QUESTIONS For Class
JAMES – James 4
Quarrels and Conflicts
- The source of quarrels and conflicts is __________. James 4:1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What is the reason a person does not receive what he asks in prayer? James 4:3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Individuals are to submit to __________ and resist ___________ . James 4:7 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- When a person resists the devil, what does the Bible say that the devil will do?
Name the blessing for humbleness. James 4:7, 10 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - (yes or no) Are persons to speak against or judge their brothers?
Who is the only Lawgiver and Judge? James 4:11-12 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - James compares the length of life here on earth to a ___________. James 4:14 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- James said that if a person knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, he has ____________________. James 4:17 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Additional Scriptures:
1. Spiritual adultery – 2 Corinthians 11:2; Hosea 2
2. Demas forsook Paul and the gospel. – 2 Timothy 4:9-10
3. Jesus’ parable on the publican (tax collector) and Pharisee – Luke 18:9-14
4. Blessed are they that mourn. – Matthew 5:4
5. Jesus spoke on humbling oneself. – Matthew 23:12; Luke 1:52
6. Jesus’ words will judge on the last day. – John 12:48
7. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. – Matthew 28:18
<, Launch multi presenter, and then type in the code, or you got to hit connect to projector and then type in the code. Good morning, everyone. Let’s try that again.
Good morning, everyone. We are in James chapter four. Hopefully you have picked up a set of the questions. We’ll cover those. As we conclude our study, I want to say very big, thank you to Michael for covering class a Wednesday. He did a great job. I got a chance to listen to it and, uh, appreciate all of the interaction and the involvement of the classes he was teaching,
and a good opportunity for a study. And he did a good job with the material we are. As I mentioned in James chapter four, we’re going to do a little bit of, of pulling together of, of the previous chapters, because, um, I think sometimes we study James in kind of the way we study the book of Proverbs, but it’s not the book of Proverbs.
You know, you study Proverbs and you go, okay, this statement is a proverb. And sometimes it’s one verse, and it’s not necessarily connected to the things on either side of it, because it’s a compilation of Proverbs. Sometimes they think we treat James that way. Oh, he’s talking about the tongue. Oh, he’s talking about wisdom. Oh,
he’s talking about, ah, James, there is a whole thread all the way through, from chapter one, all the way to the end. He’s not skipping around and covering different topics. He’s covering one topic and he’s covering it the entire way through the book. And as we read, what we need to comprehend is that this study, this book,
this letter written to these Christians is trying to get them from the point of struggle, to the point of perfection. Remember he introduced the book with that. He introduced the book with, when you go through trials and you allow patients to have her perfect work and base that upon your faith, which is the hearing and obedience of God’s word, then it will make you perfect,
mature or complete. So the whole goal of the book of James is mature Christians. Okay? So we’re going to go grab some verses as we get started, to bring those things in those thoughts together into chapter four and a word, but we’re going to begin with a word of prayer, A gracious father in heaven. We bound before you humbly grateful for all that you do for us on a daily basis,
grateful for the sunshine and the rain grateful for the good days and the bad grateful for the trials and the joys mindful that each and every day is an opportunity to serve you. We pray that you be with those from among our number who are traveling and are, or are away from us, especially those who are still unable to get out because of the pandemic.
We pray that you give them comfort and strength and assurance and all that they do as they live faithful to you. We pray that you watch over those who are traveling, and those who are out in those who do have a responsibilities that they must go and, and take care of that they will have good health and safety in this time of great stress and struggle.
We pray for all of us who are present, that we strive daily to live righteously before you, but we know that we sin. We know that we fall short of your glory, and we pray that when we do so, we repent of those things that we change, our actions that we evaluate ourselves by the mirror of the law of Liberty and the law of truth that you’ve presented to us in your word.
And that we adjust our lives to look like you all this. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Chapter one, James says every good and every perfect gift comes from one place. Where is it the father? But notice one other thing, he doesn’t just say that every good and every perfect gift comes from the father. That would be enough. That would be great news,
but he says every good and every perfect gift comes from the father. Number one, he describes the father as what? This is verse 17 of chapter one, the father of lights, every good and every perfect gift is tied to the light of God. Every bit of it, someone who does good, who, who may be sometimes isn’t even a good person.
We’re going to talk about that a little bit in our sermon this morning when bad people morally speaking, do good things or result in good things, because they’re doing something that has been placed before them. That brings about the will of God. They may not intend it for good. They may even have evil intentions. Paul talked about that. Paul talked about people who preached out of a desire to cause him more harm while he’s in prison.
And they were preaching the truth. And he said, I glory in this above everything. They’re breaching the truth. So long as the gospel is preached, whatever happens to me, doesn’t matter. So an evil intent, but they’re doing something that produces good. Doesn’t mean they won’t be judged for their evil. Absolutely they will. Okay. So every good and every perfect gift begins with God and his character and his righteousness.
That’s the light. Remember first John one walk in the light as he is in the light. What is that talking about? His righteousness, his goodness. Now we’ve got every good and every perfect gift come down to, to the end of chapter one. And we’re talking about pure religion. We’re talking about a religion, a faith and action. That’s produced out of someone who hears the word of God,
and doesn’t just ignore it. But is a doer of the work. It’s not enough to just be a Dewar of things. You have to be a doer of the work. James describes Christianity as work and anybody who’s worked for years and decades knows that involves some exhaustion along the way, mental, spiritual, emotional, physical exhaustion, because it’s work. If Christianity to you doesn’t feel like a labor.
Maybe the Christianity is not being done the right way. Now there’s not, there’s not always, you know, just like any job. Not every day is exhausting. Some days you go to work and there’s just nothing to do. You know, you can look for things to do. There’s always something to do, but it’s not like one of those days where you walk in the door and it’s zero to 90 miles an hour for a minute one.
And those days you walk out the door at the end of the day, you go, some days in Christianity are like that. And some days are blessings and easy, but he says every good and perfect gift comes from above. But you have a part to play. You have a work to do, you are involved, but then he goes on and says,
but careful as you enact the love of God in your life, don’t do it with partiality. Don’t do it with respect of persons. As you bring out the faith that is in you and produce a work, you don’t decide to do it to those who are rich and not those who were poor. You don’t decide to show love to those who you like and not show love to those who you dislike.
That was the desire of Jonah. You remember Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to preach to the Ninevites. And he told God why before the book was over. He said, because I knew, I knew if they turned and they relented and they repented at my word, I knew you would let them live. He didn’t like them.
They were the enemies of Israel. They were a threat and they would destroy the Northern kingdom of Israel eventually about a hundred years later. And Jonah thought, Oh, we’d be so much safer if this people was gone. And so he didn’t want to go preach. You cannot hold the faith of Christ with respect of persons, but he moves into this respect of persons.
And then right back into you, should you claim your faith? You claim, you have faith. Show me your faith by your works. You claim to have faith without works. I’ll show you my faith by my works. And then he goes to Abraham and he says, here’s Abraham as an example. And then he goes to who else? Rehab a woman who,
again, not a righteous woman at the time of the action that he describes. She’s a harlot. She’s from a pagan background. The one thing she knows is God brought this people across the red sea, on dry ground and destroy the nation of Egypt and plunder the nation of Egypt and told them they were coming to this land. And I know he’s going to give you this land.
So whatever I do, I’m going to do for him because he is the true God. So she did it in perfectly as to be expected. She did it to the best of her resources, but she did it out of a desire to obey the one who she knew very little about. And then James says, be not many masters, be not many teachers.
This is not, you know what, in Christianity, we just have too many people teaching other people. You know, we can’t all be teachers. Somebody has to actually listen to the teacher and that’s not what this is. This is established in a foundation of the rabbi system of the Jews. Step back and think about the Pharisees step back and think about the Sagitta.
