Well, this has been a long anticipated
day to finally meet in a building
that we can call our own. I'm so thankful that the Lord
has provided this for us. I'm thankful for all the brethren
that so generously helped us in our sister churches. And I'm very thankful to you.
I'm thankful for the time and the money and the sacrifice that
you've made to allow us to purchase this building and remodel it
and to be here. I'm very thankful. I want to
turn to 1 Kings chapter 8 this morning. And in this first service,
I was thinking about some things that have been on
my heart regarding this place in the past week and months that
we've been preparing to meet here today. And I want to just
give you a few things that I've been thinking about. The first
thing, first and foremost, is that we've purchased this building
so that from this place, the only message we preach is Christ
and Him crucified. That's our purpose. Whenever
Solomon finished the temple, when he finished building the
temple, they had the people gathered there and they had the building
in place and they had much of the furnishings in place that
David had provided for the house, but they missed one thing. There
was one thing that was not there. And the very first order of business
was to bring the Ark of the Covenant with the sprinkled blood on the
mercy seat and put it into the holiest of holies. That was the
first order of business before they did anything else. And when
they did that, here is what happened. 1 Kings 8 verse 10. And it came to pass when the
priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled
the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to
minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had
filled the house of the Lord." God put honor upon that ark by
manifesting His presence in His house when it came into that
house. Now if we're going to see God's
glory fill this house, if we're going to see God's glory fill
His people, His church, in this place, it's going to happen one
way. That's by the preaching of the
one that that ark typified, that's Christ and Him crucified. by
preaching Christ and Him crucified. We preach not ourselves, Paul
said, we preach Jesus Christ our Lord. Why? For God who shined
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? In the face of
Christ Jesus. That's where God has promised
to make His glory known is through the preaching of Christ and Him
crucified. That preaching that exalts Christ. That's the message of the glory
of God. How God can be just and how He
can be the justifier of a chosen people. All mankind, including
all God's people that He will save, perished in Adam. When I tell you that he made
Adam our federal head, that means he made Adam our legal representative. God did that. We can't complain
about that. God did that. And when Adam sinned
in the garden, we sinned in the garden. Romans 5.12 says, For
as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that in Adam all died. We all died in Adam. Now, to show His people the magnitude
of our sin, to show us how greatly we sinned in Adam, God gave the
law, His law, at Mount Sinai. And He gave that law to show
us how greatly we sinned and how guilty we are in Adam because
of Adam's deeds. The law wasn't given for us to
earn a righteousness. The law wasn't given for us to
try to come to God by the law. The law was given for this reason.
Romans 3.19 says, We know what things whoever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Guilty
before God. And therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. because by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Somebody will say, well, I've
read the Ten Commandments. I don't see that I'm a sinner
by reading the Ten Commandments. You won't ever do that until
God makes you hear what those commandments say. God has to
teach you in your heart what you are. That's when you'll hear
those commandments. He said, moreover the law entered
that the offense might abound. But where the offense abounded,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. For grace,
God determined to save His people by free grace, and He saves us
by grace, making grace reign through righteousness. Not grace
reigning apart from righteousness, grace reigning through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so way back there,
whenever God would show how grace reigns through Christ and how
Christ is the one who is going to save His people. Before Moses
ever came down out of that mountain with the law. Before he ever
came down out of the mountain with the law. You remember what
the children of Israel were doing? They broke every commandment.
Before he ever came down out of the mountain with it. They
said, up, make us a golden calf, make us something we can see.
And so Aaron made them an idol. And they started worshipping
that idol and carried on a big religious charade. And saying
that idol is the one that brought them out of Egypt. And so God,
Moses came down and saw it and Moses broke the commandments.
