Gooding, David: 6 - First Chronicles

For our example of a book taken from the third division of the Old Testament, we are tonight to consider together the First Book of Chronicles. The First Book of Chronicles, though it is an historical book, does not come among the former prophets in the second division of the Old Testament, but comes in the third division called the Writings. In fact, First and Second Chronicles in the Hebrew canon are the last books in the Old Testament. And together, the First and Second Books of Chronicles give us a survey of Old Testament history right from the beginning, from the creation of Adam, up to the time of the restoration of Israel to their land after the captivity in Babylon, the restoration that was commissioned by the emperor King Cyrus. Now, there are books in the Old Testament that take the story a little bit beyond that, notably books like Ezra and Nehemiah and the post-exilic prophets Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi. They take the story beyond the point where Second Chronicles leaves it. Nevertheless, they are detailed studies of a short period. First and Second Chronicles, I say, amount to a survey of almost the whole of the Old Testament history. We shall have to content ourselves with considering First Chronicles this evening, but we shall be asking of this book whether it has any distinct philosophy of history. Can it discern any pattern in the affairs of men? Is life getting anywhere? Or is life one accident with no rhyme, nor reason, nor pattern, nor any observable goal? Very good then, we start to read in the first book of Chronicles, chapter um one and verse one. Chronicles chapter one and verse one. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Yares, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Ner, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Japheth, Gomer and Magog and Mardai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz and Diphta and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan, Elisha and Tashish, Kittim and Rhodani. The last chapter of the First Book of Chronicles. That is chapter ni- twenty nine, Chapter twenty nine of the First Book of Chronicles, beginning halfway through verse twenty two. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and anointed him unto the Lord to be prince, and Zadok to be priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father, and prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. Now I have the feeling that First Chronicles will not be the favorite reading of exactly everybody here present this evening. And there is, of course, a very good reason for that. The first book of Chronicles opens with about nine or ten chapters of names, almost nothing else but a solid array of names. And then when you get to the end of the First Book of Chronicles, you meet the phenomenon all over again, chapter after chapter after chapter, full of almost nothing else but names. And I guarantee there are many Christians who, when they come to First Chronicles in their daily readings, think it advisable perhaps to take it as read and skip the chapters with all the names in. For truth to tell, they're not only names, but most of them are difficult, and some of them are impossible to pronounce anyway. Names, thousands of them. And of course, we never knew them. It would be different, of course, if your grandmother's name was in First Chronicles. I guarantee you'd have us read First Chronicles if your uncles and aunts and grandfathers were there. With what tremendous pride would you point to it? These folks, we never knew. What are they to us now but names on a bit of paper? It's a thing to be thought of, isn't it? That once upon a time, every one of those names represented a human personality, born into this world with all the potential and hope of a human child. A personality that developed and flowered as best it might, with all its hopes and ambitions and fears and desires. A whole microcosm of human interest that was born and grew and lived and married and had children, and in the end died. Every single one of those names. Now today, you say, what are they? But a name on a bit of paper. And you're not interested. Well, be careful. Because one day you'll be just a name on a bit of paper. Whatever your name is, that personality of yours, and all your hopes and aspirations, the you that is the human being, pray tell me, when you've lived out your little seventy years, will you be something more than just a name on a bit of paper that nobody is interested in? What are we going to make of this phenomenon? Generation after generation, like the waves beating in on the Atlantic coast. There come thousands of people into our world, each one of them given a name, and then they go, and the next generation comes and they go, and the next generation comes and they go. Millions upon millions of myriads of names of human beings. Tell me, what is it all about, and where is it getting us? Is it just a going round in circles, one generation being born and the next coming along and pushing it into the dustbin? Or is there some purpose and plan visible in the his- human history that gives rise to some hope that the human phenomenon is not in