In this sermon, the preacher begins by describing a scene of a man trapped in a burning building, desperately calling for help. Eventually, a fireman arrives and extends a ladder to the man's window, but it barely reaches. Despite the flames reaching out to the fireman, he holds on and the man is able to climb over him to safety. The preacher uses this story to illustrate the concept of salvation and gratitude towards Jesus Christ. He then references the Queen of the South in the Bible, who traveled a great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and compares her actions to the lack of appreciation shown towards Jesus. The sermon concludes with a discussion about the importance of blood and atonement in Christianity and the ethical teachings of Jesus.

Thank you for coming out tonight and pray the Lord will bless the word of your heart. Now I shall try not to drop my voice as I hear I do sometimes, especially towards the end of the meeting when I get a bit tired. And I'll try to make good use of the microphone and I do apologize if I have done it in the past. Now I should like to read my text first of all in the Gospel of Matthew where we read a greater than Solomon is here, Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 please and we shall read in verse 42. 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. Then I think we shall turn to first Kings chapter 10 and probably keep our Bibles open there. First Kings please at chapter 10. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bear spices, very much gold, precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything hidden from the king which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built, the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and his assent 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 that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. How did I believe not the words until I came? And my eyes had seen it, and behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men. Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore made he thee king to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talons of gold, of spices very great store, and precious stones that came, there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. May God bless to us his word. You know, I must confess that I cannot come to the study of Solomon as we have come to the other studies this week, with the same warmth and enthusiasm for the characters themselves. There's something about Abraham and about Jacob and about Moses that we can admire and emulate. Even we've discovered in Jacob a lot of things that we can be thankful for as we think of Jacob. We are so used to hearing about his weaknesses that we fail to grasp his greatness. We just studied about Jacob's giving, although we don't usually associate giving with Jacob. We studied about his loving, although we don't usually think of Jacob as the great lover, possibly the greatest lover of the Old Testament. And we don't usually think of him in terms of his keeping. He was probably the best shepherd as we saw of the Old Testament. But when you come to Solomon, I don't know of one thing that is for Solomon's glory, not anything that can warm our hearts as we think about Solomon. Solomon is held up for us as a warning and not for an example. We need to read the opening chapters of the book of Ecclesiastes to be set straight about Solomon. On the man who said, I made me, I builded me, I got me, everything that his eye could possibly say or his heart could wish, couldn't be a good man to emulate. You couldn't say about Solomon at any time what was said about Solomon's Lord. He went about doing good. No. Everything that Solomon ever builded was for himself. Even the house of the Lord, as we shall say. Everything that he ever grasped after and gave and builded and got was for himself. He didn't know what it would be to say, for me to live as Christ, for him to live with Solomon. That's a fact. I think we'll discover that tonight. And as Pharaoh was held up by the Lord as a conspicuous example of the triumph of the Lord over a hardened heart, Solomon is held up as a conspicuous example of a man who grasped after everything he could possibly get and found it vanity and vexation of spirit. And when Solomon died, his son inherited a kingdom rotting at the core and bursting at the seams. A kingdom which he couldn't hold and which he lost in no time. And did you know that everything that Solomon had ever built up was lost, completely wrecked and ruined and carried away five years after his death? That's a fact. We need to approach Solomon, I think, in this way. All that he ever had in wisdom and wealth he got from God to begin with, no credit to him. And he proceeded to abuse everything that God gave him. Now, in case you might think that was an exaggeration, will you please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Verse 14. When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me, thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayst not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother, nor another's, but he shall not multiply horses to himself. So, Solomon had fourteen thousand stalls for horses, and he got them all from Egypt. Thou shalt not multiply horses to himself, nor cause a people to return to Egypt till the end that he should multiply horses. Now, the Bible says that Solomon had fourteen thousand stalls for horses, and that he paid a hundred and fifty shekels of silver for each one that he imported from Egypt. He had thousands of chariots, and paid six hundred and fifty shekels of silver for every one of them. Look again. Verse seventeen. