Spender, Jack: The House Of God ~ Camp Ministry-1995-04

Book of Haggai. We've looked at the house discovered in Genesis, and we saw the house described in Exodus, and there you remember that we were careful to include in that a section that God included in it, and that is acquainting us with our own hearts and our own weaknesses, and how God cannot participate with man in any building that is going to set forth the glories of his son until sin has been dealt with. And last night we looked at the hou- house deserted from the book of Ezekiel, and tonight we're going to take up a theme that is a happy one, the house of God restored. The house of God. So if you'll turn to Haggai chapter one, and please pronounce that book correctly, it is not Hagiye. When you get to glory someday and Mr. Hagiye walks up to you, or Brother Haggai, you don't want to greet him and say, hello there, Mr. Hagiye. That'll make him feel very badly. Just two syllables. We'll read chapter one. 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, gov- governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak 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 field houses, and this house to lie waste? Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Ye have sown much and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe yourselves, 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 into the mountain and bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heavens over you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds her fruit, and I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hand. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and J- Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, 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 be fear before the Lord. Then spoke Haggai the Lord's messenger in 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 Jehozadak, 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 four and twentieth day of the six months in the second year of Darius the king. Shall we just look up to the Lord? Our gracious God and Father, we're so thankful tonight for the redemption that we have in the Lord Jesus that gathers us together to sing these lovely hymns. We ask our Father that as the hymns go up to thee, so our hearts may go up to thee as well. We may consider that we have been lost and have been found, and we are assembled together tonight by thy matchless grace, and we can study the revelation of God, and we pray that it may be profitable, and thy spirit would be at work in the meeting. We ask that thou help us and bless us for thy own glory. In the Lord Jesus' name we ask it, amen. I want to take a minute and give you some background, uh, review, things that you probably know very well, but things that we should review. As you may know, God is in the business of restoration and recovery. We can all be thankful for that, and I hope that everyone has had an opportunity tonight to participate in that process. Now, that may mean that you have sensed God's, uh, work in your life as a believer, restoring you, or it may mean that you look back to a time when God, uh, restored you, uh, that has brought you back into the fold, brought you to be his child. But, uh, it's important that every person knows something about the God of recovery, the God of restoration. And, uh, I want to remind you about the history, the earthly history of God's earthly people, Israel, that, uh, their history can be summarized as three captivities and three recoveries. The first captivity took place in Egypt, it lasted four hundred years. The second captivity, they went to Babylon, and that lasted seventy years. And of course, the third one scattered them into all the nations of the world, and that has gone on already nearly two thousand years. And then there were three recoveries. The first one out of Egypt by Moses, who was a prophet, and the second one, uh, out of Babylon by Ezra, who was a priest, and the third one will be back to their own land under the Lord Jesus, who of course is the great king. So three captivities and three recoveries, and we're going to be talking about the recovery tonight that took place under Ezra and Nehemiah. Now, one other thing, just by way of history here, as you may know, there are five post-exilic books. Last night we were talking about Ezekiel, a prophet of the exile. Once the exile was finished, there were books that were written after the exile. We call them post-exilic, post-exile books, Five of them, two historical, Ezra and Nehemiah, and three prophetic, the last three books in your Old Testament, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Now, it's interesting, those five books of post-exile writing really give us, if we want to study them, principles for restoration among the people of God in any age. So I encourage you to look through those five delightful books and, uh, study them under that thought, restoration among the people of God. We're going to just look at one tonight, the littlest one, Haggai the Prophet. Now, around five hundred and forty BC, under Cyrus the Persian king, about ten percent of the captivity, uh, went back to Jer- Jerusalem. Everyone was invited to go, but only about ten percent of those who were carried away, uh, decided that they would go back. Um, doesn't seem like a lot, but ten thousand people or so is, is enough to work with. And, uh, they got back to Jerusalem, and they laid the temple foundation. They just got started in the work, just got going on the foundation of the temple. A little opposition arose, and they quit. They gave up. They went home. God raises up a man to go and to not criticize them, but to motivate them into action through the word of God. Do we ever need that today? Many people in many places either have given up or quit or about to quit. We need people to come through the power of God's spirit and his word, motivate Christians again to get busy into action. Just hold your place there and turn back for a moment to the Old Testament book of Ezra. Ezra chapter one. There are two things we need to look at in Ezra, and then we'll get into our story of the book. Two things to give us a little background. First one is in Ezra chapter one, and the first four verses. Let's read that. Ezra chapter one, verse one to four. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, so 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. Notice that phrase. I'm not going to talk about it right now, but just put it in the back of your mind. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. And he made a proclamation throughout all of 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 an 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, he is the God which is in Jerusalem. Whoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Now, the one point I want us to get in this reading is that the original intention for which the captives were sent back to Jerusalem was not to build the wall, not to build the city necessarily, but to build the house of God. The other passage we want to read is in Ezra chapter six. Ezra six, one verse, verse fourteen. Ezra six and verse fourteen. And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Idum, and they built and finished it according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the commandment of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Just notice that line. They built and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai. I read that so that we may understand that tonight we are considering the work of a servant who was faithful, and because he was faithful, God blessed the work. So we'll be encouraged that, uh, we're not looking at a man who talked, but, uh, God did not stand behind his word. This is a man who spoke, and God blessed it. Now, tonight we're going to look at this book of Haggai under five sections, and actually it does divide up into five visions or communications that God made to this prophet, and that'll be our outline. And once again, I'll try to be clear and identify them for you. There's five of them all together, and uh, they're, they're dated month, day, and year. So I thought what it would be fun to do, if we could, is to also try to get a picture in our mind of when these messages were given, that is, what the sequence was. Now, that's been interesting to me for this reason. I wanted to see what lapse of time there was bet- between the messages that came, and see, uh, if there was any significance to the fact that God waited so long before he sent, say, a word of encouragement or a word of motivation or whatever. And, uh, you know, we sometimes get a little anxious and we crack the whip a bit, and God here, who is the God of perfect timing, he speaks in a timing that is just exactly what is needed for the work that is going on. So number one, the Lord's rebuke. That's the first message, verse one through eleven, chapter one, verse one through eleven, the Lord's rebuke. This came, we might say, in late summer, the end of August, right at the end of what for us would be the month of August. Now you can tell immediately this is getting close to harvest time. The year is around five hundred and forty, uh, or actually this time five hundred and twenty BC. A lot of time had elapsed, and Haggai speaks. This is a month of harvest. The first day was a day of festivity and, uh, rejoicing, and so there would be a big audience to hear. And Haggai comes and he brings a word of rebuke from the Lord. It's not a long word. Look at it, verse two. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, the time is not come that the Lord's house should be built. The time is not come that the Lord's house should be built. In other words, God rebukes the people for their apathy. Their apathy, their lack of action. They have fallen asleep. He says, you don't care about the house of God. Now, God hears what his people say. We've already looked at that, and here it is again. God hears what his people are saying. He even quotes the people. This is what the people are saying. It's not time. Put it in our language of today, this is not a priority. Not a priority. Haggai comes and he says, don't you think we better get to work on God's house? Haggai. Not time. It's not a priority right now. Got other things to do. How about for us as Christians? Is it not time now? How many people don't have time to obey God? Not time to be saved, not time to be baptized, not time to go to the prayer meeting, not time yet, isn't time yet to start devotions with our family. Children are too young. Not time yet. Not time for me to work on the house of God. Not ready. And, uh, the Lord sends a word in verse four. He says, it seems to be time for you to dwell in your sealed houses. Houses that are sealing, literally the word is roped in. That is, God is implying your houses are finished, I notice. The roofs are on your houses. Time for that. And, uh, verse five, the key word in the book, consider. Consider. He says, now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your way. It is time for honesty about your condition. We work, as I mentioned, with a lot of young people. We work with, uh, people who have a very unfortunate background, uh, drug addicts, addicts, and, uh, some prostitutes and others in very, uh, terrible and desperate situations in life. And, uh, one of the things I've told them repeatedly, it doesn't matter how desperate your situation is, it doesn't matter how bad your background is. God asks one thing, and that is one thing I want to ask of you. Please be honest about where you are. If you will just be honest about where you are, it doesn't