2 Chro No.4 How to Pray

Father we ask for a sense of your presence as we're gathered here today. Move in upon us and may we be aware the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit is speaking to all our hearts whether we're boys and girls or men and women. For his sake amen.

The reading is from 2 Chronicles chapter 6 verses 1 to 12. Then Solomon said the Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud. I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.

While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there the king turned around and blessed them. Then he said praise be to the Lord the God of Israel who with his hands has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David. For he said since the beginning since the day I brought my people out of Egypt I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my name to be there.

Nor have I chosen anyone to be the leader over my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my name to be there and I've chosen David to rule my people Israel. My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the name of the Lord the God of Israel.

But the Lord said to my father David because it was in your heart to build a temple for my name you did well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless you are not the one to build the temple but your son who is your own flesh and blood. He is the one who will build the temple for my name.

The Lord has kept the promise he made. I have succeeded my father David and now I sit on the throne of Israel just as the Lord promised and I have built the temple for the name of the Lord the God of Israel. There I have placed the ark in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.

Solomon's prayer of dedication starting at verse 12 and reading through to verse 21. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Now he had made a bronze platform five cubits high five cubits wide and three cubits high and had placed it in the center of the outer court.

He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands towards heaven. He said, O Lord God of Israel there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

You have kept your promise to your servant David my father. With your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it as it is today. Now Lord God of Israel keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said you shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel.

If only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law as you have done. And now O Lord God of Israel let your word that you promised to your servant David come true. But will God really dwell with on earth with men? The heavens even the highest heavens cannot contain you.

How much less this temple that I have built. Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence.

May your eyes be open towards this temple day and night. This place of which you said you would put your name there. May you hear the prayer of your servant.

May you hear the prayer your servant prays towards this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place. Hear from heaven your dwelling place and when you hear forgive.

Well let's carry on then with Solomon's prayer at verse 22. Solomon goes on to pray about some very specific examples of how he would like individuals and the nation to be helped by the Lord. When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple.

Then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence.

When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you and when they turn back and confess your name praying and making supplication before you in this temple. Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and to their fathers. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you and when they pray towards this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them.

Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live and send rain on the land that you gave your people for an inheritance. When famine or plague comes to the land or blight or mildew locusts or grasshoppers or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities.

Whatever disaster or disease may come and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel. Each one aware of his afflictions and pains and spreading out his hands towards this temple. Then hear from heaven your dwelling place forgive and deal with each man according to all he does since you know his heart.

For you alone know the hearts of men so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land that you gave our fathers. As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm. When he comes and prays towards this temple then hear from heaven your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigner asks of you so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your own people Israel and may know that this house that I have built bears your name.

When your people go to war against their enemies wherever you send them and when they pray to you towards this city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your name then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea and uphold their cause. When they sin against you for there is no one who does not sin and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy who takes them captive to a land far away or near and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say we have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken and pray towards the land that you gave their fathers, towards the city you have chosen and towards the temple that I have built for your name then from heaven your dwelling place hear their prayer and their pleas and uphold their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now my God may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

Now arise oh Lord God and come to your resting place you and the ark of your might. May your priests oh Lord God be closed with salvation. May your saints rejoice in your goodness.

Oh Lord God do not reject your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant. This is the Word of God.

Well if you've got your Bibles open at 2nd Chronicles in chapter 6 let's have a look at what we are to learn from the Word of God in this particular remarkable passage of Scripture. I didn't see Egypt play the game before they played England. Tim Saunders did and he tells me that there was a penalty awarded in that game and the commentator directing his report back to his native land of Egypt suggested that everybody prayed to Allah at that point of penalty-taking.

Apparently three or four Egyptians dropped on a prayer mat behind the goal. Now that must have been fairly intimidating to believe that somehow the force of Allah may be determining the outcome of a game. I can't work out the theological implications of that but not to be put off the English team apparently had one of their fellows with difficulties with an Achilles tendon and he knew of a faith healer back in the UK so they flew out the faith healer to do the necessary so this fellow could continue to to play football.

