First Chronicles chapter 22, please, this evening. First Chronicles chapter 22. And let's go ahead and stand. And we're going to begin in verse number two. just to be difficult. First Chronicles chapter 22 and verse number 22 or verse number two. And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel. And he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates. and for the joinings and brass in abundance without weight. Also cedar trees in abundance. For the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. And David said, Solomon, my son, is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries. I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death. Then he called for Solomon, his son, and charged him to build the house for the Lord God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, my son, ask for me. It was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, thou shalt thou has shed blood abundantly and has made great wars. Thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father. and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. Now, my son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee. Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfill the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel, be strong and of good courage, dread not, nor be dismayed. Now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand 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, Moreover, there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work. Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise, therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee. David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon, his son, saying, Is not the Lord your God with you? Hath he not given you rest on every side? For he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Arise, therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant to the Lord and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord. So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel. Let's pray. Father, we pray always that we would have a good understanding and appreciation of your Word. So much of it is historical to us, set in the very distant past, and yet there is an eternal timelessness to your words, and they are always appropriate. Teach us from them this evening, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. And you may, of course, be seated. Well, once the genealogy in Chronicles had gotten to David and worked through the religious tribe, the Levites, and the ruling tribe, the tribe of Judah, the chronicler has turned his attention to David's efforts regarding the temple. The highlight of David's life is not the slaying of Goliath. The highlight of David's life is the house of the Lord. And the efforts that he expends are directed to the house of the Lord. He has been a military man at God's behest. He is not just a rogue warrior, and his bloodshed is inconsistent with the establishment of the Lord's house. It will not be completed by him. Rather than pout over what God has denied him, he then turns his energies to preparation. The house of the Lord must be exceeding magnificent. Before we look at the text this evening and extract some lessons from it, I do want to just take a moment and address a little bit of technicality. To this point in the book of Chronicles, everything that we have encountered we have found in 1st or 2nd Samuel. And I hope you are aware by now that Chronicles is written much later than 1st and 2nd Samuel. Chronicles is not written until after the 70-year captivity, after centuries of dishonoring the Lord, of losing the land and the city and virtually the entire nation. Under Cyrus, God allows the Jews to go back, and this is a book that is written to those people, to the returning captives. But at this point in time, in the book of Chronicles, the information going forward about the temple is not found in 1 and 2 Samuel. And I mention that only because of this, folks, because it has created some consternation in the world of Bible academics. If the information is not found in Samuel, does it belong in Chronicles? Did somebody just come along and write some stuff so that we would have this stuff? And the answer to that is obviously blatantly not. We believe in an inspired Bible, that it does have all been breathed out by God. And it is entirely possible that although this information isn't found in 1 and 2 Samuel, it was known to everybody. It had been passed on but never recorded in Scripture. And it's also entirely possible that the Spirit of God just chose to reveal it to the chronicler in a way that he had never done to whoever it was that wrote 1st or 2nd Samuel. That is his business. But again, I mention that because I know that many of you are very careful in your reading of the scriptures and in comparing things, and you will not find this anywhere else in the Bible but what you find here. The chapter itself, or really the portions of the chapter that we have read, the story that we have read, I think it's pretty easy to see that it spans David's lifetime, or a great part of David's lifetime. It begins by telling David, pointing out that his son is young and tender, inexperienced, and it ends with David handing the kingdom over to him, a full-grown young man who is more than able, under God's instruction, to lead the kingdom. And the chapter really just kind of conveys information to us. Not really any spectacular information, but it conveys information to us along three lines. There are three trajectories, and for the sake of our familiarity, let's look at them and we will make some note about them. In verses 2 through 5, chapter 22, verses 2 through 5, David is busy preparing both the materials and the laborers for the temple. Kind of a preparation phase. Getting the goods and the items He compiled a workforce, then verse number two, commanded to gather the strangers that were in the land of Israel, the resident aliens. I don't, I never, I'm not gonna, I'm debating, I'm having a, you can see I'm having a conversation with myself about whether to tell you something as an illustration, but I'll just regret it if I do, so I'm not, If you're curious, I'll be happy to tell you privately. I just would rather not put it out into the interweb. Resident aliens. That's what we would call them, resident aliens. The strangers that lived in the land. And there were those people. And he found those that were skilled in masonry and he sent them to do the masonry work. The stones, folks, the foundation stones of this temple are massive. Parts of that temple still remain today. The mosque sits upon it, upon remnants of Herod's temple. Massive structure, massive structure. These were skilled craftsmen. And he prepared the necessary materials, and he kind of gives, the Bible chooses to give us the list of what some of these materials are. There is iron, and there are nails, and there is brass, which if you care, not that you would, is an alloy of copper and zinc. unlike bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin. I had to look that up. I would probably use them interchangeably, but they are technically not. And cedar trees. And north of Israel in Lebanon are the great cedars that were used. And of course, cedar is a tremendous wood for its durability and exterior