Thank you, my friend. What a
great evening we've had. I came in hungry and asked God
to feed me, and He has. Thank you. And if you'd like
to hear the sermon again by the time I get home, it'll be at
www.freegraceradio.com. We'll get that on the air right
away. You'll be turning, if you will, to Haggai chapter 1, My subject tonight is Go Up to
the Mountain, Haggai chapter 1. Come back to Matthew, Malachi,
Zechariah, Haggai, Haggai chapter 1. I just told you a place there. I want to begin my message by
reminding you of an incident recorded in the fifth chapter
of Mark's gospel. Our Lord Jesus healed the demoniac
of Gadara by his great mercy and grace. A more pitiful sight can hardly
be imagined than the sight that met our Redeemer when his boat
landed on the coast of Gadara, that mad, wild, insane, demoniac,
running to and fro among the tombs, cutting himself, screaming
and cussing. And a more blessed sight cannot
be imagined than the next thing we see. The Son of God made the
man whole from the inside out. And when he made him whole from
the inside out, folks who had lost their swine herds came out
there and saw that man like they had never imagined seeing him,
sitting quiet, at ease, peaceful, clothed, and in his right mind. And you know what their response
was to that? They were afraid. Folks who can't understand something
are afraid of it. Well, in that 18th verse of Mark's
gospel in chapter 5, the Lord Jesus is about to leave the coast
of Gadara. He's come there, he's accomplished
what he came there for, and now he's going somewhere else, going
seeking his lost sheep. And when he was coming to the
ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that
he might be with him. Now, I can't think of anything
more reasonable to expect. Oh, Lord, let me stay with you. Let me go with you all the time. Walk with you in your company
incessantly. Let me be with you and you be
with me this day forward and forever. Let us never be parted. What could be more reasonable?
What could be a more reasonable desire? Indeed, this man's heart
is fixed upon his Redeemer, and he is well aware of what his
Redeemer has done for him, and he desires ever to walk in His
company. I suspect that's pretty much
the case with every heaven-born soul. the sinner who has experienced
the mighty transforming grace of our God in Jesus Christ. Being called of God and turned
by omnipotent mercy from darkness to light and from the power of
Satan unto God, that he may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance
among them which are sanctified. Every saved sinner desires that
he might be with the Savior. Having tasted that the Lord is
gracious, we cannot help but to long for
that day when we shall at last be absent from the body and present
with the Lord. But this man's request was denied. He said, Lord, let me go with
you. The desire of his heart, the
Master said, no. Jesus suffered him not, but saith
unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things,
I tend to read that, what great things, but that's not what it
says. How great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had
compassion on thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him,
and all men did marvel. Soon the Lord would bring him
home to glory. But he had saved him by his grace,
and saving him by his grace had ordained a work for him to do,
to carry the gospel He had experienced. And I stress experience. I stress
it because we're living in a day when many who give lip service
to the gospel of God's grace make it nothing but an intellectual
thing, just a decision, a choice, something you've learned, something
you've studied. God's grace is what we experience in our soul. And this man, having experienced
God's grace, was ordained of God to be an instrument to tell
others about his grace. The Lord Jesus sent him back
to the Gadarenes and sent him to tell them how
great things the Lord had done for him. And it had compassion
on him. Best I can tell, best I can tell,
as I read this book, that's the only reason he's left us in this
world. Best I can tell. You're perfectly righteous if
you're in Christ. The righteousness of Christ has
been imputed to you in justification. Oh, what a standing is mine.
And the righteousness of Christ has been imparted to you in regeneration,
made partakers of the divine nature, so that now you have
everything that God Almighty requires of you. It must be perfect
to be accepted. And with Jesus Christ, I am one
and that makes me holy as God's own son. My sins are put away. God remembers them no more against
me forever. None can charge me with sin.
