Open your Bibles today through the book of 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 6. I'll begin reading in verse 1. And it came to pass in the four
hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come
out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's
reign over Israel, in the month of Ziph, which is the second
month that he began to build the house of the Lord. And the house which King Solomon
built for the Lord, the length thereof was three score cubits,
and the breadth thereof 20 cubits, and the height thereof 30 cubits. And the porch before the temple
of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according
to the breadth of the house, and ten cubits was the breadth
thereof before the house. And for the house he made windows
of narrow lights, And against the wall of the house he built
chambers round about, against the walls of the house round
about both of the temple and of the oracle, and he made chambers
round about. The nethermost chamber was five
cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the
third was seven cubits broad. For without in the wall of the
house he made narrowed rests around about, that the beams
should not be fastened in the walls of the house. And the house,
when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before
it was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor
axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building. The door for the middle chamber
was in the right side of the house, and they went up with
winding stairs into the middle chamber and out of the middle
into the third. So he built the house and finished
it and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar. And then he built chambers against
all the house, five cubits high, and they rested on the house
with timber of cedar. And the word of the Lord came
to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art in
building, If thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments,
and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then will I
perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father. And I will dwell among the children
of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel, So Solomon
built the house and finished it. My message this morning, I've
entitled Quiet Construction. Quiet Construction. King Solomon, was appointed by
God to build the temple. But his fulfilling of the task
was a picture of another work, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
by which he builds the church, the true temple of God. And his absolute success in that
task is pictured for us in this 14th verse. It says, so Solomon,
built the house and finished it. He had charge of this house just
like the house that was given to Moses and they both were types
of another house, another building. Let me read you in Hebrews 3
and verse 3. Speaking of Moses in comparison
to Christ, it says, For this man was counted worthy of more
glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house
hath more honor than the house. For every house is built by some
man, but he that built all things is God. There is one greater
than Moses, there is one greater than the great Solomon, and it
is he who built the house. You might remember it was said
when Christ came into this world. He said, the Queen of the South
shall rise up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. There is one that Solomon pictures,
but he is a greater of Solomon for sure. We read over in I Kings
5, and Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them
and the stone squarers. So they prepared timber and stones
to build the house, the house of God. And what is said of this house,
of this building, of this temple, is said of all the Lord's church. Paul writing to the Corinthians
said, you are God's building. You are God's building. And Solomon, as the builder of
this temple, is a type of Christ the builder of the church in
so many ways. If you will turn to Matthew 16. Matthew 16 and verse 16, when they were
saying to Christ, when he was in, they were responding to Christ
as to who he really was. It says in Matthew 16 and verse
16 that Peter responded and said, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. They called out all the prophets.
They called, some say you're this, some say you're that. But
Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, thou
art Peter, and upon this rock, not upon Peter, But upon this
rock, this foundational stone, thou art the Christ. Upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Men do not build the church of
God. Christ is the foundation, Christ
is the chief cornerstone, and Christ is the builder of this
temple. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
2. In 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning
in verse 4, He says, to whom coming. He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious
Ye also, as lively stones or as living stones, are built up
a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect and 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. and a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient where also they were appointed." Now there are two
things in that text that are really very obvious. That is that Christ himself is
spoken of as a living stone. But he is also speaking and calling
those, his people, living stones. You stop and think about that
for a minute. That almost sounds like a contradiction. Living stones. But the truth is that is a fit
description of every one of God's people in that what they are
by nature and what they are by grace. They are stones, hard,
dead stones, but they are living stones by His grace. And this foundation, like all
foundations of building, this building is only as good as its
foundation. And it's built so that these
that make up the church of the Lord Jesus Christ are symbolized
by stones, living stones being made so by the Lord Jesus Christ. They're living stones in Christ
Jesus. And only in him can they bear
that title. And when you listen to this description,
you always find people wondering why God puts all of these details,
all of these dimensions, all these descriptions in scripture
in places such as this. But when he says all these things
about this temple, about the details of this temple, about
the design of this temple, he's simply showing us that the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a happen-so or a maybe-so or
an inaccurate or incomplete building that is built by the Lord Jesus
Christ. All that God does, He does by
design. All that He does in Christ is
according to His purpose, according to His predestinated plan, all
according to the details in which, when it is all completed, that
temple of God, that church of the Lord Jesus Christ, will not
have one stone missing. It will not be like a building
that I would build wherein there would be a lot of mistakes. I
built a room one time to a house. And I figured and I figured over
and over so that I would put the right dimension in, get the
right height and the right width and such as that. And I did it
as best I could. And yet, when I finished, you
still had to step down into the room. In other words, the design
of Christ Church, the building of it, has so many members. It's
going on for such a long time. It's fulfilling in every detail,
everything, because God has purposed it well. We read in scripture
where it says that the people of God are a numberless number
that no man can number. A lot of people are really quick
to name that when you speak about God having elect people. They
say, well, the Bible says that it's a numberless people that
no man can number. That's exactly right. I cannot
number the people of God. David got in trouble when he
numbered the people of God. That's why we don't count people. That's why we don't have numbers
and rows and things like that. But don't think for one minute
that God can't number them. That God hasn't numbered them.
