A
Greater than Solomon is here
But I say unto
you, that in this place is One greater than the temple.” Matthew 12:6.
OUR Lord intended,
of course, to assert that He, Himself was greater than the temple, but He used
the most modest form of putting it. When in the interests of truth He is
obliged to speak of Himself, His meekness and lowliness are always apparent in
the mode in which He makes the personal allusion. Everyone can see that He does
not seek His own glory, or desire the praise of man. In the instance before us
He says, “In this place is One,” or, as some read it, “is something greater
than the temple.” He who is truly meek and lowly is not afraid to speak
honestly about himself, for he has no jealousy about his reputation for
humility and is quite willing to be thought proud by the ungenerous, for he
knows that he only speaks of himself in order to glorify God. There is a native peculiarity in true
lowliness which shows itself in the very form of its utterances and wards off
the imputation of boasting. We do not find the passage now before us in any
other Gospel but that of Matthew. It is so im- portant, so energetic and in
addition must have been so startling to those who heard it, that we should not
have been astonished if we had found it in all the four Evangelists. Only
Matthew records it and he, most fittingly, since he is, in some respects, the
Evangelist of the Hebrews, for, as you know, he began his book by saying, “The
book of the genera- tion of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham”—he evidently adapted his Gospel to the Jews. As the Jews would be the last to receive
teaching which in any way lowered the temple, it is all the more remarkable
that Matthew inserted our Lord’s Words in the Gospel which he designed to be
read by them. But, though the words occur but once, we must not, therefore,
regard them as being any the less weighty, for the sentence comes with a
preface which shows the force our Lord intends to throw into it. The
declaration is prefaced by, “I say unto you.” Here is the authority before
which we all bow—Jesus says it! He does
not merely proclaim the Truth of God, but He sets His personal stamp and royal
seal upon it. “I say unto you”—I, who cannot lie, who speak the things which I
have received of My Father, upon whom the Spirit of God rests without
measure,,—I say unto you. He speaks as one having authority and not as the
scribes. With a verily, verily of cer- tainty, He teaches and, therefore, let
us unquestionably accept His declaration, “I say unto you, that in this place
is One greater than the temple.” Let us
now meditate upon this Truth, first observing the fact that our Lord is greater
than the temple. Secondly, re- marking that He ought to be so regarded. And
thirdly, suggesting and urging home some few reflections which arise out of the
subject. I. First, then, OUR LORD JESUS
IS GREATER THAN THE TEMPLE. He is so manifestly because He is God, “God over
all, blessed forever.” He who dwells in the house is greater than the house in
which he dwells, so that as God, our Lord Jesus is greater than the temple. It
needs no arguing that it must be so—the Divine must be infinitely greater than
anything which is of human workmanship—the Self-Existent must infinitely excel
the noblest of created things. The temple was many years in building. Its huge
stones were quarried with enormous labor and its cedar beams were shaped and
carved with matchless skill. And though no hammer or tool of iron was used upon
the spot, yet by the strength of men were the huge stones laid each one in its
place. It stood upon Zion a thing of beauty and a joy forever, but still a work
of men’s hands, a creation of human strength and human wisdom. Not thus is it with the Christ of God. Of Him
we may truly say, “From everlasting to everlasting You are God.” “And You,
Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens
are the works of Your hands.” The temple being created and having a beginning
was a thing of time and, therefore, had an end. The things which are seen,
whether they are temples or taverns, are temporal and must pass away. In due
time the firebrand in the hand of the
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Roman soldier
reduces to ashes a building which seemed as lasting as the rock upon which it
stood. Go now to the place where Zion once stood and mark well how the glory is
departed, even as it departed from Shiloh of old. Deep down in the earth, the base of the
mighty arch which formed the ascent to the house of the Lord has been un-
covered from the mountain of ruins, but scarcely will you find one stone left
upon another which has not been thrown down. These masses of marble were so
huge, it is an ordinary circumstance to find a stone 24 feet in length and nine