He casts them into the depths of the sea of his infinite forgetfulness
because Christ took them away. Well, why am I still here? There's nothing to be gained,
not for me. Nothing to be improved. Nothing
to be added to his work. The Apostle Paul puts, that's
not right. The Holy Spirit puts it this
way. He hath made us, Brother Hastings, meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. That means right now,
we're worthy of heaven's glory. Right now. Well, why'd he leave
us here? He left us here to go tell our
family and friends, our neighbors, those among whom we live, how
great things God has done for us and has had compassion upon
us. Save sinners. are to go home
and tell unsaved sinners the good news of His grace and show
forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. And we're to do it until we've
fulfilled the purpose for which God sent us into this world.
Let us ever live with our eyes upon eternity, fixed upon Christ. But let us live in this world
content with God's purpose for us. Oh, how I long to depart and be with
Him. But it's needful for you, Paul
said, that I hang around a little while longer. so that I can impart
some good thing to you. The thought that the God of glory might use such things as you
and I are for the calling of His elect,
for the building of His house, for the glory of His name is
threatening. Imagine that. God might use you. Might use you. Might use me to
call out his own. The fact is, God has put in our
hands this treasure. The treasure of the gospel of
his free grace. the rich, boundless mercy of
God in Christ Jesus, the treasure of His gospel. He's put it in
these earthen vessels and says to you and me, you carry this
treasure into all the world. And tell sinners how great things
God's done for you and has had compassion on you. I won't spend
much time here. But I got to say it. He doesn't
say you go home and tell sinners how God chose you and elected
you and salvation by your free will. He didn't say go home and
tell sinners we believe God's sovereign. What do you believe?
He didn't say go home and tell sinners we believe sanctification
is by grace. Do you believe in progressive
sanctification? Go home and tell sinners, we believe in limited
atonement. What do you believe about it? No. Go home and tell needy sinners
how great things God's done for you. I was possessed of the devil.
He cast him out. I was wild, a beast that no man
could control. He controlled me, tamed me, made
me willing in the day of his power. I was a wild man destroying
my life. He came and set me free. I was a man men had tried to
bind with chains of morality and religion and teaching and
law all my life. And I broke the fetters. And
he came and said, go free. I was a man who was nothing but destruction
and death and misery and sin. A man who, if you got around me, I was sure
to corrupt you. And he's made me perfectly righteous
before God Almighty and forgiven all my sin. Would you like to
know him? Would you like to know him? Let
me tell you about him. He had compassion on me. Now, come back to Haggai. Haggai chapter 1. Verse 8. With that as the background,
hear this word from God's prophet. Go up to the mountain and bring
wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and
I will be glorified, saith the Lord. I'm going to give you this
statement from God's Word exactly as I am fully convinced God the
Holy Spirit would have me give it to you. It is first, God's
Word to Judah, historically, when they came out of Babylon.
It is second, God's Word to his elect, whom he calls by his free
grace. And third, It is God's word to
his church, to you and me, his people, in this generation. All right, number one, this is
God's word to Judah. If you want to look back and
read the book of Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah, all together,
they're all together in the same historic context. Israel had
been in Babylon for 70 years, had been taken into Babylonian
captivity because of their own lust, and they were held in bondage
in Babylon for 70 years. When they took Israel and Judah
captive, the city of Jerusalem was leveled. The temple was raided
and destroyed, leveled to the ground for 70 years. the holy city, not holy today. It was holy in Old Testament
Scripture because there was the worship of God established, sanctified
in that regard. But that holy city had laid ruin. The temple had laid ruin. You
can imagine the picture after 70 years, nothing but weeds and
debris and garbage and wild beasts and briars and thistles. And
the Lord God raised up a king. They sent him back by the decree
of the king in Babylon, back to Jerusalem. And God told them
plainly the reason he sent them back there was to build again
his temple. to build again the ancient holy
city, Jerusalem, and thus to reestablish his worship in the
land he had appointed. And so they came back, and man,
they went to work. I mean, they went to work. Foundation
was laid, laid before Joshua the high priest, laid right before
his eyes. The foundation of that temple
being laid, they started laying the rocks. And they got a few
blocks laid here and a few blocks laid there, maybe bent the corners
and got things set and quit. Just quit. For 16 years, they
did nothing. Walked by the temple every day,
said, one of these days we're going to get to that. One of
these days we're going to do that. And so God raised up Haggai
and Zechariah and sent them to his people Israel, specifically
speaking to Zerubbabel, the prince, the governor of the land, and
to Joshua, the high priest in the land of Israel, and by them
to all the remnant of the people of Israel. And he gives them
a word. He said, what's wrong with you?
