In 1 Kings chapter 5 we read
again of how King Solomon commenced the great work of building the
temple, the house of the Lord. Verse 1 we read, And Hiram king
of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon, for he had heard that
they had anointed him king in the room of his father. For Hiram
was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house
unto the name of the Lord his God, for the wars which were
about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles
of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath
given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary
nor evil occurrent. And behold, I purpose to build
an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake
unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. Thy son, whom I will set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house unto my name. Solomon, David's son, with Hiram
here, whoever loved his father David, built a house unto the
name of the Lord. He built that house, that temple
that David desired to build but could not because of the wars
which were about him on every side. But the Lord, as promised,
enabled Solomon and put it in his heart, as in his father's
heart, to build this house. And in chapter 5 we see how Solomon
With Hiram's help in providing timber from Lebanon, cedars and
fir trees, commences this great work as they begin to gather
the timber and to hew the stone and bring it to Jerusalem and
build. And over the course of the following
chapters, over the course of the next years, This great work
was achieved, this tremendous building with this great craftsmanship,
these great timbers carefully carved, these great stones carefully
hewn, all the gold that overlaid them, this great work was built
and there was nothing like it in the earth, this tremendous
house which was built under the name of the Lord. in which the
Lord met with the people of Israel, in which the people came and
gathered, in which the priests came and offered sacrifices,
this meeting place of God and man. But as we know from the
Scriptures, this tremendous building is but a picture. This house,
this temple, was simply a figure, a glorious, a majestic figure
to illustrate the majesty of what it depicted. But a figure,
a picture of Christ himself, the temple, his house, his church,
the church of Jesus Christ, the temple of God. A picture of Christ
and His people united as one, gathered as one. A picture of
Christ into whom His people are brought, in whom they are gathered,
in whom they meet with God their Saviour. This is a picture of
Christ, the Son of God, and the house, the temple that He built,
that He built through the battles on every side, the warfare on
every side that David experienced. That Christ built in the battles
on every side as he laid down his life upon the cross. And that he built as he rose
victorious from death, victorious from the grave, rising again
in victory. entering into that rest of which
Solomon's reign was but a picture. Entering into rest with his people,
having taken away their sin, having taken away the transgression,
having washed them clean through his own blood. They enter into
this rest and enter into the temple of Christ, the house of
God, to ever live and worship with him. It's this temple that
Solomon built was a wonder in all the world. It was a wonder
because it pictured that which is wonderful, Christ himself. We read in John chapter 2 how
Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and
in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty
and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear
it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. The temple that stood in Jerusalem
which Solomon built, in which the Jews put such trust, and
in which the Jews had such confidence that when they entered there
physically, they were meeting with God. That was but a picture. The temple was Christ, and He
stood before them. And when He was destroyed, as
it were, when He laid down His life upon the cross, when they
crucified Him, when they put Him to death, In three days,
he rose again. In three days, that temple was
raised up, an everlasting temple, an eternal house in which all
his people will be gathered forevermore. Yes, God said unto David, thy
son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, He shall
build a house unto my name. That son in time was Solomon. But Solomon was but a picture
of that son which would come later, the seed of David, the
son of God, Jesus Christ. Thy son Christ whom I was set
upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto
my name. The house is Christ, and he shall
build the building of this house, this eternal house of God, the
true house of God, of which the temple on earth was but a figure.
The building of this house is all of God. He shall build a
house unto my name. It's all of God, all of Christ,
all of grace, all through his gospel. He built this. He built this house by dying. He built this house by laying
down his own life in the place of sinners. He built this house
by being crucified, brutally put to death, by being nailed
to a cross. He built this house by suffering. He built this house by shedding
his blood. He built this house by enduring
the wrath of God against the sins of his people. He built
this house through death, through burial, and through resurrection. Oh, how he built. And what a
house he built. Hence, as we saw before, the
battles of David on every side, the wars which were about him
on every side, what he went through in order that Solomon, in order
that his son should enter into rest and build this house. After the warfare came peace. But now the Lord my God have
given me rest on every side. so that there is neither adversary
nor evil occurrent. And behold, I purpose to build
an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake
unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. There is rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor
evil occurrent. O child of God, will you see
this? Will you remember this? The work
is done when Christ laid down his life, when he bore the wrath
of God for sin, for your sin, believer. When he cried out,
it is finished. The penalty had been paid. Righteousness
was brought in. The wrath of God was appeased. It was propitiated. There was
no more to be done. All our enemies were conquered.
