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Men, the title of the sermon tonight is Jesus in the Book of First Kings. Jesus in the Book of First Kings. Of course, every book of the Bible is pointing us toward Jesus Christ. The whole Old Testament is looking forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the New Testament is looking back on the Lord Jesus Christ, telling us about His life and His doctrine, His second coming, etc. And to Him, give all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him, shall receive remission of sin. So in many books of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ explicitly mentioned, either He explicitly makes an appearance, or there's a very explicit prophecy of His coming. And then in other books of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is present through symbolism or typology, where certain people's lives and things that happen to them actually represent or foreshadow Jesus Christ. Well, in the Book of First Kings, what I'm going to focus on is King Solomon representing the Lord Jesus Christ. King Solomon as a type or a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ, a foreshadowing. Later on in the Book of First Kings, you get into the stories about Elijah. And of course, Elijah is a strong foreshadowing of John the Baptist. And then when you get into the Book of Second Kings, Elisha pictures Jesus Christ. All of these major characters in the Bible, not only did they live their lives and have real events, but they also are allegorical. Now obviously these events literally happened, but they are also allegorical. Now some people think that that's bad to say allegory or symbolic or allegorical. But the Bible interprets itself this way, because in Galatians chapter four, it talks about the story of Ishmael and Isaac, and it says, it uses this exact word, these things are an allegory of the two covenants. You know, Ishmael representing the old covenant, Ishmael and Hagar representing the Jews, Isaac representing the new covenant, the New Testament, the Christians. So allegorical reading is the right way to read the Bible, but we just don't want to lose sight of the literal meaning as well. There's that which is on the surface, and then there's that which is under the surface. So tonight we're going to focus in on King Solomon as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is specifically a picture of Jesus Christ at his second coming, setting up his millennial reign. Now why is Solomon a picture of Jesus? Well first of all, they're both the son of David. Jesus Christ is frequently called the son of David. Well Solomon is the literal son of David. Jesus is the king of Israel, is the king of kings, and of course Solomon is the king of Israel. Jesus is the one who builds the house of God. The Bible says, upon this rock I will build my church. That's Jesus speaking, and then Solomon is the one who built the temple. Jesus Christ will of course rule from Jerusalem when he returns. Solomon ruled from Jerusalem. They're going to both, or I'm sorry, Solomon ruled with a rod of iron. Jesus is going to come back and rule with a rod of iron, and they both ruled during a period of peace, because when Solomon ruled for 40 years, it was a time of peace for the nation of Israel, and when Jesus Christ reigns for 1,000 years, there's going to be peace on earth. In fact, Solomon's name means peace. You know, you think of the word shalom, and you can see how similar it is to Solomon. His name means peace. Jesus Christ is called the prince of peace. In chapter 1 here in 1 Kings, we have this story about Solomon being anointed king. The first thing I want to point out is that before Solomon is anointed king, there is a pretender that comes on the scene to take the place of King Solomon. Now, hmm, I wonder what that represents. That represents the antichrist who's going to come on the scene before Jesus Christ, and he is the pretender to the throne that Jesus Christ is going to sit on. And so Adonijah in the story represents the antichrist. Jesus is represented, of course, by Solomon. Look at 1 Kings 1, verse 34. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there, king over Israel, and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save King Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne, for he shall be king in my stead, and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. Of course, the reign of King Solomon is announced with a trumpet. Of course, the second coming of Christ is characterized by a trumpet. Now look at verse 39. And Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet. And all the people said, God save King Solomon. And all the people that came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them. And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, wherefore is this noise of the city being in an uproar? So notice that King Solomon has this great host of people falling after him, right? This is like when Jesus Christ returns, and he comes back with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all. So he's got that host of saints behind him. And then the sound of the trumpet is what the enemy hears that causes them to be perturbed. When they hear the sound of the trumpet, whoa, what's going on, right? It's a bad thing to them. And then it says in verse 42, and while he had spake, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. And Adonijah said unto him, come in, for thou art a valiant man, and bring us good tidings. And Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, verily our Lord King David hath made Solomon king. And the king hath sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Carathites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule. And Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, have anointed him king in Gion, and they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you've heard, and