So if you turn to the passage
we read, return to chapter one of the book of Haggai, draw your
attention to the message of this book and in particular we'll
read a few verses from the beginning of chapter one. Haggai chapter
1 verse 1, In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth
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 speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The
time is not come. the time that the Lord's house
should be built. 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
therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.
Ye have so much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not
enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled
with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none
warm. And he that earneth wages earneth
wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring
wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and
I will be glorified. saith the Lord. Go up to the
mountain and bring wood and build the house. This prophecy of Haggai, Haggai
was one of the prophets sent to Israel after their return
from captivity in Babylon and their return to Israel, return
to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple which had been razed to the ground
in former days. And the people had begun to rebuild
the temple, but they become weary with it. And they looked upon
what was rebuilt, and those who were older among them who remembered
what the original temple that Solomon built was like, despised
what they saw being rebuilt. Yes it was being built again
but it was nothing in comparison to what was built before. And
they became weary with the labour and they said perhaps the time
is not now to build. And they went back to their own
activities, their own lives to build their own houses and their
own ambitions. And the word of the Lord and
the work of the Lord, the things of the Lord were pushed to one
side. So the Lord sends Haggai to this
people to say unto them, you say, the time's not come, the
time that the Lord's house should be built. Is it time for you, O you people,
to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house of mine lie waste? Consider your ways. Consider
your ways. Or what of you? What are your ways? And what's
your attitude to the things of God and the kingdom of God and
his house and his people and his glory and his gospel? Where
is your heart? Are you going about building
up your ambitions in this world? going about with putting your
heart and soul and energies into your natural labour, into building
up your riches, into building your houses, into building your
families, into building your ambitions at the neglect of your
rightful service of God, at the neglect of seeking His will and
His ways, at the neglect of worshipping with His people. Do you look
upon the state of the churches in the day in which we live,
and how many have fallen away, and how the nation multiplies
in evil, And do you use these as excuses perhaps for your apathy
and your weariness in the things of God? For your neglect of them? Do you say perhaps, well it's
evident that the Lord isn't working today as he worked in former
days and there's nothing I can do about that so I will just
go off and feed my family and do my work and I'll wait the
time hasn't come I'll wait for God to move I'll just get on
with my life and in so doing do you take a
truth that God is sovereign and ultimately nothing is built in
his house that he doesn't build and do you use that as an excuse
for your own turning aside to the natural things and your own
apathy. Do you use that as an excuse?
What can I do? Ultimately we can do nothing
except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build
it. But when the Lord says go build and we don't. When he says come and worship
and we don't. When he says behold the Lamb
of God and our eyes gaze another direction then all the excuses
in the world will do nothing to hide our sin from God. He
comes and says unto us, O you that dwell in your sealed houses,
that build up your own wealth, that put your labours and your
energies into your own things. Is it time for you to do that
whilst my house lies in waste, whilst many neglect my worship,
whilst the gospel is not heard? Don't use these things as an
excuse Don't use my sovereignty as an excuse for your apathy. Look unto my Son. Look unto Christ. Is it time for you, O ye, to
dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Sealed houses Why does the Lord
draw our attention here not just to the houses that these people
build for themselves, but to the fact that they are sealed,
they have sealings. Why is this word drawn out? Because
not only did they build houses, wonderful houses, which protected
them from the elements, not only were their labours going into
their house and not God's house, But their very building of such
things and their very sealing of the houses, not only shut
out the elements, not only shut out from their heads those things
which could harm them, that which comes down from the heavens to
harm them, But their sealing of the houses above their heads
effectively mirrors what they were doing in their hearts because
they put a barrier between them and God. They put a roof over
their heads, their gaze was down upon the earth and they ceased
to look up to glory to the heavens. There was this barrier between
them. and they excused it by saying that they waited on God
to build when really their labour was for their own glory. They'd
put a barrier between God and them. Their building had divided
them from God. They'd shut him out. They'd shut
him out of their thoughts and their feelings and their affections.
