but I'm going to tell you the
same story he just said. Turn with me to Haggai chapter
2, Haggai the second chapter. Now get you a piece of paper
or a place in your Bible and write something down. I want you to get this. It is
a matter of fact and we ought never forget it. Write it down
somewhere where you can look at it often. Whatever God requires of us, he performs for us and gives
to us. Whatever it is that God Almighty
requires of us, He performs for us and gives to us. Does He require satisfaction? Look yonder to Calvary and see
the Son of God crucified. And hear God declare, I'm satisfied. Does God require righteousness?
Behold Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. God required
what we could not give, what we had no ability to perform. He required that we satisfy his
justice because of our sins. And if we, if the whole human
race were swept away into hell, hell still burns forever because
you can't satisfy God's infinite justice. But Christ did. And He requires righteousness. And sinful men can never perform
righteousness. But the Lord God, by sending
His Son into this world in our room instead, performed righteousness
for us. And when His Son died in our
stead, He imputed righteousness to us. And by his grace and effectual
calling, by the irresistible power of his spirit in the new
birth, he imparts righteousness in us. God requires holiness. Be holy as I am holy. And he
gives us Christ, who is our holiness. In the office a few minutes ago,
Brother David Burge read a passage. And frankly, when you started
reading it, I thought, why on earth is he reading that passage?
Didn't you? Judges 19, about those base vile
sodomites raping, murdering that woman who was a concubine of
a Benjamite. And when he got done, if I remember,
I think this is exactly what he said in his prayer. Father,
help us. Don't ever let us believe that your restraining hand is our own righteousness. Don't
let us be mistaken and think that your restraining hand is
our righteousness. That'll take the starch out for
a few minutes anyway. See their behavior. That's just
what Linda Campbell is and Oscar Bailey and Merle Hart and Don
Fortner. God just won't let us act like
we are. Thank God he won't. The only righteousness we have
is the righteousness imputed to us and the righteousness imparted
to us. And that is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Whatever God requires of us,
he performs for us and gives to us. Does the Lord God require
that we believe? He commands all men everywhere
to repent. His commandment is that we believe
on his son. But I've got news for this deluded
religious generation. I've got news for you who are
yet without faith in Christ. You can no more believe Him than
you can obey His law. You have no more ability to believe
on the Son of God than you do to live in perfect righteousness.
It doesn't lie within the realm of possibility that a dead sinner
can believe the Son of God. And yet here we are believing
Him. How come? We believe according to the working
of His mighty power, that same power which He wrought in Christ
Jesus when He raised Him from the dead. Does the Lord require
us to seek Him with all our heart? He said, I'll be found when you
seek me. Seek me with all your heart. You won't do that. There's no possibility you'll
do that. Me either. Except he graciously
bring us to our wits end and sweetly force us to cry unto
him for mercy. Sweetly, graciously makes us
willing in the day of his power. Does God require that we persevere
in faith? That we persevere in the grace
of God? He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. And God keeps us by the power
of His grace. Whatever it is that our God requires
of us, He performs for us. Well, what about good works,
Brother Don? He has ordained that we walk in them. He demands
that we do. Faith works by love. There's
no such thing as faith without works. Faith without works is
dead. But if good works, whatever they may or may not be, depend
on you, you won't have any. But it's God who worketh in you,
both to will and do of his good pleasure. Mark it down. It's a matter of fact revealed
in this book. and everywhere taught in this
book. Whatever God requires of us, he performs for us and gives
to us. Now, let's look at Haggai chapter
2. Here is Haggai's third message
to the people of God who had been brought back out of Babylon
and were required of God to build again the city of Jerusalem and
the temple at Jerusalem. The title of my message tonight,
Strength Required, Strength Given. The second chapter of Haggai
is full of the gospel and full of Christ. May God, the Holy
Spirit, whose word we read now, teach us the message. In the
seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came
the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to
Zerubbabel, the son of Sheateel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua,
the son of Josedek, the high priest, and to the residue of
the people, saying. The prophet of God carefully
marked down the dates when the word of the Lord came to him. It is the habit of some to keep
a diary continually. I have friends who do so, keep
one meticulously. Some of you possibly do. A lot
of the older men wrote diaries and when I read them, I quit
reading them a long time ago because I never did find one
that I thought was real honest. Not even from the best of fellas.
