First of all, let's read the
first eleven verses of 1 Kings, chapter 8. Then Solomon assembled
the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the
chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto King Solomon
in Jerusalem, that he might bring up the ark of the covenant out
of the city of David, which is Zion. and all the men of Israel
assembled themselves unto King Solomon at the feast in the month
Ethan, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel
came, and the priests took up the ark." and they brought up
the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of the congregation,
and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even
those did the priests and the Levites bring up." and King Solomon,
all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him,
were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that
could not be tolled for number. And the priest brought him the
ark of the covenant and the ark of the Lord unto his place, into
the oracle of the house to the most holy place, even under the
wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth
their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims
covered the ark and the staves thereof above. and they drew
out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out of
the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without. And they, there they are until
this day." There was nothing in the ark
save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb,
when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel,
when they came out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass,
when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud
filled the house of the Lord, so that the priest could not
stand a minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord
had filled the house of the Lord." Now, verse 22 through 23, please. And Solomon stood before the
altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel
and spread forth his hands toward heaven, and he said, Lord God
of Israel, there is no God like Thee, in heaven above or on the
earth beneath, who keepeth covenant and mercy with Thy servants that
walk before Thee with all their heart. All right, now jump down
to verse 54 through verse 56 where we want to be this evening.
And it was so, verse 54, and it was so that when Solomon had
made an end of praying all this prayer and suffocation unto the
Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling
on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. And he stood and
blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice saying,"
and watch 56, "'Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto
his people Israel according to all that he promised. There hath
not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised
by the hand of Moses his servant.'" Now, the unfailing word of the
Lord. But I don't think we can really
get all the full benefit out of this unless again we get our
contextual bearing, that is, we look at the larger or the
overall picture, because all the text here that we have read
have to do with the dedication of Solomon's temple that was
built. and he who had all the workers
gather the material and had built it, and in which in chapter 8
it is then or now consecrated unto use and unto the Lord God. And it was an impressive ceremony,
by the way, if we had time to read all of the chapter. At last
there is in Israel, in the city of Jerusalem, a fixed, permanent
building that is completed and ready for use, ready for worship. We surely remember that for years
and years There had been just the tabernacle, the tent as it
is sometimes called, a portable building, and that it was put
up and taken down. It was moved from place to place
whenever God led the people to a new place. This one had been
constructed under the directions that God had given unto Moses
when he was with him in the mount. By special revelation was its
dimensions and all given, and then there were the materials
that were gathered. All the materials were then fashioned
together and assembled by men that the Spirit of the Lord had
given them wisdom and gifted them for that task. And this
tabernacle was the place where God put his typical presence
and dwell there above the mercy seat between the cherubim in
all of those years of wandering in the wilderness, and this one
place was the heart and the center of the worship of God. And who
knows how many times it had been assembled, how many times it
had been taken down and moved to another place, and that was
always the task of the Levites or the priests. Then we fast
forward here unto that time when David was king of Israel." And
this comes from 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse 1 through 3. I'm
not turning there, but the gist of it is this, that David, finding
respite from the war and the fighting of his enemies, and
the turmoil of war, found himself with a season of leisure, of
peace, and of quiet. And on a certain time when King
David was in the company of the prophet Nathan, evidently they
were friendly and had a good correspondent. And one time when
he was in the presence of the prophet Nathan, the king, that
is David, expressed to the prophet Nathan saying, look at me, just
look at this. I dwell in a sealed house. I'm living in a house of cedar."