They had no time for him, no time for his ways, no time for
his gospel. Well you can't shut God out. You can't. If he purposes to
rain down from heaven fire upon your head it will come no matter
what ceilings you've put in the way. Your rebellion cannot shut
God out. Ultimately you have no strength
against him. And these people who turned,
they were back in their former land, they'd come from captivity,
God had delivered them from captivity, and yet so soon they turned to
neglect his ways, so soon they'd gone off into the world, so soon
they'd been distracted by the things of time and sense. And
he wouldn't have it. So he sends a word by his prophet. And he comes unto them. And he
says unto them, consider your ways. Consider where you're heading.
What are you doing? What are you doing with your
life? What are you building? O you that know not God, what
are you building? What do you see ahead of you?
Do you see career? Do you see riches? Do you see
family? Do you see pleasure in this world?
It will come to nothing if you don't know God. God says of this
people, you've so much and bring in little. You eat but you have
not enough. You drink but are not filled
with drink. You clothe you but there is none
warm. And you that earn wages put it
into a bag with holes. You can live to be the richest
man in this world. But when death puts its hand
upon your shoulder and takes you from time into eternity,
you can take nothing with you. What does it profit a man if
he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? Your building
in this world is vain, it's for nothing. Our life in this world is but
a moment. You blink and it's gone. One
moment you're born, the next moment you're a boy, the next
moment you're an adult, the next moment you're an old man, the
next moment you're gone. It's gone in a moment. Don't
fool yourself that your life lies stretching out before you. Youth is a deception. Soon you're
old and soon you're gone. and all that you labor for in
this world is gone from you because you can take nothing beyond the
grave. then how foolish these people
were who knew what it was to be in captivity, knew what it
was to be delivered, knew what it was to be brought back to
Jerusalem. How foolish they were to allow
the world and its deceptive, beguiling ways to come into their
hearts and to lead them away from God. As though all their
labour in this world could actually bring them something. it would
bring them nothing. Consider your ways. Perhaps you've heard the gospel,
perhaps you've heard the message of Christ, perhaps you know that
there is eternity to come, perhaps you know that one day you must
stand before a holy God and have an answer for your sin. Perhaps
you've heard the Gospel and been led to call out upon Christ for
salvation, knowing that the only Saviour from sin is Jesus Christ,
who came into this world to suffer in the place of sinners, who
took the judgment of their sins upon Himself, who washed away
their sins through His own blood. who delivered them from the judgment
of God that they when they pass from this world might stand before
God holy and righteous in Him perhaps you've heard His message
perhaps you've looked upon Him and now you've grown weary you've
heard and the things of this world and the things, the distractions,
the pleasures have come in and the labour of standing in the
faith, of standing alone in a world which hates and despises Christ
and his people, of standing amongst a few has overcome you and you've
as it were given up. Oh you say you haven't denied
Christ, you love him, you know he's your saviour. but surely
there's nothing wrong with this and nothing wrong with that and
all your thoughts and attention have turned aside drip by drip
little by little you've been distracted and turned from him
back to this world and its ways. Consider your ways. That ceiling you've put above
your head It's not enough to keep out the gaze of Almighty
God. He looks in our heart and He
knows what we are. And the facade we present before
other men, even if we continue in religion, we go to the meeting
Sunday by Sunday. We go along, we go and meet,
we go and we read the Bible and we present before others the
facade that we're still worshipping, we're still as it were building
God's house when we're doing nothing. Back in the week all
our thoughts, all our attention are on this world, it's entertainment,
it's sport, it's riches, it's glory and we've got no thought
for God, we've grown cold. Well you can fool man, but you
can't fool Almighty God who looks within upon the heart. And he
comes in his word, in his gospel, by his prophet, by his Holy Spirit,
and says, consider your ways. What are you building? Is it
your house and your glory? Or is it God's house and his
glory? Well truly nothing we can do
in ourselves builds God's house. But those who God leads, those
who God calls, those who God puts faith in their hearts to
believe on Jesus Christ and to look under him and to speak of
him and to testify and witness of him in this world are by his
strength building his house. But if your attention is on this
world and not looking upon Christ not resting in Christ, not trusting