Never did find one. And it may be I was a little
suspicious because I used to try to do it. And I never would
be completely honest. I just never would. I wouldn't
be completely honest. When I tried to be, I think that's
going to hurt somebody. Or, man, I don't want you to
know that much about me. So I just tore it up and gave
it up. And I don't suggest that it's needful that you keep a
diary. But it is good to well remember God's gracious interventions
in our lives, to well remember his wondrous works for us, well
remember the performance of his grace, well remember our visits
to Bethel, the house of God, and God's visits to us in Beersheba,
the place of a pit, well for us to remember God's mighty works
on our behalf. As we remember what the Lord
has done, mercies past give promise of mercies yet to come. Bethel
should never be forgotten. Mercy should never be forgotten.
Grace should never be forgotten. Now learn this. There never is
a time when God's people in this world can prosper without the
ministry of the gospel. Can't be done. Gospel preaching,
read again the fourth chapter of the book of Ephesians. Gospel
preaching is not an optional extra added to your life that
you can pretty please make use of or just cast it aside as something
you don't really need without you suffering for it. It can't
happen. Gospel preaching is vital in
the lives of every child of God. Notice what we read here. Haggai
was given a message A message to deliver to Zerubbabel, who
was the governor of Judah. And the message was to be delivered
to Joshua, who was the high priest of Judah. Now, those are the
two highest ranking fellows in town. I mean, they're the highest
ranking political and spiritual leaders. And it's a message to
be given to all the residue of the people. Remember, these were
the very people who had just experienced a marvelous work
of grace in God forgiving their sin. He had sent Haggai with
his first message to expose their sin in chapter 1, telling them
why the Lord God had blasted their crops and had brought them
and diminished them so low. It was because of their sin,
their lethargy, their attachment to themselves and to this world.
And then Haggai's second message was a message of sweet revival.
He said, the Lord's with you. And the Lord stirred their spirits,
and their hearts were set to the work, and they were again
zealously engaged in the work. And now Haggai is sent with a
third message. It's given again to these very
same people. Zerubbabel, the governor, Joshua,
the high priest, and the residue of the people. These folks were
given this message while they were still zealously devoted
to this work again of building again the worship of God. Still,
God sends his prophet to them with a message they must hear.
Why? Listen carefully. As long as
we are in this world, We need continual quickening by God's
spirit. As long as we are in this world,
we need continual quickening by God's spirit. And the means
by which he continually quickens, revives, strengthens, builds
up, edifies, and directs his people is the established preaching
of the gospel, the established ministry of the word. You continually
thank God for having established his word in this place. and for
the established ministry of the word and we labor to see that
the word of God is established in other places and God establishes
the ministry of the word in other places because this is vital
to the saving of God's elect and it is vital to the edification
and comfort and well-being of God's people in this world. Turn
over to Hebrews chapter 10. Let me show you. This world is full of snares. Snares that would take us away
from the hope of Christ. And besides the snares that are
without, everything in our nature swells with hellish venom against
God, his gospel, and his grace, even the grace that is within
us. Everything in our nature swells
with hellish venom against the work of God. Therefore, we stand
constantly in need of the word of God being given to us. Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. God, give me grace to do that.
For he is faithful that promised. Let's hold fast the profession
of our faith, unwavering, because God's faithful. And let us consider
one another to provoke and to love and to good works. Now,
what's this? Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Don't forsake the assembly of
God's saints. Now, I often get letters from
folks, and there'll be some who'll hear this message one way or
another. I hope they'll actually hear
what I'm saying. They say, well, I, you know, nobody's preaching
the gospel right here, but I don't think I ought to forsake the
assembling of the saints. I ought to go to church somewhere.
Don't go if they ain't preaching free grace. Don't stay at home,
go bowling, do anything. Don't go to a synagogue of Satan
and call it assembling with God's people. But where God's established
his word, you don't dare neglect it. You don't dare neglect it. We all need a constant abiding
ministry, the ministry of the word, that we may continue In
the way that we may serve the lord with joy that we may grow
in the grace and knowledge of our lord jesus christ At your
leisure, you might want to read the 11th and 13th 14th chapters
of book of acts Barnabas was sent to antioch in acts chapter
11 For this very purpose while he was there He saw the grace
of god in the people that he was he was delighted But you
know what he did when he saw the grace of God in those people?
He still exhorted them with all purpose of heart to cleave to
the Lord. Just as Haggai was Zerubbabel
and Joshua and the residue of the people. He saw them now devoted
to the work. Saw them faithfully serving God.
Saw them in the midst of their spirits being quickened and revived.
He said, now stay with it, boys. Stay with it. This is what God
would have you to do. Paul and Barnabas returned to
Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples,
exhorting them to continue in the faith. And you know what
they did for the benefit of all those churches? They ordained
preachers in every one of them. They ordained preachers in every
one of them. I tell churches all the time, new congregations
particularly, you can get along without anything. You don't have
to have a building. You don't have to have even a
place to meet and get out of the weather. You can meet out
in the open field. The one thing you can't get along
without is a preacher. You've got to have a pastor.
