2 Chronicles chapter 7. If you have a Pew Bible, you'll
find it on page 526. Let me say something while you're
turning there about the Amplified Bible. If you don't have one,
it would probably be profitable to you to get one. It would be
worth the purchase, I'd say, but just let me say this about
it. I've said it before. It's really not a version. As
you read it, you realize that you find their personal opinions
coming out on certain verses and certain teachings. But it
is the best commentary that I have ever read on the Bible. It's
the best. So if you want to purchase you
one, I would certainly recommend it. And Billy Graham recommends
it. So there you go. As Wanda would
say, I'm just saying. And as Greg would say, yeah. So, you get it and you'll find,
don't let it take the place of your reading the Bible, but you'll
find it profitable. You will find it profitable.
Okay, my text this morning is 2 Chronicles chapter 7, and I
want to read verses 13 through verse 16. Well, let's go back to verse
12. 2 Chronicles chapter 7 and verse
12. And the Lord appeared unto Solomon
by night. And he said unto him, I have
heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house
of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there
be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or
if I send pestilence among my people. If my people which are
called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sins and will heal their land. Now my
eyes shall be opened and my ears attentive unto the prayer that
is made in this house, this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified
this house, that my name may be there forever, and my eyes
and my heart shall be there perpetually." Solomon had just finished building
this house, this temple, the temple of the Lord. And it was
huge, it was beautiful, it was one of the great wonders of the
world when he finished this temple. Magnificent, beautiful house.
The Queen of Sheba, who had seen some wonderful things in her
own lifetime, came here and saw this temple, this house of the
Lord, and she said, the half has never been told. What a beautiful,
beautiful place it was. And he called it here the House
of Sacrifice. And that's what it was known
as throughout the centuries that was to come, the house of sacrifice. And the reason they called it
that was because that's where Israel came to offer their sacrifices
to the Lord. But it's very amazing the amount
of sacrifices that were offered at the dedication of this temple.
Look back in chapter 7 and look in verse 5. Solomon dedicated
this house two ways basically. One was by blood. by animal sacrifices
and by prayer. And look here at the sacrifices
that they offered. This is almost unbelievable.
In verse 5, and King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000
oxen, 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the
people dedicated the house of the Lord. Now, you go up sometimes, you
go down the road sometimes, and you'll run into a dairy farmer
that maybe you'll see 100 cows out in this field or 150 cows,
and you say, man, what a herd he's got. Can you imagine going
by a field and seeing 22,000 ox in a field? Or 120,000 sheep? It's just absolutely amazing.
He had to dedicate the whole center of the temple just to
offer these sacrifices. And it took him seven days to
offer the sacrifice. So that's why they called it
a house of sacrifice. They called it a house of prayer.
He dedicated this house to prayer because you can read in the sixth
chapter, after he had built the temple, he spent almost the whole
sixth chapter on prayer. He built a scaffold four and
a half foot tall. Solomon got on the scaffold before
this humongous multitude of people. He got down on his knees and
he prayed to God in heaven and dedicated this temple through
prayer. And you know from that time on
until the temple was destroyed in AD 70 after it was rebuilt
a couple of times, this temple was known as the house of prayer. the house of prayer. You remember
when the Lord Jesus cleansed the temple? And He drove out
all the money changers and those that bought and sold doves? And
remember the statement that He made? And this is very telling.
The temple wasn't just for the Jews. And I want to show you
that verse in the sixth chapter just for a minute. But you know
the Jews was to take the gospel. They were to take the knowledge
of God among all nations. And even the Gentiles, the strangers,
came here to this temple to worship. And it became the house of prayer
among all nations. And that's what Christ said when
He drove the money changers out of the temple. He said, My house,
and isn't that strange that He called it My house? This is My
house and My house shall be called the house of prayer among all
nations. And that's why Solomon dedicated
this house to the prayer. But he had already been talking
about strangers. Look in chapter 6 and look in
verse 32. Chapter 6 and verse 32. Solomon
made mention of this to the Lord in his prayer. Moreover concerning
the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come
from a far country. for thy great namesake, and thy
mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm. If they come and pray
in this house, then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy
dwelling place, and do according to all the stranger calleth unto
thee forth. That all people of the earth
may know thy name, and fear thee as doeth thy people Israel, and
may know that this house which I build is called by thy name."