matter where you are, if you will just be honest about where it is that you are, God can work with you. But if you won't be honest about where you are, then everything else is, is not going to work at all. And, uh, that, that seems to be a real test of their willingness to seek God, honestly. You know, it doesn't change once you become a Christian. It doesn't matter how desperately we have made a mess in our walk, if we will be honest about where we are at. And we might as well be, because God is the one who searches the heart, isn't he? And he knows anyway, but he wants to see if we'll be truthful about where we are. Now God says, consider your ways. Let me present to you the evidence as I know it to be, and you just see, uh, if this isn't a problem. Let me read with you the symptoms. It begins in verse six. He says, you have sown much and you bring in little. That is, your work has been unproductive. You eat and you don't have enough to eat. It's not been satisfying. You drink, your thirst is not quenched. That is, we might say there's a lack of joy. You clothe yourselves, there is none warm. Your basic needs have been affected. Number five, you earn savings, puts it into a bag with holes. There's no surplus, there's no ability to put a savings away, just dribbles out the bottom of the bag. Number six, you expect much and you bring in little. That is, your resources are becoming scattered. Number seven, heaven and earth are withholding their due and their fruit. That is, all of your labor has become unfruitful. And number eight, there is a drought on your persons and on your possessions and on your labor. That is to say, life has become dry and disappointing, and God says, who did it? I did it. I did it. I wonder how popular Haggai was when he delivered this message. You know, he addressed the conscience, didn't he? That's what we need today. We don't need watered down, watered down messages that vacillate and hesitate and beat around the bush. You need to hear, thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. Haggai came in and he spoke straight to their conscience. He says, consider it your way. Be honest about it now. Does this not describe your situation as people? And of course, it's absolutely true. And who did it? God did it. Remember that great verse in Matthew six and thirty three? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. For our purposes tonight, let me, if I may, just paraphrase that verse. But seek ye first the house of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Seek ye first the house of God. Question. How committed are we as the people of God in working on God's house? You know one way you can measure the commitment of God's people? It's interesting. How can you measure the commitment of people on any project? Well, you just see how big an obstacle it takes to stop them. Is that true? They, they had a little obstacle arise, and they said, well, you know, can't be the time. Let's all go home and work on our houses. And the house of God, the work stopped. Didn't take a very big obstacle to stop them. You know, I like to fish. I shouldn't admit that out here. Uh, we have little Connecticut-sized fish, but that's all right. I like to fish anyway. And uh, when I decide to go fishing, well, you know, if it's raining, it really doesn't matter. And if it's five o'clock in the morning, well, there's no problem with that. And if I haven't got any sleep the night before, well, that's a trifle. And if the rod breaks, well, we'll fix it. And if we can't find the boot, well, we'll search. And on and on we go, and we rise above every obstacle, and we go fishing. Why? Because I really like to fish. My wife is over there grinning because she says there's not too many things you like to do more than eat. But she'll tell you I go fishing at five o'clock, and she serves supper at six, and I get some when I come in. This is so. Here you see it. You see, if you really want to do something, you rise above any obstacle. Your commitment is determined by how much it takes to stop you, and it didn't take a lot to stop these people in their work. Many did not even wish to leave the ease and comfort that they had found in Babylon and return to even work on the house. Only a small number returned to work on the house of God. And of course, as soon as they ran into trouble and stopped the work, they had plenty of enthusiasm for working on their own house. Number two, second section, verse twelve through fifteen: obedience brings encouragement. Obedience brings encouragement. Now, we said that the first message came at the end of August or the beginning day of September. This message comes two weeks later. God waits two weeks. This is what we would call in our time around the middle of September, and a word of encouragement comes from God. Verse twelve, we read that Zerubbabel, who was the governor or the, the, um, the man leading the charge here, and Joshua, the high priest, and the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord. I want us to look in this paragraph at four words that we read, and these four words tell us something about the restoration that really got underway at this time. The first word is obedience. It simply means that the people repented and they turned around, they got busy. You know, repentance is a great thing. Many people make it cloudy. They make repentance sound like ha- something has to be filled with emotion. You have to cry and weep in order to repent. That is not true. Now, repentance may be accompanied by tears, but it may not. Repentance at its heart simply means to turn around, to go the other direction. We have to be very careful when we are seeing souls repent, that we do not put obstacles by the door and make emotions part of God's requirement to be saved. It is not a part. These people heard the message of God, and they simply obeyed. You know, I was thinking today about that man in Luke chapter nineteen, Zacchaeus. He came and he went up in a tree to see the Lord, and the Lord called him down, and when he got down from the tree, he said, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. You remember little Zacchaeus. Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything wrong. And he came out with a statement that was totally financial. And the Lord said to him, this day is salvation come to this house. You know, I often wonder if some of us were dealing with Zacchaeus, what we might have said. Zacchaeus, we're not here to talk finances. You call that repentance? You'll have to go home and try again, Zacchaeus. We don't want to talk about financial problems here. But you see, the Lord Jesus, he looked right into his heart, and he saw that the words that Zacchaeus was speaking were the evidence that something was going on in his heart. That's what our brother John has been reminding us about in the morning studies with James, isn't it? Faith isn't the cause, or works are not the cause of our faith, but they're the result or the effect of it. We need to see it. And Zacchaeus really had it, and the Lord knew it, and he said, this day is salvation, come to this house. Well, these people had the same kind of saving faith, they obeyed the Lord. And then the next thing we read in verse thirteen, or the end of verse twelve, it says, and the people did fear the Lord. Not only was there obedience, but there was also reverence. That is, they began to act in a reverent manner. We are dealing with Almighty God. You know, when you begin to see people fall under the conviction that we are dealing with God Almighty, you can tell that you are on the threshold of revival. That's one of the sure signs when people begin to have a reverence for God. That's something we need to pray about. I don't mind saying that at home, while we have a wonderful work and we see a lot of blessing, and you may think by some of the things I say that we have no problems, and you should know better than that. One thing that, uh, we really need to do better on and work on, we have people that come into the meetings late, and sometimes our meetings get started late. And some people take a view of that and say, well, you know, that doesn't matter a lot, but I think if we realize we're dealing with God Almighty, we should be respectful at all times in, in all of our dealings with God. And, uh, I want to r- I want to read for you a few thoughts that I've gleaned from various other thinkers on this subject, what they said about this matter of the fearing of God. One said, fear presupposes that they saw their sin against God and discerned in the drouth the judgment of God. That's a good statement. Another one says they had been startled wide awake by the voice of God. That's good. And the last one I like the best said, God in grace extends one more opportunity and is watching. How nice. God in his grace sends Haggai, and he gives them another opportunity, and he's watching what's going to happen, and they fear before God. Then the third thing we read about is down in verse fourteen. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the remnant of the people. God stirred up the spirit. The process of restoring our feelings begins with God's work in the inner man, in the heart. One, uh, Old Testament commentary, Kylin Dailich, that I sometimes refer to, made this statement: To awaken the spirit of a man, to make him willing and glad to carry out his resolution. The willing heart is a creation of God through his spirit. You know, some people, before they obey God, before they get moving, they want some kind of an emotional experience, don't they? Well, I want to have this feeling that I am praying and carrying that there may be this feeling or this experience. Well, I think it's interesting that the order that we get here in Haggai is fearful or a reverent manner toward God, and then we read God stirred the spirit. We might remember that. God stirs the spirit to give them that physical strength to do the work. In fact, emotional strength from Haggai's encouragement and a stirred spirit from God's work within, together gives strength to do the physical labor that they would need. Then, verse fourteen, the last thing, it says they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. They came and worked. Let me just draw three applications from this little section that we've looked at, and then we'll go on. First one. The first step in restoration is honesty about our condition. We must face the problem. The first step in restoration is facing the problem. If you're a personal worker and you deal with others, and you have contact with those who have gotten away from God, step one, let's be honest about the problem. I like that verse in Proverbs twenty seven, I think verse six, that says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. I don't want to be kissed by Judas, and neither do you. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. This isn't always comfortable, but we need to hear, let's look at the problem square on. You know, God does that so wonderfully in his word. He exposes to us faithfully our hearts. We teach Romans all the time at home. I love the book of Romans. I love to teach through it. And the first out point in the outline, God's statement of man's problem, and God states it so clearly there and pointedly. And I tell our young people, you know, they like illustrations, they need illustrations so they can identify. I said, if you go to a doctor and you have something developing on your arm, like a tumor or a, or a horrible looking lesion or something, and you go to the doctor and he says, I could take care of that, and he gets out a big bandage and says, there, you're all set, now you can't see it. Do you go home and say, I found a great doctor, set me right at peace. I had something awful on my skin or my, my flesh. He put a big bandage, and I'm all set. What kind of a doctor do you want to see? The one that says, look, I'm, I'm going to have to get into the inside of that. I'm going to have to do tests and probe deeply, because when I give you an answer, you want to know that you're getting the treatment that's going to deal with that and solve it and take it away. And you say, then I have a good doctor. That's the way God is when he tells us about our condition, our heart. So first step, honesty about our condition. And by the way, some people are not at a point where they are willing to be honest. Pray for them. Pray for them. I don't spend a lot of time. If somebody is not going to be honest, work with others. Number two, we need to see in Haggai the simple point that godly leaders can influence obedience and blessing. Godly leaders can influence obedience and blessing. You understand, I'm sure, the reason why I use the word leaders. This is not just confined to elders. This is Sunday school teachers. This is parents. This is Christian workers, school principals and teachers, anyone who has to deal with the souls of men and women, boys and girls. Godly leaders can influence obedience and blessing. And then finally, the third one, this may be a bit shocking to you, but you know there's some times when praying about something is wrong. Do you know that? If God says move, for you to say, well, let me pray on it, is disobedience, you know? When God says move, no excuses, not even prayer, and I've been in situations in my life where I've seen people, and they were crying out for blessing, and I wondered why, and God had clearly said, do this. They said, well, we'll pray on it for a while, and the prayer was nothing more than stalling. That's what it was, stalling. Now, most of the time in life, it doesn't hurt to pray, but when God says move and be obedient, we don't need to pray. If it's clear, do it. Verse eight, go and bring wood. What could be clearer than that? Go bring wood. Well, we won't get wood today. We'll have a prayer meeting. Maybe tomorrow we'll have another prayer meeting. God says go get wood. People obeyed. Number three, This brings us into chapter two, verse one through nine. Chapter two, verse one through nine, a second message of encouragement. Second message encouragement. Now, this message came one month later. This would bring us to around the middle of October. You see what God is doing here? He is speaking by his servant and letting little bits of time go by where they may show that there is obedience and action, or where they may run into some problems, and he says, Haggai, it's time to bring another word. Anybody here have a gift or a burden for shepherd work? Take a lesson from this. Don't let those spaces get out too long between when you have to stop in and see those young lambs. Not too long. God kept Haggai coming back every couple of weeks or months with a word. Chapter two, verse one through nine. This is very interesting. The, uh, second message of encouragement comes because some opposition began to come in. We may say when the Spirit of God stirs hearts, opposition will come. What kind of opposition? Well, to make it very short, um, in verse two and three we read that God says, uh, verse three, who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory, and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison with it, as nothing? If you go back and read the parallel account in Ezra, you'll notice that some of the older people who remember Solomon's temple, when they saw the foundation going up, the building going up, they began to weep because, uh, it wasn't as glorious as Solomon's temple. And the younger people who couldn't remember what Solomon was like, they were also making a noise, but they were making a noise of joy. It was a mixture of joyfulness and sorrow and weeping, and the weeping, I guess, began to discourage the builders. And the Lord sends his servant and wants to nip this in the bud, and I think it's a good point for us to remember. God sees that a little restoration, a little revival is beginning to sprout, and he wants to encourage it and protect it, and he sends Haggai right back, and he anticipates the problem, and he deals with it very quickly. That's a good point. We have a young man, uh, in one of the younger assemblies back home, and he called me the other night. And, uh, now he, he's an interesting character. He was a state wrestling champ. He's a, he's a big muscular fellow, and, uh, he, God really saved him. He had a tough background, and he got saved, and a lovely wife, and she's become a Christian. She's a school teacher, and, uh, we've just been praying that he would grow in the things of God. We haven't been putting much pressure on him, but we've been praying for him that he would grow. And he said to me, he has a very, um, a very, um, successful business. He's in sports medicine, and he's one of these, uh, people that treat athletes that get injured, and he's very good at it. He knows all the muscle structures and all the rest, and he has a nice office, and patients are coming and going all the time. And he called me up and he said, you know, he said, I've been exercised more and more that I've got too much in my employment and not enough time for God. That I'd like to spend more time able to come to the meetings, maybe help out a little bit. I'd like to have more time for God. And he said, um, I just came to a decision. I need to get out of this business and sell it and just go to work forty hours for someone. And he said, you know, I wrestled with that, and I struggled with it, and I prayed about it, and I came to the decision. He said, when I came to