Of first Kings 7 this whole chapter
contains a lot of detail regarding the brass work that was done
for the vessels as We would have read on from that place It talks
about all of the vessels of the temple made from brass also and
the hardware even the hinges this man made hinges for the
doors and things like that of brass and Some of the things
he made of brass were covered with gold, but he made the main
vessels of brass. And this chapter begins with
something somewhat concerning. If you look at the last verse
of chapter 6, verse 38 of chapter 6, it says, in the 11th year, in the month bull, which is the eighth month, which
was the house finished throughout all the parts there of it, according
to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building
it, but Solomon was building his own house 13 years, and he
finished all his house. So it deliberately uses the word
but, and it's pointing out something that is Discouraging about Solomon
if you compare the dimensions you might think well He just
didn't put as many people on that project and so it took a
lot longer now If you compare the dimensions of Solomon's house
mentioned in the next few verses. It was twice as big as the temple
Roughly as far as the the main part of it the footprint of it
and the temple of course, was built to the Lord's specifications.
It wasn't that Solomon was to build both at his discretion. Had he done so, he might well
have built the Lord's house bigger, but he was told to build it to
specific dimensions, and it was deliberately not an expansive
structure, not by today's standards at least. It's not, of course,
a competition. God doesn't live in a house made
with hands. But yet, this does show vanity
on Solomon's part that he built himself such a grand house, especially
in comparison to the Lord's house. And this is vanity that we see
in Solomon's life really throughout. In many ways, he expressed the
vanity of his heart He's the one that most notably said that
everything is vanity. And of course he was no exception
to that. It caused the wisest man that
ever lived according to the Lord to also be one of the most foolish. But Abraham believed God and
it was counted to him for righteousness. That's really mostly what we
need to understand about Solomon. The Lord counted him righteous. Believing God is not righteousness,
but righteousness is imputed by grace through faith. Believing God, faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so Solomon was a righteous
man and yet we can see in his his personal character, we can
see problems and be warned. Now the main part of this chapter
describes special brass work that was done by a special man
that worked with brass and did so very skillfully. He made vessels
for the temple as we would have seen had we read toward the end.
and such, and he made these two pillars with chapters, or the
best I could tell about what a chapter is, it's some type
of a crown that surrounded the top of the pillar, some sort
of a crown-like structure, which we've seen that type of thing,
a pillar doesn't just go up and end, it usually ends in some
type of crown. And as we read those verses 13
through 22, we see these two pillars that were 18 cubits high,
verse 15. That's 27 feet. A cubit is roughly
18 inches. It's about a foot and a half.
So if you take half again and add it to the number, that gives
you how many cubits it was, or how many feet it was compared
to cubits. And these pillars were on the
porch of the temple. They basically comprised the entrance into the
temple, into the door. They were on either side of the
door, forming the entrance to the temple. And so these pillars
were prominent. They were, the reason we're talking
about these and not every vessel particularly, which we could
see, we've done that. We've looked at the vessels of
the temple and the tabernacle and what they represent. Many
of them, the golden censer and the table of showbread and things
like that. They all picture Christ. But
rather than be repetitive about that, I wanted to kind of focus
on this. These two pillars were prominent. They were the entrance. You didn't
go in there without passing through these two pillars, and they were
named. That ought to tell us something
about how important these pillars were to God. God specified this. And he said,
make these pillars and name them. And their names will be instructive
to us. But think about what they are. The pillar is what we talked
about the pillar and ground of the truth in this world being
the church. The temple represents the same
thing as the church. does now as far as it's where
God meets with sinners. In Christ, who is preached and
proclaimed by the tabernacle, the temple, and by the preaching
of the gospel. So these pillars were prominently
out front and massive, 27 feet tall. I believe this is about
12 feet in here. 13 feet so about twice as high
as this room And they were It looks like the
circumference of it. It's it's difficult in the language
nobody knows for sure exactly Certain things because we're
not sure what was being described in some of the language But it
looks like the circumference of it was 18 feet It says that
which went around it was 18 feet and And that would give them
a diameter of close to six feet. These pillars were this wide.
