2 Chronicles 6, now go back there
with me. And as you know, we've been trying
to preach from passages we think the Lord may have spoken from
on that road to Emmaus. We could have looked at several
things here in 2 Chronicles, but this prayer, we've already
been blessed in reading it, haven't we? Wasn't that a blessing? Such
a clear picture of Christ. Solomon represents Christ who
prayed that great high priestly prayer and who built the house. Christ built this house, the
church, this whole prayer. And we could have looked at Josiah. In 2 Chronicles others, Hezekiah,
Kings, but Solomon is the son of David, which is the name God
gave for his son. And he represents Christ so greatly. The next book is Ezra. We've got some good books to
look at. Nehemiah, Esther. Anybody like Esther? A woman
is a picture of Christ there. There are many great prayers
in the scripture, many great prayers, wonderful prayers. Jacob's
prayer, Genesis 32, Moses' prayer, Numbers 14, on behalf of the
people. Hannah's prayer, 1 Samuel 2,
David's prayer, 2 Samuel 7, Daniel, his prayer, Ezra, Nehemiah. Paul, oh, the prayers of Paul
in the epistles, wonderful. Solomon's prayer. One of the
longest, if not the longest, is at the dedication of the temple. And everything in this speaks
so clearly of Christ, doesn't it? When we were reading that,
I just had to pause. This is marvelous. I saw things
just now while we were reading that I hadn't seen before. The
temple is where God dwells with man. It's God's house. What temple? Christ is the temple, isn't it?
He is where God dwells. God tabernacled among us and
dwelled with us. Solomon said in his prayer, will
God dwell with man? Yes, he did. John 1.14 says the word was made
flesh and dwelled among us. God manifested the flesh. Temple
is Christ. His church is a temple. He said
that. He said you're the temple of
God. Christ in you is the hope of the Lord. Will God dwell with
man? Yes, he dwells in us. Where two
or three are gathered, And the temple is not one person, but
many. Church and earth, earth and heaven
is the temple. Christ is the temple. So the
temple, like the tabernacle of old, had many things in it. If I'm not careful, I'll get
stuck here. But there was an altar where
the burnt offering was. That was what the temple was
all about, wasn't it, Brother John? One thing was done in that
temple. That's what the temple was all
about. And that's what this temple is all about. You, us, the church. The sacrifice. If I forget it,
look at chapter 7. Look at chapter 7 quickly. John
and I were looking at this. God answered Solomon's prayer
in the next chapter. And here's what God said in verse
12. The Lord appeared to Solomon by night. You have it? And he
said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place
to myself for an house of sacrifice. That's it. That's the one thing
people, that's the one thing that's to be done. That's the
one thing that God's people desire to look into. It's the angels
desire to look into. The great redemption, the great
sacrifice that Christ made on Calvary's tree. That's what this
house is all about. Nothing else. And that's why
the Lord went in and angered him when all was going on. All
that was going on when there was one thing to be going on. A house of sacrifice and prayer. The temple of old had an altar,
burnt offering for the body of a lamb, the door, Door. Christ is a door. You go
into the inner court of the temple itself. There was a table of
showbread. That's right. There was a candlestick. Well, he said that's the church.
It's him and the church. A brazen altar. The washing of
water. Right before the veil was an
incense, an altar of incense. Sweet prayers. And the high priest,
one man, by himself, would take that altar of incense and go
within the veil. That's Christ in it. Prayers
of God's people through our one intercessor going into the presence
of God within the veil of the Holy Place. What was in the Holy
Place? The Holy of Holies. One thing. The Ark of the Covenants. The Blessed Receptacle. I'm stuck. That's alright. The
angel's overlooking and he said, there's a mercy seat on top.
Which was one thing. He poured that blood of that
Lamb all over that mercy seat and covered it. The angel's looking
into it. What was in that Ark? See, Christ
is the mercy seat. Didn't he say that, John? I'll
meet with you, I'll commune with thee at the mercy seat. That's
where God communes with man, in Jesus Christ. One name, under
heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. One person,
one place, one truth, one way that God will commune with mankind,
Jesus Christ. In that ark was bread, manna. What is it? Angels food. A rod that budded. Oh, thy rod
and thy staff that comfort thee. And then the law, God's covenant
that they broke, but God made another one and kept it and put
it in that ark for safekeeping. It won't be broken in that ark.
That's Christ. You see that? He is the temple.
