Gooding, David: 3 - First Kings

Let us begin our study this evening by reading in the First Book of Kings and chapter eight. The First Book of Kings, chapter eight. And we begin to read there in verse twenty six, First Kings chapter eight and verse twenty six. Now therefore, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David, my father. But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have builded. Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day, that thine eyes may be opened towards this house night and day, even toward the place whereof thou hast said, my name shall be there. To hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. Hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place. Yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgive. If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and he come and swear before thine altar in this house, then hear thou in heaven and do and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his own head, and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness. When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against thee, if they turn again to thee and confess thy name and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, if they pray toward this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be, whatever prayer and supplication soever be made by any man or by all my people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands towards this house, then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive and do, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest. For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men, that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. God give us good understanding of his holy word. Tonight we are to begin the study of the first and second books of Kings. In the Hebrew Bible, the first and second book of Kings make up one literary work, but in our English Bibles, they are divided into first and second books. Therefore, we shall take two nights in the studying of them. They are very long and very important books. Now, First and Second Kings belong to the second major division of the Old Testament. The Old Testament, you may remember, is in three parts. First of all, the law, the first five books of the Old Testament, the law of Moses, otherwise known as the Pentateuch. Then the second division is what is known as the prophets and comprises not merely prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the minor prophets, but also books that we normally regard as historical works. So Joshua and Judges and First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings are numbered among the prophets. Then there is the third division that we call the writings. Now, it is important for our purposes to notice that the first and second books of Kings, though historical books, are regarded by the Hebrew Bible as the work of prophets. That tells us at once this much, that these books are not merely collections of stories, interesting tales. They are not even collections of important facts. They are all that, but in addition, they are inspired interpretation of facts. They have a thesis to develop. They have a view to put across. They have lessons to teach and central themes to converse. Sometimes, you know, when we read the historical books, we imagine that they are like photograph albums. I don't know whether you have a family photograph album. Uh, perhaps you have. Some families have them in the land I come from. And if you turn the pages, you'll find isolated photographs of Aunt Sally here, and there's Uncle George there. Oh, there's mother, uh, posing, uh, down by the seaside. Yes, that was just after she got married. And what's this got to do with, uh, this is a picture of a dog. Oh, well, it just happened at that time, you know, the family bought a dog. That's Fido, our dog, you see. Not a lot of connection with Mother, but, uh, you know, it goes on the page, and so there you are, and that's how they're tucked in. There's no particular rhyme or reason, just odd photographs that people took when the spirit, uh, moved them to take the photograph, and there they are in the family album. And sometimes we look on the historical books of Old and New Testament as though they were a collection of stories like that, that have been put together, and you make what you like of them. Some preachers take Naaman, for instance, and they preach about Naaman, but what on earth the next chapter has got to do with the story of Naaman? Nobody has perhaps, uh, discovered yet, and so it is there. Well, let us notice to begin with that the historical books are not really like that. They are the work of prophets. They are a deliberate collection of the stories and the facts, and they are so arranged to preach us a message, to give us an inspired interpretation of Old Testament history. So what subject is it that the first and second Book of Kings deal with? What's their interpretation about? Put briefly, the story of first and second Kings is the story of the government of the holy nation, God's ancient people, the Jews. It is concerned, therefore, with problems of government. The book opens with the death of David and the accession of King Solomon. It begins at a time when Israel's national affairs were at a high peak of prosperity and success. King David had fought their battles. He had conquered their enemies. He had brought them to a position of eminence in the nation. And Solomon, his son, amassed riches galore and brought his nation fame among the other nations. It was a time when Israel, perhaps, could have made an effort to become one of the leading empires of the ancient world. That's how the story begins. The story then tells us of the provision that God made to maintain his people at that high level of success and prosperity. A provision that was God inspired and God devised. A