We're coming towards the end of our study in the Minor Prophets. Just two more after Haggai, Zechariah, and then Malachi. And the last three of the Minor Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, form a new section within the books, the Twelve Prophets. Most of the prophets we have considered spoke about the coming captivity in Assyria and Babylon. And Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi take us beyond that. And the people of God have returned from captivity in Babylon to Israel, Canaan, and Jerusalem. And then Haggai takes up the ministry whenever the people of God, according to God's promise and as a fulfillment of God's promise, are back in their own land and nation and work has to be done. And so Haggai ministers as a post-captivity prophet to the people of God. back in Jerusalem once again. We'll just read from chapter 1 and the first six verses. Haggai chapter 1 and verse number 1. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Ye have so much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. ye clothe ye, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. And we'll just end at the end of verse six, and we know that God will bless the reading of his word to all of our hearts. I'm not sure if anybody tonight in the meeting, maybe more the men folk than the women folk, have ever started a job about the home. maybe some enterprise or DIY that you've been meaning to do for years, and eventually you start it, and for a week or two it goes well, and then other things come in, and the building project, or the renovation project, or the painting program, whatever it was you started, seems to just fall by the wayside. and just lies derelict maybe for a number of months or years and eventually you get back to it once again. I see some of the ladies in the meeting looking around maybe at their husbands and different things. I'm not sure if they've opened a can of worms, if there's going to be an argument on the way home in the car. I hope there isn't, but we all know what that's like. Some of us men and us husbands are very guilty of it. Even in the Republic of Ireland, whenever there was such an influx of money from Europe, many housing sites were built. And then with the recession and the Celtic tiger that died and so on and so forth, the economy slowed down. And there's many ghost estates in the Republic of Ireland, hundreds of homes, but many of them not furnished and not finished and just lying derelict. almost worthless, deteriorating over the last number of years. And as we think of scenes like that, vivid scenes that we can all identify with, that illustrates exactly where the nation of Israel are whenever Haggai the prophet ministered to them. God's people have returned from their captivity in Babylon. They have returned to Canaan. And having returned to Jerusalem, they began almost immediately to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. The building program went well for a period of time. They cleared the site. They brought in the builders. They brought in the materials. They laid the foundations. And they began just to build. And then they stopped because of opposition. that came from some of their enemies round about. And so, the temple was started, they began to build it, and then they stopped. Once the foundations were laid, they stopped building. And for a period of 14 years, not one brick, not one trial was lifted to continue the building work of the temple. And during that 14-year period, the people of God began to get complacent, They got their eyes off the work that the Lord had called them to, and they got their eyes off building the temple, and they began to look at themselves and began to very much be caught up with their own enterprises and their own homes and their own businesses and so on and so forth. And ultimately, God's house lay derelict and unfinished. And so often as believers, all of these years and generations later, we can often go so far with God and then stop. Maybe even begin to do something for the Lord and then stop. It might be something that in the eyes of the world would be relatively small. How often at the start of the year, the first of January, do we purpose, I'm going to follow a Bible reading plan, I'm going to read through the Word of God, either in one year or in two years, and I'm going to study it, and I'm going to get a grip on it, and we maybe get to February or March, and it begins to get slack, and we miss a couple of days, and then we think, well, I've lost so much ground, what's the point going on now? Or maybe something a little bit bigger? Maybe we purpose that we're going to spend more time in prayer and endeavor to get out to all of the meetings or seek to win that person to Christ, that friend, that workmate, that colleague, that person across the street. I'll endeavor to pray for them and pray for an opportunity and witness to them and try to get them out to God's house. And then we go so far. Well, we get discouraged perhaps, and the task then ultimately remains unfinished. You see, tonight, it is possible to go so far with God, and then stop. And in the interim period, if we're not progressing, ultimately a coldness creeps in, and then with that, discouragement and dissatisfaction, as we'll see a little bit later on. You see, getting into the kingdom of God is only the beginning. Once you're born again and you've become