(Haggai) Discouragement and Encouragement — Willie Mullan

The Structure and Dates of Haggai’s Prophecies

At the prophet, Haggai. We've got the second chapter, and we're going through the first nine verses tonight, from verse one to the end of verse nine. And if you count the headings that I prepared for you on your notes, you'll find that we have ten headings out of nine verses.

And ten headings out of nine verses is not missing very much in the nine verses, is it? When you get ten headings out of nine verses, then the exposition must be touching every phrase. And we have a very wonderful portion this evening.

Now, we want to first of all have the proclamations of the prophets. And by this I simply mean the dates, the day, the hour, the month, the year, when the prophets actually brought the message to this remnant who had come out of the captivity in Babylon and back to Jerusalem.

Now, I want you to notice this, because this is very important. Let's have a look at the first chapter and the first verse, and notice the year and the month and the day. This book begins 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. Now, you'll notice when we just started preaching, I want you to note that. It's in the second year of Darius, and they're measuring the year by Babylonist time.

I remember saying that, too. But it's in the sixth month, and they're measuring the month by the Hebrew calendar. And it was on the first day of the sixth month. I want you to get that into your mind.

It's the first day, the very first day, of the sixth month, when this prophet says that he is to the remnant who came from Babylon. And he brought his first message. You remember the dreadful things he said.

You remember he began by making the people listen to themselves. He said, this people have. And he made them listen to what they had been said. And then he not only made them listen to themselves, but he made them look at themselves.

You remember that great word, he brought, consider your way. And he made them look at themselves. And then you remember how he made them learn from themselves. He said, you know, you've done a whole lot of things.

Ah, but God blew a pipe on it. He's a lot of everything. He made them listen to themselves, made them look at themselves, made them learn from themselves, made them lose themselves. He really talked to the people.

But we've gone into all that, and we don't need to look at it again. Now that was on the first day of the sixth month, when he came and preached that revival message to this remnant that had come back to Jerusalem from Babylon.

Obedience, Fear, and the Promise of God’s Presence

And then you remember what happened, verse 12 of the first chapter, then, this is the psychological section, then the national leader and the religious leader and all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God.

There came a new obedience into the remnant. And the last part of verse 12 of the first chapter says, and the people did fear before the Lord. That was the result, ladies, of that first message that was preached on the first day of the sixth month of the second year of the reign of Darius the Great.

Now when this result came to pass, verse 13 says, then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people saying, I am with you. That's four words this time. I am with you, says the Lord.

And through this message the Lord spilled out the spirit of Jerusalem, and the son of Zealot, and the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Joseph, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.

And they came and did work in the house of the Lord the host. And that message was preached on the four and twentieth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the Great. I want you to get the hold of that, because the first message was preached on the first day, and the second message was preached on the twenty-fourth day.

Taking that day out and that day out, there are twenty-two days in between. There is the truth. You haven't heard in the mission here, you know. Now I feel that he got alone with God. I feel that he shut himself up with God.

I feel that he waited until he was saturated with the message of God. And remember, he was a longer time alone with God than he was before the people. And if you want to be a messenger of God, you'll need to know what it means getting alone with God.

This is the trouble of our country. We've got far too many people living in the presence of the people, who live in the presence of their brethren, when they ought to be living in the presence of God.

If you say, listen, and I thought you were lying over here, you need to spend more time with the people than with your God. If you say, I will no longer shut up. No, I want you to go around drinking tea now.

Well, I'm not doing it. As you see, I need to be alone with God. And you young people, let's get a hold of this. If you want to make an impact on the people, you'll have to get alone with God. You have to know what being shut in means.

Because I can assure you of this, if the people see less and less and less of you, when you come to church, they'll see more and more and more of your God. Some should say, they, in between. And you know, after working for a long time, he only brought four words.

I am with you, says the Lord. But you know, four words dropped from the presence of the Lord, in the power of the Lord, to the people of the Lord. My, what a wonderful thing is lost. You know, it's not the Lord who's to finally teach, it's the Lord's teaching to us, that matters.

And he brought them a promise from the Lord, of the presence of the Lord, for the people of the Lord, I am with you. And you'll notice that, that I've sent you four days in between the three messages.

The Seventh-Month Message and the Call to Hear God

And then our chapter begins, this evening, by giving us another date. In the seventh month, you'll notice that the last two messages were teached in the sixth month. One on the first day, and one on the twenty-fourth day, and now we're into the next month.

In the seventh month, in the one on twentieth day of the month, twenty-first day of the next month, from the twenty-fourth day of the last month. Given a bit of a fix, you know about the number of days in the month.

