Since the sin and fall of our
father Adam, all men hate God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Our sons and daughters, like
us, came forth from the womb speaking lies with the fist shoved
in God's face and would kill him at any moment if they could. That's just fact. That's just
fact. No man knows God. No man seeks after God. No man wants to know God. I recall
some years ago, a good many years ago now, When I was still in
high school, I was attending the Bible conference at the Bible
College in town where Shelby was attending in Winston-Salem. And they had a missionary to
speak one day. And he was talking about Ethiopia,
stretching out his hands to God, and talking about people starving
for the knowledge of God and anxious to know about the Lord
Jesus. And I thought to myself then,
If this is all you've got to say, you ought to stay home.
No man seeketh after God. No man. Every sinner's heart
is enmity against him. Yet, in our text this evening,
the Lord Jesus is called the desire of all nations. How can that be? How can the
Son of God both be hated by all and desired by all? Turn with
me to Haggai chapter 2 and let me show you from the Word of
God. Haggai chapter 2. The prophet Haggai was encouraging
Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the children of Israel to go forward in the
work of building the temple. to go forward reestablishing
the worship of God, reestablishing the city of God and the house
of God. Yet, all are agreed that the
words that he speaks here in chapter 2 were prophetic, pointing
to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now some say that Haggai
spoke of the Lord's incarnation and his first coming in humiliation
to accomplish our redemption and salvation. Others say that
Haggai is speaking prophetically of our Lord's coming again at
the second time at the end of all time. And others say that
Haggai is talking about our Lord's spiritual coming. His coming
to his people in grace and mercy performing salvation. And I say
that's right. It's a mistake to limit Haggai's
words to one aspect of our Lord's coming. His coming in the scriptures
is spoken of as one thing. Often, when you read the scriptures,
especially the prophets speaking of our Lord's coming, it's impossible
to say specifically whether this is talking about His first advent
or His second advent. And that's on purpose. Because
our Lord's coming is one. And He comes as our Redeemer
to accomplish salvation for us, both in the sacrifice of Himself
and in His glorious rule at the Father's right hand, ruling all
things with power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given Him. And in the end, when He comes
again, He will deliver up the kingdom unto the Father, that
God may be all and in all. Haggai's words are best understood
then and most properly understood when we apply them to the coming
of Christ in his first advent, in his second advent, and in
his saving power and grace. Let's look specifically at verses
6 and 7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
God who commands all the hosts of heaven and earth, yet once
in a little while. It won't be long now. The promise
I made to Eve in the garden I'm gonna fulfill. The word I gave
to Abraham when I called him and Abraham believed God shall
come to pass. Yet once in a little while and
I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the
dry land. What a picture. heaven, earth, the sea, the dry
land. God says, I will take it in my
hand and shake it, shake it. The trees abounding with fruit,
men take them in a piece of machinery and shake the fruit from the
trees. God says, I will take my creation
in my hands and shake my fruit. from this earth that I have made. And I will shake all nations,
and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this
house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." Twice the prophet
tells us that Christ's coming is preceded by a great shaking,
a shaking of heaven, earth, and sea. a shaking of all things
natural. I take that to mean that nothing
is ever the same after Christ comes. Nothing is ever the same
after Christ appears. Everything is forever changed
by the appearance of the great God and our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. First, the prophet speaks of
a great shaking. And he speaks in such a way as
to make it clear that this shaking always attends Christ's coming. It's not occasionally that it
does, it always does. As Christ comes, as surely as
He comes, wherever He comes, in whatever way He comes, He
precedes His coming with a great shaking of all things natural. Whenever He comes, He is preceded
by the shaking. The shaking prepares a way before
Him and is prophetic, telling us that the Son of God is at
hand. Our Lord Jesus appeared at Mount
Sinai, and when He did, when God appeared to Moses, heaven
and earth shook before Him. Turn to Psalm 68. Psalm 68. You remember in Exodus 19 when
God called Moses up to the mount, the third day in the morning
there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mount,
the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people in
the camp of Israel trembled. The Lord spoke to Moses and spoke
louder and louder as a trumpet sounding, and God shook the earth. Here in Psalm 68, verse 7, the
psalmist sings, O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people,
when thou didst march through the wilderness, now remember this, stop and think
about this. God went forth before his people
and it was God, our Savior, marching through the wilderness. The earth
shook. The heavens also dropped at the
presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. When our Lord Jesus
appeared on the earth, turn to Joel chapter 2, Joel 2. When
the Son of God came, there was a shaking of things in heaven
and things in the earth. We can look at many passages,
but this is what Joel speaks, and Peter tells us that this
is what Joel was talking about when the day of Pentecost was
fully come. Joel chapter 2, verse 30. And I will show wonders in
the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of
smoke. Judgment everywhere. Confusion
everywhere. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood. That which once gave light will
be darkness to people. That which was an emblem of peace
and fruitfulness will be an emblem of judgment and damnation. Before
the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come. And when
Peter saw the Spirit of God descending, As the result of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus, having been crucified and ascending up to glory, taking
his seat on the right hand of the majesty on high, he said
this is what Joel was talking about. He's talking about this
coming of our Lord Jesus right here. And clearly when our Lord
Jesus comes in the second advent, Peter tells us the day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens
will pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. So, the coming of our Lord Jesus
is always preceded by, and foretold by, or given clear definition
by, a great shaking that takes place. The removing of those
things that are shaken. Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter
12. that those things that cannot be shaken may remain. He comes
and takes away the first, that He may establish the second.
