Haggai chapter 2, verses 1 through
9. In the seventh month, in the
one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord
by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son
of Sheateel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedek
the high priest, and to the residue, or to the rest of the people,
saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first
glory? Now this reference to this house
is the temple in Jerusalem. And the one referred to here
by the prophet has to do in her first glory. That was the temple
that Solomon built. And he's asking these people,
did any of you ever see that first temple? Now look what it
says. And how do you see it now? What
do you think of this structure? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? Different in size? Different in its appointment
in the materials that were used to construct it? I mean, everything about Solomon's
temple was precious, this and that and the other, and it was
humongous. It took a great many years to
build. But now this temple, the one
that has been rebuilt and that Haggai is addressing to his people,
is the very temple that Christ would visit when he comes into
this world. And that's important for us to
know. Because there is a statement in this passage that is of great
worth and meaning. Alright, let's read on. Verse
4, Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord, and be strong,
O Joshua, son of Josedek, the high priest, and be strong, all
you people of the land, says the Lord, and work, for I am
with you, says the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I
covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit
remains among you. Fear you not. For thus says the
Lord of hosts, yet once it is a little while, once it is only a little while,
and I will shake the heavens and the earth. and the sea and
the dry land, and I will shake all nations, all nations on this
earth, shall come, and here's the promise about this temple,
and I will fill this house with glory." What's he going to do? Fill it up with Gold and silver,
that ain't glory. That's just what man calls glory. People ruin their souls chasing
that kind of wealth. That's not it at all. I'll fill this house with glory,
says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold
is mine, says the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former." Then it does not have to do with
size and how expensive it is to build it. It's something altogether
different. Verse 9 again, the glory of this latter house shall
be greater than of the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And in
this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts. Now back up to verse 7, and I'll shake all nations and the desire of all nations
shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord
of Hosts." Now what is that glory? It is the person of the God-man
Christ Jesus. who visited this temple in Jerusalem
many times during his lifetime and particularly during his public
life and ministry. And his presence is worth infinitely
more than all the temples that Solomon could build if he lived
to be a thousand years old. It's not whether it's brick or
stucco or wood or whatever it is. These things have nothing
to do with what takes place inside this building. This building
doesn't lend anything to us except its comfort and the ability to
meet in this one place undisturbed. But as far as what it's made
of is totally immaterial. Some things last longer than
others. But nothing can match this. And if you've got the finest
building there is and you don't have Christ, you ain't got nothing. Nothing at all. Worthless. Absolutely worthless. My text and my title is verse
7, Christ the Desire. of all nations. Now if you'll
turn to John chapter 1, the gospel of John chapter 1. We were in this passage I believe
this past Wednesday night. Now I'd like to read the first
14 verses Because here we read some very specific things about
this One whose glory is said to have filled that temple, the
glory of God, in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. John 1,
verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. Now listen just a second, let
me tell you this. This is John's version of the
Christmas story. He goes from eternity to time
and to the eternity to come. And it's all Christ. All Christ. In the beginning. There is no beginning. It's just
an expression for our weak minds. God doesn't begin. Father, Son,
or Holy Spirit. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And anyone who maintains that
Christ is not God, is not a believer, lost, lost, completely lost. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
that is, by Christ, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. Can we take nothing and make
something? Without something to make things
out of, you and I would be totally helpless. Well, everything was made by
Christ. Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. He is the life. And the life
was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness,
and the darkness comprehends it not. There was a man sent
from God whose name was John. Now, this is not the writer of
this gospel. This is John the Baptist. The
same came for a witness to bear witness of the light of Christ,
the light of the world, that all men through him might believe. John was not that light, but
was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light
which lights every man that comes into the world. Now this light
of the world, the Lord Jesus in verse 10, He was in the world,
He lived in this world, the world was made by Him, and yet the
world did not know Him. Did not know Him. He came unto His own, His own
people, the Jews. And His own received Him not. And then the most startling statement
in this chapter is the very next statement. But as many as received
Him. Some people actually received
Him. But the question is, how and why? What's different about
them? Or is the difference in them
at all? But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God. That word power,
some people say should be translated authority. Even to them that
believe on His name. So being a believer is pretty
important when it comes to knowing, believing, and worshiping the
Lord Jesus Christ. But the question is, if our Bibles
teach us that believing is the result of being born again, and
that none of us can birth ourselves, we couldn't even do it the first
time, let alone the second time, so how do we come to believe?
