[0:00] Welcome to all to our service this morning as we come together to worship God. We pray his blessing and his word to us.
[0:14] We can begin by singing to God's praise from Psalm 45. Psalm 45 and we're singing from the second version of the psalm.
[0:30] Psalm 45, the second version of the psalm, and from the beginning down to verse 5. My heart indicting is, good martyr in a song, I speak the things that I have made which to the king belong.
[0:49] My tongue shall be as quick, his honour to indict, as is the pen of any scribe that useth fast to write. Thou fairest of all men, grace in thy lips doth flow, and therefore blessings evermore on thee doth God bestow.
[1:09] Thy sword gird on thy thigh, thou that of most of might appear in dreadful majesty and in thy glory bright. For meekness, truth, and right, ride prosperously in state, and thy right hand shall teach to thee things terrible and great.
[1:30] Thy shafts shall pierce their hearts, that foes are to the king, whereby into subjection the people thou shalt bring.
[1:40] And so on. You can sing these verses 1 to 5. My heart indicting is, good martyr in a song. My heart indicting is, good martyr in a song.
[2:07] I speak the things that I have made which to the king belong.
[2:25] My mouthカウント, Excellent. My heart educations. My heart bl 애끼 eight sobrepocself, Lord. My heart ly, my heart almost wick. This honor to indict, as is the pen of every scribe.
[2:53] The uses past to write Thou faith is following Kissing thy lips just low Another blessing forevermore And in the childhood home Thy sword will hide Thank you.
[4:18] Our meanest truth unright, bright cross must be in state.
[4:38] And thy right hand shall be to thee this heaven's land.
[4:56] Thy shouts of youth, their hearts, that close are to the King.
[5:14] When I into subjection, the people shall bring.
[5:38] Let us join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious God, we give thanks for the opportunity to come together to a place that bears your name.
[5:55] A place where your people are known to gather. And where they offer the praise and the thanksgiving of their heart.
[6:12] We bless you that you are willing to receive from such a sacrifice of worship and praise.
[6:22] And that you do so because it is offered in the name of one that is dear to you.
[6:33] And that shares your name and occupies your presence. Even the son of your bosom, Jesus Christ. We give thanks that what is offered in his name is recognized as being something that is marked by blood.
[6:57] Because it is through the everlasting sacrifice that he offered for sin. That you are pleased to receive those whose lives have been tarnished by that very thing.
[7:15] May we come with confession upon our lips. Contrition and sorrow accompany the acknowledgement that we make of it.
[7:30] That it may be indeed heartfelt. That it is not something that we do merely by practice or by habit. But with a heartfelt recognition of what sin involves.
[7:45] So that there is sorrow. And there is genuine repentance. That there is a desire expressed for grief over sin.
[7:56] And the need that there is for grace to turn away from it. And to resolve not to be found guilty of it again.
[8:12] But we recognize that even when we do come in this fashion. That the confession is that we sin daily in thought, in word and in deed.
[8:22] And we are seldom free. If at any time of the insidious grasp of that sin.
[8:34] That follows us wherever we go. We confess it. And confess our need of your grace and your help. Thankful that you are able to supply it.
[8:46] Remember each one that is present here. We pray for your people. And we ask that you would encourage them. In their faith. Strengthen them. Confirm them.
[8:58] In the belief that they have that Jesus Christ is their Lord. And their Saviour. Grant to them a vision of his holiness. Even a vision of his resurrected glory.
[9:13] That I may not be able to fix upon him physically. Because he is no longer in this world in person. He is at your right hand.
[9:26] But by his spirit he is here in our midst. And we give thanks for that. We give thanks for the ministration of his hand by the spirit. And we pray that every one of us would know.
[9:39] That you are near to us. And dear to us. And that that is something that you have brought in our heart. By grace. So remember your people with all their varying needs.
[9:52] Those who have troubles. Those who have concerns. Those who have need and want. Those who have different providences that they must engage with.
[10:06] With your help. Remember those amongst us. Who have concerns for loved ones. And we give thanks that the best we can do for all such.
[10:19] When the arm of flesh fails us. That we can bear them on the shoulders of prayer. And lift them up to your presence. Thankful that you have a hearing ear.