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart be not turned away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Now, here are then three things which specifically God said he should not do. He'll not multiply horses, Solomon did so. He'll not multiply wives, and Solomon did so. He shall not multiply gold and silver, and Solomon did so. Far beyond that which was promised him from God. And continue to spend, and spend, and spend long after he couldn't afford it. And that the taxation which he put upon the children of Israel was so burdensome, that they groaned under it for years. And when Solomon was dead, they came to his son, his young son Rehoboam, and said, now we want this burden of taxes lifted. And if you lift the burden, we'll serve you. And if you don't, look out. And young Jeroboam consulted the older men who advised him to do what the people said, and lift the burden. He didn't like that, so he consulted the young men of the kingdom, and they said, make it harder. Show them who's the boss. And when he did that, the people broke away and divided the kingdom. For Jeroboam was a weakling, and had none of his father's greatness. That's the very Solomon days. Now we want to cover over the opening chapters of the first book of Kings, and I'll tell you what we have in those chapters. We have that, first of all, the wisdom of Solomon. And then we have the work of Solomon. And then we have the wealth of Solomon. And then we have the wives of Solomon. And then we have the weakness of Solomon. I want to pursue that outline tonight. The wisdom of Solomon, the work of Solomon, the wealth of Solomon, the wives of Solomon, and the weakness of Solomon. And then, dear friends, when we get through, by the grace of God, I want to speak of a greater than Solomon who is here, and we'll speak about his wisdom, and we'll speak about his work, and we'll speak about his wealth. We can't speak about his wives, for he has but one, his bride, the Lamb's wife. And we cannot speak about his weakness, for he had none. And then we'll go back, and we'll think of the seven things that the queen of Sheba saw. But we shall not apply them to Solomon, but to Solomon's greater self, Jesus Christ our Lord. Perhaps I should say right now that it's always a question in my mind whether David, much less Solomon, grasped the import of God's word to him when he said to David, you can't build me a house, your son will build me a house, and I will establish his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, he shall be to me a son. And when you read Hebrews chapter 1, the words are applied to Jesus Christ our Lord. He would build a kingdom, of his kingdom there would be no end. He would order and establish it, Jesus Christ the Lord. And I think that perhaps that building of Solomon's temple was a concession rather than the full-orbed purpose of God to begin with. Do you know that there are no two artists can come to an agreement in as they draw a picture of Solomon's temple? They'll all be different. Because there's not enough detail given to us in the holy scriptures as to the exact measurements of the temple. Now there's absolute detail given to us in the absolute measurements of the tabernacle. And when David said to Nathan, you know I'd like to build a house to the Lord, not that flimsy thing that's in a tent, but establish settled thing, a temple of such magnificence that has never been seen. Then God said to Nathan, you go and say to David, have I ever asked for a temple? God asked for a tabernacle. Let them build me a tabernacle that I may dwell amongst it. Did he ask for a temple? No. Did I ask for one? No. All right, build a temple. As to whether, friends, it was the first and primary desire of God, to me is an open question. I can scarcely conceive that all that magnificence that went into that temple was to be destroyed in five years after Solomon was dead. And the very king that he brought to see his magnificence filled the eyes of the king with greed. And the pharaoh of Egypt, whose daughter Solomon had married, was just waiting his opportunity, when Solomon was dead, for the invading armies of Egypt to come and break down everything and carry it away in five years. All that is very instructive for us. See, that is it, mate. The opening chapters speak, first of all, of Solomon's wisdom. Now, this is something bestowed by God. This is something in the sovereign choice of God. I will give him wisdom. And God did. And we are told that his wisdom surpassed everything in the world. Surpassed the wise men of Egypt and the wise men of the other nations. And wise man after wise man is named. But Solomon surpasses them all. The wisdom of Solomon was tremendous. The Bible gives a hint of his vast knowledge in botany and zoology. His amazing knowledge of insects and plants and animals and so on and so on. Right away, as soon as God says, I will give him wisdom, we get an illustration of that wisdom. Strange illustration, was it not, of a wisdom of Solomon. The first illustration of the wisdom of Solomon is when he stands with a baby, holding it up with, I think, by one leg, with a sword in his hand. And he says, will I cut it in two? He was very wise. Because two prostitutes had come to him, each claiming that a living baby was hers. Each had had a baby. And in the night, one of the women had lain over the baby and smothered it, and it died. And waking earlier than the other, the woman saw her dead baby. And went over and stole the living baby from the other woman, and claimed that the living baby was hers. And they came to the king for judgment. Each claiming the living baby was hers. And young Solomon said, well, bring me a sword. We'll have it in two. And the mother whose baby was dead, the mother who was not the mother of the living, breathing baby, was quite willing to go on with that. But the mother who was the mother of the baby, the Bible says her heart was hot in love for her baby. She said, no, don't kill it, give it to her. And Solomon says, you're the mother. You're the mother. Solomon's wisdom is seen with a baby in one hand. Maybe up by the one leg, as I say. I've seen a picture like that. And a sword in his hand. Shall I divide it? But my dear friend, let me tell you, a lot of mothers brought babies one day to Jesus. And their eyes were filled