The next three chapters are about
the building of the temple, beginning here in chapter five. 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 this is a man that was not
a Jew, He was a Gentile, but he was a lover of David. And
Solomon sent to Hiram saying, thou knowest how the David, my
father could not build an house under 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. Now you'll remember
David wanted to build this temple and God said, no, you're a bloody
man. You're not going to build the
temple. Verse four, but now the Lord, my God had given me rest
on every side so that there's neither adversary nor evil occurrence. And that word of current is used
one other times, one other time in the Bible and it's translated
chance. And it means there's not, I have no adversary and
there's no bad luck. There's no chance of anything
bad happening. God's on the throne. 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 a house unto my name. Now
therefore command thou that they ewe me cedar trees out of Lebanon,
and my servants shall be with thy servants. And unto thee will
I give hire for thy servants, according to all that thou shalt
appoint. For thou knowest that there's not among us any that
can skill to ewe timber like unto the Sidonians." Here's Hiram's
people. They were better at this than
any of the Israelites were. And it came to pass when Hiram heard
the words of Solomon that he rejoiced greatly and said, blessed
be the Lord this day, which had given unto David a wise son over
this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon saying,
I've considered the thing which thou sentest to me for, and I
will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and concerning
timber of fir. My servants shall bring them
down from Lebanon under the sea. and I will convey them by sea
and floats into the place that thou shalt appoint me and will
cause them to be discharged there and thou shalt receive them and
thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my household.
So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all
of his desire. This is what the temple was going to be made of.
And Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food to
his household and 20 measures of pure oil. Thus gave Solomon
to Hiram year by year. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom,
as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram
and Solomon, and the two made a league or a covenant together.
And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy
was 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon,
10,000 a month by course. A month they were in Lebanon
and two months at home. And Adonai Hiram was over the
levy. And Solomon had three score and
10,000 that bear burden, 70,000 men, and four score thousand,
80,000 ewers of wood. That's 150,000 people on this
construction project. And what I think is interesting
about this, this is a construction project. The building that we're
making was not even as big as this room. Yet 150,000 men were
used for the timber and the construction, and it took seven years to build
it. That's how careful they were in this. We're going to see this
in the next chapter. 16, besides the chief of Solomon's
officers, which were over the work, 3,300, which ruled over
the people that wrought on the work. And the, these were the foreman
over the job, 3000 some foreman and the King commanded and they
brought great stones, costly stones, and you'd stones to lay
the foundation of the house and Solomon's builders and Hiram's
builders did you them and the stone square. So they prepared
timber and stones to build the house. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, that name that's above every name. And we ask
in his name that you would be pleased to meet with us and to
speak in power to our hearts from your word. Lord, our request
is that we might be found in your son, that we might see his
glory, that we might be enabled to believe on him, that we might
be forgiven and washed from our many sins. That you'd give us
grace to love you more and love one another more. Lord, we pray
for your mercy upon this nation. We pray for your mercy on Florida,
according to your will. Let thy will be done. Lord, we pray that you'd bless
your people wherever they meet together. We ask that you would
give our leaders wisdom and guide them. that we might live a quiet
and peaceable life in all honesty and godliness. Bless us for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen. Now chapters five through seven
are about the building of the temple. Now what is the temple? It's the dwelling place of God.
That's what it represents. the dwelling place of God. It's
where God lives. Now we know that Solomon knew
that God is omnipresent and this temple nor the universe can contain
him. He can't be contained in a building
made with hands by men. Even a great building like this.
Look at 1 Kings 8. This is when he's dedicating
the temple. Look what he says. Verses 26 and 27. These are the
words of Solomon with regard to the temple after it's been
built. And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be
verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant, David, my father.
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, he understood
the transcendence of God and the omnipresence of God. He said,
behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.
You think of the vastness of the universe. It can't contain
thee. How much less this house that
I've built. Now he understood that this house
could not contain the living God. That was clear to him. But this house represents something
where God's saving presence dwells. Now, where does God dwell? The
omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, sovereign, transcendent God,
the God who's beyond anything we can even imagine. Where does
he dwell? Colossians 2.9 says, In him,
in the Lord Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. That's where he dwells. All fullness
dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ. And where does Christ dwell?
