Here in Haggai chapter one, Haggai
is dealing with the subject of the Lord's temple. Do you remember
the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah? Whenever they came
back from Babylon, Nehemiah was responsible for building the
wall back around Jerusalem. Do we remember that? Ezra was
responsible for building the temple back in Jerusalem. Well,
the work on the temple stopped after the wall had been built. The work on the temple had stopped
completely. They were safe and sound and
they just quit. This was the whole reason for them returning
from Babylonian captivity is to reestablish worship. And yet,
when the wall was finished, when they were safe and sound, they
stopped. They stopped building the wall. I shuddered at the thought of
us quitting. of us stopping the work that the Lord's given us
to do. The scripture calls it a good work. Preaching the word
is a good work. This gospel that we declare is
a good work, and it's not that we do it for our righteousness. We do it, we're called to it,
and it's our responsibility to uphold this gospel, to stay true
to this gospel, be faithful into it, and pray that the Lord keeps
us doing that, or we're gonna end up just like Judah. We'll
quit. How many people have you seen in your life that will come
for a little while and then they'll depart or they'll show interest
for some time and then they'll depart. May the Lord keep us
from quitting. Longevity is a very rare thing
because the Lord is the one that must do it. May he cause us to
reach the finish line, which is Christ. May we never quit
on the Lord. He will be the doer of it, but
we should cry out for that. Some men in their zeal might
say, well, I'll never quit. I'll never quit. I've heard the
good news and I'll never depart. Isn't that what Peter said? Peter
said, Lord, all these may leave you. Oh yeah. That person may
leave you and that disciple may leave you. I'll never leave you.
I'll go with you all the way. I'll die with you, Lord. And
what did the Lord say to Peter? Get behind me, Satan. Why did
he say that? Because it was demonic thinking
that Peter had in looking to his flesh as his strength, looking
to his flesh that had the ability to go with Christ unto death.
Oh, our flesh is weak. Scripture tells us that the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. What happened whenever
the oven got hot, so to speak, with Peter? He hid behind his
lies, didn't he? I don't know who he is. I don't
know what you're talking about. No, I don't affiliate with him. He lied, didn't he? No, I know
not the man. The Lord calls us to have no
confidence in the flesh, keep us, keep us from ourself. Now, just like Judah, they were
overconfident, they were comfortable, they were happy. Now, Peter had
zeal in the presence of Christ just as You can imagine these
people had a lot of zeal when they had started the temple.
We're rebuilding the temple. Yes, we get to do this. And they
were excited and it was new and they were out of Babylonian captivity
and yet they became comfortable little by little until the work
stopped completely. They were comfortable in their
houses, weren't they? The works of their hands. And because of
this, it tells us here in this chapter, the Lord stopped blessing
their efforts. As they would go and plant, the
Lord would not give the increase as he formerly did. As they would
go and look for on their vineyards, they wouldn't have the fruit
that they used to have on their vineyards. When they look for
the money that they were supposed to earn, it would be less than
what it used to be. And it was declining. Why? Because they
didn't value the Lord's worship. They were comfortable. May the
Lord dry up our resources, if that's what it takes in order
to cause us to value his worship. May the Lord make us mercy beggars
unto him, however he must do it. Whatever it must take, we
can't be found without the Lord's worship. This is, this is life
and death. And these people, they devalued
it, didn't they? Much like Haggai, Paul addresses
this issue of having a zeal, but not according to knowledge.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Hold your place in Haggai. Romans chapter 10 and verse 1
tells us, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."
If anybody could testify to the zeal that the Jews had, it would
have been Paul. He tells us his pedigree, that
he was of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, he
dotted every I, he crossed every T, concerning the law, blameless.
He's saying, I know they have a zeal because I had a zeal.
I had an excitement. I had a determination. I had
a fire about me when it pertained to God, but it wasn't according
to knowledge. Verse three, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own
righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now understand
this is exactly what everyone will do if they're left to themselves.
They'll establish their own righteousness in some way, in some shape, and
in some form. It'll be about the law to some
degree. Taste not, touch not, handle
not. This is what the Jews had did here in Romans. And they make lies their refuge.
