It's amazing that every time
we look in the scriptures, we have the same foundation where
we look and it's Christ Jesus, the substitute for his elect
people. And that's where we start. And
it seems as though we build off of that from each message. And the first hour we saw in
Second Chronicles, chapter one, Christ, our wisdom, I could have
called it that, but I believe I've actually preached a message
here as Christ, our wisdom before. But in this particular portion
in 2 Chronicles 9, we know that it is a woman coming to see the
man of wisdom. It is a beautiful picture of
us coming unto the Lord with our need, having been, our need
being made known unto us. And I want us just to read without
comment the first 12 verses of chapter nine to see this account. Second Chronicles 9 verse 1 says,
and when the queen of Sheba heard the fame of Solomon, she came
to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem. With a very great
company and camels that bear spices and golden abundance 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. And there was nothing hid from
Solomon, which he had, which he told her not. When the Queen
of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and that's what I've
titled this message, When She Had Seen. When She Had Seen. When the Queen of Sheba had seen
the wisdom of Solomon 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, his cupbearers
also, and their apparel, and his ascent 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, which I heard
in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. How be it
I believe not their words until I came and behold my eyes and
mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the one half of the
greatness of thy wisdom was not told me, for thou exceedest the
fame that I heard. Happy are thy men. Happy are
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 his throne, to be king
for the Lord thy God, because thy God loved Israel to establish
them forever. Therefore he made thee king over
them to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king 120 talents
of gold and spices, great abundance and precious stones, Neither
was there any such spice as the Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. And the servants also of Hiram
and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir,
brought algum trees and precious stones. And the king made of
the algum trees terraces to the house of the Lord and to the
king's palace and harps and psalteries for singers. And there were none
such seen before in the land of Judah. And King Solomon gave
to the Queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked beside
that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned and went
away to her own land, she and her servants. This is an interesting
account, isn't it? It starts out by her hearing
of a king. her hearing of a man that could
answer her questions. And we know that she had questions
because it literally says that she's approaching him to ask
him hard questions. In the other account of this,
in Samuel, It actually says that she comes unto him to prove him
concerning the name of the Lord. This was a spiritual matter that
she's coming to Solomon for. This was not just a physical
matter that she's approaching him for. She was made to have
a need. No one else could answer her
questions. Now you can see in your mind the caravan of the
gold and the spices and the gifts being brought unto this king.
And as she's approaching unto the king, do you remember in
Ecclesiastes, we find Solomon had gotten men servants and made
servants in abundance. He had gotten musical instruments
from all over the world. He had built gardens. He had
built vineyards. The scripture says that there
was nothing under the sun, which Solomon had not put his hand
to. And at the end of that, in Ecclesiastes,
it tells us, Solomon said, it's all vanity. It's all vanity and
vexation of spirit. Everything that I've done, I
count but vanity. Same as Apostle Paul, when Apostle
Paul said, all that I was, all that I knew, I counted dung,
that I may win Christ. We can see this queen approaching
now to this king. having everything that's described
here in this chapter and having everything described in Ecclesiastes. We see the greatness of Solomon.
We see the beauty of his palace. We see the way that his servants
conducted themselves and the way that the cupbearers conducted
themselves. And we see everything that was going on, she stood
in all of. But that was only after Solomon
had answered her questions. See, the initial need that she
had was for Solomon's wisdom. It wasn't for Solomon's things.
Although she saw these things approaching, she had hope that
Solomon would be able to answer her questions. Tells us clearly
that she communed with him of all that was in her heart. All
the hard questions that she had, no one else could answer. She
needed answers and Solomon gave her the answers. And we see Solomon
told her all of her questions. Nothing was hid from Solomon
of everything that she asked. The Lord gave Solomon the wisdom
to answer this Queen of Sheba every question that she had.
