you're turning your Bibles back
to the book of Ezra. If you don't have your Bibles,
you can use your outline and your pastor's commentary to follow
us along in the message. But we will be in the book of
Ezra. And as our elder, who is one of our senior teachers here,
keenly acknowledged the reading of Haggai, the prophet, if you
were paying attention, corresponds Precisely with the same period
of time that we are dealing with here in the book of Ezra As I
shared with you last week when God called his people out of
Babylon back to the land of Israel He incorporated a number of necessary
ministries in order to get the job done Cause we don't do what
God tells us to do without God stirring us up to do it We just
won't do it of our own accord. We'll think about doing it. We'll
talk about doing it. We'll make plans and schemes,
but we won't put one foot in front of the other until God
starts to stir us up and move things around and get us really
convinced that we better start moving or else. Well, one of
the things I shared with you last week as we go into this
second portion of the message here in the book of Ezra, is
that God, by His Spirit, stirred up His people. He stirred up
His people to return because His people, by nature, were so
enamored with and preoccupied with and, as it were, trapped
by the seduction of Babylon that they could not move, even if
they wanted to move, because they were bound by earthly circumstances. And what God has to do in order
to get us to move from where we are to where he wants us to
be is he has to break up all of those strongholds and all
of those traps that keep you in bondage. And the people of
God in Babylon were, they were an oxymoron. They were called
God's people. They were redeemed by God and
they had a divine purpose, but they couldn't get out of Babylon
without God's help. So God started by raising up
a man named Daniel who began to pray. He began to pray. He
began to intercede. He began to intercede. And he
didn't think he was too small to intercede for two, three million
people. He didn't think that his prayers
were insignificant when it came to breaking up the clutches that
hold our hearts down to this world system. And God heard him
so gloriously. This is seen in the book of Daniel,
chapter 9 and 10, that the angel swiftly ran to Daniel, told Daniel,
before you even started praying, God heard your words. But the
only reason I took this long a time getting to you is because
I had a battle to fight with regards to the Persian king who
would take the throne and be used by God, who had called him
by name 200 years before he was born. And as a consequence of
Daniel's prayer, the people of God began to move their way back
to the land of Palestine. That's the opening verses of
chapter one of the book of Ezra. And it's been two years now we
are in chapter three and it's been two years since they're
called back to Jerusalem to build the house of God. Two years making
their journey 800 miles from up north back to Palestine. Two years And during this time,
there's a lot of mixed feelings going on. Let me see if I can
set a context to help you. You are the people of God. So
you say you are the people of God by calling. You are the people
of God by birth and by heritage and by covenant. But you're in
Babylon and for a long time now, precisely 70 years, 70 years,
you have been divested of every external evidence of your uniqueness
and your peculiarity. For all intents and purposes,
you look just like the Babylonians. And because God had said it in
the book of Jeremiah, get along with the Babylonians, pray for
the Babylonians, work with the Babylonians, and I will bless
you in this 70-year captivity. You start businesses, and you
begin enterprises, and you go to work, and you cut your hair
like the Babylonians, and you wear clothes like the Babylonians,
and you talk like Babylonians. Now all of a sudden, you have
to break with that whole syncretistic program and begin to be the unique,
distinct, separate, holy people of God. Now you begin to understand
the tenuous nature of that separation. Because you see, all of a sudden
now, you are behaving as a unique group of people. Now you are
distinctly separating yourself from the masses of that which
was the dominant Persian world. Now you are more vulnerable than
you were when you were a secret agent man. Remember that? Now
you are much more susceptible to ridicule and persecution and
all kinds of forms of opposition because you stand out. Now imagine
the journey now from up north in Babylon and Persia all the
way back down to Palestine. You guys know the vision. You
guys know the picture. Imagine that journey. Now we're
not riding trains and we're not flying planes. We're on camels
at best, horses perhaps, but most of us are walking all the
way back 800 miles. That's a long way. That's a little
bit more than being up, let's say, Red Bluff somewhere, way
down at the border of San Diego, twice that long. You got a good
little journey, don't you? And as you're making your way
back to Palestine, you've got a lot of thinking to do, because
you guys have been called to a whole new paradigm. You get back in your land, and
all of a sudden, you are aware that you've got a lot of enemies
around you. Things ain't like they used to be. Now you got
a whole rebuilding process of which you have to engage in.
This is the context in which we are dealing with the call
back to Palestine on the part of the people of God. And if
you will, I want you to know some things. In your outline,
we're going to look at point number one. The enemy always
uses two tactics. When God's people are obvious
and conspicuous, in their purpose and in their calling, the enemy
is going to test you. You guys know that, right? Once
you begin to simply walk in your authority and behave like the
children of God that God has called you to be, you are going
to be tested by the enemy. The Bible tells us over in chapter
4 verse 1, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, these
are the only two tribes that came back, when the adversaries
of Benjamin and Judah heard that the children of the captivity
builded the temple of the Lord God of Israel. Notice how the
author describes these people, the adversaries of Judah. Do
you see that? The adversaries of Judah. See,
Judah and Israel were apprehended. Judah and Israel realized that
they weren't in the safe cove of an inconspicuous mode. Now they're wide open and they've
got adversaries. And they are concerned. And these
adversaries are concerned too because they hear that Israel
is doing what God has called them to do, establish the temple. Now there are two tactics the
enemy has always used and will use until Jesus comes with regards
to seeking to thwart God's purpose. Now, you know the Old Testament
church foreshadows the New Testament church. You do know that, right?
You know that the old saints are a picture and paradigm of
the New Testament saints. You know that that old model
represents and anticipates where you and I are today, right? We
are the people of God today. And we have the same calling,
the same purpose in principle that they did in the Old Testament.
