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1 Kings 10, the first thing I want to look at tonight is the Queen of Sheba's salvation. I think there's this great picture here when we start out of salvation and of the gospel too. We have this Old Testament picture of the gospel and the first thing I want to point out there is that, I believe this is where she gets saved, the Queen of Sheba, is that the first thing she had to do and the first thing anybody has to do in order to get saved is to hear, to hear the gospel. If you don't hear the gospel, you can't get saved. People aren't just going to find God on their own, they're not just going to be looking up at some starlit sky somewhere and just have some personal experience with God and all of a sudden their sins have been forgiven. People have to hear the gospel in order to be saved. In fact, keep something there in 1 Kings 10 but go over to Romans chapter 10, the Bible is very clear about this. It's explicitly clear in the New Testament but I believe even in the Old Testament in passages such as this in 1 Kings 10, we see this principle, this picture of salvation that if people are going to get saved, if people are going to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, they have to hear the gospel. Someone has to preach it to them. And it says in verse 1, you were just there but you're going to Romans 10 now, I'll read to you again, and when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fain of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. So she hears, she goes on and says that she heard a true report in my own land, she said in verse 6. I heard this report about you and now I'm here to prove you with hard questions and to commune with all my heart and all that's in my heart and Solomon is reciprocating, they're both having this communication, there's a hearing that's taking place. And I believe this is her salvation because we see at the end there, she blesses the Lord God of Israel and my point is this though, is that in order to get saved, you have to hear the gospel. And it's important to understand that because we have a lot of people today that wanted to say, you know, we all believe in the same God, there's multiple ways to God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He said, straight is the gate and narrows the way which leadeth unto eternal life and few there be that find it. He's saying, look, there's only one way to heaven and it's through Christ and it's through the preaching of the gospel. And even amongst those that would agree with that and say, yes, it's through Christ, it's through the gospel, even through them, then you'll even have groups of people just say, but you know, we don't have to necessarily go out and preach the gospel, people don't have to hear it. If people are going to get saved, they'll just get saved all on their own. You know, like God will just draw them somehow. You know, this is Calvinistic type of thinking. But the Bible is very clear that, you know, without a preacher, without the preaching of the gospel, people don't hear it and therefore people do not get saved. If you're there in Romans chapter 10, look at verse 14, keep something in Romans, we're going to come back again in a minute, but it says in verse 14, how then shall they call him on whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Say, look, if you can't, if you don't hear about Christ, if you don't hear the gospel, you can't believe it. You have to hear it before you can believe it. You can't just have your own personal experience with God. You have to hear the preaching of the gospel of Christ in order to be saved. And I think that's a great picture of the Queen of Sheba. Keep something there in Romans 10, go back to 1 Kings 10, and notice, you know, the message is something that came to her. This was something that was brought to her initially. She heard about Solomon, it says there in verse 6, and she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land. So she's kind of getting, you know, she's being intrigued by what's going on in Israel and Jerusalem. She's hearing about this thing, about Solomon, about his kingdom, and about his wisdom. And then so she comes and says, hey, let me hear more, let me prove you with hard questions, let me find out more. You know, a lot of times that's the way it is with people when they get saved. You know, that's why you should never just give up on people. Like we preach them the gospel and maybe they don't get it right away. You know what, maybe they're just hearing a report in their own land, so to speak. You know, they're kind of hearing things. I know that's the way it was for me. You know, I remember people stopping me on the street on more than one occasion. You know, trying to give me a Bible track and preaching me the gospel and telling me about Christ. You know, and they were finding me where I was at, you know, just kind of hanging out. You know, hanging out of the bookstore, hanging out downtown, hanging out these different places and people were preaching, you know, I heard this report in my own land. So we should never just discount people, you know, because they don't get saved right away. You know, when we go out knocking doors and preaching the gospel to people in their home, a lot of times they'll, you know, we'll preach the whole gospel to them and they won't get it. You know, you're thinking, oh, this person's going to get saved. You know, but at the end, they're just kind of, they understand it even maybe, but they don't want to believe, you know, or they just, they have some kind of hang up. You know, and we should never walk away from that door feeling discouraged, you know, because of the fact that, you know, we are bringing the report of the king to their land. You know, it might be that later on, that seed that was planted, that which they have heard previously, you know, that will be brought to remembrance. You know, and they'll say, you know what, I'm going to go to that Baptist church and find out more. Where was that invite that they left? Oh, yeah, there is, let me go back there and talk to them more about, let me prove them with hard questions. Let me go and, you know, and tell them all that's in my heart, right? You know, they might come later and get saved or, you know, maybe somebody else will cross their path or there's another Christian in their life. You know, we don't know, we like to think sometimes that, you know, we're the only people in the city with the gospel, but, you know, there's other, there's other believers, there's other people, maybe they're not doing, you know, they're not evangelizing as fervently as they ought to be, but they still have the truth. We don't know who all these other people, these people, you know, all the other people that they know. You know, so don't ever let that discourage you. You know, we bring that report into their own land, you know, they might not get saved right away. You know, Sal, you know, Queen of Sheba, she had to come to Solomon later and she had some other things that she had to get over as we'll see here in a minute. You know, the message first came to her and then she came, but, you know, the main point is this, is that she heard the gospel. She heard it, okay, and we have to understand that without the hearing of the gospel, you know, there is no salvation. You must hear the gospel. But notice also with her that she brought, you know, I believe this is a picture of what we see a lot with people, is that she brought her own works, right. It says there in verse 2, and she came to Jerusalem with a very great train. Now let me just dispel all the Thomas the Train fans in the room. This isn't talking about a literal train, okay, they didn't have that locomotives back then. And this is talking about a great company of people, right, like we'll have a train, you know, of people, a caravan was another thing we could call that. Maybe sometimes we want a trip, it'll be several vehicles, it's like a train like that, okay. So she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, but notice she came with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. So she's bringing all these things, she's bringing all these gifts, she's bringing all this stuff from her land, you know, she's bringing your own works. She's bringing, look at all the stuff I brought you, she's bringing this to the king. You know, and this is what a lot of people do when they want to learn about salvation. You know, we'll go and preach people the gospel and it's like, and we'll say, well, you know, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? Yeah, because I'm a good person. You know, I haven't killed anybody. And they're like, oh wow, you are just amazing. You know, I've never committed adultery and my spouse is just like, oh, yeah, just swing those pearly gates wide open. I mean, you're just, you're just the greatest person that's ever lived, right? But this is exactly, and it's great, hey, look, I'm glad people aren't, you know, committing adultery and murder out there, you know, even though there is a lot of it going on, you know, but that's not, you know, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. You know, that, God's going to say, hey, you know, we've all, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, we've