I can remember that funeral.
I was only 10 years old, but I still remember it. I can remember
Brother Mahan trying to get through the funeral, but that was the
song they selected to sing at that funeral. This is my father's
world. And every time we sing that song,
I think about that. To think of two dear saints putting
their son in the ground, killed in battle, And they sang, this
is my father's world. Special, isn't it? Turn back
to Luke chapter 11. You know, it kind of shocks me that
I say something that happened 45 years ago. I'm not that old. Whenever we consider any scripture,
we should always look at it in its context. In verse 27, and
it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman of the
company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the
womb that bear thee and the paps which thou has sucked. Who would
deny that? Can you imagine being selected
by God to bear the Lord Jesus Christ? What a blessing. And the Lord replies in verse
28, yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and
keep it. If I hear the word of God tonight,
and if I keep the word of God tonight, I'm in a more blessed
condition than Mary. Verse 29, and when the people
were gathered thick together, he began to say, and we know
from Matthew's account, this was in response to them hearing
what he said and saying, give us a sign. We need some proof. We need some evidence that there's
something to what you're saying. And he said, this is an evil
generation. They seek a sign and there shall no sign be given
unto it, but the sign of Jonas, the prophet. For as Jonas was
assigned unto the Ninevites, talking about the three days
in and three days out, so shall also the son of man be to this
generation. He's referring to the resurrection. This is the only sign that's
going to be given. And then he says in verse 31,
and I've entitled this message, hearing and repenting. What's pointed out about Sheba,
when we read this verse of scripture, is she came to hear. And what's pointed out about
the men of Nineveh is when they heard, they repented. Now I know this. If I hear, I
will always repent. Every time I hear, it's going
to change my mind about something. My mind is going to be changed.
And when I truly repent, when my mind is changed by God himself,
I have heard. Those are two things that always
go together, hearing and repentance. Now, keep that in mind as we
read verses 31 and 32. The Queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and
condemn them. For she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. And our Lord was either arrogant
or stating a fact. And you and I both know he was
stating a fact. One infinitely greater than Solomon
is here. You know, Solomon, the wisest
man to ever live, died in infamy. He died, you'd even wonder if
he even knew the Lord, the way he conducted himself, and the
only reason we know that, that he was saved, is because the
Lord said he was. He's an example that man at his best state, and
Solomon is man at his best state. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Now, Sheba came to hear what
Solomon had to say, And she heard and behold, someone infinitely
greater than Solomon is here. And you haven't heard. And then
he says in verse 32, the men of Nineveh shall rise up in the
judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For they
repented at the preaching of Jonas. Now, Jonas or Jonah was
probably the most unstable of all the prophets. He is the one
who ran from the presence of the Lord. He didn't want to bring
this message to them. And he's the one who got mad
at the Lord when the Lord had mercy on him. He said, I knew
you'd do this. I knew you're a merciful and gracious God.
He wanted him punished. I mean, Jonah had issues of some
kind. I'm not real sure what all they
were, but he was probably the most unstable of the prophets.
And when they heard Jonah, they repented. And behold, an infinitely
greater than Jonah is here. I've entitled this message, Hearing
and Repenting. And as I know, if I hear, every
time I hear the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, it
makes me repent. It makes me change my mind. And
every time God grants me repentance and what a blessed thing it is
when the Lord grants you repentance. It's, you know, Roland Hill said
that the one thing that he's going to miss in heaven is repentance. He enjoyed being enabled to repent
so much on earth and there won't be any repentance in heaven.
But whenever I repent the gift of God, it's because I have heard
like the Queen of Sheba. Now, turn with me to 1 Kings
10. Let's read about the queen of
Sheba. 1 Kings 10. Verse one. And when the queen of Sheba,
heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. It wasn't just Solomon she was
interested in. It was the name of the Lord. And she had understood that Solomon
knew the Lord and knew how to speak of Him. And she heard of
the wisdom of Solomon and his knowledge of the name of the
Lord. Now remember, the name of the Lord is who He is. The
person behind the name, all of his glorious attributes, the
name of the Lord is his graciousness, his holiness, his justice, or
whatever attribute God has is the name of the Lord. The name
of the Lord is the person behind the name. And she came after
hearing the fame of Solomon, his understanding, his wisdom
concerning the name of the Lord. She came to prove him with hard
questions. She came from a great distance
at great expense to hear the wisdom of Solomon to prove him
with hard questions. And I can imagine some of her
questions. How could God actually love me? You know, you just read Psalm
8. What is man that thou art mindful of him? You know, not
many people ask that question. They think God's obligated to
love man and do certain things for man. But the psalmist said,
what is man that thou art even mindful of him? How could God
actually love me? I know something about myself.