That's what Isaiah tells us. We have made lies our refuge
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Our deceitful heart
is really, really good at deceiving us, isn't it? Our deceitful heart
is very deceitful above all things, is what the scripture says. That
means above all things. It's the most deceitful, isn't
it? Our heart, that's the problem. Our heart's deceitful above all
things, and we will establish a righteousness of our own. We
will be comfortable in our houses. We will be comfortable in our
place of refuge, thinking that we're safe, and yet not worshiping
God in spirit and in truth unless his preacher, comes and declares,
and I'm not talking about this preacher, I'm talking about the
Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit comes and reveals. We gotta have Christ. We've gotta have Christ. That's
why David said, examine me, oh Lord, and prove me. Try my reins
and my heart. Lord, I see that I'll deceive
myself if you allow it. Have mercy upon me, the sinner.
I'll deceive myself all the way to hell. I don't need the devil's
help in that. Lord, you're going to have to do a work in the heart.
You're going to have to make worship the top priority in my life,
or I'm going to be left to myself, left to myself, and I'll wind
up in hell. I'll deceive myself. Thanks be to God. The gospel
doesn't allow deceit, does it? Gospel doesn't allow deceit.
The gospel is truth. The gospel is truth. Someone
says, I don't understand what you believe. Somebody told me
that recently. I don't understand what you believe. I said, yes,
you do. You just choose not to believe it. You know exactly
what I'm saying. That's what I told the individual.
And they did. They could repeat every word that I said. They
chose not to believe it. But the gospel is simple, isn't
it? The gospel is very simple. The whole truth is very simple.
It's not complicated. There's zero ignorance when it
comes to his gospel, whether it's willful or whether it's
passive. If someone hears it with these
ears, they know it. They know it. It's offensive
to the flesh. And if they choose not to believe, they are completely
guilty. And if they believe, it's because God made it so.
It's because the Lord did it. God's gospel is simple. He elected
a people out of love. I was reminded of John 3.16 this
week while studying this, and it says, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. He didn't give his son in
order to love his people. Think about that. He didn't give
His Son in order to love His people. He loved His people and
therefore gave His Son that He might be the propitiation for
them. Have you ever thought of that? He's always seen us in
Christ. He loved us. And then He sent
His Son in the form of flesh, His elect, His sheep, those whom
He chose. When we were dead in trespasses
and in sin, the scripture says, when we were dead, and trespasses
and in sin, God committeth his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Because of the love Christ
had for his father and his bride, he honored his father by redeeming,
redeeming his people, successfully redeeming them, purging their
sin by his own blood, the scripture tells us. Now in time, the spirit
regenerates those whom Christ loves, whom Christ lived for,
for whom Christ endured hell on the cross for, for whom Christ
died for and whom the father resurrected in his son. When
Christ was resurrected, all those who were in Christ were resurrected
with him. Now there is therefore no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Father hath declared them as
sinless. I love the thought that he'd done that before the foundation
of the world, declared them sinless before the foundation of the
world. Isn't that a mystery? You see yourself as sinful? Boy,
I do. How can it be that we were sinless before the foundation
of the world. We've always been in Christ.
Always been in his darling son. See, there's no glory for man
in this gospel. He gets all the glory in this gospel. And this
gospel is the only gospel that'll save. This gospel is the only
one that'll set a man or a woman free. Free from the law, free
from the bonds of sin, free from self, free from Satan, and shut
us up to Christ. What mercy there is in not letting
us deceive ourselves. What grace is there that we are
made to hear by his spirit? Proverbs 20 tells us, the hearing
ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.
Someone said, yeah, but he was talking about the flesh there,
the hearing of the ear of the flesh and the seeing of the eye
of the flesh. Now he's talking about the spirit too, isn't he? The
man or a woman is going to see, or a man or a woman is going
to hear, he is the doer of it, period. He does all the work. does all the choosing, did all
the saving, does all the calling, gets all the glory. That takes
us out of the equation, don't it? Lord's people like it that
way. Thank God for the simplicity
of God's gospel, free and sovereign grace to his people. Now by his
grace, by this same grace and in mercy, he sends a preacher
to Judah named Haggai. to remind them of the importance
of this gospel, to remind them of the importance of worship.
