I would like to read from 1 Chronicles.
And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.
At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.—1 Chronicles 21:26–22:1
We know that, in 1 Chronicles, aside from the first nine chapters, the rest of the book is concerned with David.
If you want to know the full history, you will have to go to 1 and 2 Samuel. Chronicles omits a number of things because it is presenting David and his ministry from a particular viewpoint.
The general history is given in 1 and 2 Samuel, but there is a specific viewpoint concerning David’s life found in 1 Chronicles. I believe this is very important, because then you may see the connection.
I believe everything that we have read brings us to see one thing: God took David from the pasture.
The glory, the position, the power, the wealth, the trials—everything that came into the life of David—seemed to prepare him for one thing, and one thing only: the building of God’s house.
That is the viewpoint of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit of God is going to present your life, and if He is going to present it from that specific viewpoint, how much will He be able to put down?
You may have done many things correctly. You may have achieved a great deal. But when God is going to write your life from a specific viewpoint, I do believe that viewpoint is something God is really looking for in your life.
What is it that God is really looking for in you? What is it that He is really looking for?
Now, I do believe, dear brothers and sisters, that we all know God has an overall, supreme purpose—according to the purpose of the ages, the eternal purpose of God.
God is looking for a building.
The purpose of God concerning man is that He wants to make man His eternal dwelling place. He wants to be united with man. He wants to have communion with man. He wants to have that perfect union and communion with man. He wants to find His rest in man, and He wants to be fully satisfied.
This is why we are created. This is why we are tested. This is why we are tempted. This explains everything that comes into our lives. Why? Because God is looking for this house—not a physical house, but a house made of men—where He can dwell in peace, find His rest, and have full satisfaction.
As Brother Sparks put it, God’s satisfaction is the meaning of glory. When God is satisfied, then you see glory.
Abraham became a stranger and a sojourner in the land of promise. If he had wanted to go back to his native country, he could have done so. He only needed to cross the Euphrates River, and he would have been back in Ur of the Chaldees.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will not go to hell; you will go to heaven. But what do we mean when we say that?
According to the Bible, there is the first heaven—the sky. There is the second heaven. Then there is the third heaven, where God’s throne is.
When we say that, if you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will go to heaven, what heaven do we mean? Are we going to the first heaven, the sky? Are we going to the third heaven, where God’s throne is?
What do you mean when you say, “You will go to heaven”? What is heaven? Where are you going? I am not trying to take away anyone’s hope. Do not be afraid of that. But I think we need to consider carefully what we mean when we say that we will go to heaven.
If I am wrong, please correct me. But one day we will be in glory forever.
The conclusion of the New Testament, as far as I can see, is the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. That is our permanent home: the New Jerusalem.
Heaven is heaven to us because God is there. But, dear brothers and sisters, Abraham was looking for the city which hath the foundations.
The New Jerusalem is a city, but it is also something God is building.
Do you know that the home God is preparing for us is also a home for which we are being prepared? God is preparing a heavenly city. We are not only the materials for that habitation, but we are called to work together with God.
Suppose somebody asks you to help him build a house. When the work is finished, he gives you the key and says, “It is yours. Please enjoy it.” Would you rather enjoy a house that someone else built for you, one in which you had nothing to do, or a house in which you had a part?
God is to be so satisfied with us that He can say, “I have found My house. I have found My home.”
Dear brothers and sisters, if you see it this way, then the heavenly calling becomes very attractive. I think much is involved here. I hope you will consider it before the Lord; and if you think I am wrong, I am open.
As you know very well, when David was preparing for God’s house, God gave him much. I believe, dear brothers and sisters, that God has a definite calling for His people to fellowship with Him.
The wisdom of God is such that, as we think we are building His house, we are actually building our own house.
If you take that one thing away from 1 Chronicles, then David did nothing. We may do many things on earth, but when it comes down to that one great purpose of God, I wonder how many things we have done that are related to it.
This evening, I would like to share with you something further.
The first thing David did was to take Jerusalem. The second thing was to bring the ark of God to Zion. The third thing was to build an altar.
These three things were very closely related to the building of God’s house.
Why did David take Jerusalem? Why was it so important for him? Jerusalem had a wonderful history. Why did David go to this trouble? Why did he bother to do it?
Brothers and sisters, I believe it was more than a political move. There must have been a spiritual reason.
Jerusalem became such a symbol, such an attraction, to those who loved God:
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her skill.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
If I remember thee not.—Psalm 137:5–6
Among those who loved the Lord, Jerusalem had such significance. There must have been a special reason why David should go and take Jerusalem as his city. Why?
You have to go back hundreds of years. When God brought Israel into the promised land, He told the children of Israel that, after they had entered into the land and He had given them rest, He would choose one place.
But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come.