[10:31] And that you have a willing heart. To respond in mercy to those who apply to you in faith. So visit the sick.
[10:42] Heal them we pray. Do not allow us to despair of your power to heal. Because you have a strong and a mighty arm.
[10:55] That no man possesses. Even though we are required to apply to those who are in doubt. With various gifts and graces.
[11:06] That lessen the Lord of life. We give thanks for all such. Those that we can turn to in time of need. When we are unwell. That we can apply to physicians here in the world.
[11:20] And that you have endowed them with the wherewithal to help those who come to them. But there are limits to their resources. And we can apply beyond them.
[11:34] To the one who is the God of all. And we pray for wisdom to do that. And to know when to yield our complaints and our needs.
[11:50] Before the eye of the all-seeing one. Remember the grieving and the sorrowful amongst us. You have been frequently making yourself known to us as a community.
[12:04] In recent days. Reminding us that we are here but for a short time. For those who are left to mourn. We pray for your help.
[12:14] As they view empty places. That every remembrance they have of loved ones. Now no longer with them.
[12:26] Is at times a joy and at times a sorrow. Sanctify every remembrance that they have. And we with them. So that we would encourage one another.
[12:39] As we journey in this world. Where no one will escape from passing through what is a veil of tears. Encourage us to look to the one who knew what it was.
[12:51] To be in the world. And yet not to be of the world. To know the sorrows and the sadnesses that this world brings. To share in them.
[13:02] And to encourage those who were burdened by them. Who wept with them. And who weeps with us. We pray Lord.
[13:13] For a sense of his presence at all times. Bless the gospel of your free grace. That is preached and proclaimed in our hearing. And in every other locality where Christ is lifted up in the gospel.
[13:26] May the endeavours of your church here on earth be blessed. We pray for all the parts of the world that are yet to hear of Christ.
[13:39] Those who forbid his name being mentioned. We pray for mercy for them. Those who pollute the gospel. Those who pervert the gospel.
[13:49] Those who deny the gospel. We pray for mercy for all such. Remember the parts of the world where there is war. We give thanks for those who have faith in such contexts.
[14:02] And that their reliance upon God is evident. But remember these places that you have visited in such an awful providence.
[14:13] You are God of all things. And you are God of every providence that is ours. And while we wonder at what is ongoing in the world. And the various parts of it.
[14:24] Especially as we think so often of what is going on in Ukraine. Those who are suffering. Terrible sorrows and sadnesses in the midst of such calamities that war brings.
[14:41] And we pray for you to overthrow the powers of evil that are so engaged in bringing wanton destruction upon innocent people.
[15:02] Young and old. Remember those who are left destitute and homeless. And are driven from their own land. Provision be made for them we pray.
[15:14] Open our heart and understanding to their plight. Continue to remember this world that forgets their God. And do not allow us to despair that you are anything other than what you have been from everlasting to everlasting.
[15:32] A God who is the great God. The almighty. The sovereign before whom this world will be brought to account. Hear our prayers.
[15:44] And continue to watch over us each one. Cleansing from sin. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I'm going to hear the word of God.
[15:56] And we're reading from the Old Testament scriptures. The first book of Kings. And we're reading from chapter 10 at the beginning. 1 Kings chapter 10.
[16:15] 1 Kings chapter 10.
[16:45] 2 Kings chapter 10.
[17:15] 2 Kings chapter 10.
[17:45] 2 Kings chapter 10.
[18:15] 3 Kings chapter 10.
[18:45] 3 Kings chapter 10.
[19:15] 3 Kings chapter 10. 3 Kings chapter 10. 3 Kings chapter 10. 3 Kings chapter 10. 4 Kings chapter 10. 4 Kings chapter 10. 4 Kings chapter 10.
[19:26] 4 Kings chapter 10. 5 Kings chapter 10. 5 Kings chapter 10. 5 Kings chapter 10. 5 Kings chapter 10.
[19:38] 5 Kings chapter 10. 5 Kings 5.
[19:49] 5 Kings 5. 5 begingo 2 Carmichick 1. 5 Kings 6. 6 the king.
[20:07] 6 Kings 7. in a dream or dreams and he spoke to him in ways that Joseph didn't immediately understand.