How do we possess faith? Faith is the deposit of God the
Holy Spirit in regenerating grace in the new birth. You can find
this in a great many places in your Bibles. But here is why
a person believes. Verse 13, these people that believe,
These people that received Christ, unlike their fellow men, unlike
their neighbors, unlike their family, here are people which were born. That's born again. Born again. And this birth, this born, has nothing to do with the blood
that is in our veins. It doesn't matter what family
we're born into, what nationality, what race. That's not where it
is. This birth is a special birth. It is the birth of the soul in
which life is given to dead sinners. through the precious person and
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the first thing we learn about
this birth is that it has nothing to do with who we're akin to. Secondly, it says, and it's not
of the will of the flesh. So it's not a matter of my will
that causes me to believe. It waited on us. In an act of our own will to
choose Christ, it would never take place. But there's another
description of how this birth occurred. It's not of blood,
it's not of the will of the flesh, nor is it of the will of man. It's not someone else's will
trying to persuade me to believe. This is impossible for men to
give this gift. It is virtually the gift of life. Life brings with it the believing
of the gospel. It transforms us and gives us
this ability. So the final result in verse
13 as to how this birth occurs, of God. Of God. See, this is God's work and not
ours. We're the ones being worked on. One more verse, verse 14. I don't
think I have time, and I don't want to start and not be able
to finish it. But if you'll take verse 1 and verse 14 and take
them phrase by phrase, you'll find a wonderful correspondence
between those two verses. And if you want to fudge, you
can look up Mr. Pink and you can find it pretty
easily. Alright, verse 14. And the Word, you remember that
from verse 1? The Word was made flesh, made
a human being, and dwelt among us. Now in that act of Christ becoming
a man, He could not be born by the normal, natural method of babies being born. Now you should
know why, but I'll remind you one more time. If he's born that
way, he's kin to Adam. And he's a sinner just like you
and me. But if he's born of a virgin, if God the Holy Spirit performs
a miracle of grace in Mary's womb, so that she has a son without
a human father. That's a different story. And
this is the word that became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. That's our glorious
Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. Now, in our minds, and
I hope yours is better than mine, in our minds, let's think back
to the book of Haggai, chapter 2 and verse 7, where Christ is
called the desire of all nations. Now mull that over just a bit.
Christ is claimed to be the desire, not of some nations, of all nations. Now you know that when the Bible
describes God's elect, at least in one of those references where
that is found, it is made up of members of every tribe and
tongue and nation. If I'm not mistaken, that's the
language. So there are people from all
parts of the world, all kinds of people, all races of people,
all ages of people, people that lived in the first century and
people that are living in whatever this century is, the 21st, or
whatever you call it. Until time is ended, there will
be representatives from all of these places on this globe in
the body of Christ. So he is said to be the desire
of all nations. Now a lot of people have written
on that statement, Christ the desire of all nations. But the
most interesting help I found was some character who outlined
four things that all men need. Four things. Four universal needs. No matter what country, continent,
island you go to in this world, people need these four things.
And Christ is all of these things. Let's try it out. Here's the
first one. Man desires a God that he can
see. A visible God. Now you're familiar with Oh,
the ton of references in our Bible where people made idols
out of wood or stone or gold or silver or whatever, and some
of the interesting things that took place when the religion
of our Lord Jesus Christ encountered that and so forth. But the fact
is that no matter where you go, you find If the place is deserted,
you can still find evidence that they had some kind of religion. They offered sacrifices. They
did various things that religious people do. It is documented that
people have burned their own children as a sacrifice for their
own sins. This is how blind and stupid
we are as human beings, that we can somehow take our own flesh
and offer it to God as a sacrifice, and it will atone for our sins. This universal need of a visible
God, Now, I'm going to test your memory on this one. I know it's
risky, but I'm going to test it anyway. In Acts chapter 17,
when Paul is in Athens, Greece, and he goes up to this hill called,
well, I had it on the tip of my tongue, Mars Hill, and he
finds carvings of various kinds and altars of various kinds all over this place called Mars
Hill. And he even finds one that has
this inscription, to the unknown God. It's like they were saying,
well, hey, let's cover all the bases. In case there's one we
don't know, let's just put it down. And Paul said, that's the
one that I want to preach to you about. The one you don't
know. Now all of these gods, if you're
even slightly familiar with Greek mythology, you've read of all
these characters and their great exploits and all this kind of
stuff. A visible god, even if he can't
talk, he can't walk, he can't even blink his eyes,
but that's my God. Are you still in John? How about
referring to chapter 20? John chapter 20. beginning at verse 24, John 20,
24. But Thomas, one of the twelve,
called Didymus, the twin, was not with them when Jesus came
in a previous appearance after his resurrection, recorded for
us in the above verses. The other disciples therefore
said to Thomas, We have seen the Lord. But Thomas said, except
I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my
fingers into the print of his nails, and thrust my hand into
his side, I will not believe. Now that's tantamount to saying,
I must see God in order to believe Him. Now watch what happens. And after eight days again, the
disciples were within, and Thomas was with them this time. Then
came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said,
Peace be unto you. Then our Lord turns to Thomas.