Sin was destroyed. The curse of the law was satisfied. The penalty of the law had been
paid. The curse was taken away, the
judgment and wrath of God was exacted. There was no more judgment
to flow down. Everlasting righteousness stood
in its place. Everlasting righteousness was
the result. God met our sins in righteousness. He judged them in righteousness
and having taken them away. All we have is the righteousness
of God. Jesus Christ. Our sins are no
more, they cannot be found though you search the whole world looking
for them, though you go from the east to the west they are
no more. It is finished Christ said. There is neither adversary nor
evil occurrent, there's not one spot or blemish in Christ's bride. in his church. Not one. There's not one sin that's not
been covered. There's not one evil thought,
evil occurrence that's been missed. It's all gone. And God has given Christ rest
on every side and he's given his people rest on every side. in this temple, in this house
that He brings them into, when He gives them faith to believe
on Him, when they see their sins blotted out by His blood, when
they're brought by faith to behold their Saviour crucified in their
stead, when they see Him crying out, it is finished. They are
brought to enter into rest. When he rose from the grave,
they rose from the grave. When he ascended into the presence
of his father, they ascended into the presence of his father.
When he entered into rest, they entered into rest. Have you entered
into this rest? Or are you still afar off, outside
the house, viewing this temple from a distance, Still full of
your own sin and rebellion? Still full of unbelief? Is there
yet war on every side? Do you yet have adversaries that
would accuse and condemn you? Are you yet a stranger and a
foreigner to this Saviour, to His house? to his kingdom, to
his salvation. Thy son, whom I will set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. And what a house it was, and
what a house Christ's house is. And house unto the name of the
Lord, He shall build a house unto my name. Solomon built a
house, a dwelling place for God, a house in the name of God, where
the name of God would be proclaimed, would be known, that this is
the God, this is the one true and living God before whom we
come, this is the one true and living God before whom we stand,
with whom we must deal with whom we are accountable. That house
spake of the need for the forgiveness of sins. It spake of the need
for sacrifice in order for sinners to come into the presence of
God. It was that place where there was a holy of holies in
which there was a mercy seat. It was that place in which there
was an altar upon which sacrifices were slain and blood was shed. It's that place in which the
priests would take the blood and take it under the mercy seat
and sprinkle it in order that God's wrath against the sins
of his people would be satisfied. Central to this house is the
need of sacrifice for sin. Central to the meeting of men
with God is the need for man's sin to be dealt with, to be blotted
out, to be washed away. We cannot just come into the
presence of God. Sinners cannot meet with a holy
God. We're guilty from head to foot. We must have righteousness. And the need for righteousness
is at the very heart of this house which Solomon built. But it is that place in which
God came and met with his people on the grounds of the offering
of the sacrifice. They came through the priest,
through the blood in figure into the presence of God. That blood,
that offering enabled them to meet with God. He built this
house, this building upon the earth but it was just a figure,
a figure of what we need, that we need to meet with God and
we cannot come into his presence except there is a sacrifice for
us in, except blood be shed, except there is righteousness. The house of God, you see, is
not physical, We do not today come before God in buildings
made with stone. What Solomon built in the temple
was, it was a building, it was there on earth in Jerusalem.
