Good morning, my brothers and
sisters. I'm not ready to start the message
yet, but if you wish to be finding my text, it will be in the Old
Testament prophet of Haggai. Haggai. If you some of you are
like me, It's the third book back from the end of the Old
Testament. I had to look in front of my
Bible to find that one. Let me read a song to you. It
was written by Joseph Hart. He was a minister in England
in the 1700s. And he wrote these words. Christians, dismiss your fear. Let hope and joy succeed. The
great good news of gladness here, the Lord is risen indeed. The
promise is fulfilled. Salvation's work is done. Justice
with mercy is reconciled, and God has raised his son. My soul,
thy savior, Lord, who all thy sorrows bore, who died for sin
but lives to God, and lives to die no more. His death procured
thy peace. His resurrection is thine. Believe, receive the full release. Tis signed with divine blood. All right, before I start the
message, I do have a couple things I want to say while you're Maybe
you've already found, hey guy, it's a joy to be with you this
morning. Now, after this morning, I've
actually been invited to come back some more. After this morning,
you may wish maybe I wasn't, but I hope not. I pray that as we're gathered
here this morning, that we are gathering in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us the promise that where
even two or three are gathered together in his name, he promised
us, there will I be in your midst. But the caveat is that we have
to gather in his name. And that means to honor him,
to glorify him, to sing of his majesty and his praises. So let's
get to the message. Haggai chapter one. Now before
I read any of chapter one, and I do intend on reading the whole
chapter, but not simply read it and then make some comments
on it. What I want to do is take the
word of God and make some application to us in our day with the illustration
of our brothers and sisters in Christ who were amongst the Jewish
nation after the captivity in Babylon. Now let me lay a little foundation
before I read anything from Haggai's prophecy. The first wave of Jewish
exiles had left Babylon. Remember, they were in captivity.
The first wave of Jewish exiles had left Babylon for Jerusalem
around, they say, 538 BC. About two years later, around
536 BC, they erected, first of all, Nehemiah had not left Babylon
yet. The first thing that they erected
when they The first group of Jewish exiles returned back to
Jerusalem. The first thing they erected
was the brazen altar. Not the walls of the city, but
the touchstone to the worship of God in Christ, the brazen
altar. So they had erected the brazen
altar, as I said, around 536 BC. They began the Temple Foundation,
and they did so with great fanfare and worship. And if you wish
later on to read that, of course, you could turn back to Ezra chapter
3 and read of that. Now sometime after this, after
they had erected to set up the brazen altar and began to build
the foundations of the new temple and this hundreds and hundreds
of sacrifices offered unto God. Sometime after this, they had
set aside the temple rebuilding and they had begun concentrating
upon themselves. Around 520 BC, God raised up
this man Haggai, and we read these words. In the second year
of Darius, the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the
month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet undesirable,
the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the
son of Josedek, the high priest saved. Listen to me this morning. God
always. I don't care what we see. I don't
care what we see. We at best see through a glass
darkly. I see even this word. It's right here revealed to me. It's right here in front of me.
I see this word. Through a glass, darkly. But how much more the circumstances
of this world do I see? Darkly. Because many of the circumstances
of this world that our God puts us through, he gives us no direct
word concerning it. We're just left to trust him. But think about it, these people
knew there'd been a prophecy given about their captivity lasting
only 70 years. Here they are in the land, this
first wave of Jewish exiles. They're in the land. The promise
of this exile coming to an end, they see, as we would say, the
proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. And I can just imagine
this group of Jews, and it's listed back in Ezra. I mean,
he tells us who all they were. Go back and read that sometime.
Here they are traveling, and they make it to Jerusalem, and
they erect the brazen altar and begin offering the sacrifices
and begin the rebuilding of the temple. And there's great worship
of God in Jerusalem. But soon they, like we, become
complacent. become complacent. Again, as
I said, listen to me. God always has his man for his
people at his time. Came the word of the Lord by
Haggai the prophet. Do you see it? They weren't expecting this.
