May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the prophecy of Haggai and the first chapter, and we'll
read a few words in the 13th verse. The prophecy of Haggai,
chapter one, and the last few words in the 13th verse. I am with you, Seth, the Lord. These must have been very encouraging
words to the people as they were struggling in Jerusalem. They'd come back, some of them
from Babylon, from captivity, and they'd been hindered and
in fact they'd been stopped in rebuilding the temple. And now the time had come to once again
commence rebuilding and so Haggai was sent by God in the days of
Darius to speak to Zerubbabel and Joshua and to the remnant
of the people that were there to encourage them And as we recognize
the necessity of these words written on that occasion, yet
as we consider the little prophecy, how applicable and how appropriate
it is, not only to that time, but to the times in which we
live, the requirement of the work of the Holy Spirit to be
evidenced amongst us and to be found willing to work Indeed
in that work the Lord has set before us, we should be all involved
if we are the children of God in the Lord's work. And we should
all be concerned to be occupied in that work. And really this
was the great thrust of Haggai in this day in which he lived. The Spirit of God had come upon
him and therefore he was commanded to speak these words, and to
really bring the children of Judah to account, to recognize
the true condition that they were in, that they may have thought
they were serving the Lord, but in fact they were not really.
And they were doing those things which were not really profited. What they found was that many
of the things that they were occupied in were not really truly
being profitable, really being beneficial. And therefore, as
we have these statements in these words to encourage us today to
really to turn away from the poor things of this vain world. You see, in this day, the Lord
said, I call for a drought. upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and
upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon
cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands." If the Lord withdraws
His Spirit, if the Lord calls for a drought, then you see it
won't matter whatever is done, how hard the work is, it will
not prosper. We need The evidence, we need
the proof, we need encouragement of these words. That's to believe
the truth of them. I am with you, saith the Lord. And you see, in this day, they
look for much. And it came to little. And what
happened? When he brought it home, I did
blow upon it. Why? said the Lord of hosts,
because of mine house that is waste, and you run every man
unto his own house. And we can think of that today
in a spiritual sense. As we think of that, here we
have a statement, we look for much, and it came to little,
and when we brought it home I did blow upon it. What does that
really mean? It means that we may go, we may come, we may worship,
we may receive the word, When we get home we lost it, the Lord's
blown upon it, it's all gone. And it's a time of drought, it's
a time of famine. And so it was in this day how
they needed to be encouraged and to be strengthened and to
realise that the Lord indeed was with them, I am with you.
This wasn't something which was to be found to be in the future,
it was a statement that Haggai said. He said, I am with you,
saith the Lord. Now how wonderful it is if we
should know such a word spoken into our hearts. I am with you,
saith the Lord. And if that is so, like it was
in this day, what did the Lord do? He stirred up the spirit. He stirred up the spirit of the
governor, of the high priest and of the remnant of the people. The Lord arose, the Lord stirred
up the people by his spirit. And surely we need the same today
in our spiritual scene. You see we may do everything
which is right and good and appears to be, but if it doesn't If it's
not blessed with the work of the Holy Spirit, it will be in
vain. And therefore, how necessary it is
that we receive the Word of God. You see here, the Prophet says
these very true words, he says, consider your ways. Consider
your ways. They've sown much. You've sown
much. and you bring in little. You
eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled
with drink. You clothe you, but there is
none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put into
a bag with holes." It's a very true description, is it not,
of the spiritual state today. It is as though we receive the
truth of God into a bag with holes. And it all falls out,
nothing left. Very similar, is it not, to this
day in which Haggai prophesied. Wonderful it was for Judah in
those days. The Lord did not leave them.
He sent his prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to speak at this
time. And the people received the word. By the Holy Spirit of God, they
received the word. And the word was blessed to them.
And it had a good effect. And they did work. And the Lord
was with them. And they did it unto the Lord.