The scripture says, the Lord knows them that are his. He knows every one of these stones. He knows their name. He knows
them because like these stones, they were chosen, they were quarried,
they were designed to fit into this building of God's grace. And so this building, the church,
is built in a two-fold way, as was the temple that Solomon built. It might be said that it was
on one hand built in the quarry, and in another hand built on
the site. But both of them are quiet works. They were quiet works. And by that, I mean simply this. First, the quarry work was done
with nobody actually in the world paying any attention to it. Look
down at verse 7 of our text in 1 Kings. And the house, when it was in
building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought
thither so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor tool of iron
heard in the house while it was in building. They quarried the stones They
cut the stones, they measured the stones, they shaped the stones
so that not even a tool or the ringing of a hammer or anything
of that nature was heard at the house. Now what does that mean? It means that in one sense of
speaking, they finished the temple while it was in the quarry. They had a design. They knew
how many stones. They went and they cut and chiseled
and shaped and had every stone, it says, every stone was made
ready before it was brought forth. In other words, each stone was
prepared before out of sight which shows that Christ was doing
the work necessary for each stone to be in this building. Not that anybody really knew
what was going on. In other words, when Christ came,
Men did not know why he came. They did not know what he was
doing. You listen to all the Pharisees. You listen to his own people.
Even they didn't know what he was doing. Because they mostly
thought he was coming to establish an earthly kingdom. They mostly
thought that he was gonna rule and reign over a national people
of which they were a part. In all of these things, they
did not understand that he was in that cross death finishing
this building. He prayed to the Father, I have
finished the work that you gave me to do. He said, hanging on
that cross, it is finished. And he was completely doing the
work for all his people in ratifying that covenant of grace and mercy
that was toward them before the world began. Look here in what
it says. In verse 12, God says to Solomon, concerning
this work that thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statues,
if thou wilt execute my judgments, if thou wilt keep all my commandments
to walk in them, Then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake
unto David thy father, and I will dwell among the children of Israel,
and will not forsake my people Israel. Now I ask you, whose obedience
Did the house and the blessing and the promise of God to Israel,
whose obedience did it hang on? He didn't say if they will. He said, if you will. And what
we have here is just a picture of exactly what Christ did. He walked in God's statues, he
executed God's judgments, and he kept all God's commandments
to walk in them. In other words, he was the perfect,
sinless, obedient sacrifice who satisfied the justice of God. All of the blessings, all that
this temple pictured, which was the people, a picture of God's
presence with them. Notice what he says in verse
30, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not
forsake my people. That temple was a symbol of God's
presence. As were all the temple, as was
the tabernacle over the golden cherubims of the mercy seat,
God said, I will dwell there. I'll be in the midst of you. But it all depended on his obedience. And all the work of righteousness
necessary to save us. and all the work of salvation
and all the work of redemption, all the work of putting away
our sins, he accomplished by himself. That's what it says here. So
Solomon built the house and finished it. all that was necessary so that
when we read the scriptures, it's always telling us what we
don't want to hear. It's always telling us what we
naturally do not think. It's always telling us something
contrary to us when it says that salvation is not of works lest
any man should boast. It says, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down. In other words, simply put, all
the work of salvation, all the work of righteousness, All that
was necessary for God to show mercy to sinners like we are,
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished it. He accomplished it on the
cross. He accomplished it without the
world even realizing it. He accomplished it without us
even knowing about it. He did it before us. He did it
by himself. And he did it all successfully. successfully. In Isaiah chapter 28, Verse 16, he says, Therefore
thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation,
and he that believeth shall not make haste. In other words, About three or
four times in the scriptures, that promise is made, even in
the New Testament. It's always speaking about Christ
as this sure foundation, as this chief cornerstone. But it's always
promising that he that believes in him, he that rests in him,
he that commits all to him, he will never be disappointed, never
confounded. And these stones were fashioned
in such a way by the stone squares, by the mason, so as to get them
