Christ exalting him go back to
first Kings eight now. Or rightly called third Kings. First Kings chapter eight now
there are many verses as you have seen. And there's no possible way that
we can reread these verses and. comment on every line or phrase.
No way. But we're going to try to deal
with the high points, not as if they were low points.
The temple built by Solomon was the most beautiful and magnificent
building ever, because God designed it. God was the architect God
purposed everything about it, and the reason being is that
God had that temple built, designed that temple with his son in mind
to represent the altogether lovely son of the Most High God. This was the most elaborate,
glorious, royal, magnificent building ever. And it needed
to be in order to represent. The son of the most high. We all together love them. The
one who tabernacled among us. Now listen, I'm giving an introduction
and quite often you lose everybody in introduction. It's necessary. OK, this is vital that we understand
that or we miss the meaning of the whole. Message. There is no more temple. Since Christ came, we don't need
another temple. That's the reason there will
never be another temple built. Since Christ came, there is no
need for a temple. He is our temple. There are no more lambs being
slain. There's no need. Christ is the
lamb slain. God's lamb has come. and been
slain to put away all sacrifice and all the sacrifice of himself
there is no more high priest there are no high priest on our
matter how many and pretend to be how they seem to be there
are no high priest on this earth there is still a high priest
though in the heavens. One. The Lord Jesus Christ. Does everyone understand that
down to our young people. I hope everyone in here understands
that. Few people do. There is no holy land. There's
no holy land, there's no holy buildings, there's no holy water,
no holy wafers, no holy relics, none of that stuff. It's all
when Christ came He taketh away the first to establish the second,
being him, the second Adam. All these Old Testament things,
like this temple and everything in it, all these Old Testament
things were symbols, pictures, types of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they were made, to
point people to Christ. That's why God made these things,
not because they were beautiful, not because it'd make you feel
religious, but to point them to Christ. So that when Christ
came, as he fulfilled all of those things, as he showed himself
to be all those things, that people would know this is the
Christ. And all the Old Testament saints
Those who truly knew God and worship God in spirit rejoiced
in the Christ who was to come. They didn't worship these things. But they looked at them as. My
faith in Christ, who was to come. Like the Lord said about Abraham,
he rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad Moses
wrote of me all of those Old Testament types. This temple. everything in it and everything
about it, including Solomon. Represents the Lord Jesus Christ.
Solomon is the is the Lord Jesus Christ. The temple is the Lord
Jesus Christ. This house he keeps talking about
that everyone needs to pray to is not the church. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. You understand that, don't you?
Some of you had understanding when you read that understand
is what they'll read as you did, didn't you? As Solomon was praying
for his people, you understood this was a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ praying for his people. And no matter
where they were or what they got into, if they just prayed
toward him. Well, let's get into it, OK? But that's all necessary
and we understand. He keeps talking about this house,
this house, this house that I have built. And and Christ Scripture
says of Christ a body has self-prepared a tabernacle a temple temple
of God God manifest in the play when he come Christ God tabernacle
among the house of God the temple of God whose temple are we. One and the same members of his
body. We pray in Christ to cry. As all prayer should begin with
extolling and honoring, honoring and glorifying his God. And I
hope I can get past this one verse. If I don't, it'll be OK. Gabe and I are talking about
this thing of preaching or teaching, you want to be faithful to the
word and you look at it and and it just keeps unfolding, you
go to the first verse and it keeps unfolding and it keeps
unfolding and you can't get past. You got 28 more verses to go
and you can't get past the first. And that's a blessing. I want
to get through this. Verse 22, Solomon stood before
the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation
of Israel, spread forth his hands toward heaven, and he said, Lord
God of Israel, there is no God like Thee in heaven. Above or on earth, there's no
God like Thee. This is my favorite subject. This is what God-lovers love
to hear. Our God is God. He's not trying
to be. He is God. By God, Brother William Hodges,
by God reigneth. Reigneth! Your breath is in His
hands. Your days are numbered by Him.