They weren't concentrating on their own situations. Again,
Haggai reminds them. He says, is it time for you to
dwell in your sealed houses? And this house lie waste? What
was he saying? He was saying, where's the priority? What are
you really doing? Are you more concerned about
your own houses, your own situations, than you are about the house
of God and the church of God? Such words are, they're searching,
are they not, to all of us? Because we can so, so easily
find ourselves concentrating on the things of time rather
than the things of God. We have to work, of course. We
have to earn our living. But what do we do then when We've
done the necessary things which we have to do. How do we delegate
our time? What do we occupy ourselves in?
Well, here was Israel, you see, or Judah, part of Israel, being
sent back wonderfully, God's promises, God's faithful promises,
after 70 years returning to Jerusalem. And you would think that they
would have been so, so keen to do everything they could. Well,
they started well, but then the enemy arose. It didn't take much
to stop them in the work. It didn't take much hindrance.
And there they were then, back to their old ways, back to their
own selves, back to serving themselves rather than serving the true
God. And so the Lord graciously sent
Haggai and Zechariah What a wonderful thing it is to know that we still
today have the same almighty God who is still gracious and
is still compassionate and is still not dealing with his people
as their sins deserve. Well, let us remember this morning
the simplicity of these few words and the importance of them. I
am with you, saith the Lord. It wasn't the only time in this
prophecy that we read where these words occur. Further down we
read when Haggai is encouraging these people to be strong and
how necessary for us today it is to be strong against the temptations
of Satan. Satan endeavours and is often
very successful in producing our minds the wrong priorities. We are very soon turned away
from the great things of God to perhaps things which you may
think are all right or lawful. Don't forget what the Apostle
Paul said, all things are lawful for me but all things are not
expedient. What did he mean? He meant all
the things which he could do, they weren't benefiting his soul.
They weren't benefiting their church of God. And how good it
is if you and I remember such things. Well, here was Haggai,
by the command of God, speaking to these people and telling them
to be strong. Well, we need the Holy Spirit
to make us strong and to keep us strong and to enable us to
resist the devil that he may flee from us. And so he says,
yet now, Again, it's important to think, well, it's not in a
few weeks' time, it's not in a year's time or so, he says,
but now, be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong,
O Joshua, son of Josedek, 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. Now, it was necessary for everybody
to be addressed. The Governor, the High Priest
and all the people were to be encouraged with these words,
to be strong and then the gracious effect, the gracious word and
work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts." Now, it's
qualified. And it's wonderful, is it not,
when God's word in our hearts is qualified. And it's qualified
by the word of God. Here he says, according to the
word that I cabineted with you, when ye came out of Egypt, it's
a long time ago, wasn't it? It's a long time ago. So my spirit
remaineth among you, fear ye not. The people had departed so, so
often from the ways of God in those centuries which had passed
since they'd come out of Egypt. But the Lord was faithful. What a mercy it is to have a
God who is so faithful. especially when we sadly look
at ourselves and realise how unfaithful we are so often. How
little we really appreciate the great truths which God has set
before us in his word. Not only in Haggai, but in many
other places we have similar encouragement to realise that
this great God who deserves all our praise, who deserves much
honour, deserves that we do serve him diligently, day by day. You know religion doesn't consist
of just Sunday services. Religion is really seven days
a week, 24 hours a day. Our religion should be with us
and that should be directing us, it should be influencing
us in all that we do and say and we should always have before
us as it were a shining and a burning light, the honour and glory of
God." What a wonderful truth that is, and how important and
how necessary in the day and age in which we have, that we
may have a single eye, our eye may be set upon the honour and
glory of God. this wonderful statement, for
I am with you, saith the Lord. As Paul said, if God before us,
who can be against us? No one can be against us. If
God before us, no one can succeed against God. God rules and reigns. He always has done, and he always
will. And our foolish minds sometimes
seem to forget the greatness of our God and tend to carry
on in our own little way. Well, here were these words then. May we take them to heart, may
we be encouraged by them. I am with you, saith the Lord. Now, Haggai, of course, prophesied
