You will open your Bibles first
to the book of Haggai chapter 1 and put some marker there and
then turn with me to Ezra chapter 4. So Haggai chapter 1, mark
that and then look back with me to Ezra chapter 4. Scripture I'm reading in Ezra
chapter 4 to begin with the last two verses now when the copy
of King Artaxerxes letter was read before Reham and Shimshi
the scribe and their companions They went up in haste to Jerusalem
unto the Jews and made them to cease by force and power Then
cease the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem So
it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king
of Persia. I want to do some reviewing before
we look at the passage in Haggai, and we will end the study there
in Haggai tonight with these words, the glory of this latter
house shall be greater than of the former. We know that God
chastened the nation of Judah. The nation was made up of two
tribes, Judah and Benjamin. And God chastened them because
of their wickedness, because of their sin. And God sent them
into 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon. He conquered Jerusalem, conquered
the Jews, and the captivity began, the 70 years' captivity began
before the temple was destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy
the temple at first, did not burn the city. He set up a king,
and when that king, Zedekiah, when he rebelled, It was about
11 years that he reigned. Then Nebuchadnezzar came back
with his army and he put out the eyes. Well, he killed all
the king's sons before the king and then put out the eyes of
the king, put him in chains and took him back to Babylon to live
out the rest of his life as a prisoner. And that was about 11 years. So the captivity began. When
the first king of Judah was taken into captivity, then there was
another king for just a few short months, and then this last king
for 11 years, and he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. And so that's the reason he came
back and destroyed the temple and the walls of the city. So
the captivity began about 11 or 12 years before the temple
was destroyed. Then we know from the book of
Daniel that the nation of Babylon was captured by the Medes and
the Persians. And so Cyrus, the Persian, or
the Mede, rather, he became the king, king of Persia, and he's
the one that gave the commandment. That's the way Ezra begins. Look
back in chapter one in verse one, you remember this. Now in
the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the
Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made
a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also
in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord
God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and
he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is
in Judah, who is there among you of all his people. His God
be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah,
and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. Now in the second
year after they came back, they laid the foundation of the house
of the Lord. Then when they began to build
the walls of the house of the Lord, their adversaries, which
we saw, were those nations that that the king of Assyria, when
he conquered Israel, the northern kingdom, the 10 tribes, he had
repopulated the land with people from other nations, and they're
called Samaritans, and they became the adversaries. Remember, at
first, they wanted to work, they wanted to help the Jews build
the temple, and the Jews said, no way. And, of course, they
worshiped other gods. They didn't worship the true
and living God. But they sent a letter to Cyrus
charging these Jews with building the walls of the city, which
was a lie. The commandment was to build
the house of the Lord. They had not received a commandment
to build the walls of Jerusalem. And they, as far as we know,
had not begun to build the walls. Well, they sent that letter to
Cyrus. But Cyrus, in the meantime, he
died. King Cyrus died, and his son,
by the name of Hosiris, came to the throne, and he sent this
letter back here in the verses that we read in chapter four,
verse 23. Now, when the copy of King Artaxerxes,
that's a Hosiris, letter was read, that's when they stopped
the Jews from building the walls of the temple. And I pointed
this out. that there was nothing said in
this letter that they received from the king about not building
the temple. If you look in verse 22 of chapter
four, it concerned building the walls. Well, I've got the wrong scripture,
but let me see here. Verse 21, give you now commandment
to cause these men to cease and that this city, you say it's
a city, the walls of the city, give commandment that this city
be not built. And so the work was stopped. There was nothing said about
not building the temple, but the Jews stopped building the
temple. Now look in chapter 5 of Ezra,
verses 1 and 2. This is when these two prophets,
Haggai and Zechariah, have a part. Then the prophets Haggai, the
prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Edo, prophet 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 Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and began to build the house
of God, which is at Jerusalem, and with them were the prophets
of God helping them." Now, if you will, go to Haggai. Prophet Haggai, he begins to
prophesy, and he does so in the second year of Darius, the king
in the sixth month, in the first day of the month. And he prophesied,
he preached to the Jews, to the governor and to the high priest
and to all the people there, that what they had done, they
had ceased to build the house of the Lord But they had built
their houses, their private houses. They had built their houses,
but they had left off building the temple of the Lord. And this
is a period of about 15 years. 14 or 15 years, they hadn't built
anything into the temple. And Haggai reprimands them, if
you see this in verse 4. Is it time for you, O you, to
dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste?" So
Haggai began to prophesy and reprimand the people because
they had built their houses, but they had done no work on
the house of the Lord. Haggai tells them that because
of their sin, this was a sin, and because of their sin, God
had chastened them. God had withheld the rain. They
had taken much seed out into the field and sowed seed, but
they didn't reap hardly anything. And they brought home their treasure
or whatever it was and put it into a bag of holes. And God
had chastened them. Now tonight, and we solve all
of that over the last few weeks, and last week we saw this here
in the first part of chapter one of Haggai. But now we go
down to verse 12. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
and Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, with all the
remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God,
and the words of Haggai, the prophet, as the Lord their God
had sent him. And the people did fear before
the Lord. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's
messenger, and the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am
with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit
of Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, and the spirit
of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did work. in
the house of the Lord of hosts their God. In the fourth and
twentieth day of the sixth month of the year of Darius the king,
let's continue into chapter two, 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 and to
Joshua and to the residue of the people saying, Who is left
among you that saw this house in her first glory? How do you
see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,
saith the Lord. Be strong, Joshua, and be strong,
all you people of the land, saith the Lord. And work, for I am
with you, saith the Lord of hosts, according to the word that I
covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit
remaineth among you, fear you not. For 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, 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. The
silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the
former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Now I want to bring several things
out to us in these verses that we've just read. First of all,
we see that the Jews Obeyed the word of the Lord. Look at that. If you will, in, in verse 12
of chapter one, it says Zerubbabel, and I'm not going to read all
these names each time, but Zerubbabel, the governor, Joshua, the high
priest with all the remnant of the people, notice obeyed the
voice of the Lord, their God. I want to point out three things
to us there. First of all, they heard the
words of Haggai. Haggai was a man. He was a prophet. They heard his words, but in
hearing his words, they recognized they heard the word of the Lord. They heard the word of the Lord,
the voice of the Lord. Notice that in verse 12. and
the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent
him, they obeyed above that, they obeyed the voice of the
Lord their God. This is what Peter meant in 2
Peter when he wrote about the scriptures and he said, for the
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy
men, men who were set apart, As prophets of God, they spoke
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Haggai, the words were
coming out of his mouth. God used him as a prophet, but
the words that he spoke were the words of God. The words of
God, they obeyed. That's what this scripture tells
us here. The remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord,
their God. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
told his disciples one day, He that heareth you, heareth me.
And he that despiseth you, despiseth me. And he that despiseth me,
despiseth him that sent me. God speaks, and God speaks through
men. God speaks to his people through
men, and we hear his voice. That is the word of God. These people realized that they
heard Haggai, yes, but they realized it was the word of the Lord that
Haggai was preaching. The second thing I'd point out
to us is the Lord stirred up the spirit of these people. Yes,
they heard. They heard the voice of the Lord
as they heard Haggai, but they would have done nothing. They
would have done nothing. had not God stirred up their
hearts. Notice that in verse 14, and
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel and Joshua and
the spirit of all the remnant of the people. In the New Testament,
the apostle Paul wrote, for it is God which worketh in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. God is the one who
stirred up their hearts. A good work always begins with
God. It always begins with God. Men
by nature would never do a work for the Lord, but God stirs up
the spirit of men and they work, they serve the Lord. And notice
something else, the third thing, the last thing here, how quickly
the work began. Verse 15, in the fourth and twentieth
day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Now, you look back to verse one
of that chapter, when did Haggai begin to preach? When did he
bring this message to the people? In the first day of the month
came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet. In the sixth
month, in the first day of the month. Now here we are 23 days
later. 23 days later, the fourth and
20th day, the same month, the sixth month, Same year, the second year of
Darius, this is when the work began. It would have taken several
days, of course, to get the materials that they needed to begin the
work. But I noticed how quickly the
work began. Many times God does a work quickly. Many times God sends a revival
quickly, unexpected. And God, the Holy Spirit, just
moves in an unusual way. Sometimes it's a prayer meeting,
like us here tonight. Sometimes God just quickly begins
a work, a great work, and it is a work that he does quickly.
