Then spake Solomon the Lord,
back to verse 12, the Lord said that he would dwell in the thick
darkness. Solomon said, the Lord said. That's what we do. We say what God said, and all
of this has to do with God speaking. The temple, everything that happened
in the temple, If God doesn't speak to sinners, then what is
this place for? What is this place for, for that
matter? He does speak to sinners by the
preaching of the gospel. And this temple is the gospel
in every aspect of it. God dwells in such a way that
he must reveal himself. He dwells in darkness in a sense. We know that he dwelleth in the
light to which no man can approach. But he dwells in the darkness
in the sense that he must be revealed to sinners, or he will
not be seen. He will not be known. And that's
what our text is talking about. He's pleased to speak to us. However he's pleased to dwell,
may he dwell with us. May he be with us and never leave
us alone. He tells us about himself. He
may be in darkness in that sense, but he tells us about himself
and his word and by his Holy Spirit and how a sinner like
us can be saved. But it is a mystery to those
who know him not. Thank God for revelation. In
verse 13, Solomon said, I have surely built thee a house to
dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever. I thought about what an honor
and a blessing it would be for the Lord to come to sin in this
way to allow me to build him a house. What a beautiful thing
that is of God. Whenever a man builds something,
There was a sense of accomplishment. But imagine this, the heaven
of heavens can't contain God. And David, he told David, your
son's going to build me a house. And he did. And God gets all
the glory. God ordained it. He put it in
David's heart to build him a house and then said, you're not going
to do it. But it's good that you wanted to. It's good that you wanted to.
But your son Solomon's gonna do it. And God brought it to
pass, and Solomon, you can just hear the thanksgiving in his
voice for bringing it to pass as he promised he would. Now
God ordained it, but what an honor for Solomon. Be able to
build it and think of this look at verse 27 for a minute Lord
willing we'll get down to here, but Look at verse 27, but will
God indeed dwell on the earth behold the heaven of in heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee How much less this house that
I have built it and yet God did meet with his people
there. He said, I'll meet with you on the mercy seat. I will
commune with you. I will be with you. And he was,
even though that place couldn't contain him, yet the house was
important. That's how it is here. This is
not a place where God lives. This is not a place where it's
just brick and boards. in a sense, and yet it's where
we worship the Lord. It's precious to us because it's
where he meets with us right now. I'm thankful for that. So the house not being able to
contain God doesn't mean that the house wasn't precious to
them. It was important, it was where
God met with them. What about this? If a house cannot
contain God, what about a human body? How is a human body going to
contain the fullness of the Godhead? And yet the Lord Jesus said,
a body hast thou prepared me. All the fullness of God dwelt
in a body. And Solomon calls it here a settled
place. Settled place there's something
about that even in earthly terms That's what we wanted when we
bought this building a settled place a permanent place Not where
God would dwell but for his gospel To go forth one of the things
that Solomon says about the temple is that your name is there? You
can say that about this place The name of the Lord is here and that's important for that
to be a settled place. We're passing through this world
as pilgrims and yet God has given all of us a heart for home. There's
something about home. There's something about a settled
place that's godly and right. Christ is our home spiritually
and he is meant here also. He is the settled place. He is
the tabernacle. When it says that God dwelt among
us, that word dwelt is tabernacled. And that's Christ in a spiritual
sense, the spiritual fulfillment of what Solomon said, the settled
place where God dwells in this world and everywhere now. God dwells in a body. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness of God in the person
of Christ the settled place God's love is in Christ You can't just
indiscriminately go around saying everybody God loves you God's
loves in Christ. Where are you? God's justice is in Christ God
hath committed all judgment under the Sun God's mercy is in Christ
and Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. First Corinthians 124, all of
God's spiritual blessings in the heavenlies are in Christ
Jesus. And that's a settled place. You
can count on it. That's always where God's blessing
has been. And that's where it is tonight. You got to go to him to be blessed
of God. Verse 14 in our text and the
king turned his face about and blessed all the congregation
of Israel and All the congregation of Israel stood and he said blessed
be the Lord God of Israel which spake with his mouth unto David
my father and hath with his hand fulfilled it saying This is the God that we worship
tonight and The God who speaks and then does. He does exactly
as he speaks. Not the one who needs the cooperation
of men. We don't worship that God. We
don't recognize that God. And the difference is literally
the very definition of God. If you tell me there's a person
who can't do what he want, if all you tell me about somebody
is they can't do what they want, everything else, you know, You
don't know anything about this person except he wants to do
things that he just can't do. He wants to do a lot of things,
but he needs others to get these things done. You haven't narrowed
it down a whole lot, have you? But I can tell you one thing
about him, he ain't God. He ain't God. He could be anybody else except
God. That's who God is. And I love
these two words, his hand. You see that there in that verse?
