Turn with me, if you would now,
to 2 Chronicles chapter 3. 2 Chronicles chapter 3. I have something that I pray
the Lord will bless. I pray he will meet with us tonight. That's what I'm asking for. That's
what I have been asking for all day. I pray that he will speak
to us tonight. I pray that he will let us enter
into something that will bring great comfort to us and great
help to us. We're going to look at the moment
when the children of Israel left the tabernacle and moved into
the temple. I want us to see two things in
this. Number one, I want us to see
a picture of Christ. We're going to look at this moment.
And I want us to see a picture of Christ in this. And then I
want us to see and enter into a prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ,
a picture of Christ and a cry to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where we're going
to begin. The children of Israel had been worshiping God in a
tabernacle. which was a badger skin tent. That's what it was. And our Lord ordained it that
way so that it could be moved. They were in the wilderness,
started in the wilderness, one year exactly, the first day of
the next year, the Lord told Moses to start constructing this
tabernacle. And it was built so that it could
be moved as the Lord moved them. There was a cloud that stood
over the tabernacle by day, and there was a pillar of fire that
stood over it by night. And when the cloud or the fire
moved, when it was gone, as long as
the cloud was there and the fire was there, they stayed there. But when it was gone, they moved. They worshipped our Lord in that
way, if my calculations are right, they worshipped our Lord like
that for 486 years. The time came though that God
commanded Solomon to build a temple. It was a big Beautifully ornate
structure. The Holy of Holies was overlaid
in pure gold. It was calculated that it was
34 tons of gold used on this building. Just the finest materials
that could be put into it. Beautifully ornate, permanent
structure for his people to worship him in. And do you know where
Solomon built that temple? I'm going to tell you that I
did not. When I saw this in studying this,
it just rejoiced my heart. The natural response is in Jerusalem. Yes, that's correct. But do you
know exactly where in Jerusalem Solomon built the temple? Look
with me if you would right here at 2nd Chronicles 3 verse 1. It says, Then Solomon began to build the
house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah. Do you know
what happened on Mount Moriah? That's where God told Abraham
to take his son, his only son Isaac, and offer him there as
a burnt sacrifice for the sin of the people. And as they were
going up to the top of Mount Moriah, Isaac said, Father, I
see the fire and I see the wood, but where is the lamb? Where
is our sacrifice? Where is our appeasement to God?
And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. And how glorious that announcement
is. God will provide himself a lamb. That is just beautiful. That is wonderful. God will provide
a lamb for himself. God will provide a sacrifice
and an appeasement for himself. And God will provide himself
to be the sacrifice and the appeasement. God will provide himself a lamb. And Isaac learned what that meant
through the experience of receiving a substitute. Isaac was a picture
of Christ. He is a picture of Christ. But
Isaac was also a man who received a substitute in his moment of
judgment. Can you imagine the joy and the
thankfulness that came over him? There was a ram caught in the
thicket, and I used to have it in my mind that Abraham untied
Isaac and put the ram on there. I don't believe that at all.
I believe that ram was laid right on top of Isaac, and that blood
ran all over Isaac. I believe Isaac was crucified
with that ram. Nevertheless, Isaac lived. But that's a picture of the substitution
of Christ for his people. I wouldn't be surprised at all
if it was literally the very spot that Abraham built that
altar that God told Solomon, build the temple right there.
That's the place where my people are going to worship me. So Solomon
built the temple. It took them seven years. And if you look at 2 Chronicles
5, verse 1, it says, Thus all the work that Solomon made for
the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in all the
things that David his father had dedicated, and the silver
and the gold And all the instruments put he among the treasures of
the house of God. He brought everything into the
temple that needed to be there for them to worship. They brought
all of the things from their old building into their new building
that they needed to conduct worship. They all got together and brought
it over. And then once it was there, Solomon
gathered all the people to the temple and he prayed a prayer
to the Lord. This is the picture of Christ
that I want us to see tonight. Solomon is a picture of Christ
making intercession to God on behalf of the people. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture
says, daily makes intercession to God for us. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. So Solomon is a type of Christ
and this temple is a type of Christ. This is also a picture
of Christ. They both are. Everything that
was needed to satisfy and appease God was in that temple. Inside
that temple, okay, in the temple was the altar. In that temple
was the ark of the covenant, the ark of promise. In that temple
was the mercy seat where the blood was poured. The bread, the water, the light,
that temple was a picture of Christ, type of Christ. So let's
read this prayer. Solomon prayed this prayer. We're going to read most of it.