also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom. Now isn't it interesting also at the end of verse 40 that with all the trumpet and the shouting and the joy that the Bible says the earth rent with the sound of them. This is picturing, of course, the fact that when Christ comes and the trumpet sounds, there's going to be a great earthquake that's greater than any earthquake that has ever been on the earth up to that time, pictured here by the earth's metaphorical rending. So they hear the news that Solomon has been made king, and they are very fearful. When they hear that, they begin to tremble. And if you remember when Christ comes in the clouds and the trumpet sounds, the Bible says that they are going to hide themselves in the dens and in the mountains of the rocks, and say to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to sin. So those that were following the anti-Christ and that are on the wrong side are going to be scared to death when Christ comes in the clouds, and they're going to be hiding. Just like, look at, if you would, at verse number 49, and all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid and rose up and went every man his way. So they're fleeing, they're scared, they're going to hide, right? Just like in Revelation chapter 6. So let's go to chapter 2. So we see this powerful picture in chapter 1 of the pretender who comes on the scene before the Lord Jesus Christ comes to set up his kingdom. But of course, Jesus is anointed, he's the king over Israel, and his enemies flee before him. Now when we get into chapter 2, we see Solomon has to clean house when he becomes the king. He has to deal with some enemies, okay? So when he gets into his kingdom, he starts cracking some heads right away, and he has to begin to rule with a rod of iron and deal with some problems right away. Now I'm not going to go through all of this point by point for sake of time, but in a nutshell let me explain to you what happens in this chapter. Basically, Adonijah gets killed, right? So Solomon has Adonijah executed in chapter 2, Abiathar is spared, but Joab gets executed, and Shimei gets executed. So Solomon right away comes down on three enemies that need to be taken care of, and he executes these three men. Now why were these three men executed? Now Adonijah is executed for treason because he was trying to take the place of King Solomon. He was trying to usurp the authority and take that crown in chapter 1. Now here's a little bonus point for you Catholics, okay? You remember when he tries to go to Solomon's mom to talk to him, right? This is like the Catholics where they want to talk to Jesus' mom to try to get what they want. Well guess what? It didn't work, okay? Because if you remember, Adonijah goes to Bathsheba and says, hey, you know, can you ask Solomon a favor? He's not going to tell you no. And she's like, okay, you know, and he basically says, hey, I want to have Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife, which seems like an innocent request on the surface, and Bathsheba is just naive enough to just think, hey, he thinks she's a cute, you know, girl. He just wants to marry her. But what it was was that he's trying to jockey for position and for the throne by taking this woman that had belonged to his father, although David never lay with her. I'm not going to go into the whole story for sake of time. You can read it on your own in 1 Kings chapter 2. But Adonijah tries to intercede through the mother of Solomon, and she comes to Solomon with this request, and he basically just tells her, what in the world? He says, you know, why don't you just ask the whole kingdom for him? Why are you asking me that? He blows up, and he ends up executing Adonijah for making such a stupid request. But ultimately, obviously, Adonijah is being killed for treason, you know, for trying to usurp that position. So here's the moral of the story for the Roman Catholics. Going to Jesus' mom isn't going to get you anywhere, folks, okay? You need to go directly to God the Father in the name of Jesus. That's how you get your prayers answered. You ask God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't talk to his mom, okay? So that didn't work out for Adonijah. It got him killed. And guess what? You're going to go to hell if you think you're going to be saved through Mary, because there's only one mediator between God and men, and that's the man Christ Jesus, not the mediatrix Mary, okay? So we see that, first of all, Adonijah is killed for treason, and then we see that Joab is put to death for murder. He murdered two men in cold blood. He murdered Abner, the captain of the host, and then he murdered Amasa, the captain of the host. Just in cold blood, he just stabbed them. It wasn't in a fair fight or in a battle or anything like that. And then the third person who is put to death is Shimei, and this is the one who had cursed David, okay? So basically, you could boil this down to one of them is treason, the other one's murder, and the other one's blasphemy, right? These are the three things that he deals with right away that he just cleanses from his kingdom. Now, if you would go to Revelation chapter 13, we're going to tie this in with the end times. We're going to follow the same logic of Solomon representing Jesus Christ and Solomon's kingdom picturing the millennial thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ. Well, when the Antichrist comes on the scene in Revelation chapter 13, look at some of the things it says about the Antichrist beginning in verse number 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. So as opposed to Jesus Christ who gets his kingdom from God, Solomon who gets his kingdom from David, Solomon is the one chosen by God to rule, the Antichrist has given his kingdom and authority from Satan, from the devil, okay? And it says that he has on his head the name of blasphemy. Then if you look at verse 6, it says he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven, and