feet in breadth! And sometimes they are even found 40 feet in length, weighing
as much as one hundred tons, yet have they been flung from the seats as stones
are cast upon the king’s highway. Thus has the temple disappeared and thus
shall all creation pass away, but You O Lord abide! “They shall perish; but You remain; and they
all shall wax old as does a garment; and as a gesture shall You fold them up,
and they shall be changed: but You are the same, and Your years shall not
fail.” The temple was no rival of Je- hovah, but derived all its glory from His
deigning to reveal Himself therein. Exceedingly magnificent as it was, it was
far below the Divine greatness and only worthy to be called His footstool. If
we were to dwell on any one of the attributes of His Godhead, it would be more
and more clear that Christ is greater than the temple. But the point is one
which none of us doubt. After all, the temple was but a symbol and Jesus is the
Substance. It was but the shadow of which He is the Real- ity. Although every Hebrew heart leaped for joy
when it thought of the tabernacle of the Lord of Hosts, and even this day every
Jewish spirit laments the departed glories of Zion, yet was the holy and
beautiful house a figure of good things to come and not the very image of the
Covenant blessings. It was not essential to the world’s well being, for lo, its
disap- pearance has brought light and life to the Gentiles! It is not necessary
to true religion now, for the time is come when they that worship Jehovah adore
Him in no consecrated shrines, but worship Him in spirit and in truth. But our
Lord Jesus is Truth and Substance. He is essential to our light and life and
could He be taken from us, earth’s hope would be quenched forever. Emmanuel, God With Us, You are greater than
the temple! This fact it was necessary for our Lord to mention in or- der to
justify His disciples in having rubbed ears of corn together to eat on the
Sabbath. He said, “the priests in the sanc- tuary profane the Sabbath, and are
blameless.” They were engaged in the labors of sacrifice and service all
through the Sabbath, yet nobody accused them of breaking the Law of the
Sabbath. Why? Because the authority of the temple ex- empted its servants from
the letter of the Law. “But,” said our Lord, “I am greater than the temple,
therefore, surely I have power to allow My servants who are about My business
to refresh themselves with food, now that they are hungry. And since I have
given them My sanction to exercise the little labor involved in rubbing out a
few grains of wheat, they are beyond all censure.” If the sanction of the temple allows the
greater labor, much more shall the sanction of One who is greater than the
temple allow the less! As the Son of God, Christ is under no Law. As man He has
kept the Law and honored it for our sakes, because He stood as our Surety and
our Substitute. But He, Himself, in the essence of His Nature is the Law Maker
and above all Law. Who shall arraign the eternal Son and call the Judge of all
the earth to account? “Woe unto him that strives with his Maker. Let the
potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth.” But now we must pass on to other meanings and
view our Lord in His blessed Personality as the Son of Man as well as the Son
of God. He is greater than the temple, for He is a more glorious enshrinement
of Deity. The temple was great above all buildings because it was the House of
God, but it was only so in a measure, for the Eternal is not to be con- tained
within walls and curtains. “However,” says Stephen, “the Most High dwells not
in temples made with hands; as said the Prophet, Heaven is My throne, and earth
is My footstool: what house will you build Me? said the Lord: or what is the
place of My rest? Have not My hands made all these things?” How remarkably
Stephen does, as it were, pass over the temple with a mere word. He merely
mentions it in a sentence, “But Solomon built Him a house,” as if no stress
needed to be laid upon the circumstance.
It is remarkable that from the moment the temple was built, true
religion in Israel began to decline and the abomi- nable shrines of heathen
idols were set up in the holy land! The glory of even an allowed ritualism is
fatal to spiritual re- ligion. From a pompous worship of the true, to the
worship of the false, the step is very easy. When God dwelt in the tent, in the
days of David, religion nourished far better than in the days when the ark
abode in a great house garnished
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with precious
stones for beauty and overlaid with pure gold. Still, within the Holy of Holies
the Lord peculiarly revealed Himself—and at the one temple upon Zion sacrifices
and offerings were presented—for God was there.
