May God be with us once more
this evening as we together turn to His Word and turn once again
to the Book of the Prophet Haggai. And again, reading just to focus
our thoughts, Chapter 1, verses 4 and 5. Haggai, Chapter 1, verses
4 and 5. Is it time for you, O ye, to
dwell in your sealed houses? And this house lie waste, Therefore,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. So just to recap and remind ourselves
from this morning, we were considering God's call to his people, Judah,
having returned back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, having
begun and then stopped the building of the temple for some 16 years.
And God sends Haggai to encourage them, to call them, to recommence
the work, and to build. And we considered their liberty,
their activity, their lethargy, and then God's call to stir them
up, and God's work in His Spirit to stir them up to work again. And we looked at that in the
sense of us as God's people. Well, first of all, whether we
are God's people, whether we are those who are at liberty
through our Lord Jesus Christ, and then to challenge and consider
our ways and see where we are, whether we have slipped into
that position of lethargy and inactivity, and the Lord calling
us to again return unto him. And so the Lord calls them and
calls us in that spiritual sense to build the house. Of course we must remember that
there is a application to us personally and that's perhaps
the main focus of our thoughts today, but there is a call here
with regards to the work of the church building, to build up
the Lord's people, to seek that the church itself would be built
up numerically, and in holiness. And there is a call here for
those, if we've become perhaps half-hearted in our work for
the Lord, half-hearted in our concern for the souls around
us, that here is a call for us to build again and to rededicate
ourselves to the work of God in that way. Well, one thing
is clear, as the psalmist tells us, except the Lord build the
house, they labor in vain that build it. And what Judah needed
was not only an encouragement to put their hands to the work,
but they needed the encouragement that God was with them in it,
and that he would grant that prosperity and success in their
labors. Because except the Lord build
the house, they labor in vain that build it. Again the Apostle
Paul writes, doesn't he, to the Corinthians, that Paul may plant
and Apollos may water, but who gave the increase? God gives
the increase. And so there are these two sides.
We must not say that we trust in the sovereignty of God, we
trust in the power of God, we believe there's nothing we can
do and therefore there's nothing that we do. We cannot say that
we believe so wholeheartedly in the complete nature, the fact
that it is only God who can save, it is only God who can work,
it is only God who can work in the hearts of others, that therefore
we do nothing. If we take that idea to its extreme,
then Paul would not plant and Apollos would not water. But of course we must also not
swing too far the other way. We must not labour and forget
that it is God that gives the increase. And so there are these
two sides. We are to work and we are to
look to the Lord to bless those labours. And it is the same with
the health of our own souls. We are called to use the means
of grace. We are to come to the Lord in
prayer. We are to turn to his word. We
are to hear the preaching of the gospel. We are to return
unto him. But we need his blessing. We
need him to come. But the fact that we need his
blessing should not discourage us from coming to him. It is
two sides together. And so the encouragement for
the people of Judah here, as Haggai speaks to them, is that
yes, God calls them to consider their ways. He calls them to
get to the work, to build the house. But he encourages them. And it's those three encouragements
I want to look at this evening. And the first is found in verse
13, chapter 1, verse 13. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's
messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am
with you, saith the Lord. And in fact, it's repeated, chapter
2, verse 4. And now be strong, O Zerubbabel,
saith the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedat,
the high priest. Be strong, all ye peoples of
the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you. with you, saith the Lord of hosts." What a difference the presence
of the Lord makes. What a difference to know that
God is with us. You think in just a natural circumstance. If we are, perhaps take the analogy
if we're in hospital, we're sick or we're waiting for treatment
it is so encouraging to have someone with us, to have someone
to talk to us, perhaps to calm our fears, someone to perhaps
just speak and try and take our mind off things in our natural
sense. But if things are very serious, if we're very ill, just
have someone sitting there to hold your hand, to feel their
presence, to know that someone is there. And that can be a great
comfort in those situations, to know that someone who cares
is with you, is by your side. What a difference their presence
makes, and what a difference the presence of the Lord makes. This was Moses' great concern
in the chapter we read. You see, in Exodus 33, as we
said in opening, The children of Israel had just sinned against
God. Moses having gone up on the mountain,
they had grown impatient and had built the calf. And Moses has come down the mountain
and has seen this calf. and has broken the tablets of
stone with the Ten Commandments on, and they are judged for their
sin of idolatry. And then God speaks to Moses, I will send an angel before you
to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites,
Hivites, and Gemmuzites. I will not go up in the midst
of thee. What a word! What a judgment. Sadness for Moses. And we can
see the result. They mourned. When they heard
these evil tidings, they mourned and no man to put on their ornaments. The God, their God, the God who
had been in the midst of them, the God who had led them, the
God, it seemed was not going to be in the midst of them anymore.