provision which, if Israel had really used, they would have remained at this level of enjoyment, of success, of spiritual well-being. But alas, the story points out to us that Israel frequently forgot and neglected and sometimes abused and perverted the provision that God had made for them. By large, they departed from God and fell therefore into all sorts of grievous mistakes. Soon after Solomon's death, the nation tragically broke into two halves, the two tribes and the ten tribes, and never again were they joined in the subsequent centuries until the captivity down to Babylon. Moreover, in the end, the Assyrians came up, and they conquered the ten tribes of Israel and took them away ignominiously into captivity and spoiled the land and peopled the land of Israel with foreigners. And finally, to complete the sad story, up came Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylons, and attacked the two remaining tribes and conquered them and smashed their city Jerusalem and smashed their temple and took them away into captivity down to Babylon. So that the second book of Kings ends on a very sorry, sorry note. It tells us how that Israel and Judah, who could have been the shining and leading empire in the ancient world, degenerated by their folly and were conquered by their enemies and ended ignominiously in exile. So it is a gloomy book. But then it's not only a gloomy book, for there's another side to the story. The historian points out to us that from time to time there came in the, among the, uh, Judahites revivals, powerful, energetic revivals, accompanied with a return to God and great joy and gladness. And the writer points out to us what the secret of these revivals was. The secret was this, that whenever the people in repentance turned back to God and the provision he had made, invariably it led to nationwide revival. As we read these ancient stories, therefore, we shall be learning a lesson for ourselves. We shall be saying, well, if God made the ancient people a provision, they prospered when they used it, they failed and suffered when they neglected it. Let us take the warning and advice. Let us see to it that we adhere to the provision that God has made for us, so that we may prosper, and that we see to it that we do not neglect God's provision, lest we in our turn fail and incur needless suffering. Well then, to the business on hand. I have said that God made Israel and Judah a provision to maintain their spiritual health and prosperity. First of all, then, what was the provision that God made for his ancient people? The answer to that is that he built them an house, an house called the house of the Lord. I ask you to notice that. God's answer to the problem, how will you maintain the holy nation in vigorous prosperity and health? God's answer was not to raise up a succession of brilliant men. David, King David, had of course been a very brilliant man. David had fought all their battles, right from those early days when he went out to meet Goliath and defeated the old giant and brought his head in his hand. And all the gals and all the fellows had written their pop songs about the new King David, and all had fallen in love with him, and he went right to the top of the charts. David, conqueror of good life. David also had written their psalms, and when Israel sang the praises of God, more often than not, it was in the words that David had written. David had founded their capital city. David had brought the nation together and joined the two tribes and the ten tribes. Why, for the last forty years, it had been David this and David that and David the other, David all the time, their great hero, apart from that unfortunate rebellion that on occasion was led by Absalom, his son. David had done everything, and you know, they couldn't, they couldn't dream of a world in which there wasn't a David. As the old boy grew elderly, they scratched their heads and said, whatever shall we do when David is gone? And when he got very old, says chapter one of First Kings, he got so old they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat. And they said, this is terrible, the old boy is dying, what can we do to keep the chap alive? Because if David goes, what shall we do? And they tried all sorts of curious methods, and I won't detail them to you at this moment. They tried all sorts of curious methods to keep the poor old boy alive, but it was all useless. He got colder and colder, and in the end, David died. And a gloom settled on the nation. What should they do now the brilliant David had gone? What was God's answer? To raise up a whole string of brilliant men? No. Oh yes, I know Solomon began life very brilliant and very wise. But Solomon, in his old age, turned foolish and ended under a cloud of folly. Many of the kings that followed were very ordinary men. Very few of them were brilliant men. Some were. Some were ordinary, able men, and some were dithering idiots. And, uh, by and large, they were so ordinary that you scarce can remember the names of them, unless you've been to a Bible school or something. And you say perhaps, well, now that's a funny thing. If God could raise up one brilliant man like David, why didn't he raise up a whole succession of brilliant men and keep the thing going? Well, he didn't anyway. You could ask the same question about Christianity, Christianity, couldn't you? You remember how it started off after the ascension of Christ, with brilliant spiritual giants. There was Saint Peter himself, who preached, and three thousand men were converted in one sermon. There was the great Apostle Paul going out and preaching the gospel, and myriads getting converted and churches established. Brilliant men. That have changed the face of the world two or three times over. But then, as everybody knows that has read church history, after the apostolic age, God didn't continue raising up brilliant men. There