They weren't expecting this. God always has his man for his
people at his time. And as we see in the context
of the circumstances of our brothers and sisters amongst the Jewish
nation then, it's not always bubbly and bright. If what you want, and I'm not
trying to rebuke, I am trying to encourage, I am trying to
admonish, If what you want is a man who makes you feel good
about yourselves, you're thinking about the wrong thing. I know somewhat of your need.
But our God has always had His even individual men purposed
for His people. And He did so in full, complete,
absolute wisdom before the world began. God is not waiting. You are. You are. But not only that, God
here in our text, God through Haggai rebukes the people's self-centered
disregard of the worship of God. He rebukes him. He says, this
man, the first thing was not rejoicing in happiness. What's
the first thing? Rebuke. Rebuke. Oh, God, rebuke me. Me. Let's go on. At the end of verse one, the
high priest saying, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Now,
this is what we can read from the context of this prophecy.
This was the first of at least three messages. I'm sure there
were more, but the first of three messages that God was at least
in part pleased to record for our benefit in this book here,
in this prophecy of Haggai. And when this man was speaking,
God was speaking. Now, Haggai preached these words. But it was God speaking. Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is
not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Now this
is what God said about them. Then came the word of the Lord
by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to
dwell in your sealed houses? Now that's C-I-E-L-E-D, not C-E-I-L-E-D. We're not talking about the ceiling
here. You know what that word seal
means? Look it up in Strong's or whatever. Wayne Scott. And
that kind of surprised me. I thought that was more of a
modern day word. And I opened up Strong and it
says, Wayne Scott. You've decorated your house.
You know the Wayne Scott. You put it up in your home. You
don't have to have it. You need the home, but you don't
have to have the wainscot. It's just there for, it's not
even structural. It's wainscot. And you put it
around the lower part of your rooms and it looks nice. It's pretty, you know. Wainscot. Simply put in the Hebrew,
it'd be paddled, a paddling. But in the metaphorical meaning,
the symbolical meaning, you know what it means? Decorated. Wayne
Scott, now if you've got it in your home, don't get mad at me
now. I'm not fussing at you, but it's nothing more than decoration. And we spend good sums of money
to put up the Wayne Scott. But it wasn't even in the house
of God. The foundation was built, but
they left it off and began to build their own sealed, paneled,
decorated houses. Let's go on. And this house,
last part of verse four, and this house lie waste, that is
the temple, the house of God. Now therefore, saith the Lord
of hosts, consider your ways. You know, we always do. But therein lies the problem.
We usually consider our ways with somewhat delight. Don't we? I highly value my opinion. Ask
that woman right there, she'll tell you he does. I highly value
my opinion. But let me just move on. Think
about it. Consider your ways. What's God saying here to the
Jews, our brothers and sisters way back yonder? What's he saying
to us? In other words, take warning
concerning my ego. That's what he's talking about,
my ego, my self-centeredness, my sense of self-preservation. Remember, God gave them the grace
to understand, erect that which pertain to the worship of God
first, before you even build the walls around Jerusalem. They
understood that, but as they began to be complacent and glad
they're out of Babylonian captivity, but I need a house. You do, right? I need a house,
right? Consider your ways. What is God
telling us? Mortify ego and worship Christ. And as we see, we will see God
willing from God's word. If we seek you first, the kingdom
of God, God promised all these other things will be added to
you. That's what he says. But let's
go on. Yes, you've so much and Bring
in little. You eat, but have not enough.
You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but
there is no warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth
wages to put in a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
consider your ways. You see, this is not glorify
our opinion, but start seeing our opinions in the low regard
in which God holds. Because he told us through our
brother Isaiah the prophet, my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not my ways. Therefore, by God's grace, I
often think, I think this is best. You ever done that? Of
course you have. Of course you have. I think this
is best. And for me, it may well be. But my thoughts are not his.
