King David had a great desire
to build a house, a temple for the Lord, in which the people
might worship him. Since the days of Moses, the
people had brought their sacrifices by the priesthood to be offered
up and to be taken into the tabernacle. But David felt that the Lord
should not dwell in a tent but that there should be a great
house built for Him. He felt that the Lord who could
not be seen should have that place which marked His presence
with man. A visible presence where the
people could go and meet with their God and worship Him and
know that He is with them. He longed to build a house for
his Lord. Yet because of David's sin, the
Lord said that he should not build that house, but that that
honor should go to his son. And in 2 Chronicles, we read
of David's son, King Solomon, that wise king, that king that
prayed for wisdom and was granted his request. that king in whose
heart the Lord already placed the wisdom to pray for wisdom
and not to pray for the riches in this world. And yet because
Solomon sought wisdom, God not only gave him wisdom but he made
him a mighty king with great riches too. And God allowed Solomon
to build the great house, the temple that his father had sought
to build for God. And we read of much of the building
of the temple and the people's worship in the temple in the
second book of Chronicles. And we also read of the people's
rebellion and falling away in apostasy, which ultimately leads
to the people being taken into captivity in Babylon And Jerusalem
and the temple of God in Jerusalem being brought to rubble, destroyed. And then the final cry of King
Cyrus in whose heart the Lord moved for the temple to be rebuilt. Where is there among you of his
people? Cyrus cried. But Solomon built
the temple. And when the glorious, wondrous
temple was built, Solomon prayed at its dedication. And in chapter
7 of 2 Chronicles and verse 1 we read, Now when Solomon had made
an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed
the burnt offering and the sacrifices. and the glory of the Lord filled
the house. And the priests could not enter
into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled
the Lord's house. And when all the children of
Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord
upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground
upon the pavement and worshipped And praised the Lord, saying,
For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. For he is good,
for his mercy endureth forever. Oh, what a sight this must have
been! The building of the temple, which
was wondrous, on a scale that we can but imagine. It was huge,
with huge rocks, covered in gold, adorned with great riches. A wondrous sight, a wondrous
house, for the Lord to meet His people in, for the Lord to be
worshipped. for the sacrifices to be offered,
for the priest to enter in, for the people to meet with the living
God. A wondrous sight on this city
upon a hill, Jerusalem, the city of David. And a wondrous sight when this
temple was dedicated when Solomon had made an end of praying and
the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering
and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house. Oh, to have been there and have
seen the glory of the Lord fill in the house. Well whilst this was glorious it is nothing compared to the
glory of whom all this is but a figure. As with the old covenant
which was glorious and had a glory as recorded in Hebrews and in
2nd Corinthians. As with the old covenant which
had a glory such that when Moses received it and came down carrying
the tablets of stone, his face shone before the people. That
glory was nothing compared to the glory of the new covenant
in Christ and in the gospel. The shining of Moses' face faded
away, but the face of the Lord Jesus Christ shines forever. The old covenant waxed old and
was taken away. But the new covenant is everlasting. The gospel is glorious. Because
the mediator of the new covenant of the gospel is greater than
the mediator of the old. He is everlasting. He is God. The Son of God, Christ. And the
glory of Christ of whom the temple is a figure transcends the glory
however great that was beheld by the Israelites when the temple
was dedicated by Solomon. These figures, these types, these
pictures in the Old Testament do not always have one simple
translation to their reality as revealed in the new. Often there are many aspects
of the picture. The temple figures more than
one thing. It is of course the place, the
house of the Lord where the people meet God. In one sense it is
a picture of the church. and of the gathering of the saints
in whom the Spirit of God dwells. But in another it is a figure
of Christ and His glory. The adornment of gold, the perfection
seen in this house in which God meets with men. the gold, the
righteousness of God in Christ, the glorious perfections of the
Son of God made man. Solomon's wisdom, by which he
was led to build this house, which overshadowed the building
of this house, is a picture of the wisdom of God in Christ.