It was a majestic building. It typified Christ in so many
ways. The stone, the timber, the gold. The Holy of Holies, the altar,
the sacrifice, the blood, the mercy seats, the veil, all pointed
unto Christ. But that which was outward then
was a picture of that which is inward now. At that time, the
people went into the temple. They worshiped God in the building. They offered sacrifices there
at that place at that time. Blood was sprinkled by the high
priest upon the mercy seat. God met with his people, God
met men there at the temple in Jerusalem and nowhere else. Man was forgiven in type and
figure. of his sins there in the temple. There was no other way to approach
unto God. He commanded Solomon to build
this place. He commanded how it should be
built. He ordered all things. He brought
in the priesthood. He ordered how the sacrifices
should be offered. He commanded when and where they
should be offered. How these things should be done.
All was according to his righteous instruction. And there was no
other way for people to come into the presence of God but
this way. But all was but a figure for
a time. This temple took 46 years to
build. but it never lasted. After Christ's
death, the temple was destroyed because
that temple was but a picture of him who lasts forever. All is a picture of Christ. The
house of God now is not a place, not a building in which we enter. It is not the church or the chapel
or the meeting place in which we may gather first day by first
day. It is not a place on earth. And to speak of it as such is
to undermine the testimony of scripture. It is Christ. The temple was a building made
of hands. But it's a building that pointed
unto Christ that is made. By the hand of God, God has built
this house. He's built it in His Son. He's
built it through the shedding of His Son's blood. He's built
it by calling and gathering in sinners whom He washes in that
blood, whom He unites in His Son. He's built it with that
people whom He's called, whom He's elected, whom He's chosen
by grace before the foundation of the world. All those who are
in Christ before they've ever been born as physically in this
world, that people who are in his son, for whom his son died,
for whom he suffered, for whom he gave his life, that people
in Christ, gathered with him, united under him, are this temple
whom he builds. Christ and his bride united as
one, this is his temple, this is his house, And God dwells
in this house, He dwells in this people by His Spirit, He dwells
within them. When His people gather in Him,
when they're in Christ, there He is. There He is in their hearts. What is it to come into the house
of God? It's not to go to a building
one day a week. It's not to go to a physical
place. It's to come unto God in Jesus
Christ by faith. Looking under his sacrifice,
looking under his blood, looking unto your great high priest,
who's gone into the Holy of Holies, who's taken his own blood to
the mercy seat and sprinkled it, who's cried out, it is finished. who's led us by faith through
him, through his broken body, through the rent veil of his
body, of which the veil of the temple was a picture, through
his rent body unto God himself. Oh, what a temple. Oh, what a
house of God this is. But has God brought you into
this house, into this temple, unto this priest, unto this God
and Savior. We meet God in Him. We come into the house of God
in Him. We are in the temple in Christ. We meet God in Christ, we worship
God in Christ. He is our high priest. He is our sacrifice. He is the
mercy seat. He is the temple. He is the house
of God. And his people are in him. He is all and he is in all. Thy son, whom I was set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. A house where God is worshipped
in spirit and in truth. The Jews went to their temple
year by year as the Lord commanded. When Christ walked upon his earth,
he went to the temple often. But there's a day that he went
there and found money changers. And those who would make profit
in enabling people to pay for sacrifices to be offered, there
were those who had turned his house into a den of thieves,
whom he threw out. The scribes and the Pharisees,
the priests of that day, went there physically, they were fastidious
about following the letter of the law and doing things at the
right time in the right way, but they knew nothing. They saw
nothing of Christ in these things. It was all outward. It was all
a form. When Christ came unto them, they
rejected him. Here is the temple of which their
temple was a figure. Here is the mercy seat. Here
is the priest. Here is the sacrifice. Here is
their savior, their Messiah. And they cast him out and said,
away with this man. We will not have him to reign
over us. Crucify him, crucify him. What of you? What of you? Is your worship,
is your religion but an outer carcass? Are you going to a building