vain, but that is each generation goes on, it is reaching and progressing towards some worthy goal. That is then the question that we shall be asking of First Chronicles. And we shall very soon find, if we take the chronicler seriously, that he does perceive that there is a plan in human history, and that humankind is moving forward, and that there is in front of this human race a glorious prospect. Consider in a nutshell what his message is. He starts at the very first moment with Adam, the first man that ever was, and out of the generations and the nations that were born of Adam, the chronicler sees presently a unique nation arise. We call it now the Jews, and they develop, and after a few generations, presently the chronicler, as he comes to the midpoint of his work, tells us this, that Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord. For the chronicler, that is the peak of his history. Afterwards, he will tell you things rather decline. But there did, at one stage, a summit arrive in which man, really human man, sat on the throne of the Lord. And perhaps you say to yourself as you read it, but that is an oriental exaggeration. Isn't that rather largish language to use of the fact that King Solomon sat on a throne in the little tiny state of Judah in Jerusalem. Why call it the throne of the Lord? Well, perhaps to our ears it sounds an exaggeration. The chronicler calls it the throne of the Lord because he believed that those kings in Jerusalem were appointed by God, David and Solomon, God's viceroys on earth, and in that sense they were sitting on a throne appointed by the Lord. Man sat on the throne of the Lord. But you know, as we read this ancient summary of history, our minds immediately leap ahead, don't they? And we begin to see that in this summary of Old Testament history, we have not merely historic fact, but prophetic prototype. Read on into your Old Testament and across into the New, and you will find these words take on much profounder meaning still. If Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord in Egypt, it is written that man shall yet sit on the very throne of God at the pinnacle of the universe. Now I got it wrong. It is written not merely that he shall, but that he already does. Why, as we sit here in this room, it is the fact that a man, truly human, with flesh and bone as we have flesh and bone, a man who walked here on our earth with two feet on terra firma, that real man, Jesus Christ our Lord, this very moment is enthroned and sits upon the throne of the Lord in heaven. Thus, Philippians chapter two tells us of him who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but humbled himself and took the form of a slave, and being found in fashion as a man, he emptied himself and became obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus, the real human Jesus, is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Epistle to the Ephesians and its fellow, the Epistle to the Colossians, tell us that the Jesus who worked at the carpenter's bench is seated far above all principality, might, power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in that which is to come. Our blessed Lord himself, addressing one of his churches in a place called Laodicea, reminded them, I have overcome and am sat down on my father's throne. As if that were not wonderful enough, our blessed Lord, turning to us, his people says, and if you too overcome, you shall sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and sam sat down on my father's throne. See then in prototype, in this early summary of history, the pattern that, uh, is developing, the purpose of God with man. Man made in the image of God, and though he fell abysmally into sin, God proceeds with his purpose. It is God's good pleasure that one day man shall reign, sitting on the very throne of God, and shall reign throughout this vast universe as God's viceroy and executive. And I say it is no miss. Since the chronicler wrote, marvelous things have happened. God himself has become incarnate and visited our planet, and Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son, the true man, has returned to glory, sits on the throne of the universe, merely waiting until his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. That then is the broad plan of history. Let us now trace the stages by which the chronicler sees this history develop. How do you get from Adam to the point where Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord? First of all, there is the, uh, stage, chapters one one to ten fourteen. Stage number one. Look back upon that stage, says the chronicler, and you will see Adam, the developing Gentile nations, the rise of Israel out of those nations, until you come to the point when God has his first and true king ready, prototype of the reigning house that shall one day control the universe. Chapter one one to ten fourteen, to the rise of God's true king, prototype of the coming Messiah. Second stage, chapter eleven verse one to fourteen verse seven, The establishment of that kingdom under God's true king, David. You will notice that if you care actually to look at the verse for chapter fourteen, verse two: and David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, for