with love, as he took each one of them up in his arms and blessed them. Amen. That's right. And he prayed one of his last prayers to an undivided body, Lord of the Almighty One. Oh, Solomon was great in his wisdom, great in the things he built, great in the things he planned. And he built the house of the Lord, and took seven years to build it. Tremendous undertaking. Oh, the cedar he got the chyrum to bring down from Lebanon, floating the trees in the sea and bringing over, covering it with gold. Walls, rock, everything encased in gold. They tell me he had walls which, in addition to being of stone, were covered with gold, in such a way that the pattern of things was seen in the gold. And if that were not enough, sometimes covering even that with the cedar was tremendous. The wizardry of Solomon. The work of Solomon. Very, very great indeed. Read Ecclesiastes 1 and 2 and read something about the works of Solomon. Hmm. Built the house of the Lord, seven years. But the next verse says, but Solomon built his own house thirteen years. Seven years for the house of the Lord. Thirteen years for the building of his own house. And if that were not enough, he built other houses for the worship of the heathen gods that he had married his wives. And standing alongside the sacred temple to Jehovah were the temples and houses for the gods of heathenism. The wealth of Solomon. My reading in the later chapter is down there about eight or nine or ten. The wealth of Solomon. You see, each king or queen who visited him brought their own tribute in keeping with their station, and brought gold in abundance to a man who did not need it. And they lavished their gold and silver and precious stones upon this king, who already was making, we read, silver like the stones in Jerusalem. I think it's Josephus who tells us, who pictures Solomon on the journey. He tells us Solomon had constantly, day or night, a bodyguard of sixty men, syndicated in the song of Solomon, by the way. And then he had a great company of archers who went before him in chariots of silver and gold. They were dressed in purple, and as their black hair flowed in the wind, it was powdered with powdered gold to catch the rays of the sun. Solomon himself was sitting in a magnificent chariot of silver and gold. The floor of the chariot was made with the rich embroidery which the women had made for him, as we read in the song of Solomon. Solomon in all his glory. But it was all for himself, all for himself. Can you picture him in all his magnificence, and his subjects groaning under the burden of taxation to keep up his voluptuous living? Perhaps we should say that it might be a copious error in regard to the number of the wives of Solomon. They say that what is described in the song of Solomon is probably more accurate, the three score princesses and the wives, little more than a hundred. Because it was a heathen custom that the greater number of women in the harem showed the position of the monarch. There are some who think that according to the song of Solomon, he did not have all those wives I usually attributed to him. It might be, who knows. But God had said, even in the days of Moses, you'll not multiply wives, for they will turn your heart away from the Lord. Now as you continue reading in the early chapters of Kings, you'll come across that word, but, occurring twice. It says Solomon was building the house of the Lord for seven years, but he was building his own house 13 years. The second but is, but Solomon loved many strange wives, and they turned his heart from the Lord. For each wife brought her heathen customs, and Solomon never took them away, but built temples to their honor in Jerusalem. We are told of what his table cost him every day, thirty oxen, a hundred sheep, deer innumerable, for the feast which he held daily in his palace. And if David had come and had gazed on the magnificence of Solomon's temple, for Solomon had imported all the oriental splendor in feasting that he had seen in all his travels, and it was all bright. But his voluptuous living undermined the kingdom, as well as his physical and mental strength. He says in Ecclesiastes, I tried everything, including sex, and I found everything frustration and vexation of spirit. That's Solomon. He may have had hundreds of children, who knows, but the word of God takes no knowledge of any son but one and two daughters. That's all the word of God knows, as far as I know. And the one son is only mentioned for the carrying out of his daughter for a purpose, and the son was a weakling, who had nothing of his father's powers, and who divided the kingdom at once, rented the kingdom as God himself had predicted. You see, friends, when Solomon was gone, God and the devil and the people united for once to divide the kingdom. God said to Solomon, I'm going to divide your kingdom and give it to somebody else. The devil was there, for he loves to divide. And the people were there and said, if you lift a burden, we'll serve you. If you don't, we won't. And the kingdom was divided. How gladly then, dear friends, we turn and listen to the Savior's words, a greater than Solomon is here. Hmm. What about his wisdom? We read, in him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We read the expression, Christ, the power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. And do you know, when the Queen of Sheba came to visit him, and the Bible records seven things which she saw, you know what the first was? And when she saw his wisdom, his wisdom, that's first. And that's the first thing, friends, that we discover when we come to our Solomon. We discover his wisdom. Oh, the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish. But to us, who believe, Christ, the power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. They tell me that a number of the heathen philosophers embraced Christianity when they saw that beneath the simple story of the cross, there was a philosophy that they had never thought about. It amounted to this. For instance, Napoleon said in his day, Alexander, Caesar, and myself have founded great empires. But upon what did those erections of our genius consist? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone has founded his empire upon love. He has been gone 1800 years, has he? And yet he wields an amazing power over the hearts of men today. Thousands would die for him today, for Jesus Christ who founded his empire upon love. Let me illustrate it. Here is a man who is, shall I say, in a hotel, an old wooden structure. He wakes up in the night to the smell of smoke. He jumps out of bed, and when he opens the door, he's up on the second floor, when he opens the door and looks down the hallway, the thing is enveloped in smoke and flames. The building's on fire. He rushes to the window and begins to shout for help, but he's only one of many at the windows shouting for help. When the flames are increasing, and he begins to despair, but after a bit the fireman comes, and he puts up the ladder to his window. The ladder can scarcely reach up to that window. The fireman has to bridge the gulf from the top rung to the window. When he bids the man to come over his body and down the ladder, on the flames are reaching out to that fireman and reaching his hands and even his face, but he holds on. When the man climbs over him and down to safety, and when he gets down there, if he's a man at all, he'll turn around to his rescuer and say, I shall never forget what you did for me. I'll never forget as long as I live. And every time I see the scars on your hands or the scars on your face, I'll remember you did it for me. Thank you very much. And if there's anything I can do for you, will you please just let me know. Just name it. And they perceived underneath that simple story of the cross was a story of one who endured the fire and the flame, and who got scars on his hands and feet and face, which he will bear forever. To save people from the eternal fire. And when they grasp the message, because they love him, they keep his commandments. And that's a divine philosophy beyond, behind the simple story of the cross. There's wisdom in Calvary. Never despise Calvary. Calvary's everything, dear friend. I heard about a woman who stopped a preacher on a Monday morning. He was just a new preacher. He had preached his first sermon the day before. It's a very fashionable dress, isn't it? So he stopped and talked. He said, how did you like my first message yesterday morning? She says, to be honest, I didn't like it. I'm sorry to hear that. What was it you didn't like? She says, let's talk about blood and atonement. We've got beyond that, you know, the 20th century. That's called the shambles, the religion of the shambles. We've got beyond that. Give us the example of the master, the ethics of Jesus. Oh, he said, I say. On as if he were changing the subject, he says, they're called diousness. Yes, he says it is. But he says, you're not called diousness. That's a beautiful fur coat you've got. Where did you get it? I got it in the store. I wonder where they got it. Oh, they got it at a wholesale house. He says, that's what they thought. Where do you suppose they got it, the wholesale house? Well, of course, they got it from their manufacturer. Where did he get it? Well, of course, they trapped the animals and they made the skins and they made the coat. He says, I say. So an animal dies for you to make you warm. By the way, he said, you've got a nice pair of shoes on there. Where did you get your shoes? He says, I know what you're going to say. You're going to say an animal died to give me these shoes. He says, you're right. He says, what did you have for dinner? I know what you're going to say. He said, exactly. And you're standing under heaven today and you don't need anybody to die for you. And you're clothed in a coat where an animal died for you. And you're standing in shoes an animal died to give you. And you ate a meal an animal died to give you. And he said, let me tell you, if you're going to be clothed forever and ever, you'll be on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. That's right. There's a philosophy at Calvary. There's wisdom in the cross. And you and I see his wisdom beyond that simple story. And we're thankful for it. That's right. And then it says, the Queen of Sheba saw the house that he built, the house that Wadham lived in. I want you to think with me of the house that he built, Jesus Christ our Lord. I will build mine, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against me. My, what a house he built that day. The church of the living God, composed of living stones. And every man and woman who trusts Christ's place is a living stone in the building that he is building. And Jesus said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That does not represent the church as in the defensive, but aggressively. Don't miss that. The Lord Jesus is not saying the gates of hell will not be able to break it down. No. He says the advancing army of the church, the gates of hell will not have a thing to stand against the advancing armies of God. That's what he said. Oh, that building will never be destroyed. Solomon's magnificent building was destroyed in no time. In no time. All the wealth they put on it, gone in five years. But the church of Jesus Christ goes on, and will be finished to the glory of God. And then it says that she saw the sitting of his servants. The sitting of his servants. Have you thought of this? Actually, the word sitting doesn't draw attention to the fact that they were seated on seats, doing nothing. Although, mind you, and I hasten to say it as I pass on, God is far more concerned about our sitting sometimes than he is about our walking and running. Because God can't get people to sit like Mary and listen to his word. Mary sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. That's the hardest thing God can get people to do. Not to preach, but to sit with his word and enjoy. You do that? But the