I invite you to turn with me to the book of Haggai. It's a couple short books back from Matthew's Gospel, near the end of the Old Testament, smack in the middle of the two Zs, between Zephaniah and Zechariah. If you're using a pew Bible, it's gonna be found on page 791. Now when you woke up this past Thursday morning, I'm assuming you had certain expectations of how Thursday would play out. You expected certain traditions to be followed, certain foods to be served, and those foods to be served in very particular ways, right? You expected to see certain family members and certain friends. You had expectations. As we read Haggai 2, we are going to hear about the expectations of the Jewish remnant. the people who had returned from Babylon, returned from exile. This is the second of four sermons that Haggai preaches over four months in the year 520 BC. In his first sermon, Haggai's preaching was meant to rework the priorities of God's people. He said, consider your ways. Idolatry and selfish living, those lead to cursing Israel. not blessing, consider your ways, seek first the kingdom of God. That was chapter one. In chapter two, his preaching is meant to correct and shape their expectations. They had expectations that were not being met when it came to this second temple, the building of the second temple. And they had expectations that were far too low when it comes to the future of this second temple. And so listen carefully as Haggai preaches this second sermon here in Haggai 2 verses 1 through 9. In the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. and to all the remnant of the people, and say, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of Hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit remains in your midst, fear not. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, yet once more in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations. so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of Hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of Hosts. This is almost one month after the last time stamp that we receive in chapter one. The people are one month into starting again the rebuilding of this second temple. But not much progress has been made up to this point. It's only been a month after all. In fact, most of the seventh month, work has been on hold. This isn't because the people resorted to their old ways of working on their houses and neglecting God's house. No, this is because the seventh month is a month of Jewish feasts and festivals. It's a special month in the Jewish calendar, full of holy days on which no work is to be done. They're obeying God's law, not breaking it this time. On the first day of the month, they observe the Feast of Trumpets. Leviticus chapter 23, God tells Moses about this feast. He says, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets. Would have been allowed a day, a holy convocation. God says, you shall not do any work. Then on the 10th day of the month, you have the day of atonement, a very special day in the Jewish calendar. God says, it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall not do any work on that very day, for it's a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. And finally, so we've had the first day of the month, the 10th day of the month, and finally the 15th day of the month begins a week-long feast, a week-long celebration called the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles. A Feast of Booths, the first day of the Feast of Booths, the 15th, and the day after the Feast of Booths, God says, you shall not do any ordinary work on these days. So you see, in addition to the Sabbath days rest, the regular Sabbath cycle, on which no works to be done, we also have a number of Feast days sprinkled throughout the seventh month, on which the rebuilding project would have stopped. There have been a lot of days in which you wouldn't have heard hammers, you wouldn't have heard all the noise of building. You'd have seen piles of stuff. The day on which Haggai preaches this second sermon is the last day of the Feast of Booths, the 21st day of the month. This is the last day of a feast, which was designed to be very much like our own holiday of Thanksgiving. They were to rejoice because of the harvest that God had given them. They were to remember how God brought them out of Egypt. It was a time of Thanksgiving. For the Jews of Haggai's day, the Feast of Booths, however, would have been a real sharp reminder that God had not blessed them. that previous year in their harvest. In fact, he had cursed them. In chapter one, we read, you looked for much and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why was this? Well, from chapter one, we remember that the Lord of Hosts says, because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. There's an important lesson here. Even after repentance, the effects of their sin is still being felt. Just because you repent of a sin doesn't mean that you won't have to deal with the consequences of that sin in your lifetime. This is another reason we must flee from sin. Forsake it, run from it, get away from it. For the Jews, the harvest was a reminder of their disobedience and God's subsequent curse. This would have been occupying their thoughts during their festivities. Another thought that was clearly on their minds, which we see from Haggai 2, was the glory of the first temple. Not only were they celebrating among the ruins and the rubble of that first temple, but this was an anniversary of sorts. In fact, Solomon, the king who had built this first temple, dedicated that first temple during the seventh month, and guess what week of the seventh month? You guessed it, it's the Feast of Booths, during the Feast of Booths. It was an anniversary. Times and dates, folks, are so important. They can weigh heavy upon us, especially during the holidays. Maybe you felt this this past week. All of this would have been weighing heavy upon the people of Israel as they rested from the work they'd been commanded to do. They would have had plenty of time to look at the piles of rubble and debris, all the tools and and things that weren't being used. And in their minds, they would have been drawing comparisons, comparing