and complete dependence upon
the Lord for all needed help. Once again this evening I would
wish to direct your very prayerful attention to the prophecy of
Haggai chapter 1. We'll consider the rest of the
chapter but by way of text I'll read from verse 12 to the end. prophecy of Haggai chapter 1
verse 12 to the end. I'll just read the verses through
the once. Then Zerubbabel the son of Chilteel
and Joshua the son of Jozedek the high priest with 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 had sent
him. And the people did fear before
the Lord. Then spake Haggai the Lord's
messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am
with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit
of Joshua, the son of Josedek the high priest, 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. The wise man said, as an earring
of gold and an ornament of fine gold so is a wise reprover upon
an obedient ear." And thus Haggai proved the reality of
the words of Solomon in his ministry and in his life. Now, what matters for you and I is
not how we are perceived, and certainly how we're viewed by
our contemporaries, or even other ministers. If we bothered about
those things, we'd scarcely get up in the morning. No. But the fear of man bringeth
a snare. But Haggai here was a man who
feared the Lord. And he walked these things out. Even in his own experience. And
even in his own ministry. And thus, to continue where we
and left off, as it were. We have Haggai speaking to the
people in their somewhat lethargic and lukewarm state and condition. In such a state, they were found that we have but the foundations
of a temple that should have been built some 15 or 16 years
prior. 50,000 people approximately just
a remnant came out of Babylon and we would note this just revisiting
the excuse that they gave. They said the time is not come,
the time that the Lord's house should be built, in verse 2,
the 70 years that Daniel prophesied had not quite come to an end. But they were far from being
in a state where they were ready. to receive the Lord's favour
and the Lord's blessing. And thus, we're not, as the dispensationalist
here, who would seek to simply apply this to an ethnic race. These truths are applicable to
the Church today. And thus, we have to ask ourselves,
are we in a position to receive the Lord's favour. I say this, if we are to expect
any increase in Zion, it will be with people who have all kinds
of problems and issues. Are we prepared to deal with
these things in a faithful and a sound and prayerful manner. I fear for the most part the
answer for the churches is simply to place one's head in the sand
and pretend these things are not happening. There is even a lethargy to admit
there's even a problem when we see chapel after chapel closing Dear soul, I fear that we are
much as Israel in Haggai's day. They had a semblance of the truth. Yea, they knew it in the letter
of it. But the heart wasn't there. The
heart wasn't there. And thus we see, from verse 7
onwards, a continuation of these things. Indeed Haggai delivers,
really, it's interesting, in these four months, really, four
sermons. The first we considered this
morning, The second which you'll consider now in this service
and the third and the fourth sermons are actually found in
the second chapter in verses 12 and then a further sermon
in verse 15. I'm not saying those are the
only sermons Haggai preached but those are the ones that are
on record for us. But here in this second message, which commences at verse
7, our translators, of course, in the authorised version, served
us very well by placing in the indicators where there would
be a paragraph break. We have one at verse 7 and we
have one at verse 12. And again Haggai repeats this
petition, consider your ways, consider your ways. After he'd rebuked them for their lasciviousness and
their covetousness and their foolishness, he actually brings out the fruit
of all of this. It wasn't just that the people
have been foolish in the way that they conducted themselves, but actually, after all this
seeking after self, they got really nothing to show for it.
You might say in modern terms, their local economy had hit recession. Go up to the mountain, we read
in verse 8, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take
pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and lo it
came to little. And when ye brought it home,
I did blow upon it." Now, there is a lesson. There is a lesson. the finest
works of men's hands and the Lord just blows. Gone. Just like that. One might think of the Titanic
as an example. The absolute pride of man when
it began to sail. So much so, one said, God himself
cannot sink this ship. Some of you know far more about
ships than I ever will. But it sank. It wasn't supposed
to. It was never expected to. But
it just sank. And thus, we see here, the Lord simply
blew. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? And the son of man that thou
visitest him, just a puff of wind. And we're blown over. We're blown
over. Yay! I did blow upon it. Why? A rhetorical question we
have in verse 9. Said the Lord, Because of mine
house that is waste, And you run every man unto his own house. You would leave the house of
the Lord. Oh, but you'd run to your own
state. You cannot wait to entertain
yourself. So the Lord brings judgment upon
them. Verse 10, "...therefore the heaven
over you is stayed from Jew and the earth is stayed from her
fruit." Remember, again I bring us back to this, we are often
apt to think of everything in Western European terms. We live in a cold country. and
we have the perception sometimes that everybody lives in cold
countries. Of course, we're speaking here of the Middle East. And there's two things to note
even about this verse. The first is that the Jew was
essential for growth. In fact, it was said that the
Jew which would fall upon the earth in the morning, particularly
in July and August, would be that which would prevent the
earth from being scorched entirely. And thus preserve their livelihood. Which
is tied in with the second point which is really that the ground
of which they're speaking on was very fertile. The Israelites, no matter where
they went, often had what you might call the gift of agriculture.