God's called us to build his church. Isn't that right? At
least to participate in the building process with him. We are therefore
in the same boat, and so as Paul said in Romans 15, for those
things that were written a fortime were written for what? All right,
let's learn some things then. The enemy uses two tactics and
his goal is always to get you and I to stop building God's
church. See, this world is no friend
of grace. We've already talked about that
over and over. This world will never ultimately tolerate the
kingdom of God in an unmolested way to go forward in the salvation
of sinners and the exaltation of God's glory. So it's a battle
every time you and I are called to stand for the truth. And so
there are two things I want to mark in our text that the enemy
does, two tactics he uses. Please pay careful attention
to these. He did it in the days of Ezra. He did it in the days
of Nehemiah. He did it all throughout the
church age and he's doing it today. We are told in verse 2,
then they came to Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel is the governor.
I'll talk more about the leadership down the line. And to the chief
of the fathers and said unto them, now watch this saying,
let us build with you. Let us build with you for we
seek your God as you do. And we do sacrifice unto him
since the days of Azarhaddon, king of Asher, which brought
us up hither." Stop right there. Who are these people? Well, they
were what we would call originally the Samaritans. The Samaritans
were the group of Gentile heathen brought in during the days of
the Assyrian captivity or bondage of Israel because the 10 northern
tribes had rebelled against God and the Assyrians had brought
in a bunch of Gentiles. During that time, the Bible says
in 2 Kings that men worshiped Jehovah and the idol gods of
the land also. Now folks, do you know that's
impossible to do? You can't worship two gods. But
people do it all the time, so they think. So we have this group
of people who are what we would call, I'll identify them as compromisers. These are religious people who
have a form of godliness, but they really have no conviction
about the truth. See, when you love somebody,
you're going to let everything go for that somebody you love.
You're not going to love this person and love that person,
too. I remember years ago, a relative of mine, I was 17 years old,
16 years old. And you know, a young 16, 17-year-old
man don't know nothing about love. You know that, right? We
think we do, but I had a cousin. I love him to death. Don't get
me wrong. And he's much older than me, like an uncle to me.
And he had these two women, you know? And I just couldn't figure
it out for the world. And I asked him, I said, now,
which one of them you going to be with? He said, well, I love
them both. And I was so perplexed. I said to myself, now, how can
you love two women? You must love one more than you
love the other. And if you love one more than
you love the other, the Bible says you hate the other. That's
what that means. And with God, he will not tolerate
his people loving anyone along with him or with him, period. You ought to love the Lord your
God all by himself. And so these pagans that come
in and they had given a resume that they worship the true and
the living God. But I want you to know in this particular account,
that Zerubbabel discerned that these people weren't qualified
to worship with him. He said, you ain't got nothing
to do with us. You won't worship with us and you won't help us
build God's church. Now, what's the principle there?
Listen very carefully. The first thing that the devil
does whenever he is seeking to destroy God's church is to infiltrate
the church. His goal is to infiltrate the
church through the seduction of syncretism or the ecumenical
movement to bring about a peace as a consequence of compromise.
Did I speak in Greek to you there? The goal of the devil is to enter
into the church through the seduction of an ecumenical peace. See,
we all want peace, don't we? But you see, you can't have peace
with your enemies. And the enemies of God are the
enemies of God's people. Will you please hear what I'm
saying? It's just so. It's just so. I remember David
saying it in the Psalm. This is Psalm 28. He said it
several times. David knew his enemies, didn't he? And David
says this, Lord, they speak peace with their lips, but war is in
their hearts. See, the man or the woman that
does not love the truth and love the God of truth and love the
Bible of truth is your enemy and God's enemy. And if you let
them into the camp, pretty soon they're going to tear down everything
you believe. And while in this particular
account, we are historically at the time of about 536 BC,
536, the call was in 539, it took two years for them to get
into the land and we begin to deal, the people of God are resisting
all attempts on the part of the pagan, the enemies, the adversary,
to enter into the church. They do a good job right now,
but do you know by the time we get to Nehemiah, which is the
next book, the enemy will have successfully entered into the
camp? and would have entered in and permeated the camp such
that they would have reached the upper echelon, the elite
of the people. They would have infiltrated the
priesthood. Tobiah would have married into the priesthood line
and they would have built the house for this wicked ungodly
man right over against the temple. Things change in a 20 year period. Do you know that? Things change
and so the Bible calls you and I to eternal vigilance. We must
discern those with whom we build Because if they aren't serious
about the things of God, I guarantee you there will be a compromise
I remember a man years and years ago Ultimately, I found out that
he didn't know the Lord and didn't love the Lord, but he called
himself a minister, and he was seeking to try to influence me
like a lot of young people are influenced by peers, you know,
pulling rank on you, want to pull you to the side and teach
you something. And we would battle at it in the Scriptures. Something
in my spirit just said, this guy ain't staying on track. And
he didn't like the battle. And I remember one time he pulled
me to the side, didn't say anything to anybody, he just said it to
me. He said, now look here, either I'm going to convert you or you're
going to convert me. That's how hostile he was. In
my mind, because he was older, I didn't check him. In my mind,
I'm saying, you ain't gonna convert me, I guarantee you that. And
then the Bible tells me in the book of Amos, listen carefully
to me, in the book of Amos, around chapter three, verse two, how
can two walk together except they be agreed? Am I making some
sense? There is no fellowship between
the devil and Christ, between Bill and the true and the living
God. You can't eat at the table of devils and at the table of
Christ too. You can't do it. That's why Elijah said, make
a decision. Why halt you between two positions?