it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. Verse 10, he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Look at verse 15, and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. So what do we see throughout chapter 13 here? First of all, we see the pretender here, the one who's trying to take the place of Jesus Christ, the Antichrist, the devil gives him a throne, he's worshiped by all nations of the world instead of Jesus, he's Antichrist. Not only that, we see blasphemy brought up over and over again, blaspheming against God, blaspheming against his house, blaspheming against those that dwell in heaven. And then we see murder, because we see the war against the saints, those who are being killed with the sword, those who won't worship the Antichrist or his image are being killed. So we have blasphemy, blasphemy, blasphemy, murder, murder, murder, and someone taking the place of Christ. So you can see how these three people that are put to death in 1 Kings chapter 2 picture these people that need to be put to death in the end times. Basically in Revelation 13, the Antichrist and his minions are characterized by that treason against Christ where we're replacing Christ with an imposter, the Antichrist, which is the same type of treason that Adonijah did. And then we see blasphemy is characteristic and we see murder is a major part of it, the beheading of the saints and the killing of Christians. So all three of those elements are present. That's what's being pictured in 1 Kings chapter 2 by those three men that are those three archetypes of those three sins, treason, murder, and blasphemy. So if you went to chapter 19 of Revelation, chapter 19, and the Bible says in Revelation 19, 15, and this is when Jesus Christ is on the white horse at Armageddon. It says, and out of his mouth go with a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he tread at the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together under the supper of the great God that you may eat the flesh of Kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army and the beast was taken and with them the false prophet that wrought miracles before him and with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and then that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. So we see here that when Jesus Christ comes on that white horse, he is going to kill the Antichrist and the false prophet and all of the armies that are with him. He's basically destroying those murderers, those traitors, those that have blasphemed against the Lord. Go to Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter number 19. The Bible talks about in Matthew 25, when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory. So Jesus Christ is going to come and set up his kingdom, sit on his throne. And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. Whenever I've read in either 2 Chronicles or 1 Kings about King Solomon taking his throne and how right at the beginning he's putting people to death. He starts out in chapter 2 putting someone to death, pardoning someone, putting someone to death, putting someone to death. It always made me immediately think of Jesus Christ. Whenever I read it, whether it's in 2 Chronicles or in 1 Kings, I always just thought of Jesus coming to this earth, sitting on his throne, the nations are gathered before him and he's telling some of them, hey, depart from me, you curse it into everlasting fire. And he's telling others, hey, come enter the kingdom that's prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Folks, when Jesus Christ returns, he will rule with a rod of iron. He will slay the Antichrist and his minions with the sword, the Bible tells us, that proceeds out of his mouth. And if you would look at Luke 19, it says in verse 12, he said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. Of course, this picture is Jesus. He's going to go away into his father's house and then he's going to come again and return. It says, and he called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said to them, occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. Right? So this is, of course, the citizens of the Lord Jesus Christ, basically he came onto his own and his own received him not. The Jews crucified Jesus and it says his citizens hated him. And even after he's gone, after he leaves, they send a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. So after Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again and ascended up to heaven, basically they're still saying what? We don't want this man to rule over us. They're saying that to this day, folks. The Jews to this day reject our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it says in verse 15, and it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, so this is the second coming of Christ, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then of course he goes on to reward his servants based on how well they did and to give them authority and give them power over, say, hey, you're going to be over 10 cities because you were faithful with what you had and so forth. But then look at verse 27. After he's doled out all the rewards to his servants, then in verse 27 it says, but those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. Look at that picture of Jesus sitting on his throne at the beginning of the millennium saying, okay, the people who refused me and would not have me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me. So this is pictured by Solomon. When he becomes king, he ends up putting some people to death. He ends up lawfully, rightfully executing some people that have committed serious crimes against his kingdom and against the anointed of the Lord. So we see that pictured in 1 Kings chapter 2. Then when we get into 1 Kings chapter 3, if you want to flip over to 1 Kings chapter 3. So in chapter 1 we see the pretender to the throne, Adonijah, and there's the