Turn with me please to the book of Haggai tonight again. Haggai chapter 1 and again thank you for your prayers for our mission. We were out on the door to door this morning and we came in like drownded rats a day like that but there was good conversations had and we looked to the Lord for his blessing. I mentioned last week that we're running a tour to Israel next October and if you would like further details about that we'll then do sign up on a wee sheet that we have after the meeting please. Haggai chapter 1 and we're commencing to read please at verse 12. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Josedach 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 Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of the people. and they came and did work in the house of the Lord their host their God in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the keen. Let's keep our Bibles open there we're going to look at this last part of chapter one and then a wee bit of chapter two tonight but you'll remember from last week that about 50,000 Jews came from Babylon, they were released from captivity under Saris the king and they made their way back up to Jerusalem in Judah and they started to rebuild the temple. They started at the foundations, they started at the altar and that's always a good place to start, to examine the foundations, to examine the altar in our life. But you'll remember that they had discouragements from within the camp and indeed from without the camp. There was political frustration from the Samaritans and then there was discouragement, real discouragement from within the people of God. Many of the older people, they remembered the good old days whenever Solomon's temple was so opulent, whenever things were going so well and then there was the younger generation who were just so happy that there was something going on for God but the discouragement from within really caused the work of God to cease and that's whenever God's man Haggai came on to the scene and he had a remarkably short ministry but a remarkably effective ministry. You remember last week we seen that the prophet called the people to consider their ways. He was really the prophet of consideration. They'd got away from God And he was calling them back to the things of God to really seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, knowing that all of the other things would be added onto them. And you remember that their circumstances were so difficult. They didn't think it was the right time to rebuild the house of God from a prophetical standpoint. They didn't think that it was the time to rebuild in terms of practicalities. Inflation was rampant. The ground wasn't producing what they needed to produce. and so many different things were going on to discourage the people of God. But last week we saw that God was holding back the blessing from them because of their disobedience. There was barriers to blessing within their lives and the prophet Haggai was calling them back to the things of God. But I want you to notice tonight in verse 12 that there's a response to the call. Because in verse 12 we're told, You see whenever the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai and the people heard it, They did what we're meant to do whenever we hear the word of God, they put it into action. They weren't like the people of James's day who heard the word of God with their ears, but they didn't put it into action in their lives, they were hearers only, but yet these people heard the Word of God. The Word of God had convicted their spirits through what Haggai had said. They'd applied it to their lives and so they obeyed the Word of God. You see, as they examined their own personal lives, the Spirit of God took the Word of God and applied it to the people of God. They seen the hypocrisy of spending all their time and all their resources and all their money on their own house whenever the house of God was lying in waste. They were finding that their desire for the things of God was low, it was negligible. And my the spirit of God brought the conviction of the word of God and God used this old prophet to stir up a response in the people of God. For notice in the middle of the verse that they obeyed the Lord, the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent them. Here was people and they realised something about the sufficiency of the word of God of the authority of the Word of God over every aspect of their life and practice. They realized that Haggai was God's prophet, that he was God's spokesman and the result was simple obedience. You see that's the key response to whenever we hear the Word of God, it's always obedience. We're not to weigh up the options, we're not to examine the alternatives, we're not to bargain with God The right response is always obedience. Remember some of the objections that these people had to building the house of God. The time wasn't right prophetically, or so they thought. The time wasn't right practically, or so they thought. And the conditions, they didn't just disappear overnight. The economy just didn't have a massive boom overnight. The ground just didn't suddenly start producing what they needed. But yet, the people, they weren't looking for the conditions to change. They just realised that they had to obey the Word of God. They had to obey the Word of God, but they had to relieve the results with Almighty God. That's faith, isn't it? My new work has been done for the last 16 years, and the prophet comes on the scene, he brings the Word of God, it stirs the heart of the remnant, and the response is always obedient. But not only do you see tonight that there's obedience here, you see that there's motivation here. Look at the end of the verse. And the people did fear before the Lord. Here was a people and they had a reverential fear of God. Because you see, some of these people, they were the most spiritual of the remnant that was taken down to Babylon. They were the people that had returned. You see, many had gone down to Babylon. Some had