So back in verse one, 1 Kings
chapter six, the temple was 90 feet long by 30 feet wide by 45 feet high. That was the dimensions. A cubit
was roughly a foot and a half, about 18 inches. So 90 feet long
by 30 feet wide by 45 feet high, 2,700 square feet in just the
building of the temple itself. The porch was another 30 feet,
of course, the same width as the temple, and then 15 feet
deep front to back added onto the front. And as we read, it
was made of stone overlaid with cedar boards and fir boards on
the floor. Everything inside was covered
with gold. Everything, even the floor, was
covered with gold. And just that alone, it's hard
not to comment on that, if you can imagine what that would look
like. But there are two ways of looking at that, I believe,
in spiritual terms. Like heaven is described with
streets of gold, gold is just a building material to God. Everything
of this earth is just something that God uses to accomplish his
purposes like we do too But only on very special occasions do
we use gold To build something or to adorn something. It's very
expensive here, but not to God But also think of it this way
who are we dealing with here that the most precious thing
on earth is nothing to him and His servants walk on gold. So how high is he? And remember that everything
in the temple was Christ. We don't have to say that every
time that we look at the temple in the sense that you know that,
but we do have to say it every time because what else are you
gonna say about the temple? The whole thing was Christ. The
scripture says the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Christ is the temple. The scripture
describes his flesh as the veil. He is the way to God. He is access
to God. And everything in the temple,
everything around the temple, everything about the temple,
Pictured Christ the whole purpose of the temple was the sinner
coming into the presence of God and being accepted Will God accept
us? Well if he's going to somebody's
got to go in there where he is and Please him with an offering
Gonna have to go in there and satisfy God on behalf of some
sinners So that's simple, that's what it was for, the whole thing.
The altar, the candlestick, the showbread, the incense, the holy
of holies with the mercy seed in it. Every bit of it was to
point to Christ and to bring sinners to God by Christ. In picture, in type. Getting
from the outer, from outside the courtyard even, into the
courtyard, and then into the holy place, and then into that
most holy place. There was only one man that ever
did that. And he only did it one time a
year, and the scripture's very careful to point out that he
did not ever go in there without blood. You don't come before
God without Christ. And so that's the point, on behalf
of the people he did that. That's got to always be in our
minds when we think about this. He didn't just go in there to
be religious. He went in there on behalf of the people. They
live or die based on what happens in that most holy place. And so the sinner comes into
the presence of God and is accepted. The sinner represented by that
half-priest who went into the oracle with the blood, of the
sacrifice that God said he would accept and making atonement for
all of the people of God with that blood. Remember that that
blood, that mercy seat, that acceptance with God, it had nothing
to do with the Hittites and the Amalekites. It was for God's
people. Israel pictured God's elect for
whom alone the atonement was made. Gentiles there in the courtyard
they could come and they could worship God in this but that
was because God included them by grace he has in the antitype
to the type Also, he's included the Gentiles And we praise him for his grace
and including us and But Israel pictured God's elect. Atonement
was made for them, Christ died for his sheep, and they shall
never perish. Everybody that, for whom that
offering was made and offered unto God and God accepted it,
they were safe, they were blessed, they had the presence of God.
But imagine again walking into that house, into that temple. You leave in a place a world
of dirt and grass and rocks and enter a place of dazzling beauty, bright, rich, glowing. And it's like you're in another
world, and you were. You were in another world spiritually.
