Now in this passage of scripture,
rather than go word by word like we sometimes do, there are a
lot of parallels in this passage. And one of them is, one of the
things that sort of, sort of is all through the passage
itself is that Solomon assumes that these things are gonna happen.
these various things that are going to happen. He assumes that
they will. He says, when they do. He doesn't say if they do. When he pleads with the Lord
to protect them and to restore them, when they do happen, we
see that that assumption and we realize that we can make that
same assumption. We're going to suffer in this
life. We're going to go through things like this. There are always
going to be enemies. Verse 33, there's always going
to be enemies. When our enemies come, and think
of the spiritual enemies that we face in this world. And here's
the thing about it, we're gonna be beaten down by them. That's
what it says, when we're beaten down by our enemies. We're not
any match for any of them. We're not a match for our own
wicked hearts. We can't control ourselves. We
can't win that victory, much less anything else. And so we're
gonna be beaten down because we're weak and we always fail.
We always fail. When the Lord keeps us, that
doesn't mean we didn't fail, just means he took over and protected
us. We need the Lord to be with us
in every case, at all times, and to restore us and to prevent
us in many cases. There's always gonna be times
of drought. We can assume that. Spiritual drought, when the heavens
seem to be shut, and we always think it's for good, don't we?
We just think when we go through things that it's just, this is
it, you know? I guess we'll keep doing that.
We live in a time of drought now. You remember Amos 8, 11. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north
even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word
of the Lord, and shall not find it. I believe we live in that
time. He said there's the days coming.
And I believe it has. So that's something we can just
assume there's gonna be. Solomon prayed, Lord, give rain
unto thy land, which you gave us. I like that, that's a good
way to pray. Give rain to your land, which
you gave to us for an inheritance. And you remember Isaiah 55, where
the Lord speaks of his word as being like the rain that falleth
from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth,
and maketh it bring forth, and but it causes life, it gives
life to death, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to
the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it. That's the word of the Lord,
and he can withhold it as he promised that he would, and he
can give it wherever and whenever he pleases. What a picture this
is of our utter and constant dependence upon him. If he drives
up the heavens, what are you going to do about it? We utterly depend on God. What
are you going to do about it? Are you going to do a rain dance?
Some genius at one time or another thought about why don't we dance
around a little while and see if we can make it rain. That's
man's religion. It's just that ridiculous. Think about the fools that came
up with that. But always remember, nobody is
a fool compared to you. Nobody's a fool compared to me. If God withheld his reign for
just a little while, We'd be killing each other over a little
puddle. Everybody would first gravitate
to rivers and streams. When they started to dry up,
we'd come down to little puddles of water here and there, little
springs. Eventually they would dry up
too, but we would kill ourselves, kill each other for just a puddle. And that's the God that we thumb
our noses at most of the time. That's what people don't understand.
That's the God that we thumb our noses at. The one that we
depend on every second. That's the one that we say to
Him, we'll worship as long as it's convenient. So many are
like that. I'd worship you, Lord, but I
got personal matters that need to be worked out, you know. And if God withholds the spiritual
rain, it'll be a lot worse than withholding water. We need His
word more than we need anything. Now look at the things mentioned
in verse 37. There's several things mentioned
there. As I said, we'll sort of go through
these different parallels in this passage. But verse 37, if
there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there
be blasting, mildew, locust, if there be caterpillar, If their
enemy besieged them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague,
whatsoever sickness there be." Isn't it eye-opening to realize
that all God needs to do in order to kill us in a very horrible
way is a caterpillar? A caterpillar. That's all he
needs. Less than that, a germ. an invisible
microscopic virus that you'll never even see coming. There's
nothing to us. We depend on Him every moment.