died in Babylon. Some had been born in Babylon. But a great deal of them just wanted to stay down in Babylon whenever Cyrus the King issued the edict that they could return. Many of them had become accustomed to the pagan way of life. Many of them just felt at home down in Babylon. They didn't want to return, but this is the 50,000 or so that had returned. These were spiritual people, but the truth was that even the most spiritual people can become apathetic. They weren't pagans by any means. They had a heart for the things of God and the work of God, but yet so many things had drawn them away from the house of God. And you'll notice that Haggai refers there to the Lord of Hosts, in fact in this little prophecy that phrase is used ten times. It was a phrase that was familiar to the people of that day, it literally means the Lord of the Armies. And my these people they knew all about powerful armies. They had seen the armies of Nebuchadnezzar come in and they had seen a more powerful army come up with the Medo-Persian Empire. They'd seen armies come and they'd seen armies go, but here was the Lord of Hosts, here was the Lord of the armies, and he was stronger than all of the armies that they had seen. Here's the one that has never lost a battle. Here's one who is all-powerful, one that the psalmist said, the Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. That was their God. And they had a reverential fear of God. And let me remind you tonight that the God that they served is the God that we serve tonight. Maybe tonight I'm speaking to someone and you feel that you're in a battle that you can't win, remember the Lord of Hosts is with you. Mentally battling with something tonight that you feel you can't cope with, the Lord of Hosts is your helper. Spiritually battling the evil forces, the Lord of Hosts is with you. He's the one that has already defeated Satan. He's the one that has defeated death, the final enemy for us. That's our God. And here were a people and they feared the Lord. I think today, by and large, that there's been a loss of the reverential fear of Almighty God. For surely the one that we sit in his presence tonight, he's the creator of all things. He's the sustainer of all things. He's the one that the scriptures record as holy, holy, holy. He's the one that inhabits the whole of eternity. Do we not, as his creatures tonight, not have to bow before him? with fear and trembling and confess that he is God and there's none like him. We see their obedience, we see their motivation, but notice again that the example was set. Verse 12, then, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Josedach the high priest, with all the remnant of the people. You see their response here had started with the leadership. God stirred up Zerubbabel, he was the secular leader if you like and then of course there was Joshua, he was the high priest, he was the spiritual leader and God had addressed this prophecy to both of these men specifically as well as the wider remnant here in Babylon. Now imagine God coming and speaking to a secular king about building the temple of God. But that's just what he did. God always has a man for they are. He mightn't be who we expect him to be, it mightn't be who we want him to be, but God always has a man for they are. He raised up Cyrus, King of Persia, to carry out his divine will because God is the one that puts kings on the throne. He's the one that dethrones them. He raises kingdoms up and he's the one that throws them down. And of course we see his sovereignty in all of this. Cyrus was the king at the time and the sovereign will of God. God was in control of all the circumstances that surrounded these events. He was the one that called for the drought upon the land. He was the one that was sovereign over all. Yet this message comes. comes to the secular leader, comes to the spiritual leader, and it trickles downwards through all of the people. But I want you to see down in verse 13 that there was a reassurance with this message. Just notice how quickly the word of the Lord came. Here was a people, their hearts were stirred, the work of God was starting to recommence, the Jews were taking a step of faith in spite of the circumstances around, And I wonder did they have within themselves, because remember they're only humans like you and me, I wonder did they say to themselves, well, are we really doing the right thing here by starting back after 16 years? Are we going to encounter the same problems that we did? What if the finances run dry? All of those what ifs would have crossed their minds. And with so much uncertainty, so much fear, the word of the Lord comes at just the right time, whenever this people could have been paralyzed with fear because of the uncertainty. And you'll notice in verse 13, Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. It's not lovely that at just the right time and in just the right circumstances, there's a wee word of reassurance comes down from the Lord of Hosts. through the messenger of God and how often can we testify to that? Or maybe having a bad day and we sit and do our systematic reading of the word of God and out pops a verse that we just need it. Maybe you've had a rubbish week and you come in on a Sunday morning and the pastor just has a wee word in season that grips your heart. It's no coincidence that it's of the Lord. And here was the people and they got a reassuring word of the Lord just at the right time because here they were trusting, they were obeying, they had their doubts but God came and he gave them a word of assurance. The response of the people, the reassurance of the people but I want you to notice in verse 14 that there was revival among the people. 