May it please the Lord to bless
us together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the second book of the Chronicles, chapter seven, and we'll read
verse 14. The second book of the Chronicles,
chapter seven, and reading verse 14. If my people, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. The occasion which we read of
this morning was one of the most wonderful occasions which have
occurred in the history of the world. It was the time when the
temple had been completed. That temple which David had desired
to build and the Lord told him that he wasn't to build it because
he was a man of blood but his son Solomon would be the man
to build it. So David prepared greatly for
the building of this house during his life. And after he died,
then Solomon, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, built this
wonderful building. And there was the place of worship
for some 600 years. And it was a place where the
Lord's presence was known and felt. And when the actual physical
building was completed, It was then that Solomon spoke to the
people and then praised the Lord that his blessing might come
and be with them and upon that house as they gathered together. And we began this seventh chapter
by the evidence of God's approbation upon this wonderful project.
Now 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." Well that was a wonderful
blessing that the Lord granted to Israel and what a wonderful
confirmation it was that they had done that which was in accordance
with the will of God. And perhaps in our little lives
there are those occasions when we really need to know that the
Lord is with us the Lord has directed us and when perhaps
we may have finished some certain project to know that that was
of the Lord and the Lord may come perhaps and give us that
consolation in our hearts perhaps not in this way in this physical
evidence but nonetheless we have the answer a good conscience
that we've done that which was in accordance with the will of
Almighty God and so We are thankful to have an account of this wonderful
occasion. And then we read of those sacrifices
which were offered up. And it was difficult for us to
comprehend, of course, that the brazen altar was much larger
than the altar which was in the temple. This was a much larger,
I think it was about 15 feet square and about 10 feet high.
So it was a very large alter by comparison, but when we imagine
the vast quantity of sacrifices which were made, what a wonderful
scene it was. And so this feast was carried
on until when everything was finished, we read, Thus Solomon
finished the house of the Lord and the king's house and all
that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord,
and in his own house he prosperously affected. And having completed
everything, and the people had gone back to their homes, and
Solomon therefore in his house, and probably in his bed, this
is what we read, twelfth verse. And the Lord appeared to Solomon
by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and
have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If
I shut up heaven, there'll be no rain, or if I command the
locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my
people." Then we come to this 14th verse which we read, if,
and how important it is that we recognize the truth of this,
if God is to be inquired of, If my people, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear them from heaven,
and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now, that's the verse which we
read for a text this morning, but just going on for a moment,
the Lord then says, now mine eyes shall be opened, and mine
ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now
have I chosen and sanctified this house, that mine name may
be there for ever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually."
So there was a wonderful confirmation for Solomon. Having completed
all this work, he had the evidence of the Lord coming down with
fire, from heaven and consuming the burnt offering and the sacrifices.
And now the Lord had graciously come to him by night, in the
silence of the night, when all the noise of what had occurred
previously had all gone and disappeared. And now we hear the Lord coming
and speaking to Solomon by night and instructing him and encouraging
him of that which He was to then declare unto the people. And such words, of course, were
so appropriate for Israel and how appropriate they are for
spiritual Israel. And therefore they are appropriate
for you and me today. And we have this statement, if
my people, which are called by my name, well, let's seek and
desire that we might be numbered amongst such people, people which
are called by my name. And that really means to be called
a child of God, one of God's children. And if we are amongst
those people, that favoured family of God, if my people which are
called by my name, and then the Lord gives instructions to Solomon
and instructions to us today. There are four statements here
which we need to consider in coming to the Lord. Sometimes
we might not come to God in an appropriate way. Sometimes we
devalue Almighty God and tend to perhaps bring him down to
our own level. We must always remember that
God is high and lifted up. We can approach to him, we can,
through the merits of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. But nonetheless,
we are to come in a right attitude. And so the Lord speaks to Solomon,
tells him that we should humble ourselves and pray and seek his
face and turn from our wicked ways. Perhaps that might sound
fairly obvious. Well, it may sound fairly obvious,
but we just need to be reminded of these things, really, because