Understand, in the Old Testament, it took the same faith. We heard
this Wednesday night. It took the same faith in the
Old Testament as it does in the New. There wasn't a certain kind
of faith in the Old Testament, and then there was a certain
kind of faith in the New Testament that differed. Paul was very
clear. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That's as
simple as it can be, right? So they had the same faith in
the Old Testament. What is that faith? It's the
faith of Christ. That's what their ordinances
did. That's what the sacrifices represented was the Lord Jesus
Christ and the necessity of the blood atonement, the necessity
of a high priest that could enter into the holy place once a year.
They couldn't. They could worship afar off. We'll hear that in
the next hour. They couldn't draw nigh unto
the Lord. But through the eyes of faith, they looked ahead to
the cross and they worshiped the Lord. And this is what Haggai
was responsible in telling them to remind them of in the temple.
This is what the temple represented. The temple was much smaller than
the original temple. We know this by reading, and
I'm giving you this because if we read the whole thing, we would
lose attention. I'm short minded when it comes
to listening, and I'm certain that some of you are as well.
I'd rather kind of paraphrase and explain it to you the best
I can. Pray the Lord will give us understanding. The temple
was much smaller than the original. Solomon's temple was immaculate. It was the very first temple
that was built unto the Lord. Prior to that, it was just tabernacle. And a tabernacle literally means
something that they would tear down and something they would
erect. It wasn't a permanent dwelling place. But the Lord placed on
the heart of David to erect a temple unto the Lord. He told David,
he said, no, you're a bloody man of war. You can't build my
temple. I'm gonna let you gather everything
though, everything. And your son's gonna build the
temple. What a picture of the Lord providing everything and
the son fulfilling the work. Isn't that a beautiful picture?
But we see that Solomon was the one that built the temple and
it was immaculate, all the gold, all the things that they had.
Now this cessation of work on this temple, the smaller one,
was foretold by Jeremiah, and he said it'd be 70 years before
you would start work on it again. So Judah was sitting around literally
making the excuse, well, the 70 years aren't up yet, so we
can't really start work yet. And that was their response to
Haggai whenever Haggai brings it to their attention. Haggai doesn't say, yeah, you
know, you're right. We don't want to look like a bunch of
Armenians over here working our way to heaven. He didn't say
that. He didn't say, well, you know,
we should be more like antinomians and do nothing. We'll just do
nothing and it'll take care of itself in time. No, he didn't
say that either, did he? So what should we do as the Lord's
people? What should we do? When it comes to salvation, nothing.
It's finished. But what should we do as the
Lord's people according to the flesh? Whatever God said to do,
pray. pray. He told me, commands us
to pray, read scripture. He's commanded us to do so. Worship
him, sing psalms unto him, the scriptures. These are commands
of our Lord. And these are, these are benefits of being the Lord's
people. We don't do this for salvation to have favor with
God so that we obligate him like men and women do in religion.
That's not what we're trying to accomplish here today, is
it? We're not trying to obligate God to do anything for us. We
do it because God said so, but we do it because God first loved
us. We don't do it to earn God's
love. We do it because he loves us. Think about that. We don't
do what we do in worship to earn his love. We do it because he
said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. I also like the thought that we
do what we are told of the Lord because he said so. I like using
that term with my children. They'll come to me and they'll
say, I'll tell them, go do this. And they'll say, why? And I say,
because I said so. And that's the end of it. They
do what I say after that, they know not to rebuttal that they
know not to challenge that. That is my authority as their
father. And it was established very young when they had diapers
on still. And so they know is not an argument involved in that.
Well, when the Lord says something, aren't you glad? that he doesn't
just say it, but he causes us to do it. He causes us to do
it. And he says, because I said,
so you're going to do this. I will, and you shall. That's,
that's glorious. Lord, if I have an option, I'm
going to argue with you. I'm going to give you my two
cents, which ain't even worth that in his sight. Thanks be to God
for grace and mercy that causes his children to obey. Now, did
Haggai Water down the offense of the flesh to these people,
no. No, he addresses the problem. He addresses the problem. I wanna
read the first seven verses here. Haggai chapter one. In the second
year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day
of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet,
unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shilthiel. governor of Judah, and to Joshua,
the son of Josedek, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say the time has not come.
Remember, I just mentioned that. They're saying Jeremiah's time
has had not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? And this house lie waste? Now, therefore, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much and
bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough.