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. The word of God had been applied by the spirit of God, the spirit of God had stirred up the hearts of these people and as John Phillips rightly points out the word of God didn't just appeal to the conscience, didn't just appeal to the intellect, but it appealed to the emotions and the will. It was as if God's Spirit had applied the Word of God to their spirit and they were revived from within. See, revival had broken out among this remnant of the Jews and the work had commenced. After 16 years of nothingness, You can almost hear the sound of the building work recommencing all over again. After all of the discouragements, after all of the setbacks that came upon their way, God ministered into the hearts of a dire and dismal situation. Through God's man for the hour, the people hear the Word of God, the Spirit of God deals with these people. And there's a work that begins. but notice how promptly the work begins. Notice in verse 15, the four and twentieth day in the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king. Haggai had delivered that message. Remember up in verse 1 we noticed the date was the first day of the six months. Here's 24 days in and the people were starting to work for God. They obeyed promptly. Yes, there was a 24 day delay, if you want to call it that, but you think of what they had to do. They had to strip back all the debris and all the weeds from the foundations. They had to go up into the mountains and get the materials to build the house of God. They had to take inventory of what they had and what they needed. They had to get the building work team together. But I'm sure in the midst of it all, there was a time of confession. There would have been a time for sacrifice. for the sin of lethargy and for purification so that the whole of the work was pleasing to the Lord God Almighty. See, preparation, it had to be made for the work of God. It wasn't to be rushed. These programs, they weren't to be preceded without the purity of the people. You see, God's work has to be done in God's way, in God's time, and that's whenever we see God's results. But thank God the work had started. The prophet of priorities saw almost an immediate effect to his ministry and it came 24 days after his first message. That's chapter one. But notice in chapter two tonight that not only is there a call of consideration but you could write over these first few verses those were the days. You notice in verse one that this message came just 27 days after the work of God had begun, in the seventh month, in the 120th day of the month. If you're taking notes, that's the 17th of October, 520 BC. This was the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles. We don't have time to go back into this tonight, but if we looked at Leviticus 23, you'd see the account of the Feast of Tabernacles, or what the Jews would call the Feast of booths. This was really the final religious feast that Israel celebrated in their religious calendar and it commemorated several different things. First of all, it commemorated the autumn harvest. It was the end of the autumn harvest. It was the end of the time of in-gathering and it's really what you and I would call our harvest celebration, our Thanksgiving time. whenever we give thanks to God for his goodness. But it was also a period of remembrance. They were remembering those 40 years whenever the children of Israel were out in the wilderness. And they were thanking God that he never left them, he never forsook them, he cared for them. even as they lived as pilgrims, yet God met their every need. It was a time for thanksgiving, it was a time for looking back to those times of pilgrimage, and ordinarily this was a great time of celebration, it was a great time of rejoicing and happiness for the people of God. But remember again the background, there's no temple to go to, there's nowhere they can go to worship, The crops have been terrible, the harvest was poor, the whole joy had been ripped out of the celebration. And to make matters worse, some of the remnant that had come back from Babylon, they remembered the great days of celebration. They remembered the days of Solomon's great temple whenever there was real joy as they went up to that magnificent structure to give thanks to the Lord. And here they are, and they're looking around at these foundations, they're looking around at their outward circumstances, and they thought, you know, we've really not much to be thankful for. How discouraged those folks must have been. After their hearts had been stirred by the message of Haggai in chapter 1, after they had got back to Judah, after they had got back to the Holy City, yet disillusionment. despondency and desolation for 16 years have had such an effect upon their lives. Then Haggai preaches that first message. Their hearts are stirred and then even more discouragement comes in the way as they remember the good old days. They remember the day whenever the Feast of Tabernacles was so joyful, so wonderful. how beautiful that first temple was and they look at the small progress. Even though things have started but it looks absolutely nothing like what it used to be. Morale was declining and Haggai was going to learn something that it's one thing to get a people going for God it's quite another thing to keep going for God and keep at it especially whenever discouragement and disappointment come along and we all know that from experience and so just at the right time the word of the Lord comes through the prophet again and Haggai calls the people to have a three-fold look That's what's before us tonight, a three-fold look, and the first thing the prophet does is he asks them to look back. Cast your eye down to verse 3 of chapter 2. He asks them to look into their past. He says, Who is left among you that saw this first house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? There's the prophet and he raises three vital questions. And we know tonight from our studies in the Word of God that whenever a question comes before us in the Word of God, it's never because God doesn't know the answer. You think of how the Lord God called out to Adam in the Garden of Eden and he said, where art thou? It wasn't because God didn't know. The intent of the question seems always to be to probe the heart of the person being questioned. And in the New Testament and even in the Old Testament there's these devices and they're like rhetorical questions. It's calling the people again to consider their ways, to examine their hearts, to search deep within themselves and here's the prophet really probing them. For after all God knows the heart of every man and God knew the heart of this discouraged remnant of Jews. God had his divine finger upon the pulse of what was going on at that particular time and so he asked three pertinent questions. Question one, who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? Now we looked at the book of Ezra last time in fact let's just turn back to Ezra chapter 3 because you remember from last week that the book of Ezra gives us the historical background to this prophecy. The book of Ezra Chapter 3 and we're down there at verse 12 please. Ezra chapter 3 and verse 12. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men that had seen the first house when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes. Notice what they did. Wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy. You'll notice that there's two distinct groups. that Haggai is now addressing that we see from Ezra. There's these younger folks who they can't remember the days of the old temple. The majority of them were born down in Babylon whenever the temple worship was forbidden. Some of them perhaps had even been born in Judah and they could only see the foundations of the temple. So there's one group that hadn't seen Solomon's temple and they were rejoicing that this temple was finally getting built. But then there was the older people who can remember. As Ezra says, the house in all its glory, but notice the difference, they're not rejoicing, they're crying. For whenever they seen one brick being laid upon another and they started to see the temple perhaps taking shape, they see that all of their hopes and all of their dreams and their expectations of this temple being just like it was in the good old days, they were being crushed. The older folks they knew that this looked like nothing in comparison to what it did in days gone by and they're so discouraged. And Haggai knew it. That's why he says, can any of you, any left among you that saw it? And then secondly, he says back in verse three of Haggai chapter two, and how do you see it now? He says, remember the old temple? Well, you can remember it now. Now tell me, what does this new temple look in comparison? Of course he knew the answer. They didn't need to answer it, they saw that it was obviously inferior to the old temple and so the third question comes in verse 3, is it not in your eyes in comparison with it as nothing? The people's answer in their heart was yes, yes that is absolutely nothing like what it was. We had the best and why should we settle for anything but the best and that's a fair point. They'd got their finger on the pulse. We should always want God's best. We should always want the best for the house of God. But remember always, friends, that this was God's work. That this was in the divine sovereign will of God. No matter how small it looked in comparison, they needed to remember the truth that little was much when God was in it. And God was working in it. No matter the proportion it seemed to be, they weren't to knock the work of God because it was God's work. Here they were, they were discouraged. They'd seen the work of God going from strength to strength in days gone by and they were reminiscing to the good old days. And rather than those good old days being an encouragement to pray and to seek the will of God for the future, it became a discouragement. Now let's pause a wee moment. because we all need to take a wee moment for self-examination whenever we come to something like this because we can all look back to the good old days. I look back to the good old days in Lurgan Baptist under Dennis Lyle. You might look back to the good old days in Abbots Cross whenever you maybe had Mr Workman or Mr Shaw or so many other great men of God and you couldn't get a seat and souls were being saved night by night, the prayer meeting was full, it was standing room only and all of those memories are great but Satan can use those memories to force us back to remembering the good old days instead of thanking God for what's going on today and looking to God for the future. See those memories they should always be a reminder of what God has done, what God can do Yet we're not to live in the fumes of what happened in days gone by. There's another generation out there tonight that are walking a pathway to hell and we need to be encouraged to work for God in the day and hour that God has raised us up. And while we can reflect on the past, We have to look to God for his blessing in the present and in the future because who knows, God's best could be for this church, for my church, for us all. In days that lie ahead far out exceeding what God did for us in days gone by, we're to learn from the past, but yet we're not to live in the past. Haggai called the people to look at the past, but notice in verse four very quickly, verse 4 and 5, that they were to look to the present. Yet now, present tense, be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedec, the high priest, and be strong, all ye 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 remained among you, fear ye not. They looked to the past. And now they were to look to the present, and my God had a word for their present situation as well. When a discouragement could have came and sunk the ship, when despondency could have caused the work to cease once more, God gave them a word of encouragement. He says, be strong. It's not an encouragement. Someone once said that encouragement is oxygen to the soul. and how the people of God here, they needed encouragement because there was so many discouragements. Haggai was bringing this word of encouragement to this beleaguered remnant and do you see the repetition of be strong in verse 4? How important this word of stimulation was, it had to come right from the