He is all those things. And that's what we said Revelation
21 says. He's the temple thereof. Now
over and over again in this prayer, and we're not going to look at
every verse we've read, but over and over it says, if they pray
toward this place, now you know Solomon, he knows the truth. No place is holy. No thing is
holy. But a person is holy. Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God of hope. He's the holy one. All of this
represents, Solomon knew this. And this is what the Jews began
to do. And this is what the Muslims
do. They pray toward Mecca, a place. No, it's not a place. It's not
a thing. It's a person. Christ is this
place. Christ is everything in it. He's
the One. He kept saying, if they pray
toward this place, that you have chosen to put your name there. 17 times in Deuteronomy he says
that. There's a place that I've chosen
to put my name there. Come, worship. Come. This is
the place. This is where you're to come
and worship. This is where you're going to see the sacrifice. This
is where you're going to see the ways of God, the truth of
God. That's Christ. And this all represents the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now here's the prayer. Go down
to verse 14. He began by saying, Oh, Lord,
God of Israel, there's no God like thee in the heaven or in
earth. There's no God like thee. Our God is in the heavens. They asked David. He said, Here's
our gods. We've got them all set up here.
Oh, that one fell. Pick him up. Oh, man, he's lost
all his arms and his hands. Our God has no hands. We'll help
him out. That's what men say. Here's our
God. They said, David, where's your
God? My God is in the heavens. And he hath done whatsoever he
had pleased. Whatever he pleased the Lord,
that did he in heaven. And our God made the heaven. He sits in the heaven. He sits
on the circle of the earth and he has everything in heaven and
earth and hell in his sovereign hands. Aren't you glad? There's
no God like our God. I'm glad. That keepeth covenant. He keeps covenant. God, shall
I say this again? You want to hear this again?
This is the best news that a sinner, a human being, a helpless, hopeless,
damned and doomed, and blind, halt, lame creature can hear. God made a covenant concerning
His people. God made an agreement, not with
you, but with His Son. He said, you keep this law for
them. You do for them what they can't do. You go down and save
them all. Here, I've chosen them and I'm giving them to you. It's
all up to you. Religion said God's done all
He can do. Now it's up to you. Here's what
God's Word said. Here's what God said to His Son.
This is what I purpose. This is what I've made a covenant
concerning. And He gave it all to Christ.
He said, now it's all up to you. It's all up to Him. And you know what our covenant
head said to 2 Adam when he was hanging on that cross? Finished! In his prayer on John 17, I have
glorified thee, all you have given me I have kept, lost none. And he is going to in the end
say, here is the children you have given me, all of them, you
gave them to me to keep them, and I kept them all. Well done
my son, sit down at my right hand. And I am going to bring
them all to your feet. That's the covenant. It's not conditioned on you at
all. You're not in it. You weren't
there when you made it. Christ was. Isn't that good news? Man, if I don't get past that
verse. Keep His covenant and mercy. He keep His covenant and
mercy. Our God is merciful. Do you remember 1 Chronicles
16, we read that prayer of David when he came in. It says, let
me see if I can find it. David says, he said at the end
of the psalm, he's named all these wonderful things about
our God, and the last thing he said was, Oh, give thanks. This
is the last thing he said. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
he's good, for his mercy endureth forever. And then it says, all the people
got their trumpets and all that, and they got it all together,
and Heman and Jaduthun and the rest that were chosen, they're
expressed by name, to give thanks to the Lord, because His mercy
endureth forever. You know how many times it says
that in Scripture? David wrote one psalm. 26? Is
that it, Kelly? 36. 136. He said it 26 times. His mercy endureth forever. His
mercy endureth forever. God delights to show mercy. He
taketh pleasure in them that fear Him and those that hope
in His mercy. This is God's greatest glory.
It's showing mercy. God's greatest glory is our greatest
need. Do you know what Solomon was
praying to the Lord about? God's people. What about them?
They're all sinners. Did you notice? He kept saying,
if they sin, if they get... He said, if and when. You notice
all the ifs and whens? If. No, when. They sin. Here, forgive. Will it? John, in about the last of the
book, John wrote this. Little children, these things
I write unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ Christ. Oh, that's
good news. Oh, there's no God like our God.
Covenant keeping God. Merciful God. His mercy endureth
forever. And he talked about In this prayer,
he said, Lord, you put a man on the throne. You promised there'd
be a man on the throne of Israel. And that he would stay there
and be your king forever. Brothers and sisters, there's
a man in glory. Yes, Jesus Christ, a man. We're
going to see a man in glory. God became a man. And we're going to touch him.
John says, We've heard life. We've handled Him. We've touched
Him. We've heard Him. We've dwelt. And we are today. I'm babbling. There's a man in glory who's
touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He knows our frame.
He lived with a body. He was tempted in all points
like it. He knows us. He knows we... Try as we may, He knows the flesh
is weak. He knows. But Brother John, He
was not weak. He was strong for us, you see. He knows our pain. And God is
so well pleased with Him. He says, You do this on their
behalf. You lay down your life for them.
You shed your precious blood. You pay for all of their sin.
