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I will glory in my Savior's name. I have opened this pride and bliss since I have been redeemed. He sent me every doubt and fear since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in his name. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I have opened faith for me since I have been redeemed. Where I shall dwell eternally since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in his name. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. And this evening, we will be in 2 Chronicles 9. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations, baptisms, and offering totals. Across the page this Sunday morning at 10 a.m. are the doughnuts before the service for all the birthdays and anniversaries in the month of June. Remember that the covered parking spots in the parking lot are for other people that are reserved for other tenants. Specifically, there's another church on Sunday morning that uses these covered spots over here. So please park in the uncovered spots. And then below that is a list of all the ladies in our church that are expecting. Pray for them to have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. On the back, small town soul-winning in Clifton, Arizona. This weekend, Friday and Saturday. Leaving Friday morning, coming back Saturday evening. The schedule, details, and sign-up sheet are over here to my right. Also don't forget that June 28th and 29th, there's going to be a soul-winning trip up to the Navajo reservation that also includes a trip to the Grand Canyon. And so be thinking about that. Remember that it's Arizona, it's getting hot, the heat can be very hazardous. You know, hundreds and hundreds, I think it's like 800 people a year in this area are hospitalized with heat-related issues. I think there have been like 1,500 heat-related deaths in the last several decades or whatever the stats are. But it's just something that you need to be aware of. Obviously, we love it, we thrive on it. You know, this is where we live and Arizona is the best. But, you know, for people that are new to the area or visiting or whatever, you got to get used to it, right? I actually like summer. I'm not one of these people that's just like waiting for summer to be over. I love summer. So I hate being cold. But just take some precautions, right? Stay hydrated, but it's not enough to just drink water. You also need electrolytes, so you can drink like a sports drink or salt your food and or salt your food. And then take breaks as needed. If we're out soul-winning and it's 100 and some degrees outside and you need to just take 5, 10 minutes, get in the shade, or just maybe every once in a while you might need to just hit the convenience store, slam a Gatorade, and then get back at it, don't be afraid to take a break. If your soul-winning partner wants to take a break, be cool about it. Don't make it weird, man. So just take a break and don't abandon your partner. You'll be like, oh, you're taking a break. Well, I'm going to keep going without you. Stay with your partner. Chill out together in the shade for 10 minutes, whatever it takes. So be careful. The annual mega conference is going to be July 14th through August 7th. We've got a whole bunch of great guest preachers coming for you to hear. We'll have the lineup printed soon. But if you have perfect attendance, you'll also get a special reward for that. All right, that's it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul-winning from the past few days. Going back to Monday, anything to report from Monday the 27th? Anything from Monday? Okay. All right. And then what about Tuesday? Okay. Anything else from Tuesday? Okay. And then today, I know we had one for the van. Anything outside of the van from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul-winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. You should find the answer in front of your hymnal. With the hymn, oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. If you don't have an answer, you can raise your hand and you'll receive one. We'll sing it on that verse. Sing it out together now. Oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh, it is wonderful to be redeemed. Justify forever and in style. I can go directly to the Lord and pray. He asks only, I can only enter there. And he listens as he promises I plead. I find mercy there and grace for every need. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a child. Oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh, it is wonderful to be redeemed. Justify forever and in style. And the hope of heaven's glory fills your soul. Where I'll live with Christ forevermore, I know. That is why the things of earth I loosely owe. I deserve no wages that are far to go. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be my son. Oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh, it is wonderful to be redeemed. Justify forever and in style. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Can I get six of those tonight? Alright, this time, we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Chronicles Chapter 9. 2 Chronicles Chapter 9, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning of Verse 1. Follow along silently with Brother Hester as he reads. 2 Chronicles 9, beginning in Verse 1. 2 Chronicles chapter 9, the Bible reads, 2 Chronicles chapter 9, The Bible reads, and when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company and camels that bear spices and gold and abundance and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with them of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions. And there was nothing hid from Solomon which she told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, his cupbearers also and their apparel, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it was a true report which I heard in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believe not their words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me. For thou exceedest the fame that I had heard. Happy are thy men and happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne to be king for the Lord thy God, because thy God loved Israel to establish them forever. Therefore made the king over them to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices, great abundance, and precious stones. Neither was there any spice as the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. And the servants also of Hurum and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones. And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the Lord and to the king's palace and harps and salt trees for singers. And there were none such seen before in the land of Judah. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned and went away to her own land, she and her servants. Now the weight of gold that was come to Solomon in one year was 600 and three score and six talents of gold. Beside that which Chapman and merchants brought and all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. And King Solomon made 200 targets of beaten gold. 600 shekels of beaten gold went into one target. And 300 shields made he a beaten gold. 300 shekels of gold went into one shield. And the king put them in the house of the forests of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. And there were six steps to the throne with a footstool of gold which were fastened to the throne and stays on each side of the sitting place and two lions standing by the stays. And 12 lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps. And there was not the like made in any kingdom. And all the drinking vessels of King Solomon were of gold. And all the vessels of the house of the forests of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver. It was not anything accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hurum. Every three years, once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. And King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver and vessels of gold and raiment, harness and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year. And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he bestowed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. And he rained over all the kings from the river even unto the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones and cedar trees made he as the sycamore trees that are in the low plains. In abundance. And they brought unto Solomon horses out of Egypt and out of all lands. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon first and last are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Ito the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat. And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel 40 years. And Solomon slept with his fathers. And he was buried in the city of David his father and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead. Father in heaven, thank you for salvation through the blood of your son Jesus Christ. And thank you for the earnest of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of your children. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit so that we your children would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Chronicles where we're seeing King Solomon's reign and we're seeing the nation of Israel at its high point. This is the greatest that the nation of Israel ever was as far as just the size of their kingdom, the wealth, the prosperity, the power, the respect, the prestige. This is the high point of the kingdom. And of course, in the book of 2 Chronicles, the author chooses to leave out all of this negative stuff that we see from the book of 1 Kings where we see Solomon building houses to false gods and those type of things. Obviously, he's aware of it because he's directing the reader, whoever the author of this is, I'm talking about the human author now, is directing people over in verse 29. Now, the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilinite and in the visions of Ito the seer against Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Obviously, these other writings and things that are out there that he's pointing people to, of course, elsewhere in 2 Chronicles is to point people to the book of Kings. And why is it left out in this particular book? Well, obviously, we know that all scriptures given by inspiration of God and that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So although there are human authors that are writing things down and making decisions about what to include and what not to include, at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit is the one who is guiding them and leading them. And so if something is left out, it's because it's supposed to be left out. And I believe that the reason why the more negative aspects of Solomon's reign are only hinted at, as we saw last week, and it doesn't go into that much detail, is that it's meant to be a more positive view of Solomon's reign, picturing the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, because Solomon is a great picture of Jesus. And he's the son of David, just like Jesus is the son of David, and just like he has this wonderful reign of peace on Earth, it's going to be an even greater reign of peace on Earth when the Lord Jesus Christ reigns in the Millennium for 1,000 years. And so this period, when there's just so much peace and prosperity and everything's wonderful and all the other kings have total respect for King Solomon, they come and pay homage to him, and they come and bring their gifts to him, this is going to be what it's like in the Millennium when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning, and the kings of the Earth are all subservient to him, and he is in total power. And obviously, that's going to be a far superior kingdom to even what we see here, Israel at its high point. And so I believe that that's why the author of Chronicles is led. The reason I say the author is because this, like most books of the Old Testament, is an anonymous writing. We don't know who the author is. But whoever the author is, I believe, was led by the Holy Spirit to leave those things out. Maybe in his mind, he's just wanting to focus on that, which is positive. But ultimately, I think God's purpose is so that it wouldn't break up or mess up the symbolism where we could read the beginning of 2 Chronicles and just really think about the second coming of Christ, his millennial reign, and Solomon as a picture of Jesus without a whole lot of emphasis on the negative side. And that's the thing about the Bible. The Bible often gives us the story from multiple angles. Like we've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all telling essentially the same story about Christ's life and his ministry, his death, his burial and resurrection. But each of the four gospels emphasizes different things. It chooses to leave out certain things, to include certain things, because it has a certain feel or a certain emphasis or a certain message that that individual book is trying to get across. And so there have been people throughout history who wanted to synthesize all four gospels into one big gospel and just kind of mix them all together. And of course, this is a terrible idea. And that's not really the way it's intended to be read. There are Bibles out there, the