He hath with his hand fulfilled it. Those two words are key there. Mouth, he spoke with his mouth
and he fulfilled it with his hand. God speaks and then he
does. He don't just speak and wait. He ain't just whistling Dixie.
He don't just say things and then see what happens. He says
what he says and then he accomplishes it. His word, he said, will accomplish
the thing whereto I sent it. Solomon said, listen, I love
these two words from Solomon's mouth. Particularly because Solomon
said in verse 13, I've built you a house. I surely have built
you a house. Solomon didn't want any glory. Who's going to get all the glory?
Solomon did build a house. He did. But this defines the
God that we worship. Not only does he do what he says,
but he does everything except sin. He's the first cause of everything.
He gets the glory in everything. He built it with his hand. It
took Solomon seven years to build that thing. And he said, look what God built. That's how we've got to work. We've got to do what we do with
all of our heart, with everything we've got, And then say, look
what God did. Because he did. Verse 16, since
the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt,
I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house
that my name might be therein, but I chose David to be over
my people Israel. And it was in the heart of David,
my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel,
And the Lord said unto David, my father, whereas it was in
thine heart to build a house under my name, thou didst well
that it was in thine heart. You know, there's a lot of teaching
in that, but what I couldn't quite get over thinking about,
does the Lord ever think this of us? Does he ever say it's
well that that was in your heart? That was good. The Lord put that in David's
heart just as surely as it was there. We know that. We know
that. God gets the glory in all of
it from start to finish. But boy, I hope the Lord is able
to say that. I hope he has blessed us to that
point where it's good. What he puts in our heart is
good. He works in our hearts. I know
that, where he is. Philippians 2.13, it's God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. I
guarantee you, if that's what happened, then we see, we get
a little insight here into something that we don't see all the time. God said, it's well. It's well
that you had that in your heart. What a blessing. What an amazing
blessing, what a thought. that God would be pleased with
anything in my heart. If he is, it's because of his
grace. Beautiful grace. Verse 19, nevertheless, David,
thou shalt not build the house, but thy son that shall come forth
out of thy loins, he shall build the house under my name. And
the Lord hath performed his word that he spoke, and I am risen
up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel
as the Lord promised, and have built a house for the name of
the Lord God of Israel. Now again, this is the kind of
language that people who know God use when they're talking
about God. We just kind of take this for
granted. People don't talk like this. This world doesn't talk
like this. Think about this, the Lord performed
his word. You did what you said you were
gonna do. The Lord hath performed his word that he spake. That's
the second time I believe. Maybe the third time that this
has come up in this verse. It's gonna come up more. He's
gonna keep saying it. Because it's wonderful. Because
Solomon can't get over it. God initiated this and he accomplished
it. People don't talk like that.
Listen to it again. Nevertheless, thou shalt not
build the house, but thy son that shall come forth out of
thy Lord. God made a decision, imagine that. God decided something. Not gonna
use you, David, but use your son. He shall build the house. And
Solomon said this, and the Lord hath performed it. He did it
just like he said he was gonna do it. the Lord promised I built a house
for the name of the Lord God of Israel Verse 21 and I have
set there a place for the ark wherein is the covenant of the
Lord Which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the
land of Egypt Now this is the whole point a place for the ark. That's what the temple was. Everything
else, as we've seen before, pointed toward that ark. Just like everything
in the history of time and the future of time points to the
cross. It all points to the ark. That's
where the blood is on the mercy seat. And that picture's Calvary. That picture's Christ crucified.