If we think of a prophetic month, three hundred and sixty days in a prophetic month. Three hundred and sixty days to each month. Twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, leaves six to go. Twenty-one of the next month, next to twenty-seventh.

There are somewhere about twenty-five days in between, nothing to learn with God. I tell you, we can learn here. There's a lesson to learn here, if you take your time. It's time you spend with God. Father will teach this month, and the Sunday school teacher, and all the young fellows that drive into the open air, and just gather a few heavens together in the rainbow.

Take time with God, to get into a sacred place of the Most High. You need to hide yourself. You need to let God talk to you, before he can talk to you. Oh, there's a lesson here, and I can't take any more time with you, if you can see it for yourself.

It's what's living at the proclamation of the truth. And then I want you to notice, secondly this evening, the interrogations that we put to the people in this new message, in this seventh month, in the twenty-first day of the month.

And it's easy as we come to it. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, in the words of the Lord, by the prophet Abraham, it says, Keep now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josaphat, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, say, three questions to you.

Remembering the Former Glory of the Temple

First one, who is left among you, as I saw this house, in her first glory? She's asking this question, and because she's addressing, she is elder brethren, she's addressing some of the chiefs of the remnant.

She's addressing some of the elderly priests, believers, we shall say. You see, we just want you to find out that if there is any remnant at that moment, any who saw the glory of the temple which Solomon builded, and there were many, remember, there were many.

You know, they had been lifted under the judgment of God, and they'd been taken down to Babylon, and they had been there for seventy years. Remember, Daniel lived right through the seventy years. Some of the scholars believe that Daniel was sixteen years of age when he was taken to Babylon.

That means when we come to the end of the book of Daniel, that old Daniel is about eighty-six years of age. On that eighty-six years of age, we find him praying on his knees for twenty-one days. You old folks, can I talk to you?

You love it, speaking for God, and I've learned a long time ago to speak with care to my elders. But there's a job for you to do, and that is pray, and pray, and pray, and pray, and your last days can be your best days.

You don't need to live in the past all day, you know. Look for God before your last days. There's a job for you to do. You see, there were some of these elderly ones, and if they had been taken down to Babylon at twenty years of age, and they were there for seventy years, they're over ninety now, in fact at this moment they're back in the land over ten years, and so there are some scattered through the land, who are over one hundred years old, and he's taking them out, you know, the Lord wanted him to do this.

This too has the will of the Lord. Speak, said the Lord, speak now in peace to me today, and say, who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And then the second question is, and how do you see it now?

And then the third question is, is it not a new life in comparison of it as nothing? You know, he's not wanting to know the answers to these questions. You see, there's a figure of speech, both in the Greek New Testament and in the Hebrew Testament, there's a figure of speech where questions are asked, but not to get answers.

It's not to get the answer, but it's to make the person for whom the question is addressed feel the touch of the truth. You know, when God came into the garden of Egypt, he came to the garden and said, I don't know, you're asked now, don't try to tell me that God didn't know where he was, because I don't believe you.

Don't try to tell me. You see, the question was asked under this table figure, saying that Adam will know where he is. You're away from your God, you're hiding, that means that God didn't know where he was.

And the Lord Jesus cries in the tenderest heart, my God, my God, don't tell me he doesn't know the answer. It's just to make the world know that it is time, then he will bury myself in his own garden of Egypt.

Discouragement from Comparing the New Work with the Old

Now, it's that sort of figure of speech that you're in. You see, the point is this, that the elders of the residue, the priests, and some of the revise, the chiefs among the people, you know, they were criticizing the work that was being done now.

Sometimes that's all that the saints seem to be able to do in the last days. The lesson to learn here, always at the younger folks, you know, they don't know how to care, they don't know how to do this, and they don't know how to do that, you just spend your own business.

We always get this, you know, when older saints come to the end of the day and lose something of the grace of God in their lives, they're very hard to put up with. Let me assure you, he's willing to die, he's willing to die.

This is exactly what happened. To make sure of this, shall I show you this? Let's go over to the book of Ezra. You remember me taking you through this and showing you something? Well, just let's get the hold of one or two things again.

You remember that this book began way down in Persia, way down in Babylon, way down at the end of the 70 years that Jeremiah had prophesied about. And here's how the first version, now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word that the word of the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord spake up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house of Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

He is there among you of all his people, his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem. And you know, in the second chapter you'll find just exactly how many went up. At verse 64, it gives the names and then it gives the number.

At verse 64 it says,. The whole congregation together was 42 ,360 people left Babylon and went back to Palestine to build the house of the Lord. Now it's not until you're in the middle of the third chapter that they made the foundation of the house of the Lord.

