you'll open your Bibles to the
second chapter of the book of Haggai. I'm not as good as Bonnie is
at running our live stream, because that's one of those detail-oriented
things, and I'm not real good at detail. Eric, you might have to stay
behind and lip-sync that first song so we get a soundtrack on
it. Because they saw the picture, but they didn't hear any sound. We'll begin reading at verse 20. Haggai chapter 2,
verse 20. The word of the Lord came to
Haggai a second time on the 24th day of the month. Tell Zerubbabel,
governor of Judah, that I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones
and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow
chariots and their drivers, horses and their riders will fall, each
by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord
Almighty, I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel,
declares the Lord, and I will make you like my signet ring.
For I have chosen you, declares the Lord Almighty. Now this passage will make up
the last in four messages from this short book of prophecy,
Haggai. I've enjoyed it. You know, I
don't know why it is, but these little books towards the end
of the Old Testament There are not nearly as many sermons preached
from them as other places. But I have enjoyed studying this
and preparing for it. And the first three of the sermons
that Haggai preached, that is, God spoke to him on four occasions
that we have recorded here. And he delivered the message
that God gave to him. And the first three were delivered
to the people in general. And it was to stimulate them
and encourage them to finish the work of rebuilding the temple. This fourth prophecy of Haggai
is directed to one man, Zerubbabel, the governor. It was he who first
came back to Jerusalem after the captivity. He came with a
bunch of other people under Cyrus, king of Persia. And Cyrus had
given back to him all the vessels of the temple that he had, that
Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. And
some more money and things like that. And they headed back to
Jerusalem to rebuild the temple which had been destroyed by the
king of Babylon and so they went back but when
they started building the people around them got upset and particularly they got upset when
they asked if they could help and Zerubbabel said no you have
no part in this And they didn't like being set
to the outside. These were the Samaritans. And
they had supposedly been worshiping Jehovah. These were some Jews
that had been left behind, but mostly other Gentiles that had
been deported down there. That's the way those empire builders
did it. They took over an area, they
took the people from that area, put them over in another area,
and shuffled people around. I guess it kind of destabilized
them and disconnected them from any national loyalties. But they
were mostly non-Jewish. In fact, they had sent priests to that
area, the northern section of Israel. teach the people how
to worship Jehovah God. Now that was under a false impression
they had that you know each God just ruled a certain territory
of the world or you know certain elements in the world or something
like that. And so they figured okay that's Jehovah's land down
there we need to teach the people whoever's going to live there
they got to learn how to worship the God that's there. Now that's
how Nebuchadnezzar viewed things. But of course the priests that
went there to teach them really couldn't teach them a right because
the worship of Jehovah involved the temple and the temple was
no more and actually it just became a rather idolatrous form
of worship even though they claimed they were worshiping Jehovah
and so Zerubbabel said no you have no part in this you are
not worshipers of Jehovah you can't build his temple you can't
help us so they sent to the king and By that time, there was a different
king, and he wrote back letters and said, everybody stop. And
so for years, there was no progress on the temple. And so then God
rose up Haggai, and you see the next book in the Bible is Zechariah.
Both of those guys lived at the same time in the same place.
They were ministering to the same people, and both of them
had the same basic message, though spoken in different ways, but
it was get busy, finish the temple. And it wasn't get busy and finish
the temple using the stern voice and furrowed brow. It was all
with words of encouragement. And so they began to build the temple
again. And this would take a little
over four years from the time they began here in the book of
Haggai until it was completed. And during this time, there would
be discouragements, no doubt. And even the prospect of undertaking
such a task would be daunting. I mean, we're not talking about
something that's easy to build. To build a house is one thing,
but temples, those massive structures involve moving huge rocks. And they didn't have cranes and
stuff, you know, they just all had to be done by hand. A lot
of work. And you add to this that the
Israelites had been negligent in doing the work that God had
sent them to do. He had, excuse my coughing, it's
allergies and the allergy pills just seem not to be cutting it
right now. But the Lord had Cyrus to send them back specifically
to rebuild that temple. They got started, they got stopped,
and once they got stopped they started building their own houses
and they were building extravagant homes. What would have for that
day have been considered a luxurious house? And so the Lord confronted
them, you know, why are you living in your paneled houses while
my house sits in ruins? And so they had started but then
they quit and And that had made them, once God confronted them,
