Benjamin Hatch brings a message from 1 Chronicles 22-27 as part of our series, "House of God, House of Kings," a series in the Book of 1 Chronicles.
Redeemer Bible Church of Fort Bend
The House of the Lord (1 Chronicles 22-27)
If you have a Bible, turn with me now to 1 Chronicles 22, 1 Chronicles 22. If you're using one of the seatback Bibles, you will find the text that I'm going to read on page 327. If you don't have a Bible, please do take one of the seatback Bibles as the church's gift to you. This morning we're going to preach on 6 chapters of the Bible, chapters 22 through 27, but right now we're only going to read 1 Chronicles 22 verses 1 through 16. Beginning then in verse 1. Then David said, "Here shall be the house of the Lord God, and hear the altar of burnt offering for Israel." David commanded to gather together the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he set stone-cutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God. David also provided great quantities of iron for nails for the doors of the gates, and for clamps, as well as bronze and quantities beyond wang, and cedar timbers without number, for the Cydonians and Tyrians brought great quantities of cedar to David. For David said, "Solomon, my son, is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it." So David provided materials in great quantity before his death. Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for the Lord the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, "My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'You have shed much blood, and have waged great wars, you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever." Now, my son, the Lord be with you, so that you may succeed in building the house of the Lord your God, as he has spoken concerning you. Only may the Lord grant you discretion and understanding that when he gives you charge over Israel, you may keep the law of the Lord your God, then you will prosper. If you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel, be strong and courageous, fear not, do not be dismayed. With great pains, I have provided for the house of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weighing, for there is so much of it, timber and stone too I have provided to these you must add. You have an abundance of workmen, stone-cutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in working gold, silver, bronze and iron, arise and work. The Lord be with you. I know God's people said, amen, let's pray. Lord this is a challenging text and we didn't even read the lengthy list of names that follows it. We pray God that you would give us understanding so that we might see how this text points to the wonderful position that you have given to believers today, the advantage that we have living on the side of the cross, and that Lord we would be diligent sanctuaries dedicated to your use, holy and acceptable to you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. My wife and I and my son live by the Sugar Land Campus of Memorial Herman Hospital. And over the last six months we've been astonished how quickly they turned a section of their parking lot into a hospital tower. In this era of pre-fabrication and modular construction, it doesn't take long to build a big building. But last summer we were in Barcelona. And one of the big sites to visit there is the Roman Catholic Cathedral Sagrada Familia, which remains unfinished even though they have been building it for 143 years. That's how construction projects worked throughout human history until our own time. It took a lot of preparation, a lot of planning, and decades, if not centuries, of building. Well this morning as we continue our series in the book of First Chronicles, we're going to see that King David makes preparations for one such massive construction project, the Temple of the Lord. And as we consider David's preparations, we're going to see how they point to an even greater construction project, the building project undertaken by the Lord Jesus as he builds a new and better temple which he has been building for more than 2,000 years. And today we'll see how we fit into that project as we consider First Chronicles chapter 22 all the way through chapter 27. And this morning we'll consider three points. First a biblical point as we see King David's preparation to build the temple. Second a theological point as we learn that King Jesus builds a new and better temple. And then finally a practical point as we see what we are to take from God's construction plan for the ages, let's start with our first point. King David prepares to build the temple. The Chronicles were written to Jews who had recently returned from exile in Babylon. And this group of Jews sinned in that they neglected the worship of God by neglecting God's temple which was central to the religion of Old Testament Israel. And so our author writes this book for many reasons but one of the main ones is to get his readers to see that this is an error they need to attend to the temple and the worship of God. And to teach them that he reminds them of their history so that they will see from Israel's past the centrality of God's temple and its importance in their relationship with God. And to make this point the chronicler shows how the temple was the glorious outcome of the kingship of David Israel's greatest king. And so in this book the chronicler has emphasized events from David's life that directly lead to the construction of the temple. So David's first recorded act as king in this book was to conquer Jerusalem, the city where the temple would be built. And we saw how David relocated the Ark of the Covenant, the earthly throne of God, to Jerusalem putting it back in its rightful place at the center of Israel's worship. But after the Ark came to Jerusalem it sat in a tent while David lived in a nice big wooden palace. And David thought this should not be so. God's Ark deserves a better home, so he wanted to build God a temple building. But what did God say? No. In 1 Chronicles 17 God was very clear David would not be the one to build him