Thru the Bible

Steve: What happens when God's people become complacent? Welcome to Through the Bible. In this study, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is going to give us the answer to that question straight from the book of Haggai. I'm Steve, your host, and I'm so glad that you're here with us today, in part because my friend and Through the Bible's President Greg Harris and I have some time to talk about a trip that I took earlier this year to Mexico.

Greg Harris: Yeah, and this is one of those fun conversations where I get to kind of become the host and flip the table a little bit and ask you, how was your trip, Steve?

Steve: It was a great trip. I was able to go with James, our ministry leader in that area, and that was always a nice, nice perk because he speaks Spanish. So, I always had a translator at my shoulder, which is very helpful.

Greg Harris: And I believe that's the first time ever in the history of Through the Bible that we have somebody on our team who can speak another language when we're traveling. It is great.

Steve: Yeah, it's been really nice. So, just the time that we've got, I want to focus on the opportunity that we had to visit a radio station up in a mountainous area of Chiapas, in the Highlands of Southern Mexico. And it was the Tzotzil people, and they are an indigenous group that speaks Tzotzil. And they're typically a combination, I think missionaries call it a synchronistic kind of a religion that's kind of...

Greg Harris: A mishmash of traditional cultural, different religions.

Steve: So it's like take Mayan religion and throw in some Catholicism and you've got kind of what they believe. Well, out of this comes a group of committed evangelicals. And they were actually persecuted in that area and kind of banished to this one particular area where they could just be left alone, if you will. And so they, they formed this community up in these, in this Highland area, and they started broadcasting.

This one particular man, Sebastian, who had no radio experience, no broadcasting experience, didn't know anything but had a passion for getting the gospel and sharing God's word with the people that were in this region, set up a radio station and started broadcasting to this small group of people. And just seeing the fruit come out of that ministry has been so exciting.

Greg Harris: Yeah, well, what's also exciting, just to put a little historical context is we were not reaching Mexico for a long, long time. And one of the reasons was we used to, the old model was what we called superpower radio. And the closest transmitter was Bonaire in the Caribbean and it was powerful, but it never got into Mexico. So, not only are you telling us about a really cool outreach, this is a new field for us in the last few years is to really reach Mexico. So that's exciting.

Steve: Yeah, and it was, this even going into the Tzotzil language, we didn't even fund this thing. They were in Spanish. And what Sebastian does, and it's kind of like I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, is he plays "A Través de la Biblia", the Spanish Through the Bible program and plays it for like 30 seconds, hits stop, and then does an on-air translation of the program into Tzotzil and then presses play again.

Greg Harris: And, and Steve, when you guys came back and shared the stories and the pictures, my mind went back, I approved this project, and I had no idea this was going to happen. And so I hope for all of our listening family, you understand that, you know, we say yes to things and then God sort of takes them to new levels.

Steve: Yeah, and if you want to read more about it, you can always go to the newsletter. I, I wrote a in a little bit more detail about that trip and some of the people that we met. There's some pictures. You can see a picture of Sebastian. Would love to have you praying for him and for his team that's there. And it's so interesting. One of the things that, remember, this is a community that got banished up into this area and they created a community by themselves up there. And there were some other villagers around and you know, locals that were still there. But because of the uniqueness of Christianity and the philosophy of helping one another, being loving to your brothers and sisters, that community has established itself better than many other parts of Mexico. And it's a desirable place to live as a result of the influence of biblical Christianity being lived out in the Highlands of Mexico.

Greg Harris: And all that because we thought we'd get our Spanish broadcast into Mexico at large. And now this amazing ministry happening in this small town. And I do want to encourage everybody, if you don't get our newsletter, go online, send an email to biblebus@ttb.org, and either we'll email you a copy digitally. But Steve and I, you've heard us say this, we both, I, I keep on my side table where I have my coffee and my quiet time. It's in my Bible. I know you do the same thing.

Steve: Yeah, and it's such an encouragement and there's so much going on. And if you want to go to the next step, we haven't talked about this for a while, join our World Prayer Team. You'll get an email with updates every Monday through Friday. It's super easy to sign up, ttb.org/pray. You'll be glad you did. Join an army of people that are praying for us and for the ministry of Through the Bible. Greg, why don't you do that now as we begin.

Greg Harris: Father, we're amazed at how you lead this ministry and we thank you for all the outreaches that are happening in these amazing places. And we pray you'll be glorified through it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve: Let's open to Haggai 1 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, as we come to this little book, as I said at the very beginning, you're going to find it different from any other book that we've studied of the prophets. Now, he puts a great emphasis as we've said upon the word of the Lord. And I want to read verse one again and move on from there. In the second year of Darius the king.

