Haggai's 3rd and 4th sermon to Israel

Haggai and Ezra as the Background for Israel’s Restoration

If you would, go ahead and turn in your Bibles this morning to the book of Haggai. We're going to pick up right where we left off three weeks ago now. And for the sake of just kind of summarizing and bringing us back up to speed, some of what I'll say here in the introduction is going to be, it likely should strike a chord and resonate with you, it's something you've heard before, but it's important when we go away from a text of Scripture for a little while to come back and have our minds refreshed on exactly what it is we're looking at.

As you know, we've been going through the book of Ezra, and I'm going to read you a couple of verses from Ezra. You don't have to turn there for the sake of time and ease on you this morning, but I'm going to read from the book of Ezra.

The reason that we're reading in Haggai is so that what we're reading in Haggai and what we'll be reading in the weeks to come in the book of Zechariah, these are the sermons that were preached to the people of Israel to encourage them, to strengthen them, to build them up so that they might do the work that God had them to do in rebuilding the temple of God here in Israel, here in Jerusalem, after having been brought out of captivity.

But back over, again, we're going to be in Haggai, but I'm going to read you a couple of verses from Ezra. Ezra chapter 6 says this in verse 14, so the elders of the Jews built, excuse me, built Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father God, I just want to come to you to thank you and to praise you for this day. I thank you and I praise you for this privilege and the honor that we have to be in your house this morning.

I thank you, God, that you give us the right to worship you, the right to be called sons and daughters of God, not upon anything that we do, but based completely upon what you have done, God. And I praise you and I thank you for that.

What a great honor it is that we have to be here together to sing praises, to worship you in song, and to worship you through your word that is read and preached today. My prayer is this, God, that I would be removed out of the way so that your people may get a clear picture and a clear view of who you are and what your word teaches, and that all of us may go away from this place encouraged in the faith, encouraged to go out and to share the gospel with this world in which we live.

That the world, those who hear the word, dear God, by your grace and your mercy might be saved. For it's in Jesus' name I pray. Help me as we preach, amen. Back in Ezra chapter 6 and verse 14, the word of God says this, so the elders of the Jews built and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo, and they built and finished it according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of king Darius. Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

The Word of God Strengthens the Work of Rebuilding

So remembering that for about 18 years after having come out of captivity, the children of Israel dealt with various and diverse different types of struggles and troubles and issues that came up, challenges to the work that was going on.

And in the second year of king Darius, the Bible tells us this, what we just read to you there in Ezra, the Bible tells us that in the sixth year the building was completed. So for four years the children of Israel built and what they went on and what strengthened them and what encouraged them and what caused them to prosper in the rebuilding of the temple of God was the prophesying of Haggai and of Zechariah.

That was the preaching of the word. You've heard it here numerous times, probably more times than you care to recollect, but the church must be built and founded upon the preaching of the word of God.

If we're going to find strength, if we're going to find hope, if we're going to find help, it's going to have to be from the word of God because this world is passing away and this world changes on a moment by moment basis, but God is the same throughout all of eternity and I am so thankful for that.

And the messages here in the book of Haggai that we've looked at four or five weeks ago now, I guess total, looking back over time, the first two messages were preached about a month apart and here we're going to find the third message that Haggai preached was about three weeks to a month after those messages were preached.

The word of God did what the word of God does, it reproves, it rebukes, it exhorts, it gives instruction in righteousness just the same as New Testament preaching is as we have in the word of God. So the same is the Old Testament preaching as far as chronology and order goes.

It is important that we see this in the text of scripture, but in the book of Haggai, my voice sounds like I'm going through puberty. Bear with me. I may have to just talk low, but even when I just tried to do that, I don't know what's going on, but I do want to share this with you.

In Haggai chapter 2, Haggai chapter 2 verse 10, this is what the Bible says. On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts.

Now ask the priest concerning the law, saying, If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil or any food, will it become holy? Then the priest answered and said, No.

And Haggai answered and said, If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean? So the priest answered and said, It shall be done, or it shall be unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the Lord, and so is every work of their hands, and what they offer there is unclean.

Verse 15,. And now carefully consider from this day forward, from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord, since those days, when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten.

When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty. I struck you with blight and milled you and hail in all the labors of your hands, yet you did not turn to me, says the Lord.

Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit, but from this day I will bless you.

Verse 20,. And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake heaven and earth, I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms, I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them.

The horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts.

The Priesthood, Ceremonial Holiness, and the Unclean Heart

And so that's going to end the reading of the word there this morning, but to give you the exposition of the scripture this morning, again it's very important to remember that the book of Ezra was a book of revival, it was a revival of God's word, it was a revival of the preaching of God's word, it was a revival and raising up of the temple, the physical temple of God at this time in history for God's people so that they would be encouraged throughout the book of Ezra.

