II Chronicles 1:1-4:22

[00:00:00] Hello. Regrettably, there is a bad patch of interference lasting for about a minute on this cassette. However, this was on our original master. [00:00:11] We come to the second part of the second division of these books of Chronicles. [00:00:21] Remember, we are dealing with the realization of the purpose God. [00:00:27] These books of Chronicles, you will briefly remember, span the whole of Old Testament history. They are not like Samuel. The books of Samuel are kings, just history recorded for us. [00:00:45] The books of Chronicles are an interpretation of history, a summary of history, something far more strategic and vital than even the record of history. [00:00:57] And you remember, they go right back to Adam and they go right on down to Zerubbabel and beyond Zerubbabel to the coming of the Lord Jesus. In other words, they span the whole of the Old Testament era. [00:01:13] And you will remember that we have been dealing with the realization of the purpose God. [00:01:22] We have dealt with the first part, that is that which is centered in the life of King David, which was the preparation for the temple. The great passion of David's life was to build a habitation for God. It wasn't a throne, it wasn't just singing, it wasn't even service. [00:01:50] It was that God might enter into his rest. This was the deepest passion, the master passion of David's life. [00:02:02] Not that he might be met, that his need might be answered, but that God's need, if we can speak of God having a need, might be answered. [00:02:14] This was the thing that made David the man that he was and gave him the character that he had. [00:02:22] He was out toward the Lord all the time, really. [00:02:27] And consequently, we have looked at his life and we've seen that the chronicler has in some ways summarized the whole of David's life. We've seen it in this last part in green bottom of the board, summarized in three great points that the chronicler makes about the life of David. The question of Jerusalem being taken and all that that means. The question of the ark being brought up, which was the highlight of David's life. Undoubtedly, that was the highlight of David's life, the ark being brought up into Jerusalem. He, as you know, it was such a highlight to him that he danced and danced and danced spontaneously before the Lord and brought even the scorn of his wife down upon his head, was the highlight of his life, the climax of his life. [00:03:16] And then, of course, the rest of his years were spent in the last of his years were spent in the definition and the writing down of the pattern for the house of God. The arrangement of the service of the house of God, the order, the singing, the Worship of the house of God, as well as the actual plan and pattern for it. [00:03:41] Now, this evening we come to the building of the Temple, the reign of Solomon. This part, these chapters from chapter one to chapter nine, the second book of Chronicles, are centered in Solomon. [00:03:59] Now, there are one or two things before even we looked it. And by the way, we seem to be taking fewer and fewer chapters. These guide is we're only going to take four this evening, the Lord willing, we're just going to confine ourselves to the first four chapters of this second book of Chronicles. [00:04:15] I don't think there'll be any point in trying to get beyond them, even if we could. [00:04:23] As we come to this building of the Temple, there are one or two things I would like you to note. First of all, one thing is this, that out of these nine chapters, seven of them deal exclusively with the Temple. [00:04:41] Someone said to me the other night, aren't we getting a little bit unbalanced? We seem to be seeing the house of God in everything. [00:04:47] Well, even if that can be laid to our charge about some of the other books of the Old Testament, it can't be laid to our charge about Chronicles. [00:04:58] All scholars agree that the key to Chronicles is the Temple, the house of God. [00:05:03] And do you realize that a man as great as Solomon, the very pinnacle, the very pinnacle of the Jewish nation, its greatest point of glory, prosperity, of honor, Solomon's life is summarized by the chronicler in nine chapters. [00:05:24] And seven of those chapters deal exclusively with the Temple. It's as if Solomon is a very, very, very, very much a side light. [00:05:35] He's just brought in insofar as he was the instrument of God to really bring and build, bring the Temple into actual reality. Now that's an impressive fact, is it not, that our king, so great that even the Lord Jesus could speak of Solomon in all his glory, could be summarized in nine chapters, of which seven deal exclusively with the Temple of God. [00:06:03] And then I want also to remark that these nine chapters add very little new material to what we have already in Kings. Now, this is a rather remarkable thing because Chronicles adds quite a lot of new material, but in this point it does not add any new material, at least not much. [00:06:27] The first few verses, the first six verses of chapter one are new material. [00:06:32] That's about all. [00:06:34] And in a sense, the chronicler has taken up what we have got in Kings and has in a most remarkable way rewritten what we've got in Kings, feeling great liberty, much to the upset of some modernist scholars in expanding certain parts and in contracting other parts. He has felt quite at liberty to rewrite the whole of the king's portion in a new light and to tone down on some things and highlight others. [00:07:14] For instance, there are some remarkable omissions. [00:07:18] We never read here in this chapter anything about Adonijah's rebellion. [00:07:27] As far as we can see, Solomon came very, very beautifully and easily to the throne. There was no trouble. [00:07:32] Neither is it recorded here in these nine chapters. The terrible end of Solomon, his apostasy, his thousand concubines, his foreign gods, and so on. All this is just omitted. A most remarkable thing. Just as if the chronicler under the government of the Holy Spirit is seeking to point out to us that the thing about Solomon's life was the temple. [00:07:59] He did fulfill the purpose of God in his day and generation, whatever his end was. And many of the great men of God have had sad ends. [00:08:11] So that's another thing we wish to note. Then again, in David's life we touched upon the heart of the matter concerning God's purpose. [00:08:21] But in Solomon's reign, we reach the summit of the purpose of God in the Old Testament. [00:08:28] Now, that's important. For we kept on saying in the last few weeks when we were dealing with the preparation for the Temple, that here we were getting to the heart of the matter. We were getting to the heart of the matter. All time saying, we're at the heart of the matter. There is a sense in which David is the heart of the matter. Solomon is not the heart of the matter. [00:08:46] David is the heart of the matter. [00:08:48] And that is why there is a sense in which those chapters from chapter 11 to chapter 29, the first book of Chronicles, are so absolutely vital to an understanding of what the Lord would seek to do in our day, in the realizing of his purpose. [00:09:08] That's the heart of the matter. Solomon is only the Son. [00:09:12] The heart of the matter has been defined, has been reached. Now we go on to the summit, and we reach the greatest point, the fulfillment of the purpose of God. [00:09:25] Then again, I should like to make another point too, before we actually look at it. It is this that it is often and very