[20:20] There's a famous preacher who also was famous for dreams. He wrote a book which I'm very sure that many people here have read. It's called Pilgrim's Progress and many of us read that book when we were younger and I'm sure if you get a chance to read it if you haven't already done it you can do so. It's a wonderful book but the person who wrote that book wrote it when he was in prison and he was sent to prison not because he was a bad person but because he wanted to tell people about Jesus and the way he was telling people about Jesus some people didn't like that so they had him put to prison and the kind of prisons that they had in those days were quite different to the prisons that we see today or hear about today. Sometimes these prisons were terrible places and the people who ran them they ran them as a business they ran them just they had a place and they looked after people that the magistrates or the law put in their hands to look after and sometimes they were just dungeons or caves or caves or cells that were poorly looked after damp and dark and wet and they were supposed to receive money to feed the prisoners and sometimes that money was just spent by themselves and the food that they gave the prisoners was was very poor. Anyway this man was sent to such a prison his name was John Bunyan but because he was a good man the person who was the prison keeper came to know him and to trust him and something very strange happened because he trusted John Bunyan he allowed him to go out of the prison sometimes to go home to visit his wife and sometimes to go and preach he was just very strange it's just very strange if he was a prisoner but he had he had earned the respect of the prison keeper unfortunately John Bunyan had many enemies and one of these enemies saw John Bunyan he was sure it was John Bunyan he saw him out on the street and he thought this man should be in prison so he informed on the street and he thought this man should be in prison so he informed on him he went and told the magistrates that had put him to prison that this man was running around loose when he should be in chains and he said he was in prison so the magistrate decided well we'll have to find out about this and he sent somebody along to the prison to find out if it was true but he was sure that if if he told that he was coming then Bunyan would be back in his cell so he decided to come as early as early as possible in the morning without letting anybody know that he was coming now it happened that Bunyan was out of prison at home but when he was asleep he woke and he didn't know why he was walking and he couldn't settle back down to sleep and he felt whatever whatever this is about I know I must go back to prison I must go back to my cell
[24:30] and that's what he did he went back to the jail and he woke the jailer so that the jailer would let him in sounds a bit strange wanting to go inside the prison and the jailer was very annoyed because he was woken up at three or four in the morning somebody wanting to get into prison which wouldn't normally happen but after giving Bunyan a row he left him in and put him into his cell and sure enough first thing in the morning this man came to the jail and wanted to see all the prisoners and expecting to find John Bunyan loose but there he was in the cell as he should be and the jailer said well obviously somebody's looking after you and because he's looking after you he's looking after me it's a very strange story and sometimes God does strange things and sometimes he speaks to people who may not expect to be spoken to by God and that does happen it happens occasionally perhaps it doesn't happen as often as you think but we have to remember something very simple that God has already spoken to us in a most obvious way and the most obvious way he's spoken to us is in the story of his son Jesus Christ and he's told everyone about that about Jesus about his coming into the world about why he came into the world he didn't come to a passion here and there in a dream he's spoken to every one of us he's spoken to you and he's spoken to me and he's spoken in the clearest possible way to tell us all so that we would understand that we would understand that what he was doing was done for our good now that's important because the day will come when every one of us will be asked did you know about this Jesus and you can't say oh well I didn't see him in my sleep I didn't dream about him no you did more than that you heard about him you read about him you've been told about him in the clearest possible ways that everyone will have no reason for saying to God I didn't I didn't know this
[27:21] I'm sure you do and I hope because you know that you'll be able to put your trust in him well as you go out to San Disco we're going to sing verses from Psalm 72 Psalm 72 a Psalm that is supposed to have been composed either by Solomon or for Solomon some of your Psalm books will have that title a Psalm for Solomon we're going to sing from verse 10 the kings of Tarshish and the Isles to him shall presence bring the king of God and all the mighty kings on earth before him down shall fall and all the nations of the world to service to him shall for he the needy shall preserve when he to him doth call the poor also and him that hath no help of man at all the poor man and the indigent in mercy he shall spare he shall preserve alive the souls of those that needy are both from deceit and violence their soul he shall set free and in his sight right precious and dear their blood shall be he shall live and given to him shall be of Sheba's gold for him still shall they pray and he shall daily be extolled we're going to sing these verses verse 10 to 15
[29:02] Psalm 72 to the king kings of Tarshish and the Isles to him shall presence bring the king of Tarshish and the Isles to him shall the king of Tarshish and the Isles to him shall the presence bring theänge of Tarshish and the Isles to him shall the king of Tarshish, and the Isles to him shall the king of Tarshish the longer He caves on earth, before him God shall fall, and all the nations of the world.
