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In the first book of Chronicles, where under the general title Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, we have been studying the chronicler's philosophy of history. We have only one study left after this evening, as you have heard. It was never possible, it was never going to be possible, that we should be able to study this book in any particular detail. But now it becomes all too evident that we shall have to scramble as best we can, like the people who shared Paul's shipwreck, and get to the shore, some of us on bits of plank, in any way we can, if we are going to come anywhere near the end of the book on Saturday night comes. But let's just remind ourselves, shall we, of what the major points of this wonderful book have been and are. We have found that the chronicler has been interested to record the great purpose of God that was evident to him as he surveyed the centuries past. The purpose of God that began with the creation of Adam in the Garden of Eden and worked its way through history and the rise of Israel until man, in the person of Solomon, great David's son, sat upon the throne of the Lord in Jerusalem amid spectacular glory and peace. We've been noticing, likewise, that the chronicler divides that great week for the purpose of God into five major sections. In each of those sections, he notes one major step forward. In the first section, for instance, he marks the rise of Israel as the first very, uh, great significant advance in the purpose of God towards this ultimate purpose when man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord. In section two he records the second major advance, that is the founding of Jerusalem city to be the headquarters of David's kingdom and the heart of the nation of Israel. The third great advance that we shall be considering this evening is the coming of the Lord to Jerusalem. That was a spectacular advance. If the founding of Jerusalem City was a thing that has had repercussions all down history, and will give its name to the final eternal city of God, when heaven and earth have passed away and there is a new heaven and a new earth, then the coming of the Lord to Jerusalem in the days of King David set a precedent that, thank God, has been repeated since. Our Lord came to Jerusalem, came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey, the pole of an ass, and they cried, Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. One day we look forward to a greater coming, when he shall come not riding a donkey, not up the dusty roads that lead to Jerusalem. He shall come with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and he shall come to Jerusalem city, and his feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives in that day. It is no wonder that the historian was moved by the inspiring spirit of God to record this as the third major advance, therefore, in ancient history, where not only had Israel risen from the nations and Jerusalem city been founded at its great heart center of world-shaking events yet to be, but the Lord actually came to Jerusalem and throne upon the ark that was brought to Jerusalem for the first time in David's day. The fourth great advance, as we shall have occasion to consider on Saturday, God willing, was when David was empowered to put down all the remaining enemies and those sons of the giants that had been so troublesome, even though old Goliath had long since been dead. At last, the last son of the giant was destroyed. And all enemies were put down under David's feet. And the machinations of the greatest of all enemies, Satan himself, were overcome. And the world was then ready, Israel at least was then ready, for the first era of glory and spectacular bliss that that nation had ever known. With the fifth section, Solomon, uh, uh, the, uh, the chronicler records the great peak of events, the preparation for the building of the temple of God that was to grace that age of peace and plenty. And in the first great section of the second book, he describes its inauguration as the very glory of God came down and filled the house so that the priests were scarce able to enter. This is the magnificent sweep of history that the chronicler records as he traces God's purpose, as I say, from the creation of the first man to the time when, according to God's great plan, man sat upon the throne of the Lord. We have to notice what we began to notice last evening. We have to notice it even more tonight and on Saturday, that whereas each of the five sections of First Chronicles shows a significant advance, four of those sections also record an unfortunate and very significant mistake. Though even there the chronicler is optimistic, and he shows that when the lessons of the mistake had been learned and Israel was repentant, then God led on from their mistake to something good. The first major mistake we read of earlier in the first section of the book, it was the people's disastrous choice of Saul to be king. Man that could have sat upon the throne of the Lord, but rebelled against God and went over to the other side and inquired of an old witch and dabbled in demonism. How could such ever