Why are you neglecting the building of God's house? What's your excuse? And they said in verse two, it's
not time. Now, we remember the dates well. Jeremiah said it will be 70 years. We still got six months to go. It's not time yet. All of the
Jews haven't come out of Babylon yet. It's not time to build the
Lord's house. God hadn't predestinated us to
do it yet. But Haggai wouldn't let him hide
behind that. He said, verse 3, it's time to
build your house. Notice that the trouble you ran
into didn't keep you from building your sealed houses. Notice that
the fact that the rest of the Jews hadn't come out of Babylon
didn't keep you from building yourself a nice palace. I noticed
that the trouble you ran into hadn't kept you from accumulating
things for yourself. and you say it's not time. And
then the prophet says, consider your ways. Have you stopped to
think about how things are with you? Consider your ways. You sow much and you gather little. You eat and you're still hungry. You drink and you're still thirsty. Go down to the local clothing
store and buy the finest suits and the finest dresses and the
finest suits and the finest shoes you can wear and you still want
more clothes. You go out and make money and
put it in the bank and save it for a rainy day and save it up
for your old age. This is going to be my security.
I'm taking care of things now. This is going to be it. And you
stick it in the bank and you stick it in a bag that's got
holes in it. Consider your ways. Look at the
drought that I've sent. A drought upon the land, a drought
upon the cattle, a drought upon the fields, a drought upon your
souls. Consider your ways. And ask why these things. And
he says in verse nine, because of my house that's laying in
waste. I didn't send you here to plant
gardens and venues. I didn't send you here to accumulate
wealth. I didn't send you here to build
houses for yourself. I didn't send you here to seek
after all these things the Gentiles seek after. I sent you here to
build my house and you despise my house. and take care of yourself. Take care of my house and trust
me, take care of you. Take care of my house and trust
me, take care of you. And now in verse eight, God's
prophet gives God's word and he says, go up to the mountain. Perhaps he's pointing to Mount
Moriah, to the mountain of Lebanon, But I think rather he's pointing
to Mount Moriah on which the temple was built. He said, go up to the mountain.
This is what the Lord requires of you. Cut down the great cedars
and bring them down from the mountain for the building of
my house, the temple of God. Bring wood and build the house. The foundation has been laid,
but the superstructure is neglected. And God commands His negligent
people to devote themselves to this work for which He had sent
them back to Jerusalem. To devote themselves to it. He
said, get on with it immediately and devote yourself to it zealously
and don't relent until the work is done. Don't stop until the
topmost stone is laid by Zerubbabel on my house. Don't stop. We'll take pleasure in it. I'll take pleasure in it. I'll
take pleasure in it, because this house is a picture of my
son, the true temple, the true house of God, and a picture of
my church, the true house of the living God. The sentence
might read, I will be satisfied or propitiated in it. And I am
certain that's an accurate interpretation of the words. But if you look
at Bible history a minute, you'll remember that there were some
things that never did appear in that second temple. You know
what they never had in that second temple? They never had the Urim
and Thummim. They never had the candlestick,
the golden candlestick. They never had the table of showbread. They never had the continually
burning light. And they never had the mercy
seat. They never had those things. So he could not possibly be here
speaking specifically just of that temple and saying, I will
be propitiated in it because there was no place of propitiation
in that temple. The mercy seat never was put
in there. He's saying, I'm talking about my house, my temple, my
son, the true temple of God. I will be satisfied and propitiated
in him. Again, the Lord may here be referring
to the work itself. Go up to the mountain, bring
the wood, build my house, and I will take pleasure in it. I
will take pleasure in the work of your hand. Now you can't mean that brother
Don. Oh yeah, our gifts and sacrifices are acceptable to God by Christ
Jesus, well pleasing to Him by Christ Jesus. And He takes pleasure
in that which His people do for Him as it is received through
Christ Jesus our Lord by His blood and by His righteousness,
the very deeds we perform. Even those deeds performed by
these hands, by which we attempt to serve and honor our God, God
says, I take pleasure in it. I take pleasure in it. I have
on my desk. I keep picking them up because
they drop off the computer. I'm on my computer screen. Last
time my granddaughter was with me, wrote me a little note. And she's a brilliant girl, brilliant
girl. She's a good writer, but she
doesn't write real neat. She's not a real neat writer.
