I was just telling Greg, who
am I to stand before the people of God? Leviticus chapter 17. Leviticus
17. Ever since the fall, mankind
has attempted to approach and appease a holy God by sacrifice. And since this is the call to
worship, I ask, how shall we approach and worship the one
true God Who is holy? He's holy. And by what sacrifice
will he receive us? I believe we have an answer here
in Leviticus 17 in verse 11. For the life of the flesh is
in the blood, not just any blood, but the blood of the holy, spotless
Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I have given it
to you upon the altar, That is the place of sacrifice. He was
that altar in the fulfillment of this scripture. And he was
that bloody sacrifice itself upon Calvary's cross. And he
was given, God gave his only son, the son of God and the son
of man. Not just any man, but this man. This man offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, the scripture says, and this, to make an atonement
for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement
for the soul. For Christ once suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Let's pray. Holy Father, we thank you for
the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you made him to
be the only acceptable sacrifice for sin, reconciling us to God
once and forever in the putting away of our sin by his own blood,
something we could never do. We confess anything more or anything
less is unacceptable, and so we come boldly, pleading the
blood of Christ in our stead, a full atonement for our sins
to bring us to God that you might receive us, accepted in the beloved. Father, we pray in this hour
that you would grant that we might enter into worship by the
blood and behold his glory with praise and thanksgiving. We pray
for our pastor in the preaching that he might be pleased to own
his word to our hearts. We pray for Christ's name for
his sake. Amen. Number 33 in the Spiral Hymnbook. Let's stand together. Number
33. I come, our Savior said, the
Savior promised long. I come to do thy will, O God,
and thus our hope was born. Behold, the Virgin has conceived
and born a Son of Flesh. His name is called Emmanuel. God dwells in human flesh. The angels left their high abode
to see this mystery. A great almighty sovereign God,
a babe of feeble clay. Mortals beheld his lovely face,
a father's only son. How full of truth, how full of
grace, Christ came to save his own. His spotless life of righteousness
and sin atoning death. Fulfilled His Father's holy will,
And satisfied His breath. Our glad Hosannas, Prince of
Peace, Your glory shall proclaim. enthroned in heaven as our King. We love to praise your name. Please be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to 1
Chronicles, excuse me, chapter 29, 1 Chronicles 29. Five times
an object or a person of God's grace recipient of God's grace cries
out who am I the first one we saw in 2nd Samuel chapter 7 when
David was told that the Lord was going to bring the Messiah
through his seed and that he was going to have an everlasting
kingdom and David in humility before the Lord says
who am I and what is my house that thou shouldest brought me
hither to Lord why why would you do this for me the second two we looked at this
morning Exodus chapter 3 when the Lord called Moses after spending
40 years on the backside of the desert to go and bring the children
of Israel out of Egypt And Moses' attitude now is completely different
than it was 40 years prior, for he responds to the Lord in saying,
Lord, who am I? Who am I that I should go and
lead the children of Israel out of Egypt? And the Lord said,
I'm going to be with you. Moses had been made a sinner. David
is overwhelmed with the thought of being saved. Moses is overwhelmed with the
thought that God has humbled him and made him to depend upon
the Lord for everything. And then David, when the Lord
tells him, or when Saul tells him that he's going to be, that
Saul's going to give him his daughter, David said, who am
I that I should be the son-in-law of the king? This question really
settles everything. If the Lord in his mercy and
grace ever brings us to this place of being overwhelmed with
his distinguishing mercy and distinguishing grace, we will
cry from our hearts, who am I? The fourth time that we find
a who am I in the Bible is in 1 Chronicles chapter 29. 1 Chronicles chapter 29. And David is gathering together that
which is required for the building of the temple. Now, Lord willing,
next Sunday we're going to be looking at John chapter 2 where
our Lord goes in and cleanses the temple. And the scripture tells us that
we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. And this work of cleansing
that the Lord does when he makes a whip and he drives out the
money changers is not so much a a demonstration of God's anger
as much as it is a demonstration of his mercy. The Lord shows mercy toward his
people when he drives from their hearts any hope that they might
have in purchasing their salvation from God. What a mercy. when the Lord draws us with cords
of kindness and he causes us to see that it's a house of prayer and it's
all by grace that we're saved. And so David now in our text
in 1 Samuel 1 Chronicles 29 is providing what his son Solomon
is going to need to build the temple. Now, you've done projects. Some of you have done large construction
projects. And there are multiple trips
to the hardware store and to the supplier to get all the provisions
that are needed to finish a job. It wasn't that way with Solomon. When Solomon builds the temple,
every single thing that was required for the construction of that