applications. It will withstand the sun and the rain and the cold. And David then, in concluding this section in verse number five, does all this with a view to the fact that he is not going to be building the temple, but his son is. So that he is viewing, he is doing this with an eye to handing off the ministry to another. Solomon, my son, is young and tender. The house to be built must be exceeding magnificent with fame and glory throughout all countries. I will therefore now make preparations for it. I will get ready for the building so that when the time comes, the building will be ready. And so in verses 2 through 5, David is preparing the materials, the physical dimension, the physical side of the temples, the workers who will do the work and the materials that will be required to do the work. In verses 6 through 16, David prepares Solomon for the task. The whole thing, folks, is about the construction of the temple and David's role in the construction of the temple. Because again, as David, if we're not given this information, but were David to reflect upon his life, it would not be the greatness of his military victories. He would credit all of those to God. He would credit this to God. What is the magnum opus of David's life? It is this. It is his ministry to the temple. And so in verses 6 through 16, he is preparing his son for the task. And he does that in verses 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 by reminding Solomon of his duty, that this is not just a building project, and this is not a monument to David and his glory and his splendor. Nothing about this, folks, that is designed to satisfy or to magnify or to highlight David's ego. This is not like the Palace of Versailles, which was commissioned by the French king to outshine anything that any of the French nobility had. My building is better than your building. This is a building that is anchored in the command and the promises of God. It is a building that is tied to God's covenant that he made with David to build him a dynasty, right? And so I want to recover it because this is critical. Verse number seven, David said to Solomon, my son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God. It started as my idea, but the word of the Lord came unto me saying, thou shalt shed blood abundantly and hast made great wars. Thou shalt not build a house to my name. because they have shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born unto thee, who will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from his enemies round about, for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. This is Davidic covenant. This is Davidic covenant. the dedication of the temple, it is again a reflection of Davidic covenant. These are people, folks, who are thoroughly grounded in the scriptures that they have, who are oriented around the Bible that they know. And so he reminds him of his duty, that this is the work of the Lord. And then in verses 11 through 13, He reminds him or he assures him of God's assistance. Build the house like God said. Build the house like God said. He will be with you. And what is most certainly now prophetic, notice the way that he speaks there. The Lord will give thee, verse number 12, only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding. And of course, we know, folks, that there's never been another human being to outshine Solomon in wisdom and understanding, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And all this wisdom that God will give him is for his use to be a good king over these people, over God's people, for their benefit. And Solomon's primary occupation with reference to the temple is verse number 13. Be faithful to the Lord. This is what is required of you. Do your duty. Be faithful to the Lord. And then in verses 14, 15, and 16, Solomon is told that David has prepared all the materials. He's not suggesting for a moment that he's got all the materials, because he says, Solomon, you can add there too. But I have set you up so that you are not starting at ground zero. And just this technical note, not technical note, but if you look down there in verse number 14, the way it is translated in our King James Bible, now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold, and et cetera. It might entirely be that David is referring to the troubles that he has experienced as king, but what is most likely meant that doesn't come across very clearly is David simply pointing out that he has taken the trouble to do this. that David's preparation for the temple is deliberate and not accidental. David didn't look around and go, well, I got a big pile of cash on my hands and I'm not exactly sure what to do with it, so maybe I'll build a building. But it is carefully planned. It is not randomly thrown together. David has given much time and consideration to this. And these, again, are materials that David uses for the temple and that God allows to be used for the temple. that David acquired while he was shedding all that blood in his military exploits. So again, the passage that we read deals with, first of all, the preparation of the material side of the temple, the preparation of Solomon for building the temple, and the preparation of the leadership of Israel for the building of the temple, and that's verses 17 through 19. David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon, his son. This is a nationwide effort. Help Solomon. God is with you, the nation, like God is with Solomon. And it is God who has given you rest, peace, tranquility. So put your heart to this. Get busy. Don't leave Solomon hanging in the lurch. Don't raise your hands and go, this is none of my concern, not my temple, not my concern, not my money, not my problem. It is the house that is built for the name of the Lord. And of course, we know that the word name there implies all that God is, all that God is and all that God has promised to Israel. So there's the way the chapter flows, right? I mean, or the passage and I, you know, Not followed the exact chapter, but. And then when David is old, Solomon becomes king. There's a whole story to that. You're probably aware of it. There's all kinds of intrigue. There's all kinds of competition. There's threat to the kingdom being passed on to Solomon. But the Chronicler doesn't deal with any of that. It's incidental to the story. The focus of the story is the house of the Lord. The place where the Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant will be. The place where the priests will conduct their ministry. The place where the people will have access in a right relationship to their God. This is paramount. So, from there, let me just first of all make several New Testament applications. A few New Testament applications. The correlation in the New Testament is not upon physical structures. I want to be very delicate and careful here, but sometimes we go to passages like this or we go to Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall, and we use it to explain and defend physical properties. Whether we're meeting in somebody's living room or we're meeting in our auditorium, the people of God have needed a place to meet. They have needed a place to assemble. But the New Testament correlation to the house of the Lord is not a physical building, it is you. It is you. And so just as a man, as David would be oriented towards building the house of the Lord because that is where God was and where the people met, In the New Testament, our orientation is upon the same task, building the house of God. The difference is that it is more focused upon people and much less upon properties. As I mentioned last Wednesday, folks, the church is not the property, not really. 