All right, let's open our Bibles
to the Old Testament book of Haggai. Haggai. And I hope you can find it quickly.
Page 1167, as Russell would say. If you got a Bible like his.
In the Old Testament, Haggai. The last message that we studied
in the book of Daniel was focusing on the commandment and the encouragement
that God gave the prophet Daniel when he said, Daniel, go your
way. Go your way until the end. There
may be a lot of things you don't know about the end and the times
and the seasons, but you go your way. You go about your business,
your father's business. your Savior's business. For Daniel's
way was the way of the Lord. Not his own way, but the way
of the Lord. Daniel's way was the way of the gospel, of salvation. As he looked forward to the promise
of the Messiah to come, Daniel's way was the way of grace. It
was the way of obedience and service and love that comes from
faith and looking to Christ. Here in the book of Haggai, the
first message that I want to deal with here in chapter one
is a commandment that God gave to the returning remnant. As
you know, they were in captivity in Daniel's day and then the
Medes and the Persians conquered the Babylonians and it was issued
forth a decree by Cyrus that the Israelites, the ones from
Judah, could go back to Jerusalem and Judah and rebuild the temple
in the city of Jerusalem. And in doing so, there were problems,
as you know, when on earth, dealing with human beings, problems. Problems galore. And so, God
issues forth a command to the people who are of that returning
remnant through Haggai And the message is, consider your ways. Consider your ways. Make an assessment
here. Now look at verse 1, he says
of chapter 1, he says, in the second year of Darius the king,
that's one of the Medo-Persian kings. In the sixth month, in
the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord, Notice
the word Lord's capitalized there, so this is God speaking to his
people as the covenant God. That's important. You see, God
issues forth these commandments from a particular aspect of his
character and his nature. When he issues forth judgments,
for example, He does so as the Lord of hosts, the Lord of an
invincible army that cannot be defeated, one who is just and
righteous and must punish sin. But here he's talking to his
covenant people. And it all goes back to the promise
he made to Abraham. And of course, we know the mainstay
of that promise, the main part of that promise, the main issue
of that promise, again, is to send the Messiah into the world
to be the savior of his people. And so, the word of the Lord
by Haggai, the prophet, and he spoke it unto a man named Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel. Now, Zerubbabel was the leader,
the governor, as it were, of the first group that went back
out of captivity. Zerubbabel was of the tribe of
Judah. And so, we see Zerubbabel there
representing, symbolizing, picturing Christ, our king. the heavenly
Zerubbabel. I can't remember who it was,
but I remember back in the early 80s, one of the preachers at
the conference, the June conference, preached on the heavenly Zerubbabel.
And I'll never forget that message, but that's who Zerubbabel is.
And he was the son of Shealtiel, both from the tribe of Judah.
The scepter will not depart from Judah. Now, Zerubbabel technically
wasn't the king, because they really had no king for years.
until the Herods were set up later on, way after this. But he's a picture of Christ,
our King. And then it says, he's governor
of Judah, and then it says, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek,
the high priest. Joshua represents Christ, our
great high priest. Joshua was the high priest of
the temple at this time. And we'll read some more about
Joshua in the book of Zechariah. He's the one who, Joshua, when
God gave Zechariah the night visions, one of the night visions
he gave him was of Joshua standing before the court of God's justice.
And remember, Satan accuses him. And that's where you have the
change of Raymond. That's Zechariah chapter three. Alright, so here's
Joshua, the high priest, who represents Christ, our high priest.
And, of course, we've got Haggai, the prophet, and he typifies
Christ, our prophet. So, here we have the covenant
God, and we have the character and nature and mediatorial work
of Christ all pictured right here. Christ, our prophet, Christ,
our priest, Christ, our king. Right away, at the outset, we
can understand from God's word, from scriptural interpretation,
that this prophecy is all about Christ. Search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which
testify of me. Now, Haggai, he was a prophet
to the restored remnant of Judah who returned to Jerusalem from
the 70-year captivity in Babylon. The name Haggai means festive. You might ask, well, why would
the Lord call a man whose name was Festive? Or some translate
it even further to say Festival of the Lord. Well, I believe
the reason that Haggai is the Festive prophet in that sense,
even though he has some pretty hard words for Judah. Somebody said, well, he didn't
pull any punches. He didn't. He wasn't trying to win friends
and influence people by flattery. But his prophecy marks the return
of the nation. They were in captivity for 70
years. They'd been under a foreign occupation. They'd been taken away from their
land. See, it wasn't just occupied,
they had been taken out and brought into a foreign country for 70
years, and now they were returning home, going home, going to the
promised land. Just like, it's almost like another
edition or another picture of the children of Israel when Moses
took them out of Egypt and then they crossed the river Jordan
under Joshua into the promised land. What a festive occasion. What a glorious occasion. And
here they are returning to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua. and that was to be a time of
festive time. It was to be a time of celebration.