Now notice in verse three, when the Queen of Sheba had seen the
wisdom of Solomon, first and foremost, what she saw that made
her stand in awe, was not just the greatness of his kingdom,
not just the greatness of his house. And it does say, and the
house that he had built, but understand it started with the
wisdom of Solomon. When she saw the wisdom, otherwise
he would have just been a great King with great things, right?
He had wisdom and that's something that she had a need of, something
that she was desirous of, something that no one else could help her
with. The answers to the questions
that she had, Solomon had, and she was made to have those questions
answered. She sees the wisdom of Solomon,
the meat of his table, the house that he built, the servants seated. Do you find that interesting
that it says the servants seated? Now I thought servants were supposed
to work. Servants were supposed to work, are they not? They tend
to the master. They tend to those they are serving. They don't sit. And yet she observed
the servants seating. She noticed the butlers, the
ones that handed the cup unto Solomon. She noticed the apparel
of all these individuals. She noticed their clothing was
much different perhaps than her own clothing and her servant's
clothing. Perhaps it was more immaculate. Maybe it was uncertain
because she took note of it. It had to be better than what
she had. Something of great value that she had never witnessed
before. She also noticed the king's ascent into the house
of the Lord. She took note of that. How he
ascended up. How he walked up in his glory. How he walked up to worship.
God. Now understand, we're still talking
about a need that this woman had that was to inquire concerning
the name of the Lord. Concerning the name of the Lord
is why she's here. When she sees all of this, her
response is the half hath not been told me. It's a true report. It's a true report, but The report
was only half. The half wasn't even told me. And look in verse eight. She
said, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee
to set thee upon his throne and to be king for the Lord thy God,
because thy God loved Israel to establish them forever. Therefore
he made thee king over them to do judgment and justice. She was made to confess the Lord
that Solomon believed in. She was made to know by the answers
of the questions she was given, and by the observation of Solomon's
worship, she was made to confess, blessed be the Lord. Then she tells him why the Lord's
blessed, because he had made Israel a king. a king unlike
any other king. He established them forever.
She saw that the Lord God loved Israel and gave them a king named
Solomon, who was a wise king. She saw that without Solomon,
none of this would have been possible. And she says to do
judgment and justice. This was Solomon's purpose. She
had to be made to see all these things. She could not have arrived
at this conclusion based upon everything that she saw with
her natural eyes. The Lord had given her the ability to say,
blessed be the Lord. And that's a capital L. She's
not talking about Solomon there. She's talking about God. She's
saying, praise be to God. She's glorifying God. Is that
not what the Lord's people do? We acknowledge the Lord and we
exalt him. This is what she was made to
do. And notice verse 12 again, King Solomon gave to the queen
of Sheba all her desire. Whatsoever she asked beside that
which she had brought unto the king. So she turned and went
away to her own land, she and her servants. I want us to notice
a word in this verse. It's the word beside. Solomon
gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked
beside that which she had brought unto the king. So here we have
gold and spices and garments and all the things that the queen
of Sheba brought. And we have of Solomon on this
side, everything that the queen desired Solomon's giving unto
her side by side. That's what the word beside means
there. Literally, we have an exchange taking place. We have
her gifts being offered and his gifts being offered, and they're
side by side. Do we see that? They're beside each other. He
gave her whatsoever her desire was, whatsoever she asked, besides
that which she had brought unto the king. Everything that was
being given was side by side for the entire world to take
note of. For everyone that was in the
kingdom, everyone that was in the palace, everyone that could
observe what was taking place, they was observing an exchange
of gifts. And this seems like a very interesting
story, doesn't it? But it's not just a story. This
is a gospel account, brethren. This is the Lord, how He saves
His people, how He saved His people and how He brings them
to the knowledge of salvation. The title is When She Had Seen,
When She Had Seen. Our Lord was speaking and He
said in Matthew chapter 12, the Queen of the South shall rise
up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For she