My ways are not his. And even when he moves in me,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure, I then must confess,
if I'm honest, it's not my way after all. If he's working in
me, both to will and to do of his good pleasure, he's the one
doing it. He's doing it. Thus saith the
Lord of hosts. Again, verse seven, consider
your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the
house. and I will take pleasure in it. God, and I don't mean,
oh, please believe me, I don't mean to be certainly blasphemous,
but God is happy. God the Father rejoices when
he sees his son magnified and honored amongst his subjects. God's happy with that. It makes God happy. Even our
Lord gave an illustration. Remember, even one sinner that
repenteth, he says there's joy in the presence of the angels. Even our Lord rejoiced in us
before we were ever created when God the Father says, ask of me
and I'll give you the heathen for that inheritance. And he
did. Because here we are. Here we
are. But let's go on. You look for
much, and lo, it came to little. And when ye brought it home,
I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts,
because of my house that is laid waste. And ye run every man to
his own house. How often that is made. I don't want to say I have no
trouble, but I could get up five, four, five days a week and just,
you could go to work. And it's a struggle, but you
do so, you know why? Because at the end of that week
or two weeks, you get that check. You get something out of it.
And then I moan and gripe when I get up on Sunday mornings and
begin to prepare for the gathering of the saints of God. Ever been
there? Ever been there? Let's go on, verse 10. Therefore
the heaven over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed
from her fruit. I called for a drought upon the
land, upon the mountains, and upon the corn, upon the new wine,
upon the oil. And it's like, Lord, slow down. He's touching everything. Why?
Because our ways are not his ways. We need to consider our
way. bringing forth that, and upon
men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. You see, think about this. What's
wrong with having a house? Nothing. Nothing. Unless it even starts to smell
of preeminence over the worship of Christ. Even the necessities of this
world are despised by God if we seek
to bring them in competition with Jesus Christ, the Lord. You see, the necessities, that's
houses and especially sealed houses. Sealed houses, neither
necessities, nor the mundane are suffered by God to compete
with Christ. He will not have it amongst his
people. Now you hear what I said. He
will not have it amongst his people. He'll let the world have
all of that. The unregenerate, the unlearned,
the unstable who even take his word and rest it to their own
destruction just like he did the philistines what they remember
they had the ark of the covenant and and it was in a certain philistine's
house and they had great joy everything was just great and
happy huh this world of the unregenerate
may abuse God's Christ. They may have everything or anything
in competition with Christ, but God will not suffer it amongst
his people. He won't have it. And listen
to me. This is not sad news. I see some
of your faces. You're like, boy, you're kind
of, you know, you got that, you know, mule frown, you know, This
is a good thing, God doesn't do that. It's a good thing. We will say, this is a good thing.
Because our God will cause even the wrath of men, our wrath. God will cause even the wrath
of men to praise him. And the rest of it, what's he
do with it? Restrains it. He restrains it. Oh, God, help
us to always remember neither the necessities of this life
nor the mundane. You see, it's not just the big
things that get in the way of the worship of Christ. Often,
it's just them everyday things that haunt our minds, our desires,
and they get in the way. So maybe you kind of picked up
that my subject for this morning, and I give it this title, God
suffers no competitor with Christ. He won't have it. He won't have
it, not amongst his people. Now, a couple things before I
go into the message in earnest. I sometimes find myself using
God's own word to excuse my own egocentric self-centeredness. You can do a little study. It's
not because I'm all that smart. Do a little study and you'll
find out. Remember, Haggai gives us years and months and days. If you go to the end of this,
after Haggai preached this first message, you find in 24 days,
Verse 15, and in the fourth and 20th day of the sixth month,
in the second year of Darius the king, what had happened,
exactly what he says took place from verses 12 through 14. They
got to work. They got to work. Think about this. Now, if you
do a little study, if you go back and look at men who have
looked into this, have a lot more access to probably a lot
more information than I do, you find that it had been actually
about 67 or 68 years since the prophecy of Daniel that there
would be 70 years of captivity. So here they are with a couple
more years to go. Now it's starting to make a little
sense. Well, it's not quite time. Yes, we're We've left Babylon
and we're in Jerusalem. We've erected the brazen altar
and we've begun the foundations of the temple. But after all,
we need houses to live in. We got to have a place to stay
while we're here. And, you know, once you start
to get your house built, well, some wainscotting would be nice.