were some, yes, but for the most part, the men that followed were pretty ordinary men, such as we, for instance. Or excuse me if that offends you, but such as myself. And you say, but then why did, why, I mean, if God can raise up a man like Paul, why doesn't he raise us up a whole succession of men like Paul, and we should have one constant revival, or at least we should never need revival, for all things would always continue at the tremendous high level peak of spirituality and prosperity. That's how we think. That's not how God thinks. Very early on in the reign of Solomon, he brought it home to Solomon himself, and thus to the nation. What was God's idea for keeping that nation at its high level of spiritual prosperity. And the idea and provision was this, the building of the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. I have read to you part of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of that house. And if you were attending as we read, you will have discovered this, that Solomon saw in that house of the Lord the cure all ills, the solution of every problem that could possibly arise in all the long course of Jewish history. Oh Lord, he said, what a marvelous thing it is that you have come to reside in this house. Now look, put it in the mind of your people to remember this house. Whatever their need, teach them to look towards this house. If perhaps they have sinned and you've driven them into exile, then cause them to repent and to turn and to pray towards this house. And when they pray towards this house, then bring them back again. If they have sinned and there is a shortage of rain or there's a blight on their crops, oh God, put it in their mind to look back towards this house and pray towards this house, and that will mean their recovery. If it's some personal need in their heart, for everybody has his own private difficulties and knows the plague of his own heart. If it now, therefore, is not the nation, but an individual that is in trouble of some kind, remind him that he has only to look towards this house. He will find provision to meet his need and to restore him to spiritual health and prosperity. This was God's provision for maintaining his people, the building of the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. Our first task now, therefore, our next task is to examine what exactly we mean when we talk about the house of the Lord. And we do that because it's interesting even for us as Christians, isn't it? Solomon built God a house of the Lord. But if you remember, the New Testament talks about us in similar terms. Peter says in First Peter chapter two that, uh, every believer is a living stone and is being builded for a spiritual house. So we listen with our ears pricked up when we hear the Old Testament talking about the house of the Lord, because we say, yes, in Christianity there is something like that. We too are living stones in the house of the Lord. And then Paul writing to Timothy in his first letter in chapter three, says, I have written these things, Timothy, so that you might know how people ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, pillar and ground of the truth. So then again, we are told that as Christians, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we form God a house. What do you mean by that? That believers form God a house, the house of the Lord. There are various terms used in scripture to describe Christians, are there not? We can think of ourselves as sheep, if we like, in the flock of Christ. And when we think of ourselves as sheep, we think of ourselves as people liable to wander and not very clear in the head and all that kind of thing. And then we think of Christ as the great shepherd who feeds and tends and leads us. Or we can think of ourselves as the bride of the Lamb. And if we think of ourselves as the bride of Christ, we are thinking of the love of Christ towards us and his desire to remove our spots and blemishes and make our spiritual faces shine. If you like, you can think of us as a temple. If you do that, you are thinking of our worship of God and our service of God. Very good. And suppose now Scripture calls us the house of the Lord. What is Scripture thinking of? Let's do a bit of research on the matter. Perhaps the easiest way to get the idea into our heads is to recur to one very early example of the house of the Lord. I refer to the book of Genesis and the experience of Jacob recorded for us in Genesis chapter twenty eight. You will know the story very well. Jacob had just cheated his brother in rather an alarming fashion, and, uh, so bitter was the hatred between the two boys that Jacob was leaving home to go into a far country to find himself a job. And he traveled all that day, and when the sun went down, he lay down to sleep, and he got a stone for his pillow. At last he could scheme no more. His business scheming had, uh, tired him out, and he laid down and he went to sleep. And as he slept, he had a vision, and he saw a ladder set up on earth, and the top nearly reached to heaven, and God standing, notice please where God stood, not at the top of the ladder, but at the side of the ladder. And he saw the angels of God ascending and descending, going up from the divine presence and coming down to the divine presence. Oh, it was a wonderful vision, the like of which had never entered his head before, and when he woke up, he said as follows: Oh, how awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God. Surely God is in this place, and I knew it not. This is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. Let's think what those terms mean. Surely God is in this place, and I knew it not. Ah, yes, he might have behaved a little bit differently had he known it, mightn't he, old Jacob? Oh, Jacob believed in God. Of course he believed in God. What do you think? But he believed in God who was away off in his