Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: First Kings 8:52-53

First Kings 8:52 and 53. Now, as you turn to that, I’ll remind you that Matthew Henry looks at Solomon’s prayer of dedication as nine petitions. I’ve looked at it as having a prologue, seven petitions correlating in some fashion to the seven days of creation, and then an epilogue, a conclusion. And I believe verses 52 and 53 are properly seen as the conclusion to the entire prayer. And this will be our text for today’s sermon on prayer and our reformation.

Please stand as we read First Kings 8:52 and 53. “That your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and the supplication of your people Israel to listen to them whenever they call to you. For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance as you spoke by your servant Moses when you brought our fathers out of Egypt. Oh Lord God, let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you for your indwelling spirit. We thank you for the work of the savior on the basis of which we have received your spirit. We pray now that spirit would do its work, Lord God, that he would indeed instruct us in things of our savior as we meditate on your word that our lives might be transformed and reformed by the power of your spirit and word through the merits of our savior. In his name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated. The nursery workers and children may be dismissed to the nursery.

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There is both a simplicity and a profoundity to prayer. Prayer is as simple as talking to the one whom we love and by whom we are loved about all of the details of our lives. All of our cares, our joys, our hopes, our dreams, our goals, our anxieties, our loves, and our delights. Prayer is as simple as simply speaking conversationally to God about the details of our lives.

And yet, as we have seen from First Kings chapter 8 and Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the temple, prayer is as profound as ushering in a new creation as we interpret our world and our lives in terms of the first creation, its fall and its curses and the new creation affected by our Lord Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, his resurrection and ascension.

Let me do a little grammar lesson again, using Pastor Wilson’s comments from last week. We’ll remind ourselves again in the review section of the outline before you of this big pattern of the creation week that we find reemerging in various portions of the scriptures and informing us in terms of what things are properly understood in terms of their creation. I’ve listed on your outlines Genesis 1, Leviticus 23, First Kings 8, and Genesis 37. Adding Genesis 37 this week. Hopefully by now most of us are becoming familiar with the grammar of the creation week in Genesis 1.

We move from light the first day. The second day is firmament. The firmament is described as heaven called heaven. It reflects the glory of God. The heavens reveal the glory of God. The third day of creation, the land and waters separate and the first fruits, so to speak, the first grain crops and trees, fruit trees. These come up in terms of vegetation are created on that third day.

The fourth day is the sun, moon and stars, rulers in the context of the middle of this sevenfold structure, the rule of the heavenly bodies reflecting the light of Christ. The fifth day is the habitation of the heavens and the waters under the earth. The world is built in a triple-decker fashion or described to us in that way by God. There’s the earth. There’s the heavens above the earth and the waters below the earth. And those two sections are populated on day five with teeming creatures, that is fish and birds.

Day six is the land creatures and man, Adam of course and Eve created on day six. Day seven is the Sabbath when God comes to be with his people. And we all should remember that first Sabbath and the Lord God comes to meet with Adam and Eve. There is judgment. There’s not enthronement, but rather there’s eviction in the context of the creation week when God comes on a Sabbath and reminds us that day of enthronement has become a day of eviction because of the sin of Adam and Eve.

Now, hopefully these are things that our children are now being brought up to recognize this flow of the creation week and to see it imaged in various portions of scripture.

Leviticus 23, we’ve spoken of several times. Seven feasts correlating rather clearly, I think, to the seven days of creation. The Sabbath is the day of light, when God comes to be with his people. The second feast is Passover, the firmament, making a division between heaven and earth. In the Passover, God makes a division between his people that are passed over and the ones that are not, creating a heavenly people for himself who dwell in that firmament.

The third feast in Leviticus 23 is first fruits, obviously correlating to the third day of creation and the first elements of vegetation created on that day. First fruits, the third day, of course, is the day of resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ has ascended as the first fruit of all those elect in him. So we have that third day correlation to the third feast in Leviticus 23.

The fourth feast of Leviticus 23 is Pentecost. Remember the rule of God’s people, a fact that at the day of Pentecost when the church is formalized and organized as the new covenant church. Now the day of Pentecost is the day when God’s law comes to his people, God’s heavenly people, the sun, moon, and stars, the rulers that God has created in terms of his elect community rule by means of his word. Pentecost is a reminder of that. That feast was a reminder of the giving of the law on Sinai at Pentecost.

