Good morning. Are you alive?
I'm barely alive, but I'm alive. So I praise God that we have
another day to be together. And I'm excited to open God's
word with you. I want to pray one more time, so
let's do that. Let's seek the Lord again.
Lord, we thank you that your word says in Psalm 3, the verse
five, that David slept and he awoke because the Lord sustained
him. Thank you, Lord, that you've
sustained us through us sleep, that we are able to be here
attentive, energized, and ready to receive the manner that you
have prepared for us today. And so we come to glean from the
do of your word and we pray that we would be nourished and
strengthened from it. We give you glory, Lord, and
honor and thanks. In Jesus name.
Amen. Amen.
Leave a Bible with you. If you don't have a Bible with
you, why don't you have a Bible with you?
I hope you have a Bible with you.
I'm so thankful for the screen and the projection, but there's
nothing like having a copy of God's Word in your hand.
I know that we have phones and tablets.
Whatever the means is, whatever you use to read God's Word, make
it a habit to bring it with you to church, to familiarize
yourself with the sword of the spirit that you have.
It's very important. It's a testimony for others as
well. And I'm glad that we have God's
Word available. It's royalty to have God's Word.
You know that. You know, in the Old Testament,
it was the kings who were to have a copy of God's Word.
They were to write a copy of it approved by the Levitical
priest, and this says they're in Deuteronomy 17, that they were
to have that copy of God's Word with them at all times and read
it all the time. So it was a royal thing to have
a copy of God's Word. And we are royal priesthood and
we have been by God's Providence given access to divine
revelation. And so if you have a copy of
God's Word, go with me to Matthew chapter 12 again,
Matthew chapter 12 in verse 42, the verse that we have been
addressing and dissecting together these past few
sessions, when Jesus declared that something greater than
Solomon is Solomon is here. He did not.
He did not give an aimless assertion in one of his sermons.
When you look at the context, when Jesus said something
greater than Solomon is here, it was actually a rebuke.
It was a rebuke. And when you look here at 42, we
know this verse. But you scale back to verse 38
and you realize that it was the scribes and the Pharisees who
approached Jesus yet again and asked him to perform another
spectacular sign. And this was not an honest,
sincere inquiry. This was a veneer.
This was a facade of seemingly being interested in and
investigating the evidence of who Jesus really is.
But Christ saw pass through that.
This was just a way of many ways of attempting to trap Jesus and
to try to discredit Jesus. And you can't fool Jesus.
He can see through it all. And he did see it.
And because he saw it, instead of giving them a supernatural
sign on demand, despite all the signs that he had already done
leading up to this point, the Pharisees were aware of the
miracles. Instead of giving them a
supernatural sign, he gives them a scathing rebuke.
He gives them a rebuke. And one of those rebukes is what
we see here in Matthew 1242. When Jesus says that he was
greater than Solomon, he he did not only in that one breath
declare his superiority to Solomon.
He also linked himself to a person in the story of Solomon
that we are going to look at in greater detail.
So notice let's read it again in verse 42 of chapter 12.
The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
The Lord assured this unbelieving generation that on
Judgment Day the Queen of the South will rise and stand and
testify against this generation and actually condemn it for
their lack of faith for failing to take heed to the opportunity
that was before them in the person of Jesus Christ.
There is a historic person that will be standing on trial and
pointing her finger towards those who beheld the Incarnate
Christ and and actually reprimanding them and rebuking
them and will further and confirm the testimony of their
worthiness to be judged for eternity.
Who is this person? Who is the Queen of the South
and why does the Lord highlight her as someone who will take the
witness stand and bring about a report from her own testimony of
why they deserve to be judged by God?
You don't have to guess why the Lord chose this woman.
You don't have to guess who she is because there's an entire
half chapter dedicated in the Old Testament concerning her in
First Kings chapter 10. And not only is she found there
First Kings chapter 10, there was something about her attitude
towards Solomon that Christ highly esteemed.
There was something about how she approached Solomon that
Christ highly esteemed, and not only did he highly esteem it, he
set it as an example before the Jews of his day, and he also
sets it as an example for people of all generations.
Of how we ought to respond to the reports that we hear about
Jesus Christ. Here is the main point of what
Christ is getting at if this queen, if this woman was so
eager and so curious to go out of her way to discover the
things that she merely heard about this great king, how much
more should we pursue the one who is greater?
This is the main argument that Christ is making, and it sounds
like an inspirational illustration, but it's actually
a warning, right? It's not Just look at the Queen
of the South and how she sought King Solomon.
Now do something similar with Jesus Christ.
That's not really the whole point.
The whole point is Christ is actually telling this people
that to be apathetic and to be uninterested when you are
presented an opportunity and an invitation to discover what
Jesus Christ wants to make known to you is absolutely
inexcusable. To remain apathetic or
uninterested when you have been given an opportunity to
investigate and discover more of what Christ wants to make known
to you, it's absolutely inexcusable.
This is what Jesus is saying and there are 4 notable things about
the Queen of Sheba that I would like to bring to our attention.
There are 4 notable things. The first thing is the position
that she had. The second thing is the distance
that she made. The third thing is the king that
she sought. And the last thing is that the
reward she received. Let's turn to 1st Kings chapter
10 together. Let's turn to 1st Kings chapter
10 beginning in verse one. This is the same woman that
Jesus refers to in Matthew chapter 12.
