We're turning to Haggai chapter 2 this morning. We're going to continue on with our motto text. I know it is Communion Lord's Day, and we usually change, and we have been thinking about Jehovah's Servant, but we're going to just keep with our motto text this morning. So we're going to read Haggai chapter 2, beginning at verse 1, reading through to the end of the chapter. We have taken some words out of verse 4 of this chapter. As our motto text, be strong in work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts, are the words that we want to emphasize and come and consider a little more closely today But we'll read from verse 1, Haggai chapter 2, and verse 1. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest. and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jasedek 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 remaineth among you, fear ye 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. In the four-and-twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Ask now the priest concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt to touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord, and so is every work of their hand, and that which they offer there is unclean. And now I pray you, consider from this day and upward, for before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, since those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten, when one came to the press fat, for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, There were but twenty. I smoked you with blasting and with mildew and with heel in all the labors of your hands, yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord. Consider now, from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? Yet. Yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree hath not brought forth. From this day will I bless you. And again, the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, Speak to us, O rubbable governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth, and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them, and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, while I take thee, Hosea Rabba Mo, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of Hosts." Amen. We know the Lord will add His blessing to the reading of His Word. coming back to the fourth verse, and we do want to think upon these words more directly this morning that we've taken as our motto text for this year. It's an anniversary year denominationally, and the Lord has brought these words before me, and we're going to take them as a motto text. Be strong and work For I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts." We're going to bow together in prayer. We need the Lord's help, and let us ask Him for that. Our Father, we're thankful today for Thy mercies, Thy goodness to us. We praise Thee that Thou art a God who delights to bless Thy people. And we thank Thee today that we can come and seek Thee for that. We acknowledge our need of blessing. Lord, we stand in need of Thee. There's never a time that we could come and say there's nothing that we have need of. We think of that church in Revelation that was rebuked and needed, Lord, an awakening, a dose of spiritual reality, when they said that they were rich and in need of nothing. And the Lord said it was the very opposite, that they were poor and blind and naked, and they needed to seek the Lord. Oh, Lord, there's never a time when we could come but that we are in great need. we certainly acknowledge that to Thee today, and we pray that Thou wilt be gracious to us. O Lord, look upon us, we pray, as we come around Thy Word, and as we gather here in this place. Let there be a word in season to our hearts, we humbly pray, for we ask now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We have considered the wider background and context to these words over the last little while as we have been taking these words and considering them as a motto text. As I said, it is an anniversary year for us as a denomination, the 75th anniversary. It's also the 73rd anniversary just last week or so of our own congregation forming, because it was formed at the beginning of January, 3rd of January, 1953. So we were very early in the list of congregations that were formed in the wake of what the Lord did way back 75 years ago. But we do want to take these words, and we noticed first of all that these words were spoken by the prophet at a time of remembrance of former glories. There in verse 3 and the opening line of verse 4, the question is asked, 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. So there were those, and we thought about them, those older men who could go back to former times and remember the previous temple standing. And we worked out that you only had to be around 65 years of age and you would remember that temple standing. Even though there were 70 years of captivity, the temple wasn't destroyed until maybe 20 years into that captivity. The temple did stand for a little while, and the Babylonians subjugated the King of Judah, but he hadn't destroyed the temple or the city, and that only came later. So anybody that was around 65 years of age at this time and had gone back would