Everything concerning you has been purposed by your God. And if he loves you, and you
are in his covenant, and he's shown mercy to you by revealing
Christ to you, everything concerning you is good. Good. All things work together for
good according to this purpose of God Almighty. Now, buddy,
this is all our company. There's no God like me. You're
worried that I'm not going to get through this. If I don't get any further, this
is it, folks. This is it. Our God. There's no God. Keeping
covenants, he went on to say, covenants. David, his last words
to him and Joe were, God hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, I'm sure. Although it's not so with my
house. It's all right with me, because my God has made a covenant
concerning me with his son, and he keeps his covenant. He keeps
his word, he keeps agreement. And mercy, God has been merciful
to me, God has said so. And when he shows mercy, it endures
forever. He keeps mercy. I'm going to
need it, and he's going to keep showing it. That's our God. The world can have this God that
loves them and leaves them. For the life of me, I don't know
why men and women worship such a God. Our God is God. His love is eternal. His love is saving. His mercy
is forever. His covenant is forever. That's our God. I don't know how Solomon went
past that. And thou hast kept, he goes on
to say in verse 24, he says, you keep covenant and mercy for
your servants that walk before thee with all their heart. Now,
God looks on the heart. It's just the fact of the matter.
Many people draw near with their lips. Their heart is far from
them. God knows. God knows. It's just the fact.
Out of the heart are the issues of life. And he says in verse twenty four,
you kept what you promised my father. You kept your word, not
one word of yours is fail verse twenty five, and there's not
a man that will fail sitting on my throne. You promised there would be a
man sitting on your throne and he's still there. Oh, my, I'll never forget years
ago with a young believer, a man Stood up and preached in a Bible
conference, there's a man in glory. And all that that meant, like Psalm 24 deals with, a man,
Christ, the man, the God-man. He's still a man. But he's seated
on the throne. And if one man can be there,
millions of others can too. Through him, as a man. It hadn't
failed. It hadn't failed. He's still
there. a man in glory. He said, Touch me to his disciple.
A spirit hath not flesh and bone. Verse twenty-seven, he went on
to say, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? This is Solomon, years before
Christ came. Christ hadn't come yet. Will
God indeed dwell on this earth? Yes, Solomon. He will. He came. He came. Behold, the heaven, though, and
the heaven of heavens can't contain him, how much less this house
that I have built. Oh, God did tabernacle among
us, but he didn't cease to be God, did he? How can you explain? How can anybody explain that?
He can't. But that child in the arms of that mother is really
her father. That that infant of days is really the ancient
of days. But that one created in a womb was actually the creator
of the womb. Now, somebody come up and do
a better job than I can. I'm telling that it's a great
mystery, isn't it? It is a mystery of God, and it's
God that was manifest in the flesh. God. Still God. Heavens can't contain him, yet
he contained himself in a body. That's why people then couldn't
believe him, didn't believe him, and that's why they don't now.
They still see him as just a man. But praise God, he's taken a
few of us up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he's peeled
back that plain brown wrapper, hasn't he? And we've beheld his
glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. Haven't you? I hope you have. We see Jesus
made a little lower than the angels for the purpose of suffering
death, but now we see him crowned with glory and honor. He whom
the heavens cannot contain. But the earth is the footstool
of our Lord. He sitteth on the circle of it.
That's our God. That's our Jesus Christ. Well, he goes on to say, have
respect under the prayer of thy servant. Oh, Lord, my God, hearken
unto my cry. Christ is our high priest, is
He not? Solomon. There is a greater than
Solomon that came. That's what our Lord said. A
greater than Solomon is here. And our Lord one time was praying.
He said, I know that thou always hearest me. Solomon had to pray,
John. Solomon had to pray, Lord, hear
me. Christ said, I know you always hear me. And whoever he prays for, John,
the Father hears. Whatever he asked for, John,
the Father gives. Is that who you want praying
for you, John? Anybody else? You need one great high priest. You do need him, whether you
know it or not. But if you know you need him,
you've got one. You've got one. As I said, this
house represents the Lord Jesus Christ, this temple, this beautiful
temple. I'd love to go through this whole
study with you. John Bunyan got a volume this
thick on Solomon's Temple spiritual life. It's marvelous. Every aspect
of it. Maybe sometime we'll go through
that and look at it like the tabernacle. It eclipses the tabernacle.
It's far greater than the chariot. It's much more glorious than
that tent. It's a more permanent place,
he said. goes into the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. But maybe we'll do that sometime. But toward this house, he's talking
about, Lord, if we pray toward Thine house day and night, verse
30, hearken thou, hear me, and we pray toward this place. Our Lord said, The Father heareth,
and the Father receiveth all who come unto God by him. By
him, everyone. He's the only one. The only way,
he's the only way to come to God. He's the only one, the Father
here. Yes, he is. There's one mediator
between God and men. The man, not a woman. And it's one man. The man, Christ
Jesus. So that's why we always say,
and we believe from the heart, in Christ's name, we come to
you in Christ. I hope those just aren't words.