trumpet and they're scared and the earth quakes and all of those things that picture perfectly the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we get into chapter 2, okay, now Jesus is set up in his kingdom and he has to clean house. You know, right away there are some people that need to be put to death. Jesus takes care of that in Revelation 19 at the battle of Armageddon. And then even after he sets up his throne, there are people that are executed going forward. Well then when we get into chapter 3, we see Solomon further picturing the Lord Jesus Christ because he is portrayed as a judge having supernatural wisdom. So chapter 3 is all about how he prayed to the Lord for wisdom and then he ends up passing judgment and everyone's amazed by his wisdom that is divine, okay. So look at verse 28, it says, and all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged and they feared the king for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. Look at chapter 4 verse 1, in chapter 4 verse 1 it says, so King Solomon was king over all Israel. Look at verse 25, and Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree from Dan even to Beersheba all the days of Solomon. So we see he's pictured as the judge in 1 Kings chapter 3, that's what Jesus is going to do when he comes, he's going to judge all nations, he's going to judge the earth. On chapter 4 he's established in his kingdom and there's peace in his kingdom. All throughout Israel for 40 years of his reign, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon, Israel and Judah dwell safely, every man under his vine and every man under his fig tree. Now go to Micah chapter 4, that's an important phrase there about every man under his vine and under his fig tree because when we go to Micah chapter 4 there's a prophecy about the second coming of Jesus Christ that uses the same kind of language. It says in Micah chapter 4 verse 1, but in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it and many nations shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. So just as Solomon had peace in Israel and Judah during his reign, Christ is going to have worldwide peace during his reign. The Bible even says that he will rebuke nations afar off so even the distant lands he's going to rule over the entire earth and warfare will cease. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Think about how much money, time and effort goes into warfare right now in our world. Think about how many billions and billions of dollars are spent by the United States government, how many billions and billions of dollars of our tax dollars go toward the jets and the tanks and the weapons and the missiles and the bombs and the ammunition and the uniforms and all the weapons and implements of war. Imagine being able to just take all those resources and effort that everyone is putting toward warfare today and be able to put that toward the production of food or the production of things that we need. You can see how it's going to be a great time of prosperity for this earth. See beating the plowshares into swords is in other scriptures where they have no weapon and they have to take farm equipment and turn it into a weapon. This is the reverse of that where they're beating their sword into a plowshare. They don't have any need of a sword because there's no warfare going on right. So they're going to take the sword and turn it into a tool that they can use on the farm. Now obviously this is symbolic of you know you could basically take equipment that's being used for warfare, fuel, money, resources that's being used for warfare and take that same equipment all those metals and all those electronics and turn that into what producing food because that's what plowshares and pruning hooks are for they're for producing food. So you say you know well what are we going to do how are we going to feed all the people on this planet you know we're going to run out of food or there's too many people. Well it's not just going to keep going because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return. He's going to put an end to the warfare. He's going to rule with a rod of iron and then those efforts that are put toward fighting right now will actually be put toward producing the food and producing the things that we actually need to sustain life on this earth. So that's what that's referring to and you can see the parallel with Solomon where everybody sits safely under their own vine and under their own fig tree. So if you would flip over to chapter 10 of 1 Kings. So we saw chapter 1. We saw the picture of the Antichrist coming before Jesus Christ. In chapter 2 we saw the picture of Jesus established in his kingdom and putting people to death and ruling with a rod of iron. Then in chapter 3 we saw Jesus Christ as the judge who rules wisely with divine wisdom from God. Then in chapter 4 we saw the picture of Solomon having absolute power where it's total peace. There's no war going on. That was local to Israel and Judah. With Christ it's going to be a worldwide time of peace as prophesied in the book of Micah. Well in chapters 5 through 8 we get into the building of the temple. This is the big thing that Solomon is known for, building the temple. And of course that pictures Jesus Christ is going to build his church, right? Because in the New Testament the Bible says the house of God is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So Jesus builds the church as Solomon built the temple. Well chapter 10 is a great chapter in 1 Kings about the Queen of Sheba coming because she hears of the fame of Solomon. So she's coming from a very distant land because Solomon's fame is going into the whole earth. And this pictures the fact that the knowledge of the Lord is going to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. The Bible says they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So basically the whole world is going to know who Christ is. And so he's the light to the Gentiles, the light to the nations. And Solomon pictures that because he's shining the light of the gospel to the entire world to where even this queen from a very distant land, the New Testament calls her the Queen of the South. She's called here the Queen of Sheba. It says in verse 1 of chapter 10 when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. So when she heard about Solomon she didn't just hear about a powerful king. What was the main thing she heard about him. She heard about the name of the Lord. She heard about God's word. Why was she motivated to come talk to him. Oh man this guy's running a powerful kingdom. Let me see if I can get some tips because I want to make money too. I want to have the gold and silver too. I want to have the prosperity that Solomon has. Is that why she came? No. She heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. And when she came to him she did not come seeking money or riches or power or fame. She came seeking wisdom because it says at the end of verse 1 she came to prove him or test him with hard questions. Verse 2 she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spice. You say what's a train. Is this like choo choo choo choo choo choo. When she came with a train why is a train called a train because obviously this King James Bible is written before what we know as a train existed. Right. Well if you think about it a train is something that's following like the bridle train is what follows her. And when the Queen of the South shows up she's got all these people behind her carrying the spices and the animals and the gold and the silver and the riches. So that's her train just like the engine on a train is pulling a whole bunch of cars behind it. OK. So that's why a train is called a train because it's something that follows. You have one engine or two engines that's pulling a whole bunch of other cars behind it. So it says that 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 hid from the king which he told her not so he just had the answer for everything. He knew the answer to every question and she had some hard questions and he nailed all of them. And it says that the Queen of Sheba when she when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built in the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their peril and his cupbearers and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord. There was no more spirit in her. I mean she was blown away. She was impressed by his wisdom and by the way he ran things. Now this is talked about in the New Testament. Jesus said this in Luke eleven thirty one the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the most parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. So why did she come to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here. So here's Jesus being compared to Solomon again. Solomon pictures Jesus. Solomon foreshadows Jesus because Jesus is the one greater than Solomon. He's greater than. Now the queen of the south came from the uttermost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Christ comes on the scene a greater than Solomon. He's got even better answers. He's got even more wisdom. He doesn't just have divine wisdom. He is divine himself. I mean he is the fountain of all truth and knowledge and so they can come to him and ask him whatever they can come and hear him preach and they want him to depart from their town. They are not interested. They don't want to hear him preach. They don't want this man to rule over them et cetera. So he says boy that the queen of the south is going to rise up in the judgment condemn you. Now why would that resonate with them. Because they think that the Jews are better than everybody else. They think everybody else are just the heathen. So he's constantly bringing up Old Testament examples of gentiles that were better than Israelites. He's constantly bringing that up. That's why he tells them oh you know there were a lot of widows in the days of Elijah but he was only sent to one a widow of Zarephath somebody from a foreign country. Oh there were a lot of lepers in the days of Alyssius the prophet but it was name in the Syrian that was you know he's constantly bringing up those examples of foreigners who exercise great faith because he's explained to them look many are going to come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven but the children of the kingdom meaning the children of the kingdom of Israel are going to be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. And so we see that Solomon being visited by the queen of Sheba when she hears of the fame of the name of the Lord that has to do with the fact that the gentiles are going to seek Christ right because she is not of the Jews she's not of Israel she is of another nation so she's a gentile in that sense and she's seeking the Lord she's seeking Christ just as today who is it that seeks Christ is it the Jews that see Christ today. No it is the gentiles who receive Christ today ninety nine point nine nine percent of Christians are of the gentiles right there like the queen of Sheba seeking Christ from a far country and so this pictures how Jesus Christ is a light to lighten the gentiles just as King Solomon's fame went throughout the entire world and they came to hear him. Now let's keep going in the story here in first Kings chapter 10. There was no spirit in her. Now what does that mean well spirit here means breath. OK so when you hear about people dying in the Bible sometimes it talks about them giving up the ghost and this is both a literal breathing their last breath and it's also obviously the spirit leaving the body because as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also. So the body without the spirit is dead. So the spirit is the breath. OK and you can see where this comes from in our language because we have the word respiration right respiratory system notice the respiratory