shall come from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear of
the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, this is Christ speaking, behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. It was the Lord Jesus Christ,
wasn't it? He's the one that's greater than Solomon. This hour,
I would like to see Christ as Solomon and us as the Queen of
Sheba, if the Lord would give us the grace to see that. It
starts with her hearing of the fame of Solomon concerning the
name of the Lord in 1 Kings 10. That's the way it puts it in
1 Kings 10. She had hard questions. She had been made to have a need
that no one else could help her with. I'm reminded of the one
that had an issue of blood. The woman said she had it for
many, many years. And as she's looking for all
these physicians, the most interesting part is at this particular time
during the earthly time of our Lord, whenever he was on the
earth, what most doctors would do to cure a disease or to try
to help somebody would be to bloodlet. They would literally
cut them and cause blood to come out, which they think is taking
out the bad. Her issue was already an issue of blood. She was already
bleeding. And so that was not a solution
at all, was it? And yet she kept going to doctors. She kept having this need that
no one could help her with. Over and over, she kept spinning,
said that she had spent everything. She had spent all. Did you know
that that's actually how George Washington died? They bloodlet
George Washington. He was sick and they tried to
do that and he died from losing too much blood. Is that not a
type of religion, what men do? They find the problem of themselves
being in sin, being shaped in iniquity, and then all we're
trying to do is get rid of the bad by cutting ourself. That's
what the prophets of Baal did too, wasn't it? Crying out unto
their God, they cut themselves. They cried out more and they
cut themselves. They were bloodletting. No, salvation's
in the blood of Christ. It's in substitution. It's not
in our blood. We're polluted for sure. There's
no doubt about that. But we're not going to be saved
by what we do with our blood. It's what His blood accomplished.
That's our hope. That's our salvation. This woman
with the issue of blood said, if I could but touch the hem
of His garment. if I could but touch the hem
of his garment. And she pressed through the crowd
and touched the hem of his garment. And the Lord said, somebody touched
me. And you can imagine the disciples
when they responded and said, Lord, many people's been touching
you. They're bumping into it. We were in New York on Monday.
I know a lot about getting bumped into now. People's bumping into
him and he says, somebody touched me. And then the disciples said,
well, of course you're getting bumped into. There's plenty of
people around you. And he says, no virtue. Somebody touched me with
a need. Somebody pushed through the crowd
and had a need that they knew only I could help them with.
And the faith, my faith has made her whole. The faith that I've
given unto her, she touched the hem of my garment and she was
made whole. And she confessed that unto him,
didn't she? Lord, that he got all the glory in that. Now this
Queen of Sheba and this woman with the issue of blood, that's
us, brethren. We have a need. And we think from birth, we think
bloodletting, it's going to help. It's not going to help it at
all, is it? We have a need that only the Lord can answer. We
have a we have questions only that he has the answers to. He strips us of all of our hope
and gives us Christ, our wisdom, as we heard the first hour, he
gives us Christ, the wisdom he says that makes us say, I know
nothing except I must touch the hem of his garment. The only
way I will be made whole, I must go to him for the answer. It's
the only way I'm going to have the answer. So what kind of questions did
this woman have? Hard questions. Hard questions
for the world, hard questions perhaps in religion. Maybe she
was confused about religion. I know the woman at the well,
she thought she was worshiping God, but she was worshiping him
in the form of a dog or a cat, a donkey, the moon and the stars.
We remember that account. The Lord said, you worship you
know not what. Maybe that was her question. Maybe she came
to the Lord and said, Lord, maybe this queen of, of Sheba came
to Solomon to ask, does Jesus love everybody? That's a hard
question for somebody in religion. They don't know that, but that's
a hard question to be answered because most men don't want to
hear the truth of that, do they? That's what makes it a hard question.
Most men and women do not want to know the truth. The truth,
the only thing going to set you free, the only thing going to
set me free, but most men are content doing what they believe
feels good, doing what they believe right, having their own righteousness.
