1 Chronicles Chapter 28, the passage we read earlier. 1 Chronicles Chapter 28. Let me just read verse 20 again where we read, Then David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and courageous and act Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. So let us pray and ask for God's help as we come now to consider His holy word. Father, we bless you and thank you that you have given us a sure word that you have given us the Holy Scriptures. We thank you that you have not left us without truth. We pray now that all of the speculation and all of the falsehood that comes with our fall that you may help us to see clearly that in the light of your word we may walk safely. Help us to this end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We took this chapter up last week as we come to the time of the end of David's life. And as we've studied the life of David and we come to this period of time, it's interesting that the thing that he seems to be consumed with is that of the temple that it be completed by his son Solomon. This is the great focus of the end of his life. And so as we think of David setting his house in order as he prepares to die, for him it meant setting the house of God in order. And that's what we find him doing. And we noted last week his motivations for this. We noted the grateful, cheerful heart of David in delighting in God's glory and in his worship and temple. We noted the gracious covenant promise that had been given by the Lord that Solomon would indeed build the house of God and ultimately, of course, Jesus Christ. And finally, the great complex work to be done. All of these things caused David to prepare and to make ready that it was a work that was great and as we have read that it is not a house for man but the house of God, the house of the Lord and it was a great work to be glorious and magnificent and thus he needed help, Solomon did, and David seeks to provide that. And what I'd like to do this morning then is to look at something of the provisions, having looked at his motivations for preparing to build, now to look for the provisions or look at the provisions as he makes those arrangements, provisions for the building, the construction. And really two things I want to deal with. First of all, that David provided the major and we may even say the monumental requirements for the construction of the temple. that those things that were essential, the major components, David seeks to assemble and to prepare and provide Solomon with so that he can construct the temple. And the second thing is that David provided the ministerial arrangements or appointments for the operations of the temple. So he wasn't just concerned about the construction of the temple, He was concerned about its operations, its functions in the worship of God. And he makes arrangements for that, so that Solomon would be able to build this and to cause it to do the work which was intended that it was not merely to be something to be looked at, it was where the worship of God was to take place, and David seeks to prepare for all of that. So with those thoughts in mind then, let me ask you to consider that David provided these major and even monumental requirements for the construction of the temple. He secured divine permission to build it. He supplied the inspired pattern, the divine blueprint for its building or construction. He selected the geographical, the physical place where it would be built and he stockpiled and stored up the material possessions so that it could be built. All of this David did in preparation for the construction of the temple. So note then that he secured divine permission. Let me ask you to turn over to First Chronicles chapter 17 for just a moment. We read there, And it came about when David dwelt in his house, that he said to Nathan the prophet, Behold, I am dwelling in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under curtains. Then Nathan said to him, Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you. And it came about that same night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord, You shall not build a house for me to dwell in. David goes to the prophet. He expresses his desire, his intention to build the house of God. And we noted in another place in chapter 28 and other places where David points out the fact that he intended to build it, but God told him he couldn't build it because he was a man of war. He had shed blood. But clearly as David goes to the prophet to express this desire, what is he doing? He is seeking approval. Nathan gives it to him and says, go and do all that is in your heart. Now we know from the rest of this passage that he spoke hastily, that he should have sought the Lord, he should have thought a little bit about the tabernacle and its construction, how that God had commanded it and how God had ordered everything about it to its building, its specifications, its details. So a little bit of thought would have perhaps kept the prophet from speaking hastily. Now we can understand how God had blessed David and how he was the chosen, the anointed of God, and why Nathan may have thought, well sure, if that's in your heart to do. But God here gives a rebuke to David. Notice verse 5 and following for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day But I have gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another In all places where I've walked with all Israel have I spoken a word? Note that. Have I spoken a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? And in that there is this rebuke to David and to Nathan as well. Have I spoken a word? And that indicates that such an undertaking that is associated with the house of God, with the worship of God, is not to be done without divine authorization, without divine approval. It comes only by the word and the command of God. David could not take it upon himself to say, I'm going to build God a place to dwell. God is not an idol that you can pick up and sit wherever you want to. God determines where He will manifest Himself, where He will work, where He will meet with