You will find my text this morning
and the title of my message in the opening line of First Kings
8, 27. Solomon had just seen God come
to dwell in the temple. The priest had taken the ark
with staves into the Holy of Holies, pulled out the staves
in the glory of the Lord. filled the house where they were.
When Solomon saw that, he raised a question, a question that expresses
not doubt or unbelief, but astonishment. He says, will God indeed dwell
on the earth? If the Lord will give me grace
to do so. I want to preach to you today and every Sunday for
the next five weeks, maybe the next six weeks on this astonishing
thing, God dwelling on the earth for the next several weeks, the
whole world, everywhere in the world, like it or not, men will
be continually confronted with this fact. There was a time. a time called due time, a time
called the fullness of time, a time for which the world had
been made when God came in human flesh to dwell on the earth. What a wondrous, astonishing
thing. God came in the person of his
darling son, Jesus Christ, the Lord, to dwell on the earth. During this season of the year,
we are all busy. Busy shopping for gifts and decorating
our houses and planning get togethers with family and friends. And
our minds are occupied with all the things associated with the
Christmas season. All those things I fear except
the fact that God indeed came to dwell on the earth. I have no regard for the holiday. I have no regard for December
the 25th. As far as I'm concerned, December
25th is less important than June 1st or June 10th. I'll let you
figure out the reasons why. December 25th is not the day
of our Lord's birth. Any fool understands that, unless
he's been duped with religious idolatry. But oh, I thank God
that in His good providence, Even through the cunning craftiness
of Satan, God Almighty has fixed it. So the whole world is forced
to acknowledge that Jesus Christ, God's son, once came into this
world and walked on this earth and did something. The whole
world is forced to acknowledge it. But I want us to fix our hearts and minds principally
on him. Christ came here to save his
people from their sins. And if I can, I want to do what
God will allow me in preaching, to focus your heart and my own
on this astonishing fact that's put before us in the book of
God and put before us here in the form of a question of astonishment. Will God indeed dwell on the
earth. 493 years after Israel had been
delivered from the bondage of Egypt. 17 years after David, his father,
had gone to glory, Solomon finished the temple of God. The temple
that David had in his heart to build. And the Lord God said
to him, no, you can't build it. You gather all the material.
but I'll give you a son and your son will build me a house. And
that son being the king of peace, that son being Solomon, the beloved
of the Lord, like his father David, the mighty king and the
sweet singer of Israel, was typical of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer. It took Solomon 13 years to build
that magnificent structure in Jerusalem. And then when the
temple was finished, when the Ark of the Covenant had been
brought into the most holy place, the Lord God condescended to
come into the temple. And the glory of the Lord filled
his house. Then we read in 1 Kings 8.22,
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. What a great name for our God. He is Lord God over everybody,
but he is the Lord God of Israel. He's the Lord God supreme, but
he's the Lord our God. There is no God like thee in
heaven above or in earth beneath. who keepest covenant and mercy
with thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts. Solomon
here extolled God as the only true and living God and declares
that he is the Lord our God and there is no God but our God,
none beside him, none like him, none to be compared to him. He
is above all in his nature, in his being, and in all his works.
He's the supreme sovereign of the universe. He's the covenant-keeping
God of his people. He is merciful, gracious, and
good. He is faithful and true, fulfilling
all his promises to all his people. And yet this great, glorious
God, He who the scripture says, inhabiteth eternity. What a word. He inhabiteth eternity. He condescended to come down
to this earth, to come into that physical temple, and to dwell
there in the midst of his people on the earth. To Solomon, this
was a matter of utter astonishment. Look at verse 26. And now, O
God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which
thou spakest unto thy servant David, my father. What was that? God told David before he died,
he said, I'll build you a house. And he said, I'll build you a
kingdom. And there shall not lack a man to sit on thy throne,
the throne of Israel forever. Solomon says, now, Lord, let
this word that you spoke to my father, David, be verified. Let it be performed. But will
God Indeed dwell on dear He's praying he's praying for
God to do what God said he would do that's always a good way to
pray Lord do as thou has said let your word be verified your
word that you spoke to my father David you you promised my father
and that his house you would build forever. You promised my
father that his throne you would establish forever. And you promised
my father that there would never lack a man of his loins to sit
on his throne forever. And Solomon understood that promise
to mean this. Here God came down. and showed
himself dwelling among his people in his temple. That's what the promise means. God will come and dwell on the
earth. Oh, what an astonishing thing. And I remind you again, this
is not an expression of a question. or a doubt or unbelief. It is
a question expressing astonishment. Will God who dwells on high,
who humbles himself to look upon things in heaven and stooped
to consider things on the earth, will this great glorious God
condescend to dwell with men on the earth? That's utterly
astonishing. And yet it is the surest truest
fact of history. It is a fact of history so invariably
established, so indisputably established, so completely recorded
that no man can deny it. God came to dwell on the earth. Men can argue and debate and
fuss about when the earth was created, 6,000 years ago or 6
trillion years ago. And they'll find ways to speculate
this thing or that. Men can argue and fuss and debate
about the Garden of Eden. They can't find any evidence
of it. Well, sometimes I saw something on there just flipping
through the channels late one night. They think maybe they
found it. I flipped on, watched Gunsmoke
or something. They fuss and argue, debate about lots of things.