A few decorations here and there. The Lord's house is over here
laid in waste. Laid in waste. But after all, there's still
a couple more years. We've got brothers and sisters
still in Babylon. Nehemiah's still there. Nehemiah's
still there. And this is exactly what the
Lord said, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people
say, The time is not come. the time that the Lord's house
should be built. But God didn't say the temple
would be built in 70 years. He said your captivity would
be over in 70 years. If you're in the land, build
the temple. I don't care if it's been five
years. Why? Because the worship of Christ,
which the brazen altar, the sacrifices, the temple, all of those things
typified. They pointed to him, so when
they left off that, who were they leaving off? Christ himself. So again, I say I sometimes find
myself using God's own word to excuse my egocentric self-centeredness. As God's people, we have no warrant
for seeking our will. But we do. Hmm? But we do. As God's people,
we have no warrant for seeking our way, our opinions. But we, just like our brothers
and sisters from hundreds of years ago, we do. God willing, when this is all
kind of wound up for this morning, My wife and I begin our trip
back home. Even after I've preached this
message to you, I'll be thinking about what I'm going to do when
I get home. And as my wife and I found out
yesterday, it may not be but five minutes between us and death
before God Almighty. We sit there and watch four medevac
helicopters have to come down about what quarter mile in front
of us. and sit down. Drive by and then see this van
mangled and be told that there were children even in this van.
And you don't know what happened, but you see them four medevac
helicopters come down and touch down and moments later, here
they start back again. God holds our lives in his hand. You see, the worship of Christ Cannot. Cannot fit our schedule. I said cannot. It's not us trying
to figure out how we can cause our wills to come in line with
God's will. It never does. Now hear me, hear me what I'm
saying. If you've got two people and they're talking about what's
God going to do? What's God going to do? And two
people both have two different opinions, listen to them. When it comes to human will and
God's will, it's not maybe one of them's right, both of them
are wrong. They're wrong. Wrong! When will we ever really learn
that? Only when we awake in his likeness and we look back and
say, wow. Wow. Now don't take that as gospel.
I'm not talking where we'll be. Wow. You understand what I'm
saying now? We hold our will and our opinions,
not in too high a regard. The problem is we hold them with
some regard at all. That's our problem. And let me
tell you something, when we begin to look after our way, God's
will is always put behind us. That's just how we are. We have
no warrant for seeking our will, our way, our opinions. Turn to Colossians chapter one.
Colossians chapter one. Now again, please, listen to
me. I am not here to criticize you
for anything. Anything. I'm here to encourage
you. But until God continually reminds
us and reminds us and reminds us of how bad we really are in
and of ourselves, we will still to some extent depend upon ourselves
unless God keeps reminding us and reminding us and reminding
us of how bad we really are. Man at his best state. Now, what state would that be?
I would consider a regenerate state, a gospel converted state,
right? A spirit-led state. But man at
his best state is still altogether what? Vanity. Now, that is not encouraging.
I understand that. Now, okay, stay in Colossians,
but let me read this to you. In verse 12, you don't have to
turn back right now, but verse 12 of Haggai chapter 1, then.
It starts out with a then. We'll look at that in just a
moment. But look at Colossians chapter 1. Pardon me just a moment. Colossians chapter 1, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Colossians 1 verse 16, for by
him, this is Christ. You can look at the context later
if you're not sure. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, whether you can see
them or you can't, visible or invisible. Think about that.
