Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2280
“All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.” 1 Chronicles 28:19.
THE Temple was not to be built according to the designs of David, or Solomon, or any other man. It was to be built according to a pattern which God, Himself, had formed. In the things of God we are not left to follow our own judgments and devices—we are to look to the Law and to the Testimony for our instructions. To God’s Word we must always come for our orders. What God has commanded is binding upon us in His Church. What He has not commanded, we may safely leave undone.
You will notice that David here says that he received the designs and the details of the Temple from God, who wrote them, not on tablets of stone, but on His servant’s heart by His own hand. Now, it was very necessary that everything should be arranged and planned for the Temple, and that it should be built according to a pattern, for it was to be a type, an eminent type of Christ, and also a type of His Church, which is a Temple for God’s own indwelling. Now, no man knew what God meant to teach by that Temple and, consequently, if the building had been left to human judgment, it would not have been a true type—for who can make a type if he knows not what it is to typify? Only God knew what He intended to teach by this building, so the Temple, that it might convey Divine teaching, must be arranged according to Divine command!
Moreover, the Temple was for God’s own dwelling. Should not the Most High have a house after His own mind? If He was to be the Tenant, should it not be built to suit Him? And who knows what God requires in a habitation but God, Himself? The best that can be built is too poor for Him. Stephen said, “Solomon built Him an house. However, the Most High dwells not in temples made with hands.” Yet, if even in type it was to be the dwelling place of God, it must be built according to God’s own requirements.
Besides, the Temple was to be the Throne of the great King and if the very principle on which that throne was built was the will-worship of man’s own judgment, there would have been a violation of the great principle of obedience at the fountainhead! I take it that, in the Church of God, I have no right to decree anything, nor John Wesley, nor John Calvin, nor any greater than they. God, alone, is supreme. Christ is the one Head of His Church and we must, in all that we do in the building of His Church, consult with Him, or else we act upon lawless principles and cast off the authority of the Church’s true King and Head and come under some other law. This would be, at the very center of our holy service, setting an example of lawlessness and rebellion against God! That must never be—His Temple must be built according to a pattern of His own design—and His Church and all holy work must be carried on according to His direction if we are to expect a blessing.
The point to which I call your attention is this, that God gave the directions to David by impressing them upon his mind, upon his heart, by His own hand. He did not so much draw a plan and hand it to David, and say to him, “Build the Temple according to that design,” but He made him think carefully and prayerfully over the whole matter. Perhaps, in the visions of the night, and often, as he turned the subject over in his thoughts by day, God’s Spirit came and revealed to David what he needed to know as to how this house was to be built—“All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.”
I shall, tonight, first, call your attention to the amazing instructions given to David. Then, coming home to ourselves, I shall speak upon the spiritual intuition of the saints in the Truth of God, which is very similar to this instruction given to David. And, before I close, I shall have a word or two to say as to the duty of the transmission of what we have received. If God has taught us, we are bound to do what David did—commit the same to faithful men, that, before we go forward, we may have started others in work for the Lord and not ourselves retire, leaving God’s work undone.
I. First, then, dear Friends, I call your attention to THE AMAZING INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN TO DAVID.
David received his instructions by the writing of God upon his heart with God’s own hand! Note this. David did not receive them by consultation with others. David did not send to Hiram, king of Tyre, to ask his judgement. Nor did he call in a Bezaleel, or some other skillful man, to give him advice. God Himself taught him! This reminds me of what Paul said, “I consulted not with flesh and blood.” “The Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Depend upon it, if you learn anything aright, you will have to learn it from God and, although consultation with others may often be very serviceable upon some points, yet you must not take them into consultation on the question whether you shall believe God’s Word or not! That is to have supreme authority and, albeit there are some who are deeply taught in the things of God, who may, at times, be helpful to you, you must not defer to what they say so as to miss the instructions that the Lord, Himself, gives you. No man’s voice is to be Sovereign to you—only the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, speaking out of this Book, which contains all things that you need for life and godliness. May God the Holy Spirit give you Grace to fetch all your instructions from it! David did not consult with others about building the Temple and we are not to obtain our creed by consultation with other men, but go to God, Himself, and to pray Him to write it upon our hearts with His own hand.