We're going to skim through it a little bit. Beginning, it's
chapter 6, 2 Chronicles chapter 6, look with me at verse 12. It says, Solomon stood before
the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation
of Israel and spread forth his hands. For Solomon had made a
brazen scaffold of five cubits long and five cubits broad and
three cubits high. It was roughly eight by eight
by about five feet tall. And he said it in the midst of
the court, and upon it he stood and kneeled down upon his knees
before all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands
toward heaven and said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God
like Thee in the heaven nor in the earth. which keepest covenant
and showest mercy unto thy servants that walk before thee with all
their heart." He started by saying, there is no God like you. You're
the only God that there is. You're the God who made a covenant
of mercy and you keep it. You're the God who keeps it.
Look down at verse 19. He said, have respect therefore
to the prayer of thy servant And to his supplication, O LORD
my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant
prayeth before thee, that thine eyes may be opened upon this
house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said
that thou wouldest put thy name there, to hearken unto the prayer
which thy servant prayeth toward this place, he said, For the
sake of your people, look to this place, look to this
house. Keep your holy just eye on this
place. Again, this temple is a picture
of Christ. Look to, look right here. The
place where the altar is, the place where the mercy seat is,
the place where the sacrifice is. The place where you've chosen
to put your name there say in all the fullness of God is right
there. And that's Christ. It's a picture of Christ. A building
is just a building. This building is just a building.
It's such a nice building, but it's, but God doesn't dwell in
buildings made with hands. You know, that was a special
building to me. I lived my life in that building
for 10 years, but God doesn't dwell in buildings made with
hands. God dwells in Christ. And God dwells in his people
because of Christ. But he's saying here, would you
please, holy and just God, would you just please keep your eye
on Christ for the mercy sake of my people. Don't look at them,
look at Christ. Just look to this place. Look
to the intercessor, look to the appeasement. Verse 21, 2 Chronicles
6 verse 21. Hearken therefore unto the supplications
of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make
toward this place. Hear thou from thy dwelling place,
even from heaven, and when thou hearest, forgive." That was his
plea. When you hear, forgive them.
Please forgive them. That's the intercession that
Christ makes on behalf of his people. Five bleeding wounds
he bears. received on Calvary. They pour
effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive
him, O forgive, they cry, nor let that ransom sinner die. Verse 22 says, If a man sin against
his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear,
and the oath come before thine altar in this house, Then hear
thou from heaven, and do and judge thy servants by requiting
the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head, and by
justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness."
What he's saying is, would you judge in righteousness? Would you forgive in righteousness,
according to righteousness? That's what took place on the
cross of Calvary. When Christ took the sin of His people on
Himself and fully traded places with them, the guilty one was judged and
the innocent were set free. It was all done in righteousness
and holiness and justice. Verse 24 says, And if thy people
Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, if they lose in war,
because they have sinned against thee and shall return and confess
thy name and pray and make supplication before thee in this house, then
hear thou from the heavens and forgive the sin of thy people,
Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest
to them and to their fathers. When the heaven is shut up and
there's no rain because they've sinned against thee, yet if they
pray toward this place, and confess thy name and turn from their
sin, when thou dost afflict them, then hear thou from heaven. and
forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel, when
thou hast taught them the good way wherein they should walk,
and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy
people for an inheritance. If there be dearth in the land,
if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust
or caterpillars, if their enemies besiege them in the cities of
their land, whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be,
Then what prayer or what supplication so ever shall be made of any
man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his
own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands
in this house, if they do it in this house, if they cry out
to you in him? Verse 30, Then hear thou from
heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every
man according unto all his ways whose heart thou knowest, for
thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men, that
they may fear thee to walk in thy ways so long as they live
in the land which thou gavest unto their fathers." Hear them
for Christ's sake. Forgive them for Christ's sake.
Verse 32, concerning the stranger which is not of thy people Israel,
but is come from a far country for thy great namesake, and thy
mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm, if they come and pray
in this house, then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy
dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth
to thee for, that all people of the earth may know thy name
and fear thee. and as doth thy people Israel,
and may know that this house which I have built is called
by thy name." Christ can say that. I built this house. I built
this place of mercy. I built this place of sacrifice.