Think about how much we really don't see. And I'll illustrate
it. You folks have been looking for
a pastor for quite a while. And you know what? You really don't see much at
all, do you? Neither do I. I'm not talking
about results. What do you really see about
God's will in this matter? Nothing. Until God's pleased
to bring out the unabout. Listen, visible or invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
and let me just mention these words. Look at
it this way, thrones, local authority. Dominions, regional authority. Principalities, global authority. Powers, that's all might, but
all other might is derived from God. For by Him were all things
created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by Him and for Him. Even the worst reprobate that
walks on the face of the earth is our God's servant. Yeah. He or she may not know
it and may rebel against it and deny it, but they're still God's
servant. Those men and women that cried
out these words, crucify him, crucify him. That's hateful. Bigoted God-hating language because
they were saying that about God's dear son And yet they were the
servants of God God used them to push pilot to
say all right crucify And you know what took place when that
happened? We were liberated We were liberated, huh All things
were created by him and for him, and he is before. That's not
talking about timeline, although that's true as well. But all
things aren't before. That is, he is superior to all
things. All things. Even those things
that I know my wife has need of. Need of, not just want. What she has need of, He's superior
to that. How much more what I want than
what I need. And He is before all things and
by Him all things consist. That means He holds them together. And He is the head of the body. I hear this, I hear some people
say, well Christ ought to be at the head of the body. No,
He is. the head of the body. He is the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the what? Superiority, the preeminence. Why? For it pleased the Father
that in him should all fullness dwell. You see, Christ is preeminent. And he is to be worshipped as
such by us. Now, we don't do it. And I know
religion will say, well, you've already given people a cop-out.
We don't need a cop-out. We'll use every avenue at any
moment to slip by the side. And I say this not preaching
down to you. I live there. I find myself being
concerned about my sealed house. Metaphorically speaking, everything
else can become preeminent unto me other than my Lord himself. It'll happen just like that. Go to Walmart and have no intent
on dishonoring God whatsoever. Just go to Walmart. And then
end up giving a poor cashier a what for? Because something
don't go your way. Ever been in a place like that?
It just happens. Like that. Like that. We don't even try. It's just what we are by nature.
It comes out of us. This thing is a 20, Christ's
preeminence is 24-7-365, as we say. And the Spirit doesn't lead
us to talk the talk. He leads us. Yea, he even sweetly,
graciously forces us to walk the walk. Oh, we'll veer. But if we're one of God's, he
will not let us go. You see, if we are God's people,
he will frustrate our ways just like he did our brothers and
sisters in Jerusalem in 520 BC or so. He will. He will. And I'm glad. Oh, yeah, when he starts to do
it, it hurts. And as the writer of Hebrew says,
no chastening is joyous. It's crevious. It hurts until
it accomplishes what God has desired. Go back and read it
in the book of Hebrews. You think of it, though we would
quickly abandon him if he would let us, we would. We would quickly
abandon him if he would let us, yet he has never abandoned us. And him frustrating our ways
is not a bad thing. Though it hurts, it's a good
thing. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
and Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, with all the
remnant of the people Look at it obeyed the voice of the Lord
their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as The Lord their
God had sent him as the people did fear before the Lord then
spake Haggai the Lord's messenger Notice he didn't just speak the
message of the Lord He the Lord's messenger thus spake Haggai the
Lord's messenger in the Lord's Do you see the word in there?
Every man who's ever stood behind this podium, or any other place
for that matter, that God Almighty has sent, he is speaking the
Lord's message. He is. But there are times when
God will send a man, a specific man for a specific purpose. And when he does, it's in the
Lord's message. And that was what God did with
Haggai. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's
messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people saying, now look,
remember the first few verses. They were all about their way,
their houses, their ways, God. Look at it. I am with you. He didn't say, and I am now with
you. He said, I am with you, saith
the Lord. And the Lord's, how did this
happen? How did this change come about? They were, go back to Ezra again.