It's such a beautiful story. I'm going to read the 1st 5
verses and just envision it. And 1st Kings chapter 10 verse
one we read now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of
Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test them
with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a
very great retinue with camels bearing spices and very much
gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon,
she told them all that was on her mind, and Solomon answered
her all her heart, all her questions.
Rather, there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not
explain to her. And when the Queen of Sheba had
seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the
food of his table, the seating of his officials and the
attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cup bearers
and his burn offerings that he offered at the House of the
Lord, there was no more breath in her.
Literally her breath was taken from her breathless.
Wow. 4 notable things. The first thing I want you to
understand concerning Jesus's words of why she will stand at
the judgment is because of the positions that she had when he
said the Queen of the South. She was a queen.
This was not somebody who was just a curious woman from a
foreign land. She was royalty.
She was a woman of great dignity.
She was a woman of great power, affluence, influence, prestige.
This was somebody very important at this time in history.
And Jesus highlights this because most scholars believe
that Sheba is modern day Yemen, South of Saudi Arabia.
And we're going to talk about the location and how significant
that is because Jesus highlights how far she came to meet with
Solomon. But before they just consider
her position, What what she did, who she was, the
responsibilities she had, the authority that she possessed.
This is not just anybody. This is somebody who had status.
This is somebody who was very significant, someone who was
feared and revered, who herself was sought after to some degree.
And so she had a responsibility over a nation.
And yet with all the subjects that she had, all the servants,
all the supplies, all the success, the impression that you
get here from verse one is that this queen was longing for
something more. She was longing for something
more. How does she hear about Solomon?
Well, Shirley, traitors came in and out of her land.
And people who had visited Solomon or passed through
Jerusalem and Israel also witnessed the majesty of this
king, what he was able to do in such a short amount of time.
And so she heard from time to time about this King Solomon
from Jerusalem. And she gathered the pieces
together, and something sparked inside of her heart.
I'm hearing about the Solomon all the time now.
She was not somebody who had nothing to do.
She she was not a spoiled queen who lounged around and thought
this will be a nice vacation. Nor is she somebody who thought
that this would be a good alliance to make with a
brilliant man. We can really work together and
do something awesome together. That's not what's happening
here. Read verse one carefully again
and you'll see the essence of her desire to discover who King
Solomon is. First kings, 10 one.
Now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, it
stopped. If it stopped there, then we we
can say it's about Solomon. But it says concerning the name
of the Lord. Concerning the name of the Lord.
She came to test them with hard questions.
It was more than Solomon's abilities.
It was more than Solomon's achievements.
There was something about Solomon's knowledge of God, and
there was something about Solomon doing things in honor of
God. There was something about people
linked the favor Solomon had with God.
And so the main here, main thing here for this queen is the Lord,
the Lord that Solomon represented, the the Lord that
Solomon served. This was the heartbeat of this
trip that she's about to make. And this is what we need to
learn from this woman and never forget it.
You were created for more than positions of authority, then
personal luxury, then extravagance, then achievements,
then you accomplishing projects, whether they're small or great,
then you crafting your gift. Or it's more than that.
Your heart was created to know your maker, to walk with your
God, to understand him and to experience him and to know who
he is and to know who he is concerning yourself and how he
relates to you. You see this woman here, She has
this, this longing that's been birthed.
Maybe it was always there and and the lid was removed once
everybody start talking about the Lord of Solomon, not just
Solomon. And so this woman here is
testifying something about the human heart, that the human
heart, though it is depraved and wicked evil it is, it is capable
of understanding that there is something more.
And I wonder if your heart today testifies to that reality or are
you still mesmerized by the little toys of this world?
This woman had it all. And I wonder for those who have
made their lives about the things that she enjoyed, the
things that she probably pursued to arrive where she was at.
Are you not challenged this morning that there was a queen
who left her throne to discover a truth about the true God?
She left her throne, and she desired to get answers.
Not just answers about her life, but answers about God.
I'm sure she heard the fame of Solomon concerning the Lord.
I got to find out what this is all about.
So you see that this woman had all these things.
And guess what? These things did not satisfy,
satisfy the cries of her heart. They didn't.
And unfortunately, you have so many people today who, in the
name of pursuing such things and enjoying such things, live all
of their lives, if not most of their lives, neglecting the
person of Jesus Christ, ignoring the rumors.
They're not rumors. They're true reports about who
he is. For vanity.
For transient things. For things that will disappear.
For things that will rot. For things that can be taken
from you. And here's this woman who has
her priorities right. And remember, when Jesus gave
this rebuke, He gave it to a specific audience.
He gave it to the religious leaders of his time, these men
who also wanted to protect their positions and their influence.
Remember when Jesus was on trial, Pilot discerned that
these Pharisees were delivering up to this trial because of
envy. They saw the people that Christ
was pulling away from them. They saw how there was a shift
happening in the spiritual climate because of this one man,
a new movement was arising and out of envy they sought Christ
to be put to death. But not only that, that's not
the only mark of a Pharisee. We tend to we tend to summarize
a Pharisee to be somebody who is legalistic or self-righteous.