And he said, the ark of God is dwelling in curtains. I'm living
in a fine home made out of imported cedar, and yonder the tabernacle
of the Lord, the ark of the Lord is in a tin. By the way, in Haggai
chapter 1, a little bit different situation, but still there is
a contrast. on the return from Babylonian
captivity, and the temple lay in ruins when the people came
again unto Jerusalem. And the people said in verse
2 of that place, the time is not come that the house of the
Lord should be built, And then the prophet scolds them in verse
4, Is it time for you to dwell in your sealed houses, and the
house of God lies in waste? David, therefore, would wish
to see a permanent abiding place for the ark of God, and to be
built to contain that ark. And the prophet gave him his
blessing. Go, do all that is in your heart. But in verses 4 through 7, in
1 Kings chapter 7, the Lord visits Nathan in that very night, And
he bids Nathan to go and to speak words unto the king, even David
that is there, that God had not dwelt in a house, but in all
of his workings were them, in all that God had done for them. Not once had he asked them to
build a house for him to dwell in. Not at any time, God said,
did I ever ask any tribe or the nation or any generation to build
me a house of cedar. Now, did the Lord impress this
upon David's heart in 1 Kings 8, 17 and 18, where it certainly
would not only be a new thing, but it would be a great change
in the way of worship in Israel? Did the Lord impress this in
the heart of David? I believe that he did when you
read 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 17 and verse 18, that it was
the Lord God that put this into the heart of David. and yet he
refuses David to have that honor because he was a man of war. And even though he gives the
prophet what seems to be a rebuke, we do not consider it as a fearful
reaction as Peter did on the Mount of Transfiguration when
he said, Let us build three tabernacles. one for Moses, one for thee,
and one for Elijah. Or does the Lord's rebuke serve
as a reminder, as Solomon said, the Lord is not confined to any
earthly house, nor can he be. How can a house be God's only
dwelling place? Solomon said. How can it be that
the God of heaven and of earth dwell in a house? Says Solomon,
1 Kings 8 verse 23, and again in verse 27. There is no God
like unto you in heaven above or in earth beneath. Will God
indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven of heavens
cannot contain thee, how much less than this house that I have
built." The Solomon built the temple of the Lord, and in 1
Kings chapter 8 he made a great feast, as we read. Then he prayed
one of the longest and one of the best prayers you'll find
anywhere in the Scripture, and he gave the people good exhortation,
sound and spiritual. And in verse 1 through verse
11, The house being ready, the priests brought the Ark of the
Covenant, all the holy vessels out of the tabernacle. Then when
they left, the glory of the Lord, even as He had done in the original,
took up the place and filled it all with His glory, just as
He had done in Exodus chapter 40 to the tabernacle. Coming
to the text in 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse 56. There has not
failed," and you notice the margin of your Bible might say, fallen. There has not failed, there has
not fallen one word of all God's promise. There is here both a
narrow and a wider application. In the narrower, he speaks of
the promise spoken to David concerning the building of the house of
God, as we shall soon see. But the wise Solomon also broadens
the application, if you look again at verse 56, saying, There
hath not fallen one word of all of his promises which he spoke
unto us by the mouth of his servant David." Now, let me say this,
we are able by means of Scripture to follow outworkings of these
things. that what God said came to pass. We're looking down upon history,
you and I. It is as if we are able to look
down upon these events and see them as they unfolded there. Then also remember that Solomon
and the people were at this time looking back to see what God
had wrought as they realized that they had seen the fulfillment
of God's word and God's promise unto them. Now, concerning the
narrower or the nearer application of the premise, look at the words
in verse 56, "...there hath not failed one word of all of his
good promise. Now, I ask you to drop back with
me, and I'll read verse 12 through verse 15 of the same chapter. Then spake Solomon, the Lord
said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely
built thee a house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide
in forever. And the king turned his face
about, blessed all the congregation of Israel, and all the congregation
of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel, which spake with his mouth, unto David my father,
and hath his hand fulfilled it saying." In other words, he could
see that all that God said to his father David had indeed been
accomplished. But especially there in verse
15, that what God spoke to David, his hand had fulfilled. What
his mouth said, his hand had brought to pass. And we think
that the discussion here seems to be primarily concerning the
sitting up of a permanent tabernacle or temple. what God told David
concerning the house of the Lord had come to pass. It had been
accomplished what God promised unto David. And what did God
tell David about the house of the Lord? In verse 18 and 19,
the first part, that the thought and the intention of David to
build the temple was good. However, he, David, would not
build it, and this word stood. David did not build the house
of the Lord. But then B, we notice that David
would be dead prior to the building of this house of the Lord. Dead,
by that time, and have no hand in it at all. And then C, we
notice, that the sons of David's loins would build the house unto
the Lord. 1 Kings 5 and 5, 1 Kings 8 and
verse 19. And Solomon tells them in 1 Kings
chapter 8, and let's look at verse 20. And the Lord hath performed
his word that he spake, And I am risen up in the room of David
my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised,
and have built a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel."