rightly said that David, the preparation for the temple centered in David, is symbolically what we are in down here on earth. [00:09:49] We have to take the ground. [00:09:51] We have got to know something of the presence of God. Cleaving to the presence of God. [00:09:56] We've got to know something of the preparation. And that's all. Conflict, battle, fear here, battle all the time, over every step. [00:10:06] But many people believe, and rightly, that Solomon sets forth for us the house of God in its incorruptible and perfect eternal aspect. [00:10:21] That house not made with hand, eternal, no sound of hammer or chisel or anything, being just beautifully fitted together in the unseen, in the heaven. [00:10:34] Here we are in all the preparation. Here we are with all the conflict. But it is, they would say to us, as if, really, Solomon reveals to us that the house of God is being built. [00:10:50] The eternal thing is being produced by what is going on in the conflict. [00:10:57] Now, that's very true. I believe it's one of the reasons why, for instance, the temple is exactly twice the dimensions of the tabernacle. It is also why there are quite a few things that, as it were, you get the sense of something permanent being reached. The tabernacle was a thing of pilgrimage, of sojourn, whereas the temple was a permanent building, never again to move. You found its resting place. And the most beautiful part of all is the part that we shall deal with, the Lord willing, next week, when the ark is finally and forever brought into its place and the staves are drawn out. [00:11:36] The one thing that Moses said, the staves were never to be taken out of the ark of the covenant. But in here, as it's brought into the temple, symbolically, it's as if God has reached his end, he's reached his rest, he's got exactly what he wants. And it is as if he just floods the whole thing with an unspeakable glory. [00:12:02] Well, that's one very right aspect of these chapters. And we can draw great help and comfort and encouragement from them, looking at them and viewing them like that. But we're not going to ourselves. [00:12:21] I give you that for the benefit, for your benefit. If you wish to look at it like that and study it in that light, it will help you greatly. Just because the Word of God is like a diamond with many facets. [00:12:32] Everywhere you turn there's a new view and a new spark or new light. [00:12:40] There is a real sense in which. In a very right sense, I believe, in which we can look at the building of the house as just the continuation of David's preparation. Here we've had the ground taken. Here we've had the ark come onto the ground. Here we've had all the arrangement and order defined. Now at last we see the house of God built, actually built in time on earth, some spot where something is being done. And I want us to view, therefore, these chapters in that light, not of the church, eternal, incorruptible and perfect in the heavenlies. But we will view it as the Church in time and in honour, in many ways, perhaps seemingly very imperfect. And l'. Riporte, that's the way we're going to look at it. [00:13:39] Well, now, if we turn to these chapters, we turn to chapter one. Thing I want you to note as we actually look at these chapters is that Solomon's reign begins at Gibeon. [00:13:54] It begins at the tabernacle, in the tabernacle and at the altar. [00:14:02] Now, this is a most remarkable thing and this cannot be a mistake. [00:14:07] Neither can it be a coincidence. [00:14:10] David's life centered in the Ark. [00:14:14] You remember, David refused in many ways to touch the tabernacle at Gibeon. He arranged for it, he provided for it. But do you remember when the plague hit Jerusalem, a very strange little phrase that the Holy Spirit has recorded for us? It said when David appealed to the Lord, he dared not, he durst not go to the tent of meeting of Gibeon because of the plague. [00:14:47] In other words, David's only safety was to stay near the Ark, to stay in Jerusalem, to stay on the site that he discovered as the altar, the spot that he discovered to be, in the end, the site of the temple. Do you remember the threshing floor of Ormond the Jebusite, which in his terrible mistake, he discovered in the most wonderful way to be the site of the temple. [00:15:19] Now, why does the chronicler, in summarizing the whole life of Solomon, why does he, as it were, mention as the first thing about Solomon that he was found Gibeon? [00:15:39] Why does he make a point? [00:15:41] And why does he make a point emphasizing that the Ark and the tent of Meeting were separated? [00:15:51] Now, here we have a very big lesson to learn. [00:15:54] The chronicler, the Holy Spirit, has underlined for us as the first great lesson we've got to learn about Solomon, he underlines for us the script lessons that the Ark is separated from the Tabernacle. [00:16:15] Now, as you all know, as far as the people of God is concerned, that's an unknown, the right place. For the Ark was in the most holy place. [00:16:29] And indeed, one could well say that if the Ark out of the tabernacle, the tabernacle had lost its meaning. [00:16:41] It was the pattern. [00:16:44] It was everything as God had intended it. But it lacked the one thing that gave meaning to everything. [00:16:52] The Ark was not there. [00:16:54] And the Ark symbolizes the presence of God. [00:16:57] So here we have a most remarkable situation. [00:17:01] We have the Tent of Meeting or the Tabernacle as instituted by Moses, the servant of the Lord. All the servants continued the burnt offerings, the Sin offerings, the trespass offerings, all in action. We've got the candlestick, we've got the showbread table, we've got the golden altar. All is just going on. But the Ark is not there. [00:17:26] This means that God is not committed to what was originally absolutely of himself. [00:17:36] This brings us to a very important point, that you can have a New Testament pattern and you can have everything as God originally intended it. Without the Lord. [00:17:48] You can have everything. [00:17:50] Everything. [00:17:51] To put it into plain, practical words, you can have the Lord's table, you can have the meetings, you can have a shared ministry, you can have your elders, you can have your deacons, you can have your people, you can have your ministry. And yet the Lord, not really committed. [00:18:09] He may bless it, he may sovereignly use it, he may stand behind it in some ways, he may give precious experiences of himself. They may all be born again believers. And yet he is not committed. [00:18:23] They are left to themselves to keep the thing going. [00:18:28] And when a plane comes to the country, the Lord's not in the sky, in the tent of beating, he's discovered where the Ark is. [00:18:38] This is why brother Nee many years ago said in a days of ruin, we should keep our eyes on the ark and not on the tabernacle. [00:18:46] He said, keep your eyes on the Ark, not on the tabernacle. [00:18:53] In other words, cleave to the Lord Jesus in days of ruin. [00:18:58] Leave that which is just so called the church. [00:19:05] Don't bother so much about that. Hold to the Lord Jesus as God's Christ. [00:19:13] Follow him, go through with him. [00:19:16] Now the lesson we've got to learn is this, that at the very beginning of Solomon's reign, the ark and the tabernacle have got divided. They are separated. [00:19:27] There in Gibeon is the tabernacle with all its services, with everything. As Moses instituted it. There was not one thing wrong, not one thing wrong, not one thing wrong. And furthermore, outwardly, not