Our brother José shared last night that we need to have the perspective, in our life, in our ministry, and in our times together, of Jesus exalted at the right hand of the Father. Even as we sang this song and made this confession, before we share the Word of God tonight, I would like for us to join in prayer under that throne.
Lord, we come under Your headship and under Your throne. How thankful we are that in that position, we know that Your purpose and will will be done on earth according to all Your heart and the heart of Your Father.
And so we come tonight with anticipation, knowing even now that You are working in our lives from that throne; knowing, O Lord, that You are interceding for us from that throne; knowing, Lord, that You are even now sending the Holy Spirit, poured out from that throne unto us.
We stand under that anointing. We stand under all the good of Your finished work and declare, Lord, Your will will be done here tonight, because by Your grace and Your presence, You are working. Work upon us all, including myself, as we are gathered together tonight, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I would like for us to begin tonight by reading our theme verses in Revelation 1:1-3.
The revelation of Jesus Christ,
Which God gave Him to show to His bondservants,
The things which must soon take place;
And He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant John,
Who testified to the Word of God,
And to the testimony of Jesus Christ,
Even to all that he saw.Blessed is he who reads,
And those who hear the words of the prophecy,
And heed the things which are written in it,
For the time is near.
Then I want us to go to the very end of 1 Chronicles 29 and read some verses which depict one of the last great actions of David before he died. Now, as an old man at the end of his years, his heart is still wholly for the Lord.
Then King David said to the entire assembly,
“My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is still young and inexperienced, and the work is great; for the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God.“Now with all my ability I have provided for the house of my God gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, onyx stones, and inlaid stones, stones of antimony, stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and alabaster in abundance.
“Moreover, in my delight in the house of my God, the treasure I have of gold and silver I give to the house of my God, over and above all that I have already provided for the holy temple: namely, three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings; of gold for things of gold and of silver for things of silver—that is, for all the work done by the craftsmen. Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?”
We know that it was a tremendous day. There was a tremendous outpouring of gifts and offerings made for the house of the Lord that day, inspired by David’s own offering.
Now we turn immediately to 2 Chronicles and read the first several verses regarding Solomon, beginning in 2 Chronicles 1.
Now Solomon, the son of David, established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and exalted him greatly.
Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ households. Then Solomon and all the assembly with him went to the high place which was at Gibeon, for God’s tent of meeting was there, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the wilderness.
However, David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. Now the bronze altar, which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of the Lord; and Solomon and the assembly sought it out. Solomon went up there before the Lord to the bronze altar, which was at the tent of meeting, and he offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
And that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.”
And Solomon said to God, “You have dealt with my father David with great lovingkindness, and have made me king in his place. Now, O Lord God, Your promise to my father David is fulfilled, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can rule this great people of Yours?”
And God said to Solomon, “Because you had this in your mind, and did not ask for riches, wealth, or honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but you have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may rule My people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed, nor those who will come after you.”
So Solomon went from the high place which was at Gibeon, from the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem. And he reigned over Israel.
As I shared in our first time, my first time here was thirty years ago. The Lord obviously had a plan for my life, which I was not at all aware of. Basically, it involved coming to this place and hearing a word that apprehended me. I am so thankful for that arrest.
By the grace of God, after a period of time, I began to try to lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of, as we referred last time to Philippians 3. I remember that in that meeting they sang a chorus, which I do not hear anybody singing anymore. I suppose the music is a little old-fashioned.
But they used to sing this chorus, inspired by Daniel 4, and it simply said, “When God moveth, none can stay His hand.” I was very touched by that song. It was just a very simple, repetitive song, basically saying, “When God moveth, none can stay His hand. When God moveth, none can stay His hand.”
Well, God loves to move. And when He moves, He does a perfect work. We often wait, and we seem to be looking for God to do a work. In common usage today among Christians, they talk about “the move of God.” These are times where God is visible upon this earth, doing great wonders, reviving His people, and saving many souls.
I have been blessed to go to Russia several times and to be part of almost like jumping into a stream where there is such a movement of the Spirit. People are being saved. A brother will ask me to give my name and where I am from, and some people will get saved. I mean, God is moving in a tremendous way at this present time in the interior of Russia, at least from my personal experience.
It is wonderful to see these moves of God. But we tried to share last time about this matter of revelation and time, because the time is near.
We said that scientists have discovered time to have three dimensions to it. First, there is the chronological dimension: the timeline of things. Our God is the God in control of that time. Our times are in His hand.
The time is getting late. The hourglass has turned over; the sands are running out. But God is right on time. It seems peculiar to us because we wonder, “How can God possibly finish up what needs to be finished? How can the bride get ready?” It seems so disheveled and disorganized.
But God is working. As is true throughout history, oftentimes He is working in secret places. He is working in the hearts of people. He is moving and recovering and sanctifying and preparing in places and among people that we do not even know about at this very time. But He is moving according to His timetable, and He is right on time. The time is near.
Then we mentioned the second dimension of time: density. We find in the Scriptures the second word for time, which speaks about this prophetic time in which we live. Prophetic time is dense time.
The prophecies in the Scriptures, as we near the end, give us a time that becomes more dense, more dense, with many things occurring all at the same time. We live in an age where things are being fulfilled right before our eyes. That makes our times important—dense, rich, full—if we have eyes to see and are able to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.
This knowledge of the density of prophetic time is given only to His bondservants—that is, to those who, according to Revelation 1:3, read, hear, and obey.
We find ourselves caught up into a time, and also caught up into this density of time, where God is moving things toward the end and everything is happening faster. The Lord’s work is being accelerated. Satan’s work is being accelerated. The distractions and temptations are being accelerated.
In this prophetically dense time, we see, according to the book of Revelation, that as we draw closer to the end, God is revealing the Lord Jesus again, again, again—higher, more exalted, more everything than has ever been seen before.
