And it's going to be a wonderful
lesson this evening if the Lord would enable me to deal with
it. But I want to get a thought out
of verse 7 of chapter 2. Verse 7 in chapter 2. Haggai
chapter 7, chapter 2 in verse 7. And the Lord said, And I will
shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and
I will fill this house with the glory, saith the Lord of hosts." All right, let's go to this book
of Haggai, two chapters is all it is. And I read to you that
the desire of the nations shall come. Of course, that's speaking
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Haggai is a, his name means
festive, festival of the Lord. That's what his names mean. He
said here in the second year of Darius, the king. Now Darius
was the king in Babylon. He took over after Nebuchadnezzar
and Belshazzar. In the second year of Darius,
the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month,
In the first day of the month came the word of the Lord by
Haggai, the prophet, unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor
of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest,
saying, Thus speak the Lord of hosts, saying." Now, that's what
Ahazekiah done. His name means festive, he was
a son of God, and he was a contemporary with Zechariah and Malachi. You find them both, all three
of them, prophesying. in some of the other books. And
he came, as God's mentioned, and he came and that says right
there, like in verse 2, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts. He
comes saying what? Thus saith the Lord. That's all
any preacher ought to say. That's all anybody ought to say.
Thus saith the Lord. And he is sent to minister to
the Lord's people after they've got back from their captivity,
their seventy years of Babylonian captivity. And he says, Thus
saith the Lord, at least fifteen times, in these two chapters. So his interest was in the glory
of God. It wasn't in himself. To say,
thus saith the Lord. And he was given the care of
the Lord's people. And he loved the Lord's people.
He had to rebuke them. But in his rebuke, he also had
great words of encouragement. And he had to correct, but his
correction was also full of comfort. And he was sent of God to stir
up his people. stir up his people in praise
to his glory and to worship of him. And the Jews, Jewish people
at that time, their condition was very, very sad. They'd been
slaves in Babylon for 70 years. And they came back to a city
that was in ruins. They came back to a country that
was in ruins, that was all grown up. They hadn't been there to
take care of it. They were in a very, very sad condition. And
you keep Haggai and look with me over in Psalm 137, and I'll
show you what I mean. They were in such a sad, pitiful
condition. Coming back, their condition
was very, very sad. And, oh, beloved, when those
seventy years were fulfilled, God graciously
brought His people from Babylon and began to bring them back
into the land. And they, when they was in Babylon in captivity
for 70 years, they missed the worship of God. They missed the
assembly of God. And they heard the harps on the
willow. And look what it says here, by
the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down. And we sat
down there and we began to weep. What was you crying about? We
remembered Zion. We remember that great city that
God dwells in. That blessed place where Christ
is ruled and that blessed place where we worship God. We hanged
our hearts upon the willows in the midst of that river. For
they that carried us away captive, they wanted us to sing them a
song. And they that wasted us, laid heaps upon us and required
so much of us, they wanted us to be happy, required mirth of
us, saying, sing us one of the songs that's higher. Sing us
one of them songs, design. You all talk about worshiping
God, talk about that great assembly, and talk about all those things.
And look what they said. How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? So they were in a very sad condition,
been in captivity, been slaves for 70 years. And they came first. When they came back, God brought
about 50,000 with them from down in Babylon, and they appointed
Zerubbabel governor over Judah. And when they got back there,
Jerusalem was in ruins. The gates were torn down, the
walls were broken down, and they sent him back to rebuild it.
And the first thing he was supposed to do was rebuild the temple,
then rebuild the city. And the whole reason to do this
is to establish the true worship of God in the land again. And
the first thing they were told to do was rebuild the temple,
the house of God in Jerusalem. And God had given them a lot
of help, and they were under still under the Babylonian rule
before they was all set free. And God gave them favor with
the king. They was granted to go down and do the work. And
they started it with, oh man, they were so enthusiastic and
so glad to get at it. And then all of a sudden, they
quit working. They just quit working. They quit working on
the temple. They quit working on the city.
They did nothing for more than 15 years. And this is where Haggai
comes in. Here they have sat and haven't
done anything to the temple of God. Haven't done anything to
the city. Everything, they just stopped.
