I want you to take your Bibles
and I want you to mark these places if you've got something
to mark the Scriptures with. You'll need your Bibles this
evening. I want you to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 3. 2 Chronicles chapter
3 and I want you to put a mark there. And I want you to turn to 1 Chronicles
chapter 21 and put you a mark there. If you've done read your
bulletin, you don't have anything to mark with, tear a piece off
of it and mark it with it. Make sure you've read it. And then in Genesis 22, you can
just turn over there now if you want to. I'm not going to read
this chapter again, but I want just to remind you some of the verses here that
mentions this Moriah and this place that God had called Abraham
to go out and offer Isaac. And I just want to read this
and emphasize these things to you again. In Genesis chapter 22 in verse
3, Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and
took two of his young men with him And Isaac his son enclaved
the wood of the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him." The place. And of course in verse
2 it says, Go offer him upon one of the mountains, which I
will tell thee. One of the mountains, I will
tell thee. And then in verse 3 it says,
He went unto the place which God told him of. And then verse
4, then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw
the place. He saw the place. And then in
verse 9, they came to the place which God had told him of, the
place. And then verse 14, Abraham called
the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. In the mouth of the Lord it shall
be seen, or the Lord will provide." And maybe you could say, in the
mouth of the Lord we shall see that the Lord has provided. Now
I want you to turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 3. I want us to look just a little
bit at this place There may be some doubt in some people's mind
and some people say that we're speculating a little bit, but
there's no doubt in my mind this evening in the passage of these
scriptures concerning this place and what happened here. In 2
Chronicles 3, I want you to look in verse 1. 2 Chronicles 3, verse
1. Then Solomon began to build the
house of the Lord, at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah where the Lord
appeared unto David his father in the place that David had prepared
in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. This is where Solomon
built this temple in Mount Moriah and he makes mention here that
it was a place where David his father had bought from a man
by the name of Ornan. He was a Jebusite. Now I want
to turn back over to 1 Chronicles chapter 21, and I want to read
this account to you, where David purchased this place where Ornon
had set up his threshing instruments, and they were threshing wheat,
he and his son. And I want you to look at the
account that's given here in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, and
why David purchased this and what took place there. Where
Solomon built the temple, is this threshing floor of armor
that David purchased from him. Now 1 Chronicles chapter 21,
David had sinned against the Lord, he had numbered the people,
and the Lord had given him three options. He said, do you want
to, there in verse 12, do you want three years of famine? Or
do you want three months to run before your enemies while they
destroy you? Or do you want me to bring judgment
upon you? And David said, Let me fall into the hands of the
Lord. I trust the Lord, but not man. And verse 13, And David
said unto Gath, I am in a strait, let me fall now into the hands
of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall
into the hands of man. So the Lord sent pestilence upon
Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God
sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was
destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil,
and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood
by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted
up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between
the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched
out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of
Israel, who were clothed in sackcloths, fell upon their faces. And David
said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?
Even I it is that hath sinned, and done this evil indeed. But
as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray
thee, O my God, Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's
house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David
should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing
floor of Arnon the Jebusite. That's what the Lord told him
to do. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake
in the name of the Lord. And Arnon turned back and saw
the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Arnon
was threshing wheat. And as David came to Arnon, Arnon
looked and saw David, and went out to the threshing floor, and
bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. And David
said to Arnon, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that
I may build an altar therein unto the Lord, that thou shalt
grant me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed
from the people. And Ornan said unto David, Take
it to thee, and let my lord the king do with it which is good
in his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen also
for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood,
and the wheat for the meat offering. I give it all. And David said
unto Ornan, Nay, but I will verily buy it for the full price. For
I will not take that which is thine for the Lord. nor offer
burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Arnon for the
place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. And David built
therein an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and
peace offerings, and called upon the name of the Lord. And he
answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offerings.
And the Lord commanded the angel, and he put up his sword again
unto the sheath thereof. At that time, when David saw
that the Lord had anchored him in the threshing floor of Arnon,
the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of
the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar
of burnt offerings, were at this season in the high place at Gibeah. But David could not go before
it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword
of the angel of the Lord. Then David said, This is the
house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offerings
for Israel. And down in verse 5, David said,
Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built
for the Lord must be exceeding magnificent, for fame and for
glory throughout all countries. I will therefore now make preparation
for it." So David prepared abundantly for his death. Now this is the
place, that's a lengthy reading, but this is the place that David
bought from Ornan and offered these oxen and burnt these oxen
with these Thracian instruments and this is the very place that
Solomon built the temple. Now, I want you to look at a
couple of more places and keep turning with me. Don't let me
lose you. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 26. This is the way I
study at home. Deuteronomy. Look in Deuteronomy
chapter 26. We keep finding this word, the
place. The place. Abraham went to the
place. Solomon built the temple in the
place. And here Moses and the children
of Israel are out in the desert, and it won't be long until Moses
is dead, and he's given the children of Israel instructions on what
they're going to do once they come into the land of promise.
