May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the second book of the Chronicles, chapter 7, and
we'll read the first verse. The second book of the Chronicles,
chapter 7, and reading the first verse. When Solomon had made
an end of praying the fire came down from heaven and consumed
the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled
the house. This was really a wonderful confirmation
to King Solomon and of course all the Israelites that the Lord
was with them. The Lord had ordained that this
magnificent building should be erected and that he would hear
and answer this prayer of Solomon which we've been able to read
together. And as we read this first verse
in the seventh chapter we see how wonderful it was, what a
very clear demonstration that God had heard and God was going
to answer because we're told when Solomon had made an end
of praying the fire came down from heaven and consumed the
burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled
the house. They could not really have asked
for any greater confirmation that the Lord was with them.
It'd be many years in erecting this temple and it had taken
a lot of planning and now it was complete and now the Lord
had appeared in this wonderful way and it was indeed one of
those ways that we read of in the Word of God when the Lord
in the Old Testament appeared in a wonderful way by fire. Fire wasn't something that man
could just produce unless he put some work toward it. But
here and in other occasions we read the Lord came down with
fire or in some occasions the Lord actually came up from the
rock and consumed a sacrifice. But whatever it was, it was through
this fire that the Lord saw fit to appear. The last two verses
of the sixth chapter was a great request really from Solomon. He said, now therefore, he laid
before the Lord all his requests and all the desires. And he comes
and says, now therefore, arise, O Lord God, into thy resting
place, thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests, O
Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy servants rejoice
in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the
face of thine anointed. Remember the mercies of David
thy servant well it's a good example for us as we now live
on this earth and as we pray to our God and we probably don't
have quite the same occasion that obviously occurred at this
time but nonetheless we do have needs God's people still do have
needs and we still do need God to appear and it's good to be
able to ask the Lord in this way now, therefore arise, O Lord
God. Well, however, we surely do need
the Lord God to arise. We have here this gracious prayer
which instructs us therefore in this way. And we must remember
that that which is not of faith is sin. But as we come to God
in accordance with His will, desire that he will hear and
answer our prayer. Surely we have here a wonderful
example. Now therefore arise, O Lord God. We're not demanding it. We cannot
demand things from God, but we can come humbly asking the Lord
to do great things. We can come humbly asking the
Lord to arise, to appear, and to do great things, if it could
be His holy will. And Solomon goes on at the end
of this 41st verse, he says, and let thy saints rejoice in
goodness. Surely that's what we would truly
desire to do, to be able to come and to rejoice at the Lord's
goodness, whatever that may mean. It may mean very different things
in our lives, but I'm quite sure of this, that all of us do have
needs. We all do need to see the Lord's
goodness and mercy going before us. We do need the Lord to appear. Therefore it's not wrong, as
we have an example like this here, to come in faith in a right
way before our God, believing our God is able to do far more
exceeding abundantly then you and I can ask or even think. So often, in the day and age
in which we live, we limit Almighty God. Now we know that we do live
in a day of small things, and we're not to despise the day
of small things, but sometimes we perhaps draw a wrong conclusion. as to what small things are,
because small things may really be big and large things. And what a mercy then to be able
to come rightly with a humble confidence, believing that our
God will hear and answer prayer. Solomon prayed to God, believing
he was praying to the real God, the true God, the almighty God. He didn't come thinking, well
now, should I pray or should I not pray? He came with that
true gracious and humble confidence that he was coming to a prayer
hearing and a prayer answering God. And therefore, he was able
to say in the previous verse, now my God. It's good, isn't
it? When you and I can come like
that, now my God. And if God has done anything
for us, if God has appeared for us, if God has blessed us, if
God has heard and answered prayer, surely we can come humbly and
truthfully like this. This is not arrogantly and this
is not making a wrong assumption, but we have the evidence within
us that God has heard and God has been gracious and therefore
we can come and say now my God my God it's good isn't it to
be able to come in that way we don't want to come to the unknown
God we want to come humbly rightly truthfully believing that we
come to my God we know that My God will supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And we also
know there is nothing too hard for the Lord. And so we have
this statement by Solomon, now, my God. Well, it's good, isn't
it, if you and I can take such words on our lips. And let us
not be fearful of so doing if we have the evidence in our hearts
that this God has heard an answer in our prayer. And this God has
indeed brought us the glorious gift of spiritual life. No one
else could have done it. And it's Almighty God. And if
God has done it, if God has blessed us, surely We can come in this
way, like Solomon, and say, now, my God, let I beseech thee, thine
eyes be opened, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer
that is made in this place. It is really a humble confidence
in God. because as I mentioned this morning,
that which is not of faith is sin. It's a very close line,
isn't it? We might say a very fine line,
but a very important line, that we come with a humble confidence
to God in prayer. We might say if we do not have
confidence in our God, then is there any point in praying? Surely
we want to come to a God who we believe hears and answers
prayer. Well, that was what Solomon did. And he says very beautifully,
now my God, let I beseech thee, thine eyes be open and let thine
ears be attend. And we must remember this, that
God never sleeps. God is always alert. He is always ready to hear our
prayers. And that's a wonderful truth,
isn't it? So wherever we are, whatever
time of day, whatever place we are in the world, to realize
that we have a God whose eyes are open and whose ears are attent
to hear our prayers. Well, may such a grand and glorious
truth be an encouragement to us as
we press on. There may be many obstacles,
many difficulties, many trials, many temptations, but the Word
of God tells us in Malachi, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And how good it is, therefore,
if today we have that humble confidence in our God. O Lord God, turn not away the
face of thine anointed. Remember the mercies of David,
thy servant. And so we then have this wonderful
acknowledgement from Almighty God. Wonderful, isn't it? That God acknowledged the requests
of Solomon in this glorious way. When Solomon had made an end
of praying, he concluded his prayer, the fire came down from
heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices. Remember, he was in the temple.
