All right, we're looking at the
book of Haggai chapter two. And this, if you read through
that with me and listen, you might say, that's a pretty strange
message, that God wanted to deliver his people, Judah, through this
prophet Haggai. I've entitled this message, The
Ground of God's Blessings. You know, he mentions there in
verse 19, he says, from this day will I bless you. And based
upon everything that you read before that from verse 10 on,
the description of the people and their ways and what God says,
you would think that they were far from being blessed of God. And yet God says, from this day
will I bless you. And the question might arise,
and we'll see that as we go through the verses, upon what ground
or for what reason would God bless such a people? Because
it's apparent in what's recorded here that they didn't deserve
God's blessings. It's apparent from what's recorded
here that they could not have earned God's blessings. And so,
upon what ground or for what reason would God bless such a
people? Well, he tells them right here
within these words. This is Haggai's third message
to the returning remnant, that remnant of the people of Judah
who had returned from the captivity back to their homeland. This
was delivered two months after the last message. We studied
the first and the second. And there was two months between
this message here, this third message, and the last one. And
he gives you the exact date of it. In the fourth and twentieth
day of the ninth month. The twenty-fourth day of the
ninth month. That would correspond to our month of December. Most
people say it's December eighteenth. Some say that the actual twenty-fourth,
there's December twenty-fourth. It doesn't matter. But as far
as the exact number of the day, what matters about that is this
is a time of winter. It's not a time of harvest, and
yet later on he talks about harvesting. We'll see what he means by that.
But this, you remember the Lord had sent them back to their homeland,
number one, to rebuild the temple, to rebuild the temple of the
Lord, to rebuild the altar, to re-establish the worship of God
as he prescribed them to worship under the law of Moses, and to
re-establish the sacrificial system of worship, as you know,
all of that, picturing Christ, a prophecy of Christ, a picture
of Christ, an object lesson teaching salvation Totally, totally by
the sovereign grace of God. That's what that temple was all
about. That whole temple was a picture of Christ and His church. Christ, the temple of God. His
church is the people of God, wherein the Shekinah glory of
God dwells on the basis of the blood of the Lamb. All of that,
see? And that's what's important throughout
this whole thing now. That's how you read these verses
now, because that's the issue with God. And you remember that
when they got back in the land first, they began to build the
temple, and they got part of the foundation laid, and then
they quit. Remember that? And they let it
go for 15, 16 years. And there were three reasons
they quit. You know, and then Haggai came and delivered a message
and then they started again, but they quit again. But there
are basically three reasons throughout this whole process of rebuilding
the temple and then later on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem,
the city. And the first reason was they
were disappointed that in their eyes, this temple they were building
here just wasn't as beautiful and as grandiose and as impressive
as the Temple of Solomon. You remember, we read that how
some of the old folks who remembered the days of old, they grieved.
They sat down in sorrow because this temple, oh, they looked
at it and it was just so unimpressive. you know, compared to Solomon's
temple. And remember what Haggai, what
he reminded them of, is that the glory of the temple is not
in the size of the stones or the beauty of the building, but
it's in the glory of the Lord that was contained in that temple,
the glory of Christ. And then secondly, they quit
because they wanted to build houses for themselves. They quit
for selfish reasons. They wanted to build luxurious
houses. They called them sealed houses,
you remember. Those were elaborate houses for
themselves, so they had their own comforts and their own desires
in mind before they would even think about the glory of God
and the worship of God. And that's terrible, isn't it? I mean, aren't we like that so
often? And then thirdly, They quit because there was some opposition.
Haggai doesn't say a lot about their particular opposition here,
but it's spoken of in other passages, especially in Ezra and Nehemiah.
But they had opposition and hostility from outsiders. They were the
Samaritans. You remember, Samaria had become
the capital city of the Northern Kingdom, which was obliterated.
And out of that process came a group called the Samaritans.