He who is called wisdom. The sacrifices, point to Christ
the sacrifice. The priesthood points to Christ,
our great High Priest. The Ark points to Christ, the
Ark, which delivers His people through the judgment to come,
in which the judgment of God and the Old Covenant is concealed
from view. The mercy seat upon the Ark sets
forth Christ's grace and mercy, in saving a people freely who
deserved nothing but God's judgment and wrath because of their sin.
The mercy seat sets forth that place upon which Christ's blood
was sprinkled to demonstrate that God's wrath had been appeased,
that salvation had been wrought, that judgment was finished. that
sin had been blotted out and taken away and righteousness
had been brought in. The temple in all its aspects
points us straight at Christ. Adorned in gold from head to
foot, glorious. Glorious, that place in which
God meets with man. For before Christ was made man
and came into this world to save man, God was unseen. No man had seen him. There had
been those occasions in the Old Testament when God had appeared
unto various ones of the patriarchs, but he did so in Christ. Christ is the one in whom God
meets. mankind. God is a spirit, God
is unseen and God cannot be approached by sinners because of His holiness
and His righteousness and His glory. Then how should sinners
be brought unto a glorious God? How should they be saved? How
should they meet with Him? Only if God should come into
this world as a man visible unto men, seen of men, like men, yet
without sin. Only if he should come into this
world as a man, to take the judgment of God against men's sins away
in his own body and his own flesh, that as a man he might lead men
unto God. And God met man in this way,
in the person of His Son. When the Son of God, God was
made man, He took human flesh, made of the seed of David, made
flesh, even for the suffering of death. He came, He came as
it were, in the temple of His flesh. Christ came and took a
body. He took a temple in which God
dwelt. And that temple walked in the
presence of mankind. And that temple was that in which,
when the fire came down from heaven upon Calvary's cross and
consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice which was Christ,
that the glory of the Lord filled the house. when Christ was slain,
when Christ died and cried out unto his God and was made sin
and took sin away and at the end cried out it is finished
the glory of the Lord filled the temple of Christ's body a
wondrous sight which by faith makes the children
of Israel, God's Israel fall down bow down their faces to
the ground and worship and praise the Lord saying, for he is good,
for his mercy endureth forever. Have you been there? Has God
taken you by faith to Calvary and to stand And behold, the
Son of God slain for sinners, have you seen the glory of the
Lord fill in the house, the temple, Christ? That place in which God
meets with man. If you have, or if you ever do,
then you will see a sight more wondrous than the children of
Israel here saw, when the temple of God, the house of the Lord,
which Solomon built, was dedicated and when the fire came down from
heaven. For that was but the figure. And to see Christ, in
whom the glory of the Lord dwells, by faith, is to see the reality. In Hebrews in chapter one, That
epistle written to the Jews who knew all about the temple and
all about the priesthood and all about the sacrifices. The
offer of the Hebrews, God the Spirit, makes known the reality
that Christ is the fulfilment of all these things. The temple,
the worship, the priesthood, the sacrifice, the glory, He's
the One. and He is the One in whom God
makes Himself known unto sinners like you and I. He is the One
who comes as the Saviour, who we must know and who we must
hear, by whose blood we must be washed, by whose death we
must live, by whose gospel we must come to know Him and His
God and be forgiven. God in Hebrews says that God
who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets by these things by the prophets
by the types by the figures by the priesthood by the sacrifices
he spake at sundry times and in diverse places by these things
this God hath in these last days spoken unto us by Son, by his
Son, by Christ, by Jesus, whom he have appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds, who be in the brightness
of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which
of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day
have I begotten thee, and again I will be to him a father, and
he shall be to me a son. Yes, Christ is the one through
whom God meets men. No longer a temple made of stone,
No longer a physical presence built by man, but that Son, that
Man, the Man Christ Jesus, the Son of God. God meets us in Christ
and He speaks by Christ. The One who is the Word of God,
the One by which God spake and the worlds were brought into
being. By whom also he made the world,