temple was on site. And his father provided it, David. And so it is with the building
up of the temple of God, the building up of the house of God,
the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, by his perfect life of
obedience, by his sacrificial death, by satisfying the demands
of God's law and justice, has provided everything required
for the building up of the house of God. Believers are called
living stones placed upon that foundation stone. There's one
foundation stone that is Christ. And stone by stone, The Spirit of God calls into
the family of God and puts them into the church. It's all provided
by David. And here in our text in 1 Chronicles
chapter 29, David is expressing his gratitude to the Lord when
he says in verse 13, now therefore our God, we thank thee and praise
thy glorious name. Lord, this is all of you. This is all by your grace. This
is all by your mercy. Lord, we didn't have anything
to do with this, but who am I and what is my people? that we should
be able to offer so willingly after this sort. David put the
word out. He put out a list of all the
things that they needed in order to build the temple. And the
people brought willingly that which was required. No one had
to be shamed, no one had to be manipulated. They brought it
from a willing heart. And David is now saying, Lord,
why'd you make us willing? Why did you make us willing?
Lord, there was a time when I wasn't willing. I wasn't able, didn't
desire, had no interest in the things of God. Why? Why did you
make me willing? I was talking to a man recently
and he was talking about growing up in the church and how he never
wanted to go to church when he was a kid and finally when he
got out of the house he stopped going and every Sunday his mother
would ask him, where were you? Why weren't you there? And so
he said, I would go occasionally just to satisfy my mother until
the Lord made me willing. He said, now I need to be there.
Now I want to be there. Now I have to be there. No one
has to manipulate me. No one has to, Lord, why did
you do this? Why did you make me willing? But who am I and what is my people
that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? Turn with me to Psalm 110. Verse one, and the Lord said
unto my Lord, the Father is the reference to the first Lord and
the Son is the reference to the second Lord and David is now
speaking, the Father said to Christ, sit thou at my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. We are by nature coming to this world at enmity
with God. We have no interest in the things
of God. We won't come to him. We won't
believe on him. We're dead in our trespasses
and sins. And the Lord's telling the father
is telling his son now that you've performed everything that's required
for the salvation of my people. Come when the Lord Jesus ascended
back into glory. The word of God did not return
unto him void. The living word returned unto
his father with the names of those for whom he lived and died.
And he took his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high. And God said to his son, sit thou here at my right
hand until I make all thine enemies thy footstool. I'm going to do
for all my people what I did for Mary. when she was found
seated at the feet of the Lord Jesus, listening to every word
that proceeded out of his mouth. And the Lord said to her sister
Martha, Mary has chosen that one thing that is needful, that
one thing that cannot be taken away from her. Why did she, why
did Mary choose to sit there at his feet? Because the Lord
had chosen her. That's the reason. And the Lord shall send the rod
of thy strength out of Zion. That's the strength of His grace. The strength of His mercy. That's the power by which he
speaks effectually to our hearts and raises us from our dead heat. David in Psalm 23 said, thy rod
and thy staff, they do comfort me. This is the rod, that rod
of correction that God sends to the hearts of his people when
he causes them to be a sinner and makes them willing, makes
them willing. Look at verse three, thy people
shall be willing. When are they gonna be willing?
In the day of thy power. When the power of the Holy Spirit
takes the power of the gospel and applies it effectually to
the hearts of God's people, they don't come kicking and screaming. They don't come, they don't come
resent, no, they, Solomon put it like this in the
Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse four. He said, he said,
draw us, Lord, and we will run unto thee. The Lord makes his
people willing. He doesn't make coming to Christ
something that they begrudge or something that they resist.
He causes them to desire that one thing that is needful. And
David is now saying, Lord, why did you make us willing? Who
am I? I wouldn't have been willing.
Other people aren't willing. Why did you make me willing?
in the day of thy power and in the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. Lord, this is alive, this is
fresh, this is new, this is necessary, this is the living bread coming
to the King's table willingly. Go back with me to our text. Lord, why would you make me willing
to come? Why would you make me willing
to worship? Why would you make me willing to serve you? Why
would you make me willing to give? Y'all, I've said this before. People, I was talking to a pastor
this week. He preached a message recently
on giving and somebody got angry with him and I I said, yeah,
that's always the case. I said, you can always identify
people get angry about messages on giving, those are the people
that aren't giving. And, you know, if you don't want
to give, don't give. Don't do anything you don't want
to give, don't want to do. Don't want to come, don't come.