And they were very noticeable, very conspicuous as you entered.
The temple, their names were, it was, it's Yaqeen. Yaqeen,
I think is how it's pronounced. Yaqeen, but we just say Jaqen,
because that's what it looks like. And Boaz. You probably
recognize the name Boaz. We'll see what that means, but
together, The two names mean the Lord will establish in strength. You think about what that is
now. This is the temple. This is where a sinner came,
chosen by God and consecrated unto God and went into the very
presence of God with blood. And God didn't destroy the people
because of that. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. When I see the blood on the day of atonement, I will
pass over you. And when he sees the blood now, there's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus tonight. And here these names the Lord
will establish in strength. Some say that these names were
engraved on the pillars And that's highly possible. I don't think
it specifically says that anywhere in the scripture. It doesn't
say that here. But I think that's likely. On one hand, you would
think there's no use naming them unless people knew the name.
But on the other hand, everybody would know the names of them
anyway, you reckon? It's not that hard to remember. Two pillars. I suspect everybody would know
the name, whether it was engraved on there or not. So I'm not sure
about that. But everybody knew the Lord will
establish in strength. This is the gospel. It's the beautiful gospel of
our Savior, just as plain as day. And the gospel is expressed
in many ways. In this book, the word of God
doesn't say a lot of things. You know what we say about that.
It just says one thing a lot of ways, and this is one of the
ways that the gospel is set forth. The Lord will establish in strength. And we'll think about that and
how that is the gospel, but think about the first one for a minute.
The Lord will establish. The gospel's about what God did
and what he's gonna do. Salvations of the Lord is what
this is saying. It's just saying that plainly.
Salvations of the Lord, the Lord has established the way to himself,
Christ himself being the way. The temple was itself a standing
monument to the fact that sinners are saved, have access, have
acceptance with God by the blood shed for them. That's how they
have access, and as we said this morning, it is all about access.
It's all about God. What happened in the garden is
we were banished from the presence of God. What happens in all the
rest of the history of time and future is getting us back to
God, more than conquerors in Christ. The gospel, he died the
just for the unjust. He died the just for us, the unjust. Why? To bring us to God. That's what
the temple showed. We're gonna get to God somehow,
one way. So the temple was a standing
monument to that. The Lord established that. The
Lord dictated all of the specifications of that, which is why we don't
make religious symbols that the Lord didn't tell us to make.
And you know how many he told us to make? Two. The table and the baptistry,
which can be a river, a stream, a swimming pool, or this right
here, some water. There is much water what doth
hinder me to be baptized. So, We have those symbols, and
what do they, that they both so clearly set forth Christ.
Will you presume to come up with something in your imagination,
design some jewelry or something, and say, well, this reminds me
of God? I'd let God handle that if I were you. And I know you
don't need to hear that, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. It's all about getting to God,
access to God, acceptance with God. And the Lord, the Lord will
establish. The Lord will tell you what's
got to happen for you to get to him. The Lord determines that. Man did not even seek to return
to God after the fall, never has and never will on his own.
Psalm 14, two, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. And that's interesting, that combination, understand
and seek God. In other words, if you have any
idea what's going on, you're gonna run to God as fast as you
can run. But if you're not running to God, you don't know what you
are. You don't know who he is. You
don't know what's going on in this world. You don't know what
this world is for. But once you do, you're gonna
seek God by his grace, by his revealing grace. There were none
that did understand and seek God. He looked to see if there
were any. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. He couldn't say it any more emphatically
than that. If God had not established righteousness,
if he had not established a way for sinners to come to himself
by living for them, by dying for them, he established eternal
righteousness for them by living as a man, as a representative
man, and he established eternal redemption by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If he had not done that, there
would be no acceptance with God. No salvation, no hope. Religion
has God waiting on sinners to do something to be saved. God
doesn't wait on us, we wait on him. The Lord has established. He has sent out the ultimatum.
