Amen. Well we're looking in chapter number five now and I want to kind of
refresh us on chapter number four. Chapter number four we kind of left off
where the children of Israel they had laid the foundation chapter number three
and then in chapter number four there's a lot of adversaries that were coming
against the children of Israel trying to stop them from building the Lord's temple
and then as they were doing the work the the king it says go back to chapter
number four let's look at verse number it says in verse number six and in the
reign of Ahasuerus in the beginning of his reign wrote they unto him an
accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem and in the days of
Artaxerxes rose Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabeel and the rest of their companions
unto Artaxerxes king of Persia and the writing of the letter was written in the
Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue so in this time of the
reign of Ahasuerus the adversaries write unto this king and they end up
causing them to stop work they have says at the very end of this chapter look at
verse 24 then cease the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem so it
ceased under the second ear of the reign of Darius king of Persia so in chapter
number four we'd kind of left off on a setback the adversaries seemed to kind
of get a win they seem to kind of take advantage of them they stopped them by
force and by power but chapter number five is kind of where we hit that
turning point and I like this chapter because we never know whatever we have a
setback when God can just turn us back on the right course you know there's
gonna be setbacks in life there's gonna be times when things are going bad
there's gonna be moments when we don't understand exactly what you know God's
plan is but when we see the we read the entire book of Ezra we're reading a
period of law several years and it doesn't just end chapter number four
chapter four rolls right in the chapter number five and chapter number five is
gonna be where they get to start the work of the Lord again okay look at
verse number one says then the prophets Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son
of Edo prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name
of the God of Israel even unto them then rose up Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Josadak and began to build the house of God
which is at Jerusalem and with them were the prophets of God helping them so when
we left off chapter number four and they were not doing the work the house of
the Lord's been forsaken we see that what causes them to get back to the work
is the preaching or the prophesying of Haggai and of Zerubbabel so I'm sorry
not Zerubbabel but Zechariah so Zechariah and Haggai because of their
preaching it causes the children of Israel to keep working look what it says
in verse number three at the same time it came to them Tatni governor on this
side the river and Sheth Balsni and their companions and said thus unto them
who hath commanded you to build this house and to make up this wall then said
we unto them after this manner what are the names of the men that make this
building but the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews that they
could not cause them to cease till the matter came to Darius and then they
returned answer by letter concerning this matter the copy of the letter that
Tatni governor on this side the river and Sheth are Balsni and his
companions the Farska sites which were on this side of the river sent unto
Darius the king they sent a letter unto him wherein was written thus unto Darius
the king all peace be it known unto the king that we went into the province of
Judea to the house of the great God which is builded with great stones and
timbers laid in the walls and this work goeth fast on and prosper it in their
hands now I'm just gonna even over you this chapter quickly but we see at the
beginning the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah caused them to start doing the
work of the Lord then we see these couple bozos Tatni and Sheth Balsni you
know these guys are coming around they're like who told you to start
building the house of the Lord again who's telling you do this work and they
start asking for their names they don't really give them their names it's kind
of like when the cops like give me your ID and you're like well what did I break
the law or what's going on here and then in in verse number six we start seeing
that they decide to write letters again you know they're always the keyboard
warriors whoever it is that's against you all the they always send me a
keyboard warrior they are they're always ready to write a letter and in men send
some kind of message and attack you from afar but they send this letter now even
in their own accusation they do claim that the work that they're doing is
prospering in their hands doesn't and we see from this chapter and we see from
other chapters that the work of the Lord goes very quickly in this portion of
scripture in fact they build the house of Lord in four years so whatever that
was very quick I mean considering how long it takes with the temple and all
this like in just four years they're gonna build this entire house of the
Lord so truly they are the work is prospering in their hands they're
doing quick labor of this task and as we go through the rest of this chapter
they're just kind of bringing up various accusations and things that that have
that the children of Israel told them they're declaring this unto Darius and
then there's a last moment here at in verse 17 that we'll kind of look at but
what I really want to focus on is not so much the details of this chapter but
rather the application of this chapter because anything that's written in the
Old Testament is written for our admonition and it's written for our
example and it's super clear that the book of Ezra has so many practical
applications and things that we can draw from that we relate to in the New
Testament but what I would have point out it which was pretty clear is the
reason why they did the work of the Lord the reason why the house was built
because of preaching and the Bible emphasizes preaching the Bible
reiterates preaching and it gives the preeminence to preaching today preaching
is the main thing we need preaching today and preaching is what causes God's
house to get built you say what builds God's house preaching does that's what
builds God's house and we have these great prophets Haggai and we have
Zechariah they're doing great preaching and through their preaching their
prophesy I don't see them doing anything else it wasn't the great songs
that they were singing it wasn't the Sunday school program that they
organized it wasn't the bus route that they got going it was the preaching of
God's work and if you go to a church like steadfast Baptist Church you'll
notice the emphasis is on what the preaching the emphasis is not on the
programs the emphasis is not necessarily on the music and look I'm all for having
a great music program I'm all for having other programs in a church if our church
grows and we have more people want to participate look I would love to have a
whole orchestra up here that'd be great there's nothing against that but at the
end of the day this still what's gonna get the preeminence is the preaching the
preaching of God's Word that's going to actually cause the house of God to be
built it's gonna make a difference in people's lives now I want to make a lot
of you know practical application but before we get there what did Haggai and
Zechariah preach isn't that it's not a pretty good question let's just go to
Haggai and let's just see you know what kind of messages these guys were
delivering I'm betting you know it was really encouraging and really uplifting
and just you know your best life now and just you know put your hand on the
screen and give money I mean let's just see I mean because we see clearly from
the story that through their preaching it causes them to motivate them to build
the house of God and obviously we could immediately take that application to the
church in the New Testament but even in that in their time they are building the
house Lord now Haggai is a short book of the Bible there's only two chapters and
it fits perfectly in the timeline because we left off in chapter number
four what under the second year of Darius reign okay is when the work had
ceased and they pick it back up right with the preaching of Haggai and Haggai
is gonna tell us all about it it says in verse one in the second year of Darius
the king and the sixth month and the first day of the month so it's getting
real specific it doesn't give us the hours right it says came the word of the
Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governor
of Judah and to Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest sing so it's
painting the picture for us Zerubbabel is the governor he's just the
person that's basically the main leader a ruler of the area
Jeshua is the high priest he's the one over the things pertaining to God
Haggai and Zechariah are just preachers they're just other priests that are
God's men that preach the Word of God and Haggai is preaching unto them the
Word of God he's giving them messages from God it says in verse 2 thus speak
of the Lord of hosts saying this people say the time has not come the time that
the Lord's house should be built so he first mentions hey the people they're
claiming hey we're not supposed to be building the house of God right now it's
not a time to build the house of the Lord we need to just do other things we
need to be focused on other stuff says in verse 3 then came the word of the
Lord by Haggai the prophet saying is it time for you oh ye to dwell in your
sealed houses and this house lie waste now therefore they say the Lord of hosts
consider your ways so God's kind of you know asking them a question okay he's
saying oh you say that it's not time to build the house of the Lord oh so it's
great for you to just live in this really fancy house where you just decked
it to the ninth I mean even got sealed houses which means what they worked on
the ceilings they're decked and they're really ornate you look really nice but
my house is just laid waste and look there's no think new thing under the Sun