The Lord, we're not here to shame or manipulate people. This is
the work that God does in the heart. God loves a cheerful giver. Lord, why would you make me cheerful
and giving? Why would you make me like those
believers that Paul talked about in Thessalonica when he told
them, he said, no, he said, don't give anymore. And they said,
don't stop us. Don't keep us from doing that.
God's made us willing. Why would you do that? Verse 15 in our text. For we are strangers before thee,
and sojourners, as were all our fathers. Our days on the earth
are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. Lord, we were estranged
from you, We were at enmity with you. Lord, why did you make me
willing? Why did you sit me down? Oh, Lord, our God, all this store
that we have prepared to build thee a house for thine holy name
cometh of thy hand and it is not thine own. Lord, it... God only accepts. what he provides. Faith, God has to provide faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself, it's a gift of God. The only
faith that God accepts is faith that he gives. A willing heart
to give, to serve. God doesn't, he doesn't accept
anything that he doesn't first provide. And if he provides it, That's what David's saying. Lord,
everything that we've given belonged to you. We got it from you. We're just returning back to
you what you gave to us. Why would you make us so willing?
Lord, I would left to myself, I would hoard these things, I
would possess them, I would own these things, I would find my
security in these things, I would try to produce something that
would, why would you make me willing? Who am I and who are
my people that we would be willing? If you'll turn over just another
page to 2 Chronicles. I've talked to people about God
electing a particular people according to his own will and
purpose. And their objection is always, usually, God wants
us to love Him freely. He wants us to willingly love
Him. What about free will? The one time that man's free
will demonstrates itself most clearly is at the cross. When God gave man the freedom
to do what he wanted to do with his son. We slew him with our wicked hands. You want to see free will? That's
free will. That's free will. God restrained,
God removing all restraints and letting man have what he wants. Oh, We need God to restrain our wills,
don't we? And we need him to make us willing. We need him to give us his desires
and his will and his spirit. And what is David saying? Lord,
if you left me to my free will, that's what I would do. I would
kill God. If God left me to my free will,
I would kill him. Lord, I need you to make me willing
to sit at the feet of Christ. To worship him. And not just
willing, but rejoicing. needing to, desiring to above
all else. 2 Chronicles chapter 2 at verse 6, Solomon now, David dies
at the end of 1 Chronicles and Solomon begins in 2 Chronicles
and now Solomon takes all the materials that David has provided
And in this regard, we see Solomon as a picture of the Holy Spirit.
David is a type of Christ. David provided everything required
for the building up of God's church. And then the Spirit of
God comes on the day of Pentecost and takes the work that the Lord
Jesus Christ performed. the accomplished work, all the
materials necessary for building up the church. And the Spirit
of God now is taking those materials, if you will, and applying them
one by one to the hearts of God's people and putting them into
the church. But here what Solomon says, every
part, you know, When the Lord said in the day of judgment that
he would separate the sheep from the goats and he would say unto
the goats, I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was naked,
you did not clothe me. I was in prison, you did not
visit me. I was a stranger and you did not take me in. And the
goats respond to that condemnation by this, Lord, when did we see
you such and not do it? And then we read also where those
same people on the Day of Judgment say, but Lord, Lord, we've done
all these wonderful works in thy name. What are the wonderful
works that the goats are looking to for the hope of their salvation? Is it not physically feeding
the hungry? Is it not physically clothing
the naked? Is it not physically going to
the prisons and visiting them that are in prison? Is it not
physically all these things that, and those things are fine in
themselves, but the goats are looking to, they interpret what
the Lord said as if he was requiring them to do these things physically
in order to merit their salvation in order to go to heaven. I was
this way and you didn't do anything for me. And they ask, well, Lord, we've
been doing this all our life. When did we not do it for you?