Uh, the scribes, the chief priests and their attitudes towards being teachers. They were above everybody else. They were better than everybody else. They were expected as they went through the marketplace, that people would recognize them and recognize their, a teacher at Jesus, condemned them over and over and over and over again, because their works didn’t match their teaching because their desire for prominence and being lifted up over others,
didn’t match the profession that they served. God. And so he warns Christians because remember this at this point in the church, what’s one of the biggest struggles that the church is dealing with. Judaizing teachers who want to say no, no, Paul’s not an apostle. No, no, no, no, no. The apostles don’t teach that. No,
no, no. The Gentiles can’t have this and they’re lifting themselves up and proclaiming their words. Instead of gods. There’s two things we have to be careful about when we’re teachers and every single Christian is called to be a teacher, a teacher of different people in different times in different places. But every single one of us is called to be those who teach others.
The gospel of Christ, every single one of us is called to instruct children. If we have them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, every single one of us is called to be an influenced in the world, around us to leave an impact towards God and be a light to the world. That’s being a teacher. But James is focusing on the station of teaching the rabbi system,
the lifting one up as a teacher, but then he warns them about the tongue. Someone did an analysis on the average sermon across a year average sermon in length, average rate of talking. And the average quantity of times that a preacher is in front of an audience speaking on a regular basis. And it ends up, some people talk faster. Some people talk slower,
some people preach longer shorter, but by and large, uh, most preachers on average have the equivalent of speaking the average length of 10 full novels every year. Think about how many words are in an average novel, and think about writing 10 of those every year. And that’s on average, how many words a preacher will stand before an audience and speak every year he’s preaching.
And then go back and read what James says about those who use their tongue in properly. Yes. Um, based upon, so most people speak an average number of words per minute. And so you extrapolate that out to most sermons or 35 minutes or so. And you just start doing the math, um, at, at 80 to 90 words, a minute and 35 minutes,
a piece for four hour or a total of 180 minutes a week, you start doing the math and especially those who talk faster, uh there’s some of us talk faster than other people think. And there’s some of us that talk slower than we think, but, you know, but then notice this statement. He says, verse two for, we all stumble in many things.
If anyone does not stumble in word, I’m going to confess something to you right now. I have taught things in my life that were untrue now, never intentionally, but there have been things that I have stated in, in my time as a, as a preacher and as a teacher or someone come to me and said, you know, uh, Jonah wasn’t in the arc.
Okay. Just to be clear, Jonah wasn’t in the arc and Moses, his arc was in bulrushes and Noah’s arc was. Yeah, I know. Okay. Uh, but it happens. You’re you’re talking, you’re thinking, you’re saying something and you will say something incorrect. Uh, w It wasn’t too long ago. I said something. And I,
I said the exact opposite of what I meant the exact opposite. Now, generally we all recognize those things and those aren’t intentional, but the reality is at times, sometimes we, even, as teachers will out of a misguided desire to provoke people to good works will teach something. That’s incorrect. There have been times where you go and study deeper and you go back and evaluate a sermon that you preached five or six years ago.
And you go, I’d never preached that. Now. Maybe it wasn’t, the conclusion was wrong. But the premises that you use to get to the conclusion were just flawed. You didn’t know any better, you were ignorant, or you were young or whatever. And you taught something in a poor way. It happens, especially if you’re teaching and preaching with the frequency that most teachers or preachers do.
And so James wants to put in front of you the struggle of making mistakes, but then he also wants to put in front of you the struggle of the tongue, because it’s very easy when someone’s a rabbi, when someone who’s being looked up to when someone’s in front of others and lifted up before others to start saying things that glorify them and not God God said,
The tongue can get you in trouble, but then bring that forward into the end of chapter three and chapter three, verse 13, we’re going to read down through verse 18 to kind of set the premise of chapter four. He says, who is wise and understanding among you, Whoever is wise and understanding among you ought to be your teachers. Sometimes we put people in a place and hope they’ll eventually become wise and understanding.
And yet we put them in a place of teaching all along the way. That’s the wrong way to do it, by the way, if someone has no wisdom and has no understanding, we should not be allowing them to practice teaching until they get some wisdom and understanding. Now, there’s, there’s something to be said for practicing and taking young individuals, teenagers,
and others who don’t have a great deal of wisdom, who don’t have a great deal of understanding and giving them an opportunity to grow in the ability to teach. That’s one thing, but we all recognize their limitations. But when you lift someone up and praise them as a teacher, as a rabbi, as a person of wisdom, when they don’t have any,
Because their wisdom comes from in here, there was some comes from up here, not up there too many preachers have wonderful stories, wonderful things to say, to entertain an audience for 30 or 45 minutes and have no wisdom because they’re not looking at this book and they’re not using it. Notice what he says. He says, who is wise and understanding among you let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
Here’s your direct contrast to the scribes and Pharisees go to Matthew chapter 23 and read what Jesus said to the Jews as Jesus is about to go to the cross. As his time is short, he says to the Jews, do what they say when they teach you the law, but do not do what they do because they say and do not. James says who is wise and understanding among you,
let him show his life to be what he teaches. But then he goes on to say, but if you have bitter, envy and self seeking in your hearts, do not connect, disconnect this from chapter four, verse one, he’s going to come right back to bitter, envy and strife. He says, but if you have bitter, envy and self seeking in your heart,
do not boast and lie against the truth. Sometimes we look at God’s word and we look at our life and we say those two things don’t match. We do what James described in James chapter one and look into the perfect law of Liberty and then do what he describes at Galway and forget what we saw. And we don’t judge ourselves by God’s word. We judge ourselves by others,
and that provides us an opportunity to proclaim ourselves. I’ll look at me, look at all that. I do. Look what I say, look, what I teach. Look how I look, how others treat me. James says, no. When you’re doing that, it’s because you’re looking at others. You want what they have. You’re looking at someone else.
Who’s treated that way. And you want what they’re having. And you’re self seeking that word, self seeking is the whole premise of chapter four. If we miss this, we miss chapter four because all through the chapter, we’re gonna bring them out. As we go along. It’s the self itself itself, itself. He says, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts,
do not boast and lie against the truth. Here, here you are. You’re examining yourself and you’re going. I want what that person has. But God tells me to be humble. God tells me to be content, whether I’m in prison or in standing before a King, whether I’m rich or I’m poor, God tells me to be content. And I’m not because I want what that person has.
But then I look at my life and I go, and everything I do is to get what that person has. I’m self-seeking, I’m not, I’m not God seeking. I’m not putting God first. I’m not being a light to where, when people see my good works, they glorify the father. I’m when people see my good works, they glorify me.
And he says, when you look at this and you see this about yourself, do not. What does he say? He says, do not boast and lie against the truth. He’s telling them, admit it own up to it. Confess your wrongs and change. Because if you go on lying to yourself, that you’re not the way you are, you won’t change.
Jesus called the Pharisees of brood of Vipers, a pit of snakes. Yet they were the considered to be the religious elites. And why wouldn’t they change? Cause they’d never admit the truth about who they were, but he goes on to say, this wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic from where envy and self seeking exists.
Notice their self again, confusion. And every evil thing are there you go look at the foundation of almost, and I’m going to put the almost there because I’m not on mission. And I don’t understand everything, but almost every problem in the world and the back of all of them is selfishness. Because think about it. If we weren’t acting selfishly, would we have created the problem to begin with?
If nations didn’t act selfishly, would they go to war with another nation? I mean, let’s face it. Um, by and large, there are some exceptions, but has a country ever said, you know what? We’re going to go to war with another country because we’re more concerned about that country. That ourselves, maybe not. Now, there are a few times in history where there have been Thai radical leaders and people murdering others where people went to war on behalf of,
in defense of others. But I’m talking about in general. I mean, let’s just exclude the 5% of history that is that. And go with the 95% of history. That was every other war in history where people went to war because they wanted what someone else had envy and self seeking. But he goes on to say, but the wisdom that is from above is first.