What's his temple? Where does he dwell? The church. Every believer You, me. He dwells in every believer. The church is called his body. Now this is so mysterious. This
is so glorious. If you're a believer, if God's
done something for you, that means God dwells in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now that is just so mysterious. And my first thought is, well,
I don't feel much like he dwells in me. I understand that feeling. If you feel that way, I don't
feel much like he dwells in me. How can he dwell in me when I'm
so sinful, when I'm so, well, That's one of those things you're
just going to have to take by faith. Because God says this. That's
why we believe it. Because God says this, Christ in you. The hope of glory. Now that's
what this temple represents. And that's why Solomon is building
this temple. Now, when the first tabernacle
was dedicated, And this is what this temple takes the tabernacle's
place. When the first tabernacle was
dedicated, turn with me to Exodus 40. Let's see what happened.
This is after the completion of the first tabernacle. Exodus chapter 40. Verses 34
and 35. After the first tabernacle was
reared up in the wilderness, verse 34, then a cloud covered
the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle. All the vastness of the glory
of the Lord filled this tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
into the tent of the congregation, because of the cloud abode thereon,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Now, can I explain
that? No. But do I see the glory of
the Lord in it? Yes, I do. Now, look at the dedication
of this Temple, after it was made in 1 Kings 8, same thing
happened. 1 Kings 8, verse 10, And it came to pass, when the
priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled
the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to
minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had
filled the house of the Lord. He had filled this temple that
he made. Now this temple represents the
dwelling place of God. Now let's go back to first Kings
chapter five and Hiram. King of Tyre sent
his servants unto Solomon for he'd heard that they'd anointed
him king in the room of his father. For Hiram was ever a lover of
David. And I believe that's because
he was a lover of David's God. I love the way he gave glory
to God for giving Israel Solomon to rule over them. He loved David's
God. That's why he loved David. And
Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how that David my
father could not build a house under the name of the Lord his
God, for the wars which were about him on every side unto
the Lord had put them under the soles of his feet. David was
not allowed to build a house because he was a man of war.
And you know, his wars is what gave Solomon this peace. He had
peace on every side. He didn't have any adversaries.
He didn't have any enemies. Nobody could stand before him
because David had become the most powerful man in the world.
You know, the scripture says the fear of David fell on every
nation. And he made it to where Solomon
didn't have to worry about wars. Peace was on every side. Look in verse four. But now the
Lord my God hath given me rest on every side so that there's
neither adversary nor evil concurrent. Now, this can be said of every
believer. Rest. Rest. There remaineth a rest
for the people of God. What are you doing when you're
resting? It means you're not working. It really is that simple. You're not working. You're resting
in what he has done. He that's entered into his rest
hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Have you
ever just ceased from your works and rested in his? That's what
saving faith is. You've given us rest on every
side and that rest is because of the battle our great David
won for us. And there's nothing to do. But
now the Lord, my God has given me rest on every side so that
there's neither adversary nor evil concurrent. I don't have
any adversaries. Now, what do you think of when
you think of your adversaries? The first thing I think of is
my sins. My sins. Thank God they're all non-existent
before God because of what Christ did. I wonder if any of us really believe
that. I have no adversaries. I have nothing to worry about.
When he talks about evil concurrent, that word literally is, not only
do I have no adversaries, I'm not going to have any bad luck.
It's all good. Everything is good because God
controls it. Now, can't you rest in that?
Can't I rest in that? There's nothing to worry about.
I tell you what, that's what's going to give a believer rest.
That's going to fill a believer to want to walk with him and
honor him because there's nothing for him to do. If you give me
something to do, I'm going to be scared to death. You give
me nothing to do, I want to walk with him and glorify him. That's
the response to this. Verse five, and behold, I purpose
to build a house under 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 thee in house. Solomon
knew that this was all according to God's purpose. It was prophesied
that Solomon would do this before he was even born. God said to
David, I'm going to give you a son. David had this desire
to build a house. He said, you're not going to
build a house. but your son will, the son that I give you. He's
gonna build this house, this temple to me, to my glory. Verse six, now therefore command
thou that you ewe me cedar trees out of Lebanon. And my servants
shall be with thy servants, and to thee will I give hire for
thy servants. I'm gonna pay according to all
that thou shalt appoint, for thou knowest that there's not
any among us that can skill to you timber like unto the Sidonians. This is just on the side. Knowing
to delegate, he did. He did, didn't he? He said, you
guys are much better at hewing timber than we are, so we want
you to do this. Knowing to delegate, there's
people that can do stuff a lot better than you can. Have them
do it. You're just using common sense
when you do that. That's what he did. Now let's go on reading.