Now again, may I say that we are now geared into a calendar that is the calendar of the times of the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus said, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That's still true right at this very moment. Now, we're in those times here. Definitely so. It's not geared to a king of Israel or Judah, not geared anymore to the Davidic line, but the calendar now refers to them.

And it's the first day of the month, and the month is the sixth month. Now, I have to say this to you categorically because when you take the Jewish calendar, you'll find that this is September the first, 520. Now here's a book you can date very easily. And he says unto Zerubbabel. He is the political ruler, the son of Shealtiel. And Zerubbabel, as we said, means Sown in Babylon. Or he was raised in Babylon. He has a Babylonian name, by the way. He had been born in captivity.

Joshua the son of Jozadak, the high priest. You have both the religious and the civil ruler mentioned. Verse two, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Let's look at that for just a moment. Here's what God says the people were saying. And this is what they were saying. You see, when they first returned back to the land, they returned with great enthusiasm.

The anticipation was high. But they met gigantic obstacles, which required Herculean effort and hardships. And after they went through a period like that, they became discouraged when they began to build the temple. And so they rationalized that it was just not the time to build. In other words, this was their pseudo consolation. They decided to maintain the status quo.

Well, it's so hard, evidently God doesn't intend us to do it. The foundation of the temple was laid, but the opposition of the Samaritans was so intense that they simply stopped the building. They didn't go on with it and their excuse is, well, the time has not come. Now, this is going to hurt just a little, friends, because Haggai is going to put the knife in where the trouble spot is, I think today, in the lives of many Christians.

Have you ever heard someone explain the fact that they gave up doing something or that they didn't go someplace, or that sort of thing and they said, well, the Lord's will was for me to do otherwise? Or the Lord directed me to do this sort of thing. You know, that expression, that Christian cliché today covers a multitude of sins.

It's so easy when things get hard and they get rough to turn in a report to everyone and say, well, the Lord's leading me otherwise. Many a preacher, I'm afraid that when the going gets rough in a church, and it's rough for the pastor today, my heart goes out to pastors who are really trying to serve God. But it's so easy to say, well, the Lord is leading me elsewhere.

And if any of us that get on a hot spot, that's the answer we come up with, well, the Lord is leading me elsewhere. Now, these people started building the temple. And the going was rough. You'll recall reading Nehemiah when they were rebuilding the walls. Look at the opposition that that man had when he tried to rebuild the walls. Well, they had the same kind of opposition in building the temple.

And the people turned it off by saying, well, it's not the Lord's time to do this. Now, I remember when we attempted to remodel the church in downtown Los Angeles that I served, in its long history, it had never been remodeled. And the seats in there, 4,000 of them by the way, they were built to take care of people 50, 60 years ago. And do you know that we discovered something that people are about two and a half inches wider today than they were 50, 60 years ago? That ought to tell you something at least the people that go to church.

So we got new pews and put them in. And cushioned pews by the way. Lovely. And we had some very pious souls that said, well, we don't feel like money should be spent for cushioned seats. We should give that money to missions. Well, the majority of the folk wanted the cushioned seats. So did I. And so I made a proposition to those folk. I said, now look, what we're going to do is there are many people here that are so enthusiastic about remodeling that they're going to give enough for their seat and your seat too.

They're going to pay for both of the pews. And you don't have to give to buying a seat. You say the money should be given to missions. Now come on, give $25 to missions. And I said, I'd hope that we can take up an offering today of several hundred $25 checks. You know that we got very few that day. You know why? Because the time hadn't come. Uh huh. It wasn't the Lord's will.

And they never intended to give, and they used the excuse of not giving to the new seats because they said it should be given to missions. Well, if that should be given to missions, why didn't they give it? They didn't. And may I say to you that I've had the privilege in every church I've served to remodel it. It seems to have been my lot. I've never built a new church, but I've remodeled every one I've been in. And I've always encountered that problem. There's always a little group, they're very small, thank God for that. And they don't do anything, but they're good at criticizing and that was always the excuse.

Oh, this money shouldn't be spent here on us, we should give it to missions. Well, why didn't they give it to missions? They didn't. Oh, this crowd here, and Haggai just pulls the Band-Aid off and exposes the sore that's here. And you can be sure of one thing. This wasn't an ouchless Band-Aid that he pulled off. It hurt. You can be sure of this. Will you listen to what he has to say to them in answer to this. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.

This is the message now that he's going to give his answer to them. And this is message number one, given on September the first, 520. Now, here is God's answer. Will you listen to it? Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai. You notice this man back of the word of the Lord all the way through, to God be the glory. It wasn't just a song to him. He made it that way. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses, and this house to lie waste?