a temple. But in 1 Chronicles 1711 God said this, "I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me." God said in time there will be a temple, but you won't build it David, your son will. But while David was disallowed from building the temple God used him to make preparations for its eventual construction. So in chapters 18 through 20 we saw that David won many wars. He captured much plunder and that plunder would be used to help build the temple. And then last time in chapter 21 we saw David's terrible sin when he faithlessly counted the Israelites. But God used that occasion to compel David to acquire the threshing floor of Ornan, where God then had David build an altar of sacrifice, which God then supernaturally ignited. And when David saw this, 1 Chronicles 22 verse 1, then David said, "Here shall be the house of the Lord God, and hear the altar of burnt offering for Israel." David saw that God had providentially used his sin to advance salvation history, because in this event God selected the place where his temple would be built. And now in chapter 22 David begins to prepare in earnest to build the temple. Chapter 22 verse 2, "David commanded to gather together the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he set stone cutters to prepare dress stones for building the house of God." David also provided great quantities of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clamps as well as bronze and quantities beyond weighing, and cedar timbers without number for the Sidonians and Tyrians brought great quantities of cedar to David. David built a huge workforce, and he gathers tons of the necessary building materials from nails to lumber to massive stones. And why did David do this? Verse 5, "For David said, Solomon my son is young and inexperienced. And the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it." So David provided materials in great quantity before his death. This project was near and dear to David's heart. He wanted it done right. And as he thought about how it would proceed when he was gone, he started to worry, because he knew that Solomon was young. Now we're not told how young he was, but however old he was, David thought this task might be beyond him. Because this was to be the house where God's glory would dwell, a visible testimony of God's greatness to the world, so it was to be magnificent and awesome. It was a task probably beyond any one individual. And so David wanted to help his son, so he started preparing. Moreover, David sat Solomon down and told him this was his duty to bring this project to completion. In fact, this was his divinely decreed destiny. Look at verse 7, "Then he called for Solomon his son and charged him to build a house for the Lord the God of Israel." David said to Solomon, "My son I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son. And I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever." David tells Solomon all about what happened in chapter 17, his desire to build a temple and God's negative answer, and the amazing promises God made to David on that occasion. And as David shares his perspective on these events, we learn one more reason why God told David, "It won't be you." Because David was a man of war. Now this might confuse us, because David's wars were often fought in the name of the Lord, sometimes at the direction of the Lord. So why should David's warfare disqualify him from building the temple? To understand this, let's think back further in Israel's history. Way back at Mount Sinai, God had said he was going to be worshipped in the Tabernacle. A tent, a mobile worship center. And that was fitting for Israel's nomadic experience in the wilderness. But God said this in Deuteronomy 12, verse 10, "When you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around so that you live in safety, then to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. Where you shall bring all that I command you your burnt offerings and your sacrifices." God said someday Israel wasn't going to be nomadic anymore. Someday they were going to have the promised land. Someday they would enjoy peace and rest from all of their enemies. And at that time God would establish a permanent place of worship, a temple which would stand as a reminder to Israel that God made good on his word. He gave him the land just like he said. He gave him peace just like he said. Well now Israel has the land and they have peace because David vanquished all their enemies. But God says a man of war cannot build his house of peace. That would destroy the symbolism of the temple. So God tells David actually one of your sons must succeed you and God specifies who? David's son by Bathsheba. And God gave that son a name Solomon which comes from the Hebrew word meaning peace. Solomon the man of peace will build the house of peace, the temple. So David tells Solomon look this is what God has decreed for your life. Now he gives him a charge verse 11. Now my son the Lord be with you. So that you may succeed in building the house of the Lord your God as he has spoken concerning you. Only may the Lord grant you discretion and understanding that when he gives you charge over Israel you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous fear not do not be dismayed with great pains I have provided for the house of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold a million talents of silver and bronze and iron beyond weighing for there is so much of it timber and stone to I have provided to these you must add you have an abundance of workmen stone cutters masons carpenters and all kinds of craftsmen without number skilled in working gold silver bronze and iron arise and work the Lord be with you. David tell Solomon all about the preparations that he's made all those precious metals he has amassed all the workmen he has employed and David tell Solomon if you want to do this job right you're going to have to get even more but David tell Solomon if you really want to succeed in this task it's not just enough to have a lot of workers and a lot of materials you need wisdom and