Now last Sunday we were in this
passage of Scripture as our text, and again this morning my wife has informed me that
I need to change the title for the internet, so I may do that
later today. But last Sunday we spent almost all
of our time working on a statement in verse 7 of the second chapter
of Haggai. And that statement says, And
I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall
come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of
hosts. I'll read 8 and 9. The silver
is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The glory
of this latter house, this second temple, the glory of this latter
house shall be greater than of the former. This temple shall
be more glorious than Solomon's temple. which made this one look
like a very small building. But it's important for us to
understand how it is that God's glory filled this temple to an
infinitely greater degree than it did Solomon's temple, or the
tabernacle for that matter. So we read in verse 9, the glory
of this latter house, shall be greater than the former, says
the Lord of Hosts, and in this place will I give peace, says
the Lord of Hosts." Now, I know this is backwards,
but if you'll back up in this chapter, I want to add another
verse to our reading. I want us to see how this wonderful
statement regarding our Lord Jesus Christ as the desire of
all nations. Verse 3 says, now remember they're
rebuilding the temple, they've come back from Babylonian captivity,
and the king has furnished them with all kinds of supplies to
rebuild this place. But they have not the men nor
the means to build a temple that matched the size and ornateness
of Solomon's temple. This temple is not very well appointed outside
or inside. And it's important for us to
know this and why it should be this way. Because our generation
is following the same road as people did in the Old Testament.
Trying to build bigger and better and more ornate and more this
and more that and more the other. And that's not the question.
It's not what kind of building you have, what street it's on,
what road it's on, how much it costs, how many people attend
at this particular... These things are meaningless. Is the glory of God in this place? That's the question. And if it
is not, if this desire of all nations, if his glory is not
present here, we ought all to go home and just turn out the
lights, turn off the power, and shut the door and lock them. If God is not present in the
person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, there is nothing of an
eternal nature, there is nothing of a spiritual nature that will
take place. You can go through all the rituals
and all the ceremonies, but it doesn't change anything. So the
question is asked in verse 3, who is left among you that saw
this house in her first glory? That was when Solomon's temple
It's been now roughly 75 years since Solomon's temple was destroyed. These are some very old people
that can remember that temple. And the scripture says they wept
when they saw what this one looked like as opposed to that one.
But it might be. that these people were looking
for more than how much gold and silver was on the inside and
how much of this sat in the other, and they were looking to see
if the glory of God is in this place. Who is left among you
that saw this house in her first glory, and how do you see it
now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? It just seems like nothing compared
to Solomon's temple. All right, let's see if we can
work on this matter now of how it is that the glory of God can
be said to be someplace in this temple or in any structure anywhere
in this world since the Lord Jesus came to this earth. and
presents himself in this second temple. This is the same temple
that was standing when our Lord walked this earth. God promises in verse 7 to fill
this house with glory. that is, the second temple. And
this glory with which God is said to fill it is the glory
of Christ the Messiah. Here is the first thing we notice
about this glory. The Lord Jesus appeared on this
earth while this temple was standing and was often, our Lord was found
either in it or around it, often. He taught in this place, that's
the place he was teaching, when they dragged the woman caught
in the act of adultery in front of him. You understand, this
was not in the temple proper. This is in the courtyards and
the various things that surrounded this temple. But our Lord was
there often. He was there when the widow came
and put her money in that huge collection device. It was less
than a penny. Two mites. Two mites. While all the royal people came
and wanted everybody to see how much money they put in there.
And our Lord said, this poor woman put more than anybody else.
She put all she had. They gave out of a vast supply. She gave all. All she had. All she had. God, in Christ, in human flesh,
was now found in this temple. When our Lord put one foot in
that place, it was filled with the glory of God. Can you fathom that? This man speaks, and it's God
speaking. Yet he looks like just a man. And he is just a man, the God-man,
Christ Jesus. But he's wearing human flesh.
