I do appreciate that prayer, seeing as it is the afternoon. As a teacher for the last thirteen years, I know every time you look at your schedule and see that you have a class to teach right after lunch, it is going to be a long year. So you always try to get a word in saying, “You know, not teaching right after lunch.”
But the Lord is gracious, and He is powerful, and He can sustain us during this time, even with a few feeble words that the Lord has given me. But they are strong because they are His words. So let us ask the Lord again to cover this time.
Dear heavenly Father, we are so grateful that You have gathered us from so many locations, that You have gathered us as Your people. Lord, You are so worthy. I just want to echo that prayer. I do not even know if these words are enough, but Lord, these words are for You.
We are Your children. We pray that You would empower the words today in the ears, that we might hear. Lord, give us ears that do not just stop listening, but obey as well. Lord, we want to be Your obedient servants. We thank You and praise You. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, welcome all of you to this time. I am humbled, but I am also very excited. One of the great things about speaking is that it is the one time you get to see everyone that you have been missing for so long. It is about the only thing that is great about this.
Really, this is family. It is a family reunion. A lot of times, when you are out there or if we are busy eating, we do not get to see everybody. It is really a blessing to be able to see my brothers and sisters. I have seen most of you more than I have seen blood relatives in the many conferences and the many travels, and it really is a wonderful thing.
I also want to extend greetings from Houston. There are many who wanted to be here and were not able to come, but they extend their hellos and their prayers. That is encouraging. If you only knew how many people were praying for this time right now.
I know there is a man who is 101 years old in England right now by the name of Fred Flack. He knows that we are meeting this weekend, and he is praying. That is a wonderful thought. He is one of those authors and great men that, if you ever have a chance to listen to a message from our brother Flack through Christian Tape Ministry, or read a couple of his books, he has been a wonderful testimony. One hundred and one years old, and he is praying for us right now. I am encouraged by that.
Let us turn to the book of Haggai. As was just mentioned, this seemed to be the theme verse, but we have not spent too much time on it yet.
The book of Haggai, chapter 1, verse 1. I am just going to read a few verses.
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 Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is 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 a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye 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.
Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.—Haggai 1:1-8
Again, I want to read that verse one more time:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
Go up to the mountain, bring wood, build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.—Haggai 1:7-8
As a means of introduction, I want to look at this word: consider your ways. I appreciate our brother Sonny sharing last night that he believes we are all here because the Lord has us here. There is something that the Lord is trying to show us. It is no accident.
Again, we cannot imagine the number of people who have been praying for this time. Many have prayed that those who are to be here will be here. He has gathered us, and we are to consider our ways.
This morning, our brother Kit said that our days are numbered. That is a strong word. I do not think any of us, in our natural being, want to consider that one of us might not be here next year, or might not be here next week. That is a strong word. We need to consider our ways.
As I was meditating this afternoon, the Lord said something else, perhaps even a little stronger: not just one of us, but we are headed for difficult times. As many of you may know, I am a history teacher. I study history, and I enjoy history. I know better than to talk about history after lunch, but here it goes.
Brothers and sisters, we should be humbled. I firmly believe that we are about to see some very scary times in this world. We can listen to the news and say, “I think the Lord is going to return, and the enemy, and it is all coming to a head,” but it is all head knowledge.
Nothing in history—no tragedy in history—was really ever expected. I think of the Civil War. People talked about the Civil War, but when the first battle came, most of the people from Washington, D.C., came out with picnic baskets. They were going to watch this one little battle, and whoever won it, it was going to be over.
Literally, there were people with picnic baskets at the first battle of the Civil War. They had no idea that 600,000 men would be dead within four years, changing lives forever. In this room alone, fifty percent would not live to see the end of the Civil War. How devastating was that? People knew the war might be coming, but they did not expect the devastation.
World War I was the same. Most of the leaders of Europe were on vacation when World War I broke out. I cannot remember whether it was the Kaiser or the Tsar who was on a ship with his family on vacation. Most of the royal families of Europe were related. They were sending letters to one another; they were blood related. They had no idea that an entire generation of European young people would be dead within four years.
World War I accomplished one thing: it brought about World War II. I have colleagues who grew up in Europe after those two wars. As young people, they thought the fashion of the time was black dresses. They had no idea that most people in Europe wore black because they were mourning their husband, their brother, or their uncle.
No one expected any of this to happen. It came like a whirlwind. Brothers and sisters, we are at a time in history when the whirlwind can hit at any moment. I think this whirlwind may be much greater than World War I or World War II, and it could happen today.