The Presence of God, as you know, in the temple and the tabernacle, was
called the Shekinah, the bright light shin- ing between the wings of the
cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant. We often forget that the Presence of God
in the Most Holy Place was a matter of faith to all but the high priest. Once a
year the high priest went within the awful veil, but we do not know if he ever
dared to look upon the blaze of splendor. God dwells in light that no man may
approach. The smoke of the incense from the priest’s censer was needed, partly
to veil the exceeding Glory of the Divine Presence, lest even those chosen eyes
should suffer blindness. No one else
went into the hallowed shrine and only he once a year. That symbolical pavilion
of Jehovah is not for a moment to be compared with our Lord Jesus who is the
true dwelling place of the Godhead, for “in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.” What a masterly sentence that is! None but the Holy Spirit
could surely have compacted words into such a sentence—“In Him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily.” “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself.” The manifestation of the Godhead in Christ is not unapproachable, for
we may freely come to Je- sus—a voice out of the excellent Glory bids us come
boldly unto the Throne of the heavenly Grace. We cannot come too often, nor be
too long in our approaches unto Jesus, the true Mercy Seat! The Atonement has been offered and the veil
of the temple, that is to say, the flesh of Christ, has been torn, and now we
may approach the Godhead in Christ Jesus without trembling. Verily, as I think
of God, Incarnate God in Jesus Christ, dwelling among the sons of men, I feel
how true it is, “In this place is One greater than the temple.” Another sense
of the words is this—Our Lord is a fuller revelation of the Truth of God than
the temple ever was. The temple taught a thousand truths of which we cannot now
particularly speak. To the instructed Israelite there was a wealth of meaning
about each court of the temple and every one of its golden vessels. Not a ceremony was without its measure of
instruction. If the Spirit of God opened up the types of the holy and beautiful
house to him, the Israelite must have had a very clear idea of the good things to
come. Still, there was nothing in the temple but the type—the substance was not
there. The blood of bulls and goats was there, but not the Atonement that takes
away sin. The smoke of the holy incense from the golden censor was there, but
not the sweet merits of the great Law-Fulfiller. The seven-branched candlestick
was there, but the Spirit of God was not yet given. The showbread stood on the
holy table, but food for souls could not be found in the finest of the
wheat. The temple had but the types and Christ
is greater than the temple because in Him we have the realities, or, as Paul
calls them, “the very image of the things.” “The figure for the time then
present” had its uses, but it is by no means com- parable to the actual
Covenant blessing. The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by
Jesus Christ. There were some Truths, however, and these among the most
precious, which the temple did not teach at all. I do not know, for instance,
where we can read adoption in the symbols of the temple, or the great Truth of
our union with Jesus, and other priceless doctrines which cluster around the
Cross and the Resurrection. But in the Person of Jesus we have the exceeding
riches of Divine Grace and see, by faith, the inexhaustible treasures of the Covenant. In Jesus we see at once, “our Kinsman and our
God.” In the Person of Christ we read the infinite eternal love of God towards
His own redeemed ones and the intimate union which this love has established
between God and man. Glimpses of this, the temple, may, perhaps, have given,
for it did intimate that the Lord would dwell among His people, but only to
eyes anointed seven times with the oil of the Spirit would these high
mysterious doctrines have been visible. The fun- damental Truths of the everlasting
Gospel are all to be seen in Jesus Christ by the wayfaring man—and the more He
is studied the more plainly do these matchless Truths of God shine forth. God has fully revealed Himself in His Son.
There is, in fact, no wisdom necessary to our soul’s welfare but that which
shines forth in Him. And nothing is worth learning but that which the Spirit of
God teaches us concerning Him, for He is to the full, “the wisdom of God.” Know
Christ and you know the Father! Does He not, Himself, say, “He that has seen Me
has seen the Father”? Again, the Redeemer is greater than the temple because He
is a more abiding evidence of Divine favor. God forever dwells in Christ Jesus
and this is the eternal sign of His favor to His people. There were some things
in the first temple which were rich tokens of good to Israel, but none of these
were in the temple to which our Lord pointed when He uttered these words.
