If you have your Bibles, turn it with
me, please, back to the Little Book of
Haggai.
Last week we looked at Chapter 1, and
this week we would like to think in
terms of Chapter 2 in the Little Book
of Haggai.
Haggai, Chapter 2, page 963, if
you have a Bible like mine.
The pages kind of stick together over there
in those minor prophets every so often.
So if we'll just look at the bottom,
we'll have it made.
Now, before we read Chapter 2, we might
suggest that last week we found that the
people in Haggai's day, all 50,000 of
them, who had left the burden in Persia,
they had left the slavery in Persia, King
Cyrus had given them the permission to go
over back to Jerusalem, 200 miles, and to
rebuild the temple.
And so they got all involved in the
work of the Lord there, and went along
swell for a while.
But somehow or another, they had the same
type of hearts that you and I have.
And so 2,500 years ago, the same
thing happened to them that, I'll cheat a
little bit, I'll say that happens to those
in California.
Now, I don't know that it happens to
us here in North Carolina, but I know
it happens on the West Coast.
It seemed that right in the middle of
the work, not before or not after they
had completed the temple, but right in the
middle of the work, everyone got discouraged because
of the opposition around and the hardship and
the difficulties of the Lord's work.
I have a feeling that Chapter 2 is
going to be a timely message for us
tonight.
But in Chapter 1, we found that they
got discouraged, and so they used the excuse
of the Samaritans around them, opposition from the
Samaritans, to kind of slack off and slow
down in the work of the Lord, while
at the same time the families were coming
along and work was going good, and they
became more exercised about their own material gain
and their own prosperity.
And so, to make a long story short,
they began to spend more time building their
own homes, buying more and better clothes, eating
more and better food, and buying larger plots
of real estate and putting more money in
the bank.
You say, Mom, show me that there in
Chapter 1.
Well, look at verse 6 of Chapter 1,
and we find it very timely.
First of all, in verse 3 it says,
verse 2 rather, "...the time is not come,
these people say, that the Lord's house should
be built."
In other words, they didn't want to go
to work for God, but look at verse
4, "...is it time for you, O ye,
to dwell in your sealed houses, and this
house lie awake?"
Now, we found last week that the word
sealed is in reference to the better kind
of plaster used in better homes, and they
did not want to remain small.
They wanted to get larger, and they wanted
larger real estate on larger property.
And in verse 6, we found another very
personal problem, I'm sure to many of us.
First of all, it says, "...ye have sown
much, and bring in little."
That is, they put in more than their
eight hours a day.
They work at their job, and then added
overtime to it so they could get the
money to make the payments on the house
that they had purchased.
We'll put it that way for application to
ourselves.
And then let's go on.
"...ye eat, but ye have not enough.
Ye drink, but ye are not filled with
drink."
In other words, they wanted more and better
grades of food.
Instead of being content with a dollar a
pound steak, they wanted four dollars a pound
steak.
We'll put it that way.
"...ye clothed ye, but there is none worn."
Now, we know that they did not freeze
to death because they were still alive, and
that's why he wrote to them and preached
to them.
But they wanted more and better clothes, you
see.
And then finally in the verse it says,
"...and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to
put it in a bag with hoes."
Somehow or another, I get the feeling every
time I read that verse that someone has
been spying on my account back there in
Hayward at the bank.
But isn't this very personal, and isn't it
up to date?
We found that in many ways the people
lived twenty-five hundred years ago just like
you and I live today.
They raised their families.
They had their homes.
They were concerned about a higher standard of
living.
And last week we found that we could
apply this to ourselves.
There's nothing wrong with a high standard of
living.
There's nothing wrong with providing the best things
for our family that we possibly can, but
the wrong often comes when after we have
provided these things, we have to work double
time down at work in order to make
payments on these things, and consequently the work
of the Lord goes undone because we can't
see two places at one time.
And so we found last week as a
quick review that they were sick of all
of this.