But he's not a sinner. Not yet anyway. Not until the
sins of his people are imputed to him when he goes to Calvary's
tree. of which the law was only a shadow,
is in our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not only the law giver,
but the law keeper. And He's not only the giver and
the keeper, but He's the one who atones for sinners who've
broken it, and satisfies it in every manner that can be spoken
of. He is the reality of all the
Old Testament types of which the temple was one, the tabernacle
was another, and hundreds and hundreds of others. And our Lord
is the fulfillment of all of this. He is the fulfillment of
all the promises. Let's see, is it 2 Corinthians
1.30, I believe it is, or 1.20, maybe it's 20. All the promises of God in Jesus
Christ are yes and amen to the glory of God by us. Every promise in this book, a
believing sinner can say, it is mine because it is mine in
Christ. Not that I've earned it. Not
that I've deserved it, for such cannot be the case. But our Lord
has merited it for me, and it belongs to me through Him. That's
a different ballgame altogether. When you think of Christ, think
of His innocence, His devotion, His faith, His spirituality,
His love, His zeal, His worship, His preaching, His Godhood. That this is God the God-man? He said Himself in Matthew 12
and verse 6, there is one in this place greater than the temple. And that could only mean Himself. Himself. But here's the question
of great importance. Where is God's glory filling
an actual temple anywhere in this world today? Where is it?
That's where we need to be, wherever it is. How can we distinguish this?
How can we even talk intelligently about it? Here are some questions we might
ask. That temple that our Lord honored
with his presence and the glory of God filled that place was
long ago destroyed. It was demolished in A.D. 70 by the Romans and has never been rebuilt. So where is God's temple now? Where is it? Is it found in churches
that name themselves Temple Baptist Church? That's just a play on
words. Where is God's temple right now? And there ain't but one answer
to that question, and I've got it. Where is Jesus Christ right now? Wherever He is, That's where
the glory of God is. And if God is not here, it doesn't
matter who's here or if anybody's here. I'm telling you, His presence
is absolutely necessary. Where is He? I'll use His own
words. Now listen carefully, these are
Christ's own words. Where two or three are met together,
there am I in the midst, in the middle of them. You don't have to have a great
crowd, just two or three. Where two or three are met together,
These are persons whom the Lord Jesus has redeemed and brought
salvation to them, and they are now in Christ. And Christ is
in us, if we are truly His. Now you understand you can be
a Baptist and be lost, don't you? You can be anything and
be lost. But you can't be anything and
be saved. You must be in Christ, and Christ
must be in us, or there is no salvation. Now that's the introduction.
Now we come to describe some things that were in Solomon's temple that
were not in the temple that was rebuilt during the time of Haggai. There are five things. It's been
a good two, three, four years since I've mentioned these things
to you, I think, but I have mentioned them at least on one or two occasions. The difference between the first
Or Solomon's temple and the second temple, the one that was still
being used when our Lord was on this earth. Here are five
things that we're missing and they are very significant. The
first one is the Ark of the Covenant. That little box that was in that
innermost part of that temple called the Holy of Holies. Only
the high priest could go in there and that just once a year with
the blood of atonement from the Passover lamb. Anyone else that
went in that place died. We're told, I forget where I
read this, but we're told that they tied a rope around the priest's
ankle in case God smote him to death in that place so they could
pull him out, because they couldn't go in after him. The same thing
would have happened to them. Now this Ark of the Covenant
is important. Inside that Ark of the Covenant
were the Ten Commandments. The golden pot with manna? Aaron's
rod that budded? And it's not in this second temple. The second thing that was not
there is what is called the shenanah glory. That is, the manifestation
that the glory of God is in this place. It was first seen at the
tabernacle in the wilderness. That cloud settled over that
tabernacle, and God was saying in unmistakable terms, my presence
is in this place, in this tabernacle. This is how a sinner worships
God. It's through a substitute, and
it's by blood. It's not by what my intentions
are. It's not how educated or uneducated
we are. It's not how much we earn or
how little we earn. These things have nothing to
do with this at all. We can't buy God's favor. So the evidence that could be
seen that God's glory was in a place is not in this second
temple. Even when our Lord Jesus Christ
was in this place, there was nothing that these eyes could
see that would say the glory of God has come again. The only
people that saw the glory of God in Christ are people that
God saved. He opened our eyes. He gave us
spiritual sight. He revealed Christ to our soul
and our heart. And that's still how it has to
be. You can read all the books that's ever been printed. That
won't make you a believer. Thirdly, the third thing missing. Oh, by the way, before I forget
it, you can find these things in Mr. Hawker's dictionary, under
the word temple and under the word sign. Okay? The third thing
is the spirit of prophecy. This wonderful aspect of God's
glory is that He declares to men things that they can find
out no other way. Now, you've known preachers,
and I've known preachers, and you've known churches as we say,
went to seed on the subject of prophecy, and they were all the
time going to places to hear preachers preach on prophecy. Somebody asked me many years
ago, when are you going to preach on the book of Revelation? And
I said, I ain't. Oh, I'd come if you'd preach
on the book of Revelation. Yeah, and a whole bunch of other
dummies just like yourself would do the same thing. That's not
where it is. Where is it? In Christ! and in Christ alone. You'll find these words written
in the book of Revelation chapter 19 and verse 10. The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Do you hear that? The testimony
of the Lord Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It's got nothing
to do with what's going to happen to Russia, or the United States,
or the UN, or any other end for that matter. These things are
meaningless. It's like going to a circus,
and a fellow's going to feed you a bunch of junk, you know,
and then you're going to say, man, wasn't that something? No,
it wasn't something. It wasn't anything. Christ is
all. Fourthly, there's a thing called
the Urim and the Fumen. And it went on the breastplate
of the high priest, and it was some kind of large, round display
of precious stones that were on the breastplate of the high
priest that enabled him to know and communicate things to God
For men, that could be found no other way. But this morning
I'm telling you that Christ is the Ark of the Covenant. He's
the Shekinah Glory. He's the Spirit of Prophecy.