and calling it the house of God? Are you going there on a day
and calling it the Sabbath, a picture of rest when you have no rest? Are you speaking of a Jesus that
you do not know? Is everything outward with you? Or has God by mercy and grace
met you and given you faith to see beyond the picture to the
Saviour who gave himself for you? Do you enter in to that rest
which is everlasting? Have you entered into that house
that he has built, has he taken you, has he come and found you
in your sin, in your blood, in your filth, has he found you
in your rebellion, in your unbelief and called you and cleansed you,
washed you clean, clothed you, arrayed you in righteousness
and brought you into his house. and sat you down at his table
and given you to feast upon his gospel. Has God in Christ made
himself known unto you? If he has, it will be he that
does it. He shall build a house unto my
name. All this work is of him. We play
no part. left to ourselves, we'd either
be off in the world having nothing to do with Him, or we'd be a
scribe and a Pharisee having everything outward, going to
a place we call the house of God, picking up a Bible we call
the Scriptures, reading of a Saviour that we do not know, going through
the motions, Speaking of keeping our Sabbath, speaking of being
in rest that we know nothing of, when we're dead in our sins
and blind and we do not know the Christ of whom all these
things speak. We're in one of those two places
by nature, in the darkness in the world a heathen, knowing
not God and having no time for him, or in darkness in our religion,
thinking we see when we are blind. These things are not outward,
they're inward. Christ came, not to call the
righteous unto salvation, but sinners. He came to find those
that know they're sinners. He shows them by His Spirit that
they're sinners. And when they're found guilty,
when they see themselves as wretched, when they cry out unto God, have
mercy upon me a sinner, then He makes Himself known to them,
then He shows them His blood, then He brings them, spiritually,
by faith, into His house. and sits them at his table like
poor Mephibosheth was sat at David's table. Go find this sinner,
this lame, helpless sinner that can do nothing for himself and
bring him into my house and sit him at my table. Has God come
unto you in his gospel? Has he sent a messenger to find
you, a poor Mephibosheth, and bring you into his house? bring
you into His temple, bring you into the presence of God, the
presence of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
and sit you down at the King's table. Has He given you all the
riches of God in Jesus Christ? If He has, He's done it all. The lame cannot walk, When the
command goes out to go to the temple at the given time and
Mephibosheth, lame on both feet, cannot get there. The blind cannot
see. The deaf cannot hear. The dead
cannot move from the grave. And that's all we are by nature.
Until Christ, the Son, who builds the house, comes unto us in his
gospel and calls us. and leads us and brings us in. He shall build a house unto my
name. And Solomon built this house
with timber and with stone. We read how he went to Hiram
and Hiram promised to bring cedars of Lebanon and great fir trees. And they brought these cedars
down by boat And they brought them up into Jerusalem and built. And we read of how Solomon's
men hew stone and brought these great stones and built them together. So they prepared timber and stones
to build the house. Now this timber was not any ordinary
timber. The wood from the cedars of Lebanon
was greatly prized in the world at that time. There were no trees
quite like the cedars of Lebanon. They were known for their durability. These evergreen trees, these
aromatic trees, this aromatic timber was durable, it was lasting. David built his palace out of
cedar of Lebanon. Solomon built his palace out
of cedar of Lebanon. And the temple, rightly so, was
built from the cedar of Lebanon. The tree was evergreen. In this
it points to the everlasting eternal nature of Christ. He's
evergreen. He's life from beginning to end. He has no beginning, he has no
end. Hence his house is built with
an everlasting timber. These trees point to his death,
nailed to a tree. The tree of life, Christ himself,
was nailed to a tree. He was put under the law. He
was nailed, as it were, to that tree of which we read in the
garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which Adam
ate of and which slew him. That tree, a picture of the law
and the curse of the law, which entered into this world when
Adam ate. That curse, that death, that
came from sin. The effects of that tree, the
law, nailed Christ to the tree of the cross. The sins of his people laid upon
him, brought condemnation upon his head. He was made guilty,
he was made sin, and the wrath of God poured down upon him.