all broken God's commandments. You know, we might not have done everything everybody else has done, you know, but that's not a badge of righteousness. You know, our standard, the standard for getting into heaven is not your neighbor's righteousness. It's Christ's righteousness. You know, and we all come short of the glory of God in that regard. Not one of us. You know, there's none good. No, not one, the Bible says. You know, we're all become as an unclean thing before God. You know, I might, I might not have done some of the things somebody else did, but you know, compared to Christ and compared to God, you know, I come incredibly short. You know, it goes for all of us. And that's kind of what I see here with the Queen of Sheba. You know, she's hearing the report. You know, she wants to learn more. She wants to hear, you know, get close to the king and hear the truth. But you know what? She's bringing her, she's bringing her spices. She's bringing her gold. She's what? She's bringing her own works. And a lot of times that's what a lot of people do. And look, you know, it's either, it's either by works or it's by grace and the Bible is explicit on this. Go to Romans 11. It's just a page over where you were. We're going to go back to Romans 10 in a minute. Go back to Romans 11. You know, the Bible says in Romans 11, and if by grace, then it is no more of works. The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You know, if we could work our way to heaven, we could get there and boast about it. And say, oh yeah, I know Jesus died for me. You know, I know the son of God came and lived a perfect life, died, you know, and was buried and rose again. And I believe that, but also, you know, I was a pretty good person, you know, not to toot my own horn, but aruga, you know. That's what people would do if, you know, it's by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast. You know, we're not going to get to heaven and boast about how great a person we were on earth. You know, we're all just going to say, you know, why are you here? Because of the blood of Christ. Why are you here? Because of the blood of Christ. Why are you here? Because of the blood of Christ. That's all it's going to be. That's the grace of God. You know, God, you know, the grace and mercy, God giving us that which we don't deserve, and him, that's the grace of God, and the mercy is him not giving that which we do deserve, which is hell. You know, that, you know, the wages of sin is death, and death and hell were cast in lake of fire. This is the second death. We all deserve that punishment, whether we want to admit it or not, you know, according to the Bible, according to God's word, that's what we deserve. You know, it's by grace, you know, and this is what Sheba is doing here, I believe. You know, maybe not exactly, this is what's going through her head, but you know, this is a picture. Of course, I'm kind of just using this to make application. But look there again in Romans 11, verse 6, it says, and if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. You know, grace is you just being giving something freely with no works involved. Just hey, you don't deserve this, it's a gift, right, like a gift. You know, eternal life is the gift of God, the Bible says. So you know, if there's some work involved, then it's not grace, is it? When you say I'm a very gracious person, if I said hey, you know, I've got this great present I want to give you, but you just got to come, you know, you got to come trim my tree, you got to come trim the mesquite tree in my house, which it does need to be trimmed by the way, and it's got thorns all over it. You say, oh, that's so gracious of you, you know, what, no, because you'd be working for it at that point. You'd say, hey, I'm willing to make that, you know, do that work in exchange for goods and services, but you couldn't call it a gift. You couldn't call it me being gracious, right? It says there, look, if it's otherwise grace is no more grace. If it's by grace, then it's no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. So know that that's what she's doing there. Go back to Romans chapter 10, verse 9. So first of all, with Sheba's salvation we see, the first thing I want to point out is that she heard. She heard. She had to come and hear, you know, the truth. She had to come and hear from the king, and that's what we need to do today. We understand that people need to hear the gospel. That's why we're so, you know, why do you guys talk about soul winning so much? Why do you have a map out there that you're shading in? Why do you have multiple soul winning times? Why are you always bringing it up like every service? Because if people don't hear it, they're going to die and go to hell. And it's real easy for us to lose sight of that. And that tends to be what happens with Christians the longer they've been saved. You know, I was up in Tempe the other day, and a young guy, right before we went out soul winning up there, he made a comment to me. He was just watching the traffic on 48th and Southern, right there at the church, where there's just like, you know, within five minutes you've seen hundreds of cars go by. And he just turned to me and said, isn't it amazing to think that there's so many people there that all those people are just going to hell? And I thought, and I'm like, yeah, it's, you know, that's amazing. It's, you know, it should move us, right? And he's just this newly saved guy, this young Christian. And I thought to myself, you know, I thought that same thing 20 years ago. I had that exact same thought sitting in a traffic light. I said, how long has it been since I thought that way? So that's why I was just sitting there contemplating a crowd of people and was just moved by the fact that without Christ, without them hearing the gospel, they're going to die and go to hell. You know, that's the way it goes for a lot of Christians. We kind of just get used to that fact. We just kind of get comfortable with that fact. Yeah, I understand people are going to die and go to hell. That's why we have to keep preaching it and reminding people and bringing it up and encouraging people to what? To go out and preach the gospel because people need to hear it in order to be saved. That's my first point. And what we're going to find is a lot of times is that people are going to want to bring their own works. You know, they're going to have their great train of all the reasons why they don't need Jesus, right? But notice, you know, that it wasn't just that she heard, but there was this communication there. It says in 1 Kings chapter number 10 in verse 2, and she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones when she was come to Solomon. Notice she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Verse 3, and Solomon told her all her questions, there was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. So it wasn't just that, you know, she just showed up and all of a sudden she's just by, you know, merit of being there, you know, everything takes place. There's this communication that's taking place, right? And it's the same way in salvation, you know, people have to, there has to be a communication between the sinner and God, right? And there has to be what? Like what we would call a prayer. You know, we facilitate that as soul winners. We show people, we walk, take them through the gospel, we show them that they're sinners, that Jesus Christ is God, that he died for their sins, that if they believe on him, that he will give unto them eternal life, they can never lose it. And that if they're, you know, if they're willing to pray and ask for that free gift, they'll give it to them. You know, and that's in a nutshell, right? But there's this communication that's going on there. And that's the other thing we can't lose sight of with soul winning, because a lot of times people will think, oh, you know, if I just leave them a Bible track, you know, and give them a Bible verse that they're going to get saved, you know, there has to be a communication here. You're there in Romans chapter 10, look at verse 9, it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So notice there's two elements here that bring us to a person to salvation. You confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, right? And believe in thine heart. And you know, people, they sometimes they really, they choke on this, and then people start to come up with all these weird scenarios, like, well, whatever person believed, but they were mute. You know, first of all, I've never run across that. They're saying, are you telling me that if a person doesn't pray with their mouth that they can't be saved, if they don't say the words, and they want to turn into like it's a magical prayer. But what they're missing is the, it's just the principle that when a person believes on Christ, they confess him. You know, that there is a, they are reciprocating, you know, God's communication back to them. I mean, hasn't God spoken to us through his word? I mean, that's what they're, that's what's taking place when we go knock on the door. It's basically, you know, as though God did beseech you by us, as it says in 2 Corinthians. We pray you in Christ's dead be reconciled to God. We