they are important for us. And so we have this initial statement. If we are to come to the Lord
in prayer, seeking for his favor, seeking for his blessing, we
are to come with a right attitude and a right spirit. And that
means we are to have humble spirit. And of course a humble spirit
is not something that you and I have by nature. We are naturally
proud people, but it's a great blessing if the Lord brings us
to understand and to know that we are just insignificant creatures
on the earth. When Moses wrote to the to Israel
a short time before he died. And he spoke to them, of course,
first. And we read this in Deuteronomy,
the eighth chapter, second verse. And he says, and thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in
the wilderness to humble thee. You see, the Lord leads us in
a way that we are humbled. And therefore, we need to approach
unto God in a right spirit, and not in a bombastic way, but in
a humble way. And that surely reveals to us
the greatness of God, and how insignificant we are, how small
we are, how unworthy we are, and why should the great God
of heaven and earth look down upon us. Now if we have a sight
of the greatness of God by faith, how powerful he is, and how sinful
we are, and we see the great difference between God and ourselves,
and if the Spirit of God blesses us with a true sight of what
we really are in the eyes of God, We see the almighty God,
a holy God, a righteous God, looking down from the holy place
upon us. And as that great God sees us
exactly as we are, sees all the sin, all the filth, all the evil
which dwells within, to think that God is gracious and is mindful
of us, should that not truly humble us. to humble thee, says
Moses, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no." It's a good
thing then to recognise that we need the influence of the
Spirit of God to bring us to this situation, to be humble
when we come Before our God if my people which are called by
my name shall humble themselves That's a requirement that God
brings before us He brought to Solomon. He brings to us today
If we are to come to our God we need to come in this right
way that we are to be humbled which are called by my name shall
humble themselves and then we are to pray. We are to pray. How many encouragements there
are in the Word of God to pray? But just remember, we need to
come in that right way, a humble way, when we pray to our God. And that really means that we
should come recognising that we don't deserve God to hear
our prayers. We don't deserve God to answer
our prayers. And if we come, therefore, in
that way, before our God, to bow down. Because if we're humble,
and the meaning of this word, to be humble, is really to bend
our knee. It really means to bow down in
humble contrition before Almighty God. And if we are then to pray
in a right way, it will be when we come and we bow down acknowledging
God as the King of Kings. Naturally, we understand, I'm
sure, if we were to meet our Queen, we would be very humble,
wouldn't we? We wouldn't go marching up to
her and grasping her as though we were some high and mighty
person. very conscious that it was very
gracious of the Queen even to deign to look upon us, and perhaps
not much less to even to shake our hand. Well, the Queen is
but a very poor example, because the Queen can do nothing really
for us. The Queen might be able to help
us in a time of need, nothing to the same extent that Almighty
God can. And so here we are, we are to
come to our God in a much greater position of contrition before
Almighty God and to humble ourselves and to bow down as we pray unto
Almighty God. But it's good for us to remind
ourselves of our position and the greatness of Almighty God
so that we come to him Bowing down, an inner attitude, it's
really an attitude of worship. We are worshipping the Lord.
And so God says to Solomon, if my people which are called by
my name shall humble themselves and pray. The condition is therefore
to come in a right way, in a right attitude. Sometimes we might
think, well, my prayers aren't answered. I don't seem to get
any answers to our prayers. And we make that kind of statement
in a very harsh way, in a very complaining way. Complaining
that God doesn't seem to be hearing our prayers and answering our
prayers. Well, perhaps we need to just stand back and just look
at ourselves and to see whether our prayers have been uttered
in a right way. or whether we've come in not
a humble way, we haven't really bowed down, we haven't really
worshipped God. What we've been doing, we've
been dictating to God. We've been telling God what he
must do, rather than seeking unto God that if it is his will,
he will hear and answer our prayers, that it might be for his honour
and for his glory. It's very, very easy for us to
lower the standard, to bring God down to our level, rather
than recognizing that God is high and lifted up. That's what
the view was that Isaiah had. He saw the Lord high and lifted
up. Well, what a good thing if we
see God like that. Because my friends, we need to
have great views of God. that God is high and mighty,
and yet also, bless God, he condescends to men and women, boys and girls,
of low estate. You see, when we're low down
in our own estimation, then it is, you see, we come in a right
way to Almighty God, to pray unto him. And there are so many
encouragements then, are there not, to pray to God, as the apostle
wrote to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. Every opportunity
there is to pray to God, to pray our way along day by day, to
pray unto our God. And so we are to come in this
way and the Lord will hear and answer those prayers if they
are in accordance with his will and if they come in a right way.
