(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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