Verse 34, if thy people go out to war against their enemies,
by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee
toward this city, which thou hast chosen, and the house which
I have built for thy name, then hear thou from the heavens their
prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause. If
they sin against thee, for there's no man which sinneth not. All
have sinned. And thou be angry with them and
deliver them over before their enemies and they carry them away
captive unto a land far off or near. Yet if they bethink themselves,
that means if they come back to their mind and come back to
their heart in the land, whether they are carried captive. and
turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying,
We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly. If they return to thee with all
their heart, with all their soul, in the land of their captivity,
whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their
land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the
city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I
have built for thy name. Then hear thou from the heavens,
even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications
and maintain their cause and forgive thy people which have
sinned against thee. He said, now my God, let I beseech
thee, thine eyes be open and let thine ears be a tent unto
the prayer that is made in this place. 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 saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the
face of thine anointed. Remember the mercies of David
thy servant. He's closed his prayer in those
last two verses by saying, clothe with salvation, sin rejoicing
in your goodness, turn not away, and remember your mercy. Now
clearly Solomon is a picture of Christ. Clearly. But here's
the thing I want to, here's the thing I hope the Lord
will make clear. Solomon is also just a man like you and me. Solomon
is begging and pleading and praying, and so do we. Solomon does not
just assume on the Lord that God's going to do whatever he
asked him to do. Lord, would you do this? He's
begging. And he's pleading, he is a man
just like us. Those priests right there that
were all gathered before Him, those priests who ministered
in the tabernacle all those years, there were priests upon priests
upon priests. All of those people, those chosen
people that were gathered there, they were all just like us. Those
preachers were just like us. And those people were just like
us. And they were pleading for mercy. Solomon was pleading for
mercy and for a blessing on those people. He was pleading that
on their behalf. And I plead that on your behalf.
I don't have the ability to cause God to do anything that I say. But I plead it to him on your
behalf." And those people were there with Solomon, pleading
this to God on their own behalf, in their own hearts. But they
were just like us. They were men and women just
like us. They had the same thoughts. They had the same fears. They
had the same needs, the same desires, the same concerns. And
what Solomon was doing right here was begging God, would you
please do for us in this place? He kept saying, this house. Would you please do for us in
this house what you did for us in that house? This place. That temple was a
type of Christ. We just saw that. whatever they
do in this place, whatever is done in Christ. Our Lord said,
you ask anything in my name, the Father will hear you. That
temple was a type of Christ, but that temple was the actual
place where God's people met together to worship him. Do you
think that those people had a special affection for that badger skin
tent? I do. I really do. Those people had a place that
they gathered to worship God, and now God has moved them. They
didn't move until God moved them. We didn't move until God moved
us. I thought we would have moved two years ago. I thought we would
have moved two years and three months ago. But God didn't move
us that long ago. And now the Lord has moved them
into a new place. This is a type of Christ. Yes,
but this is really a place where they are now going to begin coming
to and gathering in to worship God. For 486 years, they had a place. And this is what they wanted
to know. This is really what they needed to know. You know,
God told them, he told Moses, you tell my people, I will meet
with them right there. You build a mercy seat, you put
it inside that tent and you tell my people, I'll meet with them
right there. Well, this is what they needed
to know. This is what they're asking. Will you meet with us
in this place? Like you met with us in that
place. Will we be able to still worship
you in this place like we were able to worship you in that place? Lord, we worshipped you. We worshipped you. Are we going to be able to worship
in this place like we worshipped in that place? Our Lord has promised
that where Wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He's
in the midst of them. He has promised that if He points
us to Him, if He reveals Him to us, it's our only salvation. And if He reveals to us that
we belong to Him, we're sinners and He came for sinners and we
belong to Him. He has promised that if He reveals
that to us, He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake
you. Like Manoah's wife said, if the
Lord was going to kill us, He would never have revealed all
these things to us. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. We know that, don't we? We believe
that. I believe that. I really believe
that. But I have to be honest with
you. There were times in that little bitty tent over there
on Yadkin Strait, Whether it was in my study or whether it
was in a service that the Lord, I believe he just flooded my
soul with such a blessing of his grace and such a blessing
of his mercy. I literally I don't mean to be
silly, but I mean, I felt this little like David said, my cups
running over this little building is not going to be able to contain
that. Lord. Would you do that in this
place? We're not able to bless ourselves. We're not able to impart the
word. He's going to have to do it. He has to do it. I always, every
time I stand up here, I want to be a blessing to the Lord's
people. I don't have the ability to do
that. If I did, you would be so blessed
every time you come. Lord, would you please do that
in this place? Would you please make your presence known in this
place? Like you did in that place. I
can enter in so deeply right now. Right now, I can enter in
so deeply to what Solomon and those priests and those people
were feeling in that moment and begging for at that moment. The
Lord was moving them. That cloud and that fire was
gone from the other place. That's how they knew to go. That
cloud and that fire was gone. The Lord said, it's time, move. And they were begging, Lord,
would you please let your presence be known in this place? Even though our Lord does not
make his presence known to us visually, he did it visually.
