Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2261
“Now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the House of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand talents of silver; and of brass andiron without weight: for it is in abundance: timber also and stone ha ve I prepared; and you may add thereto.” 1 Chronicles 22:14.
[This sermon is intended for reading on the first anniversary of the beloved preacher’s birthday since his death. While he was with us, he always looked for special contributions for the Stockwell Orphanage at this season. He did not seek birthday presents for himself, but he desired that all friends who wished to show their love to him would do so by helping to maintain his fatherless family of 500 children. We trust that no one will allow this useful institution to suffer because his voice can no longer plead for it, but that through this sermon each reader will hear him saying, “Dear Friend, the Orphanage still needs your loving and generous assistance. You have often helped it by your gifts in the past and you may add hereto—or if you have not given to it, others have—and you may add thereto.” Contributions will be gratefully received by the Treasurer, Spurgeon’s Orphan Home, Stockwell Orphanage, Chapman Road, London. Collecting-cards and boxes may be obtained from the Secretary. The Annual Festival will be held on Wednesday afternoon and evening, June 22n. All friends are invited to be present. —Postscript at bottom offirst page of this sermon.]
THE building of the Temple is an admirable type of the building of the Church of God. I am afraid that there are some present with us at this time who have never helped to build the spiritual Temple for Christ. They are not, themselves, living stones. They are no part of God’s spiritual house and they have never helped to bring their cedar, or iron, or gold to the great Builder of the Church. In fact, there may be some here who have rather helped to pull it down— some who have delighted to throw away the stones—and who have tried to hide from the Divine Builder the precious material which He intends to use in the sacred edifice. Judge your own hearts and if you cannot say that you are a living stone—if you have not helped to build up the Church of Christ—may you be granted Divine Grace to repent of your sin and may the Grace of God convert you! But if you are workers for the Lord. If your hearts are right with God, I think that I shall be able to say some things that will encourage you to work on, even if you should not, for a time, see any immediate results from your work.
There were many who helped to build the Temple—David gathering the materials; Solomon, the master mason, by whose name the Temple would afterwards be called; the princes helping him in the great work; strangers, foreigners and aliens who dwelt throughout Israel and Judah—these all took their share and even the Tyrians and Zidonians had a part in the work! Now we have here many ministers of God and students, Davids and Solomons, but I pray that many who are strangers, as yet, may be enlisted in this holy service by our great Lord and King, and that some, who are farthest off from Christ—Tyrians and Zidonians who have gone far away from God—may be enabled, by Divine Grace, to contribute their share to this glorious work of building a house for the living God, a house not made of gold, silver, stone and timber, but a spiritual house for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit!
I. In considering our text, let us notice, first, that DAVID HAD ZEALOUSLY DONE HIS PART although he might not build the Temple. There are many servants of God whose names are little known, who, nevertheless, are doing a work that is essential to the building up of the Church of God. I have known many such who have never lived to realize
any great success—their names have never been written upon any great temples that have been built—but, nevertheless, they have worthily done their part, even as David did.
You see, then, first, that David had gathered the materials. Many a man collects people together and yet he has not the fashioning of them. He is the founder of a Christian congregation, but he does not live to see many conversions. He gets together the raw materials upon which another shall work. He plows and he sows, but it needs another man to come and water the seed and, perhaps, another to gather the harvest. Still, the sower did his work and deserves to be remembered for what he did. David did his part of the work, in getting together the materials for the Temple.
Besides which, he fashioned some of the materials. He had the stone cut from the quarry and many of them shaped to take their places, by-and-by, in silence in the Temple, when it should be reared without sound of hammer or axe. So there are teachers and preachers who help to form the characters of their scholars and hearers by working away upon their minds and hearts. They will never build up a great Church, but they are knocking the rough edges off the stones. They are preparing and fashioning them and, by-and-by, the builder will come and make good use of them.