his kingdom was exalted on high for his people Israel's sake. But not only was David established in his kingdom in that second stage, but something else tremendously significant took place. When David was appointed king, almost the first thing he did was to lead his army to Jerusalem and capture the city of Jerusalem and turn that city in the- into the capital city of the newly joined nation. David was the man that welded the ten tribes to the two tribes. When he received the nation, they were in various bits and pieces, and what they sorely needed was a heart, was some central place, some central object that would appeal to their loyalties and cement that nation together. And David, with a masterstroke of policy, hit upon a plan. He went to Jebus, he took the city, he renamed it Jerusalem, and he gave this city to all the twelve tribes as their capital city. A city where every man in the whole nation, be he a Benjamite or a, or a Danite or a man of Ephraim, matters not what tribe he belonged to. Here in Jerusalem City, he found a capital, a headquarters, a heart politically, where he might feel himself at home. And I leave you to judge the tremendous success that attempted David's move. How during the centuries Jerusalem became the very heartthrob of that nation. Oh Jerusalem, the pilgrims sang as they journeyed to their capital city. Oh Jerusalem, they cried as they set eyes on it for the first time, the Jerusalem that they loved and longed for. Our feet shall stand within thy walls. Oh Jerusalem. And to the very present time, the city of Jerusalem in the Middle East remains a world focal point of interest to three major world religions, a veritable world center to which the eyes of men are drawn as if by a magnet. It was David who first got the idea of taking that city, Jebus, and renaming it Jerusalem and making it a headquarters for his nation, and therefore subsequently a headquarters for the world of men. And what was the next stage in the program? We've had stage one, um the rise of Israel and the appearing of the king who should be the prototype of the world ruler. Next stage, the taking of Jerusalem city, the world capital Jerusalem City. Ah, but the stage after that, chapter fourteen verse eight to eighteen verse seventeen. And if you care to look to eighteen fourteen that begins that last paragraph of this section, you find, and David reigned over all Israel, and he executed judgment and justice unto all his people. What then in this third stage? What new dramatic thing did he do this time? Well, in this section, he not only had conquered Jerusalem and given it a heart to the people, but this time he brought up the ark of the God of Israel and stationed it in Jerusalem City, and that made Jerusalem City twice over the nation's heart. For now it was their heart politically, but with the Ark of the Lord there, it was their heart spiritually. Political and spiritual headquarters now was Jerusalem City. And the, uh, next stage, stage four, chapter nineteen verse one to twenty two verse nineteen. Twenty two verse nineteen ends the section. You will notice the very next phrase, twenty three one: Now David was old and full of days, and he made his Solomon, his son, king over Israel. So the, um, fourth section, and you say, what dramatic thing happened there? We've had the choice of the king, we've had now the setting up of Jerusalem City as headquarters, we've had now the bringing up of the Ark and the presence of God central to this city. Now in this fourth stage, you'll read of the choosing of the site that was to be the site of the temple of God in Jerusalem. That temple to which Judah should always look, and Israel, however far flung throughout the whole earth, the temple of the living God at Jerusalem. It was on this occasion and in this part of history that the temple site was chosen. Then finally, the fifth section leading to the climax, chapter twenty three verse one um to chapter twenty nine verse thirty. Final stage of David's life, he had already made Solomon king in the sense of co-regent with him. Then we read in chapter twenty nine that they made Solomon the king the second time in his own right, independent of his father. So the last section of First King- First Chronicles gives us the story of David's last days. He had been a great monarch. He had fought many battles. King though he was, like all the other kings that had lived, he realized that presently he would go out into eternity. How then would he fill his last years? What would he do with them? How would he do something that, when he was gone, would last and be significant? King David spent his last years gathering material that should be used eventually by Solomon to build the great temple of God at Jerusalem. And he used his last years to organize his subjects, so that when the day of peace should come, his subjects' lives would be organized around that temple, and they all serve God and be blessed by the presence of God. They are the five stages, then, of First Chronicle. Let's go, uh, over them and just sum them for a moment. The rise of Israel to the true king who should rise and govern his subjects and organize them into some pattern o- of activity. And as we think of