entirely in Christ for your salvation. If your attention has turned
from Him to anything else, then you are building another house. There are many who call themselves
religious, there are many who take Christ's name, there are
many who say that they worship Him. There are many who say they
worship Him. who are building and they are
building in the things of religion but they are building their own
little house for their own glory. They're building their own works
of religion and they seek to come before God with their own
works. as though God will look upon
them and say how well you have done, as though their salvation
will be a reward for what they've done for Him. If I live like
this, if I walk like this, if I read my Bible enough, if I
attend church enough, if I do this and do that, God will be
pleased. Surely He's more pleased with
me because of my zeal and my labours. But God says of our labour, and
our works, and our righteousnesses, that even your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. There's no building of his house
when we take the glory. God will not share his glory
with another. His house is built and it's built
by His people when Christ is all. When Christ is preached,
when Christ is all their hope, when all their gaze, when all
their hope, when all their rest is in Him and in Him alone. When
His people have renounced all their strength, all their own
glory. When they've come before Him
and said, Lord we are nothing. We're base, we're vile, we're
contrite, we're nothing. We can do nothing, we are nothing. We're without understanding.
Lord, open my eyes, I'm blind. Lord, make me to hear, I'm deaf. Lord, make me to walk, I'm lame. Lord, make me to live, I'm dead. When we're brought there and
brought by faith to rest in Christ alone, then, as those who walk
and live by faith in him, then is his house built. because our labours get us nowhere. Chapter 1 here speaks of this
people and their labours, their sowing, their eating, their drinking,
their clothing, their earning of wages and how it all comes
to nothing. And the Prophet said, go up to
the mountain, bring wood, build the house. And the people hear
the word Zerubbabel, Joshua the remnant of the people obey the
voice of the Lord their God and they go and they build and they're
stirred up in their spirit and they respond God moves in their
hearts and yet in chapter 2 later in chapter 2 we read another
assessment of this people they've gone and they've built but we hear in verse 14 that
God says by Haggai so is this people and so is this nation
before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands
and that which they offer there is unclean. And now I pray you
consider from this day and upward from before a stone was laid
upon a stone in the temple of the Lord since those days were. When one came to a heap of twenty
measures there were but ten. When one came to the press fat
for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press there were but
twenty. I smote you with blasting and
with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands
yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord. Now what is God saying here?
In the one instance he says unto a people consumed with this world,
laboring for their own ends and glory in this world he says to
consider your ways. But then there comes a time when
we turn from this world and when we come to the things of God
and when we see His house and when we will turn to labour and
to approve ourselves before God and even that labour comes to
nothing. Because we come before Him in
our own strength for our own glory. We go to His law and we
say we will keep it like Israel of old said when it was given
to them. All that the Lord has said we will do. And here you
go, about to build God's house, will you? By your own strength. Claiming to glorify God. When in reality, you're glorifying
yourself. You're taking pride in what you've
done. You're thinking you'll earn approval
from God by what you've done. Oh you say I'll put my energies
into God's work. I'll work to please God and he'll
bless me. But like these people here, he
won't share his glory with you. And he smites us with blasting
and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of our hands. And he brings all we do to nothing. Because we're going about it
our way, not God's. He has a way. And he has a way
that his house will be built. And he makes known that way in
chapter 1 and verse 8. He builds his house by Jesus
Christ. I will build my church, Christ
has said. and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. I will build my house. God's
house was built when Christ came into this world and went to a
cross outside the city of Jerusalem and was nailed to it and lifted
up in the midday sun and crucified. And when as he was lifted up
to die, all his people, all his church, all his elect from the
beginning of time to the end, were united with him in death
and they were slain in the Saviour. As Paul says, I am crucified
with Christ, in Galatians 2. I'm crucified Nevertheless I
live, yet not I, but I live by the faith of the Son of God.