And he said, Reach hither your finger, and behold my hands,
and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side, and be
not faithless, but believing. He's conquered. But look what our Savior says
in the following verse. Jesus said to Thomas, because
you've seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed. Do we believe? When Paul wrote Timothy the first
time, he gave a definition of godliness. He said, great is
the mystery of godliness. And the first sentence on that
list of six things is simply this, God was manifest in the
flesh. In our Lord Jesus Christ, the
triune God is manifested, is revealed, is made known, is preached. You'll find that in 1 Timothy
3.16. Secondly, the first universal need is what?
A visible God. And I'm telling you, the only
God you will ever see, on earth or in heaven, is in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the second universal need is an atonement for sin. How can we put away our sin? What is there available to us
to put our sins away? Now, let's look at this just
a little bit. Man has a second universal need. It is simply
this, an atonement for our sin. We must have a means by which
our sin can be put away. It must be one that comes out
of this book. It must be one that God reveals
to us in the pages of this book. So let's look for just a minute
now on this matter of an atonement for sin. Let's try Hebrews chapter 10. Let me give you a quick outline
of Hebrews 10. There are four times in Hebrews
10 that the expression, no more, is to be found. Four times. I think this is really important
and it's pertinent to the subject that is before us. that the second
universal need of our souls is an atonement for our sin. Alright,
here's the first one. In verse 2 of Hebrews 10, speaking about the inability
of animal sacrifices and animal blood, the inability of this
to put away sin, it never could, it never did, it was always just
a type and a picture and a shadow. So here it says, for then would
they not have ceased to be offered? If these people, with the offering
of one animal sacrifice, if they truly thought they were forgiven
for all time and eternity, why come back a second time? Because the worshiper once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins. No more conscience of
sins. Alright, the second one is in verse 17 of this same chapter. and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." Now God's sacrifice is different
from a man's sacrifice. The very next verse is the third
of these. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. If Christ is really our offering,
and he offered himself once on the tree, And God raised him from the dead,
and he ascended to glory. If that sacrifice is accepted,
if it has done what it promised to put away our sin for all time
and eternity, boy, what a blessing. What a wonderful blessing that
is. That's beyond our ability to comprehend. You think eternity will be long
enough to sing enough praises to our Savior for this? Absolutely
not. Absolutely not. There is no more
offering for sin. So when a preacher says, if you'll
do this for God, He'll do this for you, he's lying to you. God
is perfectly pleased. With every human being that's
in the body of Christ, their redemption is complete and finished
forever. Forever. Now there's one more. Verse 26. For if we sin willfully, I've got a marginal reference
here somewhere, but it doesn't help me any on this case. If we sin willfully, after that
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no
more sacrifice for sins. Now here's my take on that statement.
I don't know if it's right or not. You'll have to think about
it and see. If a man approaches God through
some other method than through the God-man, Christ Jesus, they offer these sacrifices,
whether literally or just in words, And they keep doing this, and
they keep doing it, and keep doing it. It's futile. Why do it any longer? If it has not given you peace
of heart and mind and soul to this point, why trust it any
further? But on the other hand, the sacrifice
of God's Son is absolutely perfect. It is complete. It is infinite. There's nothing to compare to
it. It tolerates no additions. It simply is. And it always saves. It always redeems. It always
Sanctifies. Let me read you a statement now.
We've already covered all four of those. Let me read you a statement
back in verse 10 of this chapter. 10, 11, 12, and 13. And this,
I think, will help to see that more clearly even. Verse 10,
Hebrews chapter 10. By the which will, that's the
will of God that Christ came to do, by the which will, We
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ,
how many times? Once. Once for all. Once for all. It's unrepeatable. And every priest stands daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, this God-man Christ
Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for how long? Forever, sat down on the right
hand of God. His work is done. Done perfectly,
done completely, and done forever. From henceforth, our Lord Jesus
is from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool." Now here's the icing on the cake. For by one offering,
one offering, he has perfected forever. That's a long time. He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now you can't get any holier
than that. Christ is the Holy One, and to be in Him is to be
like Him. Alright, the third thing that
man craves, no matter what generation he lives in, or where he lives
on the face of this earth, everybody has a desire to know what's going
to happen tomorrow. A divine revelation concerning
the future, and particularly to know the will of God. Now
you've seen all the idiots and all the clowns that we go through
in this world, and we've recently had one just some months or a
year or two ago, I don't remember now, but this Harold Camping
character, whatever his name is, you know, promised these
people that Christ was coming. And then, oh, he said, I made
a mathematical mistake, so he recalculated after it didn't
happen that time. And they flocked to him again.