They were tired of being unhappy.
They were tired of being out of fellowship
with God, and God had blown frosty breath,
we'll say, upon their labors, and the harder
they worked, the further behind they got.
And finally they said, We're tired of it,
Lord.
Tell us what to do to get right
with you.
And in verse eight we might say the
word there, you remember, was awareness.
He says, listen, go up to the mountains
and bring the wood and build the temple.
In other words, wholeheartedness in the things of
God.
And in verse 12 we found that they
did exactly that, and not only the civic
leader, Zerubbabel, and the religious leader, Joshua, but
all the people of the land, 50,000
Jews, 50,000 people, we'll say the whole
Jewish free world went to work, and the
chapter ends with a real refreshing sight.
There they were busily serving God, all working
together and pulling together for a common cause.
Now let's come to chapter two.
I'm very clearly aware of the fact that
chapter one is a little difficult for us
to take.
As we mentioned last week, the preacher seems
to have two jobs.
He comforts the afflicted and then afflicts the
comforted.
And chapter one seems to afflict those of
us who are comforted and settle down in
our own little ways of life, and we
just have a notion that all we have
to do as a Christian is go to
meeting on time and do our little part
and take care of the collection plate when
it comes by, and all will be well.
But in chapter two we find that an
additional requirement is made for those of us
who wish to go all the way out
for the Lord and want our life to
count.
Chapter one kind of shakes this up a
little bit, and then chapter two is a
real encouragement, at least to me.
Verse one says, Haggai chapter two, In the
seventh month, in the one and twentieth day
of the month, came the word of the
Lord by the prophet Haggai saying, Speak now
to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealiel, governor of
Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedach,
the high priest, and to the residue of
the people, saying, Who is left among you
that saw this house in her first glory?
How do you see it now?
Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing?
Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the
Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of
Josedach, the high priest, and be strong, all
ye people of the land, saith the Lord,
and work, for I am with you, saith
the Lord of hosts.
According to the word that I covenanted with
you when you came out of Egypt, so
my spirit remaineth among you.
Fear ye not, for thus saith the Lord
of hosts, yet once it is a little
while, and I will shake the heavens and
the earth and the sea and the dry
land, and I will shake all nations, and
the desire of all nations shall come, and
I will fill this house with glory, saith
the Lord of hosts.
The silver is mine, and the gold is
mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
The glory of this latter house shall be
greater than that of the former, saith the
Lord of hosts, and in this place will
I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts."
In the four-and-twentieth day of the
month, of the ninth month, in the second
year of Darius, came the word of the
Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, ask now the priest
concerning the law of faith.
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?
And the priest answered and said, No.
Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean
by a dead body touch any of these
things, shall it be unclean?
And the priest answered and said, It shall
be unclean.
Then answered Haggai and said, So is this
people, and so is this nation before me,
saith the Lord, and so is every work
of their hands, and that which they offer
there is unclean.
And now I pray you, consider from this
day and upward, from before a stone was
laid upon a stone in the temple of
the Lord, since those days were when one
came to an heap of twenty measures, there
were but ten when one came to the
press, for to draw out fifty vessels out
of the press there were but twenty.
I smote you with blasting and with mildew,
and with hail in all the labors of
your hands, yet ye turned not to me,
saith the Lord.
Consider now from this day, and incidentally, the
reference this day is in reference to December
24th, four months after they had originally turned
back to God.
This is important later on.
Verse 18.
Consider now from this day and upward, from
the four and twentieth day of the ninth
month, even from the day that the foundation
of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it.
Is the seed yet in the vine?
Yea, as yet the vine, and the fig
tree, and the palm granite, and the olive
tree hath not brought forth.
From this day will I bless you.
And again the word of the Lord came
unto Haggai in the fourth and twentieth day
of the month, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, the
governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the
heavens and the earth, and I will overthrow
the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy
the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen,
and I will overthrow the chariots and those
that ride in them, and the horses and
their riders shall come down, every one by
the sword of his brother.