They just quit. And Haggai comes in. His sin
of God was Zechariah and Malachi to speak to God for his people.
You can find this in Ezra 5. You don't have to look. I'll
read it to you. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, 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.
Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the
son of Jehoshaphat, and began to build the house of God which
is in Jerusalem, and with them were the prophets of God helping
them. So they went down there and prophesied
to them. Haggai, you fellows better get
out. And how God delivered four messages to Judah. And these
messages cover a period of about 18 months. But they speak to
us today, because the Scriptures tells us whatsoever things are
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. And let me show
you four things He does first. First of all, He uses the word
consider very often. In chapter 1 and verse 5, he
says this, Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts. There
he is again. Therefore saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your
ways. Consider your ways. He talks
about this four times. And that in the margin, it says,
Set your heart on your ways. Give serious thought to the ways
in which you're going. Set your heart on them ways.
Consider them things. Consider. In verse 7, he repeats
the same thing. He says, Thus saith the Lord
and host, Consider your ways." Think about our present circumstances
and how God in His providence, and there's a connection in God's
providence and the way we live in this world and the things
we're to experience in God's providence. Consider your ways.
Consider that God is in this place. Consider that God is causing
this thing, that God is directing this thing, and God has sent
a preacher to tell you these things. There's a connection
between our God and us, and that's why He says, consider your ways.
Consider your ways. And then in chapter 2 and verse
15, look what He says. He tells for us to consider the
house of God in which we worship. And he said in verse 15 of chapter
2, And now I pray you, consider from this day and upward, before
a stone was laid, a stone in the temple. He calls for us to
consider the house of God in His worship and the blessedness
of His promises in connection with the famine that we experience.
Because he says in verse 16, look what he says now. You consider
from this day before a stone was laid in the temple. You consider
this day before God ever put a place for the worship. Since
those days were when one came to a heap of twenty measures,
they only got ten. Things were scarce. They come
to get twenty, could only get ten. Came to get the press guy
to draw fifty vessels of the press, there was but twenty. Don't work with twenty. And so
he says, consider the house of God. That's what he tells them.
He said, consider the famine that you experienced. And then
in verse 18, he says this here, chapter 2. Consider now from
this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the
ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's
temples was laid, consider it. Now, he says, consider the house
of God. It's been built. Its foundation's
been laid. Here we're going to come and
worship God and all the blessed promises in connection with Him.
So consider. Consider. And I thank every believer. I thank every child of God considers
their ways. I thank every child of God every
day considers their ways. They consider God's ways. They
consider God's Word. They consider God's providence.
You can't go through a day without considering, you know, what ways
am I going? What way is God dealing with
me? And we consider His Word, and we consider His worship. You know, you think about all
that God is and does, and we consider it. We consider our
ways before Him. What condition is my heart before
Him? What condition is my mind? And we consider these things.
And I think every believer does that. And we consider when we
come up to worship God in the blessed place that God built
for us to worship Him in. Now, back over here in chapter
1, Isaac Haggai gave him four messages. Let me give you the
first one here. And oh, it's a stern rebuke regarding
indifference to the things of God. The house of God had been
left in ruins for fifteen years. Fifteen years it had been. And
look what happens here now. And thus speaketh the Lord of
hosts, the word of God came by Malachi? Haggai. I'll get it right in a minute.
Then the word of the Lord in verse 3. Excuse me, verse 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, This people say, The time has not come, the time that
the Lord's house should be built. What they were doing, they say,
well, they were even using God's providence not to build it. They
searched the Scriptures to try to find a reason for not building
it. The time has not come. Well, that's the reason they're
sitting down there. And they sat down and said, well, it's
not time yet. The Scriptures ain't been fulfilled. The time,
the providence, the purpose. And then look what happens. Then
came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, is
it time for you? You say it's not time to build
the Lord's house. He says, is it time for you?