the early Old Testament story, our minds as Christians go to Christ. For Solomon is long since gone, and David is gone, and they were but prototypes. But of David's seed, God eventually, in the course of human history, raised up Jesus the Messiah. What for? To make sense of human life. To take these names, these endless names that have lived here on this planet, and if they will, if they will allow him to, to take them and build them into something significant. Make them meaningful. Organize them for time and eternity into an activity centered on the presence of God and living to the glory of God. Jesus Christ, the great organizer of the vast multitude of human names. And in the second section, the capture of Jerusalem as a capital city by David. We thought just now of its significance that it still retains as a world capital on our earth. But as we think of that as Christians, our minds go beyond it. We see another capital city. We think not of an earthly Jerusalem, but of the Jerusalem that is above, that is the mother of us all. We think of that city that Abraham looked forward to, for he looked for the city that hath the foundation whose builder and maker is God, and we feel our heart give a leap inside, do we not? We who know the Savior, and we say, yes, thank God, my name likewise written in heaven, in the citizen list of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven from whence we look for the Savior, that new Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above, the mother of us all. All that lovely city, wherein the citizens are all freeborn and free, based upon the foundation of the apostles, who have their right of entry because redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Call they themselves what they like here on earth, and they do sometimes call themselves some funny names. I warrant you they do. But call themselves what they will, so be it, they have trusted the Savior and belong to him. Then the Jerusalem above is the mother of us all, and in that glorious city we shall meet undivided for all eternity. The heart center of God's great universe. And then, of course, at the bringing up of the ark, the stationing of the presence of God central to life, that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ has done. He does it for every individual because he is the ark himself. He is the presence of God. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He comes and lives in the heart of every believer, and every single assembly that meets in his name, he presences himself among them. And in that great eternal city, says John, uh, I saw God and the Lamb, the center of all that was taught. Christ is the one that has taught us and made it possible to live a life that is thoroughly God-centered. Not only the bringing up of the ark, but in the fourth stage, the choosing of the temple site. Now, when you read of the choosing of the temple site in the Old Testament, it's not merely a matter of choosing a site that is big enough geographically to take a large building. It is something more profound than that. The site upon which the temple at Jerusalem was founded was specially chosen because of the profound thing that happened at that site. The profoundest experience of human sin that you could imagine, and the profoundest exhibition of the grace of God that you could possibly conceive. There on that spot, it was because of that heart-moving experience that they decided that there the temple should be built. Why so? There would never be a spot on earth more calculated to provoke the human spirit to praise than that spot and the thing that happened there and one day should happen there again. You see, you know it as well as I, don't you? You can build a beautiful temple. You can build a colossal cathedral. You can build a Jada Minby chapel, and you can have a delightful building on a very suitable site, and you can gather together and not one spark of worship in your hearts if you're not careful. Can't you? And a temple without any worship in the hearts of the people isn't much use. How will you, how will you contrive not merely a temple, but a temple full of people that are brimming over with worship and bless and praise to God? The temple site was chosen because at that site there happened a thing, we shall consider it later, that would prove productive of centuries of worship to God. That our blessed Lord has done in Jerusalem City, on a place called Calvary. Why all the worship that will ascend for the countless ages of eternity springs from what happened on a tiny little bit of ground just outside the walls of Jerusalem. Where man's sin was seen in its starkest of profundus. The love of God shined through, incredible and marvelous, all those three hours of Calvary. What an incessant volume of praise will they evoke, yea, have already evoked and will go on evoking from a million of a million hearts throughout all eternity to the praise of God, O our marvelous Christ. He shall at length sit as he sits now on the throne of the universe, and all in heaven and all in earth under the bat and sway of this divine conductor, all shall sing the praise of God, and all shall live lives of praise of God, as the blessed human Jesus Christ, God's