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Remember, He
looked at Herod’s temple, the temple which you may call the second, but which,
in some respects, was more truly a third temple. In Solomon’s temple there were
four precious things which were absent in Christ’s day. First there was the Ark
of the Covenant, which precious chest was, above all other things, the token of
Israel’s high relation- ship to God and the assurance of the Lord’s Grace to
His covenanted people. The Ark was lost at the Babylonian destruc- tion of the
city and thus the Holy of Holies lost its most sacred piece of furniture—the
throne of the great king was gone. There were no wings of cherubim above the
mercy seat of pure gold, no tables of stone engraved by the Divine hand were
within the golden coffer and Aaron’s rod that budded and the pot of manna were
both gone. Now, in our blessed Lord, you
find the Covenant, itself, and all that it contains, for thus said the Lord,
“Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people.” His blood is “the blood of the Ever- lasting Covenant” and He,
Himself, is given for “a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles”
(Isa. 42:6). Jesus Christ is the Covenant between God and His redeemed! He is
its Substance, its Seal, its Surety, its Messenger, its All. In our Lord we see
the fullness of covenanted blessing. His are the covering wings beneath which
we dwell in safety and His is the propitiatory, or Mercy Seat, whereby we draw
near to God. In Him we see the tables of the Law honored and ful- filled,
priestly authority exercised with a living and fruit-bearing scepter and
heavenly food laid up for the chosen people. It pleased the Father that in Him
should all fullness dwell and all the promises are yes and amen in Him. Thus in
Je- sus we find what the temple had lost. The second temple also lacked the
Shekinah. The throne being gone, the symbol of the royal presence departed,
too. The supernatural light did not shine forth within the holy place in
Herod’s temple. The glory had departed, or at least that particular form of it,
and though the second temple became more glorious than the first because the
Messiah Himself appeared within it, it missed that symbolic splendor of which
the Israelite was known to say, “You that dwells between the cherubim shine
forth.” But in our Lord Jesus we may
always see the brightness of the Father’s Glory, the light of Jehovah’s smile.
Around His brow abides the light of everlasting love. Have you not seen the
light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? They
had lost, also, from the second temple the Urim and the Thummim. Precisely what
the Urim and the Thummim may have been, we do not know, but this peculiar
mystery of blessing had a connection with the breastplate and with the high
priest who wore it, so that when men went up to the temple to inquire, they
received an- swers as from the sacred oracle. And whatever cases were spread
before the Lord, an answer was given by the high priest, through the lights and
perfections, or the Urim and Thummim with which the priest was girded. That was
lost, also, after the Babylonian captivity.
But in Jesus Christ the lights and perfection always abide and if any
man would know anything, let him learn of Him, for He, by the Eternal Spirit,
still guides His children into all Truth, solves their difficulties, removes
their doubts and comforts their hearts, giving to them light and perfection,
each one according to their measure as he is able to bear it now, and preparing
for each one the unclouded light and the spotless perfection of eternal Glory.
The second temple had also lost the sacred fire. You remember when the temple
was opened, the fire came down and consumed the sacrifice—a fire from Heaven
which was carefully watched both night and day, and always fed with the
prescribed fuel, if, indeed, it needed to be fed at all. This the Jews had no
longer and they were compelled to use other fire to burn upon the altar of God,
fire which they had probably consecrated by rites and ceremonies, but which was
not the same flame which had ac- tually descended from Heaven. Behold, Beloved, how far our Lord Jesus is
greater than the temple, for this day is that Word fulfilled in your ears— “He
shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” He has given to His
Church, now, to be immersed in the fiery element of His Spirit. She dwells in
the everlasting burnings of the Divine power, the Lord Himself has exalted her
to this. Now are her lamps kindled by flames from Heaven and her sacrifices are
consumed by consecrated flames, while, around, that same Spirit is a wall of
fire to preserve the chosen from their enemies. In the perpetual Baptism of the
Holy Spirit, the saints find power and life. So everything which of old was
regarded as a special token of God’s love to Israel, though missing from the
second temple, is, in reality, to be found in Jesus Christ our Lord—and so He
is greater than the temple. Furthermore,
He is greater than the temple because He is a more sure place of consolation.