who be in the brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, and uphold in all things by the word of his
power. This is the temple in which the
glory of the Lord fills the house. This is the one, the glory of
the Lord is in Christ. Christ. the man Christ Jesus,
the mediator between God and man, the one that you must know
if you are to be saved of your sins,
the one that you must know if you are to be delivered from
the judgment and wrath of God, the fire of heaven, which shall
come down upon you in a day fast approaching, if you have not
been washed and cleansed by the blood of this sacrifice. We must know Christ. And if we're to know Christ,
we will know him as he is, because he is all glorious. And the temple
was a wondrous picture of his glory. A majestic sight, a wondrous
sight. Riches beyond all knowledge. There was nothing like it in
the world. The gold, the jewels, the way
it was built. Amazing, wondrous. Picture of His perfection. If
we ever see Christ by faith as He truly is, and even now we
see through a glass but darkly even if we have faith but there
comes a day when the children of God his people will see him
face to face and on that day we will see that he is wondrous
perfect like a bright shining light like the sun on the midday
in the midday you can barely look upon it because if you do
it's so bright it will blind you That's the brightness of
God's glory in Christ. He's righteous. When the glory of the Lord filled
the temple, filled the house, the priests could not enter into
the house of the Lord because of the glory therein. The children
of Israel stood outside and bowed themselves to the ground. How
glorious a sight this is! then how can you approach unto
it? How can you enter in? Only if God leads us. Only if
one makes a way in for us. Only if one makes it possible
for sinners to approach into such a place. And the only way
to approach is if one takes in blood on our behalf. As if a
sacrifice is shed if one is slain and one is judged for sin and
the blood is shed and sprinkled that we may enter in. O thank
and praise God that blood was shed, and blood was sprinkled,
and that a way into the glory of God, into the house of the
Lord, into his very presence, the very presence of the Father,
has been made, and it's been made through the side, through
the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was rent in twain, when he
was crucified upon the cross, when the judgment of God ripped
down through him because of that sin which he bore for his people. Their sin, their condemnation. and the judgment the fire of
God from heaven upon it he was slain the spear pierced his side
the blood and water came forth and he was as the temple as the
veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom he his flesh was
as it were rent from top to bottom and because it was rent there
is a new and a living way opened up by which we may boldly enter
into the very presence of God unto the throne of grace oh what
a sight and what an entrance as the Spirit of God led you
there can you say that you have entered in? do you wish to enter? or does
the apathy of your heart say another day? are you consumed with this world
and its toys and its distractions that these are just words if you are there is a fire in
heaven which burns and it will either come down and consume
the burnt offering and the sacrifice in this temple for you or it
will consume you for whom there is no burnt offering and no sacrifice
for you care not for it don't play the fool with these things
don't shut your ears to the gospel and to the glory of the Lord
made known in Christ yes the temple is a picture of Christ
but it is also of course a picture of the children of God, of his
church, in whom Christ dwells. God dwells not in temples made
with hands, he says. God allowed Solomon to build
the temple that David so longed to build for him, but he allowed
it because it was a figure of the reality. But though God was
pleased to come down and to meet with his people in these figures,
in reality they could not contain him. And though Solomon built
the temple, Solomon's wisdom was great enough that Solomon
knew that. Solomon knew that God couldn't
be contained. Yet he knew that this should
be done because of that which it pictured. But God who dwells
not in temples made with hands, in houses made with hands, does
dwell wondrously in his people. the great, the everlasting, the
almighty God who made the heavens and the earth, who made the universe
which knows no bounds. That universe which if you were
able to create a spacecraft and travel for light years and years
and years you'd never reach the edge of. That vast universe,
the God that created this who cannot be contained has said
that He dwells in His people in their hearts by His Spirit. We are God's people, we are the
temple of the Spirit of God. The Living God dwells in us. And in dwelling within His people
bought by blood, the glory of the Lord fills the temple. They're filled with His glory.