They knew how to cultivate land. But the Lord brought judgment
upon them. He brought it. And the Lord says
He brought it through Haggai. So the earth is stayed from her
fruit. Wonderful fruits would grow. But not now. And I called for a drought upon
the land. and upon the mountains, and upon
the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil." Notice he
names here all the things that refresh them. The corn is the
finest corn. Could bring forth the finest
mess of pottage. New wine, finest grapes. Wine
is a wonderfully refreshing drink if you have a good grape. and
the oil which was so needful for preserving and for enriching
the food. And thus, all the labor of their
hands had gone up in a moment. Now the Lord used this, used this, and what took place. Well, the Lord sent his fear
by his spirit into the souls of these important men. Zerubbabel, the son of Shelteel. Zerubbabel's name means the seed
of Babylon. He was appointed governor. a
respected man. But here the Lord pricked his
conscience. And you know we see here a self-effacing. Again, he'd gone along with all
the practices that Israel had fallen into. But as with the
Word of God, you see a man's faults, but you also see his
good points as well. He didn't rebel. but he fell under it. He fell
under the preaching of Haggai and thus we would do well to
fall under the preaching of faithful men. This here was one of these
special days, one of these special times that the Lord would pour
out His Spirit The Lord, of course, in sundry tithes and divers manners,
spake unto the people by the prophets, but in the last day
by His Son. Now, there is the ministry of the indwelling Spirit,
but here the Spirit was especially poured out at certain times.
They'd gone 16 years and nothing. But now, the Lord was pouring
out His Spirit. by Haggai's preaching. And thus
this man in high civil office was affected by him. But it wasn't just the civil
ruler that was affected, was it? It was the religious one. And Joshua, the son of Josedek,
the high priest, the high priest, you see he'd realized that the
worship was not as it should have been and that things were
really not as they ought and thus there was a stirring here
and notice this here with all the remnant of the people with all the remnant of the people If we are to see a reviving of
true religion, it will begin with the people. The Lord stirs
up the hearts and the souls of the men who are found in Zion.
If we consider probably one of the most striking sermons that
has ever been left on record. I remember reading it and having
quite an effect upon me at the time. Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards. Such was the power that there
were those in the service that would cling on to the pillars
for fear of dropping into hell. Such was the manifestation of
the Spirit upon the service. The Lord dealt mightily with
people through that ministry. And this was one of those moments,
as it were, all the remnant, all the remnant obeyed the voice of the Lord
and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent
him." You see, they realized that the Lord had sent before
them a prophet. And when he preached, his words
were truth and they proved to be true. And thus, if the Lord
sends a man, as here, his words will be true. He will speak that which is faithful,
and that which is right, and that which is upon the Scripture,
that he is commanded to preach, leaving
nothing out. You see, is that not really the
mark of faithfulness today? It's to preach the whole counsel
of God. You see again, Haggai, he preached
the promise and we see this in a moment. He preached the promises. A two-edged gospel though, didn't
he? And that's what we must always find when the truth is preached. It's a two-edged sword. Now Haggai had given them plenty
of sword here. But we know that there's no forgiveness
without repentance. there's no salvation without
the knowledge of sin and there's no forgiveness without
confession and thus here these people confessed they were brought
to confession and they were brought to see that the words of this
eight-year-old man were true They were true. People did fear before the Lord. They feared. They feared. But you see, again when conviction
came, there was also that following up with the promises that the
Prophet would bring. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's
messenger, in the Lord's message, unto the people, saying, I am
with you, saith the Lord." Here there was a stirring up, a waking
up. How many times throughout Scripture
do we read, it is now a time to awake out of sleep? We see
it time after time. We've never counted the number
of references specifically to that, but we see it both in Old
and New Testament. Why? Because it's human nature
to be slotherly, and to be satisfied with routine. Now routine is
a good thing in a general sense. to have a disciplined order for
the way that we do things. We often find that when that
is not the case is when there are problems in the natural sense
in people's lives. But routine can simply become that of going
through the motions. But here we have a stirring up Oh, and Haggai stirred them up.
But as is the case very often, when there's a stirring up, and
it was the case in the Reformation. We'd been a Roman Catholic country
for many years. And all of a sudden, we rejected
Rome. So there was much confusion.
And the people say, well what do we believe? And the Lord raises
up the Reformers. And the Reformers set these things
out quite clearly. As to what we believe and why
we believe it. What is sin and what is salvation?