an inheritor of God's kingdom and you're united to Christ and you're part of the body and you're on that road that leads to heaven and home, that is only the beginning. The Apostle Paul makes that truth abundantly clear whenever he wrote to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians. And chapter 3 and verse number 10, he says, according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. So the foundation that he is speaking upon there are the doctrines of the gospel. He has presented Christ unto these people. He's left them with the gospel. Many of them have been converted. He says to them, he are God's building. But he says, from henceforth, let every man take heed how he build thereupon. Yes, you're converted. You're saved. You're standing in this foundation that cannot be shaken. But that is only the beginning. He says, you have to build and you have to work. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. And then he talks about the various building materials, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. He talks about the day of judgment that's coming. Every man's work shall be tried by fire, and so on and so forth. And so he's making it very clear that, yes, a foundation has been laid, and we're standing in that foundation, and, yes, we're back into the kingdom, and the Lord has delivered us from our captivity, from the bondage of sin that we were in, brought us into the family and fold of God, brought us into this new country, as it were, this new kingdom, and the foundations have been laid, but we need to work and we need to constantly be building upon that foundation. So tonight we're looking, as you would be aware, at the prophet Haggai. Just two chapters in the prophecy, and following the same little outline that we've been looking at in weeks gone by, the man, the ministry, and then focusing on the message. So first of all, Haggai, the man. Little is known As with many other minor prophets, little is known about the prophet Haggai. Outside of the book of Haggai itself, which is just two chapters, Haggai's name is only mentioned twice in the entire Bible. Both times in the little book of Ezra. Just before you have the book of Job and Sam, you have Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. And those three books Like the last books of the Old Testament, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi all complement each other. And whenever we read in Esther chapter five, verse number one, we read about the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. So they ministered at the same time. They ministered together. They were partners in the work of God and they were there together as companions in the work of God. And then again, in Ezra chapter six and verse number 14, we read about the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah and they built it and finished the temple according to the commandment of the Lord. So it's very evident that Haggai ministered whenever Ezra and Nehemiah were building the temple and building the walls. And he ministered alongside Zechariah. He was a contemporary of Zechariah. The date of the prophecy is very clear as well. It's given in the first chapter, in the first verse of the prophecy itself, in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month. So right down to the very day that he began to preach, we have the date given. And that equates to 520 BC. it is most likely that Haggai was born in Babylon during the captivity. The people of God aren't all that long back in the land, whenever Haggai began to minister, and they had been in captivity for 70 years in Babylon. So, in all likelihood, Haggai was born in Babylon during the captivity, although we know nothing at all about his family. He must have returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel. That's the first person he begins to minister to. Zerubbabel, the son of Shaltiel, and Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah. And we read in the book of Ezra that the first contingent of captives came back into Jerusalem under the leadership of this man, Zerubbabel. The name Haggai itself means festive. And that has to do with joy and with celebration, festivity, joy, and celebration. The same word translated haigai in this man's name is translated dancing in 1 Samuel chapter 30 and verse number 16. And I think again that his name is very significant, called to minister to a people who have returned from captivity in Babylon. They should be rejoicing. They should be celebrating. They should be festive in their attitude and in their spirits, given what the Lord has done for them. He's fulfilled His promises. He's turned again their captivity. And you might be thinking already of that great Psalm, Psalm 126, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. We were like them that dream. Then was her mouth filled with laughter, and her tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them, whereof they are glad. And so they were rejoicing in Psalm 126. But sadly, by the time Haggai begins his ministry, many of God's people have lost their song. Have you lost your song tonight? Where is the blessedness I knew? When first I saw the Lord, where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus and His Word? After being on the road for a little while, it's possible to lose that zeal and to lose that joy and to lose that sense of elation