He was still there. He was not abandoning them. He
was not forsaking them. He was not leaving them to their
own devices. But there was a sense of withdrawal. And it was physically seen in
the fact that Moses takes the tabernacle and pitches it outside
the camp. The tabernacle, the center of worship, was in the
midst of the camp, but it goes outside. It's physically displayed
that God is, if you like, removed from you. He's still there. he's
removed from the midst and the people mourn and Moses feels
it of course most keenly and he prays if thy presence go not
with me carry us not up hence above anything else even above
Journeying on oh how much think how much the Hebrews how much
Israel longed to get to the promised land This was the ultimate goal
this is where they were heading This is why they had come out
of Egypt in the first place their land promised to Abraham Isaac
and Jacob their promised land was the goal where they were
heading this meant everything to them but to Moses and He did
not want to go any further, carry me not up hence, without the
presence of the Lord. That's how much it meant to him
to know that God was with them. And God promises him, my presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. What a comfort. What a comfort the presence of
the Lord would be. He was still with them. He was
still going to help them. He was still going to guide them.
The fiery cloudy pillar did not move. He was still with them.
He was still going to bless them. He was still going to love them.
He still had his covenant of love upon them. He was still
going to grant them peace and rest. God was still going to bless
them as his particular people with the privilege of knowing
him. If thy presence go not with me.
Is that our desire? That above anything else, if
we're really honest, Above anything else, our greatest fear is an
absent God. Or, above anything else, our
greatest sorrow is when we have an absent God. When he feels to be distant,
far off from us, John Newton put it in hymn 273, and the Lord
speaks through the hymn, for a moment I withdrew and thy heart
was filled with pain. Can we understand what he means
in that couplet? For a moment I withdrew and thy
heart was filled with pain. What we fear most is the withdrawing
of God. As if our friend is no longer
by our side, that sense of comfort is no longer there, that presence
of the love of God seems to have withdrawn and we are alone. And why do we fear it? Why does
the Christian fear the withdrawing of God? It's because the Christian
knows what they are without God. Christian knows what we are when
we're left to ourself. What we are capable of. We know
the sins that we can easily fall into. We know the temptations
that will easily grip us. We know the foolishness that
we so quickly take a wrong path. We know what we are without him.
And so we fear. And we long for his presence,
that the Lord is with us. But you see, the encouragement
is that the Lord spoke as he did to the apostles when he arose
into heaven. And he said, behold, I am with
you always. even unto the end of the world.
I know that that's linked with a great commission to go and
to preach the gospel into all nations, but it is a promise
to all of his people, I am with you always. And so we have this
truth, that though we may experience what seems to be the withdrawing
of God's presence, in fact, he has not forsaken us. He can never. and does never forsake his people. Because as the hymn goes on to
say, for a moment I withdrew, and thy heart was filled with
pain, but my mercies I'll renew. Thou shalt soon rejoice again. Because the Lord has not abandoned,
has not forsaken, his people and we see it through this little
book of Haggai. I am with you. We see it in the
sense that he is correcting them in the first place. The fact that he has in his grace
sent Haggai to preach to them is because he is with them. He
could have left them. He could have forsaken them.