And their celebration, now the time of celebration was to be
as such which would be honoring to the Lord. It was to be a time
of worship. It was to be a time of faith,
great faith. Jeremiah prophesied that this
would happen. God brought it about, it's true.
Here we go home. Think about that. Time of praise
to the Lord God of Israel, the God of salvation, the God of
redemption, the covenant God of promise, the God who saves
sinners by His grace through the promised Messiah. And that's
what it should have been. Now, Haggai was a prophet, Zechariah
was a prophet, Malachi, that's the last three books of the Old
Testament, And they were all sent back to Jerusalem with the
people as God's prophets to the people. Haggai and Zechariah
returned with the first group under Zerubbabel, the governor,
and Joshua the high priest. Malachi came later in the second
group under Nehemiah. And that's when they were to
rebuild the walls of the city. But Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther,
you know those three books, They give us the historical record
of the return to Jerusalem. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi, they give us the prophetic record of the
return. And so it's interesting, sometimes you might sit down
and just read through Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther, and then
read through Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. And that's very significant
because Haggai was a prophet like John the Baptist. He didn't
spend any time talking about himself. Like Paul said, we preach not
ourselves, but Christ, Jesus, and ourselves, your servants,
for Christ's sake. He was like John the Baptist.
His whole message was to exalt the Lord God and point sinners
to the coming Christ, and he stuck to his task. Like John
the Baptist said, Christ must increase, I must decrease. That
was Haggai's message. And then consider how these Jews
had been in captivity for 70 years. Now, let me show you something
here. Let's read verse 2, and then
I want to go to Psalm 137. Now, here he is. Haggai, the prophet, preaching
to the people. They've been in this captivity
for 70 years. And he says in verse 2, it says,
thus speaketh the Lord of hosts. That's the way of identifying
the Lord who cannot be defeated. Lord of hosts literally means
a great army. You hear in the Bible the host
of heaven. And what this is is an army that cannot be defeated.
And it's not because he's got so many on his sides because
of who he is. He is God. And he says, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say... Now the people
of Judah and Jerusalem who went back out of the captivity, here's
what they're saying. The time is not come. The time
that the Lord's house should be built. It's not time yet. Now, right away you see there's
a problem. It doesn't take long for problems to come along, does
it? Again, think about Israel coming out of Egypt. What a glorious
celebration. What a festive time it was. And
right when they come up on the banks of the Red Sea, what do
they start doing? They begin to fear man. They
begin to doubt. They begin to murmur. They begin
to complain. Things aren't like I... I'm not
as comfortable as I should be. I don't get as much to eat as
I think I should get. I'm not... Things just aren't
going my way. And it didn't take long. Same
thing here. Well, look back at Psalm 137.
You can read this whole psalm sometime, but listen to their
attitude while they were in Babylon. That's what Psalm 137 does. It shows you the sorrow of the
people while they were in captivity, while they were in bondage, while
they were in Babylon. They weren't in their home. And
listen to what it says in Psalm 137. It says, by the waters of
Babylon there we sat down, yea, we wept. No festivity here. No joy here. No praise here. When we remembered Zion as their
homeland. Remember Zion is a picture of
the church in the Old Testament and the New. Think about this,
folks. Think about not having a place
where you can come to hear the gospel preached and worship God
in Christ. Think about it. I'll never forget hearing about
a woman who said, well, now we don't have to go to church on
Sunday night. And my reply was, well, I'm glad that you don't
have to go, but I'm sad that you don't want to go. What are we here for? Just to
say I showed up at church, we're here to worship the Lord. That's
what we're here for tonight. These people didn't have that
opportunity now. They were in captivity and they
wept. Look at verse two, it says, we
hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. We didn't
get our harps down and play them singing songs of worship. We
hung them up. Hang it up, fellas. And he says
in verse 3, for they that carried us away captive required of us
a song. Our captors wanted us to sing.