That's what the gospel is. It's an ultimatum. God doesn't need us to do something,
we need him to do something for us. God has not just made salvation
possible. He has established it. The word there is made sure. It's made sure. The Lord will
make sure. What does that word make you
think of? Think about this now, yakin or
yakin, I think the emphasis, I like to know how to say stuff,
even if I don't say it that way. I don't know, that's just. Yakin
means the Lord will establish. In its future here, the Lord
will establish because the temple looked forward to Christ. Everything
in the temple was pointing forward, pointing ahead, pointing chronologically
forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what it said, the Lord
will establish. When the Lord cried it is finished
from Calvary, we can call it this now, there's no more temple
because he fulfilled every aspect of the temple And now we can
say the Lord has established. He has made sure, he has accomplished
it. Please turn with me to Romans
4.16. Made sure, our word established,
made sure. Keep that in mind as we read
this verse, Romans 4.16. Romans 4.16, therefore it is
of faith, salvation is of faith, that it might be by grace. If
it's anything else, if it's by the will of man, if it's by a
decision made, if it's up to you, as religion loves to say,
then it's not grace. Grace is no more grace. It is
of faith that it might be by grace. If faith was a work of
man, then that statement would make no sense. It is of God-given faith. It
is a faith of which Christ is the author and finisher. It is
faith which is the fruit of God's spirit in the heart of a sinner,
that it might be by grace. to the end that the promise might
be sure, not up for grabs, not available, not contingent on
you, not waiting on you. Sure to all the seed. All the seed. Not to that only
which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of
Abraham. All who believe the same way
in the same person that Abraham did. He believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. It wasn't righteousness, but
it was counted as such because of the object of that faith. That word sure there in that
text means stable, fast, firm, trustee. The Lord hath established. It's all through the scripture.
The Lord hath established this. That's why it's worth talking
about. The root word for this name means to establish, but
it also means this. to prepare or make ready. That's the gospel. This pillar
declares the gospel of Christ. The Lord hath prepared and made
ready. It's established, but it's established
for somebody. It's prepared for somebody. In
my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. He established it for
us, for you, prepared, made ready for us. Wow, at Calvary with
his precious blood. Religion preaches this as though
the Lord Jesus Christ had to go ahead of us into glory, make
sure the sheets were clean. What are they talking about?
To make the room ready for. He went to Calvary and made sure
that one of these dwelling places in glory with God himself was
mine. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there you may be also. You can't be where he is
just because there's a room with your name. He's got to go to
the cross and make that happen. That's what he's referring to.
Now think about this verse with regard to what religion teaches
about the atonement. You know what religion teaches.
The Lord died to make salvation possible for everybody if they'll
just do something. That's just plainly stated. I'm
not being dishonest about that. I was in it for years and years
and years. I know exactly what they're saying. That's exactly
what they're saying. But think about this, I go to
prepare a place for you. I'm going to the cross and make
sure that there's a place for you in the presence of God. And if I do that, then I'm gonna
wait on you to do something. No, if I do that for you, then
I'm coming for you. If I redeem your soul on Calvary,
I'm gonna come take possession of you and you're mine forever.
That's just clear. If I go and do what I'm about
to do for you, I will come again and receive you into myself so
that where I am, there you may be also. That's the goal. Well, isn't that what we've been
saying all day today? We gotta be where he is. That's
life. The word also means ordained.
It just gets better and better, doesn't it? This pillar, why
would God name a pillar? It's just stone there, standing
there. But boy, this is a special, this
is a special thing because it represented the Son of God. God
hath established, God hath made ready. How did he do that? God
with us. God with us by going to the cross
for us and dying in our place under the wrath of God for our
sin. Ordained, the entrance into God's presence and favor is there. It exists because God has ordained
the salvation of his elect. from the foundation of the world.