If you'll remember, I gave you a list probably several months ago now, but 20 things that we're going to see going throughout Ezra. In the first chapter, we're going to see the end of captivity. In the first chapter, we see the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, the provision of God.

Through it all, we see the protection of God on God's people. In chapter 3, we see the worship of God taking place. If you'll remember chapter 3, in chapter 4, we see the subtle and the sneaky attempts to thwart the work of God.

By the way, the word of God cannot be thwarted by man. God will accomplish his purpose every single time. I posted on Facebook the other day that God never fails to save those who he has called, and I'm thankful for that.

The work of God never fails. God is ever sovereign, and he ever works by means of his providence. In chapter 5, we see the work of God continues, and it's based, just what we told you a moment ago, upon the word of God itself.

The work of God must be built upon the word of God. Chapter 5, we see that God's purpose is told to King Darius. When we get back to that, we'll look through that in detail. In chapter 6, as we read a bit to you from chapter 6, we see the provision of God by means of his providence, how God works all things together for the good of those who are the called according to his purpose.

Remembering, God's sovereignty, by definition, is God's right and authority to rule and govern over all things, and providence is the means by which God rules and governs over all things. He works by means of providence through natural means.

God is in control of all things, including the weather, amen? God is in control of all things, not only naturally, but supernaturally, and keeping in mind, again, the sovereignty of God, so there's never a question or there's never given anybody the ability to say that we're saying something that we're not.

God is not the author of sin. A man sins when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death, okay? So back to the scripture, back to the text here, let's consider what's going on here.

You'll notice that the prophet Hagak brings two questions, and the questions that he brings, the first two questions here, are directed to the priesthood. Now, remember how God worked, how God moved, how God stirred up the spirit of the people.

He stirred up the spirit of the magistrates, which was Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. Zerubbabel was a magistrate, he was the governor. He stirred up the spirit of the ministers of the priesthood of Joshua, the son of Josedek, and the scripture says, and he stirred up the spirit of all the people of God.

He stirred up the spirit of all the people of God, but here specifically, as we look into this passage, the Bible says in verse 11, thus says, the Lord of hosts, now ask the priests concerning the law.

So he says, I want you to ask those ministers, those priests, their job was to know what the law of God said, and to be able to tell the people what the law of God said. And so his question is this, thus says the Lord of hosts, ask the priests concerning the law, if one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew or wine or oil or any food, will it become holy?

What a question. He says, if as a priest, you've got something that is holy, you're carrying holy meat, meat that has been dedicated to God, if you're carrying it in the fold in your pocket, or if you're carrying that in your person, on your clothing, and he said, and if it touches something else, does it become holy?

So the question here is this, to make it plain to you, is holiness transferable from person to person? No, no, it is not. That is what we were discussing right before church. Just because I am saved by the grace of God, I wish it were different, but it's not.

And so thus I must submit to God. Just because I'm saved by the grace of God, if I go and I put my hand on my son Joseph, does that make him a saved man? No, it does not. It doesn't make him holy. It doesn't make him righteous.

It doesn't make him anything because holiness is not transferable from person to person. I cannot make you. If we shook hands, Rosie, I can't make you holy simply by shaking my hand. I'm not holy of myself.

I'm not holy of my own virtue. I'm holy, made holy in the sight of God because of what Jesus Christ did at the cross. The doctrine is called justification by faith. And that teaches, has been taught forever since the scriptures have been, we've been aware of the scriptures and as throughout the years the church has stood on this principle of justification by faith.

A man is not justified in the sight of God by the deeds of the flesh or by the works of the law, but simply by the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is this is this principle, how we see it here and it's transferable even to now.

It is an eternal, unchanging principle that holiness comes from one and that is God alone. And we're going to we can look at that. We we can think about the rich young ruler. If if you want to make note of the passage, Matthew chapter 19, you can read about the rich young ruler.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and he said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus looked at him and Jesus said, you know, the commandments, you know what the law says, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness.

And he named the commandments of God. And the young ruler looked at him and he said, all these I have kept since I was but a youth. What pride and what arrogance. All these I have kept from my youth. But Jesus looked at him and said, but you lack one thing.

Now, this young man did not did not was not aware that there was anything else that was necessary for him to be made right. He thought he only had to do was be a good person. He thought that holiness was something that he could accomplish or that he could pass on or that he could do.