Notice it's not the sword of the Lord
there, it's the sword of his brother.
And in that day, saith the Lord of
Hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my
servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord,
and will make thee as a signet, and
I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of
Hosts."
Now let's go back and quickly analyze chapter
two, and I think we're going to find
a thought here and there that may be
a blessing to us tonight.
Look at verse one.
It says, "...came the word of the Lord
by Haggai."
Now I want you to notice very carefully
there that it was not Haggai's word.
Whose word was it?
The word of the Lord.
Haggai was merely a chattel.
Look at chapter one in verse one.
There again we have it.
"...came the word of the Lord by Haggai
the prophet."
It wasn't Haggai's word, it was the Lord's
word.
We find this about five different times throughout
the Little Prophecy that it was not Haggai's
word that was delivered, it was God's word,
and Haggai was merely an instrument through which
God spoke to the people.
And I'd like to say tonight to each
of us here that God has saved us
and made us a chattel through which the
Spirit of God can speak to other people.
There is no such thing as a Christian
without a message.
There is no such thing as one who
does not have a job to do.
From the youngest Christian in this audience tonight
to the oldest, each of us should have
a job.
We should know what that job is and
we should continually keep the channel clear so
the Spirit of God can speak to us
and work through us and propagate God's message.
Each of us is a chattel.
Now let me say this.
Very often, and I know in my own
life, and many of you know my own
life, I know that earlier in my life
sometimes I would get the feeling that all
heaven was dependent upon my service.
And I thought that I was more than
a chattel.
And if I didn't get out and do
a certain work, God Almighty would have to
stop what He's doing until I got on
the ball down there on earth and went
to work.
And very often, not very often, but occasionally,
some of us may come to think that
we are more than a chattel.
But if we had time to turn to
1 Timothy 3 and verse 6 in reference
to the qualifications of elders in a local
church, it says that this elder cannot be
a novice.
Lest being lifted up with pride, he fall
into the condemnation of the devil.
Now pride usually makes us think that we
are better than we are, and we almost
break our arm patting ourselves on the back,
pushing ourselves forward.
And this is sin.
And it originates not only in the old
nature, but it further originates with old Satan
himself.
He'd like to see every one of us
think that we are more important than we
are so we can go out and do
the work of the Lord in a callous
manner and wreck the work that God has
already established.
But then there's another side of this.
And I think this may be a very
current problem for many of us.
Maybe not here, but maybe so.
There's such a thing as thinking that we
are more than a chattel, but there is
also such a thing as thinking that we
are less than a chattel.
Have you ever taken inventory in your own
life and said, What can I do for
God?
I just can't do anything.
Every time I try to serve God, it
comes to naught.
I can't seem to lead anybody to Christ.
I can't seem to preach.
I can't seem to lead singing.
I just can't do anything.
And we sit down.
And furthermore, we don't have confidence in ourselves
that we have the capability of doing what
we know God wants us to do.
Well, just for the understanding of it, write
this down somewhere in your Bible.
In 2 Timothy 2, verses 19 through 21,
we find that usually if a channel is
not clear by which the Holy Spirit may
work, it's because of sin.
It's because of sin.
And oh, how easy it is to let
some little sin, love of faith, love of
family, love for business, love for some little
something in our life, and this sin clogs
up the channel, and it seems whatever we
do for God comes to naught, and we're
failures.
Now, I do not say this is always
true in 100% of the cases.
But usually if we think we're more than
a channel, it's because of self-esteem.
But if we think we're less than a
channel, it's because of sin.
Now, you think this over and apply this
to each area.
Apply each thought to your own life.
Each of us should have a job to
do, and we should be doing this job.
I have a notion that in the months
to come, when the time comes in which
the building across town has been prepared, and
this assembly may have to divide 50-50,
or so, and some go there and some
remain here, Christians, I happen to know from
experience, you're going to face the most difficult
days of your Christian life as an assembly
and as a unit of Christians.