Not only had it come to pass, but it came to pass in the way
that God had said or predicted, by the hands of Solomon. Solomon was king in the place
of his father, and under the supervision of Solomon there
was built a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. Solomon thought it a tribute
to the faithfulness of God, and who would not? Surely those people
had to be reminded of that. He took this to be a fulfillment
and a confirmation of the veracity of God, that God's Word is true
and will come to pass, that the building of the temple was not
sidetracked nor did the idea die with David, but in accordance
with God's word of promise, there stood at this time in Jerusalem
the house of the Lord, a temple. And it is well that the people
of God remember and be reminded of His faithfulness and of His
sovereign providence and how He has guided our step, and be
reminded of the power the authority of the Word of God, that he that
has spoken it will also do it, or bring it to pass, that it
shall be exactly as he said, with nothing mixed or in error. But, as mentioned, Solomon also
expands the fulfillment of God's Word further than just the building
of the temple by saying in the 56th verse again, There has not
failed one word of all the good promise which God spoke by the
hand of Moses." Now, I want us to go to the book of Joshua. If you want to turn, fine, but
I'm going to read a passage from the twenty-first chapter, and
then there will be another place in Joshua. So, if you'd like
to go to the book of Joshua, verse forty-three through verse
forty-five for our reading, please. Chapter 21, verse 43 through
verse 45, And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he
sware to give unto their fathers, and they possessed it and dwelt
therein. And the LORD gave them rest round
about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers. And there stood not a man of
all of their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all of their
enemies into their hand. Watch. there fail not aught of
any good thing which the Lord God had spoken unto the house
of Israel, all came to pass." This is what Matthew Henry called
a concluding summary, for they are safe in the land. Just as
the temple was set up, that there is another place where the people
could pause and could look back and they could reflect upon their
past. They could see how their God
had performed exactly as He had promised unto them by the hand
of Moses. And this relates, of course,
to that period when they were delivered from Egypt and brought
into the land of Canaan. Herein is the fulfillment of
the promise made to Abraham that his seed would be and live and
dwell in the land of Canaan, Genesis 12 and verse 7, Genesis
13, 15, Genesis 17 and verse 8, and Genesis 24 and verse 7,
that Abraham's seed would dwell in the land, the land promised
unto his seed. Children of Abraham settled in
the land flowing with milk and with honey. The wilderness was
behind them. Jordan had parted and they had
crossed over into the land. Their enemies had been driven
out in miraculous ways, some by bees and wasps and some by
their own hand. and the land had been parted
into lots." There had already been the division of the territory,
this tribe and that tribe. And in verse 43, they possessed
it and they dwelt in the land. The Lord gave them rest. The
cities of refuge were appointed for manslayers. And in verse
forty-eight, cities were given to the Levites. Again, in verse
forty-five, the matter is summed up, there fail not ought of anything
which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came
to pass. Not a word, not a word of God. fell down upon the ground. Not
one promise failed or fell short. Not a thing left undone that
God had set out to do. Nothing frustrated God's will,
and especially not the almost continuous rebellion of the people
themselves. But let's realize the promise
was not fulfilled immediately. They did not go in immediately,
not in the generation that left out of Egypt, even with Moses. They did not go directly to Canaan. They were forty years or more
wandering about in the wilderness. And all of those who were aged
twenty and above, when they came out of the land
of Egypt, only two, Caleb and Joshua, entered into the promised
land." Numbers 32 and verse 11. Multitudes of their number perished
in the wilderness, some in plagues, some in judgments directly from
the hand of God. Not even Moses was allowed to
pass over Jordan. He who led them out of Egypt