And I say this work was done quickly, 23 days later after
he prophesied, they're out there working on the walls. Now, the
second thing I want to point out to us here is that the Jews,
these that were working, Joshua and Zerubbabel and the remnant
of the people, those who are building the walls of the temple,
they soon met with discouragement. I know they did. I know they
met with discouragement because notice in chapter five, verse
one, one month later, chapter two, one month later,
they began the work in the sixth month. Now notice here in the
seventh month, the next month, in the one and 20th days, and
a month later, more or less, a little bit less than a month
from the time they began the work, they are meeting with discouragement. And I know this is soon because
God again, through the prophet, tells them, be strong. tells
each one of them, tells Zerubbabel, tells Joshua, and tells the people,
be strong, be strong. The reason he was telling them
to be strong, of course, is because their hands had been weakened.
They became discouraged in the work. Now, how was it that they
became discouraged? I believe it's given to us here
in these verses. Let's read the verses again,
chapter two. In the seventh month, in the
one and 20th day of the month, came the word of the Lord by
the prophet Haggai, saying, speak now to Zerubbabel, to Joshua,
and to the residue of the people, saying, who is left among you
that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it
now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing? Yet now be strong. Be strong,
Zerubbabel. Be strong, Joshua. Be strong,
all ye people of the land." What was it that was causing them
to grow discouraged? It was the older people. The
older people who had lived long enough that they had seen Solomon's
temple And now they see the work that they are doing, and the
prophet asked them, is it in comparison in your eyes as nothing? Doesn't it seem like nothing?
And I can just see and just know that these older people, they
were lamenting the fact that this isn't anything. This temple's
not anything like the temple was, like the temple was that
was destroyed by by Nebuchadnezzar. They had seen the temple that
Solomon built, and in their eyes, they looked at this new building
in comparison as nothing. And I put down here in my notes,
it seems that by looking back, they were not looking forward.
Looking back to that old temple that had been destroyed, they
were not looking forward. These older men weaken the hands
of the younger men, the younger people. There's a verse in Ecclesiastes
where Solomon advised against this. In Ecclesiastes 7, we read,
say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better
than these? Well, we shouldn't do that. We
shouldn't talk about the former days being better than these
days. As God's children, all of us
tonight, as God's children, we should always know that the best
is yet to come. The best is yet to come. I think
about the illustration Brother Fortner used when he was a boy
growing up at home. He said sometimes his mother,
when she would start clearing the table after they'd finished
this upper meal, she would say, keep your forks. Keep your forks. She'd take the plates and other
utensils away. Keep your forks. He said, we
knew dessert was coming. There was something better yet
coming. Brother Lindsey Campbell at Don's
funeral said that, Don was buried with a fork. I don't know if
that was literally true or not, but I do know this. The best
was yet to come. And that's true of all of God's
children. That's always true. The best is yet to come. But
look at how God would encourage these people with one simple
statement. I am with thee. Verse four. I am with thee, saith the Lord
of hosts. The Lord was with them to defend
them, the Lord was with them to supply all of their needs,
and the Lord was with them to accept their work. Look back
to chapter 1, verse 8. You know, one of the things they
said, the time has not come, the time has not come to build
the house of the Lord. The time's come to build my house.
The time's come to get my house dried in, but not the house of
the Lord. And here in verse eight, the
prophet said, go up to the mountain, bring wood and build the house. And notice, and I will take pleasure
in it and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. You don't have
to build a magnificent, glorious temple for God to be satisfied. Just go up, do the best you can
with whatever materials you have. Use it for the glory of God.