Brothers and Sisters, when a guilty conscience wished for relief, the man, in
the olden times, went up to the temple and presented his sin offering. But you
and I find a more effectual Sin Offering in our crucified Lord whenever our
soul is burdened, for by it we are, in
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very deed,
cleansed from sin. The Jew was not really cleansed, but only typically. Ours is
an actual and abiding deliver- ance from sin, its guilt and its defilement. We
have no more consciousness of it when the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to
our souls. Oh, come evermore, you burdened ones, to Christ’s Body as to a
temple, and see your sins put away by His finished Atonement and go your way
comforted! The Israelites were known to
go to the temple in time of trouble to make supplication. It is very pleasant
to think of heart-broken Hannah standing in the tabernacle before the Lord,
pouring out her silent complaint. Come, Beloved, you, too, may speak in your
heart to the Lord whenever you will, and you will be heard! No Eli is near to
judge you harshly and rebuke you sharply, but a better Priest is at hand to
sympathize with you, for He, Himself, is touched with a feeling of your
infirmity. Fear not, you shall obtain an answer of peace and the blessing given
shall bear the sweet name of Sam- uel because you asked it of the Lord. To
Jesus you may come as to the temple, when, like Hezekiah, you are made to smart
by a blasphemous letter, or any other oppression—here you may spread the matter
before the Lord with a certainty that the Lord, who is greater than the temple,
will give you an answer of peace in reference to the trial which you leave in
His hands. No doubt some went to the
temple without faith in the spiritual part of the matter, and so came away with
no com- fort. But you, coming to Jesus Christ, with your spirit taught of God,
shall find sure consolation in Him. Only once more, our Lord is greater than
the temple because He is a more glorious center of worship. Towards the temple
all the Is- raelites prayed. Daniel prayed with his window opened towards
Jerusalem and the scattered in every land turned towards that point of the
compass where Jerusalem was situated, and so they made supplication. Today not
Jews, alone, but Gen- tiles, men of every race, speaking every language under
Heaven, turn towards Jesus, “You great Redeemer,” the true Temple of the living
God! Myriads redeemed by blood in Heaven and multitudes redeemed by blood on
earth—all make the Christ of God the center of their perpetual adoration! The day shall come when all kings shall bow
before Him and all nations shall call Him blessed. To Him every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall confess that He is God to the glory of God the Father.
Brothers and Sisters, is not it sweet to think of Jesus as being, at this very
moment, the central point to which all devout Believers turn their eyes? Let
the Muslim have his Mosque and the Jew his temple, as for us, we turn our eyes
to the risen Savior and with all the saints we offer prayer to God through Him!