perfect for each stone to make this building. And they were all chiseled. They
were all hewn. They were all taken from the
rock. In other words, they were chosen
from the common rock of Adam's fallen, sinful children of wrath
by nature. And as they came out of that
rock, the stonemason, he looked at
the rock. He determined that he wanted
to take this part of the rock, this piece of the rock, and he
cut that part. and he hewed that part and he
made it a specific design. But all of this rock, which is the church, when the hammer and the chisel,
you might say, of God's justice doing everything that was necessary
to make them fit, to make them perfect, to make them an acceptable
part of this temple. Everything was done to the stone. Because you know, it says, he
is a living stone. and these also as living stones. They were so much in him. They were so much a part of him. They were so much in union with
him. that when the stonemason's hammer,
if you will, the hammer of God's wrath and judgment fell on that
stone to hew it and make it like it should be, it fell on him. We weren't there, except as we
were representatively. We weren't there except as we
were in union with Him. We weren't there helping Him.
We weren't there adding anything to it. All that was necessary
to shape us and make us perfect and acceptable in God's sight,
all that rough work fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God. All fell on the stone, the stone. And these stones were in union
with the stone. It is his work altogether. I thought about it. Can you imagine in a day without
lasers, in a day without complicated measuring instruments, without
digital technology, these stones were squared and cut a long way from the site that
would be built, and yet when they were brought into place,
they all fitted. I thought about it. Only the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ could square
us with God. You see, this was to be the temple
of God. How can God live with anything
less than perfect? How can He accept anything that
is not pleasing in His sight? But all that was necessary to
square us, you might say, with God is by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by His blood, by His suffering. In Acts chapter 4, it says, this
is the stone which was set at naught by you builders, which
has become the head of the corner. Who are the builders? I got to thinking about that
this week. He says, you builders. Who are the builders? Well, of course they were the
Pharisees. They were the ones that rejected
Christ. They were the, but really the
Pharisees are a type of every one of us by nature. What is it? Why are we called
builders? Because we're going about to
build us a building. There actually used to be a song,
supposedly a religious song, called, I'm building a building.
That's pretty blatant. But they were seeking, if you
remember at Babel, to build a tower to reach up to heaven. And here
we are, we're all, by nature, builders. We're always going
about to establish our own righteousness. We're always going about to satisfy
God and please God and make ourselves acceptable for heaven by virtue
of something that we do. And we, by nature, always reject the stone. that God's made the
head of the corner, the chief cornerstone. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, Look unto the
rock which you are hewn and to the hole of the pit which you
are digged. How could we ever look at the
rock from which we were hewn or the pit, the hole of the pit
from which we were digged when you look all around you? when you see all the lost humanity,
when you see all these people who still reject the Lord Jesus
Christ, who never see anything in His work, who do not reap
a benefit from His cross death, who see nothing of His loveliness. There they are. There goes me, but for the grace
of God. There I am still except for the
mercy of God in Christ. There I am, no part in this temple,
no part in this church or this building to God. if he doesn't do all the work,
if he doesn't suffer all the blows. You see, he said when they were to build an altar, all the altars that were to be
built, offering a sacrifice to God. He said this in Exodus 20,
and if thou will make me an altar of stone, thou shall not build it of hewn
stone, for if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it. If you all build an altar, don't
you make it out of rock that you view, because the very moment
that you put your tool, your hammer, your chisel, anything
upon it, you pollute it. Anything we do, we pollute it. Yesterday, I built a little shelf. I put some stain on it, fixed
it up. Then I went to the store to buy
a few snacks, and as I was paying the man at the store, I looked
at my fingers, and there was all this brown stain. All this ugliness. That's the way we are in everything
we do. We don't do anything without
sin. We don't do anything not being
a sinner. And that's why in this work,
as it was in the building of an altar, if we lay our hands
to it, we pollute it. We have polluted it. All this went on. Christ came
into this world. He lived a life of perfection. He remained sinless all to the
time. He went to the cross. He died
the death. It's written down as an event
in history and most of the world don't know what he was doing
there. But he was just like Solomon. He was cutting out them stones.