You know, we were strangers, weren't we? We were strangers. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2
that there was a time when we weren't called to people. We
were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of promise. We had no hope without God in
this world. But now, in Christ Jesus, You
strangers who were for all are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So this temple was dedicated
with sacrifices and it was dedicated with blood. And some of us have
been meeting on a Wednesday evening and we've been studying about
this temple. Before it was a temple, the tabernacle,
the temple replaced it. We've been studying about all
the sacrifices that were offered in this temple. in Hebrews chapter
7, and some things we found out about all of these things, that
these things were figures of Jesus Christ and the redemption
that's in Him. This temple represents to us
the body and soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. God filled this
temple. He dwelt in this temple. You'll
see when the dedication was finished and the priests went in to offer
their sacrifices, the glory of God, the Shekinah glory, this
cloud filled this temple and they couldn't even minister there.
The glory of God was in this temple. Well, where is the glory
of God now? It's seen in this one person,
isn't it? It's seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the temple. He's the true temple of God that
this temple was only a figure of. He said, destroy this temple,
and in three days I'll raise it up again. They said, well,
it took us 42 years to build this temple. You're going to
raise it up in three days? He said, I'm talking about my
body. Here's the true temple of God. And we found out in our
study of Hebrews that there's two things that these sacrifices
could not do, and yet Christ did this. These blood sacrifices,
all this blood. Can you imagine the barrels of
blood they had to haul from this place and that place? And none
of it took away sin. None of it satisfied for sin.
But the blood of Jesus Christ satisfied for sin. It atoned
for sin. And something else it did that
this blood could not do. It reaches the conscience of
men. It will satisfy the screaming
conscience. It'll purge the conscious from
dead works to serve the living God. So all of these things here
is a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. A figure of Him. It's important to remember that
if we study our lesson today. Solomon had prayed here. Two things was on his heart. He says here in verse 36 of chapter
6. Look here what he says. The Lord
heard Solomon's prayer. He's very concerned about his
people, Israel, and he knew that trouble would come to them. Trouble
comes to everybody, doesn't it? And he was praying for them.
Lord, when trouble comes, and they've sinned against You,
and they look towards this temple, or they come and pray in this
temple, or they're at war and it's going bad for them and they
look towards this temple and they pray towards this temple.
Then hear and forgive and deliver them. And you remember Daniel? When they were carried off into
Babylon because of their sins? Remember what Daniel did three
times a day? He went and opened his window towards this temple
and he prayed. That's why it's so important
as we look at this temple to remember this represents to us
Jesus Christ, the mediator between dust and God. So important to
remember that. And that's Solomon's concern.
These two things were his main concern. When your people get
in trouble and they look towards this temple, Oh Lord, let your
eyes be opened upon this temple, and let your ears bend down and
hear the prayer that's made in this temple. That's his prayer
here in chapter 6. Look at it in chapter 6 in verse
36. Look what he says. If they sin against thee, for
there is no man which sinneth not, And thou be angry with them,
and deliver them over unto their enemies, and they carry them
away captive into a land afar off or near. Yet if they bethank
themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and
turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying,
We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have done wickedly.
If they return unto thee with all their heart and with all
their souls in the land of their captivity, whether you have carried
them captive, and pray towards this land which thou givest unto
their fathers, and towards the city which you have chosen, and
towards this house which I have built for thy name. Then hear
thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer
and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy
people which have sinned against thee. Now, my God, I beseech
thee, I beseech thee, let thine eyes be open, and let thy ears
be attentive unto the prayer that is made in this place. And that's one of the reasons
the Lord appeared to Solomon in chapter 7 and verse 15 and
16. Look what he tells him. He tells
him, my ears are not only going to be open to that place, and
the prayers that's made in this place and towards this place,
my heart's going to be there. My heart's going to be there.