Through Him both Jews and Gentiles have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. II. Now, secondly, and briefly,
JESUS OUGHT TO BE REGARDED AS GREATER THAN THE TEMPLE. We ought to think of
Him, then, with greater joy than even the Jew did of the holy and beautiful
house. The 84th Psalm shows us how the king of Israel loved the house of the
Lord. He cries, “How amiable are Your tabernacles O Lord of Hosts.” But oh, my
Soul, how amiable is Christ! How altogether lovely is your Redeemer and your
God! If the devout Israelite could say, “I was glad when they said unto me, let
us go into the house of the Lord,” and if at the sight of the temple, he cried,
“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion,” how ought
our heart to exult at the very thought of Jesus, our Incarnate God! What intense pleasure, what rapture it ought
to cause us to think that God, in very deed, does dwell among men in the Person
of His well-beloved Son! I wonder we are not carried away into extravagances of
delight at this thought and that we do not become like them that dream! I
marvel that we are so cold and chill when we have before us a fact which might
make angelic hearts thrill with wonder! God Incarnate! God my kinsman! Bone of
my bone and flesh of my flesh! Surely, if we were to dance, as David did before
the Ark, we might scarcely need to excuse ourselves to the heartless Michals
who would ridicule our enthusiasm! Oh, the bliss of knowing that God is in
Christ Jesus! We ought, also, to
consider our Lord with greater wonder than that with which men surveyed the
temple. As I have already said, the temple was a great marvel and would be so,
even now, if it were still standing. Those huge stones were so well prepared by
art and were, themselves, so massive, that they did not need to be cemented
together—and they fit so closely that the thinnest knife could not be inserted
between them—so polished and so compact were they. The house, itself, abounded
with gold, silver and precious stones! It was a treasury as well as a temple!
For size it was remarkable, too, if we consider the entire range of the
buildings attached to it. The level
space within which the actual temple stood is said to have been about one
thousand square feet and it is as- serted that it would have contained twice as
many people as the huge Coliseum at Rome. The actual temple was but a small
building comparatively, but its attachments and Solomon’s porch, which
surrounded the square on which it stood,
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made up a great
mass of buildings. And the magnificent bridge which joined the lone hill to the
rest of Jerusalem was a marvel of architecture. Solomon’s Ascent by which he
went up to the house of the Lord was one of the sights which quite overcame the
queen of Sheba. The brightness of the white marble and the abundance of gold
must have made it a sight to gaze upon with tears in one’s eyes to think that
man could erect such a house and that it should be for the true God. I do not wonder at all that men were bid to
go round about her, view the towers, mark well her bulwarks, and con- sider her
palaces. Neither are we astonished that invaders quailed before the strength of
her defenses, “They saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled, and
hasted away.” The likes of this temple was not to be seen on the face of the
earth! Neither the pyramids of Egypt, nor the piles of Nineveh, nor the towers
of Babylon could rival the temple of the living God at Jerusalem! But, my Brethren,
think of Jesus and you will wonder more! What are the huge stones? What are the
delicate carvings and the cedar? What are the sheets of gold and what the veil
of fine twisted linen? And what are all the gorgeous pomp of the ceremonies
compared with God, the everlasting God, veiled in human flesh? Wonder, my Brothers and Sisters! Wonder, bow
low and adore! “Without controversy great is the mystery of godli- ness. God
was manifest in the flesh.” Being greater than the temple, our Lord is to be
visited with greater frequency. The males of Israel were to go up to the temple
three tines each year. “Blessed are they that dwell in Your house,” says David,
for they would be there always. Oh, my Brethren, you may enjoy the happiness of
these blessed ones and dwell in Jesus always! You may come up to the Lord Jesus
whenever you will! All days are appointed feasts with Him! You need not wait
for the new moons or the Sabbaths—you may resort to Him at all times! We that
have believed enter into a perpet- ual Sabbath in which we may continually
worship the Most High in the Person of Christ!
Let us also reverence Him with still greater solemnity. The devout Jews
took off their shoes when they entered the temple enclosure. True, in our
Lord’s day, much of this solemnity had been forgotten and they bought and sold
the beasts and birds that were necessary for sacrifice within the great
enclosure around the temple. But as a rule the Jews al- ways treated the temple
with profound respect. With what reverence shall we worship our Lord Jesus? Let
us never speak lightly nor think lightly of Him, but may our inmost spirits
worship Him as the eternal God. Let us honor Him, also, with higher service.
The service of the temple was full of pomp and gorgeous ceremonies. Kings brought
their treasures there. With what diligence did David store up his gold and
silver to build the house! And with what skill did Solomon carry out the
details of that mighty piece of architecture!