a single thing missing. No one, not even the high priest was able to look into the most holy place. So no one knew. Oh, that's speaks volumes. In this day, there are many, many places, chapels and other places and companies and assemblies and everything else. And outwardly it's all perfect. [00:19:59] No one can see into the holiest and no one can see. The ark is not there. [00:20:05] There's a veil, but the ark's not there. [00:20:09] God is not committed. Those with ears to hear and spirits to see can understand what we're talking about. [00:20:17] We say, the Lord's not there. He's not there. The candlestick has been Removed. [00:20:25] The testimony's gone. [00:20:28] So you see, as far as the priest and the people went, they all went up to Gibeon, I expect most of many of the more ordinary people. He just didn't realize that the Ark was not given here, didn't enter their head. [00:20:46] And it was something that was outward, it was something that was perfect. You must not get it into your mind that there was anything wrong about it or immoral or wicked or iniquitous or abominable or something like that. It's all perfect, all good, all right, all as instituted, all according to the heavenly pattern. [00:21:04] But the Ark was not there. [00:21:08] So the thing we've got to understand, first of all, is that somehow or other the Ark has got separated from the Tent of Meeting. [00:21:16] And this means simply for us in the 20th century to speak of it in practical terms, that the presence of the Lord Jesus, the committal of God, is not necessarily where you have a New Testament pattern and a New Testament order and outwardly, everything evangelical and sound, that we must not be taken in by such things. [00:21:45] We must learn to see by the Holy Spirit, deeply in things. We must learn to trust the anointing which is in us, to teach us as to whether this is really true to the law, or whether it's only an outward thing, a representation, and not the real thing. [00:22:07] So we have to understand that as the first lesson. [00:22:11] Where then, in this 20th century is the Lord committed? [00:22:17] Where can we find the Lord Jesus, holiest head and leader, undertaking direct responsibility for his own work? [00:22:33] We have to understand that in our day, this is very true. The Ark has been separated from the Tent of Meeting so that we have, the dear people of God, many ways devoted to the law, a knowledge of the law, a certain amount of personal sanctification and witness and service and so on. [00:23:05] But the Lord heart is not in it. [00:23:11] His heart's not in it. His heart's in its way is gone. He'll bless it, he'll make provision for it. [00:23:21] He'll even meet a sorrow there. [00:23:25] But his heart's not there. [00:23:27] And so we've got to understand this. God would bring back the tabernacle to the Ark, not the Ark to the tabernacle. [00:23:40] Now let us meet that perfectly clear. God does not bring the Ark back to the tabernacle. He would bring the tabernacle back to the Ark. [00:23:47] That is, it's no good people getting on their knees and saying, lord, come to us. Come back to us. Do something with us. They've got to get up and go to the Lord. [00:23:56] There's certain ground that's got to be left. [00:24:00] There's a certain order that's got to be left. [00:24:03] Something's got to be let go of. [00:24:06] Those priests didn't find it easy in the end, you know, to give up that old tent that had served them so well through the centuries. [00:24:14] They didn't find it easy. But in the end, the miracle happened and they brought up the vessels of God from Gibeon into the house of the Lord. When it was built, all found its right place, including the priests. [00:24:29] Okay, now you see, why does God meet Solomon not in Jerusalem, but Gibeon? [00:24:38] Because God now is moving to the next great phase in the realization of his purpose. [00:24:46] He's got the ground. He has committed himself to it. He's got an understanding, at least a few of what he wants. Now he goes to the thing that's got separated. [00:24:58] He meets Solomon there. There he makes changes, and there he does something with someone. There he speaks with God. [00:25:09] We can have all the ministry and all the service of God in an unrelated way, and therefore a confused way. [00:25:19] You see what I mean? [00:25:21] There's a lot of it today that goes on, just ministry and service for the Lord. But it's unrelated. It's not woven in to what God is doing. It's not an integral part of the house of God. It's something which is just simply unrelated because the ark's got divided from the tent. [00:25:46] Here we've got the ark and we've got those ministering before the ark. Here we've got the tent of meeting and those ministering in the tent of meeting, and things got divided. Now the Lord says, we've got to do something about this. We're going to bring that back onto the right ground. [00:26:05] So it's good for us at the very beginning to note that it's always a great difficulty to us all to be thought of as cracks and even more difficult for us to be thought of as exclusives, exclusive fanatics, sort of, you know, very peculiar people altogether. [00:26:33] But, you know, if the ark has got separated from the tabernacle, cleave to the ark. [00:26:44] Because if there's going to be any reconciliation, the tabernacle is going to be brought to the ark. [00:26:50] There will never be a reconciliation of the ark being brought to the tabernacle. [00:26:55] The other's got to be brought. [00:26:58] Remember, once the Lord said to me, thou shalt not return unto them, but they shall return unto thee. [00:27:07] That's a big point. [00:27:11] So we learn that very, very simply. And also we want to note Another thing, what is the character of the instrument God would use to build his church, to build the house of God? Whatever Solomon became in the end, as recorded in the Book of Kings, the chronicler keeps that well out of view. As far as he's concerned, Solomon's a hero. [00:27:37] There's nothing wrong with Solomon from beginning to end. [00:27:41] And what do we learn of Solomon as far as it chronically goes? We learn some very, very wonderful things. Now this is very important. The New Testament speaks a lot of church building and speaks a lot of church builders. [00:27:54] There, of course, there is a sense in which we are all church builders. There is a sense in which it is a unique and singular function in the work of God to build the church. Church builders. What is the key to the character of those who would build the church, who would be builders of the house of God? Well, we've got it here. [00:28:21] Solomon reveals himself to be a selfless man. [00:28:30] Of course, it being in scripture, all of us very superficially gloss over it. [00:28:39] We think, oh yes, the Lord came to Solomon. He was only 21, he descended the throne. A young man, very, very timid. His father had been a tremendous figure and he'd stepped into his father's shoes. On top of that there'd been a rebellion. [00:28:57] Someone tried to seize the throne. Before he got to it, he was surrounded by crafty people who would be only too quick because he was a young man. To put an end to him and put someone in his place that suited their end. [00:29:16] You would have thought if the Lord visited you. Just try and imagine you're in that position tonight. [00:29:22] The Lord really stood by you and you saw the Lord. He said to me now what would you like? [00:29:30] What would you like me to do? Ask, Ask him, ask him. [00:29:35] I believe the Lord was. Oh, I don't not going to say