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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/clive-barber/a-greater-one-is-here/
Let's turn to Matthew's record of the Gospel, in the 12th chapter, in the heart of chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Take our reading from verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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. The Queen of the South shall rise 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. Interesting what our brother Scott has already been bringing before us. In relation to the turning point in this gospel record, at this point the Lord Jesus has been pleading with the nation.
He has been displayed, and Peter speaks about this in the book of the Acts, that he was set forth in the midst of the people, a man approved of God by miracles, wonders, and signs. And cathedrically, clearly he had been in the midst of the people and displayed who he was as the Messiah, the Son of God.
He's referred to in this section that we've read, again, as the Son of Man. And it's interesting just to go through those titles that our brother spoke to us of concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. On one occasion I went through the New Testament just to look at those titles.
Let me just share some of them with you before I get into really what I want to say. I really want to elevate the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as we close this little session. I think, brothers and sisters, as we've been listening to the ministry this afternoon and yesterday, we will have to acknowledge this.
If we are ever going to hope to stay in assembly fellowship, or to keep preaching the gospel, or to keep appreciating the Word of God, it will be based upon this, our appreciation for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I fear that we separate these things a bit. And we kind of see the assembly almost as an it, rather than this lampstand which is the people gathered around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a tremendous, marvellous privilege to consider this afternoon that we're in the very presence of deity. I've thought of this before. I think this would be a cure to all of our problems. Maybe some of them what Murray was talking about already.
I'd like to do this one day. Maybe I won't. I'd like to get a chair, put it here, and say on Wednesday night the Lord Jesus is going to be sitting in that chair, 7 .30, whatever time the meeting starts, whether it's Wednesday or Tuesday or Thursday or whatever, that night we have the meeting.
If he was physically sitting in that chair, who wouldn't be in this hall? We would make sure we were there. The hall would be packed. But he isn't. We just cannot see him. But we believe by faith the Word of God that we're in the very presence of the Lord Jesus.
In fact, the triune God is resident in the Ascendant. I want to elevate the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just remember some of these titles, if you will. The Son of Man. It speaks of his authority.
The Son of Mary. It speaks of his humanity. The Son of Abraham. It speaks of his identity. He was a Jew. The Son of David. It speaks of his sovereignty as the throne sitter. The Son of the Highest. That would speak to us of his superiority in the heavens above.
The Son of the Father. His equality in the Godhead. The Son of his love. The intimacy that exists. The Son of God. His deity. As I went through some of these titles and made a little study on what he makes claim to.
As the Son of Man, I want you to understand this afternoon, he makes claim to this world, this earth, this universe. He paid for it. He purchased it back by his own shed blood. As the Son of Mary, he made claim to a body.
As the Son of Abraham, he makes claim to the land. As the Son of David, he makes claim to the throne, the throne of earth. As the Son of the Highest, he makes claim to heaven. And as the Son of God, he makes claim to eternity.
In fact, it tells us in Isaiah chapter 9, he's the father of eternity. It's his, he inhabits it. Oh, the wonder of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we comprehend the matchless, majestic, marvelous person of God's Son?
Now, we sat in this hall this morning. We sat at his feet and worshipped. I don't know how many people were in this hall. I don't know how many audibly took part. But I do think this was the case, that every person in this hall worshipped.
You know, I was rebuked about that once. I will share this with you. I hope that clock slows down a bit. I came out of a meeting one morning and I went home with my wife. And I said, that was a flat meeting this morning, wasn't it?
Just seemed flat. Didn't feel like we got much past the ceiling. Some mornings you feel like it's just, you're taken into heaven. The Lord's Day morning. But you know, I sat and thought about that afterwards.
I thought this. All week, God will take from that meeting the sacrifice of every worshipper. And he'll appreciate that until it comes round again. You know, 70 of those worshippers I never heard. That's what rebuked me.
God heard every sister this morning and every brother that didn't have an opportunity to take part. And he received it all. And however it sounded to me, it sounded so much better to God. And maybe, yes, some of us brothers are responsible at times for letting things down.
But I'm so glad that God receives the worship from every sister. Maybe they make up for our lack. The Lord Jesus Christ. There's a turning point here, of course. In chapter 13, he's going to turn to the Gentile nation.
He's pleading with the nation of Israel. And they come to him and they ask him for a sign. For the last time, before this little section closes, he's going to tell them, there's only one sign you're going to receive.
It's Calvary. It's prefigured for us in the story of Jonah and the whale. Three days and three nights in the whale's belly. Just before he turns to the Gentile nations, he speaks to this Jewish nation again.
And sets forth before them something that they would see just in a short period of time after this. They would see the Lord Jesus Christ hanging upon a cross in a tomb, resurrected. He would be manifested to those witnesses chosen.
