The House That King Solomon Built for the LORD

[0:00] So we're going to turn to our Bible reading now, and Phil Coopland, one of our ministers, is going to be preaching to us shortly, and he's going to be picking up again for us his series in 1 Kings.

[0:17] He preached the opening chapters of this earlier in the year, and he's picking up again at 1 Kings chapter 6, but he's asked that we read together this evening both chapter 5 on chapter 6.

[0:31] So do turn up in your Bibles, 1 Kings chapter 5, and we'll begin at verse 1, reading all the way through to the end of chapter 6. 1 Kings chapter 5, verse 1.

[0:52] Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon when he heard they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David.

[1:05] And Solomon sent word to Hiram, you knew that David, my father, could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

[1:18] But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God.

[1:33] As the Lord said to David my father, your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name. Now therefore, command the cedars of Lebanon, be cut for me, and my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set.

[1:54] For you knew that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians. As soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.

[2:12] And Hiram sent to Solomon saying, I have heard the message that you have sent to me. I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber. My servant shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct.

[2:31] And I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it. And you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household. So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cores of wheat as food for his household, and 20,000 cores of beaten oil.

[2:54] Solomon gave this 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 of them made a treaty.

[3:07] King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts.

[3:19] They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft. Solomon also had 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 stone cutters in the hill country, besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

[3:40] At the king's command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dress stones. So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gibal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

[3:59] In the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord.

[4:14] The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was 20 cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and 10 cubits deep in front of the house.

[4:34] And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary.

[4:46] And he made side chambers all around. The lowest story was 5 cubits broad, the middle one was 6 cubits broad, and the third was 7 cubits broad.

[4:58] For around the outside of the house, he made offsets on the wall, in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house. When the house was built, it was with the stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron, was heard in the house, whilst it was being built.

[5:20] The entrance for the lowest story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar.

[5:38] He built the structure against the whole house, 5 cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. Now, the word of the Lord came to Solomon, concerning this house that you're building, if you will walk in my statutes, and obey my rules, and keep all my commandments, and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father, and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

[6:16] So Solomon built the house and finished it. He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling. He covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress.

[6:33] He built 20 cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar, from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as the most holy place.

[6:45] The house, that is the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was 40 cubits long. The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers.

[6:57] All was cedar. No stone was seen. The inner sanctuary, he prepared in the innermost part of the house to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

[7:09] The inner sanctuary was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high. And he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar.

[7:23] And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. And he drew chains of gold across in front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold. And he overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished.

[7:39] Also, the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary, he overlaid with gold. In the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim of olive wood, each 10 cubits high.

[7:52] Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub. It was 10 cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. The other cherub also measured 10 cubits.

[8:07] Both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. The height of one cherub was 10 cubits and so was that of the other cherub. He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house and the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall.

[8:28] Their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house and he overlaid the cherubim with gold. Around all the walls of the house, he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers in the inner and outer rooms.

[8:44] The floor of the house, he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms. For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood. The lentil and the doorposts were five-sided.

[8:56] He covered the two doors of olive wood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

[9:11] So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olive wood in the form of a square and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

[9:23] On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.

[9:40] In the fourth year, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the month of Ziv. And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bull, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications, he was seven years in building it.

[10:03] Amen. This is God's word and we'll return to it shortly. Well, good evening and please do turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings 5 and 6.

[10:20] That would be most helpful. Excuse me. Well, as we go about serving the Lord our God today, what should our top priority be?

[10:41] Well, 1 Kings 5 and 6 will help us. Earlier this year, my eldest son and I joined a local karate class and every Monday night, me and Benji, we come bounding into the class, into the hall where it's meeting and we're full of energy, eagerness and excitement.

[10:59] We can't wait. And we take our place in the hall and the warm-up begins. And the warm-up, I wasn't sure whether I should do this on the platform, but the warm-up is basically 10 minutes of this on the spot, continuously with different movements because you're starting to use the muscles you use in karate.

[11:15] And for the first few minutes, we are going for it. We are so happy to be there. We are full of eagerness and excitement and energy. But after six minutes, things are very, very different.