He was doing that work necessary to save them. He was fitting
every one of them as being ready to go into this house that would
glorify God. They didn't know the grace and
the mercy God had purposed in this world. They didn't hear
what he was saying in the gospel all the time, but the work was
going on unhindered. He shall not cry, nor lift up
his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. As I said, when he went to that
cross, he opened not his mouth, but as a lamb done before her
shearers, he came. There it was, not a sound of
a chisel, hammer, stone being brought about. But there's another
part of that work. There's another part of this
building. And therefore, I would have to
call it something like site work. There had to be an actual assembling
of putting in place a manifestation of those stones in that building. It had to be a bringing of them
and a fitting them into their place. And this too was done quietly. Quietly. Paul says in Ephesians, in whom
all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy
temple in the Lord. Men look at religion. They look at all its carryings
on, all its sites. But it says in Luke 17 that when
he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should
come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not
with observation. It doesn't come with fanfare. It doesn't come with the recognition
of this world. It doesn't come with the recognition
of false religion. But quietly, here and there,
then, now, Every one of these prepared stones
is brought to the surface, you might say, and fitted into this
building by the God who does it all. And this involves an unseen work
by the Spirit of Christ. Look over in John chapter 3. Our Lord talking to this religious
man who thought he was certainly Christ's equal because he calls
him by the same thing he was, a rabbi. But Jesus said to him
in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said
unto thee, you must be born again. But now listen to this next verse.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, or blows where it will. Can't
stop the wind. And thou hearest the sound thereof,
but can't not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth,
so every one So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. What's the Spirit's work? It's
an unseen work. It's a powerful work. It's a work by which each one
of these stones, number one, find out what their Solomon did
for them. and by which they identify with
this building. In other words, when the Spirit
of God is come, He takes the things of Christ and He shows
it to these born-again ones. He gives them faith to believe
on Him. And they'll have nothing else
They'll know He did all the work, and they'll know that it's grace
from here to there, all of grace. I'll say this. The Lord's church grows at this
present hour. It's being built as far as this
world is concerned, as far as visible is concerned, because
it must. Why must it? Because Christ said, I will build
my church. Because the master builder of
the church has risen from the dead so that he might see to
it that the church is fully built, fully erected, visible for this
world to see, although they're blind to it. They can't see it. Why would God in a place that, such as Jacksonville, North Carolina. Marines come here and their families,
they see just what is outside the main gate there and they
see all the stripped, topless bars and jute joints and places
of, awful places. They say, oh, this is an awful
place. Why would God have a people here? Why would he have a pitiful little
place such as this building symbol people meet with them there?