people, where He will dwell. And thus, it's as though God says to David, who do you think you are? you've overstepped your bounds. You have assumed and presumed too much. When it comes to my house, I will choose where I will live, I will choose who will build it, and I will determine how it's to be built. I will command you with regard to the place where I will dwell, where Israel may approach unto me, where you may seek me and meet with me." Hence it's called the Ten of Meeting, the tabernacle is. where God will meet with his people he determines you remember that the tabernacle was commissioned by God himself and he told Moses all the details of it now it may come to mind from last week that God commended David for his desire he says it's a good thing that you have desired to do to want to glorify God the desire was good but The house of God, the dwelling place of God, the place where God meets and where he's worshipped, only comes about by God's choice, by God's commission, by God's command. When it comes to God's house, he is the originator of it, he is the commissioner. God determines where he will dwell, where he will meet his people, And, thanks be to God, he does commission a temple, a house to be built, and he goes on then and dispatches to say, you're not going to build it, but your son after you will build a temple for me. I am commissioning your son Solomon, we read in chapter 28, God chose Solomon to build the house of the Lord. And so, David's desire will ultimately be fulfilled, but not simply because David desires it, because God commands it and commissions it through his son Solomon. Again notice verses 11 and 12 of chapter 17. And it will come about when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers that I will set up one of your descendants after you who shall be of your sons and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for me a house and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son and I will not take my loving kindness away from him. as I took it away from him who was before you, that is Saul, but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne will be established forever." Now obviously that looks beyond Solomon to the Lord Jesus Christ, but its immediate fulfillment is in Solomon, and David is going to die, but God grants that his son will fulfill. Notice back in chapter 28 of 1 Chronicles verses 5 and following. And of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons, He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And He said to me, Your son Solomon is the one who shall build my house and my courts. For I have chosen him to be a son to me, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish his kingdom forever, if he resolutely performs my commandments and my ordinances as is done now." So that Through David comes the divine commission, the divine command for Solomon to build the temple. Now, my point is simply this, that such permission was clearly necessary. You can't just go build a house for God to dwell in, David. It is God's prerogative to tell us how we may approach to Him, where we may approach, when we may approach. Those things God determines. Man is fallen. We can't make our way to God. And if you read Romans chapter 1, you find that the whole idea of men trying to worship God by making images of four-footed creatures, etc., is not man doing a good thing and trying to reach out to God, but it's actually a detrimental thing. They're actually turning what little they know into God into something worse. They're making God like themselves and into things upon the earth. And so, God determines. It's not up to us. We can't say, I think I will seek God and I'll do it this way. God must tell us how we can approach and how we may find our God. And thus, through David comes this necessary command, commission to build the temple. It was to be according to God's choice, His authorization, if it's to be established. Now, Not only do we find that, but we find secondly that David supplied the inspired pattern, the divine blueprint for the building of the temple. Now again notice 1 Chronicles 28 verses 11 and following. Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan. He gave him the plan, the blueprint. of the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms, and the room for the mercy seat, and the plan of all that it had in mind, for the courts of the house of the Lord, for the surrounding rooms, for the storehouses of the house of God, and for the storehouses of the dedicated things, for the divisions of the priests and the Levites, and on and on it goes. David gave to Solomon the plan. And all that was in his mind with regard to the temple. So the temple had its storerooms for all of the grain and for the food for the Levites and the places for them to stay when they were coming in to minister and swapping off that duties. And it was a huge undertaking for all that was stored there. So along the walls were storehouses. It was three stories high. And so it was quite an undertaking. David prepares for all of this. And notice verse 19, all this said David, the Lord made me to understand in writing by his hand upon me all the details of this pattern. In other words, David what he wrote down was divinely inspired. God moved him by the Holy Spirit so that it comes with the weight of Scripture. When we read here about the lampstands, when we read the divisions of the priest, it's not something David sat down and simply came up with. David was inspired by the Spirit of God. born along by the Spirit of God, so that he wrote down the will of God with regard to the temple, so that he was not merely left to himself to figure out, but he was given detailed instructions, down to the very lampstands, down to the tables, down to the forks, down to the bowls, everything in detail he gives to Solomon as it has been inspired to him by God, details, specific instructions, not merely, okay, you can build the temple, but here is the temple you shall build, here's the blueprint for it, here are the details of the pattern of things, so that it's