But if you hear the truth, It'll set you free, and it'll strip
you of all your righteousness. You'll realize the only thing
that we've been doing is just bloodletting the entire time,
and it's not gonna help us. So let's ask that question. Does
Jesus love everybody? The Lord in John 17, that was
his intercessory prayer for his elect, for his bride. He says
this, thou hast given him, the Lord Jesus Christ, power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to everyone, to
everyone? No, to as many as thou hast given
him. this is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. God gave Christ unto the ones that he died for. The
ones that he elected in the covenant of grace he gave unto Christ
to redeem and Christ redeemed them successfully. Christ only
loves those for whom he was given by his father. Christ only died
for those for whom he was given by his father. And Christ successfully
redeemed everyone that's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
trying to save anyone. Solomon might've said to the
Queen of Sheba. The Lord's not trying to do anything. He's God.
He's seated in the heavenlies. He's sovereign to do whatsoever
he will. howsoever he wants to do it,
with whomsoever he will do it. He's God, Queen of Sheba. Maybe
she said, well, if he's holy, how can he be just in the justifier? How can he be just in the justifier?
I don't understand. That's a hard question, isn't
it? By man's standards, it's a hard question. God became a
man. That's the answer to that question.
God became a man to bring justice to bring satisfaction to justice,
that justice may be satisfied. How can God be just and the justifier?
Turn to Romans chapter 3 and verse 24 with me. Queen of Sheba may have asked,
how can God be just and the justifier? God had to become a man. Do you understand that? I don't
understand that. I don't understand how God became
a man, but I believe it. I believe it. He was born of
a virgin, the scripture says. I don't understand that, but
I believe it. Why? Because the Lord makes us
to believe these things that are hard questions, aren't they?
How can a man be born of a virgin? That's a hard question, isn't
it? But you believe that it was and it is so because of the faith
that the Lord's given you. How can God be just in the justifier? God became a man to satisfy God's
justice. Romans 3 verse 24, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now I said this the
first hour and I want to repeat this to us very clearly. Repentance
and faith are never the cause of grace. They are the result
of it. Repentance and faith are never
the cause of grace. They are the result of it. He
says unto us here that the Lord is just and the justifier to
as many as believeth. I like the old English in this
regard. When you see E-T-H, it's a continual thing. It never stops.
Believeth. Do you believe? When do you believe?
We believe now, and we believe now, and we believe now. Is that
not true? We continually believe. That is not based upon us producing
something. That's an act of God. That's
a gift of grace. Now back to 2 Chronicles 9. Queen of Sheba might have had
the same mentality as Martha did. Remember whenever Martha
came unto the Lord and said, Lord, our brother's been dead
four days. If you'd have been here, he would not have died.
So maybe the question is, how can that which is dead be made
alive? But Paul put it like this. Likewise,
reckon you also yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Martha said, Lord, why weren't
you here? Why weren't you here? Whenever our brother died, he
said, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me shall
never die. And he that liveth and believeth in me, the Lord,
is the resurrection, he is the answer to the question, how can
a dead man live? The Lord asked Ezekiel that question,
we heard the first hour, can these bones live? And he said,
Lord, thou knowest. See, these are hard questions for men to
answer unless the Lord's given you faith to believe it. Unless
the Lord's given me faith, there is no explanation that's going
to cure that curiosity that you have. But you know what happens
when the Lord gives you faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? All
the questions that you have, You sit and you rest in the person
of Christ, knowing that he is all, that he is wisdom. I know
nothing. I don't understand a thing, but I know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is all. That's what we say. The Lord just speaks the word to
cause us to live, doesn't he? How can a dead man live when
the Lord says live? Dead man comes forth. It's exactly what
happened to Lazarus, wasn't it? The Lord said, Lazarus, come
forth. And he came forth bound, both
hand and foot. The Lord didn't say come forth,
he gave a specific name, didn't he? You know why that is? I may
have mentioned this to you before. If he'd have said come forth,
then everybody in that grave would have came forth. That's
the power that our Lord has. But he speaks effectually to
his people, doesn't he? By name, he calls you by name.