Come and worship Christ after that fashion! Bring Him your body, soul
and spirit as a living sacrifice! Yes, bring Him your gold and silver and your
substance, for He is greater than the temple and deserves larger gifts and
higher con- secration than the temple had from its most ardent lovers! Surely I
need not argue the point, for you who love Him know that you can never do
enough for Him. So, too, He ought to be sought after with more vehement desire
if He is greater than the temple. David said he, “longed, yes, even panted for
the courts of the Lord.” With what longings and panting ought we to long for
Christ! In answer to her Lord’s promise to come again, the Church cries, “Even
so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” We ought
to long more for the Second Advent of our Lord—especially ought we, if we mourn
His absence from our own souls—never to rest until He reveals Himself to us,
again! Oh, you redeemed ones, love Him so that you can no more live without His
smile than the wife can live without her husband’s love. And long for
fellowship with Him as the bride for the wedding day! Set your hearts upon Him
and hunger and thirst after Him. The Jew pined to visit Mount Zion and with
such pining I bid you long for Jesus and for the time when you shall see Him
face to face! III. Now, we have to spend
a few minutes in urging home one or two PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS which arise out
of this subject. And the first is this—how carefully should the Laws of Jesus
Christ be observed. I believe that when you entered the temple by passing
through the Beautiful Gate you saw a notice that worshippers should enter on
the right side and afterwards they were to exit on the left. I am quite sure
that if the temple now stood and any of us could make a journey to Jerusalem,
we should be very careful to observe every order of the sanctuary. And if we
found the porter at the gate said, “You must take off your shoes,” we would,
with gladness, remove them. Or if he bade us wash, we would gladly enter the
bath. Knowing that God dwelt there, had
we been Israelites, we would have been very attentive to every observance re-
quired of the Law. Now, Brothers and Sisters, let us be equally attentive to
all the Laws of Christ, for He is greater than the temple. Never ignore His
commands, nor tamper with them. Remember, if you break one of the least of His
com-
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mandments, and
teach men so, you will be least in the kingdom of God. He is very gracious and
forgives, but still, dis- obedience brings injury to our own souls. I beseech
all Christians to search the Scriptures and see what Christ’s mind is upon
every moot point—whether it is Baptism or Church government—and when you know
His will, carry it out. Do not say of any precept, “That is nonessential,” for
everything that Jesus bids you do is essential to the perfection of your
obedience. If you say it is not essential to salvation, I am compelled to
rebuke you. What? Are you so selfish that you only think about your own
salvation? And because you are saved will you kick against your Savior and say,
“I do not care to do this because I can be saved even if I neglect it”? This is
not the spirit of a child of God! I pray you, dear Friends, do what I anxiously
wish to do myself—follow the Lord fully and go step by step where He would have
you go—for if you would obey temple rules, much more should you obey the rules
of Christ. The next reflection is how
much more ought we to value Christ than any outward ordinance. It is not always
that all Christians do this. There is a dear Brother who loves Christ and I can
see Christ in him, I am sure I can. If I know any- thing about Christ at all,
in my own soul, I see that he knows Him, too. Very well. But then he does not
belong to my Church! It is a pity—he ought to be as right as I am—and I wish he
knew better. But at the same time, his love to Christ is more to be esteemed
than his correctness in outward things, for Christ is greater than the temple!
I am not going to quarrel with any Brother in Christ because he is somewhat in
error about external ordinances, for he has the spirit, if not the letter of
the matter. I wish he had been baptized
with water, but I see he is baptized with the Holy Spirit and, therefore, he is
my Brother in Christ. I wish that he would observe the water baptism because
Christ bids him, but still, if he does not, I am glad that his Master has given
him the Holy Spirit and I rejoice to know that he has the vital matter. Perhaps
he does not come to the Lord’s Supper and does not believe in it. I am very
sorry for him, for he loses a great privilege, but if I see that he has
communion with Christ, I know that Christ is greater than the temple and that
inward communion is greater than the external sign. Therefore, it happens that
if we see Christ in persons with whose theology we do not agree, and whose
forms of Church government we cannot commend, we must set the Christ within
above the outward forms and receive the Brother, still. The brother is wrong, but if we see the Lord
in him, let us love him, for Christ is greater than the temple. We dare not
exalt any outward ordinance above Christ as the test of a man’s Christianity!