The gospel would be preached to this nation that what the Lord Jesus Christ set forth to them just before he turned to the Gentiles had now come about. But what the Lord Jesus does as he pleads with them before he closes this section, he brings before them two Gentile nations that will bear testimony in a coming day that they believe the preaching of another.
One had to do with Solomon and believed. Another had to do with Nineveh. Nineveh had to do with Jonah and believed. And yet he says I'm standing right in your midst and you refuse to accept who I am as the Messiah.
I agree with what our brother said although it's kind of a paradox. I'm very thankful that the Lord Jesus, he knew he would turn to the Gentiles. He knew he would take a bride. We formed partners. What an incredible privilege, brothers and sisters.
But what I want to do in these few short minutes is just highlight to you the contrast between the Lord Jesus Christ and Solomon and the contrast between the Lord Jesus Christ and Jonah. May it thrill our hearts.
When we come to this man Solomon, he was a great man. In fact, the Queen of Sheba heard of his fame. He had a testimony. In fact, if we were to bring Solomon alongside the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know that this again foreshadows the coming millennial day when we think of this man Solomon, all that it points forward to in a kingdom concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His throne.
I want to just think of a contrast between Solomon and Christ in this earthly sense of the Queen of Sheba went up to Solomon. What did she see? What did she hear? And when we line that up with the person of Christ, what do we see?
What do we hear? Both men had a testimony. Solomon and the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon's testimony extended to the outermost parts of the earth. Christ's testimony goes beyond and permeates the heavens.
Isaiah would look up in chapter 6 and see in his great vision of angelic beings, seraphim, that surround that great throne. And the train fills the temple. And they veil their faces and their feet. Unceasing in their movement, in their willingness to do the throne sitter's bidding.
What a wonder of the worship of these angelic beings. It's interesting when you come to Job 38. I think it's verse 7. It teaches us there that at the very creation of the world, angelic beings were present.
In fact, they were singing. But what a wonder. Long before this universe and Solomon's reign was ever known, a little reign that extended for a few short years, and a testimony that went to the outermost parts of the earth, long before that, before this universe was ever called into being, his testimony stands.
As the eternal son, both men had a throne. Solomon's throne, it just was an earthly throne. In fact, if we come back to their testimony, Solomon's throne had a beginning. Solomon's kingship had a beginning.
We read of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born king. Solomon could never say that. Here's Solomon. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ. And you line up their thrones together. This earthly monarch, yes, prefiguring, pointing toward to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But our greater than Solomon comes onto the scene before our eyes. And we understand this. His throne has no beginning. It shall have no end. And the throne of his millennial reign exceeds Solomon. Both men talk.
It says the Queen of Sheba, she went up. And she went to ask him hard questions. But actually Matthew would teach us here that she went up to hear him. I understand this as I look at the, as I look at this account of the Queen of Sheba in Kings and Chronicles.
As she went up, she went up not in a negative sense, but she went up to test him or to prove him. But she, she was really intrigued by the testimony of this man, this king. And she went up with, almost with anticipation of what she would find when she, and what she would hear.
Both men talked. Both men were tested. Solomon taught his earthly wisdom. But you think of how Solomon, you think of what he spoke, and then you think of what he did in his life. We come to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and we read this.
Never man spoke like this man. It speaks, it tells us when he concluded his ministry on the Sermon at the Mount. It says that they were astonished. Absolutely astonished beyond measure. Because he taught as one having authority.
Not as the scribes. What was the difference there? He taught as one having authority. Why? Because what he taught, he did. And what he did, he taught. This was not a man who said one thing and did another thing like the scribes.
The poor old scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites. No. This man taught with authority. Because when he spoke, you knew he meant it. And you knew exactly what he taught he was going to do. What a man. What a person.
Both men talked. Solomon taught. He could never follow it through. His wisdom. It was obtained by God. I love those first few verses of Isaiah chapter 11. In the coming millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sevenfold aspect of the Spirit of God shall be upon him.
Counsel, might, wisdom, knowledge, fear of the Lord. Oh, what a person shall be unveiled to planet Earth in the coming day. For we know him. He's in our midst. You should bow at his feet. Both men had a table.
Solomon's table. You know, the Queen of Sheba, she came up, she marveled at his table. She saw the sitting of his servants and his ministers. Their apparel. The cupbearers. The table spread. What a marvelous sight met her eyes.
And she was just blown away, if I can use terminology like that. At what filled her gaze. Oh, we look to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the apparel of those that belong to him. My mind went on.
If you don't mind me lifting these off the page of Scripture as an application, I hope I'm not distorting. But my mind went on to the righteous, the righteousnesses of the saints that shall be displayed in their coming day with that apparel.