[11:27] The eagerness, the energy, the excitement all vanish and all that Ben and I want to do is lie down on the floor and pass out. And sadly, I reckon that is most people's experience of reading Kings.

[11:41] They start off with eagerness, energy and excitement to get into such a key historic book of the Bible, maybe one they've not touched before. They breeze through the first chapter where the Lord sovereignly and wonderfully raises up his faithful servants to defend the throne of David and bring Solomon to the throne.

[11:59] The eagerness and the excitement continue in chapter two where they read where King Solomon, it's a gripping drama. He clears the land of all the internal threats to the kingdom and establishes his reign and justice is in the land.

[12:15] And then the reader fires on into chapters three and four where the Lord answers Solomon's request and makes him the wisest king of all throughout all the nations. And as a result, Solomon uses his God-given wisdom to make the kingdom flourish.

[12:29] And everyone in the kingdom is blessed, even those at the lowest part of society. However, by the time most readers hit this section with its long, drawn-out details of building materials, wood and stones, and so forth, dimensions, decorations, dimensions, I reckon that most readers start to feel like I do in the sixth minute of my karate warm-up.

[12:57] Well, if that's how we are feeling tonight about these chapters, we should give ourselves a good shake because this is the word of God and we need to man up because actually, these chapters, indeed this whole section of the book from chapter five to chapter eight, these chapters, I think, should blow our minds.

[13:15] And tonight, as we look at the construction of the temple and at the little details in the text, we will learn some truly wondrous, encouraging things about the Lord our God. And we will also learn precious lessons for how we are to live our lives today as those who, by grace, have been joined to Jesus and are therefore living stones in his temple, the true temple of God.

[13:41] Now, there's so much we can learn from chapters five and six. We're not going to cover every detail, but for the sake of time, let's just notice three things this evening about the house that King Solomon built for the Lord.

[13:53] Here's the first thing. And it's this. The temple was built by the Lord's grace. The temple was built by the Lord's grace.

[14:04] Now, the author of Kings, I think, wants us to be crystal clear about this fact. This house didn't come into existence simply because Solomon thought it was a good idea. No, the main flow of the narrative makes it clear that the Lord is actually the one who is quietly behind Solomon's building project.

[14:23] The Lord is the one who's driving Solomon on. So back at the start of chapter five, we were told that King Solomon enters into this treaty with Haram, the king of Tyre.

[14:35] Let's just look back, please, at chapter five, verse two, to what Solomon says to Haram. He says this, you know that David, my father, could not build a house for the name of the Lord, his God, because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

[14:54] But now, the Lord, my God, has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God.

[15:07] As the Lord said to David, my father, your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name. So Solomon is referring back to a gracious promise that the Lord had made to his father David back in 2 Samuel 7.

[15:26] I'm sure you know that passage. Let me just remind you, David then, he had a really good desire and it was a really good desire to build a temple for the name of the Lord. And the name of the Lord just really means for the presence of the Lord.

[15:39] to dwell. Up to that time in history, the Lord had dwelled amongst his people in a special way in the tabernacle or sometimes called the tent of meeting.

[15:51] But David wanted to build the Lord a permanent dwelling place where he would dwell amongst his people in the promised land. And you remember, the Lord comes to David and says, David, no, no, you won't be the one to build me a house.

[16:06] Now is not the right time. Now is still war time. And as the chapter goes on, the Lord gives gracious covenant promises to David and he says that he would establish David's house.

[16:21] That is, one of David's sons would always reign and rule over God's people. And one of David's sons would be the one who would build the Lord's temple, but only when Israel had rest from their enemies.

[16:33] It was a gracious promise of the Lord and of course, the Lord is always faithful to his promises. And so here in 1 Kings 5, as we see Solomon taking the initiative, and he is taking initiative to build the house of the Lord, we are really seeing the Lord sovereignly fulfilling his gracious promises to David.

[16:55] You might be sitting there thinking, well, how did Solomon know it was the right time to build the temple? Well, I take it the text clearly implies that Solomon has discerned that this is the right time to build because of the wisdom that the Lord has given him.

[17:10] I take it that's why the summary verse in chapter 5, verse 12 is there. Have a look at that. Chapter 5, verse 12. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him and there was peace between Haram and Solomon and the two of them made a treaty and the treaty is key for kicking off the building project of the temple.

