There, is that on, Scott? Okay.
Haggai chapter 2, and this morning we'll be looking at verses 11 down through verse 19. The scripture says, Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, Ask now the priest concerning the law, saying,
If one bear holy flesh in his skirt of his garments, and with
his skirt doth touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or
any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said,
No. And then Haggai said, If one
that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it
be unclean? And the priest said, It shall
be unclean. Then answered Haggai and said,
So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith
the Lord. And so is every work of their
hands, and that which they offer there is unclean. The title of the message this
morning is, No Excuse for Laziness. No excuse for laziness. In this prophecy of Haggai, the
Jews have returned from the captivity of Babylon. God did exactly what
he had before determined to do. If you remember, the Jews were
in captivity according to the Word of God for 70 years. We can read this in many places.
In Jeremiah 25, God says this concerning Babylon. He said,
in 70 years I will destroy Babylon for their iniquity. And in Jeremiah
29 and verse 10, For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy
years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform
my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. And it happened even as God purposed. Even as God decreed, so was Babylon
destroyed. So were the children of Israel
returned to Jerusalem. You remember that God raised
up that man Cyrus, a wicked man, to do his bidding and return
his people to Jerusalem. So that they should again establish
the worship of God by building the temple. This was God's reason
for delivering them. That they should build and restore
His worship. The reason they were taken into
captivity was because of their failure to worship God. They forgot God and forgot His
worship, forsook His worship, worshipped other idols and other
gods, and God carried them into captivity. But now, the promise
of deliverance has come. They've been brought back to
the land as God has promised. But now that they have returned,
they've built their walls. They've built themselves very
nice houses. But they have neglected this
one thing which was the most important. To build the temple
and establish God's worship. They have neglected this. Read
this. Go back to chapter 1 and read this. This is why Haggai
was sent. He was sent to rebuke them concerning
their laziness in building God's temple. He said in verse Verse 2, Thus speaketh the Lord
of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the
time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word
of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O
ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? And this house lay waste, Now
therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways."
Consider your ways. They said, oh, it's not time
to build the temple. And God says, is it time for
you to build your nice houses? And yet you would neglect to
build mine? You would neglect to establish my house, my worship? The whole purpose of God in restoring
them was to restore the worship of God. And remember, at this
time, this was the only place where God would meet with sinners.
Was in the temple of God. It was the only place where atonement
for sins could be made. Was in the temple of God. It
was the only place on earth where God would reside with men. In the temple. And yet they neglected to build
it. They neglected the worship of
God. And because of their laziness
to build the temple, God sends Haggai to rebuke them. Now, let
us see this first. Out of what I've said, I want
us to see what this has to do with us who are believers in
Jesus Christ. Let us today, as believers in
Jesus Christ, be reminded of this, that God is always faithful
concerning His promises. Can you not see that by their
actually being in Jerusalem? That God was faithful that He
had, who had determined 70 years of captivity, also determined
their restoration. And was not God faithful to do
it? Remember, believer, that our
God is in the heavens. And He had done whatsoever He
pleased. He does whatsoever He pleases. And we are not left to guess
what God pleases to do. We are not left to guess as to
what God has decreed. We are not ignorant of the revealed
will of God. What is the revealed will of
God? Believer, what is that? What is God's revealed will?
We know this, His revealed will is to save all of Israel. That's His revealed will. Go
ahead and go over to Romans. Hold your place. Go over here
to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Romans 11 verse 25. Paul says, for I would not, brethren,
that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should
be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened
to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. and
so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take
away their sins. Israel here, my friend, is not
meant the physical nation of Israel, but rather the whole
of God's elect. The mystery that Paul would not
have us ignorant of is how that God used the rejection of the
Jews to graft us in, who are Gentiles, into this tree of life,
this life of faith. The descendants of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, they had a blessing. They had a great blessing. They
had all the types and shadows and pictures of Christ. But the
mystery is how that God would graft in such heathens as we
were. The mystery is that God would
save sinners such as we are by nature. And that we are not to
boast over those rejected. Do you think, believer, that
because you were a Gentile, you were better than those Jews?
No. Paul said, I won't tell you this.
It's a mystery. You should not boast. You were
no better than they. But we who are Gentiles, when
we are come in, All Israel shall be saved, whether Jew or Gentile. This is the promise of God that
when Christ should come, He should remove all ungodliness from Jacob. He should remove all our sins. Paul tells us about this Israel
before this. In Romans 9, he said, Not all
they that are of Jacob, of Israel, are Israel. Just because you're a Jew does
not mean you're of Israel. The true Israel of God is spiritual
Israel. So then this is God's will, listen,
that all Israel be saved. Is that not a plain revealed
will of God? That's a plain revealed will
of God. Do you suppose that any of Israel will not be saved?