people only care about themselves today they just care about their physical
dwelling and their house hey if my house is good who cares about church who cares
about the things of God and he's saying is it okay for your house to be fine in
my house lay waste and it's Saturday because the church if we looked at as a
hole in America is laying waste today yet everybody I mean they're decking
their house out to the nines aren't they I mean in America the houses are getting
nicer I mean Home Depot and Lowe's parking lot is full why because they're
they're putting all kinds of renovations into the house they're spending all
their money and their time on the things of this earth but they could care less
about church do they want to show up at church do they want to get the spiritual
hammer and the spiritual screwdriver and start doing things of God or do they
only care about their physical dwelling says in verse number six you have so
much and bringing little eat but you have not enough you drink but you're not
filled with drink you clothe you but there is none warm and he that earneth
wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes let's say the Lord of Hosts
consider your ways go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the
house and I will take pleasure in it I will be glorified saith the Lord you
look for much and lo it came to little and when you brought it home I did blow
upon it why say the Lord of Hosts because mine house that is waste and you
run every man unto his own house so what is he saying God's saying that he's
cursing these people they they're working hard they're putting money in
their bag and their bag has holes in it it's a metaphor for the fact that they're
just you know being cursed they're everything that they do is is being
spoiled it's not working out their crops aren't producing well they're whatever
they use has a lot of waste to it and he's saying hey the reason why is
because my house is laid waste as long as you forsake God's house as long as
you're forsaking church I'm just gonna continually curse you you're just gonna
continually you know put money into your pockets and it's gonna fall out all the
bad things that are happening to you he says that's on purpose so that you would
realize my house needs to be built let's keep reading in this chapter he says in
verse number 10 therefore the heaven over you a state from dew and the earth
estate from her fruit and I called for a drought upon the land and upon the
mountains and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oil and upon that
which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattle and upon all
the labor of the hands then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and
Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest with all the remnant of the people
who bathe the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet
as the Lord their God had sent him and the people did fear before the Lord so
in verse number 10 11 he's saying not only are your things cursed I'm even
drought I'm giving you a drought in the land you you want to produce crops but
coming because there's no rain your crops are failing you're just your
finances are failed just everything about you is just cursed and he says as
long as you forsake the house of God you're gonna have these curses and this
drought and it's directly from the Old Testament we're gonna look at it in a
moment but in verse number 12 it's pretty powerful because it sings rubo
and Joshua they decide hey we're gonna obey the voice of the Lord their God now
if we read verses 1 through 11 and I expound on a lot more is this positive
preaching is this encouraging preaching he didn't mention anything encouraging
he just said hey you guys are cursed everything bad is happening to you your
money's failing you your crops are failing you God's bringing drought upon
you and you know what caused them to do obey the voice of God you know what
causes people to actually do the things that are right whenever they hear
negative preaching when they hear about God cursing them and God bringing on
strong rebuke against them look people don't decide to serve God because of the
warm fuzzy feeling that they get they get it from hard preaching have you ever
heard of the Ten Commandments thou shalt not I mean it's a whole bunch of what
things not to do God tries to over and emphasize hey when you break my
commandments this kind of curse or this kind of consequence is gonna come down
when you like a ton of bricks therefore you got to follow his commandments you
know I decided to go to heaven because hell sounds horrible you know why I
decided to start cleaning up my life because I don't want God to curse me
because I don't want God to be displeased with me because I don't want
God to constantly curse me and curse my children and curse my family and when I
look at people that forsake God's commandments they're cursed today their
children don't love God their children are rampant fornicators their children
don't have anything to do with church they just live and look like the world
they don't like their parents they're on drugs they're lazy they don't serve God
with any part of their life and say how come because these people forsake
God's commandments they forsake good churches if you don't raise your child
in a good church if you don't ever open the Bible up to them and you just put
them in the public pool system let me help you up help you out you're gonna
your family's gonna be cursed they're gonna they're gonna they're
turning to turn out bad you know it's kind of a two-edged sword when it says
train up a child in the way you should go and when he's old he will not depart
from it because if you train up a child in a very negative way oftentimes they
will not depart from that either the Bible says chasing my son while there is
hope you start losing hope eventually and you know if God just said hey follow
my commandments and I'll bless you don't follow them nothing bad will happen to
you people would not be motivated to serve God people would not be motivated
I mean God's Word is supposed to be that ox go today it's supposed to give you a
kick in the pants and say hey wake up you don't even realize how cursed you
are and that's the problem people don't realize how desperate they are for the
need of God to come into their life God's Word to come in and clean up
their marriage and to clean up their children and to clean up their finances
and to clean up everything that's going on in their life the fact that they're
destitute of any rewards in heaven the fact that God's not pleased with them
the fact that they're gonna go through all kinds of suffering and pain and
heartache not for serving God but because they're buffeted for their
faults that's why we need hard preaching today is so that people actually do the
work of God and through the hard preaching through preaching the
consequences of sinning these people decide hey you know what we're gonna
obey the voice of God now we're gonna actually do God's commandments you know
by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil is what the Bible says if you don't
fear God you're not going to depart from evil it's it's a lot harder to sin in
front of somebody when you know there's a harsh consequence coming they say hey
touch that again I'm gonna punch you in the face it's like I'm not gonna touch
that you know it's a lot easier to take a cookie out of the cookie jar when your
parents aren't looking then when they're staring you down with the paddle in the
hand you're not gonna want to take that cookie and unfortunately people today
without going to church without reading the Bible without hearing preaching they
don't see God with a paddle in their hand we're just trying to show them hey
God has a big paddle in his hand and he's ready to bring down the hammer God
chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receive it we need negative preaching
today we need preaching that offends today so that people obey the voice of
God that's what we need haggai brought a great message go to chapter go to verse
13 then spake haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto
the people saying I am with you sayeth the Lord and Lord stirred up the spirit
of Zerubbabel the son of she out the old governor of Judah and the spirit of
Joshua the son of Joseph deck 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 in the foreign 20th day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the
king now interestingly enough he gives us another timeline 24 so basically it
took them 24 days to get right think about a little over three weeks okay
after three weeks of hardcore preaching they're back on the right track and look
that's what you need you need three weeks of hard preaching and then maybe
you'll get back serving God right now look at chapter number two I want I want
to hammer this book of haggai so you don't we're not leaving stones unturned
okay verse number one in the seventh month and the one in 20th day of the
month came the word of the Lord by the prophet haggai saying speak now does
rubel the son of she out the governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Joseph
deck the high priest and the residue of the people saying who has left among you
that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now is it not in
your eyes in comparison of it as nothing yet now be strong ozuville sayeth Lord
and be strong o Joshua some Joseph the high priest and be strong all you people
the land say the Lord and work for I am with you say it the Lord of hosts
according the word that I covenanted with you and came out of Egypt so my
spirit remaineth among you fear you not for those say the Lord of hosts yet once
it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea
and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations
shall come and I will fill this house with glory sayeth the Lord of hosts
silver is mine and the gold is mine said the Lord of hosts the glory of this
latter house shall be greater than of the former say it Lord of hosts and in
this place will I give peace sayeth the Lord of hosts now there's a couple
things I want to point out and what we just read but I believe when we reading