He could have left them to their own ways and even expelled them
again from the land. But it was His goodness in sending
Haggai to speak to them again. And it is the Lord's goodness
at those times that He does withdraw and we do feel it because it
calls out again our cry to Him. At times, if we've fallen into
a wrong path, we had no correction. The Lord never laid his hand
on us. If the Lord never used that sense of withdrawal, then
we would not cry out. But it is when the Lord does
withdraw, then our heart cries to him again. He uses these things
to correct us. But he hasn't left them. I am
with you. But then he says I am with you
in a very specific context. When is he with them? He is particularly
with them when they're working. When they're working. Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtiel, the son of Joshua, the son of Josedet,
the high priest, all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice
of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai, the prophet,
as the Lord their God has sent him. The people did fear before
the Lord, so they obey, they work, and then the message comes. I am with you. It doesn't mean
to say he wasn't with them, he was always with his people because
he had a covenant upon them. But it's when they begin to work
that he encourages them with these words, I am with you. And so the encouragement that
we're thinking of this morning is that the Lord calls us back
to Himself. He calls us to repentance. He
calls us back to seek Him if the things of the world have
become too much our focus. But as we do so, He lovingly
reminds us, I am with you. But sometimes He calls us, if
you like, to take that first step in obedience and then reminds
us that he is with us. How often in our life we want
to have the encouragement before. We want to know everything's
going to be sorted out. We want to see the road a long
way ahead of us. We want to know how it's all
going to pan out. But the Lord so often guides
us step by step and often calls us to obedience that is a leap,
you might say, of faith, a step of faith. And we may be hesitating from
taking that call, that command, that step that the Lord is speaking
to us. We hesitate from doing it because
we want all the encouragement now. And actually the Word of
God is calling you. God is commanding you. God is
directing you. You know what you must do. And
you may well find that as you step, the Lord says, now, I am
with you. And that was the case with them
here. It's as they labored, He encouraged them. We have it in that account of
King Jehoshaphat, when the enemy was all around them. Again, as
so often was the case in many of the accounts in the Old Testament,
it seems to be impossible, they seem to be, that they will be
overrun. And Jehoshaphat is called to
go out And the army goes out. And we read that the singers
went out. They were commanded, they were called to praise the
beauty of holiness as they went out before the army to say, praise
the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began
to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children
of Ammon, Moab, Mount Seir, etc., etc. but they had to go out in faith,
praising God. Then he appeared on their behalf. And so he encourages us as we
hear his call this evening, return unto me, consider your ways,
and as you do so, I am with you. So he is with us as we begin
to work. And then the second time he says,
I am with you, chapter two, that we see here, he is with us in
our times of discouragement. Our times of discouragement.
Verse three, chapter two, he says, who is the left among you
that saw this house in the first glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? Look at this temple that's being
rebuilt. and compared this temple with
Solomon's temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Solomon's
temple was a wonder, covered in gold inside and out, shining
in the sun. It was a magnificent building
and it was erected to show forth the greatness of God and Solomon's
desire and David's desire before him to worship him in that way.
It was a wonderful building the temple. And now what have you
got? Well clearly what they had was
nothing in comparison. It seems so It seems so drab,
it seems so small, it seems so insignificant in comparison to
Solomon's great and beautiful temple. Is it not in comparison
as nothing? Your poor efforts, this thing
that's being built up, and that's how they may have looked on it.
Oh, we can never make this temple to be like the old temple. It
can never be as wonderful and impressive and as beautiful as
the old temple. What a discouragement. But he
says, yet now, be strong, for I am with you. In the face of discouragement,
the temple, it's not going to be as great as Solomon's, but
don't worry, because I'm with you. I am there. In fact, as we go on into chapter
two, we see that this temple is going to be greater than Solomon's
temple. How so? How can it be greater than Solomon's
temple? How is it going to be better, more glorious than Solomon's
temple? Because the Son of God is going
to walk in this temple. Jesus Christ is going to walk
through the doors of this temple. The very presence, the incarnate
Son of God is going to presence himself here in this temple in
the fullest sense. God is saying, I am with you.