Oh, you to dwell in your sealed houses and this house, my house,
lie waste. You're going to leave my house
lying waste and you're going to keep yours up? You're going
to dwell in your house and you're going to forget my house? You're
going to live in ease and forget my place? And oh beloved, being
a faithful prophet, he reminds them of their heirs. They weren't
waiting on the Lord. They weren't waiting on the Lord
about building the Lord's house. They were too involved with too
many other things. Their love of the world made
them forget Christ. And oh my soul, Oh, to get caught
up to allow ourselves to be influenced by the concern for earth and
material things, and that we would ever forget God. We ought
to blush, blush with shame to think that we would ever do that.
When the apostles said, Know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of
God, and you are not your own? You are bought with a price.
Therefore go up by God in your spirit and in your body with
your God. And that's what they done. They
said, well, we've got to wait on God about building his house.
He said, but you've got the time to go dwell in your sealed houses.
That's why it says, now consider your ways. And I know this much. Nobody will prosper forgetting
the things of God. He just won't do it. We'll suffer
the consequences of that kind of behavior. Jonah, when he decided
he wasn't going to go preach, what happened to him? The Jews ate so much that they
read just a little bit. They ate, look what it says down
in verse 6, they ate, but they were not filled. That's why the
Lord said, consider where you have so much, but you bring in
little. You eat, but you still don't
have enough. You drink, and you're not filled
with drink. You clothe you, but there's none of you warm. And
he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in a bag with
holes. He said, you forget God and that's
what your lot will be. That's what your lot will be.
And oh beloved Haggai's message had the right desired effect. Look what he says down here in
verse 11. You know he talked about how he's going to treat
these people. They weren't filled in his worship
and glory took second place to their own pleasure and comfort.
And he said, And I call for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and
upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon
cattle, and upon all the labors of the hands. Oh my! You know, when he preached this,
it had the desired effect. Look what it says down in verse
14. And the Lord stirred up. You know, you dwell in your houses
and you don't have no clothes. You got clothes, but you're not
warm. You got food to eat, but you're never full. And then he
says, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son
of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua,
the son of Jehoshaphat, 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 and the host of their God. I mean, boy,
that's what, you know, God sent a preacher, and they listened
to what he had to say. It done its work. It done its
work. That's his first message. Look at his second message in
chapter two. His second message. Now, this has to do with people
who complained. They had worked hard, finished
the work, But when this temple was restored, it was so much
smaller and didn't even begin to compare with the glory of
the one that Solomon built, and they remembered first and wept.
And look what he says here. The word came in the seventh
month to the prophet Haggai, and he says, Speak now to Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, Joshua the son of Jezedek,
the high priest, and the rest of the people, saying, Who is
left among you that saw this house in her first glory? Now,
the glory that they built this house, it don't even come close
to the glory of the temple of Solomon's temple, the glory of
that place where they worshiped before. And how do you see it
now? Is it not in your eyes in comparisons
as nothing? And this said over in Ezra, it
says, Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers
who were ancient men that had seen the first house, had seen
Solomon's temple, and went up there to worship and saw the
glory of that house, when the foundation of this house was
laid before their eyes, they wept with a loud voice, because
it wasn't even worthy to be compared with the one before it." And
here for those who complained about that and complained about
the temple, and they said, is it nothing to you in your eyes?
Is this not the place that the Lord built for us? Look what
the Lord said in chapter two and verse four. First of all,
he says, I, the Lord, said, I'll be with you. Yet now be strong,
O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, the
son of Jehozadek, the high priest, and be strong, all you people
of the land, for all the work, saith the Lord, and work, for
I am with you, saith the Lord. I'm with you. It may not be like
that person, but I'm with you. That's all that matters. If you've
got a place to worship, it's all that matters that I'm with
you. And then in chapter 5, verse 5, the Lord graciously assures
His people that He's with them because He made a covenant with
them. In verse 5, according to the word that I covenanted with
you when you came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remains among you.
So don't you be afraid. I'm with you, my Spirit's with
you. I made a covenant with you. Go on, build this house. And the prophets spoke of things
that their natural eye couldn't see, promising the coming of
Christ and the glory that would fill this house. And that's what
we read about earlier. He said in verse six, For thus
saith the Lord of folks, Yet once in a little while, and I
will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry
land, and I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations
shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord
of hosts." And who he's talking about here? This was talking
about our Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord came to this temple,
when He was just an infant, The God of glory was manifested there,
and we saw His glory as the only begotten Son of God. And Simeon
saw Him, and he said, I've seen the salvation of the Lord. Let
me now depart in peace. And the prophetess saw Him, and
she said, this is He, the consolation of Israel. That was promised.
