1 Chronicles 21:22-24

Then David said to Ornan.

The cost and self-sacrifice of religion

Contemplate this subject--

I. In reference to the spiritual expansion of the intellectual powers. We may be Christians without much knowledge, but our honour, glory, and felicity to abound in knowledge--

1. Of God.

2. Of Christ.

3. Of theology generally. The cost must be paid in the attainment.

II. Apply the subject to the spiritual cultivation of the moral nature. The soul before conversion like a barren heath or desert. It must be cultivated. Much labour needful. Evil habits to be abandoned. Holy habits to be formed.

III. To the influence of self-denial in adorning the Christian profession. Self-denial not merely the abandonment of sin. It involves the surrendering even of what might be lawfully retained. Our will must be sacrificed, that God’s may be done.

IV. To the importance of usefulness in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. The heart must be given to Christ.

2. Then life, talents, influence, time, wealth.

(1) This cost must be paid in the right spirit.

(2) This cost is not equal to the demands of sin.

3. To pay this cost grace is both necessary and provided. (J. Burns, D. D.)

A cheap religion no religion at all

This incident teaches us--

I. That true religion is spirituality in contradistinction to formalism. The spirit of love which now inspired David was something distinct from all outward service, something that could not be expressed by the most valuable of offerings that cost him nothing. Personal sacrifice was required. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” “Circumcision or uncircumcision availeth nothing.”

II. That true religion is enthusiasm in contradistinction to prudence. David rejected the offer of Ornan. He repudiated the securing of the higher interests of the soul without any detraction from secular resources. It is ever so where love reigns--all personal interests are in the background; God is the one all-commanding, all-absorbing object of thought.

III. That true religion is nobility in contradistinction to meanness.

IV. That true religion is progress in contradistinction to stationariness. The man inspired with this spirit would never rest with present attainments.

1. There will be a delight in studying truth. The creed of a true religious man has cost him something.

2. There will be a delight in doing all that is commanded.

V. That true religion is reality in contradistinction to falseness. That the spirit of David is the only true spirit of religion will appear if you consider--

1. What God is.

2. What He has done for us.

3. That all we have and are are His. (Homilist.)

Sin and mercy as grounds of gratitude

Observe the laudable strife of two noble minds.

I. Ornan’s conduct. Ornan, a Jebusite, and so by birth a heathen, but by choice a proselyte (see his prayer, 2 Samuel 24:23). A pledge of the Gentiles coming in: the very site of the temple belonged to one. Thankful for his privileges, and therefore liberal in his gifts.

II. David’s conduct.

1. His sense of sin (1 Timothy 1:12).

2. His sense of mercy. God’s direction about the altar was an indication of forgiveness. David looked beyond this to the Redeemer. All he had was too little to express his gratitude. “Much forgiven, loving much.” If religion be real it will be self-denying. Does your religion cost you anything? Has it led you to give up your own will; to sacrifice your own inclinations? to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts? What do you give to God of your time, your influence, your means? (W. Pakenham Welsh, D. D.)

The threshing-floor of Ornan

I. That externally there is nothing in any place why God should there meet with men. Why was the threshing-floor of Ornan to be the meeting-place of David with his God, and the spot where prayer was to be heard?

1. Certainly it was a very simple, unadorned place. Yet when the temple, with all its glory, crowned the spot, God was never more conspicuously present than on that bare, ungarnished threshing-floor. A tasteful building may be a way of showing your pious regard for the Lord, but take care that you do not regard it as essential, or even important, or you will make an idol of it.

2. It was a place of ordinary toil.

3. It was, also, in possession of a Jebusite. The Jebusites were among the nations doomed for their iniquities. Herein the Lord showeth that He is no respecter of persons. The Jews wrapped themselves up within themselves, and said, “The temple of the Lord; the temple of the Lord are we”; but the Lord seemed to rebuke their national pride by saying, “And your temple is built upon the threshing-floor of a Jebusite.” If you happen to have been born of parents who did not train you in the fear of the Lord, yet do not despond; but say to thy soul, “The Lord shall have a dwelling within my heart, Jebusite though I be.”

4. Before it could be used it had to be bought with money. In connection with all true worship of God in the olden time there was always the offertory.

II. Spiritually this threshing-floor of Ornan was an admirable type of how God meets with men.

1. Its extreme simplicity enters into the essence of the type.

2. The threshing-floor is the exact type of affliction. The temple of glory is built on the threshing-floor of affliction.

3. This was the place where justice was most clearly manifest. Above this place, in mid-air, stood a dreadful apparition. Conviction of sin, wrought by the Spirit or God, is more powerful than argument. It some men had more fully felt that they were sinners, they would have made better saints.

4. It was the place where sin was confessed.

5. It was the place where sacrifice was offered and accepted.

6. It was where David beheld the sign of peace.

III. I close by heartily exhorting you to use this place. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The altar built and the plague stayed:--Observe--

I. A fearful evil.

II. The divine remedy.

III. A generous proposal.

IV. A noble and self-sacrificing spirit. (J. Burns, D. D.)

The propitiation

The altar and sacrifice as means of propitiation illustrates the atonement of Christ.

I. The moral condition which it is designed to meet.

II. The provision made for this condition.

III. The results which it accomplished. (J. Wolfendale.)