Lots of things. But this fact, none can deny. God came to dwell
on the earth. His name's Immanuel. God with
us. God in our nature. And this is
the thing I want to proclaim to you today. Will God indeed
dwell on the earth? The condescension of the almighty,
holy, sovereign God to dwell on this earth is a matter of
astonishing grace. Let me show you four things clearly
set before us in this astonishment that Solomon expressed. First,
the God of whom he speaks is the infinite God. Second, he
is the incarnate God. And third, He is the indwelling
God, and fourth, He is the immaculate God. Here's the first thing.
This one who came to dwell upon the earth in the temple at Jerusalem
is the Lord God, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, the
infinite God. Hold your hands here in first
Kings and turn over to Psalm 139. On that great day, when the temple
was built in Jerusalem, for the first time in history, when the
Ark of God was finally brought into its resting place, into
the Holy of Holies, God came down, not to visit men upon the
earth, but to dwell upon the earth. It's amazing that he should
do so, because he who is our God, is immense, infinite, beyond
conception, the God of glory. This is what Solomon said, behold,
the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. We're talking about God who fills
the earth and more. He doesn't just fill the earth
with his presence. He fills the universe with His
presence. He is infinite. Now we use that
word infinite a great, great deal in the most ridiculous of
ways because we use it to refer to that which is finite. We use the word infinite to refer
to that which is really limited. We use the word infinite to refer
to that which is great and big and beyond measurement to us,
but still something that is measured. God alone is infinite. Infinite. Infinite. So that he inhabits eternity. And the heavens and the earth
combined are insufficient to contain him. He cannot be contained by time
or space. He's the omnipresent God. And yet this God came to dwell
on earth. Look here in Psalm 139 verse
7. When we say God is omnipresent, the word simply means he's everywhere.
in heaven and in earth, even in hell all the time. There's
no getting away from him. Psalm 139 verse 7, Whither shall
I go from thy presence or from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say
surely the darkness shall cover me. Even the night shall be light
about me. Oh, wicked men presume darkness
covers them from God. Little realizing that darkness
is light to him. But this is not a wicked man
speaking. This is a believing man. How often our soul covered with darkness. And we foolishly imagine, surely
the darkness covers us and hides us from God. And yet we know
better for even the night is light round about us before our
God. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as day and the darkness and the
light are both a light to thee. God is everywhere exercising
his power. with his own right hand executing
his decrees in all the earth, in heaven above and in hell below. He's everywhere in his power.
God is everywhere in the sovereign exercise and dominion of his
providence, manipulating, arranging, controlling all things exactly
according to his will, according to his purpose for the everlasting
salvation of his people and the glory of his own name. God is
everywhere in his omniscience, beholding all things, all places,
all events, even the secrets of the hearts of all men at one
time. Now, I just said more than I
can comprehend by a long shot. He's everywhere, comprehending
all things. Past, present, and future at
one time. The eyes of the Lord are in every
place beholding the evil and the good. Yet this immense God,
omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, came to dwell upon the earth. If ever we get some kind of an
idea of what Solomon observed, we will cry with astonishment
as he did, will God indeed dwell on the earth? Heaven is his throne. The earth is his footstool. But
the king of glory came down here to dwell on his footstool. The
earth, this round ball of water and clay, is a suitable habitation
for man and beast. The heaven, even the heavens
are the Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children
of men, the psalmist said. Yet God came to dwell down here
on this earth. This fact is even more astonishing
when we consider how this earth on which he dwells is set before
us in scripture. It is curse. corrupted by sin. So under the curse of God and
permanently so that the Lord God declares that the earth brings
forth thorns and briars and thistles continually because of sin that
man commits upon the earth. That which is the curse of the
earth has its root in the fall of our father Adam in his rebellion
against God. And therefore, for the sake of
Adam's transgression, the Lord God said, you'll live on this
earth in sorrow and you'll earn your living by the sweat of your
brow because this earth is cursed. The God who cursed the earth
came here to dwell upon the earth. The earth is marked for burning. I can't help saying it. I get
more than a little annoyed when I'm not laughing at the foolishness
of men like Mr. Gore. Oh, the earth is burning
up. Of course it is. But not the way you suppose.