And that is true. That is the essence of being a
Pharisee. But there are different
ingredients that make a Pharisee A Pharisee, and there are
different components that made the Pharisees unable to
surrender to at least honestly inquire of the person of Jesus
Christ instead of making a Public Enemy number one from the
get go. Here's one of the marks of a
Pharisee in Luke 1614. We are told that the Pharisees
who heard Jesus just preached a certain sermon.
And then we're given a description about those
Pharisees in Luke 16, four who were lovers of money.
They loved money. They live for money.
They twisted the promises and the commands of God for the
accumulation of personal gain. They were lovers of money.
Now why is the Holy Spirit telling us that they are lovers
of money? Why is that significant?
It's not telling us that they were very ambitious or they were
manipulative. No, because right before this,
in in verse 13 Jesus says something important.
In Luke 1613 he says you cannot serve 2 masters.
You cannot serve God and money. And then in verse 14 we were
told the Pharisees who were lovers of money.
If they were lovers of money, then do you think it's very easy
to become lovers of money today, especially in the West?
You'd be amazed to know how many people, even in churches, bear
the name of Christianity, really serve money.
Money is their God. Is it wrong to work?
No. Is it wrong to save?
No. Is it wrong to enjoy things with
your money? No.
But when you begin to make your life more about the acquiring of
wealth, when that's your ambition, when that's where your
affections lie, when that is what you talk about more, When
that is what your meditations are on whether you want to
acknowledge or not. Jesus is not your God.
Money is your God. Money is your God and there will
be many, many people who will not have eternal life because
they've lived their lives serving the dollar bill.
The Pharisees. Yes, they were self-righteous,
but there was another obstacle in their hearts.
They loved money. They loved money.
And that is I believe one of the major idols in in the West.
Be careful young person. I know you're ambitious.
I know you have a lot to look forward to in life.
I know that you're looking out to the world and all the things
that are being said and all the doom and gloom of these
podcasts, of all these these guys, these selfmotivation guys.
You know those guys. I get bothered when I see what
goes viral on the Internet. Be careful, because there's a
fine line between wanting to be responsible and wanting to be
safe and wanting to save up, and you end up serving money instead
of serving Jesus. Very fine line.
The Pharisees. They love money and they
couldn't love Christ. At least that's one of the
reasons. What about the rich young ruler?
Remember the rich? He came to Jesus and he seemed
to be desperate to be saved. And Jesus says something
incredible about the rich young ruler.
And Jesus is so discerning. He he, he sees through it all
and the words of Jesus to the rich young ruler and Mark.
And so for us at America, the Bible church, we're going to see
this in a in a couple of chapters, but it's good to see
it. Now in light of this message, if
you go to Mark, I want you to see this in your bibles and Mark
chapter 10, verse 18 and 19. So many people then and so many
people today will not know eternal life because they
cherish and valued things that they shouldn't have more than
Jesus. Mark 10/18.
So here's this. Rich, young, grueling.
He asked What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Good teacher Jesus, why do you call me good?
Verse 18 Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?
No one is good except God alone. The enemies of Jesus, the
enemies of the gospel, love to use his verse to try to say that
he is not God, when in fact he is probing the heart of this
rich, young, grueling. Hey, you're calling me good.
You know God is good alone. Do the math.
That's what Jesus is saying. Not.
I'm not God. Only God is good.
That's that's not what he's saying at all.
Look what he says in verse 19. You know the commandments.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery. Do not steal.
Do not bear fault witness. Do not defraud.
Honor your father and mother. Where do you find those
commitments? Where do you find those
commandments? The Old Testament, sure.
But what? Where?
Where are they? The law.
Not just the law, but what the
10 commandments, they're not all 10, right?
The first few concerning our vertical relationship with God
are omitted in Jesus's explanation.
Here He's dealing with the last few that deal with your
horizontal relationship with those who are created in the
image of God. Right.
And so you see these things in the Decalogue that the big 10
laws, right? Right.
Yeah. Read it carefully.
I'm so curious. I was very close of asking
someone to name all 10 commandments.
I won't. But look at this.
Do not murder. Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal. Do not bear fault witness.
Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother 10
commandments. Who's who's the careful student?
What's standing out to you? Good.
Do not defraud is not in the Big 10 and you have all these
academics and these scholars. Jesus didn't know the 10
commandments. Jesus slip Jesus for God.
Jesus added Jesus. No Jesus knows what he's doing.
Why would he say do not defraud, That's in the law.
By the way, there are laws in the old covenant.
I deal with paying people their dues and not cheating people.
Do not defraud. Let's not make it complicated
what Jesus is doing. He's discerning the main problem
of this rich young ruler. He was rich.
Could it be that Jesus knew how he accumulated his wealth?
You defrauded people to get your money.
You cheated people, You manipulated, you played games
with people. And So what Christ is doing by
naming the commitments, He's not just listening to commitments.
He's also dealing with the heart of the matter.
In this young man, you've defrauded people and he's being
so wise. He's not just calling it out
right away. He wants the young man to
acknowledge it for himself. Now it makes more sense when
Jesus goes sell everything and give it to the poor.
In other words, go give back what you defrauded people from.
So here's here's here's Jesus saying do not defraud.
What Did this young man get saved?
No, he walked away. Why?
Because he loved money, he couldn't imagine giving what he
was able to acquire over those short young years of his life.