[17:33] Solomon agreed, Haram, I will supply you and your men with food. I will continue to do that as long as you supply us with the most excellent timber of cedar to be used in the construction of the house of the Lord.

[17:50] So do you see what the author is clearly showing us in the detail of the text? The house of the Lord is actually built by the Lord himself. The Lord promised this house would be built back in 2 Samuel 7 and now the Lord is driving his wise king to do it.

[18:08] And as we'll see next in a couple of weeks time God willing when we get to chapter 8 the Lord will come down and graciously dwell in this house amongst his people.

[18:20] And please notice how much the author wants us to celebrate this truth. Just look at chapter 6 verse 1. Let me read that to you. The author says in the 480th and 80th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel in the month of Zed which is the second month he began to build the house of the Lord.

[18:47] But friends when we come across a verse like this in our Bibles we must take note of it. Don't skip over it because such verses as these where there's an explicit mention of time and a big big date in salvation history we mustn't skip over it we must ask ourselves why is this here?

[19:06] The author wants us to pay attention a landmark event has happened here. Let me give you another example of this type of verse this is from earlier in the Bible from the book of Exodus Exodus chapter 12 verse 40 to 41 no need to turn to it let me read to you these words the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years at the end of 430 years on that very day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt so there in Exodus 12 the author is declaring to us that a new age has begun in God's redemptive history plan the end of 430 years in Egypt and mark the end of being in bondage to that satanic and cruel nation and it celebrated the gift of freedom that the Lord had given his people by grace and in an almost identical way here in chapter 6 verse 1 we're being told that something else just as significant has taken place in history listen to how one commentator puts it he says this the end of 480 years since the

[20:21] Exodus marks the end of wandering for Israel and brings in a celebration of the gift of rest the Lord had declared that he would not rest until his people Israel had been given rest and now he had done so under Solomon's reign and hence the Lord's resting place could now be built one could see that with the building of the temple the Exodus was now complete the Lord had not only intended to save Israel but to settle them and he shows himself to be our God who delivers his people and also establishes his people and friends that is the point that the author is showing to us loud and clearly in chapter 6 verse 1 the Lord has remained graciously faithful to his promises he's redeemed his people just think back over the history of Israel those of you who know your Bible think about that people think about the number of failings the shortcomings the way they messed up time after time after time over those centuries hundreds of years and yet the Lord's plan of rescue has not failed the Lord's grace has triumphed and his people now enjoy rest that is they have peace from all the enemies either side of them and they enjoy the privilege of having the

[21:45] Lord permanently resting in a house in their midst well so what what's the implications for your life and for my life today there's actually loads of implications for our lives today but let me just pull out two here's the first thing this is yet another passage in scripture that declares to us just how faithful and how trustworthy our God is to his promises this is our God if you're a Christian this is your God he's not a God who breaks his promises he's not a God who lets his people down he promises to deliver his people and to secure them and that is what he does that is what he's done time and time again let me just say if you're here this evening and you're not yet a Christian maybe you're here and you're just looking into the Christian faith this is what our God is like in life there'll be loads of people who will let you down loads of people who lack on their word but not so with the true living

[22:47] God and if you build your life upon his promises you my friend will enter his rest even now in this age and even more so in the age to come when the Lord Jesus returns here's a second implication and I think it's this from looking at verse one of chapter six I think verse one of chapter six it should remind us all that the Lord is not in a hurry yes 480 years is a very long time 480 years for the Lord to complete his exodus redemptive work 480 years by the way is roughly the same amount of time and space in between our present day and the Protestant Reformation the Lord is in no hurry the Lord takes his time and I think that knowing that should help us today as a church not to panic when we look at the world around us that we live in as elect exiles today we see a world that seems to be drifting farther and farther away from the Lord and his ways a world that seems more and more hostile to Christ and his people and I think the great temptation for us as a church is to sink and panic and to shrink away and we ask ourselves questions at different times like will the Lord ever make good in his promises the Lord says that one day he will visibly reign unopposed on this earth and no one will oppose him again everyone will know on that day that