and directed them in the wilderness and interceded for them in the
sight of God. But in the Lord's time it was
not Moses but Joshua that led them over Jordan and into Canaan. Only two of the original ones
alive Caleb is 85, and when he saw it he said, Give me that
mountain. It's because of their faithfulness when they went to
spy out the land. Also remember God's promise unto
Abraham that he would have an heir. and that he would be a
father unto many. And that promise to Abraham was
not actually fulfilled until the patriarch Abraham was one
hundred years of age. Genesis 21 and verse 5. Not till
he had laid in the surrogate's bed, and he and his wife's body
had become procreatively dead, as Paul says in Romans chapter
4. But all that Abraham was promised
was fulfilled, and there failed not of all of the Lord's words
unto him. Consider another passage I told
you over in Joshua. This one is in the twenty-third
chapter. Here we're interested in verse
fourteen. Again, Joshua speaks to the people,
Behold, this day I'm going the way of all of the earth. And you know in all your hearts
and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the
good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you. All are come to pass unto you,
and not one thing has failed thereof." Joshua 23 and 1. Before his death, Joshua convened
the people and he exhorted them. You read it? I am going the way
of all of the earth. You know, David did the same
thing in the end of his life to his son Solomon. You'll find
it in 1 Kings 2 and 2. Joshua tells them, you know in
all of your heart and you are persuaded, you cannot deny in
your soul, not one thing, not even one has failed to come to
pass of all that God has said concerning you. Joshua is adamant. All has come to pass. Not one
thing has failed. They knew it. They saw it. They
experienced it. They did not hear it from others.
They experienced it themselves. They were eyewitnesses. They could not truthfully deny
that all God's promise had come to pass. They were partakers
of the fulfillment of God's Word and of God's promise, and these
words to Joshua are calculated to serve a dual purpose unto
the people. Number one, a motive and reason
to be faithful to their God. He had been so faithful to them,
let this motivate them to be faithful servants of His. They had been partakers of what
God had done. Let it move them to serve God.
Let them, by these things and the remembrances of it, devote
and consecrate themselves unto the service of the Lord. And
the second thing is that it left them without any excuse for any
idolatry at all in the land. Joshua repeatedly asked, did
Moses before him warned against them serving the gods of the
land when they entered in called upon them serve only the Lord
God of heaven he is God in Joshua chapter 24 he reminds them of
some mighty works of God in behalf of you he says i have given you
a land for which you did not labor. And I want us to listen
to this. It's in verse 13, Joshua 24. He says, I have given you
a land for which you did not labor. I have given you cities
to live in which you did not build and to eat vineyards which
you did not plant. Moses spoke of this beforehand
in Deuteronomy 6, 10 and 11. telling them that God would cause
them to find full houses which they filled not, wells of water
already dug and ready for the using, and they would eat and
be full. Moses called them in Deuteronomy
6 and verse 10, great and goodly cities which you built not. It would be a land ready to dwell
in without having to labor. They could just simply go in
and there were houses. They could go in and there were
wells. They could go in and there were vineyards already ripe for
them to pick unto their delight. But both Moses and Joshua warn
and exhort the people to beware of becoming that is, lazy, not
to espouse any of the gods of the heathen, lest his hand be
upon them." The faithfulness of God makes our unfaithfulness
seem all the more heinous, does it not? Consider another instance
of a man named Samuel. You'll find this in 1 Samuel
3 and verse 19. and Samuel grew, and the word
of the Lord was with him, and did not let any of his words
fall to the ground." See also 1 Samuel 9 and 6. Samuel was
a prophet. Samuel was a seer. People could
find the mind and the will of God from him, and all Israel
knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord, and
the Lord revealed Himself unto Samuel in Shiloh by the word
of the Lord. Samuel's words were words of
God, and let me prove that. It was Samuel who foretold the
