My text tonight will be Haggai
chapter 1 and verse 8. The title of my message, Go Up
to the Mountain. But before I look at Haggai 1
verse 8, I want to remind you of an incident recorded in Mark
the 5th chapter. Turn there for a minute if you
will. The Lord Jesus has just healed
the Gadarene demoniac by his great mercy and grace. I cannot imagine a more pitiful
sight than the sight of that Gadarene, wild, fearsome, filthy, naked,
running to and fro among the tombs, living in a graveyard,
cutting himself. That was the man's life. So wild,
he was completely shut out from society, shut out from family. And I cannot imagine a more delightful
sight than the sight of that man a moment later. The Lord Jesus made him whole
by the saving power of his grace, made him whole from the inside
out. He healed his heart and soul and healed him of all his
outward difficulties. And we see him sitting at the
Savior's feet as the Savior taught in the coast of Gadara, clothed
and in his right mind. Can you imagine anything more
delightful? And the folks who were merchants
in the city, religious people, merchants in the city whose hogs
the demons destroyed, who were trying to destroy that elect
sinner, when they saw the Gadarene, when they saw the Gadarene sitting
at the Savior's feet, clothed And in his right mind, the scripture
says they were afraid. Now they're terrified. They didn't
have any idea what was going on. Well, the Lord Jesus is about
to leave the coast of Gadara, and in verse 18, we read, when
he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with
the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Lord, let me go with you. I can't think of anything more
reasonable, can you? Grace had wrought a wonderful change in
this man. Just a few minutes before, he was a terror to everybody,
and now he is so composed in his soul and so set upon Christ
that he desires never to be parted from his Savior's blessed company. His heart is fixed upon his Redeemer. He wants to be in the Savior's
company permanently. I think I can safely say that's
the case with every heaven-born soul. A sinner who's experienced the
grace of God. I'm not talking about good moral
folks who've got a dose of religion. I'm talking about a sinner who
has experienced the grace of God, the transforming power of
God's free grace in Christ Jesus, being turned by omnipotent mercy
from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God. that he may in Christ receive
the forgiveness of sins. Every saved sinner desires, as
Paul put it, to depart and be with Christ. We've tasted that the Lord is
gracious. And here we've just tasted it. What must await us when we sit
before him in his glory. No wonder Paul said, I, I'm in
a straight between two. I have a desire to depart and
be with Christ. And I know that to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord, but for now I
need to stay here, minister to you. We desire like this Gadarene
to be with him. But the Lord Jesus refused to
grant this man his request. Look at the next verse. He said, Lord, let me go with
you. Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not. But saith unto him,
go home to thy friends and tell them 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 Savior would bring him
home to himself, but there was an appointed work for him to
do, an appointed people for him to minister to, an appointed
message for him to declare. And until his work was done,
until he had served the purpose for which the Son of God put
him on this earth, he must abide among his own in that town of
Gadara and tell them how great things the Lord had done for
him. Not just what he'd done, but
how he'd done it. And how the Lord had had compassion upon
him. That's precisely the reason our
God has left us in this world. I think I told you last week
about a conversation Darwin and I had years ago, years ago, and
he made this observation. I can't think of any reason why
God leaves us here except to be his witnesses. We are right now fit to be made,
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. We're
already made fit. There is not one thing yet to
be done for us, for us to enter into glory. Not one thing, not
one thing. Our Lord Jesus by his blood has
taken away our sin. so that we are without sin before
God Almighty. Our Savior, by his righteousness,
has fulfilled all righteousness for us and has imputed his righteousness
to us so that we stand before God righteous. Not only that,
he has sent his spirit to us. He himself has come into us in
the new birth, giving us a righteous nature. that very nature with
which we cannot, without which we cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. He has made us who were filthy, clean. He has made us
who were impure, pure. He has made us who were nothing
but sin, perfect righteousness. The only thing lacking is to
take off this robe. That's all. That's all. Well,
why did he leave us here? He left us here that we may go
and tell neighbor and family and friend how the Lord has had
compassion on us and how great things he has done for us. Saved sinners are to go home
to their unsaved friends and show forth the praises of him
who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And
we're to do so until we have fulfilled the purpose and finished
the work for which God set us in this world to begin with. I don't know about you, but I
like to think and think often about this fact. God Almighty. Who created all things for himself? Created me. and put me in this world. With
all the circumstances surrounding me. With all that is in me and
all about me. With all that has brought me
to this place. He put me here. To have mercy on me. And to use
me for something. To use me for something. Imagine
that. God using you for something. To use me for something. And mortals are immortal here
until their work is done. Now with that as the background,
turn to Haggai chapter 1. I want us to read this text and
read it in three ways. I'm convinced that all three
are exactly as the Spirit of God intends it to be read. We
will read it as it was given as God's word to his people,
Judah, the children of Israel. We will read it given as God's
word to you and me, individually and personally. And we'll read
it as God's word to you and me, his church. his people collectively
in this world. First, this is God's word to
Judah. His ancient people whom he delivered
out of Babylon. Go up to the mountain. And bring wood. And build the
house that I will take build the house and I will take pleasure
in it. And I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Now remember,
and it's so important that you remember this, the children of
Israel had been in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. The Lord
graciously delivered them from that captivity and sent them
back to Jerusalem with a specific task to perform. He said, you
go back to Jerusalem and build again the holy city and build
again my house. That's the reason he sent them
back there, to reestablish his house and his worship in a public
way, building again the temple the Babylonians had destroyed.