You know, they figure prominently in the New Testament days. Remember
the parable of the good Samaritan and all of that, and how the
Lord must needs go through Samaria, things like that, and how they
were such a hated people, but they had no part in the old covenant. They had no part in the nation
Israel, and they wanted to help with the temple, and wanted to
get involved, but it was forbidden. It was forbidden. They wanted
to intermarry, but it was forbidden. Some say this third message of
Haggai's is the reason that this opposition and hostility that
they got from the Samaritans and them wanting to come in and
defile it, that this was the reason for his third message
here, but it doesn't matter. It's still the same message is
here. And what happened now during
all this time, the Lord sent Haggai and he sent Zechariah
to inspire the people. In fact, you notice there in
verse 10, it talks about how this third message was delivered
two months after Haggai's second message, but there was a message
delivered even before this by Zechariah. Look over at Zechariah
chapter one and verse one. It says there that Zechariah,
he delivered his first message in the eighth month in the second
year of Gerias. So Zechariah delivers his message
before Haggai delivers his first message before Haggai delivers
his third message. So we have these prophets, these
prophets of the Lord, they have the word of God for the people.
And Haggai in this third message, look at verse 11, he has questions
for the priest. It says in verse 11, thus saith
the Lord of hosts. Again, identifying the Lord as
Jehovah, the Lord of a great army that cannot be defeated.
That's his invincibility. He doeth as he pleases among
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. And
he says, ask now the priest concerning the law. So this is a question
for the priest concerning the law. You know, the priest under
the old covenant, now you know, we study the prophets and they
had the word of God for the people, but you know, actually, and when
it concerns the everyday lives of the people of the nation and
the law, the priest were the spiritual leaders and guides
of the people in matters of the law. If you had a question, you'd
go ask one of the priests, one of the Levites. They were like
the New Testament lawyers and scribes who were supposed to
be well-versed in the scriptures. And like the kings and the prophets,
they were to lead and guide the people in the ways of the Lord
as he revealed himself in the law of Moses. And that's what
Haggai does here. God tells him, ask now the priest
concerning the law. And this is how we have to learn
to think biblically. and interpret Scripture with
Scripture. When you see that word law there, what's he talking
about? He's talking about the Law of Moses. This is something has
to do with the Law of Moses. This is something has to do with
the Old Covenant. We're going to get very specific
here. But keep in mind two things showing why the law was given
to Israel. Number one, It was given mainly
to do what? Why was the law mainly... We
could talk about other reasons, but why was the law mainly given
to Israel? Number one, to expose their sinfulness
and their uncleanness and their depravity. Why would God want
to expose something like that? To show them their need of His
grace. That's the second one. To drive
them to Christ. You can read about that in Romans
chapter 5. Why was the law given? Because
of sin. This law was a great mirror,
you might say. A man could look into it and
see himself as he really is a sinner. An unclean, vile, wicked sinner. who cannot save himself. By deeds
of law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight." And man could
look into this law and not only see himself in his sinfulness
and depravity and uncleanness, but see God's prescribed and
only way of salvation. By the blood of a substitute,
by grace, by mercy, all pointing to Christ. Paul spoke of that
in Galatians chapter three when he's talking about, wherefore
serveth the law? It was added because of the transgression
until the seed should come, Christ. It was our schoolmaster, he said,
to lead us unto Christ. For where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. You see, that's why the law was
given. And so, Haggai prophesied to a people who were under the
law. And they were a people who claimed
to know God. They were a people who claimed
to know truth. They claimed to be the people of God. You remember,
the Jews all along in their history, they claimed, we're Abraham's
seed. We be circumcised, they would say. We keep the law of
Moses. Now we know the reality of all
three of those things, being Abraham's child in a spiritual
eternal way, that means to be in Christ. To be circumcised
in a spiritual and eternal way, that means to be born again by
the Spirit. To keep the law of Moses, that
means to be driven to Christ for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness, for all eternal life, for all glory. That's what
it is. Because that's what Moses did.
He told them in John chapter 5 when he said, you do search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.
They are they which testify of me. He said, you claim Moses
to be your hope, that is, your keeping of the law. He said,
you'll have one to judge you, Moses, in whom you trust. He said, for had you believed
Moses, you'd have believed me. He wrote of me. Read about it. And it's much the same today.