[30:16] Good service to him, for he does need, he shall preserve, when he to make God call.
[30:43] That will also, what can the heart, your love, all the nations of the world.
[31:03] The purman and the end of the day, in mercy he shall stay.
[31:21] He shall preserve alive the souls of those that need the arm.
[31:41] But from his wicked and violent lands, their soul he shall set free.
[32:00] And in his sight right there is, and it yields their blood shall be.
[32:19] He shall live unto them, shall be on the shape of the Lord.
[32:39] For him still shall be on the shape of the Lord.
[32:59] So, I'd like you to turn with me now to the chapter that we read together in the Old Testament Scripture.
[33:11] The first book of Kings, chapter 10. And we can read at verse 6. 1 Kings, chapter 10, verse 6.
[33:51] 1 Kings, chapter 10, verse 7.
[34:21] Solomon is renowned because of one thing. And that is that he is wise. He was a wise man.
[34:35] And it's proverbial because we often speak about a person who is wise as being as wise as Solomon. Having the wisdom of Solomon.
[34:45] And clearly Solomon must have been a wise man. And he was wise not because he was naturally a wise person.
[35:01] There are people who are naturally wise. There are people who are able to demonstrate insights and have the ability to deal with situations in a way that we would consider to be wise.
[35:22] And to be beneficial to themselves and to be beneficial to themselves and to others. But the wisdom of Solomon was a wisdom that was God given.
[35:33] And we know that because in 1 Kings and chapter 3. We read there about God coming to somebody in a dream.
[35:52] This time it was Solomon. This time it was Solomon. And God said, And God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, And I shall give thee.
[37:02] So great a people. And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment.
[37:29] Behold, I have done according to thy words. And so on. And so on. And so on. And so on.
[37:42] And so on. And so on. So this man who possesses the name for being a wise king.
[37:59] We know that his wisdom is above the ordinary. He's a wise man without equal on the earth for wisdom.
[38:12] Because God gave him that wisdom. And so on. And it's a shame to discover if you read on in his life how that wisdom was abused.
[38:25] abused because a person can have wisdom and discernment and knowledge but that doesn't mean that they'll make use of it. It doesn't mean that they'll pay heed to it. Sometimes they will know what's right and they'll choose to do wrong. Now how that happens, why it does happen? It does. Some people have got great gifts of intellect and that doesn't mean that these gifts are not countered with vices that sometimes overcome the gifts that they have. That was what was true about Solomon. But at this point in his life, God has given to him wisdom far in excess of anything that the world knew. And his fame was spread as far as the known world went. And it was shared, the knowledge of it was shared with this second person that we have here. And we're not told her name. All we're told is her title. She was the Queen of Sheba. And her fame really goes much to the Bible. It's amazing how much has leeched into the world's knowledge from the Bible. And it's amazing. And it's amazing how much knowledge of the Bible. And it's amazing.
[40:15] And it's amazing how much knowledge of the Bible says. But I'm sure they'll be able to say something about the wisdom of Solomon or the Queen of Sheba. Because the stories that belong to the Bible, they saturate our society through different channels. And people will have a very meagre knowledge of who these people were, but they'll still know their names.
[41:00] The Queen of Sheba, we don't really know much about her, but we do know that the Bible speaks about her. In the gospel, Jesus is recorded to have remembered her, which is significant in itself. In Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel we are told the following. The Queen of Sheba or the Queen of the South as he calls her shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold he says that greater than Solomon is here. The Queen of Sheba travelled a long distance so that she would meet for herself this man and Sheba doesn't exist today by that name anyway. It's thought to be in the southern Arabia in what is at the present called the Yemen. I think Yemen is divided because of civil war into two separate nations now but most associated with that name in the modern world. So she came from that region and clearly from the account that we have here she was a wealthy woman. She was Queen of a nation who was a trading nation and a lot of people would go there for their spices and spices were important in those days for nothing else. They were used in the various worship practices of different nations and you've heard from the New Testament reading that we have of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Frankincense and myrrh were both spices that were thought to have come from that region and they were precious and they were expensive and people traded in them.