And I'm praying for you every day of
my life in California, because I'm in an
area where it's a constant thing where one
assembly is leading off of the other in
fellowship and expanding the work of God.
And you've not been tested yet, like you're
going to be tested.
And I suggest that each one of you
lay low before God, and you find your
area of service, and you get into that
channel, and don't you be jealous of the
other person who's ahead of you, and don't
feel that you're better than the other person
behind you.
You do your job, and let Him do
His job, and love one another as you
do it.
But now let's go on.
Verse 2.
And this is a wonderful little verse.
Verse 2, when you meditate upon it, speak
now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor
of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of
Josedat, the high priest, and to the residue
of the people, saying, Who is left among
you that saw this house in her first
glory?
Now, interestingly enough, when the temple was destroyed,
it was destroyed right down to the ground.
And the house that this returning remnant had
built did not stand earlier.
It was Solomon's temple.
This is the rebuilt temple.
But if you look at Mrs. Scofield's footnote,
you'll find that the term this house is
in reference to the house of God throughout
the Old Testament and also in the days
that the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth,
and also it's in reference to the future
temple and the millennial reign of Christ.
This house is in reference to any house
of that time and of that dispensation where
God dealt with His people.
Now, I'm sure that all of us here
are aware that the church building today is
not the house of God.
This is just a tabernacle.
It's just a building where the church gathers.
You and I are the church, and the
church, the people, who are saved in Christ,
represent the house of God on earth.
There is no such thing as a house
of God made of brick and stone and
nails and so forth and so on.
But he says, listen, those of you that
were some present who had lived in Solomon's
day, who had seen the original temple in
all of its glory and all of its
splendor, and they had been carried away captive
down into Babylon, who later fell to the
Medes and Persians, and then they were given
the opportunity to come back and start from
nothing and rebuild the temple.
And look what he says in verse 4.
Verse 3.
Who is left among you that saw this
house in her first glory, and how do
you see it now?
Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing?
In other words, their little work in comparison
to Solomon's great, grand, and glorious and splendid
work there seemed like a little old nothing
compared to what had been done in past.
And isn't that just like some of us
in the church today?
We look back and we think of the
great, great and glorious years that we have
lived in in the past.
And then we take inventory and we see,
well, our little cause is just about like
nothing.
Incidentally, this is the trick of Satan to
keep a Christian living in the past.
The Christian should live from day to day.
Let the past take care of itself and
let the future take care of itself, but
let us take care of the day.
Let's not compare today by last year or
ten years.
Certainly it was better.
It was over.
It's over now.
And we have a tendency to forget the
difficult things and remember the good things.
I've heard so many Christians say, oh, if
it was only like it was ten years
ago.
And they lived ten years ago.
And consequently, the contrast in comparison makes today's
Christian life a failure.
And so there were some who were going
around saying, well, our little old temple here,
it's no good at all.
It's just like nothing compared to that from
in this temple.
But let's go on.
Look at verses 4 and 5.
We have four things here that I'd like
to bring before you.
And I can't think of anything more applicable
in the Word of God for us right
here in this tabernacle tonight.
God comes back and through the channel Haggai,
He says four things.
First of all, verse 4, yet now be
strong.
That's it.
I don't care how big the temple seemed
to be 58 years ago.
And you have a little old puny temple
here that's just not anything in comparison to
it.
Be strong.
And I think the word there should be
emphasized, the word that should be emphasized is
now.
Yet now be strong.
Now the contrast of strength is weak and
laziness.
God did not say, yet now be weak
and lazy.
Yet now let's adopt a do nothing attitude
and everyone sit down and see where the
kids are going to fall.
He says be strong.
Get up and go to work for God
and carry your weight in the local assembly.
I think that's the thought there.
Yet now be strong.
And then secondly, He goes on to say,
for I am with you.