pray you in Christ's dead. I mean, that is God communicating. You say, I want God to talk to me. He's talking to you right here in this book, right? And in order for them to be saved, they have to reciprocate that communication. There has to be a response. Okay? And if a person believes, there is going to be a response. It's just going to happen. It doesn't make any sense to me to sit there and say, oh, I believe, but I never called out to God. Then I really doubt you ever really believed. I mean, why, why wouldn't you, if you have a need, it'd be like, it'd be like one of my children, you know, has some great need and they're, and they're in my house, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're, you know, immobilized or something, you know, they've hurt themselves. There's some kind of need and I'm right there and I have all the ability to help them in their situation to, you know, put the bandaid on the knee or, you know, whatever it is. And they're just like, well, I know dad will help me, but I'm just not going to say anything to him. That doesn't make any sense. Of course, they're going to cry out. Of course, they say, dad, help me, right? Mom, help me. They're going to, you know, if you really think someone's there to help you and you need help, you'd ask for it. If you really believe that God is in heaven waiting to hear from you to call upon his name to get saved, you would do that. You would just do it. Whether you would do that with your mouth, you know, and I believe you could do this in your heart, you know, you don't, it's not something you have to necessarily do exactly with your mouth. So that mute person can still get saved. You know, they can still just call out to God in their heart. You know, you could speak to God in your heart. God hears our thoughts. God knows our hearts. He says there that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him that thou shalt be slave for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture sayeth whosoever believeth on him should not be ashamed. Verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So it's not just enough to just to, you know, let me say, put it this way. If you really, if a person truly believes the gospel, they're going to call upon the name of the Lord. I just believe that. He said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, quoting the psalmist, I believed, therefore have I spoken. You know, it's going to, you're going to be compelled to believe. You know, I use that illustration of, you know, my child who scrapes a knee and I'm there with the band-aid. They just need to ask, you know, that, that makes logical sense. But how much more when a person comprehends the gospel that they're, they're going to hell without Christ and that Christ is offering them salvation as a gift if they would just ask for it, you know, you could, I mean, that's a pretty serious, you know, and sobering position to be put in, isn't it? I mean, if, if, if I were hanging from a cliff and there was someone there who could help me, you know, I was drowning in an ocean, there's somebody sitting there with a life preserver, I wouldn't just go, you know, hopefully they, they understand that I want that. Hopefully they understand that I need them to pick me up. I'd be like, hey, help, help me, toss me that, lift me up, get me off this cliff, right? I would cry out. I'd call upon their name. It's the same way if a person just understands that they're on the, you know, they're one breath away from landing in hell for eternity and that Christ is there ready and willing to save them, of course they're going to call out. Whether it's with their mouth or in their heart. Okay. So, you know, and I don't, that's why I don't like it when people just say, well, you know, all you got to do is believe, you know, yeah, that's true. But if you really believe there is going to be a calling upon the name of Lord, it's going to happen. You know, one follows the other and you say, well, you know, well, let's just move on here. Let's just move on. Notice the other thing with Sheba here, the queen of Sheba is that we saw, first of all, you know, she heard. We saw the importance of that and how she, like so many people brought her works, you know, she had all these great gifts. But then also that she communed with her heart. Now, why was she willing to do that? Well, she was willing to, you know, confess him and bless the God of Israel because of the fact that she was very humbled by what she saw. She's very humbled. If you look there in First Kings chapter 10, verse five, let's just go to verse four. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cup bears and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. You know, she's, because think about the fact that, you know, she's also royalty. She's the queen of Sheba. You know, she's showing up with her great train. She's like, well, let me show you, you know, I heard this report about how great Solomon is. Well, you know, let me just show, I'm going to go show them all my bling too. You know, I'm going to go show them what's up, you know, show how we roll down and where I'm from. Right. But she shows up and she's just completely blown away by everything that she sees. What is it to the point where there's no more spirit in her and it just takes her breath away. Like, we can't really fathom exactly what this was like, but you know, we're going to look here in a minute at just the amount of gold and silver and pressure. I mean, it was just, there's never been anything like it before on earth. There's never been a kingdom like that and there never will be until Christ returns and sets up his kingdom of course, and then it'll exceed Solomon's by a mile. But you know, when the queen of Sheba shows up, she sees all this and there's no spirit left in her. What? She's humbled. Right? She's not sitting there thinking, well, you should see, you should see how it is down where I'm from. You know, the sun throne you got, you know, she wasn't, she didn't have that attitude and she didn't sit there and noodle neck them and try to one up them or anything like that. You know, she's, she's just, there's just no spirit left in her. What? She's humbled. You know, and that's what, that's what keeps so many people from getting saved is that they have too much pride. They're too proud to get saved. You know, and salvation is easy, right? I mean, salvation is the, I mean, cause God, look, if God loves you and he does, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son that whosoever, meaning anybody, good, bad, it doesn't matter what kind of life they're living, whosoever does what? Believeth in him. You know, he said if you had the faith of the grain of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain. It's not this, how much faith you have. It's where you're putting whatever faith you do have. Are you putting it all on Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection or are you putting it a little bit there and a little bit in your own good works, a little bit in all your great train of, of works that you brought with you to the king? You know, it's, it's, it's just a little bit of faith. It just takes a little bit. But the reason why people, that's how easy salvation is. It's that simple. He said, it's like drinking water. It's like eating bread. It's like walking through a door. You know, I might struggle with the door thing from time to time, okay? But you know, the illustration stands, but why is it though, if it's so easy, why is it, why is it that Jesus said there are, you know, when it was asked, are there a few that be saved? The answer was yes. Why did he say my little flock? Why did he say, you know, why is the gate and broad is the way which leadeth unto destruction and many there be which go when they're at? Why is it that Jesus himself said that more people are going to go to hell than go to heaven if salvation is so easy? Because of pride? Because people are puffed up and they want to just trust in their own works and they don't want to what? Allow the spirit of their own spirit to just be taken out of them and realize that they have nothing to offer God to earn salvation. You know, Jesus said in Matthew 18, I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, ye shall know wise, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I mean, what is he saying? In order to be saved, in order to get into heaven, you have to have a childlike faith. You have to have just a simple, and don't children just, I mean, us dads, we take advantage of how gullible children are, right? They'll believe anything. Yeah, the moon is really made of cheese, you know. Arizona is hot because this is where the sun sets, right? That's why everything's burnt and red, because the sun's only as big as a quarter, right? Just you can hold up a quarter and show it to them, right? Oh, yeah, you're right, dad. You know, windmills make wind, because to help pollinate things, you know. You can see the equator, son, you know, that's what my dad told me. You know, that line out there where the water color changes color, that's the equator, you know. It's like, oh, really? Now I was a child and I only fell for that one for a second, right? But that child-like faith of just being willing to just believe, right? That