He became so successful so soon. And here's this Jesus now asking
me to surrender this oh, there's going to be so many people.
Unlike the Queen of Sheba, who is willing to not just get up
from her throne to meet King Solomon, but come with caravans
of gold and spices to lay before this king and say, tell me what
you know about the Lord. Consider the position that she
had. She was a queen.
You know why some people don't want to hear God's word
consistently come to the House of God?
Because they're busy. You know why some people don't
want to surrender their lives through Christ?
Because they're young. How do I know this?
I know this because I grew up in the church.
And when I was in my late teens, I made a deal with God.
Because I heard about God, I couldn't deny his existence.
So I made somewhat of a deal with him.
Lord, let me finish college. Let me get married.
Let me get myself established and then I'll come to your house
and I'll serve you And I'll. I'll do what you asked me to do.
Isn't that cute? Making a deal with God.
But we do that. We don't say it to God, we say
it to ourselves. Let me figure things out.
God is worthy of honor in all seasons, whether you have the
money or not. Have the money whether you're
prepared or not prepared. He's worthy to be worshiped
today. I mean, that's the call of
discipleship. You had so many of those people
saying I'll follow you. Jesus saying follow me.
And they try to come up with these deals.
Let me just go bury my father. For let the dead bury the dead.
Let the dead bury the dead. Now you have to follow.
You heard it. Now come follow me now I'll take
care of you. Watch.
Watch how Supply all your needs. Watch how I'll be good to you.
Watch how I'll bless you. Here's this queen.
She heard the reports and she says, OK, we're going, we're
going to Jerusalem, Which brings us to the notable point #2.
The distance that she made, We read here in verse one, the
Queen of Sheba. You heard earlier that this is
modern day Yemen. Most scholars believe some
debate and say that it's Ethiopia, but we're not going to
get into the reasons why. There is strong evidence for
Yemen. And then we we see that she's,
she's willing to go, but we don't consider the great length.
And what's so significant is that in Jesus and Matthew 1242,
the thing that he highlights about the Queen of the South is
that he used the words she came from the ends of the earth.
So what moved the heart of Christ was what she was willing
to do in terms of travel to sit before the wisdom of Solomon.
It is believed that where she was from was 1500 miles.
She didn't catch a flight, she didn't ride first class.
It was several grueling weeks, dangerous terrain, frequent
stops in order to just arrive, to have a face to face encounter
with this king. It was not an easy trip.
As much as she was a queen and she would have been assisted, it
was still very difficult. And Jesus again emphasizes that
point about this queen. She came from the ends of the
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And I wonder if this queen, because I was thinking about
this message and I thought, well, she's going to rise up at
judgment, what is she going to say?
That's what I was trying to imagine.
What is that queen going to say to this generation and even to
to all generations Because the principals live on.
What will she say? And I wonder if this is one of
the things that she'll say. When I heard about the reports
of Solomon, who is inferior to King Jesus, I was willing to go
pack up my bags, paws and everything else and make it an
absolute priority to meet with this king.
I was willing to go to distance. I was willing to endure the
desert nights, the desert heat, the robbers along the way,
potential assassination. I was willing to do all of that
just to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And yet your God didn't ask you to go to heaven to speak to him.
He came to you, and you still didn't seek him.
I'm wondering, Lord, are you? Is that what she's going to say?
Your God left his throne. I left my throne.
Your God left his throne, and he came down to you.
He took on flesh born among men. He subjected himself to the
things that we know as humans except for sin.
And he walked among you, and he sat with you, and he ate with
you, and he delivered many of you, and he healed many of you.
And yet you still had this pompous, audacious attitude to
not humbly and with holy curiosity, ask of who Christ is,
but to accuse him and reject him, and to ignore him and to be
apathetic towards him. How?
How are you guys able to do it? Do you realize what I did for
Solomon? I wonder if she's going to say
something like that. And we see here that although
this generation will be indicted specifically because the
Incarnate Christ came, that principle still is true for a
post resurrected post ascended Jesus Christ.
Paul preach a very amazing sermon in Acts chapter 17 and he
gave an insight to these gentiles who had a had a shrine
for something called the unknown God.
They believed in so many gods and most of the gods that they
believed in were distant and indifferent and didn't care to
interfere with the affairs of man.
And Paul comes on the scene, and he presents the true God in that
sermon. And when he speaks to these
people, he presents a point that is so glorious even in light of
this. We're thinking of the distance
that she made. But I want to present to you the
distance that God that God made. Look at this in act 17.
You can turn there in your Bibles in verse 26 and 27.
Act 17 reads in verse 26. And he made from one man every
nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling
place. And not an exciting verse from
one man. He made the whole world, the
nations of every tribe and tongue of all mankind, to live
in all the face of the earth. And look at this he having
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling
place. Where were you born?
Were you born here? Were you born in the Middle
East? Wherever you were born, God
determined that you would be born there.
Isn't that wonderful? I love to use this verse as well
to to comfort my soul, to know that God will determine where I
will be. You don't know where you're
going to live. You don't know what house you're
going to get. We were looking for a house for
the past year in this crazy market.
And I often would go to this risk.
Lord, you determine the boundaries of my dwelling place.
