1 Kings 8, There Is No God Like Our God
1. God Fills What His People Dedicate To Him (v1-11)
2. God Fulfills Every Promise To His People (v12-26)
3. God Hears The Prayers Of His People (v27-34)
1 Kings 8, There Is No God Like Our God
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Well, as we look at First Kings Chapter 8 I’ve titled The Message, There is no God like our God and we have an opportunity tonight to consider how unique and how amazing God is and the reality that there is no God that is comparable to there is nothing else like the God that we.
Worship and serve the God who sent his son to die upon the cross for us, and the idea of the title comes from verses 22 and 23, and so the situation here in First Kings Chapter 8 is.
Solomon is dedicating the temple unto the Lord.
He's finished all of the work.
All of the furnishings have been accomplished.
The structure is established and in the completion of it he is now presenting the Tabernacle of the temple to the Lord and also.
To the people and instituting it as the place of worship and so in. Verse 22 and 23.
And Solomon's prayer, in this prayer of dedication, he says this. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the Assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.
And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like you who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts.
This is what Solomon says.
He says, Lord God of Israel, as he addresses this prayer.
To the Lord, he recognizes there is no God like you.
There is no God in heaven or on earth.
Of course, when we think of God, we need to understand there is one God, right?
But there were many things that people would worship many things that people call God lowercase G, false gods, and all of those things that people can worship all of those idols and false gods that are.
Pursued by people, Solomon says none of those.
Compare no life, no pursuits, no passion, nothing compares.
To our God.
There is no God in heaven above or earth below like you. And what's unique about God. He says here in verse 22 who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts.
So here here's what the the the king here Solomon is saying that Lord, there's no other God that compares to you.
In this that.
You keep covenants, you keep your promises.
Is and you show mercy?
There's this combining of covenant keeping and mercy that is expressed by God.
That is unlike anything else.
There is nothing in the world that compares to the promises of God and the mercies of God, and so we can as his servants.
Walked before him with this confidence and experiencing.
Experiencing the uniqueness of God, and that there is no God like our God.
Now, because we're early into first kings here, I wanted to take a moment and just provide a little bit of the context and the time.
Online here we have the timeline for the Nation of Israel and there is a lot of things on here.
Of course, that we're not going to discuss, but you can find Solomon there right towards the end of the United Kingdom that the first King of Israel was Saul after the time of judges, the people asked for a king.
And so the Lord gave them Saul, and he wasn't a good king.
Of course, he persecuted the one who has to come after him, which was David.
And David took the throne, reigned for 40 years, and then handed the scepter off to Solomon, who began to rule and reign in Israel as well.
Well, after Solomon, there's going to be a division between the nation and there's going to be basically a civil war and that Northern Kingdom is going to separate.
The Southern Kingdom is just going to be a couple of tribes left.
There's that's where Jerusalem is, and so that's going to continue on in faithfulness to the Lord a little bit longer than the northern Kingdom.
And so there's.
Going to be all of those things that we'll get into as we continue our journey into First Kings.
But this is like the climax of the Kingdom age.
Change as Solomon is raining because they started out kind of rocky.
With Saul, but.
Really grew to prominence with David and Israel.
Reached its peak.
It was the golden years for the nation of Israel under the reign of Solomon, literally the golden years.
As you look at the previous chapters in the building of the temple and all of the gold that was, you know.
Fed into the temple and used in the temple and then as you continue on in First Kings, you'll continue to see.
The provisions of Solomon and all of his glory and riches and wealth that he had as a part of his Kingdom, and so Israel was in its greatest time of peace.
They had their greatest boundaries and borders during this time.
They had the temple established and this glorious place to come and to worship God.
Now this doesn't do it justice.
But here's a diagram or a drawing.
A rendering of what the temple might have looked like in structure.
You have the the main building there with the the entryway that was extra tall, but then the sanctuary behind it.
There was chambers on the side and also on the other.
Side that are not visible here.
There there was the two pillars there that Solomon named there was the bronze altar and the lever there, and so all of this was what Solomon put together in establishing the temple.
In giving the people a secure place.
It was modeled after the Tabernacle.
Which we'll see in a few moments, but built here to be a upperman.
Place a permanent fixture for people to come and to worship God and so this is the building that Solomon is dedicating to the Lord and in his prayer of dedication.
He says God there is no one like you the the building of this.
The establishing of this place of worship is a testimony that there is no one like our God.
And so we want to continue to consider that together this evening, three points, I'll walk you through as we work our way through First Kings Chapter 8 and the first point is found in verses one through 11.
Here's point number one.
God fills what his people dedicate to him.
This is the dedication of the temple, and we're going to see God fill the temple.
And it's a great picture for us.
A great reminder that the things that are dedicated unto the Lord.
The Lord says I will fill that.
I will bless that, and I will reveal my glory in the midst of it.
Let's look at verse one and two again.
It says now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes that she fathers of the children of Israel to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.
From the city of David which is.
I and therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the 7th month.
And so here we get the context, says Solomon has assembled all of Israel. They've called, he's called all of Israel together. Now it's not just Solomon's summons that has brought all of Israel.
Together, but we're told there in verse two that this happens during the feast of the 7th month.
