So we're reading in 1 Kings chapter
nine and from verse one. This is the word of God. And
it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of
the house of the Lord and the king's house and all Solomon's
desire which he was pleased to do that the Lord appeared to
Solomon the second time as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the Lord said unto him, I
have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made
before me. I have hallowed this house which
thou hast built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes
and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt
walk before me as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart
and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded
thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will
establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised
to David thy father, saying, there shall not fail thee a man
upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from
following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments
and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve
other gods and worship them, then will I cut off Israel out
of the land which I have given them, and this house which I
have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight, and Israel
shall be a proverb and a byword among all people. And at this
house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished,
and shall hiss, and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus
unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, because
they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers
out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods,
and have worshipped them and served them. Therefore hath the
Lord brought upon them all this evil. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. After Solomon had dedicated the
temple, the Lord again appeared to him in a night vision. So
this was the way in which the Lord provided Solomon with another
confirmation of the Lord's pleasure and acceptance of the building
work done by Solomon and the continuance of the sacrifice
worship by the priests. There had been a public display
of God's approval when the glory of the Lord had filled the house
of the Lord. We read that last week in the
portion of scripture that we were thinking about. The glory
of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. The glory of God
had come down into the temple. That was on the day of dedication.
And now here, the Lord again visited Solomon in the night
as he had done before, and he gave another seal of approval
to the work that Solomon had done. Perhaps you remember when
the Lord visited Solomon before, that was at the place called
Gibeon. I think it was mentioned here in the reading. But that
was mentioned a few weeks ago. That was the occasion when God
offered Solomon a gift of whatever he desired in his reign. And Solomon asked for wisdom
so as to rule the children of Israel well. So now we're being
told about a second visit God makes to Solomon and speaks to
him about the temple and insists that Solomon and the people be
faithful to the Lord. He confirms a number of promises
upon the condition that Solomon and the people remain faithful.
And I just want to mention, I've said this before, but it's worth
repeating. Perhaps you think that believing
in the Lord is a difficult and complicated thing to do. And you're not always sure about
what is being said and what's being spoken about when you perhaps
hear me preach or other sermons. And I understand that. And perhaps
you think that it would be a lot easier if the Lord would make
an appearance, like when the cloud filled the temple, or when
he spoke to Solomon in a vision, or even to appear physically
as he sometimes did. We've read about those occasions
in the past. They're called theophanies, when
he sometimes did. But I think I've said this before. We are actually a lot more privileged
and blessed than these Old Testament people who had an occasional
but rare visit from the Lord. And it's true that we have our
Bibles and our Bibles speak about these revelations, but remember
these were to individuals and they were few and far between.
They might seem a lot because they're all gathered together
and collected in one place, but really they were very rare indeed. But we now live in a world which
the Lord has visited and lived in as a man, and where he accomplished
the salvation of his people on the cross, which is testified
and reported many, many times. He was seen of many, many people.
And he accomplished in his death what these people and what these
unusual events were pointing towards so that they were like
signposts along the road while we live in the city to which
these signs point. Indeed, where the Lord Jesus
Christ now lives with us because he lives in the hearts of all
those who trust in him. And it's this trust or faith
that is important. Faith to trust the work of Jesus. Faith that enables us to see
and hear and sense the Lord Jesus speaking to us individually in
the gospel when it is preached, or when we are reading our Bibles,
or when we are praying. And the Lord Jesus now has a
personal relationship with all his people and we walk by faith
and not by sight. For Paul says, ye are the children
of God by faith in Jesus Christ. So that faith in the Lord Jesus
reveals us to be God's children. If we have faith in Him, it shows
that we are His people. Faith is the key to seeing the
Lord Jesus Christ and hearing Him. Not with physical eyes,
but with the eyes of our spiritual understanding. And hearing Him
speak to our heart, not with our physical ears like you're
hearing me speaking to you now, but with ears of our spiritual
understanding. If you find it hard to hear the
Lord, then tell Him you're having trouble. and ask him to make
himself more clear to you and to give you eyes to see and ears
to hear the word of truth and the words of spiritual life that
are declared to you in the gospel. And practice when you are praying
to listen for the Lord speaking to your heart, and practise when
you are reading your Bible, and practise when you are coming
to these services to think about, is the Lord telling me something
as I listen and hear these words? But these days that we're speaking
about in the life of Israel and Solomon, these were the days
before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God spoke
in visions as he did here to Solomon. And the Lord's message
was to reinforce his promise to care for this place, this
building that Solomon had built and the people of Israel. And
this is what the Lord said, and it's a lovely verse because we're
going to speak about it a little bit more fully. It's a lovely
verse. Listen to the verse again. I have hallowed this house. That means he had set it apart,
he had blessed this house. I have hallowed this house which
thou hast built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes
and mine heart shall be there perpetually. Now I'd like you
to listen to this part carefully and I'll try and explain what