I will accept them on behalf of everything you did for them,
because they can't do it. Will you? He said, I will. Did
he? Yes, he did. Oh, man. He knows our prayer. Touched with the feet of our
prayer. We've got a man. There's a man in glory. And because
there's one man that God was well pleased with, our second
Adam, in Adam all die, but I'm here to tell you, I'm here to
tell you, in Christ, all made alive. Me? But I'm the worst
sinner. You don't know how bad you could
be or should be. He doesn't. He doesn't. That's who he came for. Faithful
saint. I could just quit right now,
couldn't I? He went on to say, Lord God,
he said, Look at verse 16. Keep this covenant. Keep thy
servant. And he did. God kept this agreement
with his son. Verse 18. Will God dwell on earth? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And yes, he does. Wherever his
people are, he's promised to be. Verse 19. Have respect to
the prayer of thy servant. Does God hear the prayer of a
righteous man? Yes, he does. Jesus Christ, the
righteous. The effectual, fervent prayer
of that righteous man availed everything. He said that in his
prayer. He said, in other places, he
said, I know you hear me, I know you always hear me, but I said
it for their sake. for their sake. Look at verse
20, that thine eyes may be opened upon this house. This thing of being in Christ,
we're hidden. You're dead. Your life is hid
with God in Christ. I always get that mixed up. Hid
with Christ in God, which is both. We're in Christ, and God's looking
at His Son. God's up to pure eyes to behold
iniquity. Heavens are not pure in His sight.
He looks at His Son. He's well pleased with His Son.
He can't take His eyes off His Son. If you're in His Son, God's
pleased with you. Isn't that something? Yes, He
will. Always. Verse 22, if a man sinned
against his neighbor, and it goes on to say, and there's a
judgment to be made, Lord do it. Bless the righteous and punish
the wicked. Are you righteous? Why? Are you righteous? What's
your righteousness? Really? That's a fact. There is no other
righteousness. Psalm 71, one of the sisters
texted me and said she was reading Psalm 71. She said, it's just
wonderful. Oh, yes it is. You know who's talking about
that. All through that Psalm, David says, I'll make mention
of thy righteousness and thine only. The Lord, our righteousness. Listen, people. He's the judge.
All judgment is given unto Him, he said. Like the people went
to Moses and he straightened everything out. He's got all
judgment. And all disputes will be settled
someday. Every wrong will be righted.
Every injustice punished. The wicked will get what's coming
to them, and God's people will get what's coming to them. Christ. Read verse 22. Verse 24, if thy
people are put to worse before the enemy because they've sinned. Enemy without the enemy within,
Satan, the world, ourselves, our sin. Oh, people. We're put to worse all the time.
The worst comes out in us all the time. All the time. What's wrong with us? We're sinners,
that's what. They return and confess thy name
and pray and make supplication in Christ, hear and forgive. Will he? Yes, he will. Yes, he
will. John said if we confess our sins,
he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Yes, he is. If they return, if they stray,
but they return, And they pray. Hear them. Really? Every time
they return? Really? There's some people out
there that have left, and I pray for them all the time. Call them
by name. Lord, please, bring them to yourself. Bring them
back. Some of our children have left. They grew up here and heard
this gospel for years. And I call them by name. Your
children, I call them by name. Lord, bring them back. Would
you? Nothing too hard for the Lord. Doesn't matter how long
somebody's been gone. Does it? His arm's not short. Oh, but they're way down in the
pit. His arm's not short. I pray for
them all the time. Lord, bring them back. Bring
them back. If they return, if they come
back, we'll all be forgiven? All forgiven. And you know what,
I would just rejoice in seeing it's like me. When this prodigal,
when the Lord brought me back, I thought, you know, I came in
with my head kind of hanging down. See, surely these people
ain't going to speak to me. Little did I know they were just
like me. And they acted like they were
more glad to see me than anybody on earth. You know, they acted
like I'd never done anything wrong. Act like it never happened. That's our God and that's His
people. If they return... You know, I don't know if anybody's
ever done to you, but if a brother or sister, no matter what they
did to you, came to you and said, I'm sorry, would you forgive
me? Would you? It would give you great joy,
wouldn't it? Knowing your own self. Just great joy. Nothing to give
God's people more joy than somebody to return. Oh Lord, bring them
back. Bring them into your house. Verse
26, when heaven is shut up, there's no rain. You ever go through
any dry times? Anybody? Any dry times? Why was there drought in the
earth? Why did God send drought in Israel? A bunch of idolatry,
covetousness, mixed with the people. God withheld the rain. Withheld the rain. And it just
dried up until they started calling, dry and dying. My soul thirsteth
for thee in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water
in. You know what God did? He sent rain. Elijah said, look, I see a cloud.