certainly they felt about how unfaithful they'd been to the
God who had blessed them to send them back home. And it might seem to them presumptuous
to think that the Lord would bless them in their efforts to
rebuild the temple. They had ignored his first order
to do so, or had allowed others to stop them, and then had turned
their attention to other things. And now the prophet comes to
us and says, the Lord's saying, rebuild the temple. Get back
to work. And as they would undertake this
work, at least I know I would have felt this. I would have
thought, well, yeah, but how can God bless us now? We've been
so unfaithful. We were unfaithful, he sent us
into captivity, then he graciously sends us back, and we no sooner
get here than we prove that we're just like our forefathers, and
we listen to men before we listen to God. So Haggai is sent to Zerubbabel,
who's in charge of all of this, to encourage him in the work,
assuring him that the Lord had chosen him for this job, and
that he, that is, Rubble, carried with him the authority of God
when he did this job, and that God was going to run interference
for him, so to speak. He was going to shake the nations
however was necessary to prevent any further delay in getting
this temple built. Haggai's prophecy agrees with
what his fellow prophet Zechariah said in chapter 4 verses 8 and
9 of the book of Zechariah. Then the word of the Lord came
to me. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this
temple. His hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the
Lord Almighty has sent you. So Haggai had gone. He'd stirred
them up to start building, but no sooner than they get started
building again, they got discouraged for some reason. And for a few
days, didn't get anything done, so Haggai goes back. And Haggai is saying the same
thing Zechariah did. Don't be discouraged. Don't think
you're going to fail. Zerubbabel laid the foundation,
and Zerubbabel will finish it. So that means, at least within
a lifetime, this temple's gonna get done. He that began it will
finish it. Let's first look at this message
from Haggai as it can be applied to Zerubbabel in his day and
to us in our day. And then we'll look at how the
New Testament handles it. The task ahead was a great task.
It was great because they were building the temple of the God
of the whole universe. They weren't building the temple
of some phony God, some God that ruled only over the clouds or
only in this territory of the world or that, you know, like
the pagan gods. They were building the temple
for the God who spoke and it was, who commanded and it stood
firm. The God who has ruled all things by the word of his power,
who Nebuchadnezzar had learned, does as he wills in the armies
of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay his
hand or say unto him, what do you think you're doing? The God of the universe, they're
building a temple for him. That's a daunting task. I don't think I feel like I was
up to something like that. But not only that, simply looking
at it as engineering. This is a big job. I read that,
I can't, I think I'm getting this right, but when they, you
know, worked on the temple again under Herod the Great, and they
laid a foundation stone, that single cornerstone, 70 tons. Can you imagine trying to move
that without a big crane? And that wasn't going to be the
only one. There's going to be other big ones, and they're going to
have to lift them up. I'm sure Zerubbabel looked at it, how
am I going to get this done? And so he was assured that he would
accomplish this task given him in spite of all the obstacles
that lay in his path. His assurance was that the Lord
had chosen him to do the work and that the Lord himself was
engaged in the work. arranging all the affairs of
the world in order to assure that the work is completed. This was simply a reassurance
of what Haggai had already said three times. I am with you. In this place, I will grant you
peace. From this day on, I will bless
you. And he goes to Zerubbabel, and
he says, now God chose you, made you his signet ring. And the
signet ring, we get our word signature from it. It was the
ring that kings had that had the king's seal on it, you know,
and if they pressed that into wax or whatever, you know, to
seal a document, that meant that document carried the king's authority
with it. And so he's saying to Zerubbabel, you're carrying my
authority. I said, build a temple. And this
word has gone forth from my mouth. And so as you go forth to do
it, you are going forth with all my authority to do it. And he says. And through the
prophet Zechariah, though this is just Zechariah's way of saying
the same thing, Zerubbabel laid the foundation. Zerubbabel will
complete the temple. And you know, that's exactly
what happened. They got busy building and I
read it was four years and three months later, they were done
and they dedicated that thing. And it stood. And all the while
that this is going on, God is working among the nations, seeing
to it that nobody troubles them. He silenced those people from
the north, because once they started building, those folks
from the northern part of Israel, the Gentiles who live there,
the Samaritans, They sent a letter up to the king of that time and
said, hey, you told those people to stop. But they're building
the temple again. They're always troublemakers. And so the Jews themselves sent
up a letter to the same king and said, King Cyrus told us
to do this. And they did a search in the records. And sure enough,
there was a decree from King Cyrus of Persia. And therefore,
the king, at this time, He sends a letter back to those folks
from the northern part of Israel, and he says, here's my answer.