The Feast of the 7th month was the Feast of Tabernacles, and if you remember that that is one of the fees that was the required feast three times a year.
All the meals of the Jewish people were required.
To assemble together at the Tabernacle now the temple and celebrate the different feasts.
Now one of those feasts in the 7th month was the Feast of Tabernacles.
Another of the feast was the feast of Passover, right?
And so we were familiar with that one, but the the Feast of Tabernacles is a feast that was set up by the Lord for the people to remember their time in the wilderness, and so out in the wilderness.
Remember they were traveling for 40 years, right?
Going from place to place, living in tents, and so for the feast.
Of tabernacles they would gather around at the temple and they would set up tents.
And they would remember that they were living in tents and that got it provided for them in the wilderness that they were journeying and traveling through.
They didn't have a secure place to stay, but God protected them and provided for them in the wilderness and the Feast of Tabernacles is the feast that celebrated how God provided.
To the people, the the manna and the water in the wilderness.
And it's that fissette we get our key verse from for the the church here in John Chapter 7 when Jesus stood up on the last day, the great day of the feast, and said if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
It was that feast that Jesus stood up and declared that, and gave that invite.
Patient, but this was one of the required fees and so all of Israel was required to gather together required by the Lord to celebrate this feast to pitch some tents.
And remember how God had provided for them in the wilderness and got established that so that outside of the wilderness, now, like if you think about this feast, right?
Celebrating this feast while they're in the wilderness doesn't make too much sense, right?
It's like, OK, we're going to get out of our tent and then go set up a tent and then remember how we live in tents, right?
Like it was a feast.
That was designed.
To be really for this occasion, when they're in the land when they have homes and property and structures and buildings and and they're going to be needing to remember how it used to be and how God had provided for them and lead them through the wilderness and even the the picture here of the Tabernacle being attacked.
And but now you have the temple that they're dedicating to the Lord.
It's a permanent structure, just like their homes used to be temporary.
But now they're permanent structures.
Now the Tabernacle and the temple also have trapped made this transition, and so it was a perfect occasion to remember the tents.
Remember their time in the wilderness.
And remember how God provided for them.
Remember the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the presence of God and the leading of God and working of God in their lives.
And so this was a great occasion.
Very timely to gather together and dedicate this temple unto the Lord, and recognize that this is a tremendous work that God has done.
Now, as they gathered together at this new structure at this new temple, they also moved the tent.
You have been following along and the books of Samuel.
You saw David set up a tent for the Ark of the Covenant, and so that was in Jerusalem, which also the temple is in Jerusalem.
That Jerusalem was really divided into 2 parts.
There was Mount Zion and Mount Moriah.
The temple was built on Mount Moriah, which is a little bit higher and then Mount Zion.
Is where Jerusalem was originally initially when David first conquered it and set up his home and set up the the meeting tent there and so verse 3 through 5 now gives us.
That journey, as they take that tent that David had set up now to the temple and moved the furnishings there and moved the Ark of the Covenant there verse three says.
So all the elders of Israel came, and the priest took up the Ark.
Then they brought up the Ark of the Lord.
The Tabernacle of meeting and all the holy furnishings that were in the Tabernacle.
The priests and the Levites brought them up.
Also King Solomon and all the Congregation of Israel who were assembled with him where there with him before the Ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.
And so there's this.
Great amount of sacrifice going on as the transport.
The temporary Tabernacle that David had set up the temporary.
It wasn't even the Tabernacle 'cause it wasn't all the holy place and all of the furnishings.
But it was just a tent for the Ark of the Covenant itself, and so as they transport this now to the temple, again moving it from its temporary place.
So now its permanent home.
They're at the temple.
They're celebrating, they're rejoicing, and they're sacrificing to the Lord in the midst of it.
If you need a little bit of a refresher on what the Tabernacle or what the Ark of the Covenant looked like, this is a concept of what it might have looked like.
It was a essentially just a big box made out of Acacia wood, but then overlaid with gold.
It was three and.
3.75 feet long. I was trying to think of the inches but I couldn't do the math in my head so just a little bit shorter than four feet a little bit wider than two feet a little bit higher than two feet, so four by two by two this box and then it had the poles that went through, also overlaid with gold. And that's how they would carry it. But then on top where you see those two angelic.
Beings that was what's referred to as the Mercy seat, and it was essentially.
The lid to the box.
And so this lid would cover and hold what was inside the box, which you might remember.
The tablets were put in.
Their Aaron Rod was put in there a jar of manna was put in there.
Different things were put into this box.
This ark of the Covenant during the time.
But it's the Ark of the Covenant because.
It was here where God said he would meet with his people.
It's found in Exodus chapter 25, verse 22. God says there I will meet with you. I will speak to you from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim which are on the Ark of the testimony about everything, which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. And so God gave them instructions to fashion.
This ark exactly how he said, including the two cherubim.
The two angels that would sit on top and God said right there between those two angels right there at the center.
That's where my presence is going to dwell.
That's where I'm going to meet with you.
That's where I'm going to speak.
To you and so the Ark of the Covenant.
Always represents the presence of God, because God promised to meet his people there in between the the two wings of the cherubim.