I know something about my own sinfulness and my own lovely
unloveliness. How could a holy God love me? And she asked questions like,
how can God be just and yet Save me when I deserve condemnation. How can he be just? How can he
by no means clear the guilty and yet save somebody like me?
I can imagine the questions she asked. She came to prove him
with hard questions. Now, what is this wisdom of Solomon? She heard the fame of the wisdom
of Solomon. We'll turn back to 1 Kings chapter 3. You're familiar with this story.
Verse 5, 1 Kings chapter 3. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, ask what I shall
give thee. Now, what if the Lord said to
you, what do you want? It's yours. Ask and I will give
it to you. And he's got the power to do
it, doesn't he? Verse 6. And Solomon said, Thou
hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy,
according as he walked before thee in truth and in unrighteousness
and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou has kept for him
this great kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on
his throne as it is this day. And now, O Lord, my God, thou
has made thy servant king instead of David, my father, and I'm
but a little child. I not know how to go out or come
in. And thy servant is in the midst
of thy people, which thou hast chosen of great people that cannot
be numbered nor counted for multitude. Now here's what I'm asking for.
Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge
thy people that I may discern between good and bad. For who
is able to judge this thy so great a people? Now here's what
he asked for. An understanding heart to discern
between good and bad. What a request. Verse 10. And the speech pleased the Lord,
that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because
thou hast asked this thing, and not asked for thyself long life,
neither has thou asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked
the life of your enemies. But you have asked for thyself
understanding. to discern judgment. Behold,
I've done according to thy words. Lo, I've given thee a wise heart
and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee
before thee, neither shall there be any arise like thee after
thee." In other words, Solomon is the wisest man to ever live. Made so by God. And the first
demonstration of his wisdom is found in this same chapter. Look in verse 16. You know this
story. This is the first demonstration
of his wisdom. Then came there two women that were harlots unto
the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, oh, my
lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. And I was delivered
of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third
day after that I was delivered that this woman was delivered
also. And we were together. There was no stranger with us
in the house, save the two of us in the house. And this woman's
child died in the night because she overlaid on it. She overturned
on it. She turned on it and smothered
it. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me
while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid
her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning
to give my child sup, behold, he was dead. But when I considered
it in the morning, behold, he was not my son, which I did bear.
I could see this wasn't my son. And the other woman said, Nay,
but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. This said,
no, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus
they spake before the king. Now you get the picture. Then
said the king, the one that saith, this is my son that liveth, and
thy son is the dead, and the other saith, nay, but thy son
is dead, my son liveth. And the king said, bring me a
sword. And they brought a sword before the king, and the king
said, divide the living child in two, and give half to the
one and a half to the other. Now picture that in your mind.
Take the child, cut it in half. Take the living child, cut it
in half, give one half to the one lady, the other half to the
other lady, everybody will be happy. Well, you know what's going to
happen. Then spake the woman who the living child was unto
the king for her bowels yearned upon her son. And she said, oh
my Lord, give her the living child and in no wise slay it. But the other said, let it neither
be mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and
said, give her the living child and in no wise slay it. She's
the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment
which the king had judged and they feared the king for they
saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. Here's love of wisdom. You don't
want the living truth divided. If you can allow the truth to
be divided, you have no love for it. You see, the gospel is
made of many truths that make the truth. Who Christ is, the
Son of God, who the Holy Spirit is, the third person of the Trinity
who gives life from the dead, who God the Father is, what happened
to Adam when he fell in the garden, what sin is, how Christ stood
as an eternal surety for the elect before time began, how
he came and kept the law perfectly, and obeyed the law perfectly,
and then he was nailed to a cross, and by being nailed to a cross,
he put away the sins of everybody he died for. Now, what part of
that can you leave out? Now, there's two views of salvation.
Salvation where man ultimately gets the credit or where God
ultimately gets the credit. There's only two views. Either
man ultimately gets the credit. God loves you. Christ died for
you. God, the Holy Spirit calls you once you say, but you won't
be saved unless you do something to make what they did work for
you. Man ultimately is the deciding factor in salvation in that view.