Don’t miss the word first year pure. It is without any ability to malign it. This is the same idea as Christ being the one in whom there was no ability to declare him to be guilty. It’s first pure. Then peaceable. If you have peace without purity, you don’t have real peace. If you have peace without agreement with God, you don’t have real peace.
You have ultimate destruction. You might have temporary peace, but it must first be in agreement with God. So if it’s not walking in the light, if it’s not righteous, if it’s not in accordance with the character of God, which is the idea of complete purity, then peace doesn’t matter. You might have tranquility. You might have agreement, but you have agreement in wrongdoing.
He says, it’s first pure. Then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And then he says, where do Wars and fights come from among you? Righteousness is broad forth, produces its fruit in peace, but your life doesn’t look like peace.
James is writing to Christians and he’s looking at churches that are at war with one another. There was a time where I thought this was talking about the world. I thought James was evaluating Jewish society and evaluating the strife and the envy and the struggle between them and, and the Christians and just blanket struggle. He’s not go read Paul’s letters. Go read the lies that were being told about the apostle Paul and how many times he had to defend even his own.
Apostleship go read about the struggles between the Jews and the Gentile. Christians go read about the things that were being done by the, the Christians who were rich to the Christians who were bore when Paul addresses over in first Corinthians. The fact that there were those among the church in Corinth, that weren’t even waiting on the entire assembly to come together, to have the Lord’s supper.
They were too focused on themselves to even wait for the rest of the congregation to get there. And he says, this is why some of you are weak and dying. So he says, where do Wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members look at yourself? Oh, you might say,
well, the problem is that person over there, the problem is this. The problem is that the pro. And he says, no, no, you look at you. You look at what you want and ask yourself, how many times are you sacrificing? What you want for the good of someone else. But he goes on to say, you lust and do not have you murder and covet and cannot obtain you fight and war yet.
You do not have, because you do not ask. These Christians were becoming just like the children of Israel. You see back of all of this in the background of the entire book of James, James is reminding them about their history. And he’s telling them, you’re becoming just like the nation that God destroyed. And you don’t think people of God can become people of Satan.
Go look at Israel. It doesn’t take long either. He goes on to say, you ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. This is you. You’re asking God for things. You’re desiring to have things and the things that you need. You’re not asking for the things that you desire, the things that are a part of your lush and your fleshly desires.
You’re asking for those just so you can spend it on yourself. How many times do we pray? God bless me more so I can give more. We really ought to Paul makes it clear that God gives and blesses those so that they can give to others. But again, verse one, he’s talking about self is the problem. Verse two self is the problem.
Verse three self is the problem he says, you ask and do not receive because you ask him is that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? There’s the clear identifier that I ignored at one point in my life that he’s talking to Christians, isn’t this the same thing John says,
love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world, the less of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the things that are of the world make you an enemy of God. James is saying the same thing he says, do you not realize? But then he goes on and says, whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
If you’re looking at the world around you and you want what they want, you share their values. You want to fit in with the world. The only way that works is you don’t look like God anymore. We have a culture that loves to shame people for standing up for what God thinks. And I mean, they love it from one, from businesses to schools,
to people just generally in the culture, politics, you just name a category. And you begin with the words. I believe that it’s wrong to murder babies. And you find out how that goes. I believe that it’s right to punish wrongdoing and law breaking. See how that goes. I believe that a person has a moral responsibility to live righteously, even in private before God.
And that they’re accountable to God for how they act behind closed doors. See how that goes. Good luck. Because you’re going to find out the world loves to shame those who believe in righteousness. He says, you can’t look like the world and want to be with the world. And it want to fit in with the world and not be an enemy of God can’t work.
But then he goes on to say, but he gives, or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, is this, go back and look at the old Testament. God told you this. God told you you’ll want to fit in. You’ll want to fit in with the world, but you shouldn’t.
And then he says, but he gives more grace, John or James. Isn’t leaving them without hope. He says, grace is here, but it requires something of you. It requires that your willing to look at yourself and lower yourself, because remember the whole point is self, self, self, self, self. Now James says, take yourself and put yourself where you belong.
How many Kings, how many leaders in the old Testament and the nation of Israel did God relent on judgment purely because when he told them of the judgment that they were going to receive, they humbled themselves a have one of the worst Kings and all the nation of Israel buried. The Jessebelle committed atrocities, allowed his wife to kill the prophets. And yet when he humbled himself at the declaration of the prophet,
God said the judgment on your family’s not going to come in your lifetime. It’s going to come in your son’s because he humbled himself. Notice what he says. He said, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God, resist the devil. And he will flee from you. The secret of dealing with temptation right here,
James spells it out. And just a few words resist the devil. By the way, if you’re going to resist the devil, it means you’re going to resist your own desires because that’s what the devil’s tool is. That’s his primary tool. Get you convinced that your desires are what’s right? That that is the primary argument for every culturally immoral action that we have going on in our society.
I want it this way. Therefore, I should be allowed to have it this way. Everyone, you go down the list of every abomination, America commits and right back there is, I want it. And you shouldn’t be allowed to tell me no. He says, therefore, submit to God, resist the devil. And he will flee from you draw near to God and he will draw near to you cleanse your hands.
You sinners. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God at times. But James is addressing a different category of Christian. He’s talking about a category of Christian. Who’s living a lie. They’re hypocrites. You read the description from verse one to here. And he’s not talking about Christians who occasionally struggle. He’s talking about just like the scribes,
the Pharisees and Sadducees. He says lament, a actually I skipped a line. He says, cleanse your heart or your hands. You sinners purify your hearts. You double-minded lament and mourn and weep three times, three times. If you’re happy, he says these Christians you’re wrong. Mourn for your sin. Mourn for what you’re doing lament over it. Because you’re bringing about your own destruction.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning your joy in the gloom, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. And he will lift you up the strangeness of life. God says, you want to go up, go down. You think you’re going to take yourself up. We have a saying in America, uh, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.
God says, you think you’re going to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Just wait. You have no idea how low I can take you and I will. But then he says, do not, do not speak evil of one, another brethren. Ooh, that’ll get you. He says, do not speak evil of one, another brother. And he who speaks evil of a brother and judges.
His brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you are judged, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. This is, there is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy, who are you to judge another? Now all the things, this is not.
And there’s many. This is not a saying, do not hold fast to the truth. Do not proclaim the truth in the face of error. This is not saying, do not identify people when they’re doing wrong. This is not saying don’t depart from those who failed to walk in accordance with the word of God. It’s not saying any of those things,
his subject, his topic is self. This is in complete agreement with Matthew chapter seven verse one, judge, not that you be not judged for. With what judgment you judge ye shall be judged. And with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again, be not many masters. You want to look at yourself and then judge others do this first.
Judge yourself, judge yourself, and then see if you have any space to judge anybody else. And then ultimately don’t judge them, show them the law and allow them to judge themselves. Because ultimately we judge ourselves, not by ourselves, but by God, he goes on to say, come now you who say today or tomorrow. Now this is one of those passages where again,
we take the book of James. We just chop it up in a little bitty bits. All right, now we’re talking about future plans. And now we’re talking about the shortness of life. No, we’re not. This passage absolutely talks about the brevity of life, but it is not about the brevity of life. I appreciate every time it’s mentioned in a funeral,
but it’s not about the brevity of life. Let me show you. He says, come now you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make profit. Who’s talking the person who’s desiring their own less. The one who’s interested in themselves. Notice the phrase ology. He says,
come now you, you say tomorrow or today or tomorrow we, we are going to do this. We’re going to make these plans. We’re going to accomplish this in this statement. You do not see if the Lord wills with God’s blessings. God, if it’s your desire, allow none. No, no, no, no, no, no. You’re seeing a servant lifting himself up to be a master.