As we draw near the end, and even near the end of our own lives, we can expect to see more of the revelation of Jesus Christ, His Son. This is the way God reacts to time running out: to His bondservants, He gives a more and more precious revelation to lay hold of.
We even think of Stephen when he was being stoned. He was absolutely transfixed by a revelation of Jesus at the moment of his death. As we come into persecution and difficult times—which surely lie ahead, and actually we are already in—we should look up. Our redemption draws nigh.
Our Lord Jesus will be revealed to us in greater ways than we have ever known Him before. It is wonderful to live in prophetic days, in the richness of God’s working.
We also said that there was a third dimension of time: this matter of time warp. You know, Star Wars and everything talks about warp speed—warp five and all that. This has to do with coming to the speed of light, where time warps.
According to scientists, time gets bent in such a way that the end bends back to the beginning. Where you start out is where you arrive; where you depart, you come to; and where you end is the beginning.
Of course, we see in the book of Revelation that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. As we grow toward the end of time, time is bending—with density and with His purpose accelerating into the beginning.
The very end of the book of Revelation takes us back to a garden, takes us back to a river of life, and takes us back to the tree of life. The end is the beginning, and the beginning is perfected in the end. It is all coming around.
In our lives, the Lord, as He is working in our lives, keeps bringing us back to a new beginning. As He said, “I will make all things new.” So He is always regenerating, doing something new in our lives.
I know there is one testimony here of God bending time and eternity. I do not know about you, but I think Stephen looks younger this year. I do not know if it is just cosmetic, but he is looking younger and younger. You see, there is some kind of bending of time going on here.
Well, you get my point anyway.
What often starts out as seemingly small beginnings picks up an acceleration as God moves toward the end of the thing. The Bible declares that when God finally moves in an outward way, sometimes it is very suddenly.
Think of the children of Israel, who had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years, and it felt like forever. Then one day Joshua stands up and says, “Okay, God said three days. We are over the Jordan into the promised land. Three days.” How quick, when God works.
The prophecy in Malachi is that when the forerunner comes and prepares the way for the Lord, suddenly the Lord will come to His temple—suddenly. After all that working, all that dealing over the years.
We remember how the children of Israel had been in captivity for seventy years. Then one day Cyrus—God touched his spirit—and Cyrus said, “Go back.” They recorded in their song, “When You restored the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. Our mouths were filled with laughter.”
They said, “Wow, God has done a great thing.” Not only great, but fast. When God moves, none can stay His hand.
So we have the warnings in the New Testament about a soon-coming rapture. There is nothing standing in the way of the Lord claiming His own and catching them up. So it says, “You had better be awake. You had better be alert, because the Lord will come suddenly.”
If we are not aware, we will miss this opportunity. Sometimes things that start slowly move with greater speed as we come to the end. Surely the times are getting so dense right now that it is hard to keep up with all that is being fulfilled even in our days.
What I wanted to share upon tonight is the revelation of God in our generation—our generation.
Now, what do you mean by “generation” anyway? We usually think of it in terms of decades: the people in their twenties, the people in their thirties, the teenagers—that is the generation, you know.
But actually, God’s generation is an inclusive generation. The reason I read these Scriptures from the Old Testament is because when God has His generation, what is this generation right now? The generation right now is us, inclusively—not just the young people, not just the old people, not just the in-betweenies.
When we look at this record at the end of 1 Chronicles and in 2 Chronicles, I see a picture that I want to share tonight of the generation and how God reveals Himself to our generation.
First, we have the Davids. The way I will define David is this: he was one who had been laid hold of by God, and he had laid hold of God. He had been laid hold of, and he was laying hold of God.
He is an old man here, and he is a treasure to our generation. He has a heart for the Lord. He has battled for the Lord. His victories, his treasure for God’s house, his character, his vibrancy, his decisiveness, his leadership—he has been loved and adored. His songwriting—everything about David. What a treasure he is.
This speaks to me that in our generation, we have brothers and sisters who have been running that race, laying hold of the Lord, and they are absolutely our treasure. It is an absolute shame for a generation to jettison the old folks. That is not our generation. They are included in the thing.
There are riches and there are treasures, and they are to be in the midst and respected for all that they have already done. All David did for the rest of his life after hearing that he could not build God’s house was save up everything he had for God’s house. What an amazing testimony he was to our generation.
Also in the generation, you will find people who are just being laid hold of—just being saved, just coming to the Lord. What John would call in his epistles, “my little children.” They know the Father loves them. They know their sins are forgiven. They do not know too much more, but they have been captured by something they know very little about.
That is part of our generation. When the Lord comes back, there are going to be people who just got saved that day, and they will be part of our generation. I think that is part of the health of the whole thing.
But I am going to be talking tonight to the Solomon generation. By the Solomon generation, I am saying that there are those young and inexperienced, as David testified about Solomon, who have been laid hold of by the Lord, but they have not yet laid hold of their purpose.
Solomon is in this in-between time. It is very interesting with Solomon’s life that David actually put Solomon on the throne and made him king, and then David lived another five years or so. Now he had sort of two kings. Solomon was the king, and David was over there. What was he—the king emeritus?
There was a bit of an overlap, and that, to me, speaks of a generation in which God can do His perfect work.
All these generations cannot be defined in age groups. There are some people who are just being saved and they are in their sixties. Praise God, they are part of the little children. There are some Solomons who have been laid hold of by the Lord, but they have not quite laid hold of Him, and they are in their forties.
So do not just think young people when you think Solomons. But we do have Solomons, and I want to address the Solomons tonight because we are talking about revelation in our generation.
The truth of the matter is that without Solomon, the work of God cannot be completed. David prepared for the house of God, but it took Solomon to finish it. Mind you, Solomon could never have finished the house of God without David.
Our generation must be an inclusive understanding of God’s chosen ones. Prophetically speaking, of course, we always say there is no second generation. Solomon is not second generation.