Look what he tells him again in chapter 7 verse 15-16. Continually, without any intermission,
my heart is going to be there towards that temple. Now, here
is what we must do as we read this. We must remember who this
temple is. It is Jesus Christ. And how encouraging
it is when we turn to the Old Testament and we see Him mentioned
here. What does this tell us? The temple
is gone. It is gone. They'll never rebuild
that thing again. Have no need to. But I tell you,
the One that this temple represented is alive. And He is the mediator
on God's right hand. And God's heart is towards Him. God loves His Son. That's what
He said about Him, isn't it? This is My beloved Son. That's why He said, My Son, you've
been away from home. And it's time to come back up
to my house. I want you to sit here where
my eyes can look upon you and my ears are open to your request. And my son, I love you so much. My heart can't forget about you.
My heart is perpetually toward you. Now, how much estimation
do you think God values His Son? I think you can't estimate the
value that God puts upon His dear, darling Son. He entrusted
the salvation with all His people to Him. He set Him upon the throne
and He's reigning to this very day, is He not? And I tell you, the whole purpose,
you want to know the purpose of life. You want to know why
there's a world. You know why it's still continued.
You know the whole purpose of everything. God is glorifying
His Son. That's it. That's it. Father, glorify Thy Son with
Your own self that He may glorify Thee. Boy, what an encouragement
to pray. Is that not an encouragement
to pray? Any prayer that's made in this house, some would say,
when they pray even towards this house, here, here, that's encouragement
to pray, isn't it? Boy, when you go to God in prayer,
and your eye of faith is there at His right hand, where that
one sets the mediator between God and us, the one God has set
there, the one God has delighted in. What is it that God will
not do? What prayer is it that God will
not answer for the sake of His darling Son in whom His soul
is wrapped up? I heard a man tell me one time,
Poor man, he almost lives in despair. He told me, he said,
if I could think that God would forgive all my sins, that would
be the greatest blessing I could imagine. If I could think that
God would forgive all my sins, that would be one of the greatest
blessings I could imagine. Well, listen. Look at the mountain
of sins God has already forgiven. Men who thought sure they were
going to hell with their sins crushing them to death. And God
suddenly forgave all of their sins. And why did He do it? For
one reason, for the sake of His Son. It is yet to be seen what
God will not do and the prayers He will not answer, all for the
sake of His dear Son. I challenge you to do this. You
have need of God to do something for you. You have need of Him.
then go in the name and go for the sake and the glory of His
near Son and see if there is anything that He will withhold
because He loves His Son so dearly. My heart is there perpetually. My soul is wrapped up in my Son. Now brothers and sisters, you
will not find a greater encouragement to pray than that. Go home and turn your windows
towards this mediator and pray in his name and for your glory. This is written to encourage
us to pray to God. When they shall return, Solomon
said, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house and
towards this house, then hear thou from heaven and maintain
their cause and forgive their sins which they have sinned against
thee. I bet you this people, these
Jews, I bet you they left this place and they didn't realize
probably how much of these words had gone to their heart. But
as soon as they got off somewhere and got into trouble, I bet these
words come back ringing to their ears. And I bet you they found
themselves looking towards that temple and said, God, be merciful
to me. God, forgive my sins. Lord, strengthen
me. Deliver me. We should let that
encourage us, too, because God's heart is towards His Son. We
have total, complete, and continual access unto God's presence through
His Son. Is that what Paul said in Romans
5? Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access unto this grace. You need grace? Yes, we need
grace. Well, there's access unto God
and to this grace through Jesus Christ. I just don't feel worthy. Hogwash. You don't feel worthy.
Let me tell you. Let me add something to that.
You're not worthy. You're only worthy of hell, fire, and damnation.