He says, come now you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then manages away. Instead, you ought to say,
if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that you remember the rich man, the rich man who planted in his, in his field. And then the harvest time came and he had so much harvest that he couldn’t store it in his barns anymore. And he said to himself, self, I’m going to tear down these bars. I’m going to build bigger ones.
And I’m going to live my life in ease for the rest of my life because I have so much. And God says your life is over. And then who will these things be self versus God. And he says, but now you boast in your arrogance. Here is the identifier of the single thread all the way through back to chapter three, verse 13,
arrogance, You boast in your arrogance thinking you have any say beyond, allow me to serve God. James begins his letter with James, the servant of Jesus Christ. And he says, you boast in your arrogance. He says, all such boasting is evil. Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it. We’re right back in James chapter one,
verse 27, the one who provides for the widows and the orphans, the one who’s pure religion brings about works in his life. He says the one who knows to do good to others and is only worried about himself to him at sin. Let’s go through the questions very quickly as I was at a time a while ago, but I managed to not bring my questions up here.
So one of y’all gets to read some, read the questions, question one, somebody read it Euless. Okay. Source of quarrels and conflicts. I’ll read it again. So the people on the stream can hear it. What is the reason a person does not receive what he asked for in prayer? All right. Oh, um, put yourself first or you ask a miss.
I believe the King James way of putting that individuals are to blank and resist blank, submit to God and resist the devil. When a person resist the devil, what does the Bible say that the devil will do flee by the way, he’s a coward. Just get that the devil’s a coward. He’ll never be victorious. He’s a coward named the blessing for humbleness.
God will lift you up. Yes or no. Our persons to speak against or judge their brothers know who is the only law giver and judge God, by the way, does that mean there is someone who will judge everyone. Yes. Jesus said judgment has been put in my hands by the father. Number six, James compares the length of life here on earth to a vapor.
James Said that if a person knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, he has said, thank you for your attention. You are dismissed. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, okay. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, okay. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, okay.<inaudible>, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,<inaudible> good morning. Collierville church Christ Sunday morning worship service. It is really great to see each and every one of you out here this morning to our visitors,
we extend a special welcome to you. We are so glad that you chose to stop here and visit with us this morning, but most importantly, to worship God with us here this morning, for those of you that Are still unable to attend due to health reasons, and the ongoing pandemic, uh, feel comfort in knowing that each and every one of us here are still praying for you and for the entire world in this pandemic.
And we are praying to our God that we find a solution to this so that it comes to an end so that we may all assemble together again and worship our God as we are directed to other announcements this morning, uh, we have several on our sick lists. Please continue to remember Rood Ellen, Dorothy Wilson, with her ongoing problems, chronic problems that they have continued to keep Jones,
Springer, and your thoughts and prayers. She has some good days and some bad days, but probably more bad days lately than good days. So please keep Joanie your thoughts and prayers. K Fisher who’s Ava sister-in-law is still in the hospital. Doctor said she had a one more stroking and Caesar seizure since, uh, heart aneurysm surgery. She, uh,
is, has weakness on her left side, and we’ll have a long rehab ahead of her. So please keep her and your thoughts and prayers and that’s K Fisher. Mary Joe Todaro, uh, has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. So please keep are not colon cancer. I’m sorry, not lung cancer, colon cancer. So please keep Mary Jo and your thoughts and prayers and Sylvia pass is not with us this morning.
She is having some serious, lower back problems, probably going to have to go to possibly the ER or a doctor for that, because it is so bad. So please keep Sylvia in your thoughts and prayers. Other announcements, the nationwide gospel call meeting that has been going on each evening at nine o’clock that is going to continue this week. We were getting the flyers printed right now,
and we’ll have on a table out in the foyer. And Aaron informed me that that may continue beyond this week too, because there is such great response to it. And there’s such an interest in it that that might continue for some time yet. So stay tuned for that, but it will definitely go on all of next week. The Potter children home pantry item for the month of July will be toilet paper.
Hopefully we can find somebody that now, uh, that’s all the announcements I have less somebody else knows of anything. One thing I did forget here, uh, visitors, we asked if you would please take the opportunity to fill out a visitor’s card and either give it to one of the men here at the church, or drop it into a collection plate at the back when you leave.
So we have record of your visit here. Our service today, our song leader will be Michael Dale opening. Prayer will be Terry Sanderson. The Lord’s supper will be Joe caisson. Our sermon will be brought to us by Erin coats are, and I will have the closing prayer. Thank you. Our opening song this morning will be number 18. Faithful love The food love flowing down from the thumb cover crown.
It makes me whole saves my soul washes. Why to then snow<inaudible> drives. Each tier holds my hand when I can stand on my Oh face<inaudible> came to<inaudible> and<inaudible> for<inaudible> face to face. And Jesus<inaudible><inaudible> is a friend just went, Whoa,<inaudible> Malcolm. Hey, sweet and braced, and a touch filled with gray space.<inaudible> living<inaudible> spirit spa burning Brighton.
Uh, nah, I ain’t guiding my way. Hey,<inaudible> came to<inaudible> and<inaudible> face to face and Jesus is his name. Hey, name the song before opening. Prayer will be number 791 on bended knee number seven, nine one on bended knee on bended knee. Uh, ah,<inaudible> ah, ah,<inaudible> the<inaudible> lifting. Holy hands to you.<inaudible> I wash up you and<inaudible> I wash up<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> with a bro<inaudible> ah,
ah, bowing de MI<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> change my life for all the<inaudible> make me fresh and uh, make my LA life a whole. The SAC ref, uh, used to, I was probably our father who art in heaven. We thank thee for this first day of the week and the opportunity we have to come together to study that word and sang songs of praise to you.
We thanked you for Jesus. It came to this earth and died and sacrificed his life for our sands that we might have eternal life. We pray that you were a baby with those that are unable to be with us today because of their health. We thank you for our health and enables us to be here. We pray that you would be with those that are suffering from the virus.
We pray that you would be with our country and, uh, with all of the strife that we have going on, other than the pandemic, we pray that we can all live in peace. One day, we pray that you would be able to leaders of our countries, that they might work these problems out, and they would look to you for guidance and do as your do your will.
We pray that you would be with those that are traveling today, did we pray that you would keep them safe and give them a safe journey to their destination? We pray that you would be with us and forgive us when we do wrong. In Christ’s name, we pray. I mean, To prepare our minds for the Lord’s supper will be number 300 at 66 by Christ reading number three,
six, six By Christ three deemed. And<inaudible> we keep, uh, uh, uh, Oh, Whoa, and show the, uh, uh,<inaudible> uh, and, uh, he<inaudible> his body<inaudible><inaudible>, uh, and, uh, as we drink, we see, uh, uh, uh, and, uh, he, um,
and, uh, uh, uh,<inaudible><inaudible>, uh, advent. We, you know, ah, my one bride chain, uh, being, uh, uh, and, uh, he, ah, But our private is did he hit us for us. He snores day to be able to come together and have one part of an act of our worship is to remember our Lord and savers.
He suffered and died on the cross of Calvary as he taught us how to do and the scriptures. So we had that privilege this morning. And would you bow with me while we pray, Oh God, our father in heaven, we truly are thankful for your love for us and for your precious son, suffering and dying upon the cross of Calvary for us,
that our sins might be forgiven us. We’re thankful father, as we remember his body there. And as we protect of this bread, which represents that body, that we examine ourselves and partaken away, that would be pleasing. And Jesus, we pray. Amen. Would you bow with me? Oh God, our father in heaven, we continue to remember our savior.