It looks like a man's hand. He said, run quick, rains are
coming. For who? That bunch of idolatrous
rebels. They pray, they confess in Christ's
name, hear and forgive. Teach them the good way. They
got out of the way. Wherein they should walk. Send
rain. Verse 28, for it be dirt, pestilence, blasting, mildew,
locusts, caterpillars, All manner of noisome pestilence. We live
in that place, don't we? Don't we, though? Look at that. Is your soul vexed
with everything going on around you like Lot? Are we not inside
of him? Yes, we are. Is not your soul vexed constantly
by all that is around you? And Lot found himself in the
midst of it, and he was vexed with himself. Oh, Lord God. Sickness, whatever sickness there
may be. The whole head is sick. The heart is fainting. Lord,
please. What prayer, didn't you love
this? Whatever prayer, verse 29, that made by any man, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord. Every person that knows
his own grief and his own sorrow is vexed with himself. He'll
spread forth his hands. Toward Christ. Here. And forgive. That they may fear Thee. Verse
31. That they may fear Thee as long as they live. David wrote
in Psalm 130. If thou shouldest mark iniquity,
O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
Thee. That thou mayest be feared. Verse 32. The stranger. Any stranger? Stranger. That's a fellow who
walks in off the street. He's not a Jew. I'm not one of
these good Christians like you people. I'm not a good Christian
like you people. I'm a stranger here. I don't
know anything. Would y'all let me come in here? Oh, yes. Brother, we're all just like
you. Strangers and pilgrims. Strangers
to the covenant. Enemies in our own mind by our
wicked work. But God brought us here. Now we're fellow citizens
with the saints. Oh, yeah. Come on in, stranger.
Be one of us. So if the stranger come here
and forgive, people go out to war. If they go out to war, and the
enemies got them down. Oh, it says here, if they pray,
toward Christ, hear from heaven their supplication, maintain
their cause. What's our cause? Christ, isn't
it? This little assembly, this little
place, this little house, I believe God has chosen it. Put His name
here. His glory is seen. Put His name,
His glory in the hearts of just about most everybody in this
room. I believe that. Really, I believe we're met here
for one cause. Can you say that? Like David
of old, David came as a young boy. Is there not a cause? Lord,
this is your cause, your glory. They're blaspheming, the enemy's
blaspheming your name. Lord, let me fight for your glory
and your honor. Would you let me do that? I will.
I'll maintain the cause. Because. Thy glory will I not give to
another. Our Lord prayed, Father, glorify Thy name. He said, I
have both glorified it, and I'll glory it again. And that was
a thunder. He goes on to say in verse 36,
They sin against thee. There's not a man that doesn't.
Not a woman. You be angry with them, and they're
back in captivity of you. They get back in captivity again?
Is there anybody in here the Lord brought out of the world,
into His fold, and yet gone back to the world? Is there one in
here who hasn't? All of us have. We live in this
world. And so God's got to continually keep bringing us out. Bringing
it out of us. And He does it with chastity.
He does it with His Word. And they like the prodigal, verse
37, they come to themselves. If they bethink themselves. If
you get a hold of them and they think, look, look what I'm doing. Look where I'm at. I'm back in
the hog pen. How did I get back in here? Oh, I pray they say we've sinned. If they return, there it is again,
if they return to thee, verse 38, with all their heart, pray
in Christ. Verse 39, here, just here, maintain
their cause, forgive thy people which have sinned against thee. In closing, verse 40, now my
God. And you know, I say this all
the time, because there's nothing that vexes me more than to hear
my God's name like it is being heard today. People, don't get
used to it. Please don't get used to it.
That's a sure sign to me that God is lifting His hand completely
off of this world. Completely. That people can call
that holy name without thinking about it. What does it do to you? My God. My God. Let I beseech thee, thine eyes
be opened, thine ears be attended to the prayer that is made in
this place. Arise, O Lord God. He did And
he shall arise for our salvation, for our comfort. Arise, O Lord
God, into thy resting place. He did. He's there now. And so shall we be very soon
when he arises and when we arise. And the ark of thy strength,
that's Christ. And right now, let thy priests, that's you,
that's me. He's made us kings and priesthood.
Let thy priest, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation. What's
that? Christ is righteous. Let thy saints rejoice in goodness.
Whose goodness? God said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before you. His people that are in the cleft
of the rock. Oh Lord God, verse 42, turn not
away the face of thine anointing. He won't. He can't. He cannot. He cannot. He will here. Christ is anointed. And all those
in Christ, all that behold His face in righteousness will be
in His presence, righteous, holy, and unblameable, unreprovable
in God's sight. And you will see God smiling
on you in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, here's the
last thing. Remember the mercies. Remember mercy. Because we're
a bunch of sinners. It's called the sure mercies
of Covenant God. Sure mercies of David. Or rather,
the sure mercies of Jesus Christ. That God promised all those that
He came for. Is that your hope? Then all is
forgiven. And all is well. And very soon,
we're going to go live happily ever after. Okay. John, you come. I'm afraid it's
closing in.