He established this in purpose and decree before there was ever
a world. And he established it in reality
and the execution of it and the accomplishment of it in Christ,
his son, when he came and lived and died in our place. And what God has ordained, he
fulfills. He ordained it when the Gentiles
heard the gospel They were glad and glorified the word of the
Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life Believe because
God established it It wasn't up to them God had
already done it And it just came to pass as he had ordained it
their faith was the coming to pass of what he ordained. Clear. Now God is not you and you're
not God. Both of those are very important
to understand because that's the problem with man, he thinks
he's God. God's not like us and we're not
him either. Quit leaning to your own understanding
I'm talking to whoever will listen to this, as well as those here
tonight. Don't lean on your own understanding,
just trust and believe the God of the Bible. He is truth and
every man is a liar. He doeth all things well. One
of the things that he did right well is that he loved and chose
a people before the foundation of this world. He ordained them to eternal life
in Christ, and they believe on Christ because of that as many
as he ordained believed He predestinated them to be conformed to the image
of his son God gave these elect ones to his son in the eternal
covenant of grace spoken of in the scripture and the Lord Jesus
said all that the father giveth me shall come to me and That's
emphatic, that's established. How are they gonna come? Well,
the one who is the destination is also the way. They come to
him by him. That's what the temple says.
That's this pillar of the temple. God has ordained and established
righteousness for sinners. by the representative righteousness
of Christ living for us. God has ordained and established
entrance and acceptance into the holiest of all, the very
presence in favor of God, by Christ Jesus having entered for
us, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own
precious blood. This word also means to provide or make provision. It's established, again, for
somebody. And it's provided for them, it's
provisioned for them. In other words, they need it.
They got to have it. The one he's provided this for,
they got to have it. This is provision, it's not luxury.
And of course, Abraham and Isaac at Mount Moriah. Isaac said,
father, where's the lamb? Here's the fire, here's the wood,
where's the lamb? Isaiah said to his son God will
provide himself alone When you research this word yakin
or yakin every word that defines it is the gospel It also means ordered We recognize
that word from what David said in 2nd Samuel 23 5 Where David
uses it here? It means to arrange, to handle. We used to say when I was in
business, me and a business associate of mine, if we said it's handled,
it was handled. That's the way we'd say it's
handled. Forget about it. Set in place. David said, although my house
be not so with God yet, He hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, ensured, established, accomplished, handled. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although He make it not to grow. All my salvation
is that God made a covenant that in all aspects is handled. It's handled. Also, it means
perfect, believe it or not. You look it up. It sounds like
I'm making this up. It's so, so beautiful. It means
perfect. Perfect. That's the pillar. That's one of the pillars of
the temple. That's what our Savior cried
from Calvary. It is finished is one word in
the original and it means perfect. How beautiful and how revealing.
that he would say that as he died on Calvary's tree. Perfect. For righteousness before God
to be established, it's got to be perfect. That's why what you
call your righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. It doesn't matter
how highly you think of it, it's not perfect. It's a lot less
perfect than you think it is. And to God, it's evil. Our righteousness is evil. There's only one righteousness
like that. Perfect. Perfect. It's Christ's obedience
unto death. You say, what does the cross
have to do with righteousness? Christ was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. for an offering for sin to be
accepted of God. Got to be perfect. Got to be
perfect. God's lamb without blemish and
without spot gave himself for me. That's enough. And he himself
being God's perfect sin offering, he hath perfected forever them
that he sanctified with his precious blood. He's perfect and they're
perfect because he died for them. The other pillar was named Boaz.
Boaz, of course, was the kinsman redeemer in the book of Ruth.
You'll be familiar somewhat with that story. The kinsman redeemer,
Ruth and her family had lost everything. And the kinsman redeemer,
though, by Jewish law at that time, had the right, he was by
law in a position to redeem everything that was lost by anybody that
was a near kinsman. He had to be willing. He had
to be a near kinsman. He had to be the right person.