courage and faith and obedience because friends that is always how God's people win victory and enjoy spiritual success we've got to have wisdom I mean we've got to recognize the authority and goodness and truth of God's word we've got to have courage we can't be paralyzed and overcome by fear we've got to have faith we've got to trust the Lord is with us and he is helping us in this life as we live and we've got to strive for obedience we've got to try to actually do what God says which on this side of the cross we can because the Holy Spirit empowers us so David gives this charge to Solomon then he's got one more charge for the leaders of Israel look at verse 17 David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son saying is not the Lord your God with you and has he not given you peace on every side for he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God so that the arc of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God maybe brought into a house built for the name of the Lord David reminded Israel of everything God had done for them he'd given them the land and the peace that he had promised but you know the place of peace and security is often the place of spiritual danger isn't it you know when we're in the hard times of life it's sort of obvious that we need to seek God's hope when things seem difficult and unsettled but when things calm down when things seem like they're going well it's very easy for us to forget about God and just go about doing our own thing isn't it God warned Israel against that in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and so as David points out God has given us the good times now friends he tells Israel's leaders how to respond now is not the time for kicking back and relaxing he says now is the time to keep seeking God continue honoring him even in the good times and that meant they needed to help Solomon build the temple they needed to get God's ark into this glorious building that would proclaim God's excellencies to the world and having so charged Israel we read in chapter 23 verse 1 when David was old and full of days he made Solomon his son king over Israel now the book of First Kings tells us Solomon's accession to the throne was politically complicated there was intrigue and revolt but none of that had anything to do with the temple and so the chronicler doesn't record it for us instead he jumps ahead to the point when Solomon ruled unchallenged alongside his father Solomon's reign has begun but David's reign has not yet ended and as we continue reading we see how David used the last years of his kingship to keep making preparations for the temple just as he had gotten all of those materials and all of those workmen now David reorganizes virtually every aspect of Israel's national life and we see this in chapters 23 through 27 which contains another massive list of names which I'm not going to read I'm just going to summarize in chapters 23 through 26 we see David reorganizes the tribe of Levi now when we think about the tribe of Levi we think about Israel's priesthood because priests came from Levi but not every descendant of Levi was a priest first chronicles 23 13 says Aaron was set apart to dedicate the most holy things that he and his sons forever should make offerings before the Lord only men who were descended from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron were priests what about all the other men from the tribe of Levi they were not priests they were called the Levites and their various families are listed in chapter 23 and what was the role of the Levites well historically according to Numbers chapter 1 it had been taking down and setting up the tabernacle as it moved around but now the tabernacle is going away now God isn't going to be worshiped in a mobile tent anymore so what will the job of the Levites be we find the answer be getting in chapter 23 verse 25 as David gives them a new job description David said the Lord the God of Israel has given rest to his people and he dwells in Jerusalem forever so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service instead they're going to maintain the temple building and prepare some sacrifices that the priest will offer they're going to help the priests will also see they will be tasked with music ministry and with security then in chapter 24 David reorganizes the priesthood itself he creates a rotation of the priests so that all of the priests can have an equal share of the labor and rotate among themselves equitably so that nobody gets overly tired then in chapter 25 David reorganizes the Levites who were musicians and as David reorganizes them for their service in the temple the chronicler says something really interesting that will come back to in just a minute three times in the first three verses of chapter 25 we read that the musicians prophesied with liars harps and with symbols and we'll talk about how music ministry can be prophetic in a minute but not only did David organize the musicians because in chapter 26 we see that David reorganized the Levites who were gatekeepers who guarded and protected the temple and then in the last half of chapter 26 David reorganized other Levites into various administrative roles as treasurers officers and judges and then finally in chapter 27 we read how David reorganized other aspects of Israel's life outside the tribe of Levi how he reorganized the military and the leadership of the nation and we find a list of the names of those who were in David's service and cabinet to end this list now this huge list shows us that David was a great administrator he organized Israel to prepare for this new era of peace and stability in the land ensuring that Israel was one unified nation one well oiled machine ready to serve and worship God at his new house of worship so David prepared to build the temple this brings us to our second point Jesus David's much greater descendant builds a new and better temple I know that was a lot of information much of which probably seemed pretty distant and far removed from where we are today how we begin to