as to what the Lord has done for us. Just as the Israelites were delivered from their captivity in Egypt, full of joy and rejoicing, we have the song of Moses as he led the whole congregation in praise after they passed through the Red Sea. But after a period of journeying through the wilderness, they began to say, our soul loatheth this light bread. And they began to want to go back, many of them, even to Egypt. It is possible to lose your joy, to lose your song. And yet, even in this day and generation, despite all of the hardship and all of the opposition that there is to the work of God, we ought still to be a festive people, a people marked by joy and celebration, because the Lord has done great things for us. He's forgiven our sin. He saved us from an eternity in hell. He's put our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, engraved them, as the scripture says, upon the very palms of His hands. He bears our names upon His heart. He'll take us one day to heaven itself. And from this moment until we get to the celestial city, He has promised that He will ever be with us. and answer prayer, lead us and provide for us, and do great and mighty things for us. So let us tonight, even in spite of hardships and opposition that there may be, and antagonism to the work of God that maybe you're involved in, let us seek never to lose our joy or lose our song, because the Lord is good. Then we have the man's ministry. Haggai, along with Zachariah, and Malachi was a post-captivity prophet. That is to say, as we've mentioned already, they ministered, these three men, after the Israelites were back in the land of Israel. Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaries, they ministered together. And then about 120 years later, Malachi ministered at the end of that restoration period. The fact that God had restored his covenant people to the land of Israel is vital, because it shows us, first of all, that God had not forgotten Israel. One of the great promises that God gave to the father of the nation of Israel, Abraham himself, is found in Genesis chapter 13. Whenever Abraham and Lot decided we'll have to part company, there's this strife between our herdsmen, and he says to Lot, you choose out a plot of land. And, of course, Lot looked towards Sodom where the grass was green and the land was fertile. And then the Lord said to Abraham in Genesis 13 and verse 14, lift up now thine eyes and look toward or look from the place where thou art northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." And notice the words, forever, forever. And he says in verse number 16, And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. So if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. And so he's speaking to Abraham, you're going to be a great nation. And as far as you can see, north, south, east and west, this land, I'm giving it to you and I'm giving it to your seed forever. And God is a promise and a covenant-keeping God. And there were many people that whenever the Israelites were in captivity, had the idea, we will never be back in Israel again. But God brought them back into the land because God keeps His promises. Even whenever it seems impossible for those promises to be fulfilled, God keeps His promises. So returning from captivity, restoration was vital because it showed that God had not forgotten His people. It was also vital because the Messiah would minister in the land of Israel itself. He would minister in the land of Israel. He would be born in Bethlehem. He would be raised at Nazareth. He would preach in Jerusalem. He would preach in Capernaum. He would preach at Galilee. He would travel around that land preaching. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And so God had a wonderful plan for that land, for that nation, not just for the people of Israel themselves, but also for the Messiah. And the purpose of God was that Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, would minister in the land of Israel. And it's also important because it prefigures The great restoration that I believe will happen amongst the Jewish people at the last day, at the last time. How it all comes together, there's different schools of thought, but we know that God has not finished with the Israelite people. If you just look for a moment or two at Romans chapter 11, study this chapter yourself, take your Bible, Spend a little bit of time with it. Go through it and look at it. But you've got wonderful promises here for the nation of Israel. The whole thought governs this olive tree. And that represents God's people. It's rooted in grace. There's only one olive tree. God is only one people in this world. It's not just Israel, but it's Jew and Gentile together. God made a covenant with Israel. The natural branches were broken off because of unbelief. God grafted in the Gentile people into this olive tree, brought them into the covenant, saved them. But it says that God is able to graft the natural branches in again. But verse 1 of Romans 11, I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite. Off the seed of Abraham, off the tribe of Benjamin, God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew." Now, the first two verses make it abundantly clear that this chapter is speaking about national Israel, the Jewish people, the seed of Abraham, tribe of Benjamin, Israelites, the people of God, foreknew. And then whenever you read on, It says in verse number 25, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery. Now he's speaking here to Gentiles. Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. In other words, lest you should be puffed up with pride and somehow think that you're better than the Jews who rejected their Messiah. He says, don't be conceited, don't be proud, don't be puffed up. He says, blindness in part, has happened to Israel, a judicial blindness, so that they cannot see Christ, the Lord Jesus, for who He is. Blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. So God's going to save a people outside of the commonwealth of Israel, the Gentiles of which we are part. And then it says in verse 26, and so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Again, speaking of nationalism, this is my covenant unto them, and I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes, for their gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. And God called a great nation unto himself and made that promise with Abraham way back there in Genesis chapter 13, unto your seed will I give this land forever. And the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. And so this restoration was important on those various levels. The ministry of Haggai was relatively short. just four months, and the book is one of the shortest books in the Old Testament, but being a short, a small book, it nevertheless really does pack a punch. He was one of the only minor prophets, with the exception of Jonah, who saw immediate response to his preaching. We've looked at many of the minor prophets already. Jonah went to the Ninevites and preached to them, not wanting them to respond positively to his message, but they did. But the rest of the minor prophets, if you've been listening, they ministered to their generation about their sin, about the possibility and the threat of judgment. The people didn't listen, and they didn't see success in their day and generation, but Haggai was different. Whenever Haggai preached, within a few weeks, there was a tremendous response to his preaching. And the people's hearts were stirred. And after the first sermon that Haggai preached, there was a response. And the work of God, which had been stopped for 14 years, began to commence again. And so the appeal of his ministry was very simple. Resume the work of God, which you've stopped. Haggai was here tonight and he knew our circumstances. Would he say that to any of us? Get back into the work. Lift the sword and lift the trial once again. And get back into the work of God. Then the third little point, the man, the ministry, the message. Haggai's message is given over a four month period. And in that four-month period, he delivers four sermons to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The first sermon is seen in chapter 1, from verse 1 to 15. In fact, virtually the whole chapter is taken up with Haggai's first sermon. And the subject matter of his first sermon is this. He's highlighting the fact that the people of God are in a position that prompts consideration. They find themselves in circumstances, a situation, a position that prompts consideration. Because in verse 5 he says, consider your ways. Again in verse 7 he says, consider your ways. So there's something that Haggai is using that they find themselves in to prompt them to consider and examine where they are in relation to the Word of God, the will of God, and the work of God. Now, it's important, again, to notice verse 1 and verse 3 of the first chapter, that it was the Word of the Lord which came by Haggai. It wasn't his own thinking, his own concoction, his own message. It was the Word of the Lord. In fact, A very familiar verse in Haggai 1.13, Then spake Haggai the LORD's messenger in the LORD's message. He was the LORD's messenger. But he didn't just come with a sermon that he'd concocted that he thought might be interesting for the people. He came with the LORD's message. I remember listening to the testimony, and I think I've told the story before, Pastor Willie Mullen, whenever he was a young Christian, a young convert, he was in the company of Dr. Harry Aronside. Mr. Aronside was conducting his class and addressed the students, and Mr. Mullen was there, and he said, is there a difference between God's truth and God's message? Willie Mullen says, well, I don't think there is. a difference between God's truth and God's message. And then Mr. Ironside said, well, say, for example, I went to a church on the Lord's Day and preached on the Lord's return to that particular people. He says, would that be God's truth? He says, yes, that would be God's truth because the Lord's coming back again. And then he asks another question. He says, but would it necessarily be God's message for that particular people at that particular time? And that made him think. And then Mr. Ironside said, so you see that God's message will always be God's truth. But God's truth might not particularly be God's message. Just because it's orthodox, it might not necessarily be God's message for that people. But Haggai was so sensitive to the Spirit of God and to the leading of God that he wanted to be sure he was not just preaching truth, cold truth, cold facts, but he was coming with the message that God wanted him to bring. And that's what he did on four occasions. The Jewish people have returned to the