We cannot spiritually talk of a second generation, because every saint must be laid hold of by a revelation of Jesus Christ. There is no second generation—people who are just kind of living off what happened before. Not in God’s purpose and in God’s work. Everybody is like a fresh generation.
But that is talking prophetically. On another level, chronologically speaking, God does things in continuity.
It is interesting. I am going to put it this way—you may like this or not—but I am going to say this: God uses men as pioneers and as finishers; authors and finishers, pioneers and perfecters.
You know the verse I am referring to. We are to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher, the Pioneer and Perfecter—however you want to say it. He is the One we look to, and He is the One who enables our generation to finish what has been started.
It seems to me, as the book of Hebrews is being spelled out, that the apostle side of Jesus is that One who saved us and brought us into the land and made us a house, even as Moses and Joshua. But the Perfecter is that High Priest who is interceding for us and bringing all the perfections of His finished work upon us.
He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. However you want to look at it, this is an inclusive phrase. I would like to look at this matter of David and Solomon as a pioneer and a finisher.
As a matter of fact, when you look through the Bible, you will see that God uses this pioneer-and-perfecter process in the continuity of what He does.
Let me just say, as a sidelight: when God moves, He is the One moving. He uses various vessels. Of course, when there are pioneers, we like to write biographies, but it is really a theography. It is God who is moving, God who is pioneering, and God who is perfecting, but He uses vessels.
I think sometimes men get much too much credit in these things. Everybody says, “Oh, Paul did this.” Well, actually, was it not Paul and Barnabas who did this? Or Paul and Silas? We like to find one guy and say, “Ah, here is the leader of the movement.”
But as I observe the movings of God throughout the world, or read books about them, I find that God really raised up a bunch of people quite sovereignly—several people, not just one. One person may get the credit because we are people-centered, but God is using vessels for His purpose.
Having said that, my point is simply this: there are pioneers and there are finishers, and we need both in our generation.
If Moses was the one used to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, Joshua was used to bring them into the promised land. If David was used to prepare the house, Solomon was used to build the house.
In the recovery, if Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest were used to recover the temple, then Ezra and Nehemiah were used to recover the city. If John the Baptist prepared the way for the kingdom, Jesus came and brought in the kingdom.
There is a continuity. There is always a continuity in these things. If Jesus became the foundation of the church, then the apostles were the ones to build upon that foundation.
If Peter opened the door to the Gentiles, then Paul opened up the mystery of the Gentiles: that they were co-heirs and co-participants in all of God’s plan as sons.
If Paul was used as a wise master builder in building the house, Timothy was used as a wise shepherd to teach men how to conduct themselves in that house.
You see, you have continuity with God, and He needs a whole generation participating in order to do fully what He wants to do—pioneers and finishers raised up by the sovereign God. In the time which is near, we need to see both, as well as the little ones. We will get back to that later.
Now I want to speak to the Solomons tonight, because there is a unique training for Solomons—a unique training that only God can undertake: the school of Christ.
It is pictured in Solomon’s life because Solomon was raised up in a unique place. As Solomon was raised up, he was inspired as he watched David. You learn a lot by watching your dad. Solomon must have been a dad-watcher.
He saw David’s heart. David’s actions were not always perfect, and he was not the best father, as we see from all the turmoil within his family. But he had a heart for the Lord.
He saw his father go out to war and come back with the spoils of war and say, “No, no, that is not for us. We put that over here. We are saving it for God’s house.” He saw David’s actions, David’s character, his decisiveness, his leadership, and how people loved David.
This was part of his training to be a finisher.
Solomon was also brought up in the atmosphere of the house of God.
I have an interesting question for you. Everybody here knows Psalm 23, and we know it ends:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is David. Wow, what a heart. We all know Psalm 27:
One thing have I desired of the Lord,
That will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to abide in His tabernacle.
Now here is my question: all David’s life, there was no house. What is David talking about? Is he talking about that tent that he pitched and put the ark in there? Yes, but he is talking about something more.
David, if he wrote Psalm 23 as a young shepherd boy, had apprehended something. What was he talking about? It was not even the tent with the ark in it. But he had gotten hold of something: there was a house of God—not necessarily made with man’s hands—but something of being at home with God that he wanted all the days of his life.
Think about that. Was he talking about the tabernacle down in Gibeon? Well, maybe. But he was thinking of something more all of his life.
He raised Solomon in that atmosphere of the house. Solomon was trained as a young boy—obviously a very smart little boy—trained in worship, trained in poetry.
Can you imagine Solomon running into his daddy’s room, and his dad has his little guitar, whatever kind they had in those days, and he is strumming away, working on a song? Solomon says, “What song are you writing, Daddy?” David says, “You know what? I am making a poem about the Word of God. I am taking every letter of the alphabet and using it in every line all the way through. Why do you not try writing some poetry, Sol?”
Maybe Solomon went into his room and wrote a little proverb. Why did Solomon write proverbs, such poetry? It was not just genetic. He was trained in it. He lived in it. He was absorbed in it.
He heard his dad singing all the time. Do you not think the house was filled with song? Solomon grew up in a worship environment, hearing his dad pray, hearing the righteousness of his dad, and seeing his dad’s Word-dependence.
He would see David get up in the middle of the night, go over and grab some scrolls, and look at something. “Oh, yeah, I love Your Word. I chew it day and night. My meditation is always upon Your Word.” Solomon saw all these things.
What unique training this is for a finisher. He saw David’s spiritual warfare—some night getting up in the middle of the night, wrestling and praying. Solomon says, “Dad, Daddy, what is wrong? You are the king of Israel.”
David says, “Yes, yes, but there are enemies attacking us. There are people even in my own court, and there is intrigue going on. I do not know what it is, but I am going to the Lord.” Such an environment to grow up in, you see.
There are Solomons here. To be honest with you, my highest privilege involving the Richmond Conference has been being with the young people over the years.
There is a very unique generation of Solomons. There are some people here under thirty years old who have been to at least fifteen conferences, probably ten of them in the Bible classes at night. If they have been through Marilyn De Vries’s class, they have been laid hold of.