Do you suppose any of this will fall to the ground? No! This
is the will of God. This is the decree of God that
all of His elect should be redeemed by the blood of His Son, and
they should be called by the Spirit of His grace. This is
God's will that all those were given to Christ from eternity
that Christ should come into the world and redeem them by
His blood. And those who are now risen with
Christ as their representative, the Father, the Father will send
the Spirit, and the Spirit would come to us, quicken us, and draw
us to Christ. This is how Christ could say,
all that the Father giveth me, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. You see the certainty of the
will of God. God's will is not an iffy thing. Your will and my will are shaky
at best. God's will is definite. It is
sure. So you can take from this book
of Haggai, you can see by their being delivered back, just as
God said, they would. You can take this to the bank.
All Israel shall be saved. That's just so. And I'll tell
you, not angels, not men, not devils, not Satan, and not sin
will stop God from delivering His people. Nothing shall stop
God from saving His people. Jesus said this in John chapter
6. He told those Jews, He said, I said unto you, I told you the
gospel, then you've seen me, and you've not believed. Now do you suppose that for one
minute the Son of God was discouraged? No. God was not discouraged that
these men did not believe. Why? In John chapter 6 where he says
that, he says this, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And listen, this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. We see the will of God is
not frustrated by the unbelief and rejection of men. Even because
God has a chosen people, and he will save every one of those,
and none shall be lost. As God purposed to return Israel
to the land, and that they should build the temple, what happened?
They returned to the land and they built the temple, just as
God purposed. Even so has God purposed to gather
all his people that were taken captive by the fall of Adam and
set them free by the purchase redemption of the blood of Christ. All God's elect are no different from any of
Adam's race. Is that not so? You and I who
are born again, we know this. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Why is it that you have come
to believe and others still refuse? Because God has purposed you
to come. God has drawn you by His irresistible
grace and power of His Holy Spirit. He has raised you from the dead. given you life, given you faith,
redeemed your soul by the blood of His Son. That's why you believe. That's why you have returned
unto God. Because God gave it to you. By
nature we are unclean. We are full of sin. Yet God has
chosen us, redeemed us by the blood, and gathered us to worship
Him. So then all that are lost in
Adam have been restored by the blood of Christ and shall be
called to what? Faith and service. Faith and service. Now then, turn to your text.
Now you got the background of what's going on here. Now I want
you to see in these, as we go through these two questions that
the Lord asked through Haggai to the priest, these two questions,
and I want you to see yourself. The nature both the nature that
God has created in you and the nature that still resides in
you, which is your sinful nature, your old nature. Let's go and
see these questions here. Look at the first question. He
said, ask the priest this question, verse 12. If one bear holy flesh
in his skirt of his garments, And with his skirt doth touch
bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or meat, shall it be holy? And the priest said, No. No. Okay, that is, if a man takes
a piece of the sacrifice, you have a sacrifice offered to God,
consecrated to God, set apart to God, and as soon as it is
killed and it touches the altar, That beast is holy unto God. It is holy. And so if a man were to cut off
a piece of that sacrifice and put it in his pocket, the priests
were asked a question. He said, if a man puts that sacrifice
in his pocket and he walks around and touches a piece of bread,
is that bread holy? If he touches this pulpit, is
it holy? No. Now, the law said this. Let's
look at this in Leviticus. Look at Exodus chapter 29. Go over to Exodus chapter 29. Look at what the law says about
this, anyone who touches this flesh. Exodus chapter 29. Look at this
in verse 32. And Aaron and his son shall eat
the flesh of the ram and the bread and the basket by the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation. And they shall eat those things
wherein the atonement was made, and consecrate it and sanctify
them, but the stranger shall not eat it, because they are
holy. Holy. Now then go over to Leviticus
chapter 6. Leviticus chapter 6 and verse
25. For whosoever eateth the fat
of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto
the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from
his people. Moreover, he shall eat no manner
of blood, whether it be of fowl or beast, or any of your dwellings,
whatsoever soul it be that eateth the manner of blood, even...
I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter. Excuse me, my mind just had a
hiccup. I know y'all aren't used to that,
so look in chapter 6, verse 25. Speak unto Aaron and to his son,
saying, This is the law of the sin offering. In the place wherein
the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed
before the Lord. It is most holy. The priest that
offered it for the sin shall eat it. In the place shall it
be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy." So what
it's saying is, anything that touches the altar, anything that
has to do with that sacrifice is holy. In other words, if a
man took that piece of meat, put it in his pocket, the man
himself would be holy according to the law. Ceremonially holy. And so then there is no question
whatsoever that whosoever touches the altar or the sacrifice on
which the altar is made, and anyone who has eaten of it, shall
be according to the law holy. Now we know that the law is given
to reveal man's sin. Man's need of a sin offering. But those animals and blood and
that altar could never by any means make a person truly holy. Go over to Hebrews 10. I want
you to see that this law was a picture, the law was a type.