You're going to tell me where you're going to buy your
Providence. Leave me where I'm supposed to
be. But God, in creating the world,
creating the nation's, creating from one man, mankind.
What's the purpose of him creating to distance himself to
put it in motion and just watch. No.
We see here in verse 27 exactly what it is that he did it form
that they should seek God. That they should seek God in the
hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.
Here's what I take out of this No matter where you were born,
no matter where you were raised, no matter what culture you're
from, no matter what ethnicity you were created for one
purpose, to know God. You were created to seek God, to
feel your way toward him and find him.
Which means in order for you to find God, you got to determine
to seek God, right? Feel their way toward him and
find him. And here's the one that, here's
the phrase that I want to point out to yet he is actually not
far from each one of us. No matter where you are in all
of the globe, God had made himself accessible matter where?
So where's the excuse? He's not far from each one of
us. So.
So God's not closer here than he is in your room or in your car.
He's everywhere. You can seek him at any place,
at any time because we are assured here that he's not an
unknown God. He's a God.
That's very noble, very noble. So, so this even adds more
seriousness to the reality of who God is.
You can't make excuses concerning discovering him and
realizing who he is in his realness and his love and his
personal care for you, because he's not far if you just but
seek him, he will make himself known.
How does he make himself? He'll make himself known to the
degree that he needs to make himself known to you for you to
realize that he could be known. It's wonderful.
And we see that this woman here, she's willing to seek after
Solomon, and when she seeks after Solomon, Christ is
greater. You know why?
You look at this verse in First Kings and you realize she didn't
get an invitation from Solomon? Did she?
Did a royal delegation come with a nice envelope on a gold
platter? Solomon is asking for you, oh
Queen of Sheba, to be his audience.
None of that. No invitation.
Not even no invitation. No guarantee that if she went
that she would be received by Solomon.
This is just all speculation. This is just a hopeful desire,
OK? Crisis greater than Solomon.
You know why? Think about all the invitations
you have from him. Not only all the invitations.
Think about all the guarantees and all the promises that he
gives when you do come to him. What are you saying?
That brilliant sermon? And John, Chapter 6, verse 37.
All that the Father gives me will come to me.
And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
I will never cast out. So you come to him.
You should. You know I've met many people
who feel this way. I can't come to him.
I don't know if he'll receive me.
Well, here's the word from Christ himself.
I will never cast out. I'll never push you away.
I'll never reject you. I'll never deny you.
When you humbly come before me and inquire of me.
I will never cast out. Queen Sheba didn't have that
assurance. Queen Sheba didn't have that
guarantee. She was going with blind faith.
Really. She was willing to do all of
that for someone who did not even extend the hand to her.
And yet, here's Christ, who didn't just make the distance
very short, but he guarantees you if you just make that small
step of faith. I'm ready for you.
I'm right here for you. I will receive you.
And not only will I receive you, I will change you and transform
you. And you'll never leave the same.
I'll never cast you out. This is the distance that she
was willing to make. I'm sure that this will be a
part of the reason why she will indict this generation.
You know what's so fascinating about Queen Sheba?
We read it in verse two, right? She came to Jerusalem with with
camels bearing spices, very much gold and precious stones.
She felt that it was absolutely necessary that if she was to
have an audience with Solomon, that she could not come empty
handed. That she had to bring these
precious treasures and jewels and things that were unique to
her country to to maybe persuade him to please him.
Maybe just merely out of respect, does your God ask you
to bring things to him when you come to him?
He does. He actually does.
You know what it is. Not gold, not spices, not
jewels, not your righteousness, your burdens.
That's why he's greater than Solomon.
He asked you to come to him, and he asked you to come with all
your sins, to lay at his feet with all your worries, cast all
your anxieties, and for he cares for you.
Solomon, naturally, speaking from a political standpoint, it
was. It was.
It was protocol for you. Bring these things.
King Jesus is different. If he wants you to bring
anything, it's not your perfect record.
It's not the best year you had in terms of your holiness.
It's your brokenness. So think about how he's greater.
The distance has been made very short.
What's the distance between you and the living God, The King of
Kings? Faith.
The assurance that he'll never
cast you out. She did not receive such
assurance. And she came with a caravan of
treasures. You come with the load of your
sin. Is he not greater?
He is far greater. The distance that she made to
meet with Solomon will be something.
But consider the king that she sought, the king that she
sought. When the Lord said that the
Queen of Sheba, the queen of the South, went from the ends of the
earth, we're told for why? Reason.
The reason, the objection, the objective rather to hear the
wisdom of Solomon, to hear what this man had to say.
Jesus highlights this because when she comes to meet with
Solomon, we get her response. You read in verse 5, but let's
go back to First Kings 10 in verse 6.
And she said to the king, the report was true, that I heard in
my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not
believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it.
I love these words. These are one of my favorite
words from this whole story. And behold, the half was not
told me. The half was not told me.
Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard
surpasses what I heard. I heard so much about you, but
now that my eyes have seen you, you exceeded my expectation.
Isn't it true for Christ too? You can hear from Spurgeon
himself, and what Spurgeon has to give concerning the person of
Christ falls very short of his brilliance and beauty.
You can hear so many testimonies from people, and those are
wonderful testimonies. They can move you.
But until you taste and see that the Lord is good for yourself,
there's something about you coming to that knowledge of him,
one-on-one that is so absolutely necessary.