And that's what Solomon is talking about here. Lord, we need You
when we do, when these things come. When we find ourselves
as we always do and always will to be utterly helpless and hopeless
without You, hear us. whatever it is that wakes us
up to that fact. You see, we depend on God every
second of every day and have since before we were born, when
we were still in the womb. We depend on him every second
of every day. He just brings us to realize
it through these things, through troubles, through calamities,
through difficulty, through affliction. That's when we say, oh, wait
a minute, I need God. We always have and we always
will. And this is the key now. There's
nothing to us. We hang upon the mercy of God
every moment. And when we realize that physically,
maybe our minds will go beyond that and think about how desperately
we need Him spiritually in everything because those are things we don't
think about that much because we don't, we just don't live
in that realm, do we? As believers we do, but it's
the physical realm that catches all of our attention. There are spiritual equivalents
to all of this stuff. And this is the key now to the
whole passage right here. Think about this, look at this
with me. Whatever the problem, whatever the problem is, there's
one solution to it. One, various different things
that cause us to realize what situation we're in, which very
simply is we need God, we need his son. There's one solution
to the problem. Whatever the circumstance, whatever
the situation, whatever the disaster, however hopeless and helpless
we are, this thing is not complicated. Look what Solomon prayed. Enemies
beating us down, Pray toward the temple. Pray toward the temple. Drought and famine, pray toward
the temple. Disease, mildew, blight, crops
being destroyed by insects, plague and sickness, pray toward this
place. Pray toward the temple. And the
temple is Christ. The temple is Christ the sacrifice
slain. The temple is Christ, the burnt
offering on the altar of burnt offering. The temple is Christ,
our great high priest. The temple is Christ, the bread
of life. The temple is Christ, our intercessor. The temple is Christ, the light
of the world. You see why he says pray toward
the temple. If they pray toward the temple,
if they pray toward this place, if they look to Christ in every
aspect of his character, in all of the ways that we need him,
then answer their prayer, hear their prayer, and forgive. Forgive. The temple is Christ
our mercy seat. We just sang about that. Christ
our atonement. No matter what the trouble is,
look to Christ. I wish I could say that to this
whole blasted world. Look to the Christ of the Bible,
look and live. The truth of the matter is that
all of these horrible problems really just boil down to one.
Think about this with me. It's in our text. Let's talk
about that. But you know what? First, I want to look at the
way this is worded, this matter of praying toward the temple.
Look with me at the passage. Look at verses 35. You see how
it talks about praying toward the temple there? Verse 35. How does it describe it there? If they pray toward this place
and confess thy name, Remember his name is not just Jehovah,
the personal name that God uses, it's his character. That's what
it is to look to the temple. Christ the sacrifice, Christ
the bread, Christ the light, Christ our intercessor, Christ
our high priest, confess your name. So that's what the whole thing
of looking to the temple, praying toward that place signifies. Verse 38, what prayer and supplication
so ever be made, look at it, spread forth his hands toward
this house. Spread forth his hands toward
this house as if to receive from God what we need. Christ is our all. He is the
supplying of our every need. Verse 42, the way he says it,
when he shall come and pray toward this house. So we see that clearly,
the temple. But look how he says it, talking
about the same thing now. Look how he says it in verse
33. when thy people Israel be smitten
down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee,
and shall turn again to thee. It's not just turning to a point
on the compass, it's turning to God, looking to God, looking
to the Lord Jesus. And we see that in all of this.
It's not just a ritualistic praying facing toward a certain point
on the map. To pray toward the temple was
an outward expression of an inward faith. Where is our hope? We look to our hope, Christ. It was to pray looking to Christ
as all that we need in whatever situation, whatever the problem,
Christ. It's not a direction. People,
I believe, still pray. Religious people turn to the
East or something when they pray. I don't know much about that,
but I think there's something to that. It's vanity, though. I know people that couldn't tell
West from East if their life depended on it. Do you? Can you
think of anybody like that? What if they're in need and they're
hurting? They need comfort from the Lord,
and they say, well, I'm going to pray to the east, but they're
really facing north. You think the Lord's going to
disqualify them? But their heart is true. They're
truly seeking God's favor in Christ alone, knowing that He's
their only hope. They're casting their hearts.
before His feet, but they got the direction off a little bit.
You think the Lord's going to refuse to hear them because of
that? Well, you got it wrong. Sorry.