Either the Lord, he's God, or Baal is God. And we are dealing
with a real problem in our present generation that way. Theological,
ecclesiastical, philosophical, biblical compromise. That's what
we're dealing with. The enemy always tries to come
in peace, peace. And his goal is to destroy the
gospel. Keep the church, bring the people in bondage, but destroy
the gospel. The Bible calls him the great
deceiver. The great deceiver. From Genesis
3 to Revelation 20, he is called the great deceiver. And his goal
is to deceive the masses. Folks, don't be deceived. Now,
once you are given grace to overcome the temptation to be seduced
by compromising religion, the next thing you see is the real
face of the dragon. See, they start off smiling,
but then when they realize you have principle abiding in you,
then they start being what they really are, dragons. And the
text tells us, since they couldn't get in from the inside, they
started fighting from the outside. Look at verses four and five.
Then the people of the land weakened the hands. Chapter four, verse
four. Then the people of the land weakened
the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in the building.
Do you see that? How? They hire counselors against
them. These are called lawyers. They
hire counselors against them. You know, lawyers can be good
and bad for you. Most of the time, they're bad. But we got
a few good lawyers on hand. I do know that. God will save
a lawyer every now and then. Only thing worse than a lawyer
is a preacher. Then the people of the land weakened
the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in the building
and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose.
Will you watch the tenacity of the devil all the days of Cyrus,
king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia? Do you know how long that was?
That was over 20 years. The devil ain't in a hurry either.
He'll fight you as long as you have breath in your life. That's
why you have to be determined to stand for the truth. And you
need the God of truth to help you stand for the truth. You're
going to be fighting this battle till you breathe your last breath.
So the Bible tells us that the devil is an accuser. That's his
name, Satan, and he is the accuser of the brethren. He's a legalist
and he's a lawyer. Revelation chapter 12, who accuse
God's people day and night, constantly arguing or asserting that they
have no right to be healed. Now we're gonna be talking about
this down the line. I just wanted you to look at the first point
because chapter four will give you the premise for which the
behavior of the people is seen in chapter three. So I wanna
call your attention now to our second point in our outline. Look at your second point, the
high priest. Do you see that? The high priest. Chapter three,
verse eight in our outline. The high priest. The Bible tells
us that when they came back into the land, Ezra's people began
to prepare the worship of God. And these people keenly understood. They keenly understood. I'm sorry,
this is chapter three, verse two. Then stood up Joshua, the
son of Josedek. Did you notice he was called
Joshua in the book of Haggai? Whereas here in the book of Ezra,
he's called Joshua. Joshua and Joshua are the same.
In the Hebrew language, the vowels were added for enunciation and
pronunciation. It's the Hebrew word, Joshua,
and it means Jesus. Joshua, the son of Josedach,
and his brethren, the priest, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
and his brethren, they all builded the altar of the God of Israel. Do you see that? Now, I want
to call your attention to something that I recognize that they learned
when they came back into the land, that they had not learned
when they went into the land the first time. They learned
this time around after almost 700 years from the days of King
Solomon, when King Solomon took the throne in 967 BC, and King
Solomon built the temple, it was done by about 931 BC. No, he died in 931 BC. It was
done in seven years, 960 BC, the temple was established. From
the time that Solomon had established the temple, the people of God,
were already enamored with a whole nother process of government,
and it was called the monarchy. You guys followed me through
the Kings and the Chronicles and Samuel, and you remember
how the people of God begged God to have a king that would
go in and out and fight for them? And God said, I'm your king.
I always meant to be your king. You don't need another king but
me. King Jesus is the king. And yet God gave them over to
their desire. So he raised up Saul and he took
him out in his wrath. And so there were many kings
that followed the line. 21 on the side of Israel, 20
on the side of Judah and Benjamin. And so for all of their monarchical
period, Israel was miserable. Why? Because they were seeking
security after the flesh. They wanted the political security
of a worldly system. They did not believe God. They
could not walk by faith. They couldn't trust that the
true and the living God would take care of two million plus
people in that little region called Israel, 60 square miles. They couldn't believe that God
was in the midst of them, sitting on his own throne in the temple. in the Holy of Holies on the
Ark of the Covenant. I'll be taking you there in a
moment. When God had given Israel its identity in covenant in the
book of Exodus under Moses, he sprinkled them with blood and
hyssop and consecrated them under the covenant. And what God ordained
was a priest. God ordained a priest. He didn't
ordain a king. He meant for a priest to lead
Israel. He meant for a high priest to
lead Israel. And he meant for Israel to be
predominantly known for worship, not warfare, worship, not political
conflict, worship. And the true and the living God
wanted to be their king from that throne in that temple. And
so he raised up the high priest and then he raised up the sons
of Aaron to operate with him. And then he raised up the Levitical
order in order to sustain the ministry of the temple. And what
Israel was to learn? That their ministry was to be
primarily spiritual in nature, not political, not social, not
earthly, heavenly. Heavenly, they were called to
be a priesthood of God for the whole world. The ministry of
the church in the Old Testament is the ministry of the church
in the New Testament. And it's worship and witness. Worship
and witness. Our job is to preach and prophesy
the Word of God and to pray and intercede for lost sinners. That's
all the church is supposed to be doing. But because Israel
shifted into a much more political scenario, it got into the same
trouble that our churches are getting into today. See, once
you get entangled with the cares of this world, you will cease
preaching the gospel. I guarantee you. By the time
the faith-based initiative program enter into your church, all you'll
be doing is putting band-aid on wounds that can't be healed
without the grace of God. And the enemy will have done
exactly what we said before, the five deeds of the devil The
five Ds of the devil is to distract you, to distort your understanding,
to delude your mind, to deceive you, and ultimately to destroy
you. Isn't that right? Distraction is his main methodology.
You're working, but you're not working for the glory of God.
You're working for the government. And so these things happen. These
things happen. And Israel had learned their
lesson. As they're making their way back home, you know what
they said? I guarantee you we won't get caught up in the monarchy
again. Guarantee you that won't happen. We learned our lesson
after 75 years. So God called Joshua the son
of Josedach Joshua was a glorious glorious type of the Lord Jesus,
isn't he? It's a wonderful account given to us in the book of Zechariah
now the prophets that ministered in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah
were the prophet Haggai and Zachariah and Habakkuk and Malachi these
men were preaching all during this time They were preaching
and exhorting the people of God to return. Last week, I closed
the message out, didn't I? In the first chapter of Haggai,
where the Lord had to chastise his people a little bit, where
he told them, now look, you guys have built your houses, and you
got your three-story houses, and you got your swimming pools,
and you got all of your gadgets and all of that stuff, you got
your sealed panel windows, and you got your air-conditioned
homes and your fans and everything. That's cool. Y'all can have all
that. That's what he said. But what about my house? Remember
that? That's chapter one. What about
my house? What about my house? So the Lord
chastens and then he comforts because chapter two is what you
heard today. Chapter two was God giving them
a perspective on his work, which we'll deal with when we get to
our last point. but the people of Israel were called and exhorted
to come on back and to build. And Joshua the high priest is
the point man now. So what does Joshua the high
priest do right along with the governor? As soon as they come
back into the land, they began to establish an altar to worship
the true and the living God. There is no temple, there's no
building, nothing but an empty lot. The first thing they established
is the burnt offering altar, the brazen altar for burning
sacrifices. Look at what it says over in
verse 3. And they set... I'm going to start at verse 2,
I'm sorry. No, verse 3, yeah. And they set the altar upon his
basin. Do you guys see that? Can I help
you with that? The author is saying to us that
when they went back, Joshua the high priest along with the other
priests look through the blueprints. See there's a blueprint for building
God's church You don't get to build God's church any kind of
way you want to did you know that? See, Paul was told that
he was a chief architect. He was a wise master builder.
He was just like Moses. Haven't we learned that? God
took Moses up to the mount and showed him the temple blueprints.
And he told Moses, see to it that when you build my temple,
you build it according to the revelation I showed you in the
mount. And when Paul was building the New Testament church as the
one who was primarily establishing the Gentile churches, he says,
look, God made me a wise master builder. I'm the one that went
to the third heaven. I saw this thing. Be careful
about how you deal. God's changed. And so Joshua
went and looked back through the books, and he found that
in a certain place in the ground format of the temple was the
place where you set the brazen altar. I told you guys how this
goes. When the worshiper comes to the
temple, the two-leaf doors are open, and he comes in, and the
first thing he sees to his left is the altar. for burning sacrifices,
because he has been taught that he is coming to God as a sinner. And when you come to God as a
sinner, you must come with blood. God will not hear us. without
the blood. God will not commune with us
without his son. God will not hear us without
a sacrifice. The first thing you do is you
bring the lamb. You can't worship God without
the lamb. The worshiper in the Old Testament
understood this. And so the high priest is saying,
look, fellas, if we expect for God to bless us in this enterprise,
we better start right with God. We better get this thing right
with God. Don't bring your good words.
Don't bring your resume. Don't bring your arrogance. Don't
bring your pride. Don't bring your self-righteousness.
Don't talk about what you used to do. Don't talk about what
your mama did or your daddy did. Come like God says come. Naked,
hell-bound, desperate, needy sinners coming with the blood
of the Lamb. That's the only way you can come.
You know what I was thinking, Rick, when you were, when we
were singing, uh, Only a sinner saved by grace. I'm sitting there
as we're singing that song, I'm saying, of these folk really
believe that song? Because the hymn writer is saying,
only a sinner saved by grace. How'd you get here? I'm just
a sinner. Saved by grace. Well, why do you think you should
be here? I'm just a sinner. Saved by grace. Well, you got anything
else to say? I'm just a sinner. Saved by grace. To God be the glory. I'll tell
you the story. Just a sinner saved by grace. See, you get all that self-righteousness
stripped down before you get into God's glory. All he wants
to see when you get there is only a sinner saved by grace. And this is what Joshua is saying
to the people. Now, you better come right. You
better come right. So let's start this thing off
right by declaring the truth of the crucified Christ, which
is our hope for communion with God. Let's declare the truth. And so the text tells us this,
I want you to see it, look at it now. The text tells us in
verse three, and they set the altar upon the basin for fear
was upon them because of the people of those countries. And
they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt
offerings morning and evening, just like Moses told them to
do. You know what? I learned this and you have too.
Experience is really a good teacher. It took them all this many years
to realize, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be
happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. So now all of a sudden
they're burning sacrifices in the morning, and they're burning
sacrifices in the evening, just like they were told to do. Do
you know why they did that? Because God allowed them to feel
the imminent danger of surrounding enemies. God has always meant
for it to be just that way so that you do not depend upon yourself. So that you are earnestly trusting
the true and the living God to maintain you and to maintain
his witness through you. So you are walking in fear and
trembling and you are trusting God continually and you're offering
the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and beseeching God
to do through you what only God can do through you. And that's
what they're doing. They're offering the sacrifice.
The sacrifice teaches several things. First of all, I'm a sinner.
The Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Is that what the Bible says?
I'm a sinner prior to salvation. I'm a sinner after salvation.
The only time I'll stop sinning is when I get to glory. And between
my salvation and glory, I need the blood to flow continually.