And so, so many people are riding on the faith in the
reports merely of their parents, of their siblings, of their
pastor, and they're just taking their word for it.
What about your story? What's your what have you seen
concerning Christ? What?
What's your story? What's your testimony?
You yourself, Queen of Sheba. She had her own testimony.
She didn't. She was not satisfied relying on
the testimony of others. I need my own testimony here.
I want to know this for myself. And so she does.
And she's breathless. She's moved to the core.
And here's what's amazing. I love this, she says.
When I heard the reports of you, I actually didn't believe them.
I didn't believe them. It's like many people who grew
up in the church. They're saturated with reports,
Sunday school reports, youth meeting reports.
Then you go to the the main meeting reports and you hear the
sermons and reports of reports of reports about Jesus Christ,
and you're a skeptic. I've met people like that.
They come to conferences and they're skeptics.
They doubt they don't have true saving faith, and they even know
it themselves. You know, what's the difference
between you and Queen Sheba? Though the Queen of Sheba
questioned her unbelief. You're content in it.
There's a big difference. You're satisfied in your
skepticism. She wasn't because she knew I
could be wrong in my estimation here.
And I'm not willing to live my life thinking, what if I'm not
willing to do that? And so I'm going to do my own
homework, and I'm going to make an ambition of mine to see these
reports of true. If if they're not true, then I
was right all along. I had every reason not to
believe. But if they are true and I
didn't investigate, shame on me. I will not live with that
possibility. I will discover this for myself.
And when she went on that journey to discover it for
herself, she was never the same. She was never the same.
We know testimonies of famous authors and writers who have
done this. They go to the Bible to try to
disprove the resurrection and they have getting resurrected.
So when you come with that sincerity, that transparency,
that humility, and Christ sees your honest desire to know the
truth, you will be changed by the truth.
But but don't. But don't cross your arms and
look at God and say prove it to me.
That's that wasn't the attitude of the Queen of Sheba.
I will go, I will do what I need to do.
I will open this word. I will talk to people who say
that they have met and seen this greater than Solomon for
himself. I need to know this king.
I want to know if this is true. Is this psychological tricks?
Is this, is this the the effects of brainwashing?
Is this what happens when you grow up in a certain environment
that you're just subject to believe these things?
Because that's what you're just known for and that's what you
know. I need to know.
And the queen will look at this
generation, say you did not do that.
You immediately had your guard up.
You Pharisees, you try to disprove Christ instead of
giving him the opportunity and listening carefully to see how
he is the Christ. And so you did not have the
humility that I had concerning King Solomon.
Here. You have a greater than Solomon
in your midst, and you blew it. I'm sure she'll say something
along those lines. She sought this King Solomon for
his wisdom. He did have wisdom.
It was a wisdom given from God. But Christ has greater wisdom.
Guess what Scripture says. Christ is the wisdom of God.
He didn't just have wisdom. He is wisdom.
Not only that, he is the wisdom for this life.
And he is the wisdom of God unto the most important thing of your
life, unto salvation. And he is the one who gave
Solomon the wisdom that he was able to exercise and implement
to begin with. This is Christ.
And she comes, and she asks these hard questions, and he
answers, and she's just blown away.
I would love to see her eyes every time she present this
Riddle or this concept or this philosophical thing, this
pretzel of thoughts. And here's Solomon just
effortlessly saying, yeah, because of this, yeah, because
of that. And just perhaps those one,
like, proverb like statements, one after the next.
And here's they're just getting just moved, just eyes opening
up. Wow.
You know, the thing about Jesus is that when you come to me and
you see His wisdom, when you see the wisdom of the cross, the
wisdom of the gospel, the wisdom of his sayings, the wisdom of
his parables, the wisdom and his dealings with people, it does
move you, does stir you. But Christ goes beyond that.
Christ is able to do something that Solomon could not give, and
here's what He can do. He not only moves you with his
wisdom, he not only displays the perfection of his wisdom, he's
willing to impart his wisdom into you.
He's willing to give you his wisdom.
Solomon couldn't do that. Yeah, you can learn from
Solomon, but the supernaturally impart the wisdom of God into
you. Only Christ can do that.
Here's an amazing verse. I mean, you can put this in your
mouth and just let it sit there for the rest of it and just
enjoy the sweetness of this one verse in First Corinthians 216.
Look what Paul says concerning this truth and 1st Corinthians
216 about what Christ can do. What Christ does do for the
believer when he does come to him.
For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ.
We have the mind of Christ. Isn't that fascinating, You
believer? Yes, you have the mind of
Christ. What does that mean?
What does it mean to have the mind of Christ?
I think Paul gives another hint to what it does include.
Includes many things. Remember when he says in
Philippians 2/5 to 11 when he talks about Jesus condescending,
emptying himself, took on the form of a servant and that he
was willing to go to death, even death on the cross?
We love that verse, right? We love those verses.
It just shouts the humility of Jesus Christ.
But what he says in Philippians 2/5 to begin that awesome saying
is have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
So what's Paul saying there? You know when Christ left his
glory and he subjected himself and he served God, and he was
willing to serve God, even to the point of an excruciating
death. All of that is to communicate
the great humility of Christ. And he says that humility that
Jesus had is not just something you and I worship and adore and
love about Christ. He says it's to be imitated.
