Well congregation this morning, let me invite us to open our Bible again to the book of Haggai and Noted there in your bulletin to be found on page 1469. I'll mention what I did last time. If you find the book of Matthew and turn left, you'll come to Malachi and then Zachariah and then tucked in there between Zachariah and Zephaniah's. The book of Haggai. Wonderful, helpful, instructive. Bring it about repentance, but also trust in our God. A book is of great value to us as every book of the scripture is. And so we continue this morning congregation. We're in chapter two. We take up now verses one through nine. Haggai chapter two. And beginning of verse one. On the 21st day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. Speak to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, who of you has left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now, be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak the high priest. Be strong, O you people of the land, declares the Lord, and work. For I am with you, declares the Lord Almighty. This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my spirit remains among you. Do not fear. This is what the Lord Almighty says. In a little while, I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations and the desired of all nations will come. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place, I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty. As for our beloved, God's precious and beautiful word, and we rejoice in it. Let's pause and ask the help of the Holy Spirit as we continue this morning, shall we? Let's pray. A great and merciful God, we thank you and praise you for the wonderful ongoing ministry of the counselor, the other comforter, the one who knows each one of us perfectly, who right now realizes our thoughts, who knows our fears or our doubts, but also realizes the joy and the way we hold as precious your word. Lord, we ask for his ministry this morning. That we might receive your word with great delight. Encouragement. As it reconstructs us. Making us more into the image of our elder brother Jesus Christ and whom we are in great union with and we pray this morning. That we might be subject to your word by the spirit we pray. In Jesus name. Amen. Well, their congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Last time we saw the Lord beginning to discipline his ease loving. Materialism addicted people. Who were not putting the time, money or energy into the worship of God? They had, as it were a an idea, a direction, a focus that was on something other. something lesser, something that consumed them rather than the worship of God consuming them, something that delighted to hold their attention more than the worship of God to hold their attention. The people were addicted to ease and materialism, while his house, the temple, was left in shambles. But led by both church and state, don't miss that, It occurs frequently in this little book. Led by both church and state, high priest and governor, the people repented. 23 days after the warning from God through his prophet Haggai, the building begun 18 years earlier, you can find that in Ezra chapter three, has picked up again. And it is time to ask how it looks. Note this well, beloved. All three components of a functioning biblical society, prophet, the word, priest, atonement and reconciliation and purity, and king, civil law and order, are intensely focused on the vibrant worship of Almighty God. If we were to pray urgently in a determined way for revival to take hold again in our land, those are the sorts of things we would be praying for. For all of the major functioning portions, categories of our society to be of one mind and heart focused on desiring this, the vibrant worship of Almighty God. And to accomplish that, The church has a task. The church has a task. Our task, our calling, our privilege is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, beginning here, now, what we are doing in this building, and then to show forth that glorifying of God and enjoy him forever, all the days of our earthly living. And as grace leads, so we might begin. So we might begin. The Lord gives his people the reason they may have confidence to work hard. Are we called to work hard? Yes. Does that hard work begin with us? No. There's a reason we may have confidence to work hard, and that reason comes from the Lord. Well first of all then, God asks state and church, and you'll find again this handout in your bulletin that might help you to follow along or take notes if you're inclined to do so. God asks state and church to assess the footprint left by Yahweh worship. Now we left off in year two of King Darius of Persia. which we mentioned last week is now modern day Iran, interestingly. At any rate, we are still in year two. We were last time at day 24 of the sixth month. Now we are in the seventh month and day 21. So it's been less than a month since the work has been renewed. But it has begun to bring about a response. And that's the problem, the response. Because you see, the workers, as they leave their home and go to the job site every day, they are confronted with it when they arrive at the job site. After they've been working through the day and as they get ready to leave, it's the last thing they see when they leave at the end of that long day and go back home and share with their family members how things look. The temple foundation, which was laid 18 years earlier, again, Ezra chapter three, now that the brush has all been removed, now that the area has been cleaned up, the clutter disappeared, the stones have been redressed, and that's a very detailed process to get the stones healthy again, as it were. As the temple is about to begin going up and be built, the people look and they are disappointed. They are discouraged. Especially the old folks. Who in their minds I. Remember the old temple. Or have heard about it. Or can conceive of it. With all its glory. They are now because of what they see with our eyes very down and out. They take in the reality of the new picture of Yahweh worship in their midst. And they say, oh, it's not what it used to be. Now I want you to notice something about this, beloved. Because this section of our text is extremely important if we do not rightly understand who our God is. Because you