Well I don't know what you make of stories like that but but at least they do illustrate maybe from a rather suspicious perspective that there are people in our world who very much believe in the in the power of prayer and faith. I wonder when when the devil is about to shoot at you so to speak do you drop down on your knees with ease and ask for divine intervention or maybe when you're stumbling on your Christian pathway sort of spiritual Achilles heel do you ask the Lord to put his hand upon your life to make you well. Two things combine it seems to me in this incident recorded in the sixth chapter of this remarkable book of Chronicles and that is that faith and prayer are mixed together as this King comes before the Lord and and dedicates the work of his hand that he's been engaged in with many thousands of co-laborers for a number of years.

Just for those of you who are not familiar with this passage of Scripture let me tell you quite briefly that King Solomon is being has been engaged in what is in effect his life's work at least that for which you will be known with a possible exception of his wisdom which also is a feature that people have some some cognizance about in regard to Solomon. But he was responsible for building at that time one of the greatest wonders if not the great wonder in the world his temple and the reason why he built the temple was not just because of its architectural splendor though it had that quality but but the temple was to become the headquarters of the Jewish race of the Hebrew people and the thing that would make the activity of Solomon beneficial or non-beneficial productive or a complete waste of time would be the degree in which the presence of God was felt. So the address that I preached last Sunday morning temple glory and church glory as far as Solomon was concerned he had the the benediction the blessings of God upon his work because we read in the final verse of the previous chapter the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God and we read in the Acts of the Apostles how the Spirit of God fell upon the early church you read in Ephesians and the second and third chapter how the Apostle Paul wants there to be glory in the church what the temple bespeaks is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus he tells us in Matthew's Gospel in the twelfth chapter that he is greater than the temple God's presence is located in him to the extent that if you see him you've seen the Father and he wants the world to be filled with his Father's glory and we who are part of the body of Christ we who spiritually blessings that our Lord Jesus came to dispense with right hand and with left hand we too want to live our lives to the praise and to the honor to the glory of our God so when you think of the temple here and Solomon dedicating it think not so much of the historical incident be that important as it may think of yourself and the dedication that God is asking of you Solomon prays but how is your prayer life Solomon knows the presence of the Lord to what degree do you personally and us as a as a local church know the presence of God in the tabernacle it's a beautiful prayer isn't it that Solomon offers to the Lord a preacher of yesteryear Joseph Parker said in the heart of London some years ago no man could have prayed that prayer without help in all honesty we would have said that if we had found this prayer in Sanskrit or if we'd exhumed it out of Indian libraries it would have been due to the author to have said you never dreamed the dream it was a vision from God read the prayer from beginning to end and say if this be not so how majestic is the conception how wise how tender how patriotic how philanthropic probably there is no prayer in the whole of history that equals this prayer and if it be excelled it will only be excelled by the prayer of the Son of God and Jesus you remember in John's Gospel offers a high priestly prayer in which he too prays for the glory of God to be felt in our world how are you doing in your prayer life do you have as much thought for golf as you do for God or for God as you do for golf you put as much interest into planning your vocation as a Christian as your vacation in terms of going on holiday Solomon had a good father at least he was good in many ways he was known as the friend of God and David on one occasion says I will not give slumber to my eyes until I find a resting place for my God Psalm 1 3 2 4 verse 4 and his idea was this Jerusalem had only just been taken and the the ark of God which stood for the presence of God hadn't really got a suitable place in which it could be put and so David says I won't give slumber to my eyes I won't in any way indulge in any extravagance to personally satisfy my own needs until first of all I have given priority to my God you see the point when I tell you that Solomon was very concerned that the first thing he did in his life as a king was to ensure that there was an edifice suitable for the Lord it preoccupied him now what about you and me what this chapter stands for how do we measure up to it our temple seeking the presence of the Lord as you watch Solomon here it's it's most interesting to see his department you find reference to it in the in the in the first verse and and then his attitude as you discover it in in all the following verses his position was well he stood on a scaffold specially erected in front of the whole assembly verse 12 will tell you that and then his attitude it was one of of great reverence and deep humility as for his postural from extending his hands and standing before the people because they are behind him as he's dedicating the temple he now bows his knee the first time you read in Scripture of a king publicly bowing his knee in the