That is not to scare you, and it is not to scare me. But that is how important these times are. You have been called as really an elite group. There are so many people in the world right now who would love to have this Book in their hand. There are those who are dying—and I mean that literally—to get this Book, to read just a little portion of it.
Brothers and sisters, we are quickly coming to a time when we may be in the same position. If you are paying attention to world events, we cannot mention the word of Christ in a public setting. Most preachers and pastors are very careful not to mention Christ, the Lord Jesus, because it offends. So we need to consider our ways.
The Lord has brought you here today. It is for a purpose; it is for a reason. We need to respond to Him. So, with that, I want to look again at this verse about the house of God.
Thus saith 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, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.—Haggai 1:7-8
Lord, that is what we are doing right now: considering our ways. We want to go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. We want You to take pleasure, Lord, and be glorified.
The word that the Lord has put on my heart for this time is pleasing the Lord. This is not natural for man—pleasing someone else. We have been born with a nature that wants to please ourselves, and here we are called to please the Lord.
As I was meditating upon this word, I asked, “Lord, what is going to please You? What is it about the house that pleases You?” The Lord directed me to the story throughout the whole Bible: the Lord wants a relationship. He wants this house. He wants this church.
How can I please You in a relationship? He came down in the garden of Eden to be with Adam and Eve so that He could have a relationship. He could have a people. We know the story there. Throughout the whole Bible, we see that the Lord wants to have this relationship.
So, Lord, who are You, that we might please You? Let us turn to Exodus 34.
When you are trying to please someone, you try to know what they like and what they want. When I first met my wife, I wanted to know everything about her so I could please her. I did not take her to a football game. That was not going to please her. Who was she? What was she all about?
The Lord gave me a word in Exodus 34, verse 11.
Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
But ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim:
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.—Exodus 34:11-14
We have not heard a whole lot of messages on this word: God being jealous. The reason is that it has a negative connotation. Sin has come in, and we think of jealousy as a sinful thing. Little children are jealous all the time. At the workplace, you are surrounded by people jealous of you, and you are jealous of them. It does not have a clean connotation.
But right here in Scripture, it says not only that our God is jealous—His name, His very being, is jealous. Brothers and sisters, He has all the right in the world to be jealous. He is our Creator. We have no rights.
Part of me says I am sorry that so many of us have grown up in the United States, because we think we have rights. Our founding fathers loved the Lord, but there is an overemphasis on rights. We have a jealous God. He has created us, and we have no rights to ourselves. It is a wonderful thought.
To express that thought a little more, jealousy does have a negative connotation. But in a husband-and-wife relationship, I want to say it is an absolute privilege in my marriage: I have the absolute right to be jealous of my wife. That is what it is all about when you say, “I will.”
When you take those words, it is forever. Men, you are to be jealous of your wife, and wives, you are to be jealous of your husband. It is a powerful, wonderful thing. I have no rights to myself. I am my wife’s, and she is mine. That is what the Lord wants. He is a jealous God.
But since the fall, let us turn very quickly to Genesis 3.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.—Genesis 3:1-6
Eve recognized that she had a right, and she was going to take of that fruit. Adam did likewise. They did not respect the jealousy of our Lord.
So, back to this word: how do we please a jealous God? As I was meditating, the Lord gave me ten ways in which we have fallen short in pleasing a jealous God.
With each one, I would like to give a little Old Testament example of where man has fallen short, and then look at it personally and corporately in building God’s house. Hopefully, this will encourage us that we might be those who please our jealous Creator, the King of kings.
The first area is that we have failed to recognize and experience the absolute sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have failed to recognize and experience the absolute sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think we have lost out in this generation, living in a democracy, because we do not understand what a sovereign is. A sovereign word is final. There is no debate. There are no man’s ways.
In the book of Esther, the king made an edict that meant the destruction of all the Jews. He found out about the plot. Could he overturn his own ruling? No. A sovereign’s word is final.
Eve is an example from the beginning. She had a little question, a little doubt about what the Lord said: “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That was final. That would have saved her a lifetime of trouble.
But she thought, “Maybe I could be like God. I will help God just a little bit, because then I will be like God and I will know good and evil.” She had that little question, and man’s relationship with God was broken. Eve could no longer please a jealous God because of that failure.
The book of Judges is another example. It is a very sad book, but one we need to read because we can relate it to our times. The common verse is that there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. That is the whole story of the book of Judges: they had no king.
But Israel finally got a king: King Saul. He started out pretty humble. When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said, “I am of the least of the tribes of Benjamin. I am the least family. I am a little guy here. You do not want me.” He started off right.