the first temple with this second temple, or what was the beginnings of this second temple. Where was the glory? Where's the Ark of the Covenant? Where are the Urim and Thummim? Where are the curtains? Where are the engravings? Where's the gold? Where's the silver? It's into this context. of comparisons, of disappointments that God sends Haggai to preach. Isn't our God kind and merciful? He comes to us in our times of trouble. His timing is perfect. He knows exactly what we need when we need it. The Lord has Haggai ask the people three questions. Questions are so good. They draw out of us our feelings, our thoughts. We need to be asked questions. That's why catechism is such a good thing. The Lord has Haggai ask the people these three questions that draw out their inner thoughts and feelings. First question, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? Second question, how do you see it now? And third question, is it as nothing in your eyes? These questions are exposing the negativity of their hearts. 16 years earlier, when the foundation of this second temple had been laid, there was mixture of rejoicing and weeping among the people. The older people, the people who could remember the good old days of the first temple, they were the ones weeping because the foundation of the temple was as nothing in their eyes. It could not, it would not match the former glory of the temple, the first temple. It didn't compare. And the prophet Zechariah, a contemporary of Haggai, he puts these feelings into words. He says, the people despise the day of small things. That's what the Jews were thinking at this point. They were thinking, these are small days. These are days of small things. Our expectations are not being met. And now we have very low expectations for this temple and for its future. Can't you imagine their thought process, especially during the holiday of the Feast of Booths, as they're sitting around looking at the debris and the rubble, thinking, this temple, one, it's never gonna get done. It's already been 16 years in the making. This temple's never gonna be as great as the former temple. We're wasting our time. This is useless. Why don't we give up? You can imagine that thought process going through their minds. Well, Haggai addresses this attitude with three exhortations here, all to be strong. You see that three times, three questions and then three exhortations. Be strong, be strong Zerubbabel, be strong Joshua, be strong all you people. This command is very much like what God commanded Joshua, the son of Nun, when the Israelites were going in to take possession of the promised land. Be strong and courageous, God said. Fight. In this case, Haggai says, be strong, work. Do this, he says, for God is with you. The Lord God who made a covenant with you. He's faithful. He was faithful in the days of old. He was faithful during the exodus when He brought you out of Egypt. He was faithful during the conquest when you took possession of the promised land. He was faithful during the days of David and Solomon as the kingdom expanded and as the first temple was built. And He'll continue to be faithful today, Jews. He's with you. His Spirit is in your midst. Don't be afraid. Be strong. Work. And to back this up, to back these exhortations up, God gives these wonderful promises beginning in verse 7. God's opening up His mind to Israel and telling them what He intends to do in the coming days. What does He say there in verse 7? He says, and a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in and I will fill this house with glory. This house Israel, this house that you're building, I'm gonna fill it with glory. Wait for it, he says, I myself will come. You see when God shakes the heavens and the earth and other parts of scripture, namely on Mount Sinai when the people are given the law, It's a theophany. It's God appearing. He did this on Mount Sinai. He shook the mountain. He appeared in fire and smoke. God doesn't have a body, so he didn't appear with hands and a face. He appeared in fire and smoke. This is a promise that God himself will come and be present in a very special way. And isn't that what the temple's all about? The presence of God. God dwelling with his people. And this special coming, he says, it won't just be for Israel, will it? It'll be for all nations. He's gonna come and he's gonna shake the nations. And when he shakes the nations, what's gonna happen? Well, there's gonna be a plundering. Children, do you have piggy banks? You probably have bank accounts now. You have a piggy bank and it has a little hole at the bottom. It might not be a pig, it might be a minion or something like that. It has a hole in the bottom and you can unlock that hole and then shake it. When you shake a piggy bank, what happens? Well, the treasure falls out. That's what God's going to do. He's going to shake the nations like a piggy bank. He's going to shake the treasure right out of them and he's going to fill his house with glory. So God's going to plunder the nation so that their treasure will come in. It'll be a treasure greater than gold and silver, greater than the gold and silver of the former temple. God says here, He's like, I don't need your gold, I don't need your silver, it already belongs to me. It doesn't matter whether or not it's in my temple, or it's being used to build my temple, it already belongs to me. It could be in the temple of a false god, God's saying, and it belongs to me. I have ownership over everything, He says. We cannot add to God, we cannot take away from God. To Him belongs all things. You think about our tithes and our offerings. We're only giving back what already belongs to God. Any worship we perform, any works we do, we're only giving back to God what already belongs to Him. We live and move and have our being in God, not independent of God. So God's reminding the people here, you could acquire that gold and silver, but it already belongs to me. All those external adornings for the temple. What's the point of getting that? And then in verse nine, we come to the most precious promise in this whole passage. The latter glory of this house, he says, shall be greater than the former. And in this