the Lord was cunning, but I believe that the Lord was very, very, very free in what he suggested. I'm quite sure the Lord should do but to ask do I do ask my now that we find out our selfhood very quickly. Very, very quickly find out how something because before we knew where we were, we would have said it. [00:30:06] It's one of those signs of self wor. Who would have said that? [00:30:10] Well, we might have said, well Lord, safeguard flow, safeguard it, Lord. [00:30:16] Or perhaps you would have felt we needed the life of those that hate us and there were many that hated Solomon at the beginning. He could have said, well, wipe them out, I should be safe, keep me safe. Or many other things we may have asked. But you see Solomon asked one thing which many of us would probably never ask. He asked for wisdom. [00:30:38] Now this is the thing most of us overlook. [00:30:41] Why did Solomon ask wisdom? [00:30:44] He could have asked for help. He could have asked for honor, could have asked for a long life. He could have asked for glory. He could have asked for peace. [00:30:52] He could have asked for a secure kingdom. He could have asked for oh, so many things. Think of it. The Lord's standing there saying he'd give him anything in this world. [00:31:03] Anything. [00:31:05] A Solomon goes after wisdom, You see, it just shows the selflessness of the man. Why did Solomon want wisdom? He wanted wisdom in order to be able to serve God and serve his people rightly. [00:31:23] That was the key to Solomon's character. [00:31:26] He was so absorbed with service to God and service to his nation that he will, the one thing he needed was wisdom. Knowledge, to be able to weigh something up, to be able to arbitrate, to be able to rule, to be able to judge righteously. [00:31:48] So he asked for wisdom and for knowledge. [00:31:51] That selflessness, now that comes right down to church building. You won't get any church building with self centeredness and my word, that self centeredness amongst church builders, you don't get it. People have got their own ministry and all you can think about their own ministry, their own function, their own place, their own position in the house of God. You dare touch it and they're up in arms. You dare suggest that they ought to tone down a little, be a little more, oh dear, there, straight away up. And so how dare you suggest it. The Lord's spoken to them about it, the Lord's given them a ministry and they're going to defend it to the end, that kind of thing. [00:32:28] You can't touch them, you can't suggest anything, you can't counsel them, you can't advise them. No, they can't let go. You see what I mean? Do you know that's the ruin of the work of God in our day? [00:32:43] Ruin. I think of many companies which I've heard the history to which the key has been positioned and all the double crossing, spiritual double crossing that goes on to try and somehow play each other out and get up on top and squash the other down, be something for the Lord. [00:33:11] That's selfhood. [00:33:13] There can be no church building until that is selflessness. [00:33:21] It requires people who couldn't care less about their ministry, who couldn't care less about their own life, who couldn't care less about their position, who couldn't care less about their reputation. If you're going to get the house of God built. I don't believe at that time Solomon could care less in one sense about the throne or himself. [00:33:44] What he wanted to do was to be able to serve God and the people. [00:33:49] Now that is the key. [00:33:50] And the Lord will test us out from that. We shall have to give ourselves and give our time and give everything to the Lord. In this question of service and selfhood is the thing that lies at the root of that as to whether we cut down on how we give ourselves, when we give ourselves, or what we give selflessness. [00:34:14] And another thing I might say is meekness. [00:34:17] There was a very real meekness about Solomon, you know, when he said in Kings, for instance, he said, I am young, I am a child, how can I go in and go out for this people? [00:34:32] Now that's meekness for the want of it. [00:34:39] I believe the house of God's not been built. [00:34:44] Meekness is something which is beyond price for the Lord. [00:34:51] What is meekness? [00:34:54] Meekness is just that ability to put yourself in the hand of others even though they damage you. [00:35:08] It is the. [00:35:10] The key to it is laying down a life in any given situation, being adorned. [00:35:21] You know as well as I do that the great woman of light in the vitro's temple came from under the flesh. [00:35:26] That's where the doormat was. [00:35:34] So you see, really this question of meekness is very, very important. Now, of course I'm going to speak to you as if you're all leaders. Now, Monday, perhaps you all will be leaders in one way or another. Well, anyway, you can all be spiritual leaders anyway, even if you're run out of leaders. [00:35:51] The thing the Lord looks for in leadership more than anything else, meekness. [00:35:58] It is a thing that all of us naturally have not got. [00:36:03] And one of the things I have noticed about the work of God is this terrible, terrible caricature that we find of William leadership. [00:36:17] This terrible keeping of the people down, keeping them at a distance, keeping them at an arm, that heavy fisted thing which just does not allow you to suggest anything or even criticize. [00:36:36] Now I'm not saying that we should all be critical. I'm tired of critics. [00:36:40] But that's not the way. [00:36:44] That's not the way I. So I've learned this, that the Lord makes us safe by putting ourselves into the hands of critics. [00:36:56] Now then, every time we stiffen against criticism, we lose and we know it. [00:37:03] And this is particularly so in leadership. [00:37:08] Leaders have to have skins like rhinoceroses if they're going to get through because there are no two people at a Group. Either you've got a soft voice or you've got a loud voice. You're too long, you're too short, you're too flowery or you're too plain, you're too blunt or you're too sweet, or so it goes on. And everyone's got a different idea about you. One over here will say this and one over there will say that. Someone will, as you go out, will shake your hand and say, what a wonderful word. And someone else will whisk out straight past you because they're fed up. [00:37:38] They haven't got a thing out of it. You're as dead as a dead stone as far as they're concerned, see? [00:37:46] Well, how do you put up with all that kind of thing? Well, you have to learn from it. [00:37:51] You have to learn from it. If you fight it, if you punch it, if you rebel against it, you try to sit on it, if you take a sort of grieved, offended, distant attitude to it, the lust of God. Finished. [00:38:08] Meekness is that thing which, although it has the greatest authority in the world, can sit almost as it were, at the feet of the greatest hypocrite amongst the people of God and learn. [00:38:26] That's meekness. [00:38:29] And it can learn from the youngest and the most irresponsible in the family of God. [00:38:39] That's me. [00:38:41] Now, Solomon was the greatest type of the church booker. [00:38:51] And the two things that characterize him are selflessness and meekness. [00:38:58] Because of that, we naturally find God gives him wisdom. [00:39:05] I've never found wisdom. Wisdom in a person who is not selfless and meek. [00:39:16] Knowledge, yes, but the scripture itself says knowledge puffeth up. [00:39:22] Wisdom is the ability to