judgment upon the house of Levi. It was Samuel who foretold that
Saul would lose his kingdom. It was Samuel that told David
that the sword would never depart from his house, and evil would
be raised up against him out of his own house. A few examples
that the Lord let none of his words fall down onto the ground. Consider an awesome thing stated
in 2 Kings chapter 10 and verse 10, and this concerns Ahab, the
wicked king. Elijah the prophet of God had
said of Ahab and to Ahab, listen, the dogs are going to lick your
blood in the very place where they lick the blood of your wife. 1 Kings 21 and verse 19. And in verse 21, that his posterity
would be destroyed. In verse 23, that the dogs would
eat Jezebel. Hint, 2 Kings 10.10. Know that there shall not fall
to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord which he spoke concerning
the house of Ahab. For the Lord had done which he
spoke to Elijah. Seventy sons of Ahab had been
beheaded, and their heads thrown over the wall and carried in
a basket to the king." This was what came upon the house of Ahab. So, God is faithful in His promises,
but God also is faithful in His threatenings. What he has promised
to bless will not fail. What he has promised and threatened
will not fail either. Now, this brings us to make the
point as we start down the home stretch. There shall not fail
any of the word of the Lord which he hath spoken, neither shall
there fail any of the judgment of evil which the Lord hath spoken
against or in behalf of the wicked. And if you would, Look in the
Scripture, not now, but remember Saul and Ahab and Jezebel and
the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah. We have saved the greatest example
of God's unfailing Word, however, for last, and that is the incarnation
of the Son of God and the perfect and full salvation by and through
Him. Again, there has not one thing
failed of all that God has promised concerning His Son and Redeemer. As Christ said on the cross,
it is finished. He wants to be of the seed of
the woman. Genesis 3.15, yes. Galatians
4.4, made of a woman. He wants to be born of a virgin,
Isaiah 7 and verse 14. And he was, Luke chapter 1 and
verse 27, he was to be born in Bethlehem, Micah chapter 5 and
verse 2, and he was in the second chapter of Luke. He was to be
a great sufferer according to Isaiah 53, and whoever suffered
more. He was to hang on a tree. He
was to be made a curse. He was to die. He was to die,
and he did. He was to be counted among the
criminals in his death, and he was. He was to be with the rich
in his death, and indeed he was buried in a rich man's tomb. He was to rise again from the
dead, and he did. He was to shed forth the Spirit
of God, and he did. All prophecies were fulfilled
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Not one word that God spoke concerning
him, and they are in the hundreds, failed concerning our Lord. When the Jews settled in Canaan,
they were told, God has done all of his work, nothing has
failed. and when the saints have crossed
over and dwell yonder in that heavenly kingdom, when they are
with the Lord, then can it be said, there hath nothing failed,
for all that the Lord hath said, or that hath promised, and all
hath come to pass, As the Scriptures inform us, salvation is exactly
in harmony with the Scripture. Not one is lost that Christ died
for. None have apostatized that the
Spirit of God has quickened. Christ has indeed brought many
sons unto glory. And let me paraphrase what Joshua
and Moses said. They have salvation for which
they did not labor. They have been saved without
a labor won from their hands. Without a single work they have
the salvation of the Lord, and they have a heavenly dwelling
prepared for them already, not made with hands. So this is the
expectation of the children of God. Not one word will have failed
when the Lord has brought many sons unto glory." There will
be none lost that he tried to save. No, all sons of glory will
be brought, not one thing failing. What a wonderful thing. What
a wonderful thing. May it be an encouragement to
us in these days and in this life that God's Word is true. all men may become liars, God's
word is true, and will ever be true, has ever been true." I
hope we believe that. I hope we are not like all these
liberal pinheads in these churches today who don't care anything
about the Scripture or its inspiration. I hope that we fasten ourselves
to the belief that this is the inspired, infallible Word of
our God, a record that He has left, and not one word shall
fail.