But Jesus said, you need to sell all that you have. You need to give it to the poor and come and follow me. The gospel call has not changed today. The gospel call is still the same. The gospel call is this.

Don't come to Jesus for a better life. Don't come to Jesus so you can have a better you. Come to Jesus because he is the one and only savior of the world. He is the only one that is able to give the forgiveness of sins.

The gospel call is plain and the gospel call is clear. Holiness is not attained in and of ourselves or by being around holy people. Holiness is a gift given from God. And so the question there, again, was if you have holy meat in the fold of your garment and you touch something else, does that make it holy?

Friends, we have even heard it said by people. We have even heard this said by folks in the Word of Faith movement who said that because they were saved and they preached on top of a dead cow, that cow was redeemed.

By the way, that's a heretical statement. Again, according to the scriptures, that is not how holiness is transferred. Holiness is transferred. It is not actually not transferred. It is imputed by Jesus Christ.

That is the accounting term that's used in the text of scripture. It's accounted to us as righteousness. And so moving forward. So the first question was, is holiness transferable? And the answer unequivocally by the priest was no.

And I can imagine as this is just how my mind works, as the preachers, you know, sometimes how the preacher will ask you all questions and sometimes you know the answer and you blurt out the answer or you respond, whether by verbal action or physical action.

But then there are other times where you wonder, is the preacher trying to trick me? Most of the time, let me tell you this about me. I'm not generally not trying to trick you. It's good to verbalize what you know, but here in this case, we see the priest answer no.

And it's like the hay guy says, good, good answer. Let's go on to the next question. And in verse 13, hay guy says, what about this? If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?

So the priest answered and said, it shall be unclean. So holiness, ceremonial holiness in the first question is not transferable from person to person. But sin, my friend, is transferable. He said this, if you have something unclean and you if you've touched a dead body and you touch anything else, will it be considered unclean?

And the answer unequivocally by the priest, it was this. It shall be unclean. The principle here in this text is that sin has been transferred from Adam all the way to where we are and where people until the Lord comes and he winds everything up.

The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. So hay guy answered and said, so is this people. And so is this nation before me, says the Lord. And so is every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.

Now, remember, the people of God have gotten excited. They've been encouraged. They've been the spirit. That spirit has moved their hearts and their minds, their will, their bodies to do the work of God.

And yet here comes this word from the Lord through hay guy to again, after being in two months into the building, to to remind the people of God that the work they're doing themselves is not what is making holy the things of God and the work that they are doing is not what is truly making the effect on the world, but it is God himself that is doing the things that are being done.

Verse not 15. And now carefully consider from this day forward, from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord. And we see the we see the sovereignty of God here. Since those days when you came for a heap of 20 ephahs, but there were 10 when you came for a vat of wine to draw up 50 baths from the press, there were but 20.

He said, I struck you with blight, milled you in hell in all the labors of your hands. Yet you did not turn to me. The children of Israel remember 70 years in Babylonian captivity because of being disobedient to the God of being disobedient to God, be failing to turn unto the Lord.

And the Lord wants is reminding them here how that through by his sovereignty, through means of providence, he has providentially hindered them many times in the work that they have set their hands to do.

But it is for his intended purpose. And he says this, consider now from this day forward. And he names the day from the 24th day of the ninth month. From that day, the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid.

Consider this. And then the Lord asked another question. Is the seed still in the barn? As the vine, as yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day, the Lord said, I will bless you.

When you when you have any of you have any of you ever planted anything? How many of you, when you planted it, you went out the very next day to see if it started budding or bringing forth root? OK, so in generally, it probably won't come out the next day, but what about a week later?

What about a week later? You come back and you check it. And sometimes you might see. You're right now. You're right. Maybe, maybe not necessarily. Maybe it's going to do anything. And you go out, you go out every day, you go out every week, you go out for months and it seems like nothing's happening.

And you figure to yourself, well, there ain't no point in me going out and looking no more. A little bit more time passes and you go out and all of a sudden you see the evidence of the seed that was sown in the ground.

And that's what that's what the hay guy is saying. The Lord is saying to hay guy through the people, I have not abandoned you. I've not left you. It's just not time for the fruit to be born just yet. When the when when when Jesus was talking to the disciples in the New Testament, after he was raised from the dead or before he was raised from the dead, when he they said, well, when will you again restore the kingdom of God to Israel?

You know what Jesus said? Jesus said, get out your notebook, fellas. I'm fixing to give you a date. No, what Jesus said was this. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons. That the father has set in store.

There's a whole bunch that we don't know that is not revealed in the word of God that we will never know. And it ain't no need that's even trying to know what we need to try to know is what is here. What is the revealed will of God?