[24:21] God is God and we look at the world in the way it is now and we think really will that really happen well friends this passage reminds us that God is in no hurry God has his own diary and he will make good in his promises they are sure and certain but you and I have to patiently submit to his timing and persevere so let those things encourage you that's the first point this evening the temple was built by the Lord's grace here's the second big point and it's this the temple was built to reflect the Lord's glory the temple was built to reflect the Lord's glory most of chapter 6 is full of details about the temple and the building itself and notice please and I'm not going to do the joke that I have done many times when preaching I wasn't going to mention it but I've just mentioned it I've gone off script I should never do that my wife tells me never go off script

[25:24] Phil never ever anyway I'll go back on script now notice please that verses 2 to 36 is structured like a sandwich there we go and then verses 2 to 10 is like one bit of bread and verse 14 to 36 is the second bit of bread and in between in verse 11 to 13 at the heart of the chapter the bits of bread they're about details to do with the temple and the building what it was like but then in the middle in the middle of the sandwich you get this abrupt interruption it just comes right into the middle there where the word of the Lord comes to Solomon and speaks to him an urgent message in the middle of his temple building work and friends we will look at the middle of the sandwich in our third point verse 11 to 13 in just a few moments but for now let's focus on the bits of bread in our sandwich we're given this passionate and detailed description of the house of the

[26:25] Lord and again we don't have time to look at every detail but go home tonight read chapter 6 for yourself and you will see that in verses 1 to 10 maybe you just want to run your eye over that just now 1 to 10 the author starts by describing the exterior of the building the outside then in verse 15 to 30 he describes the interior what was it like inside and then you've got some bits at the end verse 31 to 35 he describes entrances and other rooms and a courtyard in verse 36 and as you read the chapter you're supposed to read it slowly carefully bit by bit and think about it some of the details might seem obscure but if you read it carefully and slowly again and again and again and again I've been trying to do that over the past few weeks when I'm preparing for the sermon but also my quiet times you start to find that the text drips your imagination and you start to picture what this building was really like and you ask yourself time and again why is the author included such detail well I take it the author doesn't want us to rush over these things to know that this was a big deal he wants us to spend ages picturing the house of the lord and you also find yourself asking this because you spot this as you read it the author spends more time on the interior than he does on the exterior you think why why is that and I think that's a key question one commentator makes a good point in saying that the average

[28:02] Israelite and this is not something I'd really thought much about but the average Israelite would never have seen the interior of the temple so perhaps that explains the writer's focus on the interior he gives Joe and Jane Israelite at least an audio tour of the lord's most holy place so that their hearts would be gripped and they get to envision what the holy of holies was like enabling them to gawk at the amazingness of the holy of holies in particular as well if you look through the interior description the ark is the main focus as well the ark of the covenant that even in and of itself was a little box that had the tablets of the law and that box itself for centuries symbolized the presence of the lord with his people and that gets a lot of air time as well because it declares to the people the theology of the structure of the building and they would have been amazed as they pondered in their hearts and in their minds about the mercy seat the place in between the middle of the two angels wings at the top of the ark where the lord was said to sit the mercy seat that declared that the lord was slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love for his people and those who fear him i reckon that is why the author spends so much time on the interior and when we read the passage earlier i wonder did you hear the word that was repeated again and again and again the one word again and again and again it is the word anyone did anyone guess gold the word gold there is a lot of gold let me quickly highlight the amount of gold that was used in the temple let's just run through are you ready let's go verse 20 the inner sanctuary was overlaid with pure gold also verse 20

[29:55] Solomon overlaid the cedar altar with pure gold verse 21 Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary he also overlaid the area in front of the inner sanctuary with gold verse 22 he overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished also the whole altar in the inner sanctuary was overlaid with gold and in verse 28 we're also told that Solomon constructed these two massive cherubim these two statues of angels and they also were covered in gold by the way that's one of the many many parallels between the temple here and the garden of Eden used in Genesis you go through the text and have a look you'll see there's loads and loads of similarities between the two because this is the dwelling place of the Lord amongst his people just like Eden was here it is here in the heart of