Ezra three, they were rejoicing. Now, some of the older people,
when they seen how small this temple, they could tell how small
it would be compared to the old temple that the really old folk
had seen before, Solomon's Temple. Yes, many of them wept. And it
was so confusing, you couldn't often tell the people that were
shouting for joy and the people that were mourning because of
what was now. But yet great fanfare, and so
quickly it just died down. and look over the life of Israel,
it always did. God would raise them up, and
what would happen? They would start back down. God would raise
them up, look at the king, they would start back down. It's the
same thing I do. It's the same thing I do. Always. But God, if we're his, God ain't
never left us. That's why he rebuked us to start
with. Because every son he receives,
every son he loves, what's he do? He rebukes and corrects those
people. Isn't that just glorious? And
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek,
the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.
This wasn't because they decided to do something. It's because
God said, all right, now's the time I will act. And you know
what? They were stuck in their self-conceitedness
until God was pleased to move. He left it right there. Why? I don't know all the secret design
and purpose of God, but I know that he will constantly remind
us of what we really are so that we know our only hopes in him. Folks, if he left me alone, really
left me by myself, I would start down and never recover. Never recover. The Lord stirred
up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor
of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high
priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And
they came and did the work in the house of the Lord of hosts,
their God. And 24 days later, here it was. Now, yes, there were still some
more things, but here it was. It wasn't just no longer a foundation
anymore. After all these years of neglect, And God had been blessing them
the whole time, even when they went hungry sometimes. You see,
we are all unanimous. We always equate God's blessing
with how good I feel in my life. Don't we? And if bad things start
to happen, well, God must not be blessing me. No, he may be
blowing upon our way. but he is blessing us in doing
so. Remember the title of the subject? God suffers no competitor with
Christ. I don't know what time I started,
but I hope I haven't been preaching for an hour already. God suffers no competition with
his dear blessed son amongst us. He'll let the world have
what? Pretty much. It seems like he
lets the world have whatever they want, right? They can dishonor
his name. They can lie about who he really
is, what he actually accomplished at Calvary, and he just lets
them, and they're fat and happy. Look at the TV. Some of these
preachers have thousands of people, right? I bet you they don't have
to worry about the medical bills like you do. Do they? I bet you those people take care
of everything. And they drive around in their
fine cars and their fine suits. And what's, our flesh says, well,
there's got to be something there. There is. Rebellion against God's
Christ. That's what it is. That's what
it is. But you see, I didn't, I'm not
gonna say if. When we stray, yeah, God will
bring tough. But it's for good now, I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna go through all these If I did we'd probably
be here for another hour or so But I just want you to consider
these four areas of our lives and remember God suffers no competitor
with Christ I Wish I could say that I will have preached this
so this morning that you'll you and I will never forget this
I but I'm not able to preach that way. Even if I, even if
I am preaching in the Lord's message, it's the Lord that stirred
up the people, not Haggai. Do you see that? Now they listened
to Haggai, why? Because when Haggai spoke, guess
who was speaking? God was, the Lord was, but it
was the Lord. It takes the Lord to do it. If
I can hype you up, I can bring you down really bad tomorrow. And somebody says, before I look
at these, but how long does this last? Not very long. Not very
long. Not very long. But God has never
forsaken us. He's never left us. Consider
it. God suffers no competitors, no
competition with Jesus Christ. In our initial and our ongoing
gospel conversion. He said, I did not come to send
peace, but a sword. Your enemies may be your own
mommy, your own daddy, your own brother, your own sister, your
own aunt, your own uncle. A man's enemies will be those
of his own household, right? But he said, if you love them
more than me, Wait a minute, what? You love them more than
me? You're not worthy of me. Is there anything wrong with
loving these people? Of course not. Never, ever, ever
until they take the preeminence. Until their way and their desires
is up here. And if theirs is, then I am trying
my best to bring Christ down here. God will have no competitors
with His Son amongst us, my brothers and sisters. And this is true
even in our private lives. God suffers no competitor with
Christ. Our Lord said in Matthew 6 verse
24, it's recorded, no man can serve two masters. Sum it up. He said this, you'll love one,
hate the other. Now that's his take on it, not
mine. That's his take. Now I know religion
today says, well, a man ought not serve to master. You can't. If you're gods and
you begin to serve anything other than Christ, he's going to what?