The point was this. These people said it's not time to build the Lord's house, but they all built their own houses and it seemed to have been time to do that. Isn't it amazing today? I found this true, not only as a pastor, but I found it true in radio today. Great many people promise. Yes, I think the Lord's leading me to help you. And then a little later on, the going got rough for them a little and they said, well, maybe it's not the Lord's will for me to do this.

You see the minute that things become difficult. Why, that's the moment we decide it's not the Lord's will. But when it is something that's for our own selfish ends, we generally do that, don't we? Or we make the effort that is required to accomplish that will always be to our benefit. For instance, these people were all of them living in panelled houses.

How in the world were they able to do that? And there were difficulties, but they overcame the difficulties to build their own house, but they were not able to overcome the difficulties to build the Lord's house. And their lame excuse was, the time is not here. It's just not the Lord's will right now for us to do this. Oh, I get so weary of hearing people say that as an excuse for not doing something for God.

It's not the Lord's will. What do you know about the Lord's will? Just because it's difficult, it's hard, it's going to cost you something, does that mean that it's not the Lord's will? May I say to you, that's not the way you interpret the Lord's will. Sometimes it's very rugged and very difficult. Oh, if we could have some of the choice saints of God of the past here today.

They would tell us. I wonder what Abraham would have to say to these people today, said, well, it's not the Lord's will for me to do this. This man lived down in Ur of the Chaldees, had a nice business down there. You can be sure of one thing. This man who's the father of the Israelites, was a good business man. And he was doing well in Ur of the Chaldees. That was a highly civilized city in that day. Prosperous city. Luxury was there. God says, I want you to get up and get out of this place.

Very easy for Abraham to tell his neighbors, he said, I must have misunderstood. The Lord never asked me to leave this place here. It's soft. It's easy. And therefore it just couldn't be the Lord's will for me to do this thing at all. Friends, may I say to you, there are literally thousands of missionaries down yonder on the mission fields of this world today. They're out there and many of them making great sacrifices. Why? Because they thought it was the Lord's will for them to go.

I wonder how many are at home today that ought to be out there. I wonder how many church members there are that busy as termites, putting on banquets and doing things in the church that don't require really any hardship. It's not any standing up to it, not opposition, not really getting out the word of God. I wonder how many are there today and they're trying to say, well, this is God's will for me, but it's not God's will for me to make a sacrifice for God.

My, how he bears down and Haggai let you know that this is the word of God that he's given. This is what God said. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses, and this house to lie waste? Now, I always feel very badly when I'm in a place like Mexico, and I see those ornate cathedrals and people living in poverty around those cathedrals.

It's easy for us to point our finger to that today and say, that just isn't right. And I'll agree that that just isn't right. But when I see a church that needs so much, it needs to be made attractive. It has to be attractive to get the sinner in, friends. And nothing is being done along that line at all. I know several churches I've been in and that's been their weak excuse.

I remember staying with a deacon and he told me, he says, you know, we believe in giving to missions here. We believe in that and that's the reason we don't have a carpet on the floor in the church and that's the reason that we have not put in new pews. Do you know that he took me to his home and I was treated royally by that man. Never had such wonderful hospitality extended. He put me in a guest room that's nicer than anything I've ever been in. And he had a home that I'm told cost over $100,000 back in the old days. Not today, but back in the old days. And you know it's all I could do to keep quiet.

I've had to bite my tongue to try to keep quiet and not say, well, you believe in giving to missions and you don't put a rug on the church auditorium at all. It's not very attractive. And then look here at your home. What about that? Couldn't you have spared just a little here? You should have built, maybe not quite as large. A $50,000 home in that day would be quite a luxury. Couldn't you have taken the other $50,000 and given that to the missions that you seem to be so interested in?

May I say to you, friends, how much are you really spending on yourself and how much are you really doing for God today? It gets down close to us, does it not? May I use another illustration? I went with a friend of mine, he's a good friend of mine. He's a fine Christian layman. He took me out to dinner. And it's rather expensive. He left a generous tip for the waitress. And then he wanted to take me to a service that night to hear a certain preacher. He thought I should hear him. And we went and heard a good sermon. And when the offering plate was passed, I watched him.

He put in $1. But he must have given that waitress either two or $3. And I thought, my, he's not even tipping God in an honest way. He tips the waitress in the restaurant more than he tips God at a service. May I say to you, friends, this rather gets down where we live, does it not? These people were saying, it's just not the time for the Lord's house to be built.

God says then how is it time that your house has been built? May I say to you, the hypocrisy that is in the church is something that is sickening to a great many folk. I hear people boast of what they do for God, but what they do for themselves is a thousand times more than what they're doing for God. I told you this was going to hurt. I told you that Haggai.