And so they are transporting this now.
It was set up temporarily by David there on Mount Zion, but now it's moved up to Mount Moriah at the temple structure.
And again, the people are celebrating and rejoicing, sacrificing to the Lord as they do so.
Verse six now says.
Then the priests brought in the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place, under the wings of the Cherubim.
For the chairman, spread their two wings over the place of the Ark and the Cherubim overshadowed the Ark and its poles.
The Poles extended so that the ends of the polls could be seen from the holy Place.
In front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside.
And they are there to this day.
Now here in verses 6 through 8 we find them bring it in, bring it into the temple and placed under the wings of the Cherubim.
So it's a little bit confusing, perhaps, but the Ark itself had this covering that had two cherubim on top of it, but when you read the building of the temple in First Kings chapter?
In verse 23 you find that Solomon builds another pair of cherubim that are way bigger than this pair that basically filled the the width of the room and the height of the room.
The holy Place that it's in, and so there is these bigger cherubim.
I don't have a picture for that, but that would be over shadowing the Ark.
Of the covenant.
So the Ark of the Covenant is placed there into the Holy of Holies underneath the other two cherubim that Solomon had created.
Now, here's a little bit of a diagram to just kind of help put the pieces together.
So on one side you have the Tavern.
This is what God instructed Moses to build in the wilderness. It was set up with two basic parts. You had the most holy place, which is the bigger room there at the front, and then you had the holy of Holies, which was the smaller room. The square cube room 15 feet wide. The whole structure 45 feet.
Long and so inside the holy place you would have the altar of incense.
You would have the lampstand, which would give light to the sanctuary, and then you would have the table for the showbread and then inside the most holy place.
There was just one thing, and that was the Ark of the cup.
But, and so that's what Israel has had up to this time from the wilderness up until the building of the temple.
They had this Tabernacle.
It moved about from police to police as God LED them and as they were attacked and cities were taken out after they were in the promised land.
The temp Tabernacle had to be moved and re set up in different places as a result, but it was always on the go but still the place where God promised to meet his people.
Now when Solomon built the temple.
He used the same model, but he scaled it up a bit so it's 30 feet wide instead of 15 feet wide.
Head of the Tabernacle. It's 90 feet long instead of 45 feet long, and so it basically quadrupled in square footage and also multiplied in furnishings so you can see the there's still the one incense altar in the holy place, but he made a bunch of tables.
Not just one table like the Tabernacle had, he made a bunch of lamp lamp stands not just one like the Tabernacle had, so kind of lining both sides with tables and lamp stands but but still just keeping to the one 'cause there is the one.
Place where God is going to meet them there between the wings of the cherubim and the Ark of the Covenant.
It's still this room.
This most holy place that's dedicated unto the Lord that is going to be where the presence of God dwells and where God meets his people.
And so they moved the Ark of the Covenant into this room that was prepared for.
Verse 9 gives us a little bit of a side note, says nothing was in the Ark except the two tablets 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.
So I mentioned before the staff of Aaron had been put in there a jar of manna had been put in there, but now there's nothing in there except for the 10 Commandments and so.
Of course, the obvious question is, well, what happened to the other stuff?
And we don't know, so it doesn't tell us.
Perhaps some things were lost in the time where the Ark of the Covenant was with the Philistines.
Perhaps it was lost in other occasions that were not informed about in the scriptures.
We don't know, but what's left here is the 10 commandments that God had.
Made for Moses and and had him place in the Ark of the Covenant.
Verse 10 and it came to pass when the priest came out of the holy Place, that the cloud filled the House of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house.
Of the Lord.
Right?
And this really is the the core of this point.
Again, point number one this evening God fills what his people dedicate to him as they are dedicating the temple and bringing in the Ark of the Covenant, the.
Place where God promised to meet with them the representation of the presence of God is now placed into the building that's dedicated to him into the room that's dedicated to him for this purpose.
As all of this dedication is happening and being fulfilled.
Now the glory of the Lord is filling the temple, it says.
But the cloud filled the House of the Lord.
Remember the cloud that descended upon Mount Sinai when Moses was there, meeting with him for the 10 Commandments.
It's the the cloud of the presence of the law.
Word, also sometimes referred to as the glory of the Lord or the Shekinah glory that remember Moses would come down and his face would be shining because of his time in the presence of the Lord.
It's that same presence of God that now is intensely filling this temple.
This structure that has been set up.
For the worship of God, for the people of God.
And the presence of God was so intense.
This cloud was so dense.
You might say that the priest could not continue ministering it says.
Because the glory of the Lord filled the House of the.
An incredible scene, right?
As you kind of picture it as you kind of just imagine this temple structure and and and the glory of the Lord.
Just being intense and radiating out and so intense that the priest can't even enter in like it's an incredible scene to imagine, it must have been an incredible scene.
To behold.
And it speaks to us about this idea of dedication.
Now this temple set up for the Lord.
Notice how it says in verse 10 it's the House of the Lord.
It is the house that belongs to the Lord.
It's the house that's dedicated to the Lord.
And so now the glory of the Lord fills the House of the Lord because the house is the Lords now, his glory fills that house.
