I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his word let us turn to the prophecy
of Haggai and the first chapter and we'll read the 8th verse
prophecy of Haggai the first chapter and we'll read the 8th
verse go up to the mountain and bring
wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and
I will be glorified, saith the Lord. The time when this prophecy was
written were really very interesting times in the history of Judah
and the history of Israel. And this prophecy was written
in the reign of Darius, and of course also Daniel lived in the
reign of Darius and also Zachariah wrote his prophecy in the reign
of Darius so there were these prophecies which were written
and of course at the same time or just before also Isaiah and
Jeremiah so there was really a lot going on at this time and
of course it was a time of God's favour and a time of God's mercy
when he was fulfilling his promise to again release Judah, really,
and Israel from the captivity of Babylon. They'd been there
for 70 years, they had been prophesied, and now God was very graciously
bringing them back to once again inhabit Jerusalem, and once again
to rebuild the walls, and once again rebuild the temple and
of course it was the place that the Lord had ordained to come
together to worship the temple it had been there for many years
since Solomon erected it and that of course was the substitute
or that which followed on from the tabernacle which had existed
for some 500 years so there was really a long time when there
had been this wonderful favour of having a place where God graciously
condescended to come down and to meet with his people. And now there was this time that
Haggai is speaking about because the people had been allowed by
Cyrus to return to Jerusalem and to commence the rebuilding.
But there had been an edict which had been come forth from a later
king to stop the building. And therefore they'd stopped.
And what were they doing? For now quite a number of years
they were concentrating on their own houses. And they continued
to let lie waste the place which God had ordained to be central
to their worship. Well, the Lord then, how good
it is to realise the Lord then came and stirred up people. What a mercy that is for us today
to realise that even though we live in a pretty dark day, the
Lord can indeed arise and cause men to come, prophets of the
Lord, preachers of the word, to stir up the people that once
again there may be a true desire to worship God in spirit and
in truth. Well, in the days of Haggai,
as he came, the Lord spoke and said, These people say, the time
has not come. The time of the Lord's house
shall be built. They didn't want to disturb what they were doing,
obviously. They wanted to carry on. They didn't have to want
to be involved in, stop being involved in their own houses
and they came and built the Lord's house. But, you see, although
the people said that, God came through his prophet and said,
is it time for you, O ye to dwell in your sealed houses and this
house to lie waste. Now therefore, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways. And that's a good thing
for all of us today, to consider our ways before God. And that
means exactly what it says, to consider our ways, consider our
thoughts, our words, our actions, whether they comply with the
word of God, whether they comply with the commands of God, or
whether they are those things which you and I are doing. And he tells us just to recognise
the position by simple consideration. Ye have so much, and bring ye
little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled
with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none
warm. and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into
a bag with holes so really what is it? it's a desolate scene
isn't it? it's not a healthy scene they're
struggling to make their own way perfect but they fail and
therefore it's a sad scene and so the Lord reiterates this word
consider your ways and we're not going to preach from that
this morning But it's good just to remember such words to instruct
us. And as he goes on to say, you
look for much and it came to little. Why? The Lord tells us. I did blow upon it, didn't prosper. Why? Because of mine own house
that is waste. And ye run every man unto his
own house. The Lord sees fit then to bring
forth a drought, a famine, and yet his mercy is still out towards
his people. And what a blessing it is. And
so as we come on, we're told the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Zerubbabel, the son of Sheoltil, governor of Judah. The Lord will
ordain him to be governor. and the spirit of Joshua the
son of Josiah the high priest to important people in their
age and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they
came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts their God
in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month in the second
year of Darius the king well it's good isn't it to realize
that the people then did at last acknowledge that it was God speaking. It wasn't just the words of a
man, it was God speaking to them and they acted upon it. And they
realised that which they'd been doing was not good and was not
right. And therefore, what a mercy it
is. As we just move on to the second
chapter just briefly, Zerubbabel and Joshua were told to remind
the people of the scene which had been. Who is left among you? that saw this house in her first
glory. It couldn't have been very many, because it was 70
years ago when it was destroyed and they were taken into captivity,
but nonetheless, there would have been some. And how do you