built according to God's word. As revealed through his prophet, his servant, David, God is not only the commissioner, he's the architect and designer of everything pertaining to his place of worship. so that it all must be done according to the word of God. Of course, that temple has been torn down. It's not there. But we find the Lord Jesus saying in Matthew 16 verse 18, But I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus Christ says, I will build my church. Who is the owner and the architect? It is Jesus Christ. He owns the church. It is His. He's the one who commissions it and we see the apostles going out and establishing it as Christ bears them along as His divine messengers inspired by the Spirit of God so that they preach the Word of God and people are converted and formed into churches. We see it throughout the book of Acts and this is Christ going forward. I will build my church both as the one who determines and chooses and the one who through his apostles of course commissions that they go forth and by his spirit he continues to build his church. It is a declaration of his being the owner, the architect, the designer, the builder of his church. And when Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14, he says, I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long. But in case I am delayed, So he thinks he's going to be coming, but there are certain things that are pressing upon the apostle that can't wait. Just in case I'm delayed, let me tell you some things. I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. He is writing that we might know, absolutely understand and know the truth about how a person should conduct themselves in the household of God. Now that means that there's a proper way of conducting ourselves. That we can't do anything we want. That when it comes to worship, we don't make it up. When it comes to our approach to God and meeting with God, that we don't simply invent ways to do so. We are told that we are to conduct ourself in a certain way. Now we know when we read that epistle, it begins in chapter 2, first of all then, I would that the men would pray. I would that the women would do this. I would that those who are going to be office bearers, and he gives the qualifications for elders and for deacons, what is he doing? He's telling them, here is how you conduct yourself in the house of God. This is proper conduct. This is what God's will is for you in being the place of His dwelling, the household of God. And he goes on to tell us, of course, what he means by that, which is the church. of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth. What is the church to do? It's to reflect the truth. How do you do that? You have to receive the truth from God and live it out according to what God has determined and defined for us to do. We can't simply make it up as we go. God gives detailed, descriptive, clear things for us to do as a church and we are to do it according to the Word of God. God has not merely established His church and left it up to us. There's a proper way of conducting ourself and it is found in the Word of God. Now our confession of faith puts it in this way in chapter 22 and paragraph 1. The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all. That is to say that simply by being born into this world and living in God's created world that you should be able to see the existence of God and that He is ruling over everything. And that He is just, good and does good to all. And thus is to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, served with all the heart and soul and with all the might. But He says, just by living in God's creation, you should be able to discern those things. They're being declared by the very creation. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself. And so limited or regulated by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men. nor the suggestions of Satan, nor under any visible representations, or in any way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. How do we worship God? Not by what we can invent, not what we can imagine, not what makes me feel good, not what makes me feel closer to God. I don't know how many times I've read things where people say, well, I'm out deer hunting on Sunday, I feel so close to God. Sitting up, when you're in a tree stand, you're 20 feet closer to God. Well, that may make you feel that way, but it ain't about you. It's about God. And God tells us how we may approach to God in His gathered church according to the means that He has given. It's not up to us to determine what makes us feel good. It's up to us to adjust our attitude so we feel as we ought to feel when we're doing what God says we ought to do. It is limited by His Word! His worship is. We are not to worship in any way not prescribed in Scripture. Now there's two schools of thought. One is that if it's not forbidden in the Word of God, we may do it. Which means anything goes. Unless God somewhere specifically said don't do it, you can do it. But we reject that and we reject it because of such passages as we're just studying in 1 Chronicles chapter 28. That God specifically tells us how we may approach Him. He is jealous of His worship and He tells us how we may come to Him. And our confession then goes on to tell us what we find with regard to the New Testament, the New Covenant in approaching God. In paragraphs three and four, it deals with the whole issue of prayer, that we are to pray from the heart and according to the will of God. Also, paragraph five, the reading of the scriptures, preaching, hearing of the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, as also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, all of these are parts of the religious worship of God to be performed in obedience to Him. You see, we're worshiping in obedience to God. But in our day, things are turned upside down. It's all about us and what makes me feel good. It's not about that. Our worship is done in response and in obedience to the Word of God. And then it goes on to talk about special