You don't have to tell her I said that. But she doesn't write real
neat. But man, I take pleasure in that note. I pick it up and
paste it back on that screen every time I see it drop. Other
than that, picked up some tape, stuck it back on there. How come?
Because it's my granddaughter, she did it for me. Thank you
very much. And God Almighty, Lee takes pleasure
in what you do for him, because you're his. Accepted in his son. Perhaps the words, I will take
pleasure in it, refer to their worship of God in the temple. When the temple was finished,
they would come in and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Those
who truly worshiped Him did back then, just as we do now. He said,
I'll accept you, and I'll accept your sacrifices, and I'll accept
your worship, and I'll accept your prayers, and I'll accept
your services. And then the next line. And I will be glorified, saith
the Lord. Man alive, if anything on this
earth ought to spur folks on to do the work, that'll be it.
He said, I'll be glorified by you. I'll be glorified by your
work. I'll be glorified in the temple,
in the place where I worship. I'll be glorified in my son,
of whom the temple was a type. All right, that's the historic
background. Haggai is not here anymore, and
those Jews aren't here anymore, and the Temple's not here anymore,
and it ain't ever gonna be. Does that mean this is nothing
to us? Oh, no. This is God's Word to you and me personally,
to His elect wherever they are, in this world, in every age,
in every generation. Listen to me now. Listen to me.
Listen to me. God make you to hear him, but
listen to me. I say to you as God's prophet
tonight, go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the
house and I will take pleasure in it. and I will be glorified,
saith the Lord. If you would have God take pleasure
in you as His temple, if you would have the love of God shed
abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit which is given to His
own, if you would have the Lord God Almighty come to you and
make His abode with you as Christ promised He would with His people,
If you would have God to dwell with you and walk in you as a
father with his children, as he's promised in 2 Corinthians,
if you would have God glorified in you, you must go up to the
mountain. Oh, now, Brother Don, we're not
worksmongers here. We're not wheel worshipers here.
No, sir, we're not. But when the Philippian jailer
cried out to Paul in silence, sirs, what must we do to be saved?
Do you remember what they said? Well, shame on you for talking
like that. You heathen reprobate. What you're
supposed to do is sit back and do nothing and wait for God to
knock you on the head and drag you to heaven. That's not what they
said, is it? They said, believe. on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Sayers, what must we do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. If you would have Christ, reach
out and take Him. Well, I can't do that. Well,
go to hell then. As many as received Him. Received Him. Lay hold on eternal life. Come to the Savior. Buy without
money and without price, but come, buy of me, He said. Go up to the mountain, not up
to the mountain of Lebanon, not up to the mountain of Moriah,
but to the mountain of God itself or God himself in heaven from
which comes our help. Go to the mountain by faith.
I want you to hold your heads here and turn to Isaiah. Numerous times in the Old Testament,
Faith in Christ is spoken of in just this way, going up to
the mountain, going up to the mountain, going up to the mountain
of God. We'll just look at these in Isaiah,
but it's spoken of like this many times in the Old Testament.
Isaiah chapter two, verse two. And it shall come to pass in
the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it, shall flow
unto it. Not everybody in all nations,
but folks out of all nations. And many people shall go and
say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to
the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways.