These people that Haggai is talking to, they claim to be people who
knew the truth, the people of God, engaged in the work of God.
People today claim the same thing, much today. People who don't
know Christ. These people here, they were
busy. They had gone back to rebuilding
the temple, but they'd lost sight of the reality of the temple.
They'd lost sight of the truth of the temple. And their hearts
were not in it. Just not in it. It kind of reminds
me of Isaiah's day. You remember in Isaiah chapter
1 when he upbraided them for their religious exercises, but
it was religion without truth. It was religion without grace.
It was religion without heart. It was religion without Christ. And I'll tell you, there's nothing
more sickening in God's sight than that kind of religion. It
was self-righteous religion. Remember when God spoke through
Isaiah, he said, I've had enough of your feast days, your services,
you lift up your hands. That's impressive to men. Oh,
they're praying. And God says they're just going
through the motions. That's what was happening here
in their rebuilding of the temple, even. They thought because they
were Abraham's seed, because they were circumcised, because
as they imagined, they kept the law of Moses. They didn't keep
the law of Moses, but they thought they did. You remember Paul said
that. He said at one time, I was a law keeper. In Romans 7, he
talks about how the Holy Spirit showed him the reality. I guess
you could say he wiped all the clouds and the smoke off that
mirror and showed him who he is. And then he said, sin revived
and I died. It's just like people, they thought
because they were building the temple that that made them holy. We're doing the work of God.
That's the way people think today. They think because they're doing,
as they say, the work of God, that makes them holy. That makes
them accepted before God. Get busy, build churches, build
buildings, fill them up, proselytize. Go here, go there, give here,
give there. That's what's happening here
in High Guys Day. And that's what makes, that counts
for something. That's what people, they may
not use the words holy and righteous, but I guarantee you in their
minds and their hearts, it counts for something. You see, that's
why Paul, when God saved Saul of Tarsus, and he described it
in Philippians chapter three there, what he actually said
is, what I thought counted for something, I found out counted
for nothing. That I may win Christ. Christ
is the only one who counts for anything. His blood, his righteousness. The only thing that counts for
anything here. All the rest is of no account. These people imagined that God
would bless them for their works and their religious exercise.
They claimed, as I said, all these things. They claimed they
were holy and righteous and clean because of all these things.
So God, through Haggai, teaches them an object lesson from the
law and he asks these two questions of the priest. Now look at verse
12. and all these questions, now both these questions have
to do, now let me put it in perspective for you so you won't, because
it's kind of hard to understand this, but it's really not that
hard, it's actually kind of simple. It has to do with the issue of
cleanness and defilement. Cleanness and defilement, that's
the issue here. And he says, if one bare holy
flesh in the skirt of his garment And with his skirt do 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, if one,
he answers another question, if one that is unclean, see the
first one is if one has holy flesh, he bears holy flesh, what
is it? I'll show you in just a moment. If one that is unclean
by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? So what's
the issue here? cleanliness or defilement. Are you clean or are you unclean? Now, we're certainly not talking
about physical cleanness here. We're not talking about cleanliness
is next to godliness. That's not in the Bible. Talking
about how we stand before God. I'll read you some passages that
show that this is an age-old question. Some say that Job is
the oldest book in the Bible. Maybe that's true. I sort of
believe it is. But listen to one of Job's friends.
His name was Bildad, Job 25. Let me just read it to you. Bildad asked this question. He
says, how then can man be justified with God? How can a man, a sinner,
be declared righteous before God? Or how can he be clean? That is, born of a woman, born
in sin, we're born ruined, born dead in trespasses and sins.
Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not, yea, the stars
are not pure in God's sight. How much less man, that is a
worm, and the son of man, which is a worm. I believe that's a
direct reference to Christ on the cross, as related in Psalm
22, prophetically, when he said, I am a worm. That was he's identified
with us as our sins were imputed to him. But that's what he said. How can a man be justified with
God or how can he be clean that's born of a woman? Back over in
chapter 15 of the book of Job and verse 14, another one of
Job's friends says this. He says in verse 14, what is
man that he should be clean? In other words, that type of
question is asked in this way, it's unthinkable that a sinner
could be clean. What is man that he should be
clean? How could you call any sinner clean? And he which is
born of woman that he should be righteous, that's unthinkable.