But it was very wonderful, it says in verse 10,. And when the builders made the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the son of Ark, with cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel.

And they stand together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good, for his mercy endures forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was made.

But, but, but, but many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men that have seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, left the Lord why?

Many shouted, many of the younger ones shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not withstand the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the shout of the weeping of the people. So there were a great number of older ones here.

And you know, they're murmuring a little bit, and they're looking at this new foundation being laid, and they're, they're comparing it with the days of old. And they don't think very much of it. Remember it's the work of the Lord.

It is the bit that we're giving. You know, as I can see it from the chapters tonight, things that they looked at it said, and it was as nothing in their eyes. They despised, they said. Seemed to criticise and say, well God will never put his glory in it.

Where will you get the gold and the silver to adorn it? And so discouragement came from the race of the people of God. And sometimes it does lessen. Some of you older brethren, never let this be on your head until you die.

Don't you ever discourage the Lamb of God. Don't you ever discourage women, the lambs, and the goats. You put your arm around it. You say, God bless you sir. And if you think there's a blunder somewhere, just don't hold them up, you know, for a word.

In fact, they get plenty of discredit. And there are far too many older, jubbling, and crippled. They seem to do nothing at the end of the day but criticise the young. They despise it for the Lord. Because he's a champion to the older people, that's why it comes round here.

The Exhortation to Be Strong Because God Is Present

Now, I want you to notice this. After crossing in these interrogations, children, she said this. Now, we'll read these interrogations over again. They say, who is left among you that saw this house in a such glory?

And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison and it is not? And then he seems to take a breath and stand up, curl his shoulders and say, that's now this town. Oh, salubrible, said the Lord, this town, oh son of Josephette, the high priest, this town, all you people of the land, said the Lord, I'm worthless, for I am with thee, said the Lord, the peasant.

You know, this is the exhortation of the Gentiles. It just works. You know, friends, one of the messages of this book is just how the Lord's people get settled. There are many sources, you know, but when it is known, you know, the Lord's peasant makes this I always try, by faith, to realize that the Lord is at my end.

It's a great worship. So, say that I came to this platform to preach 27 years ago, every time I preach, I preached on the Lord is at hand. And I pointed out to the folks that it has got nothing to do with the Lord's coming, that I believe the Lord is coming.

The phrase, the Lord is at hand, has nothing to do with the Lord's coming. It just means there's an old Quaker translation, and it's a beautiful one. It means like this, the Lord is at my elbow. Is it fair?

David said, the Lord is at my right hand. Like this, Paul says, at my consumption, do not speak with me. Nevertheless, the Lord is with me, sent with me. You know, if you can live in the enchantment of the presence of the Lord, you're more strong in the Lord.

One of the ways you do it, you just know the Lord's love. When the storm blows, you can freeze in time. You can lean on him if you get tired. You can come up out of the wilderness and lean in him, and you'll be like him.

But you must learn, you get strong by the presence of the Lord. Then you go without another source of strength, and some of the Mormon, the militia here, I preached to the saints this Sunday morning on a part of Paul's prayer to the saints at Ephesus.

He got down on his knees and prayed that the Lord would grant them to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. You know, you get strengthened through the presence of the Lord, and you get strengthened by the Spirit of the Lord.

Ah, yes, the Spirit sent him to you. And then we went through his whole life, and we saw how the Spirit gave him strength at different points. My, the Spirit made them calm when the storm was howling.

I tell them on Sunday morning, there are two storms in the book, one in the gospels, one on the acts of the apostles. And in the gospels, the Lord calms and calms the storm for the man. And in the other one, the Lord calms the man through the storm, just lets him go away.

And the way that he brought a calm to Paul's life in the storm was by the Spirit. My, the Spirit strengthened him until he was perfectly calm on the ship that brought him to heaven. But he was still calm.

And then he was in the prison. You know, he had a thorn in the neck. The Spirit of God can give you a thorn in the neck. And when he was stoned, he got up from that dreadful position, walked back and started teaching the gospel again.

Some of us would have went to the church of Cairns for about six weeks. You know, he had courage for the battle. This is all produced by the Spirit of God. So he was like, by the Spirit in me in the neck.

Strengthened by the People and Preaching of the Lord

And then let's get the hell of this a little bit. You know, we can help one another. You know, Janice, remember he went away out once into the wilderness, into the woods, into the darkness where the shadows were falling.

And he strengthened David's hand in God. You know, Janice, I've watched this your life. You're walking down the street, you know, and you meet John again there under a merely nebulous. And you know, just by what they say to you, they can upset your soul.