But that death which he suffered upon that tree brought in everlasting
eternal life to all his people. The tree of life lives forever. And it's the tree of life of
which this temple is built, greater than any cedar of Lebanon. but of which the cedars of Lebanon
were a picture. This aromatic tree, this sweet-smelling
tree, points us to that sweet-smelling sacrifice of Christ. He was a
sweet-smelling saviour unto God when he offered himself up in
the place of sinners. This timber from which the temple
was built was from cedar and fir trees. Solomon spake, as
we read in chapter 4 of 1 Kings, of cedars in his great wisdom.
As an illustration of the great wisdom and knowledge of Solomon,
in chapter 4 we read that he spake of trees, from the cedar
tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth
out of the wall. He spake also of beasts, and
of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. Why did he speak
of trees and of the cedar tree? Because of the wisdom that God
gave him. to know the meaning of the hyssop,
to know the meaning of the cedar tree, to know that this tree,
with its evergreen, with its aroma, with its great durability,
pointed unto Christ. This was the tree which would
be used for the temple. What a mighty tree, what a majestic
tree, what a in figure and everlasting tree. Yes, he knew the significance
of the cedar. In the law, in Leviticus, in
Numbers, throughout the Scriptures, we read elsewhere of the cedar
tree. The cedar tree was used in the sacrifices, as hyssop
was, and cedar, God commanded its use. We read in Leviticus
14, and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird,
and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with
the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet. Because this word speaks of eternity. And we need an everlasting righteousness,
brought in through the blood of a sacrifice, Jesus Christ. to bring in everlasting life
and righteousness. We need this righteousness, we
need this wood, this tree of life. Numbers 19.6 tells us, and the
priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast
it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Yes, we read of cedars throughout
the scriptures. Solomon knew their meaning and
he spake and wrote to them and he used them in the building
of this temple. Another thing about these cedar
trees was that they were mighty trees, huge trees. They can grow
up to a hundred feet high with trunks up to six feet wide. They're mighty trees. They're
also, if you see them, very wide trees. They have a great canopy,
this great evergreen, they extend wide. They're not just like the
tall fir trees that grow upwards. These are a great high tree that
spreads across an area. A picture of this tree of life,
this great covering of Christ for his people. How he covers
his people, how he shelters them, how he's over them all. how his
blood covers all their sins. These trees grow in mountainous
areas, high up from around 3,000 to 6,500 feet. They're in the high mountains.
And as such, they picture the meeting place of heaven and earth.
They're trees that reach up unto the heavens. They're trees that
are high in the mountains where God where the heavens meet the
earth, where God as it were meets with his people. How suited then
are these trees to the building of the temple. How rightly Solomon
sent for these cedars from the mountains in Lebanon to be brought
to build upon the mount in Jerusalem, upon Mount Zion to build this
temple where God would come and meet with his people where heaven
and earth met. How mountains in the scriptures
depict the righteousness of God. We read in Psalm 36, Thy righteousness
is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep,
O Lord. Thou preservest man and beast.
Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Mountains depict
the righteousness of God. Extend into heaven and hear these
trees of cedar grow upon these great mountains. And again, the
timber used in the temple points us to the cross, the wood of
the tree's hewn, the trees of righteousness. It points us to
the cross where the carpenter Christ was nailed to a tree,
where the tree of life was nailed in figure by the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. by the law and the condemnation. Two trees in the garden of which
these trees, cedar and fir trees in the temple
are a picture, a reminder that Christ, the tree of life, is
a temple that lives forever. But he is a tree. He is a one
who knew death because of the breaking of God's law. Because of that tree of the knowledge
of good and evil and the curse that came in through it. He is
a tree of life that has sprung from death. They prepared timber and stones
to build the house. Not only were these trees, this
cedar used, but stones were built. Stone's a picture again of the
law. Stone's a picture of righteousness, of justice, of judgment at the
cross. The word upon which Christ was
nailed met with the law, the stone. the rocks of the law. The judgment of God met with
Christ. It was meted out upon his son. God outpoured his wrath against
sin upon his own son. Stone and wood met with the Son
of God. But not only do these things
depict the cross of judgment, they depict that upon which the
temple of God, the house of God, is built forevermore. In the
stone we see solidity, eternity, a sure foundation. We see Christ
himself, the chief cornerstone upon which the stones of his
people are built, upon which they are built up like the stones
in the temple were built up. There was a cornerstone to this
temple. All the stones which the craftsmen
hewed and prepared and brought up and laid upon this chief cornerstone
and upon the foundation They arrayed carefully, they fitly
framed them together, they built it up with craftsmanship. All
a picture of the building of God, the building of his son
when he takes his gospel and hews out a stone of his people,
gathers them one by one as stones and arrays them and builds them
up into one great house. Yes we see they prepared timber
and stones to build the house, trees, wood and stone. What a
unity, what a coming together, what a oneness and what a union
and a league, a loving league was formed between Hiram and
Solomon that Hiram who loved David, who loved Solomon's father,
this man who loved Solomon's father, who loved the son's father. brought the cedar, brought the
wood that Solomon used with the stones gathered by his men to
build this temple. What a unity we see here. What
a picture of God's house built from Jews and Gentiles. Strangers
and foreigners, citizens, all built, all united into one temple. of which we read in Ephesians
2. How we see these people, these things, gathered together and
united together. Believers are referred to in
Ephesians 2 as living stones, fitly framed together, and elsewhere
they are trees of righteousness. Together in Christ they're built
by him, built by the Son as his house, in which he dwells by
his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3, Know ye not
that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? In Ephesians 2 we read, Now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints. and of the household of God,
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building fitly framed together groweth unto one holy temple
in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation
of God through the Spirit. What a building, what a temple,
what a saviour, What a salvation. Yes, Solomon, David's son, built. Thy son, whom I will set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house unto my name. He
built. He took cedar of Lebanon, he
took the fir trees, he took the stones, he took the gold. Over
the following years, he built a house unto the name of the
Lord, and what a house it was. What a house it was, how the
world around saw this house. What a place it was that God
met with his people in type and figure. But oh, what a picture. Oh, what a house Christ has built. Thy son, whom I will set upon
thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house unto my name. What
a house he's built. Christ says elsewhere, I will
build my church. and the gates of Hades shall
not prevail against it. I will build it, I will build
my house. I've offered my own life, I've
given my blood. I've brought the warfare to an
end, I've brought in rest. It is finished and I'm building,
I'm saving my people. I've saved them at the cross
and I'm sending forth my gospel to gather them in, to bring in
the stones, to bring in the cedars, to array them together. to unite
them as one in me. Yes, Christ shall build his house,
he shall build his church, and the gates of Hades shall not
prevail against it. It's sure, it's certain, it's
built of timber and of wood, it is built on sure foundations,
it is eternal, it's built with stones, it's his house, living
stones, evergreen wood, a tree of life is in the midst of it,
he built it, he builds it, he dwells in it, he is all and in
all. Has God given you the eyes, eyes
of faith, to see beyond the house of God on earth, to see beyond
the physical, to see beyond the form, to see Christ. it all. Has he come unto you
in your sin and found you as a Mephibosheth, lame, weak, nothing? A sinner, lying in your filth,
lying in your shame, has he come unto you and said unto you, behold
my son, see the sacrifice upon the tree. See the high priest
offering the sacrifice in your place. See him sprinkling the
blood upon the mercy seat. See how he's gone into the Holy
of Holies for you. See how he's come out victorious. See how he's risen. See how he's
ascended. See how he's sat down victorious. See how there's rest on every
side and there's neither adversary nor evil occurring. The price
has been paid. Righteousness is brought in.
You are forgiven sinner. Has God said that unto you? Are
you one of his chosen? One of his living stones? Has
he brought you in and laid you in the place in his house? and
made you to know that you are in Christ, who is all in all,
that his Son, Jesus Christ, has built a house unto my name, and
I, you, are part of it. Is that where you are today?
In his house. Amen.