son, sitting on the throne of the Lord, organizes the life of all his myriad subjects in heaven and earth, and makes the total one glorious orchestra of praise to God. That is the philosophy of history. But while there were these positive stages forward, I want finally to direct your attention to the fact that as progress was made, so from time to time lapses occurred. So that the pattern of First Chronicles, if you perceive it, is starting and going up in your progress, and then alas, a lapse. And going up again to a higher point, and then a lapse. And higher again, and a lapse. Until at last, thank God, you come to the pinnacle. The pinnacle was the reign of Solomon, the reign of peace and plenty and joy and gladness, and the building at last of that temple for which David had so magnificently prepared. Briefly, let me remind you that the story of second Chronicles tells of decline from that pinnacle. Solomon was a master of wisdom. His reign was full of peace. His head was full of wise sayings, but he wasn't the Messiah. And when they built that temple in Jerusalem City and shouted for joy, it was a glad day, but it wasn't heaven, and it wasn't the millennium, and it was only a prototype. And from that high plateau of achievement, Israel gradually declined. Second Chronicles follows this pattern: long decline, then a recovery under Joash, followed by long decline and a recovery under Hezekiah, followed by decline again and a recovery u- u- under Josiah, and by desperately decla- decline until they were all taken to Babylon, and... uh, a recovery again under Cyrus. Oh, it's a book of ups and downs, but the last down is an up, and the last book of the Hebrew canon ends on that note of hope. Human history thus far, says the chronicler, yes, it saw a vision, it reached a peak, alas, it declined from it. Never mind, it was only a prototype, and what men dreamed of there and accomplished there lived on in the hearts and minds of God's people, waiting for the coming of Christ, who shall give it permanent and eternal and infinite fulfillment. But we're going to look at the mistakes of the first book of Chronicles. How when they made progress, they fell back. It won't be so dreary as you, you fear it will be, uh, but we're going to look at them anyway, dreary or not. So in the first stage, what was the first big mistake that was made? And the answer is Saul, King Saul. He was the first disaster of size that the Chronicle notes. Would you say, what about him, and who was he, and what was wrong with him? Well, God had an intention of bringing in a king that should be sovereign over his people and one day sit upon the very throne of the Lord. But Saul, when God took him and put him on the throne, you know right well what he did. Chapter ten tells us, thus it says, so Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the Lord because of the word of the Lord which he kept not, and also because he asked counsel of one that had a familiar spirit. Saul, raised to kingship, took it upon himself to disobey the very God that had made him king and had to be dispo- deposed. He didn't keep the word of the Lord. He got uppish and thought that now he was king, he didn't have to obey God anymore. But God wasn't long in deciding what to do with Saul. God is indeed prepared to see man as his voice boy on the throne of the universe, but on the condition that that man obeys the divine will, obeys the divine word. Oh, the chaos of our little world at the moment is precisely this, that man, son of Adam, has rebelled against his creator. He wants to rule, but not to obey. And with a million people all wanting to disobey, the world is reduced to chaos. I want to write over this first section of First Chronicles, this little heading: Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, but by whose authority? By whose authority? Not his own authority, but by the authority of God and the authority of his word. Therefore, when Saul obeyed, disobeyed, he had to be dismissed. What a story of the human race that is, isn't it? Man, the first man, a failure, a disobedient rebel. Now see God's determination that when the first man failed, God had another who should fulfill all his will, and he took the kingdom from Saul and he gave it to David. And I preach you the Christian message therefrom, that man, son of Adam, rebelled against God and had to be dismissed. But God went on with his program. God is determined to have a man on the throne of the Lord, and God at last found a man who would do the word of the Lord and obey God utterly and implicitly, whatever it costs. Who, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross. And with his obedience to the word of God, thus demonstrated, God has taken him to the very throne of the universe. And listen. And being made perfect, he has become the author of eternal salvation unto as many as... obey Obey him? him. Would you have a part in this great vision? Would you sit with Christ on his throne as he sits today on his father's throne? Would you reign with Christ? Do you hope to be there when Christ comes to his coronation and takes over this world and the whole universe and actively reigns for God. Would you have part in his government? Then hear