And again, I think the word that should
be emphasized there is the word am.
Yet I am with you, He says.
Have you ever been involved in the work
of the Lord and met with a gross
failure while you were involved in it?
I have.
Many a time.
And you know when we're failing and we
see our cause going down the drain as
it were, and we compare our little work
with other big people over here who are
doing larger and more impressive work, we get
that feeling, God, you're not with me anymore.
How practical.
The people of the day, twenty-five hundred
years ago, they had a little old work
going and they compared their work by the
big group down here on the corner somewhere
and they got the feeling that God had
taken His hand of blessing off on them.
Well, look what He says there.
For I am with you, says the Lord.
And God's presence in our life is more
important than all the crowds of Greensboro or
all the crowds of Gilbert County.
Or the state of North Carolina.
Someone once said, One plus God is a
majority.
And it's far better to have a small
meeting where everyone is functioning in their work
and everyone is happy and everyone is pulling
this load together than to have a tremendous
congregation of a thousand or two thousand people
and everyone just sitting, listening to someone else
do the work.
God says, I am with you, even though
you may seem small, even though you may
seem weak and defeated, I am with you.
And then look at the third thought.
He says, My spirit remaineth among you.
Are you sure we read that right?
Yes, it is.
There it is.
Look at verse five.
So my spirit remaineth among you.
Yes, in spite of the fact that they
were weak, in spite of the fact that
many in the group were carnal, in spite
of the fact of the smallness of their
cause, and oh how easy it is to
get the feeling that our cause is so
insignificant, in spite of the fact that they
were small, in spite of the fact that
they were hated by the Samaritans in the
neighborhood, just like the unsaved world today hates
the church, in spite of the fact that
they were a visible failure in every sense
of the word, God says, My spirit remaineth
among you.
And I have found in what little portion,
in what little time I've studied God's word,
that it's usually the one who has his
total confidence only in God and no trust
in himself whatsoever.
There's the one, and there's the group upon
whom and in whom the spirit of God
remains.
And when we are strong, we're really weak.
But when we're real, we're strong.
And then the fourth thing he says in
verse five, the last line, look at it
there in your Bible, Fear ye not.
Now what does he mean, fear ye not?
You'll notice there in chapter one, in verse
twelve, the last line, it says, And the
people did fear before the Lord.
But over here in chapter two, he says,
Fear ye not.
Well, there's two fears.
One is the fear of man, and the
other is the fear of God.
And it doesn't mean to be shaking all
over from head to toe in fear that
God will strike us down for doing something
wrong, but it means to give God his
proper place in our lives and respect God
for who he is and what he is.
But over in chapter two, at the end
of verse five, the fear there is the
fear of man.
Don't be afraid of what the enemy will
do unto you.
Don't worry about what's going to happen.
Don't worry about the local politics.
Don't worry about the community.
Don't worry about the hardship.
Just leave that with me.
And I'm sure that each Christian here at
the Forest Avenue Tabernacle has been well taught
not to labor, not to labor for the
respect of man.
Don't labor in the light of what man
in this world will think of you, but
labor in the light of the judgment seat
of Christ, what God thinks of us.
And we can hold before us that the
time is coming after this life when we'll
be delivered from this earth and we stand
before the judgment seat of Christ in heaven,
not for salvation, that was over at Calvary's
Cross, but to give an account of our
lives to God.
And I believe that's the thought there.
Don't worry about what men are going to
say unto you.
Just labor in the light of the judgment
seat.
Just do your work as unto the Lord
and all will be well.
Now, in verses 6 through 9, it seems
that we have the provision for the basis
for God's encouraging words in verses 4 and
5.
In other words, He goes on to say,
listen, don't worry.
Everything is going to work out all right.
I think I told you of the two
men one time who were arguing a little
bit about dispensations.
And one said to the other, listen, are
you a post-tribulationist?
No, no, I'm not a post-tribulationist, or
post-millennialist, rather.
