Okay, so we come in this series
from the Minor Prophets to the Prophet of Haggai. Just two short
chapters which we've read the full thing this morning. My text
is verse 9 of chapter 2. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts, and
in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. True
believers lament the state of the church in the UK today. I
know we have brethren in the United States of America and
they think that they relatively are in a poor way compared with
the massive churches with thousands of people in. You've seen nothing
like it. This country of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain, it's just lamentable, the state of the Church. It's
certainly not as it was. It has got far, what we might
say, worse, as it seems. To the eye looking at it, from
a fleshly point of view, things seem so much worse than they
were 30, 40, 50 years ago. But you know, the Scriptures
are there to give us encouragement. Romans 15 verse 4 says this,
Whatsoever things were written aforetime, and Haggai was written
aforetime, were written for our learning. This prophecy, two
and a half thousand years old or thereabouts, was written for
our learning. That we, through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Where is our hope
set? Set your mind on things above
where Christ is. Thy kingdom come. It's the kingdom
of God. It's eternal glory where the
hearts and affections of true believers are set. They should
be. They should be. You know, you
think of a marriage where the spouses are not enamored with each other, there's
something wrong with that marriage, there's something wrong with
that relationship. Anyway, what can we learn from Haggai, as
it says, those things written aforetime were written for our
learning, what can we learn from Haggai to lift our hearts? The church, and I'm talking about
the true church, not the false, there's loads that calls itself
the church, but it's not true. I'm talking about the true church,
the church which contains at least some of the true believers
of God, the true elect of God, called out by the preaching of
the true gospel of grace. That church is where God dwells
with His people on earth. That's it, that's what the church
is. It's where God dwells with his
people on earth. It's been like that right down
the ages. From the tabernacle, the tent, in the wilderness wanderings
of the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, led by
Moses, he was instructed to make a tabernacle. And what was the
purpose of the tabernacle? Exodus 25 verse 8, let them make
me a sanctuary. Why? That I may dwell among them. that I may dwell, that God might
dwell with his people. And that in later years, in the
time of Solomon, David wanted to, but was not permitted, but
in the time of Solomon, a real temple, a physical temple of
stones and cedar wood and beautiful jewels and rich things was built
in Jerusalem, the temple of Solomon. And it was a magnificent building.
It was glorious to behold. People came from all around the
known world to see this table. And it had five features. that were characteristic of the
true presence of God with his people. It had the Ark of the
Covenant, which was that box that the Levites had to carry
through all those wilderness wanderings, and then it lived
in the tabernacle. The Ark of the Covenant, that box which
contained the law tables, the stones on which the finger of
God wrote the law of Moses, that was in the Ark of the Covenant.
There was Aaron's rod which budded the almond rod which budded.
It was a dead rod, but it budded to prove that this was the man
speaking with God's authority, unlike the Egyptian magicians
and sorcerers. Theirs didn't. It had the pot
of manna, the manna which was the, what is it, that the children
of Israel said, manna, what is it, what is it? That honeycomb
that came down from heaven and fed them for 40 years in their
wilderness wanderings. There was a pot of that manna.
Over the top of it was the gold mercy seat, with the cherubim,
with their wings forward, and there God said, I will meet with
my people face to face, I will meet with them, with the blood
of an acceptable sacrifice. That was there. In the temple,
there was the Urim and the Thummim. What do you mean? What's that?
What's this mysterious thing? Well, it literally means lights
and perfections. There was that special anointing
of God in the place, the Urim and the Thummim. There's something
that you can't really describe adequately, that the presence
of God is there. that was there in the temple,
what is it today? It's fulfilled in Christ. For
Christ is the light of the world. It's in the face of Jesus Christ
that we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
The Urim and Thummim in our days is our Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the perfection of His church. He is all of these things fulfilled. In that temple, there was the
continually burning fire of God that consumed the sacrifices.
That continually burning, it was quite miraculous that that
fire was there. What is it now? That continually
burning fire is the Holy Spirit, and the oil is pictured as olive
trees feeding oil into the lamps which burn continually. It's
the Holy Spirit amongst his people. There was the spirit of prophecy.
What is that? It's the true preaching of the
Word of God. It's the true preaching of the
Gospel of Grace. That's what it is, the spirit
of prophecy. You can tell, you true believers,
you can tell when you're hearing it, and you can tell when all
you're hearing is legalism. when all you're hearing is just
the world's religion. You can tell the difference,
can't you? It's like hearing the sounds of those bells on
the hems of the priest's robes as they went in and out of the
sanctuary. It's that presence of God. And there in that temple
was the Shekinah glory of God. I won't try to describe that
because I can't describe it, but all of these things foreshadowed
gospel truth and gospel accomplishment. And what was the accomplishment?