the terms. Christ obeyed and is now raised to that throne and has become the author of eternal salvation to those who... obey him. Now that is the characteristic of Christians, isn't it? True. True Christians can be s- could d- can be described as believers. True Christians can be described, likewise, as those that obey him. How we're getting on? In the program that's going to fit us to reign with Christ. How are our lessons in obedience going? Second stage. Man shall sit on, sit on the throne of the Lord. I want to put another caption on this second stage. Man shall sit on the throne of the Lord, not merely according to God's authority, but question mark. Man shall sit on the throne of the Lord, by whose power? By whose power? Our lesson is taken from an incident when David, having taken Jerusalem city, determined to bring up the ark and put it in Jerusalem, for the ark represented the symbol of the presence of God, and he wanted the presence of God in his city to guard him from his enemies, to keep the people subject to him. He wanted the presence of God, and he instructed the people to bring up the ark of the Lord. Now, you know God had given very strict instructions about that ark. It had to be carried in a very special way, so that the Israelites should not fall into idolatrous conceptions of God, like the heathen who carried their idols around the place. But alas, on this occasion, David didn't observe the instructions that God had given him. In his keenness to bring up the ark of the Lord, he had them put it on a new cart, and, uh, he meant no respect. It was a brand new cart, but as the oxen were drawing this cart along the road with the Ark of God upon it, uh, the oxen stumbled a bit, and one of the men standing by instinctively put out his hand to steady the Ark of God, and immediately God struck him and killed him. You say that's a very severe thing to do, isn't it? Well, so it seems at first sight. The man meant to hold up the ark, hold up the throne of God. He meant it well. Why did God execute him for that action so well meant? Well, I turn aside a moment. If one of these days you get home to heaven and get near enough to see the throne of God, the real throne of God. If, uh, halfway through the service of heaven, you should one of these days see the throne of God begin to totter as though it were going to fall over, I do urge you not to try and hold it up. I urge you to run as hard as you can run. For if God falls over, you'll never hold him up. And if his throne starts to collapse, it will crush you if you don't get out of the way. You'll never keep it up. No, indeed not. And you know the essence of idolatry is this, that men carry their gods. That is idolatry. In the end, men manipulate the god. They control the god by their sacrifice. They carry the old God on their image, and the world is full of that concept of men manipulating God. But you don't manipulate the God of heaven. You can't carry the God of heaven. You don't have to keep the God of heaven up so he doesn't fall over. His throne is never in any danger of falling over, thank you very much. If it were, you wouldn't keep it up. And we need to be taught for our own benefit's sake that we don't have to keep God up. We don't have to keep his throne up. It's the other way round, he keeps us up. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, by whose power? By God's power, not man's power. That's why the gospel preacher doesn't have to ask you to pull up your spiritual socks to be saved. He can preach you a gospel in which God does the saving, God does the redeeming, God does the rescuing, God does the maintaining. It is God's power, and it is a gift. When we have become Christians, you know, we need to remember it. Sometimes we say to ourselves, now we need the power of God in our meetings of the church, and we set about getting it, and before we know where we are, we're trying to manufacture the power of God and produce the power of God. It can't be done. You can produce a lot of excitement, but you'll never produce the power of God. You can work up a lot of emotion, but emotion is not necessarily the power of God. The genuine power of God cannot be worked up. It doesn't have to be. Now, to those simple enough to rest upon God, God will demonstrate his power to them and lift them up. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord. Shall we indeed? I do need to be sure of it. By what power shall I sit there? My own effort? Then I might well tumble off. I shall sit upon the throne of the Lord by the power of God. Third mistake. David eventually brought up the Ark of God, and, uh, being very pleased with himself, he hit upon an idea, and, uh, he suggested it to the prophet. Perhaps the prophet would like to tell the Almighty that David had had an idea, and the Almighty could possibly consider it. So the prophet went and told the Almighty David's idea, and the idea was this, that David would build God a temple in Jerusalem. And God listened reverently and patiently and then said, thank you very much, David, but I don't want a temple at this stage. Thank you very much. Nice of you to suggest it, but did I ever ask for one? Actually, David, one of these days I am going to have a temple, but