And then there's the view that says men are dead in sins. God
elected a people. Christ died for the elect and
accomplished their salvation. God's grace is irresistible and
invincible and every one of those people will persevere because
salvation's of the Lord. Now, which one of those things
is okay to leave out? Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, the perseverance
of the saints. Can't leave any of them out,
can you? Now, if you're willing to leave any of them out, you
have no love for the truth. You see, when you divide the
truth, the life of the truth leaves. So Sheba demonstrated
her a desire to come and hear the
wisdom of Solomon. And this is what the scripture
points out about his wisdom. He wouldn't let the living child
be divided. Now go back to first Kings chapter
10. 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, very much gold
and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Now this
is what happens when people are truly coming to the Lord. They
make themselves bare. They commune with him of all
that's in their heart. If I come into the Lord's presence
truly, I come in honesty and I commune with Him and make bare
my heart everything that's there. And you know what? It's all bad. That's the way you come into
His presence. You come in honesty. She did. And she told Him all that was
in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions. There were not anything hid from
the king, which he told her not. He gave the answer to all these
questions, how God could love her. You see, God's love is in
Christ. Those in Christ are loved by
God. They're lovely. God can be just and justify somebody
like you through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
answered all of her questions. Verse four, and when the queen
of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom and the house that he
had built. Now this is such a beautiful
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the Lord as we read
this passage of scripture. When she saw the house that He
had built, and the meat of His table, and the sitting of His
servants, how they sit at the feet of Christ, and the attendance
of His ministers and their apparel, that beautiful, glorious robe
they wear, the robe of His righteousness, and His cupbearers, and His ascent
by which He went up into the house of the Lord. Can you imagine,
Solomon, what a beautiful thing it must have been to see His
ascent up into the house of the Lord. Our Lord's ascension back
to the Father. There was no more spirit in her.
It took her breath away. No more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it
was a true report that I heard in mine own land of the acts
of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believe not the words.
I heard this and I didn't believe. But now I see for myself. You know, you never really understand
what unbelief is until you believe. And when you believe, then you
understand. I've been an unbeliever. I didn't
believe. Albeit, 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. Is there any way we can properly
describe the prosperity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His greatness,
His glory? I don't know how many times that
when I preach, I feel so utterly unable to say what ought to be
said concerning Him. I do my best. I love what Paul called him.
He called him the unspeakable gift. When God, the Holy Spirit
was inspired to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, God, the Holy
Spirit called him the unspeakable words can't even express. And
that's what she was saying. There was no spirit in me. I
couldn't even speak. Well, it's greater than I thought. Verse eight, happier thy men,
happier these thy servants, which stand continually before thee
and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel,
because the Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore made he the
king to do judgment and justice. Now she came to hear. She came
to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now, I want to be like Cornelius,
don't you? He says, we're here to hear all
the things God has commanded you. Now, Solomon, as wise as
he was, he was a very fallible man. And we see that at the end
of his life. Look in first Kings chapter 11. But King Solomon loved many strange
women. together with the daughter of
Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zillionites,
and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the
children of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall
they come unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart
after their gods. Well, Solomon clave unto these
in love, and he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three
hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For it
came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away
his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with
the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father." So
we see Solomon was a fallible man. But Sheba yet came to hear
his wisdom, the wisdom of God that was in this man, preaching
the gospel. And the Lord says, behold, she's going to rise up on judgment
day and condemn you. Because she came to hear the
wisdom of Solomon. and one infinitely greater than
Solomon is here. And you have not heard me. May we never forget the place
of hearing. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
4 verse 6. You see, in what we're doing
right now, I am aware, painfully aware of
the fact that I am a fallible, sinful man that can make mistakes,
that can be wrong. I'm aware of that. I'm also aware
of this fact that God has called me to preach the gospel. And
I speak with authority because it's his word I'm speaking, not
my opinion. I'm a weak man. I realize that.
but oh the importance of coming to hear. Even if it's me, it's
still coming to hear God's word. Now look in 1 John 4, verse 6,
look what John says. He says, we are of God. You know
what? We are too. Every believer, I
know I'm of God. I know the Lord, he knows me.