The Lord gives us very clear instructions here, doesn't he
really? And he says, and humble themselves and pray and seek
my face. Well, we need to realise that
to seek, if we're seeking somebody, we're looking for them, aren't
we? You know, you might be perhaps in a crowd and you're looking
for somebody. What are you doing? You're seeking
for them. You're trying to find them. you
may not always find them quickly. It may take quite an effort sometimes
to find them. We are to seek. What a good thing
it is then if we are to come to our God and we are to seek
unto Almighty God. It is a wonderful blessing given
that grace to seek unto the Lord. When the Apostle Paul was in
Athens, on one of his journeys. It was a wonderful occasion when
he was in Athens. He was there by himself initially,
and you may remember that he went in the marketplace every
day to reason with the people. And then he came and he stood
on Mars Hill and spoke to the people. He preached to them,
ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
superstitious. And he comes down and he says
this, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel
after him and find him, though he be not far from every one
of us. The Lord is not far away, but
we need to come in that right way, in that right attitude to
seek the Lord. the seat that we might find,
that access at the throne of grace, access at the mercy seat,
to seek for that nearness to God, to seek for that true spirit
of prayer. There is that line, we often
say our prayers, but do we always pray? We say many prayers, don't
we? And it's right to pray, of course,
but do we really pray? How important it is that we understand
the need for true prayer. Do we really pray that they should
seek the Lord? Seek the Lord. Do we seek after
Him? When we come down, when we bow
down on knee before God in prayer, do we come in this way, humble,
And in our prayer, truly seeking unto our God. Seeking that we
may realise we come into the presence of Almighty God. And
that our prayer is a real prayer. It's not just some familiar phraseology. We come in true, urgent prayer. And so here the Apostle tells
us, that they should seek the Lord, and we should seek the
Lord urgently. If happened, they might feel after him and find
him, though he be not far from every one of us, for in him we
live and move and have our being. A certain also of your own poets
have said, for we are also his offspring. Well, that's what
the apostle spoke to these Athenians. These Athenians who were worshipping
the unknown God, He was instructing them in what they should do and
how they should approach unto Almighty God. They should be
seeking Him. When we say that, it means that
we need to seek Him, as it were, until we find Him in prayer. Until we find ourselves in that
position of union and in a position of communion. Because then it
is that we are blessed with the effectual prayer and the effectual
fervent prayer. It's then that our prayer is
real, not something just transient without any true significance.
I just feel that we live in an age where there is very little
true, urgent, prevailing prayer. There is not that real seeking
after God. Because the word tells us, they
that seek shall find. If we're truly seeking then,
we shall find God. And if we truly find God, surely
then our prayers will enter in. and they will receive those answers
of peace. And so how important it is that
we are seeking, it really means that we're searching, we're striving,
we're inquiring for God. Are we then, in our prayers,
truly striving to find the access at the throne of grace. And if
we are privileged in this way, I believe without any doubt,
the Lord Jesus Christ will enter in to our hearts and we'll realise
the importance of the favour of coming through that name,
which is above every name, that name of Jesus, before whom every
knee shall bow. And so to come to our God, through
the merits of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that as
we come in prayer to our God for the merits of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ takes our prayers and presents them to
our Father as we by faith enter in then to that holy place. Prayer. It's a wonderful word,
isn't it? To think that you and I can approach
unto the majesty on high, the almighty God, and may we come,
as it were, in a trembling state, recognizing that that God can
take away our breath in a moment. And so the Lord says to Solomon,
and pray and seek my face. and seek my face, the face of
God. And does that not give us the
impression that we are then seeking to see the Lord looking upon
us, looking down from the high and lofty place, looking upon
us, so that we are coming, not to the unknown God, but we are
approaching the majesty on high, and we're seeking his face, that
he will come, and He will look upon us, and He will acknowledge
us, so that we think and we realise, we have the feeling within. If
we feel after Him, as we read just now, we feel after Him,
our prayers are entering in. And then we can believe that
our prayers will receive answers of peace. To seek the Lord. Again, these are relatively familiar
expressions, aren't they, to no doubt all of us. But it's
good sometimes to just consider the way that the Scriptures set
these things before us, as it were, to clarify the way that
we pray and how we should pray. And the Lord came here graciously
to Solomon at night to instruct him in these things and seek
my face and not only are we to seek the face of God and to turn