system so you can see the word spirit is in there because that's where it comes from. And even the word ghost as in the Holy Ghost or giving up the ghost is etymologically related to our English word gust like a gust of air right. And remember when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost there was a mighty rushing wind that came in right. So basically the spirit of God is related to the breath OK or wind or air. And so here when it says that there was no more spirit in her. Basically what this is saying is she's out of breath OK. She's so shocked or surprised or blown away that she's just right. She's just there's no more spirit in her meaning that she's just out of breath like when you're so flabbergasted or surprised that you have to kind of catch your breath right. She had to catch her breath is what it's saying. She's just so blown away by everything she's so impressed that it causes her to have no more spirit in her or she has to catch her breath is just a fancy way of saying that. Verse 6 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 be it 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 exceeded the fame which I heard. And you know that's how it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know when people hear the gospel they don't always believe it but once they actually believe in Christ you know what they're going to find when they come to Christ is that the word of God is twice as good as they thought it was going to be right. I mean the word of God is so deep and so magnificent so powerful and so wise I don't think people realize how great it is until they read it and then you know what they're going to realize man this book is twice as good as I thought it would be. You know when we get to heaven I guarantee you it's going to be twice as good as we think it's going to be. The Bible says I have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him. Paul said I reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. He talked about the man that was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words it's not even lawful for a man to utter. Folks when we get to heaven the half has not been told of how great heaven is going to be. Boy just talking to Jesus Christ hearing him speak face to face the half has not been told folks it's going to be more amazing than we could ever imagine there's going to be no breath in us when we get there right it's going to be amazing just as the word of God is so much better than we thought before we read it. You know people today they're Christian and they might think well you know the Bible you know we're supposed to read it every day a little bit of a chore but you know then you get into it and you realize this is the greatest book ever this is the book I can read for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. You know this is the timeless eternal word of God the divine the perfect the unchanging word of God and so the half has not been told but it certainly is a true report when we do praise God's word or sing the praises of heaven or sing the praise of Jesus Christ we're definitely telling the truth but we're not even scratching the surface and that's what she found when she got there face to face with Solomon how much more being face to face with Jesus right Solomon just is a shadow of Jesus how about the real thing right when we get to heaven and see Jesus is going to be a lot more impressive than this. And it says in verse eight happy are thy men 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 the throne of Israel because the Lord loved Israel forever therefore made he the king to do judgment and justice you say hey does God love Israel today yeah he loved them so much that he gave them this great king Jesus oh we don't want that we just want the land you know give us Palestine give us the land you know give us a carnal worldly kingdom give us money and riches folks God's love is manifested in the gift of Jesus God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son okay so if the Jews want to reject God's love and and hate him and and despise him well you know what there's nothing left for them at that point they're like Esau you know isn't there some other blessing for me this is don't you have some blessing left for me no I already gave it all to your brother Christianity Jacob is Christianity Esau is Judaism right Christianity gets all the blessings and then Esau aka the Jews are crying you know it always reminds me of whenever you try to preach to people what the Bible says about how Christians have replaced the Jews and how we're God's chosen people we're the elect we're the circumcision and that they have been broken off and go you know this is what I've heard people say when I've sat down and actually expounded the Bible to people on this here's what they typically say they say you know what well everything you're saying is for sure true because it's right there clearly in Scripture and black and white I mean I'm definitely seeing the truth of what you know when you sit there show them how we're the elect we're the circumcision you know you on and on Philippians 3 3 you know you all the different verses this is what they'll inevitably say yeah but I still think that there's something left for the Jews I think you're like 99% right but I think there's just still just something there folks if you don't Christ you have nothing nothing zero zilch well there's just something special special wrath special punishment there's a special there's there the Bible says there's a strange punishment for the workers of iniquity they do have a special but yeah you say well are they gonna have a significance in the end times getting wiped out yeah oh yeah there's gonna be great wrath on that people according to Luke 21 they're gonna be punished special punishment so yeah you great great news guy I got good news and bad news for the Jews the good news is they play a special important