have been able to remember back to the former times. So that would take in certainly a number of individuals. And there was a mixture of emotions. There were those who were absolutely joyful at the foundation being laid and the prospect of a new temple being built. And then on the other hand, there were these other individuals who could remember what it was like. And as I pointed out, it wasn't so much the scale of the temple. Because remember, the foundations have only been laid of the second temple. It was the fact of what it never was going to have. The Shekinah glory was not going to be there. The Ark of the Covenant was not going to be there. Those things were gone. So it wasn't just the physicality of the building or the size of it, because the dimensions are more or less the same. It was the fact of what was going to take place in this building. And in a sense, they were right. And in a wider context, they were wrong. It was true. There was going to be no Shekinah glory, no Ark of the Covenant in this temple. But do you notice the connection there between verse 3 and verse 4? Even though this is true, it is in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing verse 3 says, yet now be strong. That may be true in a relative sense, the Lord is saying, because it's interesting here that the Lord directs the prophet to address this issue. Now we read about this issue over in Ezra. about how it came up that when the foundations were laid, there were those that wept and there were those that rejoiced. So now the Lord is directing Haggai to address this matter. And the manner in which it is being addressed is, yes, that may be true in a limited context, but nevertheless, the Lord's word is to be strong and work. So we were thinking about that particular context. We also thought about the context of the covenantal relationship that there is between the Lord and His people. Verse 5, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you, fear ye not. So here's something else the prophet was to remind them of. God had not forgotten His covenant that was hundreds and hundreds of years old. And it goes way back to when they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, when they came out of Egypt and God entered into a covenant with them as a nation. They went down as families into Egypt, they came out as a nation, and the covenant had been made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but the covenant was made with the nation. at the foot of Mount Sinai. And we looked at some of those verses back there in Exodus and in Deuteronomy that emphasize that. And maybe this generation had long forgotten about that covenant. Maybe some of them didn't even know that the covenant had existed. But the Lord says, I have not forgotten the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. Hundreds and hundreds, as I say, years ago, The Lord had made that covenant, and He was going to fulfill the terms of it. And therefore, this is a reason why they are to be strong and why they are to work. Now, what I want us to do this morning is to look at some of these terms that are found here in verse 4, and to see that there is a double requirement for the meeting of present need. There's two exhortations there that we want particularly to think about. Be strong, and then also the word and work. Work. So first of all, be strong. It's said directly to Zerubbabel. It's said to Joshua, the high priest, and then it is said to the people of the land. So three times it is repeated. The Lord speaketh once, yea twice. Well here, he speaks a third time. And he's emphasizing to Zerubbabel and to Joshua and to the people, Zerubbabel is going to be the political leader. He's the prince of the house of Judah. He's of the royal line of Judah. So in that sense, the kingly line is following on here. This is the line that the Lord Jesus is going to come from in Matthew's gospel. So Zerubbabel is going to represent the physical or the political line. Joshua is the high priest. He's going to represent the religious line. then there's the people of the land, those that have come back, a small number, a remnant who have come back. Remember, it was not all of them by any stretch of the imagination came back. There was less than 50,000 of them who came back. So, it's a small remnant that are in the land, and the Lord is coming to them through the prophet, and He's saying to Zerubbabel, He's saying to Joshua, and He's saying to the residue of the people in the land, you've got to be strong. You've got to be strong. Now, that exhortation is joined with those words, saith the Lord. You can underscore there in that verse just how often that is said as well. It's not Haggai that's saying this. It's the Lord through Haggai. Haggai is emphasizing that point. It's not my word. It's the Lord's word. I'm bringing you the Lord's word, and it is the Lord who says, be strong. A covenant-keeping God of heaven says, be strong. Now the word strong there is quite a common word in the Old Testament. It's the same word in each of the three occurrences here in this verse. It's a word that appears 290 times in the Old Testament. So we're going to try and narrow it down a little bit here and just take the form of the verb that is here. and it appears a lot less, about 24 times or so. And what is suggested here in the Pacific form that it is found in this particular place and in those other 24 places, it has the idea to be strong or to become strong, to be courageous or to become courageous, to be firm and resolute or to become firm and resolute, even to be sure of something. That's the idea that lies in this word. And if we apply the law of the first mention to this form of the verb, as you know, find where it is first mentioned in scripture and you get an insight into how you're to understand it. Well, that would take us back to Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 23. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood for the blood is the life and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. Be sure we'll pick up on that meaning just in a moment. So, the use of the word here, this exhortation, be strong, would suggest that Israel are to have it fixed in their mind as to what God has said in His Word, that it stands sure. They're not to doubt it. They're not to doubt it. Unbelief will be fatal. If they have a spirit of unbelief, they're going to lose out with God. they're not going to see the Lord work in the fashion that He has promised He will work if they are unsure here, uncertain as to what it is that the Lord has said. So in their own minds, they need to have it fixed that what God has said is going to stand and that what God has said is going to come to pass. Be sure about it. And if you go back there to Deuteronomy 12 and 23, that verse, As I say, the law of the first mention takes us back to that verse. They were to have it fixed in their mind that they were not to eat the blood of the animals. They were to understand what God had said, what God had commanded at that point. They were not to be careless and negligent and say, well, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter that God has said this. We don't have to be too strict on this matter. No, the Lord says, be you sure about this. Be you sure. Have it fixed in your mind. Be resolute on this matter. There is no giving up on this point. There is no shifting from this point. You are not to eat the blood of the animals that are slain. You can eat the flesh you are most certainly not to eat the blood." So, Zerubbabel and Joshua and all the people of the land are to be sure in their own mind as to the purpose of God, that it standeth sure with regards to building this temple. If we bring it down to the immediate context here of Haggai, Zechariah, and Zerubbabel, and Joshua, they are to have it fixed in their mind that this temple is to be built. This is the will of God. This is the command of God. This is part of God's covenant that He says He has not forgotten. He says, going way back to the days when you stood at Mount Sinai as a nation. they are to have it fixed in their mind. They are to be resolute about this. That's the idea here in this word, strong. Be strong, Sir Abbabel. Get it fixed in your mind, in Joshua as well, and all the people. Get it fixed in your mind here. Well, surely that application, Christian, is obvious to you and I today. as to how that applies to you and me, we're to be fixed in our mind. We are to have a firm resolve. We are to be sure about certain things. Unbelief is fatal today, just as it was among Zerubbabel and Joshua and the people of their day. Unbelief was fatal then and is fatal today. Our prayers will not be heard if we are those marked by unbelief. If we come to God, we must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You think about the week of prayer that we're about to launch out on, our congregational week of prayer. Well, if we're not convinced about prayer, if we're not convinced that God hears prayer, we're going to be slack about prayer. But if we're convinced in our mind, if we have it fixed and it's resolved in our mind, God answers prayer, and if I plead with Him, He will answer prayer. Sometimes He might answer no. Sometimes He will say yes. Sometimes He might say wait, but God answers prayer. It's no vain, empty exercise to wait upon the Lord and seek His face in prayer. Are we convinced of that? Are we sure in our own mind about that? Because that's what it is here that the Lord is saying through Haggai to Zerubbabel and to Joshua and to the people, be strong. Have it fixed in your mind in regard to that. Even when we think about it in connection with our own denomination and the 75th anniversary, are we convinced about the distinctives that brought this denomination into existence? Are we still sure about them? Are they as firmly in our mind as they were years ago? Or are we wavering on that? Some of those distinctives that are as part of our statements of faith at times. Are we as convinced of those as those men were that started out? There were men who were convinced, and they put all on the line for the cause of Jesus Christ. I mean all on the line for the Lord, and stepped out in faith, believing that what they were doing was right and according to Scripture, and that God would honor them. And there were years of barrenness. Those first 15 years or so of the denomination from 1951 