Now, look what it says. Go up to the mountain. Haggai, I suppose, was either
standing and pointing to the mountain of Lebanon, or perhaps
to Mount Moriah on which the temple itself was built. And
he says, go up to the mountain. And God requires that of you. Cut down the great cedars and
bring them down from the mountain for the building of my house,
the temple. Go to the mountain and fetch
these cedars, the undecaying, uncorrupting wood in the mountains
of Lebanon, the great cedars that were rafters in the house
and fetch them down here to build my house. He said, bring wood
and build the house. The foundation was laid, laid
by the hand of God before the very eyes of his people. Now,
the Lord God says, you who have so long neglected the building
of the house. You who have spent your time
and energy and money and labor and thought in building things
for yourselves, now neglect no more the building of my house,
but rather go up to the mountains and fetch the wood down here
and build my house. The Lord commanded his negligent
people to devote themselves to something more noble. than other
men seek. To devote themselves to something
more worthy than riches and business and politics and raising a family
and being respected in society and making a name for themselves.
Go fetch the wood and devote yourself to the business of building
my house. He would have them with utmost
diligence, with vigor and speed to perform this work and never
to stop or even pause until the work was finished. Now watch
this next word, and I will take pleasure in it. Perhaps the intent is this, since
this house is a type and picture of Christ my son, the one who
is the savior of my people, the one who shall come and redeem
my people, who shall himself come into this house as he comes
to fulfill the law in the very beginning of his life on this
earth and be circumcised in this house where he will be recognized
as God's salvation by God's people. I'll take pleasure in this house
because it's typical of him who is the true temple of God. the
sentence might be translated like this I will be satisfied
or propitiated in it satisfied or propitiated in that
temple now it's possible it's possible he might be referring
to the physical temple that they were physically building but
I don't think so remember the mercy seat the Urim and the Thummim
The constantly burning lights were never found in the second
temple. There was no place for the Paschal Lamb's blood to be
sprinkled because the mercy seat was never brought into it. In
that second temple, there was no place for propitiation to
be made. So clearly, if we translate the sentence this way, and it
could very accurately be translated, I will be satisfied or propitiated
in it. He's clearly talking about Jesus
Christ, our Lord. the true temple of God in and
by whom propitiation is made. The true temple of God by whom
God Almighty has put away the sins of his people. The Lord
Jesus takes pleasure and is propitiated in him who is the propitiation
of our sins. Again, the Lord may here refer
not to the temple, but he might be referring to the work itself.