you're not going to be the man that builds it. I'm not ready for it yet. We've not arrived, you see, David. David thought they had. You know, all these centuries, God's ark had been moving about in a portable tabernacle, and Israel had been conquering the land, and century after century making more progress, and the ark had followed them from place to place. And David had come to the point where he thought now, you know, we've had so many victories. I think we've arrived, and we can afford to build a permanent temple and put the ark in and take the staves out, for boys, we've arrived. And God said, I'm sorry, David, you haven't arrived, not yet. There's still a lot of journeying to do and still a lot of fighting to do. You're not there yet, David. Thank you very much for suggesting a permanent temple. You've not arrived, and we shan't have a temple till we have arrived. So David meant it well, but he had to be taught this lesson. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord. By whose plan? According to whose plan? David's plan? Or God's plan? And the answer is, of course, God's plan. Now, if you will think a moment, you will readily see that I didn't invent salvation, and you will perceive it here, that if I had invented salvation, I would have invented a salvation that would have said, yes, well, please, forgiveness of sins, please, forgiveness of sins, yes, and then, uh, a comfortable house, a bungalow perhaps, or a, you know, but a comfortable house and a Mercedes and, uh, you know, enough money to eat and, uh, uh, to to buy food to eat and a few pleasures. And then has been let in the door of heaven to have a repeat, uh, uh, program, only rather more exalted. And you say, yes, yes, yes, that's just about your style, Gooding. That's about the biggest you can think of. Anyone can see you didn't invent the plan of salvation, can't they? For God's idea of salvation is not merely to pardon me, not merely to give me forgiveness of sins and some little seat inside the door of heaven to see the orchestra. God's plan of salvation for me is nothing less than that I sit upon the very throne of the Lord. Who would ever have conceived such a staggering thing? But it's God's plan, and he's not going to give it up, and he's not going to let us settle down until he's got it, got us where he wants us to be. Man shall sit on the throne of the Lord. Do you know, I don't know about your heart, but my heart, I have to confess, sometimes wants to settle down before it's, before it's got home. Happens, doesn't it, to folks? They get saved in their teens, they go on with the Lord, and then somehow, I don't know, they think they've arrived or something, so that they think there's no need for any further progress, and they don't come to the prayer meeting, and they don't come to the ministry meeting, and they don't read their Bibles much, and they don't pray much. They say to themselves, but I'm saved, aren't I? And I've made it good in life, and I've got all I need, and I've arrived. Oh, what tiny concepts they have of God's purpose for their lives. Thank God it's not left to them to control the plan. It's God's plan. And for that reason, my brother, you'll have to be prepared for God to nudge you now and again and prod you and push you and say, look here, old boy, this is not your resting place. You've not arrived yet. You must get up and go on. You will account that way for some of the trials we go through. You will account for some of the difficulties of life we go through. For God's plans are so big, it will take the whole of life and some very rigorous disciplines to prepare us, his redeemed people, at length to sit upon the throne of the Lord, and not till his plan is fulfilled will God allow himself or us to rest. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, for whose glory? The fourth stage tells us of a very sorry incident in David's life when he got near the end and the great plan was within sight of being achieved. Then David sinned in this fashion that he commanded his officers to number the people. And Joab said to David, but David, my good man, why do you want to number the people? Why do you want to know their number? Yes, why? And the answer was that David wanted to know the number of the people so that he could stick his chest out a bit. He was the man that had done the victory, and he was the man that had organized it all. And look at all these folks, and they all obeyed him, and they were all his servants. There you are, you boy there down in Egypt, Pharaoh. Phew, what are you, little thing? You look at all the people that I have and all the revenue that comes to me and all the devotion of many subjects that I have, and in that very moment God smote him. You say, what was wrong with it? Why, this is a crime so devilish that it is fit only to be compared with what Satan himself did. It is to take that sacred thing that belongs to God and only God and pervert it for your own glory. For man was made to serve God, to give his heart's devotion to God. David, in this sad moment, took the devotion of his people and their very lives for his own glory, pride, and And pleasure. pleasure. That's a more serious sin than murder, you know, but Christian