And as I was reading through that this morning, it just caused me to stir and to begin to think in my mind and.
Thinking about the idea of dedication, God fills what his people dedicate to him.
The glory of God will be known and manifested and revealed.
In those things.
That God people dedicate to him.
In this case, they dedicate the temple.
They dedicate the House of the Lord.
And they say this is the Lord's house and the Lord.
Says thank you.
I will fill that I.
I would say that there's opportunity for us to dedicate unto the Lord.
Different aspects of our life, different things in our life and have a similar experience.
That there is the opportunity for us to commit to the Lord and and give over.
Now this idea of dedicate.
Understand it's more than just like a, uh, general kind of commitment or a a promise not to betray or something like that when we talk about being dedicated to the Lord, it's it's really a commitment to be exclusive.
That OK if I dedicate myself to the Lord.
Let's say that means not that I'm just not going to run away from God.
But that means that I am going to be.
Engaged in exclusively things of God, things that God wants me to be part of.
Now I can.
Say confidently clearly.
I am dedicated to what I've dedicated myself to the Lord, and that includes not just my time here at church, but my time at work also is dedicated to the Lord.
I'm there because that's where God wants me to be, and so I've given that to him and I'm doing my best to be faithful in the job because that's where God has placed me.
And So what I mean to say is that we can dedicate it to the Lord.
It doesn't necessarily mean that it has to only be religious disciplines.
But at the same time it's Ann exclusiveness that I'm not going to be pursuing a career or pursuing a life or pursuing activities, or engaged in things that are not consistent with what God has for me and not consistent with what God wants to do.
Things that cannot be dedicated unto.
The Lord.
But if I dedicate myself to the Lord.
I would suggest we can look at verse 10 and 11 and have this expectation.
That there will be a filling from God that God will fill me when I dedicate myself to him, and there will be a glory that's revealed.
There will be a glory that's manifested as I am dedicated unto the Lord.
Now here's the interesting thing to consider about that.
This is day one.
Of the temple.
Day one of worshipping God here in this new structure and God filled the temple as it's dedicated, the glory of the Lord was intense.
It's day one.
Day 1000 of the temple.
Glory didn't continue in this intensity.
So that the priests would be able.
Later on day one, the police were able to enter into the sanctuary right at the initial start D1.
The glory was so intense they couldn't go in right day.
2 The priests had no problem going into the sanctuary that they didn't have an issue.
It wasn't that now for the rest of the existence of the temple, nobody could go in because the glory of the Lord.
Is so intense there?
I think that's interesting to consider because D2, the presence of God was there just as much as day one.
But how visible it was, how much it was experienced by the people, how much it was tangible by the people was different.
And so I would put it this way.
When you dedicate something to the Lord, God fills it.
But you and I may not always feel it.
God feels it, but we may not always feel it.
That is, we have those mountain top experiences, right?
You think about Peter, James, and John with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and the glory of Jesus that was revealed, right?
Moments later.
To them, Jesus didn't appear so glorious, but Jesus was still just as glorious as he was moments before, right?
But they just couldn't perceive it.
They couldn't see it there themselves.
We have those experiences where man we just experienced the presence of God in a unique way, a powerful way and God speaks to us.
Day one, right and then day two.
We open up the scriptures again and go man that was so cool yesterday I got this like really you know, just powerful presence of God.
As I was reading and so let me read again and experience that again.
But you know, day two in the reading maybe doesn't have that same kind of feeling attached to it associated with it.
That's OK and and and the thing that I take comfort in.
And I'm encouraged by in this is that again, day two in the temple they didn't have that same glory experience that kept them out of the sanctuary.
But the presence of God was there.
They had access to the presence of God.
They were in the presence of God.
God was with them just as much as he was the day before.
It just was a different experience and so we need to understand and remember that God fills what his people dedicate to him, but we may not always feel it.
There might be an initial experience.
There might be occasional experiences where we really feel it where there's some tangible visible, you know, really something that we can hold onto and.
And and see that it's taking place.
But at the same time we need to understand that God calls us to walk by faith.
And to understand Lord, I'm dedicating this to you.
It's yours.
I believe you're gonna glorify yourself through it.
I may not always feel it.
But you are going.
To be at.
Work and present in it and so.
But we dedicate to the Lord.
God says, alright, I will fill it.
I will use it.
I will accomplish good things through it, and I will bring glory.
I will glorify myself in it, and you could think about this in a variety of things.
What what can we dedicate?
What should we dedicate unto the Lord?
Well, of course we should dedicate.
Ourselves unto the Lord.
And and the idea here is that when I dedicate myself to the Lord, God fills me when I dedicate my life to the Lord.
God fills my life.
Think about revelation chapter 3.
Jesus is words to the Church of Laodicea in verse 20.
He says I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.
What does Jesus say he says, look if you will hear my voice and open up.
Let me in.
I will come in and fill you, right?
You hear my voice.
You dedicate yourself to me.
You respond to my call.
And I will dine with you and you with me.
I will fill your life.
Jesus told the disciples in John Chapter 14.
That he would pray.
For the Holy Spirit to abide with them forever, and he tells them in John Chapter 14, verse 17, he says, it's the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
That there was going to be this now.