fulfill God's program and sit on the throne of the Lord, I ask you? God had to turn the kingdom from Saul. Thank God he had another man in sight, and it led on to turning the kingdom to Jesse, to David, the son of Jesse. So to sight in itself, of course. The first man failed. God had a second man, not just David, but the blessed Lord from heaven. In the second section, as we were considering the other night, the advance of the founding of Jerusalem. But with that, as we shall study in greater detail this evening, David made another unfortunate mistake. He sought the Lord, that was good. He determined to bring up the ark of God, the symbolic throne of God, that was good. But he attempted it the wrong way round, brought upon himself and his nation the severe discipline of God. God taught Israel a very severe lesson, therefore, on that occasion, but turned the lesson for good. For the ark could not be brought to Jerusalem at that time, but it turned aside into the house of an otherwise unknown man called Obed-Edom, who enjoyed the indescribable dignity and wonder of having the very Ark of the Lord in his own home. I know of only one greater glory in all history, and that is what you enjoy, my dear sister, and you, my brother, you who are the Lord, of having the Lord of heaven make his dwelling place in your hearts. The Ark of the Lord eventually came to Jerusalem. That too we shall be considering this evening. But after that great event, David, like the rest of us, always stumbling, with the very best will in the world, made another mistake and suggested to God that he would build God a permanent temple. And God very politely and gently, but very firmly said, and thank you very much, David, but no. And David, would you mind letting me call the tomb myself, instead of you thinking to tell me what to do? When the lesson was learned, however, God turned it to good. Isn't God gracious the way he does this after our mistakes, and we've learned our lessons, and he turns it to good. And he explained to David why it wasn't David that must be allowed to call the tune. I got a plan for you, David, and far from you building me a house, let me tell you what my plan is now, David. I'm going to build you a house. And he spoke of David for a long while yet to come. Then in section four, as we shall have to read on Saturday evening, there were great advances when David put down the last enemies and the sons of the giants and the king of Ammon, and they took the crown off the head of the king of Ammon, and they put it on David's head. Oh, you can't, you can't, I know you can't sing here, you believers, you can't read of that, but what you're thinking about another day when you shall see the crowns of every empire and authority in earth and heaven taken and placed upon the head of the Lord Jesus. Can you now? But I get on with my story. After that success, then David got it into his head, and the idea came from a very dark source, that he would number the people. And he told Joab to go out and number the people. Now, Joab wasn't renowned for his godliness, he certainly wasn't, but even he could see it was a ghastly mistake. And he said, why would my Lord know the number of the people for? But David insisted. And took the number of the people. When it was all too clear why he did. Out of motives of pride, and fell into the snare of the devil, as the New Testament would put it, for such motives come from his satanic majesty, who is the prime author of them. Then disaster would have struck that would have ruined the whole plan when it was almost on the verge of being. Had it not been for God's own gracious interposition, and the situation was saved. And how? That you'll have to wait till Saturday to hear. And it led on in the end, through all those storms and difficulties, to the triumphant completion of God's purpose. And David spent the last days, as I say, preparing for the building of the temple. And his son Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, and when there he sat, he had the temple built, and God came down and filled it with his glory. As we survey those faults, as we survey those five sections in detail, we could sum them up by a series of questions, couldn't, couldn't we? The general theme is man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord. And we ask first, as we think of Saul and his disobedience, man shall sit on the throne of the Lord. By whose power shall he sit there? As we hear David making his premature and impertinent suggestion to Almighty God that David build God a house, and hear God reply. We shall sum up the lesson again with a question. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, certainly, but according to whose plan shall he sit there? Whose scheme is it? Whose purpose? Whose plan? Then when we see David descend to that disastrous thing of numbering the people out of pride, we shall ask again. Man shall sit on the throne of the Lord? But for whose glory shall he sit. Then, when we watch David amassing those piles of valuable material, and then all the even more valuable personalities of his people, and organizing them and preparing for the building of the temple, we shall hear him raise the question that we shall finally ask. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord. At whose expense? We shall hear David give the answer. Of thine own, says he to God, of thine own have we given thee. Anyway, that survey, that brief survey of the mountain tops of Chronicles may have helped to begin to get it in upon our minds what are is the great and glorious skeleton of this book, the framework of the book. Now, if we could open our Bibles, we could just at lo- least, uh, cast an eye upon the chapters that we ought to be covering this evening. This is one Chronicles, and at first we shall have to be considering chapter thirteen, David's faulty attempt to bring out the Ark of the Law. That is one Chronicles, chapter thirteen. We shall not read the chapter. For time's sake, we may be able to read that at home in our own study. Then we shall come to chapter sixteen or fifteen, sorry, and sixteen that described David's bringing up to the, uh, bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem successfully in the proper manner, and the psalms that David ordered to be sung daily by the Levites before the ark of the Lord in Jerusalem. That's chapters fifteen and sixteen. And then finally, we shall, uh, consider briefly chapter uh seventeen, David's mistake in making his premature suggestion to build garden house, and what God's answer to that was. That will be chapter seventeen. We have a lot of material to try and cover, and to make it as easy as I can, we shall tonight, as you have heard, divide this meeting, as we did the other night, into two parts. We shall consider chapter thirteen and then fifteen and sixteen. Then we shall sing a hymn. And if you must go, please feel free to go then. You'll get out of school early if you go then. Uh, do feel free to go. You won't offend me or anybody else. But if you stay, we- you will find that after the hymn, we shall then spend another fifteen minutes or so finishing our study. If you can stay, do stay. There's one thing you mustn't do. You mustn't stay on to the end and then complain to the elders of this church that this English preacher kept you over time. For if you do that, they'll never ask me here. So now for the first mistake, uh, that we have to consider this evening, David's false attempt to bring up the Ark of the Lord. And the details of the story are as follows, that when David felt established in his kingdom, then he had a word with all the leaders of Israel, and he said, you know, we never thought to the Lord and to the Ark of the Lord in the days of Saul. What about the idea now of rousing all Israel from the north to the south and the east and the west, and gathering together and seeking the Lord and bringing his Ark to Jerusalem? It was, you may think, a novel idea. He was not proposing to bring the whole of the tabernacle with all its sacred vessels to Jerusalem. They were to remain where they were. That was the house of the Lord, and for the time being would remain the house of the Lord. His scheme was to bring simply the Ark of the Lord out of the house of the Lord and bring the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, that they might seek to it and know the presence of God in their midst. Now, the Ark of the Lord was of course the symbolic throne of the Lord. There was no magic about it, no special spiritual powers about the wood and the gold that formed that box. It was the symbolic throne of the Lord, nonetheless, in which were the tables of the law and of the covenant. What made it so sacred was this, that God had promised from the time of Moses onwards that there it was he would meet with his people, and there he would commune with them from between the cherubim. And chapter thirteen of Chronicles recalls that to your mind by reminding you that the ark was called by the name. The ark upon which the transcendent Lord was enthroned. Because that was so, the ark of the Lord had to be transported in a very special symbolic way. And it was because David neglected to do it God's way, and did it another way, perhaps in ignorance, perhaps in thoughtlessness, that he suffered a tragedy. You see, when God's throne was to be transported, God had laid it down very strictly that it should never be carried on a cart, on a lorry or whatever. No, the way it transported it kind of transported itself. There was a special class of men called Levites. They were utterly and totally dedicated to God. They did nothing else in life but this. They carried the Ark of the Lord upon their shoulders, clad in their white garments. They were, symbolically speaking, an extension of the very throne of God. That was the symbolism of it. So that when the Ark of God was to be transported, the Ark of God transported itself, so to speak. Those Levites were part and parcel of the whole complex that was the Ark and the throne of God. And as we shall see in a moment, there was exceeding significance in that symbolism. But David neglected it. He sought for the Lord, but he proposed to bring up the ark of the Lord on an old, well, on a new cart. He had a stiflingly new cart, of course. He was going to honor the Lord. And he put it on a cart with desperate resolve. But as the cart drew near with the ark