What is truth and what is error? And we see that here. And that's
what it means when it says Haggai was the Lord's messenger in the
Lord's message. He sought a message from the
Lord and he delivered it. There's no prophets today. Don't get me wrong. There's no
prophets today. The church was built upon the
apostles and prophets. But the Lord still does send
his sermons. Preachers of truth. And you know it's not simply
a case of studying and then delivering a sermon. No. It's seeking a message to deliver
from the Lord to the people. And no man on earth can do that. Only the Lord can. And thus we're
exhorted to study, to make ourselves approved unto God as a workman
that needeth not be ashamed. We read that even this afternoon
at Hagen Chapel. But the Lord must give us a message.
And here Haggai's message was this, when they were building
the temple, he says, I am with you, saith the Lord. I am with you. Why? Well, in
the rebuilding of the temple, we see an exaltation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And is that not what the remnant
were doing here. They were pointing the people
here to the Messiah that would come. And they were pointing the people to the real Saviour. Not these pagan deities. The Egyptians even worshipped
the Nile. such as their ignorance and their
superstition. But you see, one would come greater than David and greater
than Haggai. The whole message of the epistle
to the Hebrews is that better than, better than, greater than,
more than, and thus here Haggai is pointing to it, and the whole
church is pointing to it, in the rebuilding of this temple. Now, even in the rebuilding of
this temple, I know we're going ahead of the time and the context
here, but we have to remember what happened when it was built. You see, the Lord works in such
a wonderful way. The people said, the temple of
the Lord, the temple of the Lord. You see, it was nothing like
as grand as Solomon's temple. It didn't have the magnificence
in the architectural and the spatial sense. But that was never the intention.
The intention was that people would seek and look to the Messiah
and they would sing His praises, they would read His Word, they
would pray, I am with you, saith the Lord. And notice this, verse 14, begins in the most Calvinistic
fashion you can imagine. This is for people who say there's
no such thing as free grace in the Old Testament. And the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel. The Lord did it. This was the
work of the Spirit. The Lord did it. The governor of Judah. and the spirit of Joshua the
son of Josedek the high priest 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." The work in the house of the Lord. And that really is what the Lord
sets his people about doing as the work of the house of the
Lord. And we will be busy about his
business. What did the Apostle say? He
said he was prepared to spend and be spent. in the cause of
Christ. And thus, if the Lord puts a
man in the ministry, he will be prepared to spend and be spent
in the cause of Christ. And the Lord will open the doors
for him. Here, we can see Haggai's work
was made effectual. There was fruit, wasn't there?
From the ministry. And this again, you see, is something
we ought to be concerned with. And it's been pressing upon me,
particularly in the last few years. Because it's very pleasant. going about the country and meeting
different people and preaching in different chapels and all
this sort of thing. But, you know, we desire to see
fruit. We desire to see the Lord going
before us. We don't want whited sepulchres. and thus Haggai he saw fruit he saw fruit and thus he sees the people he
sees the people affected by the preaching and thus is
that not what we ought to look for today is for people to be
affected by the preaching. The Lord worked in the hearts
of these men in high office as well as those that followed. And remember this was always
the Lord's intention because this was the remnant that he
brought out But you know all the Lord's people
throughout their lives are being taught. They've been corrected. They've been put right. And the
Lord stirs his people up. The Lord says, I will be inquired
of, of the house of Israel. And that's what had to take place
here. That's what had to take place. Each and every one of them had
a stirring. Each and every one of them had an experience to
give. Each and every one of them was made to see, and this is
really the point, was made to see the necessity of the temple
being rebuilt. Now, as we conclude this evening, we would believe that to be one
of two things. Either this was all simply God dealing
with an ethnic country to prove his might and to prove his power
and to prove that he could make men build something of some significance
of bricks and mortar. Or, we believe that these people
were stirred in their souls as to see that everything was wrong. The Lord had favoured them greatly,
but they'd been unthankful. They'd been somewhat lukewarm. They'd forgotten the Lord's mercies
unto them and thus they'd been brought into dire straits providentially
and that these circumstances had been the means used to make
them to see that their lives were empty that they were looking to simply
fill their own belly that it would come to nothing and that there was only really
one life worth living. And that was in the cause of
the Messiah, in the cause of Christ. To profess His name and to make it known. Why? for no other reason than as he had been faithful
to them they must be faithful to him in essence we might say
the building of the temple was a profession of faith as it were
each and every one of them had a stirring in their souls and
thus they didn't look to anything of wood, hay or stubble But they
saw the spiritual need in their souls for a substitute. Christ who is the Temple and
who is the fulfillment of all these things. Amen.