Some of them have gone right through the whole thing. They have grown up coming here every year, hearing things and being in this environment. Even more especially and wonderfully, they have gone back home to this little place. What is it? God’s house? Well, it is only a tent.
Even for David, it was only the tent. Solomon may wonder, “What is the big deal about the tent?” David says, “The ark.” They go in there and worship, and maybe Solomon wonders what the big deal was. But he was there in the environment.
A few years ago, when I was studying and burdened about the house of God, I was blessed by the little definition in 1 Timothy 3. When Paul tells Timothy to teach the saints how to conduct themselves in the house of God, he says, “It is the church. It is the gathering of the living God.”
We have brothers and sisters here who have really touched the living God when they were six years old. They knew when God was here and when He was not.
To our dismay, many times when we have a meeting and the Lord is not in the meeting, and we are just dead because we are all in the flesh, the kids are restless because they know something is wrong here. They have touched something of life. They have touched something of true worship.
They might not even be able to say, “This is good; this is bad.” But they have been in the house of God. They have been under the light. They have been there where there is a pillar of truth. They have at least heard the truth.
They have seen people living in the mystery of godliness. Simply put, they are living, but not them—the life of Christ is living through them. They grow up seeing people on this other level, as Solomon did when he watched David full of the grace and lovingkindness of God.
So we have a generation of people here, Solomons, who have had the privilege. I was saved when I was twenty. I was saved out of the world. I did not grow up in the house of God. I went to church only sporadically, when I had a girlfriend who went to church.
But I am envious of the young people who grew up in the house of God, who grew up in the Word of God, who grew up in prayer, who grew up with a mommy and daddy who read them the Scriptures and prayed every night, who touched the living God, who heard a prayer answered, and who had this simple instinctive sense: “There is something real here in the house of God.”
It is a privilege beyond all privileges, and I know most of the young people take it for granted. It is just part of their definition. There are some people here who are thirty-five years old, and it is the same thing. They grew up, they went through, they heard, they saw, they were part of something. They are a Solomon generation.
How blessed it is to have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, to have touched the powers of the age to come. It is a wonderful experience in the school of Christ.
This is the training ground for the finishers. The pioneers cannot build the house. They build tents. They are crude people when the Lord lays hold of somebody originally.
By the way, in the continuity of God, the people we think are pioneers feel they are indebted to somebody who went before them. Even though we have our brother Stephen and Lance here, who seem to us to be precious Davids in our midst, they were laid hold of partially through the ministry of people before them. There is continuity in this whole thing.
But being raised in the house of God is a prerequisite for being able to complete and build the house of God. There is a wisdom that is too instinctive to just rely on an outsider.
As an outsider, when I got saved and came in, I was a Christian ten years before I really came into the house of God. When I came in here at this conference and then back home in Raleigh, I was not used to the atmosphere.
I do not know why they have me work with young people all the time, because I am always playing crazy songs—taking worldly songs and putting Jesus’ words on them and everything. But young people today, when they get a chance to get together and sing songs, break out the guitars, and they want to sing songs of worship to Jesus. Wow.
God is doing something very precious in raising a generation of Solomons. They are learning those precious lessons: to trust in the Lord with all their hearts, not to lean on their own understanding, just like Solomon.
They are learning in the most basic ways that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They have David exhorting them.
In 1 Chronicles 29:1, David describes his son this way:
My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen,
Is still young and inexperienced,
And the work is great;
For the house is not for man, but for the Lord God.
You see, the Solomon generation is the chosen generation. The David generation is the faithful generation. I call the little ones the called ones. It is the called, the chosen, and the faithful, and they are all part of our generation.
Solomon alone was chosen by God. Well, he was still young and inexperienced, and the work was great, for the house was not for man but for the Lord God.
Then, in 1 Chronicles 28:9, as David addresses Solomon himself, we see wisdom from a heart perfect before the Lord:
As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father,
And serve Him with a whole heart and a willing soul;
For the Lord searches all hearts,
And understands every intent of the thoughts.
If you seek Him, He will let you find Him;
But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.
Solomon, you need to know God. You need to serve Him with a whole heart and a willing soul.
Then David gave Solomon the plans of the porch and the plan for the temple—the blueprints for the house of God. He gave Solomon all the goods, the gold, the silver, and everything. He gave Solomon the plan for the order of service among the Levites and the different things that would go on in the house of God. Everything was given to Solomon.
But still Solomon had not laid hold of that for which he was laid hold of. Something was still missing.
Imagine being raised up in riches. Of course, the picture is material riches, but he was also raised in spiritual riches. Do you know that does not qualify you to build the house of God and to serve God in His purpose?
David served the Lord in his generation according to God’s purpose, but Solomon still had to lay hold of something that he had not laid hold of. He had been given everything. Imagine being given everything.
Most pioneers start out with nothing. I love to hear these pioneer missionary stories—C. T. Studd, men like that. They started out with nothing. They went down some river with a boat and a couple of natives, and the next thing you know, four hundred people are saved and a church is growing.
Pioneers have such faith, such a heart, such guts. But they often build a crude tent. God wants to build a house—a glorious house. Most pioneers are satisfied with outdoor plumbing and the most basic things, just as long as God’s presence is there.
Most pioneers have not been raised in the house of God. They do not have what is necessary. David had the heart, but what does a pioneer do? A pioneer has a heart for the Lord, and basically moves ahead by trial and error. Obviously God leads them, but there are a lot of mistakes and a lot of warfare.
Being men of war, they are not finishers. In baseball, they have starters and finishers—pitchers. A finisher is a different guy than a starter, with a different temperament and different things.
These pioneers—David had a heart and a life that testified of trial and error and the grace of God. Solomon was going to have to have a heart for God and spiritual wisdom to build the house.
Along with all the things Solomon is given—and the generation of Solomon is given—here is a songbook of worship; here is the Word of God.