And that you did not do it for the least of these, my brethren,
you didn't do it unto me. Then he turns to the sheep and
he says to the sheep, I was naked and you clothed me. I was hungry
and you fed me. I was in prison and you visited
me. I was a stranger and you took me in. And the believers
say, Lord, when did we do that? Lord, we don't take notice. You see, their response is just
the opposite. And the Lord gave them the same
answer. and that you did it to the least of these my brethren,
you did it unto me. Now, as profitable as it might
be to a naked person for me to give them some clothes and as
good as it might be to feed someone that's hungry and if we see someone
in need, we should do those things. That's not what the Lord's talking
about. You see, left to ourselves, we
are naked before God and it's only the preaching of the gospel.
And the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only place where
the gospel is being preached in this entire world. And it's the preaching of the
gospel that puts the robe of righteousness on naked sinners.
It's the preaching of the gospel that feeds the hungry soul of
a dying man. It's the preaching of the gospel
that sets the prisoner free. It's the preaching of the gospel
that takes the stranger into the family of God. It's the ministry
of the gospel. That's what the building of the
church is all about. And the Lord is going to say
to each one of his children, well done, good and faithful
servant. Why? Because God credits the blessing of the gospel to
every member of his church. You see, it's not just the preachers
that he's gonna say that to. My goodness, I... I wanna say to young preachers, don't believe what other people
tell you about your preaching. Believe what you think about
your preaching. And if you think your preaching
is good, you don't need to be preaching. Now, we're not talking about
preaching here. Preaching is not a one-man thing. And no preacher is satisfied,
content, or even the least bit happy with what he does when
he preaches. If the Lord uses My preaching,
it will be in spite of me, I know that. It'll be in spite of me. No, preaching is something we
do together. It's not something, you know,
we think of it as just being one man speaking, but it's a
conversation, isn't it? We're not preaching down to people,
we're not preaching at people, we're preaching with people.
And the church is involved in this together. I wouldn't be
able to come here in an empty building and preach the gospel.
It would be nothing. It would mean nothing. It would
just be a hollow building. What am I saying to you? Here's
what I'm saying. Look at our text. Look at our
text. And I hope all that I just said
will come to bear on this passage of scripture. Verse five, and the house which
I build is great. Second Chronicles chapter two,
and our God is above all gods. And who is able to build him
a house? Who's able to build God a house?
Seeing the heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain him.
And who am I? then that I should build him
a house save only to sacrifice before him. Lord, why would you allow me
to be a part of the building up of the kingdom of God? Who
am I? Who am I that I could participate
in the preaching of the gospel? Who am I that I could participate
in the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of
God's people? This is the whole church. Solomon is speaking for, David
says, who am I that I should be made willing? And now we're
all saying together, who am I? Who am I? Why would God bless
me with the privilege and the blessing to be a part of the
building up of the house of God? The church is the house. Turn
with me to Ephesians chapter three. Excuse me just a moment. Ephesians chapter two, verse
18. For through him, we both have
access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, You are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God. That's what Solomon's talking
about, building God a house. He's not talking about a temple. When the Lord cleansed the temple
in John chapter two, what's the fulfillment of that for you and
me? It's the work of grace that God
does in cleansing us of our sin by His blood and the continuing
work of grace that He does when every time we turn around, we
are looking to something that we've done to merit us favor with God, are
we not? Is there not a Pharisee in each
one of us? Do we ever get over this? Why do you labor for that? Which
satisfieth not? Come and buy without money, without
price. Now what Isaiah said in Isaiah
55, but we do, we spend money for that which satisfies not.
And the Lord has to continue to cleanse us of our works mentality
and say to us, my house, my house is a house of prayer, not a den
of thieves. You're not gonna merchandise
the souls of men in my house. There's only one way to come
before God and it's not in bringing your offerings. It's not by bringing,
you know, they were selling bulls and sheep and oxen and the Lord
cleansed and put them all out, didn't he? Turned over the money
changers. What is the Lord saying in that? Turn with me to Hosea. Hosea
is right after Daniel, the second of the minor prophets in the
Old Testament. Hosea chapter 14. Child of God, here's my point
on this last who am I. We should We should be overwhelmed
that God would cause us to see the truth about ourselves when
he leaves others in their own sin. That's what Moses was saying in Exodus chapter
3. Who am I that I should? Moses
had been made a sinner. We should be overwhelmed with
the idea that the Lord would cause us to be willing when most
men are not willing. We should be overwhelmed with
the thought and the truth that when God makes us part of his
church, he credits every, not just not
just whatever the Lord is pleased to do through the ministry of
this church, but everything the Lord has been pleased to do through
the ministry of every assembly of God's people in every generation
is credited to every member of God's church. That's the building up of the
church. Is it because we bring gifts?