I was slain with Him there on the cross. My sins were crucified
and judged in Christ my Saviour. I died with Him, and when He
rose from the dead I rose with Him. But I rose with Him, my
sin having been put away, my sins having been washed in His
blood. God's judgment and anger and
wrath against my sins having been met in my Savior. When Christ
died, he delivered all his people throughout all time. He set them
free. And from that day, he is sending
forth his gospel by his Spirit to find them wherever they are,
and to bring to their ears the knowledge of what God has already
done in Christ for them. To bring dead sinners to hear
that Christ has delivered them from their sins. That I have
died for you, that I've set you free. He brings this message
to dead sinners to hear that they might live. and every time
the Spirit of God quickens a dead sinner unto life and adds him
to the church, Christ builds and adds his church. He's merely
throughout the course of time adding, in the experience of
each individual sinner, them to the congregation, those for
whom he already has died, those for whom the Father those whom
the father has already taken by name and given to his son
as a people whom he should ransom from the grave. God the Father
in eternity said here's my people's son and he wrote those names
upon the chest of his son upon that great high priest who went
to the cross for them to die for them and when he died and
rose again he set everyone free and today all he's doing is making
the knowledge of that salvation known unto them. and adding them
to his congregation that his word might be known throughout
all the earth. He builds his house. He builds
his church. He builds it through the gospel.
And he builds it in such a way that his people will know that
gospel. And here the Prophet gave the people an instruction,
an instruction to point them through what they were told to
do to the Gospel, and to the Son, and to His salvation, and
to His death upon the cross at Calvary. Chapter 1 verse 7, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways, go up to the mountain,
and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure
in it and I will be glorified sayeth the Lord. Now what's this
about? Why are they sent to the mountain?
Why are they told specifically of all the items they could be
told to bring to bring wood? Not to bring stones, not to bring
gold and silver, but to bring wood. Now obviously in the literal
outworking at the time they were being sent to Jerusalem, sent
to go and to help build the temple again. But the wording of the
prophet here is addressed not just to them but to us. and they
were being told something far beyond what they were doing with
their hands at that time. They were being told where to
go, the material that they should
bring and what would be built. Go to the mountain, go to Jerusalem,
go outside the city, go to the mountain and bring wood. When Christ died, when God's
true temple, of which Solomon's temple and this temple were but
figures, when his true temple was built, as he died for his
people, as he saved his people, as he rose again with his people,
when his people were added to his house, he was taken outside
the city upon the mount, and nailed to a cross of wood. He was crucified upon a tree. It was wood upon which he was
nailed. Now the temple was built with
far more than wood. Very often we think of the stones,
we think of the glory of the gold upon the temple. But here
we're told about the wood. And that's because where the
true temple of God is built, it was built upon a cross of
wood. Upon wood. And not only was the
cross wood, but it was wood for a reason. Wood throughout the
scriptures draws our attention to specific things. And if you
go right back into the beginning of time, into the garden of Eden,
There were two trees planted in the Garden of Eden. The tree
of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. One is a picture of that which
slew man, which brought about his fall and his destruction.
And the tree of a life is the picture of the Son of God, that
tree which brings man to life, which brings dead sinners to
life, which delivers them from that which slew them. One tree
led to death and one tree leads to life and both trees made of
wood. One tree of man the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, that which instructs man, that which
tells man how to live, that which brings man knowledge and so he
thinks wisdom and yet it was knowledge and wisdom that destroyed
him and the eating of which was an act of rebellion against God
who said don't go that way And the other tree, the tree of life,
which he was not commanded not to eat, and yet which went in
the garden he never did eat. That tree was of God. A picture
of Christ and his gospel. These two trees speak of two
specific things. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil is a picture of the law. that which instructs
man that which teaches him about good and evil what you should
do and what you should not do. And yet when you go to that law,
though it promises life and righteousness, your inability to keep it slays
you. And ever since man ate of that
tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, he's
been going back to that tree, that tree of knowledge, that
tree of the law. He's been going about trying
to get to God and to glory by his own works and his own righteousness. Men in religion will continually
go to the law and their attempts to live up to its demands as
a means of pleasing God. Every false religion is built
on the same premise, your works, your living right to try to please
God. and every false corruption of
Christianity puts men back to the law by which they hope to
gain favor with God. If you live like this then you
will live and every time they go to that law it slays them.