word sitting there means the dwelling of his servants. Mr. Darby said in his translation the deportment of his servants. But later, Mr. C.A. Coates drew attention to the fact that it's not the deportment of the servants, but the position of the servants. For the word is usually translated, their dwelling. It's their position as his servants, the sitting of his servants. And the attendance of his ministers. The attendance of his ministers and their apparel. There was something about the whole thing that impressed her. The order in the house of God. That's the great thing God desires today. And then it says, and his cupbearers. Those that took the royal wine into the king's presence. The wine, the symbol of joy. Have you ever noticed that beautiful little thing that you have in the 12th chapter of John? You know what it says? That Jesus came to Bethany where they made him a supper. It says, Lazarus was one of those that sat at the table with him. The sitting of the servants. Martha served her ministry, but Mary took a point, a point of ointment very costly, and brought the wine of joy to the heart of Christ. Have you ever noticed in that passage, one word describes what Martha did. She served. Five or six words describe what Lazarus did. He sat at the table with him. Sat at the table with him. Oh, you say, that's the highest honor that can come to us, Mr. Fraser. No, it's not. No, it's not. Your highest honor is not to sit at the table of the Lord. You say, I thought it was. No. It all depends on the attitude of your heart as you sit. I was in an assembly two years ago, quite a large one, where probably a hundred people sat at the table of the Lord. They sat at the table with him. But there's a woman over here, wife of an elder who had not spoken to an elder over here for two years. Sat at the table, but didn't speak to each other. She didn't speak to him, because he differed with her on a certain point. She wasn't going to talk to him anymore. She sat at the table with him. But every time she did, she ate and drank condemnation to herself of discerning the Lord's life. Are you surprised that woman's two sons are away from God today? Are you surprised that one of them repudiates Christianity today? Oh, she sat at the table with him. But Jesus, if you bring your gift to the altar and there a member of your brother have fought against thee, go and be reconciled to him, then offer your gift. And according to Matthew 5 and Matthew 18, whether you're the injurer or the injured, you go to the person anyway. Don't sit at the table with him. But Mary was the cupbearer. She brought joy to his heart. Martha, one word, sir. Lazarus, six words. Sat at the table with him. But Mary, two long verses by the Spirit of God to describe what she did. She brought joy to his heart. Cupbearer. And then finally the queen said, my time is gone. The ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord. They say that Solomon had a beautiful staircase of rosewood over a sort of a gorge. Elaborate, gilded, beautiful staircase by which he ascended up in great pride into the house of the Lord. Before him walked men with golden shields and golden targets. You read about the golden targets. And one weighed 600 shekels of gold, if I remember, and or 50 of them. And they bore the beautiful targets and shields of gold before him when he came to worship. The ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord. And when she saw that, there was no more spirit left in her. She said the half has not been told. Friends, God loves our approach to God. And thank God, the New Testament accompanies it with great simplicity. Great simplicity. Not ostentation, not display, not ritual. But the state of our hearts as we ascend in worship unto the Lord. And as we remember, we don't do it in any earthly sanctuary. No. The sanctuary is a heavenly one. And unless you draw near where he is by faith, you don't draw near at all. Right? That's right. And don't be always talking about this is a place down here on the earth. This is a place where the Lord has placed his name. He hasn't in any one place. No. The place was everything to a Jew. One place. But to the church of God, wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, there he is not. And we do not have a corner on the place. We can't say these folks up the street, they're not gathered in the place, but we are. God forbid they're gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Very feeble of me. But it's still true, dear friends. We haven't got a corner on the name of Jesus Christ, I assure you. We haven't got an order on the place because the place is conspicuous by its absence in the New Testament. The place. Yes, sir. And wherever two or three are gathered in the Lord's name and their hearts are through to Christ, there the Lord is in the midst. And when they ascend in spirit into the presence of the Lord, that's a great thing in the end. What a day when our Solomon appears in all his glory. His wealth, Ephesians is full of it. His work, Ephesians has a lot to say about it. His wisdom, treasures of wisdom and knowledge, says Ephesians. His wife, says Ephesians? Yes, but just one. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. May God bless his word for Christ's sake. Shall we pray? O God, our Father, we don't see anything lovable about Solomon. We never read that he went about doing good. We never read that he caused a widow's heart to sing for joy. We never read anything about his compassion or about his tears. A great deal about his silver and gold. We ask thee, Lord, for keeping us, thy people, from having a desire to grasp. Keep us from that which can only pass and leave us poor. Help us to be willing to seek after the riches which are riches indeed, we pray. We thank thee for the wisdom that lies behind the simple story of Calvary. Write it upon our hearts, we pray. Send us away thinking and thanking thee, that a greater than Solomon is here, even Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.