And the glory of the Lord filled the house. What an occasion that
was. What a glorious occasion. What
a wonderful occasion it was. And we have many instances in
the Word of God of when fire came down in the Old Testament.
We'll move on to the New Testament a bit later. But just think of
those occasions in the Old Testament. The occasions when God gave such
wonderful faith. You think of Elijah on Mount
Carmel. He thought, he thought, mistakenly,
and he was the only believer left. But the Lord told him there
were 7,000 men who not bowed the knee to Baal. But anyway,
this was a great time of testing. Testing to see who would follow. the true God. And therefore,
clearly under the influence of the Spirit of God, Elijah devised
this plan that an altar would be built and that cattle would
be slain and put on the altar and then prayer would be made
for fire to come down. Well, I'm sure you know the result
that the servants and prophets of Baal They tried desperately
in everything in their power to get their dead God to arise
and bring fire down from heaven without success. Elijah mocked
them, said, perhaps your God's asleep, perhaps he needs waking. perhaps he's on a journey and
hasn't heard Elijah knew very well there would be no answer
and so it wasn't until the time of the evening sacrifice he'd
spent a long part of the day and now he'd come down in the
evening and Elijah now came and rebuilt the altar threw the cattle,
put all on the altar, poured buckets of water onto it, dug
a trench around the altar and filled it with water as well,
and then prayed to God. Prayed to God. It wasn't a long
prayer. This prayer was a long prayer. It was a very comprehensive prayer.
But the prayer of Elijah was not a long prayer. It was a simple
prayer, but it was a real prayer. And God heard his prayer and
God answered. And what happened was fire came
down, came down from heaven and consumed not only the sacrifices,
but the stones and all the water. Yes, it was a wonderful deliverance
and Clearly God had appeared and come down in fire. And of course the result was
that they had to acknowledge. All the people then said, the
Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. What a wonderful occasion that
was. Well, you and I should be encouraged
to believe that we worship today the same God. Sometimes we think,
well, God must have changed. No, God is the same. He is the
same and he still works wonderfully and powerfully today. That was
a glorious occasion, but we have another much simpler, much smaller
occasion, but nonetheless important. When the fire burned, you may
remember, that's when Moses was in the wilderness. and it was
time the time had come for Moses to return to Egypt and to lead
the children of Israel out of Egypt and what happened there
was a bush and it came on fire and it burned and it wasn't consumed
yes God had done that to attract Moses and to show Moses very
clearly this wasn't some mere occasion that man had performed.
This was a miracle from Almighty God. Fire was used once again. And of course he was told not
to come near but to take his shoes off because it was holy
ground. But God spoke to him and God
appeared for him. A time of fire and a time of
blessing. And of course there was that
time then When Israel were in the wilderness, and they were
by Mount Sinai, and fire came down on the top of the mountain,
with a tremendous effect, thunder and lightning, so that the people
quaked. There was a demonstration of
the power of Almighty God. God showed by fire on those occasions. And there are other occasions
in the Word of God. We can remember the case of Gideon. Gideon needed the Lord to appear
for him. He wanted a confirmation the
Lord was with him. Well, the Lord didn't forsake
him. And the Lord again sent fire. In that case, fire came up from
the rock and consumed the sacrifice What a wonderful occasion that
was and how confirming it was indeed that the Lord was with
him. Well, we should be very thankful
we got these illustrations in the Word of God to confirm to
God's people that there was a true living God who heard and answered
prayer. And then perhaps we can then
move on to the New Testament. And in the New Testament, of
course, There aren't really those same occasions when fire came
down from heaven. You might say, well what is the
position in the New Testament? Well I think really the position
in the New Testament is that wonderful occasion that we have
in the last chapter in the Gospel of Luke when there were those
two on the way to Emmaus. and they were they'd been speaking
one to another about the things of God and the Lord had come
and joined them in their walk to Emmaus and he'd spoken to
them very gloriously he'd spoken to them about himself And he'd
gone all through the scriptures, through all the scriptures, what
a sermon that must have been, speaking about himself. In the
Old Testament, yes, there it was, all those occasions, right
from Genesis to Malachi, so many occasions when there are those
prophecies about the Lord Jesus and we're told then that Jesus
came and we're told what he said then he said unto them O fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken
ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
his glory And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Well, that was the wonderful
testimony. Now, what was the effect upon
those two who were with him on that journey? Well, we're told
the effect and what it was. And in verse 32, in his 24th
chapter, this is what we're told. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he taught with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? Well you might
say what is the relevance of that? Well I believe the relevance
of that is very simply this that when God comes, which he does
and blesses his people today which he does in one way or another
not physically obviously meeting with the Saviour but nonetheless
