One of my favorite quotes is from Peter Lord, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Many people get distracted from the River of Life by little tributaries that feed it. This leads to the overemphasis of teachings, which leads to extremes, as well as the worst deception of all—the pursuit of a doctrine over the Lord Himself.

We need to often hear this as a reminder to help keep us on track. It is much better to know the Lord, and learn to abide in Him every day and not know a thing about eschatology than to know everything about eschatology and not be abiding in the Lord. If we are growing closer to the Lord, and abiding in Him, we will be in the right place doing the right things regardless of how much we understand them.

Keeping this in mind, we also know that the Lord gave the biblical prophecies to us because we need them. We should not disregard anything that the Lord has given us, whether it is knowledge, a gift of the Spirit, His armor, or anything else. As we are coming to “the fullness of times” we are going to need to be fully equipped.

Even so, the pursuit of the Lord Himself is always the main thing, and He must be first in all that we do or study. However, it is not the only thing. To reject the other things that the Lord has given to us is in a very basic way rejecting Him.

I have heard some glibly say that we should seek the Giver, not the gifts. That sounds wise and noble, but it is actually in conflict with the Scriptures, which exhort us to earnestly desire and pursue spiritual gifts. Actually pursuing the gifts is one way we pursue the Giver.

If my wife or children wanted the gifts I bring them more than they wanted me, I would have a problem. However, because I love them, I love to bring them gifts, and I love to see the joy they have when they receive them. The Lord is the same way. Of course, we should want Him more than His gifts, but if we reject His gifts we are in a very basic way rejecting Him, and depriving Him of joy. We are also rejecting things that we are going to need.

I am sharing this here because human idealism, which always sounds so good and wise, is one of the most deadly enemies of truth. We will discuss this in more detail later as we look at the prophecies concerning the anti-Christ. The anti-Christ is not so much opposed to Christ as he is presented as a substitute for Christ. It is obvious that this anti-Christ will come in a most appealing, and seemingly good and noble package. Therefore, to prepare for the times, we need to begin discerning statements and teachings that sound wise, good, and logical, but have no biblical basis. We will often find them even in conflict with Scripture.

Therefore, I am praying that one of the main things imparted to you who are doing this study with me is that you develop an insatiable love of the Scriptures, and that you take on the noble character of the Bereans. They are the ones who listened openly to the teachings of Paul, but then went and searched the Scriptures themselves to verify what he said.

We will also seek to connect everything that we study to the Lord Himself, and through them to know His ways better. Walking in truth can be very different from knowing the truth. Truth that becomes life is more than just knowing the Book of the Lord; it is knowing the Lord of the Book.

It is also true that many fall to worshiping the temple of the Lord in place of the Lord of the temple. What good is the most glorious temple if God is not in it? However, if the Lord is in His temple it will not matter how glorious the temple is because it will not be the temple that has your attention. If we are overly focused on the temple it must be because the temple is empty.

The key word here is “overly.” It is our calling to be a part of the temple of the Lord, and many are even called to be builders of it. It is in the temple that we serve Him. Even so, we are not commanded to preach the church, but the kingdom.

The church is not the kingdom, though it is certainly a part of it, and will be the primary vehicle through which the kingdom comes. Even so, His kingdom is far bigger than the church, and the church needs to understand all He is doing because we are called to be His instruments through which He does His work on earth.

While keeping in mind that the main thing is to know the Lord and abide in Him—the main thing that the Lord is doing in the earth is building His church. If we do not see what He is doing in the church, we will never be able to understand the other prophecies concerning these times. Even worse, if we are not taking our place in what He is doing in the church, we will never be in His will.

It is true that you can be joined to the body in many ways without being properly joined to the Head, but the reverse is not true. You can never be properly joined to the Head unless you are also joined to His body. We cannot understand what the Lord is doing today without understanding what He is doing in the church. We cannot be a part of what He is doing today without being rightly joined to His church.

For this reason the exhortation of I Corinthians 11:24-30 is crucial if we are going to be a part of God’s purposes in the earth, and as the text warns, even survive long on the earth:

We often quote this when taking communion, but this is not just about the elements of bread and wine, but the truth that these elements represent. All rituals are given to us to represent important truths and be continually brought to our remembrance. The condemnation in the verses above does not come from not partaking of a ritual, but by partaking of the ritual in an unworthy manner. This is to partake of the ritual while not having the reality that it represents in our life.