You've got to have somebody with a word from God for your soul
and whatever it takes for you to maintain the ministry of the
word for your soul's sake. Maintain that ministry. Now notice
this too. Zerubbabel was the governor. He was the political leader.
Joshua was the high priest. He was the highest officer in
the Jewish church. He was the high priest. But they required the very same
message as all the residue of the people. The same message. You mean the
fellow, that bricklayer? That fellow who cleans horses'
stalls? You mean that fellow who never went to school and
can't even write his own name? I'm supposed to listen to somebody
preach to me what you preach to him? If you hear from God,
you will. If you hear from God, you will.
If you want somebody to tickle your itching ears, you can go
to hell listening to him. But God's servants have one message
for everybody. One message for everybody. And
they talk to all of them just alike. Just alike. The gospel of God's grace in
Christ is to be declared to all men without apology. to be declared
to all men with clarity, to be declared with boldness, and to
be fully declared so that we keep nothing back that is needful
to the souls of men. I can't tell you how many times
I've had preachers actually say to me, well, if I preached what
you do, we'd split our church. And I make this response every
time. If I could find the message in
the pages of this book that would destroy Grace Baptist Church
of Danville, I'd hurry home and preach it because Grace Baptist
Church needs destroyed. That's exactly right. Oh, you
wouldn't do that. Hang on and see. That's exactly right. The gospel
is not to be hedged about and people protected from it. The
gospel is to be declared and declared from the rooftop and
declared with boldness and simplicity and such clarity that it cannot
be mistaken. Cannot be mistaken. I'm sick
to death. Listening to preachers hymn and
hall and talk about preaching free grace and it sounds like
free will all the time. The gospel to be declared plainly.
Now, look at verse three. Here the prophet shows us that
anytime we judge spiritual things by natural appearance, anytime
we judge spiritual things by carnal reason, anytime we judge
God's work by what we observe, anytime we judge God's providence
by what we can see of it, we judge wrong. David, we don't have to believe
that, but it's so. That's just so. Who is left among you that
saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? How often we discourage ourselves
by looking at outward appearance of things. How often we misjudge
God's work, especially his providence, by presuming that there is no
more to what God is doing than what we see. How often we misjudge
one another in the light of only what we see and we observe and
therefore we think we know. How often we misjudge our own
persons by what we see and presume we know. Some of these folks,
certainly the rubber bull and Joshua are included in these,
had lived way back more than 70 years, pushing 90 years now, from the time that Jerusalem
was taken captive and destroyed. Joshua and Zerubbabel were pushing
100 years old. Might have been 115, 120 years
old. These were old men. And there
were a whole lot of old folks there who had seen the former
temple. They saw that temple that Solomon
had built. There had never been anything
like it. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. It was magnificent. And now they're building the
temple again. and they can see how big it's
going to be. And it ain't much. It ain't much. Not only that, they didn't have
the altar, and they didn't have the mercy seat, and they didn't
have the Ark of the Covenant, and they didn't have the continually
burning light, and they didn't have the Urim and Thummim. So
this temple, These old men looked at that and they said, well,
this ain't much. This ain't much. But if you read Ezra the third
chapter, you'll see the young men, they had never seen that
old temple. They didn't have any instamatic
cameras back then, much less digital cameras. They had never
seen the temple. All they had was in their mind
a picture that had been drawn by men passing along words to
them describing that temple. And when they saw this one start
to go up, man, they danced for joy. They said, look what God's
doing. Oh, man, look what God's doing.
And the old codger said, ain't much. We remember the days of
the Puritans. We remember the days of the Great
Awakening. We remember the days of the mighty,
mighty Protestant Reformation. Ain't much. We remember hearing
Barnard preach, and Mahan preach, and Griswold preach. Ain't much. Perhaps the young men saw something
the old men couldn't see because they were blinded with the prejudice
of the past. The young men saw this temple's
talking about something else. This temple is not talking about
just ceremonies and ordinances of carnal worship. This temple
is talking about something else. It's pointing us away from the
temple. God's taken away the ark. He's
taken away the mercy seat. He's taken away the continually
burning light. He's taken away the Urim and
Thummim. He's drawing our minds away to him who shall come soon. of whom this temple speaks. Remember,
the temple was destroyed, and now it's raised up again. From
the time that Israel came out of Egypt to the building of the
temple by Solomon was not quite 500 years, just about 480 years. From the time that Israel came
back from Babylon to the time that Christ, of whom the temple
spoke, came into this world and accomplished redemption for us
was just about 480 years. Just right on the money. Oh,
destroy this temple, he said. And in three days, I'll raise
it up. Perhaps these young men understood what God was doing,
drawing their minds away from legality and carnal religion
to the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the Lord. They were looking
for the son of righteousness to arise with healing in his
wings the day spring from on high to visit them. Now, look
at verse 4. Here the Lord God commands the
governor, the priest, and all the people to be strong and work,
letting nothing discourage them. Oh, this doesn't look like much.