through to 1966 were hard years. It was only when the imprisonment came that the Lord really started to move. And those churches that were formed during the imprisonment, some of them are the strongest of the congregations today. But there's a time when God proves His people. He tests them. He tests them. And there were times when numbers were not large at all. You can read a little bit about it in our own history that was compiled back for the 50th anniversary, 2003, of our own congregation. And there were times there in those early days, and it was difficult. It's said actually in the book that there was a time when barely a Presbytery went by, but White Abbey was mentioned in the Presbytery in some way or another. And the very idea, still to this day, there's an offering taken up at Presbytery. It goes to the 20P Fund, the mainland fund, from the Presbytery. But the first of those, the very first offering that was taken up in the Presbytery was for White Abbot, because it was in need, financially. And there were times of proving the Lord. And sometimes Christian, the Lord proves you. Are you and I as resolute as we think we are? Are we as resolute as we ought to be? And maybe the Lord puts you in a corner, and He's going to test you. Am I going to trust the Lord? Am I going to depend upon the Lord? Come what may, come what may, I'm going to stand on this ground. Well, that's the idea that's in this word here. Be strong, Zerubbabel, and be strong, Joshua. Be strong, ye people. It's calling for a resoluteness of mind to stand for certain things. Now, it's not the first time. As I say, it's about 24 times this form of the verb appears in the Word of God. And it's not the first time that this exhortation has been given by the Lord to His people. And the thought is, here is something that nearly, well, not nearly, every generation has to do. Every generation has to come to that place where they're going to say, this is where I stand. This is what I believe in. Every individual, let's bring it down as near as that, every individual has to come to that place where they're going to say in their own mind, here I stand. I'm going to stand on this ground. Let me give you some examples of individuals that the Lord said, be strong to. Joshua, in Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6, be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And that was repeated to Joshua a number of times in that chapter, Deuteronomy chapter 31, and then into Joshua chapter 1. Maybe that's a more familiar portion where you will find those words. But I've taken you back there to the very first time that they were said to Joshua. Deuteronomy 31, verse 6, where Moses was directed by the Lord to say it to Joshua. Be strong, Joshua. Be resolute. There's a work for Joshua to do. As we know, Moses was about to take his leave off the scene of time, and the work was going to fall to Joshua. Joshua is going to have to lead them into the land of Canaan. What's the Lord's word to Joshua? Joshua, you've got to be strong here. You have to have it fixed in your mind. You have to be resolute in spirit. Then if you go to Joshua chapter 10 and verse 25, you read there about all the men of Israel and all the captains of the men of war, Joshua said to them, fear not, nor be dismayed. Be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. There's going to be a theme that runs through all of these references that we're going to pick up here in Haggai, maybe not this morning, maybe another time. The reason why you can be strong, the reason why you can be resolute is the Lord has promised to be with us. That's here in Haggai. It's here in these references that I'm drawing to your attention as well. So there's Joshua to all the men of Israel and the captains of the men of war. Let's go over to 2 Samuel chapter 10. Joab to his brother Abishai when they were facing the Syrians and the Ammonites, 2 Samuel chapter 10. we read there, be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and for the city of our God and the Lord do that which seemeth him good. The same thought, same word, the same form of the verb is found in those verses as well. So there's Joab speaking to Abishai, his brother. What about David to Solomon? On two separate occasions, you will find David saying words like this to his son Solomon. 1 Chronicles 22 verse 13, Then shalt thou prosper if thou takest heed to fulfill the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage, dread not, nor be dismayed. That's David to Solomon. 