And they that wasted us required of us mirth. They wanted us to
be happy. Saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. But here's
their answer. Now look at verse 4. But how
shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? How are we
going to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? No worship,
no joy. Now, what's happening here in
Haggai? Go back to Haggai chapter, they're going back. Going back
home. What should they be? Take the
harps down off the hooks, bring them, sing, praise God, worship
God. But what's happening? Verse two,
the people say the time has not come. It's not time yet. You know, this reminds me a little
bit of what Christ spoke in Matthew chapter 11. when he said the
people of his generation were like children in the marketplace.
When it's time to sorrow, what do they want to do? They want
to sing. When it's time to sing, what do they want to do? They
want to sorrow. You can't please them. You can't please them. And that's human nature, isn't
it? That's sinful, fallen, ruined, depraved human nature, isn't
it? That's exactly what that is.
Let me ask you a question. When is it not time to worship
the Lord? When is it not time to praise
the Lord? There's never a time not to worship
and praise the Lord. Never. Here's Haggai bringing this to
their attention now. And by sovereign power and providence,
the Lord delivered them and began bringing them back into their
homeland." What joy for the people, what happiness. They were still under a foreign
rule, that's true, but God had given them favor with the king
and the kings granted them permission to go back to Jerusalem and to
rebuild the temple. Back over, let me just read you
this in the book of Ezra. I'll come back to Ezra quite
a bit, but you can mark this down if you don't want to turn
there. In Ezra chapter 27 and verse 27, listen to this, this
is how Ezra puts it. And it says here in verse 27
of Ezra 7, it says, Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers,
which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart. Talking
about that ungodly, unbelieving foreign king. God put something
in that king's heart. And Ezra says, bless be God for
doing that. He put that in this king's heart
and before all the king, and he says, he put this in the king's
heart to beautify the house of the Lord, that's the temple,
which is in Jerusalem. He put that in a foreign king's
heart to send us back to beautify that temple. In verse 29, hath
extended mercy unto me before the king and his counselors,
Ezra speaking of himself, because he wanted to go back. And he
did eventually, before all the king's mighty princes. Think
about that. Blessed be God for doing that.
We read in Proverbs chapter 21 in verse 1, how the king's heart
is in the hands of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it withersoever he will. God's doing his work. He's not
stopped, he's in control. Now when they arrived in Jerusalem,
they found the city in ruins. I mean, it's hard to imagine
what it was like, but it was in utter ruins. That's how the
Babylonians left it. And the temple was totally destroyed.
The magnificence and the majesty of the Temple of Solomon was
totally, that thing was leveled, they say, to the ground. No stone
left unturned. And of course we know that is
a prophetic event in history because you remember what Christ
said. And he preached that, he revealed that to Daniel, he revealed
it to his disciples that in the last days the temple that stood
in that day would be leveled and not one stone left unturned. But that's the way it was. And
so the Lord sent them back to their homeland, number one, number
one, to rebuild the temple. Now, you have to understand what
that temple meant to this nation. And let me put it in perspective
this way. What does the gospel of God's
grace in Christ and the worship of the Lord God in Christ, what
does it mean to you? What does it mean to me? When
I tell you what it ought to mean, To all of us, it ought to be
the center, the heartbeat, the foundation, and the goal of our
lives. Period. In whatever aspect, that's what
it ought to be. That's what that temple represented
to the nation Israel. That temple, think about it.
Remember when they first started, it was a tabernacle. It was a
movable tabernacle. And then it was established under
Solomon as a permanent temple for a while. And in that temple,
in the very center, the heart of that temple was the Holy of
Holies. That was the place where redemption
was revealed in the glory of God through Christ. The mercy
seat, the Ark of the Covenant, which at this time was gone.
But still that temple represented the Shekinah glory of God. Where does the Shekinah glory
of God dwell today? It's not in Palestine. And it's
not waiting in the clouds somewhere to descend when they rebuild
the temple. The glory, listen, the Shekinah glory of God is
right here amongst us tonight. Because the Shekinah glory, the
greatest manifestation of God's glory is in Christ and Him crucified. And He said, where two or three
are gathered in My name, there I will be in the midst of them.