And everything looks to Him. Everything. God made a covenant
with sinners, or what's the point of a temple? God brought them out of the land
of Egypt by the blood of the Passover. A covenant, when he
brought them out of the land of Egypt, Solomon said right
there in verse 21. He did that by the blood of the
Passover lamb. The ark is the symbol of that
same covenant. There's just been two. The covenant
in the garden, completely based on the performance of Adam. Works. And that covenant was
repeated. The law was given. And that is
reminiscent of the covenant of works. It was a covenant of works. If you keep these laws, if you
do and don't do these things, you'll live. And I'll bless you. But then there's the covenant
of grace, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant. The covenant,
I'm gonna have mercy on you. I'm gonna have mercy on whom
I will. And you build these things that show how God has mercy on
sinners. When God was giving the law,
the covenant of works, he said, build a tabernacle, build a mercy
seat. And when you sin, here's what
you do. So this is the point of all of
it. Atonement, blood on the ark,
the law of God kept In the ark, the law of God was preserved,
those tables of stone picturing that. The law of God preserved
in that ark, in Christ. God saying, I will commune with
you above the mercy seat. It's all pointing sinners to
Christ as God's salvation, as atonement. The high priest went
in on the day of atonement with that blood. We need Christ to
keep the law for us. We need Christ to represent us
as high priest. We need Christ to shed his precious
blood for our sins. We need him, period, in everything. And then verse 22, and Solomon
stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the
congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven.
And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee. Heaven
above or on earth beneath who keep us covenant and mercy with
us servants That walk before thee with all their heart That
one verse right there that one couple of verses that one passage
I Started to just skip that and preach a message just on that
that's a whole message in and of itself at least and There's
no God like our God. What do you mean, Solomon? He
keeps covenant and mercy with his servants. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and he does. Just like he said, I would
build this temple, and now I have, just like he spoke it. He said,
I'll have mercy. And he does. He will. He speaks
and he does it. His covenant is ordered in all
things insure. That's what he means when he
says, there's no other God like that. Our God's salvation of sinners
is by faith, you remember what Paul said? By faith that it might
be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all
them that believe, all of his seed. There's no other God like that.
There's no God like that. The God of the Catholics is not
like that. You think about false gods, you know, you think about
totem poles and down in Mexico, kill chickens and stuff down
there and put stuff in jars that you don't want to see. That's
the kind of thing. No, I'm talking about the God
of the Catholics. He's not like that. He doesn't have mercy on
whom he will. He don't say, I'm going to have
mercy and then do it. He's not like that. The God of the Baptists is not
like that. The God of freewill man-centered works religion is
not like that. The God of the Muslims is not
like that. None of the false gods of any of the religions
of this world is like our God. Keeping covenant and mercy. Promising, I'll have mercy. Promising,
believe on my son and you'll live. And then doing it. None of the other ones are gonna
do it. They're gonna say the God of the Catholics and Methodists
and Baptists and all of them, they're not this God. Their God
says things and then waits on things to transpire that are
out of his control. They're not like this God. There's
no God that keeps covenant. There's no God whose salvation
is a keeping of a covenant. It's all about you. The false
gods are all about you making some kind of a cut. You making
a decision. David said, though it be not
so in my house, God made with me an everlasting covenant. ordered in all things and sure,
there's no blank spaces for you to sign. It's already over, it's
done, it's accomplished. And you know what David said
about that? That's all my salvation. That's all my salvation. And
it's all I want. What more could I desire except
God had mercy on me from the foundation of the world and then
told me about it and revealed his son to me and revealed him
in me. And now I'm just worshiping him. I'm just worshiping him. And
everything I do, I do because he loved me. And because he loved
me, I love him back. God kept a covenant. And that's
all my salvation. There's no gods like that around
here. In the last part of verse 23, that walk before thee with all
their hearts. That's not talking about a perfect
heart. There aren't any of those. It's not talking about perfect
faith. It just simply says that those who know this sovereign
God of covenant mercy in Christ absolutely will not, cannot follow
anybody else. They can't. They walk before
God with all their heart. How are you gonna worship a false
God after you've seen the God of heaven? I'm not gonna do it. To who shall
we go? Grace is that strong. Grace is
that transforming. I cannot mess it up. With all
of my heart, I bow to Him and follow Him and lean on Him and
depend on Him and look to Him. My God's grace I have no use
for the gods of religion. They're not like my God. With
all my heart in this sense, I bow to and serve and worship my Lord
and my God. The same one Thomas bowed to
and worshiped. That's not bragging on my faith.