the decision and made up my mind, the next day the phone rang, and he said, a doctor, a very wealthy and prominent doctor in town, said, I am building a new building with two large offices, one for me, and I'd like to have you have the other one, and I will furnish you with all the clients and business you want, because I see these kind of people, and I'll just send them right to you, and you'll have all the work you can do and a nice office to practice in. He said, the first, my first response was I was all excited. This is my big break in life. And then I began to think, I'm not so sure. He said, I wonder if this is from the devil. He said, the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced all this was was base. Because I called him back and told him, I don't think I'm gonna do it. So I just wanted to give you a call and let you know how I'm praying. What do you think? I said, God bless you, brother. God bless you. So glad to hear it, that he realized that when a work of God begins to stir in the heart, opposition comes, but you know, we may not recognize it. It may be persecution, but it may be prosperity. Mightn't it be prosperity sometimes? And, uh, if you go back and read in the book of Ezra, chapter four and chapter five, you'll find that the opposition that they faced was the fear of man from outside, but in this passage we find an internal opposition, our own people weeping and crying, oh, boohoo, this building isn't like the old one. You know, many criticisms sound pious, don't they? Just for a moment, use your imagination and think of what some of what they must have been hearing, these poor builders, from these older ones. Oh, you know, the size of this new building has been determined by a godless king off in Persia. We don't think this is of the Lord. Or, this small structure is not good enough for God. Or how about this? It's not the way it used to be. Someone said there's two things that, uh, you hear a lot in an assembly. One is, we've never done it that way, and the other is, we've always done it that way. Well, God sends some resources to give a message of encouragement. Let's look at them. Begins down in verse four. Here are the things, there are seven of them, words of God through Haggai to encourage these people, and look at the wonderful encouragement that God sends. Thus saith the Lord, this is down at the end of verse four, I am with you, saith the Lord. I give you a promise of my presence with you. Secondly, verse five, according to the word that I covenanted with you. God's covenant remembered. God's covenant remembered. God keeps his promises. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. What is Egypt referred to? Past blessings. Past blessings. There were greater trials than this in your past, and I took care of you through them. End of verse five. so my spirit remains among you, fear not. The power of God's spirit, my spirit remains among you. What an encouragement. Number five. look at verse six. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations. What's this? God can shake the heaven and the earth. He could solve our little problem, right? God can shake the heaven and the earth. He could solve our little problem. And then the sixth one in verse eight: the silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord. God says, don't fret about the cost of this or the magnificence of it. Don't you realize I could turn all the streets in this city into gold with a word? I'm not in it primarily for material things. And then finally, he says in verse nine, the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. In this place will I give peace, says the Lord of hosts. It is not the house that is so exciting, it is the dweller of the house. Because, of course, one day, a greater one than any there was going to come and be in the house of God. We'll talk about that a little later. Let's draw a couple of lessons from this section three. First of all, I would say protecting a work of God in process means disarming the destructive forces through clear commun- communication and encouragement. All I'm really saying here is any of you that are involved in the work of God and revival or restoration, the bringing back of a person or a family to God, pray and be on your toes to God that you might be sensitive that the moment the adversary begins to get his foot in the door, you need clear communication, good encouragement, get right on top of it. So many things are let go and let go, and before you know it, what was just a match is a forest fire raging out of control, and you say, how did this happen? It was let go, just like disease. And then the other thing, what a joy in that last verse to know that God is able to invest a lesser thing with a greater glory. A lesser thing with a greater glory. A humble temple with a Lord Jesus is brighter than Solomon's temple. Right? It's true. Well, I want to point out as we leave that one, all of those lovely promises, all seven of them that God gave, not a one of them were enjoyed by the people who were still back in Babylon. You realize that? It was a tough road to be out here building in Jerusalem, to be a minority, to be a little remnant working away, but God was with them, and he gave them promises, and these promises were never sent down there to Babylon, where it was ease and prosperity. So take your pick. You might be with a smaller company doing the house of God. I'd rather be there and have God's encouragement than to be in Babylon and b- enjoying a lot of blessing, financial prosperity and so forth, human blessing. All right, let's go on to the fourth one, chapter two, verse ten through nineteen. This is called a second rebuke. Isn't it interesting now that we see that God sends some encouragement, and he sends some rebuke, and then he sends some more encouragement, and then he sends some rebuke. What does this remind you of? Remember Ephesians chapter six and verse four? Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in what? Nurture and what? Admonition, right. Nurture, love, admonition, warning, or discipline. All nurture, a spoiled kid. All admonition and discipline, a broken spirit. Bring them up in a good balance of both. God does that with his people. He gives them nurture, and he gives them admonition. This message comes two months later after the last one. So the last one came around mid-October. This one comes around mid-December. What would be to us toward the close of the year, certainly after the harvest season. The second rebuke. It divides into two parts. We're going to look at them quickly. Two questions that, uh, God is implying in this passage to give this rebuke. Let's look at them one by one. The first one is in verse ten through fourteen. and, uh, I put it this way. God through his servant says, do you understand how your spiritual zeal was lost? Let me pause here and try to put this question in perspective. We know that the people lost their zeal. They got in there and they started a bill. They got a little opposition, they got discouraged, and they quit and they went home. We know that. The grace of God, the sensitivity and tenderness of God, he doesn't send Haggai and say, now look, do you know what went wrong? He doesn't do that. He doesn't even mention it. He gives them that encouragement and gets them building, gets them excited about the fact that God's house is going up. He brings them in some encouragement, little rebuke here and there, and after some months pass and the project is underway, harvest is now past, they've got a little bit more free time. Now he sends his messenger back. Hearts are much more in tune with God, much more able to learn some lessons, and he says, by the way, do you ever stop and wonder what went wrong back there? Let's think about that, and let's learn something. If you get a commentary on the book of Haggai, and you pick it up, and you start to read in, uh, this book, chapter two and verse ten through fourteen, you will see that not all, thank God, not all, but many commentators do not understand what this question has to do with, uh, the priest bearing, uh, holy flesh in the skirt of his garment. What does this have to do? And many commentators say this must have just been inserted later or copied out of some other place, or we don't know what this is doing here. Well, thank God it's, it belongs right where it is. It's a very good question. God is addressing the question of what went wrong back there. Do you understand what, how you lost your zeal? You know, the people had this view, they never got over it, even down in Babylon, they never got over this idea about the Holy Land. We can hardly appreciate how strongly they felt about the Holy Land. And they had come with the idea that if our crops just grow in the soil there, if our cattle just graze on the grass there and stand on this Holy Land, it's so holy that, uh, we're guaranteed success. Our barns are gonna burst out with it. We're going back to the holy land. And they came back and they had a very small harvest this year, and they were discouraged. And God says, I- I'm responsible. I- I'm the one that put my hand on that harvest, and it was very small. And you need to understand something about the holy land. And then he gives them this analogy about the priest bearing, uh, some kind of piece of meat or something, some sacrifice or something in his garment, and he says if, if he, if he touches it and it touches an unclean thing, does it become holy? This is deep, and let's not get into it. Let me use, uh, an illustration that may help us to understand it. Those of you who are parents and you have a small child, a little child at home comes down with an illness, let's say the flu or something. Can that child get well because you, mom, who are now well, touch him and get near him? Can you communicate wellness by touching your child and being near him? No. Is it possible that you could get sick by being near him and he could communicate illness to you? Yes. You see? And this is an analogy of what God is saying here. You people need to understand that it isn't growing in the Holy Land that makes your crops holy. It's something that comes from within your heart. That's my point. It's a spiritual matter from the heart. You need to understand that. Well, we've got to be very careful, you know. Sometimes it's possible in the assembly to take a view about something that we may do, the breaking of bread or, uh, worship or prayer or certain hymns or something that we may get a, a, a, you know, a wrong idea about, but as long as we have this tradition or this custom or this practice in our assembly, well, it doesn't matter so much how we live. We have the Lord's Supper every week, and that's gonna take care of all of it. Whatever our problems are, that'll take care of it. We're not immune from that, are we? That's wrong thinking, wrong thinking. There's no place we can meet, no practice that we can do that will take away the problem caused by a life that is out of fellowship with God, a heart that is far from God. How many are there who depend on someone else's relationship? Young people. Well, you know, I'm not sure about my relationship with God, but one thing I know, and that is mom and dad are good Christians, and uh, if they, if I die, the Lord will let me in. How many feel that way? That's not true, is it? Moms and dads, we need to be letting our children know that God holds them responsible for their own personal relationship with him. Someone has said God has no grandchildren. Some people have the idea, if I rub shoulders with the saints, it'll make me holy. Not true. Not true. So, we need to be clear on our own personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. And as I mentioned, this is also a danger that can arise in the assembly. Sometimes I get fearful when I hear people talk about our assembly heritage. From the fact that we have a great heritage, and we thank God for what those men and women of a bygone day went through and gave us. We thank God. From the point of view that having their books on my shelf or thinking that they were great men and I give lip service to what they believe, that that will make me holy. No, it will not, and they would be the first to say so. Well, the other question is in verse fifteen through nineteen, and we may put it something like this. Do you understand why God allows trials? Now, I'm not quoting here, I'm just trying to para- paraphrase or give a caption that will help us understand it. Do you understand why God allows trials? Because we know wrong thought patterns can destroy the work of God. What do we mean by this? Well, if you read through this section, you will see that God begins to say to them, uh, verse fifteen, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid in the temple of the Lord, since those days, and then he talks about all of the problems that they had with their harvest. Notice in verse seventeen, I smote you with blight and with mildew and with hailing, hail and so forth, yet you turn not to me. Then he says, consider from this day and upward, and so on. What's he saying here? He's saying, do you understand why I send trials? Why I allow these problems to arise in your work? I hope our thoughts are not foggy on this. God wants to know if his people are returning to work on the temple because it will get them a good harvest and save them from problems, or are they going back to work because it's the right thing to do and it's pleasing to God? You know, we need to examine our motives as to why we do what we do. And if in our sinful and deceitful hearts we say, well, I don't really care a hoot about this or that, but I'll do it to get God to bless my business. I don't really care so much about what this book says, but I'll read my little passage every morning so that God will prosper me, I'll make money or whatever. God says, that's not the right reason. I want you to do what you're doing because it pleases me, because you know in your heart it's right before God. That's the only reason why you ought to be out here working on this temple, the only reason. It's the right thing to do. And so God then, who loves accountability, verse nineteen, he says, is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, is yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree have not brought forth fruit? From this day will I bless you. Why does he say from this day? He says, write it down. Check on me. I'm telling you from this very day, make a note of it. I'm going to bless you. I'm so glad that they didn't have to finish the building before God would bless them. All they had to do was start. Boy, the message is clear tonight. You don't have to become a quote saint. Now you know what I mean. We're all saints if we're children of God, but if you're away from the Lord, you don't have to put your whole life back together. If you're not a Christian, you don't have to do all the things that are laid upon you by everybody around you. One thing God asked, be honest about where you are at, and then make a start. Obey God in step one. What is step one? Somebody here tonight has never been baptized, and you're a Christian. Somebody here is not having a daily time with God and the Word. That- that's the next growth step for you. Go home and resolve with the help of God that you will take that one step. And that even applies if anybody is here and you don't know where you stand with God. Go home and read that word, or if you want help, come and talk to one of us. Let us sit down and have a little talk together. I promise not to preach at you, but it'd be awfully nice to be able to talk over what is the first step of growth that God wants you to take. Well, God loves accountability. You know, some years ago we came up with the idea of having a fellowship for all the elders in our area, and a couple people grumbled and said, oh, you're going to get together and set policy, and we said, no, sir, we don't believe in that. We're going to get together and have a time of fellowship. We just entered our tenth year of it, three meetings a year for all the elders and workers in the area. We have a morning breakfast on a Saturday, and we all, everybody gives a report about what God is doing in their various assemblies, and we listen to a tape of helpful ministry. We pray for one another, and we have a good time. We're in at eight and we're out at eleven. Everybody can go get to their work, and uh, after ten years, God has blessed it. And I look back over and I think how pleased God is with accountability, because you sit there and one brother will say to another, last time you told us about this you were having, how did it go? Or you folks were struggling over here, and we've been praying for you. What has God done? If you want to grow as a Christian, make sure you're participating in some kind of an accountability structure, something to keep you accountable in your growth with God. Well, let's go on to the last one. Number five, a personal message to Zerubbabel, chapter two, verse twenty through twenty three. Now, this was given on the very same day that the previous one was, mid-December. God sends words to the group, but he also sends a little personal encouragement to Zerubbabel, and we need to close by looking at that. You know, God wants to encourage those who have been leading this good work. And he does it in a couple of ways. First of all, he lets them know that weakness does not remove the opportunity to be used by God.