chapter number two it makes sense like I don't think I could prove this but it
makes sense that he's telling them to be strong because either a they just had
those guys those both those you know those bozos bozeni you know tat and I
just both bozo you know bozos okay them coming around and trying to ask
questions and doing things he's either preaching this preemptively or like
right after the fact but it's crystal clear that the reason why he's telling
them to be strong is because there's going to be opposition anytime you
decide to serve God anytime you want to do the work of the Lord you have to be
strong you have to be courageous courageous why because your adversary the
devil go the route seeking whom he may devour you know the Bible says we have
to resist the devil so that he'll flee from us how do you do that you have to
be strong you have to have courage you have to have Mike you have to decide
that you're gonna truly follow God's commandments with some zeal today
because it's not for the faint of heart you might actually have to walk by one
atheist protester okay to come into church you have to be a little bit strong
I mean how strong you have to be to that you don't even have to look at him if
you don't want to I wouldn't you know he's gross looking but his signs are
even worse blaspheming Jesus but here's the thing you have to have some strength
yeah I don't want to go to a church where they're protested well you
wouldn't have billed the work of the Lord here either because they're being
protested too isn't that interesting oh yeah and the book of Esther they're
being protested there's people riding against them going against them that
sounds like the right church to be at that sounds like the right church to
build is the one where they're against it's interesting if you read their signs
their signs are against this it has nothing to do with me as a person did
they bring up me like what I did when I was 10 years old or what I was like in
college or what my personal problems are or things about Jonathan Shelley as a
person no it's about hey this church thinks LGBTQ should be put to death well
that's what the Bible said yeah they they blaspheme Jesus over and over I
don't want to repeat the blasphemy that they say it's very clear they don't
hate me they don't hate you they hate God they hate God's Word and I would
ask them to say why do you pick our church it sounds like you just hate the
Bible doesn't every church hate the Bible leave the Bible there's a reason
they're not preaching the Bible that's the reason when Haggai and Zechariah
start preaching God's Word you know what the protesters aren't showing up
don't they that's how you know hey we're doing something right here we're
preaching the Word of God and it notice if we got protesters for you know Pastor
Shelley you know he ripped me off for 20 grand and he slashed my tires and you
know that would be a different type of protest wouldn't it maybe they're
buffeting for me for my faults but if they're buffeting me for preaching what
the Bible says that sounds great let's just keep that up let's keep doing that
another thing that I want to bring up about this passage is he's definitely
bringing up some prophetic semblance okay and in chapter number six when he's
talking about shaking the whole house shaking the whole heavens and then he's
gonna fill up the house of Lord that's like prophetic of like the millennial
reign of Christ and things like that that's a different sermon but he says in
verse 9 the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former now I
love this verse you say why he's he's saying you know sometimes you have this
idea that you build something and after it's destroyed or goes away or something
bad happens to it's like it can you could never recreate it it's never gonna
be as good God's saying hey even though that temple was great that Solomon built
we're gonna build a greater one we're gonna build a better one you know what
that motivates me it says hey even though there's been a lot of great
churches in the past you can still build the greatest church to ever be on the
planet you can just keep getting better just why not why don't we just keep
reading the Bible more and studying the Bible more and memorizing the Bible more
and deciding to build the greatest church on the planet why not there's
nothing stopping us God's for it you think God's against that of course not
God wants to show himself strong on the behalf of them that have their heart
perfect toward him you know we need a bunch of people with their heart perfect
towards God you say how do you get that hard preaching preaching the negative
things getting people to clean up their lives like Haggai and Zechariah you say
why come to a church on Wednesday night hey so you can clean up your life so you
can have a pure heart blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God is
what the Bible says that's what we need today is some hard preaching that's on
fire that zealous for God that's gonna get people building the house of God I'm
ready to build give me a hammer says in verse number 10 in the four and 20th day
of the ninth month in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord by
Haggai the prophet saying thus saith the Lord of hosts asked now the priest
concerning the law saying if one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment
and with his skirt to touch bread or potage or wine or oil or any meat shall
behold and the priest answered and said no then said Haggai if one that is
unclean by a dead body touch any of these shall it be unclean and the
priest answered and said it shall be unclean then answered Haggai and said so
is this people that's rough he said you guys are unclean and so is this nation
before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands and that which they
offer there is unclean this is not a positive message and now I pray you
consider from this day and upward from before a stone was laid upon a stone in
the temple Lord since those days were when one came to an heap of 20 measures
they were but 10 when one came to the press fat for to draw out 50 vessels
out of the press there were but 20 I smote you with blasting and with mildew
and with hail and all the labors of your hands yet you turn not to me saith the
Lord consider now from this day and upward from the four and 20th day of the
ninth month even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple is laid
consider it so what is he saying he's saying you guys even though you're
building the house of Lord even though you're coming back you're still unclean
he says why well it's because they never turned back to the Lord they never
actually tried to get right it says in verse number I thought was in verse
number 17 what does it say yeah verse 17 yet he turned not to me here's the thing
obviously they're supposed to build the temple obviously they're supposed to do
these works but at the end of the day God's not after the physical temple he's
after the temple in their heart he's after the hearts he wants them to clean
up their lives and look we could build the greatest church from the respective
of our building so beautiful we have the pews filled with all kinds of people we
have the beautiful sounding music but God really wants our hearts God wants a
church where the people have turned their heart towards the word of the Lord
where they can actually endure hard preaching you know if you preach certain
sermons a lot of churches a day they'd all get up and walk out or they'd be a
fender they can't handle hard preaching they're so delicate even just telling
them they're wrong about anything people get offended today I mean you came
there's certain people on this planet you can't even tell them they're wrong
about anything and you try to open the Bible now I want to hear it now who
cares what building you're in who cares how many people are in the pews when you
can't actually preach God's Word we ought to have a group of people where we
can open up to any chapter of this book and everybody's excited to hear it
people want to hear God's Word they just want to hear the truth whether it's
positive whether it's negative whether you're unclean or not hey just tell me
I'm unclean just let me know I just want to know where I'm at and then by
understanding that they're unclean by getting the haze off their eyes by
letting the scales fall from their eyes now they have an opportunity to clean
themselves up now they have the opportunity to turn back to the Lord and
to get it right and to build the house Lord and prosper because he's saying
look I've been blasting you with mildew and hail and all the labors of her hands
why because they hadn't turned to him says in verse number 19 is the seed yet
in the barn yet yay as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the
olive tree hath not brought forth from this day will I bless you and again the
word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and 20th day of the month saying
speak to Zerubel governor of Judah saying I will shake the heavens and the
earth and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms and I will destroy the strength
of the kingdoms of the heathen I will overthrow the chariots and those that
ride in them and the horses and their riders shall come down every one by the
sword of his brother in that day said the foot of hosts will I take the
Ozurubo my servant the son of Shealtiel sayeth the Lord and I will make thee as
a segment for I have chosen thee sayeth the Lord of hosts now the latter portion
of this chapter again is also prophesying okay it's just it's kind of
picturing when Christ is gonna come and he's gonna rule the entire earth and it's
the millennial reign of Christ again okay so obviously there's some
semblance there of present-time things but all that's not gonna be partaking in
Zerubel's days that's really what's gonna be Jesus Christ he's when he's
saying Ozurubel he's talking about Christ and he's gonna be set up as a
signet he's gonna be he's gonna set up his holy king he's gonna set up his king
on his holy hill of Zion okay but if we take chapters one and two this is what
Haggai preached okay this is what he prophesied it wasn't positive it was
positive at the latter portion when he's saying hey when you turn to me you know