understand the connection of this text to our lives to do that I think we have to ask some theological questions why was this temple necessary in the beginning it wasn't Genesis tells us in the beginning God made humanity to be very good and Genesis 3 indicates that in his perfect creation God's regular practice was to walk alongside Adam and Eve humanity enjoyed face to face direct interaction with God but what happened sin entered the world Adam and Eve rebelled Romans 5 12 says sin came into the world through one man and death through sin sin's natural consequences death and so after the fall Adam and Eve's bodies began to break down their physical death was assured and more than that they endured spiritual death their face to face relationship with God was severed as they were ejected from the garden man lost his direct relationship with God and there was an angel put there to show that there was no way back and yet God graciously spared humanity and continued drawing people to worship him and the way sinful man worshiped God was through sacrifice as early as Genesis chapter 4 and this practice of worship through sacrifice continued from millennia as the patriarchs sacrificed to God and as their descendants the nation Israel sacrificed to God and when God brought them out of Egypt and delivered them from slavery and brought them to Sinai Moses built an altar and sacrifice to God and there God gave Israel his law which regulated sacrifice and declared there would be just one place of worship that tabernacle that tent in the wilderness and what was so significant about the tabernacle God said in Exodus 25 8 let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst you know God is on the present in one sense God is everyone but in another sense God shows to uniquely manifest his presence in just one spot on earth God said in Exodus 25 22 there I will meet with you from above the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony that is to say above the ark of the covenant in one room of the tabernacle the most holy place God uniquely dwelt in the midst of his people now this was not a restoration of the garden God was not dwelling with his people in a face-to-face way nobody could enter the tabernacle except the priest nobody could enter the most holy place except the high priest and him just one day a year carrying a sensor to fill the room with thick smoke to obscure the glory of God but while God could not be directly interacted with God graciously chose to dwell in his people's midst once again and that's how things were down to the time of David and Solomon and the building of the temple and then the ark of the covenant was moved into the temple so the temple became the place where God dwelt in the midst of his people it was there that man met with God it was there that sacrifice was offered for sin and yet as the centuries went by David's descendants fell into worse and worse sin they broke their covenant with God and God sent his prophets to them and said repent but the people didn't listen and so about 400 years after the temple was built Ezekiel 10 verse 18 says the glory of the Lord went out from the house God departed from the temple God no longer dwelt in the midst of his people and without his presence Israel's kingdom quickly collapsed Jerusalem was destroyed and the Israelites went into exile and yet God's prophets said a day was coming when Israel would have a temple again Zechariah 1 16 this is what the Lord says I will return to Jerusalem with mercy and there my house will be rebuilt Haggai 2 8 the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house says the Lord almighty and yet with the exiles went home and rebuilt their temple it was not more beautiful or glorious than their old one which is why Haggai 2 verse 3 says who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory how do you see it now is it not as nothing in your eyes that's why Zechariah 4 said the day of the rebuilding of the temple was the day of small things so did God's work fail but God said there'd be a new and better temple here's this new temple and it isn't better is that a failure of God's work no because while the Jews looked for the fulfillment of these prophecies in a new and better temple building when we come to the New Testament we find these prophecies are not fulfilled in a building but in Jesus who said in John chapter 2 verse 19 destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up the Jews then said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it in three days but he was speaking about the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed he ever read those words and thought that's really weird who talks about their bodies being a temple why does Jesus do that because what the temple represented the old covenant Jews Jesus represents to us on this side of the cross to the ancient Israel the temple was where God's well among people were man met with God and where sacrifice was offered to forgive sin Jesus replaces the temple in all of these ways for God has supremely dwelt among humanity in the incarnation of his son John one one says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and verse 14 of that chapter says the word became flesh and dwelt among us God the son took on true humanity and lived as a man God dwell in our midst in a far better way in the person of Christ and Jesus is the only place where we can meet with God today Jesus said this in John 4 the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father but the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth under the old covenant you had to worship at the right place Jesus is now it's going to be different it's not about the place now you have to worship the right way through the holy spirit and in truth you say well what is truth Jesus said in John 14 6 I am the way the truth in the life no one comes to the Father except through me so worship isn't about going to the holy place anymore worship now must go through the holy one and just as the temple of old was the place of sacrifice Jesus is now the sacrifice