see it now? Is it not, in your eyes, in comparison
of it, as nothing? Well, it may be. Perhaps today,
as we look back in history, history in our nation, when several hundreds
of years ago, or perhaps A couple of hundred years ago there was
great prosperity, and the Lord graciously blessed our nation,
but now there's been a turning away, a turning to follow man's
own way, to please themselves, turn our back upon the Word of
God, and so the people are told to remember. But yet, God speaks
and says this, yet, now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord,
and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedek, and the high priest,
and be strong all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and
work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. So necessary,
isn't it, to know the Lord is with us. The Lord is not with
us. You see, we can labour and there
will be no benefit and no blessing and what a mercy if we have the
evidence the Lord is with us and the Lord then graciously
encourages Zerubbabel and Jozedek and tells them the silver is
mine, the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts the glory of
this latter house shall be greater than the former saith the Lord
of Hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of
hosts. That was indeed a wonderful promise
which was of course fulfilled. God graciously enabled the people
to work and to fulfil that which he had promised to them. And so may we be thankful today
that we have such a word as this. Let us now return to this 8th
verse in this first chapter where the Prophet is instructed to
tell the people go up to the mountain and bring wood and build
a house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified
saith the Lord well as I've said this was a prophecy and in the
time when Daniel lived, and you remember what Daniel did in his
day and of course Darius became king after the death of Belshazzar,
that evil man who saw the writing on the wall meenie meenie teekle
you praise him which said wade in the balances and found wanting
and the Lord took his life the following night and then this
man who obviously was we read I think he was 62 years of age
he then became king Darius became king so it was quite a great
time and then just shortly after, as we know a couple of years
it was Haggai then prophesied and Zachariah prophesied to the
people well we have these words before us today and as we know
the Word of God is really a spiritual book, it's an historical account
but we should always desire to see the spiritual side which
is, as the word of God describes it to us in a very simple term,
a very powerful term it's a deep that couches beneath that means
that underneath the surface of the word of God, the truth of
God's word there is a deep spiritual blessing and how important it
is that you and I receive spiritual eyes to receive and understand
the true Word of God it's the spiritual eyes which God alone
gives and what a mercy it is when God gives those spiritual
eyes now I believe there is then in these words a very spiritual
significance which I desire to bring before you and it's an
analogy really which applies to us today Well, that's many
years after it occurred. And I believe the analogy can
be taken like this. First of all, they're told to
go up to the mountain. Well, scripturally, in the Word
of God, the mountain was, of course, really Mount Zion, which
was, of course, in Jerusalem, which was, of course, the place
where the Church met. And so we can say, therefore,
that Mount Zion is really the church of God and then what were
they to do there? well they were to bring wood
I believe the analogy can be there to receive instruction
and guidance and edification and blessing they were to go
there they were to receive this and then he said and to build
a house they were to do something with the instruction that they
might be built up spiritually in their own souls and the Church
of God might be built up. Naturally it was necessary, spiritually
it's necessary for us today to be built up in our most holy
faith. So what a good thing it is if
we can go up to this mountain and receive instruction and receive
direction and receive blessings so that we are built up and we
are established in this truth and in the house of God. And
then he says, and I will take pleasure in it. The Lord God,
you see, will be pleased with it. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it, to realize the Lord takes pleasure in it. It's a wonderful
blessing if God takes pleasure in our worship. He won't take
pleasure in our worship if it's just fulfilling the time if we
are just wasting our time we are just withering away the time
we are trying to think of everything that pleases our nature instead
of listening to what God will speak to us and so He says and
I will take pleasure in it and will be glorified saith the Lord
well of course the result must be, mustn't it? that all that
we do and say is for the glory of God how relevant this is for
us today to have the desire and the blessing that God comes and
touches our hearts so that our hearts respond in that great
desire to glorify God not to glorify ourselves but to glorify
God who is worthy is worthy of all that which we can desire
to praise and honour our kind and gracious God. In the Psalms,
David tells us very significantly in Psalm 127, in the first verse,
it's probably a familiar verse to us, but this is what it says,
except the Lord build the house. They labour in vain that build
it, except the Lord keep the city. The watchman walketh but