That's bragging on my God. There's none like him. Verse
24, who has kept with thy servant David, my father, thou promisest
him. Thou spakest also with thy mouth
and has fulfilled it with thine hand. Look at that again, the
mouth and the hand. Think about that when you think
about God. He speaks and he does. Has fulfilled it with on hand
as it is this day This is a I guess the third reference now already
to this glorious truth that whatever God promises he performs Abraham
believed that whatever God had promised he was able also to
perform Notice those words mouth and
hand again, it's the difference between God and every false God
It's the difference. And thank God, thank God that
our God is God. He's how I sleep at night. He is the refuge of my sinful
soul. He is my hope for my loved ones. If those that I love, I say this, And you know it's right, if those
that I love who don't know the Lord, if they
will only be saved if they let God save them, then there's no
hope for them. There is no way I could have
no hope whatsoever in my heart for any of them, if that's how
it happens. I need the God who saves who
He will. I need the God who, if He will,
He can. That's who I pray to. And I'm
able to sleep and I'm able to hope. I confidently hope in Him
by His grace. Verse 25, therefore now, Lord
God of Israel, Keep with thy servant David, my father, that
thou promisest him, saying, there shall not fail thee a man in
my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, so that thy children
take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast
walked before me. I think about what's happening
here. Psalm, we just got through saying you kept your promise.
You told my father, David, that his son would build this house. And here we are. We're standing
here. The house is built. You kept
the promise that you made my father, David. And now Lord though,
there's something else we need. There's something else we need
from the God who keeps promises. Hmm. All men, all sinners are promise
breakers, but not God, not God. Think about this beautiful, beautiful
verse of scripture with me. Solomon said, you've kept, you've
accomplished it. He said it three times, didn't
he? You said it and you did it. Your mouth, you spoke it, your
hand, you did it. Now, keep this part of your promise
to David also. We look for this. We look for
this now, that his children walk before God in faith and steadfastness
as David did. Think about this, even the behavior
of David's children and Solomon's children, is something that God
does. That's who we're praying to.
You and I tonight, we don't have
this promise from God that our children will walk in the way.
And when he says way there, take heed to their way. There's just
one way that anybody that knows God would be praying for, that's
Christ. But with our children, we don't
have that promise now directly from God that our children are
gonna walk and follow Christ. But I know this, with our children,
just like with David's, it'll be God that makes it happen. And I'm real happy about that. And so we pray, we pray for it.
We pray for it often. Pray for it with all of our hearts. Verse 26, and now, O God of Israel,
let thy word, let thy word, I pray thee, be
verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David, my father. God, do what you said. God, do
what you said. God. Do what, you've done what
you said, now do what you said. Oh, that's our hope. Our hope
is not that God will do something we want him to do. The hope of
all ages is that God will do what he said he would do. What promises of God do we say
this about? God let thy word be verified
Which you spoke? What promises of God do we say
that about? all of them Every last one of them Verse
27, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven
and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee How much less this
house that I have built it I? Yet have thou respect unto the
prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord, my
God. He's not just filling in when
he says things like that. O Lord, my God. That's what Thomas
said when he saw the Lord's hands and his feet and his side. My
Lord and my God. To hearken unto the cry and to
the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee today That
thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day even
toward the place of which thou hast said My name shall be there That thou mayest hearken unto
the prayer which thy servant shall make Toward this place
now, you know how that the Israelites pray in a certain direction,
praying toward the temple. And that's what, that used to
be a good thing. But we don't pray toward an earthly
temple anymore. They do, many of them do. Nobody ever should. We pray toward
the Son of God. We pray toward Christ. We pray
looking to him. And our prayer is that God will
look to him. Isn't that what he said? Now you think about this with
me. God made it clear to David that
he did not need David to build him a house. That's what he's
talking about there in verse 27. Will God indeed dwell on
the earth? We know better than that. Behold,
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. God impressed
that upon David. And I'm sure David was pretty
clear with Solomon about that too, because Solomon knows that
here as well. But that David needed God to
build him a house. You remember what God said? You're
not going to build me a house, David, but I'm going to build
you a house. Nevertheless, it's good that you wanted to build
me a house. I love that, but then God said it was good and
Solomon acknowledges here that David had heard what God said
about that and had made it clear to Solomon that God doesn't need
us. We need him. Nevertheless, this
house has a purpose. Notice the word yet. Notice the
word yet. We know that you can't live here.