He shakes what may be shaken, and destroys what may be destroyed,
so that those things that cannot be shaken, and those things that
cannot be destroyed, will remain and stand clearly. In other words,
when Christ steps in, something is always removed. Every divine
interposition is the complete abrogation of that which Christ
replaces. That's worth remembering. Every
divine interposition is the complete abrogation of that which Christ
replaces. Let me show you what I mean.
Our Lord Jesus came here to fulfill the old covenant of law and bring
in a new covenant. When he did, he took away the
old and established the second. When he came to fulfill the law,
the law was finished and he put it away. It didn't say he destroyed
it. He put it away so that we are
no longer under the law. When it came to be made sin,
sin was taken away. He is the end of the law and
he is the end of the transgression. When the Lord Jesus came to die,
death was taken away by His death. When He was made a curse for
us, the curse was removed by His being made a curse for us. Particularly, when the Son of
God comes in saving grace, when He comes into the hearts of poor
sinners, oh, what a shaking He makes. He lays judgment to the
line. and righteousness to the plummet,
and he destroys the refuge of lies in which the sinner has
hidden himself and seeks refuge from God. He destroys his covenant
with death and his covenant with hell by which he gives himself
a false peace and cries, peace, peace, when there is no peace.
He strips that He may clothe. He abases that He may lift. He
slays that He may make alive. He disturbs everything that He
may give peace everywhere. He condemns in order to justify. He defiles that He may cleanse
and sanctify. First, the Lord declares that
He will shake the nations. And when He shakes the nations,
He says, the desire of all nations shall come. This is, as we've
seen, a prophecy of the coming of our Lord Jesus. How can it
be said that he is the desire of all nations when we know,
because the scriptures declare, that none desire him, except
he create a desire in people for himself. It's not that the
nations of the world desire Christ. but rather they desire that,
and all men do, no exceptions, which can be found only in Christ. Not that men desire Christ Himself
personally, but they desire that which can be found only in Christ,
that which Christ alone brings and gives by His grace. Christ
is the desire of all men, though none know it until He's revealed
in them. revealed in them in the sense
that he alone can fulfill that which their souls crave. And
let me show you this with seven simple facts. Here are seven
things all men desire. All men. Read the history of
the world written by anyone. Read any part of human history.
at any part of the world, the most remote barbaric tribes in
the world, in the most ancient of times, right down to modern
time. And you will discover that all
men everywhere crave these seven things. They crave them. They want them desperately. Whether they will acknowledge
it or refuse to acknowledge it, all men desperately crave them. and they're found only in Christ.
Number one, a visible God. I heard the last, just caught
your eye, you're with me in Mexico, you remember the visible gods
in those ruins? Scratched out everywhere, those
Mayans in those ancient pyramids they built down there where they
sacrificed their virgin daughters and sacrificed the people they
conquered under their gods. Do you know they had, many of
them, in many places, had exactly the same images people have in
their churches now? Is that right? Exactly the same
images. Because men everywhere want a
visible God. A God you can see. A God you
can touch. A God you can handle. Like a
rabbit's foot. A God that's impressive to look
at. They want a God that can be seen and so they make physical
representations of God and have done so throughout history. Christ
is the visible God. I didn't say a visible God. He
is the visible God. He's God that can be seen. He was seen with physical eyes,
touched with hands, just like I'm touching this desk, handled,
looked upon, communicated with, spoken to. He is God manifest
in the flesh. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. The Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us, John said,
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Turn to 1 John chapter
1. 1 John chapter 1. Everywhere you look in human
history, men have made some kind of visible representation of
what they thought was God, because man wants a visible God. And
Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. I don't mean simply that he came
here and appeared as God. I don't mean simply that he came
here and appeared as man. I mean that one who lived and
died in our room instead is himself God Almighty in all humanity
standing before men and standing before God. 1 John 1, verse 1.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. that you
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Because His
Son became one of us, that we might be as He is, the sons of
God. Second, all human beings have
in themselves a conscience that craves and demands craves and
demands a satisfactory atonement. Every man, every woman is born
with a God-consciousness that cannot be silenced. A God-consciousness
that they cannot escape from. A God-consciousness that continually
reminds them of their guilt of eternity and of judgment. They
hold the truth of God in unrighteousness, Paul says in Romans chapter 1.