He's the Urim and the Thumen. And one more item is missing
in this second temple. When Solomon's temple was opened, God's fire fell from heaven. and consume the sacrifice without
the aid of a man. And that's not to be found in
the second temple. If you want to fire under that
sacrifice, you've got to light it yourself. Christ is our altar. He is our sacrifice, He is our
High Priest, and He is the God to whom this sacrifice is offered. I think that means He's everything. Everything. He has to be everything. Now quickly I mention to you last Sunday, four things that
describe what every human being longs for. These are four needs
that language, culture, color, religion, government, lack of
government, None of these things change this. Wherever people
are found in this whole wide world, these four things are
desired. Otherwise, if we cannot establish
this truth, then how can you prove that Christ in Haggai 2.7
and in verse 9, how can you prove that Christ is the desire of
all nations? For John says in the first chapter
of his gospel, he came into this world, and the world believed
him not. He came to his own, and his own
wouldn't receive him. And over and over again, Old
and New Testament, Christ is despised and rejected and hated. So how can you call him the desire
of all nations? Here it is. Here's part of it. Here's the first answer to that.
Man has four universal needs of which Christ is the only means
to have these things. The first thing is a God that
you can see, a visible God. And I'm telling you, that God
is in Christ, and Christ wears human flesh. He's God and man
and yet just one person. 1 Timothy 3.16, he's called God
manifest in the flesh. In the flesh. Secondly, the second
thing that people look for, and you can find evidence of this
all over the world in virtually every generation of time. The
second thing is people long for an atonement for sin. People
know that they are sinners. And they need to appease a God,
whoever He is or whatever He is. And there's evidence of this
found in tribes that have never heard anything about Jesus Christ
or the Bible or anything like that. All over this world you'll
find that this is what people need. They must have this. Even if it's a lie, as long as
they believe it. They draw some comfort from it,
but it's not any good of course, but they think it is. Thirdly,
we have a desire to know the future. What's going to happen to me? If you're in Christ, and Christ
is in you, all is well. No matter what's coming or going,
it is well with my soul. Fourthly, as human beings, we
all desire to live forever. But I remind you that that forever,
according to the gospel, can be in two very different places.
One of them is called heaven and the other is called hell.