takes, that's humility. You know, children don't necessarily have a lot of pride. They're not very, you know, I mean, it's definitely a sin they can struggle with, but they have a what? Just a very simple, you know, child-like faith. That's what we need in order to get to heaven. But that's a big ask for a lot of people, to humble themselves as a child. Because they, you know, because they've got their intellect and they've got their education, or you know, religion's just for weak people that need a crutch in life. That's the, I've heard it all. It's what people say, and whenever I hear that I just think, you're proud. And it's too bad, because God loves that person just as much as anybody else and wants them to get saved. But it's their pride that's going to keep them out of heaven. Now we're, let's see, let's move on here. So she was humbled, right? She's royalty, she's coming, she's being humbled. But the last point on Queen Sheba I want to point out is that, you know, she heard, right? But then she also believed the words that she was shown. You know, it wasn't just, you know, when we preach people the gospel, we need to what? Preach them the gospel. We don't need to pull, you know, a fossil out of our pocket and prove dinosaurs existed with man or something like that. We don't have to get them to watch a nine-hour series, you know, a nine-hour creation seminar before they get saved. We're just preaching the gospel. You know, people get so caught up in, you know, these apologetics and all these other things. Like, look, the, you know, the gospel is the power of God and salvation. The word of God is what's going to get people saved. Not my logic, not my reasoning with them, not me, you know, taking them and showing us a video where they show Pharaoh's army in the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba, north of the Red Sea. Oh, it's proof. Look, this Bible story really happened. You can see the burnt mount and the altar that Aaron built and everything. They even found the rock that split and people will just be like, no, they'll just dismiss that out of hand. They need to what? They need to hear the words. And that's what she says there in verse seven. She said, howbeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. So when I got preached, you know, when I came here and I communed with you and I saw everything, I believe now. And she says, and behold, the half was not told me, thy wisdom and thy prosperity exceed at the fame which I have heard, happy are thy men and thy servants, which stand continually before thee. I hear thy wisdom. Verse nine, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee. And I believe this is her salvation. At the end, she gets saved, but look, she had to hear it, meaning this, that somebody had to preach it. Are you still in Romans 10? If you're still in Romans 10, go back to verse 14. She believed the words that she was shown. It all comes back full circle. That's why we have to preach the gospel to every creature like Christ commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Say, why are you going to pack up a bunch of people on a Friday evening and drive five, six hours, you know, go across Tucson, you know, on the opposite, you know, the long way across Tucson at five 30 in the afternoon in rush hour traffic to go to El Paso, Texas. I mean, anywhere, Texas, but El Paso, Texas, right? Because there's, there's sinners there that we'll hear because who else is going to go? Why not go? We get the fellowship and everything else, but you know what? We're bringing the gospel to those people. Why are you going to do that? Because when, because I believe, I know that there's people out there that, that if they would just hear, they would get saved. There'd be like a Queen Sheba here. She'd say, look, I believe not the words until I heard, till I came and saw it, till it, you know, till someone, Hey, I didn't, I didn't know the gospel. I didn't even got to someone came to my door and opened up the Bible and showed me. And then I believed. Look, if you really believe that, then it shouldn't surprise you when people get saved out there and it should motivate you to want to go preach the gospel. You know that, that you say, well, how do I, how do I get over my fear of talking at the door? How do I stay motivated about, about preaching the gospel? Understand this, that if you'll do, if you'll preach the gospel, someone will get saved. It might not happen every door, it might not happen every week, it might not even happen every month, but if you go faithfully and you learn to preach and you preach the gospel, there's going to be somebody that's going to say, when you ask them, Hey, can I show you from the Bible how you can be a hundred percent sure you're going to go to heaven when you die? They'll say, yeah, I'd like to know that. Yeah, I'd love to see that. And they'll listen there and they'll believe. And that's my motivation. That's why we go out in the hot weather. That's why we go, you know, drive hours. That's why we go faith, because people will get saved, but notice it was, she ended up believing the words. It was the gospel that was preached to her. This is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you, it says in second Peter. That's what we, the gospel is preached through the word of God, not through our own reasoning. So that's a bit about, you know, the, the Sheba salvation, you know, they're the queen of Sheba salvation. There's some great things we can learn about from that and be reminded of, you know, about our own need to go out and preach the gospel, okay? Because people need to hear it and if they'll, and there are people out there that if they hear it, they will get saved and that ought to motivate us. Now there's one thing I want to touch on. This is, and you know, this is, this is Thursday night preaching for you, okay? I'm just going, you know, chapter by chapter through the Bible and just kind of touching on things as we go. So Thursday nights, you know, sometimes I'll be preaching something and then it's just like a hard right turn and you're just like, wait, this sermon just changed completely, right? Well, that's just, you know, textual, textual preaching, just going through the text and looking at what's there, okay? You know, the, if you, if you, you want the more expository and topical sermons, you know, the Sundays are going to be your, your better bet, you know, I try to make things about one thing and we could go on and on about salvation and preaching the gospel, but that's not a topic that we, you know, that's a topic that gets preached a lot here. So I'm going to touch on something here that this is probably going to be out of left field for a lot of people, okay? But I want to just point out the fact that in this passage, and you can go to 2 Chronicles 9 and you'll see the same is true there, the parallel passage, that there's no mention of physical relations between the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. You say, why do you bring that up? Because there's a whole religion out there called Rastafarianism, who's ever heard of that? Okay, a few hands. All right? That believes this, that they believe that this, this king that was crowned back in 1920s, I believe it was, Haile Selassie I, which is, it's funny, I was looking into this because I knew some people who were into Rastafarianism, which is like, it's real big and it's in Jamaican mon, okay? And they would always say Haile Selassie I, because the Roman numeral one looks like an I. It's Haile Selassie I, anyway, I mean, when your religion is centered around smoking weed down by the beach all day, that's when you start pronouncing Roman numerals like actual letters. Haile Selassie I, no, it's the first, okay? Because he had a different name, Haile Selassie, that's where Rastafarianism comes from. His original name was Rastafara something, okay? But then he became Haile Selassie I, Haile Selassie I. And they believe this, and I'm not gonna go real deep here, but it goes back to the teachings, the philosophy of a guy named Marcus Garvey, who was in Jamaica, and he was like a black liberationist type of person, and he had this big philosophy about how all the black people, he wanted to take them all, put them on a ship and take them all back to Ethiopia, or back to Africa. And I'm not gonna go real deep into that, but he made this, in one of his speeches, they say, oh, it was prophetic, he talked about a black king being crowned in Africa and that that was God. And then, of course, all these Rastafarians, when they saw Haile Selassie I crowned, they jumped on that, and they said, oh, this is him. And they literally believed that this guy, this king that lived back then, this king of Ethiopia back in like the 1920s and 30s, I believe it was, was literally God, that he was the black God, like he was the God of black people. And they get this because they say, oh, that's because he's a descendant of David through the Queen of Sheba. They'll say, yeah, when Queen of Sheba went up there, she had physical relations and she went back pregnant with Solomon's child. But I'm looking through the Bible going, well, I don't see that anywhere. That's extra biblical teaching so that you can preach another Jesus. And it's a damnable heresy, folks. It's not