[43:26] So when she comes to Solomon she brings with her these spices and also the evidence of the wealth that she possessed with gold and precious jewels and all the trappings that wealth brings.
[43:43] Now in the text that we want to look at today it speaks about this woman's how she describes coming to know about Solomon, what it made her do. She wanted to meet him for herself, she wanted to encounter him face to face, she wanted to challenge his wisdom to see if it was what it was said to be.
[44:15] And we read in this verse that we're looking at how after having met with him how she acknowledges that what she knew about him from others was far less than it actually came to be.
[44:39] However we're going to look at it and we're looking at it as a passage that brings to mind the thought of the gospel and how the gospel message is sometimes shared and how it is embraced and how it is discovered through greater knowledge to be something far more than was anticipated.
[45:18] Some of the commentators I was reading on this they don't like this kind of spiritualizing of especially the Old Testament. They want the Old Testament which is a word of God or the word of God which contains the truth of God, God which contains facts and historical features and geographical features which are often denied and sometimes because of the lack of corroborating evidence outside of the scripture itself.
[46:05] Some people have chosen to deny the truth of them over the centuries that has been the case. But very often even the things that the Bible has said and spoken of as true which supposed experts in history and archaeology and people who were delving into the past thought our knowledge disproves what the Bible is saying.
[46:38] But very often what has happened is that these things that they've suggested have been disproved by the modern approach approach was found to have been more accurate than they actually understood at the time through further exploration and further research.
[47:04] Now some people have this approach to the scripture and they say well whatever God has to say to us must be said from the context.
[47:15] So whatever the lesson we need to learn from this first book of Kings chapter 10, the encounter between the Queen of Sheba and the King Solomon must be found within that passage.
[47:29] And we can perfectly well treat this passage and bring the spiritual truth that it contains to the minds and the minds and the hearts of those who listen to that sermon as it looks at this passage and as it explains this passage.
[47:50] Now that's quite true. But I think that also what we need to remember is that very often Jesus uses the scriptures of the Old Testament in his own sermons and he takes out of these sermons messages that he applies in a modern context which may be different to the initial and original context but nevertheless applies it very pointedly to his own situation and the encounter that he has with people of his own day and generation.
[48:29] And that is why we can apply to the New Testament and see what Jesus says about this message to the people in his own day.
[48:43] Now it's not permissible to just do what you like with the scripture. You can't pull the scripture out of context. You can't make it to say something that it doesn't say.
[48:56] That's not what I'm arguing for. Scriptural exegesis requires honesty and application through to the context.
[49:10] And that is certain. However, we can also apply the message that is here in an unequally positive way by thinking about what it says to us about the situation that was there and the kind of situation that we ourselves are in at the present.
[49:35] And I want us just to think very simply about this passage in that sense. Spiritualize it if you will. That's what you want to call it.
[49:46] But it prompts in my mind anyway, and I'm sure in your own mind, some of the thoughts that are true about those who are made aware of the gospel and the person of whom the gospel speaks and how they respond to that message of the gospel.
[50:12] I hope that makes sense as we go on. The first thing I'd like to say to you about this Queen of Sheba who came to King Solomon, she came on the basis of something that she had heard.
[50:32] We read in the very first verse, When the Queen of Sheba heard of the phaenom of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.
[50:46] Now, how she heard is not told. We're not told how she came to hear. Or when she heard. Or who told her.
[50:56] It doesn't really matter. As far as the story is concerned, the how, the where, and the why of it is not important. What was important to her was what she heard.
[51:12] And what she heard prompted her to go and find out more for herself. Now, I'm not sure what she expected by applying herself to that research.
[51:30] Or going on this mission which took her to seek Solomon face to face. Not everybody could do it. Remember, this was a queen. She was somebody who was famous in her own right.