You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but
there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth
wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, consider your ways. They had become comfortable with
their houses being fixed. They had been comfortable with
the works of their hands, and now the Lord's not letting their
drinks satisfy them, nor their food satisfy them, nor their
clothing clothe them. And they were putting money into
their purse, but he says it was a purse of holes, wasn't it?
They were just running right through it. Never had enough. There's
a spiritual application to this, brethren, that we can see plainly. If sowing to the flesh, ye shall
of the flesh reap corruption. There's nothing that we can do
for salvation to please God. He's done it all. So doing any
work with our hand is displeasing unto the Lord. But Haggai has
given us a message about God's worship. About God's worship. These are the Lord's people.
This is Judah. This is his elect. And he's telling
us that consider my house. The house is in ruin. And he
says, consider your ways. That's what I've titled the message.
Consider your ways. I fear more often than not that
the physical blessings that we have and all the grace that the
Lord's given us. I was talking to a man, um, this
week from Africa and he is wanting some messages from our church
says he believes what we believe there's three or four of them.
And I've been talking to some other men in the gospel here in the
United States, and they've been in communication with them also,
but they're wanting some, uh, some messages. And so I got a
little flash drive and I put. I don't need 200 messages on
it probably from different preachers I have confidence in and I'm
going to send that to him. But he mentioned the poverty
that they had there and how that, and I won't give you all the
details, but it's sad to think that there's people that live
in such conditions and yet there's not one of us that's poor that's
present compared to what I heard about this man. And I've been
to foreign countries and seen poverty and things like that,
but how often does good things we take for granted cause us
to not cry out unto the Lord. Sometimes a blessing is really
a curse in some ways and physical blessings can be just that. Scripture
says our sin has separated us from God, but too many things
can take our, our focus off of him. Is that not true? How many
distractions do we have? I had a cell phone problem this
week and, uh, Cell phone's not a need, just so you all know.
We got by just fine with house phones before. But apparently
it's a need because I didn't know what to do with myself,
not being able to call somebody when I wanted to or check up
on them, see what my daughter's, she okay, whatever else. And
I realized it was a really big distraction from the Lord. My
studies, it was a problem working through the phone company, trying
to get everything fixed that I needed to get fixed. That was
taking me away from the studies I needed to be doing. So I put
the phone down and got done what I needed to do. And I didn't
have a phone literally for like two days, but I got, I got the
study and that's the most important. That was the most important thing.
And I realized these little good things that we think sometimes
can be a distraction. How often are we distracted in
this world? every day, every moment. Lord, I need you to bring
me back to yourself now. And now and now I'm going to
be distracted again. I'm going to forget about your
worship again. Is this not us by nature? Oh,
I was convicted when reading this because I know that I want
to be more thankful. I want to praise him as I ought
to but yet left to myself for a brief moment. I'll just be
kicked back in my house. Content. with everything around
me, not really worried about the worship of the Lord. That's
a scary thought, isn't it? Lord, don't let that be me. Don't
let me do that. Cause it to be needful. Cause your worship to be needful.
Cause me to ask, is it I? And if we're honest, every day
the cares of this world distract us from Him, don't they? The
cares of our flesh distract us from Him. We have an adversary
that's constantly throwing fiery darts, just distracting us again.
Constantly. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet,
lamentation says, let us search and try our ways and turn again
to the Lord. When you hear that, does that
encourage you to turn to the Lord or does it call you to say,
Lord, I need you to turn me to you. It's not that I'm going
to make a decision. I'm going to try harder. I'm going to do
better. I've got this. It's turn us and we shall be
turned. Turn me back to you, Lord, because
I'm distracted again. I'm drifting away to Egypt all
over again. Lord, turn me back. Turn me back. I'm murmuring all
over and complaining again. Just a few moments, my heart
has wondered from you again. This was foretold in Isaiah,
spiritually and physically. He said, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. But he doesn't
stop there, does he? He says, and the Lord hath laid
on him, Jesus Christ, the iniquity, the iniquity of us all. The message is, consider your
ways this morning. Judah had mistaken their nice
houses, their fortified walls, as favor with God, and they missed
the one thing needful, worship. Didn't have any worship. No wonder
Solomon prayed in Proverbs 30, give me neither poverty nor riches,
feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny
thee, and say, who is the Lord? or lest I be poor in steel and
take the name of the Lord in brain. Is that your prayer? Lord,
give me convenient food, food that's convenient for me. You
know what that word means? Appropriate, fitting, prepared, ordained of
God. Lord, give me exactly what you
would have me to have that I may never take my eyes off of you.