But we know the story of Saul. As time went on, the responsibilities of his family and the responsibilities of the kingdom of Israel became so heavy that he decided, “I had better be king.” He forgot that he was the lowest of the low, and suddenly Saul became king, not the Lord.
I encourage you to read the Old Testament. It is such a wonderful mirror. Every time you see someone fail, we can say, “That is me, Lord. I want Your life to change me.”
How do we fail to recognize the absolute sovereignty of God in our personal life? How many of you are in education right now—in school or college of some sort? How many are in the workplace? How many are married?
These are the school of Christ. Lesson number one, rule number 101, whether you are married, working, in school, or all three, is this: you have an absolute Sovereign. He wants to give you His word every day—your direction.
Should I major in this? Should I continue? Should I quit this job and go for another? We do not know the future, but we have a God who does.
I was recently with a friend who was sharing about his education. He went to university several years back, and everyone was going into engineering. It was the hot job. There were engineering jobs everywhere. You were going to come out of school and make eighty grand just like that.
He went to school and became an engineer. The year he got out, the engineering market went flat. There was nothing. All those plans, those four years—he had it all planned.
He ended up finding a job he actually enjoyed. He went into construction. He was an engineer, but construction was hands-on, and he really enjoyed it. Long story short, he eventually wanted to get married and realized that the family wanted him to have a higher degree.
At that time, everything was, “Get into real estate and finance. Get your MBA in real estate and finance.” He sacrificed for his wife-to-be. He went back to school. He had just graduated, and it went flat.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know where he is with the Lord, but I can tell you this: I think the Lord is trying to get him. I pray that for all of us. May we see it? May we not just say, “Well, I do not like that interview. They do not like me. I do not like them.” Maybe the Lord has a hand in it. Listen to that still, small voice.
When you get a grade in school that you do not agree with—“It was unfair”—remember: I have an absolute Sovereign. In family life, wives, the best way to practice the absolute sovereignty of the Lord Jesus is to submit to your husbands. I know it is hard, but the Lord is sovereign over your husband.
Husbands, love your wives no matter what, because we have a sovereign Lord.
In the building of the house of God, if you are functioning in the house of God, you will be offended. You will be hurt. It will look as though the house of God is in disrepair. You may look to an older brother and say, “If you could get this straight, if you could fix this, everything would be better. Our worship time would be better. Our ministry time would be better.”
I hope at that point, if you ever go that far, you will remember that the responsible brothers are not the absolute sovereigns. The Lord Jesus is the absolute Sovereign. When we recognize that and obey that fact, then a jealous God is pleased.
The second area in which we fail to recognize and experience is the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are writing notes, write that with a capital R.
When I was growing up, we used to abbreviate righteousness with a capital R and a plus next to it: God’s righteousness. Man’s righteousness was an R with a minus sign next to it. There is the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus, our God, and there is man’s righteousness.
The first Old Testament example of a righteous man was Cain. Sometimes when we read Scripture, we hear these stories but do not meditate or think about them. What was Cain? Do you think he was just a rotten guy?
I imagine Adam walking along and seeing Cain working: “There is my son. He knows how to work, and he is doing it for the Lord.” Cain is out there digging, sweating, getting everything right, and it is all for the Lord.
But God despised Cain’s sacrifice. I almost wonder whether Cain, working in the field and sweating and planting, looked over his shoulder and saw Abel sitting there watching the flock. Cain may have thought, “Poor Dad and Mom, to have a loser son like that. He is just sitting there, watching little animals. He is doing nothing.”
Cain may have thought, “Wait until judgment day comes. We are going to have these sacrifices, and God is going to come down and say, ‘Abel, you slacker. Cain, My beloved.’” Well, we know the story. Cain was devastated. “I had done so much. I was so righteous. I had been working. I had been sweating. Abel is nothing.”
Let us turn to Hebrews 11:4.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts: and through it he being dead yet speaketh.
—Hebrews 11:4
Cain was a good guy. He was a good worker. He was righteous—little r. Abel was misunderstood. Abel had a very short life, but he is speaking today. Though dead, his blood speaketh from the ground as one who is called righteous by God.
How many of you tomorrow or next week want to hear from your teachers, “You are a good guy. You are a good student”? From your boss: “You have done a good job”? Is that worth appearing before the Lord someday—or appearing before the Lord every day—and hearing Him say, “Nothing. You have nothing to show for it”?
That is the story of Cain. In family life, husbands—and I say this because many young people who are not married may think this does not apply to them—one of the best ways to prepare for marriage is to treat your parents with respect and treat them as you would your wife.