that verse means. The Lord is very clear to Solomon. This promise that he gives him
is conditional because God tells Solomon, that means it's dependent
on how Solomon acts and what he does. God tells Solomon that
he will love and watch over the temple and the people of Israel
as long as they obey and worship him. If they disobey, then he
will punish them. If they go after false gods,
like idolaters, then he will cast them out of their country. And anyone who comes to the temple
will mock it and laugh at it. That's what the word hiss means. They'll mock it and laugh at
it. And Israel, we discover, did
exactly that. It was not long before they turned
to false gods and idolatry. And we find that consequently,
in days to come, Assyria, that was one great nation, would conquer
Israel, and Babylon, another great nation, would conquer Judah. And the temple that Solomon built
would be destroyed, and the people would be taken into captivity. And so I ask the question, did
God forget his promise? No, not at all. God didn't forget
his promise, but that promise had a broader and a deeper and
a more significant meaning than just Solomon's temple. Remember,
this building, grand as it was, was just a building, stone and
wood. but its importance for its age
and its time was that it pointed to a spiritual temple, not a
physical temple located in a particular city somewhere in the world,
but a spiritual temple, a spiritual people, which is the Church of
Jesus Christ, the body, the whole number of all true believers
in the world. who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation. Now some of those people you
may know, many of them you don't know because the Lord has his
people everywhere and all of those people that have ever lived
and ever shall live who are true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ
comprise that spiritual temple. Now Solomon was just a man and
he could not fulfil the agreement that God made with him because
he had sin in his life and that sin offended God. All the animal
sacrifices that Solomon offered could not remove his sin. It would take a greater than
Solomon to fulfil all the will of God. And the greater than
Solomon is the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, it always comes back
to the Lord. Our Saviour fulfilled every requirement
and every demand that God laid upon him, which we could never
do. Solomon could not do it, even although he had these personal
visitations from the Lord, yet he still fell into sin. The people of Israel couldn't
do it. They became idolatrous. We can't do it, but the Lord
Jesus Christ can. He was sinless and perfect. So God's promise to Solomon,
although it appears to fail as far as the disobedience of the
nation was concerned and the destruction of the temple, it
finds its true fulfillment in Jesus and the spiritual temple,
which is the Church of God. So that when God says to his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, I have hallowed this house which thou
hast built to put my name there forever and mine eyes and mine
heart shall be there perpetually. this spiritual house, the church
of Jesus Christ, not Solomon's long lost temple, this church
of Christ that Jesus has built by his death and resurrection
with the precious living stones of Believers like you and me,
men and women who trust, boys and girls who trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who trust in Him is what God has put His name
upon. And He honours that temple, that
church. He blesses it with His presence. And the glory of the Lord dwells
in its members. His eyes are ever upon it. He is watching after us, looking
after us, caring for us, to watch and to provide and to protect
His interest in us and our interest in Him, to preserve our worship. His heart is upon us. His love
is perpetual and there is no possibility of God's care and
love and provision ever being lost as it was by Solomon's idolatry. which we will hear about soon,
in a week or two's time, because the Lord Jesus is greater than
Solomon and he has perfectly fulfilled all God's demands and
our blessings are assured. They are certain, they are unconditional
now because of Christ's obedience and because our saviour and representative
has done everything that was required of him. That kind of covers what I wanted
to say about the verses that we read. Let me just mention
a couple of things from the last part of this chapter, just so
that I've alluded to them as we pass through. The rest of this chapter speaks
about Solomon's friendship with Hiram, King of Tyre. Now you'll remember Hiram because
he was the one that provided all the craftsmen and all the
cedars of Lebanon and all the wood that was used to build Solomon's
temple and other things that Solomon built as well. So these
men kept on a friendly relationship for most of their lives. And here we learn about something
else. We learn about Solomon's navy. Who knew that the children of
Israel, in the days of Solomon, had a navy? We might have thought
of them having an army. They certainly wouldn't have
had an air force, unless we're going to think about angels.
But they had a navy. And in verses 26 and 28 of this
chapter, we read this. And King Solomon made a navy
of ships on the shore of the Red Sea. in the land of Edom. And Hiram, that's Hiram of Tyre,
his friend, sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had
knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they
came to Ophir and fetched from Thenes gold, 420 talents, and
brought it to King Solomon. I think this means that Solomon
built ships with Hiram's help with which he traded with other
nations, perhaps locally, perhaps at great distance. And this all
goes to show how God did indeed bless Solomon with great wisdom
and riches. But more of that later. Let me
finish today by pointing out this. Whatever we accomplish
in this life, on land, on sea, in the air, in business, or wherever
it is that we may end up as far as our lives and our careers,
whatever the world may hold for us. Our greatness will amount
to very little if we have not the Lord Jesus in our life. All of Solomon's work, great
as it was, is gone. and largely forgotten. And that
is true for all things physical and material. We all want to
build things and we all want to be involved in good and positive
things. But let us not get so taken up
with things and people around us or the opportunities with
which we are presented that we forget about the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon appeared to have everything. Jesus once asked, what shall
it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? And I encourage you to trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal saviour while you are
young. Ask him for help and he will
answer. Tell him that you struggle if
you can't understand what you're hearing and he will help you
with that too. Trust him, depend on him. He
is faithful. He will not let you down. And
you may be young, but the Lord Jesus says to us all, seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these
things shall be added unto you. Thank you once again for listening. May the Lord bless you.