Don't give me too much. I know myself. I'll turn away
from you. Don't give me too little. I know
myself. I'll steal. I'll go and steal what I have
to, to survive, whatever it takes. Worst of all, I'll rob you of
your glory. I'll take matters into my own hands. Lord, give
me what's convenient, what I need. This is what faith does. It believes
God over self. It sees circumstances yet trusts
the Lord. And we never take God's worship
for granted like these men and women did. It's a gift of grace.
Turn with me to Revelation chapter three. Revelation three, the Lord's
dealing with his churches, speaking to them. He does the same in chapter two,
and it's a continuation, it's the seven churches, and he says,
Revelation three, verse 14, unto the angel of the church of the
Laodiceans, write these things, saith the amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know
thy works. that thou art neither cold nor
hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou
art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried with fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that
thou mayest be clothed, and that that that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with the eye salve that
thou mayest see. See, these were individual. This
is a church he's talking to. This is the Lord's people. This
isn't just a group of nobodies that was not part of the Lord's
people. This was the elect of God he's
talking to. And he says, you're lukewarm. You're neither hot
nor cold. He says, you're taking worship
You're indifferent towards worship is what he's saying. It's the
same as Judah. They had everything that they needed and he said,
I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. That word's vomit. I'm going
to vomit you. He said, you're not taking worship
seriously. This is, this is serious. They were lackadaisical about
it. God will not honor that. If our message is not 100% the
gospel, 100% the gospel, the Lord will not honor it. And if
our attitude is lackadaisical or mundane, Mundane means treating
spiritual matters as fleshly matters, watering it down, not
taking it serious enough. The Lord will not honor his worship
in that regard. We must take it seriously. His worship is holy and to be
treated as thus. I was thinking about our music
in the hymnal. Do you know why we only sing certain songs? because
there's plenty of songs that does not have the gospel in them. When we sing unto the Lord. What
honors the Lord? It's his gospel, is it not? And
I want every song that we sing to be so full of the gospel that
no other religion can sing it because it's so full of the gospel.
Yet there's some that we sing that doesn't not as clear as
others or not as the gospels offensive. It's offensive to
the flesh. And if we don't. Well, I want
to sing it just as we preach it. It's never to be watered
down. The Lord's worship by the preaching of his gospels never
to be taken lightly, is it? It's serious. It's serious. This is the king's table. This
is where the bread is broken. Where the bread is shown that
has been broken for the Lord's people. This is where the wine
is given forth. The fountain of living water
is given to his people. This is where he said, I will
meet with you. It's the most serious thing on
the face of the earth. Judah forgot all about it. And
the Laodiceans forgot all about it. They were perfectly fine,
perfectly fine without it. These Laodiceans gloried in their
things more than taking God's worship seriously. And God said,
I'm going to vomit you out. Now hearing this truth will give
two responses, just two. Either we will excuse ourself
and justify ourself, or by His grace, we'll say, is it I? Do
I take your worship serious, Lord? Lord, cause me to take
your worship serious. Lord, I know that if you don't,
I won't. Here's the good news. In verse 18, the Lord reveals
Himself. When He says, I counsel thee
to buy of me gold tried in the fire, thou mayest be rich. How
are you gonna buy gold? He says, come, you without money
and without price, it's already been bought for you. That's the
point, that's the gospel. By what raiment that thou mayest
be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear
and anoint thine eyes with the eye salve that thou mayest see. This is him, the seeing eyes
of him, he has to do it. But the call goes forth and he
says, do it. And we said, I'm dead, there's nothing I can do.