My wife and I had to get right with our families first before we were prepared for each other. Are you righteous with your own righteousness before your parents? Are you going to school to prove that you are going to do a good job? Are you going to church because you want to prove you are righteous, so you can get approval? It is never going to satisfy.
Are you raising your children to be righteous, to be good in the eyes of the world? If your children are being raised correctly, and the Lord gets them, and they are righteous with the capital R—God’s righteousness—they will be misunderstood at school. They will be bullied. They will be teased. They will be persecuted.
You are setting them up for it. But if you love them, you will do it. If you love them, you will be praying for them in that regard. We want the next generation to be righteous as Abel, even if it means a short life or a despised life.
In the house of God, we are in a nation of churches. We are in a Christian nation—I cannot believe we even say that anymore, but we say it—because we are a nation of little r’s: self-righteous, righteous in our work.
Right after Hurricane Ike in Houston, they interviewed pastors, priests, and everyone in Houston, asking, “What advice do you give to the people of Houston?” The response across the board, across all denominations, was, “Go out, help your neighbors, work. The more you work, the less you will think about yourselves and the devastation. Work, work, work. Help, help.”
On the radio, I did not hear one pastor say, “Maybe the Lord is knocking on the hearts of each individual, and we are supposed to ask, ‘Lord, why? Why is my house flattened? Why do I not have electricity? Why have I displeased You?’ Get right with the Lord first. Then love your neighbors.”
But we were so busy as Christians doing work that we did not look at ourselves, just as Cain refused to look at himself. In the house of God, we need to know that God is righteous. He has no use for our good works. He wants our works, but only if they are righteous as Abel’s sacrifice.
Thirdly, we have failed to recognize the perfect justice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think it is ironic: what is the symbol of justice? Blind justice. We are proud of that. We want someone to judge us who is blind, who does not know anything, who cannot see. I want justice from an all-knowing God. I want justice that sees very clearly the difference between right and wrong.
Let us turn to 1 Kings 3. This is a very familiar story, and it is near and dear to my heart because many times a day I have teachers, students, and parents coming to me, and they want judgment.
I have never yet said, “Bring your student, and let us cut them in half and go from there.”
This is the story of Solomon’s wise judgment.
Then there came two women that were harlots unto King Solomon, and stood before him.
And the one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.
And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.
And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.
And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.
Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.
And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.—1 Kings 3:16-28
This is a picture of the perfect justice of our Lord. Do you notice that the woman who was in sin was not bothered by death? “I have one dead child; we will take another.” That is the best man can come up with. Where do you find justice in death?
But the one who was just, the one who was right before the Lord, said, “I surrender my rights to my child. Give it to her. Just let the child live.” That is perfect justice. Was there sacrifice there? She had to surrender the rights to her child. But in the end, did she get her child? Absolutely.
Yielding to God’s judgment brings life. I want to say that again, because it means a lot to me. Sometimes we think judgment is something bad, something not good, but yielding to God’s judgment brings life. Maybe not comfortable life, but the best life.
When we wake up in the morning in our personal lives, are we willing to say, “Lord, You judge me today”? Are we willing to say, “Lord, judge me if I sing this song with the wrong heart”? Or do we, by faith, say, “Lord, I sing this song, and You judge my heart”?
In our family, we have to make judgment decisions all the time. “Mom and Dad tell me I have to do this. I have to obey, but it does not feel right.” Lord, You judge. I tell my kids all the time, “Your job is to obey Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad, our job is to obey God.” As long as I do that, they feel safe.
In the house of God, as we are building together and there is conflict and rubbing against sharp edges, are we willing to say, “Lord, You judge this. I am not going to judge it. I am blind; You are all-knowing”? We fail to recognize the perfect judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fourthly, we have failed to recognize and experience the pure love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We all know the story of Lot. I think Lot loved Abraham. I do not have any doubt. There were many people who did not go with Abram. They looked at it and said, “Well, there you go. See you at Christmas time. Enjoy your journeys.” Lot said, “I like this guy. There is something about Abram. I am going to follow.”
As they spent more time together, I think there was a love that developed between Abraham and Lot. Then the flocks began fighting. There was contention. This is often how love is tested. Abram said, “Look, Lot, you choose. You can go that way, or you can go that way.”
If Lot’s love had been a little stronger, he probably would have said, “No, Abraham, you choose first. You choose first. I love you.” But if it was pure love of God, he would have responded like Ruth.
Let us turn to Ruth 1:15.