The work may proceed. Not only that, you're going to
pay for it. All the money that you owe to
us in tribute every year, all these nations that had come out
of that empire, it's sending taxes, essentially, is what it
was. They owed taxes back to the imperial palace. He says, all that you would be
sending here, you send to them to help them build their temple
until it's finished. And so those who had stood opposed
to them and had for a while been successful in opposing them,
suddenly have to become their helpers. God said, build it,
you're going with my authority, and I will shake down the nations
if necessary to see to it it comes to pass. And that's what
happened. But we can draw some application
for ourselves. We who believe are much like
Zerubbabel. We have been charged with building
the temple of the Lord in our day. The temple, the true temple
of God is his church. Peter says that as we come to
Christ, we are being, we are like living stones are being
built into a house for God. The temple we build is the Church
of the Living God. We do this as we believe and
we do it through the preaching of the gospel. Now it's true
that the Lord Jesus Christ says, I will build my church. And it's
true that as we come to Him, it's God that takes us as living
stones and builds us into His household. But God always, almost always,
does his works through means. And he sends out preachers, and
they call God's people to Christ. And those people in turn call
others. It is Christ that builds, but
Paul called himself a wise master builder. It is God who has laid
the foundation stone, yet Paul says, I have laid the foundation.
So when I say that we have been charged with building the temple,
I'm not denying the fact that it's really God who's doing it,
but he does it through his people. And it's a daunting task. We
face a world that opposes what we're doing. We face a world
that doesn't love our God, that actually despises our God. We
face a world that believes a gospel different than what we believe.
We face a world that wants us to join with them, and we have
to say, no, we can't do that. You're free to go on and do what
you want, but what you're doing and what we're doing is not the
same thing. They get upset, they try to stop us. It looks like
it's bigger than we can deal with. And you add to this that
we've not always been faithful to the task that was given us.
Regarding our own faith in Christ as we come to him as living stones,
there have been many stumbles and falls. And as time goes by,
we may come to wonder if we are equal to the task of believing
unto the end. Shall we persevere unto the end?
or shall we fall away in sin and unbelief? The old hymn writer said, when
any turn from Zion's way, alas, what numbers do? It seems I hear
my savior say, will you forsake me too? You know, Just by the mere mathematics
of the situation, I'm nearer to death now than I was when
I came here. And I feel less capable of making
it to the end, even though it's nearer than I did 33 years ago
when I showed up here. The job looks bigger and bigger
as I go along. And I'll tell you this, and I
don't think that I'm speaking out of turn here, I don't think
that there's anybody here that won't be able to identify with
me in these things I said. I realize that in many circumstances
I've been horribly unfaithful. That I have not pursued him as
I ought to. That I have not given as much
energetic effort even into the ministry of the gospel as I should
have. I've done many things wrong. Just like those Jews there, they'd
become discouraged. They'd let the world speak words
of discouragement and opposition, and they'd believed it, and then
they'd turn their attention, instead of into building the
Lord's house, into building their own things, and we do the same
kind of thing. It is our work to spread the gospel.
But we, like the Jews of that day, have often been turned from
our task in this world, both in worship and in spreading his
word. We have allowed personal ambitions
to distract us. We have allowed the threats of
the enemy to discourage us. And there have been times when
we have allowed the pleasures of sin to deceive us. But the word of God comes to
us. assuring us that we shall persevere and we shall accomplish
all that he has ordained for us to do. And this assurance
arises from the fact that in reality, it's God who's doing
the persevering and it's God who's doing the working. In Philippians,
the apostle Paul wrote, for it is God who works in you to will
and do of his good pleasure. Now, yes, we've been called to
a work, to a labor in the kingdom of God, but we are not called to a work
which we will carry out under our own steam. God works in us
both to desire this work and then to do it. And this promise is also added
to it in the book of Philippians. He that began a good work in
you will perfect it until the day of Christ. You feel like
you're gonna slip and fall. You who believe, do you feel
like you aren't gonna make it? You've seen how many times you've been
distracted and you think, you know what, something bigger might
come along. And I actually find out I've been a phony all along. And I'll become one of those
who will turn from Zion's way. God says you won't. Because when you first believe,
that was me beginning to work in you. And I have been at work
ever since. I've been at work in you when
you thought you were doing well, and I've been at work in you
when you thought you weren't doing well. And I am perfecting my
work in you and through you. You will not fall away. You will
not leave. I won't let you. Can there be any greater word
of comfort as we struggle flesh against spirit, this life against
the next? Pleasures of this life as opposed
to the glory of the next. The sorrows of this world competing
with the things to come. These words were not given to
us to excuse our weakness or to give any validation to our
unfaithfulness. We shouldn't be unfaithful. It's
wrong. But they are given to us to strengthen
our hearts with grace and stir up our minds and reinvigorate
us to the task before us, whether it be the task of running the
race set before us that Paul talks about, of pressing on to
lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of us, or the task
spreading the word to others, whatever it is, God gives his
word to us that we shall finish the race,
we shall keep the faith, and we shall accomplish the work
that we were sent to do. Have we laid the foundation stone
in our day? Have we set forth before the
world Christ and Him crucified? That's the foundation stone.