upon it, and the people were surrounding it, the oxen stumbled a little bit. And a man called Uzzah, seeing the ark shake a little bit, thought the ark was going to fall over, and he put out his hand instinctively, and meaning very well to steady the ark, and God smote him instantaneously. And David wasn't very pleased, I may tell you. He was in the first place afraid, of course. Perez and that other died before the Lord. But David was displeased. He thought it was unreasonable. Here was him doing his very best and seeking the Lord. And the Lord has to react by smiting a man dead who's doing it out of the best of his, uh, uh, motives possible, holding up the throne of God. And David said, how on earth am I going to bring the ark home to me, therefore, if God's going to behave like that? David wasn't very pleased. Don't blame him too hard. I don't suppose there's any times in your life when you've been displeased with the Lord, or if there have been, you haven't told him anyway. Why did God do it? Well, because of the exceedingly important principle at stake. David was king. Man to sit upon the throne of the Lord. It was fundamental importance that David should understand what the relationship between him and God was. Was he to be God's Messiah sitting on the Lord's throne? Then David better be clear in his mind that it wasn't for David to use God to put him on the throne. Wasn't for David to use God so as to be able to control the people. God is God. He's not there to be used. Not for us to use God. It is for God to use us. You think that's altogether too severe a view of things? Well, let me use a modern analogy. Now, I know you're Scotsman, but I'm an Englishman, you see. Ha. Suppose I am a manager of a supermarket, you see, and I designed I'm going to open a new supermarket, but the days are difficult, and I'm wondering how I can persuade the people to come, and I get an idea. I know, I say I'll ring up Buckingham Palace and I'll have a word with Elizabeth, and I, I, I, I, I, I say I could do with Elizabeth here, and if I could get Elizabeth to come along and cut the ribbon and open it and say things in her fine voice, look what business it would bring, you'll see. So I get the telephone and I ring up. Hello, Elizabeth, your majesty. Me here, Gooding. I, I, I, I've got a supermarket I, I want to open, and you know, it would be ever so nice, I thought, if I could use you, uh, to get some publicity, you see, uh, your majesty. So, uh, I'm suggesting that you come and open the supermarket for me. Now, I've got an old Cortina. I'll be sending that round to the palace for you, Elizabeth, and uh, uh, be pleased to see you when you come. What do you suppose Elizabeth would say? The impertinence of the man. Does he think I stand here and sit here in Buckingham Palace waiting for managers of supermarkets to use me for their advertising campaigns? Campaign. Now, if Her Gracious Majesty, being interested in the commerce of the country and its commercial well-being, decides she'd like to encourage a supermarket manager and deigns to come, that's one thing. But she's not there to be used as a mere publicity gimmick. And if she comes, she won't be coming in my old Cortina either. We'll come with our own transport, Rolls Bentley or something. And if we would never dream of trying to use Her Majesty, we've had to forsake once and for all the idea that we use God. And this affects not only kings like David, it affects often people, you'll say, like me. You know, there are some dear folks, Christians even, and they are in danger of treating God like I treat my garage man. I, I, I, I used to have a very good garage man in Belfast, you know. I never went to see him, of course. I never once asked him for lunch. No, uh, I went to him when the car broke down, you'll see, and I was in need of a garage man, you'll see, and I, and uh, being in need, I went to the garage and said, here, old boy, my car's broken down. Would you put it right? The excellent man, young man he is, and he put it right. And you know, when he's put it right, I don't say, uh, oh, I am so grateful to you, my good man. Now come in and you take the driving seat over, and you tell me where I ought to go, and come home with me and, and arrange my house. No, no, no, no, I don't say that when he's, uh, supplied my needs. I say, thank you very much. Bye-bye, garage man. And that's the last I see of him till I- I'm in need again. You know, it's desperately possible in our modern hedonistic society for folks to treat God like that. God is a resource person, and if I'm in the blues or I'm in need, then I call on God to come and help. And when I got over the trouble, well, God can get back in his heaven while I get on with my business. That is an utterly and totally false idea of our relationship with the Almighty. And if the Almighty let us get away with it, it would prove utterly. It's not for us to use Him. He uses us. And shall sit upon the throne of the Lord, so shall we one day. It is not a question of our using Him to get us there. It's a question of Him putting forth His power to put us there. And there was another reason, perhaps you may say a happier reason. The Ark of the Lord came to