after the days of Jeremiah, but Jeremiah, lived before the captivity
really and yet there were those prophecies and those words of
which he was able to speak and to encourage the people of God
even in his day and age in which he lived. And yet you see so
often then there were those who did not truly follow the Lord. He says, is me, my mother, that
thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the
whole earth. I have neither lent on usury,
nor men have lent to me on usury, yet every one of them doth curse
me. The Lord said, Verily it shall
be well with the remnant. Verily I will cause the enemy
to entreat thee well. in the midst of evil and in the
time of affliction. So Jeremiah was encouraging the
people to realize the Lord was indeed with them. The Lord was
not going to leave them. He was not going to forsake them,
but he was going to encourage them and to help them and to
strengthen them. And so as we think of the day-to-day,
not dissimilar, was it, to the days in which Jeremiah had to
prophesy, how difficult it was, and how much opposition poor
old Jeremiah found coming upon him. But you see, he didn't turn
away from it. He didn't ignore the truth that
God had given him. And again, later on in the 30th
chapter, he prophesies to them, and he says, Therefore, fear
thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord. Neither be dismayed,
O Israel, for lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed
from the land of their captivity. And Jacob shall return, and shall
be in rest, and be quiet. and none shall make him afraid,
for I am with thee, saith the Lord. Now to the remnant, to
those who were left, who were true believers, who were carried
down into captivity, surely such words must have been encouraging
to them, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. Though I make a full end of all
nations, whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full
end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure and will not
leave thee altogether unpunished. So the Lord does deal with his
people and it's good to know the Lord is dealing with us as
we may find ourselves very similar to the people when they returned
to Jerusalem and they weren't diligent and they weren't doing
those things which they've been commanded to do. and yet to realise
that we have such a kind and gracious God who corrects us. We don't like correcting, don't
we? Something that our nature doesn't like. We always like
to be right in the things we do and say. But it's a blessing
when God gives us a willing spirit to be corrected. Corrected perhaps
in our thoughts, Corrected perhaps in our words and perhaps corrected
in our actions. Because we may have had our own
views, our own plans, our own thoughts, and we'd analysed them
and we thought they were very good and right, but they may
not have been in accordance with God's will and purpose. Had we
really bowed down before our God and submitted ourselves unto
Him, well, The word tells us here, but I will correct thee
in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. The Lord corrects us, you see,
and remember this, it's in love to our souls. It's a great blessing, isn't
it, to be corrected in love. What difference it is, when people
you see correct us, they can correct us in two ways. to justify
themselves, or to bring that loving rebuke, that loving word
of instruction, because they are concerned for our spiritual
welfare. I believe it's then, you see,
the Lord does not leave us altogether unpunished. No, we're corrected
in measure, but it's in love to our souls. What a blessing
it is, and here really, was a very similar situation because Haggai
was pointing out to the people how they'd been serving themselves. He doesn't leave it there. He
comes and he says, I am with you, saith the Lord. Well, we
can take a lot of correction, can't we? If we know the Lord
is with us, and we know the Lord's dealing with us as his children,
He's leading us in that right way. He's not leaving us just
to carry on in our own vain way. And when we realise it's God
that's speaking, perhaps He uses means, perhaps He uses people,
the Lord is hanging on here. But it was a word spoken. I am with you, saith the Lord. look at our spiritual day, what
does that mean? Surely it means if the Lord is with us, we will
be directed to him. We will be shown what he has
endured. We'll be shown the path of the
Saviour, what he did to redeem our souls. And I believe when
the Holy Spirit comes and applies his word and directs us to see
how awkward we are, how rebellious we are, how hard-hearted we are,
and to see the amazing compassion of our God, what He endured,
what He passed through to save our souls. Will that not make
us willing in the day of His power? And I believe the day
of His power is when the Lord shows us our true situation,
or at least in measure our true situation. We never really will
see our true situation, but in measure our position before our
holy God, and then to show us, direct us to the suffering Saviour,
what He endured for such a rebellious person, rebellious man, rebellious