[30:55] Jerusalem but even these cherubim verse 28 these massive cherubim they were overlaid with gold then verse 32 further beautiful carvings of cherubim and palm trees over the walls to the entrance of the inner sanctuary they were also overlaid with gold verse 35 says more gold was used to cover wall carvings of cherubim and palm trees gold gold gold gold gold gold what are we to make of them well let me tell you of a wrong way to respond to this to the use of gold here's the wrong way to respond to it is this oh my my my what a waste what a waste now in the past there have been some very pious sounding commentators who claimed that this was a needless extravagance frighteningly actually you read some of these commentators and they're just like Judas when he moaned at the women who anointed Jesus with the flask of expensive perfume in Matthew 26 what a waste they say imagine the social action that could have been done with all that revenue well friends if that is you're thinking about the use of all this gold then I think you're completely at odds with the text because the text doesn't mention anything negative at all about this use of gold in fact the passage is full of a sense of wonder and awe and also remember back then many ancient temples functioned as national treasuries why should such assets like these be stashed away in a dark storeroom but above all as I've said in my main teaching point here

[32:42] I reckon this use of gold was utterly fitting because the temple should match and reflect something of the glory of the one who comes to dwell in it that's why this gold was used in other words the house of the lord was glorious it was gold it was beautiful because the lord god himself is these things glorious a god of beauty ralph davis speaking on this point he says this it was a world in which kings built or refurbished lavish temples as appropriate tributes to their gods and goddesses in such a world why should the lord look like a discounted deity with a government loan house he goes on to say that in the scriptures there is an indulgence that is sinful but there's also an extravagance that is godly and perhaps the message of the temple is that nothing cheap should be offered to the lord but only what is a tribute commensurate to his splendor and friends

[33:52] I want to say that is exactly how we should apply this passage to our lives today church building committees should not use such passages as these to try and drum up donations for church building funds although giving to church building funds is a good thing and we should care very much about our buildings today but let's just be clear on this brothers and sisters there is no one for one correspondence between the temple and our contemporary church buildings today there was only one legitimate temple in Israel buildings for church assemblies are many where or rather who is the true temple today well the lord jesus christ himself of course john chapter 2 21 jesus says his body is the true temple and elsewhere the bible says that by faith by faith union and being joined to him by the holy spirit we ourselves christians today we are part of the true temple the living temple in this age so therefore the challenge for us today from this passage in our service to the lord is this we are to offer our lives and all that we are all that we have to the lord and we're to give him not shoddy stuff we're to give the lord our very best of our lives the lord god who's shown us such grace in sending his son into the world the true temple whom we are now joined to he deserves our very best in all aspects of our lives wherever we find ourselves as christians whether it be when we're together in the corporate church gathering like this one maybe it's whether we're at school or maybe in our workplaces or in the privacy of our own homes the lord deserves to receive our gold as it were that is our best devotion and love is that is what we are for as christians that's why we've been created and why we've been redeemed to reflect the glory of our great god to the world round about us well thirdly and finally this evening here's our last point and it's this this temple must not distract from the lord's priority this temple must not distract from the lord's priority so as i said earlier the main chunk of this chapter is structured like a sandwich you've got two bits of bread taken up with describing the temple but in the middle you have this abrupt interruption in the flow of the text and again when you read that you've got to see why is that there why is that there well why does the lord interrupt his king in the middle of the building process well i take it he interrupts him because he's got a message for him that is so important he has to hear it so let's read together let's look at verse 11 please chapter 6 verse 11 now the word of the lord came to solomon concerning this house that you are building if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them then i will establish my word with you which i spoke to your father david and i will dwell among the children of israel and will not forsake my people so while solomon is building he's starting the process he gets this word from the lord and the lord reminds solomon of the top priority that should be true of his life and not just his life but true of the whole nation not even possession of this temple should distract his