Jerusalem. God himself presents himself upon the cherubim. It was very important for God to make the distinction between the true and living God and every idol. Doubtless other, the man who put his hand to steady the ark meant to do well. Oh, it was a disastrous misconception, wasn't it? For if God can't keep his own throne straight and upright, I don't know that any of us or all of us combined will do it. In fact, I'm tempted to give you a little advice. If one of these days you get home to heaven, and being in the vicinity of the throne of God, you should see it wobble a bit and start to fall over, then I would advise you not to try and keep it up. My advice to you would be to run as hard as you can run, for if the throne of God starts to fall over, it will crush you forever and the whole universe. What kind of a God is he? So we poor puny creatures will have to hold his throne up. No, that very concept is idolatrous. You will remember that superb passage in Isaiah, is it forty six or forty seven, where God through Isaiah mocks idolatry. He pictures a town, uh, a city, and there are the big statues of Bel, the old pagan deities, you'll see, standing on their perches. And presently the citizens see a great cloud of dust in the distance, and the enemy are coming to attack, and they know they can't stand the enemy's attack, and they must flee. So they get the old donkey out, and they load all the household goods on his back. Here go the mattresses, here go the saucepans and all the rest of it, and a few chairs and things. Uh, and then just as they're going, and uh, they look around, oh, they're gods. Can't leave your gods behind, can you? So with great effort, they go to these big statues and they heave them off their perch and they put them on the backs of the donkey. Well, the donkey was already overloaded, and with a few gods on his back, his poor old knees begin to buckle, you'll see. Difficult thing carrying gods, and uh, instead of helping the people to escape, it bogs them down and makes them a prey to their enemies. And God, with a fine sense of sarcasm, says, that's idolatry for you. In idolatry, you have to carry your gods, but with the true God, oh, listen to the gospel of it. With the true God, you don't have to carry God. He carries you. From your mother's womb to great your gray hairs, I have made, I will carry you. Oh, what a magnificent thing it is. And yet, you know, it's inborn in the human heart, isn't it, to think we have to carry. Some dear folks, when they think of salvation, they've got it into their head, it all depends on them, it's their work, it's their power, their effort, and religion becomes an intolerable burden. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is, the truth is different. Not for salvation do we have to carry ourselves. It is God who carries us. And one day, along with our blessed Lord Jesus, we too shall sit on the throne of the Lord. Oh, my brother, let me ask you. You shall sit, and you, my sister, on the throne of the Lord. By whose power will you sit there? Is it for you, by your power, to raise yourself up? Is it indeed simp you responsible for it, and you, because you're weak, you seek God to help you, but it's you that's got to do it with the assistance of God? No, what a hurtful concept that would be. The fact is the other way round. You shall sit on the throne of the Lord because God chose it that way, and God will do it. And Paul, when he wrote to his converts at Ephesus, stressed it very early on, didn't he? He prayed that God would give them a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him. First, that God would illumine the eyes of their hearts, that they should see what is his purpose. Oh, we need our eyes opened. The purpose of God in our salvation is not simply to pardon us and save us from an eternity in the lake of fire. He will do that. But all that God would open our eyes to see the glory of his purpose, seated with Christ in the heavenlies, sharing the very throne of the universe with our blessed Redeemer. And if that is the purpose, pray, how will it be accomplished? I pray God, says Paul, that he would open the eyes of your heart to see what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards you in Christ Jesus, according to that divine energy that he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and not only him, but raised you too, and sat him at his own right hand in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So it was that kind of lesson that God taught David. But you see, though David was disgruntled, God turned it for good. And though the ark didn't come to Jerusalem at that time, the ark of God's presence turned aside into the house of Obed-Edom. What days they were. Oh, I would like to have been there. I wonder what difference it made to breakfast and dinner and, um, and the washing, uh, you know, and the cooking of the potatoes as they ate them. And the conversation. Day after day. Know the ark of the Lord dwelling in your lounge. Oh, but it's something more wonderful, my dear brother, my sister. Listen to the Lord Jesus. One day he's coming again in all his glory and taking us to a place that he has prepared for us in the Father's home