The fifth festival in the Leviticus 23 order is the feast of trumpets when those fish, the gentile nations, the birds are brought into the kingdom. The trumpets, the gospel is trumpeted forth and God brings his elect from all corners of the world to worship him and to glorify him. The feast of trumpets is a picture of that. In the New Testament, we have an obvious illustration of those fish that populate the sea, the Gentiles of the Old Testament. The apostles are fishermen who go out and bring in the gentile nations. And so the trumpeting forth is a fifth day event that correlates to the fifth creation day of fish and birds.

The sixth festival in Leviticus 23 is the day of atonement as people are trumpeted together. As you were called together this morning through the trumpet of your alarm clock waking you up, your internal alarm clock, the call to worship informally. You knew we had signed worship services at this time and then the call formally we come together but before we can enter into the full joy of the seventh feast, tabernacles, heavenly people rejoicing in the presence of God and his bounty, we come through the day of atonement, the day of purification from our sins based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that sixth day fixes the sixth day fall of man in Adam with the sixth day being atonement as we’re brought to a recognition of our sin but deliverance and cleansing from that sin.

And then we’re brought into the full joy of the seventh feast of Leviticus 23, the feast of booths or tabernacles where we dwell in those treetops around God in the full harvest time at the end of the year. And so these feasts of Leviticus 23 is another place where this creation recreation model bubbles through in the context of the scriptures, bubbles up from below the surface. And we think again that yes, what Leviticus was all about was establishing the tabernacle and then the temple as a picture of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who would affect this new creation with these relationships to the creation week.

We see this same thing in John chapter 1. “In the beginning,” how does Genesis 1 begin? “In the beginning,” God. “In the beginning,” Jesus. And how is Jesus described in John chapter 1? He’s described first as light, secondly as glory. Jesus is that light of the first creation day. Jesus is the glory of the firmaments in the heavens. A new creation is being described in John chapter 1 and throughout that gospel.

And I think it’s correct then to understand the profoundity of prayer in relationship to praying in terms of the new creation affected by our savior. To understand the transition that’s going on in the world now as a result of the advent of the greater Solomon, the greater temple, the Lord Jesus Christ and his work. We then pray in terms of the creation week and we ask God to bring his light of discernment to his people as they strive with one another with sins that are being covered up. We ask for the light of discernment to come and to make clear who’s right and who’s wrong. And so that was the first specific petition of Solomon’s prayer.

In Genesis 37, we have “this is the history of the generations of Jacob,” a marker to a literary unit. That unit begins with Joseph bringing light to the evil deeds of his brothers by seeing them reporting them to his father. He is the same light that is asked for in First Kings chapter 8. He brings that discernment between brothers and he brings the evil report of the brothers to the father. He is the light of discernment. Joseph is picturing the recreation of the light of discernment with the coming of the savior on our Sabbath day.

The text goes on in First Kings 8. The next petition is God’s people are now not on top as are supposed to be as a result of the Passover. They’re the ones being killed in battle because of sin. The old creation falls in Adam and it’s pictured again in God’s people striving with their old Adamic nature and entering into the curse of being on the bottom and not on the top. And so there’s prayer from the temple—prayer that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ would bring his people to repentance for their sins and establishment as that firmament people who are to rule in the context of the world.

We need second petition Solomon prayers in our world today because we are obviously now the tail and not the head. We are obviously now those who are the servants and not the masters, and the masters that rule over us are an image from God that we have sinned and strayed from. We have a need for a new reformation. The church was in great sin in the context of the Reformation and the church today is in great sin and we need a new reformation based on the same basic truths of the Reformation.

The sovereignty of God, a Christian world view, an apprehension of the redemption wrought through our savior, the lord Jesus Christ, and a removal of guilt through the atoning work of the savior and its application to our lives. This is the reformation we seek in our lives as a culture. This is the reformation we seek in our own lives individually as well. We want to be that firmament people ruling for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is Joseph given as soon as he brings the discernment of his brothers? His father gives him then the robe of many colors, the glorious robe of authority, so that Joseph rules over his brothers. We are to be given the same mantle of Christ’s glory as we repent of our sins in the context of the church and individually and see ourselves once more as that heavenly firmament people who rule in the context of the world.

