Join us in this enlightening episode as Dr. J. Vernon McGee guides us through the intricate discussions of God’s judgments. Delving into the practical book of Haggai, we explore the importance of self-judgment and the distinct consequences of our actions as believers. Understand why aligning our lives with God’s will can bring fulfillment and peace.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
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Where are you headed? How are you getting along in your job? How about your marriage or your studies in college? What are your goals in life? Well, these are questions that our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, asks as we continue to make our way through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host, and if you’re joining us for the first time, you need to know a few things about our studies. First, you can join us at any point in our journey through the whole Word of God and Right now, we’re in the Old Testament book of Haggai chapter 1, a great place to start. Also, if you stay with us for five years, you’ll have traveled through the entire book, all 66 books. And as you’re with us a bit, you’ll quickly notice that each new study intentionally jumps back and forth between the Old and New Testaments. As listeners who have been on the Bible bus for a while can tell you, By the way, that’s what Dr. McGee affectionately called our journey through the whole word of God. This unique method gives us really an integrated view of how God works out his purposes and plans in history. Now, for both new listeners as well as those who have been with us for a while, you’re welcome to a couple of practical resources that will help you in these studies. Number one, we make Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for each study available to you for free. All you got to do is download our app from our app store or visit ttb.org anytime and download our free digital book, Briefing the Bible. You can also call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we’ll send you an abridged copy by mail. And then last but not least, if you miss a message or maybe you want to listen again, every book study of our five-year journey through the whole Word of God is available for you to listen to anytime. Again, just pull up the app or visit ttb.org. Now let’s get to our study. To begin, here’s another of Dr. McGee’s introductions in his series about the judgments of God.
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Now, I’ve been talking to you about the judgments of God. The popular viewpoint is that there’s going to be a judgment day way off yonder somewhere, and that just doesn’t happen to be the teaching of Scripture. There are actually eight judgments that are mentioned. Now, we’ve been looking at some of them. We have seen the judgment death of Christ on the cross. He died what is called a plenary substitutionary death. And if you want to be theological, you speak like that. And if you want to pronounce it accurately, you say plenary, substitutionary. But I’ve always said the other, and I don’t think I’ll be changing from that. Now, he died a death that makes it possible for you and me to be redeemed. be forgiven of our sins, and stand before God in his righteousness. He was delivered for our offenses, raised for our justification. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That was the death that he died. Then we saw self-judgment of believers that we can judge ourselves. And if we won’t as believers, why, we’re chasing to the Lord. He takes us to the woodshed. And then the fourth judgment is the judgment of believers’ works. We are all going to appear someday before the judgment seat, the Bema of Christ. And it has nothing to do with salvation because the only people that go there are saved people. The question there is, will you receive a reward? Now, we come down to the one that’s mentioned here in this little book of Jude, and that’s the judgment of angels. Now, I touched on it, but I want to mention it again. And in verse 6, he says, “…and the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great day.” Now, that is the judgment of angels that is apparently out there in the future. Now, Peter spoke of this same judgment, by the way, and you’ll find it in the second chapter of 2 Peter at verse 4. It says, “…for if God spared not the angels that sin, but cast them down to hell, or to Hades, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.” not of the fallen angels, some of them are demons that have not yet been bound or judged, but some have already been apparently judged. And this judgment takes place, we believe, from what we read in 1 Corinthians, over at the 15th chapter, and I’ll turn there, Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and authority and power. And that means angelic, of course. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And that apparently is during the millennial reign of Christ here upon the earth. Now we have that also mentioned again in the book of Revelation at verse 10. The devil that deceived them, and he was an angel of light, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And then you have that very strange verse in 1 Corinthians 6, 3, Know ye not that we shall judge angels? Well, I take it it’ll be during the period of the kingdom that’s to be established here on earth. That’s a separate judgment of angels. And that, of course, is a very important judgment. Now, I’m not going to be able to get to the other judgments, but we are yet to look at the judgment of Israel. And also, there is the judgment of the Gentile nations. And then there’s the judgment of the great white throne. So you see that there are many judgments that are still out yonder in the future. Because God, we’re told, is going to judge the earth. This is his earth. He made it. You may have a deed to a little piece of it. But really, I don’t know whether God gave that to you or not. This is God’s earth. And we’re tenants here on it. And mankind, humanity, will have to give an account to him someday.
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Let’s pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you for the grace that you give us through the sacrifice of your son, Jesus. As we study your word, Lord, help us to know you better. And in return, we want to live lives that please you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Haggai 1 on Through the Bible.