What is the accomplishment of the gospel of God's grace? This
is the answer. It is peace with God. You who
by nature are sinners and the enemies of God, by the accomplishment
of Christ in the gospel of His grace, by what God has done in
becoming man to die in the place of His people, peace with God
is the result. Peace with God is the accomplishment. Now, none of these things, these
five things, were manifested in the second temple that was
being built in the days of Haggai, but they're all fulfilled in
the Church. They are all fulfilled in the
church. Colossians 1.18, Christ is the
head of the body, the church, the body. Christ is the head
of the body, the church. 1 Corinthians 3.16, Know ye not
that ye, you company of believing people, you church of believers,
know you not that you are the temple of God? Not that pile
of stones in Jerusalem. You are the temple of God. And
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. You know, build me a
sanctuary that I may dwell with Him. The Spirit of God dwells
amongst His people in His church. 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Your body, individually, you
believer, your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Let's look
at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2 and verse 19. Now
therefore, You are no more strangers and foreigners. He's speaking
to Gentile Christians who are outside of the Commonwealth of
Israel. But he says, now you are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of
God. And listen, more than that, you
are built upon, you are built, you're a building. You believing
people, you are a building. You are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets. the doctrine of God was given
by apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom, in him, in Christ, all the building
fitly framed together, it's all, take him away and the whole lot
collapses, but he is the chief cornerstone. The building fitly
framed together groweth into, this is it, an holy temple in
the Lord, in whom, Ye are also builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit. It couldn't be clearer, could
it? That's the New Testament interpretation of what the temple
was all about and what it pictured. But I want to stress this, this
morning. The Church on earth, as much
as we value the Church on earth, is not the end in itself, as
some seem to think. There are many dear brethren
who seem to think that the Church on earth is the end of God's
purposes in itself. It is not. God's eternal purpose
is fulfilled in perfection in his everlasting kingdom in heaven. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Thy kingdom come. Set your thoughts on things above
and not on things on the earth. It's the kingdom of God in heaven.
The kingdom of God triumphant is the key thing. That's it.
Not the church on earth. That isn't the end in itself. It's a means to the end. It's
part of God's purpose, but it isn't the end in itself. As soon
as we start to think that, God then comes along and brings along
another generation, and that one crumbles and falls away.
So let's set Haggai in its historical context. So we'll say that from
Solomon's temple in Jerusalem, Solomon's temple, that there
in Jerusalem was glorious to behold. It was a glorious temple. The presence of God was evident,
as I've said, in those five things that were there. But they constantly
sinned. They kept wandering from the
truth to idolatry. Idolatry, the worship of false
gods. As far as the true worship of the true God is concerned,
idolatry is spiritual adultery. It's departing from the truth.
The Lord God is your husband, is what the scripture says to
his people. The Lord God is your husband. But yet they've gone
after other gods. They've gone after idols and
false gods. And they get repeated warnings
and repeated warnings. And down the years from Solomon's
temple first being there in its glorious presence, The Babylonian
captivity was threatened and it came because of their idolatry.
For 70 years they were to go into Babylonian captivity. Jerusalem
was to be destroyed. That glorious Temple of Solomon
was to be knocked down so that there wasn't one stone remaining
on another. They were taken away for 70 years in the time of Daniel
and his friends and the others that went there for that 70 years
of captivity. And look how they felt in Psalm
137, we read about it. Psalm 137, we read this, by the
rivers of Babylon, there's the people of God. The Israelites,
they're from Judea. The people of God are there in
this foreign land. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered
Zion. We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us
away captive required of us a song. Come on, sing for us. and that they that wasted us
required of us mirth. Come on, be happy, saying, sing
us one of the songs of Zion. And they say, how shall we sing
the Lord's song in a strange land? It's Jerusalem and where
the temple is. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning, I can play. Let my right
hand forget that I can play. If I do not remember thee, let
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not
Jerusalem above my chief joy. You see, they couldn't be happy
there in that captivity. But when the time that God had
ordained, and he says it quite clearly in the prophet Jeremiah,
that it's 70 years you are going for, that's your punishment,
70 years for idolatry. And in the days of Daniel, he
starts to pray because he can see the 70 years coming to fulfillment. Then, then, in those days, Daniel
prayed for the word of the Lord to be fulfilled. The prophet
Isaiah, a couple of hundred years before, had prophesied, I think
it's Isaiah 44, that a mighty emperor would rise up, whose
name was Cyrus. Now I know, all the critics say,
this is so, this is so It's too good to be true. How could 200
years before a prophet predict the name of a king called Cyrus,
and then lo and behold, one comes along? Because the God of the
universe ordained it. Isaiah said it would happen.
