BUILDING THE SANCTUARY
1 Chronicles 22:18-19, "Is not the LORD your God with you? And hath he not given you rest on every side? For he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD."
We have just come through a wonderful time of refreshing in the revival that we had last week. God’s Word has done its work, and continues to work in us by washing, cleansing and bringing us into a deeper place in God. But we must go forth from this place, this time and this experience into even deeper depths and higher places in God. We can’t stop here and just bask in the memory of this day. We must step off into the future with a renewed vision and a new direction. It’s time to build a sanctuary in our own lives to the glory of God.
In our scriptures, King David has come down to the end of his days as King of Israel and the time has come for the scepter to be passed down to his son, Solomon.
You may remember a few weeks ago when we pointed out that David was not given permission to build the temple, even though it had been a lifelong dream. He was a man of war. His duty was to secure the land of Israel from all enemies and to subdue those within who would bring about Israel’s destruction through idolatry and all manner of sin.
In the performance of these duties, David had been forced into many battles where blood was shed in abundance. Because of all the blood that had been shed by David’s armies and because of the fact that David had caused innocent blood to be shed in covering up his own sin, he was not allowed to build the temple. What a great disappointment that must have been for David!
I wonder how many people today, who still love the Lord, and who have it in their heart to do great and mighty things for God, will never see those desires come true in their lives because of the sins of the past? I wonder what limitations God places on men and women who have a long record of terrible sins that have caused the hurt of many people?
I know that the Blood of Jesus will wash away every stain of sin. I know that there is no sin so great that he will not forgive. I know that we are made into a new creation and all the old sin and things of the old life are forever washed away, but the fact is that some of the effects of our old life, that are result of sin, will not go away, but will follow us for the rest of our lives.
This was the plight of David. He loved God. He was a man after God’s own heart. His heart was to build God a house to dwell in and to make God’s house the most magnificent building that mankind could conceive. Yet, in spite of David’s true repentance; in spite of the fact that I believe God forgave David; and in spite of the fact that he had finally conquered every enemy and drove sin from the land of Israel, David would not accomplish the building of the temple. He was a man of war and God would not allow his life to bring a reproach upon the Temple of God. He would not be allowed to build the sanctuary for God that he wanted to build with all his heart.
Oh that we could have that same great desire that David had to build a sanctuary for the Lord in our own lives! How much do we desire to have a sanctuary in our lives unto the Lord? How much are we willing to give to him? What price will we be willing to pay to know the Lord in the way that we should?
I know that my greatest desire is to build a sanctuary in my life for God.
A sanctuary is a sacred place; a consecrated spot; a holy place in me that cannot be violated by sin; a place of refuge and protection; and place of shelter from the wiles and attacks of the devil.
It’s a place in God, where I can live the abundant life.
It’s a place in God where I am not such an easy prey for every wind of doctrine that comes along, nor am I an easy target for Satan’s temptations to sin.
It’s a place of safety from the raging storms of life where I have complete rest because I know that my God is with me.
It’s a place where I can live above sin and above the things of this world.
Do you believe that there is such a place that we can reach in God while we are yet in this mortal body?
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he wrote these words. Ephesians 2:4-6, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:"
I want to be in those heavenly places. That sounds like a place of sanctuary to me. It sound like a place in God that I can reach through God’s grace where there is safety and rest.
We sing the little chorus that goes like this:
Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and Holy; tried and true
With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living
Sanctuary for you
Those are beautiful words, but that’s all they are unless we have a true desire to build a sanctuary in our heart and soul unto the Lord.
Building that sanctuary requires a lot of work, a lot of dedication and a consecration that many are not willing to give. It doesn’t happen just because we want it to, or because we profess it. There is a price to be paid in order to have that kind of relationship with Jesus.
If we are going to build a sanctuary in our lives, or if we are to be a sanctuary for the Lord like we sing about, there has to be a time of preparation and a time of hard work.
Satan is not going to just roll over and let you build your life into a sanctuary without a fight. The world isn’t going to stop affecting you and pulling you away from the Lord. You have to build in spite of all the devil will do and in spite of the drawing power of the things of this world. God will give you the grace, but you have to do the work. God will do his part, but you have to do you part as well.