You do too. So the second doctrine that's
latent in the offering of the sacrifice is the essential nature
of the blood flowing because when I see the blood, God says,
I will pass over you. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. Every blood-bought child of God
knows It's necessary for God to see the blood. Isn't that
right? We talked about this on Friday. We talked about this
on Saturday. The necessity of applying our seeking application
of the significance of the blood in our relationship with God.
What that means is we're not visibly looking at blood. We're
talking about the doctrine. of the blood. We're talking about
the doctrine of the death, burial, and resurrection of the God-man
Jesus Christ, who hung on Calvary Street as a substitute for his
people, who when the centurion pierced his side, out came what? Water and blood. Water and blood. The blood is necessary to wash
away our sin, to take away our sin, to sanctify us, and to perfect
us. The Bible tells us in Hebrews
chapter 9, He, by himself, through the Spirit, offered himself up
to God, purged our conscience by his blood. From dead works
that we might serve the true and the living God. And in chapter
10, he made it very plain, by one sacrifice has he forever,
by one sacrifice has he forever, has he forever perfected those
that are sanctified. One sacrifice. That blood's something,
isn't it? And so, the high priest understood that the blood must
flow. He understood. And in this age, let me help
you, in this age, forget this term, pleading the blood. Please!
Pleading the blood must mean for you understanding who God
is, who Christ is, what he did, why he did it, what it affected,
and who he did it for, and where he is now. To plead the blood
is nothing but a pagan mantra if you don't understand the significance
of the blood. Am I making some sense? And we
got to get away from paganism in this 21st century. You better
understand that the blood is the blood of the God-man that
God required as a propitiation. That is satisfaction of divine
justice against your sin so that once Christ actually shed His
blood on Calvary Street, He justified us from all things from which
the law could never justify us. And then by virtue of His death,
He closed us with His righteousness. He clothed us with his righteousness
so that we are forever accepted in the beloved. That's what we
mean by the blood. We're not pagans, and we're not
bloodthirsty, but we understand the doctrine of the blood, don't
we? See, it's a doctrine. It's not a pagan sacrifice. So
understand what you're saying, saints. God's not impressed with
mantras. He wants us to do all things
with an understanding. Isn't that what the Bible says?
And so what these things that are taking place in the Old Testament
do is foreshadow greater realities in the spiritual realm. They
foreshadow the perfections of Christ. The high priest said,
I'm not going to mess up this time. Joshua was something else,
wasn't he? You remember Joshua? The devil
tried to knock him out the box. Zechariah chapter three, you
don't have to go there. Chapter four, Joshua was standing before
the Lord and the devil comes alongside of him to resist him.
Isn't that what the Bible says? And the Lord said to the devil,
because Joshua couldn't say a thing. See, when you're a sinner, there's
nothing for you to say. If you open your mouth, you'll condemn
yourself. Job was the one who said, if I speak, my own words
will condemn me. See, when you really know that
you are a sinner, down to the core of your bone, the best thing
for you to do is keep your mouth shut. and accept the advocacy of God
Almighty in your behalf. See, we have an advocate, Jesus
Christ the righteous, isn't that right? Who stands with us and
stands for God. When he stands for God and with
us, that means your case can never be lost. Isn't that right?
Joshua standing there in filthy garments, the devil saying, look
at him. And God says, this is one that
I plucked out of the fire. He's mine. He's mine. And the commandment was given
to wash Joshua and to change his garment and to clothe him
and to make him an acceptable high priest. That vision was
given to Israel to bring comfort to Israel that the high priest
that they had now was accepted with God. Now they can go to
work because that high priest pointed to the greater high priest.
Who are we talking about? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Glorious language is the message
in itself in Zechariah chapter 4, but I just want you to understand
this this Joshua Knows precisely what he's doing because he's
not an arrogant high priest. He's not an arrogant high priest
assuming upon his heritage He's a sinner saved by the grace of
God standing in the gap of the people now Let's bring it to
another doctrine very important doctrine the high priest Stood
as the representative of the whole nation The high priest
stood as the representative of the whole nation. What that means
is, if the high priest is not accepted by God, the people are
not accepted by God. Are you guys hearing me? If the
high priest was in a bad way with God, the people were in
a bad way with God. We call this the doctrine of
representation. The doctrine of representation
means one man represents the whole. As Jesus represents all
his people, so Joshua is representing these Old Testament saints. It's
for this reason that in Joshua chapter 3, verse 1, we read these
words. This is glorious. Look at chapter
3, verse 1. And when the seventh month was
come, and the children of Israel were in the city, do you see
that? The people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. What are you talking about, preacher?
One man. That's what I'm talking about.
By one man, sin entered into the world, right? And the Bible
says, by one man, sin went out the world, right? See, you are
either in one man or the other man. And God judges the whole
world based upon one man. Either in Christ or in Adam.
If we're in Christ, we're accepted. If we're in Adam, we're damned.
Isn't that Romans chapter 5? One man. And this is talking
about the doctrine of unity between God and his people. Did you know
David knew this? I love David because David was
a great, great type of Christ too, but he loved worship. And
one of the things David did in writing the Psalms was lay out
a lot of gospel truth. You guys know Psalm 133 verses
1 through 3? How good and pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in what? Unity! And then he began to describe
the high priest and how the anointing oil started at the crown of his
head, and went all the way down to his feet. And David watched
as the high priest was anointed. And when the oil reached his
feet, David says, there, right there in the high priest are
the blessings of God forever for all of God's people. Why?
Because what David saw was the whole of all of God's people
were blessed in that high priest. And will you hear me, saints?
Our unity is not in one another, it's in Christ. Our unity is
in our high priest. Our oneness is in our high priest.