One of the best gifts I have gotten in the last five years came from our brother Jack Cox. Last year he came up to me and said, “Dana, have I got something for you?” He sounded like one of those dealers and stuff, you know.
I said, “What do you have, Jack?” He said, “I have an iPod full of every sermon that was ever preached on the planet earth,” you know. But he gave me an iPod with every message of Stephen Kaung, every message of Lance Lambert, every message of Vern Schmunk, every message of everybody.
I drive along in my car and listen to these guys all the time. It is great. Oh, what a gift.
All the Solomons here have gotten those already. They have the notebooks. Some of these kids have crowded bedrooms because they have so many notebooks from years and years of hearing and hearing, receiving riches and riches—things handed over to them, handed over to them, handed over to them.
But that is not enough. Along with that, there is a temptation. There are several temptations for those who receive so much.
It is possible simply to despise it and walk away. That is why we have the picture of Jacob. I always stand up for Jacob, because Esau despised spiritual things, and he was raised up in the house of God.
Jacob could not get enough. So whatever was wrong with him, whatever the strength of his flesh, he wanted God and Bethel. It is possible simply to despise all these things.
Or it is possible—and it happens so often, too often, that it is a tragedy in our generation—that some Solomons take all those riches and use them for self-gratification.
They are smart, above average, good-looking, do well in school, have a clear head, not so full of sin in the world and everything distracting them to bits. Yet they use the riches for self-gratification.
Too many of those with whom God tried to continue, as He raised up a generation in the house of God, turned away and went into the world and made great successes of their lives. They are given to the world.
Our kids are the world’s prize. They are hardworking. They are diligent. They tell the truth. They will do a good day’s work. They will rise to the top of any organization they are in, and the world will grab their souls. So they are lost to God’s purpose.
Some people take all the wisdom and riches, and the next thing you know, they are going to an Ivy League college. The next thing you know, they are climbing up some kind of ladder. The next thing you know, you cannot even find them. They are lost.
Some people take that knowledge and wisdom and become full of pride and self-righteousness. Oh, God’s work goes down the drain with pride and self-righteousness.
Then there is fear. It is interesting to me, because not being one of this generation, it is always hard for me to understand why Solomon’s generation is so fearful.
But they grew up in the fear of God. You know what Solomon is told by David? “Do not be afraid.” You know what Joshua is told by God? “Now, do not be afraid.”
What is it about the generation in the house of God that makes them fearful? It has something to do with the fear of the Lord. They grow up in the fear of righteousness, in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Their parents have brought them up right.
But they have to have a transformation from the fear that paralyzes them to the fear that liberates them. There is a fear of God that liberates, but the initial fear of God paralyzes.
When you talk to some of the young people and get them to talk honestly, they say, “I hate myself. I am so bad. I am just disqualified. I heard Lance’s seven points of disqualification, and I meet every one of them.”
They are the first ones in if you want to talk about people who will not make it, who are disqualified, who are no good, who feel so bad about themselves. They are so rich that they feel so totally unworthy. They cannot get out of that sense of condemnation and worthlessness and all of these kinds of things that the enemy can use.
That is the fear that paralyzes. Again, I say, I am sorry to bring up these kinds of things, but in my experience, as I go from place to place, I often go among Chinese assemblies.
I love to see the sisters; they are usually very good and helpful. There are always a couple of brothers who have broken through, but most brothers are caught in this web of unworthiness, so that they do not lay hold of God’s purpose.
They are always saying, “I am not worthy. I am not worthy. I dare not serve God.” Well, that is the fear that paralyzes.
You need to add one more “not” in order to have the fear that liberates: “I dare not not serve the Lord.” Ah, now you have gotten free. That is freedom.
When you hear God call, what did Amos say? “Who was I to withstand?” “Hey, I am just trimming vines, and God calls. I am going to speak. I dare not not.”
Lay hold of the reason for which you were born. But so many of the household generation, those raised up in Solomon’s part of the generation, are full of fear.
They have one more thing that is an issue for them. It is not even an issue, really, but a lot of the enemy’s things are just fake. This issue is the shadow issue.
It is hard for Solomon to get out from underneath David. It is hard for Isaac to get out from underneath Abraham. It is hard for Joshua to get out from underneath Moses.
This shadow thing—the whole thing is bogus. Shadows are nothing, but people make it a big deal. “Oh, I cannot serve God. We already have responsible brothers, servants of God, and all these kinds of things. I cannot possibly measure up.”
If there are pioneers, servants, or responsible brothers, they do not have any shadow. You know what? They are serving by the grace of God. They are not as intimidating as you think.
They do not have all the answers. They have a heart for God, and they are trying to find the way of the Lord, just like you and I are. But we make an excuse.
The Solomon generation says, “Well, I can never be like David.” Of course, God says, “Solomon, I never wanted you to be like David. You are the finisher. I want you to be like you.”
Do not be afraid that you are not like David. God never called Solomon to be like David. He never called Isaac to be like Abraham. Isaac was to express sonship, a life blessed in dependence upon his father. That was what Isaac was called to do.
They have to get out from underneath this whole false idea—the intimidation of the shadow of leaders and all this kind of thing.
Solomon was given everything, but he still lacked one thing. What was it that he lacked?
We turn to 2 Chronicles 1. We saw the story there. We read it together. How did the Lord lay hold of Solomon in such a way that Solomon could lay hold of his purpose? His purpose was to build the house.
Even though he had already gotten ten million dollars’ worth of goods, the blueprint, and the directions on how people were supposed to do things, he still could not build the house. He needed one more thing.
Solomon did not know, but when his father David died, he took all of his leaders and everybody and said, “It is time for us to consecrate ourselves to serve God.” Now that is a good heart.
In 2 Chronicles 1:3, Solomon and all the assembly of leaders and men went down to Gibeon and offered a thousand burnt offerings. That is a picture of consecration. Praise God.