Has he suffered and bled upon the cross of Calvary that our sins might be cleansed of us? We’re so grateful for that love, that was demonstrated there. And fathers, we partake of this fruit of the vine, which represents this blood help us to do so in a way, pleasing unto thee and Jesus, we pray amen. As another act of our worship,
we were able to give up our mains. And for those that didn’t have an opportunity to drop their, collect their offering into the plate at the back of the order to them. That’s where they’re placed on the tables. You might do that as you leave, let us bow father in heaven. We are such a blessed people. You’ve given us so many blessings that sometimes we’re ungrateful for them and fail to remember that they come from you.
We’re grateful father of those things that we’ve been given. And we pray that we’re good stewards of those blessings. And we pray that each week that we’ve purposed in our hearts to give a portion of that back to you, that is a congregation of your people that we might proceed with the teaching and preaching of the gospel, not only in this community, but throughout the world.
And we have the privilege of supporting those that have needs and are able to help them with those needs. We especially want to pray for the Potter children’s home as we assist them and be mindful of other works that we do. And some of our missionaries help us always to be mindful of them and prayerful for them. We pray that you bless us now,
as we give a portion of that back to thee and Jesus, we pray amen song before the lesson will be number 552 have thine own way. If you’re able, let’s stand for this song and remain standing for the scripture reading place have nine own way. I promise you it’s just allergies. Five, five, two. Uh, I know<inaudible><inaudible> uh,
uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh,<inaudible> search me.<inaudible> master to<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> um, really, uh, uh, uh, I know<inaudible>, uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh, uh,<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> The scripture reading will be taken from the book of Luke chapter 13, verses one through five, Luke 13, one through five,
there were present at that season. Some that told him of the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, supposedly that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. I tell you name, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish or those 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them.
Thank you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish, you may be seated. Good morning, going to begin by reading something to you that hopefully will with all of the upheaval in our country, speak to what is going on, but also hopefully set some perspective.
It’s come from a sermon that was preached by one of our brethren says one of the saddest verses in the Bible is found in judges chapter 21, verse 25 that says in those days there was no King in Israel. Every man did that, which was right in his own eyes. There is, Or this is one of the saddest verses in the Bible because it was at a time when the spiritual condition of God’s people was at an low EB.
Every man became a law unto himself. He had no respect for anyone nor for any order, nor for any system except his own ideas and his own Thoughts. Of course, this was a tragedy Are living in an age of the world when, to some degree, these very words are being fulfilled, even in the country, in which we live in our homes,
in the civil government. And to some degree, even in the church of our Lord, we need to recognize that all scripture, scriptural authority emanates from God and Exodus, the 20th chapter, God spoke to Moses and said, thou shalt, remember that I am the Lord, thy God, that brought the up out of the land of Egypt and thou shalt have no other gods before me.
He is the source of all power. He is the source of all authority. And this is to be recognized And accepted Where this is recognized and accepted. Then all is in harmony with God’s system, where this is not recognized. Then there is trouble and disorder. The Lord Jesus Christ had all authority delegated to him. He was not the source of authority.
It was delegated to him and Matthew chapter 28, verse 18. The Bible says, and Jesus came and spoken to them saying all power is given to me in heaven. And in earth, even everything that has been created has been subject to the law and the power of the authority of God. Even the inanimate things of the world, everything is ultimately subjected to God’s power,
to God’s rule, to God’s authority. Even the sun that shines is subjected to the authority of God, the stars, the earth, the fowls of the air, the beast of the field, everything that lives, everything that exists, all are subjected to the authority of God. So God is not dead. God is not even sick. God is,
Is just as powerful today as he was in the beginning, when he was, when he created the heavens and the earth. The very fact that there are rebels. The very fact that man rejects God, the very fact that man repudiates the word of God, none of these mean that God has lost his authority. The very fact that man is more rebellious now than he was 50 years ago,
does not mean that God is weakening in his power or his authority. It just simply means that man by his nature has become more depraved and will ultimately suffer the terrible of his rebellious attitude. There is a great disrespect for authority in this age of the world. We usually think of preachers talking along these lines. Many times when preachers are talking about these things.
I have an idea that there are those sitting in the pews who are possibly saying, well, this week he has been reading something about authority. It is just preacher talk. I want to read to you a report from the U S news and world report by Henry Taylor. He said there is a national crisis in crime in this country, in my opinion,
based on 30 years of police work, this country is in real trouble. In thousands. Upon thousands of instances, the parents are at fault. There is a worsening breakdown of the family unit. It is in the home that respect for authority must take place. There is disrespect for parents disrespect or the result of the disrespect for policemen and disrespect. In general,
you have any idea of the condition of this country today, every 24 hours. There are some of the things that these are some of the things that take place in our country. There are 13,785 arrests. Every 24 hours. There are, there are 1,318 divorces. Granted every 24 hours, there are 241 sentence to penitentiary. There are 4,320 burglaries. There are 533 robberies.
Every 24 hours. There are 70 people who killed themselves every 24 hours. There are 1,200 people who become problem drinkers. All this of course is a sad commentary upon the society in which we live. Now, this is where we are rearing our children in this, excuse me. It is in this country. We are meeting to worship. This is the country we are trying to improve.
You. Parents have some who have small children. This is the country in which you are rearing them. We are told, organized crime in America is increasing six times faster than the population. If something isn’t done, what, what will it be like 30 years from now? If crime is increasing six times faster year by year than the population, there may be a time when we do not have enough policemen to protect us.
There may be a time. Instead of people cursing the policemen or wanting to throw rocks or hurl bottles at them, these people may be praying for them. More policemen. We say It is dangerous to get out on the street, but if something, but if something isn’t done, it is going to be dangerous to even be at home. When people want to talk,
walk into your house, knock down your door, take what you have that may be, they may do that because they may feel that it is right. As far as they are concerned. I heard a person a few days ago on TV Advocating that it was right for people to refuse to work, that everyone ought to refuse to work. If there is something that somebody else has then take part of it.
If he doesn’t want to give it to you, even if he doesn’t want to give it to you, we are living in an age when it is fast, becoming the rule of the day that every man will become a law unto himself. He says, so you can see America is sick. America’s dying. That was written. He goes on in that sermon to talk about the riots they were watching on television.
The people protesting in the streets, the buildings being burned, the destruction of property. It was written in 1984. It’s not getting better. Is it? We haven’t broken from the cycle, but I might remind you that we are paying for the sins of fathers blessing. This morning is about repentance. The lesson this morning is entitled. Do not be like your father’s scripture.
Reading came from, uh, Luke chapter 13 verses one through five, where Jesus is talking about repentance. And that will be our focus all through this because the reality is we as individuals must look at ourselves and examine whether or not we need to repent. It is not enough to say this is how my father did it. Therefore, that’s how I’m going to do it.
It is not enough to say this is how it’s always been done. Therefore, that’s how I’m going to do it. It is not enough to say that this is what we should do, because this is what we’ve always done. But this study begins a series of studies that we will endeavor to go through the book of Zechariah. So turn with me.
If you will, to Zechariah chapter one, I want you to put your finger there because we’ll be coming back to it. But after you find it and after you put your finger there, I want you, we’re going to read the first verse. And then we’re going to go get a little background because we needed. Zechariah is a bridge book. It is a bridge between the profits before The captivity in Babylon for word to the new Testament.
It is one of the most often quoted books of the prophets in all the old Testament. It is a book that looked toward the kingdom. It looked toward the King, but it directed its message to a people who were the remnant that had come back from Babylonian captivity, chapter one, verse one in the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah.
The son of Berekiah, the son of<inaudible> the prophet. There is a reason why in all the previous profits, before the captivity, you would read this prophet began to prophesize in this year of this King of Judah or this year of this King of Israel and no more do they Mark time by the Kings of Israel and Judah no more. Do they establish when they were doing this by the dates of the Kings of Israel?
Cause there were no more Kings of Israel. There were no more Kings in Jerusalem. The Kings and their lineage had been taken away because they would not repent and God had judged them. And so there is a stark contrast among these minor prophets that we have here at the end of the old Testament, because they’re dating their prophecies by pagan Kings, Because there is no King in Israel.