I've ever heard of somebody in the kitchen. I'd almost dabbed them. Because you never meet them, but they're living here in Humber. And I feel like taking a sawdust out and cutting off both their ears.

If it was their tongue, it would be better. You know, they never seem to realize the harm they do to some spiritual creature. And then, on the other hand, you know, you're walking down the street and you meet some soul, and you know, they kiss them and say, be good.

But be careful to the Lord, you know, because, you know, all these creatures are trembling, you know, and all believe them. And the Lord is blessed. Don't you want to be a blessing? You know, you can strengthen somebody, can't you?

Yes, you see, we're strengthened by the presence of the Lord, and we're strengthened by the power of the Lord, and we ought to be strengthened by the people of the Lord, if they were living in the right place.

And do you remember Paul, after going round in one of his journeys, missionary journeys, he started all over again, and we'll see how ridiculous it is here, and he says this, strengthening the disciples in the Lord.

You know, you can be strengthened by the future. It's what I'm trying to do now. So that you can get strength from the presence of the Lord. You can get strength from the power of the Lord. You can get strength from the people of the Lord.

You can get strength from the preaching of the Lord. This time, going for these sources of strength, God will bless you. And do you know what this other great bishop, this great king, he says, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth with you, fear ye not.

You know, he wants them to be strong in spirit, and he wants them to be calm in mind. And you know, friends, if we can only be strong in the strength of the Lord, and have no fear of tomorrow, and no fear of the cripple, and no fear of the enemy, you know, you'll be really blessed, really blessed.

And so the exaltation brings the consolation. Now, I want you to watch this sixth verse, because it's very important. To me, it's the tribulation just in the picture. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, and the forethought, remember, connects it with the message that we've just had, and we'll connect it in a moment.

Haggai’s Shaking of the Nations and the Great Tribulation

For thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once, it is a little while, once, just in a little while, it means, I will take the heavens and the earth, and the dry land, and I will take all nations. What a word to say, that the taking is going to go on.

You know, friends, some people try to say that this took place just a few years after this. I don't think so. I don't think God took all the nations at that time, and I'm positively sure he didn't take the heavens at that time, and I'm positively sure he didn't take the earth, and I'm positively sure he didn't take the dry land.

What's the difference between the earth and the dry land? Well, the earth just means the inhabited earth, and the dry land just means the desert. But you know, there's a time coming, and God wants this remnant to see him.

You know, I'm big enough. Can you not trust me? There's a day coming when I'll take the heavens, when I'll take the earth, when I'll take the seas, when I'll take all the deserts, when I'll take all the nations.

And the coming, you know, hasn't come yet. This is a picture of the great tribulation, and the day that will be. And I, since the moment was up, let's go to the book of Revelation just for the moment, I'm almost frightened to launch onto this, because it might be the middle of the morning.

However, that's a good night anyway, isn't it? You're not in a hurry, you're on strike, perhaps, are you? All right. Now, this book of the Revelation, in this sixth chapter, it's the Lamb opening the seals of that book that he received out of the hand of God.

And you know, as he opens each seal, something takes me from here. And it's very important to watch them all, we haven't time for them all. But I want you to watch the sixth seal being opened, verse 12.

We're at Revelation 76, in verse 12. Now, you younger students of the Word, you want to mark the word sun there, and you want to mark the word moon there, and you want to mark the word stars there. Sun, moon, and stars, because this is the sign of the tribulation.

And whenever you get the tribulation mentioned in its totality in Scripture, you'll always find a sign, so you'll always know the place you're at. It's always the same sign. Now, watch. It says right here, see, and the heavens departed as a scroll when it was rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

You know, many years ago, when the expositors were expounding this, they were frightened about the literality of it. They didn't think you could move mountains in those days. They were afraid to expound that mountains would be actually moved.

But we're living in a day now when we have no trouble about thinking like this. They can move mountains to Machina, and they can move islands too. And I preached at Coombs once. One of the professors, who was giving lectures in a comic image, he told me this.

He said, we can send our plane over Ireland, drop a bomb off, and you'll never see the island again. They can put it off the map. Give me a wee drop, you know, a few things to say. They go arguing about the bomb.

Things pop in the TV now. Tiny little damn things. And they can blot it out. Man can blot it out tonight. And everything is on the TV. And it will be when these things begin to take place. You just have to change the rest of things.

And what's it? I'm the kings of the earth. It's a mess, a change. It's the kings of the earth. Then there will all king be among you. The kings of the earth. I'm the Greek men. There are a lot of Greek men, so we'll think there are anyway.

I'm the rich men. Yes, there'll be there too. I'm the chief captain. Oh, that's all the field masters with all the medals. I'm the mighty men. And every man and every human hid themselves in the dens and in the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sit us on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is coming.