No, look, Hosea chapter 14, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. What is iniquity? The scripture speaks of sin as
sin, as transgression, and as iniquity. Sin is what we are. Transgression is what we do.
in violating or transgressing God's law. Iniquity are those
things we try to do to make up for our transgressions. And God
says they don't equal. So there we are. Sin, transgression,
and iniquity. And the Lord sees them all. And
the more we try to do to earn favor with God, the more iniquitous
we become. And the Lord says, return unto
the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take
with you words. Words. Don't take gifts and offerings,
try to persuade. Don't, don't, don't. Don't do that. Take with you
words. and turn to the Lord and say
unto him, Lord, you're going to have to take away my iniquity. You're going to have to cover
my iniquity by the blood of Christ. You're going to have to take
it away. You're going to have to bury it in the depths of the
sea. You're going to have to separate it from me as far as
the east is from the west. I can't atone for it. I can't
make up for it. I can't get rid of it. I can't
fix it. Lord, take it away. and receive us graciously, freely. Lord, there's nothing I can offer
you to merit your favor. If you don't save me by your
grace, I won't be saved. If it's not free, I can't afford
it. So, Will we render the calves
of our lips? You see, Scripture tells us in the book
of Romans that he is as near to us as our lips. For if a man believes in his
heart and confesses with his mouth, Jesus is Lord that shall
be saved. Here's what we do. We confess
to him. First John 1.9, if any man confess
his sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins
and cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness. To confess means
to agree with God that everything about me is sinful. That's what
it is to confess our sin. Lord, I have no righteousness.
Everything I've ever done, everything I've ever thought, every word
I've ever spoken is infected with my sin. There's only one
righteous one. There's only one righteousness. There's only one way to be clothed. And that's for you to give me
the righteousness of Christ. The calves of our lips. Confession of our sin. The declaration that Christ is
all in our salvation. And that he's done it all. That
he provided everything. Everything that Solomon assembled
together to build that temple. Was provided by his father David. Look at verse 3 in Hosea chapter
14, Asher. Now Asher means steps. Steps. I guess Asher maybe was
on an elevated ground or something and there was climbing, I don't
know. But I know the word Asher translated
means steps. And left to ourselves, we will
create steps required to get to God. If I do this, and if
I do that, if I take the first step, then God will help me after
that. We make steps, that's what man-made
religion does. And the Lord said, when you make
an altar, don't put steps on it. Like these temples down in
Mexico, you've seen pictures of them. and they've made sacrifices
at the top of the temples. And we've been up on some of
those temples, walked up those steps, they're very steep. Matter
of fact, you can't walk down them. You gotta come down on
your bottom. You can't just walk down those steps, you'll fall. And the Lord said, if you make
an altar and you put steps on it, all you're going to do is
expose your nakedness. So a man goes up those steep
steps and he's got a robe on and everybody underneath him
sees everything. And God says, you make steps
to me for your salvation and all you're doing is exposing
your nakedness before God. Come with words. Ask the Lord. take away your
iniquity, and give you a righteousness by His grace that you can't merit. For Asher cannot save us. You see that? Look at verse,
Asher shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses.
Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you
are our gods. For in thee, the fatherless findeth
mercy. The fatherless were the helpless.
Oh, they didn't have anyone to care for them. In thee, the fatherless
find mercy. Lord, we'll not look to the works
of our hands. We'll not look to the steps that
we provide. We'll not look to the strength
of horses. We'll not look to our, Lord,
we've been shut up to Christ. We've got no place else to go.
We're at our wit's end. All we can do is cry out for
mercy and for grace. We've got no place else to go. What a blessing when God puts
you in that place. Solomon is saying in this passage
in 2 Chronicles 29, who are we? Who am I? that we should be able to be
a part of the building up of the house of God? Is there any
greater thing that's happening in the world anywhere? Any project,
anything? Is there anything? No, there's
not. Nothing in this entire world That's more significant. I don't know how else to say
it. Nothing else really matters. It's the only thing that's important.
Who am I, Lord, that I could be part of this? Tom, you come. 168. 168. 168.
Let's stand together. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, whilst
Thou art calling, O call me. Even me, let thy blessing fall
on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let thy
blessing fall on me.