God knows. We're not heard for our orthodox
words. But the heart that comes through
Christ. God hear. God hear. Look on with
me. It says in verse Thirty and thirty
or thirty one and thirty two. He talks about it as an oath
being made as a problem between two people. If there's a matter
comes up and an agreement made between two people and words
spoken and vows made and so forth and one doesn't keep it and there's
no witness but God. Settle the matter. Oh God settle
the matter. And he will. He will. God will, oh my, commit
thy way unto the Lord and he'll bring it to pass. Whatever it
may be, the judge of all the earth will do right. He justifies,
he vindicates, he declares all those in Christ to be righteous
and to be right. He vindicates them. The true
people of God. He says, when thy people Israel
be smitten down before the enemy, because they sinned against it. Satan is the enemy. When our
Lord said, deliver us, pray this way, deliver us from the evil,
he said the evil one. Satan is our enemy, the one that
opposes us. Satan is the one who tempts us
and tries us, who brings us down because of our sin. One time
the Lord said to Peter, Satan hath desired thee to sift thee
like wheat, didn't he? And one time old Peter got lifted
up in pride, so the Lord let Satan have him. Didn't he? Why? Because he needed
it, because he deserved it, because of his sin. And that's what happened. But if they shall turn again
today, you know, the word repent means to turn. I'm losing some
of it. Come on now. You need this worse
than anything you've ever heard. You're going to get in every
state that these people get into. These are the children of Israel,
which represent the church throughout the years. You're a child of
God going to go through everything that they go through. Satan,
that desire to sift you like wheat. I'm going to let him have
you. But wow, teach you something.
But if they turn, and the goodness of God leads us to repentance.
If they turn again, where? Unto thee. If they turn to thee
and confess thy name, God, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. For Christ's sake. If they shall pray and make supplication
unto thee, toward Christ, this house, toward Christ, Lord God,
for Christ's sake, Satan hath gotten hold of me, and I can't
get loose. Lord God, for Christ's sake,
deliver me from this bondage. When the heaven is shut up, there's
no rain. I'm a hot, dry and thirsty man. You read the article about being
past feeling? When you listen to gospel message
after gospel message and you're in the mood, you're cold. I hope cold, not lukewarm. When a joyful sound is made and
other people are dancing, you can't dance. When a mournful
sound is made and others are weeping, you can't lament. It
doesn't touch. When there are showers of blessings
on some and you're in a dry and thirsty land, your soul is parched
and there's no moisture in you, so that not one drop comes out. They pray. That's what they say. Glory to God. Would you let me
hear the gospel like I heard it when I first heard it? I'm
a sinner just like I was the first day I heard the gospel.
I'm worse against mercy, against love, against grace, against
infinite goodness, against goodness all the days of my life. And I hear the blessed story
of the Lord Jesus Christ being made sin for this rotten, no
good, worthless son of Adam. And I'm not moved by the fact
that he would lay down his life for such a worthless dog as I
am. And I'm not moved by it. God help me in Christ to break
my heart. Send a shower of blessing. Fill
up my soul. Anybody, if they do, if they
feel this, drive, if they pray in Christ's name. And they'll weep again, and they'll
rejoice again, and they'll dance again, and
they'll tell somebody, I thought I'd never hear it again. Huh? Anybody need this? I'm a man of life passions. This touched me. When heaven
is shut up, David prayed in one of his psalms, he says, your
mercy is clean, God. Are the heavens like brass? No. And you're getting this because
you sinned against Him, because you're sinned. That's what it
says all the way through here. It's because of your sin. Then hear me. Forgive thy sin.
Teach me. Teach me why this has come upon
me. Teach me why. You forsake God, you forsake
us. You draw nigh unto God, you'll draw nigh unto Him. If there be in the land, verse
37, famine and pestilence, there'd be a plague. In verse 38, he goes on to say,
whoever prays, it feels the plague of their heart. Did anybody catch
that? Did that touch anybody as we
looked at that? Anybody, whoever prays, it feels
the plague of their heart. And it's in the land. It's everywhere. Oh, there's none that do us good.