And the day will come in the hundreds of years in the future
that this was written, that God would literally be with you.
God will literally be walking these flagstones of this temple.
Which is why he says later on in this prophecy, that this latter
house shall be greater than the former. For this place will I
give peace. I will fill this house with glory,
saith the Lord of hosts. Jesus Christ. will walk this
temple. You may be discouraged, you see.
You may feel that it's so small, you may feel that you're doing
so little. You may feel it's not as great
as what went on in the days gone by, in the great days. When the days when people seem
to be super-Christians, when they seem to have such great
faith and they seem to have such a wonderful relationship with
the Lord, remember this, that those are the people who have
books written about them. The ordinary people don't have books
written about them. Not everyone is a great person of faith that
we might read about. But all the same, we might look
back at the days and we might say, what wonderful days, what
glorious days, what men of faith, what women of faith, what days
of blessing, what revival, what are we doing here, what small
things, what insignificant things. And there's so much discouragement,
there's so much opposition all around us, not to mention within
us. Is it in your eyes as comparison
as nothing? But if we're the Lords, this
word is true, I am with you. I am with you. And that is the
greatest blessing. I am with you, and who knows
what blessing might be to come. They did not know, they did not
fully grasp in the days of Haggai that the incarnate Son of God
would one day walk in this temple. And we don't know what days might
be ahead of us, but what we do know is where we are today, and
what we do know is the Lord is with his people. I am with you. And so that's the first encouragement.
The second one is found in chapter two, verse 19. 2 verse 19 reads, is the seed yet
in the barn? As yet the vine and the fig tree
and the pomegranate and the olive tree hath not brought forth.
From this day will I bless you. From this day will I bless you. In this section in chapter 2,
the Lord has been pointing out to the people that they were
an unclean people. And using this picture, told
to go to the priests and ask the question, if one touches
something, if your holy flesh of the garment touches something,
is it made holy? And they say, no. But if something
which is unholy, if you've touched a dead body and then you touch
something else, is that made unclean? And they say, yes, it
is unclean. The point being, if you like,
that it's easier to become unclean than it is to become holy. And the people were unclean. This nation, so is this people.
So is this nation before me, says the Lord. And so is every
work of their hands that they offer, there is unclean. And so they are sinners. They're
still in the land. They're in God's appointed land.
They're in Jerusalem. But they've stopped the building
before Haggai is speaking to them. They are sinners and they
need mercy. And so they need God to bless
them. As a result of their sin, there's
been suffering. There's been this lack of harvest. There's
been this blasting and mildew and they've struggled. in the land because of their
sin. There's been little gain. There's,
if you like, quite an irony here that they had been focusing themselves
on their lives and on their homes rather than on the house of God,
but actually not borne any fruit focusing on themselves and on
their houses. There was a mediocre form of prosperity. There was
little growth, little harvest. I say they were suffering as
a result. But the Lord says, yes, the vine,
the fig tree, the pomegranate, the olive tree may not bring
forth, but then this wonderful word of grace, yet from this
day will I bless you. Now we may be suffering as a
result of our disobedience, suffering as a result of our wandering
away from the Lord, our selfishness, our self-focused life. And there may be little growth
and there may be little development and maturing in the things of
God as a result. If you like, we feel like He's
withdrawn from us. What we need is His blessing.
Because that blessing and make all the difference for them.