He took them and threw them down the stone tablets down and broke
them. And that was to show us that
we broke the law. So God, that's it for us. That's the end of our covenant
right there. If we try to come to God by the works of the law,
we broke it. So God sent Moses back up to
the mountain. And Moses goes back up to the
mountain. And God writes that law on the stone, on the covenant
and the law on those stones. And He says, now you take those
and put them inside that ark. And so Moses put him inside the
ark. And over that ark, there was a mercy seat. That mercy
seat is propitiation. It was to ceremonially, typically
propitiate God. Because God, it pictured Christ
who God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. God
said, that's where I'll meet with you, over that mercy seat.
And so a high priest, picturing Christ the high priest, once
a year, by himself, representing the children of Israel, he took
a lamb and slew that lamb in the room instead of the children
of Israel. And then he took that blood into
that holiest of holies, that high priest by himself, not without
blood. He went in there and he sprinkled
that blood on that mercy seat. He did it for His sins and He
did it for the sins of the children of Israel. And ceremonially,
in type, that made propitiation to God for the sins of the people.
Now I want you to turn to Hebrews 9 and I want you to hear God
declare that's exactly what all of that typified. That's why
when they brought that ark into the temple, that's why God made
His glory known and His presence known over that mercy seat. Because
it pictured Christ the only one in whom God will meet with His
people. Hebrews 9, and I want us to read quite a bit of Scripture
here because this is just so clear and so self-explanatory. Just read this with me. Hebrews
9 and verse 3. Now after the second veil, that
is in that holiest of holies, There was the tabernacle which
is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and
it had the Ark of the Covenant. That's what we're talking about,
the Ark of the Covenant. And the only thing that was in
that Ark of the Covenant was the two tablets of stone, the
Law of God. And it says here, in the tables
of the Covenant. They were in that ark. Verse
5, And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy
seat. The mercy seat. That ark and
that mercy seat all pictured Christ. Verse 7, It says, Into
the second, into that holiest of holies, went the high priest
alone, once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and the errors of the people. Verse 9 says, it was a figure,
it was a picture, it was a type 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. Verse 11, but Christ being come, a high
priest, there is the high priest, of good things to come by a more
perfect tabernacle. There is our building. There
is our temple. There is our tabernacle. Christ, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood. There is our Lamb, by His own
blood. He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He obtained
eternal redemption for us. Verse 24, For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true, the pictures of the true, but into heaven itself,
there is where the true holiest of holy is, now to appear in
the presence of God for us. Nor yet that He should offer
Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. No, he should not offer
himself often, for then must he have often suffered since
the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, one time in the end of the world, hath he appeared..."
Now watch this. This is what Christ came to do
and this is what He did. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this to judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Now look at Hebrews 10 and look
at verse 5. It says, Wherefore, when he cometh
into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. God never was pleased with
any of those sacrifices. He's never been pleased with
the sacrifices of a man, and He won't ever be pleased with
the sacrifices of men. Get that now, he won't ever be
satisfied. I'm talking about pleased. I'm
talking about his law satisfied, his law honored, his righteousness
manifest. I'm talking about God exalted
in perfection. He'll never be satisfied with
any offering that a man makes. No sinner. No sinner. He was
not pleased with him. He says there, but a body hast
thou prepared me. That's Christ. God prepared Him
a body for Him to bear the sins of His people in that body and
to lay down that body and bear the justice of God in the room
instead of His people. That's why God prepared Him that
body. Look at verse 6. And burn offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me. What does that mean? In
the volume of the book it's written of me? I started out showing
you in 1 Kings the Ark. And I said, that Ark is Christ.
And that Mercy Seeker is Christ. And that Priest is Christ. And
that Lamb is Christ. And that is what it means. Everywhere
in the whole volume of the Bible, it is written of Christ. Now
read on. He says, I came to do Thy will,
O God. And the Psalm that this is quoted
from says, Thy law is in my heart. Just like that law was in that
ark, God's law was in His heart. And He said, I came to do it.