hey I'm gonna bless you and after this point in time I'm gonna end up blessing
you but at the reality of it he's telling them they're unclean he's saying
them they're dirty they're they're been cursed they've been filthy and through
that type of preaching it caused them to obey the voice of the Lord to get right
and to serve him now I want to go to Deuteronomy and look up that verse but
before we get there I also want to mention Zechariah's preaching now Zechariah
is a longer book there's a lot of chapters to it but the first chapters of
a few verses are in coordination in the same timing of Haggai and I think it's
important because why well he gives the timeline in chapter number two and at
first he's saying unto them like you guys are cursed and you haven't turned
unto me and then all of a sudden he's saying by this next time frame I'm gonna
end up blessing you well when you study Zechariah he's in the middle of those
two preachers okay so he's in the middle of the cursing the blessing he says in
verse one and in the eighth month so at first he's saying they're cursed in the
seventh then he's saying he's gonna bless them in the ninth this is the
eighth month okay he says in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord
and the Zechariah the son of Bechoriah or Barakiah the son of it of the
prophets saying the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers therefore
say thou unto them thus say the Lord of hosts turn ye unto me saith the Lord of
hosts and I will turn unto you say it the Lord of hosts be not as your
fathers unto whom the for their former prophets have cried saying thus saith
the Lord of hosts turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings but
they did not hear nor hearken unto me saith the Lord your fathers where are
they and the prophets do they live forever but my words and my statutes
which I commanded my servants the prophets did they not take hold of your
fathers and they return and said like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us
according to our ways and according to our doings so have you dealt with us so
in verses one through six we see the prophet of Zechariah he's that out of
the mouth of two witnesses okay so Haggai comes around he's like you guys
are wicked you need to turn to the Lord and in this second chapter he's saying
in the seventh month that he's preaching hard against them then in the eighth
month Zechariah is confirming it and he's telling them to turn from their
ways then in Haggai it says in the ninth month that he's gonna bless them so I
think that basically what happened is they got right in the seventh and eighth
months somewhere in there they probably got right and that's why that timing
looks like that because it doesn't really explain it but go go to
Deuteronomy 28 go over to Deuteronomy 28 because he does bring up a few things
but it's pretty minor he's mostly just saying like get right with God get right
with God it's not so much like you know you're in fornication or you're doing
alcohol he's not as a specific he's just turned you from your evil ways in
general and Deuteronomy 28 the the Bible explains to us that when Moses was given
the law and he sprinkled the blood on the people they entered into a covenant
with God and that covenant was very severe either you follow the law to the
letter and you receive the greatest blessings ever or you break any of the
commandments and you have the worst cursings ever now Deuteronomy 28 is a very
long chapter but I want to read a few portions of it look at verse 1 and it
should come to pass if thou should hearken diligently on the divorce of the
Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee
this day that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the
earth and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt
hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God blessed shalt thou be in the city
and blessed shalt thou be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of thy body
and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle and the increase of
thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep blessed shall be thy basket and thy
store blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be
when thou goest out the Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee
to be smitten before thy face they shall come out against thee one way and flee
before these seven ways the Lord shall command the blessing upon thee and thy
storehouses and in all that thou set his thine hand unto and he shall bless thee
in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee the Lord shall establish thee
and holy people unto himself as he has sworn in thee if thou shalt keep the
commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in his ways and all the people the
earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord and they shall be
afraid of thee and the Lord shall make thee plenteous and goods and the fruit
of thy body and the fruit of thy cattle and then the fruit of thy ground and the
land was the Lord's swear and thy father's to give thee the Lord shall
open under thee is good treasure the heaven to give the rain and by land in
his seasons and to bless all the work of thy hand and thou shalt lend unto many
nations and thou shalt not borrow and the Lord shall make thee the head and
not the tail and thou shalt be above only and now shall not be beneath if
that thou hearken unto the commandments Lord thy God which I command thee this
day to observe and to do them so in verses 1 to 13 I mean it's great I mean
it's literally blessings from heaven okay and those blessings is rain now
what do we have in Haggai he was saying hey you guys have a drought you guys are
having a drought and your fruit is not bringing forth in its strength here
you're cursed you bring all these things that tells us that they were not
following God's commandments they were not diligent to observe God's
commandments so in chapter number under in the eighth month I'm sorry not
chapter but in the eighth month they must have decided to turn back to the
Lord and he's saying hey now I'm gonna bless you because the curse was gonna
come if you didn't look at verse 14 and now shall not go aside from any of the
words which I command thee this day to the right hand to the left to go after
other guys will serve him but it shall come to pass if thou will not hearken
to the voice of the Lord thy God observed to do all his commandments and
his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come
upon thee and overtake thee cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt
thou be in the field cursed shall be thy basket in thy store cursed shall be
the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land the increase of thy kind and
the flocks of thy sheep cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in and cursed
shalt thou be when thou goest out the Lord shall sin upon thee cursing
vexation and rebuke and all that thou set is thine hand unto or to do until
thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly because of the wickedness of
thy doings whereby thou has forsaken me the Lord shall make the pestilence
cleave under thee until you have consumed thee from off the land with
thou goes possessive the Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with
a fever and with inflammation and with extreme burning and with the sword and
with blasting and with mildew and they shall pursue thee until thou perish now
that blasting and mildew was mentioned in the book of Haggad he's saying hey
you're receiving blasting you're receiving mildew because you're
forsaking my commandments because you've not turned into my ways and it's exactly
as it was written so even though they might build the house of God they still
have to follow his commandments hey at the time of this whole Solomon they had
the temple they have a temple all the way until the destruction of Jerusalem
you know is the problem not that they didn't have the temple the fact that
they weren't following God's commandments the fact that they weren't
following his statutes the fact that they weren't diligently keeping all of
the precepts that he had commanded them now even when we read the Old Testament
okay it's still crystal clear that nobody's ever perfect and God still
nobody's following the commandments perfectly from a perspective of they
never break any of them the Bible says is not a just man upon the earth that
doeth good and sin and not so even in the Old Testament God is still a God of
grace Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord okay so clearly even when they
would break God's commandments they could offer the sacrifices that would
atone for their sins God still had grace upon them God still had mercy upon them
David writes the book of Psalms and you know it's mentioned the book of Psalms
a lot the word grace why because these guys wrote about grace wrote about mercy
they still understood the Messiah was gonna come and cleanse them from their
sins so when we're in the New Testament some people want to make this strong
divide between Old Testament New Testament we're not under the law look
we're not under the curse of the law bio makes that very clear and I can't go to
hell but you're mistaken if you think if I break God's commandments there is no
punishment he's the same God I am the Lord I change not now some things might
be a little bit different and obviously in the Old Testament they were put to
death for breaking the Sabbath that no longer applies in the New Testament so
obviously there's things that have changed they've modified but one thing
has not changed is the consequence for sin and when you read the book of
Deuteronomy it is way more negative than it is positive let's just get a let's
get a little more sneak peek okay because I kind of even things out let's
uneven them all right verse 27 the Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt
and with the emeralds and with the scab and with the itch where of thou canst
not be healed God says hey I'll even give you diseases that your flesh can
never be cured of until you die that sounds terrible and there's plenty of
incurable diseases today AIDS HIV they keep trying to come up with a cure let
me tell you what there is no cure a bullet in the head for all the fags