Okay. Remember the statement we read in judges that was quoted by the preacher in 1984, there was a time when there was no King in Israel and everyone did that, which was right in his own eyes. Yes. That statement Lays forth a foundation for the book of Zechariah. But let’s go back to a little bit of history. Let’s find out why we’re here.
As I mentioned, it’s a bridge book. If you’re going to have a bridge book, it’s bridging two things and you need to know where you started and where you’re going. And Zechariah, isn’t going to tell you, the whole book of Zechariah is based upon you already knowing what’s going on. He’s not going to give you the history. He’s not going to give you the context.
You’re supposed to understand it. By the way it begins just where hat guy ends, which is the book before it in our English Bibles. But we need to go to Ezra chapter one. If we’re going to truly get the context of the book of Zechariah, a little bit of history as we’re turning to Ezra chapter one. And that is that during the rain during the time that the Southern kingdom of Judah was still in existence,
God, them through the profits, you’re going to be destroyed. The Northern kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed. God said you’re going to be judged the same way they were judged. And yet they did not listen. At times they would do better. At times they would do worse, but ultimately they did not repent. And they were judged. Jeremiah told them you will go into captivity for 70 years.
And they said, no, we’ll go into captivity for a time. We’ll, we’ll go. We’ll go to Babylon for a time, but we’ll come back quickly. Don’t even bother to unpack. Don’t make your settlement. There don’t be planning fields or doing anything like that. We’re going to be coming back in. Jeremiah said, no, you’re not 70 years.
And truly they were in captivity for 70 years. And then at the nearing, the end of that 70 years, the Babylonian empire fell. It fell in a night. It fell without a war. It fell because the Mito Persian empire went under the wall in through the river and took Babylon in a night. It was the same night that God told the King of Babylon.
You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting now in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, that would be the year Babylon foul and the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing saying,
thus says, Cyrus King of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord, God of heaven has given me. And he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is among you of all his people, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord.
God of Israel. He is gone, which is in Jerusalem and whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem. Cyrus tells a portion of the people. It’s time for you to go home.
Babylon had extracted them out of the land. They had put other people in the land and Cyrus says, it’s time for you to go home. And it’s time for you to go home. For one reason, you need to go build the temple of God. Temple of Solomon had been destroyed, had been laid waste. It was gone and all of its grander with it.
But Cyrus told these people, you need to go home. You need to build the temple of God, go to chapter three, verse 11 in chapter three. And in verse 11 of the book of Ezra, we read and they sang responsively, praising and giving things to the Lord for. He is good for his mercy endures forever toward Israel. Then all the people shouted with a great shout when they praise the Lord,
because the foundation, the house of the Lord was laid. They go back to Israel, they journey there’s Robles leading them and they lay the foundation of the temple. And there are some who are praising God, but it wasn’t a universal reaction, but many of the priests and Levis and heads of the father’s houses, old man who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice.
When the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes, yet many shouted aloud for joy, why were they weeping? Because they remembered the grander of Solomon’s temple. They remember its size. They remember it was overlaid with gold. They remember all of the things that Solomon built in all of the magnificence of it. And this one would never compare and they wept and they mourned because what they saw before them wasn’t magnificent.
All it was a temple. Oh, it was in Jerusalem. Oh, it was a temple to God and all it was God’s house. And yes, they had struggled to lay that foundation. And yes, they had struggled to get to this point, but it wasn’t physically magnificent. Zechariah is going to tell people to be aware that they do not despise the day of small things.
They saw what they had hoped to see, which is the rebuilding of the temple. But when they saw it, they were disappointed. They mourn because it wasn’t what they wanted. And yet stop and think this little tiny temple built by this ragtag group of just a few thousand people built and created in a land that was made primarily desolate in a small corner of a nation.
They used to be rulers over this temple is what God prophesied. About 70 years prior, this temple is what God said. I’m going to send Cyrus and make him tell you to create this. This is God’s work, but they mourned at seeing it because it wasn’t what they hoped for. It. Wasn’t what they remembered. Chapter four. And in verse one.
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord, God of Israel, they came to<inaudible>, excuse me. They came to<inaudible> and the heads of the father’s houses and said to them, let us Build with you for, we seek your God as you do. And we have sacrificed to him since the days of sr Hayden King of Assyria,
who brought us here. There’s the background of the people who are in the land. The Assyrians, when they destroy the Northern kingdom, took the Northern kingdom out of the land, in the captivity and brought these people there and said, and they said, we’ve been worshiping your God ever since seven 20 BC. And it’s now five 36 BC, almost 180 years.
And we’ve been here. We’ve been worshiping your God all along, but the rebel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers houses of Israel said to them, you may not, or may do nothing with us to build a house for our God. But we alone will build to the Lord, God of Israel. As King Cyrus, the King of Persia has commanded us.
Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days of Cyrus, King of Persia. Even until the reign of Darius King of Persia. You ever meet somebody who can’t say the word lawyers without saying disgustedly things weren’t any better. Back in the days of the media Persian empire,
they hired counselors to go before the King and to lobby that the work be stopped. Chapter four, verse 23. Now, when the copy of the King Artaxerxes letter was read before rehome shimmy, Shai, the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem against the Jews. And by force of arms made them seas. Thus, the work of the house of God was,
which is at Jerusalem ceased. And it was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius King of Persia foundation gets laid of the temple. And then the command from the King now in Persia is stop. The work. The message that had come from the enemies was these people are building a Fort. These people are building armaments. These people are building a city to rebel against the King of Persia and to raise up a new King,
even though they were just building the temple. But as a result of the decree of Persia, the S the work ceased and the building of the temple stopped. And for 18 years, that construction site laid dormant chapter five, verse one. Then the prophet had guy and Zechariah, the son of<inaudible> prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of God,
of Israel who was over them. So<inaudible> the son of Shealtiel and Joshua, the son of Jozadak Rose up and began to build the house of God, which is in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them. The background of the book of Haggai guy. We’re going to jump there next is that the foundation’s been laid, but then they stopped working.
They were commanded to stop. They were forced to stop, but they stopped in chapter six, verses 13 through 15, we read then tat NEI governor of the region beyond the river, uh, Sheth, our ball’s NY and their companions diligently did according to what the King Darius had sent. So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai,
the prophet and Zechariah, the son of veto, and they built and finished it. The temple, according to the commandment of God, of the God, of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, Darius and artists axes King of Persia. So the temple will be completed, but we need to skip over to hat guy, the book that’s right before Zechariah to get the details you remember in Ezra chapter one,
we read that had guy shows up, Zechariah shows up and they begin to get the people back to work. They said, God said, build the temple, had guy prophesies with these words in the second year chapter one, verse one of King Darius in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, remember, Darius is the one who comes to the throne.
When they’re told they can begin building again. The word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet.<inaudible> the son of Shealtiel governor of Judah. And to Joshua, the son of Jozadak, the high priest saying thus speaks to the Lord of hosts saying this people says the time has not come. The time that the Lord house should be built, then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying,
is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses? And this temple to lie in ruins had guy comes before them. And they said, the general word in the Israel is this. It’s not time to build the temple. It’s not time yet. We’re going to wait until the time is right. The foundation’s over there. It’s already been laid.
Foundation stands desolate, but they’re saying a time’s not right. The time’s not right. And God says, is it time for you to build your house? When you haven’t built mine? You weren’t sent back here to build a nation. You weren’t sent back here to live in luxury. You weren’t sitting back here to provide for yourself. You were sent back here to build my house.
Is it time for you to build yours, but not to build mine? He says, now, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts. Consider your ways. Now for those who were in the adult Bible class this morning, and you remember our study of James chapter four, remember how many times James pointed out that they were so focused on themselves, that God wasn’t blessing them.