I go to these youth retreats. You do not get to see them. We do not allow old folks—just young people like me. We speak, and I say, “You need to consecrate your life.”
You should see these young people. Their hearts are so before the Lord. They consecrate themselves. They really place themselves upon the altar. It is a very precious and very real thing. I do not take any of that away from them, nor do I take this away from Solomon.
He went down there with a thousand consecrations before he ever dared think about building the house. He went down and consecrated, along with the men with him, for his reign and for this great task that had been given to him.
But we see something in this story that is interesting when you look at it. It is in verse 4. It is the first word: “However.”
They went down to Gibeon, to the tabernacle, to offer these thousands, but David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.
Of course, Solomon knew that. But he was going down to Gibeon to offer these burnt offerings because that was what you were supposed to do. Something is not right about this.
“However” is an indicator. The writer of Chronicles, whom I believe was Ezra, knows something, and he is trying to give you a hint: something is not quite right here.
What is not quite right? Here is the answer: the ark and the tent are separate. They are in two different places.
Israel did not think much about it at all. The common idea was this: if you were going to worship, you went into the tent where the ark was, and you worshiped God. If it came time to sacrifice—if it came time for service—you went down to Gibeon, to the tabernacle.
There, on that famous bronze altar, you offered a thousand burnt offerings. Totally acceptable. You go to the ark to worship; you go to the tent to sacrifice.
But something about this is not right. Something is out of order. It is not God’s heart.
Think about it for a moment. What is the tabernacle without the ark anyway?
I have the answer for you: the tabernacle without the ark is a high place. Notice 2 Chronicles 1:3: Solomon and all the assembly with him went to the high place at Gibeon, where God’s tent of meeting was.
The bronze altar, which Bezalel had made, was there before the tabernacle, and Solomon and the assembly sought it out to offer these sacrifices.
I hope most of you have two fingers, because I would like you to hold that place and go over to 1 Kings 3, which tells the same story but gives us a little more insight.
Let us read 1 Kings 3:2-4:
Now the people were still sacrificing on the high places,
Because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.Now Solomon loved the Lord,
Walking in the statutes of his father David,
Except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there,
For that was the great high place;
Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar.
Ah, now we are getting some more information about this interesting high place. Let me ask you the question: is a high place wrong, or is it acceptable?
From this passage in 1 Kings 3, I think we can conclude two things. From verse 2, we can see that the high places were a concession of God because the temple was not built yet.
It says they were still offering sacrifices on high places because there was no house built for the name of the Lord. So there was a concession. The high places were a temporary concession to Israel because of the situation, because there was no temple built at that time.
In verse 3, we see from that simple phrase, “except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places,” that there was a lack of spiritual discernment on Solomon’s part. He loved the Lord with all his heart and worshiped Him, but he still offered sacrifices in the high places.
Furthermore, by seeing this picture, we see something else about high places. High places are devoid of the ark. The tabernacle was now known in human terms: “the tabernacle which Moses built,” “the bronze altar which Bezalel built.”
What happened to God? This is God’s house. No, now it is Moses’ tabernacle, and it is Bezalel’s altar. Human credit is given to these high places. It is stuff born of human work.
The next thing we notice is that Gibeon was “the great high place,” which means there were other high places indeed. Scholars talk about these various different high places.
We know, as an example, that there was a high place in Israel that worshiped the bronze serpent, even into the time of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the one who tore that high place down.
There were high places all over Israel. What were these high places testimony to? Some great moment in history, some great man of God, some great servant, some great victory—high places, shrines to their champions.
High places, by the way, which the Bible says were as the nations had. Very telling statements.
The wonderful thing in the recovery of the temple by both Hezekiah and Josiah is that it included removing the high places.
What we need to see is how that applies to us today. Those who are going to build the house of God with spiritual discernment and wisdom, and with a heart wholly for God, have got to see the difference here.
Today, within Christianity, the ark and the tabernacle are two separate things, and this is accepted by everybody.
The ark is now described as God’s presence. God’s presence is something we individually pursue as we go into our closet, as we go into our secret place. We have our devotions. We worship our God. We do this before His ark.
We have this privilege: we enter into the Holy of Holies. It is a wonderful truth and very valuable. I hope all of you have a daily devotion.
Then, of course, we go down to the meetings. We have our assemblies, our service, and our consecrations down at the tabernacle. There we experience God’s blessing. This is an acceptable life today among Christians.
Well, what is wrong with that? Many young people, many Solomons who grew up in the house of God, go to Omega Church. Oh, a thousand watts of worship. They call it extreme worship now.
They have not only got a preacher, but all kinds of things are going on behind the multimedia presentation. They have a bowling alley you can go to after the meeting. The whole thing is there to meet human needs. Oh, it is a great tabernacle.
There are tabernacles where a lot of people are being saved and a lot of ministry is going on. There are miracle tabernacles. There are all kinds of high places around. Is it right or is it wrong?
I think it is a concession. Furthermore, thank God, bless us when there are people who serve according to the Bible, have real hearts for God, and give themselves in real ministry. God blesses these high places.
But there is something wrong. It can only be discerned by somebody who can hear God’s heart. What does God want? Is there not something wrong?
Sometimes it is easy to despise the fact that you grew up with one lousy tent and the ark. Okay, you had the Lord’s Table every Sunday. Maybe that was the best part of your growing up, but the rest of it was a lousy tent, crudely built.
You say, “You know what? I think I would rather go to the high place. There is a great minister there. There is a great work there, or there was a great history behind this whole thing.”
But God has to do something in Solomon’s life before he can build God’s house, because right now Solomon thinks it is okay. The high places are okay. He knows the ark is in Jerusalem, and that is okay too. Everything is okay. Nothing is wrong.
“Hey, whatever everybody wants, okay. Start your own church. Have an emphasis.” There are some churches on Long Island—I do not have an answer—they say, “We only want women.” Women preachers, women deacons, women elders, and “cistern brethren.” I do not know what they have, but they do not want men. Well, actually, they have a few token men in the back.