heaven, out there beyond the bright blue sky, you know? A God you prayed to if you felt inclined to on all occasions, but a long way off up in his heaven. And when old Jacob had been doing his twisty deals with Esau, Jacob felt it was convenient to have God a long way off up in his heaven. Now he woke up to this fact, that while God may be in his heaven, God isn't necessarily a long way off in his heaven. God, said Jacob, is in this place, right by my pillow, by my side, by my very elbow. Surely this is the house of God. That's what you mean by the house of God. You mean a place that localizes the very presence of God. God in this place. This is the house of God. And then said Jacob, this is the gate of heaven. Now, when we hear that phrase, the gate of heaven, I suspect we immediately think, hmm, the way into heaven, the gate into heaven is the way into heaven. That wasn't exactly how Jacob was thinking. He wasn't intending to go to heaven, well, not just yet anyway. He'd a lot more business to do, and, uh, he was for staying around a bit. When Jacob said, this is the gate of heaven, he was thinking of, by analogy, of the gate in any eastern city. The gate of a city in the east was the place where the business of the city was done, where the elders of the city met to govern the city, to pass its laws, to administer its affairs, to control the business, to govern the city. The gate of the city was the headquarters of the government of that city. And you see how Jacob is looking at things? He said, I now have discovered that God is in this place. This is the house of God. And then he says to himself, and please and pray, what is God doing in this place? Oh, can't you see, Jacob? What do you think all these angels are for, ascending and descending? Jacob, my good man, you are being given an insight now into the civil service of heaven. These are God's executives. They move out from his presence to do his will, to control his universe, and their mission accomplished, they return reverently and stand in the presence of God, awaiting their next assignment. What a marvelous vision Jacob had that night in his sleeve. He was something of a schemer, of an administrator himself, but he'd never seen a form of government like this, centered upon God. God here by the side of the ladder, right by his elbow, in command of the universe's most efficient civil service, the angels of God ascending and descending. That's what you mean when you talk about the house of God. God in his government, God at the center of the divine administration, God not a long way off in his heaven, letting earth go as it will, but God in this place. And Jacob that day saw his opportunity. He saw a gospel message in that vision, didn't he? He said to himself, well, well, if this is really true, and God is in this place by my very pillow, by my very elbow, as I lie here thinking about my plans and how am I going to get a job and how am I going to make ends meet? Why, if God is by my head, with all the resources of the universe at his command and the angelic civil service, why don't I commit my life to God? Why don't I trust my affairs to God and ask God to rule and administer my affairs? And in the kind of language that Jacob knew, he made that decision. God, he said, if this is for real, God, and you will guide me in the way that I go, and you will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear. If you will look after my affairs, God, and govern them, then you will be my God, and this shall be your house. So when we come to the Book of Kings and we read of Solomon building God a house, we do well to import these same ideas. God had that house built in Jerusalem that God himself might descend and dwell among his people, and there govern them by his immediate presence. Now perhaps you will perceive a something. Why didn't God propose to bless Israel by raising up a succession of brilliant men? Because he had some better provision. Not a succession of brilliant men, but the presence of Almighty God dwelling among them. Men come and men go. But God among them abideth. All just use your imagination a moment to imagine what a provision this was. Way out in that ancient east, this small state of Judah and Israel, it taxed even Solomon's credit, uh, uh, uh, ability to believe. Will God really do it? Will the infinite almighty God come down and dwell in a house that I have built in Jerusalem City? So that we may take our problems to God, and God help us to solve them. So that we may run to God whenever we need him and ask his wisdom and ask his guidance. So that God may be among us and fight our battles and preserve us. If that be true, what a fantastic thing it is. Let us for a moment turn aside from that ancient picture. For what provision God made for them, that provision God has made for us, and even better. For in ancient Israel, when they built God a house, the house had to be built of ordinary stones. And then the people, uh, they were something else, outside the building. They could come as far as the building, but they were different from the building, something separate. And nowadays, the house that God has, the place where he dwells, is not some building like Jalanimbi Chapel. It isn't even some glorious Gothic cathedral station somewhere in Europe. The house that God has now is a house made up of people, living stones, and God himself dwelling among his people. I say, let's pause and enjoy it a moment. Let's try and take it in. Here we sit before God, believers in Jesus Christ our Lord. We form God. That must mean this, doesn't it? That God is in this place. The almighty and all-sufficient God dwelling here among us. Oh, my brother, get hold of it. As a member of the house of God, see what your unspeakable privilege is. As you are toiling in your office tomorrow, doing the work of the Lord, write it across your desk, if you will. Surely God is in this place. As