But the one important factor that we must remember is this. Remember what David said to Solomon and to the princes of Israel who would help Solomon build the temple.
In 1 Chronicles 22:11 & 18, David promised that the Lord was with those who would build the temple.
The Lord is with you too. He with me, and the Lord is with all men who will put their heart into building a sanctuary for him in their heart and life. He is there to give direction. He is there to empower you. The sweet presence of the Holy Ghost is there to give you overcoming strength. Jesus is in your heart and the blood of the Lamb of God
is over you like a banner. Song of Solomon 2:4, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."
HOW CAN WE FAIL UNLESS WE DON’T TRY? HOW CAN WE FAIL IF WE DON’T QUIT? God is with us and it is his desire to see us build our lives into a sanctuary for him to dwell in.
Look again at 1 Chronicles 22:19, "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God…"
We must set our heart upon the things of God and not the things of this world. Everything around us will cease to exist one day. All of the sports, the business, the wealth, the popularity, the social gatherings; every bit of it, will one day be lost in eternity. God’s eternal kingdom may have many of these same things in it but they will not be in the same fashion, as we know them now. All this must pass away and all things will be made new and unstained by the power of sin.
We must set our soul to seek the Lord our God and not to seek the wealth of this world; not to seek the fame or fortune; not to seek only pleasure and the easy lifestyle; not to seek only what we desire; but our desire must be for the things of God and for God’s will above all things.
Seek God first! How often does God have to remind us before we will learn to trust what he says?
Matthew 6:31-33, "Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
I think that all of us would want to be a sanctuary unto the Lord. All of us would want to live in that place of rest and safety in God. But, if we are to be that sanctuary, we must to the work to prepare ourselves.
David didn’t get to build the temple but he did gather the materials that would be needed. He planned and worked to make sure that God’s temple would be the showplace that he had in his heart to build.
1 Chronicles 22:5, "And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death."
It is no wonder that David was a called by God, “a man after God’s own heart”. He knew that he would never be all that he wanted to be, or do all that he wanted to do for God but he was willing to prepare his son to be more and to do more than David could.
All of us want our children to have a better home, a better car, a better job, and a better life than we have. All of that is wonderful and good, but I am so very disturbed when I hear parents who have thrown their children to the world and become so self-centered that they have no time for their children and could care less about their children’s future.
It’s bad enough when they don’t care about their life on this earth, but it’s far more disturbing to think of just how little people think of where they will spend eternity. They don’t even care for themselves, so why should they be concerned about where their children will spend eternity either?
Kids grow up today and never hear Jesus’ name except when it’s used as a curse word. Kids grow up today and never hear about the 10 Commandments except when they hear that our government is trying to get rid of them.
Kids grow up today, and even if they are brought to church, they don’t sense the power and presence of the Holy Ghost because they are too busy playing ball and having parties in the church.
Kids grow up today and the only time they hear anyone pray is when death is knocking at their door, and then they hear some silly preacher preach their sinful, child molesting, alcoholic, drug addicted, gambling addicted, parent into Heaven.
It’s no wonder that kids don’t come to church or that anarchy reigns in our schools and homes. Look at what we have taught them. What preparations have we made for them when we tell them that you can live any way you want to, hurt anyone you have to, step on anybody to get what you want, ignore the Bible, forget God’s Laws, and you will still make it to Heaven.
The kid’s of today will grow up soon. Then what do you think that they are going to teach and prepare for their own children. We can see what is happening. We can see the whole world going deeper and deeper into idolatry and sin. We can a world that is sliding swiftly into the jaws of hell and mankind keeps applying more “grease” to the path.
I think that we had better wake up as a nation, wake up as a church, and most importantly wake up individually, and start preparing to the sanctuary unto the Lord that we need to be right now. Then we need to start teaching and preparing our children to do the same thing lest we lose them all to Satan’s grip.
There are many days that I don’t feel like being faithful to God’s house. There are many days that I would just as soon stay home rather than go to work. There are many days that I would just as soon forget praying and studying God’s Word. But what kind of sanctuary would I provide for myself, and my family, and for each of you, if I did only what felt good for me? I’m not perfect, I know that, but the point is that unless we set the example how will our children learn?