What is the revealed word of God? And friends, I will guarantee you that there is more. So let's stick to the revealed word of God. But the prophet said the the the the the seed is still in the is the seed still in the barn.

No, the work has begun. The work was accomplished. My friends, listen, concerning salvation. And when we when we look at this, read through the Old Testament and we study the Old Testament, always let us keep in mind that this is pointing us forward in time to Jesus Christ.

We worry about our lost people. Friends, we don't know whether they're going to be saved or whether they're going to be lost. We don't know if God's ultimately going to call them unto salvation or they're going to remain in their sin as the scripture was taught this morning in Sunday school.

But what we do know this is that the work has already been accomplished, even though the fruit may not yet be born unto us and we don't see it yet. This is the seed still in the barn. Oh, no, it's already out.

It's already out. It's already happening. And so we see, as we saw in the last message, the second message that Hezekiah preached that Hezekiah begins to point them and to remind the children of Israel again that it was bigger than the natural.

It was bigger than the stone upon stone temple that they were working on trying to rebuild, that there was a better time covenant as the book of Hebrews teaches us as Christians, that Jesus was a better sacrifice than the sacrifices that were made in the Old Testament.

And he was a better high priest than the priesthood of the Old Testament. And that he came and he accomplished what man could not accomplish. And because he accomplished that and because the work was finished and because it is under his divine sovereignty and control concerning all things and all issues and all matters and all of life, that there is yet a better day coming.

And that is our hope as Christians, that there is a better day coming. We have something to look forward to. And it's prefigured here in verse 20. Again, the word of the Lord. Later that day, sometime after that first message there, or that third message that he preached the same day, the Lord sent another message.

And the message was this, it came to Haggai, he said, speak to Zerubbabel. So the first message there, he addressed the priesthood. The second message, he addressed Zerubbabel, the magistrate, the governor of Judah.

Zerubbabel, the Signet Ring, and the Hope of Christ’s Lineage

And the word to Zerubbabel was this. The Lord said, I will shake heaven and the earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them.

The horses and their riders shall bow down, everyone by the sword of his brother. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant. The son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you like a signet ring.

For I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts. So, concerning the sovereignty of God, God can use the world in any way he chooses. And God can use his people in any way that he chooses. But in both cases, however God chooses to use and direct the world, and how God uses and chooses to direct his people, it's going to be to one end, and for one purpose, and that is to glorify the blessed and the holy name of God.

And this was another one of those types of foreshadowing. It wasn't about Zerubbabel getting the big head. But you've got to know this, that Zerubbabel was in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And before captivity, one of the issues that the Lord took with the children of Israel, with King Jehoiachin, was because he was disobedient, that the line, the lineage of Jesus Christ would stop with him.

But friends, God made it so that the lineage didn't stop with Jehoiachin, that man's sin cannot stop the purpose of God. That's what this is about. Because if you read over into Matthew, you read the lineage of Jesus Christ, you'll see how that God continued and assumed his purpose.

And God continued his plan. And this was such a hope to them, having been in Babylonian captivity, having been so oppressed, having been so under the burden of their taskmasters, that they have something that they can look forward to.

The great burden that you have today is not not having enough money. The great burden that you have today is not that you are not well enough. The great burden and the great issue is not that you don't have this or you don't have that.

The great burden and the issue that every single one of us has is that sin is our master. And we are under the burden of the taskmaster of sin. And the only way that we can be delivered by that is through Jesus Christ and him alone.

And Jesus has conquered our enemy. Jesus Christ, through his death, through his shed blood on the cross, through the burial and the resurrection, has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And he's given us hope of a home that we have to look forward to.

Far better than what we have in this life. Jesus said, Beloved, let not your hearts be troubled, speaking to his disciples, he said this, You believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. For behold, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also. And if I go away, I will come again and I will receive you unto myself. Jesus ain't gonna send somebody else to come and pick us up.

Amen? I remember when I was a little kid, I'd stay at my cousin's and my mama'd be out doing things she shouldn't do. And there'd be times when somebody else would have to come and pick me up because she couldn't.

I hated that because I expected her to be the one to do that. But my friends, there's gonna be no worries on this issue. Jesus Christ will come again. He will come physically, he will come personally, and every eye will behold him.

So the promise, let me bring this to a close here. The promise to Zerubbabel, speaking to Zerubbabel in the presence of the people of God, in the present, was an encouragement not only to Zerubbabel, but my friends, to the entire church of Jesus Christ as well.

Because man's sin did not stop or thwart the work of God. And that is good news today. Stand with us if you would. Kenan, I'd ask you if you'd close us in prayer, please.