As the bride comes out with the Lord Jesus Christ displayed. Solomon could never achieve that with those that sat at his table ministered with him. What? Oh, we were singing this this morning the last line of the first the first hymn that we sang.
So vast a work that he has done. You think of Calvary's Calvary's work and all that it's accomplished. In a coming day it will be displayed. Not only through the bride, right throughout earth and ultimately into eternity.
His cupbearers, they came to refresh him. I thought of one who stands greater than a Solomon. He said, shall I not drink the cup that my father gave me? Solomon. He couldn't do that. The ministers. You remember what the Lord Jesus said?
He said that he was one among them that served. In fact, I thought about this. This scripture came to my mind in Luke chapter 12. I just jotted it down here. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to eat meat and will come forth and serve them. What a wonder that in the millennial kingdom the Lord Jesus shall come out and gird himself and serve those far greater than Solomon.
Both men had a temple. Solomon's temple, as far as we know, only lasted for about 410 years. Christ's temple. Well, we can think of the temple. We can think of the various temples of God. Only ever one temple at a time on earth.
I think that's significant for us to understand. When the church is removed, only then will there be another temple, which will last only just for a short period of time. But when the Lord Jesus comes, as I understand from those latter chapters in Ezekiel, what a temple he shall be responsible to build.
Magnificent. His temple shall last for a thousand years. I thought of his reign, and I thought of how magnificent he is, and how he exceeds all that have lived on planet earth. This thought hit me recently, and something I've really enjoyed.
I'm not trying to single you out, brother. I've really enjoyed all the messages this weekend. But something I enjoyed that you said yesterday, Scott, was you weren't too proud to admit that you just learned something recently.
I thought preachers knew everything. All the whole Bible, all the time. No. Well, something that I just enjoyed recently, too, is this. I've never seen this before. There's no person that's ever lived on earth for a thousand years.
969 years, Methuselah. And a brother at this conference, he's sitting at the back of the hall, he helped me with this thought, too. Brother Dustin. We were talking about these things, and I said, Dustin, I just realized this.
That the longest living man only lived for 969 years. No person ever yet has got to a thousand years. That would be left for the Lord Jesus Christ in the millennial day. And then Dustin said to me some days later, he said, you know, I went back and looked at that, and you know what I saw, too?
He said, Methuselah is the eighth from Adam. The new beginning. And the one who shall usher in the new beginning shall extend past Methuselah to a thousand years. What a person. We've never come to know his temper.
I thought of the ascent to... The Queen of Sheba was marveled at the ascent. By the way, his ascent by which he went up to the house of the Lord. I struggled over that for a while. What could that mean?
What was she so impressed with? As she watched him go, his ascent to the temple of the Lord. Ah, but I just went on. Whatever it may mean concerning Solomon, I thought of one who will ascend to the temple of the Lord in a coming day.
It says this in Ephesians chapter 4. He had to first descend into a lower part to do that. We'll watch him not only ascend up into the heavens and take his place at the right hand of God. What a day it will be when he takes his place in that millennial temple.
Jonah. I want to just briefly go through Jonah. Both men were subject to eternal counsels. Jonah and Christ. When it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, when we come to Jonah, both men were spoken about in eternal counsel.
You know, it's a heartwarming truth, isn't it, brothers and sisters, that before the foundation of the world was ever cast, you and I were in the mind of God. What a wonder. How could we possibly comprehend this tremendous truth that he knew about you?
He could see you, brother and sister. He looks on into an eternal age. He sees us linked to Christ. Jonah was the subject of eternal counsels because he would be used by God in such a way. Although he wasn't aware of it at the time that would speak of Calvary.
We read concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, before this world was ever formed, Calvary was ordained. Something that Jonah could only prefigure or foreshadow Christ accomplished in all its fullness.
Both men were not only the subject of eternal counsels, but both men exercised will. The Lord Jesus, he accomplished the Father's will. Jonah, his own will. He turned his back. In fact, he went in the opposite direction.
Tremendous little book, of course, to study. He turned his back and went to Tarshish in the opposite direction to which God had asked him to go to Nineveh. He went towards Spain. In fact, it's interesting.
Yesterday we spoke about the will of God and I just fumbled my way through that and went home and thought, oh, if I could only just have that opportunity again. But something I want to make clear when it comes to the will of God, brothers and sisters, we must rely upon the word of God.
We must rely upon some of those things that we pointed out yesterday. One thing I want to make clear is don't just rely on circumstances to determine the will of God. Because if that was the case, Jonah would have concluded quite happily that he was in the will of God.