seasons when there may be solemn humiliation before God, when there's need for repentance, special times of thanksgiving, when God has blessed in unusual ways, so that when it comes to the issue of why do we do what we do in worship, we do it for one reason. Because it's taught in the word of God. Why do we preach and sing the hymns? Because that's what God's Word reveals. What did the apostles do? What did the church do? Why do we have such simplicity, such plainness, such straightforwardness, such solemnity? Because it's taught in the Word of God with regard to God's worship. Why don't we have ornate gold and crosses and saints? Because it's not taught in the Word of God. It's not prescribed in the Word of God. You say, but if I just had this picture of Jesus, it would make me, move me. Well, there ain't no pictures of Jesus. Anything that you put up must misrepresent Him. Not to mention that you violate the commandment. You say, but it would help. It doesn't. You worship God according to how He says, not according to how you invent things to worship Him with. It's not about ornateness. It's about the Word of God. My friend, if it takes something besides the Word of God to move you, you better be cautious of that thing. I could tell you some stories that might make you be moved to tears. And that's not always a bad thing. But it is the Word of God that should make us rejoice. It is the truth of God that should cause us to be broken. It is the truth that should make us love Christ. And anything that's not built upon truth, my friend, is sinking sand. Of course, we have numerous examples in the scriptures of what happens when people either in ignorance or by simply ignoring the Word of God do not treat properly and obey what God has to say with his dwelling place, with his worship. For instance, Leviticus chapter 10, Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu. who go in before the Lord and in their fire pans, they did not take the fire from the altar, but they took a different fire in to burn the incense, and God strikes both of them dead because they offered strange fire, that is, fire that God had not commanded. Oh, God wants fire? We'll give him fire. But that's not all God said. He gave specific detailed instructions and they did not treat him as holy. Or you remember when David was trying to move the ark up and the ark starts to fall and Uzzah with a good desire reaches out to grab it and to keep it from tumbling from the cart and God strikes him dead. Why? Because God had said only the priest are to move and carry the ark. And the best intentions of Uzzah got him killed. Because God says there's something more important here, that is, that you do what I say, that you treat me as holy, I'm not a man to be ignored. And when God says this is the way it's supposed to be done, my friend, that's the way you have to do it. We read about that in 1 Corinthians 15 after David has time to consider. Verse 2 says, No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to Him forever. Down in verse 13, Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek Him according to His ordinance. We did not seek Him according to His ordinance. They were seeking Him. They were trying to get the ark to Jerusalem. Good thing! They didn't do it the way God said to do it. My friends, we're not here to help God out. God doesn't need us. We need God. How shall we approach? We can't make it up. God determines and David clearly says because we did not seek him according to the ordinance the way he had determined. Thus God was angry with them. And then Uzziah the king goes in and he usurps the place of the priest. He's a king but he's not the priest. Nazariah the priest enters in And he says to Uzziah, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who were consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the Lord God. But Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged. And while he was enraged with the priest, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priest and the house of the Lord beside the altar of incense. And Azariah, the chief priest and all the priests, looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead. And they hurried him out of there. He, of course, became unclean as a result of that and was not to be there. wouldn't be there anyway, but now twofold. He's clearly, by God, marked as unclean. And he hastened to get him out before the Lord, because the Lord had smitten him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. He lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Good intention, perhaps, but not according to how God had determined. Brethren, when that comes to us then, Peter tells us, 1 Peter chapter 2, Therefore putting aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. If you've truly come to know the Lord and found in Him a wonderful Savior, then you should be desiring the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow. And coming to him as a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, And he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. Peter says the temple of God's changed. It's not cold hard stones out of the quarry around Jerusalem. It is flesh and blood. You have become the stones of God's temple. You are the building of God. You are the place and the means through which His sacrifices are made. The sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, of worshiping God. And thus we are to be not people of malice and guile and hypocrisy. We are to be holy that we may be the temple of God. Well, we've seen two of the things that David does by way of preparation here that he gets divine approval, indeed a commission to build the temple, and he gives the inspired pattern for its building. Thirdly, David also selected the geographical physical place for the temple. 