presence of other people he's so expectant that God is going to respond to what he has to say his prayer is long it's the longest prayer recorded in the whole of Scripture and it's throbs with a burden that God would ever have his eyes towards the temple and respond to the prayers of people in terms of forgiveness and its language is the most beautiful imaginable well I'm not arguing that the longest prayer in Scripture demands the lengthiest of sermons to be expounded the lengthiest sermon on the in the Guinness Book of Records lasted for 28 hours you guessed it it had to be preached in America but there is a sense in which we're risking this morning doing an injustice to the Word of God if we do just rush our way through this great chapter that's the reason why I preferred not to take a selection of verses but with the help of the Ford family to bring the whole chapter before you so how do I cope with expounding 40 50 differing verses well let me take three little headings that will help and speak to you first of all concerning this prayer the propositions it contains and then the suppositions it projects and then the repetitions it makes the propositions it contains well there are three about God and there is one about man what can you say about God well here is Solomon kneeling before him and he tells us in the 14th verse Oh Lord God there is no God like you in heaven this God is utterly incomparable you can't compare him with anyone at all he is so unique what's more he is utterly faithful he never reneges on his word verse 15 you have kept your promise verse 16 now Lord God of Israel keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said such-and-such incomparable faithful certainly he is utterly knowledgeable look at verse 30 he has an insight into the minds of every man and woman the words in parentheses those of you who are following the NIV for you alone know the hearts of men says A.W. Tozer God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters all mind and every mind all causes all thoughts all mysteries all enigmas all feeling all desires every unuttered secret all thrones and dominions all personalities all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth motion time space life death good evil heaven and hell they're all known to God he is utterly incomparable utterly faithful utterly knowledgeable you can't teach him anything you can't improve upon his wisdom neither can you discover in him in any flaw in terms of going back upon what he has promised how's your prayer life do you send to your thoughts on those attributes of this God do you realize as does King Solomon as he prostrates himself before the Lord that this is the great God who has called him to do an important work and so he submits his life to the Lord and offers this remarkable architectural achievement to him for his honor for his glory for his dwelling place three things the prayer teaches us about God but one thing it teaches us about man and that is verse 36 there is no such thing as sinless perfection when they sin against you for there is no one who does not sin and you become angry with them and so forth the Wesley brothers had the little difficulty in their theology in this area they used to teach at least John Wesley by implication taught an experience of entire sanctification and the idea was this that somehow you progressed along the Christian road and then one marvelous day you had a wonderful experience which had a an ecstasy about it and that the product of this was that you were raised from that lower standard of spirituality to a much higher one you became impervious to sin it's a goal that we ought to be achieving or we ought to be aiming to achieve with a realization however that the fickleness of the human heart is such that however well we progress in the school of sanctification and that however consistent our lives seem to be there will always be flaws there will always be imperfections so Solomon is strong on his theology of God this God will never renege upon his word this God is utterly knowledgeable about everything this God is utterly faithful he's also accurate as Solomon in his understanding of man there's no such thing as sinless perfection Solomon the prayer has a high esteem of God and a low esteem of man is that how you pray so there we have it the propositions it contains but let me move on the suppositions it projects the suppositions it projects now remember there is a sense in which Solomon stands for our Lord Jesus I mean that he's a sort of type if you please but when our Lord Jesus came on earth you remember in one of the Gospels his words when he says that a greater than Solomon is here but there is that of Solomon which prefigures albeit only in a in a cloudy shadowy fashion our Lord now Lord has not only kingly virtues but priestly virtues will offer his body a sacrifice for sins but not only is a king not only is he a priest he's also a prophet he knows the future he understands the hearts of men and women well here is Solomon in one sense although he's a king acting to some degree as a priest and there's a predictive element about what he has to say on that grand occasion when he dedicates this ornate building to the honor and glory of God what does he is does he envisage well like Moses he envisages the fact that his people after this great day when the weeks have slipped by and become months and the months have disappeared into years that there will not be the consistency that God might have expected or Solomon would have wished so here are the presuppositions that men might backslide just for a treat on a Saturday I buy myself the Guardian like to see what they're saying they had a supplement this week it was almost blasphemous not quite they've done