see, our God is not just interested in the building program. He's not just interested in having the temple go up, although that's, of course, extremely significant. Because that then would have us skip over, and these verses, this section, would not be included in the word of God. But he is rather now not just interested in the building plan and program, but he is more interested in the hearts of his people. Does God want every component part of a society structured in such a way that His glory is set as first thing? Yes, of course. Are we to find a following from His proclaimed Word in every aspect, civil, church, societal, following the Word of God? Yes, but also in our hearts. He knows how they must be feeling. He knows his people. He sees their grief. He says it in v. 3, who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? The implication is and the result must be this. It looks to us rather discouraging. We're getting a little depressed. We're a bit down and out. Is God interested in that? What does the text tell us verse 4? But now. Be strong. He says it in a few different ways, but it comes down to this. Be strong verse 4 four I am. With you. Now, if we're thinking in terms of an application having to do with the history of our own congregation, I think that the application kind of falls out. It's obvious, at least to some of you. We might even say it a little bit more in a pointed way. It's a natural application of this text to our situation. Because I've heard the history, and many of you lived it, how you arrived early. to get your pew, because otherwise you wouldn't. How when you came in, the ushers were a little bit strict. Oh, you've got to sit here, because we've got this all figured out. We know how to get everybody in, because there's so many people to fit in the sanctuary that we've got to set you in the right place. I've heard the stories of folding chairs having been set up in the middle aisle, and we know that the balcony was added on. We know those stories. How do we respond? You see, the text tells us in Ezra chapter three that when the old people saw the foundation of the new temple, they wept aloud because it didn't compare to the grand temple. Because, oh Solomon, in all his glory in those days of the brilliance of God's mercy and the expanse of the wealth of the nation, Solomon spared no expense. He brought the very best craftsmen and artisans all from around the known world. He brought in the best products, the best supplies, the best stone and wood. And he put the temple such that it wasn't just functional, but it was aesthetically beautiful. And when it was done on the inside, he covered the entire thing, as it were, with pure gold. Silver in those days was said to have been worthless. In the 1980s of the history of our congregation, can you imagine what the congregation would have said if a group of only 50 people had showed up for corporate worship? The congregation in those days would have said, where are the other 200? Where did they go? So beloved, how do we respond? What do we say? When we look around this morning, and even if I may say so, not intending necessarily to make you feel bad, but as we look around this morning, but even more so tonight, what do we say? We say this, secondly, no matter how it looks, I am with you. My spirit remains with you. Do not fear. Now we find the weight of that in a little Hebrew character which begins verse four, which little Hebrew character I've described to you before as a hockey stick held up in the air with a blade to the top. It's just a little stroke of the pen in the Hebrew, but it's a word of transition. It's a conjunction, which in this place has the adversative, the contrast, the opposing sense. Verse three ends like this. How does it look to you now? Does it seem like nothing to you? And then comes verse four with that little stroke of the pen in the Hebrew. which has the force of however, or has the force of on the other hand. Do not despair. Be strong. But now be strong, and he says it, the Lord does through his prophet notice it again, be strong civic government, be strong church leadership, be strong every member, do not despair in your building work. Why? Because I am with you. What else matters if God is for us? Who can be against us? But at what point does that truth, which when I just now said it, you all agreed in your hearts about it, if God is for us, who can be against us? At what point does that truth then come sifting down into our consideration of our situation? This is the matter that faces now the people in Haggai 2. God addresses each of the component parts of the society of the day with this one reality. I am with you. I am here. He says it strongly. I am powerfully working for you. He reminds them, verse 5, of these things in terms of his previous covenanting with them. It's an ancient thing. He says, this is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and nothing has changed. My spirit remains with you, so do not fear. And especially, beloved, when we understand that what he is stirring them up to do is the reclaiming of the biblical worship of Yahweh. He has not forgotten his promise to them in regards to the biblical worship of the Lord. And his Holy Spirit, verse five, remains with them so that they will not fear, so that they rather will have confidence about continuing in regards to the biblical worship of God, which at that time, in those days, the temple was an absolute necessity. But oh, a greater temple is coming. We'll get to that in a moment. But the building can go up. It can be accomplished. God tells them that, oh church, listen, he tells them that he himself is their confidence. So what do we say? How do we apply this? Has God changed? You might remember last week we said that Haggai spoke what God gave to him to say to God's people in the year 520 B.C. If you do a little quick math, that's roughly 2,544 years ago, give or take. Has God changed? Has he said, oh, well, my church now has to go it alone. They have to do their own thing with their own ideas. Is God still with his church? How do you answer that now? That may seem like a ridiculous question. You may be thinking, well, come on, Pastor, we already know the answer. Get on with it, but. How do you answer? Is God the Lord Almighty with his church here? Yes or no? Is God with