My servant Cyrus, a heathen king, God's servant Cyrus, a Persian,
Medo-Persian emperor, God's servant Cyrus gave a decree in 539 BC
that the people were to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the
ruin of Jerusalem and of the temple. And you can read about
it in the history books. In Ezra, the book of Ezra, the
temple was rebuilt and rededicated. And then in the book of Nehemiah,
the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt and rededicated. But the people
lost heart for the work. Look in verse 2. The people lost
heart for the work. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, This people say... This is what the people are saying.
The time's not come for us to rebuild this house, this temple
of God. They lost heart for it. Why?
Well, they said it's not time. They said, perhaps something
like this, it isn't yet 70, it depends when they measured their
70 years from. They said, ah, ah, there was
a time when Nebuchadnezzar completed the destruction, and the 70 years
since that time is not yet completed. Or maybe it was the opposition
from the locals, because they got lots of opposition. Read
the book of Ezra, read the book of Nehemiah. So what they say
is, let's get nicely settled, let's get our homes established
and nicely furnished, and then we'll resume building the temple.
So nothing happened, nothing progressed. For 15 years, nothing
progressed at all. It's not the time, they said.
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying,
is it time for you? Right, you say it's not time
to build the house of the Lord. Oh yeah, but it's time for you
to dwell in your sealed houses, with your nice ceilings is what
that means. And this house, the temple that you came back to
build, it's lying in ruins still. Consider your ways. Think about
what you're doing and saying. The Lord, via Haggai, identifies
the real reason that they weren't getting on with the work. It
was love of the world. You want to get your houses right
first. You want temporal comfort first. So Zerubbabel and Joshua
the high priest, were stirred up, but they soon became discouraged. They did do some building, there
were a few rows of stones put together, but they got discouraged.
And in chapter 2 and verse 3, the word of the Lord comes again
by Haggai to them, and asks them this question, Who is left among
you that saw this house in her first glory? Now you can imagine,
70 years, There might have been some children that had seen Solomon's
temple in all of its magnificent ornation and beauty, and the
things that were going on there. And they'd seen that, and they'd
seen, some would have seen it, and they'd been taken away into
captivity, and now, 70 years later, there's some old people
in their 80s, maybe some in their 90s. And he says, who among you
is left that saw this house in its first glory? And how do you
see it now that this work has started? Is it not in your eyes,
in comparison, as of nothing? It's nothing. It's not a patch
on it. It's a disgrace by comparison.
And you know, if you read Ezra, when they got to a certain stage, Ezra
chapter 3, And verse 12, so they'd got so far and all the people
shouted with a great shout and they praised the Lord because
the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Then verse
12, but many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers
who were ancient men that had seen the first house, when the
foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, they
wept with a loud voice. But many others shouted with
joy. You know, the ones that hadn't seen it, they were so
pleased with how they were getting on. But the ancient ones who'd
seen the house of Solomon in all of its glory, they wept because
they said, this is nothing. How do you see it now? Is it
in your eyes in comparison as nothing? No, it's as nothing.
This has none of the glory of Solomon's temple. So the Lord
encourages them to continue with what they have. For here they
are, working, and it doesn't look very good, and it doesn't
look impressive, and there's opposition all around. And it's
a day of relatively small things, compared with the days when God
was blessing Israel under Solomon with all of his glory there.
But even this was the day that the Lord had made. Psalm 118
verse 24. This is the day. Which day? All
days. The day that you're in, where
you are, wherever you are, is the day which the Lord hath made.
And what's the response of the child of God? What if you're
Bunyan in Bedford Jail for 12 years? This is the day the Lord
has made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Why? Because we know our names
are written in heaven. Don't rejoice that the devils
are subject to you, said Jesus to the returning disciples. Rejoice
in this, that your names are written in heaven. Your names
are in the one book that matters, the Lamb's Book of Life. Because
when the other books are opened, you don't want to be there having
your sins exposed. You want your name to be found.
I want to be found in Him, said Paul, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, which I do by my works, but that which is
by faith of Jesus Christ, what He has done and accomplished.