He's going to blow on your house. That's what he's going to do.
No man can serve two masters. And then he kind of summed it
up in that way. He said, you know, whatever you
put on, what you wear, what you eat, we could go, your job, your
place to live, your home, your, your vehicles, everything. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. All these other things will be
added to you. But we don't. And I keep saying that because
I want us to remember, oh God, and he will, I want us to remember
that God quite often lifts that restraint just a little, and
our mindset goes right back to where it was before. So our God, He suffers no competition
with Christ. He doesn't do so in our initial
and ongoing gospel conversion. He doesn't do so in our private
lives, and he don't do this in our civil responsibilities. Go
sometime and read Romans chapter 12, and look at verses, let's
say 9 through 21. There's all these responsibilities
to believers, responsibilities to others, responsibilities to
your community, responsibilities to your boss at work, whatever
it might be. But how does Paul start it out?
You'll see it in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your not high
order, your reason. But yet we like to think that,
boy, when I really serve God, I'm doing something special.
No, we're just, at best, Mark, we're just reasonable service. You see, declaring Christ to
be and trying to conduct yourself in the manner that manifests
and declares Jesus Christ is preeminent, that's not at all
a thing we're doing for God. It's what He's due. It's what
He's due. You remember what our Lord told
us. He said, when you've done all that's your duty to do, what
are we to say about ourselves? We are but unprofitable servants. Why? Because it pleased the Father
that in him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. But as I
said, God suffers no competitor with Christ in our conversion,
in our private lives, in our civil responsibilities, and he
suffers no competitor with Christ in our public worship. Before
others, Christ said, if you deny me before men, him, not just
the doctrines, not your local church, him, if you deny me before
men, what did he say? I will deny you before my Father. That's not a good place to be.
But whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess
before my father. Father, that's one of them you
gave me. See her? See her? And somebody says, well, yeah,
but look at what they did. He said, no, look at what I did. Look back at Calvary's tree and
look what I went through. You who would malk and scoff
at God's falling people, sinning people, faulty people, don't
look at them, look at Christ hanging on that tree. Malked by men and forsaken by
the Father so that men's malkery of us means nothing and we will
never ever, ever be forsaken by the Father, no matter how
bleak it seems in the moment. Just think about it. Our Lord
said where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'm right
there. I know some have said that's
one of the simplest forms of the New Testament church. I've
got no beef with that, but this means if you and your wife are
at home and you're gathered together at any specific moment in Christ's
name, He's right there in some special way. I don't know how
to describe it. He's right there in your midst. Isn't that marvelous? So the next time you invite one
of these brothers and sisters over, Remember who you ought
to be gathering in whose name. Uh-huh. It's 24-7, 365. Well, we deal
with Jesus at the church building. In all things, he might have
the preeminence. But also, according to the Apostle
Paul, you can look at this sometime, Colossians 3, and it's more than
this, but you see it really stated in verses Excuse me 12 through
17 God the Father suffers no competitor with Christ in our
most public gatherings and let me just read a part of that Colossians
chapter 3 And if you probably get there before I will I want
to read just this one verse Colossians 3 I said one verse, I apologize.
I'll read all the verses I've mentioned to you. Verse 15, and
let the peace of God rule in your hearts to that which also
you're called in one body and be you thankful. Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatsoever. You see that? And whatsoever
ye do in word or in deed, do all in the name, who? Of the
Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God and the
Father by Him. Now turn to Malachi chapter 7. Just a couple books back from
Hagin, Matthew chapter 7. My brothers and sisters, our cry should always be, and I'm glad our God moves us. He'll
stir up our spirits to it. Our cry should be, O Lord of
hosts, when I fall. Don't be telling God if I fall.