And look here at what he says in Deuteronomy 26, verses 1 and
2. And it shall be, when thou art come into the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possesseth
it, and dwelleth therein, that thou shalt take of the first
of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy
land, that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket,
and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shalt choose
to place his name therein. Place, the place, the place.
That's what he told Abraham, wasn't it? The place, which I
shall tell you. That was Mount Moriah. That's
where David bought the threshing floor. That's where he said,
Solomon, you have to build the temple here. And Moses told the
children of Israel before they ever got to the land of Canaan,
when you get there, there comes a time in every year when you
basket up your fruit and you take it up to the place. To the
place. where God is going to put His
name. Now turn back here again to the verse I asked you to hold.
2 Chronicles. Look here in 2 Chronicles 6. The place. Look what he says in chapter 6 verse
20. Look at this. Here Solomon is. He has built the temple. He's
dedicating it now, and here's his prayer in this temple. Here's
what he prays to God, verse 20. That thine eyes may be opened
upon this house, day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast
said that thou wouldst puttest thy name there, to hearken unto
the prayer which thy servant prayeth towards this place. I just can't believe the Holy
Spirit would use this same word over and over again if it wasn't
some significance behind it. Look in chapter 7 and verse 12. And the Lord appeared, this is
when Solomon had finished his prayer. The Lord appeared to
Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer
and have chosen this place to myself. born in a house of sacrifice. This place, this place. So look
at this place like this. The first time we see this place,
it seems so desolate, doesn't it? It seems so desolate. It's rough. It's rocky. It's
full of brushes and briars and thorns. And we're told there
in the text that I read to you this morning that a ram was caught
in the thicket. Can you imagine what a desolate,
rough, thorny place this was? When Abraham went up on Mount
Moriah to offer Isaac. And Abraham goes up there and
he scratches him out. He takes him a stick. They say
that they used to do this. And he scratched him out a big
enough place to build him an altar. And he gets in and he
sacrifices that as a priest would sacrifice to God. That was his
temple up on Mount Moriah. And in time, these scriptures
that I read to you, Ornan the Jebusite, he buys this place,
he sets him up a threshing floor there. And he and his sons thresh
wheat for a living. And then David, in time, because
of the judgment of the Lord and being instructed by the Lord,
he buys this place and he offers burnt offerings and peace offerings
to the Lord. And the Scripture says that the
plague that had killed 70,000 men was stayed. And then Solomon
builds this magnificent temple on this place. And David said
it was going to be exceeding magnificent for fame and glory
throughout all countries. And you remember when the Queen
of Sheba came here, and she saw, among other things, this temple,
this magnificent temple, and what was did there, and how Solomon
and his servants went up to that temple to worship. And when she
saw this, there was no breath left in her. She was overwhelmed,
and she said, I've heard of this. But she said, the hype was never
told to me. This is a magnificent place. Now notice some things,
turn back over to 2 Chronicles chapter 5, and notice some things
about this magnificent temple. Look in 2 Chronicles chapter
5 and verse 6. Chapter 5 and verse 6. Now look at this. When they dedicated
this temple, This is almost unimaginable, and Bob can relate to this. In
verse 6 of 2 Chronicles 5, Also King Solomon, and all the congregation
of Israel, that were assembled unto him before the ark, sacrificed
sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for a multitude. Now, you don't have to turn over
there and read this, but if you want to, you can mark it. Over
in the 7th chapter in verse 4 and 5, after they had offered these
sacrifices here that they quit counting, the fire of the Lord fell and
consumed these sacrifices. And here in the 7th chapter in
verses 4 and 5, he said this, The king and all the people offered
sacrifices before the Lord and King Solomon, now look at this,
sacrificed 22,000 oxen. Now can you imagine if you had
a pen big enough to hold 22,000 oxen? Bob, you probably haven't
slain that many oxen in all your life, have you? And look at this,
and then 120,000 sheep. They had offered them
to begin with and they quit counting, they had so many. But when they
saw that the fire of God had failed and accepted the sacrifices,
they turned right around and offered 22 more thousand oxen
and 120,000 sheep. That's the almost unbelievable
amount. How did they skin and prepare
that many animals? It was amazing that the blood
that was shed there. That's one of the things that
went on in this temple. Look here in chapter 5 and verse
13 and 14. Verse 13 and 14. Look here what else, and this
is wonderful. The presence of the Lord filled this place. Look
in verse 13. even to pass, as the trumpeters
and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising
and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their
voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and
praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, his mercy endureth
forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even
the house of the Lord, So that the priest could not stand to
minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had
filled the house of God. That's amazing isn't it? That's
amazing. Look in chapter 7 and look in
verse 15 and verse 16. Just telling you about some things
that went on here. Look in chapter 7 verse 15 and
verse 16. Look at God's attitude towards
this place. Look in verse 15. Here's the
answer to Solomon's prayer. He said, Now mine eyes shall
be open, and my ears attentive unto the prayer that is made
in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified
this house, that my name may be there forever, And mine eyes
and my heart shall be there perpetually. That's what God said about this
house, this temple. And in chapter 6 and verse 21,
look at this, one more place. Chapter 6 and verse 21, here's
what Solomon prayed and asked the Lord. Hearken therefore unto
the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which
they shall make towards this place, Hear thou from thy dwelling
place, even from heaven, and when thou hearest, forgive."