place, I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. And that's exactly what the people of Israel needed to hear. in their state of low expectations, of disappointment, of worry and fear, they needed to hear that what they were doing would in fact lead to greater glory. What they were doing mattered. Their work mattered. They needed to have their eyes taken off of the external glory of the temple. They realized that it's not going to be as glorious externally as the former temple. The gold and the silver, it just won't compare. They need to have their eyes taken off the external glory of the temple and instead have it placed on the internal glory of the temple. God Himself is that glory. They needed to learn to live by faith and not by sight. And this would transform their work. If you live by faith and not by sight, it transforms the way you live. transform their work, it would reshape their expectations. The plans God had for this temple would outmatch those of the first temple. It might not have looked like much in those days, but God would make it glorious. It would be a greater glory. Well, this is what Israel needed to hear so that they would continue to work. They needed to have their expectations corrected and shaped by God and His Word. And today, we, too, need our expectations to be reshaped, reworked, and corrected by God and God's Word. Many today have pessimistic attitudes when it comes to the church, comes to our influence in the world, our work, our mission, our activities, the various things we do. We have low expectations. when it comes to the things of God. We might say too, like the Jews in Zechariah's day, that we live in a day of small things. So we need to be reminded today that the greater glory of the temple that Haggai promises here in Haggai 2, that that greater glory has come. And he's even now shaking the world, gathering treasure, working peace on earth through the gospel of his shed blood. We need to stir it up to work, knowing that God is with us. To be strong because God's Spirit is in our midst. Above all, we need to be reminded of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to rejoice that we live in a day of large things, and of greater glory. And so, we'll be reminded of these things today as we consider the problem, the promise, and the production, the divine production that we find here in Haggai 2. So first, let's consider this problem. The Jews had both false and low expectations. They were drawing false comparisons between the first temple and the second temple. And Haggai, like I said, he lays bare their thoughts and feelings with these three questions. He shows them that they have low expectations for this temple. It says nothing in their eyes. And let me ask you, what happens when you have a low view of something, low expectations? If you're a student studying chemistry, but you can't see how chemistry will be of any use to you in the future, in your days ahead, in your day-to-day life, then what does that do to your studies? Say, I can't see the point. Well, you end up neglecting them, don't you? I don't see the point of how this connects with my life, therefore I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna devote myself to something else that I think will matter in my life. And so you do a sloppy job on your chemistry homework. Expectations are important. The people of Israel, they had low expectations for the second temple, and it was leading to this general pessimism regarding their work, and an attitude of worry, an attitude of fear, fear for the future, what's gonna happen to us? They're saying this is a day of small things, what's the point? This attitude problem, it leads to idleness, it leads to apathy. It leads to unbelief. The Israelites had a low view of the things of God, and this general attitude continues to be an issue today among the people of God, among churches. We have a low view of the things of God, low expectations when it comes to preaching, Sabbath rest, family worship, Bible reading, sacraments, evening worship, evangelism, prayer. We have a low view of these things. We believe we live in a day of small things. We say, oh look, these things are small. They're not very glorious. They look weak. They look foolish. We look at this church and we look at the things of God and there is nothing in our eyes. And as I said, low expectations leads to neglect. How many of you are neglecting prayer? or Bible reading. You might say that these things are important, that they really matter, but do your actions match your words? In this case, actions do speak louder than words. Today it's very easy to make false comparisons, just like the Jews were doing. We might compare our church to the church down the street. We look at them and say, look at their bigger building, Bigger budget, bigger numbers, and we begin to despair. We think, oh, look, we're a small church. We're small things. We're not like them. We look at the external glory, and our hands, what do they do? They drop. They grow heavy. We become idle. We become apathetic. Many live with low expectations or false expectations. They focus on what they can see. And many live their lives like the things of God are as nothing in their eyes. And this leads to neglect. This leads to a breakdown of godly convictions, a neglect of spiritual disciplines. This drives a wedge between us and God. Low expectations, they need to be addressed. And so that leads us to the second thing I want us to consider this morning, and that's God's promise here in Haggai 2. What does God promise? Verses 4 and 5, God declares that He is with the people of Israel. That His Spirit remains in their midst, despite what they're seeing, despite what they're feeling, God has not abandoned them. Even though they're suffering from the curse that's due to them for their sins, God is with them. He's for them. And He demonstrates further His active presence through these amazing promises. Promises He makes beginning in verse 7. He promises what? To fill this house with glory. This house, O Israel, that's in rubble, it's going to be filled with glory. He's going to shake the nations and He's going to shake the treasure right out of them like we shake a piggy bank. And the latter glory