There are some high places only for college kids. That is it: college. If you are not in college, you cannot go. You can have a great time with all college kids. That is great. It does not seem like there is anything wrong.
But God loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. He has decided where He wants to be. There He is in Jerusalem, with the ark. That is where God wants His home. But who can understand that?
Every high place claims to have the ark in it, by the way, because there is blessing there. This is the confusion.
People think that the presence of God—the blessing of God, when we are worshiping and filled with the Spirit, when there is ministry that is really powerful—that blessing means, “Ah, this is God’s presence. This is wonderful.”
But God does bless, and God is merciful to all of us Christians. Most brothers and sisters who really love the Lord have no idea that this separation bothers God’s heart. God blesses them.
But God wants a home: a home He chooses, and a home built around Him.
Everybody likes to build a tabernacle over there and then say, “God, come on down with Your ark and dwell where I want You.” There was nothing particularly alluring about Gibeon, I have to tell you. God did not want to go to Gibeon.
In order for God’s house to be built, somebody has to see what the real issues are. If you do not see, you cannot build the house of God.
What happened here? In 2 Chronicles 1:7, we see that God appeared to Solomon:
And that night God appeared to Solomon and said,
“Ask what I will give you.”
This is what he needed. Solomon needed vision. Solomon had heard about David’s God. Solomon had worshiped David’s God. Solomon had probably touched David’s God in the holy place when David was worshiping. But Solomon needed his own revelation.
God came to him at night. What a surprising revelation this was. Solomon, I think, was really thrown off by this. He knew the fear of God. He knew David’s God. But God came to him in the night, in a dream, and said, “Ask Me. What do you want?”
What a surprise. You know what he found out? You know what Solomon’s generation finds out? God gives you free will. You can do whatever you want.
Solomon must have thought, “Wow. You mean I do not have to do this stuff? Okay, I have been given ten million dollars, given the blueprints, but God wants to know what I want.”
I find God liberates us sometimes by saying, “You know what? You have a free will. What do you want to do?”
It was being caught off guard by that question—“What do you want?”—that brought something out of Solomon’s heart that, if you do not mind my interpretation, surprised Solomon.
“What I want is to be responsible with all my heart for the house of God.”
What did I just say? “With all my heart, I want to serve You, God. I want to be responsible. I want to lay hold. I want to lay hold of this kingship and lay hold of this house that You have given me. I do not know how to do it. There are so many people involved, and there is so much, and I am so young. Oh God, please give me wisdom.”
The young people who are here and have been laid hold of by God have that in their hearts. When you ask them, “What do you want? Do you want a million dollars?” they say, “No, I want to serve God with all my heart.”
It is surprising to us what is in our hearts. That is what God means when He says He gives us the desires of our hearts. Your desire is not for a Mercedes-Benz. Your desire is not for the best college around. Your desire is not for the best job, or even the best wife or husband, although those are not bad things.
But listen: in your heart, you will always have the desires of your heart answered by the God who delights in answering those desires. The desire of your heart is this: “You have given me so much. You have filled me with so much. You have made me so rich. You have taught me so much. I want to be responsible. Help me be responsible.”
God says, “That is it. I have been waiting for that. That is the crossover. That is the laying hold right there.”
“Solomon, because you asked that, I am going to prove to you that God is for you. I am standing with you. I will bless you. I will make you rich. I will make you blessed in your family. That is what I am going to do for you. I stand with you one hundred percent, but I had to wait until you stood with Me one hundred percent.”
Solomon laid hold of that moment by revelation of the purpose of God in his heart.
Do you know what he did when he woke up? Let us look back in 1 Kings 3.
The story in Chronicles simply says Solomon went back to Jerusalem and began to reign. But 1 Kings gives us this precious word in verse 15:
Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream.
And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
And offered burnt offerings and peace offerings,
And made a feast for all his servants.
He came back to Jerusalem. He went back to the ark. He saw it clearly: “This is the heart of God. The house must be built here. I found the spot. I found the spot.”
“I forgot. I forgot. Now I see it. Even though David had told me, I forgot. God is going to build His house here, around the ark.”
You cannot build a house and have God’s ark brought in. You have to build a house around the ark.
What does all this mean, to build a house around the ark? You cannot really build a house until you understand that the essence of the house is God’s life. The house is organic.
There are many tabernacles that preach Jesus, serve Jesus, do great works for Jesus, do missionary work in hospitals, and everything like that for Jesus. But what God wants is something that starts with His living presence.
It is as if the church, or the house, is to be built as skin around the ark. It is God’s life that is to be the source. Solomon came back and said, “That is the spot. That is it right there.”
The house God wants to build is organic. It comes out of the throne of God. It comes out of the life of God. It comes out of the Lordship.
It is not just His presence that is seen in the ark. It is His enthroned presence that enables the house to be built. God’s house must be built with Him sitting in the middle as practical Head.
It takes a long time and much spiritual discernment to learn the Lord’s will in building His house. But He will give that wisdom to the Solomon generation if they will lay hold of this thing—if they see it.
“The only place for me, the place above all else, is Christ above all. That is all I want: Christ above all. He is sitting in His ark. He is sitting in Jerusalem. That is what I want.”
When you cancel out all the other great things going on, God can begin to do a wise work in building His house.
That ark was not only the vital center and source for the whole house to be built; it had to be placed, as Solomon saw quite clearly, on Mount Moriah, where David had offered that offering on the threshing floor during the whole census.
When David had taken that census and invoked all that pestilence, he saw the angel withhold the sword, and he made an atonement offering on the threshing floor of Ornan. Right after that, the first thing he said was, “Ah, this is the place God’s house has to be built.”
Is that not amazing? Out of his sin, out of repentance, and out of coming back after that sin and seeing God’s atonement and mercy, he said, “That is the spot for God’s house.”