in vain. Now the clear position here is,
it is God that applies his word to the hearts of his people. He applied his word to the hearts
of the people that made them willing in that age, in that
day, to return and to concentrate on rebuilding the wars of Jerusalem
and indeed the Temple. That was the great commission
given to them. The Lord applied his word to
their hearts and what did he do? He made them willing in the
day of his power. Well in the day and age in which
we live, may the Lord truly make us willing in the day of his
power to do his will and to earnestly seek that we may be blessed in
our souls. Put it another way, that we may
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. And that won't be done by just
wasting our time. That won't be done by just sitting
at home in our armchairs and hoping everything's going to
work out well. This will be required of us that
we seek unto the Lord, that we pray unto God, that we pray that
He will reveal Himself unto us as our all-glorious Saviour,
that He will show to us what we are in the view of Almighty
God and show to us what He is. It will be a blessing therefore
if our spirits are moved if we are instructed by the word of
God to confess our sins before our holy God that's a wonderful
blessing and a wonderful effect of the work of the Holy Spirit
it's not something which is very comfortable to us we don't like
to be told our faults we don't like to have our sins revealed
to us. But if it is the work of the
Holy Spirit in our hearts, it will have a good effect. And it won't be that we'll just
brush it off as something which is just there. I mean, it's very
easy to come and say, well, of course, that's a problem I have. And the phrase is, well, it's
my besetting sin and therefore I go along with this and I recognise
I have to live with it well that's not the answer, that's not the
result is it? we should be truly sorry for
sinful thoughts truly sorry for sinful words truly sorry for
sinful actions and what should it do? what should the effect
be? it should drive us to the saviour
the Lord Jesus Christ, to find in what He has done the glorious
and wonderful blessing of redemption. That means we are delivered from
our sin. And the only way that is to be
done is through the effect of the blessed application of the
Word of God to our hearts, revealing to us a crucified Saviour, one
who has stood in our place one who has borne the punishment
due to us, and that punishment was so great as to require the
sacrifice of his life. Now then, if God has graciously
caused us to go up to the mountain, to come up to the house of God,
with this cry in our heart, a cry so simply and beautifully explained
by the Lord himself when he spoke of the publican who cried out,
God be merciful to me a sinner. Such a prayer emanates truly
from our heart. We can believe, we can recognise
it is the gracious work of God, it is the application of his
word and if it therefore has come from our very heart, the
effect will be that the Lord will hear and answer such a prayer
and then there will be a glorious deliverance. The Lord will bring
about a wonderful freedom which shall be delivered from the bondage
that Satan holds us in. He is concerned to make us concentrate
on everything other than the things of God. That's his great
aim. And that's why, as I mentioned
in prayer, Solomon was able to search out for happiness in the
things of time and failed. He had every ability to sort
it out. He had all the money in the world. everyone that he could turn to
to find happiness in time but he didn't find it he tells us
very succinctly all is vanity of vanity and vexation of spirit
so what a blessing that is if God then comes and shows us that
what we've been perhaps what we are concentrating upon has
no true benefit you might think it brings us happiness, it may
bring us a little happiness but only for a very short time because
our life is very short and when we die we have to leave it behind
anyway therefore the important thing is to know the glory of
redemption what that means is our souls are right for eternity
that means to know that the Lord Jesus died for us, individually. Our religion, real religion,
is personal. And the Word of God does come.
The Word of God is applied to us individually. So we do have
the witness of the work of the Holy Spirit within us, in our
new nature, that work of God within which has produced life
in our souls. We have the evidence that by
the grace of God he has given us a desire to go up to the mountain
and not just go there and sit and waste our time but to go
up and to bring wood and build a house so that we might be established
in the things of God They may be real to us and the Lord will
instruct us in his word. You see the glorious gospel is
very comprehensive. It's very full and it teaches
us how we should live. It teaches us how we should die. It teaches us what we should
say. It teaches us how we should pray. You know we have many wonderful
prayers in the Word of God. We have the Lord's Prayer, of
course, which is so wonderfully simple. But there are also many
other prayers. There's the prayers of Ezra,
there's the prayer of Daniel, the prayer of Solomon. There
are many prayers in the Word of God which give us a wonderful
pattern of how we should pray to Almighty God. And it's good,
therefore, if God gives us grace to follow the pattern which is
set before us in the Word of God. And just very simply, we
should come in prayer extolling our God. We come in prayer to
extol how great He is. Yes, we always need to acknowledge
the greatness of God. We don't come to a little God.