Peter says, quoting I believe it's Isaiah. See, I lay in Zion
a foundation stone chosen and precious. It's the stone the
builders rejected, but God has laid that foundation stone. It's
Christ. And in our day, we lay that foundation stone through
preaching and testifying. We keep pointing people, it's
Christ, it's Christ, it's nothing else. There's one, I believe it's either
in this bulletin or the next week. I was finding articles
to put in both of them as I was putting together this week. But
it said, the person said, it's Christ yesterday, it's Christ
today, and it's Christ tomorrow. Everything that pertains to our
life with God, our relationship with God, everything that pertains
to it is in Christ. That's the foundation. and everything
else is built on that foundation or it's a house that's gonna
crumble when the first storm comes by. Have we laid that foundation
in our day? Did we sincerely and honestly put it forth? Yes,
we did. And as was said about Zerubbabel,
he shall lay the foundation and he shall complete it. We shall
complete whatever temple it was in our day and place. I realize
the Lord's temple won't be complete until the Lord comes back. But
you know what? Whatever was supposed to be built in our day will be
built. Our unfaithfulness will not frustrate
the purpose of God. Our unfaithfulness will not block
us from the blessing of God. I don't know about you, that
sure encourages me. I could give you a long list
of reasons why I think that I messed up. But God didn't mess
up. He has gathered everyone he intended
to gather He has done the good that he
has done, not because of us, but in spite of us. And it's
always been that way. Never has been any other way.
It's always God that does the work. Did we start? Yes, but
only because God began a good work in us. Shall we finish?
Yes, because he that began the good work will finish it. Proverbs 24 verse 16 assures
us, though the righteous fall seven times, and it uses that
number seven completely, just, you know, a face plant. You know,
sometimes you fall and you can kind of catch yourself and roll,
but this is one, you know, just splat. Though the righteous fall
seven times, they rise again. We fall in what we think are
small ways over and over again. That frustrates us. Sometimes
we have a big, horrible fall, and we think there's no coming
back from it. Though the righteous fall seven
times. Now, they're not righteous because of what they do. They're
righteous because God has given to them his own righteousness,
a righteousness that comes from him, not one that they established
on their own. These righteous, they fall, and
they fall, and they fall, and they fall completely. They go through terrible times
of doubt. I have seen those who have professed
the name of Christ and then disappeared for years. And then they come
back. Why? Though the righteous fall
seven times, they rise again. Why? Because God is the one who
got them started and he is not going to let them fail. though
there be many failures along the way. But these words to Zerubbabel
are not so much to and about us as they are about Jesus Christ. Zerubbabel is a picture of our
Lord Jesus. And we know that this isn't about
Zerubbabel building the temple in that day. That is, that's
not its ultimate fulfillment. Why? Well, part of the promise
was is that the glory of the house The second house would
be greater than the glory of the first one. Well, the temple
that Zerubbabel built was never as glorious as Solomon's temple. But the temple that Christ builds,
no comparison. In Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse 25, See to
it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they
refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we
if we turn away from him who warns from heaven? At that time
his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised once more,
I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. That's what he said through Haggai.
He said, I'm gonna shake the earth and the heavens. I'm gonna
shake down thrones and nations. He said, the word once more indicate
the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, so that
what cannot be shaken will remain. You know, everything that you
and I see can and will be shaken down. We've just come through a contentious
election and we really haven't come through it yet, have we?
It's still being contested. Now I'm not a prophet, but do you see what's going on
here? God is shaking what can be seen so that those who have eyes to
see can see what's invisible. He is shaking down that which
men trust in. Oh, how many people. trust in the government of our
nation. I think it's just so insulting when preachers advocate
for one president or another as though it's going to be better
for God if this guy is president instead of that guy. I know this,
whoever eventually ends up president on January 20th, it's going to
be God to put him there. And he may put him there to restore
things. He may put him there to tear
things up. And we may come into times, we
may find a flourishing economy. We may find that they find a
cure or a vaccine for COVID and all the things we see going around
as the world, as it were, shakes around us. We may find that happen,
or we may find God just shake this country down to his knees.