from their wicked ways. There may be those secret sins
which we are keeping very close to our chest and there may not
be other people who are aware those secret sins. And yet we're still endeavouring
to pray to God and hoping that God will hear our prayers, and
yet we're still clutching at those secret sins. And it may
be that we're surprised that God isn't answering our prayers. Is it because we're still holding
fast to these things which we know are not really God-honouring,
are not really producing spiritual blessings, and yet our old carnal
nature, our old heart, still cleaves to those things of the
earth. And what it really is, is, as
the Spirit of God tells us here, a wicked way. Because any way
which is not in accordance with the direction that God leads
us in must be really a wicked way. And so here we have this
statement here, we are to turn, turn away. And he says, and my
face, and turn from now, wicked ways, turn away. In doing that, we are to carefully
consider our position. This word turning also means
to consider. Consider how we stand. Consider
our true position before Almighty God. To turn from our wicked
ways. And another statement is to recover
recover ourselves. We may have allowed ourselves
to wander away, wander perhaps out of the narrow way. We may
have wandered into the broad way. We need therefore to be
recovered, brought back to Almighty God. So we have this statement
here, and turn from their wicked ways. So we have these four statements
here this morning before us. And the first is to humble, the
second is to pray, the third is to seek, and the fourth one
is to turn from our wicked ways. And it would seem therefore that
the Spirit of God is directing us clearly to this, that every
one of us must look into our hearts to see what wicked ways
there are within our hearts. You see, it's between your soul
and my soul and God. And there are those things, perhaps,
which are causing separation, are causing our prayers not to
enter in, because there is something which is hindering that, something
which is stopping it. And here we have then the gracious
words of the Lord to us, to encourage us to See whether we are coming
to our God in accordance with his terms. If my people, right,
which are called by my name, if my people shall do this, he
then comes and gives us gracious encouragement, then Then will
I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal
their land. Again, we have three statements
here. Very simply, hear, that God will
hear, and he will forgive, and he will heal. Well, I'm sure
when we come to God, we want to know that the Lord is hearing
our prayers. We don't want the Lords to, as
it were, turn a deaf ear to us. And we may think, well, surely
the door of his mercy stands open all day. To hear our prayers,
to hear our sighs and to hear our groans, of course it does. But we need to recognise the
importance of approaching unto God in a right way, with a right
spirit and a true desire to be found seeking his face, not just
coming in a casual way, in a formal way. It's very easy to come into
that situation. And I suppose the truth is that
we can become, as it were, gospel hardened. We can be brought up
in a situation, and that situation just develops in our lives, and
we don't recognize the importance of coming in a right way. If
we come in a right way, then to believe that the Lord God
will then hear. He will hear our prayers. And
bless God if we have the evidence in our lives that God has heard
our prayers and he has sent us answers. Perhaps answers of peace. Perhaps not always answers of
peace. Perhaps we had to do and to revise our attitudes and revise
our thoughts and revise our conditions. We may have had to leave behind
some of our thoughts and some of the positions that we thought
would develop. We've had to come simply then,
and falling upon the will and purpose of Almighty God, submitting
ourselves unto our God. Well, we hear the word of the
Lord says, then would I hear from heaven. Did we not draw
the conclusion that if we don't come in this way, then the Lord
will not hear? He says, then, then will I hear. And therefore, if we do not come
in this way, surely we must think the Lord will not hear. And perhaps
that's why, if you and I look into our lives, we may have prayed
for some things or some blessings for many years. And it may not
have happened. And we may perhaps be ready to
give up. We may think, well, I've prayed
but nothing's happened. Well, let's examine ourselves
in the light of God's Word and we can bless God that he gives
us such light to show us the right way. He was here, you see,
and we must just think, it's good to think of the the situation
which existed, there'd been a wonderful time of blessing, a wonderful
time of favour. God had honoured all that which
had been done. And now, the Lord comes and appears
to Solomon. The Lord tells him now these
things. He'd had his prayers answered.
The Lord had wonderfully appeared. But now, the Lord's speaking
and telling them and telling Israel what they should do. then
will I hear, then will I hear. Well, may we be concerned and
may we indeed be blessed with that right attitude before God. You know, we come back and say,
oh well, you're being too formal today. My friends, this is the
Word of God and we should recognise the importance of it and the
relevance of it in our lives today. if we indeed want God
to hear. Because surely when we pray,
what do we want? We want God to hear, don't we?