New experience for them.
And their dedication to the Lord.
As they've been walking with Jesus, they've experienced the Holy Spirit being with them.
But after the resurrection after the Ascension to the father, there was going to be this indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
And so there is going to be then the filling.
Of the disciples, by the spirit as they are dedicated to and devoted to God.
So you and I, we can understand, we can devote ourselves to God.
We can dedicate ourselves to God.
We can say, Lord, I'm yours, I'm your vessel just like the temple I I want to live my life for you for your glory to accomplish your purposes and God.
Accepts that and he says great.
I will fill.
I'll dine with you and you with me.
I will fill you with my Holy Spirit.
You will bring glory to me and we have that opportunity, and so we can dedicate ourselves to the Lord.
But I think there's some other aspects of our life also that we can consider, and I'm not going to try to consider them all but.
You can dedicate a place to the Lord.
In First Kings Chapter 9 in response to this dedication and the prayer that Solomon prayed.
God says yes.
I receive this gift.
This building that you've dedicated to me in verse three of First Kings nine, he says I've consecrated this house which you've built to put my name there forever.
My eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.
God says you've dedicated this house to me.
I will be there forever.
I I accept that I will move in, I will indwell that place.
I will consecrate this House and it will be my house and I will have my eyes there my attention there my heart there it's going to be there perpetually.
And we can and should perhaps consider dedicating some places.
Unto the Lord.
And saying, well, this is this is not for me.
This is not for the things of the flesh or the things of the world.
This this place is for you.
It's your place.
And God says, great, I will fill that place and my glory.
Will be made known there.
We can dedicate gatherings.
Maybe it's not a specific place, but it's a gathering of people.
Remember in Matthew chapter 18 when Jesus says whenever two or three of you are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them, right?
So there's two or three of us we're gathered together in his name.
What does that mean?
That means we're dedicating the gathering to Jesus.
Together together in Jesus name is not just saying the name Jesus while we gather, but it's saying we're gathered together for Jesus.
This is Jesus's gathering. What we're going to do in this gathering is what Jesus wants and what he desires.
And it's going to be focused on him and about him and and what does Jesus say when you dedicate a gathering?
To me.
I am there.
In the midst, I'll fill that gathering.
I'll be at work I'll be present in the midst of that gathering.
And so we can dedicate a gathering.
We can dedicate a place we can dedicate ourselves.
Perhaps we can dedicate a vehicle and I'm not saying donate your vehicle. I'm saying dedicate it. Only go places that the Lord wants you to go. Only use that for the Lord's purposes.
You can dedicate time.
Perhaps there is a certain time of your day that is.
Well Lord, this is your time.
I'm not going to pursue my dreams.
My goals here.
I'm not going to use this time for these purposes or these other things.
This is your time, God.
I'm going to spend this time seeking you.
I'm going to spend this time with you.
I'm going to spend this time however you want to spend it listen when you dedicate time to God, he fills it.
We we experience this when we go on retreats.
When we have those kind of special occasions that are dedicated to the Lord, we kind of disconnect from our normal routine and schedule and and we spend time with God and it's amazing how God fills.
That time and he meets us in that place, and his glory is revealed and manifested in the midst of it.
And so we can.
Dedicate to God various aspects of our life of our hearts, of our mind, of our.
Physical Space physical property.
We can give it over to the Lord, and God says, that's awesome.
Thank you.
I will fill it.
I will use it to accomplish my purposes and so here the glory of God moves in to the temple.
Now it's worth noting that the glory of God stays in the temple until.
Ezekiel chapter 10
Verse 18 it tells us there that the glory of the Lord departed from the temple as Ezekiel sees this whole vision of the glory of God moving out the presence of God moving out of the temple as a result of his people's complete.
Rebellion against him.
So God says you dedicate it to me.
I'll fill it.
But when there is a turning from that, a full rebellion against that.
Than God departs.
It's not unconditional filling or promise, but it's a filling, a work that God does as we continue to be devoted to dedicated.
To him, but then also there was later on the temple rededicated unto the Lord, after it had been defiled.
And so it gives us also this picture of there is that opportunity.
Then even if the glory has departed, so you dedicated a time to the Lord, and then you defiled that time by watching SpongeBob during that time or whatever.
Right, so so you defiled that time, but now that's not over.
It's not done now.
Now you have the opportunity to re dedicate that time.
That time that God put on your heart, time that you want for the Lord to fill you can re dedicate that time you can rededicate yourself.
You can rededicate that place that gathering you can rededicate unto the Lord, and get back in line with what he wants to do.
So God fills what his people dedicate to him.
Moving on now to verses 12 through 26, we get the second point to consider tonight and that is that God fulfills every promise.
To his people.
God fulfills every promise to his people.
Check out verse 12 and 13, it says.
Then Solomon spoke.
The Lord said he would dwell in the dark cloud.
I have surely built you an exalted house and a place for you to dwell in forever.
It's interesting to picture Solomon in this moment.
I I doubt that he was expecting for the glory of God to be manifested in this way.
But it happens, they see the glory of the Lord filled.
There's this cloud that comes with intensity, and all the priests run out of the temple because there's just not able to bear the presence of God.