No, not one. Their throats are an open sepulchre.
Their lip, poisonous ashes under their lip. Feet are swift to
shed blood. But here's the bad thing about
us. I feel these things in me. Oh, David cried in Psalm 38. My loins are filled with a loathsome
disease. Plague of my heart. Sin is every
before me. Paul said, when I do good, evil
is present. Well, if that's so, if they pray
toward this house, whoever it is, whosoever, that's
why I said that, whoever, doesn't matter who it is, chief of sinners,
doesn't matter what the sin is, all matter of sin shall be forgiven.
Whoever it is that prays toward this house, toward Christ, you'll
hear. He'll forgive. He'll do. He'll
pardon. He's ready to pardon. Verse 39,
here in heaven, you know the hearts of your people. And that's
what it's going to take in them. It's the heart work, that they
may fear thee, that we learn not to sin and bring reproach
upon our Lord. Concerning the stranger, Solomon
prays for the stranger. Lord, concerning the stranger,
That's not of your people, but he comes. If a stranger comes
in you and he's not of your people and he doesn't feel worthy to
be among your people, he doesn't feel as good as your people. He's alienated from the life
of God through the ignorances in him. He's a stranger from
the Commonwealth of Israel, from the covenants and promises, having
no hope without God in this world. But if he comes through Christ, But now, in Christ Jesus, those
who sometimes are far off are made nigh. Receive Him. Hear Him. Answer everything He
asks you to, if a stranger. Can I be a part of this? I'm
a rotten, no-good sinner. I don't deserve to be here. Then
you're probably the only one that does. If the house be worthy, What
makes us worthy is our absolute unworthiness. A stranger. A stranger, hearing, perceiving.
It goes on to say in verse 44, look at this, if your people
go out to battle against their enemy, and the world, our Lord said,
marvel not brethren if the world hates you, men hate you. They're
your enemy, you're not the enemy of the world. God's people are
not the enemy of the world, they're the salt of the earth. The world
is not worthy of God's people. They're not the enemy. But the
world is an enemy of ours, of God's people, they are. And you
come declaring the God of the Bible, you come declaring the
truth, hopefully in love and grace, they'll hate you. As our
Lord said to Samuel, it's not you they hate, it's me. As he
said to Moses and Samuel. And it's not you they hate, it's
your God. Someone actually told my wife
that just recently. I hate your God. And if you deal with, he said,
if you deal, if they deal with their enemy, verse 44, go out
to battle against their enemy. And they feel helpless and hopeless
and weak and unable and inferior and don't know what to say, don't
know what to do, don't know how to deal with it, and feel like
they failed. If they pray towards this happen. Lord God, for Christ's sake,
help me to be a true and faithful witness. Help me to be courageous.
Lord, help me to be bold. Help me, Lord, to defend thy
honor and defend thy name. to love my enemy as myself. Lord, help me to say, tell the
truth in love and in mercy and in grace. Lord, help me. Lord,
help me for Christ's sake. Just like He did with me, let
me do with them. Would you please, Lord? And He'll
hear you. And it says He'll maintain your
cause. He'll maintain their cause. Meaning,
if that enemy doesn't hear you, If there's no peace, if there's
nothing done, he'll confirm it to you. Did you hear that? Man, did you hear that? He'll
maintain your cause. You might have done it wrong.
You might have not said what you wanted to say. You might
not have done it in the right spirit and attitude, but you
did it for God's honor and God's glory. That's your cause, isn't
it? Isn't that a cause? Didn't David say that? Isn't
that a cause? Yes, and he'll maintain it. All those who speak
on his behalf, whoever they deal with, though they take a sword
out like Peter did and want to cut heads off, the Lord will
direct the blow. For Christ's sake. Aren't you
glad? Let's go on now. He says, and
if they sin against thee, in verse 46, and there's no man
that sinneth not, and you be angry with them and deliver them
to the enemy. that they're carried away. And I see people, folks, I see
people, right? The sad thing about this is,
you know, it says me and the Apostle Paul wrote this to young
Timothy. He said, the servant of the Lord must not be, must
not strive, but must be gentle, have to teach, patient with all
men, if God for adventure, Will give them repentance to acknowledge
of truth. Them that are taken captive by
Satan at his will. Couldn't find it, but I just
quote them. They don't know it. That's the problem. They don't know it. Taken captive. And it says, if they end up,
look at verse, I hope every eye will look at this, verse 46.