And you can think the way Jesus thought because you can have
this mind in yourselves to have the mind of Christ.
That includes having the humility of Christ, the
dedication and the devotion to serve the Father.
They're willing to be humiliated for his name's sake.
This is what is included having the mind of Christ.
You can do a whole conference on the mind of Christ, right?
The mind of Christ. So when she came to King
Solomon, she was able to be impressed by the mind of
Solomon. When you come to King Jesus,
he's able to take his mind and put it into your mind.
Wow. He is greater indeed.
I went to King Solomon, and I was impressed by him.
You have a king who's willing to share his power, and you didn't
go to him. He's willing to impart his
virtue to you. He's able to empower you to
reflect his moral majesty. And you didn't go to him.
How you're not moved to seek him.
How you're not moved to depend on how.
How are you guys able to? I just.
I'm wondering if we're going to see the Queen of Sheba speak on
that day. She just said she's going to be
there, the king that she sought. Lastly, the reward that she
received, the reward that. So you read an inverse too.
She came with this, this great banquet of lovely things, right?
But then you come here at the end of her story in verse 13 of
chapter 10, and look what Solomon does for her.
And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all that she
desired, whatever she asked, besides what was given her by
the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to
her own land with her servants. So she came impressed to give to
Solomon, and rightfully so. And when Solomon, at the end of
their encounter, was ready to send her off when we she was
ready to return, he not only gave her something in return, he
gave her more than what she gave.
And when we talked about people coming to Christ, we often say
surrender your life, empty yourself, give it all to him.
That's all true. But don't have the impression
that when you come to Christ, you give your things up and then
you leave empty. That's a wrong view of
surrendering to Christ. You give those things up so that
he can give you better and give you His will and give you that
what your heart truly needs and longs for.
And no matter what sacrifice you do make for Christ, you are
always going to leave more rewarded and more blessed than
if you had just held on to your life.
Here's this woman that she goes the great distance.
She gives all these things up. In essence, she empties her bank
account a little bit more than she could have.
She could have kept those things.
She could have kept and saved her energy.
She could have just been in her own little world.
But instead she goes, and Solomon says, I recognize what
you did. Here's more, here's more.
And Jesus said similar words that whoever leaves land,
whoever leaves family, mother, father, husband, wife, for my
sake. And the gospel sakes will
receive 100 times more in this life and in the life to come.
It's amazing when somebody has to leave their family.
This is, this is so true for so many Muslims.
They they are disowned by their family, they lose their mother,
they lose their father. But what do they get?
They get 10,000 mothers in the church, they get thousands of
siblings. Isn't it not true that if your
family is not in the faith, you feel closer to Christians in
your own family because there's something deeper than blood.
It's called spirit. So Christ's words are true.
They are true. How He takes care of you, He He
does not overlook the sacrifice that you make.
Though we are not worthy of to receive anything, He is worthy
of our sacrifice with no return. And yet the goodness of this
king is I want to reward you still.
It just blows my mind every single time.
Here's the thing. So you get safe.
He unveils and unpacks the gifts that he has for you in the
Spirit to serve him, and they are energized by him.
They are empowered by him. He receives all the glory for
them. And then at the end of the day,
he's going to crown you for things that He gave you needed
through you. I think we're all going to be
broken on the Judgment day when we stand before the beam, a seed
of Christ, I think. I think we're going to be so
overwhelmed, not just by his beauty, His Holiness, but by the
humility, even as he is exalted today, we're going to be blown
away. Like, what is this?
We are to crown you. And here he is crowning our
brows. And then I realized why that's
important. I had somebody once say to me,
what if I just want to serve the I don't want any crowns.
I don't. I'm like, I don't know if you
want to say that. I just want to get in.
I just want to. I just want to serve.
I don't want anything. I'm like, guys that sounds
humble and I get it. I'm not trying to criticize you,
but you realize what the one purpose of crowns are in heaven.
Who knows to lay them at his feet.
So my whole perspective on that change saying, Lord, crown me
with as many crowns as you can so that I have something worthy
to bring to your feet when I worship you.
The reward that she received, King Solomon bountifully blessed
her. But King Solomon wasn't
consistent with his rewards. He wasn't in some cases like
this. It's very moving to see him
willing to do this, especially for a king, especially for
somebody who was sought after. But King Solomon didn't always
do the best, and we we had it at the Bible quiz.
We had one of the questions, and I want you to see it.
It's in the chapter before this in in First Kings nine and First
Kings Nine. You read something about King
Hiram and this king here. He helps Solomon build the
temple of the Lord and he helps Solomon build his own house.
So let's do review. How long did it take to build
the temple of the Lord? I heard like 6 different
answers. What happened?
Seven years? Yes.
Seven years to build the temple of the Lord.
How many years did it take to build his own house?
13 years. Very good.
Make this a debate in your time at lunch, do you think it was a
bad thing or a good thing that Solomon took more time to build
his house than God's house? And here's another thing to add
to the debate. Which house did he build first?
OK, so you have to go in your Bibles and figure that out and
then debate it out. Which house did he build 1st?