Verse seven. And it came to pass, when Hiram
heard these words, of Solomon that he rejoiced greatly and
said, blessed be the Lord this day that had given unto David
a wise son over his great people. Notice blessed be the Lord. Now
this is a Gentile, but he was a worshiper of David's God. And
Hiram sent to Solomon saying, I've considered the things which
thou sentest to me for and I'll do all thy desire concerning
the timber of cedar and concerning the timber of fir, that which
was going to be covered with gold. As we go on reading into
chapter seven, I mean in this temple, even the floors were
covered with gold. I don't know of any building
on earth where the floors were covered with gold. I think this
is maybe the one time there was a perfect construction going
on. You know, every time somebody does something, something's out
of square. I don't believe there's anything out of square. If there's
a perfect cube in the Holy of Holies, golden floors, just such
a glorious building. And like I said, it was the building
itself, the temple was not as big as this room, yet 150,000
people to labor for it and 3,300 foremen. And the reason was, And we're going to get into this
next week. The reason was everything had to be done before it was
brought into the temple. It had to be cut perfectly. All
the timbers cut perfectly, all the stones for the foundation
cut perfectly because they didn't want any sound of work to be
done in the building of this temple. Perfect quietness. Now when's the last time you
were on a construction site and all the noise going on? I mean,
it's so noisy and loud. Do you know on this construction,
there was no noise. You didn't hear a hammer strike
anything. You didn't hear any work going
on at all. And that's a reminder to us of
our salvation. Now, 150,000 men used for this
construction project to make sure everything was perfect before
it was brought onto the job site. And you can imagine how much
work that took. And so I can see where they needed
150,000 men, all these ewers of wood. And there was a guy
that was a great goldsmith and made brass and so on. But anyway,
let's go on reading. Verse 10, so Hiram, gave Solomon
cedar trees and fir trees, according to all of his desire. And Solomon
gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food to his household
and 20 measures of pure oil. Thus gave Solomon to Hiram year
by year. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him. And
there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they two made
a league together, and King Solomon raised a levy out of Israel,
and the levy was 30,000 men, and he sent them to Lebanon,
10,000 a month by course, a month they were in Lebanon, two months
at home, and Adoniram was over them, and Solomon had three score
and 10,000 that bear burdens, and four score thousand ewers
in the mountains, 150,000 people. Besides the chief of Solomon's
officers, which were the work, 3,300, which ruled over the people
that wrought the work, and the king commanded, and they brought
great stones and costly stones." Now this is the foundation of
the temple. Our foundation, Christ Jesus.
Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. And the king commanded, and they
brought great stones and costly stones and yewed stones to lay
the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's
builders did yew them, and the stone squares as they prepared
timber and stones to build the house." Now, the preparation
of this house was done and completed before the house was put together.
All of our salvation was completed and done before we were ever
even brought into existence in the purpose and decrees of God. Now let's look real quickly at
the account in second Chronicles. And Solomon chapter two, second
Chronicles chapter two. And Solomon determined to build
a house for the name of the Lord and a house for his kingdom. And Solomon told out three score
and 10,000 men to bear burdens and 4,000 to you in the mountain
and 3,600 to oversee them. And Solomon went to Urim the
king of Tyre saying, as thou didst deal with David my father.
and did send him cedars to build him a house to dwell therein.
Even so, deal with me." And what I thought about this, you know,
he said, the way you dealt with David, deal with me. And that's
my prayer. The way you deal with your son,
deal with me. That's all my prayer. The way you dealt with Christ,
deal with me. Oh, that I might be found in
him and that I might be viewed as him. Verse 4, Behold, I build
a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him,
and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual
showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening,
and the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts
of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever
to Israel. And this house which I build
is great, for great is our God above all gods. But who is able
to build him in a house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens
cannot contain him? Who am I, then, that I should
build him in a house, save only the burnt sacrifice before him?"
I love what he says here. He says, Solomon, the wisest
man in the world, says, who am I? I can't build him a house.