And beloved, that is just partly fulfilled. The one day this will
be completely fulfilled, not in this physical temple, but
in the church that Christ purchased with His own blood. His glory
is manifested among His people, and His glory will be manifested
in eternity through all of His people, throughout all time,
and He'll fill His spiritual house with His Spirit, and His
glory is manifest in His people. Oh my, you know that it goes
on to, you think about this, that God loved you, chose you,
called you, justified you, and will glorify you. And why did He do it? To the
praise of the glory of His grace. We're in that spiritual temple
where Christ fills us. And oh beloved, one of these
days, The Holy Spirit is going to make it revealed. And you
know, you can find this very verses over in Hebrews chapter
12. You can find chapter 25. And that's why he talks about,
you know yet once more, I shake the earth and the heavens, not
the earth only, but the heavens. I'm going to shake them all.
And that means that he's going to remove those things that are
shaken. As things that are made, that
those things which cannot be shaken may remain. I tell you
what, God's going to shake this earth and the only thing that's
going to remain is the things that can't be shaken. And you
know what can't be shaken? The kingdom of God can't be shaken.
Every other kingdom is going to be shook. Every other kingdom
is coming down. But the only kingdom that cannot
be shook, the only kingdom that will remain is the kingdom of
God in Christ and His people in that kingdom. And that's why
he says, Oh God give us grace, let us have grace that we may
serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And then he talked
about him being the desire of all nations shall come. Oh my, desire of all nations.
Now that don't mean every nation is looking for Christ. That means
that people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and people is
looking for Him. And that's why he said in Genesis
49 and 2, he says this, the scepter shall not depart out of Judah,
that scepter of the king, the ruler, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet until Shiloh come. And now listen to this, and unto
him shall the gathering of the people
be when he comes. Malachi said it this way, behold,
I'll send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me. whom you seek, that desire of only shall suddenly come to
his temple, even the message of the covenant, whom you delight
in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord." And I tell you, beloved,
it's only in our Lord Jesus Christ can a sinner find righteousness.
It's only in our Lord Jesus Christ that there's any forgiveness
of sin. It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ that you can have
conscience, your peace of conscience. It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ
that you can have any assurance of eternal life, only in Him.
And He may be small, and He started out small. But He says, never
despise the day of small things. Oh, that's why be steadfast.
That's what He told them. You do the work. You do the work.
I'm with you. I've made a covenant with you.
And there's going to be one coming to desire the nations, and His
glory is going to fill this house. It's going to fill it. And I tell you, we may not seem
successful. That's the way these folks thought. They said, boy,
this ain't nothing compared to the other. He said, you're going
to do the work. I'll be with you. I've made a
covenant with you. And this house is going to be
filled with glory. It's going to be filled with
the glory of Christ. Let me give you His third message. Chapter
2 and verse 10. Oh, he describes our inability
to do anything acceptable with God because of our sin. And what
happened was that so many who worked in restoring the worship
and house of God got the idea that they were making themselves
holy because they were in contact with the temple and doing this
work. Well, we're doing the work on the temple, so that makes
us holy because we're doing the work. Now watch what he says.
The second year of Darius came the word of the Lord by Haggai
the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the
priest concerning the law. Now God used the law to show
us our inability. If one bare holy flesh in the
skirt of his garment, now he's carrying some holy flesh, he's
carrying something from the sacrifices, and he's allowed to eat, and
he's carrying this holy flesh. And 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, said, No. Just because I carry holy flesh,
that don't make everything else I touch to be holy. They said,
No. Then said Haggai, If one that
is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered, said,
It shall be unclean. You touch something unclean,
then everything you touch is unclean. He's showing them here, you can't
be accepted of God, can't serve Him acceptably by doing, having
anything to do with working around the temple. Working around the
temple. And look what he says now. He
said in verse 15, So he said in verse 14, So is this people
in this nation before me, saith the Lord, and so is every one
the work of their hands, that they which they offer there is
unclean. They think this is going to get
them something from me. No, no, no, no. No, they're unclean. Don't come to me with the works
of your hands. And that's why he says here,
Now you consider, you consider this, you see, Temple from its
foundation, and our acceptance before God and Jesus is only
in Christ. And he says, and he asks us to
consider again, and now I pray you, consider from this day and
forward, upward, before there's a stone ever laid upon a stone
in the temple of the Lord. Oh, consider this, beloved, that
everything about this temple was God's work, and God's work
alone, so is our salvation, our righteousness is God's work alone.