chronological Bible, and it kind of puts everything in the order. I mean, it might be fun to just kind of read through that and look through that. But really, it's not the best way to read the Bible, right? Because the right way to read the Bible is that Matthew is trying to get certain things across and give you a certain message in a certain context. And the same thing with Mark, same thing with Luke. Each of them is profitable to be read individually as its own separate work. And so when we're reading Second Chronicles, it's hard not to think about the stuff from 1 Kings that King Solomon gets into. But I think that there's profit in both ways of reading as far as comparing scripture with scripture and thinking about those things, and also not necessarily thinking about those things and just kind of focusing on what Second Chronicles is giving us and what Second Chronicles is doing for us. So in Second Chronicles, chapter number nine, we have this visit from the queen of Sheba. And I think that the biggest takeaway from this chapter is the importance of our Christian testimony to this world because of the fact that when I was growing up, I heard this a lot. People talked about your testimony. You want to guard your testimony. You want to have good testimony, right? And this is a Christian lingo for having a good report of them which are without, right, as the Bible would put it, that people out in this world would respect us and look at us and see a good example of what it means to be a Christian, right? We don't want to be a person where people say, oh, well, that's a Christian. Then I want nothing to do with Christianity. And I guarantee you there are a lot of Christians that are like that, where their life is such a reproach on the name of Christ. They're actually pushing people away from Christ instead of helping to rally people to the gospel of Jesus Christ because they're just, frankly, just a bad person, right? And if you think about it, if you go to your job and you're just a big jerk and you're a bad worker and you're lazy and you're dishonest and you're unkind and unloving and unhelpful and then people know that you're a Christian, then that gives a bad name to Christianity. Or if people know that you go to our church, then it gives our church a bad name, right? There are people out there who dislike our church because they met someone from our church and they didn't like that person. And they say, oh, this is what those people from Faithful Word Baptist are like because they met one bad example, right? And so we don't want to be that guy or gal that's the bad example from Faithful Word Baptist Church where people say, well, I don't want anything to do with that church because I've met their members and they're trash. Or, you know, I don't want to be a Christian because, you know, the Christians that I know are some of the worst people that I know, right? We don't want to have that reputation. Now, in chapter nine here of 2 Chronicles, we see the opposite going on where we have God's people actually impressing the people of this world where the people of this world are coming to God's people and trying to figure out, hey, you know, why are you so successful? Why are you so blessed? Where is this wisdom that you have coming from, right? That's what we want to do as Christians. What did Jesus say? He said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven, right? We're supposed to be letting our light shine and what is letting our light shine? Having good works, right? They see the good works and then they glorify your Father which is in heaven. That's what we want to be as Christians, a light to this world. We want to be a good example. We want to have a good Christian testimony. We want to be a good witness for Christ not only by opening our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel but also having a life that is a good advertisement for Christianity, not a cautionary tale that says, oh man, you don't want to be a Christian because you're going to be like these bozos, right? Think about the fact that the top 10 most illiterate countries in the world are Islamic countries. Is that a good advertisement for Islam? No, you look at that and say, well, Islam must be trash if it just creates all this ignorance and all of this wickedness. That's a bad testimony, right? Well, the problem is that now a lot of evangelical Christians are actually giving Christ a bad name by going throughout this world and the women are scantily clad, and the dudes are effeminate, and everybody's promoting homos and everything. I mean, think about it. America's known as a Christian nation. But would the Queen of Sheba be coming to the White House and wanting to see Joe Biden and saying, oh man, you guys are so godly, you're so righteous, you're so wise, you're so wonderful? No, a lot of people today are disgusted by the fact that America is turning into a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, and then they end up having a bad view toward Christianity. I guarantee you there are Muslims all over the world that probably all smug about how wicked America is with all the sodomy and all the whores and whoremongers of Hollywood, and it's really a shame, right? But we as God's people in our own personal lives, we wanna let our light shine everywhere we go. When we go to work, when we go to school, when we're in the neighborhood, whatever you do when you're at the gym, when you're on the sports team, wherever you go, whatever you do, you wanna make sure that you are an ambassador for Christ, right? The Bible says we are ambassadors for Christ. The Apostle Paul said, you're our epistle, right? And so you as Christians are God's epistle to this world in many ways. Some people have said, you're the only Bible that some people will ever read, right? They're never gonna pick up the Bible and read it. It's just you quoting scripture to them, that's where their exposure to the word of God comes from. And then they see your life and they either glorify your Father, which is in heaven, or the name of God and his doctrine are blasphemed because of your behavior, because of your attitude, because of the way you live. This is a good example because it says in verse one of chapter nine, when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove, prove means to test, right? To prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company and camels that bear spices and golden abundance and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. We would say in our modern vernacular, she communed with him about everything that was on her mind, right? Everything that was on her mind, the questions that she had, the things