And we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth
the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Those exact words
are given again in Micah chapter 4. Turn to Isaiah 25. Isaiah
25. Verse 6. In this mountain shall the Lord
of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things. A feast
of wines on leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on leaves
well refined. Oh man, I go to supper like that.
We just ate one, didn't we? That's the gospel feast. And
He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast
over all the people and the veil that is spread over all nations.
He takes the veil away. He will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces. Well, this is talking about heaven's
glory. No, not quite. Over in Revelation,
it says He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. That's
not what it says here. It says He'll wipe away tears
from all the faces of those who come to Him in this mountain.
We'll still have some tears. But all the tears he wipes away,
and this is what it is, and the rebuke of his people shall he
take away from off all the earth. That which was my embarrassment
and my shame, my sin, my rebuke, my guilt, he took away. For the
Lord has spoken it, verse 9, and it shall be said in that
day, This is our God. We've waited
for him. And he will save us. This is
the Lord. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice
in his salvation. I have a man in our congregation,
Brother Bobby Estes, married one of our ladies, started coming
to church. He'd been religious all his life. He came once in
a while, not often, just once in a while. And one Sunday morning,
I announced I was going to begin a series of messages on the doctrines
of grace. I'm going to preach that Tuesday night God's sovereignty
started out. Bobby showed up and God got him. I preached as best I know how
to preach it about the great supreme excellency of our God. And he went home, this is what
he said to his wife. He said, that's what God is. I've heard about God all my life,
but I've never heard tell of Him. That's what God is. Isaiah
30, verse 29. Ye shall have a song as in the
night when a holy solemnity is kept, and gladness of heart as
when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the
Lord. to the mighty one of Israel.
Go up to the mountain, and before you get to the top of it, I guarantee
you, you're going to be singing and dancing in your soul. Go
up to the mountain, and you'll go up with joy as one with a
pipe to the mountain of God. Now, I mentioned to you a few
minutes ago the fact that the temple was built on Mount Moriah.
That mountain you find much earlier in Scripture. If I'm not mistaken,
it is the mountain upon which Abraham took his son and sacrificed
him to God in Genesis 22. Abraham left his servant at the
foot of the hill. And they said, I and the lad
will go yonder and worship Jehovah. And three days from now, we're
coming back. That's some statement. Abraham
going up there to kill his boy. And he said, three days from
now, I and the lad are coming back here, after we get done
worshiping God. And on the way up the hill, Isaac
said to his daddy, he said, daddy, we got the fire, we got the wood,
where's the lamb for a burnt offering? You told me all my
life, we can't worship God without a lamb, where's the sacrifice?
And Abraham looked at his boy and he said, my son, God will
provide himself a ram for a burnt offering. He didn't say God will
provide for himself. God will provide himself a ram
for a burnt offering. And Abraham went home, laid his
boy on the altar, tied him to the altar and drew back his knife,
getting ready to slit his throat. And the angel of God, the Lord
Jesus himself, caught his hand and said, Abraham, don't touch
that boy. And he looked and saw a ram caught in the thicket.
And he sacrificed the ram instead of his son. And he took his boy. Hugged him up close to him and
said, let's go home and tell Baba what God's done. And we'll
call the name of this place Jehovah-Jireh. In the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. Go up to the mountain! To the
mountain where God's seen in Mount Calvary. In Christ crucified
who sits upon the mountain of God in heaven. and bring wood,
bring the rich cedars, the non-decaying, unrotting cedars of His everlasting
love, His perfect righteousness, His redeeming blood. These are
the house, the church says in the song of Solomon, house is
beamed with cedar, the cedar of God's free grace in Christ.
Fetch to your soul the righteousness of Christ. Fetched to your soul,
blood atonement. Fetched to your soul, life eternal. You say, well, but you can't
dare tell sinners to do that. I just did. Well, nobody can. If you can, you can. If you can, you can. Lay hold
of the Son of God. Believe and live forever. Well,
don't you know, brother Don, if a man Believes on Christ,
he's already born again. Yeah, but he didn't. Isn't that right? Did you know that when you believed?