The glory of God in that intensity.
And Solomon says.
What's going on here?
And he remembers the Lord said he would do well in a dark cloud.
Yeah, I remember.
Actually, they're the account in Exodus where the cloud descended upon Mount Sinai in it shook and.
And the people were afraid and they stood off.
And he told Moses, you go up and talk to God we.
Don't want to talk to God?
We're afraid of him.
Solomon remembers and recalls those previous experiences that the people of Israel had with the Lord and.
He says, you know?
The Lord said he would dwell.
In a dark cloud.
The Lord said he would do this.
Why are we surprised?
The Lord said, this is how he would manifest himself and reveal himself.
And so he realizes God fulfilling his word, he's fulfilling his promise and what he said.
He's not doing anything surprising, really.
He's just doing what it is that he said he would do.
Now he's going to mention a couple of.
The promises as we continue to work our way through the verses, but.
I think it's something amazing to consider before we get into that.
Think about OK. Let's assume the 6000 year time period from creation until now.
During those 6000 years, how many promises has God made?
You can look through the scriptures, of course, at the many promises that God has made.
You can look at all the prophecies which are a form of a promise, right?
A variation of a promise, same type of thing you can.
Also, though, consider.
All of the individual promises that God has made to people.
Some of them are recorded.
That's why we have those promises, right?
The the things that were told to Abraham, the things that were promised to Isaac and Jacob, the things that were promised to Joseph and the dreams right?
Those those things that got promised to them.
They were personal things.
That are recorded for us, but there's also many more promises that God made to people speaking directly to people, and perhaps you've experienced some things that God has promised to you.
How many promises has God made?
Over the past 6000 years.
Whatever number that is.
God has fulfilled or will fulfill every single one of them never, never has there been a promise of God broken.
Never has there been his word unfulfilled, not yet fulfilled.
Is possible, right?
That's the future things that still will be fulfilled, but.
But there's never been an occasion where God's word was not fulfilled where God promises to his people were not accomplished, and the things that he said.
I think that's really amazing to consider and and to consider that like there's no accusation that we can bring and look and and pointed a promise in the scripture and say, Lord, you didn't do this.
Now you might be wrestling with this a little bit, as I'm saying it, OK, yes, there are some exceptions to this, but not the way that we think because some of the promises of God were conditional.
And we'll see this mentioned here in the passage.
God says, if this happens, if you do this and continue in my ways, then.
I will do this, and so the promise was attached to this.
Obedience on the part of the person that he was making the promise to, and so in those occasions.
You might wrestle with that, was that not then a a promise of God fulfilled, but at the same time you could also understand that is the promise of God being fulfilled because they didn't do the thing that God asked them to do, and so you know what the promise fulfilled was.
God didn't do the thing he told them that he would do if they continue to follow him, right like.
His if they had continued, and they received the fulfillment of all the things.
That God said he.
Would do that.
Promise would have been fulfilled, but the the fact that they didn't and then they didn't experience.
The things that God said that they would do if they would be faithful, right?
That's that's a promise fulfilled.
Also, I promise you listen, if you disobey me, you're not going to get the rewards that I promised.
If you were obedient and so either way you look at it.
God, word, God, his promises are always fulfilled, the blessings for walking with him and knowing him and.
And spending time with him.
In in the the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses leaves before the people and says, look.
Everything every good thing actually.
It's later on in Joshua 2.
Every good thing that God said he would do, he has done so.
You need to know all of the bad things, but the consequences of disobedience.
Those God will be just as faithful to fulfill, and so promises can be fulfilled in either direction.
But every promise that God makes.
He fulfills his word is always fulfilled. Well, one of the promises that God had made. It was a personal promise to David was that his son Solomon would build the temple. And so we read through that in verses 14 through 21, here's what it says.
Then the king turned around and blessed the whole Assembly of Israel.
While all the Assembly of Israel was standing.
And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to my father David, and with his hands he has fulfilled it, saying since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe in Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there.
But I chose David to be over my people Israel.
Now it was in the heart of my father David, to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.
But the Lord said to my father, David, whereas it was in your heart to build the temple for my name.
You did well that it was in your heart.
Nevertheless, you shall not build the temple, but your son, who will come up or come from your body.
He shall build the temple for my name.
Verse 20 so the Lord has fulfilled his word, which he.
And I have filled the position of.
My father, David.
And sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised.
And I have built a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel, and there I have made a place for the ark in which is the covenant of the Lord which he made with our fathers, whom he, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
And here here Solomon is recounting the promise that was made. The desire in David's heart, the instruction from God, saying, no, you're it's good that it's in your heart, David.
Good job that you desire this, but that's not your calling.
That's not your role, but here's the promise, your son.
We'll build it.
So you know the account David didn't build it, but he did all the preparations that he could set up Solomon so that he had the plans.
He had the resources, the materials, everything.
And so as Solomon takes the throne, he's able to then take in all of this that David is provided and build.
The House for God.
And so the promise.
Of his word was fulfilled, Solomon says.
So the promise of dwelling in the cloud.
That's fulfilled, the promise of Davidsson building a house.