that's that's the cure so they stop spreading that filth and you know
there's there's people that aren't homos that have that disease and I feel bad
for them but you know what I'm not gonna give money to causing you know a cause
that's gonna cure AIDS not gonna happen there's certain diseases there's certain
illnesses the Bible says not gonna have a cure AIDS HIV pretty much all the STDs
their life their lifelong you know you have it herpes gonorrhea now the
symptoms of that disease may wane or deviate there's certain medications that
can kind of monitor though the symptoms but at the end of the day they're a
carrier of that disease forever that's why you got to be careful kids that's
why you don't commit fornication kids because you can get a disease that
alas forever the itch that'll last forever that sounds terrible the emerods
these type of things that can come upon a person and you know what there's no
new thing under the Sun there's plenty of people that have these diseases today
in fact a lot of people have you don't even want to know you need to find a
maid when you get married says in verse number 28 the Lord shall smite thee with
madness and blindness and astonishment of heart that could be that's not a
physical and in a mental state some people you know just have Alzheimer's
disease or they have all kinds of other illnesses or problems or issues that
they have that just completely destroy the mind you know all kinds of you know
Lou Gehrig's disease they're so debilitating there's all kinds of
problems and things that happen to people and it's it's crazy to me how
much dependence there is upon doctors and there's so much diseases and
infections and all kinds of problems that people have and they're constantly
dying and they're just like oh I'm so blessed from God it's like what you
don't even realize the curses that you have ADHD is like skyrocketing off them
off the charts you know autism is skyrocketing off the charts there's all
these problems and people like you know if vaccinations were not legitimate
there would be consequences and it's like what are you talking about how many
kids have problems and issues and diseases and issues like asthma allergies
there's all these different problems and things and like where does that come
from I don't know where does SIDS come from I don't know because it's sudden
infant death syndrome and we have no idea what the causes it's because they
were too close to a pillow and it's like
look obviously you need to make sure your kid can breathe okay but most of
the SIDS causes are not from a negligent parent you know just stuffing them with
a pillow on their face or something crazy like that it's why because of
vaccination but you know how why why you say okay why are you bringing a
vaccination well the Bible says they that behold me not a position but when
you decide you just forgo God's commandments when you just say you know
what I don't want to live a clean holy pure righteous life I want to stab
myself with diseases to protect from other diseases and then something bad
happens to your child that's called the consequences of sin hey the Bible gives
us Commandments about things to eat and when you don't take care of the temple
of your body bad things happen when you're just morbidly obese and you never
exercise and you only eat Twinkies you're just forgoing all God's
commandments and it's like I have heart disease notice the number one cause of
death is heart disease and it's why because Americans just eat french fries
and you know coke and just anything and everything that's just saturated fats
and they're just so fatty today I mean it's just it's like oh oh you're
fending me well maybe you can get your heart right physically and spiritually
all right look at verse 35 I'll get off that point the Lord shall smite thee in
the knees and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the
sole of thy foot under the top of thy head that sounds terrible verse 39 thou
shalt plant vineyards and dress them but thou shall neither drink of the wine nor
gather the grapes for the worms shall eat them so there's another example of
haggai they're planting crops and then you know what speeding ticket the IRS
just decides to increase taxes or you know just I mean taxes how many worms
are taxes today I mean there's a tax for everything there's a tax on gifts you
can no longer give a gift because as soon as you give a gift over a certain
amount you get taxed on it it's ridiculous you have to get taxed to hunt
and to fish and to drive and have insurance and just to need medical care
possibly in the future I mean the taxes in this country are just so egregious
it's just constant worms coming in and eating the fruit of our hands today oh
we're so blessed look I don't see our country constantly getting blessed every
single year it constantly is getting more cursed every single year I constantly
have to look at more faggots and there's constantly more taxes and there's more
lies and more deception and worse churches keep getting planted all over
this area and they're their frauds and they're crooks and they ruin the
reputation of churches and people won't even lease a building to a church that
sounds personal well maybe it is these stupid devils you know out there these
charlatans just churches have a horrible reputation of not paying of being a bad
tenant what kind of approach are you bringing on Christ today you ought to be
somebody that they look forward to obviously you might have a protester
okay but I'm trying to work on that one all right I pray every night verse 53
and thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body the flesh of thy sons and thy
daughters which the Lord thy God hath given thee and the siege and the
straightness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee now that's terrible
he's saying they're gonna literally be so hungry they're gonna eat their own
children now I guarantee you all of the people that did that in their right
mind if you had explained this verse they would have been horrified too it's
saying that God is gonna cause them to be so hungry and so delusional and so
much in the wrong mindset they would literally eat their own children the
mother that bear her own babies would cook it and eat it that's the curse of
God that comes upon you and look you if you go down the road of sin you'll wake
up on the other side seeing how did I do that how did I lie with this person how
did I take that drug how did I hurt that person why would I get in a car and
drive and then you get in this accident and kill a whole family and kill myself
and do all these things look sin is gonna take you to places you don't want
to go I don't want to go there that's why you need to come to church you say
what does it have to do with Ezra chapter 5 passage look because of the
hard preaching people got right so we're just getting a little more specific
aren't we okay look at verse 58 if thou will not observe to do all the words of
this law that are written in this book that thou mayest fear this glorious and
fearful name the Lord thy God then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and
the plagues of thy seed even great plagues and of long continuance and
sore sicknesses and of long continuance if you don't want to pray tonight for
God to be merciful unto you I don't know what's going to make you want to do that
go if you would back to Ezra okay back to Ezra for a moment as we're chapter
five so we see through the great preaching of these two men they get
right and that great preaching was not positive preaching it was a lot of
negative preaching but it was needed and it wasn't uncalled for it wasn't that
they were just want to preach a negative message to preach a negative message
what does it say in verse number two then rose up Zerubel the son of
Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Joseph and began to build the house of God was
at Jerusalem and with them were the prophets of God notice this helping them
so notice the preaching was to help people and anytime you get an
opportunity to preach it should be with one goal to help people the reality is
some people don't understand that negative preaching is still designed to
help people it's to cause them to realize hey you have this problem why
don't you fix it your life would be easier if you'd fix this hey if you'd
have some grace and mercy in your life your marriage to get better hey if you'd
actually go to church and start reading the Bible your children might get the
right heart towards the things of God hey if you actually sit down your child
and read in the Bible and you get the rod of correction out and you correct
your child maybe you'll be a good child these things are not designed because
you just hate children because you hate the people in the congregation because
you want to get mad about something it's because you want to help them and look
I'm all for preaching against up and and making a fool and mockery of bad people
and atheists and stuff but my goal in doing that is not just oh I'm so cool
did you see me make fun of all these atheists huh so easy it is easy they're
an atheist the fullest said in his heart there is no God you already won if you
lose that you're an idiot yeah the people that go in a debate against
atheists and lose that debate they are morons they are fools their names Kirk
Cameron and Ray comfort they lost the debate against atheists it was bad you
know I because they started out the debate and said we'll prove to you that
evolution is not true without the Bible why would you ever start without the
Bible he says hey I'll prove everything from the Bible this is where you get
God's preaching go if you went to 2nd Timothy chapter number 4 2nd Timothy
chapter number 4 let's get in some more practical application this evening but
we need more people to preach the Bible that's what's going to change people's
lives and the goal and the motivation of a preacher should be one thing helping
people now help can look a lot different than what a lot of people think okay so
a lot of times people think help is only positive it's only encouraging it's only
kind and sweet and look there's plenty of time for that but we also need to
balance that with a lot of rebuke and reproof and correction and instruction