As Paul made clear in Romans chapter 7 that which was ordained
unto life was made unto him sin. He says in Romans 7, for I was
alive without the law once, as Adam was alive in the garden.
But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. There was nothing
wrong in the law itself, but when he tried to keep it, it
slew him. because of his sin. That tree
in the garden was just a tree. The fruit on it was just fruit. But in taking of that which God
said, don't eat, Adam sinned. And in so doing, that sin slew
him and death entered. For sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the
law is holy in the commandment, holy and just and good. Was then
that which is good made deaf unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear
sin, working deaf in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. For that which
I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not,
but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the Lord that it is good. Now then it
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. That's what
Paul found of the law. That's what Paul found of that
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A tree which slew Adam. A tree which slew us all when
we ate of it when God said don't. God would have us go to the tree
of life, to the gospel. And we will always by nature
run to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We want to
do it ourselves. We want to get to God by our
own strength. We want to bring it about in
bringing about our own glory. And yet it's a tree which brings
death. But there's another tree and there's other wood that brings
life. The one tree, the one wood brings
death. The other tree, the other wood
brings life. It's all about the trees. Which
tree are you going to? Which tree are you eating? Well,
God says unto us, go to the mountain and bring wood and build the
house. What is this? Well, on that mount,
outside Jerusalem's gates, Christ was nailed to a tree of wood. and slain upon it. He, as it
were, took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He took the
law. He took that which condemned
us and slew us. He took that which brought death
in. And he was nailed to it. And
he took the judgment of God against the sins of his people according
to that law. And it brought about his and
their death in him. As it says elsewhere, he took
the handwriting of ordinances which was against us and nailed
it to the tree. That law is pictured in that
tree upon which he was nailed. That wood destroyed, that wood
slew the Saviour and His people in Him. But what was nailed to
that wood was the tree of life, even Jesus Christ. It was the
meeting of those two trees in that place. which brought about
the salvation of his people. It was because there was a tree
of life nailed to that tree that that tree of death could not
keep him in the grave. The fruit of the one tree brought
about his death and our death in him. But He rose again, that
we might have the fruit of this tree, the tree of life, Jesus
Christ, everlasting life in Him. Yes, He took away the judgment,
He took away the condemnation, He took away the law, He took
away all its demands against His people, its penalty was met,
it was satisfied in entirety. He took it out of sight and with
them He rose again victorious from the grave to live evermore. Live, as we're told in Revelation,
to go to a place with Him, to live and reign with Him in a
world to come in the new heavens and in new earth in the midst
of which is the tree of life, which is the life of all His
people. whose fruit we will eat forevermore
if we're his. O glorious wood of the tree of
life which took away the death that came from the other. Go
up to the mountain. and bring wood. If you go to
that place and if God opens your eyes to see the wood, to see
the cross, to see the Saviour upon the cross, then you will
know life, everlasting life in Him and you'll be added to His
house and His house will be built. And as he says, I will take pleasure
in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord, because I have
done this. I have done this. So God warns
the people, and they go up. So Reb Abel and Joshua and the
remnant of the people hear the voice of the Lord, and they go
up to do what he commands. chapter 1 verse 13 tells us then
spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the
people saying I am with you saith the Lord Here Haggai is presented
to us in picture as a picture of Christ. The Lord's messenger
in the Lord's message. Christ is the message. Christ is the messenger. He comes
with this gospel regarding his death, regarding the glory of
his cross, regarding the building of his house and he comes preaching
it. and he's not only the preacher
the messenger of his gospel but he's the very message he comes
preaching Christ and him crucified and in that message he says unto
that people I am with you I am the almighty the everlasting
the eternal God is with you Christ is God made man. God the divine
person taken human nature into union with his divinity. God
as man. Emmanuel. God with us. When Christ is with his people,
then their spirits are stirred up as the rubber bells and Joshua's
were here, and then the house is built, and then the Lord takes
pleasure in it, and then he is glorified. God with us. That word, that gospel, that
knowledge stirred up the governor, the priest and the people to
serve God in his house and nothing else will, only the gospel, only
the power of this gospel, only the life of Christ can bring
forth this. No service but the service of
faith, bubbling forth from the heart. The life of God within
man is of any worth unto God. Anything of the flesh, anything
of man by ourselves is of nothing worth. But when this Gospel stirs
us up to serve Him, then it's God who's working, God who moves
in His people, God who gathers them, God who's glorified. So we see the high priest, the
governor and the people. So Abbabel, the governor, a picture
of Christ, the governor of the world, the ruler of this world. And Joshua, the high priest,
a picture of Christ as the great high priest with his people in
his house, united and one. One. But when? When did all of this come about?