It wasn't that this man became holy by his touching the sacrifice
or eating it. Look at verse 1 of chapter 10. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come and not the very image of the things,
can never make those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would
they have not ceased to have been offered, because that the
worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sin."
In other words, if you ate that meat off that sacrifice and you
became holy, would you need it anymore? No. No, you wouldn't
need it anymore. The law was only to picture the
good things to come. This then is speaking in a type
to us of those who are made holy by the flesh and the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, those who have Holy flesh
in their skirts are those who are born again of the Spirit
of God. There is no question that those
who had the flesh in their pocket according to the law was holy.
And there is no question about this. Those who eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the Son of God are holy before God. You who believe, you are holy
before your God. Jesus said, Whosoever eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. How is it that we eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the Son of God? It is by faith. That's what he means by that.
Jesus told those people, He said, these words I speak unto you,
they are spirit. This is a spiritual matter. It's
not a carnal matter. The law was carnal. The law had
to do with physical things. Physical meat from a physical
animal. But this matter of eating the
flesh and drinking the blood of Christ is truly spiritual. I don't know if you know this,
but many of the Romans, when they heard of Christianity, they
thought we were cannibals. They said, eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of God, They thought like Catholics
do. Catholics will take a piece of
cracker and a bottle of wine, and they'll do some hocus-pocus
over it, and then they'll say, oh, that's the body and blood,
and as soon as you eat that cracker, well, boy, you're holy. It has
nothing to do with the carnal senses. It is a spiritual matter. If you're born again of the Spirit
of God, it is a spiritual matter to eat His flesh and drink His
blood. It is by faith. Therefore, we who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, we have eaten His flesh and drinking
His blood by faith, We who are by nature unholy,
sinners without life, without God, helpless, unclean rebels,
and yet by the grace of God He has made you holy. Is that not a miracle? JD and I were talking in the
office and he said, I don't see it. Well, it wouldn't be faith
if you saw it. It just wouldn't be faith. This is what God says about us. When the Lord Jesus Christ offered
Himself for us, your sin, your sin, He bore in His own
body on the tree. God justly punished His Son in
your stead, in your room. And when He was punished, God's
justice was completely exhausted, completely satisfied. He poured
it all out at once. on his beloved son, and justice
said, Enough. I am completely satisfied with
his death." Completely satisfied. Believer, the blood of Jesus
Christ is the fountain spring from which all our sins have
been washed away. All your sins. This is the holy spotless blood
that was without sin that flowed from the sinless Lamb, and yet
it flowed because God hath imputed our sins to Him. And He who died
was also raised from the grave and ascended without sin. Without sin. And now He forever
has removed our sins And as we have been redeemed
by His blood, even so we have His righteousness imputed and
imparted to us. Romans 3, 22, Even the righteousness
of God without the law, The righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all. That has to do with imputation
and impartation. He has imputed His righteousness
to our charge. And not only imputed it, He's
imparted it by a new nature. So then, believer, listen. You
may say with this saint who wrote this poem, with Christ's righteous
garments on, we're as holy as God's Son. With His flesh in our pocket,
we are holy. Holy. But then we must ask this question. Consider this. Go back to your
text. He said, "...if one bears holy flesh in his garments..."
We know one who bears holy flesh in his garments is holy according
to the Law. "...and with his skirt doth touch
bread, or pottage, or wine, or meat, shall it be holy." In other
words, he's saying whatever the holy person touches, Does that
make the other things he touches holy? The answer is no. No. I touch this book. I myself am
holy. Does that make this book holy?
No, this book's holy because God wrote it. But people like
to think they can transfer holiness to things. They think, oh, if
I just say this prayer and consecrate this and throw some water on
it this, then it's holy. No! You can't make anything holy. We didn't even make ourselves
holy. It was the flesh and blood of the Son of God that made us
holy. It was the power of God that
made us holy. So then, all that we touch is
not holy. Can one who is holy by the blood
and righteousness of Christ transfer holiness? That's the question.
Can you transfer holiness? No. No. Think of this, the false
doctrine of infant baptism. Isn't that what they're trying
to do? They're trying to transfer some type of holiness to the
child. They say, ah, well the parents are believers, and so
then they, by virtue of their faith and their hope, they're
transferring or bringing in their child into the covenant relationship. No! You can't transfer holiness
to your children. Can a clean thing come out of
an unclean thing? No. Although the Lord has made me
holy, my children came out unholy. They came from an unclean thing.