will be greater than the former glory. The days to come will be more glorious than the good old days of King Solomon. In fact, something greater than Solomon is coming. That's his point. There are two very different interpretations of what Haggai means here in verse seven, and it needs to be addressed. Some translations have desire of nations, and some, like our ESV, has treasures of all nations. desire of nations or treasures of all nations? Is it what the nations are desiring, what they are loving and wanting, or is it what's coming out of the nations? What is it? Well, Charles Wesley, the author of the hymn that we sang earlier, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, he gives us his interpretation calling Christ the desire of every nation. Now, who is right? Is the ESV right or is Charles Wesley and those folks right? It's a very difficult question, but I think the ESV has it right. When Christ Jesus is born, He's not the desire of nations. In fact, He's rejected, He's despised by the nations and by His own people. Ideally, He's the desire of nations, but in reality, no, He's not. Verse 7 is about how God will plunder the nations. He will shake them like a piggy bank. So what are the treasures of the nations? Is it gold? Is it silver? Is it precious jewels like what the Israelites took out of Egypt? They plundered the Egyptians. Is that what God's gonna do? Is He gonna plunder the silver, gold, and jewels and clothes out of the nations? No. He already told us He owns all the gold and silver. So what's He going to plunder? It's not possessions, but it's people. God's gonna plunder people. God will build his temple with living stones, with elect from every nations. He's gonna shake the nations, plunder them. And how's he gonna do this? How's he gonna shake the nations? Remember earlier I said that when God shakes the heavens and the earth, it's a theophany, God appears. And that's what he's gonna do. That's what he has done. From the Jews' perspective, it's what he's gonna do. He's gonna shake the nations through a theophany, through an appearing. He's gonna send his son into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, the long-expected Jesus that Wesley's hymn speaks of. God says, and I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory. Now, the treasures of all nations, that's people. But the glory that's gonna fill this house, that's Jesus Christ. God will fill his house with the glory of Jesus Christ, the one who dwelt among us. Jesus himself came into this temple and said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Jesus is the greater glory that God promises the people of Israel. And through Jesus, God will shake the nations as he gathers a people for himself from all nations, tribes, and tongues. Through Jesus, through the gospel, he's gonna plunder the nations, he's gonna shake them. Now, we already mentioned the shaking that happens on Mount Sinai. And in the New Testament, we do find not just a metaphorical shaking, but an actual shaking of the earth. At Jesus' crucifixion, the earth shook. At Pentecost, the earth shook. These were earth-shattering events. They were instrumental in God's purposes for gathering a people to Himself from all nations. In verse 9, God says, And in this place I will give peace. Well, how does God bring peace? He does it through the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ which is shed on the cross. And this blood, how is it applied to the nations? How is it given to the nations? Well, it's sprinkled by the Holy Spirit. who is poured out on believers at Pentecost. It's the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that shakes the nations, that fills the temple with the treasures of living stones and brings peace with God through the blood. You see, the Israelites had low expectations because they were focusing on the physical, external beauty of this house. But God's presence and God's promise, it lifts their eyes beyond the rubble and it puts it onto the greater glory that's to come. They only need to take their eyes off the rubble, off the rubble of their present lives and to focus on the greater glory that's to come. The promise of God, it fixes the problem of their false expectations. And it gives us great expectations and works faith in our hearts so that we too might do what we're called to do. You see, when we put our eyes on the greater glory, on Jesus Christ, we're strengthened to work. This is the third thing I want you to consider with me this morning, that God's presence and promise, while it corrects and it reshapes our expectations, the expectations of the people of Israel, so that they can work and so that we can work, God does the same for us today. God addresses our problem of sin with His promised gospel, and then finally He produces good works in and through us. It's a production. It's a divine production. He sets us to work. And I want you to notice the order here. The order is so important. The people don't work and strengthen themselves in order to get God to be present with them, or in order for God to make promises to them. The order is that the people are strong and work on account of God's presence and on account of God's promises. We rest in God's presence and promise and then we work. We're saved and then we're strong. There's an order to the gospel. What does the gospel do? It strengthens our hands for action. It makes us unafraid of present setbacks with sin or temptation. It galvanizes us to work in and for the kingdom of God. It replaces fear of man with the fear of God. It gives us great expectations for the preaching of the Word, for Bible study, Bible reading, for prayer, for family worship, for evangelism. It takes our eyes off the physical glory of the church and puts it on the internal beauty and glory of God's holy temple. We see growth and we see fruit in a whole new way. We see progress in terms of spiritual realities and not merely physical numbers. Numbers are important, but it's not all that's important. Haggai gives us a glimpse into the mind of God. This is what the Lord's decreed. It's the plan that God's working out in time. Through the gospel, He's shaking the nations, gathering a people for Himself, making peace with those who hate Him through the shed blood of Christ. And He's calling us to live in light of that reality. He's calling us to expect great things, to be strong, to work. Don't you see how this frees you from fear and unbelief? When you know how God uses the small things for great purposes, This sets us in motion, gets our arms moving. We're no longer fearful or doubting or thinking that our expectations won't be met. Like the early church in Acts 2, we're motivated to devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. The things that seem so foolish and so weak in the eyes of the world, we notice to be the power and wisdom of God unto salvation. We live by faith and not by sight. In 1 Chronicles 28, when David was old and dying, he gave Solomon some final instructions for the building of the temple. He says, be strong and courageous. and do the work. Does that sound familiar? Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord God my God is with you. Does that sound familiar? He will not leave you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. Now how could that promise that David gave to Solomon his son for the building of the first temple. How could that not extend also to the people of Israel in Haggai's day, who were tasked with rebuilding the same temple? And how could this promise not extend also to us, who are the same spiritual temple of God, being built by living stones, the treasures of the nations? God is with us until all the work for the service of the temple is finished. God will not leave us or forsake us. He will complete the good work that He started. How is that not true for us? So this leads us to finally, you talk about expectations. You can't talk about expectations without also talking about the future. So finally I want us to consider the future. Our expectations today have drastic implications for how we live. What we expect is going to happen in the future, it affects how we live in the present. This is true for Israel before the coming of Jesus Christ, and it's true for us before the second coming of Jesus Christ. God describes how He will shake the nations. This happened at the cross, it happened at Pentecost, but it will happen at the end of the age as well, when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. Hebrews 12 is a commentary on our text, Haggai 2, and it says, at that time His voice shook the earth, at that time meaning Sinai, at Mount Sinai, He shook the earth, but now He has promised, once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." What's the author of Hebrews saying? Well, he's saying that the shaking prophesied in Haggai 2 is not over. There's a final shaking that will shake all of creation. It will bring an end to the world as we know it. Only the kingdom of heaven will remain. Haggai 2 is not only an encouragement to work, it's also a warning to watch out. After all, our God's a consuming fire. We need to be warned about false expectations we might have of the future. Haggai points us forward to the New Jerusalem, to the heavenly city, not made with hands. John, in his revelation, saw this city. In his vision, he says, and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. This greater glory that Haggai is prophesying of, it's fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth. God's God with us. That's the whole point. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. That's what John's saying. And its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. Revelation 21-22, it's a fulfillment of Haggai's prophecy. In Haggai's prophecy, it points us both backward and forward. points us backward to the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has shaken the nations with the gospel of Christ, and He's in the process of plundering the nations through the preaching of the Word. But His prophecy also points us forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will shake the nations once again when He comes with glory to judge the living and the dead. He will shake all things. The first heaven and the first earth will pass away and the new Jerusalem will come. The glory and the honor of the nations, they're gonna be brought in. If you're trusting in Christ today for your salvation, then you are a part of this glory and honor. The glory and honor, the treasures of the nations that are being brought in. You are the treasure of Jesus Christ, shaken out of the corrupt mass of humanity. And as a treasure of Jesus, you have a job to do. You have a job to do. You're to shine. You're to show forth the beauty of Christ. You're to work on His temple, the church, with all the tools of the gospel. Devoting yourselves to scripture, to prayer, to worship, to fellowship, to works of mercy. And you're to do so with the full expectation that the greater glory is still to come. We're to press forward to the mark. John tells us of this greater glory in Revelation 21. He says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven for God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Christian, this is the greater glory of the latter temple. This is the greater glory to come. This is what your eyes by faith should behold. Right now, you see a work in progress. But in the future, you will see the finished product. God with us. He'll wipe away every tear. There'll be no mourning, no corruption. If you belong to Christ as His treasure, this greater glory is for you. But if you're not trusting in Christ today, then you will be shaken on that last day. You'll be shaken with the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, the liars. You'll be shaken into the lake of fire and sulfur. The second death, John says. As much as the believer can expect greater glory, the unbeliever can expect greater sorrow, greater pain, greater torment. What then should you do? Flee from the wrath to come. Go to the one who shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins, the one who is made peace by the cross. Flee to the cross and see the cross as the greater glory of the one who said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. God says, truly in this place, the Lord of hosts has given peace. Truly, God has filled this place with a greater glory. Let's pray.