[51:44] She was somebody who was rich in her own right. So, supposing a slave or a farmer or a crafter who lived in Sheba if they had crafters in Sheba in those days or farmers in those days it wouldn't have been possible for that patient just to up sticks and go and seek Solomon face to face.
[52:08] But because of who she was she had that opportunity. And she took it. That's the thing. The opportunity was there for her to do it and she did it.
[52:24] Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that if we receive information of any description that we'll act on it.
[52:35] There are many things that you're aware of that you have information about and you've probably filed it away somewhere either in your memory or maybe taken a note of it a physical note of it and say, well, I'll have this for future reference.
[52:54] It doesn't have to be a spiritual thing that it may be just something that you've grasped your interest and you're saying to yourself well, maybe this will come in useful one day.
[53:07] And you've put it away either in your memory or physically on a cupboard in a cupboard or a shelf ready for the day when it would become useful.
[53:20] But this woman, she didn't do that. She took it upon herself to go how many miles I'm not really sure to find out for herself this person that she had heard about whether the truth that was told was the truth or not.
[53:46] whether the facts that she heard were genuine or not. Whether the stories that were told were stories that could be believed or not. She just went out to find for herself what was the truth of it.
[54:05] And that is how it is with Christ. That is how it is with the Gospel. It doesn't really matter how we hear the Gospel.
[54:18] It doesn't matter who tells us the Gospel. Whether we read it ourselves, whether we hear it ourselves. I mean, there's many people today and they don't depend on my preaching to hear the Gospel.
[54:34] I know there's many people in this congregation and they listen to all kinds of preachers from all over the world and they're able to access God's Word and the preaching of God's Word through various sources and resources.
[54:54] And that is true for people who are Christians as well as people who have made no profession of faith in Christ. I know there are people and they have this interest spiritual things that makes them in their own homes, in the privacy of their own rooms perhaps, listen to the Word of God and try and find out for themselves more about it.
[55:27] Now, there's nothing at all wrong with that. We should be all ears. We should be interested in God's Word. We should be intensely deciduous to find out for ourselves what it has to say to us.
[55:46] But it should be more than that. It should be a burning issue for every one of us because of the person of which the Gospel speaks that we should have a face-to-face encounter with them in the only way possible in his Word.
[56:09] We want, we should want to find out about them for ourselves. Listen to what is said about them.
[56:22] Get to know as much as possible and it is never enough because you want to find out with certainty that what you believe in is right.
[56:41] Now, if you're a believer in Christ, what you're doing when you exercise yourself in that way, you're giving yourself confirmation that you're in the right place, that you have the right person to put the trust of your soul in for time and for eternity, it can't do you any harm what you're doing.
[57:08] As you indulge yourself in that most serious of activities, you are doing the best that you can to encourage your faith and to make sure that you're on the right road that leads to everlasting life.
[57:23] and if you're doing that, well, what harm can it do you? But what if you're not a believer?
[57:36] it, then you should be really wanting to find out whether your lack of belief, lack of faith is not going to do you harm.
[57:58] Because, you know, if you get this wrong, if you get this wrong, it's not just going to upset your life, it's going to destroy your soul for all eternity.
[58:17] It's as serious as that. It's as serious as that. I was hearing on the news last night of somebody who overdosed on Lemsip.
[58:32] How many of us take Lemsip if we'd got a cold? And they overdosed on that medication that's freely available on the shelves and she destroyed her liver because Lemsip contains parasyptomol and without understanding what she was doing by the amount she was taken.
[59:01] She suffered death, if I'm not mistaken. Got it wrong. Now, maybe that's a terrible illustration, but if you get this wrong, as far as the gospel is concerned, if you don't avail yourself of every available means where you can assess for yourself whether Christ is the Christ of God, whether this is the alone saviour of sinners or not, then it will cost you.
[59:38] the queen wanted to verify for herself if it was true. Just think of the effort she went to to travel the distance.
[59:51] Perhaps she saw many things on her travels that would have been a distraction, but it was not enough to keep her from her purposes to find out whether her interest was enough.
[60:07] And as I said, Jesus uses two illustrations when he's dealing with unbelieving Jews.
[60:19] He uses the illustration of Jonah preaching to Nineveh and the queen of Sheba coming to visit Solomon.