who solves the problem of our sin Hebrews 9 26 says he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself so Jesus is the new and better temple replacing and surpassing all that the old covenant temple was able to accomplish he has gone supreme expression of grace and mercy today and friend if you have never come to Jesus seeking forgiveness for your sin you need to do so because you remain spiritually dead and you are under the sentence of eternal death facing God's wrath forever in hell because that's what our sin deserves and friends we are all sinners we have all offended God with our lives and with our thinking Romans 3 23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord we deserve to die but Jesus offers us life everlasting and he can make that offer because on the cross he died the death we deserve he bore the wrath of the father that we should have born and he has risen from the dead just as he said he has rebuilt the temple of his body and now friends we need to know that forgiveness is possible in him alone Acts 4 12 says there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved and Jesus tells us how we can be saved in Mark 1 15 we must repent and believe the gospel we've got to turn away from our old life of sin which is leading us to hell and we've got to turn to follow Jesus because he is God and man because he has died for our sins and risen again and if you've never done that today friends I would beg you please turn to Jesus and be saved you will find a life and peace in him so Jesus is the new and better temple he is the place where we meet with God or our sins are forgiven but as the New Testament goes further it also presents Jesus to us as the king who builds a new and better temple just as David prepared to build this glorious house of worship that would represent God's glory to the whole world just as Solomon the man of peace built the house of peace the temple Jesus the true prince of peace builds a greater house of peace and worship which better represents him to the world as he builds his church Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19 says you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit Paul says this is the great building project of God upon the foundation of Christ in the apostles God is building a new temple and upon that foundation he is fitting in every believer as like the stones of old that were used to raise a temple 1 Peter 2 makes the same point you yourselves like living stones are being built up into a spiritual house friends we are God's new temple not as a literal building on earth but where does God dwell today in his people in the universal church the fellowship of all believers everywhere but the New Testament doesn't only see the fulfillment of the temple in the universal church it also speaks of the local church so Paul says to the Corinthians 1 Corinthians 3 16 do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you if anyone destroys God's temple God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you are that temple Corinthian church was deeply divided and Paul here warns don't blow your church up with division because God sees your church as being like his temple it must remain holy and undefiled but how is the local church like God's temple it's not that this building is a temple building the church isn't a building the church is the people of God and just as God dwelt in the temple building of old believing friends God's spirit dwells today in us and so when we gather here as a local church God's spirit is here in our midst that's why coming to church is different than going to the country club or going to a PTA meeting or a political convention because when God's people assemble who are indwelt by God's spirit God is present in a real way with us in our gatherings just as he was present in the temple of old to the temple points to the local church indeed Paul says later in 1 Corinthians that the temple points to each individual believer in Jesus 1 Corinthians 6 19 that you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God think about that in the Old Testament you couldn't even go into the tabernacle unless you were a priest much less encounter the presence of God in the most holy place but today thanks to the indwelling Holy Spirit God dwells within the body of every believer so that we each have become the temple of God and Paul's point there is that as God's temples we must remain holy and not to file ourselves with sin because God's temple must be holy and so when the Old Testament says a new and better temple is coming how does the New Testament tell us that prophecy comes true in Jesus and in the universal church and in the local church and in God's indwelling the believer and ultimately it points to the new creation for the last verse in the book of Ezekiel speaks of a restored temple like this the name of the city from that time on shall be the Lord is there he sees a city where God dwells alongside his people forever this new Jerusalem and how is new Jerusalem described in the book of Revelation Revelation 21 16 its length and width and height are equal the city is described as cube shaped you say so what the only structure in the Old Testament that was cube shaped was the most holy place the room where God's presence dwell and the idea is this believing friends our eternal destiny is to dwell forever with God in the new and better most holy place that the entire new creation will be a temple to God and God's unveiled presence will thoroughly inhabit it and Revelation 22 3 says the throne of God and the lamb will be in it his servants will worship him they will see his face and they will reign forever and ever believing friends in the end we will have a new and better relationship with God than even they had in the garden we will live forever face to face with God in the new creation which is the new temple and so just as the 23rd Psalm ends indeed believing friends we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever the final echo of the temple new Jerusalem now that's a lot theology let's do some