just all about dreadlocks and being eerie and cool run-ins and all that. It's a damnable heresy, Rastafarianism, because they're preaching another Jesus. And they're looking towards a guy in Haile Selassie who never claimed to be God. And they said, they'll attribute him, they'll call him the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah. They'll call him the king of kings. Those are titles that are reserved for Jesus Christ alone. He's the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah. He's the king of kings and Lord of lords. Not just some man. And again, Haile Selassie never made that claim. He never was a Rastafarian. This was something that happened completely independent of himself. And this thing about Solomon and Queen of Sheba getting together, that's just one of the things they just make up out of thin air. The other thing is, I even heard him say, when he was born, Haile Selassie had these freckles on his thigh that said, king of kings and Lord of lords. Because that's what it says in Revelation. On his vesture on his thigh was a name written, king of kings and Lord of lords. So they said, oh yeah, there was these freckles, and he could play with lions. It's just all this crazy stuff. It's just like, you need to put the weed away, man. Put the joint down. Sober up a little bit. Because they're real into it. That's a big part of their religion. It was getting high. And you can see where it leads. But another reason they'll say that is they'll say, well, you know, because God is black. And here's the thing. And if you would, go to Jeremiah chapter 8. Rastafarianism isn't as big a deal today, maybe, as much. But we also have this thing called the whack Hebrew Israelites. I mean the black Hebrew Israelites. In the immortal words of Pastor Joe Jones, the whack Hebrew Israelites. Okay, that's what they are, because what they believe is whack. But if you go to Jeremiah chapter 8, this is their proof text. They say, oh, God's black. It's like, whoa, how did I miss that? And then people instantly want to accuse, if I don't agree with that now, I'm not saying God's white either. I'm just saying, I don't agree that he's black, because there's nowhere in scripture that says what color God is, as far as we understand it. You know, God the Father dwells in a light which no man can approach unto. You know what color God is? He's this bright, shining light that no one can even look into. That's what color, we don't even know. But this is their proof text, and I was going to read a lot more of Jeremiah 8, but if you take the time to read Jeremiah 8, and this is a lot, you see this a lot in scripture where it's a back and forth between Jeremiah and the Lord. One verse, Lord speaking, the next verse, it's Jeremiah's words, or somebody else's words, and it's not always explicitly clear when that change happens, because the Bible doesn't read, you know, and then Jeremiah said, and you know, that said Jeremiah, it doesn't read like that. And sometimes you just have to kind of, you know, it does say, thus saith the Lord, and obviously it does say that at times, but not consistently. You know, this is their verse, verse 21, Jeremiah 8. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, I am black, astonishment hath taken hold on me. So you see, right there, he said, I am black. Well, first of all, you know, I don't believe that's God speaking there. To me, that's Jeremiah, those are his words. And if you, you know, you back up and you read that, he said, you know, we can read 19, behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country is not the Lord in Zion, is not her king in here, why have they provoked me to anger in their graven images and with strange vanities? And I'm not just going to take the time to go into all that. If you're struggling with that, you're saying, whoa, maybe God is black. Come see me after the service and we'll break down Jeremiah 8, chapter 8 together. But you know, that's not a proof text. And so what does it mean that he's black there? Well, you know, I'll just read to you from Song of Solomon, okay, where it's the woman, you know, talking to her beloved or, you know, it's the woman talking, not necessarily beloved, but she says, I am black, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tense of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon, look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. What she's saying by that she's black is that she's not fair skinned. She doesn't have a fair complexion. The sun has looked upon her. And you can see how that ties in with Jeremiah because Jeremiah is all about God's pouring out his judgment, God's judging them, they're being, they're destitute, I mean, they're being sieged, they're starving to death, you know, they're being exposed to the elements, you know, things are breaking down, they're, the sun is looking upon them as well, okay. That's not any kind of a text verse that God is black, okay, because if you look at Song of Solomon, all it means is that you've been exposed to the sun. You know, you say, well, there's black and then there's tan, but you know, there's, the Bible just says black. And it, you know, when it comes to the color of what, of God, you know, no one really knows that. You know, but here's the thing, if Jesus, you know, you say, well, what color was Jesus when he was on earth? Well, he wasn't black, okay, because he was, you know, Mary and Joseph were Israelites, okay. They were from the Mideast. They weren't Caucasian either, you know, it wasn't a fair skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus either. You know, and every nationality wants to depict Jesus as their nationality. You know what, it's such a carnal thing to get hung up on. To get hung up on, oh, you know, Jesus was Vietnamese, Jesus was Korean, Jesus was black, Jesus was white. You know, in all likelihood, he was probably, you know, brown skinned. If you want to be, just be, if you want to just, you know, look at it from a logical perspective, I mean, if he's born in the Mideast, to parents that are living in there, you know, he probably looked like a, you know, an Israeli back then. You know, before they came back white. You know, they left brown and then they came back white, explain that. Because they're a bunch of Polaks. You know, they're not real Jews. They're like, oh no, they're the Jews. No, the Jews were dispersed, intermingled among all nations. There is no pure Jewish bloodline, you know, it's all a bunch of Ashkenazi Jews over there, a bunch of fakes and imposters, okay. You're saying, is this a Baptist church? Yes it is. Okay, and I know that's not a popular view among Baptists, but, you know, tough. That's the facts. And that's a whole other sermon, okay. Well, that's another movie night, okay, marching to Zion, we'll watch it, all right. But, you know, people get hung up on stupid carnal things like that. What color was Jesus? You know, why don't you be more concerned about what Jesus said to do? You know, if you love me, you can keep my commandments. People want to sit there and get all caught up in what color. You know, Jesus said, you know, God made of all nations one blood. You know, that's why it's so stupid and so dumb and so carnal to get caught up on things like complexion and skin color. You know, that's why I'm against having, you know, churches, you know, this is a black church, this is a white church, of course, you couldn't say that today. If you had a white church, you'd all be labeled supremacist. But, you know, you can have a Korean church. Now, it makes sense to me to have churches that are divided by language. You know, if there's a Chinese-speaking church, a Spanish-speaking church, or whatever, that makes sense. But, you know, people from all different walks of life can speak different languages, okay? You shouldn't divide along these carnal lines of black, white, brown, whatever, okay? You know, if you really want to find out what God looks like, you know, we'd have to consider his transfigured complexion. You know, what does he look like in Scripture? And I'll just read to you in Revelation. He says in chapter 1, verse 14, his head and his hairs were white like wool. Of course, that's another one that the whack Hebrew Israelites cling on to, because they say, hey, his hair was like wool. So they try to say that's like a black person's hair, because their hair is kind of wooly, if you've ever noticed that, right? It's true. But that's not what it's saying. It's saying it's white like wool. It's describing the color of his hair, not its, you know, consistency or whatever. As white as snow. It's saying, look, he had white hair, because wool is white. You know, he had this just, it's this frightening image of Christ. You know, people will get, what does Jesus look like? Scary? What does he look like? He's frightening. You know, John saw him, and he fell on his feet as one dead, right? His heads were as white as wool, like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were a flame of fire. What color eyes did he have? Did he have brown eyes? No, they were like fire! He had red eyes, okay? His feet were like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace. What nationality is going to claim that? There isn't one, right? You know, no one has bright brass