Now he says, first of all, I'm going to be attentive to the
prayer that's prayed in this place. If there's any prayer
that's prayed in this temple, I'm going to hear it. And then
he said here in this verse, if there's any prayer prayed towards
this place, I'm going to hear it. You remember Daniel? when
they made the decree that nobody should worship any god but the
golden calf? Remember when Daniel got down
on his face and prayed and he was looking out the window? Remember
which way he was looking? Towards this temple. I wonder
why. God promised to hear. You look
towards that temple. I'm going to hear your prayer.
What do we have here? In the beginning it was a place
so rough that a ram couldn't safely pass through it. And yet
it became a magnificent and glorious temple that God filled where
sacrifices were made and prayers were heard. That's a rough beginning
but a glorious ending. Now this temple was later and
finally destroyed by the enemies of the Jews. We can read that
in his word. They were led away captive. Some
men, Ezra, Zerubbabel, and some of the men came back out of captivity
and they rebuilt this temple, a smaller version of it. It was
nothing compared to Solomon's beautiful temple. And then, in
the time of our Lord Herod, King Herod, He had remodeled this
temple and it was a famous temple, a beautiful temple at that time.
The disciples showed it to the Lord. Remember that? What a strong,
beautiful temple it was. Titus went in there and he was
amazed when he saw that temple. But finally it was destroyed
completely. In A.D. 70, nothing left of it. And you know what stands there
now? The mosque. Islam's mosque, that blasphemous
religion, they have their mosques there. And there's no doubt in
my mind that that temple will never be rebuilt again. There's
no call for it. If God's going to gather those
people, those Jews, and save them, He's going to gather them
and save them by the grace of Jesus Christ, and not by temple
worship, not by the sacrifices of bulls and goats and lambs. Mount Moriah and its obscure
beginnings, and the glorious place it eventually became, is
to show us God's way of redemption in Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus
Christ, the Son of God incarnate, He is our Mount Moriah. He's the true temple where the
glory of God dwells in its fullness. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. In Him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All God ever was, all He is now,
all He ever will be in His eternal fullness and eternal perfection. dwells in Jesus Christ. All God is, and I tell you, brothers
and sisters, the universe cannot contain Him, but everything He
is in His perfections and His eternal glory is found in the
very person, in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the knowledge of the glory of God, and where is it seen? in
Jesus Christ in His very face. And yet look what humble beginnings
he had. Look what humble beginnings he
had. Born of a poor virgin woman,
laid in a manger. Joseph and Mary had to flee to
Egypt with him to preserve his life. He was raised in poverty. He dwelt in a despised town of
Nazareth He had no place to lay his head. Women ministered unto
him. He was a man of sorrows. He was
acquainted with grief. He was despised and rejected
of men. And when is the last time this
world gazed upon him? He hung naked on a cross. He hung there with his tongue
swollen to his cheeks. He hung there with deep furrows
laid down his back. He hung there in the shame of
his nakedness. He hanged there in mocking and
spitting. He hanged there with his vestige
marred more than any man, the beard plucked from his face,
and he hanged there till he gave up the ghost. And then when he
did that, a spear was put in his side, and he poured out all
his blood. In His beginning in this world
and in His ending, it was humiliation. And to the eyes of this perishing
world, Jesus Christ has no more appeal than the rocky, thorny
Moriah that entrapped Abraham's ram. But to you who have eyes
to see, you who have eyes to see Christ and Him crucified,
You see in Him a glory and you see in Him a beauty that Solomon's
temple could not match. And you see more value in one
drop of the Redeemer's blood than all the million gallons
of animal sacrifices that they sacrificed. You see in Him a
risen and exalted mediator. Destroy this temple and in three
days I'll raise it up again. Forty and two years it took us
to build this temple. I'm not talking about that temple.