To have communion with the Father, you must be in union with the
Son. Am I making some sense? To have communion with the Father,
you must be in union with the Son by the Holy Ghost. This is
what the scriptures are teaching concerning Christ's adamant prayer
to his Father. Father, I'm coming back home.
And I will that those whom you have given me be with me. Where?
Where I am. that they may be one with us. Christ is the great high priest
of his people. And he petitioned his father that we who are his
people, those of us who are called and chosen and redeemed and saved
might be one. Our oneness is in Christ. We
got a whole lot of problems among ourselves, believe me. But our
unity is in Christ. If you're in Christ and I'm in
Christ, we're one. Am I making sense here? And as
soon as you and I step out of Christ, we can't ever be one.
They're one through their high priest. This is glorious. Third
point, I want you to see this. This is going to hurt somebody,
but this is necessary. Third point, an altar. He built that
altar on the basin upon which it was supposed to be built.
We learn that the altar is the place of sacrifice, the shedding
of blood, the satisfaction of sin, and the proper right for
confessing our sin that God may forgive us. In the Old Testament,
there was a physical altar. That physical altar was in the
temple. But in the New Testament, there is no physical altar. Nowhere in the New Testament,
nowhere, nowhere did any of God's servants build physical altars
for men and women to physically walk down and bow down at that
altar. Nowhere. Nowhere, the last time
you hear about altars, physical altars, is in the book of Acts,
Acts chapter 17, and they were pagan altars. There was one altar
dedicated to the unknown God, which represents most of the
ignorance of Christianity in this present generation. But
the church was never called to build altars. Will you please
hear me? The church was never called to build physical altars.
See, the danger in our generation is that we are seeking to reduplicate
the Old Testament system and get caught up in Old Testament
works, religion, and works models. I said this on Saturday night
to our men. I'll say it to you now. Be very
aware, be very cautious of any ministry, any institution, any
church, that gets caught up in ceremonies, gets caught up in
religious observances, in externalities, in all of the paraphernalia of
worship, gets caught up in robes and relics and candles and smoke
and images and idols. The more we're caught up in the
external things, the more we have lost sight of the eternal
thing, the more we get caught up in all of these external forms
and modes of worship, I'm convinced we have lost sight of the glory
of God. I'm convinced that we are caught
up in nothing but pagan, empty religion. We have a form of godliness,
but deny the power thereof. The questions often ask me, pastor,
why don't you give an altar call? Because Christ didn't, and because
the disciples didn't. Why don't you give an altar call?
Because our altar is not down here. Our altar is in glory.
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 10. Hebrews 13, 10. As the writer
to the Hebrews is trying to explain to the Hebrew Christian Please,
he said, please do not return to that temple. Please, you have
seen the end of everything that the temple signifies in the person
and work of Jesus. To return from Jesus to the temple
is to leave the greater for the lesser, is to leave the perfect
for the imperfect, is to leave the eternal for the temporal,
is to leave that which saves to embrace that which damns.
Because the temple only spoke of imperfection. It always called
for continual sacrifices, continual washings, continual observances,
because it was signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet manifest. When Jesus came, he put an end
to all of those things by one sacrifice of himself. And I'm
here to tell you, if you really want to know it, write it down.
What is God's altar? What is God's altar? God's altar
It's Calvary's tree and God's sacrifice is Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God. And God has offered one sacrifice,
one time for the sins of all of his people forever. And if
you want to go to an altar today, go to the altar of God by faith,
right where you are in your heart right now. God will accept you
there. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
It is for this reason so many people are ignorant and assuming
that they're right with God when they've walked 40 feet up to
an altar, when the journey by which you and I are saved is
an eternal journey from damnation to everlasting life, by faith,
through the Spirit, to God himself, by Jesus Christ on Calvary's
tree. Am I making some sense? See, we are in trouble in this
age because we are drifting back to the weak and beggarly elements
of the world in this present generation. This is what Jesus
meant in John chapter 4 when he said to the woman at the well,
you guys worship, folks, worship your God in the mountain. The
Jews worshiped God in Jerusalem. The hour is coming and now is
when the true worshipers will worship God neither in Jerusalem
nor in the mountain. But you see, most evangelical
Christians don't believe what I just said. Most evangelical
Christians are still pagans. You still get the wound of the,
take a trip to Israel. Let's go to the Holy Land. Walk
the streets that Jesus walked in. Walk the shores of Galilee. Your life will be changed forever. Ask if a physical journey to
a literal piece of real estate can change your heart. is nothing
but idolatry. See, this here is the salesmanship
of religion in this world, this religious world we live in. Particularly,
I told you, Americans can sell water. They can sell oxygen.
That's what I'm saying. They can sell oxygen. Put it
in a designer bottle and sell it to you. Oxygen-free everywhere,
and they're going to sell you a bottle of oxygen. And they
sell religion to people that are ignorant of the glory of
God. My elder was ready to jump into the preaching when he read
Haggai chapter 2. I knew it. Because the prophet said, we're
going to get to our next point here and begin to wrap this up.