practically apply the knowledge you have. [00:39:32] The greatest example of it was when two women brought a child to Solomon. [00:39:39] You know the story. [00:39:41] One said that in the night she'd woken up, found her child dead, and she was quite sure that this other woman had brought her dead child, put it in her bed and taken her her child. [00:39:58] They both came silent. And you know what? Something said the thing that we wouldn't dream of. Second, what should we do? A great round table conference, all haggling and the arguing and the vicious sire cross talk that went on between these two women and no doubt all their relatives as well, who were probably far more vicious than the two women. [00:40:16] And so it went on backwards and forwards. And then suddenly, Sansa, well, I'll lend us. I'll mend it. Bring me the child. [00:40:23] Bring me a sword. [00:40:25] I'll cut the child in two and you can each have Heart that immediately discovered something. Now was that just a very wonderful story? No, no, that's wisdom. [00:40:37] Sauron. [00:40:38] He had knowledge of a mother's love and he knew that the real mother of that child would not. She would yell the moment he mentioned the sword. [00:40:55] You. You have the child. Let the other woman have the child. [00:40:58] You have the child, you give her the child. [00:41:04] And that's wisdom. [00:41:07] That doesn't come through book knowledge. It doesn't come through Bible colleges, doesn't come for any kind of Bible courses either. It doesn't come through any, anything at all but meekness. [00:41:20] And how do we become meek? [00:41:23] It says here in the most remarkable way. And many have questioned the authenticity of it. Solomon went up to Gibbon. He offered 1000 burnt offerings on the altar. What does that mean? It just means this is a devastating weapon across somewhere, that's all. [00:41:40] Devastating work of the cross. [00:41:43] There'll be no meekness, no selflessness without a devastating work of the cross. We're all self centered and there'll be no hope or any others at Paul. Until the castle done its deep, deep, devastating work in which we all question of functions, ministry, service, petitions gone overboard. [00:42:05] We've become like little children in the presence of God. [00:42:09] That's the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. [00:42:13] The fear of the Lord is when for the first time you get such an idea of your own littleness that you can sit at anyone's feet and learn. [00:42:25] So I think we have to learn that. It's all in the first chapter of the second book of Chronicles. [00:42:33] There you are. [00:42:34] From that everything else comes. And I might say that Solomon had long life and he had wealth and he had honour and he had glory and he had a secure kingdom and he had everything else he could ever have wished because he put the right thing at the heart. [00:42:49] And I know many people who would give anything for wealth and honour and glory and a secure kingdom and peace, ministry and service and position. [00:43:01] They haven't got it. The more they grasp at it, the more they lose it, the more it receives from them. [00:43:07] Cross is the key to it all. When we come to a real knowledge of Christ crucified, then we become like little children. [00:43:15] When we become like little children, we start on the road of real wisdom. And when we have wisdom, it is the beginning of a family. [00:43:25] Wisdom has many children. [00:43:27] And if you read about that wisdom that comes down from above, you will find there are a whole lot of other blessings that come in its trace. [00:43:35] So that's that. And then if we go on, you come to the building of the temple. Some technical facts about the building of the temple. Just one or two technical facts I'd like to mention that I've noted down. The work began in May, the fourth year of Solomon. In the month of May, the work began. [00:43:54] Seven years later, in September, it finished. [00:43:57] So it took just over seven years. A month or two longer it took. [00:44:03] The dedication of the temple was in the following October, which means a year later in all eight years, which is a very, very interesting thing. [00:44:14] That's one fact about the temple. Seven years in building began in May, ended seven years later in September, and then the dedication was the following October and the feast of tabernacles. [00:44:26] Another thing, it was 90 foot long and it was 30 foot. Now, just you sit there and just try to imagine it. That means the temple was roughly four times the length of this room. It was, if you can imagine it, and roughly about the width of this room, just actually a foot more than this room and four times the length. Now, many people think of the temple like Westminster Abbey or some other vast cathedral. There's not anything of the door. [00:44:57] Two. It was 30ft high, but it was only 30ft floor, 90ft long. [00:45:08] Then again, it took 160,000 men working continually and consistently seven years to build it. That is not very remarkable when you think that it took the pyramid 360,000 men to build 12 years, 160,000 men to build the temple seven years consistently. [00:45:29] Then the value in material used in the temple, not the actual cost of the temple, the value of the materials used in the temple at the most conservative estimate is at least £100 million. [00:45:48] Now, in actual fact, there are far, far wilder figures than that. [00:45:52] That is the most conservative estimate. Gift. [00:45:57] And even that, they had to say, was not less one mind real at the whole amazing cost of this project. [00:46:08] From the material point of view, it was undoubtedly one of the most magnificent structures of the ancient world. [00:46:17] It was unbelievably magnificent. Not so much in huge numbers as in beauty. [00:46:24] When you think of it. Just I'll tell you a few things. If you've got imagination, you'll be able to imagine it. You think of the place about the board of this room. Four times as long as this room. [00:46:38] You would only be able to see three times the length of this room. And down the end would be a great veil of purple, scarlet and blue, all worked in together on white. [00:46:52] The ceiling is completely gold, the walls are completely gold and the floor is completely gold. [00:47:04] And it's all work it's all the most beautiful embossed and engraved work. [00:47:12] Cherubim, lily flowers, palm trees on the ceiling and on the walls along here there are five tables. Behind each table a seven branched candlestick all in gold and the same down here. [00:47:31] And in the center at the end is the golden altar. [00:47:35] Adisham says something which really captures one's imagination. If you think he said there could have been no more beautiful sight than the light alight in that temple. [00:47:48] The whole thing would have scintillated in a mellow light. Gold everywhere, rich and beautiful colored hangings. And on top of that encrust the wall, the ceiling, but encrusted with precious stones. [00:48:07] Beautifully set into the gold for all these stones. [00:48:12] Now that really makes one's mind real when you think of such a thing of fabulous beauty as that, that was the temple. [00:48:24] Now let's just look together in the last few moments we have at the materials that are used there. We find them in these chapters two, three and four. And we are not going to go beyond them tonight. [00:48:35] Actually drawn on the back of this board a very rough that will be tabernacle. This is the porch, is the step. These are the two pillars on either side of