He said you desire to have, and you have not. You desire to have, but you don’t ask you desire to spend it on your loss, but that’s the reason you don’t have anything. Now read these words. That was not a new message. When James wrote it, read these words, he says, now, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts.
Consider your ways you have sown much and bring in little, you eat, but do not have enough. You drink, but are not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Never feel like you’re not getting anywhere in life ever feel like every single day is a struggle.
Just to have enough only to then find out you don’t have enough. God says Israel. The reason you don’t have enough is because you’re working for you. And you’ve neglected me. He goes on to say, thus says the Lord of hosts, verse seven, consider your ways, go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that I may take player in it.
And be glorified says the Lord, you looked for much, but indeed it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why says the Lord of hosts because of my house that is in ruins while every one of you runs to his own house, therefore the heavens above you withhold the Dew and the earth withholds its fruit for,
I called for a drought on the land and on the mountains and on the grain and on the new wine and the oil on whatever the ground brings forth on men and livestock and on all the labors of your hands. There are those within our society who would claim they have not because others have kept it from them. I’m not telling you what their motivation is,
what their life is or whether or not they’re guilty of this. But I have to first ask, do you have not because you have not yet put God in his rightful place in your life because that’s one possible problem. But then as we chapter two in chapter one, verse 12, we read about the obedience of<inaudible>. This is in the sixth month,
first day of the month on verse 14, verse 15, we read of chapter one. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of the rebel, the son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jozadak, the high priest and the, of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts.
Their God notice they were commanded to work. They were rebuked for not working. They were told, this is why you’re failing in everything you do. And what did they do? They said, profit, go away. I don’t want to hear it. No. They begin to work on the 24th day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.
So that was the command was given day one of the six month, 24th day of the six month. They begin to work in the seventh month chapter two, verse one on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying speak now to the rebel, the son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and to Joshua, the son of Jozadak the high breezed into the remnant of the people saying who is left among you,
who saw this temple in its former glory. Now, wait a minute. You remember what we read? You remember what we read in Ezra? The ones who had seen the former temple, they saw this one and they mourned. They saw this one and they cried. He says, who among you is left, who is left among you? Who saw this temple in his former glory?
And how do you see it now in comparison with it? It is this thing in your eyes as nothing. He says, you look at what you used to have. And you look at what you have now. And you look at this and you think this is worthless. This is disappointing. This isn’t what we want it. This, this is nothing compared to what we used to have.
He says yet, now be strong.<inaudible> says the Lord and be strong. Joshua, the son of Jozadak the high priest and be strong. All you, people of land says the Lord and work for, I am with you. You see the reality that they needed to come to the realization that they needed to have his, he didn’t matter what the building looked like.
The question was is God inside. Because for generations, they had come from a time where they had a tabernacle and God was in the tabernacle and it wasn’t even a house with solid walls. It was a tent, but God was inside and that place had more power and more influence than any place that had solid walls. But then they became entrapped by desiring what looked Magnificent,
but God wasn’t inside because the sin of their fathers, God departed from the temple, not to say that God ever dwelled in a temple made with hands, but God’s presence was manifested in the temple until Israel departed from him. And then God removed his presence. He says, I am with, you says the Lord of hosts. According to the words that I covenant with you when you came out of Egypt.
So my spirit remains among you do not fear for thus says the Lord of hosts. Once more. It is a little while I will shake heaven and earth and the sea and dry land. And I will shake all nations and they shall comb to the desire of all nations. And I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts. God says,
you’ve missed the point, the glory of the temple, isn’t its structure. And it isn’t its size. And it isn’t the gold overlaying, the stones or the wood. The glory of the temple is me. The silver is mine. And the gold is mine says the Lord, the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts.
And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. God says this temple that you see now it’s this temple. I’m going to use Solomon built this grand magnificent thing, but this temple will exceed its glory because of what I do here, because it would be this temple renovated through the years changed through the years, made more grand by Herod,
but it would be this temple where the God of all peace would walk. And it is in between that statement in the seventh month, on the 21st day and the next prophecy in verse 10 on the 24th day of the ninth month, it is in between those two, the Zechariah begins to prophesy and you are expected to know all of that before you read the very first word of the very first prophecy of Zechariah.
Zechariah says, verse two of chapter one. The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. Zechariah shows up on the scene and he says, um, I want you to understand something, your fathers and God weren’t on good terms. You need some perspective. Israel, you need some perspective remnant because your fathers did evil in the sight of the Lord.
And he was very angry with them. Therefore they therefore say to them, thus says, the Lord of hosts return to me. Here is the message of Zechariah. Here is the message to this people. You thought you were mine. You thought you belonged to the God of Israel. You thought I was on your side and you acted as though you could do no wrong,
but you were wrong. And now it’s time for you to repent. Now, Jesus, in Luke chapter 13, declares to the people who are listening to situations, he tells them about a people where a tower fell on them. And it was the mindset of the people. If something bad happens to you, it means you sinned. And Jesus said,
do you suppose that the people who the tower fell on were any worse sinners than anyone else? The point of that is no, just because something bad happened to someone doesn’t mean they sinned and caused it to happen. That’s not always though. Sometimes the reason why, but God tells Israel. God tells this remnant return to me. Come back to me.
He says returned to me. He says the Lord of hosts and I will return to you Israel. Why are you struggling? Remnant? Why can’t you accomplish anything? Why is it that you seem so small and insignificant? Why is it that you’re in, you’re surrounded by enemies and afraid all the time. It’s because you and me have no relationship, but God hasn’t moved.
He says, you come back to me and I’ll return my blessings to you. Do you remember what James said? That God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift? The God who is the father of lights, the God who in whom is no variation nor shadow of turning. He was without variation and shadow of turning right here. When he says I’ll return to you.
It doesn’t mean I, he, God just went off somewhere. It means I’ve been here all along and you’ve separated yourself from me. And I’ve separated my blessings from you. But you turn around and come back and let’s restore this relationship. He says, do here’s where the lesson comes from. Do not be like your fathers as children, even fathers who aren’t good fathers get looked up to by their kids.
Even fathers who do a lot of wrong are idolized by their kids. Is it any wonder if we read what happened in 1984, that 40 years later, we’re still dealing with the same thing. Why would we expect any different? When fathers have taught their children to behave just like they did and encourage them in doing so, God says, do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets preached saying,
thus says the Lord of hosts turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds, but they did not hear nor heed me, says the Lord. This message is repeated over and over and over throughout the old and the new Testament, the Zeke Yule tells those in his day, you’re not suffering because of the sins of the father, you’re of your fathers.
You’re suffering because you’re acting like your fathers, Jesus in Matthew chapter 23, we’ll tell those Pharisees, those chief priests, those individuals who had persecuted, the people who had laid heavy burdens on the people and not more than them, themselves, those who would put him on the cross. He says to them in Matthew chapter 23, and in verse 24,
he says this blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence blind Pharisees. First cleanse the inside of the cup and the dish and the outside of them may be clean. Also woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs,
which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. There’s a passage in Ezekiel. The Gill is in captivity. He is there by the river in Babylon, and he is seeing a vision and God, and a vision takes him up, takes him back to Jerusalem where the temple still stood. The temple that they were mourning for the temple that was all grand and beautiful.
The temple that they put their trust in. And he takes as he Gill into the temple and through a passage and into a secret room where the chief or where the high priest and the priests are bowing down before idols. Oh, the temple still looked like God’s temple. But inside it was full of abomination. Zechariah says, don’t be like your fathers.