worse there was a sort of picture of God on the supplement and then there was a an article extremely well written actually but by a scientist reviewing the more recent theories in terms of creation and suggesting that you probably can't now rule out the possibility of God well we're grateful to the Guardian for informing us of this but but it's not the sense my friends that you can't rule out the possibility of God basic to Solomon is the burden that we need this God or else we're damned and done for so projects human catastrophe personal dispute well that could happen in Israel verse 22 when a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath when relationships blow apart then Lord God if that should happen can we presume upon your grace Lord if verse 24 if political disasters come along if your people are defeated not because they were military weak but spiritually they reneged on all that they had promised you and you punish them Lord in such conditions as these will you still have a merciful heart there are five scenarios which Solomon paints in these verses which speak of the falling back of the people there's just one odd one out which is the fourth one and we'll deal with that right at the end the third one it has to do with natural disaster look at verse 26 and 28 I twin the both when the heavens are shut up and there is no rain when famine or plague come to the land or blight or mildew locusts or grasshoppers when Lord you punish people through natural catastrophe if they turn to this temple and all that it speaks of then Lord will you be gracious we've got very sophisticated in our days haven't we we dismiss natural catastrophe we've got explanations for it you don't have earth correct earthquakes in Los Angeles you have earth corrections it's a nice way of looking at it isn't it you are reckoned to be an anachronism from the Victorian era if you dare to suggest that any plague any famine may have behind it a God who wants to remedy a situation a God who wants to show the futility of life a God who wants to demonstrate that men are as grasshoppers before him they are as fine dust in the balance they have not harnessed immortality speak like that and they think that you're either a cretin or an anachronism from an age gone by but Amos speaking on behalf of God says dealing with the natural climate of Palestine I caused it to rain on some cities and not on other cities the greatest problem in the Middle East used to be the problem of drought and and famine and when Solomon looks into these catastrophes he sees behind them not necessarily always directly as a consequence of people's sinfulness but he does see the sovereignty of God he does see God in control of everything and he says Lord when these things happen when your people are hounded by natural catastrophe if they remember the temple if they remember what temple speaks for speaks of then Lord will you remember them when people deliberately sin against you verse 36 is the fifth scenario for there is no one who does not sin when Lord in in deliberate rebellion they do what you have told them not to do and there's no sacrifice that will cover a deliberate sinful act not in the Old Testament legislation when that happens Lord and they throw themselves back upon your mercy you Lord who have come to this temple you who are the all-knowledgeable God will you also be the all-merciful God I said there were five scenarios one was the odd one out and that's the 32nd verse when a foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm when he comes and prays towards this temple then hear from heaven your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigners ask of you isn't that a mighty verse all those verses that follow dealing with God's concern not only for Jew but also for Gentile Lord when that happens when people are impressed because of this building and they recognize the God behind the building not that you inhabit the building exclusively not that you're our God exclusively but Lord when people from the ends of the earth come to Jerusalem and they pray will you hear them you see my point the propositions this prayer contains the suppositions it projects there are two lots of presuppositions actually there is that of profanity and there is that of prodigality profanity means when they've gone away when they have done things that they ought not to have done when there has been desecration but alongside with those instances of profanity there is also prodigality Lord when they've done these things if they come back when there's been desecration if there is an attempted consecration then Lord will you respond to your children Solomon will teach us a great deal about repentance the Apostle Paul will tell you that godly sorrow leads to repentance how much repentance is there in your prayers I caught one or two of you below the belt didn't I as it catches me but you cannot presume upon the grace of God in these five scenarios that which which Solomon describes including the odd one out without realizing that he's incorporated skillfully into each of them the necessity for repentance you cannot repent too much as a previous a preacher of another century you cannot repent too soon because you do not know how soon it may be too late you cannot repent too soon because you do not know how soon it may be too late and another quaint preacher says repentance without amendment is like continually pumping without mending the leak do you repent but the whole is still there is your spiritual nature like the the pineapple or no let's go for another fruit the apricot the pineapple won't give the illustrations point that I'm making soft on the outside but in the center there's hardness that's not repentance Solomon's presuppositions are Lord