You see, we must look to the ultimate objective, to God's
eternal kingdom. And so, a message of encouragement.
There it is in verse 3. Who is left among you? Is it
not as nothing? Yes, you're discouraged by it,
but look at verse 9. this that you're so discouraged
with, this which is barely a few rows of stones, the foundation
of it, that the old men are weeping about, and you're putting up
a brave face some of the younger ones that never saw the old house.
Let me tell you, says God, by the prophet, verse 9, the glory
of this latter house, this pile of stones that you're trying
to put together under great opposition and it doesn't look very impressive.
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former,
shall be greater than Solomon's temple, saith the Lord of hosts.
And in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.
It's a message of encouragement. How can that be? How can that
be that this very poor looking replacement temple The glory
of the Lord shall be greater in that, and the glory of that
house shall be greater than that one. Surely Solomon's temple
could not be surpassed for glory. Well in these ways, God in Christ
would grace this new inferior temple, the one made with hands,
the one that didn't look anything like as good as Solomon's, He
will grace it with His presence. He will come, He will be brought
by His parents as a baby, eight days old, for circumcision under
the rights of the Jewish law. He would come for circumcision.
He, you know, Simeon said, now I can go in peace, I can depart,
I can go to glory, for mine eyes have seen the Lord's salvation,
this baby. This baby that he held in his
arms, this is the one whom God has sent. This is the one who
is God. Become man that he might redeem
his people from the curse of the law. I can now depart in
peace. He was there in this temple that they were building 400 years
later, or however much it was. As a 12-year-old child, we read
about him when they'd gone up to the feast in Jerusalem, and
Mary and Joseph lost him, the 12-year-old boy, and they went
back trying to find him, and they searched, and they couldn't
find him, and they found him, where? In this temple, in this
temple. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater. There they found him, debating
with the scribes and the Pharisees and the elders. And then in his
ministry, he taught daily in that temple. He went there every
time he was in Jerusalem, he taught there. He turned out the
money changers on two separate occasions. He said, my father's
house is a house of prayer, but you've turned it into a den of
thieves with your corruption in your money changing. He graced
that building with his presence. And in that respect, the glory
was greater than Solomon's temple. that which symbolized the body
of Christ, because that's what the temple did, a body you have
prepared for me. says the psalmist, speaking the
words of Christ, a body you have prepared for me, a body that
God should become man. God can't die for the sins of
his people. God is spirit. He cannot pay
the penalty that the law requires of sinners, that the soul that
sins it shall die. So God became man, fully God
and fully man in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that he might die
the death that was required, that the sinners united with
him in sovereign grace before the beginning of time, their
sins should be paid by the blood of Christ. That body of Christ
was what the temple symbolised. It was graced with His actual
human presence. He came, look at verse 7, well,
yep, the verse before. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens
and the earth and the sea and the dry land. There's something
drastic, dramatic going to happen. And I will shake all nations,
and listen, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I
will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The
desire of all nations? is the Lord Jesus Christ, is
our God incarnate. He shall come and He shall fill
this house with glory, with His actual human presence. He who
is the desire of nations. Look at Malachi, you only need
to turn over a few pages, but Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1. I will send my messenger, God
speaking by the prophet, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek, that's
speaking of John the Baptist I believe, and the Lord whom
ye seek, when is our God going to come? When is our God going
to come? When is that seed of the woman
that the scriptures spoke about going to come and redeem us from
the curse of the law? He whom you seek, the Lord whom
you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. Here it is, it
will be more glorious. Even the messenger of the covenant,
whom you delight in, behold, he shall come, says the Lord
of hosts. What you are building here is
the seed of a future harvest. Look at Haggai 2 verse 19. He's telling them, you know like
when you sow seeds in the ground, they don't look very impressive.
At this time of year, in August in Britain, if anybody that's
a bit of a gardener, the things that you did that looked so unimpressive
back in March are now at their full glory. The tomatoes are
on the vine, the beans are on the plants, the courgettes are
growing, the herbs, it's flourishing, right? But back in March it looked
such a sorry sight. Verse 19, 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 from this day I will bless you. He's saying it's just the
seed of what the Lord is going to do. His kingdom will be triumphant. Secondly, God owns all the resources. Look, verse 8, the silver is
mine and the gold is mine. He owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. Anything in this creation is His. Men think they own it,
they've only loaned it for a while, and then it can be taken away
like the rich man, you fool. This night, those things that
you say will be your prosperity for the future will be taken
from you, your soul will be taken from you. Then, whose will these
things be? They won't be yours anymore.