He says, wow, I'm just reflecting on and living in the blessings and the reality that God has fulfilled this promise.
Verse 22 then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the Assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.
And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like you who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with.
All their hearts so.
The scene here is that Ark is transported to the temple.
The glory of the Lord fills the temple.
The priests run out 'cause they can't take it.
Solomon reflects and goes.
Wow, that's pretty interesting, but God did say he was going to dwell in a cloud and so God fulfilled that word he.
Addresses the Assembly and says.
And God, the God of.
Promises and he keeps his promises.
He promised my dad that his son would build the house and he's done that.
And it causes him now, as he's addressing the nation, he begins to address the Lord.
He raises his hands to God.
Which going back to .1 is a little bit of a sign of dedication. He's raising his hands to God, giving his attention to God, and he's now going to talk to God in the following verses and issue this prayer.
Bring this prayer before God, but again here in verse 23, he says there's no God like you who keeps your covenant.
God, you keep your promises.
You promised to dwell in a cloud.
You promised my dad that I would build the temple and it's just causing Solomon to reflect on how much God is faithful.
To his word.
Well, he goes on to mention another promise in verses 24 through 26 that the sons of David will remain on the throne verse.
24 says you have kept what you promised for your servant David, my father. You have both spoken with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day. Therefore, Lord God of Israel. Now keep what you promised your servant David.
My father, saying, you shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel only if your sons take heed to their way that they walk before me, as you have walked before me.
And now I pray, oh, Lord God of Israel, let your word come true, which you have spoken to your servant, David my father.
The other promise that God had given to David was that he would always have one of his descendants on the throne.
But this is one of those conditional promises.
If they walk.
According to the pattern of David, if they walk with God and so as as long as his children continue to walk with him, God promises I'm going to maintain this dynasty.
I'm going to maintain your descendants upon the throne.
That's a pretty cool promise as you see that carried out through.
Jesus, who ultimately is on the throne for all of eternity because he is always faithful to the Lord, and so another great promise.
And so it's a promise that God has given, and Solomon says, but I see these other promises fulfilled.
I know you gave this promise, and so I'm asking you to fulfill this promise.
Also God fulfills.
Every promise to his people.
Never has there been a promise broken by God, and so we can look at his word.
We can see those promises that are made to us.
We can reflect on the promises given to us personally and understand we can trust there's no other God like our God who keeps his covenants.
Who keeps his word?
Who is faithful?
To fulfill every promise to us well, finally verses 27 through 34 gives us the Third Point and that is that God hears.
The prayers of his people.
Verse 27.
Solomon says, but will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot continue.
How much less this temple wouldn't, which I have built?
Yet regard the prayer of your servant and his supplication.
Oh Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you today, that your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day.
For the place of which you said, my name shall be there.
That you may hear.
The prayer which your servant makes toward this place.
Solomon as he is praying to God and reflecting on his.
Covenant keeping and mercy.
He begins now to think about.
How big God is?
He says, will God dwell on the earth?
It's ridiculous to think that this little house that I've built can continue.
I mean, I doubled or quadrupled the size of the Tabernacle, right?
It's still, it's still silly to think that that could contain the heaven of heavens cannot continue.
God, your big you.
Are beyond containment.
And so it's silly for me to think that your presence is locked up here in this temple. And yet, here's Solomon's request. Regard the prayer.
Regard the prayer.
That is made here.
Listen to the cry, he says the prayer which are servants praying for you today, that your eyes would be open toward this temple night and day.
Lord, I understand that this building doesn't completely contain.
All of who you are.
You're much bigger than the heaven of heavens.
None of that can continue.
He says, Lord, would you behave?
As though you were contained here in the sense that that you're always attentive to what's going on here, that you're always watching, you're always paying attention and you're always listening.
To the prayers that are made here.
Now the.
Following verses go on to elaborate.
Paul, not Paul, but Solomon gives a variety of different kinds of prayers that might be prayed in a variety of different contexts and situations.
He's basically imagining all the different kinds of scenarios that people will call out to God and and come to the temple, or think about the temple.
Look at the temple.
Look towards the temple.
Depending on their context and what they're able to.
To do at the moment, and he's saying like there's all these kinds of things going to happen.
But Lord, my prayer is that you would regard those prayers that you would honor their attention to the temple because they're looking to this place as the place where your presence dwells, and so they're looking to you when they look toward the temple.
Would you hear those prayers?
Verse 30.
May you hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place here in heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear.
The idea of praying toward the temple is that, well, there was some kind of obstruction, some some situation where they were not able to go to the temple to offer their prayer, and so they would pray toward the temple in the direction of the temple and say, Lord.
We're calling out to you.
Solomon says when when, when you hear that or when they call out to you, then hear and when you hear, forgive, and so there's.
Kind of an assumption here.
If you can't get to the temple, it's because there's some kind of issue, and so there's a, uh, forgiveness, that is needed in order for the people to be made.
Right with God.
Again verse 31 when anyone sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath and comes and takes an oath before your altar in this temple, then here.
In heaven and act and judge, your servants, condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteous.
So not just the prayers.