1 Chronicles 28 verses 10 and 20 of that same chapter, you'll find David repeating words like that to Solomon. Solomon, my son, you've got to be strong. You've got to fix it in your mind. David had it fixed in his mind. David had it fixed in his mind what he was going to do. He was the man after God's own heart. He was the man who was determined to go through with God. Yeah, there were times when his faith was challenged and it wavered. There was times when he was convinced Saul was going to kill him, even though David had been anointed king by Samuel. There got to that place where David is of the opinion, I'm not going to survive. Saul is hunting and hounding me everywhere. So there were times, yes, his faith wavered. But he strengthened himself in the Lord. Remember that occasion when the Amalekites came against Ziklag? And David and his men were away. And all their wives and children were taken, all their goods. There were mercies in that. There wasn't one of them slain. And that's amazing in an attack like that, that somebody wouldn't have been slain and killed. There wasn't a single individual slain or killed. The men turned on David and were going to stone him, his own men, were going to stone him. And it says David encouraged himself and the Lord. And yet there are times when you have to encourage yourself and the Lord. You have to go back and remind yourself about the Lord's purposes and His promises. He's unfailing. He's consistent. And David said, shall I pursue after these enemies, and the Lord said, pursue, and you'll recover all. And he did. He recovered all. And then he said to Solomon, now Solomon, you've got to be strong. You've got to have it fixed in your mind. So it's one thing one generation having it fixed in their mind. The next generation needs to have it fixed in their mind. You young people, you need it fixed in your mind, your own mind. It's one thing what a parent or maybe a grandparent has done. for the Lord and their opinions and convictions, but what about you? You need to have it fixed in your mind. There needs to be a rising generation in the free church that has got the same convictions as those men that started it off. By and large, they're all gone. In some ways, Dr. Cook was one of the last, if not the last, connection with those days, because he went back to those days prior to the free church starting in Ravenhill. When he was converted as a young man, his mother told him, even though his mother attended Ravenhill Presbyterian, she said, you go down the road to that young man, Ian Paisley. I believe he will do you good as you grow as a Christian if you go and listen to his ministry. And that was before 1951. And Dr. Cook went down. His cousin, John Douglas, was there as well at that time. Those men were there before the free church started. And in many ways, they're the last of that connection back to those days. There has to be a new generation. And certainly now, 75 years later, there has to be another generation that comes up with the same convictions. Here we stand. Oded, the prophet to King Asa, maybe not one of the most well-known incidences in the Scriptures, but in 2 Chronicles 15, you read there of him going and speaking to the king. 2 Chronicles 15, verses 7 and 8, and he says, be strong therefore. Let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. What an encouragement that was to hear from the Lord through his prophet. Be strong and work. Let not your hands be weak. No, be firm and resolved in this matter. Your work will be rewarded." Well, is that not true, Christian? Stand for the Lord. The Lord is no man's debtor. The Lord is no man's debtor. He'll make it up many times over. It's the greatest bank with the greatest interest. Put it into the bank of God. All that you have, And you'll discover the Lord returns many times over. So there's Oded, the prophet to King Asa. One final one, Daniel. Daniel chapter 10 and verse 19. Much more familiar to us, Daniel's circumstances. And there in Daniel 10 verse 19, it says, O man greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be with thee. Be strong. Yea, be strong. There's a double exhortation given. to Daniel. And when he had spoken unto him, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me. And there that last incident with regards to Daniel does give us another important key is that strength and that resolve, that firmness, that sureness that we are to have is something that the Lord imparts. It's not natural courage. It's not natural strength. It's something the Lord imparts. It's something the Lord has to give you and me. If we're going to stand for the Lord in our day, in this day and age, it's going to be a strength the Lord imparts to you. It's going to be a strength the Lord imparts to you. Be strong, Daniel was told. And then Daniel testifies, I was strengthened I was strengthened. He says that directly to the Lord. Thou hast strengthened me. And we certainly need that strength. So that's the first exhortation that is here in this verse, Haggai chapter 2 and verse 4, where the Lord says to Zerubbabel, to Joshua, and to all the people, now be strong. The second one then is work We come upon it there in verse 4. So joined to the setting alongside it, this need for divine strength to be imparted, there is this exhortation to work. And we can break that up into two parts. What was it to work? Well, let's look at it in the context here of Haggai. Go back to chapter 1, verse 8. So this is what they're going to have to do. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house. And I will take pleasure in it. I will be glorified, saith the Lord." So there's the first part of work. What does this work involve? Go up to the mountain and get wood. Now commentators are divided here as to what mountain we're talking about. There's some of them who say it's Mount Lebanon. After all, that's where the cedars grew, those great magnificent cedars. And we read about other times when the cedars were cut down and brought down, even brought down along the seafront. And then brought to land again and carried up to Jerusalem. There's other commentators who say, no, it's the mountains round about Jerusalem. After all, remember, for 70 years, those trees have been allowed to grow unhindered. The land has been desolate. Nothing has been done on the land. There's only the poor of the people that were left. So there was nothing being done, no work being done, no need of wood. So whether it's Mount Lebanon, which was far away, miles away, whether it was the mountains round about Jerusalem, there is this exhortation to work, to go up to the mountain and to get wood. Now, they would need stone as well, but they had to start off with the wood. Maybe they had enough stone. Maybe the stone that was lying on the site of the temple that had been knocked down by the Babylonians was sufficient. It's wood that they need, because the wood of the previous temple had been burned. The doors had been burned in the previous temple. The gates of the city had been burned, as we know. Later on, Nehemiah, he went back to repair the gates, and that was one of the things that he acknowledged. The gates had been burned with fire. So there's certainly a need for wood, and here is the first part of this exhortation where they're told, now you've got to work. You've got to get up to the mountain. That was going to be hard work. was going to be work. It was not going to be a hobby. It was not going to be a hobby. It was going to take effort, considerable effort, to get up to the mountain. It's not easy to climb the mountain. It's not easy to work on the mountain. But that's what they need to do. They have to go to the mountain, and they have to bring down wood, and they have to build the house. Lord's house. They'd been building their own houses. We've mentioned that here in chapter 1 of Haggai. They'd been building their own houses. They'd been beautifying those houses. They lived in lovely sealed houses, verse 4 of chapter 1. And the Lord says, my house lieth waste. Now build my house. Build my house. And Christian, we have to build the Lord's house. We have to be involved in building the Lord's house. That's a great need. Today, we have to put effort into it. It's going to cost us effort. It's work. It's work. Hard work. And doing something for God is always going to be hard work, because the devil opposes And therefore, what we do for God is going to involve work, most certainly. But that's the command. That's the exhortation. Work. Now, let me suggest to you another way that is brought in here, the thought about the mountain. Because there's another way in which the Christian is to labor, too, not just physically, in the work of God. There's things to do physically. There's physical... parts to the work in this house that needs to be done. But the mountain is the place of communion with God. You think of different individuals that you read off in Scripture who met the Lord on the mountain. Abraham. Abraham was a man who lived on the mountain permanently. He only ever came down into the plain to interact with those inhabitants of Canaan. And when he had finished interacting with them, he went back to the mountain. It's interesting in regard to Lot, when he went after Lot, when Lot was taken captive, and he delivered Lot, and he brought back all of those inhabitants of Sodom and the cities of the plain that Abraham left them and says, I don't want even a shoelatchet off you. I'm taking nothing off you. I'm going back up the mountain. And he went back up the mountain to live. And he's the man who met with God on the mountain. What about Moses? What about Joshua? They're men who met God on the mountain. What about Elijah, Mount Carmel, Mount Horeb as well? There's another man who met with God on the mountain, most significantly the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was a man who went out onto the mountain. In Matthew 14, verse 23, it says that He sent the multitude away, and He went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, He was there alone. Luke 6, verse 12, and it came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. If Jesus Christ and all of those other mighty individuals that I have named there to you needed to go to the mountain Does that not suggest, Christian, you and I need to go to the mountain of prayer? Is that not something that we need to frequent in 2026, the mountain of prayer? We need to climb the mountain. We need to climb the mountain. And may the Lord help us to do so. The exhortation here is, go to the mountain. In verse 8, bring the wood. the resources, bring the means by which this house is going to be built. Well, there's a lesson, a very obvious lesson that is there. One other thought that comes from the mountain is the axe being laid to the root of the tree. They had to bring wood, so they're going to have to take an axe. And they were going to have to lay the axe to the root of the tree. And doesn't the Lord Jesus speak about that, spoken of in connection with John the Baptist in the Gospels, that in a sense that was John's ministry. He was taking the axe to the root