and in fact the Bible is comprised more of instruction reproof correction reproof
and reproof so if you're getting a good balance you're probably gonna have more
of that but we need a healthy balance of both you don't want to be just negative
and you don't want to just only be positive you want to have a good mix and
you say how do I figure out what that mix is but what does the Bible say we
read Deuteronomy 28 hey we had 14 verses of real positive you know and then you
have like 60 I don't know 50 some some high percentage is more negative in that
chapter God's trying to drive in a point now look at 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse
2 preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with
all long-suffering in doctrine now here's a percentage two-thirds negative
one-third about positive so that's a pretty good balance that you could
probably have we could look at other places to find it a good balance says a
verse number three for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine but after their own lust shall they heat themselves teachers having
itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and should be
turned on the fables now what I want to point out you know these verses and
you've heard these verses this is what I want to point out can somebody give me
some water what I want to point out about this verse and number three is it
says they do not endure sound doctrine what is the emphasis doctrine what you
believe and a church like ours would be attacked they'd be y'all are so
nitpicky about the doctrine you you're just King James only and you're just so
particular about salvation and you're just so particular about certain
doctrines of the Bible yeah because that's what's important notice the
people they don't want to endure sound doctrine they don't want to endure
certain beliefs certain things that are top so they end up having somebody
preach unto them something that's not sound doctrines wishy-washy or in fact
many cases maybe it's just false a lot of false preaching a lot of false
doctrine so we as God's people we need to emphasize preaching the word but
especially sound doctrine when you get an opportunity to preach God's Word to
preach the Bible you need to make sure what you're saying is right make sure
what you're saying is the truth the church is the pillar and ground of the
truth where else are you gonna get truth today nobody else is dispensing truth
like the church should be doing and if you come to church and hear lies now
where you're gonna get truth there's nowhere to get true that's why the
church needs to overemphasize hey what we're preaching is what the Bible says
and that it's true I hate clever sermons you say what's a clever sermon it's
where you read the context and it means you know marriages you know it's like
emphasizing marriage and then the sermons all about de-emphasizing
marriage or hey it's emphasizing things that are spiritual and the sermons all
about spirit in flat emphasizing things that are carnal it's completely the
opposite of the context in which the Bible even has it and often all bad
sermons they all come back to this one thing they have no verse that's the core
of theirs of their sermon okay in context where is this verse in context
that you can lose your salvation Oh James to that's not in context of
salvation where is in context your verse that God is one person pretending
to be three oh you don't have that you have to rip something out of context
where is your verse that says you have to be baptized to be saved but there's
nothing in context that teaches any of these false doctrines they have to
cherry-pick a certain verse out of the context and they teach a false doctrine
but even those are extreme examples oftentimes bad sermons are preached why
because people take verses out of context they have no idea what they say
and then they just preach a bunch of lies that were in their heart look we
ought to go to the Bible and say what does the Bible say and then preach that
it doesn't matter what I think look me even being the pastor of this church
there's times where I think a particular way and then I look at the Bible and
it's different and I say okay I need to preach like that I think you know what
people need to you know learn this truth and it's important but I don't think
it's mentioned that much it's probably not something that needs to be stressed
and I'll go the Bible and it's just like verse after verse after section after
section I'm just like oh man and God's just using strong language and harsh
language is like I need to emphasize this and I need to be harsh about it it
doesn't matter what I think it matters what God thinks or oftentimes maybe the
opposite maybe I'm thinking kind of harshly about something or I'm kind of
feeling really really negative about something and I go to the Bible and God's
more gracious or merciful or it's not mentioned that much or I'm really
thinking of things out of context and I need to change and adapt my emotions and
feelings on what the Bible says go if you would this chapter 3 just look at
verse 16 he says all scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for
doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the
man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works all of the
scriptures are profitable Deuteronomy 28 is profitable Ezra chapter 5 is profitable
Haggai chapter 1 profitable Haggai chapter 2 profitable Zechariah chapter 1
profitable it's all profitable and we need to use all of it look what church
are you gonna go to on a Wednesday night where you're gonna read Ezra Haggai
Zechariah Deuteronomy and it's more relevant than anything I've ever heard
today it's the most relevant things I've heard today go to first Timothy chapter
1 verse 2 me chapter 1 what's going to cause the house of God to get builded
preaching we need to emphasize preaching today but specifically that preaching
needs to be right and needs to be what God said notice when Haggai says hey
thus saith the Lord I didn't hear a lot of Haggai's personal opinions about
things I didn't hear what his emotional state was I didn't hear him say well I
think that we're blessed say no God said you're here my opinion doesn't matter
and your opinion doesn't matter either the only opinion that matters is God's
opinion we need to make less of ourselves I must decrease he must
increase okay we need to stop being so selfish and so conceited and worried and
concerned about us we need to be worried and concerned about what God says who
cares what you think who cares what you say I'm important my opinion matters
God's opinion matters the only opinion that matters first Timothy chapter number
1 verse 3 as I besot thee to abide still Ephesus when I went into Macedonia that
thou mightest charge some notice this that they teach no other doctrine what's
the emphasis on the doctrine don't deemphasize doctrine today don't say all
doctrine doesn't matter don't say why do you spend so much time teaching on
doctrine today why because God is telling us to preach the doctrine don't
listen to other doctrines we need to have sound doctrine today we need to
preach the word today that's what's gonna build God's house it's preaching
the right doctrines look at verse 4 neither give heed to fables and endless
genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in
face or do you know what that godly edifying was it was the doctrine verse
5 now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a
good conscience and a faith unfeigned from which some having swore to turn
aside and vain jingling desiring to be teachers of the law understanding
neither what they say nor wherever they affirm you know I have to think you can
spot a false teacher he has no idea what he's saying when he's preaching the
Bible man when you see a guy and it's just like every sermons out of context
everything that he's saying is just wrong it starts making you wonder like
this guy even saved is this guy what what's the problem here and look
obviously nobody's perfect I've made mistakes every's gonna make a mistake
here and there okay we're not talking about the exception we're talking about
the rule when the person is constantly preaching out of context I talked to
another preacher and he was saying he was going to this church and he kind of
suspected the pastor of being a false prophet like being really wicked but
he's just trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but he said he
would always make up this game in his mind he would say before the sermon he
says whatever chapter we reading he's gonna somehow preach the exact opposite
of the context in which are reading and he said every time he always delivered
it was always out of context it was never with the chap and he's like look
the chapter the portion that we read was great why did you just preach that
because he's a false prophet he's a false teacher that's why we need it we
need to have good doctrine because here's the thing if everybody in this
room has no idea what the Bible says then I can say whatever I want yeah I
mean I can just get up here and preach all kinds of lies and people just go for
it oh have you heard about there's these sons of God there Ellie Nephilim if we
go back to the Hebrew it's called Nephilim and if you look up Nephilim
it's these fallen angels who mated with women their babies were 450 feet tall
it's like no one in here is gonna fall for that junk and look we are not get so
hotty and arrogant about ourselves that we think that someone couldn't come in
here and teach us false doctrine though because it can happen and we can be led
astray and the less you know the Bible the more you can be led astray that's
why you need to emphasize doctrine you need to know the doctrine all the
mothers in this room you know the doctrine all the children in this room
need to know the doctrine every man in this room needs no doctor all of us need
to know the doctrine it's not for one person we need to help people know the
doctrine that's gonna help build the church like what it says in verse number
eight but we know the law is good of a man use it lawfully knowing this the
laws not made for a righteous man but the lawless and disobedient for the
ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane for murders of fathers and
