“Now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD
an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand talents of silver;
and of brass and iron without weight: for it is in abundance: timber also
and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.”–1 Chronicles
22:14.
The building of the temple is an admirable type of the building of the
Church of God. I am afraid that there are some present with us at this
time who have never helped to build the spiritual temple for Christ. They
are not, themselves, living stones. They are no part of God’s spiritual
house; and they have never helped to bring their cedar, or iron, or gold
to the great Builder of the Church. In fact, there may be some here who
have rather helped to pull it down, some who have delighted to throw
away the stones, and who have tried to hide from the divine Builder the
precious material which he intends to use in the sacred edifice. Judge
your own hearts; and if you cannot say that you are a living stone, if you
have not helped to build up the Church of Christ, may you repent of your
sin, and may the grace of God convert you! But if you are workers for the
Lord, if your hearts are right with God, I think that I shall be able to say
some things that will encourage you to work on, even if you should not
for a time see any immediate results from your work.
There were many who helped to build the temple: David gathering the
materials; Solomon, the master mason, by whose name the temple would
afterwards be called; the princes helping him in the great work;
strangers, foreigners, and aliens, who dwelt throughout Israel and Judah;
these all took their share, and even the Tyrians and Zidonians had a part
in the work. Now, we have here many ministers of God and students,
Davids and Solomons; but I pray that many, who are strangers as yet,
may be enlisted in this holy service by our great Lord and King, and that
some, who are farthest off from Christ, Tyrians and Zidonians, who have
gone far away from God, may be enabled, by divine grace, to contribute
their share to this glorious work of building a house for the living God, a
house not made of gold, and silver, and stone, and timber, but a spiritual
house for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
I. In considering our text, let us notice, first, that DAVID HAD ZEALOUSLY
DONE HIS PART, although he might not build the temple. There are many
servants of God whose names are little known, who, nevertheless, are doing
a work that is essential to the building up of the Church of God. I have
known many such, who have never lived to realize any great success; their
names have never been written upon any great temples that have been built;
but, nevertheless, they have worthily done their part, even as David did.
You see, then, first, that David had gathered the materials. Many a man
collects people together, and yet he has not the fashioning of them. He is
the founder of a Christian congregation; but he does not live to see many
conversions. He gets together the raw materials upon which another
shall work. He ploughs and he sows; but it wants another man to come
and water the seed, and perhaps another to gather the harvest. Still, the
sower did his work, and deserves to be remembered for what he did.
David did his part of the work, in getting together the materials for the
temple.
Besides which, he fashioned some of the materials. He had the stone cut
from the quarry, and many of them shaped to take their places, by-and-
by, in silence in the temple, when it should be reared without sound of
hammer or axe. So there are teachers and preachers who help to form the
characters of their scholars and hearers, by working away upon their
minds and hearts. They will never build up a great church; but still they
are knocking the rough edges off the stones. The are preparing and
fashioning them; and by-and-by the builder will come and make good
use of them.
David had prepared the way for Solomon’s temple. It was by his fighting
that the time of peace came, in which the temple could be erected.
Though he is called a man of blood, yet it is needful that the foes of
Israel should be overthrown. There could be no peace till her adversaries
had been crushed; and David did that. You do not hear much about the
men who prepare the way for others, Somebody else comes along, and
apparently does all the work; and his name is widely known and
honoured; but God remembers the heralds, the pioneers, the men who
prepare the way, the men who, by casting out devils, routing grievous
errors, and working needful reforms, prepare the way for the triumphal
progress of the gospel.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