practical what does this have to do with us how do we fit into God's construction plan for the ages we just seen how the language of temple points in many different directions in the new testament it tells us to believe in Jesus and it tells us that we are temples of God as individual believers as a local church so in our remaining time I want to focus on some practical take a ways that follow from these truths number one we need to consider our preparations David is extremely organized in his preparations to construct the temple because God is a God of order and all that we do must be orderly in the service of God 1 Corinthians 1433 says God is not a God of confusion but of peace which means we need to be orderly and organized you know many Christians today seem to believe that planning and organization are opposed to the operation of the Holy Spirit that the spirit only works through the spontaneous the mindless the ecstatic but friends what we actually find in the Bible was that God's spirit consistently works through deliberate and prayerful planning and organization the am I a plan how to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem pulse strategize his missionary journeys David planned the preparation for the temple and God used it for his glory so orderliness and organization are appropriate in the local church and they're essential for our lives so let me ask friend do you have orderliness and regularity in your spiritual life what preparatory steps can you be taking to consistently be a holy temple to the Lord that displays his glory before the watching world your second Timothy 3 17 says that the scripture makes us equipped for every good work do you spend time in it regularly allowing it to equip you for the Lord's service renewing your mind growing you and holiness are you preparing yourself to contribute to the building up of your local church do you have a desire to serve here if not cultivate that desire 1 Corinthians 14 26 says that we all have spiritual gifts which are to be done for the building up of the church I know we've all got busy lives but do you make any time in your life to meet together with the saints to learn about their needs and how you can help them to serve in the church to find ways to to pitch in and get involved friends God builds his church in part through the labors of his people where are you in serving and working to build up this local church friends we need to make preparations as David did so that we can meaningfully advance God's temple purposes in our lives and in our church application number two we need to consider our priesthood David reorganized the priestly ministry of Israel in chapters 23 and 24 now under the old covenant priests represented man before God offering sacrifices on their behalf today we have a better priest first Timothy two five says there is one God and one mediator between man between God and men and friends that mediator is not the pope and is not an Anglican or a Catholic bishop friends it is the man Christ Jesus Jesus alone mediates our relationship to the father and Hebrews four tells us what the implication of that is since then we have a great high priest let us with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need think about the Old Testament how far man was removed from God how essential it was to have a priest to stand in the gap today friends Jesus our divine priest he is not so far he stands there and says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden I will give you rest he invites us to draw near to him to seek his help in prayer trusting his sympathetic compassion offering his well-timed help in the moments of need in our lives the priesthood of Jesus beckons us to pray and so friend I must ask how is your prayer life for your family for your church for yourself probably we are better with ourselves than other people right do you pray for fellow believers here when we have prayer meeting do you often come to pray with us I tell you we have quite the purpose these days is becoming hard to fit it all onto one page in the bullet friends let us pray for one another that we might enjoy Jesus well-timed help because we all have so many needs but not only is Jesus our great priest 1 Peter 2 5 says you yourselves are to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ on this side of the cross every believer is a priest and we're charged to offer sacrifices not to cover our sin Jesus has done that not animal sacrifices what sacrifice does God require of us today Hebrews 13 15 through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name do not neglect to do good and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God we are to offer the sacrifice of praise to God for Peter 2 says we are to proclaim his excellencies as God's temple and God's priests we represent God's greatness to the watching world so that they might come to know who our God is we are to proclaim him publicly and that's a sacrifice because evangelism costs us something it will cost us relationships it will cause us persecution it will complicate our lives but we are to make God known how are we doing with that command who are we talking with about the gospel in our lives who are we inviting to this church's evangelistic Sunday friend you'll never find an easier opportunity for evangelism then bringing a friend to church letting us give them the gospel friends offer the sacrifice of evangelism we're also told in Hebrews 13 to be sacrificial in our giving to further the cause of Christ to help those in need especially fellow believers I think we saw a great example of sacrificial and generous giving in our recent push to help allen to that I would say friends excel still further think about the earliest Christians who sold all that they had to help those who had need in their number how are we doing with generosity in our lives all the sacrifice God wants from us is this Romans 12 1 present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship what God wants is that our lives should be increasingly yielded to him what areas of our life do