And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god: return thou after thy sister-in-law.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee:
For whither thou goest, I will go;
And where thou lodgest, I will lodge:
Thy people shall be my people,
And thy God my God:
Where thou diest, will I die,
And there will I be buried:
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If aught but death part thee and me.—Ruth 1:15-17
Ruth refused to leave. She had such love, such vision. Lot said, “Sodom and Gomorrah are looking pretty good to me.” His love ended right there. Ruth realized that going back with Naomi would mean persecution. She was a Moabitess. There was nothing for Ruth in that direction—only trouble ahead—but she cleaved to Naomi.
One last example of this love: Abraham loved the Lord, but what we do not recognize sometimes is that Abraham loved Isaac. When he took Isaac to the top of that mountain and was going to sacrifice Isaac, it was because he loved Isaac.
He was not going to be a father who let Isaac get in the way of his position with God. Abraham said to Isaac, “Isaac, I love you. But only true love for a son is a love that obeys the heavenly Father.”
I think Isaac recognized that. He was a grown man, not some weak little infant with no thought in the matter. Isaac said, “Dad, you love God. I will get up there for you.” We know the end of the story. Abraham’s love for Isaac is what allowed him to sacrifice Isaac.
That is a strong word for our family lives. Do you love your wife enough to allow her to be sacrificed? Do you love your husband enough to allow him to be wholly taken to the Lord in every aspect of his life? Do you love your children enough to allow them to be despised in the world and mistreated?
Pure love of God overcomes all of that. In the house of God, only the pure love of God can keep brothers and sisters together. You will always find a reason not to love, a reason to separate, a reason to say, “We are not the house of God. This is going nowhere.” That is because we do not have the pure love of God.
Fifthly, we do not recognize and experience the eternal life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to say from the forefront: this is not merely life eternal with no end. Eternal life is the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is abundant life. It is living life. That sounds redundant, but I do not know how else to explain it. It is a living life.
The Old Testament example is Esau. Esau was another one of those men that, if you had seen him, you would say, “There is the future. There is Isaac’s future.” Esau was the firstborn, a strong hunter, wanting to care for his dad. This was a good old boy.
Esau was out hunting, working, doing what he did best. Then he came in and saw that lentil soup. “That lentil soup smells good. Jacob, what have you got there? Red bean soup? Oh, I need it. I am famished. I need a better life now.”
Jacob said, “What is it to you?” Esau said, “It is worth eternal life. It is worth the birthright.” Later it says that he despised the birthright. That is devastating.
Let us not judge Esau. How many times do we do it in a day? Do we sell abundant life, eternal life—the Lord Jesus Christ—for a handshake, “Good job,” an A-plus, or “You are the best daddy”? We sell everything for that little favor.
Esau was a dad-pleaser, a man-pleaser, but he despised his birthright. In the house of God, do we want good church life, good music, good food, good company—a good club? Do we sell eternal life, the Lord Jesus, a living testimony, for a good old boys’ club or a good sisters’ meeting?
We have to be careful. Sometimes we say, “I like this meeting a lot better,” and we sell the best for what is pretty good.
Number six: we fail to please our jealous Lord because we fail to recognize and experience the omnipotence of our Lord Jesus Christ—the all-powerfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no better Old Testament example than our wonderful brother Samson. He embodies the power of Christ. He was powerful. He was taking care of the flesh, the Philistines. Yet the flesh crept in. The Philistines crept in.
Before you knew it, he started telling a little half-secret here and a little half-secret there. Before you knew it, Samson said, “Really, the secret is that I am strong. Check it out right there.” And he lost it all.
Samson failed to recognize where the power came from. Samson is written about in the New Testament; he is recovered. It is a sad story. But when was Samson the strongest? When he had no eyes, when he had no strength, and when he was being mocked.
Only then could he stand between the two pillars. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he crushed more of the flesh, more of the Philistines, in that moment than he had in his entire life, because at that point he recognized the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord wants that in our personal life. He does not leave us here to waste away or to be weak. He wants us to be powerful, but not in ourselves. If you go to work or school with the power, the omnipotence, of the Lord Jesus Christ, you may not see it, but you will change your campus and your workplace.
Men, we love to be the breadwinner. We love to be the go-to guy. When our kids say, “Dad, you are the best,” it does a lot for you. But when you are powerful because God is the omnipotent One in your family, you can turn to your son and say, “I cannot teach you to be kind to your little brother, but I know a God who can.” That will change your family.
Wives, I know you want to change your husbands. If they need changing, you are not going to do it. But the omnipotent God can. He is the only One who can change. If you are trying to change your husband, you are taking two steps back, because it is not going to happen on your own.