He says you go and go up to the mountains and fetch the wood
and bring it here and build my house and I will take pleasure
in this work that you perform. You mean God will take pleasure
in a man taking a saw and an axe and a hammer and nails and
building a physical house? If you do it for his glory, he
will. If you do it for his glory, take pleasure in the building
of a physical structure. He said, I'll take pleasure in
it because this is according to my mind and my will. This
is what I have set you to do. He promised his people that he
would take pleasure in their work and accept their work as
he accepts them." Again, the words, I will take pleasure in
it, perhaps, refer to the worship of his people in his house. I'm
inclined to think it refers to all these things. He said, I
will take pleasure in it. I'll be perpetuated. I will be
satisfied. I'll take pleasure in you. I'll
take pleasure in your work. and I'll take pleasure in your
worship of me in my house. I will accept you and take pleasure
of you. Because we in God's true temple,
in Christ Jesus the Lord, are accepted of God and here we worship
Him. And then the Lord says, and I
will be glorified, saith the Lord. You go do this thing. I created
you, I brought you out of Babylon, I sent you here to build my house
for my glory. That's all I created you for.
That's the only thing I created you for, to build my house for
my glory. You go do this and I will be
glorified. What a word. That was God's word
to Judah by his prophet Haggai. But this is God's word to us. I mean by that, this is God's
word to you and me personally and individually. 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 we would have the God of glory
to take pleasure in us as his temple. Remember he said, come
out from among them, be you separate, saith the Lord, and I will be
your God. I'll be a father to you. If we would have God to
take pleasure in us as his temple, to love us and come to us and
make his abode with us as our Savior said he would in John
14. If we would have God Almighty to come dwell in us and walk
in us as he promises in 2 Corinthians 6. If we would have God to be
glorified in us. We must go up to the mountain.
Not to the Mount of Lebanon, Not even to the Mount Moriah,
but to the mountain of God by faith and fetch the wood with
which to build his house. I want you to turn to a few passages. Let's stay in Isaiah there. I
could turn to many others, but turn to, or let's go back to
Isaiah and stay there and look at Isaiah chapter two. You might think, well, brother
Don, you're sure played loose with this text. I don't think
so. Faith in Christ is often spoken
of figuratively in Old Testament scripture of going up to a mountain. Look at it, Isaiah chapter 2,
verse 2. 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 unto it. And many people shall go
and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us 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. Isaiah
25, verse 6. And 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. And he will destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering cast over the people and the veil
that spread over the nations. And he will swallow up death
in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces. And the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord has spoken
it. And it shall be said in that
day, in that day when you come up to the mountain of God, to
the feast of fat things, of wine upon leaves well refined, when
God takes away your reproach. forgives your sin, wipes tears
from your eyes. It shall come to pass in that
day. They will say low. This is our
God. We have waited for him and he
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice and his salvation. Isaiah 30. Verse 29. You remember Brother David singing
Psalm 121 to us so often? I will lift up mine eyes into
the hills from which cometh my help. My help cometh from the
Lord. That's what I'm talking about.
Isaiah 30, 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. You remember I mentioned just
a moment ago that the temple was built on Mount Moriah. Do you remember where you first
meet up with that mountain? It's in Genesis 22. Abraham is
taking his son Isaac up to the Mount Moriah. He said to his
servant, as God commanded him, I and the lad will go yonder
and worship God. We'll come back here in three
days. And he went up with Isaac to Mount Moriah. And as they're
going up to the mountain where Abraham sacrificed his son to
the Lord God, his son carrying the wood on his back and the
fire in his hand, he said, Daddy, You taught me all my life the
only way we can worship God is through a blood sacrifice, even
a lamb. Where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. Larry Brown, he flat believed
that. He said to a servant, he said,
I and the lad are going up yonder. He didn't say to the servant,
I'm going to go up there and kill that boy. But he said to a servant,
I and the lad are going to go up yonder to the mountain. I'm
going to kill it. And in three days, I'm coming
back down here with this boy because God will provide a sacrifice. He said, my son, the Lord will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And they're going up
the mountain. And Isaac had enough sense to
know his daddy believed God. He knew it. There's no stopping
him. Daddy believed God. And they
got up there, and Isaac stretched out on the altar, and Abraham
raises his knife, and God says, stop. Don't touch that boy. And Abraham
looked, and there was a ram caught in the thicket. He said, sacrifice
that instead. And he sacrificed that lamb,
that ram. And as he and Isaac went down from Mount Moriah,
he said, let's call this, let's call this mountain, let's call
this place Jehovah-Jireh. For in the mount of the Lord,
it shall be seen. The Lord will provide. He will
provide himself a sacrifice. He will provide for his people,
and he will be seen in that provision. And here, I'm confident Haggai
has in his mind's eye that very sacrifice of which Abraham spoke. He says, go up to the mountain.