I didn't know that. I looked the same way. Look,
I got life. I got life. And found out he
gave it to me. I knew he gave it to me when
I looked to him. But I didn't know it was already there. By
faith, we hold Christ the King in the galleries of his house.
and He takes pleasure in us. Indeed, He calls us His chezibah,
His sweetheart, as He spreads His banner of love over us and
is married to us. And the Lord God promises to
every sinner who goes up to the mountain and builds his soul
on Jesus Christ, I will take pleasure in you. I will be satisfied with you.
I will be delighted with you. I'll be propitiated with you.
And he promises, I will be glorified. That's the reason God saves sinners.
Psalm 106 verse 8, I believe it is. Nevertheless, he saved
them for his name's sake. for His name's sake. Oh, it glorifies
God to save sinners. It honors God to have mercy on
sinners. It's glorious to Him because
He delighteth in mercy. That Gadarene demoniac is a monument
of glorious grace. If God gets glory, In saving
sin, as Jeff Shuster, he sure must get glory from saving me.
I can identify with that. How about you? All right, here's
the third thing. This is God's word to His church
in every age. When I say church, I'm talking
about His church here, this local assembly. And I'm talking about
His church universally. And I'm talking about His church
in every locality. wherever men and women gather
in the name of Christ and worship God. It is God's word to Grace
Church down in San Jose, God's church, this Grace Church here,
God's church, that Grace Church in Dalles, God's church, the
Grace Church in Danville, God's church wherever it's found. This
is his word. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the
house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified. There's not but one reason for
the existence of a gospel church anywhere. Not but one reason. Guess what? Preach the gospel. That's all. What do you do for the old folks?
Preach the gospel to them. Old sinners need the same grace
as young sinners do. What do you do for young folks? Preach
the gospel to them. Somebody said to one of our men,
well, he got married to this old man, married a gal who wasn't
interested. And she said, it's not even fun
to go to your church. He said, I didn't know it was supposed to be fun. We're going to worship God. The
church is not an entertainment center. We're not here to entertain
sinners on the road to hell. This is not a political center.
This is not a place where we rally politics in the moral majority
or the immoral majority. They're the same, you know. No. No. This is a preaching center.
That's the whole purpose of a local church. This is why we do what
we do. I go somewhere almost every week.
Grace Church in Danville sends me the length and breadth of
this country every week. I take a missionary trip at least
one almost every year preaching the gospel. Every dime
that comes in, Every dime that comes in goes out preaching the
gospel. We send out the gospel by tape,
by CD, by DVD, by radio, by television, through the internet. We send
it out in literature and books all over the world every day,
every day. Well, how would you do that?
Because God has some people in this world whom he's chosen to
everlasting life, who've been redeemed by the precious blood
of his darling son. A people whom he shall call at
the appointed time of love. A people whom he will save by
his grace and blessed be his name in his infinite wisdom and
grace. He's chosen to do it by the use
of such things as we are. By the foolishness of preaching. By the foolishness of preaching.
I said not by foolish preaching. Let me tell you something, it
is in the eyes of everybody who doesn't believe. No point in
trying to make it look like it's not foolish preaching. And by
the foolishness of preaching, he confounds the wisdom of the
world. By the foolishness of preaching,
not arguing, not debating, not philosophizing. Brother Tom's
here tonight talking to somebody, preacher going and teaching history.
Man alive, go get a life. Go get a life. And if the preacher's
sitting here, go get a life! God didn't send anybody to teach
history. He sends preachers to preach
Christ, to preach the gospel of God's free grace. Well, that
offends me. You offend God. And that which
offends God offends me. And it's high time we told it
plain. God sends men to preach the gospel of his grace, and
he uses the preaching of the gospel to give life to dead sinners. Without it, no man can have faith.