Joseph goes on to dream. Then the next thing that happens in Genesis 37, he has a dream of sheaves bowing down before him. We remember the sun, moon, and stars ones. We don’t remember the sheaves as well, but that’s the first dream. It’s a dream of sheaves correlating to that third day of creation, the first fruits, the grain crops coming up. And so Joseph dreams of sheaves and of course the great sheaf to come, the first fruit of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Solomon’s third prayer reminds us that when we have drought, whether a physical drought of water or a drought, a famine of the word of God, we’re to repent of our sins and ask that God would open his word, be heard and once more bring back fruitfulness to our land and to us as a people. We repent from our old creation sins and usher ourselves into the new creation work of the Savior as he brings us to repentance for our sins.

Joseph then dreams of the sun, moon, and stars. And that correlates, of course, to the fourth day rather obviously to show us that indeed in Genesis 37 we see this bubbling up again of these seven days of creation. We correlate that back to our prayer of Solomon at the feast at the inauguration of the temple and he prays in terms of all those Deuteronomy 8 and 28 curses that come upon God’s people that make them not blessed above all people as they’re supposed to be—sun moon and stars, a heavenly people reflecting the firmament glory but rather people who are now suffering curses from God because of their unfaithfulness to him.

And Solomon’s prayer is that we’d move out of the old creation and our rebellion to God into the new creation and shine as lights in the midst of a darkened world. That we would see blessings flow to us because of the work of the Savior and not the curses because of the work of our sin. That we would be in Joseph and find ourselves as heavenly rulers once more.

And then Solomon goes on to pray that foreigners might indeed come to the temple and they come hear their prayers Lord God. Solomon rather understood that those fish, those teeming things of the gentile nations round about them, were to be brought into the full worship of God as the trumpets are blasted forth to call men to worship him. The foreigners would surely hear of all that God has done through his people. And through that trumpeting forth of who God is, accompanied by his deeds in history, the foreigners would flood into the temple.

And so we see today the bringing in of all those who are outside of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ today. We see our need as a church to trumpet forth the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and bring people into that fullness of worshiping him the way the foreigners would bring were brought in.

And then the sixth petition of Solomon is that they might have victory in war that their cause may be maintained. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world in which some men are not elect and which others are. And we want to enter into the combat necessary by the proclamation of the gospel. We are a savior of death as Chris W. mentioned last week to some and a savior of life to others. And we want our evangelism to have that effect in the context of the community in which God has placed us.

And so we pray for ourselves that we would sound forth the gospel to our friends and neighbors that we would understand that it is warfare, liturgical warfare in the church and then evangelistic warfare in the context of our neighborhood. Savior of death to some and a savior of life to others.

And then finally, Solomon prayed that the eviction that had happened to God’s people—and he knew that they were going to sin. He knew they’d be evicted like Adam was evicted from the garden. And he prayed that when they came to their senses in that land, they might be brought back to Sabbath enthronement in the context of the land in which God had placed them.

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Prayer is as simple as speaking to God about our desires, our worries, our anxieties, our children, our friends, our vocation, our recreations, all that we do. It’s that simple. And yet, it’s as profound as understanding. If we understand that our prayer is modeled first as a church and then as individuals on the prayers of the scriptures, including Solomon’s prayer of dedication, it is profound as praying for a new creation to be manifested in our lives.

We pray that we might exhibit the fruits of the spirit. How can that be? How can we find ourselves exhibiting those fruit without the indwelling spirit manifesting these things in the new creation affected by the work of our savior?

We pray that the world would reflect not the fallen nature of Adam and the blessings and cursings being twisted around, but rather that the church would be exalted once more as God’s proclamation agency to the world and benevolence agency to the world. How can that be apart from the work of God in heaven affecting this new creation?

If we understand the profoundity of praying in terms of a moving away from old Adam and a putting on new Adam both individually and corporately. If we understand that what that is really about is a brand new recreation through the work of the savior then we will begin to pray like Martin Luther’s dog, because we know that we have no ability or power. There are no secular means given to us whereby we can affect a new creation.

Our children learn, at least mine did, from a very little age. A Levi and Michael will learn from a little age, “Oh, who can make a flower? I know I can’t. Can you? Oh, who can make a flower? No one but God. It’s true.” Only God has the power to affect the first creation. And only God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of the spirit affecting the father’s will has the power to make manifest the new creation of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life as an individual.

We’ll talk. We have talked and we will again Tuesday night of the great reformation in culture and society affected through men like Luther, Calvin, Knox and Bucer. And we look at our culture and we see a crying need for those kind of men, that kind of movement. But understand that when Martin Luther began his work, it was a reformation not of culture nor of the church at first. It was a reformation and a new creation wrought in Martin Luther’s heart as he came to understand the doctrine of justification by faith as he came to understand himself as a fully redeemed person.