2 Chronicles chapter 3 verse 1. we read in Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Some of you will remember that that once Uzziah was Struck the ark was left outside of Jerusalem later. It is brought in but then David is moved that He should buy Satan to take a census of all the people And he does that against the advice of those other leading officials and even Joab is against it but David takes the census and the plague breaks out against the people and And David sees the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, with his sword drawn, about to strike Jerusalem. As he's come up, killing the plague has killed the people, and David sees the angel with sword drawn, David repents and he's directed to make an offering to God and he goes to to stay the angel to the floor of Ornan the Jebusite and You remember that he tries to give it to him, and David says, I will not make offering sacrifice to God with something that costs me nothing. I'll pay full price. And he gave him 600 shekels for it. And David there makes offering to God then to stay the plague and the death angel from coming upon Jerusalem. Now, we read then in 1 Chronicles 22.1, following all of that, that David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. So David gave orders to gather the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, and he sent stone cutters to hew out stones to build a house of God. So David establishes that as the house of God, the altar of Israel, and it is there we read that Solomon erects the temple. David began the process. Solomon builds the temple there on Mount Moriah. they debate the exact location of where the temple was. Was it at the Dome of the Rock where they say it is? Was it somewhere else? There's a case made for, I think, the Spring of Gion because of the need for perpetual water. You can imagine having all these animals for sacrifice, they need to be watered continually there. And so at least one argument is made that it was built over the Spring of Gion and that the fountain flowed out from under the ark of God and thus when we get to Revelation we read that there is a river of the water of life flowing out from under the throne of God. But brethren, it's not necessary for you and I to know exactly where it's located. You have Mount Zion that is referred to as the place of God, and Moriah was just across from that. Zion stood taller, and the city encompassed various peaks there. Exactly the exact, precise location, we need not know, because brethren, we know where the house of God is. It's the church of Jesus Christ. So we can let the others debate the exact location because ultimately that geographical place is not of significance other than historical value. Remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well. Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know. We, the Israelites, worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. for such people the father seeks to be his worshippers God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth so David selects physical location but there is no physical location, now it is wherever his church's people gather. And when we depart and go to our individual homes, we take the indwelling spirit of God with us, that Christ dwells in individuals, those who are his true disciples, and in his gathered church, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. Well, in the fourth place, he stored, stockpiled the material possessions for the temple. Note 1 Chronicles chapter 29 in verse 2. 1 Chronicles 29. David says, Now with all my ability I have provided for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze, and the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood. verse 3 and moreover in my delight in the house of my God the treasure I have of gold and silver I give to the house of my God over and above all that I've already provided for the holy temple so David had provided from the spoils of war he had provided from the tributes of the nations David had provided in many ways, but David says now over and above that and he has called the people together And he says for my own treasuries for my own monies I'm going to provide even more namely 3,000 talents of gold and the gold of over and 7,000 talents refined silver to overlay the walls of buildings of gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver that is for all the work done by the Craftsman who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord in other words David said I'm willing to do more. Are you willing to do more? Who will consecrate himself? Then the rulers of the father's household, the princes of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands of hundreds with the overseers over the king's work, offered willingly for the service for the house of God. They gave 5,000 talents. And then he gives a list of what they did. And whoever possessed precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord. Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord with the whole heart, and King David also rejoiced greatly." So in the temple tax, what they would ordinarily get, but over and above that, there was an offering made, and that offering they rejoiced in because God had given them liberality of heart. My friend, listen. We don't say much about money. We don't even take up a collection row by row. The box is at the back. We've tried to distance ourselves from that. But listen, of all the things you do, invest in the kingdom of God. And if you're so tight in what you're doing, you can't do that, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. And people have a tendency to think God will understand. I don't know if God's as understanding as you think He is. Because it shows what we think's important. Is God's house important? Is the work of Christ important? Or is what I eat and what I drink and wherewith shall I be clothed, is that important? What is at the heart of what we're doing? Do we really believe that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto us? In 1 Chronicles 22 verses 2 to 5 we read, So David gave orders to gather the foreigners from the land of Israel, and he set stone cutters to hew out stones to build the house of God. And David prepared large quantities of iron to make the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the clamps, and