Beholdeth God, putteth no trust in his saints, yea, the heavens
are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. Like water. And Job himself, he made this
statement. It's in Job 14, verse 1. Man
that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. He
cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeth as a shadow
and continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes
upon such in one and bringest me into judgment with thee who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Cleanliness cannot come out of
uncleanliness. Did you know that? Do you know
that's exactly what Haggai is saying here in these questions?
It's kind of like this. Here's something that's holy,
and it touches something that is unholy. Well, does that mean
that what it touched becomes holy now? He says no. No. I mean, here's a clean glass
of water. If I took a dirty glass of water,
a filthy, muddy glass of water, and I took this clean glass of
water and poured it into the muddy glass of water, would it
make the muddy glass of water clean? No. Wouldn't, would it? But now on the opposite side,
the other question he asked was this, like this, if I took that
muddy glass of water and poured it into the clean, would it make
the clean dirty? Yes. Holiness is not transferable
or communicable. Defilement, sin, uncleanness
is. The Lord taught that. He said,
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. It spreads like a
cancer. So what's the issue back here?
Well, what were they doing? They were rebuilding the temple.
What did they imagine? They imagined that that made
them holy. That's what cleansed them. That's what made them acceptable
before God. And here, look back at it again,
verse 12. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment,
and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil,
or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered no and
said no. Now what's he talking about? Well look back with me
at the book of Leviticus, chapter six. And here's what I believe he's
referencing here. Referring to, and basically what
he's saying now is this, it's like this, you cannot for a man,
a sinner, to imagine that he can cleanse himself from sin
by doing anything religious or even ceremonial as if that would
cleanse him. That's the height of pride, self-righteousness,
and foolishness. You cannot cleanse your sin. You cannot cleanse yourself by
religious activity. You cannot cleanse yourself by
being baptized in water. You cannot cleanse yourself by
your prayers or your messages or your giving or anything like
that. That's not the way it happens,
you see. Can he that is born of woman be clean? Well, the
answer to that question is yes, but not in this way. And he refers
back here to Leviticus chapter 6. Look at verse 24 of Leviticus
chapter 6. Get my pages apart here. And you know what he's talking
about there in verse 24, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron, and to his son, saying, This is the
law of the sin offering. Now this is an offering that
was offered that would ceremonially put away sin. Now this is ceremonial. When Haggai spoke of that meat,
that holy, what he was talking about the priest there bearing
holy flesh, that's holy meat. He's talking about something
ceremonial there. He's talking about that meat
that is set aside and consecrated for a particular use. Well, here's
what he's talking about. He says in verse 25, Speak unto
Aaron and his son, saying, This is the law of the sin offering
in the place where the burnt offering is killed. Shall the
sin offering be killed before the Lord? It is most holy. That
sin offering is consecrated, set apart unto the Lord. And
he says in verse 26, The priests that offer it for sin shall eat
it. It is after the blood was separated
and what part of the offering was consumed and what was left
over, the priest would take that and they would have that for
their meal. He says, in the holy place shall it be eaten. It was
eaten in that place where the table of showbread was, where
the golden candlestick was, right before you went into the holy
of holy, that's where it was to be eaten. In the court of the
tabernacle of the congregation, whatsoever shall touch the flesh
thereof shall be holy. What he's saying is the only
one who can touch that meat and the only one who can eat that
meat is a person who is holy, who is consecrated, like the
priest, the Levites. Just anybody couldn't come in
there and have that meat, you see. Had to be one who himself
is holy, that is ceremonially. And he says, and he says, when
there is sprinkled of the blood thereupon any garment, thou shalt
wash that thereon whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place.