And there will be human beings in both places. Everybody in
heaven will be there because Christ is their redeemer, their
sacrifice, their substitute, their righteousness, their holiness,
their law keeper. All of this he does, if he does
it for one of his sheep, he does it for all of them. All right, let's look at this
a little differently. The Lord Jesus is the desire
of all nations because of those four universal needs that every
man possesses. Secondly, He is the desire of
all nations by His being altogether lovely in Himself. There's not
anything about Christ or pertaining to Christ that's in the least
bit out of order. Everything is perfectly harmonized
in Christ. I mean, how many times in our
Bibles do we read that He's this and that and the other to all
believers? And that He never changes. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. What he is now, he's
always been. And what he's always been, he
is now. Our Lord Jesus has every perfection
in his person, in his character, and in his work. Nothing about him or what he's
done or why he's done it can be debated or argued about. If he did it, it's right. It
has to be right. Thirdly, Christ is the desire
of all nations because he has had and has a people in every
nation, tribe, and tongue on the face of this earth. There are too many places in
our Bibles that tell us this exact thing for us this morning. In the interest of time, we have
not time to do that. But here's a sample. Abraham
saw Christ. Our Lord Himself said he did
in John chapter 12. He said, Abraham saw my day and
rejoiced. And I know one of those days
was on Mount Moriah when he was about to offer his son. And the
angel stopped him. showed him this ram, called him
the thicket. Abraham learned something that
day, that God has a substitute for sinners. And that substitute
is the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, and that ain't
all. In that exact spot where Abraham
was offering that sacrifice, and it started out to be the
sacrifice of his son, it is either on that precise spot or very
close to it that our Savior went to Calvary's tree, Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah. Not only Abraham in Canaan, but
Job who lived in the land of Uz. He said concerning Christ,
chapter 19 if I remember right, my Redeemer lives. I know that
my Redeemer lives. That Redeemer had not even yet
come into this world in human flesh, but only represented by
types and shadows and pictures. Not regular pictures now, word
pictures. Not only Abraham and Job, but
there's Moses in Egypt. And Moses said, according to
Hebrews chapter 11, Moses said that he esteemed the reproach
of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. If he'd have behaved himself
and been a good boy, he would have had all those treasures. but he wouldn't trade them for
the reproach of Christ. Number four, because in due time The Lord Jesus, according to
our Bibles, will be prized and gloried in by all the ends of
the earth. Now that does not mean that everybody
in this world, shucks, that doesn't even mean everybody in this county
has a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's telling
us that He has a people all over this world. And he will have
them. There's no way that he cannot
have all that the Father gives me, he said, shall come to me.
Now that's either true or it ain't. And if it's in the Bible,
and we properly understand how that statement comes across,
it has to be true. And if it falls from our Savior's
lips, you don't need any caution. It has to, my soul, his name
is the truth. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. How about, I can't let you go
without at least turning twice. Here's the first one, Philippians
chapter 2. I tell you what, if you just
suspend that, I'll read it to you, and then I want you to go
to the next text, because that's where I want to be. I should have never told you
the verse. If you're still trying to find
it, it's chapter 2 of Philippians, and it's verses 9, 10, and 11. Wherefore, God also has highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Now some people might not voluntarily
say that, but they will say it. Alright, one more text, Psalm
72. Psalm 72. Now while you're finding
it, let me make a statement or two about this. Apparently this
is a psalm of David, and the heading says it is a psalm for
Solomon, David's son. However, if you read this psalm,
you know, before you go very many verses, you know, David
is saying more than Solomon can produce. You follow me? He's saying some things that
appear to be about Solomon that are about Solomon's God, namely
the Lord Jesus. Now, when you come to the book
of Psalms, you've really got to figure out which time is it
Christ and which isn't Christ. But the verses that interest
me this morning are verses 17 through 20, which is the conclusion
of the psalm. Alright, remember what we're
trying to establish. Christ is the desire of all nations,
and Christ is the glory of God. And wherever he is, That's where
God's glory is. And if a religious outfit does
not make, now listen, don't say does not make some things about
Christ. I mean if they don't make everything
about Christ. Everything. People think you can have Jesus
and spend your time Trying to kiss up to everybody and his
brother so they'll think you're so wonderful and your church
is so wonderful. You'd sell Christ in order to
get a crowd. And that's what has happened
over and over and over again. Verse 17. Now, if these statements
aren't Christ, I don't know anything. His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. And blessed
be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled
with his glory. Now Solomon ain't that big, and
you know it. Amen and amen. Now one more statement. The prayers
of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Psalm 72. Now, finally, just a few more
statements here. Try to answer this question in
conclusion. How does this desire of all nations
appear to me? What think you of Christ? What
do I think of Christ? Is He to me the hope of glory? Is he to me the only hope of
glory? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Can we say with David on his
dying bed, he is all my salvation and all my desire? Christ is
everything. I don't need anything else. You mean you don't have to offer
something to God if you have Christ? You know the answer to that. Can I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord? Do I
love the people who love Him? Will it complete my happiness
to be like Him when I see Him as He is? 1 John chapter 3 verse
2. That's what it says, that when
we see Him, we'll be like Him. Why? For we shall see Him like
He is. It's called a transforming sight. We see Him now through a glass,
darkly or dimly. Oh, but then it'll be face to
face. Now, we may have good outward
eyesight, but our spiritual eyesight is often diminished for one reason
or another. But I tell you, when you really
see Him, you'll be made like Him, because it's a transforming
sight. Brother Rogers, I don't want
you to get rusty,