It's not about that. It's about having your heart
fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They prayed for mercy, for the
sake of Christ, their atonement. and only righteousness before
God. Do you think God would disqualify anybody that comes to Him by
Christ? No man cometh to the Father but
by me, He said. But you come by Him, He receives
you. But let's look at our real problem
now. And yes, all these different things come upon us, but they're
just pictures, really. They're really just symptoms
of the problem. They're just consequences of
our real problem. Both physically and spiritually,
various evils and trials and calamities and adversities, affliction.
But they're just the consequences, just the symptoms. Look again
at verse 38. Verse 38 in our text, what prayer
and supplication so ever be made by any man or by all thy people
Israel. And whatever it is they're praying
about. In other places in the text, it says they're praying
because their enemies are beating them down. They're praying because
they got no sustenance from heaven. They need to hear from God. Whatever
it is, here's the real problem. This is the root of all of it. They know every man the plague
of his own heart. That's why we don't hear from
heaven when we don't. That's why our enemies have an
easy time with us. That's why the troubles, that's
why the woes that are brought down on our heads. It's my own
fault. When you know something of the
plague of your own heart, you understand that. You understand
that the things we suffer in this life really are just pictures.
They really are just kind of, they're symptoms of our real
problem because our real problem is that we're wretched in the
sight of God. We're evil and God is holy. We only have one problem. And
it's not an outward attack upon us. It's an inward condition
of us. We are not the victims of some
culprit. We are the culprit. All of these things are mentioned,
again, as just a picture of what we are. Beaten down by the enemy? Who's the real enemy? I am. We are our own great and insurmountable
enemy. What are you gonna do about the
wickedness of your heart? Every man's heart is deceptive. You can't even know it. The plague
is that of our own heart. Notice that we're not to know
there in verse 38. It doesn't say anything about
knowing the plague of man's heart. It says the plague of your own
heart. Knowing the problem with man
is one thing. Understanding the problem with
me is another thing. It's the difference between knowing
true doctrine and knowing God, knowing Christ, because the only
way you're gonna see what you are is if you see Him. The disease and the destruction
that all of these calamities represent is the condition of
our own hearts, not just our actions, our hearts. One problem then, and one remedy. One problem, my own sinful, wretched
heart, and one remedy, look to Christ and pray. Ask, cry. As all of these problems represent
the one problem, All of the temple and every aspect of it represents
Christ and what he did for sinners like us. All of it, so clearly,
so beautifully. And when a sinner comes before
God in prayer, did he not promise, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, I'll save you, I'll save you. When a sinner
comes before God, realizing the plague of his own heart, and
looking to Christ, the one who gives new hearts, looking to
Him, the sin offering, Him, the atonement, Him, our high priest,
not God's best effort, God's salvation. The result of that look and that
cry is also found in all of these verses. Verse 34, forgiveness. Verse 36, forgiveness. Verse 39, forgiveness. Lord, forgive for Christ's sake.
I'm looking to Him. I'm looking to Christ and I'm
saying, Lord, forgive me. That publican stood before the
mercy seat and said, Lord, have mercy on me, the wretched sinner. I'm looking to you. If you will,
you can forgive me. That precious blood is able to
wash my sins away. I have no other hope, no other
plea. I've spent all I have and I'm
only worse. You see how Every text that we're in, whether
we're going through 1st Timothy or Proverbs, Psalms not long
ago, or here in 1st Kings, we went through 1st and 2nd Samuel.
We always come to the same place, don't we? The feet of the Savior. The Word of God always brings
us there. No matter where we open the scriptures, we're brought to his feet, owning
him as our righteousness. Don't go about to establish your
own righteousness. Paul prayed for the Israelites
that they might be saved, and he knew what that meant. that
they would have to cease to go about to establish their own
righteousness and submit themselves to the righteousness of God in
Christ. The feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
crying for mercy. There's not a better place to
be in this universe except it be that he lift us up as he did
those little children in Mark chapter 10 into his heart. What a precious word, forgiveness. Here's the best definition of
it. What is forgiveness? Colossians 1.12, turn over there
with me, we're gonna close with this thought. Colossians 1.12. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. redemption through the precious
blood of God's Son. That's forgiveness. That's the true forgiveness that
we need. It only comes by that precious
blood and by the grace of God. Let's
pray.