But we approach there not on our own worthiness, but the worthiness
of Him that God has exalted. That's why we approach. Now we come here to verse 13
in our text, chapter 7 and verse 13. He lays the foundation there
of prayer, and there's no sense of going into the rest of the
message if we don't remember that he's speaking here of Jesus
Christ, God delighting in Christ. Because when they got in trouble,
they turned towards the temple. When we get in trouble, when
we backslidden, and we're cold and indifferent and we've left
His precepts. We're in trouble. How do we go
back to God in prayer? Through Jesus Christ. We've got
to remember that or the rest of these things will mean nothing
to us. But here in verse 13 now, if I shut up heaven and there
is no rain, if I command the locusts to devour the land, or
if I send pestilence among my people, Well, these were His
people, but I tell you what, they got themselves in some trouble,
didn't they? And this is some things that
the Lord sent. And as I read these verses, they
suggested some things to my mind, and here is some of the things
that I gleaned from these myself, here in verse 13. What do we
learn from this? Well, we learn this, that the
Lord will go to great lengths to teach His people. There's just almost nothing He
will not do to correct His people and return them to Himself when
they've strayed. Would He dry up the grass? Would
He withhold rain until the trees were dead and there were huge
gullies and cracks in the earth? That's what He said. Would He
give the fruit of the land and the vegetables and the foliage
to insects and locusts to be eaten up? That's what he says. Would he send plagues? Would
he send sicknesses and viruses to his people to correct them
and return them to himself? Well, that's what he said here.
Well, you know this is New Testament teaching. This is not just something
that's taught in the Old Testament. But the Lord's chastening hand
upon His people is something that's taught throughout the
Bible. Happy is the man whom thou correctest. And though chastening
for the present don't seem joyous but grievous, Paul said, if you
be without it, then your bastards are not sons. And you find in
the New Testament where the Lord chastened His people severely.
We're getting ready to come to the Lord's Supper. And one of
the things I'll admonish you about when we do is to be careful
that you discern the body of Jesus Christ. Realize what this
supper is about. Because the Corinthians got themselves
in all kinds of trouble. They were getting drunk at the
table of the Lord. They were bringing in their own
food and eating while some of the poor people had nothing.
They weren't discerning His body. And what happened to them? Paul
said some of you, many of you, are weak and sickly and some
of you sleep, some of you are dead. If we would judge ourselves,
we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened to the Lord that we may not be condemned with the
world. The Lord chastens His people, doesn't He? And sometimes,
I tell you, it is very, very severe. He killed David's baby,
didn't He? He killed David's baby. because
he sinned. He divided the whole kingdom
of the Jews because of Solomon's sin. His chastening. His chastening. Second thing I saw from this,
I was reading this, is this. All nature is under the immediate
control of a personal God. Did you notice that? If I shut
up heaven, let it rain down. If I command the locusts, that
they eat the fruit. If I send pestilence among my
people, who did that? Who is in control of these things? The Lord is. God is in control
of these things. The flood that came and drowned
the whole world, who was in control of that? The fire that came down
from heaven and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? The storm that
came upon Jonah's sailors? and the whale that swallowed
Jonah up and spit him out. Who was it that controlled all
of that? The ravens that fed Elijah, the earthquake that freed
Paul and Silas in prison, the sickness that took the life of
dear Lazarus. Who sent that? Who is it that controls nature?
Nature's God controls it. Some man asked the question,
he said, why would you ascribe all of these natural events to
God, which can easily be described to nature? That's a good question,
isn't it? Because you look at these things
and you realize that these are natural things. These can be
explained in a natural way. And they really can. You know,
there's so many things that can be explained in a natural way.