the entrance. This is the tent of Meeting, the old tent of Meeting. That is the most holy place. [00:48:58] This great wall around was the 90ft of the inside measurement. [00:49:03] We believe there were chambers all around, rooms all the way around the tabernacle. They were kind of lean to building, built onto the outside of the actual temple where the priests slept when they were on duty and where they got the treasurers and many other things. Of course, right round that was the court, here was the laver and here was the octave. [00:49:33] That's just a rough diagram. It is a crop, a scale. But to give you some idea of it, now let's look at some of the materials used, see if we can learn the last few moments something from the actual building of the temple. One of the most wonderful things are the foundations. [00:49:54] Now the scriptures speak an awful lot about foundations. [00:49:59] And you know the thing we find here is that Solomon began to build in chapter three and verse one, he began to build the house at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. Now I believe that's a very wonderful thing because it just takes up all the history of David in a few words. In other words, here you've got Jerusalem again, you've got the ground, here you've got Mount Moriah. Do you remember what Mount Moriah was? It was the threshing floor of order of the Jebusite. The two greatest things. First, you've got the ground clear and taken and possessed. And secondly, you've got the cross, got these two things, and the church is the result. [00:50:43] First you see the ground. [00:50:45] Then you must have a deep experience the cross, and then the result will be the church. God produces the church organically, spontaneously, in his life. The church starts to flow out. [00:50:57] So it says very, very simply. Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It goes on to say a very threshing floor. Aboard on the genocide. Now, this brings me to the foundation. You see, Mount Moriah was a peak. [00:51:16] The to build the house of God, the whole peak had to be leveled in order that a platform could be built of huge stones. And if you read this, these few chapters, it will tell you, great stones, costly stones. [00:51:39] Do you know that these stones, I've got the measurements here for you. Some of them to this day are still there at the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. They measure 30ft in length and 7 and a half feet high and weigh up hundred tons each. [00:52:02] That took all those thousands of men to get up from the valley right the way up into position, these great stones, huge things, some 24ft, some 30ft, some less than that, all put one after another into position, huge things. Until in the end, the whole of the top of Mount Berah was leveled off by slave labor. [00:52:28] And then stone after stone put into its place until at last a complete platform had been built upon the top, except for one solitary crag that was allowed to remain within the platform, rising out from within it. And that was the threshing floor of all of the Jebusites. Upon that rough unhewn rock, the altar was finally to be erected. [00:52:59] Now, this is the most remarkable thing for this very day. The rock is there in the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. The platforms partly still there here. It's called the pavement. [00:53:11] Huge stones put together. It says in one, one traveler says that you can hardly put a penknife between those great stones. So beautifully fitted, those foundation stones. [00:53:25] Now, the scripture speaks an awful lot about these foundation stones. [00:53:30] It says that the Lord Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and the apostles and prophets with him are the foundation. [00:53:39] Upon that we all grow. It says in Ephesians 2, in to a holy temple, here's a great foundation. [00:53:48] Now, there are some wonderful things mentioned about these stones. Josephus says that each one was cut out first, either from Lebanon or from the hills near Bethlehem or from actually the hills just around Jerusalem. They were cut out very carefully. And each one was marked on the side. That is a mark was engraved into it. [00:54:09] Then it was cut out perfectly to shape and to size. [00:54:14] It was chiseled and then its edges were beveled. And then it was removed to Jerusalem and put into its position. [00:54:25] You know, this is absolutely true. The house of God has its foundation, universal, ad and eternally. The Lord Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone whose prophets foundation. [00:54:40] Each one singularly marked out and appointed of God. Each one beautifully cut out, quarried, chiseled and marked by appointment. [00:54:51] It is also true of the house of God as locally expressed. [00:54:58] They always have that foundation. [00:55:00] Our Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation. You must get the ground. When you've got the ground, you must come to an experience of the cross. But when you come into the experience of the cross, what does it happen? The first thing it does is you get the foundation. The Lord Jesus is the foundation. [00:55:14] The very primary thing about any experience of the cross in any of its aspects is the Lord Jesus laid as a foundation. [00:55:24] Not just as an individual foundation, but as a corporate foundation, a common foundation, common life. [00:55:31] This is very important for us to understand that a foundation is there. [00:55:36] You must have the ground before you can have that corporate foundation. And you must have an experience the cross. But when you've got that the foundation comes Jerusalem, Mount Moriah and then a foundation. [00:55:50] You see the sequence Jerusalem, then Mount Moriah and then the foundation on Mount Moriah. [00:55:59] What is the earliest mention of Mount Moriah in scripture? [00:56:02] The place where Abraham offered up his only son, Isaac. [00:56:09] That's the God. [00:56:11] He gave everything. He didn't give himself. [00:56:14] He gave what was of God, what was given him of God. [00:56:18] That was the beginning. That was the foundation. That was the place to become the foundation of the house of God. [00:56:25] Marked forever as marvel. [00:56:29] So let's get that very clear. First of all, those big foundation stones marred, they take some cutting. And I believe that in the work of God there are some big stones. [00:56:40] I don't believe that all of the same size of shape and error everything else. I believe that in the work of God there are some big stones and there are some small stones. All are important. [00:56:49] A house cannot do without any one of them. But let us not think that once all stars are the same in their glory. They don't all stars. They all differ from each other in glory. [00:56:59] There are some who are appointed of God and have a greater measure of the grace of Christ. [00:57:06] And others have not so much. Each will be judged according to according to the measure that was ministered to Him. [00:57:13] So we have this. Let each man keep to his own ministry, each to his own place, and then we all wonderfully work together so we have the foundation, a very, very important part. Then the next thing we find are stones. These stones were a kind of marble. They were a white marble. A kind of white marble. They were very, very carefully fitted together. They were not the same size as the foundation stones, they were much smaller, but they were very, very carefully shaped. First quarried, then shaped, then polished and then put together. Now, isn't it an