we resist that most in where do we not want our minds our bodies to come under the lordship of Christ friends we need to let sin and self go take up our cross and follow Jesus application number three we need to consider our singing in chapter 25 David reorganized the musicians which shows us how important music was to the worship of ancient Israel music is still important to God's worship today Ephesians 5 18 says be filled with the spirit addressing one another listen to that addressing one another in Psalms hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart God has still worshipped in song now what can we learn about musical worship from today's passage friends musical worship is unlike music in other areas of our culture in our culture music is all about having an experience but instead notice in chapter 25 how three times says how three times the chronicler says music leaders prophesied what makes music ministry prophetic or their music ministry prophetic they sang the Psalms God's revealed word so their singing was primarily communicative it had a teaching function friends our musical worship likewise is to communicate God's truth that's why Paul says in Ephesians 5 that singing is addressing one another it's why Colossians 3 16 says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs because when we sing we not only praise God we address each other so the question is what are we teaching each other well it depends on what we sing and that's why here we're very careful to sing songs that are robust substantive and biblical and why we don't sing stuff that's vacuous empty or filled with false doctrine or which comes from false churches because we are biblically commanded to speak the truth to one another and as we conduct musical worship this passage shows us we're not only to sing but we can play instruments too and friends as we do that let us do it as well and as loudly as we can let us praise our great God loudly because he deserves it let us encourage each other by singing meaningfully and intentionally and joyfully the important words of the song so that we have we're able to execute God's game playing here that by so singing we encourage each other finally friends we need to guard ourselves. Chapters 26 and 27 we see how David organized the gatekeepers who guarded the temple and various other officials which should remind us of the truth that God has given local churches gatekeeping officers and I'm speaking here about the elders who have this biblical task Titus chapter 1 verse 9 he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it the elders have a gatekeeping function to protect this church from false doctrine and from those who would exploit the weak and vulnerable. Unfortunately such dangers exist in our world and thankfully God has equipped this church with leaders who are presently willing to defend and protect it we should pray that it would always be so but please understand that means sometimes we have to do some things that might seem not very pleasant or nice to protect the flock few years ago a nice seeming old lady showed up she told us she was a prophetess she had a word from God for us and she wanted to take control of the church's leadership and we told her to beat it not because we wanted to be mean to a friendly old lady but because our duties to protect the flock and false teachers don't show up with a fork tongue and a pitchfork they usually seem pretty nice but it doesn't matter how nice someone seems we must protect the church from existential threats to the flock and that's what false teaching is it is the duty of your elders to defend this church in the same way sometimes we have to lead the church in the practice of corporate discipline upon church members mired and unrepentant sin that might not seem nice from the world's perspective but the apostles tell us it's loving to the sinner to warn them about their sin and it's necessary to guard the holiness of the church so your elders fulfill gatekeeping functions in this church that's why we interview new members that's why sometimes we have to do hard things and should these hard things come up as part of this church believing friends you should stand in solidarity with your elders as they united front for the good and the health of the church but while the elders act as gatekeepers of the local church let me last they ask you this how are you doing as a gatekeeper for yourself because if you're a believer your body is the temple of God what spiritual dangers do you allow into your life what temptations do you flirt with friends just as the local church must be kept holy Hebrews 12 tells each of us to strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord because your body is the temple of God believing friend and it must not be defiled it must be kept holy so war against your sin turn from your sin confess your sin to God because there is grace and mercy and forgiveness and cleansing in the cross of Christ so to conclude David prepared to build the temple which prophetically anticipates the fact that we are the temple of God so let us consider our spiritual preparation our priestly sacrificial duties our singing and our self-protection but more than that this passage points us to Jesus who is the new and better temple who is God in the flesh who is the only place to meet God today who died on the cross to buy our pardon and make us a people for his own possession if you have never come to Christ friend to do so and you will find peace in the Prince of Peace and believers as we know Christ let us strive to be a holy orderly temple that reflects well on our God before the watching world let us build one another up in our most holy faith and let us not grow weary of doing good for though Christ's great building project has taken millennia he is every day adding more and more stones to his great temple one conversion at a time as sinners like us find mercy in the gospel of Jesus and friends as he builds us up and establishes us upon himself praise God that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us let us pray