Split it up, who knows what he can do, any of it. And no doubt
that would trouble us. I don't want to see our nation
fall on hard times, because if this nation falls on hard times,
that means we fall on hard times. But I know this, the Lord could
shake it all down and destroy it, and all that you and I hope
in would still remain. Because you see one day he's
going to grab you and shake you down all the way to the grave. And you will lose nothing. And you will gain everything. Our Lord has come and he will
shake down all the powers and authorities He grasped them by
His hand. He said, All authority in heaven
and earth has been given to Me. And He grabs these authorities
that dare to stand in the way of Him building His temple. And
He puts them in their place and when He's done, He knocks them
out of the way. He builds up and then He tears down. And the
historians write it this way and then other historians write
it a different way. And some people are all up in arms thinking,
you know, oh, everything's coming to an end. Someday it will. Someday it will. And it'll be
all right. Because there's something that's
never coming to an end. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ. There have been thrones and powers
that raised up against the church of the Lord Jesus, persecuted
them, and God tolerates it for a while, and then He lowers the
boom and He shakes them down to nothing. And then He'll let
them rise up again to accomplish His purpose for something else.
Isn't it good to know that whether the world is shaking, or whether
the world is calm. Our Lord is in control of it. The psalmist said, though the
mountains shake, we will not fear. I've never been in an earthquake.
I mean, I've felt it, you know, when you just get that little
rumble for a second or so, but you know those places that, you
know, like out there towards the west coast, man, they get
an earthquake and it'll go on for 30 seconds, maybe a whole
minute, and the building around them, I've never been in something
like that. Can you imagine how helpless you feel? I mean, it
doesn't do any good to look for safety in the building. It could
fall on you. If you run outside, it could still fall on you. The
earth could open up and swallow you. You say, I'm not going to
be afraid then. I'm going to be honest with you,
I probably would be, but I don't have to be. He shakes these things so that
everything that can be shaken will be shaken down to nothing
so that all that is left is what is eternal and cannot be shaken. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
foundation stone and he it is that laid the foundation stone
by his death. And he that laid the foundation
stone will be the one who completes it, the whole building. And if you're one of those living
stones that he has put into that building, he does a good job. You aren't going to fall out.
He's not going to pick you up and turn around and you fall
off. No. He knows how to build. I'm so weak. He knows how to
work with weak stones. He builds a strong house with
weak stones. You and I, we're nothing. We think we're nothing. The world
thinks we're nothing. And both of us are right. But
God says, I've chosen you. He said to our Lord, I've chosen
you. In one of the commentaries I read, it says some of the Jewish
versions of this scripture says, I'm well pleased with you. You
remember what our father said about the Lord Jesus? It's my
beloved son whom I'm well pleased. He chose Christ, and he chose
us in him. He gave to Christ all his authority. And we being sent by Christ are
like his signet ring in this world. And when we preach Christ's
message, even though we're nothing, we carry the authority of God
with us. And that word cannot be stopped. It will accomplish
the purpose for which God sent it. And God has promised us and
promised our Lord Jesus that he will rule this universe
and he will shake them if need be, if they stand in opposition
and become a threat to the kingdom of God. I'm always taken back to the
book of Revelation. And I remember how it was preached
to me when I was a kid. And you know, they'd say, oh,
God's bringing judgment for all those. And of course, you know,
usually when preachers start naming sins, they're telling
you what they have trouble with. That's why I don't name sins
very often. I don't want you to know. And all them thieves
and all them, nowadays they be talking about, you know, those,
God's gonna bring judgment because of those filthy homosexuals,
you know, and this, that, and the other. Do you know why all
those judgments fell in the book of Revelation? Speaking of Babylon,
the great prostitute, she was cast into the lake of fire because
the blood of the saints was found in her. They touched God's people. God
puts up with a whole lot out of nations and organizations
and all that, so long as they leave his people alone. They
rise up against his people and against his son. He doesn't get
worried. I believe it's the second song
speaks about the Lord being enthroned. It says, the nations say, no,
we'll not have him to rule over us. We're not going to let him
be king. Did God get upset? He said, he
that sits in the heaven shall laugh. He shall have them in
derision. Look around you. God's not worried. We don't have to be. Christ began, he'll finish. And because he began, you began. And because he finishes, you
will finish. ends the word of the prophet
Haggai.