When? Each time he ap... Haggai! utters
words to the people several times over four times and each time
it's recorded exactly when he speaks in chapter 1 verse 1 we're
told in the second year of Darius the king in the sixth month in
the first day of the month came the word of the Lord by Haggai
the prophet to the people saying consider your ways then when
they're brought to build brought to return to the mountain, bringing
wood, brought back to the cross. We read in chapter 2 and verse
1, in the 7th month, in the 1 and 20th day of the month, came the
word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai. And then later on, we
read of the 9th month and the 24th day in the month, when all
will be fulfilled and the Lord will bless his people when the
heavens will be shaken and the earth shaken in that day. Yes, the sixth month, the first
day of the month, what is this? Well these times aren't arbitrary,
they're not random and they're not recorded randomly. There's huge meaning in these
dates and times. as there are in so many of the
numbers and events in the scripture. This judgement of the people,
this warning to them to consider their ways came in the sixth
month, in the first day of the month. Six is the number of man. Throughout the scripture man
is always likened to the number six. Created on the sixth day,
man. And God's assessment of man here
in this first account is that they're building their own houses
and neglecting his. He shows forth their hypocrisy.
He shows forth how they claim to serve God when their hearts
are far from him. He shows forth their deceit and
their rebellion and their disgusting claims to be God's people when
they are nothing. When their hearts are far off.
Oh the deception of the fall of man. How deceived we are. Not only are we in the depths
of sin when we know not God but we can be the most religious
and be full of sin. Worse than others claiming to
serve God when we're just building our own houses. So God assesses
these people in the sixth month. Six, man is assessed in the sixth
month and on the first day of the month. Why the first day? Because man wastes no time to
plunge himself into sin. When Adam was put in the garden,
when God commanded him not to eat of the tree, immediately
he turned aside. Man wastes no time to turn away
from God. What a pitiful scene. But having
declared His Gospel unto this people, having told them to go
to the mountain to bring wood, having told them of the wonderful
pleasure which God will take in this salvation which He's
wrought in His Son and in His people who are gathered under
Him, God says in chapter 2, in the seventh month, in the one
and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by
the prophet Haggai saying speak now to Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel the governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Josedek
the high priest and to the residue of the people. Here we're told
on the seventh day of how God will gather and begin to use
them to build his house. Now why the seventh day? And
why the 21st of the month? Well seven is perfection in the
scriptures. And 21 is seven times three,
not only perfection but appointed to the triune God who will bring
forth this perfection. And at the cross when God laid
the foundations for his house to be built, He did a perfect,
wondrous work, a wondrous work of God, a covenantal work in
which all the Godhead was involved, in which the Father took His
Son and slew Him, in which the Spirit moved Him to be raised
from the dead. All the Godhead was involved
in the salvation of His people. It was a perfect salvation, bringing
in a perfect righteousness without spot or blemish. the seventh
month, the 21st day. But the people labour and we're
told in the early part of chapter 2 how they may look upon that
which is built and how those who knew the first temple might
look upon it and despise it. Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? Oh you look upon the building
of God's house, you look upon the churches, you look upon the
preaching of the gospel, you look upon the few who gather,
you look upon how weak God's church might appear today and
you look back to former days and think that it's nothing in
comparison. This people looked back to Solomon's
temple and they saw this temple being built and despised it.