And the word hold means to suppress. They push it down. I don't want
to hear this. I don't want to acknowledge this.
And so I push it down. You know exactly what I'm talking
about. You find something that's troubling and you don't want
to deal with it. You don't want to face it. So
you just push it aside. You push it down. I often tell
folks when they're going through some difficulty, man, push that
aside and bury yourself in the scriptures. Suppress it. Suppress
it. Don't let it come to surface
because you can't deal with it. Just suppress it. That's what
men do with guilt and their God consciousness by nature. They
push it down crying atheist. They push it down crying this,
that or the other. They push it down cussing God.
But all the while, They have a God consciousness that demands
a satisfactory atonement. There is an inescapable sense
of guilt and impurity and a desperate need in all men for expiation
and atonement. There is deep in the heart of
every human being an awareness of an offended God whose justice
demands satisfaction and Christ Is that satisfaction? Let me just read some scripture
to you. You turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Christ, his
own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we
being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes we, ye, were healed. Now look at verse Peter 3, verse
18. Christ also hath suffered for sins. How? The just for the
unjust. He who is himself without sin
was made sin for us who are nothing but sin. that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the Spirit. Our Lord Jesus is that one God
was pleased to bruise and put to grief, that one whom he made
to be an offering for sin, And he is that one who, having satisfied
divine justice fully, perfectly, and completely, shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Here's the
third thing. Every man desires a visible God. Every man desires a satisfactory
atonement. An atonement that appeases the
wrath of God. that God looks at and says, that's
enough. I require no more. That's what
Christ is. And third, all men and women
in all nations of the world desire an accessible God. A God who
speaks and is spoken to. A God who makes himself known
to whom we can make ourselves known. A God with whom we can
have sweet communion. Brother David sang a little bit
ago the reason the song so delightful because I am his and he is mine. I really am his and he really
is mine. That's our Christ. He is the
Word. He is made of God and to us wisdom. Why does John use that particular
description of our Lord, the Word. Because Christ is that
One by whom and in whom God communicates Himself to us. In whom and by
whom God communicates His mind and makes known His will. In
and by whom God reveals Himself. In and by whom we know God. And that's the only way we know
Him. He of God has made unto us wisdom. Wisdom. That is, now in Christ we're
able to know God, infinite and incomprehensible. Some time ago
I was preaching and a friend of mine who's a black man was
sitting in a congregation. And I often will take my friends
who are black and ask them lots of questions. I asked them lots
of questions about how black folks think about things, how
they look on various issues that I realize are issues of concern
to them because I want to know how they think. And I said to
him, as I was preaching, Fr. David Wright, he's in the church
down at Cottage Grove, Tennessee, I said, I've come to a conclusion,
it's a black thing, I can't get it. I can't get it. I can't understand. And they will all readily acknowledge,
you're right, you can't understand. Because you're not black, you
haven't been there. You haven't been there. And the
fact is, that's an insignificant difference compared to this. God is infinitely beyond the
grasp of any human being's mind. infinitely beyond our thoughts,
infinitely beyond our highest esteem, infinitely beyond our
highest estimation. But God in Christ, now I know
Him. I know who He is. I know what
He demands. I know what He requires. I know
what He accepts. I know what He gives. I know Him! And I commune
with Him, and He with me. He called Abraham His friend.
and revealed his will to Abraham. And my name's Abraham. He spoke
face-to-face with Moses, and Moses spoke face-to-face with
him. Manoah and his wife offered a
sacrifice, and when they did, the Lord Jesus, the angel of
the covenant, danced in the smoke, saying, this is that which represents
God's pleasure. the sacrifice of his own son.