When the flood came, you know, they could explain that. If scientists
would be honest, they could explain that in a natural way. They knew
that above the heavens there's all kinds of moisture. There's
enough moisture in this atmosphere and enough water underneath the
earth in all the springs. If all of that was turned loose,
it could flood this earth again. You can explain the flood from
a natural event. You can explain the storm in
Jonah's day. You can even explain Jonah getting
swallowed by a whale. You can say, you know, that can
naturally happen. I may come up here and say, no,
that couldn't happen. But just time I tell you that,
somebody's going to get swallowed by a whale. And you're going
to say, Bruce, I told you that can really happen. That can naturally
happen. And all of these things that
he's talking about, the rain being withheld, the locusts devouring
the land, and sickness and viruses, all of these things can be happened,
can happen naturally. But here's the thing, brothers
and sisters, who controls these things? Who's the first cause of these
things? That's it, isn't it? Who sends
the rain? When the locust comes, who permits
them or who sends them? When sickness comes, yes, we
may attribute it to just a natural cause. I don't know about you,
but I bet Joanne washes her hands all the time, her seeing all
the sick folks. I don't see any sick folks and
I wash my hands all the time. I'm trying to avoid viruses. But if I get one, And it's bad. And I'm sick. You know what I'm
going to do? I'm going to say, God's the first
cause of this. And I'm going to begin to examine myself before
the Lord and say to myself, is there a cause for Him sending
this to me? And that's what He's saying here.
Somebody may say, well, we'll get better eventually where we
humble ourselves and Pray or not. A flood comes, and that's
true. You know, that's true for the
most part. A flood, I don't know how many prayed when the flood
came on Houston a few days ago, and some of the towns down there.
I don't know how many people humbled themselves and sought
the Lord. Maybe nobody. Maybe nobody. And things eventually
got a little better, didn't they? They get better now. But here's
the thing. Here's the thing to remember.
If people don't humble themselves and they don't pray, can you
imagine the moral and spiritual lessons that will be missed because
they didn't? The Lord told the children of
Israel in Deuteronomy 32, He said, this is what's going to
come on you. If you leave Me as a nation. And boy, He told
some dreadful sicknesses and wars. that would come on them,
a devastating thing. And here's what he said, if you
would consider this, if you would consider what I'm telling you
that's going to come, if you would think about this and correct
yourself and humble yourself and seek the Lord, your latter
end would be so much better than it's going to be. One of you
would chase a thousand. But they didn't consider, did
they? What is it? What is it that we should do?
I don't care what the world does. We know what the world is going
to do. But what should you and I do, brothers and sisters, when
things come into our lives to bring us low and humble us? What should we do? Here's the
first thing we should do. The first cause of this is from
my God. And to humble ourselves and seek
His love. And that's what he's telling
us here in this text. Can a believer be chastened and
not know it? Greg mentioned Paul's message
and boy, when Paul made mention, he made that statement. Can a
believer be chastened and not know it? When trouble comes,
can't a believer just go on? and wait for things to get better
and not realize that this could well be chastening? He can be
chastened and not even know it. You have forgotten the exhortation
which speaks to you as children, despise not the chastening of
the Lord. But I tell you, we should be so sensible, whatever
the world's doing, when trouble comes. Our forefathers, especially
our Puritan forefathers, when wars come to the land, Our sickness
of plagues came to a nation. One of the things that our forefathers
used to do, boy, they would start examining themselves before the
Lord. Is this to awaken us? Is this to correct us? And you
know why they did that? Because they realized God is
the first cause of all of these things. And we don't want to
be like the dumb heathen and just contribute it to nature.
Oh, that's just a natural event. Don't worry about it. Go on.
Well, it's not natural when it lays me up. It may be natural
when it lays you up on the hospital bed or you in the house can't
eat. But when it lays me up on my
bed and I can't eat and I'm sick, then I ought to say within my
heart, this is from God. And how is it meant to profit
me? And that's what He's saying here.
When I sin these things, when I sin these things, And now He
gives the remedy. Look here in verse 14. He gives
the remedy. Here's what you do when I send
these things and here's the cause of my sending them. Here's the
first thing that He says. If my people which are called
by my name. What's the first thing He says?
Boy, He encourages them by calling them His people. His people. You know the Lord Jesus Christ
has a people. He calls them His people, doesn't He? And you know
that's why He came to this earth, to save His people from their
sins. Listen to what He prayed when
He prayed to His Father. I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them which You have given Me. For they are Thine,
and all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. and I am glorified
in them." Where did He get His people, if He has a people? His
Father gave them to Him. Listen to what He says, speaking
of His sheep. My Father which gave them to
Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of My Father's hand. Why does He call them My people?