you try to grapple with the difficulties of modern business, the pressures that arise, the problems that vex you, the temptations that assail you, till you scarce know what to do and perhaps dread the phone ringing again, my brother, remember this. God in this place, at your very elbow, by the telephone, and you have but to raise your heart in prayer to him, and the Lord is by your side to strengthen you, to empower your thinking, to increase your insight, to strengthen your moral courage and nerve and help you serve him as you should. Oh, Christian mother, as you are bringing up the children in your family under the pressures of modern society and wondering about their careers and how to keep peace in the home and how to guide them, oh, write it across your memory, surely God is in this place. You school fellows and girls, sitting for your exam, worried a little bit perhaps the day before whether and how things are going, and you're doing it for the Lord, aren't you? Not like the worldly man who was merely seeking his own ambition, you are doing these studies at school, sitting these exams because you believe that this is God's will for you, and now the day of test has come. Write it across your top of your desk, if you like. Surely the Lord is in this place. And I may write every examination answer, and I've done it many times. I may write every examination answer, whispering my prayer to the Lord. Now, Lord, help me. Thank you for being at my very elbow. Thank you for being in my heart. This is then the great gospel message of the first and second book of Kings, the provision that God made for the governing and maintenance of his people. But we are told that, uh, this house had all sorts of details and arrangements and furniture and rituals connected with it. So we are going to look at some of the details of this house, because in its details we shall find lessons of the spiritual provision that God made for his people. So let us just briefly glance at what, uh, those provisions are. You will find them listed in one Kings chapters six and seven. one Kings chapter six and seven. Verses one to ten of one Kings six, tell us the structural arrangements for this house of the Lord. What shape it was to be structurally. Verses fourteen to thirty eight then tell us about the internal installations and decorations of this house. Chapter seven and the first twelve verses tell us of the king's house that was built alongside the house of the Lord. And finally, in chapter seven verses thirteen to the end, we are told of the furniture that was put in the court of the house of the Lord. Now that all sounds a little bit difficult, perhaps, and very detailed, but it's very practical. One of these days, perhaps, uh, who knows, you may, uh, be in the position where you're building yourself a house. And the first thing you'll have to decide if you're going to build from scratch is now, what's the structure of the house going to be? Now, is it going to be a bungalow? Is it going to be a two-storied affair? And now, now what shape are we going to have it? Is it going to be L-shaped, or is it going to be oblong, or is it going to be square, or is it going to be round? You'll have to decide the structure of the house. Of course you will. And then when you've decided the structure of the house, you'll probably knock your head together with your husband, and you'll be saying, now, my dear, uh, what do you think, uh, we ought to do for the inside? How shall we have the inside installation? You know, shall it be three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and, uh, one dining room and a kitchen, or shall we not have that? Uh, uh, shall we have two bedrooms, uh, One dining room, one lounge, and a library? What shall we have inside? And, uh, shall we have it air conditioned, or shall we have it air conditioned? And so on and so forth. You will then decide, in other words, the internal installations, uh, and decorations. Finally, when you've got all that si- decided, you'll say, now how shall we arrange the garden? Uh, shall we have trees, or shall we have a swimming pool in the garden, or what shall we have outside the house? Shall we have grass or rockery, or what shall we have? So here in this ancient book, God describes to us the building of his house, and he deals first with the structure of it, and then he deals with the internal installations and decorations, and finally he deals with the furniture that was to be put in the court. And we're going to study those and see what provision they made in detail for Israel. Just let's take the first one. That'll do for tonight. The structure of the house of the Lord. It will get us started on the detailed study. It will also emphasize in our mind the message that we have already learned. The structure of this house of the Lord? Well, get it firm and fast. There was to be merely one house. One house. That's all. One house. Yes, in addition to that, there were many side rooms. Oh, quite a large number of side rooms round this house. There was only one house, many side rooms. Now I'll tell you what the side rooms were for. In this house of the Lord, the priests and the Levites had all sorts of jobs to do for God. There were some priests, and they had to look after the incense and, uh, and pound the incense until it was ready to be burned, and they needed a little room to do it in. There another lot of priests, and their job was to bake the showbread and to make the cakes that eventually were to go on the table of showbread. They had their job to do. And there were other fellows around the place, and their job was to collect the wood that you needed for the sacrifices on the altar outside in the court, and they needed a place to store the wood in, of course. And there were other fellows, they were in charge of the trumpets that had to be blown at the feast days, and you needed a nice place to