You're in Christ. That's where you are when you're
standing in that place. You're in Christ, you're not
dead. You are where God is and you're not dead. That's the blessing of Christ,
that's salvation. But the common folks did not
go in there. It wasn't a meeting place like
this is for the people. Only those who represented the
people went in there. Picturing Hebrews 9.6, listen
to this carefully. I tell you what, go ahead if
you would, turn there with me. I don't want to take long tonight,
but let's look at Hebrews 9-6. I believe this is vital to understanding our text. Hebrews 9-6. Hebrew the book of Hebrews much
of it is Paul describing the Old Testament Covenant and the
things that happened under that covenant with regard to the the
tabernacle Mercy seed and those things and how Christ has fulfilled
all of that Look at Hebrews 9 6 now when these things were thus ordained
The what we're talking about God ordained all of this he gave
very specific and precise instructions about how the temple was to be
built and what was to happen there in the temple. When these
things were thus ordained, the priests went all ways into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. It's not
that there were two tabernacles, but he's calling the first tabernacle
the first chamber of the tabernacle. And then there was the most holy
place that was walled off with the veil that was rent in twain
when Christ died. Went into the first tabernacle
accomplishing the service of God and we have descriptions
of that But into the second went the high priest alone Once a
year not without blood Which he offered for himself and for
the errors of the people all all sinners That God had chosen
and given this this Ordained these things for The
Holy Ghost, this signifying, and that's a key word. The things
that they did around the tabernacle and the temple, the service of
God, that all signified something. Signifying that the way into
the holiest of all. Again, we said, what's the point
of all this? Getting to God. getting to God, getting from
where you are by nature into the presence and favor and blessing
of God. The way there was not yet made
manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a
figure for the time then present. So look, the Holy Ghost was signifying
that this ain't it, but it's gonna show you who is it. which was a figure, verse nine
again, for the time then present in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. In other words, the
washing away of guilt, the doing away of guilt. Those things stood
only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation, until the time
of all of the things pictured there being fulfilled. But Christ, being come and high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
and neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. He is the way to God. That's
why he said, I'm the way. I'm access, I'm the door. This word signifying in verse
eight means to make manifest, to make known. So the temple
was not the be all, end all. It was making known who is everything. It was declaring, to declare,
to give one to understand. That's what signifying means.
That's what everything in the temple did. It signified somebody,
something. It signified that Christ, though
not yet come, the way itself not made manifest, but he is,
was, always will be the way to God. Christ is acceptance with
God. Christ is eternal redemption
for sinners before God and with God. Now the Lord's table, we
observe the table in religion, of course. Anything that people,
as soon as people get away from the word of God, they mess everything
up. They just utterly destroy it.
And that's true with what we call the Lord's table. It's some
weird thing now to me. But it's just simple, it signifies
something. None of the things that signified
Christ then are around now because he's fulfilled those things and
the Lord gave us a couple of ordinances in the church to signify
him now, from now on. A piece of metal shaped into
a cross that almost certainly is not even the shape of the
cross that was there Is not one of the things that
God gave to signify his son or what he did it's not one of them
So I wouldn't recommend them Because God was always very particular
about Very specific and very particular about what pictured
his son and set forth his son. I wouldn't make something up
and say, well, this reminds me of Christ. I wouldn't do that. I would stick with what God has
ordained. But the Lord's table, it signifies
something. Listen to first Corinthians 11,
26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
do show the Lord's death till he comes. We're not recreating
his death, we're showing it. That word show means the same
thing as our word in the Old Testament. It means to announce,
to declare, to make known, to proclaim. We do that when we
preach, but we also do that when we just simply take that bread
and eat it, and that wine and drink it. And it doesn't get
any more perfect than that. I wish my sermons were that clear
and that simple and that plain. I hope that they are. My life
is Christ and what he did for me, his body, his blood. That's the perfect sermon. It
signifies, it shows forth the death of Christ, which is the
sinner's only hope. just like the tabernacle did.
That's what it showed. Before anything else happened,
a victim died on an altar. Blood was shed. To announce, I like that. I have
an announcement to make tonight. Christ Jesus died for me. And
because he did, because the son of God died for my sins, I'm
saved. Now God can't live in a house
made by men. I wanna remind us of that. That
was not the purpose of this house. We see that. It wasn't so that
God would have a place to live. He made that real clear with
David and Solomon, didn't he? I'm the one that gives you a
place to live. You're gonna make me a house,
but not for that reason. It's to worship me. Because I
need a place to live or I need you to build it for me God said
in another place if I actually needed something when I ask you
that's a good question What are you gonna do for God? He can't live in a house that
wasn't the purpose this house signified Christ and This house
still declares right now, this temple is still declaring to
us on August 15th, 2021, that all of the vain nonsense that
we're taking up with in this world, in our lives right now,
all of it's sin. And we must do what we do for
His glory and not ours. That's what it's saying to us.
It's showing us what's important. We've got to do what we do for
His glory. Can you do that with anything?