Now what would happen there is that priest would take that piece
of meat and like Haggai said, go back to Haggai chapter 2 there,
he said, the holy flesh in the skirt, that's the fold of his
garment. He would lift up his garment
and carry that meat in the fold of his garment. Now what Haggai
is asking is this. Let's say that meat, which is
ceremonially set apart, consecrated, sanctified, if it touched anything
else, if it touched some other bread, or if it touched some
pottage, which is cooked food, or if it touched wine or oil
or any other meat, does that meat that it touched become consecrated
ceremonially or any other way? No. The answer is no. It had
no effect on it. But now verse 13 of Haggai 2,
he says, well, what about a dead body? Now, I won't go back to
these verses, but Numbers chapter 19 is one you could go to that
talks about how they were to deal with dead bodies. And anybody
who touched the dead body was considered defiled. And that
person had to remain defiled for seven days, then they had
to go through a ceremonial washing to cleanse themselves from the
defilement of the dead body. You see, death was the result
of sin. It was a picture of sin. And
he says, if one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these,
shall it be unclean? And the answer is yes, because
it says in Numbers chapter 19 that anything he touches is defiled. What was God saying there? It
wasn't some kind of a chemical reaction or physical thing. It
was a picture. It was a lesson to show that
sin is like leaven. Sin spreads. Listen, sin is not
only what we are and what we do, it's everything about us.
Without Christ, you remember? Without Christ, we're nothing
but sin and it's infectious like a disease. Anything, you defile it. Well,
what's his point here? Well, holiness cannot be transferred
from man to man, but sin can. Sin contaminates all that we
touch, all that we do. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. Not one. And here in Haggai chapter 2,
the contamination of their persons, the sin of their person and their
hearts was defiling the very sacrifices that they offered
just as those who touched a dead body contaminated others who
touched them. And if they thought that God
would bless them just because they were involved in rebuilding
a temple or going through the motions of religion, they were
sadly mistaken. That will not take care of the
problem. It only makes it worse. Well, what is the only way a
person can be made clean then? Well, look at verse 14. He says here, "...then answered
Hagin and said, so is this people." What he's teaching there about
cleanness and uncleanness is that we by nature, these people
by nature, we're unclean, we're like lepers, spiritually speaking. We're sinners. And he says, so
is this people and so is the nation before me, saith the Lord,
so is every work of their hands. In other words, they're not being
made holy by their rebuilding the temple, they're actually
contaminating it. And that which they offer there
is unclean. So what's the only way? The only way a sinner can
be made clean. Well, look at verse 15. What's
the first thing he mentions? He says, and now I pray you consider,
remember that word consider what it means. It means take it to
heart, set your heart upon this. From this day and upward, that
means into the future. That's what that upward means,
into the future. from this day and upward from
before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the
Lord." What's he direct their attention to? The temple itself
now. That's what he's doing. That
temple, it was a visible testimony to the uncleanliness of all men
by nature, but a living testimony to the only way a sinner can
be made clean, how? By the blood of a qualified God-appointed
substitute. that picture of Christ and His
precious blood. He had to be made sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And here the prophet tells us to consider the temple
itself from its very foundation. What is the foundation of the
temple? What's the foundation of God's temple? The church.
He said, upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against us. Our cleanliness, our acceptance
with God is to be found only in the glorious person and finished
work of Christ that was portrayed in all the sacrifices, all the
priesthood connected with the temple of God. As that building
of the temple was God's work alone, so is our salvation, our
righteousness. That's God's work alone too.
He says in verse 15, he says, "...and now I pray you consider
from this day and upward from before a stone was laid upon
a stone in the temple of the Lord." Verse 16, "...since those
days were when one came to a heap of twenty measures..." Like a
big heap or pile or storehouse of grain. He came to that storehouse
and he wanted twenty measures. But there was less than 20 measures,
there was only 10. And when one came to the press
fact, that's where they, this is talking about wine or oil
from grapes or the vine. He says, for to draw out 50 vessels
out of the press, there were but 20. What's the problem? He's
talking about their expectations. You see, man's expectations are
always unfulfilled. when he depends on his own goodness
and his own ways and his own righteousness see that's what they were doing
and really physically this is what was happening they didn't
have all that they needed because God was not blessing them with
a full harvest and they were coming up short what's the problem? for all have sinned and come
up short of the glory of God. What were they expecting? Well,
they were expecting to be made clean because of their religious
exercises, because of their ceremonies, the blood of bulls and goats.