I came to do Your will, O God. Now look at verse 10. Everybody
wants to talk about their will. Men want to brag about their
will. Let me show you something about the will you need to be
bragging on. Verse 10. By the witch will. By Christ's
will. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. And every priest that is standing
daily and ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
and they will never take away sins. Men today are standing
and offering sacrifices that will never take away sin. Verse
12, after he had offered one sacrifice,
four sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God. When do
you sit down? You know, we've been coming up
here week in and week out working on this building. I haven't seen
a soul sitting down up here. You know why? We have work to
do. Everybody's been working. All of y'all are sitting down
now. Why? The work's finished. That's why he sat down. There
was nothing else to be done. the work was finished. He sat
down from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Now I said we come into this
place and we preach Him. We bring the Ark. If you go back
sometime and you read all about Solomon building that temple,
you'll see he spared no expense in that temple. And then when
he brought that ark, you'll read it says they brought it up. They
brought it up. They brought it up. It says it
two or three, four times. They brought up the ark. They
brought up the ark. We're bringing up Christ. We're
exalting Christ as they brought up the ark, as they exalted that
ark. And you know, when they got there and God made His presence
known in that temple, That's why we preach the gospel. Not
so that God will make this building holy, so that God will come in
and enter into the heart which is the temple of His child and
sanctify His child. Read this right here with me.
It says there in verse 15, the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. He bears witness in our heart
like as God came into that temple. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant I'll make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of
these is, there is no more offering for sin. When God enters into
the heart and He makes this known, that Christ has perfected forever
His people, That's when a man will stop working to try to earn
God's favor because there's no more offering for sin. And God
has to teach us that. What is the difference between
why you sit here and you hear that message and rejoice in that
message and aren't trying to work for salvation and the rest
of this world is just preaching about what man ought to be doing
and everybody's going about trying to earn a righteousness to be
accepted of God. What's the difference? The Holy
Ghost has borne witness in your heart. That's the difference.
That's the difference. And you've been made to know
Christ has perfected His people forever. And so He says to us
now, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. a literal temple, not a literal
holy place, into God's presence in heaven. We have boldness,
we have liberty, we have welcome in God's presence, in glory. And knowing that we have that,
brethren, He says, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil, That
is to say His flesh, and having Christ our High Priest over the
house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. And when they carried that ark
in that temple, it says they took the staves out of the ark. The staves were those big long
poles that went in each side of the ark. And that is how they
carried the ark. They could not touch the ark.
They carried it by staves. And when they took it into that
ark, they took those staves out of the ark. And you know what
they symbolized by that? The ark is not going anywhere
else. It is going to be right here. This is where it is staying.
Well brethren, Christ has entered into the presence of God. He
has entered into the holiest of holies and He has taken out
the staves. He's not going anywhere. That's
where He's staying. That's where the Ark of the Covenant
is. Christ the Ark. That's where
He is. That's why when that veil split in two and they looked
in that holiest of holies, when Christ said it's finished, there
was no Ark in there. Because Christ is the Ark. He's
the Ark. Not a box. Not a little box with
a mercy seat over it. Christ Himself is our Ark and
our mercy seat seated at God's right hand. And what we're going
to do here in this place, if God will give us the grace to
do it and keep us to do it, is we're going to take the staves
out of the ark. We're going to preach Christ and Him crucified
right here every time the word goes from this pulpit. Every
song that's sung from it, every prayer that's prayed from it,
every scripture that's read from it, we're going to be glorifying
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's our mission. That's our
purpose. That's the first thing I thought about over the past
weeks and months. Now let me take you to Psalm
127. Turn with me to Psalm 127. Here's
the next thing I kept thinking about. We remodeled this place
and every time I was up here, I can tell you this, time and
time again, as I would be up here working, This passage kept
coming to my mind over and over and over. Psalm 127 verse 1. This is a song of degrees for
Solomon. Because remember Solomon was
the one who the Lord gave to build the temple. Now this was
a song of degrees for Solomon. Now listen to this. Accept the
Lord. Build the house. They labor in
vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in vain. Now God uses means. God doesn't have to use means.
He's God. He can do what He wants to do.