God said, I'll be satisfied. I'll accept it. Now, my third
point and last point is I want us to say four very encouraging
statements the Lord gave to these workers in verses five through
nine. First of all, in verse five,
he tells them, according to the word that I covenanted with you
when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you,
fear you not. What an encouragement statement
was this to the Jews. My spirit God the Holy Spirit,
my spirit remains among you. And he mentions when they came
out of Egypt, when you came out of Egypt. Now just think back,
how could a nation of slaves come out of a nation which was
at that time, I'm convinced, the most powerful nation on the
face of God's earth, that is Egypt. How could that be possible? How could a nation exists for
40 years in the wilderness? How could they be fed? How could
they have water for 40 years? How could they come into the
land of Canaan and put out or destroy six nations, which were
mighty nation, great nation? How was that possible? The spirit
of the Lord. God's work, that's how it was
possible. Now, take courage, work, my spirit
is with you. If God's spirit is with us, that's
all a person needs. God with us. Keep your places
here, but I want you to look back to Nehemiah. Now, I've mentioned
last time that in the canon of scriptures of the Jews, Ezra
and Nehemiah, are usually considered to be one book. They both concern,
one concerns rebuilding the temple, the other building the walls.
But in chapter nine, this is one of the most beautiful prayers
in all of scripture, this prayer of Nehemiah. Chapter nine, and
notice, I wish we could read the whole prayer, but we don't
have time. But in verse 20, Nehemiah, speaking to God, said, Thou gavest
also thy good spirit to instruct them. That is the nation of Israel.
You gave your good spirit, holy spirit, to instruct them. And withheldest not thy manna
from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that
they lacked nothing. Their clothes waxed not old,
their feet swelled not. Moreover, thou gavest them kingdoms
and nations, and didst divide them into corners. So they possessed
the land of Sion, and the land of the king Heshbon, and the
land of Og king of Bashan, Their children also multiplied, thou
as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land concerning
which thou hadst promised to their fathers that they should
go in and possess it. God did that. The good spirit. God is good. God the Son is good,
God the Father is good, and God the Holy Spirit is good. The
good spirit, the Holy Spirit. Hagia, God through Hagia encourages
these people concerning building the temple. My spirit is with
you. Number two, he tells them that
the desire of all nations shall come. Verse seven, and I will
shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come. This is another of God's promises
concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
seed of Abraham in whom all the nations shall be blessed. Now,
it is true he's here referred to as the desire of all nations. And it is true that he's not
desired by all people in this world, but he should be. He should
be. If a person would have their
sins forgiven, If a person desires to have their
sins forgiven, if a person desires to know God, he must know God through Christ. There's no other way. Now it would be over 500 years
from the time God gave this promise until the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But did you notice in verse seven,
Six, it says, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once in
a little while. See, 500 years with God, to whom
1,000 years as one day is just a little while. We think of 500
years as a long time. Not with God. Just a little while.
Just a little while. And the desire of all nations
did come. And third, God would fill this
house with glory. In the last part of verse seven,
this house that you're building, God tells them, I'm going to
fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The house
of Solomon, or the house that Solomon built, it was adorned
in gold and silver, and that was its glory. It was a worldly
glory. But the glory that would fill
this house is a heavenly glory. That is the king of glory, the
Lord Jesus Christ, God's son, who is the brightness of his
father's glory. He would come to this house.
He would be presented in this house at six weeks of age. He would be here at 12 years
of age. And then from the time of his
baptism, he would very often be in the temple teaching forgiving,
healing, and comforting God's people. This house would be filled
with glory. And do you notice there in verse
8, God tells them the silver is mine. If I wanted to adorn
this house like the house that Solomon built with gold and silver,
precious stones, it's all mine. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. All the gold in this world is
His. Wouldn't be anything, God said,
I could adorn this house with gold and silver. But no, this
house is going to have the glory of the Lord God in it. And then
the last thing, what a word of encouragement here in verse nine. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts.
And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. The peace of God, which passeth
all understanding. Peace with God. How is that given? We know it was purchased. It
was purchased. And the purchase price was the
blood. of the cross. This is the peace
that God promised to give in this place. Sweet peace. We sing a hymn, or we used to,
that had these words in it, I believe. Sweet peace, the gift of God's
love. If you have peace tonight with
God, isn't that wonderful? Isn't that a blessing? I tell you there's no peace to
the wicked. There's no peace to the unbelieving. The wicked are like the troubled
sea. They cast up mire and dirt. There's no peace to the wicked. But I tell you, God's people,
we who know him, we have peace with God. And we have the peace
of God. May the Lord bless these words
to us here tonight.