Yes, His presence to be with them as they labor and to encourage
them, but they need something deeper than just help in building. They need blessing. They need
mercy. They need to be made clean again. The Lord to save them from their
sin. The psalmist tells us in Psalm
10, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and addeth no
sorrow with it. It's favour. It's his favour
and blessing which can revive us and can, again, give us life
within us. To give us prosperity within,
that spiritual energy, if you like. of the grace and blessing
of the Lord. When we turn to him then he,
oh what a blessing he can give. You think of that example in
Blind Bartimaeus at the roadside in Jericho. Cries out to the
Lord and desires that he might have his sight. You see, he cries
to him. In his need, Jesus, our son of
David, have mercy on me. And then he stops, and he blesses
him, he heals him, and causes him to say, I'll return unto
me, from this day I will bless you. And this blessing, again,
is an act of grace. We keep coming back to this,
don't we? It's an act of grace. You see, their turning to the
Lord did not earn them His blessing. Our returning to the Lord does
not earn His blessing. It's not that God blesses us
because we've done something to deserve it or to earn it.
It's mercy, it's grace. And so along with this blessing,
accompanied with it is mercy, is love, is kindness. It's power, it's authority, it's
forgiveness, it's grace comes along with this blessing to this
people. You're an unclean people, but I will bless you. It's like
the Jewish man at the side of the road. He's been robbed, he's
been beaten, he's been left half dead. Nothing attractive. Not able to do anything, nothing
to give, nothing in him in a sense that would make the Samaritan
stop. But he does. He notices and he
cares and he loves. But he doesn't just notice and
care and love, he acts. And he picks him up, and he cleans
him up, and he puts him on his beast, and he takes him off and
cares for him. Because it's love, but then it's
love in action. It's an act of blessing. A favor. From this day, will I bless you. You may feel, you may say, well,
okay, tonight. The Lord is calling us to return
to Him. He's calling us to turn again
to the Lord. We've sunk into the world, we've
sunk into sin, we've sunk into lethargy. We're called to return
to the Lord. The Lord encourages us that He's
with us in it. But what about all that sin?
What about all of those times? What about that length of time,
that period that I did forsake him, that I did wander off in
the wrong way? It's all very well saying what
to do now, but I need forgiveness. I need the Lord to be merciful
about that time. From this day, I will bless you. From this day, the Lord to cleanse,
to watch, to heal, to forgive his people. Oh, the Lord can work in wonderful
ways. This day will I bless thee. But then thirdly, finally, one
other encouragement is found right at the end of verse 23.
For I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. I have chosen
thee. Now this word is slightly different
in that this was spoken directly to Zerubbabel. begins this passage
of verse 20. The word of the Lord came to
Haggai the fourth and twentieth day of the month saying, speak
to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. And so he's speaking directly
to him and in one sense he's encouraging him. I have chosen
you. Chosen you. And so let's look at it firstly
from that angle. I've chosen you. All God's people can rest in
election. Of course, a doctrine that perhaps
is a struggle to understand and receive, perhaps reacted against
that God has an elect people. What we must be clear on is that
the doctrine of election does not preclude us from preaching
the gospel. The doctrine of election does not remove from us our responsibility
to exhort people to come to the Lord. Quite simply because we
do not know who God's elect are. We are called to do what we are
called to do, to go into all nations preaching, baptizing,
and teaching them. And so the doctrine of election
does not, of course, remove from us our responsibility in that
sense, but for the believer who has known the Lord's grace, who
has come to the Lord Jesus Christ, for that believer to look back
and see that their salvation is grounded in the eternal plan
and love of God is one of the most tremendous things to see. That God loved and called and
chose us long before we ever considered him. That God's love
is so deep and so unchanging, and so wonderfully personal to
us, that it was my soul, your soul,
that he set his love on. It's a tremendous thought. Yay,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. So we may feel our failures,
we may feel our backslidings, we may feel our sins, we may
feel the constant need to return in repentance on a daily basis,
but the Lord does not love us because we repent. He does not
love us because we believe. He does not love us because we
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not love us because we
love him. He loves us because I have chosen
thee. And in all of the ups and downs