That's the Shekinah glory. That's the glory of God revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. That's our life. And that's what that temple,
that priesthood, those sacrifices, this is the place where God said,
I'll meet with you. God, who is holy and just and
must punish sin, how can he meet with me and not destroy me? How is that possible? Well, that
temple showed you how it was possible. Through a representative
who presented the blood of a worthy substitute. And all of it pictured
the promise of God to save sinners by His sovereign grace in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we can sit around and we
can think of all kinds of things that we need, can't we? Things
I need to do, things I need to have. But let me tell you something,
when it's all over but the shouting, And we're drawing our last breath
of this meager existence. Let me ask you, what will you
need then? What will I need then? Nothing
but Christ. That's what this is all about. When they On going back, that's
what they were to do first, and to reestablish the worship of
God in the land. And then secondly, they were
to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the city, and you know the book
of Nehemiah is about that. We studied part of that, the
gates of the walls. Well, when they got back, they
began to work to rebuild the temple, and the foundation was
laid. Some say that two rows of stones
got laid, And then they just began to realize
something. There were many of them, older
ones, who had seen Solomon's Temple. And they remembered what
that was like. And this temple they were building
now, it was going up pretty rapidly, but it was smaller than Solomon's
Temple. But it wasn't near as big, and
it wasn't near as grand and majestic, beautiful. And so they quit working
on the temple, and they did for three reasons. Now let me give
you the three reasons they quit working. Number one, because
they were disappointed that in their eyes it was not as grand
as Solomon's temple. That's number one. Some of the
old heads long for the days of yore. What was that poem I told you
about I learned when I was in school? A guy named Minerva Cheevy.
Minerva Cheevy, child of Scorn, cursed the day that he was born.
You know, he wanted to be born back in the old days. Everything
was great and better and just so much better back then. Secondly,
they quit building because they wanted to build houses for themselves. Now that seems reasonable, doesn't
it? A man's got to have a house to live in. So they quit building
the temple and started building their own houses. And thirdly,
they stopped building because they had opposition and hostility
from others. That's what causes many to want
to quit and faint, getting hostility. They had hostility and opposition
from ones who were called Samaritans, outsiders who wanted to get involved.
This project began in 536 B.C., this rebuilding of the temple,
and they abandoned it for 15 to 16 years. That's how long
they let it go, 15 to 16 years. And that's when the Lord sent
Haggai and Zechariah to inspire the people. Let me read you this
in Ezra chapter 5, verse 1. He mentions both of them. He
says, Then the prophets Haggai, the prophets and Zechariah the
son of Edo prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem
in the name of the God of Israel even unto them. When Haggai and
Zechariah prophesied The temple had been neglected for 15 to
16 years, and it says in verse two of Ezra five, then rose up
Zerubbabel, the governor, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua,
or Joshua, the son of Josedach, that's the priest, and began
to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem, and with them
were the prophets of God helping them. And that's when it restarted. Haggai delivered four messages
to Judah. And these four messages are specifically
dated by him, and they cover a period of about 18 months.
And the first one is in this first chapter. Look at that again,
verse 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, This people say... Now, here's what you say, God
says. And what he's doing here, he's setting a variance. Here's what you say, but let
me tell you what God says. That's what Haggai's doing. You
see, what you say ain't worth a hoot. What God says means everything. We're the people of God. And
he says, this people say the time has not come, the time that
the Lord's house should be built. As I said, it had been left in
ruins for 15, 16 years and the people used the excuse it wasn't
time to build the Lord's house. And as I said, there's never
a good time not to do what God has commanded. The time to do
what God commands is now. Right now. That's why we say
when we preach the gospel, don't put it off till later. Now is
the day of salvation. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Tomorrow may never come for you. You're not promised one more
breath. Well, whatever breath you take, use it to glorify the
Lord. That's right. Worship the Lord and praise God.
And again, we have to view this in the light of what the temple
represented and what it meant, the glory of God in salvation.
That's never to be neglected, never to be ignored, not for
anything. Now that's right, not for anything.
Look at verse three, he says, 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 lie waste? Now the
word sealed there, a sealed house is a luxurious house. I mean, they were, here's the
picture, they were neglecting the temple, the worship of God,
the service of God. They were showing their attitude
toward the eternal glory of God in Christ to mean nothing, but
boy, they were putting it all, their all in all, to build their
own luxurious houses. That's the picture. Now, you
can see why Haggai wasn't going to win any popularity contest. Boy, you're putting that time,
effort, money into building your own houses, but here the house
of the Lord lies in waste. Comfortable houses. And the problem
was not that they were waiting on the Lord, but that they had
things more important to do, rather than serving and worshiping
the Lord. It's like the thorny ground here in Matthew chapter
13 and verse 22. They claim to love the Lord,
claim to love His truth, claim to be worshipers of God, but
they neglect it, they leave it for the deceitfulness of riches
in this world. Love of the world, love of their
own comforts. The Bible says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will
be added. God's going to take care of His people, isn't He? I believe that. That doesn't
mean you're going to have a million dollars in your bank account
or anything like that or you're going to live in a 50-room mansion,
but he's going to take care of his people. You don't have to
worry about that. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. All these things will be added
unto you. And what Haggai is saying, turn back to Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 that I read at the opening. And I want to caution
you on this because what Haggai is saying to these people is,
don't build your houses. and don't enjoy the comforts
of this life. He's not saying that at all.