skin, but, you know, and his voice is the sound of many waters. You know, that's what Jesus looks like. You know, that's why it's so, just, these Rastafarians and things like that, you say that, you know, why are you going off on them? Because they're teaching another Jesus, and it leads them down these stupid things like, oh, God was black. Well, what is that even supposed to mean? And look, the Wack Heber Israelites, they take it to an extreme, and they're just like, white people can't, like, we're a bunch of devils that can't be saved, and they go off. And it's wicked. You know, and the Bible says that we are to come in the unity of the faith. It's a faith that brings us together, not our complexion, not our nationality, it's our faith in Christ that brings us together. And when you start to teach for doctrines the commandments of men, you get led into heresy like this, where you start teaching things like, God's this color, and you start separating people, and it's wicked. Then these Rastafarians and these black Heber Israelites, they have another Jesus. That's what they have. Just like the Mormons, you know, if any man preached unto you another Jesus other than which we have preached, let him be accursed, the Bible says. That's what Paul wrote. Let him be accursed. The we, or an angel, you know, from heaven preached unto you any other Jesus than which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. He repeated that twice. So you know what? These people that want to preach another Jesus that's outside of Scripture, they want to form God in their own image, the Bible says let them be accursed. Now let's move on. I'll try to wrap up here, because, okay, we took a hard right, we're going to take a hard left now, all right? So we're wrapping up here, but she, you know, we have the Queen of Solomon here, and again there's no mention of these relations, but I want to notice here, notice in verse 10 it says, and she gave the king 120 talents of gold and spices of great store and precious stones. There came no more such abundance as spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. So she gave more spices to him than anybody else. The navy also of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir and brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees and precious stones, and the king made of almug trees for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, harps also and salt trees for singers, and there came no such almug trees nor were seen in this day. So he's just getting these spices, these rare trees, he's just talking, he goes on and just talks about all the wealth that Solomon had accumulated in his reign, and what we're seeing here is Solomon really at like the height of his reign, I mean he's just, the buildings have been built, the house has been built, his house is built, his wisdom is going out, people are hearing about him, they're coming, kings are coming and paying tribute to him and giving him gifts, I mean chapter 10 is the height of his reign, and then just next week you know chapter 11 it's just boom, it all goes in the gutter, unfortunately. But that's what's explaining here, just explaining all of the wealth. Look at verse 14. Now the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, beside that, he's saying look he had this, and that was beside that which he had of the merchantmen, of the traffic, of the spice of merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country, and then to kind of explain how much gold he had, it says in verse 16, and Solomon, King Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold went into one target, and he made three hundred shields of beaten gold, three pound of gold went into one shield. So do the math. I mean it's hundreds and hundreds of pounds of gold, right, it's like nine hundred pounds of gold just in these shields. Now I don't know that a shield would even be the best thing to take into a battle. I mean it's a soft metal, you know, you'd probably want something harder and lighter than three pounds. You know, three pounds isn't that heavy, yeah, but carry it on your arm while you're running across a battlefield and you've got people trying to kill you. So it's just, you know, he's just making shields and targets out of, he's like just make it out of gold, right, and he's just showing us how much wealth he had, and he goes on, verse 18, moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, I've mentioned this, this always amuses me, he makes a great throne of ivory, he's like, wow, that'd be cool to see, yeah, except you couldn't see it because he overlaid it with the best gold. It's like, why didn't you just use wood, dude? He's like, oh man, what a beautiful throne, it's full of gold, yeah, you should see what's underneath it. It's ivory, you know, it's like this rare, you know how many elephants had to die to make this throne? You know, that always cracks me up, that he just uses this rare, you know, precious ivory and then he's like, you know what, that'd look better just covered in gold. That is just showing he had all of this wealth. The throne had, verse 19, the throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind, and there were stays on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays, and twelve lions stood there on the one side, on the other side, upon the six steps, there was not like made any in the kingdom. Now I used to read that night, and I often wonder, like, when he says lions, is he talking about statues? Because a lot of times when it's talking about a molten, you know, like the calves that we read earlier, then it tells us these were molten animals, right, and that the cherubims were molten, but this just says lions. And I used to think it was always just some kind of, and maybe it is, I really don't know, but now I'm thinking maybe it was just like literal lions, like he just had lions there, maybe like chained up or trained or something, it's like wow, that's kind of far-fetched, but look at all these Saudi princes, right, who just have more money, oil money than they know what to do with. They're all buying Lamborghinis and rolling them, and what else do they do? They like to play with like Bengal tigers, who's ever seen this? You have these Saudi princes, they just, they'll just have some tiger on a chain or something like that, right? It's like, it's crazy. You know, Mike Tyson had a tiger for a long time, right? You know, so it wouldn't be that far-fetched, you know, Solomon, he's already, we already read how all these peacocks and apes and all these exotic animals we're bringing on, I mean, he's just like, you know what, that, you know, it's got, it's made out of ivory, it's got solid gold, but it needs some live lions on it. You know, that would be, that would be pretty cool, you know, I'd be impressed by that, but maybe it's just statues, I don't know. I like to think that they're, they're real. So that's how I'm going to tell it. That's my sermon, I'll preach it. And it says, in all King Solomon's, verse 22, vessels were of gold, and the vessels of the house of the force of Lebanon were of pure gold, none of it were silver. It's like, silver, take it away. It was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. So the Bible is just taking the time to explain to us just the, this incredible amount of gold and silver and precious stones that Solomon had in his reign, and you say, well, why is that? Well, I believe it's because it's a picture of, you know, the, the Christ's millennial reign, and specifically the New Jerusalem, right? But notice that it says that he had, in verse 14, six hundred threescore and six talents of gold. Now, how much is a talent? You know, and people will say, and this is all up, you know, they say, oh, we found this old talent weight, and it weighs about 70 to 75 pounds, depending on who you ask. That's pretty heavy. Now you think, is that really how much a talent is? Because when you look up talent in the Bible, you'll find 2 Samuel chapter 12, right? Where King David, you know, he fought, he fights against Reba, and he takes the city and defeats the king, and it says they brought the king's crown and put it upon David's head, and it weighed a talent. So if that's right, then you're saying that they put a crown that weighed 70 pounds upon his head. And that's why it says there in 2 Samuel chapter 12 that it was set on David's head. It didn't say David put it on his head, right? Like, you had to sit down, and it probably wasn't something he just walked around with. Like, it was probably like a coronation type of thing, him just kind of showing off for a minute, like, I'm wearing the crown. Okay, take it off. Kind of sinking down, like, 70, 70 pounds is a lot, it's literally to weigh on your head. But, you know, and then, but then you read Matthew 25 too, and it makes sense, because it says there, remember the parable of the servants? They were given different talents, amounts of talents. And one guy was given one, you know, and he comes back, and the Lord comes back to receive it of him, and he was the poor, the bad servant, right? And he said that he took his talent and hid it in the earth. You know, if you have a 70 pound talent, you know, gold or something like that, you're gonna, you're not just gonna hide that under