And even though he doesn't do that anymore, he doesn't do it
by a cloud, he doesn't do it by fire, but I will tell you
this, he does make his presence known in these hearts. Like the
two on the road to Emmaus, they said, did not our hearts burn
within us while he talked to us? By the way, Lord, would you
please talk to us? Really, Lord, would you please
speak to us in the way that you speak to your people? Would you
talk to us through your word? Would you talk to us by your
spirit? Would you let your presence be
known right here inside these hearts? We're not here for a
pretty building. We're here to worship you. I'm asking that. I'm asking that. We ask that, don't we? This is
not just an outline. Tonight's message, I pray it's
a message. I pray I have a message. But
the last thing I wanted tonight to be was an outline. This is
not an outline. I'm actually asking this. Lord, would you
please? This is a sincere cry to our
Savior and our Redeemer. Lord, would you please make your
presence known to us in our hearts? We're drawing nigh to you. Would you draw nigh to us? Please, would you be with us?
Would you meet with us? Would you speak to us? Would
you talk to us? Would you let your presence be
known? Well, Solomon prayed this prayer,
made his request on his own behalf. He prayed it on the priest's
behalf. He prayed it on the people's
behalf. I pray that honestly Solomon prayed it on our behalf,
all of God's people's behalf. He said, Lord, would you please
do this for us? And I want to ask everybody here. Let's ask this with him. Lord, would you please do this
for us? If you are willing, would you,
we humbly request, would you arise? That's what he asked for. Would you arise because of your
covenant, because of your promise? Would you arise and would you
let us know our covering of salvation? And would you let us in this
place, right here, inside these hearts, would you let us rejoice
in your goodness? And would you turn not away from
us? Please don't turn away from us
and don't turn us away from you. And would you remember your mercy
toward us? After Solomon made that request,
he said all that he had to say and he just stopped praying.
And I can picture that moment when he was done. And you know
that moment when a man stops praying and it's silence. The
people are listening and everyone's hearing and they stop praying
and they open their eyes. Chapter 7, verse 1 says, 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. And that's what I
want right here. I want the glory of the Lord,
not unto us, not unto us, O Lord. I want your glory to fill this
house. Verse 2 says, The priest could
not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the
Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of
Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord
upon the house, They bowed themselves with their faces to the ground
upon the pavement and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying,
For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. The Lord said,
I'm still with you. And that's what I pray he'll
say to us. I pray that he'll say that to us from this point
on. I'm still with you. He said,
I'm still with you. And they cried, thank God he's
still with us. We don't want to go anywhere
where the Lord's not there, do we? Nowhere. And anywhere that our Lord is,
that's the only place we want to be. If our Lord has chosen
to put his name here, I want to be right here. Anywhere that
he is, that's that's our house. That's our home. Lord, would
you please let that be the case in this house? Speak. Lord, speak
to us, Lord. Thy servants here. We're waiting
to hear from you. We're gathered here to hear from
you. Speak to us by your spirit, through
your word. And let our hearts burn within
us. Overrule these cold dead hearts
and let them burn Lord send the fire of your spirit if you would
we would be so grateful We'd be so grateful Let's all ask
the Lord to be with us in this place Let's beg him if he if
he lets his presence be known to us and his glory fills this
house. We will be so grateful All right,
pray the Lord will bless that Let's all stand together