Even though God had gathered them to build it, even though
God was glorified in it, they looked on the outward appearance
and their natural heart for little. yet God looks beyond the outward. And though God's church, even
today, might appear nothing in the eyes of man, though it appears
few and scattered, though we may look upon it and think it's
nothing in our own eyes, in God's eyes it's glorious and those
ones and twos saved here and those ones and twos gathered
there are part of a multitude who on the last day will enter
into the new heavens and the new earth in a mighty company
gathered from all the corners of the earth from every tribe
kindred and tongue a mighty people and though the appearance now
may be small there is a mighty kingdom being built Despise not
the day of small things. God is building a mighty kingdom
and he speaks of what will come in the end in the latter part
of the prophecy when he speaks in the ninth month on the 24th
day. And he says of Zerubbabel, my
servant, that you will be made a signet. For I have chosen thee,
saith the Lord of hosts. I will bless you, he says of
this people. I will shake the heavens and
the earth. I will overthrow all your enemies, all the other kingdoms. I will make you mighty. I have
chosen you. You are a signet in my sun. my son is a signet he's my chosen
elect and all my people in him are like him righteous as he
is righteous glorified as he is glorified a signet I loved
them as I loved him you will be blessed and he says this in
the ninth month and on the 24th day of the month why the ninth
month and why the 24th day? Well the ninth month is nine,
being six and three. Here God is united with man. The triune God, free, is united
with man in his church. Finally man and God are brought
together again. in the ninth month. And on the
24th day, 24 being the union of the 12 patriarchs and the
12 apostles, all God's people seen in the 12 patriarchs of
the Old Testament, the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles
of the Lamb, all the 24 elders gathered before the throne of
God as we see in the book of Revelation, all the church throughout
all time shall be gathered. the twelve speaking of the covenant,
all the covenant people gathered in Christ from throughout all
the world shall be gathered unto me to praise my name forevermore. Hence the ninth month and the
24th of the month. Because that which is to come
is glorious. It's glorious and so the book
ends with the I wills of God. I will overthrow the throne of
kingdoms. I will destroy the strength for
the kingdoms of the heathen. I will overthrow the chariots. In that day, I will take thee,
O Zarebabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord,
and I will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith
the Lord of hosts. Oh, how the latter house's glory
will eclipse the former! Oh, how wonderful the hope is
which is set before us! How wonderful! How wonderful! There are those in Christendom
who looking upon the fewness of number throughout history
have always sought to try to build a house by their own strength
which would measure in glory to that which they saw in the
old times. So the Church of England and
the Catholic Church and these others have their great meeting
places, their great buildings, they have their great priesthood,
they have their priests that they reinstate like the Levitical
priesthood of old. They have their gowns, they have
their glory, they have their gold, they have their stained
glass windows. And all is in the strength of
man, all trying to build a house by man's glory. But God will
have none of it. This is all the building of man
and it comes to nothing. But God by his gospel is building
his house by his people through the preaching of Christ. Through
the preaching of that message that at the mountain of Jerusalem,
outside the camp, was crucified a man, a saviour upon a tree
of wood who took away the death which entered man at the beginning
of time and brought in life because that man who was crucified was
the tree of life. And there is a day coming when
that Tree of Life, that Signet, that Chosen, that Saviour, that
God, that Son of God, that Lamb of God will be lifted up and
glorified in the midst of a great multitude who are gathered with
the four and twenty elders around His throne to worship Him forevermore. O in Christ, Can God say of you
in him that I have made thee as a signet, I have chosen thee? Have you gone to the mountain?
Have you brought wood? Has God built his house out of
you? And will he take pleasure in
it? And will he be glorified? If you know Christ, if his gospel
has come into your ears, If He is your life, your all in all,
then God loves you with an everlasting love. He has taken away the judgment,
taken away the sin, and built His house. I will make thee as
a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. Amen.