We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. May we never forget the place
of hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Sheba came to hear the wisdom
of Solomon. Not to figure things out. Not
to dialogue with Solomon about what she thought. Now what do
you think? No. She came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. May we
always come here to hear him that is greater than Saul. And
now go back to Luke chapter 11 once again. Verse 32. The men of Nineveh shall rise
up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it. For they repented of the preaching of Jonas. Jonas was a very fallible man. You read the book of Jonah and
you'll see that. But when they heard him preach, they repented. They changed their mind concerning
many things when they heard the preaching of Jonas and behold,
a greater than Jonas is here. Now, let me say a few things
about the importance of repentance before we look at the men of
Nineveh's repentance. What were our Lord's first words? Repent and believe the gospel. Those are his first words. When he gives his mission statement,
when he tells us why he came, he said, so clearly, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance, to a change of mind. When he left, his last words
to his disciples were, before he ascended back to glory, that
repentance. and remission of sins should
be preached in his name." Beginning at Jerusalem. I love that beginning
at Jerusalem. These were the fellows that murdered
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, you go to them first
and preach repentance and the remission of sins. And I believe
what that means more than anything else where we really need to
repent. We need to repent of a lot of things, but repentance
concerning the remission of sins. Men think there's something they
do to get the remission of sins. And you find out there's nothing
you can do to get the remission of sins. It's something he must
give you. And salvation begins right there. When Peter was preaching on the
day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit pricked their hearts and
they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? They found
out they were the murderers of the Son of God. Peter's answer
was repent. repent. Now to repent means to
change your mind. You were thinking one way and
you don't think that anymore. You were believing something
and you don't believe that anymore. Now this is what happens when
there's true hearing going on. When there's true hearing, there's
always repentance. And if there's not repentance,
that person is not true to hearing. They might be hearing words audibly,
but they're not hearing from the Lord. Because whenever someone
hears from the Lord, there will be true repentance, a change
of mind. Now let's turn to the book of
Jonah. Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Right before Micah. We considered much of this last
week, so I'm not going to say much about this first chapter,
but let me remind you in verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has
come up before me. And you know Jonah fled from
the presence of the Lord. And you know the story of him
going in the ship. Uh, the storm came and they found
out the reason the storm came was because of Jonah, so they
threw him overboard. A fish swallowed him up. He was in the fish three days
and three nights, the sign of Jonah. It spit him out on dry
land. Now in chapter three, and the
word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. Isn't that a blessing of grace? Aren't you glad for the second
time? and the third time, and the fourth time, and on and on
and on. The word of the Lord came to
Jonah the second time, saying, arise and go into Nineveh, that
great city, and preach to it the preaching that I bid thee. Now, there we have the content
of all true preaching. You tell them what I tell you
to tell them. And that's what the word of God
is. That's why we preach the word of God. I love what Scott
Richards said, preaching is telling what God's already said. Just
telling it again. That's our preaching. You tell
them what I tell you to tell them. Verse three, so Jonah arose
and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now,
Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. It'd
take three days to walk across it. And it's been said to be
the largest city in the world at that time. It's in what is
now Northern Iraq. It was the capital of Assyria.
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And
he cried and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
So the people of Nineveh believed God. They believed that they
were in fact wicked. And that God was going to overthrow
them as an act of His justice. They believed God. They believed
what He was saying. And what did they do? They proclaimed
a fast. They put on sackcloth from the
greatest of them, even to the least of them. For word came
unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and
he laid his robe from him, and he covered him with sackcloth
and set in ashes. They repented. And it caused
it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, the decree of
the king and the noble, saying, let neither man nor beast, herd
nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily
into God. Let them turn everyone from his
evil way and from the violence that's in their hands. Who can
tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce
anger that we perish not? Now, here's what the king of
Nineveh had to say. Every man repent. of his evil way." Now,
is that talking about drunkenness and immorality? Well, no doubt
that's included in it. But any way other than Christ,
the way, is an evil way, isn't it? Any way other than the way
of grace is an evil way. Anything that's contrary to the
gospel is evil. He said, let every man turn and
repent of his evil way. Turn everyone from his evil way
and from the violence that's in their hands. I got to thinking,
what is violence? What is violence? What's somebody coming and hitting
somebody and using violence to get what you want? But what it
is, bottom line, it's the imposing of your will. That's what violence
is. You impose your will on somebody
to get what you want. Repent of imposing your will,
thinking your will will get you anything. Repent of your evil
way, whether it's the way of unrighteousness and flagrant
sin, or whether it's the way of self-righteousness. Repent
of it. Repent. Turn from it. And turn from the
violence of your hands, you trying to impose your will. Now, when you repent, you change
your mind about your way. and you repent about the imposing
of your will. You know, anybody that truly
repents, they find out that free will is a lie. And they're in
the hands of a sovereign God, totally dependent upon him to
do something for them. They repented at the preaching
of Jonah. Now, if you and I here with hearing
ears, we will repent of everything. All of our low thoughts of God,
our wrong thoughts of God, our high thoughts of ourself, our
wrong views of sin, we'll repent of everything. We'll repent of
our wrong thoughts of salvation. Now Sheba came to hear. And she went at great expense
to do this. She came from the uttermost parts
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. You know, I want
to be somebody who actually comes to hear what God says. I want to be a hearer of the
Word. I tell you this, I'm more... It takes just as much grace to
hear as it does to preach. And I want to be a hearer of
the word. Like Samuel, speak Lord, thy
servant heareth. I want to hear what he says.
And not only do I want to hear what he says, I want to repent. I want to repent. Oh, grant me
repentance, a true change of mind. My mind needs to be changed
about everything. I'm wrong on everything. Lord,
grant me repentance. Grant me this true change of
mind because when you repent, you know what you're gonna do?
You're gonna believe the gospel. Repent ye and believe the gospel. When your mind is changed, you're
gonna believe the gospel. Now may we be like Sheba and
like the men of Nineveh And if we're not, do you know on judgment
day, these very men are going to rise up and condemn us for what we've heard today. May the Lord give us the grace
to hear, to repent, and to believe. Let's pray together.