We have branded ourselves as a church and one of the brand names, the brands we have placed upon ourselves is “Reformation.” Reformation. When people think of this church, we want them to think that’s what we’re seeking to affect as we proclaim the gospel of Christ. Reformation. In our early literature from our church, we talked about the importance of the Protestant Reformation. It was a humongous turning point in the history of mankind. Tremendous implications that have gone on now for 4 or 500 years.

And we seek that sort of continuing reformation that will see that kind of radical transformation in our world that has turned its back on Christ over the last hundred years. We seek it. We seek it in Oregon City. And so we have a desire to bring together people to work in terms of thinking of ideas for outreach to affect reformation.

But we must see it in terms of prayer, praying to God the way Martin Luther’s dog looked at that meat because God is the source of life. It can come from no other place. This reformation which is really a manifestation of the recreation in Christ, the transformation of the world. This can come from no place other than he in whom is all life. And it will affect it will come about as a result not of cultural changes first but in terms of our own lives being transformed and manifesting the new creation fruits of the spirit, the new creation of moving in terms of a humility before God and yet a sense of calling to be his prophetic people.

It comes about this reformation in our own lives. It comes about through no other means other than prayer. Ultimately, as we seek God to affect reformation in our hearts, we are unable to bring that forth. And in our church, we are unable to bring it forth and in our community we are unable and through any other means to bring it forth than by a reliance and a dependence upon God in prayer.

First Kings 8 reminds us that to affect our reformation prayer must be central to our reformation recreation as individuals the manifestation that is of our new life in Christ and then the manifestation of the new life in Christ in the context of our community and world as well.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. I have absolutely no other place to go.” Well, that should be our understanding as we understand in addition to the simplicity of our prayers, the profoundity of them. We seek a transformation based upon the recreating work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have absolutely no other place to go to affect that in our hearts, to affect that in our families, to affect that in our church and in our world other than God.

And so we can pray with that singleness of focus, the way the dog looks to meat as its only source of life and desire at that moment. So when we pray to God, we do so with a singleness of mind. And we understand we’re asking him to manifest a brand new creation, the creation ushered in through our savior as First Kings 8 instructs us.

Then we understand the need to go to him for that prayer. You know, we think of it in terms of discipline and discipline is part of the Christian life obviously. But when we’re trying to put off the old man, discipline won’t cut it. Only the transforming work of the Holy Spirit producing that discipline and producing that change in our hearts will do it. We must work, but we must pray. We must be driven to our knees by understanding that is absolutely the only place we can go to see ourselves put off sin and put on righteousness.

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Now, we wish today to use the conclusion of this prayer of Solomon for the dedication of the temple and remind ourselves of seven lessons in terms of the prayers that are articulated in First Kings 8 and then summed up in verses 52 and 53. We want to make this pertinent to our focus today on reformation.

**Reformation is accompanied first of all by a calling to God in all manner of circumstances.**

A calling to God in all manner of circumstances. Verse 52 says this: “that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and the supplication of your people Israel to listen to them whenever they call to you.” Solomon has given prayers here for discernment and judgment for victory in maintaining the cause, for forgiveness of sins and reversal of effects that those sins have brought upon themselves. He’s prayed for evangelism in terms of the foreigners and their access to the throne of grace through the temple, through the mediation of himself and the temple. Solomon has given us many different kinds of prayers that have much implications for our lives. And he sums it up by saying that God, his last summing up prayer is for God to listen to them, that is to us, the people of God, whenever they call to you.

Prayer is described here as a calling to God. And here it’s that simplicity again, isn’t it? The simplicity of the new creation that we’ve talked about comes about as we simply call to God in our distresses, in our joys, in our anxieties, in our delights, whatever it’s for. We call out to God. Very simple and very profound at the same time. And as we call out to God, we do so in all manner of events. We’re to call out to God or to be at prayer. Pray always, Paul says. Pray without ceasing. In this conversational prayer of calling out to him in all things. And he greatly encourages us in Romans 8 to do this.

He says in verse 26, “The spirit also helps in our weaknesses. We don’t know how to pray, we say to ourselves, so we don’t pray. But he says, we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.”

