelmed with his majesty, overwhelmed with his mercy, his
wisdom, his grace, his glory. Overwhelmed with his salvation.
She gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices, very great
store and precious stones. There came no more such abundance
of spices as those which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. She gave him what was nothing
really. But she was overwhelmed, she
had to give to him. Like the woman we read of in
the the Gospels who came unto Christ with precious ointment
and poured it over his head and washed his feet and devoted herself
to him because she knew that she was a sinner she knew that
she had nothing But she knew that Christ was her Saviour,
Christ was the King, the Son of God, the King of kings and
Lord of lords, Christ was her all. Matthew, we read, there
came unto him a woman having an alabaster box, a very precious
ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat. Oh, she bathed his feet with
her hair. She washed him. She adored him. She gave what she could to him
because his wisdom, his gospel had broken her and had saved
her. How here in Solomon broke the
Queen of Sheba and saved the Queen of Sheba. How here in Christ
in his Gospel broke this woman at his feet who washed them and
saved that woman. Has here in Christ in the Gospel
broken you? and saved you. Have you heard
him? Have you heard of his wisdom?
Have you heard of his glory? Has Christ caused you to see
his wisdom and see his glory by faith? Solomon gave to the Queen of
Sheba gifts more than she could imagine. 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. Her gifts to him were nothing
compared to his to her. He gave her all her desire, whatsoever
she asked, and he gave her of his royal bounty. Has Christ,
by his gospel, given you a broken, a fallen sinner, emptied of self,
emptied of your own righteousness, emptied of your own wisdom, having
had all your hard questions answered, melting you, breaking you, has
he given to you When you cried out unto Him as a wretched, broken
sinner, crying out for mercy, has He given you all your desire? Has He given you mercy? Has He
given you grace? Has He given you righteousness?
Has He given you salvation? Has He given you in Him all the
riches of the Godhead, riches beyond compare, wisdom beyond
understanding? Has He given you all your desire?
Oh, that God would bring us by His gospel unto the King, unto
Christ. And oh, that our spirit would
be brought to nothing. Our questions would be brushed
aside, and He would bring us, like His servants, to cry out
day and night, praises unto His name, because we know His love
unto us, a wretched, undeserving sinner. 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. God loved his people
forever, so he set his King Christ upon a throne forever to do judgment
and justice. He came into this world at the
cross where he wrought judgment. where He satisfied justice, where
He brought in righteousness and salvation for wretched sinners
like you and I, as He brought you to see Him, as He brought
you, where He brought the Queen of Sheba, to be able to say,
it was a true report that I heard. Howbeit I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes had seen it, And behold, the half
was not told me. The half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I heard. Amen.