Come on, you know. See that word, it's there. As soon as I'm looking at it and reading it, every phrase will be controlled to the last breath. There's a day in this world's history, not very far this week, when the kings of the earth fall down on their knees, crying for mercy.

Only a lot of draughts happen. That's what John McNeely said, you know. He said, man, I love John. That's what the Bible says. And old John McNeely, who was a Chesterfield minister, he said, once when the king was there and all the judges were there and all the lords were there and all the ladies were there, he kicked from the chest, man, I've got draughts.

And they said, kings are just draughts happened with closure. And judges are just draughts and they live there. If we had a lot of triple kings like this now, I can pick up with them all right. These were men.

These were real men. These were men of God. Fearless. The day is coming, sir, when this world will shift from sin to sin. You know, they have a nut, atomic energy on the shelves in Russia and on the shelves in the United States and on the shelves in the Polaris submarines that could shake a very heavenly summit on all the sea and all the earth and all the deserts and all the nations.

Horrible day. And he's just given them a little picture back there. He's telling them all what he's a saint. Did you follow the word? I'm with you. What do you follow this with me? It's a purple boy that holds my hand.

Lord is yes. Lord is yes. And you can take a read, yes, come. The soul is back in you. Lord is yes. The one that will shake the heavens, the one that will shake the earth, the one that will shake the sea, the one that will shake the whole desert, the one that will shake all the nations until every knee bends and every tongue contracts.

So he's just saying, you know, don't be frightened. I'm with you and I'm big enough for this affair. And let's get back to it because the most important bit is here and that's just the tribulation in the kitchen.

“The Desire of All Nations” and Christ’s Future Glory

You see, he's speaking to these young people. They are starting to do the work of the Lord and we're having certain criticisms thrown at them and he's trying to encourage them now. He says, be strong on this year.

Don't be afraid. I'm big enough. And then he says this in the middle of verse seven, and at the end of this tribulation period, the desire of all nations shall come. You know, that's a wonderful title of our wonderful Lord.

You know, friends, you must be very careful with the titles of the Lord. I had the great joy of examining a manuscript not so very long ago and it's entitled, The Wonderful Titles of Our Wonderful Lord.

And you know, friends, there were titles given to our Lord Jesus when he came the first time and remember that he, our first King. Yes, he was born King of the Jews. It's a title. Born King of the Jews.

Yes, John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God. It's his title. He was known as Jesus of Nazareth. He was known as the Carpenter's Son. You know, there are so many titles, you want to watch them.

They belong to his testimony. And then there are quite a number of titles that belong to him today. Today in the glory. He's in the truth. He's the head of the church. Tonight, of the family. Tonight, he has an advocate with the power that exists within.

It is a family business. He is an advocate of the church. You see, sometimes little children come in the family. And you know, usually mother gets in between them. Well, you know, sometimes we just obey our Heavenly Father.

We have an advocate with the power. He's the head of the church. He's the advocate of the family. He's the high principle of every believer. That's what this is. It's a title. Saying there'll be titles that belong to him when he'll come again to the earth, to the earth, to Mexico.

You know, he's coming as the priest, sir. General Keith, President, General Keith. He's coming as the righteous judge. And the righteous judge. Henceforth has made up for me a kind of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall give to me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love is a feeling.

Love is a feeling. These things happen among saints down here, they never put right, you know. Some of them are too stiff to put them right, sir. I will, we'll meet the righteous judge. He'll put them right.

Yes, you know, he's coming as the Lord himself. We've all laughed at this. But they are not the Lord himself. Then there are titles that are his at his first coming. There are titles that are his today.

There are titles that are his when he comes to the earth. And of course, there are titles that were always his. He was always the Word, capital W. He was always this hand, capital S. It's any more than for you to say.

Ah, but there'll be titles that belong to him when he'll come away on down to the earth to take his kingdom over. And in that day, the faith shall stand on the Mount of Olives. And he'll take the throne of his father David, sir.

Now, this is one of them. He'll be called then, the desire of all nations. You know, you can't apply that to him when he came to the first time. No application, there is no proof that he should be by then.

You know that, don't you? You know that he is this high, and he's accepted of men and he's going to get by it long. He's going to get in a muddle. But you know, when this old world has gone through the tribulation, when God is setting it from storm to storm, when God has come down in Christ to divide the nations, find those that were true to him even in the tribulation, every nation, black and white and red and yellow, he'll be the desire of all nations, sir.

And after the tribulation, you say, we don't know anything about this until he is here. Yes, it's there now. Just look at us now. Because it happens to be there. Just right there. That's when he comes.