The last couple of verses we love to quote, but look at the context for it. How do all these things work out for our good? They do. It does so in the context of our prayers to God and the spirit making intercession for us. This is a tremendous encouragement for us to pray in all matters including those that are difficult for us and we don’t know what to pray. We simply call out to God and the spirit who is affecting the manifestation of this new creation wrought by our savior affects that manifestation by interceding for us and by praying when we do not know how to pray. He makes intercession for us. The spirit of God gives us his spirit that spirit of new life and recreation life to bring us to a recognition of the need for prayer to him and then the spirit himself prays for us affecting bringing about the effect that all things work together for our good.

Proverbs 15:8 says, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” And I mentioned this before, but oh, we need to hear it again and again. God says no matter what our prayers are like, and they may be unformed, they may be immature, but as we bring them to him as his children, our needs and our thoughts, he delights to hear them the way our children delight to see that crude drawing of who we are or of another part of God’s created order. We love to see our children’s drawings. And even if our prayers are immature and unformed, God delights in the prayers of his children. He delights in them.

Have you thought about God this last week? In all your circumstances, in all your difficulties, and in all your joys, have you spoken that simple yet profound conversational prayer to God to call out to him in whatever circumstances you find yourself? And then have you sought him as you focused upon him? Have you implemented an understanding of who he is?

You see we that part of the ACTS model—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication—beginning with adoration. We see that in Solomon’s prayer, don’t we? Solomon prays for instance, “Lord God there is no God like thee in heaven are in the earth. God is without peer. All of us have peers. God has no peer. There is no one like him in heaven or in the earth which keeps covenant. He is more faithful than any man. He is always faithful. He always keeps covenant. And he shows mercy unto his servants.”

Solomon is adoring him for his immensity. And then he goes on to talk about how you can’t be contained in these places, his immensity, his omnipresence, his knowledge of men’s hearts. He includes that in his prayer. He’s adoring him for his faithfulness and his covenantal faithfulness and his mercy to his people. Solomon has adoration in there because when we do that, you see, when in our prayers we focus on the person of God, you see that is the person that’s being that is transforming us to be his lightbearers in the context of the dark world.

And when we focus on and adoring God, we do so as simple children loving him. But as we do that, we may not even be aware of it, but we’re being transformed by a meditation on whatsoever is lovely and peaceable and good. Philippians 4 says, “Don’t worry. Think on great things.” Well, what’s the greatest thing to think on in our prayers as we’re tempted to anxiety? It’s the person of God. And that puts everything in a proper context and our lives are transformed.

God says that we’re to call out to him in every circumstance.

**Secondly, reformation is accompanied here by a calling to God by means of the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater Solomon and the greater temple.**

Verse 52: “that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and the supplication of your people Israel.” You see, in Solomon’s prayer, there is a mediating work that he is doing for the people. And the temple is a place of mediation between God and the people. And as Pastor Wilson has talked about in the in his series on the covenant, we have mediation required between us and God. And so our prayers here are in terms of its application to us. We know that the greater Solomon is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the greater Solomon. He’s as the bridegroom that comes forth from his chamber with the strength and shining forth of the firmament. And he is the true temple. He’s our mediator.

And when we pray to God the Father, we pray through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Job in chapter 9:22-23 is perplexed. He says, “God is not a man as I am that I may answer him and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any daysman, mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both.” That picture during Job’s historical time was a daysaman would be a judge, we would think of him as a referee who would come between two men that had a dispute and he would put a hand upon the shoulder of each man and he would mediate between them and he would be affecting reconciliation with each other through the transmission of his hands being placed on these men.

And Job says that God’s not like that. I’m not like God. He’s totally different. Job understood the creator creature distinction. He knew that God was not just a bigger and more powerful person, but God is the creator and we’re the creature. But Job understood his need for mediation with God. And of course, that need for mediation has been met finally and definitively in the work of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ who comes to mediate between God and man.

And that mediation brings us into a place of peace with God the Father through his work. But it also provides the basis for our prayers. Solomon lets the people know that they’re really kind of praying through the temple. They’re praying through him. They’ll be praying through the priests. They’re praying through mediation. And all those things are pictures of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who comes to affect mediation for his people.

So Hebrews 4 tells us in verse 14: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. We have a mediator who understands our infirmities, our weaknesses. He was tempted in all ways that we were. Nothing is unusual in your temptations. It’s common to man. And our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in a like way. And because of that, he is the proper mediator and intercessor as you go to God in prayer.