He makes known his will to his friends. Turn over to John 15,
I'll show you. John 15. Verse 15. Our Savior says, henceforth I
call you not servants, For the servant knoweth not what his
Lord doeth. But I have called you friends,
like my friend Abraham. For all things that I have heard
of my Father, I have made known unto you. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth much fruit, and that your fruit should remain. You're my
friends. And everything my father showed
to me as your representative, everything my father showed to
me as your surety, everything my father declared to me as your
mediator, I have shown to you and kept back nothing because
I look upon you, my servants, as my friends. Fourth, all men
want a mediator. a daysman, someone to stand between
them and God, to represent them before God, a surety to undertake
their cause, and that's Christ. You know the passage, 1 Timothy
chapter 2. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. If any man sin,
John said, we have an advocate with the Father. An advocate
with the Father. Sometimes fellows get carried
away when they're preaching and they say, I know everything's
alright because I've got a friend in court. A friend in court won't
do you any good. Not with a just God. What you
must have is someone to stand at your side and plead your case
on the basis of justice. That's the only thing to do you
any good in court, where the judge is just. We have an advocate,
one who's called to our side to represent us as a lawyer in
court. And he represents us, and he
is heard. An advocate with the Father,
He is heard because his name is Jesus. He is the Christ, and
he is the perpetuation for our sins, this righteous one. Our advocate is himself our sacrifice,
our savior, the sent one of God, the righteousness of God, and
the sacrifice God accepts. All right, fifth. Turn to Romans
chapter 11. All people desire a savior, a
sure deliverer, one who can and will save, one upon whose arm
they can confidently lean. That too is Christ. Are you listening
to me? Are you listening to me? This
is what you crave in your soul. You've got to have a visible
God. That's the only kind you can communicate with. You've
got to have an accessible God. You've got to have a God who
has provided for you a mediator and a God who has found for himself
a satisfactory atonement. And you've got to have a savior.
Sure. Absolute savior, on whose arm
you can confidently lean. How can I tell you what I want
to tell you? I'm a pretty good-sized seller. And I've learned in the last
58 years a few things. I don't trust everything that
looks like a chair. I've broken too many. And I don't
trust everything that looks like a ladder. I've broken too many.
I don't even trust everything that looks like a bridge. I just
don't do it. I test them. I test them carefully. If I go in the furniture store
and sit down, I don't dare flop down in the chair at the furniture
store like I do my chair at home. The one at home, I know it'll
hold me. Those in the furniture store, I ain't so sure. I sit
down in those things kind of gingerly. That's not the kind
of Savior I want or need. I've got to have a Savior. I
can have no peace except I have a Savior on whom I can fall back
with all the weight of my soul and have no fear of falling. One whose arm is mighty, upon
whom I can lean with confidence. That's Christ. Romans chapter
11, verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved. That is all God's elect Jew and
Gentile, all the true Israel of God shall be saved. As it
is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins. And this great Savior bids you
come to Him. He says, Come unto Me, all you
that labor heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And He says to
you who believe, He says to me, Come unto Me. Take my yoke upon
you. and learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Come
to Christ, and he'll give you rest. And come on to Christ,
and slip under his yoke. Quit fighting his will, quit
kicking against the pricks, quit opposing his purpose, and you
will find rest unto your souls. He says, humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care on him, for he careth for you. Oh, lean all the weight of your
soul, all the care of your existence on his broad, mighty, omnipotent
shoulders. Brother Donnie Bell, pointed
out in California last week when he was preaching one morning,
he said, the government is on his shoulder. He said, did you
notice it doesn't say the government's on his shoulders? He said, all
the government of the universe is on one shoulder. Why does
it say one shoulder? Because he carries his sheep
on the other one. And he carries them all the way
home, safe and secure. Sixth, All nations crave and
desire an accepted substitute. Read the histories of barbaric
heathen. Man has always sought a suitable
substitute, one that would be accepted by God, one that would
satisfy his own conscience, and he never found one, never found
one. The histories of man Tell us about men offering their own
children. Surely if I take the fruit of
my own womb, a woman would say, and offer it to God, He'll accept
that. And she offers this one, and
another one, and another one. And nothing satisfies. Because
there's no acceptance with a sacrifice that's nothing but one like ourselves.
But Jesus Christ, God's darling Son, is a substitute. infinite worth because this substitute
is God himself and this substitute the Lord God looks on as a sweet
smelling savor and he always accepts it. He
says concerning his people, deliver them from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. One more thing, Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
5. What is it that man wants? What
is it that his conscience demands? All nations desire an assured
immortality. And Christ alone brought immortality
to light by the gospel. Christ alone gives unto men eternal
life. Second Corinthians chapter 5
verse 1, we know, we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house
not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found
naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now watch this. Now he that hath wrought us for
the selfsame thing is God. What on earth does that mean? He that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing. I always want to read it like
this. He that hath wrought for us the selfsame thing. But that's
not what it says. He that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing. God working graciously for us
and with us and in us. has wrought us for immortality. He's wrought us, fitted us for
immortality, who hath given us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore,
we are always confident, having experienced God's grace, knowing
that whilst we are at home in the body, we're absent from the
Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I
say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad, knowing therefore the
terror of the Lord. we persuade men. Oh, I urge you in the light of
this fact that you shall live forever either in the bliss and
glory of Christ's presence or in the eternal torments of the
damned in the darkness of hell. I persuade you now. believe on
the Son of God. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath immortality, hath everlasting life. Hallelujah! I have found him whom my soul
so long had craved. Jesus satisfies my longings through
his blood I now am saved. Amen.