We know that this can't contain you. This is not the house of
God in that sense. I wonder if religion understands
that. They never have. I don't suspect
they do now. But God makes that clear to his
people. Yet, yet, yet, this place is
not worthless. Yet have thou respect unto the
prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God,
to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant
prayeth before thee today, that thine eyes may be opened toward
this house night and day. We want God to look to Christ. And when we pray toward Christ,
in his name, in other words. That's what it is to pray toward
him. It's to pray in his name. He said, anything you ask in
my name, my father will do it for you. And that's what this is talking
about here. Nevertheless, yet this house has a purpose. We
worship the one whom we do pray toward. We don't pray toward
this building. We don't pray toward any building.
We pray toward the Lord Jesus Christ, that is in his name and
for his sake, looking to him when we pray. We know that he's
the only business we've got coming before God to begin with. We
can't come unto God without him. This place is just a building,
it's just boards and bricks, yet you've promised. You've promised. We pray that
you will fulfill your own promises to us, that when we meet in your
name, which we do here, by your grace, we meet in your
name, that you'd be pleased to be in our midst. Is that pretty
similar to what Solomon's saying here? Fulfill your promise concerning
this, not just this building, wherever we meet, when we meet
in your name. Have respect under our prayer,
our needs, our supplications, Bless us to give us grace to
worship you here, to learn of you here, that we might find
rest. This is what Solomon's praying
for. They prayed toward the temple, acknowledging in their supplications
to God, and it was right and good to do that then, because
that temple was Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. Every bit of
it. And they looked, Him in their
hearts Pictured by looking in that in that direction and They
were acknowledging in their supplications to God That it was by looking
to Christ the sacrifice Christ the bread of life Christ the
light of the world all of the things that the temple set forth
Christ the sweet-smelling Savior unto God Christ the mercy seat
Christ our high priest Christ the atonement and God with us,
that we have any business coming before God at all, much less
to ask for something. We look to Him, we look to Christ.
All of God's blessings are in Christ. And so we look to Christ
as we pray. Even now, as we worship, as we
walk, we look to Him. Just as they back then looked
to the temple for that same reason. It was symbolic of what was going
on in their hearts. And listen now, we look to Christ
always and we want God Almighty also to look to Christ. Don't
look at me, don't look to me for anything worthy. And he wouldn't
anyway, would he? He knows better than to look
to us for anything. Verse 29, don't look at me when
I worship you. Look toward this place. Look
toward the settled place. Look to the Savior. Look to Christ. Don't look at me when I pray
to you. Don't look at me when I walk before you. Lord, look
to my substitute. Look to my sacrifice. Look to
my Savior. And he does. Thank God he doesn't
look to us for anything. Verse 30, and hearken thou to
the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel when
they shall pray toward this place and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling
place. That's where God really lives. When thou hearest, forgive. Isn't that beautiful? It's not
when thou hearest, bless, although forgiveness is a great blessing. It's not when thou hearest, do
what we need, give us things and make us successful or prosperous. All the things that religion
prays for, they teach, but that's what you should pray for. If
you're not rich, you don't have enough faith. What utter blasphemy. When you
hear us, Lord, forgive us. Forgive us of our sins. Forgive
us for this very prayer that we pray. We don't even know how
to pray. I'll tell you this, we get nothing
else from God until by his grace in Christ, we get forgiveness
of our sin. It's what his precious blood
has bought. It's why the sacrifice is slain.
It's why the mercy seat is splashed with the blood. It's why the
temple and everything that happens in it and around it. We're taught
always, aren't we, to pray, Lord, forgive us. He said unto them, when you pray,
say, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Kingdom come that will be done as in heaven so in earth wouldn't
that be wonderful? Everything that's wrong with
this world That's why Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins and If we're to pray, give us this
day, our daily bread, how many times do you pray that? Kind
of sounds like every day, doesn't it? He didn't say that. He didn't say pray this every
day. But if I need my daily bread today, another day comes, I need
bread. Got to have some bread. If the
Lord's gonna let me continue to live in this world and forgive
us our sins. Well, aren't we forgiven? Aren't
we eternally forgiven in Christ? Oh yeah, of course. But we're reminded every day
how wretched we are. And if you've ever, ever taken
refuge in Christ, you'll do so every day. Every day forgive us our sins
for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. How can
we not? That doesn't mean we do that
perfectly but that's the prayer that's the desire that's That's just right and lead us
not into temptation But deliver us from evil Forgive us our sins