“Let us therefore, we read, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may gain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We have a time of need. We need an intercessor, a mediator to make our case before God the Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ is that great high priest. What does it say? “Let us hold fast our confession.” What does that mean? Well, our confession here seems linked to our accessing the throne of grace through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our confession is tied to our prayer life and our prayer life is tied and encouraged by the great intercessory mediator we have been given to us by God the Father—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every day the song by a group called, “I’m choosing my confession.” Well, every day you’re choosing your confession as it were. Will you approach the throne of grace believing in the mediation of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Believing that because of what he has done you can find grace and mercy in time of need and stress? Or will you not?

And if you do not, you have chosen a different confession. You have chosen a confession of self-reliance, self-ability, the ability of the civil state. We’ll talk about that next week, the idolatry most common in our country today is the civil state that brings us health, education, and welfare. What is our confession? We choose it. We implement it. We manifest it when we go to the throne of grace through the work of our savior.

Hebrews 7:25-26: “Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives. For what reason does he live? At least given here in Hebrews 7, he always lives to make intercession for them. The intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of our prayers, his mediation is not some side job. It is a central aspect of his salvific work. It’s ongoing perpetual mediation is a central aspect of him saving us. He is able to save us to the uttermost who come to God through his mediation since he always lives to make intercession for them.

“For such a high priest was fitting for us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the creation.” Lord Jesus Christ is the mediation by which we make our prayers known to God. So to affect our reformation in our souls, in our lives, prayer is important. Prayer that calls to God. Prayers that call to God through the mediation of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to affect this reformation, which is our brand as a church and the brand we’ve been given to us as reformed Christians as well.

**The third point from this text is that reformation is accompanied by a calling to God from his peculiar first fruits people.**

Now you see I threw in that third day reference. Did you catch it? First fruits, third festival, Leviticus 23, day of creation, resurrection of Christ in the third day, first fruits.

Well we read in this text: “For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth.” After he talks about this need to pray for his people to pray and asking God to have his eyes open to their prayers. An interesting phrase. And that he’d hear them. “For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth.”

We’re a separated people. And by as a separated people, we live in terms of his word. And Solomon’s prayer is focused upon the word of God and asking God to keep his covenant word. So our prayers are peculiar. They’re not just what we want. We’re to pray in terms of the new creation as demonstrated by the covenant word. What God is bringing to pass. And we are to do so as his peculiar first fruits people.

This separation that’s talked about here is referenced again in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, but fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness. What is your standard of activity? See, as a peculiar people, you have a particular standard by which you’re to judge your ethics in the context of the world. Righteousness, justice as defined by God’s law instead of lawlessness.

“What communion has light with darkness? How do you interpret the world? You interpret in darkness without light of God’s word or do you interpret it according to the light of God? See, what is our knowledge? What’s our prophetic aspect of our world? Do we interpret our world in terms of this transition from the old creation to the new creation? How do we understand things? We go around to looking at ballot measures. What light do we bring to them? Are we in light bringing God’s word or are we in darkness trying to figure out what’s best for us or best for the culture apart from God’s word?

Separation has to do with this. What accord has Christ with Belial, the master, the king, the Lord Jesus Christ as opposed to the foolish king of all fools, Belial or nothingness? Our sense of dominion, our sense of ethics and our sense of a worldview, a knowledge of the world based upon the light of God’s word—this is what makes us a peculiar people, a different king, a different law, a different understanding of life and where the whole world is going. It makes us a separate and peculiar people.

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? You are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them. Be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you for I will be a father to you.”

Separated people, a peculiar people. You know, Proverbs 15:8, we said that the prayer of the upright is a delight to God. But notice that it is the upright that God delights to hear the prayers of. And it begins by saying, “The sacrifice,” that’s a code name for prayer. “The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. An abomination to the Lord.” Proverbs 15:29, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”

Psalm 17:1, “A just cause, oh Lord. Attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips.” Our prayers must emanate from a lifestyle of conformity to God’s word and repentance from evil deeds. And so Solomon’s prayer is full of repentance for God’s people. We’re to be a peculiar people, a separated people who think through things differently, who when confronted with a social event of doing this or doing that in a particular night. You might come up with different things. You end up doing one from the other, but you all should be thinking of it in terms of the light of God’s word, your holiness to him, your witness of him, and your enjoyment of recreations that he brings to pass. You see what I’m saying? A peculiar people. We don’t think like the world.