They're unclean. And the only hope for them is
that God make them holy. I can't make them holy. You can't
make your children holy. I think you should bring them.
I think they should come and hear the gospel because this
is where salvation, the means that God has chosen to save His
people. But I tell you this, all your labor can't make them
holy. That's something only God can
do. Something only God can do. Believers, we are born again,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. I tell you, we'd be wise to bring
our children, bring your grandchildren to hear the gospel if you can.
But truly this, don't put this on yourselves. You cannot make
them holy. You should live in front of them,
you should be an example to them, but you cannot make them holy. Salvation, we know, is the work
of God alone. Now then, look at the second
question. And then Haggai said, Haggai, if one is unclean by
a dead body, touch any of these. Shall it be unclean? The priest
said, yeah, it'll be unclean. Now the law according to the
dead body was if someone touches a dead body, he would ceremonially
become unclean. This is, we don't have time,
but in Numbers chapter 5 you can read this. Those who touch
a dead body, according to the law, must be cast out with the
lepers. And the only way they can be
brought in on the third day, they have to purify themselves
with a burn offering and hyssop running under running water,
then they sprinkle them, and then they would be ceremonially
clean and brought in on the seventh day. But whosoever would not purify
or did not purify themselves, they were cast out forever. Again,
the law here is spiritual. Listen to this truth. We all
by nature are unclean. You who have been made holy by
the Son of God, you and I still have this unclean nature. We by nature can produce nothing
but unclean things. Isaiah 64, 6 says we are all
as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. is all we can do by nature. This carnal nature can only sin,
always and only sin. But the difference here is we've
been given a spiritual nature. Everything we touch cannot be
made holy, but truly everything we touch is unclean. If you and I put our hands to
anything, it's defiled. It's defiled. It's unclean. See then how vain is all works
and free will religion. All who confess Christ that died
for all their sin, but they got to put the finishing touches
on it. What does that do but defile
the sacrifice? It defiles a sacrifice. I know this, I'm a sinner by
nature and all I touch is corrupt. Paul says this concerning his,
he said, in my flesh dwelleth what? No good thing. Does this not cause us to cry
out, O wretched man that I am? I preach to you the gospel, my
friends, and we worship together, not to be holy, but because God has made us holy. We do not serve God because it
makes us clean. We serve God because of what
He has done for us. Believer in Christ, even though all that we touch
is unclean, listen to what God says. Then answered Haggai and
said, So is this people. We are both holy and unclean. Holy and unclean. And everything
we touch isn't made holy, it's unclean. So is this people, so is this
nation before me, saith the Lord, and so is every work of their
hands which they offer there is unclean. You mean all my service
is unclean? All my worship is unclean? Yeah. Yeah. In other words, we will
get no glory for any service to God. Now then, I'll ask you
this. Does this excuse you from serving? Well, preacher, I can't do anything
right. I can't touch anything and make it clean, so I guess
I'll just throw up my... It's what they were doing. That
temple They saw it. It was ruined. There were no
way they were going to make that temple as good as it was before. So what did they do? They threw
up their hands and they said, we can't do it. Everything we touch is unclean. Yet God said, build the temple. Your worship, your love, your
service will never be as good as your master's. Does that ever excuse us from
loving and serving and trusting in Christ? Never, never, never. Matter of fact, he tells them
in verse 16 and 17, consider this, when you did not build
the temple, when you were in disobedience, you did not prosper. Listen, child of God, if we are
living in disobedience to our God, he will blow on everything
and it will become nothing. our worship, our service, our
giving, everything we do, if it is not an obedience to God,
it will be blown on and it will not prosper us. But listen to
this promise. He said, consider now the day
from this time that you did lay the foundation. Consider it.
Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes. As yet, The vine, the fig
tree, and the pomegranate and the olive tree hath not brought
forth, from this day will I bless you. Do you realize that God has promised
to bless your work? Your service? Unclean though it is, Worthless, though it is, yet
God has promised to bless it even before you do it. He said
there's a seed in the barn. Well, shouldn't the seed be in
the ground? I saw that barn. What good is seed in the barn?
It needs to be in the ground. The apostle said this in Romans
12. Be not slothful in business. And he's not talking about your
job, your secular job. He's talking about your service
to God, your father's business. Believer, I know that God has
given us a new nature and has left the old. And there is a
constant warfare struggling within your breast. Does this give us
any excuse for laziness? Not a bit. Because God says,
I will bless your labors. Is that not good enough for us?
Did God not bless when they built the temple? Yes. I promise that God will bless
if we're in obedience to him. and we should not be slothful
in our service. May God bless this to your hearts.