Filled with it. We read last week of the people
coming to King David and their oneness with David and of the
way they said unto David that we are thy bone and thy flesh. They were united with him. And
in this sense, this points again to the temple. For God's people
are the bone and the flesh, the body, the temple in which God
dwells. We are thy bone and thy flesh,
we are thy temple. Thou art one with us, thou art
within us. Oh that God could dwell with
man, but oh that he dwells, not in a temple at Jerusalem which
you have to get up and travel to, but in the hearts of his
children. Is he in your heart? Are you in his heart? What a glory there is in the
temple of God. And yet whilst this chapter is
glorious, and whilst the temple and the building of the house
of the Lord described in 2 Chronicles is glorious, the book closes
with some dreadful tales of the rebellion of Israel. of the wicked kings which followed
Solomon, of the wickedness of the people in going off after
other gods, and of the dreadful consequences which came upon
them as God promised later in this chapter. He said unto Solomon
that if thou worship me then I will be with thee in this place,
but if not then I will destroy it, I will take it away. such
that this house should be an astonishment to everyone that
passes by to say why has the Lord done this to this land and
to this house? Why has he brought this evil
upon them? How could this come upon the
temple of God? And yet it did. Israel in its
rebellion was taken away in captivity to Babylon. and Jerusalem was
razed to the ground and the temple was destroyed. That great place,
that wondrous place in which the glory of the Lord filled, that wondrous place adorned with
gold was destroyed, taken from them because of their sin. How
could this be? you may hear the gospel you may
have that place to which you can go to hear the gospel and
to hear of Christ of whom the temple is the figure you may feel there are wondrous
things in the gospel but don't take it for granted don't take
the scriptures for granted don't take the preaching of the gospel
for granted don't take the freedom of worship for granted Israel's
rebellion and sin ended in their captivity and all these things
being taken away from them. Your apathy and your rebellion
against God and his goodness towards you in sending his gospel
to you, if you kick against it, it could be taken from you. Oh the apostasy of Israel. The temple was destroyed. Again,
there's meaning in these pictures, in these figures, in different
respects. But the first thing we must say
of this is that the temple being the figure of Christ, being raised to the ground because
of the sin and the rebellion of the people, takes us straight
to the cross. Why was the temple of God Christ
slain? Why was that body in which the
living God dwelt nailed to a cross and crucified? Why was the side
of Christ pierced through with a spear? Why were the hands and
the feet of Christ nailed to a cross? Why was the glory of God in the
person of Jesus Christ made to be sin and bore the sins of his
own people in his own body on the tree? Why did he die? Why did he suffer? Because of the sin, the apostasy
and the rebellion of his people Israel. Of his people. Believer, he died because of
your sin and your rebellion. Because you went off after other
gods. Because you despised his worship. Because you were the adulterer.
Because you aren't the man. Because you cared not for him.
Because of your sin. Because we sinned. God slew his
only begotten Son. Because his people sinned, God
sent him as a sacrifice for their sin. Because we sinned, God judged
him and crucified him. Because we sinned, God slew him
and turned his back on him. And Christ, in the midst of suffering,
cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He who never sinned, He who was
righteous, He who was pure gold, why did God forsake Him? Because His people sinned and
He loved that people so greatly that He would save them and the
only way He could save them was if He took their sin and the
judgment against it upon Him and that He would be destroyed,
not them. People wondered by And as it
were, looked upon Christ upon the cross and said, why have
the Lord done this to him? Why has this evil been brought
upon him? Because of the rebellion of his
people. Jesus said, as recorded in John
chapter two, 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. The temple that Solomon built
was destroyed. But it was a picture of Christ's
body, His temple, and that temple was destroyed. They took Him
to the cross, they crucified Him. But in three days, He rose
it up. In three days, He took again
His body from the grave and He rose glorious, having put sin
away, having taken it away. He rose victorious over sin,
death and hell. He rose a great saviour. He rose
with all his people, that people that brought about his death,
that apostate people like you and I. He rose again with his
own. He rose victorious and the temple
rose again and was built again. never to be destroyed he rose
victorious and ascended to glory on high where he sits down in
glory and the glory of the lord fills the house because the fire
came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice
and having consumed it and taken away the sin Christ rose gloriously,
victoriously, having wrought a finished and an effectual salvation
for all those for whom he died, for all the elect of God, all
that company that the Father gave him, all those names laid
upon his heart, all his sheep, He laid down His life for the
sheep and He had power to lay it down and power to take it
up again. And when He had saved that people,
He took that life up again, He built that temple up again, He
rose up again and He ascended into glory where today He sits
down. And from the heights of glory,
filled with glory, He preaches His glorious gospel. to a dark and an evil world in
which they dwell lost sheep of Israel scattered here and there
sheep who are in captivity taken away as it were into Babylon
waiting to be delivered waiting to be brought back to Jerusalem
waiting to be brought back to the temple waiting to see the
glory of the Lord and there comes that time in their life when
God in the Gospel by His Spirit comes unto them and brings them
out of captivity opens their ears to hear the Gospel opens
their eyes to see Christ and leads them back to Jerusalem
and says behold the man behold the Son of God and they see the
one of whom the temple was a figure lifted up and glorious having
died for them. And they see their sins washed
away in his blood. And they see how the fire came
down from heaven upon him, not them. And they see the one who
loved them before ever they were born. The one who loved them
when he was nailed to a cross. The one who loved them when he
gave his last gasp of breath and cried out, it is finished.