significant role in the end times the bad news is it's being fodder for God's wrath that's the bad news so anyway we see here that you know they don't have Christ and therefore they have nothing zero no blessing for them okay because the love toward Israel is manifested in that he sent Christ because here in verse 9 the Queen of Sheba says hey because the Lord loved Israel forever therefore made he the king okay but this picture is the real king which is who because Solomon's just the shadow Jesus hey because the Lord loved Israel forever he sent Jesus to be their king and what they do they crucified him they rejected him and you know what now salvation it has come to the Gentiles okay the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof the Bible says and so the love of God is manifested in that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him that is the love of God and that's what the Queen of Sheba here is prophesying you know that basically because God loved Israel forever basically Christ is made king you know here it's Solomon but the picture is of Christ being made king because that is the ultimate picture of God's love and Christ has been made king to do judgment and justice so Jesus Christ is going to rule on this earth someday now let me just close by saying this there there are people today who don't believe in the millennium they don't believe that the millennium is is a real thing so go to Revelation 20 and I'll just touch on this quickly there are those who are all millennial right ah is that prefix that means not and when we say they're not millennial we're not saying that they were born before 1981 okay that's not what we mean by that when we say that they're all millennial it's they don't believe in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ like they don't believe that it's literal they don't believe that Jesus is actually gonna return and rule for a thousand years here's what I've heard some of them say well isn't Jesus reigning right now so they're I mean they're taking a an allegorical view but they're missing the primary interpretation you know and look I'm all for allegorical interpretations and I think that they're legitimate but the problem is when we throw out the primary and we only talk about the allegory it'd be like I don't obviously teaching that Isaac and Ishmael is an allegory I mean the Bible's flat-out says that in Galatians 4 the problem is when you say oh there was no real person called Isaac and Ishmael and that's just a fictional story that's all just an allegory that's not what Paul saying folks okay Ishmael and Isaac were real people but they also have symbolic significance well obviously there is symbolic significance of Christ reigning and the kingdom of God is within you and that Christ you know is reigning in our hearts and everything but they just say oh well Christ is already reigning and or he's already right well there are so many problems with that and I don't have a lot of time to go into it right now but you know let me just say a few things about that first of all what's with the thousand year timeframe you know because if Christ's reign is just always reigning in the church he's reigning in our hearts he's reigning in our lives or he's reigning from heaven well then you know hasn't it been a lot more than a thousand years if that's been going on you know here we are in the year of our Lord 2019 okay so that doesn't add up but look I mean look with about how can you know I don't start to say how can you not believe in the millennium when the Bible says this it says in verse 1 of chapter 20 I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season well here's the other problem with saying oh we're in the millennium right now well is the devil been shut up right now for a thousand years has the devil ever been locked up for the last almost 2,000 years is the devil going to be locked up at some future date you know I mean look the Bible here is describing a time period where the devil is locked into hell for 1,000 years he's not deceiving the nations and then it says in verse 4 I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and God and which had not worshiped the Beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and rained with Christ a thousand years so we see the millennium taking place after the Antichrist comes and beheads Christians and everything then there's a thousand year period where those people live and reign with Christ for a thousand years so there's a bodily resurrection they're living and reigning with Christ the dead or I'm sorry the devil is locked up in hell verse 5 but the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished this is the first resurrection lesson and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with them a thousand years oh just kidding there's no millennium we're amillennial what in the world I mean do we get to reign with Christ for a thousand years or not I mean I feel like I'm pretty ripped off if I you know go toe-to-toe with the Antichrist I get beheaded and boom next thing I know I'm in heaven and I'm like all right so how long our Lord holy and true this I'm not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth and a white robes given to me that says hey just kidding it's a millennial you don't get you're not gonna reign this is all allegory okay well it's still pretty cool to be up here anyway the half hasn't been told me all right never mind folks we're gonna we're gonna rule and reign with Christ for a thousand what about all the parables where he says be over ten cities you're gonna rule and reign for a thousand years the devil's locked up it's gonna rule with the rod of iron folks if I'm beheaded for Christ you know I want to come to this earth and rain okay and I want it to be literal all right but I don't understand I I'm just trying to figure out where is this coming from it's just a twisting of God's Word or just or just a super loose