He said, are you a pre-millennialist?
He said, no, I'm not a pre-millennialist.
He said, well, are you a mid-millennialist?
He said, no, I'm not a mid-millennialist.
He said, then you must be an amillennialist.
He said, no, I'm not an amillennialist.
He said, well, where do you stand in
the prophetic view?
He says, I'm a pan-millennialist.
Pray tell me, what is a pan-millennialist?
He said, well, regardless of what's going to
happen in the future, I know that it's
going to pan out all right.
And you know, Christians, if we could just
hold this thing in front of us at
this time.
Regardless of what's going to happen in the
future, both from the prophetic stage and from
tomorrow morning at ten o'clock and six
months from now and a year from now,
God has promised that whatever is going to
happen is going eventually to pan out all
right.
Look at verse six.
For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Yet
once it is a little while, and I
will shake the heavens and the earth and
the sea and the dry land, and I
will shake all nations, and the desire of
all nations shall come.
Now, I'm aware that the Hebrew here says
desires, plural, of the nations.
And for the world, the world desires things,
don't they?
And we know that the millennial reign of
Christ, everything will be in abundant way.
And the world will have in a great
deal what they really want, even though they
don't know it.
But who is the desire of all nations
for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?
The Lord Himself.
And so God, in a prophetic way, is
saying, Listen, don't you worry about the future.
It's all going to work out all right.
And ultimately, the one that we're looking for
is coming back.
The desire shall return.
In other words, the final chapter in the
book of life records an eternal victory for
the Lord Jesus Christ and for those of
us who are following Him.
The past has been blotted out.
The future is nothing but glorious.
And today we're in just a little clouded
area and we know that soon the cloud
is going to pass over.
But in doing it all, God is well
able to take care of us.
Look at verse 8 there.
I love this verse.
Who does the silver belong to?
God.
Who does all the gold in this world
belong to?
God.
Now, you can go down here to the
bank and talk to the banker a little
bit and he'll make you think that all
the money in the world belongs to their
bank.
And you can go over here and try
to buy a home and you have to
pass all types of qualifications to buy a
home in order to get seven or eight
little thousand dollars to buy a house with.
But behind it all, who owns the silver
and the gold?
God Almighty.
And this tells us that He not only
has taken care of the past and not
only has taken care of the future in
advance, but God will take care of us.
He will supply us with what takes money
to live in this world.
I've found that.
But who really owns the money?
Not the employer.
He may have a little bit over there.
But behind it all, God is directing the
finances of this world.
He owns the gold and He owns the
silver.
And Christians, I feel somehow or another, if
this verse could sink deep enough into our
hearts and we could become aware of it,
we'd have a whole new outlook on life.
And this thing called money, the God of
this age, would no longer be our God
in any sense of the word.
But let's go on.
Verses 10 through 19.
We see something very interestingly, very interesting.
In the fourth and twentieth day, and we
know that this is December 24th in the
same year, of the ninth month and the
second year of Geriath came the word of
the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the
priests.
Now you'll notice that God is saying, Ask
your own people.
Ask the religious leaders, ask the priests of
the day concerning the law.
Now, if you wish to be a Bible
student, I suggest that you underline those three
words because it's misunderstanding if we don't realize
that we're asking the law concerning two matters.
Look at verse 13.
Here's one question.
If one bear holy flesh in the skirt
of his garments, and with his skirt do
touch bread or pottage or wine or oil
or any meat, shall it be holy?
And who answered?
And the priest answered and said, No.
In other words, one who is holy cannot
pass holiness on to another.
You see, holiness is not infectious.
But the next verse tells us that unholiness
and sin is.
If we're a sinner, we can pass sin
on to someone else.
But if we're a Christian, we cannot pass
Christianity on to someone else.
Look at verse 13.
Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean
by a dead body touch any of these,
shall it be unclean?
And the priest answered and said, It shall
be unclean.