land. The foundations of the temple have been laid. You can read about that in Ezra chapter number 3. The laying down of the foundation of the temple. Ezra chapter 3. And then whenever you get to Ezra chapter 4, as they were building and the foundations were laid, there began to become opposition from outside. Ezra 4 and verse 1, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple on the Lord God of Israel, listen to what it says. These are the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, their enemies. They came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers and said to them, listen to these words, let us build with you for we seek God as ye do. And there you have, in embryonic form, the whole basis for the ecumenical movement. Those who once appeared to be so opposed to the doctrines of grace, to the preaching of the gospel, to the great doctrines of regeneration and blood atonement and all of the rest of it, now there's this desire to meet together. Sure, we're all worshiping the same God and that's just put our differences behind us because we seek God as you do verse number three is a rubble and gesture and the rest of the fathers of the Israel said on them you have nothing to do with us to build an house on to our God for we ourselves together will build on to the Lord God of Israel and And then it says in verse 4, And the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building. And by the time you get to the end of Ezra chapter 4, it says, Then ceased the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. And so the work began well, but it stopped. And so it's not how you begin the Christian life that counts. It's how you proceed through the Christian life, and ultimately, how you finish the Christian life. That's the most important thing. Many a believer has got off to a very shaky start perhaps, and maybe has been written off or frowned upon by other believers as maybe something wrong and he's never going to make it. But very often those who get off to a shaky start can finish well. It's not how we start, but it's how we finish. What was the problem here then? Whenever Haggai took up his ministry, the work had stopped. But he wants them to consider the position they're in, because they find themselves with a spirit of complacency. Haggai 1, verse 2, the people say the time has not come. The time that the Lord's house should be built. Problem of procrastination. It's not just the right time to be doing this. There's another time for it. We can put it off. Maybe the generation coming behind can take up the mantle or take up the baton and take up where we left off. But it's just not the right time. There's too much opposition. There's too much hardship. And so they had this spirit of complacency. We can take it or leave it. It's not really all that important. And that same spirit of complacency can pervade our hearts today. The Church of Jesus Christ is likened unto a great temple, a great building in 1 Peter 2, verse 5. And even regarding the local church, it's very easy for complacency to step in. Gospel service? Take it or leave it. Prayer meeting? Take it or leave it. It's not really all that important. If it's time, I'll go. But there's other things that are more important. This is not really my time to get serious about the work of God yet. Well, if not now, when? So there was a spirit of complacency. And then if you look at verse 4, there was also a selfish priority. They had really got their priorities all wrong. Haggai was quite hard-hitting. He says, is it time for you, O ye to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? You see, they were quite content to build beautiful homes for themselves, and there's nothing wrong with that. But it is wrong whenever God's house was neglected. If God's house had been finished and they put their heart and soul into that, there'd be no problem building their fine homes and their fine mansions and their sealed houses. But the problem was they had got their priorities all wrong. They were quite happy to work and build their own little empires and their own homes and their own standards, whatever it was, but the house of God was lying waste. And so their priorities were all wrong. It was really the polar opposite to Matthew 6, 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these other things shall be added unto you. But they were seeking first all of the other things, and the kingdom of God wasn't just as important to them now as it once was. Oh, it was important whenever they were in captivity, and they wandered out of that bondage, and they wanted to get back in their land. But now that they're in the land, and they feel secure, and they've started the temple, somebody else can finish it. Let's just build houses for ourselves and get our tent pegs down. Isn't it often the case that the work of God often takes a back seat to our plans and to our desires? And yes, we wouldn't forsake it altogether. We want it to be there, but we don't really want it sometimes to be the priority. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a medical doctor in Hurley Street in London, felt the call of God and began his preaching ministry in Aberavon in South Wales, in a little place called the Sandfields, early part of the 20th century, and he began to minister there. There was a church-going community. It was popular to go to church on a Sunday morning, and then Sunday evening was your own, and you just really did whatever you liked, and this really disturbed him. And he wasn't sure how to deal with this, so he began to preach about attending in the house of the Lord. And he said to the congregation one Sunday, he says, you know, you come here on a Sunday morning. Sunday nights, you go to the beach. Promiting nights, you're somewhere else. And he says, I'll tell you what, whenever there's hardship, and whenever you need to get hold of God, And whenever there's bereavement or there's some big trial in your life and you feel your need for God, he says, I'll tell you what to do. Just go back to the beach. And that really shook that little congregation up, out of their complacency, and they realized we've been devoting so much time to ourselves and our pleasures and our pursuits, and we've neglected the house of God, and ultimately, in time, God sent a great awakening to that church, and God sent a revival. So there's that issue, a spirit of complacency, a selfish priority, and then a substandard testimony. This temple that was lying desolate and derelict, just a foundation laid, maybe a few bricks scattered here and there, and just a virtual building site, was a poor testimony to the surrounding nations. For 14 years, they could look and bypass Israel, maybe go through Jerusalem, and think they haven't laid a brick on the temple for one year, two years, five years, 10 years, 14 years. Is that all that their God really means to them? They sang and they rejoiced whenever they were coming back from Babylon. They boasted that they would build their city again and build the walls again and the gates again and build their temple again. And then because of a little bit of persecution, they threw the trial in and it just lies waste. Is that really all that their God means to them? And, you know, there's something about having a love for the house of God, like the psalmist who said, I joyed when to the house of God go up, they said to me, that has a quiet testimony and witness amongst our neighbors. And we maybe don't even realize it, that they see you morning and evening, prayer meeting night, and at other times going to God's house. What happens if that stops? Or somebody comes to your home on a Lord's Day afternoon. Cup of tea, bit of chat, bit of crack. And then you lose track of time, and you just sit on and you think, well, we'll not bother going to church tonight because, well, we have to get ready and time's rushed on. And they mightn't be converted, but if they see that, they're gonna come to the conclusion, well, God's work is not really all that important. Or if you can gallivant all week or stay out late on a Saturday night and be too tired to come to church on a Sunday or too tired for the prayer meeting, but time for other things. The people that socialize and rub shoulders with you, surely they notice that and think, how come all of these other things are more important and you have time, you're never too tired for those things, but there can be tiredness for the house of God. and the priorities are all wrong, and it's not a great testimony, is it really, if we're honest to the world around about us. And if they don't see in our hearts a hunger and a thirst and a love for God and for God's house and for the things of God, and the church being the hub of our spiritual life as the temple was the hub of spiritual life in Jerusalem, it's not really going to bear witness to them that our God is a God that's worth serving. if we lose that festive, joyous spirit of celebration. So you'll notice in the first sermon that he preaches, twice he calls them, consider your ways. Are your priorities right? Does God and His work and His cause come first? They were also doing a disservice to themselves, because it says in verse 6, and this is Haggai applying this personally to the individuals. It's not regarding the temple, because the temple hasn't been built. It's regarding the people of Jerusalem as individuals. He says, you've sown much, you bring in little, you eat, and you have not enough. You drink, but are not filled with drink. You clothe you, and there is none warm. and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes." Just like putting your money into your pocket, there's a hole in your pocket and it just falls out. And he says you're working and you're laboring and you're eating and you're drinking and you're sewing and you're so busy doing all of the things that you want to do while my house lies waste and at the end of it all you're still dissatisfied and still empty and still discouraged and there's just barrenness in your hearts. And it's because you're trying to satisfy yourselves with temporal things. Trying to satisfy your eternal souls with things that are temporal. And if the eternal God was in the midst, you would really know what it was to be satisfied. Verse 10, therefore the heaven over you is stayed from you. What was the priority that this man of God was calling them to? It was very simply the key text of the whole book. Verse number eight, go up to the mountain, bring wood and build a house. Simple, go up to the mountain. Now that's going to take hard work. if you've ever climbed a mountain, but I'm sure it's not easy. Especially whenever you're going up there to cut down big trees and get the big trees cut down and bring the lumber down and get it into