1 Chronicles 22:19 continues, "...arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD…”
It’s high time that we get up off our backsides, put our shoulder to the wheel, our nose to the grindstone and get out of that comfort zone of life and start building ourselves into the sanctuary for the Lord, and start teaching our children by example, to do the same thing.
We must bring the “ark of the covenant of the Lord” into our lives, by allowing Jesus to apply the Blood of the New Testament covenant to our lives. Let that blood wash away wrong desires, wrong visions and every sin that stops us.
The “Ark of the Covenant” in David’s day contained three things; Aaron’s rod that budded; a pot of manna from Israel’s journey in the wilderness and the tables of stone bearing the 10 Commandments.
Let me tell you what that means to you and I. We are to bring that “Ark of the Covenant” into our sanctuary as well. But we can’t bring the literal ark that David had so here’s what it means.
Aaron’s rod that budded represents a new life, a new man if you will, that is given life and made fruitful by the Blood of Christ. Our lives must show forth that resurrection power of the new life in Christ. The fruits of our lives must be the fruits of righteousness, holiness and consecration to the Lord. The whole world, and especially our children must be able to see that our lives are budded forth in God like Aaron’s rod.
The Pot of Manna represents the provision of God for his children in their journey through this life. Our lives must also show that we believe in God as our provider. It doesn’t little good to say this if we then show our kids that God won’t give us what we want so we throw aside everything of God to get what we want at all costs. What we do speaks far louder than what we say and our kids will not see God giving us that Pot of Manna if we don’t learn to trust in God to give us what we need and desire.
The 10 Commandments represent the Law of God, the Word of God and the Will of God in our lives. When we live our lives as though the Word of God has no effect, and we forget to obey the commandments of the Lord, and we simply seem to care less about the Will of God for our lives, what are we teaching our children? They must see that we fear God and Love God enough to obey his Word.
Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." That’s how we bring the Ark of the Covenant into our sanctuary.
1 Chronicles 22:19 continues, “…and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD."
What are those holy vessels and how do we bring them into our sanctuary so that we are truly a sanctuary to the name of the Lord?
The vessels were all of the altars, lamp stand, incense burners, flesh hooks, the laver, and all of the accoutrements that were needed to make the temple into the place where God would be honored.
What does that mean to you and I?
It means that everything in our lives must bring glory to God in some fashion.
We must learn to continually place ourselves upon the altar of God so that we can be continually washed in Jesus’ blood.
We must let our light shine so that everyone around us knows that we are the Children of God and heir and joint heirs with Christ, by being separate from, yet a witness to the world.
We must ever send our prayers up, and let our children see us pray, and let the world see us lift up the name of Jesus, and lift up our voices in prayer and praise unto our God as a sweet smelling incense before the Throne of God.
We must ever sacrifice our will to the will of God by forcing this body of flesh to live according to the Law of God and not the desires of the flesh.
We must stay at the laver, ever looking into the perfect Word of God, and allowing it to continually cleanse us from sin and every weight of sin that so easily stops us.
In short, everything about our lives must show forth the praises of Him, who has brought us out of darkness, lifted us up out of the miry clay and has brought us into His marvelous light, and set our feet on the “Rock” to stay.
That’s how we make our lives into a sanctuary. That’s how we find that high place in God where there is rest, peace and safety. And that’s how we teach our children to build their own sanctuary in their lives unto the Lord.
As we come to the close of this message, let me ask you, “Are you gathering the things in your life that it takes to be a sanctuary unto the Lord? Are you building a life that is sanctified unto God? Are you setting the example for your children and for generations to follow, as a true sanctuary unto the Lord?
Finally, there may even be some who hear this who don’t even know Jesus as your Savior. You have never knelt before God at an altar and given it all to him. Jesus is here right now waiting for you. Your life is anything and everything but a sanctuary unto God. Your whole life has been squandered in doing your own thing and giving little, if any, thought to eternity. Jesus is here for you right now. Give your life to him and start building your sanctuary unto the Lord right now.
Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