And he had to be willing to do it. And he had to have the means
to do it. And that's our savior. There's nobody that has the right
to save you. I can't forgive a debt that's
owed to somebody else. Only the savior has the right
to redeem. And he's our near kinsman. He
was made bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. It behooved him
to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. But that kinsman redeemer, if
he had the right, as a near kinsman, and he had the ability, the means
to do it, and he was willing to do it, he didn't have to. He didn't have to. He could buy back or redeem all
that was lost, which in Ruth's case was everything. That's us,
but we lost everything. We lost everything in the fall.
Communion with God, the favor and blessing of God, our good
sense, sanity, our righteous standing before
God, spiritual life. We lost the capacity to even
know God or even to desire him. The one who we lived in order
to love and praise. We had no desire even anymore
for him. We lost the capacity to know
him, to desire him, much less to please him. Christ is our
near kinsman. He has the right. He has the
authority. He has the ability. And he's willing to restore all
that we lost in Adam. In fact, more than we lost, we're
more than conquerors through him that loved us. We don't have
a perfect human righteousness. We have the righteousness of
God in Christ. That's a lot more. We are way
more than conquerors. This name means fleetness or
strength, as we've said. The Lord will establish in strength. And this goes with the other
because the Lord has established in strength. What he establishes
is unmovable. It's accomplished. Christ is
called in 1 Corinthians 1.24, Christ himself, who gave himself,
who accomplished all this. He's called the power of God. The infinite. Omnipotence of
God is a person The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto
salvation. It's a mighty message Listen to how clear that's made
in this verse listen to this Romans 5 6 For when we were yet
without strength In due time Christ died for the
ungodly. Think about the combination of
words in that verse. When we as sinners could do nothing,
we needed God to do something. What did he do? He died. He died
for my sin. That's the power of God. Where
without strength, he demonstrated all power. There's power in the
blood. That's a pretty good song, I
think, most of it. There's power in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent his son to accomplish
everything. Without him, we can do nothing.
Remember what Job said in Job 42, one. Job answered the Lord
and said, I know that you can do everything. You say, well, everybody knows
that. You really think so? He can't even save who he wants
to save according to this religious world. He can't violate man's
will. Have you ever heard anything
so repulsive in your life? So audaciously self-righteous. God can't violate man's will. Prepare to be violated if you're
gonna be saved. because it ain't gonna happen
any other way. Oh, I'll try not to let it get to
me as much as it can, this religious world. What we've gotta always
remember is that it's us, but by the grace of God, it's us. What a profane thing to say.
that man's will is untouchable to God. Tell that to Saul of
Tarsus. Tell that to Abraham. Tell that
to anybody who ever met God. Listen to what Job said. I know
that you can do everything and that no thought can be withholden
from thee. In other words, no thought of
yours can be hindered. All God's got to do is just think
it, and you can't stop it. There's nothing he can't do,
and when he sets about to do it, consider it done. That's God there. That's what
God means. He's done it whatsoever he's
pleased. Now the message of this pillar
is that God, in the matter of the salvation of sinners, has
laid help upon one who is mighty. I like the way that's worded
in Psalm 89, 19. If you want to jot that verse
down and look at that passage later. You've laid help upon
one that is mighty. In other words, something needs
to be accomplished and God put that task upon the shoulders
of the one who could get it done. The Lord Jesus Christ. He laid help upon one who is
mighty. It speaks of the power of Christ
to save. The Lord hath established it's
all from God, it's purposed by God, it's accomplished by God,
and in a mighty way, in an unchangeable and unalterable way. Mighty way it speaks of his power
both His authority the word power is used for authority in the
scriptures quite a bit and his ability But also not only is he can he
do everything I Like the way that's two words when Joe said
that you can do everything Everything And nobody can stop you But also, he's our strength too. We don't have any strength apart
from him. He does everything for us. Even
in your everyday life, he handles it by his power. Oh, we get to
thinking about what we're gonna do, don't we? Tomorrow I'm gonna
go down and I'm gonna buy and sell and I'm gonna get game,
we got great plans. goals and all that. There's nothing
wrong with having all that. I believe in that. I believe
you've got to have some purpose in life. But I tell you what,
the Lord's our strength. You're not going to get it done
without him. You're not. Because what you purpose to do, Nobody purposes to end up in
hell. They want to accomplish things,
to improve themselves, and then live forever in eternal bliss
with God. You're not gonna get that done
on your own. That's an understatement. We can't even, somebody said,
I think it was John Owen said, we can't even cure a sore finger
with our will. Why in the world would we ever
think that our will could save our souls? That's a good question. Christ is our strength. I can
do all things through Christ. Now think about that for a minute.