that she wanted to know, she talks to Solomon about all these things and she asks him hard questions. She wants to test out his wisdom. And Solomon told her all her questions. So Solomon answers all the questions. He was never stumped or at a loss for an answer. And there was nothing hid from Solomon, which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and then it lists all the other things that she saw, you know, she's blown away by the wisdom of Solomon. Now, sometimes Christians will be criticized or Baptist preachers perhaps in particular will be criticized for thinking that they have all the answers. You know, you guys think that you have all the answers. Well, you just have all the answers, don't you? Yeah, we do. You know, because all the answers are here in the Bible. Now I'm not saying I know everything. And I certainly don't understand everything in the Bible. There are verses in the Bible that I have no clue what they mean, right? There are some verses in the Bible, I don't think anybody knows what they mean. But there are 31,000 some odd verses in the Bible. And the vast majority of the Bible is not very difficult to understand at all. The vast majority of the Bible is crystal clear. And it's written in a very straightforward, simple style compared to most literature that's out there in this world. You know, in most languages, the Bible's like the easiest book in that language as far as serious literature. The Bible's written in a really straightforward, simple way. But there are some things that are really hard to understand. The Bible even says in 2 Peter 3 that in Paul's epistles are many things that are difficult to understand. Okay, I don't know everything. I don't understand everything in the Bible. But the reason people think we have all the answers is because when it comes to big issues of our day, how to live our lives, what we should be doing with our lives, how to go to heaven, how to deal with various problems of sin and the Christian life and so forth. You know, we do have all the answers. And frequently we get questioned and are able to answer all the questions as Christians because we have the Bible. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ. So it's not that we're super smart. We're not, you know, I'm not King Solomon. You're not King Solomon. But thank God we got the Bible right here. And the Bible has the wisdom of Solomon. The Bible surpasses the wisdom of Solomon. Obviously, Solomon was an incredible person with a lot of wisdom. But his wisdom was not worldly wisdom of this world. It was actually wisdom imparted to him by God. It was godly wisdom. And so we have access to that same source of wisdom that Solomon had in the Bible. If, look, frankly, if you read the Bible a lot, you will be a much smarter person because you read the Bible a lot than people who don't read the Bible. You will have a lot more wisdom if you read the Bible than people who don't read the Bible. You want to go through life being an idiot and making a lot of stupid mistakes and not having the answers? Then don't read the Bible. But if you want to know the truth, if you want to know the answers, if you want to have wisdom, read the Bible. What an amazing resource we have here. The answer to all of life's questions is right here. You know, the Queen of Sheba is just a worldly person and she had a lot of things on her mind and the Bible says it even better, she had a lot of things on her heart. You know, these are things that really matter to her. And the world today wants to know, what are we doing here? How should we live our lives? What do I do? How should I have a family? Why am I on this earth? What's the purpose of it all? And look, we have those answers right here in the Bible. So we need to be studying the Bible, searching the scriptures daily to find those answers for ourselves and so that we can be like Solomon and give those answers to other people that are not saved, that need to hear the truth. And so the Bible says Solomon told her all her questions. There was nothing hid from Solomon, which he told her not. And when the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, so he looks at their clothing, you know, oh, your clothing doesn't matter. Well, you know what? Obviously, the inside is what's really important, but that doesn't mean that the outside doesn't matter at all, okay? If you obviously dress like a slob, act like a slob, or if you're a dude and you dress as an effeminate, or if you're a woman that dresses like a man, if you're out there scantily clad, if you're half-naked, you know, well then, obviously that's not going to impress the Queen of Sheba very much. You know, what impressed her? He's looking at, she's looking at the people of Solomon's court, and she's looking at the way that they're dressed. She's looking at the way they conduct themselves. And it's in a way that commands respect. And it says that she looked at his cupbearers, their apparel, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord. There was no more spirit in her, right? He's got the wisdom of God, he speaks the wisdom of God, he's running a classy operation, he's surrounded by classy people, and he's going to church faithfully, and she's impressed by that. And you know what? People are still impressed by that today. I guarantee you there are people in this world that are going to look at your life, and if they see you working hard, doing your best, being a classy, respectable, righteous individual, faithful to church, serving God, people are going to want to know what you're doing, and they're going to want to be a Christian because you're a Christian and they want to be like you. Now look, I'm not saying that we're going to do lifestyle evangelism, because I believe in opening your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, right? We are to preach the gospel to every creature. You know, not preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words. It's always necessary to use words, because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You know, somebody said the other, I mean, that quote is a wrong quote. Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words. So cute, except that we are commanded to preach the word. Preach the word of God. The sower, the parable of the good sower, he sows the word. The Bible says he shall tell the words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved, right? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. In the Psalm it says thy word has quickened me. It's God's word that brings salvation. We need to speak the word of God. We could have the greatest testimony and the greatest Christian life ever, but if we never tell that person the gospel or tell them how to be saved, well then they're not just going to get saved by just seeing our light. But seeing our light is hopefully going to get them interested to where they're willing to listen to what we have to say when we talk to them. So the lifestyle must be combined with actually telling them the gospel, actually speaking the word of God to them. It's not enough for them to just see our light. Now look, this is not our main way of winning people to Christ because frankly, we need to be winning more people to Christ than just the people who come up to us and ask us what must I do to be saved. Now if you're a Christian long enough and you have a good testimony, people will come up to you and eventually at some point in your life, someone will come up to you and ask you what must I do to be saved. Maybe not in those exact words, but something similar to that. But you know how often that happens? Once in a blue moon, which is every 18 months. And so I'm sorry, I don't want to witness to someone every 18 months. I don't want to witness someone every five years. I don't want to witness someone every six months. I'm sorry, but you're not just gonna have people coming up to you every week asking you how to be saved because they're so impressed by your life. And if they are, man, you are living one incredible life and I'm impressed, but I've never seen anything like that in my life and frankly, I doubt it exists. In fact, I don't even think that necessarily, Solomon has people asking him to be saved every day or every week, but maybe because he's a king of a whole nation, maybe he did. But the point is that we need to also be going out and what does the Bible say? We are to seek and to save that which is lost. He doesn't say, just let your light shine and let them come to you. We should let our light shine. We should let them glorify God because of our good works but we also need to go seek and save. Seek and save. That means we're looking for them. We don't just wait for them to look for us. We go out looking for them. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost and he said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. And we are to go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. We are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We're to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. But I'm telling you, if you're a Christian long enough and you're a righteous Christian, people will eventually at some point come to you. I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands for you to brag about that it happened to you. But it'll happen to you. And by the way, you know what's really a shame? When somebody's living a good, godly Christian life and someone comes up to them and, hey man, I'm so impressed by your life. I want what you have. How can I be saved? And you have no practice giving the gospel. And you're just like, oh, ah, eh, you know. Thankfully, if you're actually one who goes out soul winning, preaching the gospel to every creature, if you're out seeking and saving the lost, then when somebody does come up to you, that once in a blue moon, when somebody comes up to you and says, man, I'm so impressed by your family. I'm so impressed by your life. You've got it together, man. What is your secret? What do you believe? Where do you go to church? You're gonna be ready, boom, to open your Bible and win that person to Christ because you've done it 100 times. And so she's blown away. There's no more spirit in her. The idea here is that she's breathless, right? Because spirit and breath are often synonymous in the Bible. She is breathless. There's no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it was a true report which I heard in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not their words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me. For thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Now look, we, if we know the Bible, have the wisdom of God at our fingertips right here. Not because we're super smart, not because we're King Solomon, but because we have the mind of Christ, we have the word of God, we have the Holy Spirit to bring it to our remembrance and the answers are all in this book. Okay, but we wanna make sure that we have the acts and the wisdom, right? Because if you just have the wisdom but you don't have the acts, nobody's gonna ask you. You're not even gonna get a chance to tell them because they don't have respect for you because they don't like your acts. I wanna make sure that we have the acts and the wisdom to go with it. And then she says, wow, I am blown away. This is even greater than I thought. You're even smarter than I thought. You have even more wisdom than I thought. Verse eight, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne to be King for the Lord thy God. He's saying, man, she's saying, God really delights in you, Solomon. She really, God, she says, God really loves you and he has clearly chosen you to lead this people. And so, you know, blessed be God. She's saying, look, I'm blessing God because of the fact that he likes a guy like you and puts him on the throne of his people, Israel. And this is exactly what the Bible said, that they'll see your good works and they'll glorify your Father, which is in heaven. So who's being blessed here? God's being blessed. Blessed be God because I'm looking at the product here. Who God delighted in to put on the throne of his people. And then this is a great statement. Because thy God loved Israel to establish them forever, therefore made he the King over them to do judgment and justice. So because he loved Israel, therefore he made you their ruler. Now, think about this. We get the rulers that we deserve, right? So if we have bad leaders, it's probably because God's not pleased with us as a nation. If God were pleased with the average Joe in America, we would have better leaders. The leaders reflect how God feels about our nation, right? Because he will punish us by giving us poor rulers, poor leaders, okay? So Joe Biden, how are we doing? You know, Donald Trump, how are we doing? Donald Trump is a reflection of the morality of our nation. Joe Biden is a reflection of the intelligence of our nation. These men are indicative of what we are as a nation. It's truly representative government. We are being represented in DC. There's no question about it. If there are a bunch of rotten people in DC, it probably means that there's a lot of sin in our nation that needs to be dealt with. And so this election that's coming up is not gonna fix anything. It doesn't matter which way it goes. What's gonna fix things is when God is