We are going to our Young People's
Address now, and we're going to 1 Kings 6. So if you have your Bibles and
you would like to read along, we're in 1 Kings 6. We're not
going to read the whole chapter. It's quite a long chapter. A
lot of detailed information is in this chapter, but I think
we'll get a sense of the content by reading the first 14 verses. So it's my plan today. to read
the first 14 verses of 1 Kings chapter 6. 1 Kings chapter 6 and reading from
verse 1 and this has to do with Solomon's building of the temple. And it came to pass in the 480th
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 threescore cubits,
and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof
thirty 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 round 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 hither, so that there was neither hammer nor
axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in
building. The door of 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 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 speak
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. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. Solomon was four years gathering
and preparing the materials for the temple. And he was seven
and a half years in building it. The temple was built of stone,
it appears to have been faced with marble, and it must have
glistened and shone in the sunshine at the top of the hill where
it was located. We read quite a lot of detail
in this chapter concerning the way in which it was built and
the dimensions. Internally, the walls and the
floors were paneled with cedar wood and adorned with gold and
precious stones. We read before about great stones,
costly stones, and huge stones to lay the foundation of the
house. These were brought to the building
site on the hilltop in Jerusalem for construction. But this was
a building site like no other. We read that there was not a
hammer to be heard and that no axes were swung on this building
site. In verse 7 we read, and the house
when it was, that's what the temple was called, it was called
the house because it was to be the house of the Lord, the house
of God. And the house when it was in
building was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither. So that tells us that all the
stone was precisely and exactly cut before it was brought to
the building site so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor
any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building. Every stone, every pillar and
beam and door was cut and shaped and transported to the site like
a huge Lego set or like an Airfix model. All the parts were pre-cut,
pre-fabricated and transported and fixed into place on site. who said that flat pack was a
new idea. Such was the skilled craftsmanship
of the workers that the component parts just slipped and slotted
into place. We're told that the building
was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. Now, a cubit was about 50 centimetres
or 20 inches. It's said that it was the tip
of the elbow to the tip of the fingertips of a man. Well, that
might well be true, but in our way of thinking about measurements
about 50 centimeters or 20 inches so this building was about 30
meters long 10 meters wide and 15 meters high or a hundred times
40 times 50 feet high and I'm going to just show you a little
picture. So just bear with me a second
and I'll show you a picture of the appearance of this building. Actually, I'm going to come back
to that because that wasn't the one I meant to show you first.
This was the one I meant to show you first and then we'll see
the other one in a minute or two. But this is a plan of the
building and we can see here that that's a side view and looking
down the bottom part where the black lines are, that's looking
down from above. But in this plan or in this picture
that we see here, it shows us that the temple consisted of
three main parts. There was the Oracle, or the
Most Holy Place, and that's the piece on the left-hand side.
That was a perfect square. It was ten by ten cubits, and
it was floored and panelled with cedar, overlaid with gold. It was entered once a year via
a two-leafed door. That means a door that opens
like that. So it was a two-leafed door.
And that also was overlaid with gold and covered with a veil. It seems to have had no windows. It was here that the Ark of the
Covenant was located. It's not put there yet, but it's
there that it would be located. And it was there that God dwelt
in the darkness of that enclosed square room. The second main
part was the holy place, or that's simply called the temple. And
that was the main structure and the larger part of the building. And then the third part was a
porch, and that's over at the right-hand side of the top part
of the plan there. And that was a porch, what's
called a vestibule, or an entrance that was before the temple. And then you can also see the
chambers that are referred to. And if you look at the bottom
part, that's the sort of the black lines around about. And these were chambers that
were built for the They were built for the priests
who worked and lived there at the temple. It was accommodation
for them if you like, chambers for the priests and they were
built around the temple on three sides and they formed part of
the building and There was also a court, an area around the temple,
which was called the Court of the Priests. We'll mention that
another day, perhaps. And it contained the altar for
burnt offerings and also items for sacrificing and purification. And then even around that part
of the temple, finally, there was a great court and that surrounded
the whole building. And this was where the people
assembled to worship God. So the pattern of the building
resembled the tabernacle of Moses' time in the wilderness. and however that of course was
made of skins and poles whereas this was built of stone and wood. So let me just show you the other
picture. This is actually a drawing from
a museum in Israel and this is an artist's impression of what
Solomon's temple, the first temple may have looked like. And you
can see the square effects of it, the vestibule at the front
and these chambers built along the sides of the building as
well. And inside is the main part of
the temple and then the Holy of Holies, that little square
room towards the rear. So this is the picture of what
the the temple may have looked like. But let me just say one
thing about that. No one really knows what the
temple looked like. Despite all the details that
are given in this chapter, no one really knows because That
temple that Solomon built was completely destroyed around 400
years after it was built. It was destroyed by the Babylonians
under King Nebuchadnezzar and he burned the temple and he carried
away all the treasures that it contained to Babylon. A second temple was built about
100 years after that. And that temple stood for nearly
600 years. So Solomon stood for nearly 400
years. A second temple was built after
Solomon's was destroyed. And it stood for nearly 600 years
until the time of the Romans. And when they destroyed Jerusalem
a short time after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
that temple was destroyed as well. The second temple that
was built was not so grand as Solomon's temple, and it's described
in later books of the Bible in Ezra and Nehemiah. It was the
second temple that the Lord Jesus visited when he was alive. It was the second temple that
he spoke about during his lifetime. So when the Lord speaks about
going to the temple, it was not Solomon's temple that he went
to, but it was the one that was built afterwards when Solomon's
had been destroyed. And here are a few thoughts that
I want to leave with you just about this temple that Solomon
built. The first one is this. Let us
remember that God does not need a physical building in which
to live because God is a spirit. and being a spirit he is omnipresent
which means that he is everywhere at all times. The Lord didn't
need the tabernacle that Moses built in the wilderness or this
temple that Solomon built, but he permitted the children of
Israel to make this house for him, a residence for him, in
order to show his commitment to the people of Israel and as
a demonstration of his presence with them. The physical building
of stones and cedar and gold is really a picture of the church,
which is the spiritual body of Christ. So sometimes we think
of a church as being a building, but that really is not right.