the, you're not just gonna sweep that under the rug somewhere. You're not gonna put that in the box and tuck it away in the closet. You're gonna have to go out and bury that in the field, because it's massive, right? Whatever, however much talent it is, it's a very significant amount. And he's telling us, look, he had all, he had 600, 3 score and 6 talents, and he has all this wealth, and it pictures, and if you would, and I'm almost done, go to Revelation chapter 21, Revelation chapter number 21. I believe it's because, you know, Solomon, his reign is a picture of the millennial reign of Christ. You know, and I've talked about this a couple times, remember how it starts out, right? He starts out judging, right? David gives him a list, hey, take out so-and-so, you know, so-and-so's gotta die, you know, and Solomon starts out his reign by literally executing some people and judging, right? And then he rolls into this year, you know, 40 years of peace. You know, we know in the millennium, you know, that talks about how, that they're gonna beat their swords into plowshares, and that man will no more learn war, okay? So we know that Solomon's reign is a picture of Christ's reign, and I believe the gold here in 1 Kings chapter 10 is kind of a picture of the New Jerusalem that is to come, because if you look in Revelation chapter 21, it describes the building, and notice it's just all, it's just all this gold, in verse 18, and the building of the wall was like of Jasper, the city was pure gold, like in the clear glass. So it was, now, does that mean it was transparent, or maybe it just shimmered like it? I think it was, it's saying it was like undeclared glass, meaning it was so pure, you could just see right through it, and that's what the whole city is like. The foundation of the wall, the cities were garnished all manner of precious stone, the first foundation, and it describes all the different precious stones. Verse 21, and the 12 gates were 12 pearls, every several gate of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass. So it's just this abundance of just, you know, of gold, but you got to, and we're impressed with everything that we see in Solomon's day, and notice in Solomon's day they said it was as nothing. And that's a picture of the fact that to Christ, you know, the gold is as nothing, because you know what? The streets are gold up there, they're just, we walk on gold up there. You know, up here, people do a lot of things with gold, don't they? But I haven't seen them pave any streets with it. I haven't seen them, you know, just lay it down for everybody to walk all over. You know, they make ornate things out of it, they make jewelry out of it, they do a lot of things that they like to show off, but to God it's as nothing to him, it has nothing to Solomon. He's like, you know what? Just pave the cities up here. You know, just make the walls out of it. And I know I'm kind of going a little bit long here, but to me this is kind of interesting because the fact that it says that it's clear glass, because remember Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you, right? He said that in my Father's house there are many mansions. And this is why I believe that there are literal mansions in heaven. And I don't have a lot of time to develop it, but, you know, it talks about how that Christ is, well let's just look there. It said, verse 23, and the city had no need of sun, nor the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. So he doesn't need all these lights, right? Why is that? Because if the city is made with clear glass, or gold that is like clear glass, all these walls are clear glass, the roads are clear, that means Christ's light can just shine through all these walls. You know, I just try to imagine what it looks like, and I could be wrong, you know, this is just my theory, is that when we see the New Jerusalem, you know, Christ is the light of it, it's just going to be shimmering and all this light's going to be refracting through it because of all the clear glass that's in it, and all the mansions and the streets and the walls, all these precious stones that are in it, all the pearls, I mean, it's made to be beautiful. You know, part of the reason why I believe there are mansions there is because it's going to beautify the place, it's going to make it impressive, it's going to blow our minds. Why would God do it? We don't want to forget the fact that sometimes God wants us just to be in awe of what he does, of his creation. Why would God make a city that is, if you measure this out, it's like from Michigan to Florida, it's one side, and it's four square, it's a massive city, the New Jerusalem. And he's just not going to put anything in it, and it's just going to be one big empty city? To me, that doesn't make a lot of sense. To me, it makes more sense that it'd be packed with all these mansions that he said, if it were not so, I would have told you, and that they're all clear and translucent, you have Christ who's the light of it, just, all the light from him just shimmering and shining, I think that's the way it's going to be, but that's just my opinion. The other thing I want to talk about real quick, and I'll wrap this up, I know I'm going long, is that I want to point out there in 1 Kings 10, I've said it several times, I don't know if you picked up on it, but in verse 14 it gives us a specific measurement, a specific amount, rather, of gold that was given to Solomon. It says it was 600, three score, and six talents. So how many is 600? You know, that's six. How many is three score? Well, a score is 20, so three score is six. So then you have six. You have 666 talents, 666, and that should ring bells for a lot of people, right? That's the mark of the beast, the anti-Christ, right? It's the number of a man. And I think there's a couple different things going on here, but one thing, and a lot of times people just hear 666 and they just think of some Satanist who tattooed that on their throat or something. Because Satanists, they love to run with that. The wicked, they latch onto things like that, and I understand it's associated with the anti-Christ and the beast and all that, and it's a wicked number. But it's also just, you know, six is the number of man. It just kind of shows that it's from the earth, it's earthy. We talked about it when we looked at the house of the forest in Lebanon in previous chapters, how there were six windows, three sets of six windows, 666, and I don't want to re-preach all that. But I think what's going on here is it's showing us one thing is that everything that's impressive about what Solomon did here, it compares nothing to what the new Jerusalem is going to be like. We can be impressed with this because he has all this gold, but you know what, it's just gold that man provided. It's just gold that was brought to him and he put to use, and it pales in comparison to what Christ can do. That's the difference between man and God. The 666 amount of gold, that kind of represents what man can do. It's going to be like a three year old sand castle compared to the new Jerusalem. He might as well be made out of Legos, folks, because we can't even understand how beautiful the new Jerusalem is going to be, how impressive it is. That's really a whole sermon. When you start to really break it down, I mean the pearls are just massive, the gates are made of solid pearl, it goes on and on. But I think the other reason, the other thing I want to look at here, and if you would go to 1 Timothy chapter number 6, is that the specific measurement, now why did he mention that it's 603 score and 6? God doesn't just put those details in there arbitrarily, just at a win. There's reasons why that's in there, and it's because it does represent one, that it's something that's of man, but also Solomon's great wealth was also his downfall. It's also what brought him down, it led him to worship idols and false gods. And I think what we see here is it's actually a warning against earthly riches, it's a warning against pursuing earthly riches. Because one, first of all, we saw that Solomon's wealth, this 603 score and 6 talents of gold beside that which he also received, obviously was used for good. He built all the vessels in the temple of the house of the Lord, all the vessels in the forest of the house of Lebanon were made of gold, he made all those shields, he made a lot of good things out of it, didn't he? He put a lot of his wealth to use to beautify God, to beautify God's temple, God's house, and to make God's house shine as a light to the Gentile nations. It went to good use, right? So the application of this is that when you see somebody that has wealth, just instantly assume they're a wicked person. And some people get this attitude. They just think, oh, if that person has money, that probably means that you're just rotten to the core. No, it could just mean that they were smart with their money and worked very hard. Now whether or not that's what they should invest in their life in, you take that by a case-by-case basis. God does bless some people. God does bless people with businesses that grow and they provide for others, and God gives us strength to what? To get wealth. He gives us that strength. He gives us wisdom and knowledge and understanding to prosper. God