Without it, no man can believe God. Without the preaching of
the gospel, no one is born again. We send missionaries around the
world, do what we can to support them and try to help them because
God saves sinners by the foolishness of preaching. And he takes such
things as you find sitting right here, nothing much. Not many mighty, not many noble,
but the base, the nobodies, the all scouring of the earth. to
bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in
His presence, that the excellency of the glory may be of God and
not of us. Paul spoke of his sufferings,
his afflictions to the Colossians, and he said, I'm fulfilling that
which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for His body's sake. I can't begin to grasp a tithe
of what that says, but I know it says at least this much. God Almighty has made me an instrument by
which He fulfills the satisfaction of His Son's soul travail. Go up to the Fetch the wood,
build my house. I'll take pleasure in it, and
I will be glorified. Old John Warburton used to pray
like this, Lord, oh Lord, will you speak
through this rusty, dirty, empty, broken pipe. And God Almighty speaks life
to sinners through rusty, dirty, empty, broken pipes. That's His pleasure. Well, Brother
Don, how can we do that? How can we build God's house? Go up to the very throne of grace
and fetch the wood, the cedars of Lebanon, and build his house
by prayer and supplication. Build his house by maintaining
a public ministry of the word in this place and wherever God
has put you. Build his house, sending out
missionaries, sending out men to preach the gospel of God's
grace. Mr. Spurgeon once said to a young
man, he was concerned about going to, I forgot whether it was Wales
or Ireland. He wanted to go preach and he
was concerned. They're considered, Wales and
Ireland, both kind of barbaric places. And how will I live? He said, you go and God will
keep bread and butter on the table. God will keep bread and
butter on the table. You know what I found out? God
keeps bread and butter and sometimes throws in gravy and biscuits. He took care of His own. How
do we build His house? Publish the Gospel. Look here. Look here. We found bread, and
drink, and silver, and gold, and brand new clothes. Don't
hide them! We've found good tidings! Go tell the whole house of the
King what good things we've found here. That's what you're talking
about. Go tell it. Go tell it. He says to us, as he said to
the gathering of old, go home to thy friends and tell them
how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion
on thee. That's why he left us here. Now
look at the promise he gives. I will take pleasure in it. I'll take pleasure in the work. I'll take pleasure in the mean
Jews that please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. I'll take pleasure in the result. My house will be
built. I will be glorified. And down
in verse 13, he says, I'm with you. Our master said to his disciples,
peace be unto you, as my father hath sent me, even so send I
you. And he breathed on us his spirit. Gene Harmony sent us here for
the same purpose. He was sent here to save his
people from their sin. Boy, that doesn't sound like
sovereign grace to me. Well, you need to learn what sovereign
grace sounds like. God saves sinners by the preaching of the
gospel. And it is your responsibility
and mine to devote ourselves to it just exactly like the Son
of God devoted himself to it. That's a challenge to me every
day that I live. Every day that I live. He said,
you're my witnesses. You have a missionary sitting
back yonder. Let me tell you something. We've got just as
many missionaries in this house as we've got believers in this
house. Ye are my witnesses. That word witness, if you were to write it out in
English, just transliterate the word. The word is martyr. You are my martyrs. Do you know what a martyr is?
That's somebody who burned at the stake. No. No. Lots of folks were burned at
the stake who weren't his martyrs. That's exactly right. But what
does it mean, martyr? A martyr is a person who willingly
lays down his life in a cause more important than his life. And the cause of Christ is more
important than your life or mine. Come. God, give us grace. Come and lay down our lives every
day for him who laid down his life for us. When Haggai delivered his message,
down in verse 14, God stirred up the people. He stirred up
Zerubbabel. He stirred up the spirit of Joshua and stirred
up the remnant of the people. They said, let's get to work.
Let's get to work! God said he'd take pleasure in
it. God said he would be glorified. God said he'd do it. Let's get
to work. I've been preaching the gospel
of God's free grace now. for 41 years, 41 years. And I want to tell you the truth.
I've never been as excited about preaching as I am right now.
I've never been more full of expectation about what God's
doing in the building of his kingdom in the spread of the
gospel. I call on you who are God's children
to go everywhere with everything you have in your possession,
telling sinners how great things the Lord's done for you and how
he's had compassion on you. And stand back and watch God
work. Amen.