The prophet said, listen, are you despising the day of small
things? Is your perception all twisted? Is your mind all whacked
out? Did you miss the point? Let's
go on. Let's develop that. I want you
to see this. The altar was laid down because it was critical
to God's accepting them, for God's protection of the people
of God, for God's sustaining the people of God. It is the
first point in the worship of God, and that is the altar, which
represents Christ and Him crucified. Never forget that. There's no
altar in your heart. There's no altar in the front
of the pulpit. There's no altar of God anywhere but in Christ,
in glory, in heaven right now. In fact, the last time you read
of altars in the Bible is in the book of the Revelation. In
the book of the Revelation, we are dealing with symbolism. The
temple, the Ark of the Covenant, we're dealing with the incense,
and we're dealing with altars. All of them point to one man,
Jesus Christ. That's why in Revelation chapter
22, we are told when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven,
having the glory of God, and the New Jerusalem is who? You
and me. It's not a physical place. is
men and women chosen of God from every nation, kindred, tribe
and tongue called the New Jerusalem. Am I making some sense? Having
the glory of God. And the Bible says in that day
there will be no temple. In that day there will be no
altar. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is our temple. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our altar. And that's why he said in John's
Gospel chapter 2, destroy this temple and I'll raise it up.
Where? In three days. He wasn't talking about a physical
temple. He was talking about the temple of himself. And then
just to help some of you, you and I are the temple of the Lord.
Paul says in Hebrews, or the writer of the Hebrews says in
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 10, we have an altar where of those
folks who worship the tabernacle have no right to eat. People
who are caught up in carnal religion, they can't eat at God's tabernacle.
They can't eat at God's altar. God's altar is for God's people
and God's people alone. Am I making some sense? All right,
let's go on to our next point. The foundation. The foundation. I like this. Look with me at
verse 10 and 11. The text tells us in the seventh month they
began to worship and call upon God. They did that because the
seventh month was the time of what we call the Feast of Trumpets
and the Feast of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. That
was the most ominous and most serious observance of the children
of Israel throughout their years. The Day of Atonement was the
day where God might or might not accept them. That was the
seventh month. We are told that in the second
month of the second year, they laid the foundation of the temple.
Why did they lay it in the second month of the second year? It's
because they went all the way back to the building of the Temple
of Solomon and realized that Solomon began to build the temple
in the second month too. See, they had learned their lesson.
They now want to be obedient to God. So in the second month
of the second year, they lay the foundation. I want you to
see what happens. This is quite interesting. We are told over in verse 8,
now in the second year of their coming into the house of God
at Jerusalem, in the second month began Zerubbabel, the son of
Sheltiel, and Joshua, the son of Joseph, and the remnant of
their brethren, the priests and the Levites, and all they that
were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, appointed the
Levites for 20 years old and upward to see the work of the
Lord of the house then stood Joshua with his sons and his
brethren and his sons and his sons of Judah together to set
forth the work the workmen in the house of God the sons of
Hinnom with the sons of their brethren the Levites and when
the builders verse 10 laid the foundation of the temple of the
Lord they set the priest in their apparel with trumpets and the
Levites, the sons of Asa, with cymbals to praise the Lord after
the ordinances of David, the king of Israel. And they sang
together by chorus in praising, giving thanks unto the Lord,
because he is good. His mercy endures forever to
Israel. And all the people shouted with
a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation
of the house of the Lord was laid. Point number one. That
foundation that they laid back then pointed to the foundation
that God laid 2,000 years ago at Calvary Street. That foundation
that they laid back then was a stone. It's called the cornerstone. It's the first stone that's laid
in the building of the foundation in order to build the house.
Am I making some sense? That stone and every cornerstone
points to the one cornerstone, Jesus Christ the Lord. The Bible
tells us in the book of Psalms 118, the stone which the builders
rejected. Who are the builders? The leaders
of the church. The Jews, the Pharisees, the
scribes, the high priests, they were the builders. The stone
which the builders rejected, the same has become the head
of the church. That stone is Christ. That's
the same stone that Paul is talking about in the book of Corinthians
when he says, I have laid the foundation. If any man build
upon that foundation, he better be careful because there's no
other foundation that can be laid than that which is laid,
which is Christ Jesus. He's the foundation. Are you
hearing me right now? He's the foundation. Christ is
the foundation of the church. Christ is the message of the
church. Christ is the doctrine of the church. And brother Rick,
Christ is the glory of the church. You will see a glory, God said
in the book of Haggai, that is greater than the glory of the
former house. Isn't that what he said? The
glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of
the former house. The glory of the latter house
will be greater than the glory of the former house. And how
many times have you heard preached or intimated that that glory
has to do with some type of mystical in-gathering of all kinds of
people and the pouring out of the Spirit of God and all? The
glory of the latter house is Christ. Christ is the glory of
God. Christ is the glory of God. John said in John chapter 1 verse
14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory. The glory of the church is Christ. The glory of Christ is the church.
The glory of the church is Christ himself. How much more glorious
can any church be that has God in his midst? How much more glorious
can any believer be than to have the death, burial, and resurrection
of the God-man Jesus Christ in his heart? The Bible tells us
that the Gentiles have a mystery that is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. The glory of the church, therefore,
is not what we do to get sinners saved and all the movements and
all the activities. The glory of the church is what
God does in sanctifying the church with his own presence. Now, this
is what Jesus meant in John 17 when he said, Father, I want
to be where you are. I want you to bring me back into
your presence so I can enjoy and bask in that glory that I
had with you before the world began. I don't know what that's
like, but I'm here to tell you the Son of God was in a state
of glory before he came down here that was so wonderful, that
was so magnanimous, that he wanted to get back to it. You know,
when you've been gone away from home a long time, you do want
to get back. The trip was cool and all that,
and you enjoyed a lot of things about it, but you're ready to
go back. And the Son of God, the Son of
God, said, Father, I want to experience that glory that I
voluntarily divested myself of. It's time. My work is done. I
told you ain't nobody finished nothing but Jesus. His work was
done and he's ready to go back. But this is what's remarkable
about that request. And that's a selfish request.
But you know, our Lord, he has a right to be selfish. He did
all things well, didn't he? Father, I'm ready to go back
and be with you in that pristine effulgence of nothing but ineffable
bless. I don't know what that means.