Because they're a gift from the Father. My Father gave them to
Me. And he said this, I lay down
my life for the sheep. They're His by purchase. And
he says this, the sheep hear His voice and He calls His own
sheep by name and leads them out and they follow Him. So they're
His by calling. They're His, aren't they? And
you know something? They're called by His name. He
puts His name upon them, don't He? He says, You're mine. You're
the Lord's. You're not your own. You're the
Lord's. Somebody says, You fellows belong to the Baptists. No, we
don't. We don't belong to the Presbyterians. We don't belong
to the Methodists or Pentecostals. We belong to our Lord, don't
we? We're His. We're His. And we profess no
other name and no other allegiance but to Him. If my people, which
are called by my name. And bless their hearts sometimes,
though they're his, they get out of joint, don't they? And
they have need, he says here, to humble themselves. If my people,
which are called by my name, will humble themselves. Listen to two verses that deals
with this humbling of ourselves, and it gives the best motive
as to why we humble ourselves. Listen to how Peter says it.
Remember this verse, and you go back and read it when you
get home. 1 Peter 5 and verse 5 and 6, he says this, Likewise
you younger, submit yourself unto the older. Yea, all of you
be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility. For
God resisteth the proud, and gives grace to the humble. Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God. I'd say whoever controls all
nature, and whoever is the first cause of all things, I'd say
that's a pretty mighty hand, wouldn't you? I'd say that's
a mighty hand. Daniel was writing about it like
this. He said that he doeth according
to his will in the armies of heaven. and among the inhabitants
of this earth. And no man can stay his hand,
or say to him, What doest thou? That's a mighty God, isn't it?
And that's why Peter says here, to humble yourself under his
mighty hand. Especially when this mighty God
condescends in love to tell us to. And James says it like this when
he talks about humbling ourselves. And boy, this is important. This
gives us a motive for doing it. He said in James 14, Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Joe and I have been watching
a series, John Adams, if you haven't seen that. Boy, you'd
probably want to watch that if you don't appreciate our country
and our Constitution and what those men went through. Go back
and do some research on this, and I've researched a little
bit on John Adams, and we know more about John Adams than probably
any of the other presidents or any of the other founding fathers
because him and his wife Abigail wrote, well, I guess tens of
thousands of letters. They communicated and they went
back and got their letters and found out a lot about it. We
had fought with King George in the Revolutionary War and a few
years later, when the countries wanted to be reconciled, they
sent Adams, John Adams, to be the first ambassador to Britain,
to Great Britain. And he was going to have to come
and stand before King George. And the handler was teaching
him how to approach King George III. His grandfather had already
died. He was sort of an arrogant man.
But Adams didn't want to go into
his presence. And one of the reasons he didn't
go into his presence, they said, when you go in the door, you
bow. You get halfway up to him, you
bow again. And then when you get up and
stand in front of him, you bow again and you address him as
your majesty." And Abigail didn't think he was going to do it.
John Adams was a hothead anyway, boy. They just fought a war a
few years before, and he didn't want to do that. You can study this in history.
Not only the series shows this, but it's written in history.
Abigail didn't know if he was going to do it or not. And when
they opened the door and let him in, and he saw King George
III standing there by his throne. Boy, his heart was touched. He
bowed. He got to the middle of the room.
He bowed. He went up and stood before King
George. He bowed and his lips were quivering. And he said,
Your Majesty. And King George III condescended
to John Adams and said, It does me great pleasure that they've
chosen you to be the first ambassador. I desire reconciliation. John Adams bowed there. He backed
out halfway through the room and bowed again and bowed before
he went out the door. And he addressed King George
III as His Majesty. Because he saw him. He realized
who he was. What a man of dignity he was.