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Now, friends, we’ve come to the very practical little book of Haggai. And we’ve seen that this man is very practical. He’s right down to earth. And he deals with the nuts and bolts of life. He carries a measuring stick with him. And if you can’t measure it, he’s not about to deal with it because he’s dealing with the practical issues of life. And he’s getting the gospel into shoe leather, the Word of God into shoe leather. And his is truly the gospel of work. Now, he began in his first message saying, that he had here, it was a challenge to the people. And that’s in the first 11 verses where we are just now. And in the first four verses, there is a charge of conflict of interest. The people were under the false notion that it was not God’s time to build God’s house. You see, they had returned back to Jerusalem, and it had been a very discouraging experience. Although they came back with much enthusiasm, it didn’t take him long to get chilled. But they did build their own houses. But they decided that it wasn’t time to build the Lord’s house. And they were dismissing their responsibility. Now, the Lord put them on the spot immediately. He said here in these first four verses to them, how is it that you dwell in your panel houses and this house lies waste? God is greatly displeased with him, and he revealed that when he began in verse 2 and said, this people say. Now, ordinarily, God says, they’re my people, but not here. And it doesn’t mean he’s disowned them because he hasn’t. He just happens to be displeased with them. They are not in the will of God. They’re not obedient to him. And they’re covering all that up with this pious phrase, well, it’s just not time. that the Lord’s house be built. We’ll do this later. Now, God calls their attention to something very practical here, friends. This is something that gets right down to the nitty-gritty of life. He says, verse 5, Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Well, actually, the word that he uses here is set your heart upon your ways. That is the thing that he’s saying to them. Set your heart upon your ways. Look at what’s happening to you. And he now goes into detail on that. He says, verse 6, ye have sown much. And you bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye’re not filled with drink. Ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in a bag with holes in it. Now, God was judging them in their material things. And they were not recognizing it. You remember, this is something that we brought out in the epistle to the Hebrews for believers today. When God chastises us or disciplines us, there’s a reason for it. Or when he judges us. And the child of God ought to explore the reasons. He ought to find out why it is God is putting him through the mill and why God is rubbing sandpaper on him. God wants to smooth the edges off of our lives, by the way. And so he does use the sandpaper. Now, for these people, there had been crop failure. There had been famines. There’d been no money to buy clothes. There hadn’t been enough to eat or enough to drink. And they didn’t have a savings account at all. But they never once attributed that to their disobedience. They were trying to pass it off for some other reason. A lot of God’s children today, they say, oh, that’s just my luck. It’s not your luck if you’re God’s child. These things come to you for a purpose. God won’t let anything happen to you unless it happens for a purpose. God is attempting to develop something in your heart and in your life. And therefore, these people were told, he says, consider your ways or set your heart upon your ways. You see, man’s way always seems right unto him. That is what the writer of the Proverbs says. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man. But the end thereof are the ways of death. And you remember God said, speaking of mankind, they’re all gone out of the way. Each one is turned to his own way. And you remember that it’s put in Isaiah, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. That is the problem with mankind today. And Proverbs again says, the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. And Proverbs 2.12 says, the way of the evil man. And God says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. My, how the Word of God enlarges upon all of these things that reveal man’s ways, not God’s way. And he speaks in Proverbs 6, 23, of the way of life. And Proverbs again says in chapter 13, verse 15, “…the way of the transgressor is hard.” I’ll say it’s hard. God says that it’s going to be hard. And Isaiah, in Isaiah 55, in verse 7, he said, “…let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord. He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly part.” My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Now, that’s just what God says. And in Jeremiah 10, 23, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It’s not in man that walketh to direct his steps. And it was Jeremiah in the sixth chapter, verse 16. He says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way? And walk therein, ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we’ll not walk therein. Because man is in rebellion against God. In Jeremiah 10, 2, he says, learn not the way of the heathen. And God says, this is the way, walk ye in it. Isaiah 30, 21. And the Lord Jesus put it like this in John 10, verse 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door of into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. And then he goes on to say, speaking of the door, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and he shall go in and out and find pasture. How tremendous this is. And this is what God is saying to these people. Consider your ways. Consider your ways. Set your heart upon your ways. Don’t you see what’s happening to you? How many that are listening to me right now? I mean, face right up to it. What way are you on today? Where is this way you’re following now? Where is it leading you? Have you ever stopped to think where drugs are going to lead you? There’s not but one out. It’s a broad way when you start. You do as you please. But you see, that broad way is actually a funnel. And it keeps getting narrower and narrower. And there’s only one little narrow spot where it comes out. And that is destruction. Broad way to begin with. But God says that he’s the way and no other way. And you enter that in the other end of the funnel, the narrow part of the funnel. But as you go along, he says he’ll go in and out and find pasture. My, broad after you get in and they’ll have life and have it more abundantly. Consider your ways. Set your heart upon your ways. Where are you going? Where are you headed? How are you getting on in your job? How’s your marriage working out? Young person in college, how are you coming on with your studies? Do you have a goal in life? How about a young lady, the young man you’re going with? Where will he take you to? Where is he going to lead you to? What’s going to happen to you? Why don’t you consider your ways? Why don’t you set your heart upon your ways and give attention to that? I