us? Is God for us? Is the Holy Spirit still among us and in us? Yes? Then should we fear? No. Can we continue praying and planning and moving forward by faith? Yes. How? By grace, you see. because grace leads. Read it in the text. It's very clear in verse four, isn't it? For I am with you, declares the Lord, therefore work. Be strong, all you people, declares the Lord, and work, for I am with you. It's something in terms of a logical deduction from the text. It's not hard to come to that conclusion. It's hard rather to apply it, to live it. Interestingly, and I've said this a number of times in a number of different Old Testament texts, it could be summarized by what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, 12 and 13, which by now maybe we have memorized. Continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling because for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to act. Isn't the Bible wonderfully harmonious? Says the same thing Old Testament and new. And what does it say to us? Be strong. Don't fear. God is with us. God is for us. Now, we might ask the question, why? And I'll say this, the answer is because he loves his son. And because he loves his son, he loves the church, the bride of his son. Because He loves to have us show off the glory of His Son in the way we worship here and the way we live out there. We'll come to that more as we get through the rest of the book, but beloved, here is the central matter. Do not fear, but rather move forward. Because you see, thirdly, as the Lord built the former house, nation, so too He will build the new glory house, people. Verse six, this is what the Lord Almighty says in a little while. I will once more, as if we mean to take the implication of, he's done this before. I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations and the desired of all nations will come and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty five times. In verses. 6 through 9. The Lord Almighty. In our blue Psalter hymnal number 444. Which is, I just said that number. Probably some of you already recognize which song that is. Very familiar to us. A mighty fortress is our God. In the second stanza, the translation from the German into the English, written by Martin Luther, goes like this. Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Does ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth, His name. That's it right there. Lord Sabaoth. That's a transliteration of the Hebrew phrase that occurs, as I just said, five times in verses six through nine. The Lord Almighty Yahweh Sabaoth. This all-powerful God shakes the nations and the heavens and the earth to accomplish his glorious purpose, which is what? It is to build his church, to make it more glorious than before. And that's quite a statement, knowing something of the Shekinah glory that filled the Solomonic temple, the temple in Solomon's day, the glory, which was so amazing that the people couldn't even go in. The glory pushed them out, as it were. God says the glory will be greater in the New Temple. What does He mean? That in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that glory will be unable to be eclipsed in any measure. And by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Covenant era, the people will be drawn in. And the people will be more brilliantly adorned and decked out by His grace than in the day that Solomon's temple was decked out with the glory of God That's an awful humongous and significant statement, isn't it? Because we're talking about us. We're talking about the church today. What his church will look like in the new covenant era of our day because of Jesus Christ. We live in that day, beloved, where Christians will be found around the globe, glorious and beautiful in the gospel, living at peace with Almighty God because of Jesus Christ. And this is our confidence today. This is our reason we need to keep our hand on the plow. Don't give up. Don't quit. It's interesting if you consider the text in another way. When a nation wants to convince her enemy that she has enough military might and power to easily win a potential war, the nation parades some of that military might and power so that it can be easily seen before the eyes of the enemy. To convince them, you ought not mess with us. You see, in a very positive way, this is what God is doing in verses six through nine. The Lord Almighty is saying, now church, I have things well in hand. Therefore, go. We're saying the silver is mine. The gold is mine. In other words, I have enough of everything to make your temple, your house, your church. That is the reality of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this day more beautiful than the days of Solomon declares the Lord Almighty. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former houses. The Lord Almighty and in that place I will grant. Peace. All of that. Oh Christians, note this. All of that is God-centered. All of that is God-centered, by which the church takes confidence and encouragement to go. to say something to the world that goes something like this, is not Jesus worthy to have all glory? The glory of all the nations flowing in to the worship of almighty God, is Jesus Christ not worthy? Yes, he's worthy. So that then the church can shine in holiness and brilliance of gospel light. Oh, do you see, dear congregation, we have something to say to the world. That the day of blazing glory has appeared. Where the glory of the worship and the treasure and the privilege of Almighty God shines through our faces. And we say to them, be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and come in and add to the glory. And in this place, I will grant peace. Dear congregation, we must not fear. We must not fear, but rather believe. Amen. Heavenly Father, help us to work hard. Which hard work is born from grace? Give us, Lord, renewed strength and confidence, joy and delight in you, to take up the work that you have appointed us to do, treasuring your word above all, because, Lord, you have said it, therefore we believe it. Help us now in these things, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Congregation, let's sing this morning 479, a song of application. I love thy kingdom, Lord. We'll stand to sing 479, our doxology following that 488, our blue psalters. Let's stand.