Lazarus, come forth. You're dead and trespasses and
in sin. She said, Lord, by this time he stinketh. He said, Lazarus,
come forth. And he was made alive. And he
came forth. Maybe this Queen of Sheba had
a mentality such as Nicodemus did in John 3. Remember when
Nicodemus came unto the Lord by night? And Nicodemus asked
Him, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What good thing
must I do? What does a man have to do? Lord, we know that You're
a master, that You're a rabbi. That's what the word rabbi means,
is teacher, master. And He says, what must I do?
And He said, You must be born again. Well, he asked him a hard
question, didn't he? Well, how can a man, when he
is old, enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born?
That's a hard question, isn't it? Well, you and I, the only
answer that we have through every question I've asked so far is
Christ. Christ. He has to do it. The Lord looked
at Nicodemus and he said, that which is flesh is flesh. That
which is spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee,
you must be born again. See, we're not going to come
to an understanding in order to obtain salvation. Salvation's
not an understanding. Salvation's a person. We're not
going to gather more information and finally figure it out because
it's all of the Spirit and the Lord has to bestow wisdom and
faith that just looks to Christ. That's what our hope is. The
Lord goes on with Nicodemus and he says, the wind bloweth where
it lifteth. Thou can't tell from whether it come or whether it
goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. He blows
his breath upon his people and says, live, and they are born
again. Maybe the question was how can
a dead dog sinner be made the spotless son of God? The children
of Israel, whenever the death angel was passing through in
Exodus, the 10th plague that was given into Egypt said, I'm
going to pass by tonight. And unless you have the blood
of plight, I'm going to kill your firstborn. They took a lamb, didn't they?
They put it upon the doorposts and upon the lintel of that house.
And everyone that was inside that house was safe. Why? because
of the blood of the lamb. How does the Lord take a sinful,
wretched, vile, dead dog creature and make them a son of God by
the blood of Jesus Christ? Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy that they loved
us. They thought they were asking the Lord a hard question. The
Pharisees did when they came to him one time, they said, what's
the greatest commandment? Tell us what the greatest commandment
is. They thought, okay, we're gonna trick him, we're gonna
trap him, we've got him. The Lord said unto him, well,
the first commandment would be, love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like unto the
first, love thy neighbor as thyself. We can't trap the Lord, can we?
Trick the Lord? He's omnipotent, omniscient, all sovereign. That
wasn't the answer they wanted to hear. But you and I have been
given this answer to that question. What is the greatest commandment?
What is the greatest law? For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That's good news
to me. I no longer have to work in order
to please God. Christ did. I no longer have
to do something to obtain salvation. Christ did. This is what Solomon's
telling the Queen of Sheba. Do we see that? She was asking
an inquiring of the Lord. Well, this had to be the conversation
that took place. He pointed her into a substitute.
He pointed her to the sovereign, the Messiah, the one that would
come and redeem man back to God. I guarantee he started in Genesis
from the fall of man. They had the five books already
then written. He started all the way back in
Genesis, and he went all the way up to where there was, and
he says, there's going to come one to take away the sin of his
people. And what does she say in response
to that? After she sees everything else, she says, blessed be the
Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Is that not your confession?
Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gets all the glory in this
salvation. This is the picture here. In verse two of our text,
are we still in 2 Chronicles 9, Solomon told her all her questions,
all her questions, every question that she asked, he gave an answer
to. What is your response when someone
asks you about the gospel? Is it not, it is finished? Is
it not Christ is all? Regardless of the subject or
topic that they're trying to devise in doctrine, it's always
Christ is all, Christ is all, Christ is all, and that is what
Solomon, the man named Wisdom, The picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is what he declares unto dead dog sinners is Christ
is all before the Father. And when she's seen that, when
she's seen the gospel of God's free grace, my grace alone, when
she saw that, she said the half has not been told me. We are made just like this woman
to see grace, aren't we? We made to see the Lord's grace,
the Lord's sovereignty in election. We're made to see the meat of
his table, aren't we? You notice she took note of the
meat of his table. What made that meat so special? It was
the bread of life, wasn't it? It was the bread of life. It's
the same as the Lord spoke in 1 Corinthians saying, this is
my body that's broken for you. We observe communion here, don't
we? That's the bread of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his body.