Now, it’s interesting because, you know, we tend to think of this peculiarity as something that can be seen as kind of an amillennial or premillennial just pull back from the world, right? We’re a peculiar people. We’re not going to be like those guys. We’re going to be different and we’re just going to be with ourselves. But notice that’s not really consistent with the flow of Solomon’s prayer. Solomon says that God chose his people out to be a peculiar people as a ministry to the world.

Israel wasn’t the only group dwelling in the land. And those who went to the temple, they weren’t the only ones who were saved. They were to have a ministry to all the world. They were the priestly people to minister to the rest of the nations. And you see, when we’re to be a peculiar people, as God’s first fruits, peculiar people, we’re the first fruits based upon Christ, the first fruits, but we’re bringing those nations in, as the rest of Solomon’s prayer indicates.

My point is that evangelism and our peculiarity as a people defined with lifestyles consistent with his word, go together, not apart. Our peculiarity doesn’t draw us away from the world to the end that we don’t have anything to do with them. That was the Pharisees problem. Our peculiarity means that we are peculiar as we go about in the world as lights in the world as magnets to those whom God is calling to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re to be a peculiar people to affect our transformation and recreation and a reformation in our world.

**Fourth, reformation is accompanied by a calling to God from those that are confident knowing that they are his inheritance and rulers of the earth.**

It goes on to say that “you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance.” We’re separated to the end that we might be God’s inheritance. This long prayer of Solomon moves as it moves to a conclusion by putting us in mind of who we are.

Deuteronomy 32 says: “When the Most High divided the inheritance to the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundary of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. The whole world is divvied up in relationship to the children of Israel. All 70 nations will be brought to faith through his peculiar people, Israel, to his inheritance in the world. Verse 9, for the Lord’s portion is his people. Jacob is the place of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, in a howling wasteland, a wilderness. He encircled him. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eyes.

“An eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on his wings. So the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields. He made him draw honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock, curds from the cattle and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams of the bread of Bashan, and goats with the choicest wheat. And you drank wine, the blood of the states.”

“You are God’s inheritance. Pray confidently to your father in heaven.”

I heard a sermon by or I read a sermon by Mark Horn on Genesis and he says, “What was the motivation for Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden?” Well, they believed the lie of the serpent. And what was the lie of the serpent? The lie of the serpent was and is to you today: “God hates you and has a horrible plan for your life.”

Now, you’re tempted to believe that in Adam. But when you come together on the Lord’s day, you’re reminded of who you are—forgiven people. You come to the food of all foods. You come to the finest manna come down from heaven. You come to the wine that pictures the joy of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are given the high things to eat and you ride on the high places in him. This is your heavenly calling. You are his inheritance. Don’t be afraid to pray to him. Don’t pull back like Adam and Eve. Don’t believe the devil’s lie that God hates you and has a horrible plan for your life.

Things go bad. Things break. I had devotions a week and a half ago, been very tired. Got up and did devotions at the family. And the night before we had prayed, “God, give us some good news tomorrow.” That was our simple prayer at the end of the day. Give us some good news. So, I got up and did devotions at the family and went out to go to—I don’t remember if it was work or school that day—first to work the church. And Joanna’s car wouldn’t start. Was dead.

Oh, see, he doesn’t love me. Breaks things around me. Makes it hard on me. I am tempted, dear ones, and pray for me about this. I don’t know about you, but I am tempted to disbelieve the love of the father for me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have a father much of my time grow. I don’t know what the who cares. The point is the devil tempts us to doubt God’s goodness towards us.

And Solomon reminds God’s people here. He reminds us God reminds us to affect reformation in our lives. We must believe that the Lord God has chosen us as his inheritance. Otherwise, we go back and sin the way that Adam did. God does indeed love us and he does indeed have a wonderful plan for our lives. Now, that’s not true of everyone, but we can say it about us, dearly beloved, and we should know it.

And I’m convinced that if we grab a hold of that truth, it’ll increase our prayers. It’ll increase that it’ll change the quality of those prayers, not just the quantity. We’ll go to our heavenly father thanking him for his love toward us if we just simply resist the temptation of the devil to think that God hates us.

We should pray confidently. God says that the righteous prayers of a man, prayers of a righteous man avails much. The fervent prayer, our prayer does change things. The scriptures are clear about that. It’s interesting in the context of James chapter 5. You know, you’re supposed to call for the elders and the prayer will save the sick. The Lord will raise them up. He has committed sins will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed.

“The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. He prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.”