And that might make it a little bit more of a complicated
argument and debate. But for the sake here of this
point, Solomon partners with the king of tire and he was supplied
with the with the timber from up north and the Cypress trees from
Lebanon. And he was able to build the
House of the Lord. And so now after 20 years, he
longs to reward his friend, his partner in this great endeavor.
And we're told what is one of the things that he was able to
give to Hiram here in verse 10 at First Kings Chapter 9.
Are you there with me? We see here that at the end of
20 years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the House
of the Lord and the King's house.
And Hiram, king of tire, had supplied Solomon with cedar and
Cypress, timber and gold as much as he desired.
King Solomon gave to Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee.
Now pause there. 20 cities. Sounds pretty good, right?
You give me one city, that's a big deal. 20 cities.
Side note, as much as this is a noble thing for Solomon to do,
was it the right thing to do? Can I tell you why it's not the
right thing to do? Because you're not supposed to
give what the Lord gave you in the promised land to Gentiles.
That's, that's for the people of God.
So giving parts of the inheritance of the Lord to other
outsiders, that's not a that's not a good move.
Solomon, just a side note. So he gives 20 cities from the
land of Galilee. He would think, wow, 20 cities.
So Hiram, here's our friend Solomon has rewarded us with 20
cities. And so they make their way to
this region, this neighborhood of 20 cities.
And look at the response in verse 12.
But when Hiram came from tire to see the cities that Psalm had
given him, they did not please him.
They did not please him. Therefore, he said, what kind of
cities are these that you have given me, my brother.
So they are called the land of Kabul.
To this day, some believe the word Kabul means good for
nothing, the land of good for nothing.
So Sears Solomon's attempt to reward a man who was willing to
give so much and willing to serve the purposes of God and
building a house for God. And when it came to a time of
being recompensed, he comes to these cities and he goes, this
place is a dump. This is the best that you can
do. And he just kind of jokingly
writes it up. He's like, he's a king.
He's like, this is good for nothing, right?
He didn't cause issues with Solomon.
He was just disappointed. When Jesus rewards you, you will
not be disappointed when you surrender your life and choose
to live for Him and partner for the purposes of His Kingdom
being advanced in this life. If you truly serve him and walk
with Him and understand how He works in your life, there won't
be a day in your life where you say, what is this?
You might be tempted to do so, but you'll always be wrong.
And when you endure the trials and those seasons where you feel
like what what, where am I, you will come through and you will
see God's beauty and brilliance even more.
And one thing is for certain, at the end of the road, when we do
stand in glory. When we do stand in glory, I am
confident that none of us will say what is this?
But we will be breathless and amazed.
And I'm sure we will be even more moved to say, oh, if I only
sacrifice more, if I only dedicated my life more for the
glory of God. I can't believe this is it.
The half has not been told me all the reports, even the
reports of the scripture as as divine, as infalible as they
are. Scripture tells us we see
through a glass dimly. There's a time where that glass
will be made clear and clean and we will see all that it is and
we will be moved. Do you think you'll be.
You know you go to these places Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon.
And I remember the first time I saw Niagara Falls.
I'm Canadian. It took my breath away.
But then you you, you take people there and after the 8th,
10th time you're used to it, right.
You walk up to it and and it it doesn't move you like it first
did. And you know, you have some
people who believe that that's what's heaven's going to be
like. Like for the 1st 10 years you're
going to be like, this is awesome.
It's amazing. Wow.
And then after year 150, you're going to get used to it.
No, think about this. The glory in that place is so
intense, so inexhaustible, that after a million years you will
still be in awe as you were when you stepped foot on the shore of
eternity. And after another million years
go by, you will be even more amazed than the 1st 10,000 years
you were there, basking in the absolute glory of Jesus Christ.
You will be breathless for eternity, for eternity.
I can't wait to go home. I can't wait to go home.
I hope you will go home. I hope you will find your home
in heaven. I hope that not one person in
here will be on the guilty side when the Queen of Sheba stands
up to speak. Your apathy and your
indifference in seeking the greater than Solomon is
inexcusable. He came to you.
He'll never deny you. His rewards are beyond.
He promised that you will know a piece.
He promised that you will know a joy.
The wealth of Christ is far greater than the wealth of
Solomon. There's spiritual riches.
And yeah, you were still willing to overlook all of that and
choose to go your own way. I left my throne.
Your God left his throne instead.
May we be on that side where we can look Christ in the face and
thank Him for saving us and showing us how awesome He is,
even when we didn't see all that he is.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for what
you've spoken to us. Thank you that you use one woman
in a chapter of First Kings to encourage us, convict us, warn
us. And so Lord, we just pray that
if anyone feels these obstacles towards Jesus, may the Queen of
Sheba stand as a testimony that no matter how great you are, no
matter what greatness you were trying to achieve in this world,
they are not an excuse to come to Jesus and realize his
greatness and be changed by that greatness.
Thank you, Lord, that we can come to you and not just behold
your wisdom, but receive your wisdom.
Wisdom to be saved, wisdom to live as of the saved.
And so, Lord, we want to leave here in awe of you this
afternoon and give you glory. Thank you that you are greater.
Thank you Lord, that you have opened our eyes so that we would
not be faced with the judgment of this Queen who will speak up
with boldness against those who have failed to see the glamour
and the splendor of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rescue us from such a crime and keep us in all of you in Jesus
name. Amen.