My only hope is sacrifice. That's the reason I want this
house is because of the sacrifices that represent the coming lamb
of God. My only hope is salvation. This
is all I desire. Go on reading. Send me now, therefore, a man
cunning. to work in gold and silver and in brass and in iron
and in purple and in crimson and blue. And they conscaled
to grave with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and
Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide." Now let's don't
miss this, the materials and their significance. Send me a
man to work first in gold. What does the gold represent
in the first tabernacle? Deity. the deity of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now let me remind you, this temple is God. Jesus Christ is God. All these cedar trees and fir
trees were going to be covered with gold. When you went into
this temple, all you saw was gold. This speaks of the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then silver. The next thing
he said, I need a cunning work in silver. What does silver represent? Well, remember the silver shekel
of the sanctuary, half shekel, that everybody gave, no matter
how rich they were or how poor they were, everybody was required
to give the same thing. And it was called the atonement
money. What does silver represent? The
atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, every believer stands
before God, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight
because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That's what that silver
represents. As a matter of fact, they took
that silver that was given and that was used as the foundation
of the tabernacle. The sockets that you'd place
the boards in that held the whole tabernacle up, it was all made
of silver. And this represents the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brass. Brass is made of two things,
copper and tin. And this represents the two natures
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God, he's man. Our Redeemer
is fully God, all that God is, he is. And he's man, bone of
our bones, flesh of our flesh. The only way you and I can be
saved is if God became man. Man sin, man must die. The God-man
died. The God-man made complete satisfaction. It's only in his deity and his
humanity that he could save men, the God-man. And then iron represents
strength, the omnipotence. The strength of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his strength to bear the weight of the wrath of God
and actually swallowed it up where there's nothing left. Who
could do that but him? If God's wrath came down upon
you, what would happen? There's no way you could stand
before it. But the wrath of God came upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and he swallowed it up. He bore the wrath of God. And
now God says, there's no fury in me. That's because of the
strength, the omnipotent strength of our Redeemer. And then the
purple represents his royalty. He's king. He's king of kings,
and he's lord of lords. Everything he did, he did as
a king. And why did they crucify him? What was the accusation
brought against him? The accusation written over his head, Jesus
of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, will not have this man
reign over us. He will reign. He's king. And everything he does is as
a king. You know, even the thief understood this. When he saw
Christ hanging on a cross, he said, remember me when you come
back in your kingdom as a mighty reigning king. Any believer knows
that Jesus Christ is king, don't they? He's the king. We really
believe that. And then crimson. That represents
his blood. How? You say, wait, isn't that
the atonement? Yeah, but let's go again. His
blood. His blood is what gives me a clear conscience before
God. His blood actually put away sin. Now, those are the things
that he wanted in order to using the construction of this temple.
Send me also, verse eight, send me also cedar trees, fir trees,
and algum trees out of Lebanon, for I know that thy servants
can skill to cut timber in Lebanon, and behold, my servants shall
be with thy servants, even to prepare me timber in abundance,
for this house which I'm about to build shall be wonderful great. Isn't that a description of our
Lord? Wonderful, great. Lynn asked me about something
yesterday and I said, oh, it's wonderful. I'm sorry for saying
that. Really, listen to me, I sound
like I'm, well, even saying this, someone's gonna
call something wonderful and think, well, Christ is wonderful. Here's what I'm trying to say,
Christ is wonderful. I don't think anything else fits that
description, do you? Christ is wonderful. How you
doing? Wonderful. Really? Christ is wonderful. And I would
suggest that we be careful the way we use that language. He
said, this temple, this house will be wonderful. Great. Verse
10 and behold, I'll give to thy servants and the years of thy
cut timber, 20,000 measures of beaten wheat and 20,000 measures
of barley, all the food he's going to give him bags of oil.
Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent us
all, because the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made thee
king over them. That's the gospel, isn't it?
because the Lord has loved his people. He's made thee king over
them. And Huram said, moreover, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel that made heaven and earth, who hath
given to David the king a wise son, and endued with prudence
and understanding that he might build a house for the Lord, and
a house for his kingdom. And now I've sent a cunning man,
endued with understanding of Huram, my father's, the son of
a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre,
skillful to work in gold, and in silver and brass, and iron
and stone and timber, in purple and blue, and in fine linen,
and in crimson, also to grave any manner of graving, and to
find out every device which shall be put to him with thy cunning
men, and with thy cunning men of my Lord David thy father.
Now therefore the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine,
and my Lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants, and
we'll cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shall need, and
we'll bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa, and thou shall
carry it up to Jerusalem. And Solomon numbered, All the
strangers that were in the land of Israel after the numbering
were with David, his father had numbered them. And they were
found in 150,000 and 3,600. And he said three score and 10,000
of them to be bearers of burdens and four score thousands to be
ewers in the mountain and 3,600 overseers to set the people a
work to build this temple. And let me remind you the temple
is Christ himself and the temple is every believer. The body of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a mystery that is. And the
next time you hear somebody saying something about in the end time
a temple is going to be rebuilt, that's complete flesh. Christ
is the temple of God. As a matter of fact, Revelation
21 says there shall be no temple For the Lamb is the temple thereof."
What a temple, okay.