polish them up and to make them as they should be and to do your particular job. So, in order that the service of the house of the Lord might go on, there were all sorts of little side rooms. But now I ask you to watch. How were those side rooms related to the one main house? Well, I tell you how they weren't related. They weren't set out in a whole wing going out here to the right, room after room after room after room, with each room getting further and further and further away from the house. Not like that at all. They were so built that every little room was attached immediately and directly to the house itself. Every single room, of course, had four walls. One of those walls was the wall of the house of the Lord. That's how they were built, all equally nestling around the side walls of the house. So come with me, if you will, into one of these rooms, and there's Hezekiah or Habakkuk or somebody, and he's a pounding of the old incense, doing the work of the Lord. And then you'll see him stop a moment, and he'll look inwards to the wall inside, and he'll ma- he'll utter a prayer. Why is that? That wall is the wall of the house. For in his little room where he's doing his job for God, he is in direct contact with that house. Nothing between him and the house, save the wall of the house itself, in direct contact. The man downstairs in the story below, he's ab- uh, getting the trumpets ready, but he too, in direct contact with the house of the Lord. They didn't have to go through somebody's else room. They could come, each one, direct. They were always and constantly in direct contact with the house. You say, my sir, that's a very small thing, isn't it? No, it isn't. We shall see later on, tomorrow night, how important it became in the history, but it's important even now for us to grasp it, isn't it? We are the house of God. Every true believer is a living stone in that house. There is only one house of God. You will never read in Holy Scripture of the houses of God. There is only one house. It is composed of every believer from Pentecost to the Lord's coming. One house. Oh, we all of us can't be in the same place at any one time, can we? Here are you in KL, and there am I in Belfast most of my days, and there's some other folks down in Australia, and some in Africa, and some in America, and some at the North Pole. Yes? How are we related to this house of the Lord? Well, every single one of us in direct contact to that house. So you here in KL, in direct contact with the Lord. The Lord in this place, and we in Belfast in direct contact with the Lord, and there at the North Pole in direct contact with the Lord. What a mercy that is. Just you fancy what a bind and a difficulty it would be if you here in KL wanted to know what the mind of the Lord is over a problem, and you had to send all the way to Belfast through us to find out what the mind of the Lord was. Well, you say, preacher, don't be so silly. We should never think of consulting Belfast. Thank God for that. No. You would go direct to the Lord, wouldn't you? Yes. Carry on doing it. You won't mind my saying, will you, that we in Belfast wouldn't think of coming through KL. No, because we can come direct to the Lord too. And you, my brother, at your work, you have a problem, right sitting at your desk, direct contact with the Lord. And you sister in the home, and you student in the school, direct contact with the Lord. For surely the Lord is in this place, wherever you are, whatever your job, be it in church, be it in the factory, be it on the farm, be you where you will, if you be a believer at your work for God, you are in direct contact with the blessed Lord himself, and he's there at your very elbow to strengthen you in your work, to guide you in your problems, to give you insight and powers of thought and powers of love and powers of strength, to maintain you, my brother, by his divine presence ever with you. Oh, what a gospel it is. God put it into our hearts ever to remember it. It is the cure all ills for all our troubles, as Solomon saw so long ago. So that as we conclude this part of our study, suppose any one of us here tonight is feeling down spiritually. The day has gone difficult somehow. Life, perhaps these past weeks, have been full of problems, and you felt yourself getting further from the Lord. Maybe you've got in all sort of, all sorts of a tangle, and you don't know what the answers are. Listen to Solomon's prayer. Lord, he said, each one of us has got a plague in our hearts, but put it in our memories that wherever we get to, however difficult our circumstances, put it in our memories, if we only look towards this house, look towards the living God who abides there, we shall find restoration and blessing and recovery and maintenance, and so it will be with us this very night. Wherever you are, my brother, oh God, put it into your heart to look towards the living God at your very elbow, at your very side, God in this place, there to maintain you, to recover you, and to bless you with his infinite blessing. The Lord bless our hearts and lead us to think about these things, and tomorrow, if it be his will, we shall continue and complete the study of the house of the Lord. Shall we pray? O Lord, we thank thee for this thy marvelous condescension. Wilt thou indeed, the God of heaven, come and dwell here on earth, in our humble hearts, in these small temples of the Holy Ghost? O God, then we praise thee gratefully and from full hearts. Forgive us for the times when we have forgotten thee and relied upon our own unaided wisdom. Tonight, O Lord, bring us back to realize afresh what it means that thou art with us by our very side and in this place. Grant us, Lord, ever consciously to depend upon thee and to obey thy directions, that thy will be done and thy kingdom extended in our hearts. We ask it through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.