amazing thing that they were polished? [00:57:49] Yet evidently, according as far as we know, they weren't just unhewn, they were actually faced. And then they were put into place. But here's the remarkable thing. [00:58:01] Nowhere inside the temple or outside the temple could you see any stone whatsoever. [00:58:07] It was all entirely hidden. [00:58:12] So you see how sure God is when he's got the house of God in view. He goes to a lot of trouble quarrying us and shaping us and fitting us and giving us a good surface, a good polish, only to cover it all up, not with one layer, with wood and then with gold. [00:58:37] You couldn't see a stone anywhere in the actual house, not under you or above you at the mountain, and yet all around you was stone, even the roof. [00:58:47] That's a remarkable thing, isn't it? What does stone speak of? It speaks to the Lord Jesus, doesn't it? [00:58:53] God is the rock. In scripture, everywhere he's called the rock. The Lord Jesus is the rock. And he said to Peter that he was Peter, and upon this rock would he build his church. Now isn't that a wonderful thing? [00:59:12] The Lord Jesus, he played on the word Peter and the Bible, Petra pet cross. [00:59:20] And he just simply was saying, peter, I'm going to put into you the same qualities that are in the lock. [00:59:28] I'm going to build my church on this. Of what I put into you. [00:59:35] That's you and me. When we come to the Lord Jesus. Well, there's not much of us. We're just clay in ourselves, no rock in us. [00:59:44] There's no stone, there's no marble in us. Naturally, we're just clay. Nothing, nothing, nothing that God can use. [00:59:52] But you know, when God gets hold of us, he puts something of his own rock like life into us, his own rock like character into us. And then we start to be quarried. Now, this quarrying doesn't begin before we're saved. It begins after we're saved. And it only gets on apace when there's any amount of the Lord Jesus in us, if there's no chiselling, no quarrying, no battering, no devastation, no cutting work, you can be quite sure there's not much of the Lord Jesus in your life. [01:00:21] Quite sure. [01:00:23] Obviously so far you've not even been ready. The Lord hasn't started quiet yet. But once the work starts, once you start to feel those strange feelings, those strange moods, those things that come on you that you can't explain, that you never seem to have before you were the Lord, but now you have so often it's the Lord, it's the chiselling, it's the cutting, it's the polishing. He's quarrying you out, he's doing something with you. Soon you're being moved and you'll be fitted in with others. The first thing to do is to get the stones together. You can't put the wood on until you've got the stones together. The gold can't go on because you've got the stones together. The Lord doesn't put one stone, then puts wood all round it, then gold all round. Then it gets old with the next one. He must put all the stones together one after another. Then he lines it all with cedar, then he paints it all with gold. [01:01:13] So the first thing is to be quarried, have something of the Lord Jesus in us put into us. [01:01:18] Then to get onto the foundation, then to be fitly framed with our brothers and sisters. Oh, what a business that is. [01:01:25] To be fitly framed with our brothers and sisters, to be shaped. Now this is a wonderful thing. Now listen to me. The stones were numbered, so Josephus says, and I am sure that is true, the stones were numbered. Each stone was shaped in a special way and the next stone was shaped to fit in to that stone. [01:01:44] Now you might not like this, but it just simply means speaking practically. Brothers and sisters around you have been specially shaped for you and you've been specially shaped for them. [01:01:56] God doesn't have bricks like those bricks out there, all the shaded shadows. Shape and size. [01:02:02] I'm afraid God's living stones are all different shapes and sizes, but he cuts them. [01:02:07] He cuts them different shapes and sizes and then fits them together. [01:02:11] God isn't a great sort of automatic machine that turns out all kinds of little stones all the same size and shape and everything else. No, they're only for the ones got an individuality. And the wonderful thing is that we're told by ancient historians that when you looked at the stone, the grain ran right through. [01:02:30] Grain ran right through. [01:02:32] So that Josephus said it was the marvel of the ancient day that it would seem. Because you could not hear a hammer or a chisel there. You would think that thing was growing up like a flower. [01:02:43] And when you looked at it, it just seemed as if it was all naturally there, not as if one stone had been put there. [01:02:52] Well, there's stones for you. [01:02:54] And when God does all that work, do you know what he does? He hides it. [01:03:00] And that's the one thing our self, life doesn't like. [01:03:04] When God takes a lot of time with us and puts us through some deep experience, we do want to be seen. [01:03:10] But God doesn't do that. His most precious things, he bevels. [01:03:17] He puts a lot of work into it and then he hides it all up. [01:03:23] So that's one thing. Then look at the wood. There are three woods used in the temple. Cedar wood, fir wood and olive wood. [01:03:30] Now what do these speak of? Cedar always speaks of nobility. The fir wood always speaks of durability. I understand that both cedar and fir never has a wood border. I wish we had more of it here. [01:03:41] No wood borders ever get into it. No worms, no rot ever attacks any form of cedar or fir. Cypress wood. That's what I read today anyway. [01:03:52] Now if that is true, what a wonderful picture there is there of the durability of the humanity of the Lord Jesus. [01:04:01] This wood speaks of humanity, but it speaks of a kind of humanity that's not subject to rot. [01:04:09] It doesn't put up with a pen. [01:04:12] It's an incorruptible kind of humanity. Now we've all got a humanity that's corruptible. [01:04:18] Our love, for instance, can just be sheer sentiment. [01:04:23] Our purity can be subject to corruption. [01:04:29] That's why I believe Paul speaks about loving the Lord and his people with a loving, corruptible piano. [01:04:38] So anyway, we see here cedar nobility. You know, the Lord Jesus would have a nobleness about us, I'll vow, about our humanity, a nobility about us. We are sons and daughters of the King and we should have a kingly character. [01:04:54] This does not mean we become spiritual, pious pictures. [01:05:01] That's a very wonderful thing. The palm tree always speaks of the land, you know, it was a symbol of the land of Palestine. Tis to this day, the palm tree. And that speaks of fullness, the fullness of Christ. [01:05:11] That's why it speaks of growing up like a palm tree bearing fruit in old age and righteousness and fullness. And then you find flowers which always speak in the scripture of glory. Glory is associated with flowers. Always glory flowers are compared in their glory with the glory which Is incorruptible lilies. The lily, glory, ground for glory. The cherubim, the kind of man God wants. That's the cherubim, the simple, the kind of man God wants. [01:05:48] So there we have something. And then, you know, it was all overlaid with pure fine gold. The whole thing just pure, fine gold everywhere. [01:05:56] Now, it's not only, you see that those stones had to be quarried and chiseled and bevelled and cut and fitted. The wood had to be engraved and embossed, carved. [01:06:11] The gold had to be refined. So