And then he tells us to consider that everything that was symbolized
in the temple was just typically of our Lord Jesus Christ in His
glory. Look what he said now here in
verse 18. Consider now, consider now, from this day and upward,
from the four-twenty day of the ninth month, even from the day
that the foundation of the temples were laid, consider it. Now watch
what, look what he says. Is the seed yet in the barn?
Yea, as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate
and the olive tree hath not brought forth? He said, now listen to
me. Yet from this day I will bless
you. I'm going to bless you. Because
you ain't got no cleanness of your own. You ain't got nothing
of yourself. This is my work. This is my doing. And see, the
time to sow isn't time to reap, and here we're just planting
seed. And God said, it ain't happened yet. But He said, it's
yours. He said, I'm going to bless you.
It's coming. It's coming. And this is just
sowing time right now. And then let me give you His
fourth message here in verse 20 through 23. This is especially
about our Lord Jesus Christ. And again, the Word of the Lord
came unto Haggai in the 420th day of the month saying, Speak
to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I'm going to shake the
heavens and the earth. I'm going to shake them. And I'll overthrow
the throne of kingdoms. And I will destroy the strength
of kingdoms, the kingdoms of the heathen. I'll overthrow the
chariots and those that ride in them, the horses, and their
riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
In that day, now listen to this, in that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, Will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealto,
saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet, for I have
chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts." He's talking here about
the blessing that's coming, God's people, and we're waiting on
them, and this, he's speaking of our, clearly, of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He said here, Zerubbabel is,
there's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the governor
of Judah, Christ's the governor of the universe. And he's going
to rule all things for his beloved. He's the one who's going to shake
the heavens, and you think Zerubbabel's going to shake the heavens and
the earth? No, who else can shake the heavens and the earth but
the Lord? And, oh, beloved, he overthrows and subdued kingdoms.
Ain't that what he says? And he's Jehovah's servant. He's
the one that Jehovah served. He said, you're my servant. And
I'll make you a sign, and I'll make you my sign, I'll make you
my signature, for I've chosen thee, saith the Lord of Hosts."
He's Jehovah's servant. He's the one who builds this
house. And listen to what Psalm 2 says right here. "'Yet I have
set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree
the Lord hath sent unto me, that I have my son.' This day have
I begotten thee, and I shall give thee the heathen for thy
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
And then look what Zechariah said. Then he answered and spake
unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, not by power, not by my spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts, who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel,
that thou shalt become a plain. And he shall bring the headstone
there. He was shouting, he's going to build this temple. He's
going to bring that headstone. He's going to put the stone on
this temple. Zerubbabel is. Christ our Lord is. And what's
he going to say? Grace! Grace unto it. This house built by the grace
of God from the foundation to the topstone. And moreover, the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundation of this house, his hands shall also finish
it. Christ laid the foundation, he
is the foundation, and his hands shall finish it. And thou shalt
know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me, for who hath not despised
the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall
see the plummet, and the hand is irrevocable. With those seven,
they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro throughout
the whole earth." Oh, I tell you, this is irrevocable. That's
our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes the way. He takes the
mountain, brings it down, laid the stone at the temple, put
the top stone on it, grazed, grazed, and got seven eyes. He not only
built the temple, but bless His name, He's going to finish it.
What work He starts, He's going to finish it. And I'm truly thankful
for that. Because if it was left up to
us to finish it, where would we be? If God let us start it
right now, let us live right up to the last hour of our living,
and kept us in our right mind, and says, now you've got to make
this last hour all on your own, what would you do? Couldn't do
it. Couldn't do it. Ain't you grateful
that what he starts, he finishes?