We don't want to just pray and think, oh, well, that's a waste
of time. Why did you pray like that? It
wasn't a prayer at all. If we pray with concern, surely
we want those prayers to be heard. So here we have this statement,
then, Then would I hear from heaven. Let us not forget God
is in heaven. We're upon the earth. I know
God's in every place. But anyway, gives us the right position of
God is high and lifted up. God is in heaven. Then would
I hear from heaven. And again, it's good to try and
put things in the right context to think that we have such a
great almighty God in heaven looking down upon you and me
little insignificant creatures of the earth, sinful dust of
the earth, and the Lord condescending to say, then will I hear the
great God, the great and glorious God who created all things, then
will I hear, hear the petitions, hear your prayer and hear my
prayer. What a wonderful thought that
is. Is it not? And here we have the promise
then. You see, God gives promises which
we can then lay hold upon. Then would I hear from heaven. And what would he hear? He'd
hear our confession. One of the greatest blessings
you know that you and I can possess is to confess our sins. And again, don't forget you and
I need to come in a right way to confess our sins. Here we
have the way set before us here. Humble ourselves, pray seeking
and turn in from their wicked ways. And then to come confessing
our sins. Yes, it's a good thing. to be
blessed with confession of sin. We often pray, don't we, that
our sins might be forgiven. And it becomes a very formal
statement. It's an important statement.
It becomes a very formal statement. And here we have this wonderful
word of God, then, Will I hear from heaven and will forgive
their sin? Forgive their sin. That's the
greatest blessing, isn't it? You and I can have, isn't it?
To know that our sins are forgiven. They're ever washed away in the
fountain of the most precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, and will forgive their
sin. And I believe what will happen
then is that the Holy Spirit of God will direct us to that
fountain, direct us to the precious blood of the Saviour, and then
we shall see, yes, our sins are all washed away, not because
of what we've done or what we've said, but because of what Christ
has done. And the effect will then be to
bring honour and glory to our God. Oh yes, He will be exalted,
He will be praised, from our heart because of that which he
has done. Then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin, forgive their sin, and will heal their
land." Perhaps we need, perhaps the spiritual need of healing. The Lord was speaking here to
Israel with regard to those natural situations which would develop
But we can think of it as we have done in a spiritual application
to our souls, and to realise the Lord will heal us. Heal us,
Emmanuel. Here we are, waiting to feel
thy touch. We're waiting, my friends, to
feel the Lord's touch upon us, to know that he's healing us.
Yes, we're full of sores. Yes, we're full of sin. No, the
Lord can come Heal us and take away all iniquity and wash us
and make us clean. Yes, to be healed. So we have
this gracious promise. Then will I hear, then will I
forgive, then will I heal. These words are very positive.
The Lord says, will, then will I hear, then will I forgive,
And then, will I heal? Well, what a favour it is to
know that we have such a kind and gracious God. And these are
sure and certain promises. And this is a promise of the
Lord, which my friends, you and I can rely upon. We can rely
upon the word of God. God is faithful. He has not said
those things that will not come to pass. He has spoken those
things which will come to pass. And therefore, oh, that you and
I might be wonderfully blessed to hear such words this morning
and to acknowledge these things as the truth of God, the word
of God. Remember, he appeared and remember
what he says as he goes on to say, now my eyes shall be open. Yes, not shut. The eyes of the
Lord shall be open and my ears attend. unto the prayer that
is made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified
this house, that my name may be there forever, and mine eyes
and my heart shall be there perpetually." What a blessing it is to know
the Lord is alive forevermore. To know the Lord is in heaven. The Lord does condescend to hear
the cries of his children. The Lord does send answers of
peace, but may we realise the importance and the solemnity
of coming to our God in a right way. You see, it may just be
a sigh, it may just be a groan, but my friends, when those do
come out, I believe it's in a right way. You see, when you and I
are in a low place and we then cry out and groan out, we're
not proud of ourselves, are we? We're in a low place. sometimes
true prayer is very simple, very simple. Lord help me was a very
simple prayer that woman in the scriptures and it was very real,
it was very needful and true prayer is very real and very
needful. It's not a fanciful form of words,
it's words which come from the heart. Well may the Lord bless
us in our spiritual life, with true spiritual prayer and bless
God with such a statement as this. If my people, which are
called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Amen.