Stay with it. You'll see. Well, this didn't
compare with that former temple. Hang on. Stay with it. Let nothing
hinder you. Let nothing discourage you. Let
nothing turn you aside. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,
saith the Lord. And be strong, O Joshua, son
of Josedek, the high priest. And be strong, all ye people
of the land, saith the Lord, and work. If we would serve our
God in this world, we must be strong. Resolute. Courageous. Determined. Oh, go ahead and say what I mean.
A little stubborn. Got to be. Got to be. Well, I
can't. I just don't feel like that. Well, I'm just, I'm not up to
it right now. Be strong. Watch ye. Stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men, be strong
is the admonition. But where shall such weaklings
as we are get such strength? Paul said, who's sufficient for
these things? And then he answered, our sufficiency
is of God. You see, our Lord's strength
is made perfect in our weakness. And when we know our weakness,
Then we're strong. When we know we're engaged in
something beyond us. We're engaged in something that's
out of our reach. We're committed to doing something
that is impossible for a man to do. It's impossible for a
man to do it. God sends us to carry the gospel
to the whole world. He sends us to proclaim Christ
to the saving of his people. And moral heart, you can't do
it and I can't do it. And we can't do it together. He should be strong. Our sufficiency
is of God. Now, look at the rest of verses
4 and 5, and you'll see a clear example of what I told you at
the beginning and why I said it. Whatever God requires of
us, He performs for us and gives to us. Does He demand of you
and of me that we be strong? Yes, He does. Now watch how He
gives the strength. For I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts. I'm with you to guide you, protect
you, deliver you, uphold you, keep you, save you, use you. I'm with you to do you good,
saith the Lord. I'm with you when you know it,
and I'm with you when you think I'm not. I'm with you when you're
zealously devoted to this work, and I'm with you when you're
languishing in carnal unbelief. I'm with you when you think you're
strong, but are weak, and I'm with you when you think you're
weak, but I make you strong. I'm with you. I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. I'm with you according to the
word that I covenanted with you. Now, when was it you made this
promise? What was it we had done to get this promise? Let's go back and read our history
now. Now, what were the circumstances when our fathers prayed down
this revival? What were we doing when we wrestled
with God and got God to come down and work? How was it that
we tackled the omnipotent and twisted his arm behind his back
and got him to come do something for us? Well, Brother Don, you
know that wasn't the case. No, it wasn't. He covenanted,
and said, I'll never leave you before you ever drew a breath
in this world. Knowing Darwin Pruitt full well, everything
you would be and do, he said, I'm with you. Now, what is it's going to cause
him to stop being with you? Oh, well, got to be careful of
the Lord. If you don't behave right, he
won't be with you. I was with you when I blasted
your crops in the field. And that's the reason I blessed
you, because I was with you. I was with you when I put holes in
the bags you put your money in. And the reason I put the holes
there, because I've covenanted with my word to be with you.
I'm faithful, whether you are or not. And that ain't going
to change. That ain't going to change. Oh, brother Don, if you preach
like that, Somebody will make that a license
to see it. They would anyhow let them have it. Give them what
they can get. Not God's people. Not God's people. My spirit remaineth with you. When you're up, when you're down. When you see it, when you don't.