Go up to the mountain. If we would be saved, accepted,
well-pleasing to God, we must go up to the mountain of God,
go up to Mount Calvary by faith, and bring the non-decaying cedars
of his everlasting love, his perfect righteousness, and his
redeeming blood as beams for our house, building upon Christ
himself the foundation God has laid by faith. We take the king and hold him
in the galleries of his house. And he spreads over us the banner
of love and takes pleasure in us. He calls us his Hephzibah,
his sweetheart, his Samaritan. And I see no spot in you. And
the Lord God promises to all who go up to the mountain and
build on Christ. I will take pleasure in you." The publican cried, God, be propitiated
to me, the sinner. And the Lord God said back here
in Haggai 1.8, long time before he ever prayed it, I will be
propitiated in you. I will be pleased with you. I
will be satisfied with you in my son. And he promises, oh,
what a promise this is. I will be glorified in you. I will be glorified in saving
you. That's great. And I won't say this is better,
but it's just as good. Darwin, he says, I'll be glorified
in you. I created you for my glory, he
said. I will be glorified in you. Imagine that. Imagine that. If we're His. If I am His. If Oscar Bailey is His. God Almighty
has promised I will be glorified in you. In you personally. In the totality of your existence. In your life. In all that I do
for you, with you, and in you, I will be glorified in you. All right, third. Let's look
at the text one more time. This is God's word to his people
in every age, collectively. His word to his church. Go up
to the mountain and bring wood. Build the house and I will take
pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord It is our great privilege and
responsibility It is the purpose For which God Almighty has put
us in this world in this generation It is the reason God has left
us here, and it is the reason he continues to leave us here.
It is our privilege and responsibility to build God's house, to build
his church, to seek the salvation of his people. Now, I know brilliant,
hard-nosed, Strong Calvinists who think they are stronger Calvinists
than anybody. Well, we can't have that. The
Lord Jesus builds his church. Yes, he does. Aren't you glad?
Me too. I'm fully aware of that. And
I'm fully aware, Rex Bartley, that he only builds his church
by the use of such things as you and I are. He builds his church using saved
sinners to fetch other saved sinners to him. To fetch sinners
whom he would save to him. Using saved sinners to go up
to the mountain and bring the wood to build his house. God sent us here for the saving
of his elect. He said, other sheep I have,
them also I must bring. And he uses us to gather them. I'm not interested, nor am I
seeking the conversion and salvation of the world. I'm seeking the salvation of
God's elect. That's what this congregation
has been is and I trust shall continue to be utterly devoted
to. This is why we do the things
we do. This is why we conduct our services
the way we conduct our services, preaching the gospel. This is
why we do nothing else. This is why you send your pastor
somewhere almost every week, length and breadth of this country.
We're seeking the salvation of God's elect. This is why we send
the gospel around the world. By whatever means God puts at
our disposal, we're seeking the salvation of God's elect. This
is why we send out missionaries to establish churches. We're
seeking the salvation of God's elect. I know that the Lord Jesus
Christ has a people in this world called his elect. I know that
he laid down his life for them and redeemed them. Know that
his people he will at the appointed time of love called by his grace
and I know That he'll do it through the preaching of the gospel Turn to first Corinthians chapter
1 The gospel is the power of God
under salvation It's often called that. In 2 Corinthians, the apostle
calls it something different. He calls it a treasure. He said,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels. God Almighty has taken
the treasure of his grace, the treasure of the gospel, And Billy
put it in our hands. He's trusted it to us. Brother Frank was asking me before
anybody else got here tonight, if I remember the first sermon
I ever preached, and I do. And he said, were you nervous?
And I said, not like I am now, but scared to death. Difference being then I was nervous
because I was embarrassed before men at my ignorance. Now I'm nervous because I fear
God. I want to honor him. Imagine how fearful you would
be if you were responsible to take the treasured possession
of any man, carry it openly in your hand amongst thieves and
robbers all the time. We have this treasure, the treasure
of heaven. God's put it in our hands. He's
trusted it to us. That the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Now look at it. First Corinthians
1, 18. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. So instead of having the preaching
of the cross, we'll have movies and skits and plays. We'll have
gospel singing conventions, and we'll have all the tomfoolery
that goes on in the name of religion. Because the preaching of the
cross is foolishness to them that perish. But to us who are
saved, it's the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The Jews require
a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified. The Jews don't like it, Gentiles
don't either, but that's what we preach. He's a stumbling block
to religious fools and his foolishness to irreligious fools. But to
them which are called, and those are the ones we're looking for,
aren't they? We preach Christ crucified. Oh,
but you're a pastor who doesn't have any credentials. None to
count for you. What have you got to offer? Nothing.