[60:29] and his message is these people came from far away and they belonged far away ethnically, spiritually, they were estranged from God, they had no knowledge of God, but they came to trust in God.
[60:49] Whereas those who should know God and know about God did not know God. It's one of the people who Christ met face to face they would not cross the road to meet with him.
[61:09] They would not cross the road to hear what he had to say, even though they had the opportunity not just to hear about him, but to hear from him what he had to say.
[61:25] when it comes to the gospel it may be that you're in that category. You believe yourself to be in a sophisticated place of knowledge that is more than sufficient to meet the demands of this current generation.
[61:49] You know better than to allow yourself to be cajoled or browbeaten by any gospel minister who suggests to you that you cannot do without Christ.
[62:05] I believe this. Christ saves his most scathing condemnation for those people of his own generation who refuse to believe in him.
[62:19] God says to Douglas Millen in one of his comments says this those who have known most and enjoyed the greatest religious opportunities are often overtaken, bypassed and replaced by those who have known nothing before their first encounter with Christ.
[62:44] Religious connections mean nothing if people do close their hearts to Christ. Maybe there are many of you here because of your privileges under the gospel you think that these privileges are enough for you.
[63:05] But no they're not. Christ is alone the one to whom that you must come. What do we find with the Queen? What she discovered for herself surpassed her expectations?
[63:21] That makes us think that she had some kind of preconceived idea of who Solomon was or what was true about Solomon.
[63:34] I believed not she said. I believed not the words. Now if she believed not the words how on earth did she go so far to meet with Solomon?
[63:51] How did she traverse the whole of the continent almost to discover this person for herself? There was something about what she heard that puzzled her, that prompted her interest, that created a desire in her heart to find out maybe I've got this wrong.
[64:11] What if I haven't got it wrong? What if I come short in some way with the information that I have? Maybe she was a sceptic.
[64:24] Maybe she just possessed the desire to disprove but she comes to the conclusion the half was not told me. And there's a debate about that, what that meant.
[64:39] Was that his wealth, his wisdom, his lifestyle, his piety? All of these things were important to her.
[64:54] Do you really want to find out what the Christian life is all about? What do you do? Well, I often encourage you to ask a Christian.
[65:07] Ask a Christian what the Christian life is all about. I wonder what they'll tell you. But maybe that's not good advice.
[65:20] Maybe it's not the best advice. Because I really think that if you want to know what the Christian life is all about, you must start with Christ.
[65:34] You must start with Christ. The Bible tells me that there is greater than Solomon here. Very often people start with the church or they start with Christians and because they start with the church and with Christian people, they're disappointed because they'll say to themselves, the church is just at each other's throats.
[66:01] Christ. Or they'll say this Christian who professes to be a Christian, they're the worst kind of person out. And you know that might be right.
[66:16] But when you think like that and when you behave like that towards the church or the Christian, you're losing sight of something very obvious which should be before your mind's eye.
[66:29] Jesus Christ came into the world to seek sinners. And who are the sinners except those who have been brought by Christ into his church?
[66:44] And if every sinner that Christ brought into his church was instantly translated to sainthood, to be free from sin, free from every condemnation, free from everything that you could possibly lay at their door by way of charge, it would be a different world, but that's not the way it is.
[67:09] The church is made up of sinners that Christ has desired to take to himself and to convert from their sin to saviour, the kind of life that saviour would implant in them, so that one day, not in this world, but in the day that is fast hastening, they will be like him, far more like him than they are now.
[67:42] Now, you might think this is just an excuse, this is just a party political broadcast on behalf of the Christian faith.
[67:54] You might think that's what it is, which not, I'm not excusing this behaviour of any description, not my own, not anybody else's, but we can't say I don't want to be of that number because that number are not living up to your standards.
[68:13] If they're not living up to your standards, are you suggesting by that that you have no need of a saviour? Think again. This woman came to Solomon and she discovered in Solomon that this person was far more to him than she thought.
[68:38] Far more to him than she thought. And we read, what does she say in verse 8? Happy are your men, happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom.
[68:54] A happy people, a prosperous people, whose king was the source of their prosperity. There's a lot of people who would abuse that kind of message and they say this is the way to material possessions and material wealth.