Is that an exaggeration? I can do anything. I can move
mountains. I can do anything through Christ
which strengthens me. Well, I'll tell you this the
Lord uses people to do some pretty amazing things in it He gave
Moses the power With that rod that he gave Moses that symbolized
the power of God in Christ. That was Christ The Red Sea was
parted in the nation of Israel was saved He utilized Moses in
that though. Everybody knew God did it And
that'll always be the case. When God uses somebody, everybody
involved will know and say, God did it. And I can do all things. Can
he do all things? Then you can do all things. There's
nothing he won't use you for if it accomplishes his goodwill
and purpose in this world. The world likes to say you can
do anything you set your mind to. And I've said that before. I believe
that. I believe there's a lot of truth to that. You can do
anything you set your mind to. If you get up every day with
one desire to accomplish one thing and you go to bed thinking
about how far you came that day and what you're going to do tomorrow
toward that end, you can do it. You can do anything within our
nature. You can do anything you set your mind to. I believe that.
That's a very self-righteous way to say it, though. You can
do anything. The problem with sinners is that
what this world sets its mind to, if anything, most people
don't ever set their mind to anything. That's evident. But when the world does set its
mind to something, it's selfish. It's in gratitude to God. They're
not gonna acknowledge God in it. It's full of sin. You can do anything you set your
mind to. The problem is what you're setting your mind to as
a sinner. But for the believer, for the
believer, it's not, we wouldn't say it that way. Our motivation
is Christ. What's the purpose? 2 Corinthians
5, 14, and 15. Let's turn over there, because
I forgot what it said. I just jotted that down in my
notes. Christ is our motivation. Oh, I remember what it is now.
Paul said, if the Lord died for us, then we ought not to live
for ourselves. We reckon things this way, that
if he died for me, then I shouldn't live for myself anymore, I ought
to live for him. He's our motivation, the love
of Christ constraineth us. Christ is our purpose and our
goal, 1 Corinthians 10.31. I did forget that one. Maybe I'll
remember that one when I turn it over there. 1 Corinthians
10.31. He's our purpose and our goal. whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. That's
what we're doing. We might be accomplishing earthly
things in what we do, but the main thing we want to accomplish
is for God to get glory out of it. Is that the truth or not? And then Christ is our sufficiency and our ability, Philippians
2.13. Let's look at that one. Philippians
2.13. For it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. You know what
that all adds up to? Those three verses equals this.
He gets all the glory. And the more we live that, the
more we like it. No glory for me, not unto us,
Lord, not unto us. Our text tonight is summed up.
I've gone too long, but listen. Our text is somewhat summed up
in what the folks in Mark 7 said. I want to remind you what they
said. The Lord had healed all these people, one that was deaf
and had an impediment in his speech, and they besought him
to put his hand upon him. They knew that that was the way
that he had healed others. They said, put your hand on him.
Put your hand on him. That might be a good way to pray
for those that we love. Lord, put your hand on them. We know if he does that, nothing's
ever gonna be the same again. And he took him aside from the
multitude and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and
touched his tongue. And looking up into heaven, he
sighed and said, Ephphatha, that is, be opened. And straightway
his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed,
and he spake plain. And he charged them that they
should tell no man, but the more he charged them so much, the
more a great deal they published it, and were beyond measure astonished,
saying, he hath done all things well. That's our tag. That's these two pillars. You
don't get in the temple any other way than he hath done, he hath
done. All things, all things. Well, let's pray.