Brothers and sisters, if we are trying to change those with whom we fellowship, those whom the Lord has built us together with, we are losing a losing battle. But our God is omnipotent. He will build His church. Let us not be Samson, who had to go through it the difficult way.
Number seven: we fail to please our jealous Lord because we do not recognize and experience the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ—our all-knowing God.
Have you ever asked yourself, “I wonder what he is thinking right now? I wonder what she is thinking right now?” The Lord knows.
Saul failed, and the kingdom was taken away from him. Saul, this wonderful king of Israel who had such power, prophesied and was filled with the Spirit, became so weak that he went to the witch of Endor for information.
Saul was so righteous that he outlawed witchcraft. If you were a witch and were caught practicing witchcraft, you were to be put to death. Yet that same man went to the witch of Endor and told her a lie so that he could know the future.
Brothers and sisters, we are only one step away from that in our life. Our traditions say, “I know how to meet.” If you are in Memphis, you know how to gather on Sunday morning. If you are in Richmond, you know how to gather. If you are in Houston, whatever fellowship you are in, you have a knowledge of how to build the house of God.
It would shock all of us if we could compile all the messages, notes, and words of Christianity that we have compiled just in this room. It would fill library after library. It is nothing unless it is bathed in the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe the Lord says, “This is not how you are to gather.” We say, “We have always done it this way,” either by tradition or reason. But there is a pure road of an omniscient Lord.
The most powerful word I ever received in my life came from my father. I do not know why or on what day he said it, but he turned to me one day and said, “I do not care if you pump gas the rest of your life. Just follow and love the Lord Jesus.”
For a father to say that to his firstborn son—wow. I do not know his heart, but I am sure glad the Lord placed that on his heart at that time, because it revolutionized my life. Believe it or not, I was going to play for the NBA. Stephen, you have a better chance of that.
The Lord took care of that, obviously. I had so many thoughts, but from the very beginning my father said, “God is the omniscient One. He knows what you need to be doing.” As a father, I do know this: love the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful omniscient God we have.
Number eight: we need to recognize the omnipresence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Most of you have probably heard this since you had ears to hear: “God is everywhere. God is everywhere. God is everywhere.”
If I asked who believes God is here, almost every hand would go up. He is omnipresent; He is everywhere. But is it a reality?
At some point in our lives, we need to recognize our limitations. Omnipresence is an example of our Lord where there are no boundaries to Him.
In the Old Testament, we have the story of Moses. At some point, Moses’ father-in-law stepped in and said, “You cannot be everywhere at one time. The people are sapping your strength. You are exhausted. You need help.”
Sometimes in our lives, we want to be everywhere. As a father, I want to be with my son in first grade when he hears wrong things. When he goes to a friend’s house and they turn on that television, I want to be there and say, “No, this is wrong.”
When my wife goes shopping and there is chaos in the world, I love to go with her so I can be there and take care of the family. Brothers and sisters, we are not omnipresent, but the all-loving, all-knowing God is. We need to recognize that.
If right now in your life you are falling in sin, please listen: when you are in the midst of that sin, God is right there.
I used to say to myself, “Would I be doing this if my dad was in the room? Would I be listening to this music?” I remember a friend gave me a CD. I came home from basketball practice, sat down at the table, and there was the CD.
My father said, “That is interesting music. Let us read some of the titles.” I never listened to it again. It was okay when he was not around, but the minute he was there, my heart sank. He read those titles to me, and I did not even know what they meant. But I knew they were not good.
That is who our God is. Is our God omnipresent in our meetings, in our building? Are we sitting around the table thinking, “Oh, they always pick that song. Guess who is starting the meeting today? Does he ever not pray? I think he broke a record”?
Our Lord Jesus, who was on the cross and gave up everything, is sitting right next to you. Are you worshiping Him? Am I worshiping Him? Or am I judging because I think I know better? We fail to please our jealous Lord because we do not recognize that He is omnipresent.
Number nine: we fail to please a jealous God because we do not recognize and experience the immutability—the unchangingness—of our God. He does not change.
No one in Scripture had a brighter future than Solomon. Please get the books, read them, devour them, and have them spread out all over your room so your wife says, “Are you ever going to clean those up?”
Also, listen to the messages given to us from our brothers. When I think about Solomon, I think of a message Brother Dana Congdon gave a few years back in Richmond, speaking about The Solomon Generation. If you have a chance, go home, download that message, and listen to it through Christian Tape Ministry.
Solomon had such hope. There are no second generations; we are all first generation. But many of you have been given something from your parents: a wonderful testimony. Your parents may have given themselves to the Lord in the late sixties or early seventies, because there was a huge revival at that time.