Lord, you're gonna have to do it all. Even in worship, you're
gonna have to send your spirit and focus my mind. Lord, you're
gonna have to prepare my heart for it. Verse 19, as many as
I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice
and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him
and he with me. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am
set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I love this word that he says,
I'm going to console you. That's command. I'm going to
command you to live. I'm going to command your eyes
to see. I'm going to command you to seek
my face. I'm going to command you to come
unto me. The Lord says, consider your ways. Consider your ways. What are you clinging to as all
your hope? Is there any distraction in your life that's preventing
you to see Christ? Yes, absolutely. Lord, remove
them. Lord, cause me to see you more
and see less of myself. We don't do any of this. When
I say take worship seriously, somebody say, well, you're making
that work. No, I'm not. No, the Lord demands that we take his
worship seriously. We don't do it that he'll love us. We don't
do it to earn favor with him. We don't do it in order to obtain
salvation. We do it because we have favor with him. We do it
because he first loved us and we do it because he's commanded
us to. We come to this place with the highest reverence because
we have all the love of the Lord. We have all the fullness in Christ.
There's nothing to be done when it comes to salvation. And yet
in worship is where he said, I will reveal my face. I will
reveal my face to you. I will reveal my face to your
children if he sees fit. How serious should we take that?
The highest. A good example of what I'm describing
is a bride does not go into a wedding wearing her pajamas, does she?
She's not going to come down the aisle wearing her pajamas
with her hair all messed up and no makeup on. Maybe after 20
years of marriage, like I have, we wouldn't mind doing it. But
think about what I'm saying. Does she think, well, he won't
love me if I wear pajamas coming forward? Is that that was a problem?
No. No, she adorns herself because he does love her and she loves
him. That's the best example I can
give us. That's why we take it seriously. I'm not telling you
what to wear and I'm not telling you how to act. I'm simply saying
we have to take it seriously, brethren, because he loves us. It's our honor to do so. Our
groom has given us everything. everything. Should we not give
our best unto Him? Scripture tells us whether you
eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Lord, I can't do anything unto your glory. You're going to have
to make me. That's the point. Mercy beggars. We come here begging,
Lord, cause me to worship. Cause me to worship. That is
our duty. That is our responsibility. Beg. Beg Him. And maybe in mercy. Not because
we've merited it. Not because we've prayed enough.
Not because we've worked enough, but maybe in mercy. He'll tune
our hearts to sing his praise. He'll cause us to take his worship
serious and he'll reveal himself unto our heart. What an honor
to worship the high king of glory. Me and you and the sin that we
are. We get to worship him in spirit
and in truth. If we slow down for a moment
and just try to enter into that, it's I get to enter in the throne
room of God, having obtained mercy to find grace and help
in the time of need. How? By the blood of Christ alone. What an honor. What a privilege. Lord. He said, where two or three
are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst. When we gather
in his name, why are we gathered in his name? Because we need
heavenly bread, don't we? We need spiritual bread, not
the physical. We didn't come here as a social
gathering, did we? That's not why we're here. We're
not here for the physical needs of our body. We're here because
there's one thing needful. And it is Christ Jesus and him
crucified. And if we don't get that, we're
going to famish, aren't we? We're going to starve. We're
going to thirst to death. Lord, you're going to have to
give me another drink of your living water. You're going to
have to give me another, uh, another piece of manna for today.
I need it now or else I will die. Coming to a building is not coming
to Christ, brethren. Just gathering in a building
is not gathering unto Christ. We must come with the heart,
the eyes of faith that he's given us in all sincerity and seriousness. And if we do, you know what he
said? I'll be in the midst of you. I'll be in the midst of
you. That's a promise that he's given
to his people. Hearing this certainly made me
cry out, have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord, if I cry out unto
you, it's because you've done it. You give me the heart to
cry out. Lord, if you cause me to see, it's all you're doing.
If you give me ears, it's all you're doing. Lord, do that.
Cause me to be serious in your worship. Make it the most needful
thing in my life. Make it the highest priority.
Highest priority. Because if you don't, Lord, I'm
going to devalue your worship just like Judah did. The believer's life is continual
repentance, continual, over and over. We drift away and he brings
us back, don't he? Our eyes will turn away from
him. He says, seek ye my face. Our ears will be covered up a
little bit with the cares of this world. And he says, hear
my voice. My sheep hear my voice, he said.
Continually repenting, continually being brought back to the Lord.
Brethren, we come here literally begging begging that the Lord
would fill us with Christ. He would clothe us in his righteousness.