Can anything be for His glory? Can you tell a garden for the
glory of God? Scripture says the plowing of
the wicked is sin. What about the plowing of the
righteous? What about those who are in Christ and know Him? We come together to worship Him
for His glory and for our good and by God's grace, By God's great grace, it's gonna
take somebody dancing in the aisle to distract me from that.
I'm not gonna be deterred from that. That's the point of everything,
is to worship Him and to give Him thanks, and to glorify Him
in this world. We're gonna see that clearer
and clearer, I believe. I didn't come here to find out
who would be here, to socialize, particularly. We came here to worship God,
and God himself is the only one that can keep us from doing that.
If he wants to shut us down, we shut down, whether we like
it or not, but unless he does, by his grace, we're gonna worship
him. Do you know why verse seven is there? Look at verse seven
in our text. By the way, there's no dancing
in the aisles. Verse seven, look at it with
me. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone
made ready before it was brought there, so that there was neither
hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house while
it was in building. Can you imagine that? I've never been on a construction
site of any kind that wasn't chaos. Noisy, loud, dusty. But not this one. Not this one. Why not? Well, listen to this. Exodus 20, 24. God said an altar
of earth thou shalt make unto me. You're going to take something
from the earth, but it's going to be for me. It's going to be
for the purpose of worshiping me. praying unto me, offering
sacrifice unto me. That's how God was worshiped
then. That's how sinners came and acknowledged that we can
only approach God and be accepted with him by the blood, by the
blood of his lamb. Well, that's what we're doing
tonight. We just don't offer up an animal in order to do that.
We come And in our hearts, we worship the Lord Jesus and praise
him for giving himself a ransom for our souls. Pictured by that
offering and fulfilled by him. Listen, an altar of earth shalt
thou make unto me and thou shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings
and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thy oxen and all places
where I record my name. I will come unto thee and I will
bless you. I like that, don't you? Unless
God shows up, there's no worship. You might as well be down at
the AMC watching a movie or something, unless God shows up. Ah. will come to you and I'll
bless you. And if you will make me an altar
of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. Now the temple
was built of hewn stone, but it wasn't hewn in the temple. Thou shalt not build this altar
of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast
polluted it. Now I want you to think about
this with me. This also is a signification. This signified something. He
said, don't get a chisel out and a hammer and make that stone
into a nice shape so that it'll look like an altar necessarily.
Just put the stone there and offer sacrifice on it like it
is. Why? Well, think about this. You say, well, You know, that stone wouldn't
be any good if man did it. It wouldn't be what God ordained.
And that's true. But men did make the altar. They
did go and get the stone. He said, thou shalt make me an
altar of stone. So man's doing it, okay? Why
didn't that pollute it? Why didn't man have any, why
didn't he just say, look over there, I've made an altar for
you to worship at? He had man do it, why didn't
that pollute it? Well, it's not a matter of actually
physically polluting it. That's not what God's talking
about. God had them making it without shaping the stones with
their tools so that every time they came to that altar, every
time they came to worship there, every time they offered sacrifice
and they looked at that stone, they'd be reminded if they had
added any work to it. If anything of their doing and
devising had any part in it, that they've ruined it. This
is the work of God. We just come in there to worship.
God formed that stone. And God is the one that saves
sinners and he don't need our help. It just signified that. He could have signified it in
a different way. That's the way he did it. He
signified it by the old man set up the stone And worship there, you're not
to shape it in any way. And that's gonna remind you every
time. My hand would have defiled it.
