Building the Temple of God - Sermon (9-26-10)

Costly stone - foundation
1 Kings 5:17 - "Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones."

A good foundation is essential. Everything else is based upon the foundation. If you have a faulty foundation your house will fall.
Costly stones were used as the foundation for the temple.
Our foundation is Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Luke 6:47-49 - "Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great."
Proverbs 10:25 - "The righteous has an everlasting foundation."
Acts 4:12 - "Neither is there salvation in any other." He is THE foundation.
He is the most precious stone. We could ask for no better foundation.
Mark 13:31 - Heaven and earth will pass away but My word will never pass away. We are based on the only everlasting foundation.

Stone
1 Kings 6:7 - "The house, while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built."

The first thing built upon the foundation was stone (it doesn't say costly stone)
Stone is rough. It's not very pretty, but it's solid.
1 Peter 2:1-5 - "Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
It's a rough transition from putting off the old man and putting on the new. But even though it's rough it is firmly planted on Christ the solid rock, our Foundation.
And we build upon Him by hearing and acting upon His words. (Luke 6:47)
Colossians 2:6-7 - "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in the faith."

Wood
1 Kings 6:9 - "So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar."
1 Kings 6:15 - "Then he built the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the ceiling he overlaid the walls on the inside with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress."
1 Kings 6:18 - "There was cedar on the house within, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, there was no stone seen."

The rough stone is completely covered. outside and in. Wood is smooth.
As we grow, and we become more familiar with Gods word, we began to see the roughness going away.

Gold
1 Kings 6:21-22 - "So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. And he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar which was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold."
 
Everything was overlaid with gold.
Gold is valuable, beautiful, costly, precious.
Gold is made more valuable when it goes through fire. 1 Peter 1:6-7 - "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Job 23:10 - "When He has tried me I shall come forth as gold."
Another thing about gold is that it is shines. It has no light of it's own, but it shines when light is shining on it. God is light. We reflect His light.

Completion
1 Kings 6:38 - In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it."

It was finished according to it's plans.
Jeremiah 29:11 - "I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future."
God has plans for our lives. He knows the best thing for us and He will complete us according to His plans.
1 John 3:2-3 - "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Colossians 2:10 - "In Him you have been made complete."


1 Corinthians 3:11-17 - "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

We each have the responsibility to not only build on Christ and give ourselves fully to Him to use us as He will, but also to build up one another. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says - "Encourage one another and build each other up." When we build one another up we are building up the temple of God.