I think there is about to be another one, and I hope we will be the ones who respond to it. That generation responded in the late sixties and early seventies, and we are the product of it. We can be Solomons.
But man’s heart can change and be turned. It says in 1 Kings 11, “The wives of Solomon turned away his heart.” He was so right on, and then his heart changed. We cannot help it; we are not immutable. Our Lord is.
His desire does not change. His hopes do not change. His eternal purpose does not change. You cannot trust your parents not to change. You cannot trust even your spouse or your children not to change. Only One does not change.
We see it in the lives of the children of Israel: “We love the Lord. We love the Lord. We love the Lord. Oh, look, that idol.” One moment they condemn people for sacrificing their children to idols; a few verses later, the children of Israel are sacrificing their children to idols. It is a sobering thought.
We as parents and children will change. One of my children’s favorite words is, “But I thought you said.” Usually, I made a mistake. I am changing. Our God does not change, and it is the same with the house of God. God will not change. He will build His house.
Number ten: we fail to please our jealous Lord because we do not recognize and experience the whole truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is truth.
It is pure truth. When the Lord came down to Adam and said, “Adam, I could not find you in the garden. Something is up. What happened?” Adam told the truth: “I was walking in the garden. Eve came up. She gave me some, and I ate.”
But it was not the whole truth. If Adam was right with God, it would never have happened. He hid some facts. “Adam, did she ram it down your throat?” No. “Were you right with Me? Were you seeking fellowship with Me?” No. It was truth, but not the whole truth.
Sometimes in our personal and family life, we try to tell the truth to please man, and that truth becomes lies. One of the most devastating stories is the young Amalekite who came to King David, saying, “David, Saul is dead. Saul asked me to slay him, so I did it.”
He thought, “This is going to get me in good with David.” David killed him because he said he had touched the Lord’s anointed. But did he? That was not the story. He told a bold-faced lie to get in good with David, and it cost him his life.
When we worship in the house of God and sing, “I surrender all,” is that the truth? Or are we trying to get in good with the King? In the Old Testament, the punishment for that is death. It kills us spiritually if we are building the house of God to get favor with man. Then we do not please a jealous God.
With just a few more minutes left, I want to speak of Someone who did please a jealous God: our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
I want to recap the life of our Lord Jesus and how He pleased His Father. We know the story. When Jesus was baptized, the Father said, “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Time and time again, it says that the Lord Jesus was the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Simon Peter answered when Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus responded, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock”—because you have said this, because you believe it, because this has been revealed to you from My Father—“I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
How do we build the house of God? Like Peter, we profess, “You are the Christ, the Anointed One, the King, the Savior.” If we profess that from our hearts, then the house of God is being built.
Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That is in 2 Corinthians. But where did Jesus start? Was He always righteous? Yes.
One of the most mysterious statements to me in the New Testament is when the rich man comes and says, “Good Teacher,” and Jesus says, “None is good, save one, even God.” That is Jesus saying that.
We love to say, “Good job. Good job on that work. Good job on that paper. You are a good husband. You are a good wife.” But there is no one good save one: God. That is the testimony of our Lord Jesus.
In the Old Testament, justice always led to death: “You do this, you die.” We are enjoying Genesis right now, but you are going to get to Leviticus and Numbers soon enough: “You do this, you die.”
In the New Testament, the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery. They caught her in the very act. Jesus said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” They went away.
What did He say to the woman? “Go, and sin no more.” When God judges, it is such justice that He can say, “Go, and sin no more.”
Love—we could talk for the rest of the day, but let us do it in three words: God is love. There is no better testimony of our Lord Jesus than loving the disciples, even Judas.
If I had the knowledge that Jesus had, and I knew Judas was stealing from the bag, I would have to give hints. “I love you all, disciples, even those of you who may be stealing from the rest of us.” Or perhaps I would say, “Thou shalt not steal, Judas.” But God is love. He loved Judas.
Do we love our parents who cared for us and nurtured us? Do we love our wife, with whom we said we would spend the rest of our life? Do we love our husbands? Do we love our children? We say we do, but when we get angry, where did that love go? Do we love our brothers and sisters, or is it conditional love?
God is love. Eternal life is seen in the Lord Jesus sitting at the well and telling the woman, “You have spent your whole life looking for happiness, looking for life. What has it gotten you? Husband after husband after husband. Drink of My life, and you will thirst no more.”