And how much more, brothers and sisters, when we think of humbling
ourselves in the sight of the Lord. Somebody said, a man told
me one time, he said, when I see the Lord, I've got some questions
I want to ask Him. I doubt if anybody would be asking
any questions. I tell you, I think most of us
will be on our face, don't you? In His sight. What did Moses
do when he asked the Lord to show him His glory? But he bowed his head and made
haste in worship. Did he not? I'll make all my
goodness pass before you. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. And when Moses saw Him, he stood
in His sight, he bowed his head and made haste. What did Isaiah
do when he saw Him high and lifted up upon His throne? when John saw Him in Revelation
chapter 1. Man of life. Listen to what He
did. He said, I turned to see the
voice that spake to me, and being turned, I saw one like unto the
Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to His feet, and girded
about the palms with a golden girdle. His head and His hair
were white like wool, as white as snow, his eyes were as a flame
of fire, and his feet like fine brass, as if they burned in a
furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters, and he
had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shining in his
strength. And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead." Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. Boy, I tell you what, there is something
about when we talk about humility, true humility in the sight of
the Lord is a self-emptying thing, isn't it? It empties us of our
self-confidence, our self-love, Our self will. And we lay there
as dead men. Dead to ourselves. In the sight
of the Lord. I just wonder if that's why he
doesn't mention this with prayer. If my people which are called
by my name would humble themselves and pray. Humility and prayer. always go
together. I think, brothers and sisters,
it's not so much what we say sometimes in prayer, but it's
our attitude as we come before Him in prayer. I've heard men
preach messages in their prayer. I've heard them give speeches
in their prayer. I've heard men get very flippant when they prayed.
And the only thing I know to describe that to is They are
absent of this awful reality that they are coming into His
sight. If we are aware of that when
we come into His sight, then we humbly beseech Him. We humbly submit to Him our need
and our supplication. If my people would humble themselves
and pray, and pray, Boy, who knows the
value of humble prayer? Who can measure the value? Who
can measure what it means to truly pray? The church got together in Acts
chapter 4. And they prayed as a church. You can see there in
Acts chapter 4 where they approach to the Lord. Boy, how they approach
God. Oh Lord, Thou art God. that made
the heavens and the earth and the sea and all things that in
it is. They're approaching to God. And
you know what happened when they prayed? The whole place was shaken
where they prayed. And they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit. And they spake the Word with
boldness and great grace was upon them all. How would you
feel if you prayed like that? How would it profit you and how
would it profit this church and the ministry here if we prayed
like that? There was two men that prayed
one night at midnight, Paul and Silas, in jail with stripes on
their bodies. They prayed. If my people would pray, and
the place was shaken, their handcuffs were loose, the prison doors
were open, and liberty James tells us about one man praying,
doesn't he? He said the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous
man availed much. Elijah prayed that it may not
rain, and it didn't rain for three years and six months. And
he prayed again that it would rain, and the Lord sent rain,
and the earth brought forth her fruit. You think prayer is profitable? The best thing you and I can
do as believers is pray. pray, if my people would pray. And notice this, and seek my
face. Now this is not physically, I'm
not seeking the physical face of the Lord. I don't want any
visions of His face, no dreams, anything. I'll wait till I get
the glory by His grace to see His face. But what does it mean
when He talks about several places in the Scripture of seeing His
face What is it about seeing somebody's face? There's times
when a phone call is just not enough, or an email or a letter
is just not enough. You want to see their face, don't
you? There's something about looking into somebody's eyes
while he's talking to you. There's something about the tone
of his voice. There's something about his countenance. There's
something about watching his lips move. If you stand before
somebody and you've got a controversy with them, when you see their
face, it can be settled and you can walk away at peace, can't
you? If you've really got something serious going on in your life
and somebody can help you or you need to talk to somebody,
you say, I ain't going to write you a letter. I ain't going to
call you on the phone. I want to come and talk to you face
to face. John said that, didn't he? When he was writing to the
elect lady, he said, I've got so many things to say to you,
I'm not going to write it with pen and ink. I'm waiting to see
your face. that our joy may be full. And that's what he says here.