My works would have ruined it. Because what's happening there
is atonement. What's happening there is Christ
crucified. I have no hand in that. That's
between God and his son. So that was the signification
of it. It's the sacrifice alone that
God accepts. Not man's works. If it be by
grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no
more grace. Romans 11, six. And that's why
verse seven is there with regard to the temple. Even what they
didn't do when they built the temple signified Christ. Salvation by grace alone, through
faith alone in Christ alone. God's house, which temple we
are. We'll talk a little bit about
how that we, this pictures us in a sense. First Corinthians
3.17 says which temple we are is built on work already accomplished. It stands Does not fall because
the work is already done First Peter 2 for to whom coming
Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ always always continually as
unto a living stone and I should have you turn over there. You're
familiar with this scripture with 1 Peter 2.4. This is so
beautiful in considering our text tonight. Let's look at it
together. 1 Peter 2.4, to whom coming,
not to what, not coming to a building, no matter how beautiful, we could
overlay everything in here in gold and say, well, we're doing
that because God's a great God. Well, it's hard to deny that,
isn't it? But he's taught us that it's
not about the greatness of the building. It's about the greatness of the
one we worship. To whom coming? As unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. You also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That's what
God builds houses for, to worship him in them. And that's why he
built this church, which is not this building, it's us. Because
he's gonna get glory, he's gonna be worshiped. Wherefore also,
verse six, it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore,
which believe, he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. It's not, oh, won't you make
him the head of the corner? He's the head of the corner. God did that. The chief cornerstone,
everything depends on that first stone. Is it gonna be square? Is it gonna be right? Is it gonna
be stable? Is it gonna be strong? And a stone, verse eight, of
stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient. They don't stumble at the word
because they don't understand it. They stumble at the word
because they don't like it. Where unto also, guess what? I started to say the jokes on
them, but I don't know if that's appropriate or not. Where unto
they were appointed? You think you're messing up God's
plan? God don't have a plan. He's got
a purpose. and it's accomplished even in
you going to hell, if you just determined to refusing. But you,
here's the gospel, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth. The praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You might pass over verse 7 without
even noticing it, but this is so important. God is saying in
this that when this thing of God and sinners being reconciled
is being accomplished, there will not be a single sound of
man's work made. Not one sound. Hebrews 10.10, by the witch will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all, and every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins." That wasn't the point of it. The point of it was not
so God would have a place to live. The point of it was not
so that sins could be taken away by those sacrifices. They can
never take away sins, but this man, just like that other passage
in Hebrews, but Christ being come. But this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. I want to remind us once again
in closing that this word perfected here, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever. That word perfected is the word
that Christ cried from Calvary. He said it is perfected. God's will, perfected, all of
it. Can you imagine that? By that
one offering for sin, what did he accomplish? All of God's will
in this world, all of it. God's justice is signified, His
holiness is signified, set forth, announced, glorified, his love
is set forth, his mercy towards sinners, everything about God. God made himself known in Christ
crucified. And all of his will to redeem
sinners, to save his elect from their sins, accomplished, perfected,
all of the will of God. It's hard to even grasp that,
isn't it? Just by Christ laying down his
life, the world looked at that and said, well, there's nothing
to him. While he's accomplishing all
of the will of God in this world. God's purpose. God doesn't make
plans, we make plans. God's purpose is to do something,
and he does it. Perfected in Christ and what
he did on Calvary. When he cried that word, that
single word, just as he gave up the ghost, he's declaring
that all in the will and purpose of God, God's law, perfected. Perfected, his law satisfied. God's justice. God's law says
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. And the Lord Jesus
Christ took our place as the soul that sinneth. And he surely
died for our sins on Calvary. And God's justice was poured
out upon him, completely satisfied. God couldn't do any more. Against
our sin than he did to his only begotten son Salvation perfected done accomplished
the entire gospel The the false gospel of religion is all about
here's what you need to do You need to do this and you need
to do that the true gospel of the scriptures is look what Christ
did He lived for us He died for us. He gave himself for us. All of salvation perfected. How
would we ever perfect salvation? If God left it up to us to do
that, then there would be no salvation. Only condemnation
and wrath. Redemption for God's elect. That's
what he was there for. To redeem our souls from the
hell that we deserved. Perfected. Perfected. Blood of bulls and goats could
never take away sin. But Christ's precious blood did
so. In this list of things perfected,
me. He hath perfected forever them. that he sanctified with that
precious blood. A perfect stone, a lively living
stone, perfect. And all together we make up his
temple. God's house is perfect. The title
of this message is the house of the Lord because that's what
it's called in our text, the house of the Lord. He made the
Lord a house. God's house is perfect. David
said, one thing have I desired and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever, beholding his glory
and inquiring where his temple. Finding out more of who he is
in his temple. Perfect house made perfect by
cry every stone Was already you By the grace of God I am what
I am And just like everything in the Old Testament temple What
did it do? It signified Christ. It declared
Him, it announced Him. It made people to understand
that Christ is all. What do we do? Same thing. Exact same thing, by God's grace. Let's pray.