It's the manna that came down from heaven. It's the life-giving
sustenance to the believer. That's what the meat was on his
table. This is my body broken for you.
That's what the people ate there. That's what she observed. Do
we see the picture there? She saw the servants all sitting,
not working, not going about trying to figure everything out.
They were sitting. Where are we right now, brethren?
We're sitting, aren't we? And what are we resting in? The
finished work of our Savior, our King Solomon. The finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are no longer working to obtain
salvation. We are seated in Christ. in the
heavenlies. That's the picture here. That's
what these servants were doing. They were resting. Do we not
rest in His finished work? We no longer have anything to
do with our salvation and we're thankful for that. The Lord did
it all and we sit and we rest. He says it is done. You heard
from Steve just a few minutes ago. Read from Revelation. It
is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last, which was, which is, which
is to come. It's finished, and we rest. As the servants of the Lord,
we sit and we rest in Him. She also took note of the ministers
and their apparel. What apparel was different? What
made their apparel so special? Was it not the robes of righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people? Is that not what
you're wearing right now if you're His? That's exactly what you're
wearing. If He died for you, you're robed
in His righteousness, and there is nothing, nothing that can
take that righteousness from you. Nothing. You're robed in
His righteousness. That's what she was observing.
She also observed the cupbearers. Do we not take communion, as
I mentioned ago, being the wine, being the blood of Christ? That's
what the cupbearer here represents. That's what they feast upon is
the body and the blood of Christ. That's what's in his palace.
That's what's in his kingdom. That's the glorious news of the
gospel is here is our meat indeed. Here is our drink indeed. And
the message is coming to him. Don't move a muscle coming to
him through the eyes of faith that he's given to you and rest
in his finished work. The last thing we notice is that
she takes account, or she saw, His ascent up to worship. His ascent. When Christ was offered
as the spotless Lamb of God for His elect, when Christ was offered
as the spotless Lamb of God for His elect, was He not lifted
up? Scripture says that He must be
lifted up. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so the Lord, the Son of Man, must be lifted
up. Christ Jesus was lifted up. He ascended upon high and led
captivity captive. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And He worshiped God perfectly. Christ Jesus worshiped
His Father perfectly on the cross of Calvary. That's what this
ascending is representing to you and I. So what is the response
to all of this when we see this? Is it not the same as her response?
She died to herself, didn't she? Said there was no more breath
in her. The Lord literally took her breath away and gave her
the breath of life. Do we see that? He says live. We breathe him, don't we? It's
in him we live, we move, and we have our being. He takes our
breath, our carnal breath, and he gives us breath that is spiritual.
Now, this is all spiritual things I'm referring to here, but that's
what that represents. The dying to self, that's why
we observe baptism. I already mentioned communion.
That's one observation that we do, but the only other one we
do is baptism. We're dying, we're confessing that when Christ died,
we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
When he was resurrected, we were resurrected. We die to ourself. I actually mentioned we're looking
at a portable baptistry right now. I haven't showed many of
this, but it's a little bit bigger than this. It looks like a coffin.
I said, that's perfect. That's absolutely perfect. Let's get
that one. It's a representation of us dying to ourself unto Him. Her breath was gone. When she
saw the King, she no longer had life. Her life was then hid in
Christ Jesus. That's what He does for His people. Her confession after all of this,
after being given the breath, she says, I heard with the hearing
of the ear, but now I have seen the King. I heard. I've heard
of the graciousness of the Lord, but now I've seen the graciousness
of the Lord. I've experienced it. I've tasted
it. It says, oh, taste and see that
the Lord is good. Is that not your confession?