Jerusalem, go up into the mountain, cut down the wood, bring the wood, build my house. And then he says, but I will take pleasure in it and be glorified, saith the Lord. It takes effort. I know that it's Christ that builds this church. He's the master builder. But we're the tradesmen, if you like. working with the Lord. Remember how it speaks in the end of Mark's gospel, they went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them. They were working, but the Lord was working with them and confirming the words with signs following. The temptation is to say, well, we can sit back and all we can do is pray about this terrible situation. But all the prayer in the world is not going to get the house built unless people are willing to work. Don't think your house that you live in or this church building built itself after a prayer meeting somewhere else, drive down the road. No, the Lord has built this beautiful church. The Lord's built this house. And folks, souls are not going to get under the sound of God's word unless we're busy working. People are not going to come to a gospel mission unless we go and invite them. And if we work and go up into the mountain and bring the wood and try our best to get that dead wood into the house of God, onto the building site, it's the Lord that will do the rest. if we can work at getting them in. Then the second sermon, a little bit shorter, Sermon number 2, chapter 2, verses 1 to 9. You'll notice, incidentally, that the first message he preached, verse 12 to 14 of chapter 1, had this immediate response. They were quick to respond. Zerubbabel's heart, it was stirred up by the Spirit of God. And the remnant of the people, they obeyed the voice of the Lord, and they began to work, and they began to build. And yet, as they were building, the discouragements were still there. They hadn't gone away. They maybe weren't coming from without, but there were certainly discouragements within. If you look at a second sermon, verse 3 of chapter 2, here you have what we could call the wet blanket brigade. While they were working, there's a group of individuals standing, looking on, and they're saying, this house is nothing in comparison to the temple that Solomon built. Solomon built this beautiful temple overlaid with gold. It was bigger. It was more ornate. It had got more grandeur. It had got more beauty. And we're building this temple and it's smaller. And Haggai challenges him and says, who is left among you that saw the house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Zachariah rebuked the same people by saying, who have despised the day of small things? Temple wasn't what it used to be. It wasn't as big as it used to be. And you know, we can be the same today. We can harp on about the good old days all we like and say, well, things aren't the same today as they were 70 years ago or 50 years ago. I'm sure nothing's happening now and that people aren't coming to the gospel meetings or the prayer meetings aren't full and the spirit of prayer is not the same as it used to be. And these are realities, we know that. But standing and complaining about it is not going to do anything. It was the ones that weren't working were the ones that were complaining about how this temple wasn't as it used to be. Not like the good old days. Nothing's happening. And then, well of course the reason why there's nothing happening is because some of them weren't working. That's why maybe things just weren't the way they were. But then in verse number nine, Haggai reminds them, verse number nine, he says, listen, the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former. Now, again, for them, that seemed impossible because it's nowhere near as big. It doesn't have all of the gold and all of the beautiful ornate elements around it, but it definitely does grant. How could the glory of the latter house possibly be greater than that of the former? For the simple reason that this temple that Ezra is building is the very temple that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be ministering in himself. And it's the glory of the Lord and the presence of Christ that makes a temple or a building beautiful. You can sit, the Covenanters did it, and they stood in fields, and they broke bread, and they partook of the cup together, and the presence of God filled the highlands and the heathers. Put out of their churches, but the presence of God was with them. And that's the glory that we seek. We can have the most beautiful building in all of the town or all of the world. but without the glory of God in the midst, it's nothing. Verse number 7 says, I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. Isn't it the Christmas carol, Come, desire of nations, come, fix in us thy humble home? The desire of nations is none other than Christ. And Haggai is saying he's going to come to this temple that presently is being despised by some within the group. Then others in verse number 8 were worried about the finance. You see, they had fitted their money away in themselves. They put their wages into bags that were filled with holes. They had nothing left to show for their wages. And now that they'd squandered their money, they think, well, if we're going to build this, where is the cash going to come from? And God says to them, the silver is mine and the gold is mine. And then others, in light of chapter 1, verse 10, where it