Not a thing that you want. Nothing you're interested in.
What do y'all do down at your church? We preach Christ crucified.
I mean, what do you do? And what do you do for excitement?
What do you do to get folks in? What do you do to get a crowd?
We preach Christ crucified and we ain't interested in the crowd.
You mean you're not interested in building a big church? No,
no, no. I am interested in building God's
church. We preach Christ crucified. Because Christ crucified is the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God, Christ crucified, is wiser than men. The weakness
of God, Christ crucified, is stronger than men. For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called. We were talking back
in the office about Spurgeon. He's a brilliant man, the exception,
not the rule. Most men God uses are like William
Huntington and John Warburton and Christmas Evans, or John the Baptist and Elijah,
me and nobody else even look at. Because God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the
weak things of the world, to confound the things which are
mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nothing
the things that are. And he does it for this reason,
so that you won't have anything to boast in, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom. and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. The Lord God commands us to go
up to the mountain, the very throne of his grace, and fetch
the wood, the elect cedars of Lebanon, to build his house. Brother Don, how can I do that? Devote yourself to the cause
of Christ in this world. No, Mary, you can't be a preacher. We won't allow that because God
won't allow that. But you can devote yourself to
the cause of Christ. But Brother Don, I'm confined
at home. What can I do? You can devote yourself to the
cause of Christ. Brother Don, I've got This thing
or that, take care of. You can devote yourself to the
cause of Christ. In prayer and supplication, fetch
the wood, the undecaying cedar, his elect to the Savior. You can take that which God puts
in your hand. Remember the kingdom of heaven
is compared to a man who takes his riches and divides them out
and gives his servants a talent. This one, this talent, this one,
this talent, this one, that talent. And says, go and use this now. Not for yourself. My talent. You go use that for me and bring
it back to me when I call for it. Take whatever talent God
puts in your head. And use it for the maintaining
of the public ministry of the word. the preaching of the gospel
in this place and wherever else such work is needed. And God
raises up a man to preach the word, support him with everything
you can. Send out missionaries to preach
the gospel of God's grace. Mr. Spurgeon used to say to preachers
that come to him, young fellows, I believe the Lord had me go
do this, go to that. I don't see how I can do that.
How can I go to Ireland and preach? I don't have any means of support.
Spurgeon said you go if God's called you to preach and we'll
keep bread and butter on the table and bread and butter is
all you need. Bread and butter is all you need.
Publish the gospel. Far and wide. Our Lord Jesus. Said you are my witnesses. You are my witnesses. Now, we think about a witness
as somebody who goes around and buttonholes folks to get them
to make a profession of faith. Old Brother B.B. Caldwell was
sitting out in a park in Greenville, South Carolina, when he was an
old man. And Greenville is down there where Bob Jones University
is, Arminian, free will worshiping, bunch of babbling religious fools.
And some of them wanted to go out doing their class assignments,
you know, got to get so many professions of faith every week.
And so out in the park witnessing the folks, trying to get them
to say, I believe in Jesus. And he's out there feeding pigeons,
and they came along and bothered him. And he said, sir, can we
ask you a question? And he said, well, yeah, if you
want to. One of them said to him, said,
are you saved? He threw some food out to the pigeons and looked
up at them. He's, well, if I ain't, what are you two goober heads
going to do about it? Pretty good way to handle it.
With contempt. Witnesses aren't folks who try
to twist somebody's arm and get them to make a confession of
faith. Do you know where the word witness comes from? Again, it's one of those Greek
words, if we were to write it out in English, just as it is like
baptism or the power Dynamite, the word witness is martyr. A martyr. A martyr is a person
who chooses to lay down his life for a cause he considers more
important than his life. That's what our master says to
you. You are my witnesses now. You lay down your life every
day.