[37:53] servant away from pursuing this priority and the priority is obedience that's the priority that's what the lord is saying here yes solomon you're building this temple for me and yes i will graciously dwell amongst my people but don't ever let this temple distract you from the main thing that i want from you which is walking daily by the obedience of faith seeking to obey my word letting it humble you letting it challenge you letting it bring you to repentance letting it change you letting it shape your life master your affections your decisions your behavior i take it that the lord is giving his king and his people a loving warning here he's saying don't presume that everything is okay between us just because you've got this temple yes i will dwell there graciously with you but do not get distracted from hearing and doing my words of life at cornhill a few years ago i always remember bob file speaking about this very point and he had this wonderful one of bob's many great little turns of phrases and he used to say this temple without torah is a recipe for disaster temple without torah is a recipe for disaster none of this should be shocking to solomon because that is exactly what his father david had told him when he was on his death bed back at the start of chapter two obedience is key walking by faith and repentance in the lord and you know at this time at this point in the reign of solomon things actually seem promising there are little details in the chapter chapter six that show just run your eye over verse seven please chapter six verse seven we're told that the precious stones used constructing the temple all the necessary masonry work that was needed to prepare these stones so that they could be taken to the temple site all that work was done far away from the temple site why well because

[40:12] Deuteronomy 27 forbade the use of iron tools in sanctuaries for the Lord Solomon was taking the Lord's word seriously another little detail at the end of chapter six the end of verse 38 we're told this the house was finished according to all its specifications I take it that's according to specifications that the Lord must have given his king just like in the construction of the tabernacle that little phrase comes up all and all through the exodus account of the construction of the tabernacle and so these details they're actually full of promise we think great excellent Solomon is taking the Lord's top priority seriously and the nation too they seem to be walking by faith taking the Lord's word seriously loving him properly not simply paying him lip service but of course the question we're left asking at the end of the chapter is how long will that last how long will that last will there ever come a day where the

[41:23] Lord's priority is no longer the nation's priority will there ever come a day when these people think that they are okay because they have the temple whereas in reality their hearts are far away from God well we will find out as we go on further and further ahead into this book what does this mean for our lives today well obviously obviously none of us today are the Lord's anointed king if you think you're the Lord's anointed king come and see me at the end I'll give you a hug I won't give you a hug actually because you know anyway stay on script Phil stay on script the Lord's top priority is still the same today for us regardless of whether or not we are the Lord's anointed king all of God's people he wants our obedience it's just as the Lord Jesus himself says if you love me you will obey my commandments and friends as disciples of Christ today that is what our top priority should be in life it's so easy for servants of the Lord today to get so caught up in the things of God that we forget about

[42:36] God himself I think it's especially true for those who are really really involved in the life of the church and in the ministry of the church that we become so engrossed with carrying out our work getting our jobs done whatever it is we're doing it is possible to do those things and yet at the same time to totally neglect the most important thing that we should always be doing which is walking in a loving obedient relationship with the Lord not being sinlessly perfect for that is impossible for any of us but being faithful to him walking by repentance and faith that is our top priority so Tron Church family let me ask how are you getting on with that how am I getting on with that I must ask that question we must be on our guards it is easy to get so wrapped up in the things of God that we neglect God himself well come back next week

[43:38] God willing we'll look at chapter seven but let's bow our heads now be quiet for a moment maybe take some time to respond to the word of God in your own heart in the quiet and then I'll pray for us Almighty and heavenly father we praise you for your grace your undeserved kindness which you've showered upon us in the Lord Jesus Christ we praise you for your gracious promises that are trustworthy and true we praise you for the way that your word declares to us that you carry out your big plan of redemption but in your own good and perfect time

[44:45] Father we pray that we will be patiently trusting in you by faith seeking to serve you as those who by grace have been united to Jesus and so have been given the great privilege of being counted as living stones in your true temple today Father what a privilege we pray that you will give us hearts hearts that will love you more and more hearts that will want to give you our very best give you our very best in whatever situation we find ourselves in hearts that want to obey you Lord we confess that by nature we are not like this by nature we do not want to obey you by nature we are curved in on ourselves by nature we do not trust you so heavenly father please work in us powerfully by your spirit to change us strengthen us so that we will walk by the obedience of faith joyfully going down your paths of righteousness for that is what you want from us that means more to you than any other thing that we could do in this life so please change us and cause us to be a church to be a people to be living stones that shine forth your beauty and goodness the dark world around us and we pray this in Jesus name and for his sake amen and we pray your love for that amen and we pray this in Jesus name and I pray this in Jesus name and pray this in Jesus name slash tu and co and that reminds me of you and for yourasted to be one your Behren amen and hyalry you and William all and

[46:43] God