actually pleased with America. And especially when God's pleased with Christians in America. We need Christians to get right with God, Christians to be wise and studying the Bible and doing the acts and letting their light shine, then the leadership problem will take care of itself. The political problem will take care of itself if we can fix the spiritual problem because that's a representative of us. You know, when God loves a people and delights in a people and is pleased with a people, then he puts a righteous ruler over them. It's a punishment when we have bad leaders. And then it says, because the Lord God loved Israel to establish them forever, therefore made he the King over them to do judgment and justice. Now, some people would take verses like this out of context and say, well, you know, God established Israel forever. I mean, you know, we just always have to support Israel no matter what, because Israel is just Israel's forever. Yeah, Israel is forever, except that Israel is not a country in the Middle East. Israel is every man, woman, boy, and girl who is saved by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, oh, that sounds like replacement theology. You got it right. And that's why the Bible said, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Sounds like Israel done got replaced. And if Israel is established forever, ask yourself this question, does history bear that out? Because last time I checked, Israel was totally wiped out from being a nation, right? Within about a century of Christ's death on the cross. And so after they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, you let a hundred years go by, there's no nation left. I mean, they're just scattered to the four winds. And so you have Jews all over the place, throughout the world, basically rejecting the Messiah, rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, believing neither Moses nor Jesus, because if they believe Moses, they believe in Jesus. That's what the Bible says. Having neither the son nor the father, because the Bible says, whosoever denyeth the son, the same hath not the father, but he that acknowledges the son hath the father also. And so until 1948, where was this precious nation of Israel, right? Where was it in the second century, in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th. You say, this is taking a long time. Yeah, but each of these words that I'm spouting off is representing a hundred years. You're getting bored just listening to the names of the centuries. It takes like one second per name. Every second is a hundred years. I'm gonna start over. Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th century. Each of those little beats represents a hundred years with no Davidic monarch, no nation of Israel, no temple at Jerusalem, nothing. They had nothing. They're just vagabonds. They're like Cain, fugitives and vagabonds throughout the earth. For all those hundreds and hundreds, because it's easy to sometimes say, oh, you know, almost 2000 years. But it's like, that's a long time. That's a really long time. Wait, I thought Israel's established forever. Israel was established forever. But the problem is that it's not physical Israel. Physical Israel is replaced in the New Testament with spiritual Israel. So that means second, where's Israel out in the second century? God's people, Christians, Christianity. Where is it in the third century? It's Christianity. And I'm not gonna go through all the centuries, but in the 14th century, it's Christianity. It's Christians. Israel is alive and well in every century because it's just Bible believing Christians, God's people. You know, as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and on the Israel of God. The Bible says they're not all Israel, which are of Israel, right? We, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh means we're trusting Christ for our salvation, not our own works, okay? And so I'm not gonna make a whole sermon about that, but the bottom line is that Israel is established forever. And oh, I got news for you. The son of David is sitting on the throne forever as well. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, if we don't believe that, if you're not gonna believe that, then you have to ask yourself, where's the Davidic monarch in all those centuries? Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, where's the Davidic monarch? Because God promised that one of David's sons would always be sitting on the throne of Israel forever. You know, who, it's Jesus. Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning in our hearts by faith. Jesus Christ is, you know, reigning spiritually, but someday he's gonna return and actually reign physically at the second coming. But spiritually, his kingdom is already within us, right? The kingdom of God is within you. And so, you know, you don't wanna take verses like this and take them out of context, out of the time when they were spoken here. You know, obviously here we had a physical nation of Israel, but in the New Testament that's been replaced by a spiritual nation. It's not a certain ethnicity. It's just red, yellow, black, and white. Anyone who believes on Jesus is Israel. I'm Israel, you're Israel. We as God's people are the Israel of God, you know, spiritually. And so she is praising God. She's saying, God must have really loved Israel to give you them as a king. He must be a great God because you represent him and you're a great king. And then it says she gave the king 120 talents of gold. So look, this isn't some small queen that doesn't have a lot of power. I mean, she's showing up with 120 talents of gold. And you know, this is a huge, just an outrageous sum of money. And of spices, great abundance, and precious stones. Neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave Solomon, right? And then it goes on to talk about Solomon's other, you know, sources of income. It says in verse 12, and King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked. Beside that which she had brought her to the king. So she turned and went away to her own land, she and her servants. And so she gives him a lot of gifts. He gives her a lot of gifts. There, you know, she's super impressed. She's glad she came because she, you know, was not disappointed. I mean, it's just, Solomon lived up to the hype. Okay, now go if you were to Matthew chapter 12 in the New Testament, because the New Testament actually reflects upon this story. And it's always best to interpret the Old Testament by using the New Testament, right? The New Testament will tell us what the Old Testament means, or shed light on the Old Testament. The best commentary on the Old Testament