woman, rebellious boy, rebellious girl. We've done those things. which are wrong, we've been found
serving ourselves. It's amazing, isn't it? When
you and I ponder and think that our life on earth is so short,
eternity is before us and yet we have a totally wrong proportion
in the things that we do. We spend so much time on the
things of time and so little time on the things of eternity. And that's why we have gracious
words spoken by our God in his word to correct us, perhaps to
turn us back to him, perhaps to really give us that concern
that our lives might be more Christ-honouring and glorifying. I am with you, Seth, the Lord. Well, again, just returning to
what we mentioned earlier, if the Lord has brought us out of
Egypt, by that I mean out of that place of bondage where we
were under the control of Satan and we were involved in labouring
and no freedom and no favour and no appearance of being able
to escape from that place of bondage, we were bound as it
were hand and foot. And then when the Lord came,
perhaps in a way as amazing as it was in the day of Israel,
the Lord came and brought us out, brought us out, delivered
our soul indeed with a high hand. And
when the Lord appears, the devil cannot stop it. The devil could
not stop Israel being freed from Egypt. The devil would not be
able to stop you and me being freed from the bondage of Satan. And it's when we see by faith
the suffering Saviour, when we see by faith the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. It's good to ponder and to meditate upon that occasion,
that night which was never to be forgotten, it never will be,
that day when the Passover was instituted, because it set so
clearly before us the blessed sacrifice of the Saviour, and
the blessed truth, there's only safety under the blood. Now, if these words are true,
I am with you, saith the Lord. If we've enjoyed some blessing
of liberty, some blessing of freedom, like Israel had, like
Judah had, and yet then to be found rebellious and to be found,
we've gone into captivity. And these things are very true,
you know, they still exist today in a spiritual sense. We do go
into captivity because of our rebellion against God. We do
find ourselves in times of famine and drought. We need the Lord to come, perhaps
in return to us. Well, the Lord did graciously
come. He did return, didn't he, to
the people in Babylon and he brought them back and And you
think because of that experience they will be now so urgent in
the things of God, but you see the flesh, my friends, our flesh
is so evil and so strong. But all that you and I may be
blessed with a true concern for the liveliness of God in our
souls, blessed with this constant recognition, I am with you, saith
the Lord. And if God is with us, What are
we to fear? We do fear, don't we, very often.
But we don't really have cause to fear. You know, Zechariah, he had cause
to fear, didn't he? But when he was faced with death,
It was very real, wasn't it? And he feared. But God came and
God delivered him. And what did he say when he'd
been delivered? He said, by these things men
live. The Lord does bring these times
of affliction into our souls, perhaps in the The same way as
this, I will correctly measure and will not leave the altogether
unpunished like Hezekiah, but Hezekiah knew the benefit of
it. He knew that God was dealing with him in love to his soul. What a blessing for us today
to realize that God deals with us in love to our souls. I am with you, saith the Lord. be concerned that as God is with
us we are hearing his words in his word we're not left to ourselves
to just carry on in our own vain way what a blessing it is that
there are such accounts in the word of God to turn us as it
were back to him back to him because the material age in which
we live There are so many, many things to easily distract us
from the things of God. Easily distract us and turn us
away. So we find ourselves, instead of serving the Lord, we find
ourselves serving the devil. And that's not a good thing at
all, is it? But what a favor to think that here we have this
statement by our gracious God when he comes and says, I am
with you. May it be a strength to us today
as we think of the favour of these words. Again, Isaiah speaks
the same words in his prophecy. And he tells us this, fear thou
not in the 41st chapter, fear thou not. Well, why should we
not fear? Why should we not fear? We look
at ourselves, we have reason to fear, don't we? We have reason
to think that God's judgment will come upon us. We may have
reason to think that God will cut us off. Especially when we read such
words as, if you walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to
you. And the truth is, if that occurs, if we walk contrary to
God and he walks contrary to us, the effect will be Rebellion
and the rebellious dwell in a dry land. So why should we not fear? Fear thou not. I'll tell you
why. This is why. Isaiah tells us,
for I am with thee. I am with thee. What? An unworthy person like myself.
One doesn't deserve any compassion. The Lord says, I am with thee. Why? Because he's loved us with
everlasting love. Why? Because he's laid down his life.