read letters of folk in all walks of life, or in several walks of life. But I read letters from people in every walk of life. And many are headed on the right path. And others, very frankly, say they’re not. They got on the wrong path. They got on the wrong way. And it brought them to a broken heart and a wrecked life. Consider your ways. God says, this is so practical that you couldn’t run a symposium on this. You certainly couldn’t have a series of messages on a thing that’s that simple. You just couldn’t make a program out of it or a method out of it. It’s just set your heart upon your ways. Give a little thought to this, friends. Where are you headed today? Now, God’s going to tell them what to do. And I’ll be honest with you. This is so simple that I almost hesitate to read this to you. It’s so simple. It’s so clear what they were to do. God told them that there were three things they were to do. You see, this is a good, conservative, fundamental sermon. All good sermons have three points. God gives them a good one here. And the solution was so simple. And so here, verses 8 through 11, you have a command to construct the temple. You see, their problem before was there was a conflict of interest. They put their homes above God’s house. And they were putting their selfish ends ahead of God’s programs. And the Lord Jesus, even in the Sermon on the Mount, says, Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness. That righteousness that’s in Christ. And when you have him, then he says all these things. Those things that you’re after, there’s nothing wrong with them. I think money can be spiritual. I think your home can be spiritual. You have a Bible class in it or a place there where friends can come and a testimony for the Lord is given. Why, that’s all, may I say, holy. That is sacred. Just not your church, but your home can be. And my feeling is that a home can be spiritual. The things that people are after, and I don’t think it’s so wrong that they’re after them. They put them first in their lives, and they want to use them for their selfish end. Now, God says to you, I want to tell you what you’re to do. And it’s so simple. The solution is very simple. Three things there to do. Verse 8, chapter 1 of Haggai. Listen to this. Go up to the mountain. That’s number one. Go up to the mountain. That’s the instruction. And two, bring wood. And three, build a house. Say, I’ll be honest with you. I wonder why some of them hadn’t seen that. We let that big eye get in front of our eyes. And when a big eye shuts out everything else in our eyes, and we don’t see the things that we should see, that which would be very simple becomes a very complex problem. And people say life today is so complex. And we need the psychiatrist. We must go and get things straightened out. My friend, if you just put God in his place, it’ll straighten out a great many things and get big I out of the way. Remove that. This is very simple. I’m almost embarrassed to dwell on this. Somebody says, you mean you could make a sermon out of this? I have. I’ve preached on these three points. Go up to the mountain. Cut down the trees. Go up to the mountains, cut down the trees. By the way, that’s interesting. You see, that land is denuded today. Israel has had a project from the very beginning to plant trees, and they planted millions of trees. And still, those hills all look bare to me. Very few of them have any green on them. A lot of bare hills. You can be sure of one thing. God did judge that land. But how were the trees removed? For all that land was covered with trees. This verse reveals it here. God wouldn’t tell them to go up to the mountains and get wood if there wasn’t any wood up there. They’d have another good excuse if they could say, well, there’s no wood up there. But there was. That whole land was covered with trees. You remember the night the Lord Jesus was arrested. Peter came in with John. And they had a fire built there. What kind of fire do you think it was? Do you think they had heating oil in that day? Do you think that they were using electrical heat? They weren’t. They were burning wood. Well, where could you get wood in that land? There were trees. And that’s what happened. When the enemy came into that land, he cut down a great many of the trees. In fact, he cut down all the trees practically. Now, God says, go up to the mountain. It’s just that simple. They were saying, well, you know, it’s not time to build God’s house. After all, that’s going to require a little effort to go up to the mountain. And the second thing, you’re to bring the wood. That is, make lumber out of it. Hew the logs out. And then the third thing, build a house. Build a temple. Get busy. Go to work. That was the answer. You know, that is the solution to a great many problems. of the problems that the Christians have in today, and it’s so simple that many of us has missed it. I know people that have been going for years to Sunday school conventions, Bible conferences, and these symposiums, and they have been taking course after course after course And I know them. I know many people like that. And they tell me, oh, I just hope someday I’m going to be used of God. I hope someday I’ll be able to do something. Do you know what the problem is? They’re lazy. They don’t go to work. The Holy Spirit is not going to bless laziness. I think I’ve used this before, but it certainly illustrates the thing that we want to say today. I used to have students the day of exam come up to me and say, well, I wasn’t able to study last night. We felt we should have a prayer meeting for China or Africa. And I said, look, the night before exam, I can tell you it’s never God’s will for you to pray for Africa. You better pray that you pass the exam, and I won’t excuse you for that. That’s just a pious reason. You go back and sit down and take the exam. Boy, they didn’t like that. Of course they didn’t. They’re very pious, but very lazy. I’ll tell you that. And then they say that we just felt like the Lord would give us the answer. And I used to tell them, you can’t put a Schofield Bible under your pillow at night before exam and expect the knowledge to come up through the duck feathers. God just doesn’t give it that way, friends. There is no substitute for work in God’s program today. No substitute for work. We’ll have to leave off there, but I told you that you wouldn’t like Haggai. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
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As Dr. McGee said, the study of God’s Word doesn’t come easy, but we want to help. Over at ttb.org, you’ll find so many wonderful resources, many that are for free and a few for purchase, and that’ll enhance your personal study of the Bible. You should check them out. Or if you’d like help exploring your options, well, just call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number, or email us at biblebus at ttb.org. I’m Steve Schwetz, praying for you as we walk in God’s Word together.
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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
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