interpretation but I think it's a I think that there's a reason why there's so much bad eschatology out there that doesn't just take revelation at face value and just read it okay I think that part of the reason is because if the eschatology were really clear then basically people would prevent it from happening or people would see it and say oh well we're not gonna buy into this but God has set it up in such a way that unsaved people will be deceived even unsaved people who claim the name of Christ you know we I mean do you really think the Roman Catholics are all gonna be refusing the mark of the beast they're gonna be the first in line when the Pope tells them hey it's a special blessing when you get this mark no purgatory or whatever you know all the all you have to do to get the Catholics to take the mark of the beast is for the Pope to come out and say take this and the bishops and the archbishops and everybody will come out and say take this mark and so obviously the Roman Catholics are gonna be lining up in droves to get the mark of the beast Protestants are gonna be getting the mark of the beast okay anybody who's not saved is gonna be susceptible to this deception okay anybody who's not saved even unsaved Baptists unsaved Methodists Presbyterians whatever if unsaved from the non-denom are gonna be susceptible to this okay so if the eschatology were really clear then even unsaved people in these churches would be like well duh we're not supposed to take this mark of the beast but they're confusing people so much oh it's figurative it's not literal there's no tribulation there's no rapture there's no trumpet there's no earthquake there's no water into blood there's no fire and brimstone so then it's pre-millennial post-millennial our millennial and they get it so confused that basically the Antichrist can show up and trick people and people will fall for it because there's all this confusion out there about eschatology and look there are some things about the end times or eschatology when I say eschatology sorry for using a big word it just means end times beliefs about end times when we talk about end times or eschatology beliefs look there are some things about the end times that are a little bit hard to understand right and there are some things where good men could differ and and and both of them could be sincere and look at the Bible and look at the world we live in and come to different conclusions right so I'm not saying that people who are wrong on end times are just completely out to lunch but there are certain end times beliefs that are completely out to lunch like a belief that the whole book of Revelation is just a metaphor about the battle between good and evil here's the problem with that what about all the things that Jesus said that line up perfectly with Revelation was he just into the same metaphor I mean just constantly talking about hey I you know he's gonna come back the tribulation famines wars pestilence the trumpet the bodily resurrection I mean come on you're just gonna throw out all that it's crazy at that point when you're gonna say it's all figurative folks is literal and then people call us a futurist yeah of course it's future what did this when did this happen Oh 70 AD look folks yeah important things prophetically happened in 70 AD but did all of the dead of all ages physically rise again in 70 AD did Jesus Christ come in the clouds was there a sound of a trumpet in 70 AD no did one-third of the ocean turn into blood in 70 AD was all the grass on the entire earth burned up in 70 AD no and God's not gonna go into that kind of detail about something that's all just figurative doesn't even make sense and not only that was it figurative when he did to Pharaoh was that figurative was it figurative when he turned Pharaoh's water into blood was it figurative when he rained hail and fire out of the sky in the stories and exits or what about with Sodom and Gomorrah was that figurative too so if God has done it in the past if he's poured out judgment in the past and then he says hey there's a tribulation coming unlike anything the world's ever seen oh it's just a figure it's it's I'm a historicist I'm not a futurist it already happened you know the Pope is the Antichrist and whatever well the Pope is an Antichrist but he is not the Antichrist he is every Pope has been an Antichrist because they're trying to take the place of Christ and so in that sense they are Antichrist so anyway I don't have time to go into a big thing about the millennium but don't fall for this our millennial junk the millennium is clearly described in scripture and it's not just one chapter revelation 20 although that's a great chapter on the millennium there's plenty of other scripture pointing to this Jesus talked about it the Old Testament prophets talked about it and look I understand that there are different views on end times but pre-millennialism I mean that should be a no-brainer folks the pre-millennial return of Christ is a no-brainer you know once you're pre-millennial I see how people can get other views but you know being pre-millennial saying that Jesus Christ comes and then there's a literal thousand-year reign you know that's pretty bottom-shelf stuff as far as I'm concerned let's fire it's an upward prayer father we thank you so much for the book of first Kings Lord and and it's just a great book on its own just about Solomon and about Elijah and all these different Kings good and bad but Lord thank you for using it to point us to Jesus as you do in every single book pointing us to the second coming of Christ pointing us to the millennium Lord help us to study to show ourselves approved and help us to realize that you are the king of Kings and that you are a much more dreadful King than King Solomon a much more powerful King a wiser King even then Solomon a greater than Solomon is here and so thank you for this great book to teach us that and in Jesus name we pray Amen