You and I might have life. Why? Because he's gone to prepare
a place for us. That where he is, there shall
we be also. Understanding. this truth, fear
thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness." What a comprehensive statement that is, isn't it? Yes, and here was Isaiah having
to prophesy, having to correct, having to speak to Israel in
their decadent condition. My friends, no less perhaps to
us today, what do we see? The love of God. The amazing love of God, isn't
it? I think that God should indeed
still have patience with us. still have mercy toward us when we've been no better than
Judah, concentrated on our own situation rather than on the
things of God. I am with you, saith the Lord. Let the devil not dispute that
truth. He may endeavour to But my friends,
the word of the Lord is truth. It's something that you and I
can rely upon. It's something that you and I can stand upon.
What a blessing it is to have such a wonderful God who does
not therefore deal with us according to our sins, but is so gracious
to us and so mindful of us and does indeed do us good. The Psalmist, In the 46th Psalm, you remember
that Psalm starts with these words, God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble. And he comes down
and he says, verse seven, the Lord of hosts is with us. The
same statement really, isn't it? The Lord of hosts is with
us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. And again, it's repeated. in
the last verse of this psalm, a near short psalm, the Lord
of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Well, it's a wonderful favour
if the Spirit of God has awakened us to the reality of our true
position before our Holy God, and not to just carry on in a
vain way, in a material way, in a sinful way, but to be corrected
and to be brought to recognize our condition. You see, here
were Judah in this position and what did God do? He sent Haggai
and Haggai spoke to them all and encouraged them, but he spoke
very true words. And as we read this little prophecy
together this morning, it's good to meditate upon it. You can go home and you can read
it again, and you'll find it's profitable if you read it carefully
and prayerfully, and especially if you try and put yourself in
the position of these people in that day. Not to think it
was just written for an occasion hundreds of years ago. My friends,
the Word of God is true today, and it has a wonderful truth
to the true Church of God. And so, as these words were spoken,
according to the word that I covenanted with you, when ye came out of
Egypt, and what did he say? So my spirit remaineth among
you, fear ye not. believe when the Spirit of God
touches our hearts. We will desire to run in the
right way, run after our God, not to be negligent, not to be
backward. We desire to be a true follower. We desire to really acknowledge
the truth of our God as he spells it out in the prophets as they
are so appropriate to us today. So my spirit remaineth among
you, fear ye not. Now what was the result of these
gracious words? What was the result? The people
returned to the work. The words entered into their
hearts. They then returned willingly and laboured and worked well. So the temple was complete, notwithstanding
all the opposition. And there will be opposition
to you and me today still in the things of God. But what a
favor it was, these people did come and they did work and they
did obey the words of the prophet Haggai as he spoke to them. And what was the word that Haggai
said? Consider now, from this day and
upward, from the four and twentieth day of the month, even from the
ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's
temple was laid, consider it. Then he just makes his point,
asks his questions. Is the seed yet in the barn?
Yea. Is yet the vine and the fig tree? and the pomegranate and the olive
tree hath not brought forth." And then he makes this wonderful
statement, from this day will I bless you. From this day will
I bless you. What a favour it would be for
all of us today if we can realise in our spiritual life, I am with
you saith the Lord. To be able to recognise, yes,
from this day The Lord has blessed me. The Lord has revived his
work. Perhaps he's put his hand the
second time to the work. The Lord has drawn us to himself. And don't forget when the Lord
draws us to himself, Christ is revealed. Christ is revealed. And Christ becomes a living reality. And Christ becomes precious. We bow down and worship because
of all that he's done to deliver our soul from the wrath to come,
for his great and glorious mercy toward us, and his great love
that caused him to come to this world in order to save my soul. Oh my friends, what a blessing
it will be then if the Holy Spirit of God applies his word as only
he can in this way to encourage us today with such a truth as
this, to believe, believe God's word. Oh, for faith to believe
it and faith to know it and to experience it and to be encouraged
by it so that by the grace of God we may go on our way rejoicing
to know, yes, I am with you, saith the Lord. Amen.