if your people engage in prodigality having engaged in permissiveness if now they come back as the prodigals if there's genuine repentance then will you Lord respond his propositions his suppositions his repetitions thank God for repetitions it helps to bail me out of many a problem in the pulpit there's a place for such in prayer there's a place for reinforcing what's been taught in proclamation what are the repetitions well there are many of them towards the end which are in effect the afterglow of what you discover in the earlier verses so in the 40th verse you get Solomon saying now my God may your eyes be open and your ears attentive he believes that God hears prayer now that's just a repetition is it not of what he's already told us at least in the 21st verse and by implication earlier on hear the supplications of your servants and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place hear from heaven your dwelling place and when you hear forgive repetition he's the God who hears prayer he's the God who forgives he's the God who answers again the 40th verse is a response of the 21st verse and there is a sense in which the 41st verse is also a reflection on an old earlier verse when here in the 41st Solomon says now arise O Lord God and come to your resting place he wants a felt sense of God's presence but he already knows this the glory has been there that mysterious cloud that has been so intensive in in radiating the presence of God that the priests were not able to continue their cultic duties but don't you want to repeat Lord in the middle of the service as you did at the beginning of the service let us feel your presence where are thy people meet around the common mercy seat Lord we want to know you there not because there's a logical deduction from the text but because there's a felt experience that our God is in this place where two or three are gathered together I'll be there says the Lord Jesus you don't need a degree in algebra or logic to demonstrate the fact that that is a vow of promise you need your emotional antennae directed towards heaven so that you're picking up the fact that he is here so the repetition and there are other repetitions I'm running out of time God will act fairly God will forgive sins Solomon has already argued that there's the ark there there are what he calls the holy ones there in the in the 42nd verse he refers to Oh Lord God do not reject your anointed one or your anointed ones that could describe Solomon and David it could also describe the priests in their cultic ministries as they offer sacrifices why was this temple built so that God's presence might be felt as he forgives people and Solomon is so concerned to reiterate the prayer for forgiveness for forgiveness of God and he wants the temple ever to be a place of rejoicing doesn't he now arise O Lord verse 41 come to your resting place may your peace O Lord God be clothed with salvation ministering your grace and your saints rejoice in your goodness again a repetition of all that's happened before the previous verses of the the last verses of the previous chapter they were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets the trumpeters and singers joined in unison as with one voice etc etc you see how there's repetition in this prayer it's a great prayer propositions suppositions repetitions but it's a prayer which anticipates the prayer of Jesus you see if you go through to the to the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John you'll find there our Lord Jesus in all his majesty a greater than Solomon and he's there bringing his own intercessions before the Lord the first verse of that majestic chapter one the greatest in the whole of the Bible John 17 father the time has come glorify your son that your son may glorify you he hears Solomon Lord glorify yourself in the temple he is King Jesus the time has come glorify your son Solomon has has completed the work that he believed that God had had given him to do and now we find here in in these verses in John's Gospel verse 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do Solomon predicts the the course of history for the Jewish people our Lord Jesus the greater than Solomon predicts the course of history for those who will attend on him and become believers on him holy father protect them by the power of your name verse 11 the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one you see the correspondence between Solomon's prayer and King Jesus's prayer how's your prayer life I speak to myself brothers and sisters as much as I speak to you Solomon's concern not for the building thank God that Solomon at this stage in his life had got his theology right wasn't the building if God didn't come down that was the most extravagant waste of expenditure and effort that there been thus far on planet earth but God did come down God did bless his people Solomon in the wisdom and in the intuitions that God had given him rightly understood something of the attributes of God God come down in your life amongst us Oh Lord we've sinned there has been profligacy but there is prodigality and we turn not to the sacrifices in the temple but we turn to the supreme sacrifice of Jesus on the cross do you Oh Lord forgive our sins remember our iniquities no more do you Oh God take us as human stones and make us more perfectly knitting together one against the other creating this magnificent edifice your church which transcends the world as it goes round the globe and has its counterbalance in heaven itself Oh God suddenly come to your temple and change your people from one level of glory to another level of glory as we recognize your goodness and your grace brothers and sisters let's stand together and let's sing the Lord's prayer right now