says, the heaven over you has stayed from Jew, they were concerned that even if they built the house, there would be no blessing in the house to begin with, and nothing would happen, and they were pessimistic. And yet the Lord says in verse 6 and 7 of chapter 2, yet once in a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the land and the sea and dry land, and I will fill this house with my glory. And then still there were others who were fearful of failure and persecution. And Haggai said to them in verse number four, Be strong, be strong, be strong three times. All ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you. So Haggai's first sermon shows a position that prompted consideration. This second sermon gives a plea to practice courage. In spite of all the discouragements, he says, be strong, be courageous. The work can be done. God's with you. God will help you. God will give you grace and strength to do what needs to be done. Then the third sermon, chapter 2, verse 10 to 19, brings a proposal to practice Cleanliness, a proposal to practice cleanliness. You'll notice verse 10, the fourth and 20th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius. So, each message, you've got the very date that the message was preached. And whenever God speaks to your heart, it's often a good practice to write down even the date. The third sermon was addressed to the priests. Verse 11, now thus saith the Lord of hosts, ask now the priest concerning the law. And Haggai asks them two questions. So this is an interactive type of a sermon. He's preaching, and then he's asking the congregation of priests to answer the question that he's presenting. The first question, verse 12, if one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? The priest answered, no. And so the lesson from that is you cannot impart holiness. Then the second question he asks, verse 13, if one is unclean by a dead body, touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And they answered, yes, it shall be unclean. You cannot impart holiness, but you can spread corruption. And so this is a challenge to the priests who are ministering in this temple that's going to be built, a challenge to them to ensure that they bear a good testimony before the people. Haggai is calling them to a renewal of their consecration and purity. And again in verse 18 he says, consider now from this day, think about this, you're starting out from this day. Forget about all that's gone on before, all of the failure, all of the lethargy, all of the just forgetting about the work of God. Now from this day consider this, your testimony. before those around you. And he encourages them in verse 19, at the very last phrase in the verse, he encourages them that the blessing of God is waiting for them. If you can maintain purity, and you can put your shoulder to the wheel again, and you can bear a good testimony, he says, be sure that from this day, God says, I will bless you. So now that the people of God have returned to the land, and their hearts have been stirred up about the work of God, they're challenged now and encouraged, saying, listen, if you can do God's work, God's way, with clean hands and pure hearts, God promises, from this day, I will bless you. I believe God is ever willing to bless hard work. Done with clean hands. Then very quickly, the last sermon, verse 20, down to verse number 23, is a promise to produce confidence. A promise to produce confidence. God has already given many wonderful promises to the people here. Chapter 1, verse 8, verse 13, chapter 2, verse 4, verse 5 through 7, verse 9, verse 19. And yet the last sermon that Haggai preaches is one entirely of promise. And again, verse 20, the date is given and it is addressed to Zerubbabel. It was Zerubbabel who led the Hebrew people out of captivity It was Zerubbabel who looked over the work. He was like the foreman, so to speak. It was Zerubbabel that Haggai preached his first message to. It was Zerubbabel whose heart was stirred up to begin the work again. And now he encourages Zerubbabel by giving them this promise to produce confidence. And He gives them this wonderful promise. Again, I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. And it's a promise that God is going to signally bless His people once again in their land, in Jerusalem, in the temple. Now, if you were to read Matthew chapter 1, the great genealogy, that shows us right to the birth of Christ. Matthew chapter 1 verse 12, Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, is in the line of Christ. And in fact, he's a type of Christ. Because was it not said of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, of his government there shall be no end, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. And so there's an immediate application here for Zerubbabel, but there's also a secondary application that points to the kingdom of Christ again coming with great power and glory on this earth, a golden age of blessing. The burden, therefore, of Haggai's message is very simple. If you want the blessing of God, going to have to work for it and get priorities right. But God gives us every encouragement in that area. Go up to the mountain, bring wood, build a house. I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Time has really beaten us tonight. I do apologize for going on a little bit longer than usual, but we'll get down please to