We come to a great God. And what a mercy it is to come
to that God. And also then to acknowledge He's not only a great
God, He's a merciful God. Not only is He a merciful God,
He's a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. He's a God who
gives grace. He's a God who shows forth His
love. What a mercy it is if we come
in our prayers to God in this way and also we are instructed
to come to God with thanksgiving. All these things are set before
us as a pattern and we shouldn't pass them by. We shouldn't think
well I know better than that. We should come to God in the
pattern which is directed to us in the word of God. So we
can receive then instruction as to how to approach our God
and of course in approaching God. It shouldn't be just a one-off
occurrence, it shouldn't be a rare occurrence. As the Apostle Paul,
when he wrote to the Thessalonians, he told them to pray without
ceasing. And that means as we go along,
day by day, in our work, in our play, at home, whatever it may
be, in our bed at night, our heart may often go up to God
in prayer. You see, prayer is simply, spiritually,
the life of the soul. Naturally, you and I are dead
unless we breathe. Spiritually, you and I are dead
unless we pray. So, how relevant it is that we
do pray, we pray our way along, walking down the street, pray
to God, We have many needs and we need God to keep alive our
soul. Very easily we can become spiritually
dead, spiritually bankrupt. That's really what these people
were. They were concentrating on their own things and therefore
they forgot God. The Word of God tells us, My
people have forgotten Me days without number. Tragic isn't
it? Well may we have this before
our eyes to be concerned that we do come and therefore that
we receive instruction, that we bring wood and there is therefore
the building of our spiritual house. It's not a building of
our natural house. You see the building of our spiritual
house is really like this. That we may grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They are probably familiar words,
but we know that familiarity can breed contempt. Sometimes we can just utter such
words as that and really forget about them and not realise we
have prayed for them and have waited and watched for the outworking
of them. Because if we pray for that,
that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, we do want to see, I hope we want
to see, the effect of them. That in our spiritual life there
is the result, there is a benefit, and it is to be observed. And that observation really comes
forth in this way. that men and women, boys and
girls, may take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus. And what shows forth? I'll tell
you what shows forth. It's a Christ-like spirit, isn't
it? That's what shows forth. It shows that God has graciously
heard and more graciously answered our prayers. Now sometimes We
expect instant answers. Well, God has his time scale.
It doesn't usually work to our time scale, but it is the right
time scale. And therefore, if we don't see
the evidence of it immediately, don't give up, pray on for it
and wait and watch and bless God when there is the evidence
of God's gracious revelation to our hearts that we are blessed
with this spiritual growth you know I sometimes refer to you
that account or that situation which occurred a few years ago
now when my wife and I were out in the West Indies and it was
Christmas time and we worshipped with this church and after we'd
had our lunch on that Christmas Sunday we all sat round in a
big circle and the minister said, well he said I think it would
be a good idea if we've now passed whatever it is, it was 360 days
of this year or thereabouts and that we spoke of what God has
done in our lives and for our souls during this year and it
was good that we went round the circle and people had to testify
of what God had said to them what had God done for them, what
God had encouraged for them in in the things of their natural
life and the things of their spiritual life. Well, it's a
good thing, isn't it? To remember what God has done
for us, not to pass them by. You know, I sometimes think if
we look back in the year, what can we say? I hope it's not blank. I hope we say, well, I don't
know. I can't remember anything that God's done. That's a pretty
poor thing, isn't it? And that really means if we have prayed
that prayer, and I hope we have, that God would indeed grant that
we might grow spiritually and grow in His knowledge that we
have nothing to say that God hasn't heard. Now the solemn
reality is that which is not of faith is sin. That's sad, isn't it? That means
that you and I have spoken prayers which have been sinful, haven't
been true, haven't really gone from our heart. It's gone from
our head. We just thought we ought to say
something like that. We ought to perhaps try and impress the
people that we're a good person. No, it doesn't count with God.
It's good, isn't it, to have constant conversation, constant
revelation of God dealing with our souls, that God has a love
to us, that God's loved us with everlasting love. And if God
has loved us with everlasting love, What does he love to do? Reveal to us the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might have a greater knowledge,
a greater understanding of all that he passed through in order
to redeem our souls. That he would indeed grant us
the blessing. No, the Apostle Peter knew well
the value of God's blessing and God's favour. He tells us in
that first epistle to whom, coming as unto a living
stone, God is alive for evermore, disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. Is Christ Precious to us today. That's a very important question
Is Christ precious to us today? Yes, is that part of the building
of this house a time when? Spiritually Christ was not precious But as we've gone up to the mountain
we've gone up to Mount Zion Christ has been revealed to us And he is precious to our souls. It might be so. But chosen of God and precious,
yours those lively stones are built up a spiritual house. There is a building, there is
a building my friends in our soul. It's a pretty sad reflection
when people come down to the depth and they have nothing to
say. Or perhaps just one thing to say, well I'm not saying one
thing will not save a soul, I'm sure it does but you know it's
a blessing to have a testimony isn't it of God's goodness of