The Bible says the blood of bulls and goats can never take away
sin. They can't make you clean. Religious activity cannot make
you clean. And if that's what you're expecting,
you're going to come to that heap of grain to find bread for
life and you're going to be expecting more and you're going to get
less and it's not enough and when you come to that wine
vat or that wine press or that oil press you're going to expect
to get the joy of salvation but you're going to come up short
and it's not going to be enough you may think you're getting
holier and holier And you may expect to be rewarded based upon
that, but you'll come up short, and it's not enough. You may
think you're making yourself righteous and clean, but it's
not working. And so he says in verse 17, I
smote you with a blasting and with mildew and with hail and
all the labors of your hands, yet you turn not to me, saith
the Lord. The Lord taught them providentially that man's works
are always corrupted. This smiting and blasting and
mildew describes all the sorrows and the troubles and the death
and the sickness that come because of sin. These are always the
consequence of wickedness. And yet he says, you turn not
to me, saith the Lord. They would not repent. So here's the commandment of
God. Look at verse 18. Consider now from this day and
upward, this day and to the future, From the four and twentieth day
of the ninth month, even that day, he says, even from the day
that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Consider all that God taught
and revealed, and all those types and symbols in the temple of
Jerusalem, Keep your hearts focused on that, focused on Christ and
on His glory, and be assured of the blessedness found in and
flowing to us from Him. Set your affection on things
above, which are above, and not on things of the earth, for you're
dead with Christ. Consider the apostle and high
priest of our calling. And what does he do? He gives
them the promise of future blessing to show them what the ground
of all blessings is. Look at verse 19. He says, is
the seed yet in the barn? Well, it wasn't in the barn.
They'd already planted it. This was December. But yet, it
wasn't the time of harvest. The crops weren't yielding yet.
Yea, he says, as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate
and the olive tree had not brought forth There's no harvest yet. But one's coming. Look at the
next line. From this day will I bless you.
What's he talking about? He's talking about the promise
of future blessing in the Lord. When does God's blessing begin
for God's people? I tell you, when the Lord brings
us to the end of ourselves to see our sin and our uncleanness,
when we're made to see that our best deeds are filthy rags in
His sight, and that every work of our hands is unclean, and
then where does He bring us? He brings us to see His glory
in Christ, the God-man. And that the ground of all blessings
that I receive from God is Christ and Him crucified. His blood
and His righteousness imputed alone is the ground of all blessings. It's not my goodness, I have
none. It's not my cleanness, I have none. It's not my activity. It's not my preaching. It's not
my studying. It's nothing but Christ and Him
crucified and risen again. That's the ground of all blessings.
You see, in Christ, we are clean. In Christ, we are clean. How?
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
In Christ, we are whole. What can make us whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We won't come to the granary
and be found lacking because we have the bread of life. Christ
is the oil of joy for every believer. He's the water of life. Every
expectation of blessedness that we have in Christ will be met
in full. And there'll be no smiting, no
blasting, and no mildew, and no hail, because Christ is our
hope. He is our rock. He is our hiding
place. He is our foundation. Where our hearts are purified,
made clean by faith in Him. Our consciences are cleaned by
Him. Every believer has been made clean by the grace of God. Made clean by having our sins
blotted out in the blood of redemption through the Lamb of God. Made
clean by having His righteousness imputed to us for our complete
justification and acceptance before God. Made clean by being
made alive in regeneration as the Holy Spirit applies that
blood to our conscience. and our hearts. And no one will enter glory who's
not been made clean by Him. Now whatever religion does, it
cannot make you clean. It cannot make you pure. Only
Christ can. And if you're without Him, you're
unclean. And everything you do Whether
it looks religious, it may appear righteous outwardly, but everything
you do without Christ is unclean. And that's why he tells them,
consider this, focus your minds and your hearts upon that temple
that leads you to Christ. All right.