top to Zerubbabel, to Joshua, to the remnant of the people, they were all to be strong. When God speaks something once, It's important. Whenever God speaks something three times in such a short space of time, it's vitally important. And here was this word of encouragement because the Lord knows that it's one thing to commence the work, whether that be in a missionary organization, whether it be in church work, you can have a big launch and everything seems to be going so well. It's important to start a ministry. Completely different thing to continue on and also to finish well. Whenever the momentum isn't with you, whenever the discouragements come along and the trials beset you and morale is low, but God was coming with a word of encouragement to these people and he says, be strong. It literally means to prevail, to strengthen, to go right through, to be courageous and resolute right to the end. They had to be strong. I wonder tonight is that a message to some of God's people here tonight. Perhaps your morale is low. Perhaps you're going through a period of discouragement. God says be strong. Say it through. A word of stimulation but then God gives a word of occupation because notice that Haggai says, and be ye strong all ye people of the land saith the Lord and work. They weren't to lose their vitality. There was a work for God that needed to be done. They needed to put their shoulders to the plow. They needed to realize that they were God's vessels that he was going to use to build that temple. You see, it was a privilege for these people to work for God. And it's the same for you and I tonight. It's a privilege to work for God. And each one of us, as we thought about last week, has been given a gift to use, a unique gift. And as L.C. Duncan Yale said, there's a work for Jesus ready at your hand. Tis a task the Master just for you has planned. But yet night cometh when no man can work. And so the word of stimulation comes, be strong. They had a word of occupation to work, but notice again in the verse that there's a word of consolation. The Lord says, I am with you according to the word that I covenanted with you. when he came out of Egypt. God was promising these Jews his very own dear presence. You remember that God had covenanted to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. that he would shepherd them through that period of 40 years in the wilderness, and that he would bring them right into the promised land. He would bring them into that land that was flowing with milk and honey. And that was the one thing that differentiated Israel from every other nation. It was the divine presence of God. And here again, God is promising to be with them. You see, it's the presence of God, dear friends, tonight that makes the feast. Moses knew that. If you remember, whenever the children of Israel, they rebelled and they made those golden calves and whenever Moses was up receiving the commandments and they were dancing around those golden calves and the Lord threatened to withdraw his presence from them. He told them that they'd still go up into the land, that they would go and get their inheritance and he would even send an angel, an angel up with them. But his presence wouldn't go up with them. You remember Moses, he stood in the gap. He pleaded with the Lord. He pleaded for the Lord and his presence to carry them up. And do you remember his cry? He said, if thy presence go not up with me, carry us up not hence. Moses knew that without the presence of God, they had nothing. And God promised Moses his very presence My dear friend tonight in this meeting, he's here tonight. He is here, hallelujah, right in the midst of this very meeting. He's here and he's with us everywhere we go. It's not one of the great things about being a Christian tonight that he never leaves us, nor forsakes us. We're indwelt by the Holy Spirit where he goes, or where we go, he goes. Whenever you go home tonight and perhaps you put the key in the door and you're going into an empty house, He's with you. No matter what you face tomorrow, He's with you. No matter what difficult situations, what doctor's appointments you're going through, He's always, He's always with you. They had the assurance of the presence of God, but very quickly that they had the assurance of the power of God. Look at verse five, the second part. So my spirit remaineth among you. Fear you not. Here was the power in their lives. It was the Spirit of God among them. Now we live in a different time to these Jews. We're under the new covenant. We were baptized by the Holy Spirit the day and hour that we were saved by his grace. And that's the power that works within us. Remember Paul said to the church at Philippi, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The power's not in us. And whenever we start to think the power is in us, well then, we're in hiding to nothing. Yet whenever we're in the will of God, whenever we're obeying the Word of God, then the Spirit of God enables us and equips us to whatever task God has given us to do, irrespective of our own human frailty and our own human failures. You remember the prophet Zechariah. He was a contemporary of Haggai. He prophesied to the Zerubbabel in chapter four of his little prophecy, and he said, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts. God promised these Jews his presence. God promised these Jews his power. And thank God tonight as God's people, we have his presence. We have his power. And Haggai did see great things done in his ministry. And maybe if your pastor's away, we'll maybe get some other time and we'll look at the rest of the book. But remember friends tonight, that if we want to see a work done for God in our day and generation, forget about the past. Thank God for what happened in the past, but look to now. Look to the future because we still have the presence. We still have the power of God. And thank God tonight he hasn't lost any of his power and he's still a great God and what a privilege to serve him. May God bless his word to our hearts tonight.