preachers galore have been guilty of it, and I have likewise. Preaching the very word to attract glory to oneself instead of devotion to God. Preaching the very gospel to draw men to loyalty to oneself and to one's own denomination rather than to God. To steal the glory that belongs to God, that is a devilish thing to do. And over this whole section of Chronicles, you'll have to write this man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, but for whose glory? When at last the vast multitudes of heaven and earth bow down to Jesus Christ our Lord and pay him divine honors, it will then be safe, for the Bible adds they shall do it to the glory of God the Father. And finally, man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, at whose expense? Who shall pay for it? In the last chapter of First Chronicles, David surveys his life's handiwork. There are the people organized in readiness that when the age of peace dawns, they shall be each ready to take their part. He's trained the singers, he's trained the pastry cooks, he's trained the incense makers, he's trained the trumpeters, he's collected the nails, he's collected the bolts, he's collected the wood, he's collected the stone, he's made all the preparations of men and material. It merely waits the dawning of the age of peace, and hey, presto, what a thing it will be. As the bits and pieces are put together into one magnificent temple, and the people take their place, all prepared, ready to sound the praise of God. And as each man catches his own glimpse of God and all the wonder and the glory of it, each man will translate it into his own activity, making incense, blowing bugles, playing harps, uh, building temples, be it what it will, and as they catch their sight of the glory of God, they shall spring back in praise and gladsome activity to the glory of God. That's the scheme. So David looks upon it now. There's all this treasure that he's prepared, ready for the dawning of that great age, and he says to himself as he reflects on it, for dear me, look at this. Where did I get all this from? Oh God, I've given you all this, but of thine own have we given thee? What could you give God but what he first gave you? And I pass by David, and I think of our possibility. What are you doing with life? May I ask you what you're doing with life? What is life about? Oh, you marvelous privileged man who are an elder of a church, aren't you? To be allowed to go and seek material, human material, and pray over it and teach it and polish it and refine it and guide it, ready for the dawning of that great day when God shall erect his heavenly temple. Oh, you Sunday school teacher, what a priceless opportunity you have of going out and winning the heart of that eternal personality, that child, winning it for Christ, so that it shall be ready to be built into that eternal temple when the day dawns. Oh, how fantastically wealthy you are. Businessman, what an opportunity you have, not to make money so that you just beat all the other men in your row, but to devote that whole business of yours as a means of winning souls and training men in righteousness and responsibility and truth, preparing men in the day-to-day run of life for the part they must play in that eternity of peace, God, God, bring them to salvation. What a fantastically wealthy thing it is to be allowed to take part with God in the preparation and training of human material for that coming great day and to think God lets you put your hand to the job. Why are we any of us but miserable, bankrupt sinners that must have perished in hell forever, apart from God's forgiveness? And then God in his mercy gives us the power of his spirit and gives us his holy word and gives us life and gives us breath and gives us time and gives us money and gives us our homes and gives us our cars and gives us all we have. And what do you think he gives it us for? So what we receive from him, be it what it will, we may turn and use for the preparation of the building of that great glorious temple of God that shall be erected when Christ comes again. Head point, center point, capital of the universe, the great Jerusalem, city of the king, and the temple of God and of the Lamb therein, and his redeemed people ruling over a new heavens and a new earth. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, at whose expense? And I leave you with the question, for when you have plumbed the value of the blood of Calvary, you will have measured the expense that God has paid to achieve that eternal glory for his redeemed people. Shall we pray? O Lord, we thank thee for these ancient visions. We pray thou wilt enlarge our minds to think solidly and hard about them, that we may catch the understanding of it and then catch something of the joy of it in our hearts, that our imaginations may be enriched and provoked to start imagining what that glorious world will be like, so that the opportunities in this life to prepare for it may not go past us unused. God give us the grace and stickability, we beseech thee, having seen the vision, to take everything thou has given us and use it for this glorious and sublime purpose, preparation for the coming reign of Christ. For we ask it for his name's sake. Amen.