mothers murders and murders of mothers for man slayers for whoremongers for
them to defile themselves with mankind for men stealers for liars for perjured
persons and if there be any other thing that is contrary a sound doctrine okay
there's that doctrine word again now some people be like that sounds like the
law bring us under the law but look at the next verse he says according to the
glorious gospel the blessing God has committed my trust now what's the point
that he's making here he's saying hey the law is not written for perfect
people why do as a perfect person need the law it's meant for sinners now isn't
it is there any sinners in the building today are you all just righteous men now
notice he gives a caveat he says yeah the law if it's used lawfully okay and
obviously it should be in accordance with the gospel I don't have to be a
perfect person in order to go to heaven I'm saved by grace today but you know
what the law can still be used because all scripture is given by inspiration of
God and it's profitable is what the Bible saying and look these things
they're still profitable today there's still people that hey are ungodly
there's still people that are unholy there's still people that are profane
and we need people to stand up like haggai and say hey you're ungodly
you're unclean today you're profane today you need to clean yourself up so
that God will stop cursing you so much and so that the house of God can be
built if our church is full of a bunch of unclean people God's not going to be
in it we need to clean our hands you sinners is what the Bible says purify
your hearts you double-minded it's it's a harsh reality and he's saying hey
murders of fathers and murders of mothers man-slayers what's man-slayers
means where you kill somebody and you didn't have evil intent you just driving
recklessly you cause an accident someone dies you run over somebody you have an
axe and the it slips off the head and it just hit somebody on the head and they
die man-slayer he's saying in the next portion
whore mongers that's males that go out and fornicate that's men the ground
fornicate next for them that have filed themselves mankind there's your whores
there's your whore the male whore the female whore just anybody going out
committing fornication it's unclean it's dirty they're supposed to be thrown out
of the church and we let that leaven into the church the church is not going
to be built the church is going to be destroyed what from a spiritual
perspective okay he also says for men stealers there's your you know slavery
oh the Bible and you know teaches slavery I don't see that in the Bible men
stealers for liars I'm pretty sure there's some liars in the building for
purged persons if they're being known as this if there be any other thing that is
contrary to sound doctrine well how am I gonna know it's right and wrong pastor
Shelley you got to hear some sound doctrine and then you'll know it's right
and what's wrong and notice all these commandments that come from the Old
Testament my friend we got to use the Old Testament with the New Testament
according to the gospel and we need to preach sound doctrine today that's how
the house of God is gonna be built go to second to me chapter one second to me
chapter one we're emphasizing a bunch of preaching today not only is the house of
God going to be built when it's preached okay but the preaching is going to also
encourage people to be bold look at verse 7 for God has not given us a
spirit of fear but a power and of love and of a sound mind so whenever we're
going through struggles whenever we have doubts God's preaching the Word of God
being preached unto you through man can give you courage and boldness to
withstand the pressures of this world the pressures of persecution the
pressures of the doubt of the uncertainty of all the lies and the
deception God's Word being thundered forth can give you hey I sound mind
sound doctrine sound mind wicked doctrine wicked mind that's why you need
to hear the sound doctrine okay so preaching will cause the house of the
Lord to be built it'll cause it to be bold go to Colossians chapter 2 Colossians
chapter number 2 and we need it because it's going to help us don't don't think
that you come to this church in vain hard preaching will help you whether you
realize it or not now the only way it's not going to help is if you close your
ears you take a nap and you don't pay attention and you decide not to do it
but if you decide to employ the preaching of God's Word it should help
you in your life and I know that I've been greatly blessed in my life through
hard preaching it's really changed my life it's really encouraged me now
obviously it's in tandem with other things it's in tandem with me reading
Bible myself we need it but you know I was encouraged to read the Bible
because of hard preaching you know when I first realized that I'd never really
read the Bible cover to cover I ended up just reading it cover to cover like
super quick but then my second time through not realizing I should keep
reading the Bible over and over and over I just watch YouTube videos and learning
all the doctrines and you know just just trying to find out extra knowledge just
all kinds of other things just wasting my time I wasn't really you know reading
my Bible cover to cover anymore I was just kind of maybe memorizing some
verses picking out the parts that I liked but then through hard preaching I
was realizing you know what I need to actually just keep reading my Bible
still I need to just keep going through it this Genesis revelation and look the
reading the Bible change your life now the hard preaching is that goad but this
is what will truly change your life but if you don't hear hard preaching you're
not gonna be motivated read the Bible you know doesn't read the Bible people
don't go to church he does not motivate to read the Bible Joel Osteen's members
you know is not motivated read the Bible anybody that listens to Kanye West he
does not motivated to read the Bible what they're motivated to listen his
music but I ever met do they care about this oh no y'all guys are just
fundamental you're just concerned with doctrine and what the Bible says yeah
every time you talk to me like well the Bible says I don't care about what the
Bible says yeah we can tell buddy with your beats you're by Dre headphones and
listen rocking out the Kanye Jesus is my king he ain't your king well he is the
king but you know what he's probably not your king unless you're saved look
caution chapter 2 verse 1 for I would that you knew what great conflict I have
for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the
flesh that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love
and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ and whom
are hit all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and this I say listen he
mentioned the galley with enticing words for though I be absent the flesh yet am
I with you in the spirit joining and beholding your order and the
steadfastness of your faith in Christ as you have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and established in the
faith as he had been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving so he's
noticing saying hey I want you to be built up like they're building the house
of God but I want you to be built up in Christ and the New Testament we have no
temple there's no physical temple you know what the temple is you you are the
temple of God and God wants you to build that temple you know you build that
temple by getting rooted and built up in Christ by Christ's words and he says hey
he's complete you don't need anything else you don't need the commentary you
don't need my 25 books you don't need my 10 steps towards Christ my 10 steps
are all just read the Bible my 10 steps I'll hand you a Bible and tell you to
read it 10 times over you know I'll give you 10 Bibles that's my 10 steps all
right I mean there's there's not all these steps he says in verse number 8
beware listening man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the
tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ for in him
dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in him which
is the head of all principality and power and let me explain this for a
moment okay and I don't preach it a lot but I'm excited I have half my voice
tonight okay been under the weather I have half of it so I'm just trying to
use as much as I can mmm if I had all of it you'd be in trouble what he's trying
to say that in verse number 9 for in him dwelt all the fools of the guided
bodily is this Jesus Christ was 100% God there's no there's no godliness apart
from Christ all godliness is in Christ you know what that tells me I don't need
anything other than the King James Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 you know
what and him dwelt all the fullest of the Godhead all of it I don't well you
know what I really need this other book to learn how to be more godly false it's
all here it's all right here there's no godliness apart from Christ there's no
extra message there's no esoteric meaning there's no mystery that's gonna
make you more godly or draw closer to God and him dwell all the fullest of the
Godhead bodily you want to draw close to God draw close to Christ you know you do
that the King James Bible that's what that means he's saying hey Jesus is
fully God there is no godliness apart from Christ there is no anything extra
and what's constantly being offered to the early Christians is extra well you
need that you need circumcision to you need this extra Judaizing to you need
the book of Jashar to you need us to come and to teach you all the Talmud you
don't need any of that John all you need is Christ I got all of it I have the
whole deal here I got the whole package it's all in Christ you being you know
carried away what is this in verse 8 spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit after the tradition of men the Pharisees are coming along and adding
extra things to God's Word and he's saying you don't need those you're
complete in Christ all the God is in Christ all of its in God's Word we don't
need anything extra today I don't need Rabbi Jonathan Kahn's book okay I
already know he's false you say how go to Matthew 23 Matthew 23 I don't need