If you carry them away captive, and God does it to His people
for a reason, under the land of the enemy, out in the world,
that's what happens. That's what happens. God gives
them to the world. It says far and near. It means
they can be real close and still be captive. They'll be in the
pew. Oh, would to God that he would
bring this home to a heart. Wow. If they pray. If you cause them to pray. Lord Christ, Lord God Christ,
in Christ's name, don't deliver me over to this world. Do as
you prayed in your highest priestly prayer, Father, keep them from
the evil one. Father, keep them from the world. I pray not that
thou should take them out of the world, but thou should keep
them from the evil one. Lord, pray that for me, please,
please. The two, my pastor said it years
ago, and it still holds true. Two greatest dangers for professing
believers. Two greatest dangers. You want
to hear this? And people leave and become apostates.
This is one of these two reasons. Number one, materialism. The church at Laodicea was rich
and increased with goods. Had no need of nothing. Now,
they're hot or cold, the gospel's the same to them all the time,
lukewarm. Spew you out of my mouth. Because they were rich
and increasingly good, not poor and needy. Secondly, evil communication,
worldly companions. Draw your heart away. Solomon's
wives drew his heart away. They were not believers, they
were unbelievers. Those two things. Evil communication. Oh, Lord,
if they're, but if they're carried away, if they're out there in
the world and you bring them to themselves, it says that they're
brought to themselves, like the prodigal brought to himself to
see themselves. If they bethink themselves, if
they stop and say, think, look what I'm doing, look who I'm
doing with, look fine, look at myself, I'm in the hog pen now.
I'm not of the world, but now I'm in it. I'm just like, oh,
Lord God, if they pray toward this hand. Far near. Anybody need this? You know what's sad, as I said
about this captivity, the ones that need it the most sometimes
are the ones that don't hear it at all. Lord God help us. Solomon ends his prayer by saying
they're your people. And you're. Chosen to set him apart. And you're in here. You're you're in here you're.
Don't give. Your. Back to the bottom they're
not there. Don't give. It happened. But then, when he finished, he
blessed and he cried with a loud voice. He said with a loud voice.
And I thought of our Lord praying that high priestly prayer in
the garden. Solomon was kneeling, so was
our Lord in the garden. And then our Lord went to Calvary,
and there on that cross, the first words out of his mouth
were what? Do you know, you know the gospel, you know what the
first words of his mouth were? I'll tell you what they were.
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And
the father always hears. And then when he concluded his
work on Calvary's tree, he cried with a loud voice. like old Solomon. And what our Lord said was, it
is finished. And the Father heard him on behalf
of his people. Every one of those that were
in bondage, every one of those that were held captive, every
one of those that cried stranger, whoever it was, he heard them. He cried. And Solomon said with a loud
voice, God, blessed be God, has given us rest. He's given us
rest. Peace, I believe. God hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Where? In
the house. In Christ, the temple. And I
wanted to read it, but I don't have time. But on down at the
end of that chapter, we didn't read it. Go read it for yourself
later on. It says after all of that, Solomon held a feast. He held a feast. Killed hundreds
of thousands of animals. There's a huge congregation that
heard this prayer. Killed hundreds of thousands.
He said, now, everybody, let's eat. What do you suppose that represents? That great marriage supper of
the Lamb sometimes. For his people, all those that
prayed with Solomon. That he prayed for and prayed
with him. Everyone of them. They were distressed, they were
discontent, those were in debt, come to Him. And they all went home joyful,
full. Everybody was hungry, went away
full. Everybody was thirsty, went away
filled, satisfied. Every sinner that was able to
pray that prayer. went away justified from all
things. Stand with me. Our Lord and our God, our
pitiful words are nothing, and thy word, though through thy
servant Solomon, but even more so greater than he, are great
words that never will pass away. Thank God, thank God, through
Christ, thy word never failed, and there hath not failed of
thee a man to be seated on thy throne, whoever lives to make
intercession for your people, that all who call unto thee by
him plead to him, no matter where they are or what they get into,
no matter how deep or how far they call, how sinful they call. O God, thank you for your mercy. your love, your grace that's
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we, from the heart, truly
say, thank God in Christ. Amen.