Then answered Haggai and said, So is this
people, and so is this nation before me,
saith the Lord.
And so is every work of their hands,
and that which they offer there is unclean.
In other words, he's saying the same thing
we find in Psalm 39 in verse 5.
Every man, even the believer, every man in
his best state is altogether vanity when it
comes to doing our work and our capabilities.
There's only one source of power for those
of us who seek to serve God, and
that's from God Himself.
It's not living like Christ.
And I found that for many years in
my own life, I sought to live like
Christ.
I sought to be a Christian that's like
Christ.
And I found a few years ago that
it's not being like Christ that God is
concerned about.
It's letting Christ live His life in us.
Not a synthetic Christian life, but the very
life of God Almighty and the person of
the Spirit living out Christ in us.
Then it's easy.
It's like a light bulb saying, I think
I'm going to shine.
But if you cut the electricity off, the
bulb can't do it.
It's one thing for the bulb to try
everything it can to shine without the power
that's necessary.
But it's another thing to have this power
flowing through those little old things in the
light bulb there.
And the light bulb just lights up with
an external source or by an external source.
Are we trying to live like Christ, or
have we laid down all of our efforts
and said, Lord, in the power of the
Spirit, You live Your life out in me
day by day.
But let's go on.
Verse 15, And now I pray you, consider
from this day and upward from before a
stone was laid upon a stone in the
temple of the Lord.
In other words, from the beginning of your
work, from the time that you came back
to rebuild the temple, from this day forward,
since those days were when one came to
an heap of twenty measures, that is, they
had a poor harvest, and there were but
ten, when one came to the press vat,
and the word press vat there in our
translation is wine vat, that is, that's where
they kept the wine, and they came to
the vat to draw out fifty vessels of
the press.
There were but twenty.
In other words, they had a poor harvest
there too.
It says, I smote you with blasting and
with mildew and with hail in all the
labors of your hands, yet ye turned not
to me, saith the Lord.
This is retroactive.
We know that in chapter one, they had
left God out of their plans, and they
were running their own life, and they were
trying to live their life by self-management
instead of looking to God, and God didn't
bless it.
And the harder they worked, the further behind
they got.
Well, let's look at verse eighteen.
Consider now from this day.
Remember now, this day is four months later
than the date they turned to the Lord,
December 24th in the same year, 520 B
.C. From this day and upward from the
four and twentieth day of the ninth month,
even from the day that the foundation of
the Lord's temple was laid, consider it, is
the seed yet in the barn, yea, as
yet the vine and the fig tree and
the plum granite and the olive tree have
not brought forth from this day.
Will I bless you?
Well, Bob, what are you trying to say?
I'm trying to say simply this.
Stick-to-itiveness is a key and evidence
of genuine revival.
Did you get that?
Oh, how easy it is to put on
a good face and act like a spiritual
Christian around other Christians, but during the week
live like the devil.
And when it comes to a spiritual test,
fail in every sense of the word.
But on Thursday night, Sunday morning, the Lord's
supper, Sunday night, oh, we can really look
right.
But if we are one thing when things
are comfortable and we are another under tribulation
and distress and testing, God says we're not
even spiritual at all.
And the test to genuine revival is time.
Sometimes we turn to God, oh God, I
need this and I need that, and we
get mad at God if he doesn't give
us what we want right then.
Well, for four months, nearly four months, exactly
four months, from September 24th to December 24th,
God held back his blessings.
They turned to God.
They got right with God.
They said, God, we don't want all these
houses.
We don't want all these clothes.
All of these things we sacrificed to you.
God didn't take them away from us, take
them away from us.
He just made them stewards of these things,
you see.
And then they went on their way, and
God held back blessings in for four long
months.
I dare say that I myself would begin
to get a little tired.
Well, God, you're not going to bless me.
I'm going to go back to the old
way.
The good way is no better than the
old way.
But God says, now, for four months I've
tested you.
I've really raked you over the coals.