That's not how we should think about a church. We speak about
the church building, but we shouldn't really think about the building
as the church. The building is not important. And whether it's grand like Solomon's
temple, or whether it's very simple, The true church of God
is the believing people of God. The whole body of Christ, both
in heaven and on earth. So all believers, whether they've
died and already gone to heaven, or whether they are still in
the church, all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this
is the church. The church is all those whose
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And the elect of
God in Christ were given by the Father to the Son. They were
redeemed by the Son and sanctified by God the Holy Spirit and called
by grace through the hearing of the gospel. And this is the
true church of Jesus Christ. So whether they're in heaven
or whether they're still here on earth, it is all the believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me show you something
amazing Solomon made this great temple. But because of what the Lord
Jesus Christ did on the cross, he tells us in John chapter 14
and verse 16, he says this, I will pray the Father and he shall
give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. And then in verse 23 of the same
chapter, it says this. If a man love me, that is if
we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we believe in him and trust
him, if he will keep my words and my father will love him and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. If we love
the Lord Jesus Christ, if we trust in him for forgiveness
and salvation, then It's not the building, but it's us. We
become the temple of God. And God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Someone once asked, how can God
live in us and we live in him at the same time? Well, that's
a good question. And I recently heard a very good
answer, at least I thought it was. Now you may have heard this
before, but it was new to me, so I thought I would just give
you what I heard and I liked. And this is how someone described
it. If you take a bottle to the sea and fill it with water, And
then you fix the cap on that bottle and throw it into the
water. Then the sea is in the bottle
and the bottle is in the sea. And when we trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, God dwells in us and we dwell in him. Here's another thing that I like
about this temple that Solomon built. I like that Solomon was
wise to employ the skill and the labor of the Gentiles to
build, to help him build the temple. He didn't say, oh, this
is just for the Jews or this is just for the God of the Jews. He recognized the abilities of
the Gentiles. So whether it was Hiram, king
of Tyre, whether it was the Sidonian craftsmen, whether it was the
Gibeonite labourers, they all laid their hand to the service
of worshipping the Lord. And that reminds us that the
Church of Jesus Christ is a worldwide church. And I want us all to
have a broad perspective when we come to thinking about the
church of Jesus Christ. Sometimes when we think about
the church, maybe we only know a few believers, or maybe we
only see a few believers at any particular time. But the church
is all across the world. And the Lord builds up his temple,
his spiritual temple, with precious stones from all different nations. The Church of Jesus Christ is
not American, and it's not British, it's not Western, it's not white. It is a worldwide church. And
if we are believers, we have brothers and sisters in Christ
all over the world. And we need to be careful not
to get politics and Christianity mixed up. Mixing things together
which are separate will only lead to confusion. And separating
from believers because outwardly they don't look like us is wrong. If God lives in the heart of
a man or a woman or a boy or a girl, then that person is my
brother and my sister. And in truth, our relationship
and our unity with them as the body of Christ is more important
than even our nationality or our natural family. We, as Christ's
people, are looking forward to heaven, where we shall be with
Christ and united with the family of God. We desire a better country,
that is unheavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
our God, for he hath prepared for us a city. And here's the
third point I want to make, and with this I'm done. There was
not a sound of a hammer or an axe in the building of the temple. What does that mean? What is
that saying to us? Well, it means that every piece
was perfect and it fitted together precisely. And just so the church
of Jesus Christ is perfect, pure, holy and eminently suitable for
the habitation of God. Paul liked this picture. He used it several times in his
epistles, his letters to the different churches. He wrote
to the Ephesians, for example, that they were fitly framed together. That means precisely located. They were fitly framed together. And groweth unto an holy temple
in the Lord. And then he continued and he
said, Now, let me say, you may not feel as if you're very fitly
framed together. You may not feel holy or pure
or suitable accommodation for God. But that is exactly what
the Lord has made us in Christ. We are sinful in ourselves, in
our natural and physical being in this world. But if we are
the Lords, soon these bodies of flesh, these decaying bodies
will be laid down and our true glorious bodies will be revealed. Solomon was doubtless very proud
of the temple that he built. but he is far happier in the
presence of the Lord in heaven where we believe he is today
and where we shall meet him if we too trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. May we do so for his name's sake.
Amen.