But God has chosen to use means. And He will use His watchmen,
His preachers to preach the Gospel. And He will use His people to
support that Gospel and send that Gospel forth and do what
it takes to have a building and a nice, comfortable, quiet place
to hear the Gospel preached. He will use His people to do
those things. But brethren, except the Lord
build the house, All our labor is in vain. My preaching is in
vain. And any sacrifices you make are in vain. And any works
we do for this place or anything else is in vain. Except the Lord
build the house. Now this was written for Solomon.
Because King Solomon was the one who God said would build
the temple. Remember David wanted to build
it. But God wouldn't allow David to build it. This is what God
told Solomon. In 2 Samuel 7, verse 12, He said,
When thy days be fulfilled, and thou sleep with thy fathers,
I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out
of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. and He shall build a house for
my name. He shall build a house for my
name and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever
and I will be His Father and He shall be my Son." Well, Solomon
comes along and Solomon did that. But Solomon was just a picture
of our great Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon is the
king, the wise king. Christ is the wise king. He is
wisdom. That's who He is. Solomon was
the son of David, the seed of David. Christ is the son of David
after the flesh. And Peter stood up on the day
of Pentecost and he stood up there and he said, he said, men
and brethren, let me freely speak unto you that this patriarch
David He is dead and he is buried and his sepulcher is with us
to this day. And he said, but he being a prophet, he being
a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that
of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne. That same Jesus, Peter said,
is now Lord and Christ, and He's the head over His church. He's
shed forth, Peter said, what you see now and what you hear
now. Christ is the builder of the house. Solomon was just a
picture of it. You go back sometime to 1 Kings
8 and you read that whole passage, that whole chapter, and that
prayer Solomon made was a beautiful prayer. You read that sometime,
but when you read that, you put Christ in the place of Solomon.
It will bless your heart, I guarantee you. Because that is who He pictured,
is Christ. And that is what Christ has done.
From glory through His gospel, Christ sends forth this message
and He builds His house. Do you remember what He told
Peter? Upon this rock, talking about Himself, not Peter. On
this rock will I build my house. And the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. all around us right now, there
are synagogues of Satan. And there are men and women in
there today claiming to worship God, listening to a message about
what they need to do to be saved. And those doors that are locked
right there are the gates of hell. But if God has a people
in there, those gates will not stop His gospel from going in
that house and calling out His people and bringing them out.
And anywhere else Satan has his gates, it won't stop God. He
will bring his people out. And when he brings them out,
he is going to assemble them with his people as living stones. Peter said, Ye also as lively
stones, as living stones. You were dead like a rock when
God found you. But now through this Gospel,
Christ has entered in through the Spirit and He has given you
life and you as lively stones now. are built up a spiritual
house. You see, we're thankful for this
building. I'm very thankful for this building. But we don't worship
this building. This building is not holy. This
building just, it was sticks and stones when we bought it
and sticks and stones now. And it will be until it falls
down. The church is his people. The
church are the living stones that Christ, our great Solomon
builds up into his temple. And when He builds us up, He
builds us up to inhabit us. To come into our midst, just
like the glory of God. God made His presence known in
that earthly temple. He is going to make His presence
known in His people, in the midst of His church, when the gospel
is preached. He said, in whom? All the building
is fitly framed together and grows into a holy temple in the
Lord, in whom you also are building together for an habitation of
God through the Spirit. That's our purpose. He built
us up. He filled each individual stone with His Spirit. And He
built us up together to fill this church with His Spirit.
We can't do anything without His Spirit. We don't have life
without His Spirit. You know when the Lord comes
to you He comes to you and He gives you a new spirit. He gives you a spirit you didn't
have. He quickens you to life. It's what God does when He comes.
That's what we're talking about here. That's why you preach and
you preach and you preach and folks don't hear what you said
and people don't rejoice in what you said. They're dead. They're
dead. They're stones. They don't have
life. But when He enters in, they'll
have life. I was a dead stone one time.