Not the way you suppose. One of these days, God's going
to burn it up. It is reserved to fire against
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. And yet God came
to dwell on this earth. The inhabitants of the earth
among whom he came to dwell are the fallen, depraved, sinful,
cursed, corrupt sons and daughters of Adam. When the Lord God condescended
time and again to look upon the inhabitants of the earth, this
is what he says. They are all gone aside. They
are together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. It would be a marvelous act of
condescension. Should the Lord God look upon
the earth with tolerance? and much more marvelous that
he should visit it. What is man that thou visitest
him, David said. And yet our text declares that
God who is purity of pure eyes than to behold iniquity, God
who is holiness, God who is light came to dwell on this earth that's
imbuer, that's unholy and covered with darkness. That's simply
astonishing. Surely, if God came to dwell
on this earth, if God has come to dwell on this earth, He did
not come here to get something from man. He did not come down here to
get something from the earth. He did not come down here to
get something from you and me. Oh no! If God in heaven has come
to dwell on the earth, He came to do something great and to
give something no man could have except he come to the earth.
He came down here to give sinners grace and life and salvation. Grace and life and salvation
that could not be obtained by such things as we are except
God come to dwell on the earth. But that temple, glorious as it was, that temple
with all its gold and silver and luxury, that temple with
all its grandeur, that temple with all its ordinances and services,
that temple with all its gold furnishings, things overlaid
with gold and made of pure brass and pure gold, that temple has
been destroyed and has been gone for 3,000 years. And it's gone forever. It's gone
forever. Doesn't matter what the prophecy
crackpots had to say. It's gone forever. It's gone forever. So
it's obvious, at least it is to me, and I would hope to you,
that the presence of God dwelling in that temple foreshadowed and
prefigured greater things to come. Things even more astonishing
than God coming down and planting himself in that holy of holies
after the temple was established. So second, I want you to see
that our text refers to the marvelous incarnation of our Lord Jesus
and his dwelling on the earth to work out salvation for his
people. Will God, God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed
dwell on the earth? Yes, he has, and yes, he does. And this is marvelous in our
eyes. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich, yet for your sakes,
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich.
Christ Jesus is God. Turn to John chapter one. John
the first chapter. I know you can quote it, but
I want you to look at it. Jesus Christ, the man is God. Now let that settle in. He is
the God-Man and He is the Man-God, Christ Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth
is God Almighty in all His glorious being. Yet, He dwelt, He tabernacled
on the earth. John 1. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, face
to face with, equal with, one with God. The three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And the Word was God. Let me
give you a more accurate translation. And God was the Word. And God
was the Word, verse 14. And the Word. This Word was God. The Word was made flesh. How can that be? How can the infinite God, whom
the heavens cannot contain, be made flesh? I don't know, but
I can sure rejoice in it. The Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us, and we beheld
his glory. We observed, we saw his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Moses' tabernacle, which was
pitched in the wilderness, was typical of Christ's human nature,
typical of his humanity. This is what we read in the scripture
with regard to that. It is the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. That's our Savior's human nature.
The temple that Solomon built into which God came and dwelt
was also typical of our Savior's body of his human nature. He
said in John chapter 2, destroy this temple. Speaking of his
body, and I will raise it up in three days. He who is our
Redeemer is the true God. He's called in Titus 2, the great
God. He is the brightness of the Father's
glory and the express image of his person. He's the maker of
all things, our creator. And Jesus Christ is overall God
blessed forever. That's how it's described in
the scriptures. Hebrews chapter 1 he's described in this way
speaking referring to the psalm where God said thou art my son
this day have I begotten thee Referring both to his everlasting
covenant mercy and to that day when it was raised from the dead
He said let all the angels of God worship him The angels are
called upon to worship him because he's their Lord All men, good
and bad, are subject to Him. He's the Lord. He dwells and
always has dwelt in the highest heaven. He rideth upon the heaven
of heavens over all God, blessed forever. And therefore, He's
called the Lord from heaven. Christ Jesus is that one who
came down from heaven to do His Father's will. and while he was
here on this earth doing his father's will. You know where
he was? You know where he was? He was still
in heaven. Let me show you. Turn to John
chapter 3. John chapter 3. Our Lord's talking
to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, being the religious
fool he was, came to the Lord Jesus and said, good master,
we know thou art a teacher come from God. No, he wasn't. He was God come to teach. There's
a difference. In verse 13, our master says,
and no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down
from heaven, even the son, not the son of God, not the son of
God. That's not the word he uses.