of the tree. There were some things that needed to be cut down. Maybe there are some things that are needing to be cut down in our lives this year that are taking the place the Lord ought to have. And the axe needs to be led to the root of the tree, in that sense. It is significant, surely, that they are commanded to go to the mountain. Go to the mountain. And then there is this thought of building. That's the other part of the work. They are to build. Again, Haggai chapter 1 and verse 8 has the actual word. But it's suggested down through this portion that we have read here this morning to chapter 2. They are to build. Having got those resources, then they are to build. Now, the Lord says certain things to them before they start building. We're going to come back another time to this and pick up on some of these points. But I'll mention them to you. That line of, well, it goes through a number of verses. But the closing argument is verse 19. From this day will I bless you. Let's go down to that. Christian, from this day will I bless you. If you do this, Haggai says, the Lord says from this day He's going to bless you. If you listen to His Word, well that's certainly true with the unconverted. We can say to them a few, but listen to the Lord's Word, from this day He'll bless you. He'll bless you with salvation if you listen to Him. you listen to what he has to say about being a sinner in need of Christ, in need of salvation, then it's very true from this day the Lord will bless you. Oh, that can certainly be said to the unconverted soul, but it can be said to the Christian too from this day. Obey the Lord, go through with God, and from this day He'll bless you. Of that there is no doubt. That's what Haggai is saying here. In fact, Haggai is saying to the people, The harvest isn't yet in the barn, but the Lord's going to bring it in nevertheless. Look at the opening line of verse 19. Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree have not brought forth. It hasn't even got to harvest time. Maybe it even hasn't got to the time of the latter rain that was going to fill out those fruits In time for the harvest, that period of time hasn't even been reached, and yet Haggai says, I want you to know from this day I'll bless you. Obey God, and from this day He'll bless us. And Christians, surely that's a principle we ought to lay down in our lives going forward this year, 2026. From this day, if I obey the Lord, if I go through with God, the Lord's going to bless me. May the Lord indeed bless. There's a building work that needs to be done. You know the Lord Jesus took that language up in Matthew 16, I will build my church. And he's still building it today. He's still building it today. Whatever the times are like, and yet we may say they're not like they were 50 years ago. When God was working as he did in 1966, in those years afterwards. It's not like those times. But the Lord was working, too, in 1951 in those hard times when numbers were small and works were struggling. God was working then, too. It's just not a matter of going back to 1966 and the years that were after that. Go back to the beginning. God was building His church then. And He's still building it today, 75 years later. And He's still going to be building it right to the end of time. He will build His church, He says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Why must you and I work? Because Christ is building His church. And you and I are the laborers with Him. We're the laborers, co-laborers with God. And therefore, we must build, we must work, because Christ is building His church, and He's going to do it in 2026. We want Him to build many into that building around us here, whether it's boys and girls, whether it's family members, those out around us in this community. We want the Lord to build in bricks, but the Lord is building His church, and He will continue to do so. So why should we work? Why should we take to heart the words here of this motto text this year, be strong and build? Because the Lord is building this church, and you and I are to play a part in that. May the Lord bless His Word this day to us. We'll come back one more occasion to this, God willing, and finish out this chapter a little bit more. Let's bow together in prayer. I trust the Lord will bless His Word, challenge our hearts this day. Our Father, take these things that we have been considering, write them upon our hearts. Lord, it's Thy Word that we want laid up on our heart. Let Thy Word challenge us, not just what a preacher says, but Lord, let the Word of God burn its way into our soul. And we pray that we might indeed be strong and that we might work and that we might build knowing that Christ is building this church. and He has called upon us to labor with Him. O Lord of mercy, remember those that need to be converted. Lord, may the Word come to them with power even today. From this day will I bless you. Lord, what blessings they can know in coming to Christ this day. Save the lost. We pray, bring them to thyself. Carry on with us. We ask as we close this part of the meeting, as we come around this table of remembrance, we pray for Thy presence. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.