We come begging Lord, make everything else of no value, except Christ
and him crucified. I got, I guess I got hung up
on weddings while studying this, but I thought about a wedding
and preparation and Joe, you go to quite a few weddings and
you can testify to this after the service, I'm sure. But how
much preparation goes into the wedding? Everybody's been to
a wedding. How much effort is given? to get everything immaculate,
everything looking just right, the decorations, the food, the
garments, how much money spent and all that. Well, that's exactly
what you and I have been doing in this building that we have.
We've been painting the walls and we've been doing the kitchen
and we've been, name it, we've been doing it, haven't we? And
yet what's the focal point whenever the bride is at the front and
the groom is at the front? Are they looking around to see
the color of this or the or the tapestry here or the kind of
windows or the, are they noticing all of that then? Oh, they're
just looking into each other's eyes, aren't they? They're just
in love. Is that not why we come here?
That we can see his face and look at him face to face by the
gospel and just rejoice knowing that I am my beloved and he is
mine? That's why we take worship seriously. Maybe he would show mercy to
some dead dog sinners. Maybe he would have grace upon
Holy Grace Church and reveal himself time after time after
time. For if he doesn't, we'll be left
in darkness, thinking that we're just fine, just like Judah did.
Thinking everything's all right. We got the walls, now we're good.
We got the nice building, now we're good. No, we have to take
it seriously. Come begging. Every time you come to this place,
come begging, brethren. That's my encouragement to you.
And that's what the Lord's laid on my heart. As you climb up
this, this road right here, as you come to the parking lot,
start begging long before that. But if you haven't before then
start begging right then, Lord, please send your spirit, Lord,
please send your spirit, Lord, meet with us today. We can't
come taking it for granted or thinking of presuming that God's
just going to be here. No, we have to beg. He's made it that way. And we
can neither. We can neither constrain him
nor restrain him. I've preached that very clearly
to us, but we've been called to be mercy beggars when it comes
to his worship. Lord, send your spirit and call
your people. What a glorious thought there
is that we are privileged to worship our God. What a privilege
to call him our God and what a privilege when he said, We
heard this Wednesday night, but he said, I'm not ashamed to be
called your God because of what Christ did all because of what
Christ did. It's his doing. It's all his
doing. Psalm eight says, when I consider
the heavens and the work of my fingers, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man?
What is man that thou art mindful of him? We're talking about. the sovereign creator of this
universe, sending his spirit to a bunch of dead dog sinners.
I guess there's about 30 of us here this morning or so, 30 dead
dog sinners. And I mean, condescending from
glory, the eternal God coming down. Oh, how unworthy are we
of that? And yet he said he would. And
he said, he delighted. He delights to show mercy. He
delights to give you another drink of water. He delights to
be where you're at. He says, one look from you has
ravished my heart. What is man that thou are mindful
of him? And the son of man that thou visit is him. What is man? Consider your ways. That's what
Haggai said. Consider your ways. Now look
in verse, back to Haggai chapter one, just quickly here. Verse 14, Haggai chapter one, verse 14. And the Lord, I love this, and
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek,
the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.
And they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts,
their God. See, the Lord stirred up their
heart. May we consider our ways and
cry out, Lord, stir up my heart. Don't leave me to myself. Stir
up my heart. Cause me to see that the work
is finished and whatever my hand finds to do because of that,
let me do it with all my might as unto you. That's what the
Lord said. Not to add to salvation, not to take away from it, but
because it's our honor to serve the King, isn't it? It's our
honor to serve our husband. Lord, stir up my heart. Make
Christ all into me. Lord, shut us up unto Christ
and his worship. Give us the heart to worship.
Cause us to fall in love with him. May that should be our prayer,
shouldn't it? Lord, cause me to fall in love
with you every time we meet over and over and over. May we fall
in love with him afresh every single time in worship. He said, if you gather in my
name, I'll be in the midst. May when we gather together in
his name, may we be crying out unto him. Cry out to him while
I'm standing here. Pray for me while you're sitting
there. Let's not presume that the Lord's going to bring back
to memory everything that I've studied. This is all his work.
It's all his doing by his grace. And he gets all the glory and
all God's people say, amen.