it was pure and fine. Every part of the temple went through the cross. [01:06:19] Some form of fire, some trial to protect it. [01:06:27] And then we find precious stones. And I believe that's wonderful. When God has got all that, he's got a history. He's got stone inside, he's got wood next to it, then he's got gold. [01:06:37] Then he fits in the precious stones. They speak of all the most original, singular beauties of Christ. [01:06:46] And I believe the Lord Jesus distributes them in his saints. So that this saint speaks of this and that saint speaks of that. [01:06:54] Each saint, as he goes on with the Lord in the end, becomes a diadem in the man that our God. [01:07:01] Something exceedingly precious, a gem of rare beauty. [01:07:07] So there's. There it all is very, very wonderful. And then we find the end, something entirely different in the temple. Two great cherubim of olive wood. They were enormous figures. Their wings spanned literally the whole one wing. One of their wings spanned across there, the other. [01:07:26] They touched end to end. But the remarkable thing about this cherubim was they did not look like the cherubim above the mercy seat. Down upon the mercy seat, looking, as it were, in to the ark. [01:07:39] These look toward down. Now, isn't that wonderful? [01:07:44] First, God speaks, you see, of a kind of man that can only come when this that's represented by the ark and the law which within it is realized the Lord Jesus. But let him get the Lord Jesus. [01:07:57] And then let the Lord Jesus have his rightful place. [01:08:01] And then the cherubim look out toward the world. [01:08:05] Whole world taken, a trust in place. [01:08:09] They look out. No longer down, but out. [01:08:12] When God gets his kind of man service, the servant of God to this world begins. [01:08:19] God's service is dependent upon the kind of man. [01:08:25] So you see there you have a secret. [01:08:29] Something very, very wonderful. Those cherubim figured something. [01:08:34] And two pillows. I think we're closed there. Two pillows on either side. These were not in the other in the tabernacle. They were a Bronze great pillars. One was called J. Kim he will establish. The other was called Boaz in his strength. And they had lily work on top and pomegranates all around them and chain work. There were two of them. What were they? They were. They. They speak of witness. Pillars in Scripture always speak of witness or testimony. What did. What do they witness to? A wonderful witness. Pomegranate, lily work, all these things. What does this suspect? [01:09:11] When the house was complete and you've gone through everything, you find two pillars outside that guard the entrance. What did he. What did he do? [01:09:20] He will establish or support. [01:09:25] And in him is she. [01:09:27] Now, isn't that a wonderful testimony? It reminds me of the Lord Jesus. [01:09:31] I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall be not prevail against it. There's a testimony. [01:09:38] The whole history of God's people summarized at last in two pillars outside a built habitation of God. [01:09:49] One said he will establish it, the other said in him is the strength. [01:09:57] Now that's a test of mind. It's as if the. The purpose of God has reached a glorious consummation. [01:10:05] Those pillars are bearing testimony to something. [01:10:09] That's where it speaks later on of pillars in the house of our God. [01:10:13] Pillars in the house of our God. I'm sure I meant that. You see, so much of the New Testament all goes back to the temple. Foundation stones, living stones built together, fitly, framed together, growth into a holy temple in the Lord. Pillars in the house of our God, and so on. We can go on and on and on and on about these things. [01:10:34] See, it's all there. [01:10:35] And then at last you find the vessels of the temple brought in all the vessels. What do they speak of? Different aspects of Christ. [01:10:42] The candlestick, the showbird, the golden altar, the laver, the brazen altar. It's all there. [01:10:48] Well, there we are. That's the building of the temple in those four chapters. Those are the materials. That's how they came to be built together. What then? Simply, we summarize everything. What do we learn then from that? These simply, these four things. I just read them to you. Do go away. [01:11:07] All and everything has one end. [01:11:11] The building up of the house of God. [01:11:15] Whether it's stone, whether it's wood, whether it's gold, whether it's precious stone, whatever it is, wherever it's going to be, foundation, roof, walls or supporting timbers, beings, all has one end to build up the house of God. [01:11:33] Now, the whole of the epistles of the New Testament are summed up in that. Do everything to edification or building up. [01:11:43] Let everything have this end. Building up. Let nothing be done which does not build up. [01:11:51] Everything has one end to build up. [01:11:55] And then all is produced out of what Christ is. [01:12:00] Christ is the key. It's not us, it's what is of Christ being produced in us by the Holy Spirit. [01:12:05] That is what's going into the temple. [01:12:08] And then all is fitted together into one great whole. Whatever it is, all the different kinds of wood, the stone, the foundation, everything is fitted together into one great home. Now, listen, one piece could not make a temple, like many foolish Christians think. [01:12:27] One piece could not make a temple. It required them all. It did not require just 2/3 or 3/4 or 7,8. [01:12:38] It required every single stone to build that house. [01:12:45] Neither did it need just a collection of stones. [01:12:53] So let's all learn there. And the other thing is, all the hardest and most difficult work was done off the site. [01:13:04] See, People often say that, don't they? Why? They say they seem to be so together. [01:13:09] They seem to be so together. [01:13:11] Of course, when we first come, we all think they don't we think, oh, they all seem to be so together. Look at them. [01:13:17] They all love each other, all so one. They're so fitly framed together. But of course, when we're here for a while, we see the inside my. The hammering that goes on off the side, the battering that goes on off the side to produce that. [01:13:36] And I read one thing, and I want to leave with you. [01:13:42] Archaeology has discovered, till recently, something they couldn't understand. [01:13:46] Just around Jerusalem and some of the quarries, they found quite a number of very large stones which had been marked out. [01:13:53] Some of them had actually been cut. The cutting of guns, chiseling guns to get them quarried, to get them out. [01:14:01] Others, there were stones actually there that were roughly shaped. [01:14:07] They had on them a mark. [01:14:11] As they have investigated over the last few years, they have discovered that these marks were marked of Solomon Overseer. [01:14:22] And they have come to the conclusion that these stones were stones that they started on and then rejected. [01:14:33] That's a solemn reminder that having preached to others, we ourselves can be castaways, rejects, not rejected for our salvation concerned, but rejects, as far as the city is concerned, the final habitation of God. [01:14:51] That's a tremendous thing to think that the work had begun, to think that there was a stamp on it and then it was laid on one side. [01:15:01] It never got to the temple. It never got built in. [01:15:05] Let us therefore all take great warning from that and seek by the grace of God to be part of his heritage.