We would die for the defense of those outward ordinances which Christ commands,
but for all that, the Lord, Himself, is greater than the ordinance, and we love
all the members of His mystical body. Another reflection is this—how much more
important it is for you that you should go to Christ than that you should go to
any place which you suppose to be the house of God. How many times from this
pulpit have we disclaimed all idea that this particular building has any
sanctity about it? We know that God dwells not in temples made with hands, yet
there may be some of you who come here very regularly who have great respect
for the place. If you did not go to any
place of worship, you would think yourselves very bad, and so you would be. If
you never went on the Lord’s Day to the worship of God at all, you would
certainly be keeping yourselves out of the place where you may hope that God
will bless you. But is it not a strange thing that you would not like to stay
away from the temple, but you stay away from Christ? For while you go up to the
outward sanctuary, you have never gone to the real Christ! I am sure you would
feel ashamed if anybody were able to say of you, “There is a man here who has
not been to a place of worship for 12 months.” You would look down upon a man
of whom that could be said. Yes, but if
there are any reasons for coming to what you think is the temple, how many more
reasons are there for coming to Christ? And if you would think it wrong to stay
away from the public place of worship for 12 months, how much more wrong must
it be to stay away from Jesus all your life? But that is exactly what you have
done! Will you please think of that? Now, had you gone to the temple, you would
have felt towards it very great respect and reverence. And when you come to the
outward place of worship, you are very attentive and respectful to the
place—let me ask you, have you been respectful to Christ? How is it that you live without faith in Him?
No prayer is offered by you to Him. You do not accept the great salva- tion
which He is prepared to give. Practically, you despise Him and turn your backs
upon Him. You would not do so to the temple, why do you do so to Christ? Oh,
that you unconverted ones knew the uses of Christ! Do you remember what Joab
did when Solomon was provoked to slay him? Joab fled, and though he had no
right to go into the temple, he felt it
One Greater Than the Temple Sermon #1275
www.spurgeongems.org Volume 22
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was a case of
necessity. Hoping to save his life, he rushed up to the altar and held on the
altar’s horn. Benaiah came to him with a sword, and said, “Come forth,” and
what did Joab say? “No,” he said, “I will die here.” and Benaiah had to go back
and ask Solomon, “What is to be done?” and Solomon said, “Do as he has said,”
and so he slew him right against the altar.
Now, if you come to Christ, though the avenger of blood is after you,
you will be safe. He may come to you and say, “Come forth,” but you will reply,
“I will die here.” You cannot die there, for He shall hide you in the secret of
His pavil- ion, in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide you. And with
your hand upon the blood-stained Jesus, no Benaiah, no devil and no destroying
angel can touch you. Sinner, it is your only hope! You will be lost forever—the
sword shall pierce through your soul to your everlasting destruction unless you
fly now to Christ, the Temple, and lay hold upon the Altar’s horn and let this
be on your mind— “I can but perish if I go,
I am resolved to try. For if I
stay away I know I must forever die. But
if I die with mercy sought, When I’ve
this Altar tried, This were to die,
delightful thought, As sinner never
died.” By faith, this morning, I put my
hand upon the altar’s horn. All my hope, dread Sovereign, lies in the blood of
Your dear Son. Brethren in Christ, let us all lay our hands there once again.
Poor Sinner, if you have never done this before, do it now, and say in your
heart— “My faith does lay her hand Upon
that Altar’s horn, And see my
bleeding Lord at hand Who all my sin has borne.” Christ is greater than the temple! May His
great benediction rest upon you. Amen.
PORTIONS OF
SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—Psalm 84 & 87. HYMNS FROM “OUR OWN HYMN BOOK”—84
(SONG II)
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