He knows that's coming. Oh, God, help us not to be thick
when we're informing God of how, when we tell him, well, if I
fall, Lord, we're not informing the Lord of anything. He knows
our frame and he remembers we're what? D-U-S-T. Aren't you glad He doesn't treat
us like dust, though? Our Christ should be, O Lord
of hosts, when I fall, not if I fall. Protect me from eternal
ruin and preserve me in Christ for His honor and glory. Why? Look at Micah 7. And for the
sake of time, let me just read two of these verses. Verse 8
of Micah 7. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, do you see that? Not if. When. A fall's coming. Probably before
the day's out. I pray God is not too serious.
Even before the day's. But if God's angry with just
Wayne Scott, Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. You see that? I shall arise when
I sit in darkness. Ever felt like you're in darkness?
Lord, show me something. He will. When he's pleased. Continue patience. Be not weary
in well doing. Ye shall reap if you faint not. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord. This is tough. It's like you've
never been so embarrassed. It's like you've got that knot
in your throat. Your stomach just seems to churn. You have
to kind of swallow hard. And yet Micah says, I will bear
the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him. Look. Until he plead my cause. and execute judgment for me. And I have the boldness enough
this morning to say, our brother Micah prayed for it to happen.
To happen? It has. We don't have to pray, Lord,
let it happen. It already has. The master hung
on the tree. He pled our cause there. He executed judgment for me there,
there. Yes, He's making intercession,
but He's not up there saying, no, no, Father, don't hurt Him.
The Father's pleased with who the Son is and what He has accomplished. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my
cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to
the light and I shall behold his righteousness. I wrote this down this morning.
I was sitting at Mark and Regina's kitchen table. The sun hadn't even come up yet.
I thought of this song in line with this right here, Micah,
our brother Micah. Just one, a couple lines in this
song. And said nothing to those two. Said nothing to her. Didn't say
anything to whoever picked out those songs this morning. You
know what came to my mind when I was reading Micah, my brother
Micah? One, Micah, I can relate. I know what you're talking about.
Here's what came to my mind, and I looked it up on my phone
just to make sure I had the words right. Prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it. Don't tell me our God's not in
control of this thing. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Lord, take and
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Do you remember what that one
man said to our Lord Jesus Christ? Pardon me. It was a man that came to our
Lord Jesus Christ. Basically, Christ told him, if you believe,
all things are possible. You know what he said? Lord,
I believe. But he did not say, Lord, help
me deal with my unbelief. Isn't that the way we often think
of it? Lord, I believe, but help me
to deal. No. He said, Lord, I believe. Help thou. You've got to deal
with it. You've got to deal with it. I
can't. My unbelief is a part of me. And I will not shake it
until I awaken his likeness. I cannot. As much as I would
love to, God said, you will not be like me until you get with
me where I am. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Ever been there? And somebody says, but preacher,
I feel like I'm there way too much. No, you're not. No, you're
not. But I fall every day. That's
not too much. If it's every day, that's exactly
what God planned for you. You say, what are you saying,
preacher? I'm saying God's in charge even in our worst moments. He's in charge of us, not just
things. And I'm glad he is. And I know
you are too. Heavenly Father, most holy, righteous
God, thank you for all of your, bless the food we have, the clothing
we have, our houses. Lord, we thank you even for our
wings, God. But oh God, when we begin to esteem those things,
ourselves and our opinions and our will and our way. To esteem
it in any way other than as what it is, dust from dust. Oh God, correct us from our way.
Preserve us in Christ Jesus. May it be that we, by your enablement,
truly seek to worship and to praise our master, our redeemer,
the lover lover of our souls. Help us to praise him in Christ's
name. Amen. Okay.