The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible doesn't teach that
you have to be in poverty to be a Christian or that you have
to be uncomfortable or anything like that. The Bible says that
it is impendent upon a man to enjoy the labor of his hands,
the good things of this world. Look at verse 13 of Ecclesiastes
3. And you know what he's saying
here, remember he said back there in verse 11, he made everything
beautiful in his time. This isn't just poetry and dime
store philosophy here. Everything is beautiful in its
own way, that kind of junk. What he's saying is everything
is made beautiful as it honors God. That's right. Everything on this earth in itself
as creation is beautiful as it honors him. as it exalts Christ. And he says, the Lord has set
the world in their hearts. You have a sense of eternity.
You know this life is not the end of it all. You know that's
natural for man. Even an unregenerate man has
that sense. Now, he may go through his life
denying it, and he may ignore it, and he will if God doesn't
regenerate him by the Holy Spirit. But you know, you have a sense
of eternity. So these beautiful things as
they honor the Lord and as you measure them, their value in
light of eternity. Now that's the way to think. Measure the value of these things
in light of eternity. And so he says in verse 13, And
also that every man should eat and drink. Nothing wrong with
eating and drinking. We eat and drink too much, I
do. And that's wrong. But there's nothing wrong with
us enjoying a good meal. And he says, and enjoy the good
of all his labor, but here's the key. Now look at that last
line, underscore that. It is the gift of God. Now there's your key. I work
hard, you say. That's all right, but it's still
the gift of God, friend. It was God who gave you that
ability to work hard. And he could take it away just
like that. And you know it's so. You know
it's so. You say, well, I worked hard
to get this promotion or get this good job. That's fine. But
God could take it away just like that. You know he can and sometimes
has. So Haggai's not saying here that
you all have done something you shouldn't have done as far as
just building you a home. Yes, you're right. A person needs
a place to live. You men who work, it's your responsibility
to provide a good, comfortable home for your families. But here's the key. Here's what
they did. They just flat neglected the eternal matter of the glory
of God in Christ. That was the problem. That's
why they, and they use that excuse, it's not time, it's not time. Well, that's your way, but God
says it's time. Well, look at verse five, he
says, now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, this same
God, this same invincible God, consider your ways. Now look,
if you've got a concordance, Look at it, it probably says
something like this, on this, consider your ways. Set your
heart on your ways. What he's saying here, you know
the book of Proverbs says that, when it talks about in Proverbs
chapter four, it says, keep thy heart, verse 23, keep thy heart
with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. It
also says there, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids
look straight before thee, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. What he's simply saying is this,
this is where your heart are. You can build your houses, you
can enjoy the good things of this life, but where is your
heart? Where's your mind, your affections,
your will, your desires? If it's not toward the glory
of God, the praise and the worship of God for this great salvation,
what does that say about me? If I don't set my heart on worshiping
the Lord, because everything I have from the next breath I
take to the car I drive to the home I live in is a gift from
God. But more than that, my eternal
well-being, my eternal glory, eternal bliss with Christ is
a free gift from Him through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave His heart when He gave
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The apple of His
eye. Where's my heart? The Bible says, search me, O
God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Psalm 139. And without the searching eye
of God's word on our hearts, our hearts will deceive us. That's
why we need his word. My heart's in Christ. The cross that he endured for
the salvation of sinners, to put away my sins by the shedding
of his blood. Where was his heart? The scripture
says in John 13, 1 that he loved his own unto the end. That's what it says. You know
what that literally means, that word end there? It's the same
word that he used in John 19, 30 when he said it's finished. It means literally he loved his
sheep, his people, his church, God's elect, unto the finishing
of the work." These people started a work.