It's just good theological terminology. I have no idea what that means,
but I've tasted the glory. I've tasted it. And then my high
priest said this, I want to go back and be there. And I want
everyone that you gave to me to be there too. I'm convinced
of this. If God has revealed his glory
to you in Christ, it's enough. It fills you up and it keeps
you going. And all you want, like my sister
Lillian, who just passed away a couple of weeks, is more, more,
more, more. Am I making some sense? More.
Christ is the glory of God and Christ is the glory of every
one of God's elect. Christ is our glory. Isn't that
right? They laid that foundation stone, but then something remarkable
takes place. Listen to this. We're wrapping
this up. Listen to it. I'm over in verse 11, verse 12. But many
of the priests and the Levites and the chief of the fathers
who were ancient men that had seen the first house when the
foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, they
wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy so that
the people could not discern the noise of the shout from the
noise of the weeping of the people because they shouted with a loud
shout and the noise was heard afar off. What a cacophony. A
bunch of old people crying and a bunch of young people rejoicing.
What do we have going on here? What do we have going on here?
I'm going to tell you, there's a lesson here. And to really
understand this lesson, you got to go back to Haggai 2. I don't
want you to go there. The prophet already told us.
Now, this also gives you some insight into God. Does God care
about us? Does he care? He cares. God told his servant
to go tell the people who were weeping and the people who were
shouting that there should be no conflict between you two.
The problem is that future had ran into history. Do you hear
me? The problem is that those folks
who remembered the past was stuck and occupied in the same space
that those folks who were set on the future. And when you got
one person looking that way, and you got another person looking
that way, and they're trying to have a conversation, it gets
all convoluted. See, what we had was a group
of people who were the old saints, who had remembered the Temple
of Solomon, and they knew that in order to build Solomon's Temple,
that foundation had to be massive. And what they did was they weighed
out the foundation of this second temple compared to the foundation
of the first temple. And they said, man, we're about
to get us an 800 square foot condo compared to what Solomon
built. Are you hearing me? They made
a great mistake. The old people made a great mistake.
You know what they did? They tried to judge what God
was doing based on the things seen. and based on past experience. The old folks tried to judge
what God was doing now based on the things seen, not the things
unseen, and based on the things that used to be. See, when we
get too old, we always go, the former days, the former days,
the former days are way better than these. Ain't that how we
do it? Oh man, I can remember the old
days. Woo, we used to get down in the old days. But do you know what Solomon
said? It's not wise to do that, because when you do that, you
stop seeing the God who looks way out into eternity. See, this
is what the writer to the Corinthians said. We look not on the things
seen, but on the things unseen. Because the things seen are temporal,
but the things that are unseen, they are eternal. The young people
had no reference point. They were born and raised in
Babylon. They were saved by God. Remember now, only a sinner saved
by grace, delivered out of Babylon, happy, happy to be in the work
of the Lord, happy to be laying that foundation. These are the
new young priests, happy, happy, happy, rejoicing in Christ, woo-hoo,
shouting, thanking God for using them in this hour. They're not
caught up in the past. They're living in the moment.
And you know young people like we are, us young people, You
know how we are as young people. We're always forward bound. We're
pressing toward the mark of the high calling in God. We're leaving
those things behind. We're forgetting those things
behind and pressing forward. Isn't that right? That's how
us young people do it. And there is a time when young
people should listen to old people, such as in the days when Solomon
divided the temple. And Rehoboam had one portion,
and Jeroboam had the other portion. And they were asking Rehoboam,
what should you do? And he sought the counsel of
the old people. He should have listened. I'm never saying that
the old people's counsel is bad. What I'm saying is the old people's
counsel is not always the counsel. There's another truth laid here
that I'm going to close with. That smaller foundation stone
that laid the temple in the year 537 BC was by design because
God was gradually teaching his people from the days of Solomon
to the coming of Jesus that external things must wax old and fade
away. So what he used was the law of
diminishing, the principle of we must decrease in order for
him to increase. And so what God was doing was
minimizing the effect of a large, gorgeous edifice on the part
of Israel so that they could get caught up in the flesh again.
Unfortunately, Brother Rick, they did. He referenced it, even
the disciples. Lord, look at all these buildings
here. The Lord says, take a good look,
because this is the last time you're going to see it. Isn't
that what he said? Take a good look. Because the
last time you're going to see it, 30 years from now, a big
old truck coming down and mow this thing down. Why? Because
the small stone that was laid in AD 33 was a stone despised
by everybody. He was despised and rejected
of men. He was a stone that all the leaders
rejected. No one could see the kingdom
of God being built on him. The Bible says that the kingdom
of God is like a mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds in
the Middle East. But don't look at the size of
the seed, you better consider the principle and potency of
what's inside that seed. It shall become one of the greatest
trees in the land, what Jesus said. And this is the point with
the gospel. The gospel can never be judged
on the criteria of what you see with your eyes or what you even
sense with your flesh. You must understand the gospel
according to the word of God and according to the person and
work of Jesus. That's how we assess the truth.
And God inadvertently let those young people rejoice in what
that stone represented, and that's Christ and Him crucified. See,
today we don't have a physical temple. God can't be contained
in physical temples, but he can dwell in the hearts of redeemed
sinners. He can dwell in the hearts of needy sinners. He can
dwell in the heart of anyone who needs a savior, even right
now. Am I making some sense? And once
we understand that, we will never ever stumble at how God can be
glorified in the life of God's people anywhere on planet Earth.
He does it by his spirit, and he does it by his truth. Amen. All right, now let's finish and
sing our last hymn as we prepare to take the large table.