What was Jesus doing at that time? He was waiting for the disciples to bring Him food. When they appeared and said, “Here, we have food for You,” He said, “I do not need anything.” Who fed Him? That testimony with that woman gave Him life for that moment. It gave her life, and it became a testimony to the Samaritans.
He came that we might have life and have it abundantly. That is in the book of John.
Regarding omnipotence: with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Speaking of entering into the kingdom of God, the rich man cannot enter. With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
We have heard that statement over and over again. Can He change that boss who mistreats you? He can, if He wants. That is a big if. All things are possible. Do not forget it when you cannot wake up in the morning, when you know you should have a devotion, and it is killing you to wake up because you keep hitting the snooze button. Speaking from experience.
With God, all things are possible. He can wake you up. He can sustain you. He can cause you to be that husband who submits. “Isn’t it the wife who is supposed to submit?” If you love your wife, you will submit. Wives, submit in love. All things are possible.
Regarding God’s omnipresence, Paul said in Athens that He does not dwell in temples made with hands, and that we should seek God, if perhaps we might feel after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
Jesus was in constant communion with His Father: “He is in Me, and I am in Him.” Always omnipresent.
Regarding immutability, Malachi 3:6 says:
For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
—Malachi 3:6
Our God does not change. We are talking about the building of the church. I have read this verse already, but I want to read it again:
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
—Matthew 16:18
That is unchanging. That is His promise.
And, of course, truth. John 14:6 says:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
—John 14:6
There is no greater statement: He is the way, the truth, and the life.
A powerful early reference to Bethel, the house of God, is in Genesis 28. Let us turn to Genesis 28:12.
And he dreamed: and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.—Genesis 28:12-14
Later Jacob named the place Bethel, because he had seen the house of God. This ladder is what God has wanted from the very beginning, from the garden of Eden. He wants communion up and down. There is no distance between earth and heaven: a relationship.
Man had tried in the past to build the tower of Babel to get to God, but that was not the way. This ladder was the way. The translation is awkward, so we do not know exactly whether the Lord stood on it, above it, or next to it. But Jesus stood as that relationship.
Was that it for Jacob? Did he see the vision and say, “There it is, the house of God”? Is Jacob done?
It says in Genesis 28:20:
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
So that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and the Lord will be my God,
Then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.—Genesis 28:20-22
Where is the other ninety percent, Jacob? He saw the vision. The house of God, the relationship, the connection—it was there. He was so excited. Jacob the grabber was willing to give a whole ten percent.
But a couple chapters later, we find Jacob at Peniel. Jacob had seen the vision, but I hope today you find yourself wrestling with God. If you are sitting there comfortable, if I am standing here comfortable, there is a problem.
We need to wrestle with God today. We need to wrestle with God at this conference. When we fellowship in our discussion groups, fellowship with one another: are you wrestling with God? Are you refusing to let go of God until He blesses you?
I hope that is your cry. But only ask the Lord for this wrestling match on one condition: are you willing for Him today to take your hip and break it?
Are you willing to allow the strength of your life to be so weakened that you will not take another step for the rest of your days without remembering this wrestling match, which will bring you back to Bethel, the house of God?
When you go for that job, when you start that family, when you propose, are you going to have a broken hip? When you go to worship in your different gatherings, when you fellowship with a saint on the phone, are you going to have a broken hip?
It is only that brokenness—it is another way of saying it is only the cross—that crosses out our flesh and can be pleasing to a jealous God.
One last verse answers the whole question of Jacob. It is found in John 1:51.
And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
—John 1:51
There is the translation we were looking for. That is what Jacob saw: the Lord Jesus Christ reestablishing that presence, that relationship.
When our life is crossed out by the cross of the Lord Jesus, if we take up that cross, then He can live His life in us. We come to the house of God, and we build His house. We will be so blessed for it.
May the Lord cross us out. May we be those who please a wonderful, wonderful, jealous God.
Let us ask the Lord to cover this time.
Dear heavenly Father, I pray that we would be those who please You. Lord, reveal to us what true jealousy is. May we be those who decide today to be broken.
Lord, we cannot even decide that fully. We ask it, but only You can do it. Reveal Yourself to us. Reveal Your house. Reveal to us the relationship that we can have.
We desire to have that life and have it abundantly, only to please You. Lord, we put any pleasures of ourselves aside today. We ask that You would deal with them.
Lord, right now, if there is something that has a hold on our hearts, we ask that You would cross it out. I pray that You would even use the testimony time, the fellowship times, the times around lunch, and the times outside getting fresh air to encourage one another and testify to one another.
May we desire to be people who are crossed out and built up together in Your image. We pray that You would make these words real, and that they would be pleasing to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.