Don't think then, he says, later on in verses 10 to 14, that Stephen
read earlier, talking about the law and about touching things.
This is what it means. We haven't got time to delve
into it in great detail. But what God is saying to them
is, don't think that this physical work, this physical pile of stones,
makes you or anything holy, because it doesn't. It's only the gospel
grace that it pictures that makes you holy. It's only the death
of Christ that it pictures that makes you holy. It's only the
body of Christ that it pictures that makes you holy. That's the
thing. Don't think they're just coming
and touching. That's just superstition. You're making the picture into
an idol. No. So then, let's move on quickly.
What is it saying to us today? Because we need to know this.
Because these things were written for our learning. To many believers
in the UK today, and possibly further afield, the true church
is in a pitiful state. It lies in ruins compared with
what they remember. I could even say the same myself
in my lifetime. Where is anything like Spurgeon's
Metropolitan Tabernacle at the Elephant and Castle in London?
There's nothing like it. You know, thousands flock there
to hear Charles Spurgeon preach. Three times a week he preached
there, and many more places elsewhere, and it was full and it was thriving.
Or more recently, what we used to think of as the thriving Reformed
Baptist churches with 100 to 200 members, possibly more, with
a full-time pastor, with elders and deacons and order, in actual
fact, by comparison, were like Revelation 11. Revelation 11,
verse 3, I will give power unto my two witnesses. And they shall
prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days. These are
the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before
the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them,
fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. Slain with the sword of the Spirit
is what that means. These have power to shut heaven,
that it rain not in these days of their prophecy, and have power
over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all
plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished
their testimony, the beasts that ascended out of the bottomless
pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and
shall kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie
in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom.
and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. Oh, Jerusalem as well. And they of the people and kindreds
and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days
and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in
graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over
them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another. Because
these two witnesses are dead, lying dead in the streets. These
two prophets that tormented them and dwelt on earth, they're dead.
But after three and a half days, the Spirit of life from God entered
them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon
all. What's all that about? It's the church in our day. The
two witnesses the ministers, the preachers of the gospel,
and the believers, I believe they're the two witnesses, and
they're lying dead in the streets. It looks in this land as if the
church is in such a sorry state, you know? How can we possibly
rebuild what we remember it being as, with thriving churches and
good, strong buildings. And so people ask the question,
what are we to do? And some will say, oh, like the
Israelites often did, oh, let's get together and let's discuss
the issues facing us and what we might do about it, and let's
seek help from others. You know, Israel was always being
condemned for trying to go to Assyria and form alliances with
Assyria, or go back down to Egypt and form alliances with Egypt,
because they seem to be thriving pretty well, and we're pretty
much a small persecuted case. And so they said, let's go back
and form alliances with them. They seem to be faring better
than us. No. No, that's not what the church
should do. We don't form alliances with this world, we don't form
alliances with false religion, we don't form alliances with
that which is not the true gospel. The church on earth is not the
end in itself. God's eternal kingdom in glory
is the ultimate goal. Let me just, in the minutes that
remain, try and get to the nub of this. The glory of God manifested. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former. Let's think about the
glory of God for a moment. Now, you'll have to remember
some of these references because we haven't time to look at them.
But in Exodus 33, verse 18, Moses asked God, show me your glory. Will you show me your glory?
And what did God say? I'll turn to it. You don't turn
to it. He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. The glory of God
is manifested in sovereign electing grace, by which hell-deserving
sinners are redeemed by Christ's blood from the curse of the law.
The gospel in which grace is displayed is the glory of God. It's the gospel that is the glory
of God. The glory of this latter house
is in the gospel, only in the gospel, because the ultimate
aim is the kingdom of God, and the only thing that secures eternity
for the people of God is the gospel of God. accomplished by
the Christ of God. It's the theme of eternal praise. It's that which angels desire
to look into, the sinless angels desire to look into, how God
can justly justify a multitude of sinners. Everything in Old
Testament worship pictured that Gospel grace. The Ark of the
Covenant, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the temple, the prophets. It was physically, the Old Temple
was physically glorious to look upon with the eyes, but the true
glory was in what it portrayed. The true glory was in the Gospel. If you read it, what were all
the animal sacrifices about in the priesthood? It was reconciling
sinners to an offended God. That's what the Gospel is. That's
how it pictured the Gospel. God, in Christ, paid redemption's
price for his elect people. And you know, I'll mention this
only quickly, but in 1st Samuel chapter 4, the Israelites, there's
something shining on my face, on the thing over there, I don't
know where it's coming from. Anyway, never mind, I hope it's
not distracting you, but it is distracting me ever so slightly.