And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices.—Deuteronomy 12:5–6
You could not offer sacrifice in any other place. It was not like the time when they were traveling in the wilderness, when everyone did what was right in his own eyes. After they entered the land, God chose one place in which to put His name, and all the people were to go to that place to sacrifice.
In other words, for hundreds of years there was one place where God’s name was to be placed. But because nobody knew that place, the children of Israel were not truly one nation under God. They were separated. There was not that unity.
David somehow received a revelation: Jerusalem was the place where God’s name was to be placed. To Jerusalem all the tribes would go, as a testimony to Israel, to give thanks unto the Lord.
This was the first preparation for the house of God.
In Ephesians 2, you find that Christ is our peace. Without Christ, we are divided. There is enmity one with another. The whole world is scattered.
There is no oneness. There is no unity. The world is divided by every kind of discrimination, distinction, and prejudice—divided according to race, social status, education, ideology, religion, and form.
Perhaps the strongest division and hostility is found in religion. It is not merely a matter of race; it is a matter of religion. The Jews and Gentiles were separated. The Gentiles were not allowed to enter into the inner court of the temple. There was no way of reconciliation.
But on the cross our Lord has taken that away. He has made of the two one new man, making peace.
Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is our Jerusalem. You find what He said in Matthew 18: “Where two or three are gathered together into My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
As we trust the Lord, He has given us peace, and He is our peace. Being at peace with God, we come together.
God has not given us any other name but the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We call upon His name. We are a people called by His name, and we are assembled unto Him. There is no other name.
As you read the beginning of the church, the people did not know what to call themselves. They only knew that they were the people who called upon the name of the Lord. They met in the name of the Lord. They prayed in the name of the Lord. They glorified God in the name of the Lord Jesus. They were the people of the Name. They had no other name.
In other words, we are gathered together under the name of the Lord, and we have no other name.
The name represents the King. To be called by His name means that we belong to Him, and to nobody else. To gather under His name means that we are under His authority.
This is the first preparation for the building of God’s house.
Then David brought the ark of God to Zion.
The ark had been hidden in the field of the wood during the days of Saul. Saul did not inquire of the ark. It had been forgotten.
But David said, “We have found it in the field of the wood.” After he took Jerusalem, the next thing he did was to say, “Let us bring the ark to the city of Zion, to the city that I have prepared.”
Without going into the details, because they belong to another message, let us concentrate on this one point: David brought the ark to Zion.
Zion is one of the hills of Jerusalem. Zion is the highest point of Jerusalem. Zion is the place from which David ruled.
The rule of God comes forth from Zion. God rules from Zion, and David was under the rule of God.
When the ark of God was forgotten and hidden in the field of the wood, it meant that God’s people were not under His authority. They lived by themselves. They completely neglected God’s place in their lives. They did what they thought was right. They did not inquire of God.
But when the ark was removed to Zion, David was proclaiming that he was only a representative. The real King over Israel was God Himself.
David knew that God must have His proper place. He brought the ark to its proper place in the life of the nation.
David was only a representative. How he humbled himself and allowed God to sit upon the throne. Because of that, the whole nation was brought under God’s authority.
I believe this is a necessary preparation for the building of God’s house. Oh, may God sit upon the throne of our hearts. May God rule over us collectively. Then He can build His house.
How we need to humble ourselves. How we need to deny ourselves and put God in His proper place—to know and to do, not my will, but Your will.
Wherever God’s people truly come together and put themselves under the authority of God, there is building.
You need to know Him and the power of His resurrection. You need to know Him.
Oh, how we need to know that life in our individual lives.
One day David wanted to number the people. The reason he wanted to number them was pride. He wanted to know how strong he was.
It was a matter of pride. David wanted to know the number of the people and the strength of his kingdom. Because of that, judgment came upon Israel.
David prostrated himself before God.
Then David went to Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah was another hill upon which Jerusalem was built.
The first time you find Moriah is in Genesis 22, when Abraham offered Isaac.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
And He said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.—Genesis 22:10–12
Even Isaac, upon whom all the promises of God would be fulfilled, was not to come before God. Abraham was willing to offer everything to God. In other words, we must love God more than anything.
There must be a devotion to God that is greater than anything else.
You find that Mount Moriah is the place where David was completely broken.
The threshing floor in Scripture always speaks of the cross. The threshing floor is the place of separation.
The dividing of the spirit and the soul is the working of the cross.
Here you find David was disciplined by the Lord. He was completely broken before Him, and out of that brokenness, out of the working of the cross in his life, the place for God’s house was found.
Isaiah 66, you will remember:
Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: what manner of house will ye build unto Me? and what manner of place for My rest?
For all these things hath My hand made, and so all these things came to be, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word.—Isaiah 66:1–2
Where is the house? What is the place of His rest? Not merely an outward building, but a broken and contrite spirit.
There needs to be dedication.
Moriah, brothers and sisters, is the ground of complete surrender.