I'm talking about a more glorious temple. I'm talking about the
temple of my body. And you see in Him a glorious,
risen and exalted mediator, one upon whose eyes and ears and
heart of God is ever set. God hears every prayer that's
prayed in that temple, does He not? I will never withhold a
request of His lips. I'll give to Him the desires
of His heart. And God hears the prayers and
the pleadings and the sighings of every poor believing sinner
who turns the eyes of his faith towards that temple, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The eye of this world and to
the eye of this world He began his earthly life and ended it
in humiliation. But he accomplished everything
he intended. And everything he set his heart
to do was effectual. And look at him now. Look at
the Lord Jesus now. Look at this temple now. A glorious
body, no more subject to the infirmities of this life, exalted
far above all principalities and powers. He's reigning and
must reign till He has secured eternal life and heaven for all
His people and put all enemies under His feet. And the last
thing that's going to happen before eternity begins, every
man and woman and boy and girl is going to come to the feet
of this man this glorious man and say, You're Lord. You're
the Lord. You're the glorious Lord. You're
the Son of God. Oh, he had some thorny beginnings,
didn't he? And it looked so desolate in
the eyes of this world. But what God begins with little
things, He magnifies and makes magnificent things out of them.
I can tell you about another beginning that seems rough and
desolate, even as Abraham's Mount Moriah. You see a poor, broken-hearted
sinner smiting up on his breast. And he's saying, God be perpetuous
to me, a sinner. God be merciful to me, a sinner. And his conscience is as bound
as Abraham's ram in a thicket. It's bound by the fetters of
guilt and fear, and he's destitute of any fruit to offer to God
except a broken heart, and God gave him that. But what happens
to this poor desolate sinner who cries for mercy? God Himself
says this about him, with this man I must dwell. He is so lost
that nobody else can save Him, therefore I'll save Him. He is
so broken that nobody else can bind Him up, therefore I'll do
so. He's so weak that nobody else
can support Him, therefore I'll carry Him with my omnipotent
arm. So God comes to Him and God dwells with Him and God walks
in Him and says, I'm His God and He's my child. And though
this poor man complains that his life is so barren and his
heart is so full of thorns and briars that he has no fruit before
God, but his fruit is from God. And such a man may live and die
unrecognized and unappreciated by this world and put in a grave
and he's forgotten and his body decays. But you just wait. You just wait. Wait until that
resurrection morning, when the Lord Jesus shall descend from
heaven with a shout, and that body that's gone back to the
dust shall be raised incorruptible. And He'll have a glorious body
made lacking to His Lord and Savior. And He's carried up to
heaven with a shout. And He's there and has for His
company saints and angels and God Himself. And he walks with
the Lord in white, and he sits with Him in His throne. And all
his pain is gone. And he'll never sorrow, he'll
never sigh, he'll never fear, he'll never doubt again. And
in the kingdom of his Father, he'll shine as the sun. Shine
as the sun. What do we see in Mount Moriah?
We see God's way of redemption. First, there's humility. First,
there's barrenness. First, there's nothing. And then
when God finishes with it, there's glory and honor. Oh, brothers
and sisters, this world doesn't want to come down, does it? It
doesn't want to stoop and drink and live. Before we drink, we
stoop. Before we live, we die. Before
we're healed, we're wounded. That's God's way. He begins with
a desolate place like Moriah, and He winds up building a magnificent
temple on it. He begins by sending us a Savior
that's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow, and
to look upon Him just another man who can't accomplish anything. But He puts Him on a cross and
puts our sins upon Him, and He bears the load and pays the debt,
and God exalts Him to be a Prince and a Savior. And He takes sinners
that's on the dunghill, hopeless and helpless, and He breaks them,
and He makes them to know their sin, and their barrenness, and
their ugliness. Then He saves them. Saves them
by His grace. Puts His Spirit within them.
And guides them and upholds them through this life. And someday
makes them in the very image of His blessed Son. That's God's
way. That's God's way. And may he
bless it to our hearts.