But in 1st Samuel chapter 4, and verse 21 thereabouts, the
Philistines have taken the ark of God. They've taken it from
Israel. And a child is being born, and
the mother of the child says, Call his name Ichabod. Why? Because the glory of God has
departed. Departed glory. When the gospel
goes from a church, the glory is departed. It's Ichabod. The
glory is not in the physical appearance of the place of worship,
is not in the solemnity of it, it isn't in the traditions of
it or the standards which it seeks to uphold. You know, customs
and fashions change with the times. The glory of God's temple,
the glory of Christ's body His church, corporately and individually,
is not in anything physical, it's only in the Gospel. You
know, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 2, Paul says, I determined
to know nothing else amongst you. Nothing about the temple
and the rites and the ceremony, nothing else amongst you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified, which is the gospel, because
in that alone is the glory of God. And what was Paul's objective
above all else? The glory of God. Romans 14,
17, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, physical things. It's righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost, accomplished by the redemption that Christ
has accomplished. Wherever two or three rejoice
in accomplished redemption from the curse of sin, there the glory
of God is manifested. We're in a straightforward, humble
living room. as I know many of you are out
there this morning. But if Christ is held up, and
Christ in your hearts is what you desire, the glory of God
is manifested amongst us. Ah, but you say, what about all
the lovely old church buildings where once the gospel was preached?
Oh, can't we do something about it by joining with them? Ichabod,
Ichabod, departed glory, We've tried it. Honestly, I speak from
personal experience. We've tried thinking that we
can go and reform that which is Ichabod, and you can't. You
can't. Only God can do that. As God
withdrew his presence from the Jews, so he withdraws from Ichabod
churches. He closes doors that can't be
opened. He opens doors that can't be
closed. But you say, And a lot will say this. Surely making
do with meeting in a home and using the internet to get the
worship of God and the message of salvation to scattered pilgrims
is a very poor substitute for what they think of as the real
thing. Not at all, I would respond. It is glorious. The glory of
this latter house. You see, what the latter house
was picturing, again, was the church of God, heading to the
celestial city. It is glorious. The church, in
wilderness separation from the world, with the people taken
there by great wings of faith. If you read on in Revelation
chapter 12, after the chapter we read, the woman is given great
wings of an eagle to fly into wilderness separation from this
world. The wings she's given are wings of faith, faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And there in that wilderness,
she is fed by God for the time, the times, and a half a time.
Proverbs 30 verse 8 says, Remove far from me vanity and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me. Feed me wherever I am in this
day which the Lord has made with manna from heaven. Who is the
manna from heaven? Christ. I am the bread of life.
He is the manna from heaven, the one who came down from heaven.
Man shall not live by bread alone, the things of this world, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Every word.
the glory of this latter house. Yes, that pile of stones, that
second temple, was more glorious than Solomon's temple, even though
it didn't look it, in that Jesus the man went there. But the grace,
the true fulfillment is in the Church, the Church in our day,
lifting up Christ and the Gospel of His grace, preaching the truth
of the Gospel as God has revealed it, not as we would like it to
sound, preaching the truth of sovereign grace and particular
redemption, filling up the full number of the elect of God for
eternal glory. I just want to close with 2 Corinthians
chapter 3 and just a few verses. Verse 7. Verse 7 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. If the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, that's the old
covenant, the Mosaic law, the temples and all those things
that it represented, so that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not
the ministration of the Spirit, he's speaking about the gospel,
be rather, much more glorious. For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, the Old Testament law and its enactment in the temple
and the symbols, it was glorious, it was glorious to look on. But
much more doth the ministration of righteousness accomplished
by the gospel exceed in glory. The glory of the latter house,
the glory of the latter... For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth. What's the glory that excelleth?
Gospel glory, the glory of the grace of God in the gospel. For
if that which is done away was glorious, the old temples, the
old covenant, much more is that which remaineth glorious. Seeing
then, we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and
not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished, but their minds were blinded. For until this
day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even to this
day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless,
when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty." This is glorious. This church is glorious. Meetings like this are glorious
in this respect, if Christ is faithfully preached. What does
God tell us by Haggai? He tells us this, whatever your
physical circumstances, lift up Christ and his glory, preach
the gospel as God has revealed it, and he will shine the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God into the hearts of those
whom he will, by his grace, in the face of Jesus Christ. May
you be blessed to see it and believe it. Amen.