on high. Oh, we shall see him come. But meanwhile, he says as follows, that if any man love me, he will keep my commandments, for my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him. Dare I believe it, oh my dear Christian father and sister, dare I believe that beneath your pretty dress, your elegant suit, my father, and beneath your fair exterior, yet in you dwells the transcendent Lord, the Father and the Son in you, even here in the temporary tabernacle of your body. God help us take it in. But the day came at last when the ark was no longer in a private home, for the Lord would come to Jerusalem. This time David had learned his lesson, and they thought it, we said, not the right way round the time before. Now we'll do it God's way. And they collected Israel. And presently, as the crowd thronged the streets of capital Jerusalem, they saw what must have sent a shiver on every spine and the goose pimples stand out. They saw it coming. Slow measured tread of the white-robed Levites carrying the very throne of God. And with all their heart they believed that the unseen and invisible Lord sat enthroned upon the cherubim. Oh, what unspeakable days of glory they were. To see the Lord's own coming. And David had learned his lesson, stripping himself, he worshipped before the ark. Michael, his wife, was displeased. You've, uh, gone down in my estimation, she said, you dancing there like an ordinary citizen before the scouring maids and, uh, uh, making a fool of yourself and humbling yourself. Don't you know you're the, you're the big great majesty round here? David rebuked the silly woman. Well, now the Lord was coming. It was not David's intention to use the Lord to boost his own prominence in front of the people. He would have the people know who was to be God here. And in face of the throne of God himself, David humbled himself in the dust. He might well welcome the throne of the law. Of course, at this stage in history, David had defeated the, the Philistines, who were the threat on the western flank. He was soon about to extend his empire north and east and south, as God gave his enemies beneath his feet. And David was to bring that, uh, little petty kingdom to a point where it was almost ready to rival the great empires of the ancient world. And David had his tactical problem. Who should be fit to govern such an empire, to execute judgment and justice? David saw the solution only in this. Would God consent? Would the Lord consent to come to Jerusalem, to be enthroned in the middle of the people with his holy law there to be the foundation of its government. It's come to rain, of course. On the other hand, David himself, though he believed with all his heart that God actually dwelled there, presence himself above the cherubim, and it was God's law that was to be put into effect. David himself realized that at best it was only a prototype of what yet should be. Because David, uh, uh, uh, commanded that certain psalms should be sung daily by the Levites before the ark of the Lord and before the Lord every day. And one of the psalms he chose to be sung is very significant. It's the Psalm ninety six and it runs after this fashion, you'll see. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field exult, and all that therein is. Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he cometh, he cometh to judge the earth. David, of course, in his day realized that that coming of the Lord had not yet happened. Why, indeed, the psalm that stands near it, in Psalm ninety six in the Psalter, expressed a very big world problem, and expressed it in these terms. O Lord, thou to whom vengeance belongeth, thou to whom vengeance belongeth, how long, O Lord, dost thou not judge and execute judgment for your oppressed people? How is it that the wicked prosper, and you, whose task and right and honor it is as the universal judge to deal with evil and put it down. How is it that you stay so long? Why don't you judge? It's a very big problem, isn't it? A Jewish friend of mine in Belfast will often say to me, you think there's a God, do you? Well, if there's a God, why doesn't he get about judging the world a bit? Where was God, he'll say, when Hitler was gassing six million of my fellow Jews? How can you still believe in God if evil is allowed to go rampant? And we who live in this privileged age know that the ascension of Christ itself, glorious as that is, he sits on his father's throne, that hasn't solved the problem either, has it? For evil rampages on. What is the answer? Psalm ninety six gives the answer to the problem raised by Psalm ninety four, and that's why Psalm ninety six is so full of joy. Oh, let the earth clap its hands, and the fields sing for joy, and the mountain skips for sheer delight. Why? Because here comes the answer, and here is the gospel. For the Lord cometh. He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the earth in righteousness. That is part of our Christian gospel, isn't it? We're not expecting evil to be put down forthwith. Christ is on the throne of the Lord. He sits there until his enemies be made his footstool. And hence evil is allowed to prosper. But there's going to be an end to it one day. And what shall