People gave up jobs and sold houses and gave things away. And then he didn't come. He didn't
come. I want to read you statement
in John chapter 6 this time. John chapter 6. Now I don't have a clue what's going
to happen the remainder of this day. And I don't know what's
going to happen tomorrow or the day after it. And I don't see that as being
important. You see, it depends on who's
in charge of everything. And that's not us. If you trust the God of heaven
and earth, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God and the Son of Man, if we can trust Him, we can be
at peace with tomorrow. Look at verses 39 and 40 in John
chapter 6. And this is the Father's will
who has sent me, that of all which he has given
me, I should lose nothing but should
raise it up again at the last day." Every person that God gave to
Christ in that eternal covenant of grace must, absolutely must,
be brought to faith in Christ. Verse 40, and this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone which sees the Son and believes on Him may have
everlasting life. That's life that doesn't ever
end. And I'll raise him up at the last day." Now, people say,
yes, I believe in everlasting life, but there ain't no buts. Not a one. Every contingency
is resting on Christ and not on us. If he does what he said he did,
then all is well. All is well. No matter what happens
on this earth or what doesn't happen, it is simply how it is
supposed to be. And that includes a week ago
last Friday. Now, you can moan and complain
and do whatever you want to do, but I'm going to tell you, God
Himself allowed that to take place. And He doesn't do anything
without His eternal purpose. And we may not understand it,
we may never understand it. But that doesn't change anything.
Not anything. One more thing. If Christ is the desire of all
nations, all men desire immortality. to live forever. You do and I
do. Let's look at that a second. Let me tackle John chapter 10
this time. If you're still at 6, it's just
a little ways to your right. John chapter 10. All of our verses
will be in John chapter 10. Alright, the first one is in
verse 28. John 10, 28. Our Lord says of His people who
are here called His sheep, He said, and I give unto them eternal
life. We don't bargain for it. He doesn't let us pay them on
the installment plan. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish." Not ever. Never, never, never,
never. But what if I do this? Or what
if I do the other? So what? You think He doesn't
see that before this world ever started, before you were ever
created? Of course He did. And yet He still makes us His
own. I'll tell you friends, that has something to do with the
meaning of grace. Free grace. Sovereign grace. Immortality is to live forever. Alright, look at chapter 11 in
the gospel. I thought they were all in that
chapter, but I made a mistake on that, so I'll just add that
to the list. Chapter 11. Now, our Lord was a frequent
acquaintance and visitor with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And the sisters, when Lazarus
became sick, they notified through some kind of messenger, I don't
know how he got the message, but he did, that Lazarus was
sick. And our Lord, his disciples didn't
understand why he didn't get up immediately and go see about
Lazarus. And he waits, you know, like two or three days. I don't
know how long. But anyway, by the time he gets there, Lazarus
is dead. And not just dead, but buried.
And so our Lord is talking to these two sisters. Look at verse
25. This is Martha. This is the one
that complained about Mary because she didn't help with the dishes,
you know. She preferred to sit at the Savior's
feet. Verse 25, and you've got to look at this. Jesus
said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And then Martha starts telling
the Lord about the doctrine that she knows all about, you know.
Oh, she said to him, our Lord said to her first, do
you believe, whosoever believes in me shall never die, verse
26. Do you believe this? She said, yes, Lord, I believe
that you're the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into
the world. And she's trying to tell him
she believes in the resurrection. Our Lord is not talking about
a future resurrection. He's talking about an event that
is just about to transpire to raise Lazarus from the dead. Look at John 17, verses 2 and
3. John chapter 17, there's no other
chapter like it in all the Bible. The Lord Jesus is praying and
interceding for His disciples and for the apostles particularly. And He's using language when
He prays that is unlike anything that you and I can possibly use. By the time you get to verse
20, I think it is, we won't go there right now, but by the time
you get to 20, Lord, I will that those whom you have given me
be with me where I am. I will? We don't pray like that. Our prayers must begin, if not
in word, at least in intent. Thy will be done, not mine. Our Lord is equal. The holy three
in one are just one person, one God, in three persons. Therefore, one is equal to the
other and there is no distinction between them. Verse 2, As you have given Him,
as God the Father has given to God the Son, power over all flesh,
I mean all flesh, including the devil and his angels, by the
way. That he should give eternal life
to whom? To as many as the Father gave
him in the everlasting covenant of grace. There won't be any missing in
glory. They'll all be there. You can let these people sing
this ungodly song, Will the circle be unbroken till the cows come
home, and it ain't got nothing to do with anything. It's just stupid religion. Verse 3, John 17, And this is
life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ. whom you have sent. Now the question is, do I know
him? And do you know him? He ain't hard to find. He's present
everywhere. But you might start looking in
here, if you're looking for him. And if you find him, My first words for you would
be, well, he was looking for you before you were looking for
him. All right, one more time. This
time I'll remember it's the chorus book, singing number 43. Yes,
dear.