wants us to prosper. Now the reason why some of us never will have wealth is because we couldn't handle it. God's probably going to keep us from having a lot of wealth because if we got a lot of wealth, it would probably ruin us, which is probably the case for most people. That's why David prayed, give me poverty nor riches. He just wanted to have just right in between. I don't want to be dirt poor, but I don't want to be rich either. I want to just be right in the middle. And obviously, Solomon used his wealth for good, and that's something that people can do today. If you're someone who has a lot of wealth, the warning is this, use your wealth to do good. That's what it says in 1 Timothy. If you look there in chapter 6 verse 17, he said, charge them that are rich in this world. This is something that Paul told Timothy to preach. He said, look, you need to charge those that are rich in this world. Charge them means, hey, I'm going to tell you what to do with that wealth. It's not the preacher's business. This is what the Bible says. He said, charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches. Don't be like Solomon. Don't get puffed up and think you've arrived. Chapter 11, as we'll read next week, you know what? His heart was turned away from God. And the wealth had a part to do with it, and it played a part in that, and I'll get into it in a second. But he's saying, look, don't trust in certain riches, but in living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. So God does bless us. He says, charge them, verse 18, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, meaning willing to give to those that are in need. Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against that time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Say look, if you have wealth, you have riches, you ought to invest that in eternity. You ought to use that in such a way that you're going to lay up a good foundation against the time to come, meaning eternity, when Christ comes. So wealth can be used to get God's work done. Think about the fact that Faithful Word Baptist Church, Tempe, our location up in Tucson, we've never had a fundraiser. We've never had to ask people for money. Get up here and preach like we were shaking, like holding you upside down, just trying to give your whole paycheck Sunday, or give till it hurts, folks. We've never had to do that. We've always had plenty of money. It's not so that I can roll around in a Jaguar with a license plate that says, God's man. Some preachers I've seen and heard of. We use that wealth that we have, and I'm not saying that's a ton of money. It's not like Joel Osteen's church, where you're going to find $60,000 on the bathroom wall one day. We use that, we're just a funnel. People give and it just funnels through us, like, hey, let's go to El Paso, let's rent a bigger building, let's get more people, let's have a movie night, let's print gospel tracts, let's just do more work for God. Using the wealth that God gives us as a church to lay up and store a good foundation against the time to come. And look, if you're one that has wealth, that's what you need to do. That's what Timothy was told to charge the wealthy with. I'm just repeating the message. So it can be used for good, but notice also that riches, if they're not used for good, they also lead to people's downfall. And specifically with Solomon, you say, well, wait a minute, it was all the strange wives that turned his heart to the Lord. Chapter 11, 1 Kings 11, 3, it says, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. It talks about how he worshipped all these false gods and built idols and things like that. You say, it was his wives that turned away all that stuff. Yeah, but here's the thing, 700 wives and 300 concubines aren't cheap, because those are people that have to be fed, clothed, housed, and they're going to want things, and they're going to want all the perfume, because they're princesses, and they're going to want to have the best this and the best that, and all those women are going to cost money. And he's the guy with the money. He's got the goods. He can deliver. He didn't collect all these women because of his good looks, folks. He might have been a good looking guy, but you don't get 700 wives and 300 concubines just because you're good looking, because you've got some money, right? These are basically a bunch of gold diggers is what's going on, and there was a lot of digging to do with King Solomon, because he had a lot of gold, didn't he? So yeah, he used that wealth for a lot of good, but you know what, it also opened up a lot of doors for him to get into other sins, didn't it? I guarantee if he didn't have that wealth, there wouldn't be, I mean, his dad, King David, he had multiple wives too, but it wasn't, it was not a thousand women, you know, because King David didn't have that wealth. That came later in Solomon's day, and that's what the Bible warns us about. He's still in 1 Timothy chapter 6, look at verse 6, he says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. You know, it's better, you know, better is, it's better to have little in love than, you know, a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. You know, it's better to be a rich man with little, or excuse me, a poor man and have your righteousness than to be a rich man and have, you know, and be an unrighteous person. That's what it's saying here. He's saying godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and certainly can carry nothing out, and having food and raiment let us be there with content. Oh, I just want more money, I just want more bankroll. Hey, have you got food? Have you got raiment? Okay, then you have everything that God promised you in this life. That's what God promised you. God didn't promise you wealth. God didn't promise you a bankroll. You know, God didn't promise you to have the funny money, the folding money, the walk around money, the buffet money, the mad money, all that money we want, right? To just spend, you know, God didn't promise you a disposable income. God promised you food and raiment, and if you have those things, you know, be there with content. Verse 9, and this is the warning, but they that will be rich, now notice it's those that will be rich, it doesn't say those that are rich, it's those that are not rich but want to be. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Why? For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet after, they have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You know, that's why God keeps people back from wealth. Because if we had it, we would get into a lot of sin that we can't get into. Money opens up doors to a lot of sin, doesn't it? There's a lot of sins that I'll just never get into because I just can't afford it. I can't afford to just live this party lifestyle like Solomon where I'm just, you know, just sleep around and just having all these women and just having this big long feast where it's just one long spring break or something. But you know what, if you had a lot of money, that's what these people get into, these really wicked sins, don't they? And that's the warning there. Look, you know, Solomon unfortunately serves as a warning to us, you know, he's a great picture of Christ, but remember, he's a real man, he's somebody that actually existed, he's a flawed individual, he's a sinner just like the rest of us. No picture of Christ in the Bible is 100% perfect, okay? It all falls apart eventually and rightly so because he serves not only as a picture of Christ and his millennial reign and all that, but he also serves as a warning to the rest of us, you know, that come after him. That wealth can destroy people. And that when God prospers us, you know, that's when we need to be on guard. And look, if God's not prospering us, if we're not, you know, if we have financial problems, if we're never going to be uber rich, you know, it's probably for the best. You know, and if we've got food, if we've got arraignment, you know, we've got enough to bless God for, you know, and praise him for. So there's a lot of different lessons here tonight, I know I kind of covered a lot of different things. I was talking about Sheba's salvation, Rastafarianism, you know, and Solomon's party life and New Jerusalem. So we're kind of all over the place. But, you know, it's a great chapter, you know, this 1 Kings has got a lot in it. There's a lot of great pictures, a lot of great applications. And it's hopefully we take something from that tonight, you know, that, you know, there is a there is a New Jerusalem coming, it's going to far exceed anything Solomon did, you know, and it's a great, great place and we should want more people to be there, you know, and they're not going to be there if they don't hear the gospel. And they're not going to hear the gospel if we get obsessed with the riches and the cares of this life, if we allow those things to come in and choke the word that it become unfruitful in our lives. And we should want people to be there, that means we're going to have to what? Get our treasure, you know, put our heart in our, put our treasures in heaven, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Why? Because where your treasures are, there will your heart be also, let's go and pray.