more bronze than can be weighed, and timbers of cedar logs, the cedars of Lebanon, beyond number for the Sidonians, Terrians brought large quantities of cedar timber to David and David said my son Solomon is young and inexperienced in the house is to be built for the Lord shall be exceedingly magnificent famous and glorious throughout all lands therefore now I will make preparation for it so David made ample preparations and before his death. In 1 Chronicles 22 5, David said, My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, therefore now I will make preparation for it. So David made ample preparations. In 1 Chronicles 22, 14 to 16, David says, Now behold, with great pains I have prepared for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver and bronze and iron beyond weight, for they are in great quantity. Also timber and stone I have prepared, and you may add to them. Moreover, there are many workmen with you, stonecutters and masons of stone and carpenters, and all men who are skillful in every kind of work, of the gold, the silver, and the bronze, and iron, there is no limit. Arise and work, and may the Lord be with you." So you see the preparations of David with great pains, an ample amount. It's as though he says, unlimited resources, build the house of God. Not only that, but he had provided workmen. stone cutters, masons. Now it's interesting because no hammer, no iron tool was to be used at the building site. Stewart, would you like to go put in some cabinets and be told you can't take your hammer, can't even take a pry bar, nothing made of iron. They had to go to the quarry and cut out these stones that may have been 30 foot in length, maybe more. I can't remember the width, but let's just assume for a moment as wide maybe as this room is. They go and hew these stones out. They have to be brought to the building site, and they're fitted together by hand. You can't chip any more off of them. All the work had to be done. And then, once the thing is overlaid with gold, they have to have the craftsman come in and carve all of the intricate carvings along the walls, et cetera. I don't know how they accomplished all that. But clearly, David was concerned about it. And so he does all that he can do. He does what he can do, both from the spoils of war, from his own monies, taking thought for craftsmen, even down to the nails. You saw that, right, when we read it, that he even had the nails made. He did all that he could do to see that God's work prospered and that his temple was built. In hymn 280 we sing with regard to the church of Jesus Christ, for her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend, to her my cares and toils be given, till toils and cares shall end. Can you sing that, my friend, with sincerity of heart? Have you ever shed a tear for the house of God? Do you pray? for the house of God is it your chief care and do you toil for the house of God and then we go on to sing beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways her sweet communion solemn vows her hymns of love and praise. Can you say that above all that you desire and find joy in, it is in the worship and the gathered church of Christ that you find your highest joy? Well, I wanted to deal with his providing the arrangements for the operations of the temple, but I don't think we can do that in the time that we have left. So let me just ask again, my friend, what is your relationship to the Church of Jesus Christ? Because that says a great deal about your relationship to Christ himself. To say I love Christ but that I don't love his people. John tells us about that in 1 John, doesn't he? Whoever says that he loves God and hates his brother, that man's a liar. Now, whoever sees his brother in need and refuses to help him, claims to be a Christian, that person's a liar. You know, of all the things you can invest in in this life, The only thing that's going to matter is whether you've invested in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, because that's the only thing that's going to last. Everything else is going to be destroyed by fire. Now I'm not saying that to try to help our children, to store up for them, is a bad thing. But I am saying that unless we invest in the kingdom of God, in the end it won't last. It doesn't matter. And so we must invest in the people of God. They're the ones who are going to endure. So I would plead with you as we look at this Old Testament example and acknowledge the temple is no more that physical temple. But there is a temple of God and we are that temple and we should be concerned about one another as living stones in the temple of Christ and seeking to help each other to be as beautiful, as holy, as godly as we can be and being that ourselves. and to remember that we come together to worship and to offer up the sacrifice of our hearts to our God. To sing his praises and to give him his glory and to come and bow before him in homage to him, Lord's Day by Lord's Day. May God help us then to recognize what we're doing and that we come as priests to offer up our hearts before our God. And may God help our service not merely to be in here, but when we go out of here to worship and serve him by the fruit of our lives. May God help us to that end, brethren, and may David's example be a motivation and an instruction to us with regard to valuing the kingdom of God and of wanting to see God's glory advanced in the earth. Let us pray. Father, we pray that you may through David's example speak to our hearts, that by your spirit you may apply it to us, that we may love your kingdom and love your church, its earthly expression, and that we would long to see it beautified, glorified, and that we would know what it is to take pains to see this true. And that we, our God, would not corrupt your worship, but that we would do it according to as you have given us instruction in Holy Scripture, We pray, our God, that you would help us to love the brethren, to do them good, and that we, our God, may be together throughout eternity. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.