He went down to Joppa and his path was unblocked all the way. He got there. When he got there, he found the ship going to Tarshish, the opposite direction. He had enough money in his pocket to pay for that ship and his place, it wasn't too full, sir.
Sorry. Not enough money, sir. Sorry. All of those steps were accomplished. He was so comfortable that he fell asleep. I hope we're just not relying on circumstances to determine the will of God. Let's come back to the Bible.
Both men exercised will. One his own, the other his father's. Both men had an experience in a boat. Jonah and Christ. Jonah fell asleep in his boat and he was awoken by heathen men and he was cast over, of course.
Both men were asleep. Both men were awakened. Both men arose. You think of Christ in his boat on the storm of the Sea of Galilee. And he was awakened by his disciples, those loving disciples, not heathen men now.
And he arose not to be cast overboard, but to command that storm, command the wind, speak to the wind and it ceased and the sea was calm. What a marvelous person. What a great person. God's beloved son.
He was in control. Jonah wasn't in control. Jonah said, if you cast me over I'm at the mercy of God. You'll be at the mercy of God. If you cast me over, the storm will cease. You know, it tells us in chapter 1 of Jonah that they cast him overboard.
I want to think about that. Just bring to your attention that they cast him into the sea. What does Jonah pray when he comes to chapter 2? He says this. Thou, Lord, has cast me into the sea. Men could only cast Jonah into the sea.
Men could only nail Christ to a cross, but it was Jehovah that caused him to go into the sea. Greater than Jonah. Both men entered into death. Both men had an effect in their resurrection. And both men had an end to their work.
Both men entered into death. Jonah unwittingly he didn't know what would happen when he went into the sea. Now, some of you good brothers will be able to tell me, do you think Jonah died? Chapter 2 of Jonah could possibly give us some I was going to say indication but maybe he did.
Maybe he literally died and was literally resurrected. Maybe he was preserved alive. We're not told. He speaks about the earth with their bars closing about. About being in hell. Being in the place of the departed.
But of course it speaks to us. Of where our Lord Jesus would go. Went down to the bottoms of the mountain. The weeds were wrapped about my head. It's almost as though the prophet there cannot find words sufficient to describe what would be fulfilled in the coming day in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How can it be possibly understood? The bottoms of the mountains, the depths, the cabins of the sea. The darkness of the raging deep. The waves and the billows that passed over Christ. What a saviour we have brothers and sisters that he willingly entered into death that we might live forever.
Oh help us to love him more. Help us to respond to him. Help us to appreciate him in a greater measure. We won't want to leave where he is. Both entered into death. One completely omniscient. One unknowing.
One because of his own disobedience. The other because of his obedience. One went into the bowels of the fish. The other went into the bowels of the earth. Both had an effect on their resurrection. It's interesting.
Both were resurrected to have 40 days. The Lord Jesus of course was resurrected in 40 days. He taught things concerning the kingdom. Jonah was resurrected. He went one day's journey through a city that he should have compassed about.
A three day journey. Just one day journey preaching the message of judgement. Then he sat outside that city for 40 days. Not now with any intention to teach things concerning the kingdom of God. But with every intention to see that city destroyed.
And the whole city was saved. One man the effect in his 40 days of resurrection. He saw one city that was saved. The 40 days that our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth teaching things concerning the kingdom to come.
And went back to heaven. The effect of his resurrection was not that one city would be saved. But that the gospel would go out to the uttermost parts of the earth. Millions and millions of souls would be saved.
In fact this world would be rescued. And in the coming day he will come back to this world. This poor stricken sin cursed world. And he will lift the curse. Marvelous truths concerning the coming the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and his millennial reign and his throne in Jerusalem.
And how that reign shall permeate the whole of this planet. It will completely change the landscape. Change the hearts of the people. Laws shall be changed. What a marvelous day it will be when we're with the Lord Jesus.
Reign with him. Both had an effect. Both had an end to their work. When we come to Jonah four times in the last chapter of Jonah you will read that Jonah was angry. In fact when you come to Jonah that little prophecy in those four chapters there's a prayer in every chapter.
In chapter one the mariners pray. In chapter two Jonah prays. In chapter three Nineveh prays. In chapter four Jonah prays again. And in chapter four he prays angrily to God. Imagine that. He was so angry.
He had an end to his work. There are only two books in the Bible that end with a question. Jonah and his counterpart Nahum. Interestingly I conclude that Jonah's book, Prophecy concludes with a question for this reason.
God speaks to him and closes the book. God asks him a question but he does not allow Jonah to answer. Why? He will not allow an angry man have the last word. Brothers and sisters, I do hope we don't finish our days bitter and angry because God will not allow us to have the last word.
Jonah may have ended his ministry angry. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty dominion of power for now and forever.
Amen.