Even the son of man, now watch it, which shall be in heaven. Anybody got a Bible reads like
that. No. No. Even the Son of Man which
is in heaven. The Lord Jesus from everlasting. from everlasting stood before
God our Father as our covenant mediator, our surety and representative,
the surety and savior and representative of men upon this earth. And while
he was on this earth in human flesh performing his everlasting
commission as our surety, he was still God in heaven at the
same time. Now, I can't tell you how many
probably thousands of pages I have read in the last 40 years trying
to explain that. And you know what? I don't understand
one bit more about it now than I did first time I read it. Not
one bit. How can he be a man with physical
limitations A man who can only be in one place at one time.
A man who can walk there and walk there. Who can run there
and lay there. And yet be God incomprehensible. I don't have a clue. And I'm
going to tell you a secret. Nobody else does either. Not
a clue, but he is. But why are you saying all this,
Brother Dodd? I want you to understand. Our Savior never ceased to be
God. Never. He did not just take upon himself
our nature. He took our nature into union
with Himself in all His glorious being as God and in Him that
man, Jesus Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in
a body. That's the language of Scripture.
That's the language of Scripture. He's God Almighty. Sometimes
We're seeing things and the hymn writers, you know, try to get
things to work just right with rhyme and rhythm. And they use
words they shouldn't use. He laid his Godhead by. No, he
didn't. No, he didn't. He laid aside
his glory. No, he didn't. No, he veiled
his Godhead for men. He veiled his glory for men.
But he laid nothing aside. When our Lord Jesus nursed at
his mother's breast like any other newborn baby, he's God
supplying her breast with milk. And Rex, he would have died without
the milk from his mother's breast. He's God and man. While he walked
on this earth, he had to eat and drink just like any other
man. But he's God who made the loaves and the fishes and God
who multiplies them. Brother Benji was talking earlier
today in the lesson this morning about trying to teach children
and our grandchildren, why don't you get this? And I thought immediately,
sometimes they get it so much better than we do. When Will
was just a couple of years old, I'd been talking to him about
God creating everything, making everything. And he and his dad
were sitting in a store, shop somewhere. And we looked at Doug
and he said, God made that door, didn't he? And Doug said, well,
God made the tree and the men cut down the tree and they sawed
the lumber and they took it to the mill and they made the pattern
and they cut out the door and hung the door there. That's what
I said, God made the door, didn't he? That's exactly it. Jesus Christ is God in human
flesh. And when He was made sin for
us, He never ceased to be the infinite, incomprehensible, holy
God. And yet He made sin. And when
He died for us, the scripture tells us that He purchased the
church, the church of God, which God purchased with his own blood. Oh brother Don, what fool would
say God has blood? I wouldn't. I wouldn't dare say
that. But the God man did. The man
God did. And the blood he shed is called
the blood of God. You can read it for yourself
in Acts 20. The blood of God. If it weren't the blood of him
who is God, it was meaningless blood. useless blood. Our Lord Jesus Christ who is
life. That's what God is, isn't it?