Why would he have a pitiful preacher such as myself preaching the
message of this Christ? It just goes on unseen, unrecognized,
but all the time. Never as many as we want. Never as we'd like to see. But
the building is up to him. The building is always his work. He must build the church, and
he will build the church, because who can stay his hand? It says in Romans 9 that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he hath afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath
called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. You see, this isn't just a Jewish
house. The temple of God is made up
of his elect according to the election of grace among Jew and
Gentile. All those distinctions are no
more. They're just the redeemed, just
the beloved of God, just elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, just chosen in Christ, just redeemed by Christ altogether. And these living stones will
be brought to confess that is all the work of Christ. It's
all his suffering in our place. It's all his blood that atones
for our sin. It's all his work of righteousness
that satisfied God's justice. It's all his righteousness imputed
to us that makes us righteous in God's sight. And every stone. Every stone that Christ made right, made
perfect, every stone that he represented on the cross, he's
going to bring them out from the quarry. I'll be honest with you, what
I really believe glorification is mainly about is just the revelation
of what already is. Then be also glorified. We always
point that to the future, which it is. There'll be greatly more
manifestation of then. But every time a sinner hears
this gospel, every time a sinner confesses that Christ is all
their salvation, all their hope, every time a sinner goes into
that baptismal water doing that confession of Christ, that's God at work. And he is
simply revealing to this world, not just to them, but to all
around them, to this world, who his people are, who these living
stones are, who it is that he has done the work for. He's building
them. And one day, And I don't believe it'd be very
far. One day, the last stone will
be revealed. The last stone will be effectually
called by this great master builder. The last stone will be set in
that building that is his glory, and God will be praised for the
grace that accomplished it. Turn over to Zechariah chapter
4. Zechariah 4 and verse 6, Then
he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the
Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, not by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, who art thou, O great
mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain. In other words, all the obstacles. all the mountains of obstacles
to accomplish this building. All who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain, and he shall
bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings of grace, grace
unto it. There's a last one. There's a last and final stone. And when that stone is brought
out, made manifest, brought to believe on Christ, brought to
trust in Him, it says that capstone will go on. And when it goes
on, that last one is in place, that building stand, it will
be with shoutings of grace, grace. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. His hands shall also finish it,
and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto
you. When he finishes it, every true
prophet And every true apostle and every true gospel preacher
will be vindicated because they've all said that he would do this
very thing. That Christ has finished the
work and he will make it manifest. And when it's all together, it'll
be with shoutings of grace, grace. Why is that? Because in a temple. A temple is for the offering
of sacrifice and praise. Look over in 1 Peter 2, again
in verse 9. He's talking about those who Christ is a stone of stumbling
to them. He's a rock of offense, even
to them that stumble at the word being disobeyed, wherein to also
they were appointed. Oh, that's a heavy, heavy statement
there. They were appointed there. They
were appointed vessels of wrath. All but to those who are the
vessels of mercy. He says, but ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and 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. That's what this. That's the
sound that comes up from this temple. Grace, grace. Praise, praise, praise. Not just this stupid repetition
and cliches, but heart praise to God in the Lord Jesus Christ
because he hath saved us. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to his name. Take with you words
and turn to the Lord and say unto him, take away all our iniquity
and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. And I especially like this one.
Psalm 29, verse 9. The voice of the Lord maketh
the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forest, and in his temple
doth every one speak of his glory. One way by which this temple,
which Christ builds, is known is that every stone, every living
stone in this temple, they speak of His glory. They know that boasting is excluded. They know it's all by grace,
grace. and they speak of his glory. The building is quietly constructed,
but skillfully constructed, powerfully constructed, perfectly constructed. But when that last stone goes
in place, it will really erupt with praise
and thanksgiving to God forever. And they'll say, greater than
Solomon is here. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Oh, it'll try. It'll try. The devil will make
every effort, as he is right now. But he'll not stop it. He'll not destroy it. He'll not hinder it. Because all along, this Solomon, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is constantly, quietly, mightily building his church. It was unobserved when he was performing
the actual work upon which it's based. And it's quiet now as it never
accomplishes what religion wants, never makes a big show, never
has big numbers, but nevertheless. There won't be a missing stone,
and it'll all be to the praise of the glory of His grace. It'll be all because of what
Christ did. Every stone in this building
is safe. won't ever be brought out of
it because it's founded on his work. Father, we thank you for the
Lord Jesus Christ, our savior, our redeemer, the builder of
the church. We thank you for all three persons
in the Godhead, We're a part by grace of that
city, that temple whose builder and maker is God. We look to him. We thank you
for him. We even now begin to praise and
give thanks to him for including us, for making us fit. for revealing it to us and for keeping us. We thank you in the name that
is above every name, the greater than Solomon, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We pray in his name. Amen. Amen.