But the promises that your people make the oaths the the bigger judicial cases would be brought to Jerusalem to the temple and be tried there, and they would make promises to God just like you know, it's not so meaningful today, but you know you swear you promise in the courtroom to tell the truth, the whole truth.
And nothing but the truth, right?
Solomon saying, when they make those kinds of promises on the witness stand, Lord, hold them accountable like you're there, you really are there.
So hold them accountable and fulfill those.
Ruth's dealing with the righteous and the wicked accordingly, verse 33. When your people are defeated before an enemy because they've sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name and pray and make supplication to you in this temple, then here in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers.
Solomon really reflecting on all of the the things that God promised in the book of Deuteronomy, he said, look.
When you are faithful to me, you're going to be blessed.
Your nation is going to be blessed when you're not faithful to me.
Then your enemies are going to drive you out.
You're going to be scattered, and Solomon says, even when that happens when the worst of the worst happens because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord.
When they turn.
When they repent, when they call out to you.
Then load would you hear from heaven?
Forgive the sin of the nishin and bring them back to the land.
Of their fathers.
Again, the focus is here.
Your presence is here God, I know it doesn't contain you, but Lord, would you operate?
Under this idea that when people come here to meet with you that they get to actually meet with you when they are unable to come and they just.
Pray in the direction they look to you however they can and to the best of their ability in the circumstances when they've put themselves in a situation that's terrible because of their own.
Sin against you, but they they bring their hearts back, they repent, but now they're in foreign lands because they've been driven out by their disobedience, but but they they call out to you again?
Or would you hear their prayer and bring them back?
Now in First Kings Chapter 9, again in response to this prayer that Solomon is praying that continues to go on beyond the verses we're looking at tonight.
God tells Solomon in verse three, I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you've made before me.
I have consecrated this House which you've built to put my name there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.
God says, yes, I will do that.
God makes the commitment.
When when my people pray?
I will listen.
I will hear no matter where they're at or what they've done or what they did to get there.
I will hear when my people pray.
I will hear those prayers.
Jesus told his disciples in John Chapter 16.
But the father would hear their prayers, he says in that day you will ask in my name.
I do not say that I shall pray to the father for.
You, for the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God.
The incredible truth is that we have access to the father by faith in Jesus Christ.
And believing in Jesus Jesus is saying I am the mediator, I'm the intercessor, right?
But at the same time Jesus is saying.
But you have access to the father directly.
He loves you.
And I'm not saying I'm always going to be like standing in between for you.
There's of course always that way where he stands before us, and we're clothed in his righteousness, and that that type of intercession, but the work of Jesus gives us access.
To the father and we can pray to the father.
We can pray to the creator of the heavens and the earth.
Who, of course, is Jesus, but also the father?
There's the tribal nature of got it at work here.
But the point is that we have this promise.
God hears the prayer of his people by believing in Jesus.
You and I today have the opportunity to have God's ear.
No matter where we're at, no matter if we're right on doing everything that we're called to do at the temple, or whether we've been away and put out for various reasons or distant, or attacked and persecuted and running away in sin and rebellion.
There's all kinds of things that happen in our lives, but.
When we turn back and we call out to God by faith in Jesus Christ, God hears our prayers.
He really does.
He listens.
He hears he pays attention.
And he will be at work.
Doing what is best for us as we call out to him.
And so here as we look at these three things like Solomon, I think we can agree there is no God.
Like our God, there's nothing that we can invest our time, our hearts, our attention, our focus, our passion in that compares to our God.
He fills what his people dedicate to him and he promises I'm going to glorify myself in that you give it to him.
God says I'm going to do something with it.
And it's going.
To be great, God fulfills every promise.
To his people everything he says, every word, every promise, every prophecy, he will fulfill it.
He will bring it to pass.
He will accomplish what he said.
He would do.
And God hears the prayers of his people.
He's always there, always attentive, always ready to receive the cry of our hearts.
Let's pray Lord we lift up.
Our hearts to you this evening and we ask that you would help us Lord to really take hold.
Of this truth.
But there is no one like you.
There is nothing like you.
Lord, you.
Are worthy of all of our praise and adoration.
You're worthy of our attention and passion.
So God help us.
To put you first to pursue you most.
To make you the biggest.
Thing of our hearts and lives.
Lord, thank you that we can trust in you to be faithful to your word.
Thank you Lord, that we can give over our hearts our lives, our minds, our time, our space Lord, all things unto you, with the understanding and the promise, Lord, that you will fill it and work in it and accomplish your purposes and do good things for your glory.
Help us Lord.
To recognize.
Those things that keep us.
From a hearts and a mind and a life that's dedicated to you.
Or that we would surrender those things to you, give them over to you.
For your use exclusively Lord, which includes things like work and.
Tasks and meals and all of those things, but.
But Lord, one were committed to doing all of those things according to your will.
We were submitted to you, we're surrendered to you and we're looking for you to lead to guide and to accomplish your purposes.
And so, Lord, I pray that you would also hear the cry of our hearts as we call out to you.
Hear our prayers.
Help us to trust and know you do here.
As we trust in you and believe in you, Lord, we can know.
You're attentive, you know what's going on.
And you will accomplish good on our behalf.
We pray this in Jesus name.