Life. Life. He never ceased to be life when
he laid down his life to give us life. Lord Jesus came to dwell on the
earth. God in our nature Because this
was what was proposed to him in covenant mercy before the
world began. And his delights were with the
sons of men as he stood before God as our accepted surety. And
his delights were continually made manifest throughout the
days of the Old Testament anticipating the time when he would come here
in human flesh and dwell upon the earth to redeem and save
his people. Oh, how anxious, how anxious
his heart beat in anticipation of coming to save us. The joy
that was set before him, the everlasting salvation of his
people is that which was continually on his heart throughout the days
of old. In the Garden of Eden, no sooner
did Adam sin than he came to speak mercy. No sooner had sin
entered into the world that he came and spoke to Eve and Adam
and promised that he would come, the seed of woman, to crush the
serpent's head. When Abraham walked in the plains
of memory, the God of glory appeared to him. That God of glory is
Christ our Redeemer. All those pre-incarnate manifestations
and revelations of God coming, the angel of the Lord manifesting
himself to men, all of them were Jesus Christ showing man himself
as he would come into this world to redeem. Jacob saw him as the
angel wrestled with him. And the angel conquered him and
he gave him a new name, called him Israel. Jacob saw him as
a ladder, a ladder Reaching up in heaven and coming down that
ladder. The angels of God going back
up to that ladder, the angels of God. That's the only connection
we have with heaven is Christ our Redeemer. Manoah and his
wife saw him. He revealed himself to them and
did gloriously in the sacrifice they made and declared his name
to be secret and wonderful. This is he of whom Isaiah spoke
when he said, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth the
son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. This is he of
whom it is written, a son is given, a child is born. As God the son, he's given. As a child, he is born into this
world. The eternal God could never be
born of a woman? No, no, no. Married not the mother
of God? But God in human flesh came into
this world, given as God the son and born on this earth as
the son of man, a child of flesh. Our Lord Jesus is he. who made
himself known throughout the scriptures as our blessed substitute. And his heart was full of anticipation
of his coming. And then, at last, in the fullness
of time, all the types and prophecies and emblems and anticipation
of his coming were fulfilled. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. Astonishing. Astonishing. But why? Why did he come? Why? He came here to save us. And specifically, there are five
things. Specifically, five things announced
in the scriptures that he came to perform when God came to dwell
on this earth. And these five things are matters
of certainty, for it is written of him, he shall not fail. Number one, he came to save his
people from their sins. That's what he came for. And
Ron, he shall not fail. The son of God came to redeem
us from the curse of the law, to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And he shall not fail. The Lord
Jesus, thirdly, came here to be made sin for us and thereby
to make us the righteousness of God in him. And he shall not
fail. Fourth, he came to redeem to
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, and he shall not
fail. Our Lord Jesus Christ came here
to bring many sons unto glory. All the sons the Father had given
him from old eternity. And he shall not fail. When he finished his work, he
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he bowed
his head like an obedient servant, coming to present himself before
his master when his work was done. And he yielded up the ghost. The apostles saw him after his
resurrection ascend up into heaven. And there Stephen saw him sitting
at the right hand of the majesty on high and every believing sinner
by faith looking away to Christ the Lord, sees Him exalted. God over all, blessed forever,
seated as the Lamb and the Lord and the Lion on the throne of
almighty grace. And it is He whom we trust to
save us. Here's the third thing. Though He's gone to heaven, there
to make intercession for us, Our Lord Jesus still dwells on
the earth. He is our indwelling God. I'm talking now about what the
old Puritans used to call the divine presence. Let me read
a little bit of it to you. Turn to John 14. Verse 18. The Lord just said, he dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. Speaking of the spirit of God.
He says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.
Verse 20. He says, at that day, you shall
know that I am in my father and ye in me and I in you. Chapter 16, verse 7. It's expedient
for you that I go away. If I go not away, the comforter
will not come to you. And if he doesn't come, you can't
have any life. Chapter 17, verse 23. In verse 22, it says, The glory
which thou gavest me, I have given to them, that they may
be one, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. Verse 25, O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. And these
have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me be in them, and I in them. He dwells in the hearts
of his people by faith. Being born again by his spirit,
we are made partakers of the divine nature. That means he
lives in us. Christ in you. Christ in you. Where does he dwell on this earth?
Look here. In this heart. Where he is most opposed. By all my sins. in this heart
where he is most neglected, in this heart where his spirit is
most grieved, in our hearts he takes up our abode. His abode
and world dwells with us and will never leave us. God the Father God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit dwell on earth in the hearts of his people. One more thing. Now quit. You can read it for yourself
in Revelation 21 and 22. Soon our Savior will come again
and he will make all things new. and he will dwell on this earth
now listen as the immaculate god on an earth he has made to
be an immaculate earth with a people he's made to be an immaculate
people and the temple of god is god our savior oh Will God indeed dwell on the
earth? Yes, He will. Yes, He will. Soon, soon, soon. He will remove from this earth
all sin and all the consequences of sin. and from us his people
will remove those things forever and wipe away all tears from
our eyes and we will dwell on the earth with God and God dwell
on the earth with us forever. No wonder when Paul spoke of
this hope he spoke of it as the Blessed hope. God make it yours. Amen.