his book the paradigm the ancient blueprint that holds the mystery of our
times no you know it's the mystery our times the King James Bible I don't need
the book of mysteries I don't need the Oracle subtitle the Jubilee and
mysteries I don't need the harbinger the ancient mystery that holds the unveiled
secret of America's future hi it's Revelation chapter 18 my friend it's
I don't need that okay I don't I don't need some extra book some extra
knowledge I don't need some rabbi coming around telling me what to do what to
believe the Bible well if you go back to the Hebrew no it's complete right here
well if you go back to the Greek if you go back to what let's go back to the
Spanish can we do that one I know people don't do that one you go back to the
Spanish it says Pedro it's actually Santiago it's not James okay you know
John 3 16 says in Spanish the same things as an English and a Greek and the
Hebrew and every language and you know what you know you say Jesus in English
Jesus oh but his name in this other language I don't care because his name
in English is Jesus it's the name of every name I don't need the the mystery
of the Shemitah look why everybody's after all these books they're like
best-selling books I the church that I grew up in they brought this loser in
he's given us the harbingers and it's just junk my friend you don't need
anything but God's Word and you need it thundered forth you say what's gonna
build the house of God God's Word let me give you a verse Matthew 23 verse 8 but
be ye not called rabbi oh I guess Jonathan Khan doesn't care about that
verse does he he wants to go around called rabbi for one is your master even
Christ and all ye are brethren now go back we're gonna look at one more verse
in Ezra and we'll be finished virtually I think there was one other verse I want
to look at the New Testament go to Ezra chapter number five it's a great
chapter it is great principles great preaching that we can get from this
book and I'm just covering a you know a few points this latter portion of this
chapter is mostly just the letter look at verse number nine then answer then
asked we those elders and said unto them thus we who commanded you to build this
house and to make up these walls we ask their names also certify thee pastor
Shelley s-h-e-l-e-y no that we might write the names of the men that were the
chief of them and thus they returned us answer saying we are the servants of the
God of heaven and earth and build the house that was built with these many
years ago which a great king of Israel building and set up but after that our
fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath he gave them into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon the Chaldean who destroyed this house and
carried the people away into Babylon but in the first year of Cyrus the king of
Babylon the same King Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God and
the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar
took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought them into the
temple of Babylon those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon
and they were delivered unto him unto one whose name was chess bizarre whom he
had made governor and said unto him take these vessels go carry them into the
temple that is in Jerusalem and let the house of God be built in this place then
came the same chess bizarre and laid the foundation the house of God which is
in Jerusalem and since that time even until now had been in building and yet
it is not finished so this is the this is the end of the letter and you know
what I got from from this letter is this everything they said is true and they're
just appealing to that which was true they're saying hey we got this
commandment from Cyrus our we were destroyed Cyrus told us to rebuild the
temple we're just following exactly his instructions we're doing exactly what he
said you know he's basically saying hey the Constitution says we have the
freedom of religion we're allowed to exercise our right I'm not here doing
anything wrong I'm not selling anything I'm not I'm not breaking any of your
commandments or any your statutes you go check it out basically is what they're
saying to him okay verse 17 now therefore if it seemed good to the king
let there be search made in the king's treasure house which is there at Babylon
whether it be so that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of
God at Jerusalem and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this
matter so they're basically just appealing to the king of Babylon and
they're saying hey just go check it out just read the Constitution my friend
read your stupid section 40-4 statute of the local ordinance in white you know
white play which was it white what is it white settlement and you realize this
stupid place hey I'm not soliciting I'm preaching the gospel leave me alone go
to Titus chapter 2 but what can we draw from this because you know what happens
in the next chapter various calls of bluff he looks up you know what was
really said and he's gonna verify the information that they said and look when
you preach God's Word you know what people should do they should open their
Bible and verify what you said it'd be a Berean and he said search those things
daily whether they be so you know it should happen when they search it should
be right it should be exactly what the Bible said it should be exactly in
context it should make it completely sense with the scriptures it should be
sound speech I need to turn to Titus chapter number two this is the emphasis
that we have for preaching for the work of the Lord is that we should do
everything honest in the sight of all men we should prove all things Titus
chapter 2 look at verse 1 but speak though the things which become sound
doctrine whenever you preach it ought to be right you say I don't I don't know if
it's right well then no preacher and that's not even different at the door if
I'm preaching the gospel to somebody do you want me to just preach things are my
opinion no I'm gonna preach things I know that are true know that are right
and we ought to always preach things that we know that are right now honest
obviously even when people are very sincere they can be sincerely wrong but
you ought at least be sincere you ought to actually believe what you're saying
you got actually the words that are coming out make sense look at verse 8
look at verse 7 let's back up and all things showing they sell the pattern of
good works in doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity sincerity oh yeah
emphasizing the doctrine again huh uncorruptness all who cares about the
doctor we're non-denominational let's just bring everybody in we only care
about a few core doctrines our first doctrine is that you tithe at least 10%
our second our second doctrine is that you don't read your Bible our third
doctrine is that you would never split hairs on doctrine and the fourth one is
we don't even care if you show up because we have an online giving tab on
our website that's their doctrine that's the only thing they care about they
don't care if you're even saved you know their doctrine no statement will say
they believe that Jesus is the Son of God but I guarantee the letter one is
here taking that church they'll let Muslims come in that church they don't
care they'll let anybody come in the church as long as they're putting money
in the plate we're not gonna send you away we're not gonna turn you away and
look I'm all for an unsaved person coming and visiting the church and and
afterwards let's preach them the gospel and doing these type of things but you
know what it's gonna cause them inevitably to get to leave the gospel
when we preach God's Word clearly they're either gonna receive it and stay
or they're gonna get so offended they're gonna walk out they're gonna they're
gonna get out the non-enominational Church is gonna motivate motivate you
to just do good do good be good love people the tithing the tithing kiosks
over here we have another one on the back and you know if you want to just
give your your bike your guitar look I'm this is preaching I've heard your 401k
you know you can take it out and it's a charitable it's a write-off on your
taxes we have tax experts if you need one they'll help you in order to give
and we're doing a free thing where you can come and we'll set up you with a
retirement and we'll set up where you can you can tithe extra 10% on when you
die because you don't want to lose on that money either except for I'm pretty
sure the Bible says that you're supposed to tithe on the increase of all your
income I'm pretty sure when you die your money didn't just magically increase so
it's not even tithing at that point you could give an offering okay offerings
but look they just want to teach filthy disgusting things for filthy lucre's
sake but we need to do a verse 8 says sound speech that cannot be condemned
that he that is the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to save you
they have all these billboards out here I'm not ashamed they don't have any
quotes that I won't stand behind and most the time they misquote us they say
bad things they don't have any sound speech or they don't anything that's not
sound speech to condemn otherwise they would use it oh oh believe me they would
use it I know a person that was like that Jesus Christ they kept trying to
catch him at his words to find something to use against him but they couldn't in
fact the scribes after Jesus Christ would answer they would say you know
that was well said cuz they actually knew what the Bible said and they're
like how come every time this guy speaks it's like the Bible we're in him dwell
with all the fools of the godhead bodily then you're complete in him you don't
need anything else Christ is all we need and what we really need is a lot of men
to stand up and say hey Christ is all we need so let's start preaching in I don't
need my thoughts aren't in my opinions I don't need to add anything to God's Word
look I I try to just stick to this book all night and it was great I loved it I
thought there was a lot of great places I want to go to more places okay but
we're gonna end the service all right let's close in prayer thank you father
so much for your word thank you for the gift of your son