sometimes there are words of scripture which are applied to
our hearts and they have a very real and a very gracious effect
and really it's likeness isn't it? we find in us there's that
burning effect and sometimes when we're able to talk one to
another of the things of God as a wonderful union. And we
can understand in some measure what these two on this Amash
Road also felt within them, their hearts burning within them. There was something within which
testified that this was something very real. and something very
precious and something very glorious because the Lord had come and
had met with them in this case in a physical way but nonetheless
still today the Lord does come and does meet with his people
and sometimes it may be a verse of scripture which, as it were,
stands out maybe a sermon which stands out and the effect is
our heart is affected it's not a physical situation of fire
coming down from heaven but nonetheless it is the glorious work of the
Holy Spirit upon us and how wonderful it is to have that effect and
think it's generally true that when that occurs it's because
our souls are directed to the Saviour it's like these two on
the way to Emmaus it wasn't until Jesus himself drew near and went
with them and opened to them the scriptures that this was
the glorious effect upon them well today the Lord does still
appear And he does still work very wonderfully and very gloriously
in the souls of his people. He gives us something which is
real and special. And what it does is to confirm
to us that the Lord has been mindful of us. The Lord is mindful
of us. And the Lord is dealing with
us as sons and daughters of the Most High God. Now, in this case
here, after Solomon had prayed this prayer, we read, and the
glory of the Lord filled the house. Well, in some small measure,
I believe the glory of God comes into our hearts and we rejoice
in the great salvation the Lord has brought about. It's not something
of no value because to us it's the mercy of God, to us it's
the blessing of God, to us it's the confirmation that God is
mindful of us, that God has looked upon us, that God hasn't dealt
with us as our sins deserved and ignored us. in a small measure, what do we
see? The glory of the Lord. And I believe, again, the wonderful
position is when the Holy Spirit leads you and me to view the Saviour. Perhaps
view Him sometimes by faith. Maybe in the upper room. It may
be preaching that glorious sermon that you and I can read in John
14, 15 and 16. It may be in the glorious high
priestly prayer in the 17th chapter of John. And we see as we read
those glorious words a little of the glory of the Saviour in
what He did. And then also when He went into
Gethsemane praying to his father sweat as it were great drops
of blood holy ground a blessing for you and me to come to such
a position and by faith to view the Savior in that position bearing our punishment. Oh yes, the Lord didn't see fit
to relieve him of that. He did pray, didn't he, if it
be possible, let this cut pass from me, nevertheless not my
will, but thine be done. It wasn't the Father's will that
he should escape that which was to follow, that agonising crucifixion. And it was all done so that we
might possess the great and glorious gift of eternal life. Now it's good, it's good. When
perhaps the Holy Spirit, as it were, takes us aside, perhaps
just in a small way, we can believe the blessed Lord Jesus Christ
died upon that cross at Calvary in order to take away all our
sin. All our sin. Every sin. And it has to be that way. Because
no sin in glory. No sin. All our sins have to
be washed away in the precious blood of the Saviour. Well, what a sin that is. And
as God gives us faith to view it and to believe that it was
done for us, surely a little glory filters down into our hearts. And we rejoice at the great plan
of salvation. And we can say with Jonah, salvation
is of the Lord. I haven't done it. I couldn't
do it. The Lord has done it. He's brought
salvation unto me, brought salvation to Jonah. Jonah was far off. The Lord came to him. What a
mercy when the Lord comes to us and touches our heart, enables
us to truly bow down and worship. And the glory of the Lord filled
the house on this occasion. Well, we should be very thankful
if there is a little of the glory of the Lord comes into our soul.
And we can rejoice indeed for this wonderful plan. And bless
God to realize that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilled that
which His Father gave Him to do. He didn't fail. He fulfilled
it. Completed the work. and then
died and then the third day rose again, the conqueror. And then
after 40 days was taken up into heaven, there to sit on the Father's
right hand until that time when he will return in all his glory
and every eye shall see him. Oh, what glory it will be then.
What a day that will be. It will be a most glorious day
for the church of God. the most terrible day for those
who are not blessed to know anything of these truths. And so tonight,
may we have the evidence, the wonderful, wonderful evidence
that the Lord has called us, the Lord has spoken to us, a
still small voice, nonetheless His voice, His voice, a still
small voice, What is it? It's an effectual voice and it's
an effectual calling because it's the work of the Spirit of
God. And so may we be able to enter
in to the truth of these words and to just stand back as it
were and try and visualise the glory of such an occasion. Remember
all Israel stood before the Lord. Solomon was on this platform,
this pulpit we might say, and the Lord heard his prayer. And the Lord confirmed he'd heard
it by this wonderful occasion when fire came down from heaven
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory
of the Lord filled the house. What a mercy it is when the glory
of the Lord touches our hearts so that we are numbered amongst
the true worshippers who worship God in spirit and in truth. Amen.