1 Corinthians 3.16, know ye not that ye are the temple of God? and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 2 Corinthians 6.16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Now, again, folks, without going back and looking at all the references, that is an echo of Old Testament language. Those are the same kind of promises that God made to Israel. I will be your God, you will be my people. With the New Testament covenant in mind, I will be in you, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Ephesians 2.19, now therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. We are the temple. We are the temple. 1 Peter 2, 4, to whom coming is unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also it is contained in the scripture, the Old Testament, behold, I lay in Zion a cheap cornerstone, elect, precious. He that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Christ is the cornerstone of the temple, and we are the building of the temple. The work then, folks, the New Testament work then, just as it was for David, is more than any individual. It is larger than any individual. As Solomon said in 1 Chronicles 22 5, the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceeding magnificent of fame and glory throughout all countries. Not for David's sake, but for the Lord's sake. It is built to the name of the Lord, and I've talked about this on Wednesday nights as we've talked about some things. One of the greatest changes in viewpoints that I've had in almost 40 years as a pastor is my viewpoint on the significance and the role of the church. It is God's only program. It is the only program that God has. So therefore, this is, right, we are not Davids, and we'll talk about this, not with reference to David, but in the weeks ahead with one of the patriarchs, we do not occupy the significance, we are not in the lineage of the Messiah. But we are engaged in the same work, and we are serving the same God. This is the work of the church, Ephesians 4, where there's one church, one body, one faith. Ephesians 4, 7-12, we have individual ability to contribute to that one work. It doesn't mean that our individuality doesn't matter, but it's not paramount. Our individuality is used to contribute to the work of the church. One goal, Ephesians 4, 13 through 16, till we all come. And so every one of us folks is to be David-like in our orientation to deliberately, consciously, willfully work toward the contribution of the church. And this is how God has arranged the body, Some were apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, all gifted. Everybody is gifted. Everybody has a place of service, not to the physical plant, but to the church, to the body. Everybody ministers to the body. David did the work that God has. There's no ego. I wanted to build it. God said, no, that's fine. I'm going to do what I can. And I appreciate, by the way, I think really, I think that that kind of mentality pretty much permeates Westwood Heights. Glory seekers have really never fit in around here. And also like In David's building of the temple, there is so much to do. There is so much to do. And like David, we should endeavor to do it deliberately. In my trouble, I've taken the pains to get these things done. Paul speaks to us along the same lines. 2 Timothy 2.20, In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. A man, therefore, purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified in meat for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. There is a consciousness to the labor of God's saints and a deliberateness." So, right? David prepares the materials, David prepares Solomon, David prepares the leadership, some New Testament applications. In closing, In closing, a couple of words for us personally, Westwood Heights Baptist Church. This is part of the text of scripture that we are looking at and we are working our way systematically through Chronicles, so there is no specific agenda there, but David worked in preparation for his transition. David was working in preparation for his transition. He was not one of those who denied that his death would come. He was not one of those who tried to pretend that it would never happen to him. And this has been the pattern that God has had always with his people. God prepared Joshua. David prepared Solomon. God has raised up people who follow. And David viewed the transition from himself to Solomon as an advancement of the work, not a detriment to the work. If I may just speak selfishly for a moment, I hope that the man who succeeds me does not consider the labor that I have done to be detrimental to what he wants to do. I hope that you will view whoever the successor is in the proper light of being an asset to the ministry and not a detriment. In 1890, Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist pastor, preached a sermon from this text or at least part of this text. Spurgeon rarely preached lengthy passages of scripture, but usually preached from just a few verses. He preached a sermon from this text called One Worker Preparing for Another. Let me just read an excerpt of it to you. I believe that it is good for the work to have a change of workers. I am glad that David did not live any longer, for he could not have built the temple. David must die. He has had a good time of service. He has gathered all the materials for the temple. Solomon comes with young blood and youthful vigor and carries on the work. Sometimes the best thing that some of us old folk can do is go home and go to heaven and let some younger man come and do our work. I know that there are great lamentations about the death of Dr. So-and-so and Mr. So-and-so, but why? Do you not think that, after all, God can find as good in men as those that he has found already. He made those good men. He is not short of power. He can make others just as good as they have been. And Spurgeon died, by the way, in 1892, two years later. He was 58. He was 58. There's no one like him. There's probably never been anybody like him since. But Christianity has continued, and it will. As Solomon himself would one day write, one generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. So David prepared for the building of the temple. Our lives are preparing or contributing to the work of the Lord. And by the way, our own individual lives, not just mine, should be lived with an eye of passing the torch to another. Let's pray tonight. Father, you alone are eternal, and our eternal existence does not come from us, but it comes from you. Thank you for that precious promise. But our lives truly are like vapors. They're like clouds or gusts of wind. They come and they go, and they are gone very quickly. May we use our lives wisely. May we be preparing for the transition that will come, and we pray your blessing upon it. Father, I ask your great hand of blessing upon Westwood Heights in the future. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.