I was a dead stone. I was sitting there, didn't want
to hear it, trying not to hear it, doing everything I could
to prevent myself from hearing it. And God entered in and there
was life. And I didn't know what had happened
or why it happened. I just knew. I found myself believing
what was being said. And I wanted to hear more about
what was being said. And I started looking into the
Word. And I stopped arguing against the Word of God. And I started
looking into it because I thought, I want to hear what this is.
I want to hear the glory of God set forth here. That's what He
does. You know, we paid a lot for this
building. We had paid nearly what Christ
paid for His people, for His temple, for His living stones.
He paid the price of His precious blood. Now can you imagine with
what we paid for this building, can you imagine us purchasing
this building and not moving in and taking over and making
it our own? Impossible. Well can you imagine
Christ paying His precious blood and not moving into His temple
and taking over and making it His own? That's exactly what
He's going to do. There will not be one single
soul for whom Christ died and redeemed and as Hebrews said
perfected forever that he does not call through this gospel
and inhabit by his spirit giving us life and uniting us with his
people in his church. Not a one. He will not lose one. He said I know my sheep, I lay
down my life for the sheep and I won't lose one of my sheep.
That's the Lord we serve. No man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. That's what He said. Alright,
lastly, I'll be a little more brief on this. But turn to 1
Chronicles 29. 1 Chronicles 29. Another verse
kept coming to my mind as we were working up here. And I kept
thinking about all the provisions that all our brethren and the
sister churches had made for us. And I kept thinking about
all the sacrifice you had made Your generosity. I kept thinking
about all this we've done to have this place. And I got to
thinking about David when he made all that provision for the
temple. And when he prayed, this is what
he said in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 14. He said, Who am I? Who am
I? And what is my people that we
should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things
come of thee." He is praying to God. He said, for all things
come of thee and of thy own have we given thee. For we are strangers
before Thee, and sojourners as were all our fathers. Our days
on the earth are as a shadow. There is none abiding. We are
helpless. We don't have any strength. We
are just like strangers passing through wilderness before God. Brethren, I am thankful for you.
I am thankful for what you gave. I am thankful for what our brethren
all over this country gave. But always remember this right
here. Always remember this. Look at verse 16. O Lord our
God, all this store that we have prepared to build Thee a house
for Thine holy name cometh of Thine hand and is all Thine own. David said we didn't give You
a thing, but You didn't give us first. Now that's true, brethren. Before you can ever have life
to know God and believe God and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ,
He has to give it to you. Before you can have faith and
hope and love to care enough about the glory of God and the
message of the Gospel of Christ to want to give anything of yourself
and trust that you can do it and God will still provide for
you. For you give like that, God's got to give you that faith
and that hope and that love and that desire to further His Kingdom. And not only that, God's got
to give you the health to go to the job. He's got to give
you the job. He's got to give you the wages you earn. He's going to give you everything
you need to give for His house, for His cause, for His gospel. And when He does it, you'll turn
right around and give it right back to Him. Why? Look back at verse 11. Here's
why it does it. So we'll be brought to cry this.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in
the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor
come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thy hand is
power and might, and in Thy hand it is to make great and to give
strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank
Thee, and we praise Thy glorious name. That's all I can say. We thank You, Lord, and we praise
Your glorious name. That's why we're sitting right
here right now. Let's stand together. Our Lord, we thank You once again. Everything we have, everything
that we're enjoying right now after nine years together, The
faith, the trust in You, the substance, the willingness, everything
we have, Lord, You gave it to us. And all we've done is just
given a little bit back to You. We don't even have the faith,
Lord. We don't even have the faith to trust You'll continue
to give it. We just give You a little bit back. But Lord,
we thank You. We thank You for what You've
done. We pray that You'll continue now. Exalt Christ in this place. We pray, Lord, that you'll build
up your house, build up your people, and we pray, Lord, you'll
cause us always to acknowledge that everything that's done here
is from your hand by your glorious, glorious grace. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.