The half has not been told unto me. Was that your confession?
Whenever you found out the good news of the gospel, the half
has not been told me. And every time we come here,
we hear a little bit more looking through a glass darkly. Did you
know when we see him face to face and we're made like him,
we'll find out that the half hasn't been told. The half has
not been told. We just continually try to declare
the King over and over, but brethren, we can't tell the half of it,
what He did for His people. Our confession is blessed be
the name of the Lord. You know what that is? That's worship.
That's worship. Maniac of Gadara. Do you remember
him? Out of his mind, he was demon-possessed with legion.
The Lord came to him, said he had to cross the entire sea to
get to him, and He saved one man, turns around and goes right
back. He asked Legion, what's your name? And he said, Legion,
for we are many. And the men, he had been chained up his entire
life, been cutting himself, just a type of false religion, only
making his chains tighter, breaking the chains, trying. It's all
false religion representation, isn't it? And what happened?
When they came and they found the Lord and the maniac, he was
seated in his right mind and he worshiped. Christ. That's this breath of life I'm
talking about. That's faith and repentance right there. That's
what the Lord does. We bow unto Him. Whatever you say, Lord,
truth. Yes, I am a dead dog sinner and you are righteous. I need
your righteousness. I need your wisdom. I need your
kingdom. I need to be in your palace.
I need your food. I need to be clothed in your
righteousness. Not having my own righteousness. This is what
we say. Blessed be the name of the Lord
and we worship. He draws his people with this.
Jeremiah 31 says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. I love that. Everlasting means
it never had a beginning and it never had an end. From everlasting
to everlasting, I have loved thee. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. He loved his people before time
ever began, and he draws them in time with his cords of love. He gave us a King, didn't He?
What does He do whenever He draws us? He shows us we have a King.
The Lord Jesus Christ. The Father executed judgment
upon this King, took our guilt. We were guilty before the law.
We were condemned to death. We have a death sentence when
we're born. We have a death sentence upon us. And the Lord took our
guilt and died in our stead. Satisfied justice. That's what
she said here. The last part of chapter eight,
we can read, I'm sorry, chapter nine, verse eight. We'll just
read the verse. Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighteth in thee to set thee on his throne. She acknowledged
it wasn't even Solomon's throne, it was God's throne. In the king
for the Lord thy God, because thy God loved Israel with an
everlasting love. Israel is his chosen people,
do we see that? To establish them forever, therefore made
he the king over them to do judgment and justice. We read from Proverbs
earlier, first hour, that justice and judgment is what the Lord
Jesus Christ satisfied for his people, isn't it? That's what
our king did for us. Now, her response to all of this
verbally, I've already mentioned the half has not been told to
me, blessed be the Lord. But what does she do physically
with this? She gives Notice the verse nine. She gave the king
120 talents of gold and of spices, great abundance and precious
stones. Neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba
gave King Solomon. Every spice that was on the face
of the earth is what they're saying. She gave it to him. She
gave it to him as adoration, as appreciation, as thanksgiving,
as thanksgiving. Is that not what we do? We do
not give unto the Lord for our salvation. We don't. We do not
give unto the Lord to merit anything, but we certainly do give, don't
we? We give our tithe, we give our time, we give our prayers,
we give our worship unto the Lord with all of our heart, don't
we? Not for salvation, but because we've been saved, because the
Lord hath saved us, and we give unto him gladly, gladly. Whatever she was giving unto
Him, it was side by side, in verse 12. The king Solomon gave to the
queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked beside that
which she had brought unto the king. Now this is quite possibly
the most glorious part of this entire chapter, in my opinion.
It doesn't say besides what she gave, it says besides. So as
I mentioned before, as she's giving unto the king, these spices
and this gold and these other things, the king's giving unto
her something as well. Everything that she's asking
for, everything that she's desirous of. He's already answered all
of her questions and given her wisdom. And now he's given her
everything that's within his power to give unto her, all that's
in her heart to do so. It took place side by side for
everyone to observe. Everyone could see this happening.