They didn't finish it because their heart wasn't in
it. Christ started a work and He was faithful to finish it
to the end. He put away my sins by the shedding. He finished it unto death. He
was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He put
away my sins. He finished the transgression.
He brought in everlasting righteousness and His heart was in it and not
because, not because of anything in us that deserved His heart. or earned his thought. We, listen,
there's nothing in us or of us or from us even to earn a second's
thought from Christ. And yet his heart was set on
us from eternity! The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Do you know what that means?
That means that if you're a believer, if you're a child of God, redeemed
by the Lord, washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness,
You've always been on His heart and there's not been one second
you haven't been on His heart. Now what? Does it put me out
to consider my ways? To set my heart upon Him? And He deserves it. And He earned
it. We didn't. Isn't that something? Look at verse 6. He says, You've
sown much and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough.
You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe you, but
there's none warm, and he that earneth wages earneth wages to
put it into a bag with holes. You ever wonder, where's my money
going? It's into a bag with holes. That's what he said. You know
what he's describing there? He's describing the futility
and vanity of life without Christ. That's what he's... That's right. In serving themselves and their
own comforts and their own needs, everything they did eventually
would come to nothing. Vanity of vanities. Remember
the... The wise man said, you remember
in John chapter six and verse 27, the Lord said this, he said,
labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat
which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Don't put
your heart, your love, your affections on these things that perish,
and they are perishing. I guarantee you one of two things
are going to happen. They'll either go before you
go or you'll go before them. All right? What is it all going to mean?
When you stand before God at judgment, facing eternity, where's
your heart going to be then? What's going to be important
then? I'll tell you, you're going to be relishing. You're going
to be rejoicing, if you're in Christ, in a finished work that
He accomplished. You're going to plead the blood
and righteousness of Christ. Materialism, the love of the
world. You know what this verse 6 is? It's a great description
of false religion, isn't it? So much, bring in little, eat,
but not enough, drink, but not filled, no thirst, the thirst
is not clothed, but there's no... You see, if we have Christ, the
bread of life, the water of life, His righteousness imputed to
us, my friend, if we have the wages that He earned for us,
it'll last forever and ever and ever, unto glory. Look at verse
7, he says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways,
He says, go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the
house and I will take pleasure in it. There's God's satisfaction.
And I will be glorified, say the Lord. That puts it all in
perspective. All for the glory of God, all to please God and
not ourselves. Rebuild the temple now. The glory
of God and worship of God is everything to the true church.
Christ is our all and in all. The glory of the temple was not
in its size and its physical beauty. The glory of the temple
is Christ. That's right. The glory of the
church is not how big this building is or how many people are in
it. The glory of the church is Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. That's the glory of the church. That's the beauty of the Lord
that we come here tonight to behold, Psalm 27. It's not our own beauty, it's
His. And we bask in it. And we enjoy it. Look at verse
9, he says, You look for much, and lo, it came to little. And
when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the
Lord of hosts, because of mine house that is waste. And you
run every man unto his own house. God blows it away, just a wind.
Verse 10, he says, Therefore the heaven over you is stayed
from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. There's no joy,
there's no lasting joy and prosperity and rain from that. Verse 11,
he says, I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, upon the oil, and upon
that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, upon cattle,
upon all the labor of their hands. What's he saying? Same thing
the wise men said in Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, always vanity.
It's all for nothing. Well, look what happened. There
was a good response by the grace of God. In verse 12, "...then
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Joshua the son of Josedek the
high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice
of the Lord their God." You know what that is, don't you? That's
the work of the Lord. To bring sinners to obey His
Word. To bring sinners to Christ and rest in Him and plead His
blood and righteousness. You know what that is? That's
the work of the Lord. What shall we do that we may
do the works of the Lord? This is the work of the Father.
He says, believe on Him which the Father has sent. Rest in
Christ. They obeyed the voice of the
Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, and as
the Lord God had sent him, and the people did fear before the
Lord. They believed God. They worshipped
God. They obeyed God. Not with a legal
fear, you see. In verse 13, then spoke Haggai,
the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people,
saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. God is with his people. according to his glory in Christ.
You may not feel it, but he says it's so, and that makes it so. And so he says in verse 14, the
Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek,
the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people,
and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts,
their God. and in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month
in the second year of Darius the king." What's being shown
here? They were brought to repentance and it shows forth, it pictures
the fruit of God's grace, the grace of faith, the grace of
righteousness, fruit unto God in the lives of His people.