Jesus says, don’t be like your fathers. He says, even, so you also outwardly appear, right? Appear righteous to men. But inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, woe to you, scribes, Pharisees hypocrites because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, if we had lived in the days of our fathers,
we would not have been her takers with them in the blood of the prophets. He says, you Pharisees, you, aren’t a mint. And you design do you design. And you, you bring all niceties to these monuments you’ve made to the profits. But yet you who say you would not have done what your fathers did. He says, therefore,
you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets fill up. Then the measure of your father’s guilt. And he calls them serpents, brood of Vipers. How can you escape the condemnation of hell? What’s he’s telling them, you might claim that you’re different from your fathers, but you’re going to kill me just the same way they killed.
The prophets. Zechariah says, do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets preach saying, thus says, the Lord of hosts turned now from your evil ways and your evil deeds, but they did not hear nor heat me says the Lord. We look at our lives and we look at our growing up and may say, well, my, my father was a Christian.
My father sat in a few every Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. My father taught me how to, how to pray. My father did. My father did that, But are you judging yourself by your father or by God? If it was good enough for grandma, but it’s good enough for me, Zechariah says, do not be like your fathers.
Verse five, your fathers, who were they? The prophets do they live forever. He looks back at the old Testament prophets. And he says, yeah, I know they’re dead. I know their words long gone, Isaiah, he’s dead. Jeremiah. He’s dead. Daniel. He’s dead. He’s dead. We can go down the list. They’re all dead.
But notice what he says yet. Surely my words and my statutes, which I command my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? Is people of Israel heard the message of the prophets and killed them for it. They put them to death so they wouldn’t have to listen anymore. And they thought if we put them to death, what they say,
won’t come to pass. Zechariah tells the people of Israel, the remnant that’s there in Jerusalem. Look back at your history. The profits might be dead, but their word overtook your fathers. Their prophecies came true. Their word came to pass. And then Zechariah speaks as he is a prophet for God, because he says, because it’s my word. And my statutes,
the scripture says that the word of God will not pass away. And we need to remember no matter where we are in life, that we need to be holding fast to the word of God, not to history, not to culture, not to where we’ve always come from, but to the word of God. But there is a glimmer of hope in the book of Zechariah because Zechariah will prophesize and tell Israel,
you return, you come back, you come to God and you don’t be like your fathers. And in chapter two, verse 10 of guy Back on the other page in my Bible, we read on the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, thus says the Lord of hosts.
Now ask the priest concerning the law saying if one carries Holy meat in the fold of his garment and with the edge he touches bread or stew wine or oil or any food will live, become Holy. Then the priest answered and said, Oh, okay. So we’re talking about the law. We’re talking about the laws and the ordinances concerning holiness and consecration and that which is profane or unholy.
And he says, if a priestly garment, as he is doing his labors touches common food, will that common food become Holy? No. And Hey guys said, if one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it become unclean? So the priest answered and said, it shall be unclean. Then hag I answered and said,
so is this people? And so is this nation before me says the Lord. And so as every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean. God tells the remnant of Israel, you and everything you do, and everything you offer in every worship and sacrifice and praise that you bring before me is clean because it’s been touched by that, which is profane.
And now carefully consider from this day forward from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord. Since those days when one came to a heap of 20 ethers, but there was, but 10 when one came to the van, the wine van to dry all 50 bowels from the press. But there was about 20. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in the labors of your hands.
And yet you did not turn to me, says the Lord consider. Now from this day forward from the 24th day of the ninth month from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid consider it is the seed still in the barn. As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day,
I will bless you. God says, you look back since you laid the foundation of that temple and you look at how every time you expected to have enough, you didn’t. And every time you were in want, you didn’t know why. And every time you expected to get more, you got less. And now you know why? Because you weren’t righteous before me.
And because your heart wasn’t right before me, I Was doing that to you. But the end of verse 19, but from this day on, I will bless you. Oh, what happened for once Israel? Wasn’t like her fathers for once. When the prophet said returned to me, they actually did for once. They didn’t say if it was good enough for dad and granddad and great granddad,
it’ll be okay for me. They said, yes, God will repent. If you’re outside the body of Christ, you’re outside the church of Christ for which he died and shed his blood for. You need to repent because you’re outside of the place of salvation. You’re outside of a relationship with God. You may want one. You may fervently want one,
but you can’t have one unless you return to him. And he hasn’t moved for 2000 years. He hasn’t moved. He’s still in the same place. He’s always been waiting for you to come back to him. How do you do that? You do that by hearing the word of God and believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God, because he sent the one in whom his peace,
who stood in that temple, who brought the glory of God back to that temple. And he said, salvation is available to everyone, to him that believes, and to him that is baptized. I will bring the remission of sins. You have to repent of your sins and you have to confess the name of Christ. And you have to be immersed in water for the remission of those sins.
And you have to rise up to walk, not like your father, but like your father. If you’re outside the body of Christ, why not change that today? If you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve been living like your parents, why not repent and live like your father, if there’s any way that we can aid you or help you in any way,
why not come now as we stand. And as we say,<inaudible>, are you fully trusting in his grace? Uh, are you washed and<inaudible>, are you<inaudible> so cleansing, blah<inaudible>. Oh yeah.<inaudible> no. Oh, you watched and<inaudible>. Oh, are you walking daily by the sea side?<inaudible><inaudible> do you rest each moment in a cruise?
If you washed and uh,<inaudible> Austin, uh, blah. And uh, so cleansing, blah<inaudible>. Oh, you’re gone, man. Spotless. Are they white? No. Are you<inaudible> when a bride groom come as well, your robs me wide PRN whiten<inaudible>. So be ready for the bride and be washed in the blood<inaudible> Oh,
you and, uh, blah or cleansing, blah<inaudible>. Oh yeah, man. Spotless. Are they white as a you and, uh, blah<inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> clean. Oh, will be washed and, uh<inaudible> Oh, you and, uh, blah. So cleansing blah<inaudible><inaudible> no<inaudible>. Well, as long before our closing prayer will be number 659.
I love to tell this story. I love to tell the story I love to, to<inaudible>, uh, see things, uh, uh<inaudible> uh, jeez. And is, uh, uh,<inaudible> it’s uh, to spies my long E uh<inaudible> uh, uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh<inaudible> that<inaudible>, uh,<inaudible><inaudible> and,
uh, it is, uh, uh,<inaudible>, uh, uh, uh, ah, to the, uh, uh, to<inaudible>, to<inaudible>. Uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> let’s see names each time.<inaudible><inaudible>, uh,<inaudible> for, um, uh,<inaudible> uh, uh, uh, uh, eh, uh, for,
um, God<inaudible>, uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh<inaudible> uh<inaudible> and, uh,<inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> means a glory. I see being a new news, ah, to a<inaudible> and that I have, uh, uh, two, two, uh, sorry.<inaudible><inaudible>, uh,<inaudible> God, our father in heaven, we come to you at this time,
thanking you for another opportunity to assemble here this morning, and to sing songs, appraised your great name and study another portion of your word. And God, we are so thankful for brother Aaron and the message that he brought to us from your word. And we ask that you help each and every one of us take this word that we were given today,
analyze it and apply it to our lives so that we can go out in this world that we live in and better serve you as Christians. And most importantly, have the faith and trust to reach out to those that have not heard your word and welcome them to come join us and study your word so that they may have the same opportunity that we have.
And that is one day, join you in heaven. God, we know that there are many amongst us that are suffering from various ailments and were unable to be here today. We ask that if it be your will, that you restore them to a measure their health so that they may one day assemble with us and spread your word and worship you. God,
we also ask that you pray for this country, because we know there’s a lot of turmoil going on in this country and pray for the entire world, with the pandemic that we’re currently undertaking. And that if it be your will you provide us a resolution and a cure for that pandemic so that we may live our lives more comfortably and worship you in faith and in truth.
And as we depart, prepared to do part and go, our separate ways, we ask that you guide guard and direct each and every one of us until we return it. That next appointed time, we pray this through your son, Jesus name. Amen.