When it looks like I'm using you, and it looks like I've set
you aside and used something else. When it looks like everything's
moving exactly according to plan, and when it looks like everything's
going backwards to hell, I'm with you. When the world seems
to be improving, and it seems that the world's going to hell
in a handbasket, I'm still with you. My spirit remains among
you to guide you and sanctify you and revive you, to sustain
you and teach you and comfort you. Here, the three persons
of the Holy Trinity avow themselves before us as God, our protector
and redeemer. God the Father promises us his
presence. God the Son, the eternal word,
the covenant word of God promises us his presence. And God the
Spirit promises us his presence. Now, here's the last word of our text,
the golden nugget to which I've been pushing. It's a word I want you to carry
home with you. The Lord God says to you and me. Fear not. Fear not. But Mother God, you don't know
what I'm facing. Nobody who gives the command does. He said fear
not. Fear not. He who has God for
his father. Christ for His Savior and the
Holy Spirit for His Comforter may and should be absolutely
without fear. We who have God in Christ by
His Spirit standing with us and for us have nothing to fear in
heaven, earth, or hell. The righteous may and should
be as bold as a lion. We have the peace of God within
us, the power of God about us, and the purpose of God for us. And the Lord God says, fear not. Well, Brother Don, that's just
a mockery. That's just a mockery when you consider what I've got
to face. Go back and look in this book and see how God says
this. The very first time those two
words are used. There's a fellow whom God has called to leave
his father and his mother and his countrymen and his wealth
and his business, his life, leave everything down there with those
pagans and Eric counties and come follow me. Where are you
going, Abraham? I don't know. God just said,
follow me. How are you going to do this? I don't know. God
just said, follow me. And Abraham believed God, who
said, I'll make of you and of your seed to be a blessing to
all nations. He said, Abraham, you've been
hearing all your life about that promise God made to Mother Eve
in the garden, the woman's seed. I've chosen you to carry it. And Abraham believed God. going
out in the midst of nowhere among the people who didn't know God
among the people who when they would hear him use the name of
God might kill him as soon as look at him because they have
a rival God they would protect and the Lord God says fear not
Abraham I am thy shield and thus he says to every sinner
who believes him The next time the word appears, Abraham had a mistress. Actually, she was Sarah's maid.
And because Sarah persuaded Abraham in order for God to fulfill his
promise, we're going to have to do something ourselves. You
know, you know better. You're getting old and I ain't
getting any younger. And God said, we're going to
have this son through whom the Savior is coming. He expects
us to do something, don't you think? See my handmaid, she's
young and pretty. And Abraham takes Sarah's handmaid,
Hagar, and she gets a child. And this is what you always get
from the works of the flesh, Ishmael. And after a while, because Ishmael
persecuted Isaac and Hagar despised Sarah, the Lord God commands
Abraham to obey Sarah's voice and cast Ishmael out. Abraham
took that boy he loved. He loved him just like you love
the lust of your flesh. He gave him a bottle of water.
and put he and his mama on an ass and said goodbye at the command
of God. And when the water was gone and
the food was gone, Hagar carried Ishmael over and laid him under
a tree waiting for him to die. And God, who had promised himself
to Hagar, that he would protect her when he cast her out, says
to that woman, after all she's been through, and all she's done,
deserving what she experienced because of her corruption. He
said, fear not. Fear, I'm as good as my word. And if God Almighty will keep
his word to the bondwoman, and her reprobate son, I've got a
pretty good hunch you've got good reason to believe he'll
keep his word to you. He says, fear not. The Lord God
spoke this word again to Isaac. He'd been digging wells going
from place to place and everywhere he went, the neighbors would
come in and fill his wells in behind him. Finally, Isaac goes
down to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared to him in the midst
of all these enemies around him, folks constantly opposing him.
And he said, fear not, for I'm with thee, and I'll bless thee. Isaac. And then the Lord spoke through
Joseph to his trembling brethren. who were guilty of so much. They sold their brother into
slavery. But they were the chosen people
of God. Typically, they represent God's
elect. And Rex, they're a pretty good
representation of us, aren't they? How sad. I'll say it. But Joseph said to them, after
they, as far as they knew, had murdered him. He said, fear not. Your God had brought me here. My God had brought me here. I am in the place of God. And our Joseph, whom we crucified,
is seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, as surely
for the purpose of saving us as Joseph was seated on the throne
in Egypt for the purpose of saving God's elect. And he says, fear
not. I'm in the place of God. Yes,
you crucified me, but I'm here by divine appointment to save
you alive. The Lord God said to Israel as
they were about to cross the Red Sea, fear not, stand still,
see the salvation of the Lord. And then the strangest place
Turn to Exodus chapter 20. The strangest place in the Bible
for a fear not from God. Strangest place. Exodus 20 verse
20. They're at Mount Sinai. God's giving the law. And God's word to them. Fear
not, for God has come to prove you, you that fear may be before your
faces, that you sin not. Don't be afraid. God's come to
teach you to worship him. Don't be afraid. If God is yours
and you are God's, One way or another, he's going to teach
you to worship him. That's what he's doing. Fear
not. And he taught him how. He said,
now, don't put your tool on the stones with which you build me
an altar, because he put your tool on it, you polluted it.
And if you build me an altar of stones, don't, don't, don't
make steps and go up to my altar by steps, because that would
just expose your nakedness. Worship me on an altar of earth,
and come to the altar on the ground I'm made. Worship me only
through Christ, the Savior I provide, who is the provision of all that
I require, and fear not. Amen.