And the one who loved them when he rose from the grave. and the
one who says now unto them thy sins are forgiven thee thy faith
have made thee whole yes Christ of whom the temple
was a figure could lay down his life and take
it up again on the third day this temple was destroyed But
the temple of old was rebuilt. It was rebuilt. The people did
rebel. It was destroyed, they were taken
into captivity. But it was rebuilt. It was rebuilt in reality when
Christ rose again from the dead. Having taken away our sin. having as it were been gold put
through the fire and the dross or sin having been burnt up by
the fire to leave nothing but gold. He went through the fires
for his people and he rose again glorious. The temple in Christ
was built again. But the temple and the rebuilding
of the temple also points us to Christ's secondary turn. He
came and He died. He ascended unto glory, but He
will come again to gather in His people. He will come again. And though the people on earth
in the last days might be apostate, as Israel of old was apostate,
and though they might be scattered, And though the Jews to whom the
Gospel was first preached might have rebelled, and though the
Gospel might have gone out to the Gentiles throughout the nations,
and though the Gentiles and believers in the Gentiles, the professing
church, may now follow the footsteps of the Jews of old in their apostasy,
and though the Gospel may now be hardly heard, yet there comes
a day when Christ will return and there is throughout time
that rebuilding of the temple by the gospel here and there
there and here a little there and a little there as God saves
his people and as God builds his kingdom and as God gathers
in that kingdom unto the last day And in the end, on the last
day when Christ returns, He will return to be with His people
forevermore. And they will dwell with Him
in a temple which will never be taken away. In a house in
which the glory of the Lord will be forever, untainted by sin,
without the mixture that is in this world. They will be in that
place where they can never be taken away. Where sin does not
enter, where there's no sickness, no famine, no ruin. Where they
will never be taken into captivity again. In that place where they
will live and reign with their Saviour forevermore. Forevermore. That day is fast approaching. When Israel was in captivity,
in Babylon, who was it by whom the people were stirred up to
rebuild the temple. Not a Jew, but the word of the
Lord came by a Gentile. Israel had apostatized, but God
would build his temple again. And we read at the very end of
2 Chronicles, that in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might
be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king
of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and
put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
All the kingdoms of the earth have the Lord God of heaven given
me. and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem
which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all
his people? The Lord his God be with him
and let him go up. Who is there among you of all
his people? The Lord his God be with him
and let him go up. This Gentile king This king of
Persia was spoken to by God to cry out
this, as it were, to God's people scattered throughout this world
of captivity. And in the day in which we live,
Jerusalem of old having been razed to the ground, the Jews
having taken Christ and slain him and rebelled against his
gospel, and the Gospel having gone out to all nations, to the
Gentiles. It is the Gentiles, as it were,
who stand up by God's Spirit, here and there, in the Gospel,
and cry out to a fallen world, and to the people of God scattered
amongst it. Who is there among you of all
his people? The Lord his God be with him,
and let him go up. Let us see the temple built again. Let us see it in its glory. May God put faith in our hearts
to see Christ slain, crucified, and risen again for sinners such
as you and I. That temple which was destroyed,
that temple which raised again, that temple in which the glory
of the Lord was seen. For the glory of the
Lord filled the temple. Oh, what a sight! Have you seen
it? Have you seen it? Are you one
of God's people? Have you one of those who God
has put faith in the heart to see? Who is there among you of
all his people? The Lord his God be with him
and let him go up. Amen.