Boy, when we seek the Lord's face, and we see His face, not
physically, but with the eye of faith. There's been times,
and I bet you've had this experience to you, there's been a few times,
probably a handful of times, I've left my knees, and when
I got up and went my way, I knew that it was all settled. I knew
the Lord as you heard my prayers, everything's fine. Have you ever
had that happen to you? That's what we call seeing His
face. If my people would seek my face. And this, and boy some people
have a problem with this and I'm almost finished. I've been
keeping you way too long. Almost 50 minutes. Heard a fella
talking the other day. It's awful to take time to tell
this when I'm running behind anyway, but fella said he was
preaching a message and he'd been preaching quite a while
and this one guy got up and was walking out and he said, I stopped
him. Hey, brother, where you going? He said, I'm still preaching.
He said, I'm going to get a haircut. He said, why didn't you get a
haircut before you come in here? He said, when I come in here,
I didn't need one. Sometimes, and I'm probably preaching
long enough lately, some of you heard growing out. But still,
maybe I'm not going to do you like he did. I won't say where
you're going. You may tell me. I've got to go shave. I've got
to go shave. My beard's grown out. Some people don't like this. They can't reconcile this when
they say, if my people would turn from their wicked ways, Could it be said that the Lord's
people may have some wicked ways? Well, you know, I guess probably
it's determined on how we really feel about our sin, doesn't it? If I'm doing something and I've
got a habit of doing something that I need to quit doing or
something that I know is grieving the Lord or something, my attitude,
I've got trouble with my temper, trouble with my appetite, some
problems, and I'm not corrected. I may think nothing about that
until the Lord brings it to my attention. And then what do I
think about? I'm probably going to say, man,
this is evil. David, when David had fell into
that awful sin, he described it before the Lord. What did
he call that sin? The evil that I've done in your
sight. Paul talked about even the workings
of sin in him, and he said, it's evil, isn't it? The evil that
is ever present with me. Listen to what Daniel said when
he humbled himself before the Lord. He said, Lord our God,
We have sinned. We have committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly by departing and rebelling against thy precepts
and thy judgment. What is precepts? Well, usually
that's the last part of these epistles that we read. Let me
give you a precept. Put off the old man with his
deeds. That's a precept. Here's a precept,
let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil
speaking be put away from you with all malice and be you kind
one to another. Here's another precept, be you
followers of God as dear children and walk in love. Here's another
precept, giving all diligence add to your faith, virtue and
to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, self-control,
and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and
to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love.
Here's another one. If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Here's
another precept. I beseech you, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice.
redeeming the time, buying up the time because the days are
evil. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision
for the flesh. Be you always ready for the Son
of Man to come within an hour that you think not. All of these
are precepts. And have we gotten neglectful? Have I gotten neglectful? Have
I gotten slothful? Have I departed from these precepts? Daniel said, Lord, we have. And
we've done this wickedness in our sight. And that's why the
Lord is speaking to them. If my people would humble themselves
and turn from their wicked ways. I don't know anybody here this
morning, the best among us, that this could not fit in your life
and mine. Because we're all in need to
mend our ways. Aren't we not? How much time
does your pastor waste when the Lord tells me to redeem
the time? And I bet you feel the same way,
don't you? So that's what he tells us here. And then here's the results quickly.
I want you to look at this in the latter part of verse 14.
Then will I hear from heaven. Look what a gracious audience.
Then will I hear. Wouldn't that be unbelievable?
What would you do if you went to the Lord in prayer and He
answered you? Wouldn't that be wonderful? I will hear. Gracious audience. Look what a gracious condescension.
I will hear from heaven. I will bend my ears. to your
request, to your prayer, to your worship. Look what a gracious
promise. I will forgive their sins and
never charge them with them again. And look what a gracious bond.
I will heal their land. I'll heal their hearts, their
spirit, their conscience. And you know He's still healing
today, isn't He? He's still healing today. You look up sometime, take your
concordance and look up at the places where the Scripture mentions
the word healed and heal. Wonderful things said about it.
He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted. That's why the Father
sent the Son. Son, if you find any broken hearted
sinners in the way, you be careful to heal them. And Christ said,
that's why I've come, to heal. The Bible says they brought multitudes
to Him, and He healed them all. He's still a great physician,
isn't He? There's still a bomb in Gilead, and He can heal all
our souls' diseases. What a blessed promise. What
a promise.