is the New Testament. And so in Matthew chapter number 12, Jesus actually tells the story about the queen of Sheba, but he just calls her the queen of the south. But it's the same person. And so if you look at Matthew chapter 12 and look at verse number, let's actually back up before we get to the queen of Sheba and look at verse 41. It says, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, a greater than Jonah is here, right? So the men of Nineveh, they actually repented. The Bible says in Jonah chapter three, the men of Nineveh believed God, right? So they actually repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. So Jesus Christ is of course superior to Jonas, but even Jonas preaching was powerful enough where these guys got right with God. But yet the people that Jesus is preaching to, they're not getting saved. Look at the next example. It says the queen of the south 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, a greater than Solomon is here. So Solomon's super impressive. People are coming from all over the world to hear Solomon, right? The queen of Sheba comes to hear Solomon, but also later on in the same chapter, it talks about how the kings of the earth, I'll just read it for you if you're still there in Matthew because I want you to focus on Matthew, but back in Second Chronicles chapter nine, it says in verse 23, all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart. So the queen of Sheba is kind of an honorable mention because she was just a really powerful, important person who came and the Bible's just highlighting that one visit. But in verse 23, it says all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart and they brought every man his present, vests of silver, vests of gold, et cetera. And so Solomon was super famous for being wise and tons of people are coming because of that testimony and coming and hearing. But yet the Bible says of Jesus, a greater than Solomon is here. Now, did people come from all over the world to hear Jesus? And the answer is yes, although he only had a short ministry, right? He was only publicly in ministry for about three and a half years. But during that time, the Bible says his fame went throughout the whole region. It went throughout all Syria and Decapolis. So it is even going into foreign countries. And then you actually have Greek people that show up toward the end of Jesus' ministry saying, we want to see Jesus. And so Christ's fame is also spreading abroad. You know, Solomon reigned for 40 years. Jesus' ministry is only three and a half years. There's no internet. And so, you know, but word went around and even in Jesus' short ministry, people are already coming from other parts of the world to come and hear Jesus preach, okay? But yet, and of course, Jesus is way superior than Solomon. And of course, Solomon didn't conquer the world. Jesus Christ, you know, didn't conquer the world either, but the gospel has, in a sense, conquered the world. It has spread throughout the whole world. The earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Right now, about 2.3 billion people in this world claim the name of Christ as the son of God. Not saying that they're all saved, but 2.3 billion people would claim that they believe that Jesus is the son of God. And then another 1.6 billion are illiterate and think that he's not the son of God, but they still say they believe in him. They're called Muslims. But the point is that Jesus Christ is greater than Solomon, and yet people are rejecting Jesus Christ. He's saying, look, the men of Nineveh in the day of judgment are gonna condemn you and say, you guys are idiots. We repented at the preaching of Jonah. You had Jesus Christ preaching to you. You had the son of God preaching to you. How can you not be saved? You fools. You're gonna rise up in the judgment with this generation. Why? Because everybody gets resurrected at the same time, as far as that goes. And so, you idiots, why didn't you get saved? And then the queen of Sheba is gonna be like, what in the world? I came from the uttermost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And you got the wisdom coming out of Jesus's mouth right in front of you, and you don't understand what you have. You don't see what you have. So, here's the point, okay? We as Christians, we wanna have a good Christian testimony. We wanna be as wise, as knowledgeable as possible. We also wanna have the acts. We wanna be the best worker on the job. The Bible says whatsoever we do, we should do it with our might. The Bible says whatever we do, we should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, whatever we do, even just the most menial, secular task, we're to do it heartily as unto the Lord. And if we do that, if we live a good Christian life, follow the Bible, exercise wisdom, work hard, be kind, be loving, be someone that people can respect, and also a good person, kind, loving, helpful, right? Unselfish, not looking every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. You know what? People are going to be impressed, and they're gonna come and listen to what we have to say, and we're gonna be able to give them the gospel and get them saved. But, at the same time, no matter how good our Christian testimony is, there are gonna be a lot of people who never respect us, never come to Christ, never wanna hear what we have to say, and it's not because we're doing it wrong, because even Jesus was rejected by his own family members in his lifetime. Even Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders of the Jews, and in general, the Jews crucified him and rejected him. Is it because Jesus was doing something wrong? No, Jesus is the ultimate. He's perfect in every way, and yet, you're not gonna win everybody, are you? So, the point is, if you have a good, godly Christian testimony, you can win the queens of Sheba's of this world over. You know, you'll be able to be respected by people in this world. Even worldly, unsaved people should be able to respect you, and say, well, I'm not a Christian, but that guy's a great worker. I'm not a Christian, but that's a great family man right there. I'm not a great Christian, but that's one of the nicest guys I've ever met. That's one of the nicest ladies I've ever met. That's one of the classiest ladies I've ever met. That's one of the most stand-up guys I've ever known. I'm not even a Christian, but you know what, I respect him. We should earn the respect of even unsaved people, but that being said, there are always gonna be wicked people who, no matter what you do, are never gonna respect you, never treat you well, and in fact, you know, the Bible guarantees us that as Christians, we are gonna be hated of all nations for Christ's sake. We are gonna be hated of all men for Christ's namesake. So I'm not saying, hey, if you live a godly life, everybody's gonna like you. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying if you live a godly Christian life and have a good testimony, you're gonna be the big man on campus. You're gonna be the most popular guy at the job. No, no, no, but you should be respected by reasonable people as the best worker on the job, or at least as a great worker on the job, as a good family man, a good neighbor, a good friend. The Bible says that there are a lot of unreasonable and wicked men, you know, and that we should pray to be delivered from these unreasonable and wicked men. Obviously, there are some unreasonable, wicked men that it doesn't matter what you do, they're gonna hate you without a cause, and that's what the Bible says. They hated me without a cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. But let people hate you without a cause. Don't let them hate you because you're a big jerk, because you're selfish, because you're lazy, because you're unkind, because you're a bad worker, because you are mean to them. Let them hate you because of your position, not because of your disposition. Let them hate you because of Christ and because they're unreasonable and wicked. You know, that's why the Bible says, you know, if you suffer as a Christian, there's glory in that. But if you suffer as a murderer, if you suffer as a thief, if you suffer as a busybody in other men's manners, there's no glory in you suffering for being, you know, just being a lame person, right? We wanna make sure that we have that good Christian testimony so we can be a good example, so that we can adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things, so that we can have an open door to witness to people when they see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. But this is not to say that we're gonna be popular with everyone or loved by everyone, because Jesus proved that. By being greater than Solomon, people also came from all over to hear him, but yet there were even more people that hated him and crucified him and rejected him. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. And so these are two sides of the coin. We wanna be right. We wanna serve God and serve our fellow man and be as righteous as we can and have the best Christian testimony that we can so that we can reach as many people as we can. But then there are gonna be idiots like Gandhi, like, oh, I would be a Christian if it weren't for Christians. You're burning in hell, Gandhi. It's not because of Christians. It's because you're a reprobate pervert who's burning in hell because you're wicked. Obviously, that's gonna be no excuse on judgment day. Oh, Christians were so bad or whatever. That's not gonna reduce the temperature of Gandhi's hell by one single degree. Gandhi was a wicked, perverted man and he's burning in hell. Sinful and he rejected Christ. But he famously said, oh, I would be a Christian if it weren't for Christians. You know, that's rich coming from one of the biggest hypocrites who ever lived. But look, let's face it. We don't wanna go around having a bad Christian testimony. We don't want people to feel that way. I don't care if Gandhi feels that way because Gandhi was an idiot, false teaching liar. Okay, but I'm saying we don't want reasonable people to actually reject Christ because of Christians. Some people are gonna reject Christ no matter what just because they're wicked, no matter how good of a testimony we are. I guarantee you if Christians would have been just as Christian as you can imagine, Gandhi still wouldn't have liked him. Okay, because I know something about Gandhi's life and character and his beliefs. You know, because a lot of people that pull out, because you know what's funny? Everybody who pulls out that Gandhi quote, here's what they mean. They want Christians to like be pro-Sodomite and they want us to be okay with like people with women getting pregnant outside of marriage and we're supposed to be okay with all religions and all faiths and whatever and blah. That's not what Jesus was like. Jesus preached against fornication, preached against adultery, preached against divorce. John the Baptist specifically got his head cut off for speaking against Herod's divorce and remarriage for marrying his brother Philip's ex-wife. Okay, and so, you know, no my friend, we're not saying that we're gonna please everyone by standing up for what's right, but you know what? There are a lot of people that are gonna see your Christian life and glorify your father in heaven if you have a good Christian testimony. Do not ruin your Christian testimony by being a poor worker, a poor neighbor, a bad friend, by being rude, unkind, being a jerk. You know, be loving, gentle, righteous, be the best, and look, none of us is perfect, but we wanna be the best ambassador for Jesus Christ that we can be every single day. Let's pray and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this great story, Lord, that we could look at a little bit of a foreshadowing of what the millennial reign of Christ is going to be like when we see just the shadow of it in the wonderful reign of King Solomon, all the peace and prosperity and just the whole world hearing the truth. Lord God, we're thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, who's even greater than Solomon, and Lord, help us to walk worthy of that vocation wherewith we've been called, and Lord God, help us to let our light so shine that the queens of Sheba of this world would see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven. Help us to win people to Christ. First of all, just out preaching the gospel in the highways and hedges to strangers, but Lord, help us also to reach our friends and loved ones and coworkers with the gospel, and Lord, help us to have the best Christian testimony we can to make that more likely, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, let's take our psalm books, please. Go to hymn 250, hymn 250. 250, burdens are lifted at Calvary. Hymn number 250. We'll sing it out together on that verse. Days are filled with sorrow and care. Hymn number 250, sing it out together. Days are filled with sorrow and care. Days are filled with sorrow and care. Hearts are lonely and rare. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Pass your care on Jesus today. Leave your worry and fear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Troubles told, the Savior can see. Every man is near. Every heartache and tear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Jesus is very near.