Mount Moriah—the same place where Abraham offered Isaac; the same place where, a thousand years later, Jesus was offered on the same mountain. Mount Moriah.
The foundation of the house has to be the threshing floor—the cross. It cannot be our way, our building, or our work. It is God’s way. Through God’s mercy, these things are done.
The ark is God’s throne. When Solomon saw that, he began to build.
Now I have run out of time, but at least I can say three things about this building work. Three things are very obvious once you see what is going on.
The first thing Solomon did was call up Hiram, the king of Tyre, and say, “Send me the cedars of Lebanon for the building of the house.”
Of course, that is wood. That is talking about men. That is talking about the gospel. God’s house cannot be built without gospel effort.
If you are a Solomon generation and want to lay hold of the purpose of God, part of that involves finding the door to reach the lost, bringing in the wood for the house to be built. God cannot build the house without wood.
All we do in most assemblies today is change wood. We get Methodist wood and Baptist wood and put it over here. It is one kind of wood, but it is the same wood traveling around all over the place.
No, God wants evangelistic wood. Go up into the mountains and bring down that wood for the house of God. Evangelism is a very real part of God building His house.
Unless there is that heart of evangelism—not necessarily a Billy Graham crusade, but some earnest burden to get the wood for God’s house—the house cannot be built.
Why are we evangelizing? To save souls for our own pride or for our own ministry? Why are we saving souls? Why are we burdened for that? Because God wants a house.
There have to be those little children in the house for Jesus to come back. There have to be those ones just apprehended, those ones who by the grace of God have been saved. So the very first thing Solomon did was order the wood.
The second thing he did was take all that treasury from David, all that richness, and overlay the wood with gold, silver, and precious stones. This is the ministry of the Word. How vital this is.
All we are is wood. But when it gets overlaid, it looks mighty nice—with the gold of God, the silver of redemption, and the precious stones of the cross and its sacrifices. All of that is overlaid by the ministry of the Word.
We have treasures just dripping in our storehouses. We need some wood to cover with the gold of God.
We need teaching ministry, not just to one another. You all look like gold bricks already, almost perfect and ready to be raptured. But how about all that wood out there? There is so much more in the treasury to overlay in building God’s house.
The third thing Solomon acknowledged was this: “Okay, now we are going to make the stones for the foundation and for the walls of the temple.” Those stones have to be cut without noise by the secret work of the Holy Spirit and by sanctifying work.
The work of God cannot be done without a real reliance upon the Holy Spirit doing His work in our midst. There can be no apology for it.
Solomon saw it. He laid hold of this thing, and God began to work. What a mighty, glorious house.
The Queen of Sheba lost her breath—not just when she saw Solomon in his riches, but when she saw the house and said, “Blessed are you, and all those who worship at the house of God.”
The Solomon generation: I know the Lord has laid hold of you. You young people, you who are in your forties and the Lord recently saved you, He has laid hold of you.
My question to you is this: have you laid hold of Him according to purpose? Have you laid hold of Him by the grace of God?
Our brother Stephen made it perfectly clear that we respond to the grace of God and lay hold of that for which we were laid hold of.
You were not raised up in the house of God in vain. You were taught. You were shown how to evaluate riches, how to discern what is from God and what is the flesh. You have seen so many things.
But you need to lay hold of God’s purpose for His house, and you need to be part of the building work.
We need a generation that includes the Davids, the Solomons, and the little ones, altogether being built into the house of God.
Davids—I do not have to talk to them. They are already captured by the Lord and already bearing fruit for the Lord.
But I want to say one final word to the young people and to those in the Solomon generation: if you do not lay hold of that for which you were laid hold of, your life will be wasted.
I do not care how much money you make, how great a house you have, how many kids you have, what a great job you have, or how soon you can retire. A whole economy may come down like a house of cards pretty soon anyway. The time is near.
Do not waste your life. God has invested so much in you. But unless you have a vision of the Lord that takes hold of you, and you can say, “This is the spot. I see God’s house. This is what I want with all my heart,” your life will be wasted.
“I want Christ above all else, and Christ in His house above all else.” Lay hold of that reason for which you were born.
Do not think you are inferior in any way because you were not a bad sinner. Many of the pioneers were bad sinners before they got saved, and that is no credit to them at all. That is what makes them so crude and rough.
If you were raised in the house of God, then you have that kind of refinement spiritually. If you do not dissipate into the flesh, but serve God in fear and in wisdom, God can build and finish His house.
God has to finish His house. This is God’s plan.
Next time, we are going to look at this matter of revelation and the New Jerusalem. Every generation that finds pioneers and finishers puts something into the New Jerusalem that lasts forever.
Every generation that has pioneers and finishers working together, God treasures something forever. Oh, may the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Lord, we know that so much of Your heart, You concede to our ignorance. We know, Lord, that You bless us in so many endeavors which often do not serve Your purpose. It is because You love us. We are Your children.
But Lord, You have given us the intelligence to understand that our consecration is more than just giving our heart to You. It is giving our heart to You to fulfill the purpose for which we were born.
We pray for our generation: oh, that the Davids would be a treasure to it; that the Solomons would lay hold of Your purpose and bring the richness into the house of God; and that little ones would be found being built into the work of Your house as is pleasing to You.
O Lord, the time is near. We know there is much work that You are doing under the surface. But we pray, Lord, raise up a generation that will not be denied of their purpose, who single-heartedly are willing to work together along with the Davids to see Your work be done.
O Lord, take away their fear, their sense of unworthiness and disqualification, and their temptations to go into the world and dissipate their lives and all their gifts and treasures.
Oh, guard these Solomons, Lord, and give them a vision of You in the night, that they could show that in their hearts they desire to be responsible, to do all Your will.
Lord, we thank You. We pray for the day that You will bring the ark and the house gloriously into one, and we will begin to understand what it really means to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Oh, help us recover these things to our hearts. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.