[69:13] That's not the thing. that it's amazing that this woman, who was the most wealthy of women, while she took note of that, where did she eventually end up?
[69:26] She said, well, yes, Solomon, there's wisdom. There's wisdom. There's look at the things that she recognized there.
[69:46] She saw Solomon's wisdom, the house that he had built, the meat of his table, the sitting of his servant, the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, his cupbearers, his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord.
[70:02] She goes from the things that are material to the heart of the martyr, which she cannot get away from. The heart of the martyr, as far as she was concerned, was this Solomon's God, Solomon's spirituality.
[70:24] Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted indeed to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever. You know, some people, they get into trying to decide, is this the moment that the Queen of Sheba decides that she's converted, whether she's converted or not, whether she's a believer or not.
[70:48] One thing she is convinced of by reason of her encounter with Solomon is that there is a God in heaven and there is no God quite like him. And those who know the Lord Jesus Christ will know that is Christ, there is God's Christ, that he is the son of the most high God.
[71:11] When they find out for themselves what he's all about, when they find out what he has done, when they find out that he went to the cross on their behalf, when they find out that his sufferings were sufferings that were meant to alleviate their eternal sufferings, they'll say to themselves and they'll say to us, love was not told me.
[71:34] God set him on the throne, the Queen of Sheba says. God set Christ on the throne, the Christian says.
[71:48] His throne occupied by him and in the psalm that we sang last it goes on to speak about his extensive reign, his blessing of his people, world without end.
[72:06] Well, is that the Christ that you know today? The Christian here can, if you're asked a question, have you remained as you were the day you came to know the Lord?
[72:23] Surely not. Surely not. you can't have remained the same. Every day is a school day as far as you're concerned.
[72:36] Every day is a new discovery of things that Christ is revealing to you about yourself, about him, about his people, about this world and about the next.
[72:49] And you can honestly and earnestly half has not been told. Books could be written about the things that I've discovered since I came to know this Lord as my own.
[73:02] Well, that's a Christ that I would encourage you to search out and to seek out and to cry out that you may come to know him.
[73:15] Wonderful as Solomon was, and he was a mighty man, his armies were powerful, his wisdom, while we've read about it, his wealth is almost immeasurable.
[73:32] And yet the Bible tells us that there are greater than Solomon. And that Christ, who is greater than Solomon, has done great things for his people.
[73:45] And if you're one of them, you're rejoicing. you're like the people there that the Queen of Sheba is so happy. Happy are your men, happy are your servants, which stand continually before you.
[74:02] And that's the way it is for God's people. That's the prospect that lies in store for them. In this world, they have a combination of joys and woes and delights and griefs.
[74:20] But the combination will one day result in the perfection of these joys, the completeness of their delight.
[74:35] Are you one of these people who will know that for yourself? So you won't have to go second-hand to anyone. You won't have to ask a Christian, what is it like to be a Christian?
[74:49] What is it like to know the Lord? What is it like to rejoice in his name? Because you will be able to do it for yourself and to speak of him for yourself.
[75:02] And may that be true. Let us pray. Lord God, there is no one in this world quite like you. Even though there are many things in this world that are held up before us to attract us, to distract us, to make us think that this world has everything for us.
[75:22] And there is nothing in it that we will not leave behind us. We give thanks for the Christ who has promised never to leave nor forsake his own and to bring to himself, never to be parted, all who would seek him out.
[75:38] Forgive sin in his name. Amen. In closing Psalm 89, Psalm 89, and we're singing from verse 13, Thou hast an arm that's full of power, thy hand is great in might, and thy right hand exceedingly exhorted is in height.
[75:59] Justice and judgment of thy throne are made the dwelling place. Mercy accompanied with truth shall go before thy face. full stances from verse 13, thou hast an arm that's full of power.
[76:12] Thou hast an arm that's full of power, thy hand is good in might, loom andardi, have valued God bless you.
[77:15] God bless you.
[77:45] God bless you. God bless you.
[77:59] God bless you. God bless you.
[78:13] God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.
[78:24] God bless you. Amen. Amen. Amen. May grace, mercy, and peace in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all now and always. Amen.