what Christ has done for us of how he's been revealed to us
in that great work of redemption in saving us from all our sins,
every sin as limestone is built up there
is a building my friends, don't forget that a spiritual house
and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. You see our spiritual life needs
to be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. As we've gone up to the
mountains, we've gone up to the house of God to realise yes by
the grace of God there has been this spiritual building And therefore,
that I have been built up, praise God for it. And so he says, wherefore
also it is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion, in the
church of God, in Mount Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. Who is that? Christ. Is he in our hearts? The chief
cornerstone is in a foundation upon which we're building. Again,
the Lord Jesus gives that wonderful example of that man that built
his house upon a rock. Yes, and you know what he had
to do in order to do that in Luke's account, not in Matthew's
account, but in Luke's account, he had to dig deep. It wasn't
easy. Real religion is not easy. Try on. Pray on. It's not easy. You had to dig
deep. And what a blessing it was, you
dig deep and you laid the foundation on a rock. So that when the floods
came and the wind blew, you see it stood firm, could not be shaken
because it was founded upon a rock. My friends, your religion and
my religion must be founded upon Christ. And as we therefore go
up to the mountain, do we receive that encouragement to know that our faith, that our religion
is built upon Christ. And so He is to us the chief
cornerstone, He is indeed precious, and he that believeth on Him
shall not be confounded. We won't be if God gives us grace
and that spiritual ability to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved. No doubt about it. How necessary,
how important. And therefore, when we come to
die, we won't be confounded. When we come to the gates of
glory to enter in, we shall have there a certificate which God
has given us to prove our right to enter in. And that certificate
speaks and tells that Christ has died to atone for our sins. It's a glorious evidence of the
grace of God toward us. We shall not be confounded. Many people will. And as the Word of God tells
us, I've done this and I've done that and I've done the other.
God says, I never knew you. That was all false. What we need to know is that
Christ is dying to atone for our sins. And there won't be
any reality in that unless the Lord shows us the sins that we
have and the sins that need to be redeemed. and then bless God
when it is shown to us, this wonderful and blessed favour. Well, then there is here this
building up, and we receive instruction, and we receive edification, and
we receive blessing. And then we're told this wonderful
truth, and I will take pleasure in it. You see, the Lord takes
pleasure in the work of His hands. And what God has done in our
hearts, in our souls, is His work. He sees His work. It's not what you and I have
done. You and I have no ability. We just remember that we were
born dead in trespasses and sins. We needed the spiritual wind
of the Spirit to blow upon our heart and to bring life, just
like it was in Ezekiel, in the valley of dry bones. Yes, over
dry there was no life until the Spirit of God came, and that's
the same with us. But when the Spirit of God does
come, there is life, and we can bless God for it. And the Lord
sees that life, and He takes pleasure in His work. Well, what a mercy, what a blessing
for us today, my friends. If there is that work in our
hearts, which God Almighty God sees because it's His work and
He takes pleasure in it and He rejoices in it and we rejoice
in it as well. We truly rejoice to see the blessed
work of God within us. It's His work, it's not our work. We praise God from whom all blessings
flow and then just What is the effect? And I will be glorified,
saith the Lord. That must be the result. That
must be the result. That it will glorify God. You see, it's a very sad position. People say, well, of course,
I'm very timid and I never speak about the things of God. It's
a very sad word that is in there. pretend therefore that they have
a work and they don't. They don't like to speak. My friends, may God give us that
grace and wisdom and spirit to desire that God will be glorified
for what he's done for us unworthy sinners. We didn't deserve any
mercy. We didn't deserve any grace.
We didn't deserve the love of God to come to us. And surely
therefore we have a great privilege, a great favour to receive these
things. And our concern should be that
the name of God will be glorified. You see, naturally speaking,
the walls and temple were rebuilt. There was the evidence. God was
glorified in that finished work, wonderfully glorified. And my
friends, God is glorified in His work. in the hearts and souls
of his people. And what a mercy it is today,
if you and I can trace out in our hearts, take pleasure in
it, believing God takes pleasure in it, and desire to glorify
God for what he's done for our souls. Apostle Paul, when he
wrote to the Ephesians, he tells us that we are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. The honour and glory must go
to God. He is, in our lives, the chief
cornerstone. He is the one that we desire
and love to honour and to glorify. Yes, the chief cornerstone in
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth. unto an holy
temple in the Lord. Every member of that building,
every member of the Church of God is part of it and we fit
together. We fit together. It's all part
of God's work. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? Have the Church of God growing together, fitted together. There's
no divisions in the true Church of God either. It's a good fit,
it's a perfect fit. Yes, what a mercy that is. praying
together unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also
are building together for the inhabitation of God through the
Spirit. Well, may honour and glory go
to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. May
we receive instruction and blessing as we contemplate such words
as this, and to desire to truly glorify our God and remember
His little book of Haggai, how instructive it is. Go up to the
mountain, bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure
in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Amen.