I have withheld my hand of blessings, and
now you don't know what to do, but
you were faithful to me.
He says, from this day, I'm going to
bless you.
I wonder, Christians, if it might be that
God might be testing us as an assembly
of God's people this very hour.
And it may be that in the weeks
and in the months to come, we're going
to be put to a test like we've
never had before to see if we're just
playing church, if we're just being religious for
the fun of it because we're a member
of a social organization, or do we really
mean business for God?
And we're going to go on by His
grace in spite of all the difficulties, in
spite of all the hardship, we're going to
live for Him.
The acid test, the genuine revival, always has
been, as I can see it from Genesis
to Revelation, stick-to-it-iveness.
Instead of up and down, a consistent, steady
life in the things of the Lord.
Now, in verses 20 through 23, and our
time is up, we see a look into
the millennial future, and we find that all
the enemies are going to be defeated, and
ultimately, the believers are going to be victorious
toward Jesus Christ.
One thought, however, look at the any two,
everyone by the sword of his brother.
How is this tribulation going to be brought
to an end?
How is the world going to be consummated
at the very end?
I don't believe it's going to be by
what we might call God's wrath falling out
of heaven with a bolt of fire and
a flame of fire from God.
I believe it's going to be by the
sword of our brother.
That is, by the people of the world.
They're going to be fighting one another.
It could be the atomic bomb.
It could be the cobalt bomb.
It could be something along that line.
And God's spirit is going to be taken
off of them, and they're going to jump
at one another like a couple of lions.
And they're going to blow themselves all to
bits.
Everyone by the sword of his brother, not
by the sword, which is God's wrath.
That's just a thought of my own personal
thinking here.
But let's go on.
It says that eventually, verse 23, In that
day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I
take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant.
Now, this is a prophetic look into the
future, and I think it's in reference to
Christ.
For, interestingly enough, the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is a descendant of Zerubbabel.
O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Sheol,
saith the Lord, I will make thee as
a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith
the Lord of hosts.
Our time is up, so we're going to
stop.
Let me say this.
Christians, I think it's time that each of
us who are members of this assembly, who
are in fellowship here, and who mean business
with God, as you seek to take a
new venture across town here, and you seek
to hold this one in the road, let's
not build that one at the expense of
this one.
Let's not push this one up and this
one go down.
We're going to have to do two things
at one time.
I think it's time that each of us
took a long look into the future.
And by the grace of God, let the
Lord plan our lives.
And then it's time that someone has said
that we wake up, stand up, clean up,
and start up before we'll be caught up.
And I think God will use us, each
of us, in His great work.
Let's bow our heads and be dismissed.
Our Father, we thank Thee once again for
Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we thank Thee that He is our
Savior, that we have nothing in our hands
to bring when we come to Him.
We need nothing, for Jesus has paid it
all upon Calvary's cross, and faith in His
finished work delivers us from the caverns of
the damned for all eternity, and prepares us
to spend eternity in heaven with Thee.
And, Our Father, we thank Thee that it
doesn't stop just at what we might call
the plan of salvation, but we have the
wonderful privilege of letting Jesus Christ be our
Lord Jesus Christ day by day in our
lives.
We have the privilege of moment by moment
communing with Him, walking with Him, committing our
cares to Him, letting Him direct us day
by day.
And we pray, Father, for each of us
here in this room, that we shall learn
this wonderful secret of letting the Lord Jesus
Christ live His life in us day by
day, hour by hour, moment by moment.
Father, we commit ourselves to Thee for guidance
in the future.
Once again, we commit our dear brother McKay
to Thee.
We pray, O God, in a very special
way that Thou wilt guide the surgeons and
that somehow or another, against all the odds,
it be Thy will, our dear brother shall
be fully recovered and that we shall hear
him minister from behind this very pulpit for
years and years to come.
Father, we thank Thee in advance for what
Thou art going to do.
These things we pray in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.