it be? Listen to Paul on Mars Hill. God has appointed a day in the which he shall judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Clap your hands. He says, there's judgment coming. You say, no, no, no, no. You mustn't preach the coming judgment to unconverted people. They'll never come to your place again. Well, they're coming unconverted people then. What sane man would wish evil to go on unchecked forever? Who? The promise that there's going to be a day of judgment is glorious, isn't it? The Lord Jesus is coming. When he comes, he shall put down evil, and he shall reign till the last enemy is under his feet. Oh, I shall see. So will you, my brother. As literally as those Israelites stood in Jerusalem's streets and saw him come, saw the Lord come by the eye of faith enthroned upon the ark. Oh, we shall see him descending the sky, coming first for us, and then to establish his rule and to reign in righteousness this world through. And here we take our promised break for five minutes, and after that I shall require ten minutes before I let you go home. When after long years of being persecuted by King Saul, long uncertain years when David had to hide of a night time in the caves of the Jude- Judean desert in danger of his life. When at length David found himself firmly seated on the throne of all Israel, and all twelve tribes had made him king. When now at last he had founded Jerusalem, the city, and given a heart to Israel. And when above all he had just seen with his own eyes the ark of the Lord coming to Jerusalem and God himself enthroned in his city, David must have felt that he had reached the utmost peak, the Mount Everest of possible spiritual experience. How could there be anything beyond it? And therefore he went to Nathan the prophet with a suggestion. He suggested that in his gratitude for God, he should build him a house. God said, no, thank you. David was astonished. How does God prove a wet blanket on some of our propositions, doesn't he? But to understand why God said no thank you, we must first of all consider what David was actually suggesting. It wasn't that David was suggesting that God should have a dwelling place. God had all that already. He had the tabernacle, and his presence was known there. But the tabernacle was a portable shrine. It was a flimsy affair, though glorious. It had traveled many wi- miles across the wilderness. It had gone from pillar to post, even after the conquest in Canaan. And it was only a temporary building, an obviously temporary building. And David, now he had come to the tip top of his majesty, seated in Jerusalem, please, a city, not a desert. Seated on a solid throne, if you please, not squatting on a carpet in a tent. The Lord and his throne there. David felt that the time had come. Done with temporary tabernacles and build a permanent dwelling place, a glorious temple for the Almighty. When that temple was eventually built, not by David, but by Solomon, its significance was seen in this, that they got the ark, they put it in, and then they took the stays out of the ark, for now all journeyings were forever past. They had at last, so to speak, arrived. And at the time when David made his suggestion that he should build the temple, he thought he had arrived. There was nothing beyond this, but God thought he hadn't. And God still had things up his divine sleeve. Thank God that he always has, you know. Then God objected on another, uh, account. You don't tell David, he said, Nathan, no, thank you very much, and just remind David of a thing or two. Would you ask Master David, um, whose the plan was that brought him so far? So Nathan had to go and inquire, David, your majesty, you once were a little boy with the sheep, weren't you? And when you were with the sheep, those smelly old sheep, had you, uh, any ideas of being king of Israel, David? Was that your idea? Did you come to prayer to God, uh, in one, uh, one day, come to God in prayer and say, now, God, I had an idea. I suggest, God, I got set up looking after these sheep, God. Now, I suggest to you, God, perhaps you'd put me on the throne of Israel. Was that your idea, David? Well, no, it wasn't. If it had been left to his idea, he'd been still looking after sheep till till now. No, says God, I, I thought it wasn't your idea. Actually, David, that was my idea. I planned it long before you came. And it was my idea to take you out of the sheep and to put you as a leader of my people and to sit you on the throne and to grace your kingdom with my presence. And David, you will have to remember it is my plan. And not for you to tell me when we've arrived and the plan ought to be brought to a stop and we'll settle down and thank you, God, no more. You leave that to me, if you don't mind, David. But David, I have to tell you, I've got much more for you than you'd ever thought of, David. Oh, how much there is ahead. And he began to tell David what he had in mind. You think you've arrived, David? Let me tell you, says God. When you fall asleep, I shall not, uh, cut off your dynasty like I cut off Saul's dynasty. I shall build you a house, David. I'm going to build you a real house. You will exist forever. And your son after you, David, I