The transgression that causes the weakness, sickness, and death is to “not judge the body rightly.” This remains the main cause of weakness, sickness, and premature death among Christians today.

Again, this is not about the ritual. You can eat all the bread and drink all the wine in the country and not have communion. Communion is a symbolic ritual that is intended to convey a profound truth that we must have in our life. The judgment comes by trying to substitute the ritual for the reality that it represents. We will be weak, or sick, and progressing toward death, to the degree that we do not have communion with the Lord and His body.

I will make another bold statement, which I do not have the space to biblically establish here, but will later. That is, if we are not rightly joined to the Lord’s body we will be joined to the body of the anti-Christ. It does not matter how much truth we know, it is the truth that we are living that will determine where we stand.

If you do not have a growing relationship with a church body, you are going to end up in that category if you do not make a radical change in your life now. This change is to get in a local church body. It is clear in Scripture that if we do not have this relationship, we will not discern truth, or have His life flowing through us. One example of this is in I John 1:7:

If you are no longer in a strong church fellowship because you were hurt or disappointed, it is time to be a Christian and forgive, get over it quickly, and get back into fellowship with a strong body of believers. Your life literally depends on it.

I personally doubt that anyone has ever been in a relationship with someone who has not suffered some hurt and disappointment. True Christianity is a life founded on forgiveness. Who was hurt more, or rejected more, than Jesus by the very ones He came to save? This is why He told us to take up our crosses daily. We are going to have to die to ourselves somehow every day if we are going to follow Him. If we are not willing to do this, as He Himself said, we are not really following Him.

Remember what we discussed earlier, how the most basic purpose of God at this time is redemption and restoration? The church is called to be the most wonderful, full of glory and power, united, loving, social entity ever created upon the earth. It probably will not become this until very close to the end of this age. Growing up into these things is the process that will transform us into His image. If we are not willing to submit to the process, we will never be like Him, and we will therefore never do His will.

It is also probable that the church, in many ways, may be as far from what it is called to be right now as it will ever be. We really are approaching the end of this age. We can be sure that before the end His bride will be all that she was created to be, and she will be a bride worthy of her King. What will happen will probably happen fast.

There is a new breed of leadership arising in the church. There will be shepherds who treat the sheep with all of the care, dignity, and respect that the sons and daughters of the King deserve. They will come with a heart for restoration that is like the Lord’s own heart. They will not look at a single congregation of Christians, regardless of the condition it is in now, and want to abandon it. They will want to see it restored and become all that it is called to be just as the Lord’s heart desire is for the whole world to be restored and become all that He created it to be.

We will not be joined to the purposes of the Lord without having this heart for restoration. We will not have His heart if we have a tendency to quit on His people. Actually the worse the condition that a church is in now, the greater the glory will be when it is restored. This is why the Lord promised Zerubbabel that the glory of the latter house would actually be greater than the former, even though it was obvious to all that the latter house was inferior to the former one. The house is not the main point, but rather the glory that is revealed in it.
Something restored from devastation is a greater witness than something built from the beginning. It is for this reason that for all of eternity the restored earth will be a witness of the nature of God, and the power of good to prevail over evil. Again, I repeat, and will do so often, we cannot understand these times, or be a part of the Lord’s purposes in them, without a heart for restoration.

For this reason the books of Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah are crucial for our times. These all addressed the difficulties and triumphs of the remnant that returned to their land to rebuild the temple of the Lord, and to restore their nation. We will conclude this week’s lesson with Haggai 2:3-9:

I also implore you, if you are not presently in a local church body, find one to join. If we are growing closer to the Lord, we will also be getting closer to His people. We can count on there being hurts and disappointments, but every one of those is an opportunity for us to become conformed to His nature. As the apostle John warned, we simply cannot love God without also loving His people. If we are truly growing in our love for God, we will also be growing in our love for His people.

There are churches that are going into apostasy, and I am not encouraging you to join them, or stay in one that is making a clear departure from godliness. The Scriptures clearly warn us to depart from such as that. However, being in the church we are called to be in should take precedence over where we live—even more than a job or profession if we are true seekers of God. Our church life is far more important than any profession can be to us.