of our spiritual life and experience, there's a constant through it
all, the Lord's love does not change. I've chosen thee. And so there's something to rest
on, surely. The eternal love and purpose
of God. And so that's one sense that
you can look at this. But there is a deeper, an interesting
sense also here. Zerubbabel is the one who receives
this word more personally to him. I've chosen thee, speaking
to Zerubbabel. And he says, I will make thee
as a signet. I will make thee as a signet,
for I have chosen thee. Well, this signet is referring
to a signet ring, or a seal ring. And you will think of the days
when letters and contracts were sealed by wax, and the wax would
be put on the paper to seal it, and then the signet ring would
be placed into the seal to make the mark in the seal to show
that it was authentic, to show that it had been properly done. And this signet ring, this seal,
would often be used as a seal on a pledge or on a contract
of some kind. Here is a seal on a pledge, on
a promise, on a guarantee. I will make thee as a signet. And he says, I will overthrow
the throne of kingdoms I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms
of the heathen. I will overthrow the chariots,
them that ride in them, and their horses, and their riders shall
come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day,
saith the Lord of hosts, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant,
the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, I will make thee as a signet,
or as a pledge, or as a promise, a seal on something that's going
to come. That's a rubber ball. He's not
going to destroy the kingdoms and overthrow the chariots. This
is pointing to one beyond. It's a rubber ball. It's pointing
to the great high priest. And the great king of kings. Someone who will come to overthrow
the kingdom of sin and of death. It's pointing to Christ. I have chosen thee, Zerubbabel.
And so we can see that flowing from this pledge, I have chosen
thee, Jesus Christ. He's a type of Christ. I have chosen thee, the leader,
the captains of his people. And so we are directed in prophecy
right at the end of Haggai. to look up, to look to the Savior,
to look to Christ in our troubles, in our discouragements, in our
sins, in our failures, and yes, in our spiritual time of half-hearted
lethargy, we are encouraged to look up to Christ. I have chosen Him. He is the
shepherd of His sheep. He is the king of His church. He is the saviour of his people. Look up, as the Apostle says,
consider him. Consider him. Yes, consider his life and his
example. The things that he passed through,
the discouragements, if you like, the opposition that he went through,
consider your life in comparison with his and we'll soon find
that he had that much rougher and tougher path to walk. But consider him in his love. Consider him in his mercy. Consider
him in the blessings that he has brought to his people personally. Consider all that his work of
the cross has accomplished for them. Consider his love. Consider
his mercy. Consider his sacrifice. Consider
the payment for sin. Consider the fact that that payment
is complete and the work is finished. Consider him who has been chosen,
called, ordained of God as the Messiah. the Saviour, consider
Him. And then remember, you are not your
own. You are not your own. For you are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and soul, which are His. For I have chosen thee. I have chosen thee in Him. You are God's. If you're a believer
here this evening, you are His. And so you may have, we may have
focused and shifted our focus. We may be considering I am mine,
my way, my life, my choice. And as a result, you're focused
on your sealed houses. And what the Lord is calling
us to is remember you are His. You belong to Him. An immeasurable price has been paid
for your soul. An everlasting love has been
set on your soul. You are called into the kingdom
of the Most High God. You're a soldier in a battle. You're a servant in God's kingdom. You belong to him. Your every
day, your every movement, your every breath is his. Your every
decision, your every path is his to guide. You are not your
own. But we walk with and serve the
most blessed of masters, the most wonderful of kings, who
has said, I am with you. I will bless you. I have chosen
you. Oh, consider your ways. Is it right, oh ye, to dwell
in your sealed houses and this house lies waste? Consider your
ways. So tonight, as we look back over
the weeks of 2018, and then, God willing, as we look forward
into the months of 2019, we may need this challenge and this
call. We may need this encouragement.
Consider your ways. We may feel downcast and dry. We may feel lethargic, we may
feel to be lacking and forsaken of God, but remember he is there
and he is ready to hear our prayers. And so may our prayer be as we
come to the Lord and as we look to him for his blessing in the
year to come, will thou not revive us again that thy people may
rejoice in thee? Well, may the Lord add his blessing
to these thoughts in the book of Haggai today.