tell you what, I'm going to be his father, and he shall be my son, David. And thus your house will be perpetuated, the royal house of David, forever. David was flabbergasted as he listened. He thought he'd already arrived. Now he found he wasn't anywhere near. And as he put it to God, you have spoken of my house for a long time, yet to come. But even though the wonder began to seize his heart, he... Well, I wonder, did he? What was really involved in that promise? Your son, you know, says God to David, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. It referred, of course, to Solomon in the first place, didn't it? But the New Testament indicates that when God said those words to David, God had in mind not just Solomon, God had in mind, oh, catch your breath as you hear it, God had in mind that at the very seed of David, the second person of the Trinity would be, would come and be made flesh, and the eternal word of God would enter the womb of a virgin and be born as a human being. I wonder if he knew that. He knows it now, good old David, you know it now, don't you? Ah, if he'd have known it then, how could he have contained himself with the thought of one of his descendants would be God incarnate? One day he would come to reign, and he wouldn't reign just over a pocket handkerchief sized little stage. He'd reign from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. One day a descendant of David, the Messiah himself, would sit, literally sit, upon the throne of the Lord in glory and reign supreme. When David heard about that, he forgot about building God a house as yet. He saw he hadn't arrived like he thought he had. And he went in and sat before God. He said, oh God, how wonderful you are. There's no God like you that has chosen your people and designed for them such an a a a an indescribably glorious future. Oh God, he said, all I can say is do according to your word. I let you be the planner and you the fulfiller, for you have blessed me, and we shall be blessed forever. Man shall sit upon the throne of the Lord. But according to whose plan? I speak to you into your heart, my brother, my sister. If you're like me, you could find it easy to settle down, you know. Some people do, don't they? After a distinguished career, a beautifully comfortable bungalow in love, and they think they'd arrive, arrive now. Oh. That's it. Mm. Well, thank the Lord for every way he's led you and brought you to your present point of blessing. Oh, but my brother, you can't, you, you can't settle down. You're not at the end yet. God has spoken of you for a great while yet to come. All the Messiah is not to come of your family, but I tell you something even more wonderful. You're part of his. And the great royal house that God has built from the seed of David, the Lord of which sits now upon the throne of his heart. By infinite grace, God has taken you and made you a member of that house, whose house are we? Oh, he's spoken of you for a great while yet to come. Already spiritually, you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and one day you shall be bodily there, conformed to the image of God's son. Oh, what untold wonders await you. You mustn't settle down. We've not arrived yet, have we? And that's why, you know, sometimes the old trials come, don't they? And the pain. And you feel like telling God, oh God, I've had enough. I can't stick it anymore, God. And God doesn't seem to listen and tries our faith yet more and more. And why? In the end, there's only one big reason. One, because he loves us, but because he has a future of glory, and it's so vast, my brother, my sister, that even though we kick and we stumble, God is going to have us there, and he won't spare any pain to prepare us for the coming glory that he is. And if we were to say, Lord, I want to settle down, I've had enough. God will say to you, and whose plan are you going by? And let me think of it tonight. Let me look back. I could have been a lost sinner, couldn't I? Was it my idea that God would send his son to save me? Was it me who came to the Lord one day and said, Lord, here I'm in a terrible mess as a sinner, and I've broken your law. I suggest, God, would you not consider sending your son to be my... No, that wasn't me. I would never dream, would you? Of suggesting it. Who raised the wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest that God brought saints to glory brought should with the Son be blessed. That wasn't my idea, my brother, nor yours either. Left to himself, God planned it. Was it your idea, being saved, you went to God and you said, God, now that's marvelous you've saved this, but I could improve on that a little bit. What about, um, letting me share the throne of Christ with him? Was that your suggestion? You never would have dreamed of it, would you? In glory. And when tem- Satan tempts us to lose patience and give up, but want to settle down, then let us remember what David said. Lord, thou hast blessed us. And if this is your purpose, God, please proceed according to your word. So may God use his word tonight to comfort our hearts and hasten our footsteps along the path that shall lead us to the coming of the Lord and the sharing of his glory.