This was not done in secret. This was done in the wide open
for everyone to take note of. The Lord says, ask what I shall
give you. We heard that the first hour,
didn't we? Ask what I shall give you. 2 Chronicles 1, when Solomon
offered up the thousand sacrifices unto the Lord, the Lord said,
ask what I shall give you. And for his bride, for his elect,
we cry out, Lord, give us Christ. And as we bring our sin unto
him, that's all we can bring. That's all we can bring is our
sin. He gives us holiness, doesn't he? As we bring our darkness,
does He not give unto us eternal light and life? As we bring our
death unto Him. That's all we can produce. So
that's all we can be bringing. If we bring anything, we bring
death for life. We bring darkness for light.
We bring our unbelief. Our waveringness. He's unwavering. And He gives us faith to look
to Him. He takes our sorrow. As we bring
our sorrow, We bring confessing our nature, confessing what we
are, and He gives us eternal joy. He takes our filthy rags. This is side by side. Do we see
what I'm saying? He took all this from us and gave us all
this. He takes our filthy rags, our unrighteousness, and He gives
us the righteousness of Christ. He robes us in the righteousness
of Christ. Our King has done this for every
single person for whom He lived, for whom He died, and for whom
He was resurrected for. For His bride. As Christ, our glorious King,
bowed His mighty head on Calvary's cross and yielded up the ghost
saying, it is finished. He was overshadowing His elect.
He was bearing their sin, saving His people. And He has. He saved
His people. All those for whom He lived and
died are declared as perfectly righteous before the Father."
When we see this, when you see this and when I see this, we'll
say with the Queen of Sheba, the half has not been told me.
The glorious gospel. Tell me again. Tell me one more
time. You remember whenever, I use
this analogy often, I know, but you recall the account where
Abraham sent the servant to fetch his son, a bride, Isaac. Now that's a representation of
the father sending forth the spirit to bring the bride back
to the son, sure. That young lady that was coming
back, Rebecca, unto Isaac, it was a four week journey. What
do you think she kept asking that servant over and over and
over? Tell me more about Isaac. Tell
me more about Isaac. See, the half hasn't been told,
brethren. We can only declare this glorious gospel and we hear
it over and over and it becomes more and more precious to us
because we see that we are a man of unclean lips and we dwell
among a people of unclean lips. Woe is me. We cry out glory to
God for His salvation, for His people. We cry out the half has
not been told me. And I love. I love the fact that
it says The King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all her
desire, whatsoever she asked. What are you asking for? Lord,
give me Christ. Lord, give me Christ. Give me
wisdom. Whatsoever you ask, the Lord says, I'll give it to you.
He said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and to him that seeketh he findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Why? Because the Lord is the one that says, ask, and
you say, yes, Lord, I'll ask. The Lord's the one that says,
knock, and you say, yes, Lord, I'm knocking. The Lord says,
seek ye my face, and we seek his face. See, this is a glorious
gospel where he gets all the glory for it. It must be revealed. We are made to rejoice in the
regeneration of the Lord Jesus Christ, the justification, the
sanctification, the redemption, the righteousness, the wisdom.
We're made to rejoice in it all according to the sovereign electing
grace of God, not by anything we've done. And we rest just
like these servants were resting. We're seated in Him. I probably should have titled
this, The Half Has Not Been Told, but I titled it When She Saw.
This is what we see. When we see, this is all because
we saw the Lord high and lifted up, isn't it? Father, thank You
for causing Your people to see and not leaving us to ourself.
Not leaving us dead and trespassing and sin, but making us alive
in You. Lord, thank You that the half has not been told. Such
things are too wonderful for us. We cannot attain them to
them. We long to see You face to face, being made like You,
robed in Your righteousness. Cause us to see ourself there
even now. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.