Haggai 1:14-15 The stirring of the remnant

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Christ, O Lord, save me, my God, Delivered for Your mercy's sake.
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His rightful might is on the dark, the wicked see,
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In peace and grace, He never leaves me.
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In Christ alone my hope is found,
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He is my life, my strength, my song.
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This cornerstone, this solid ground,
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Firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace,
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When fears are stilled and anxiety ceases. My comfort, my all in all,
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Here in the love I stand. All this
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I've got in hell, waiting to stay.
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The cross that Jesus died, I'm unsatisfied.
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For at Him was laid,
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Here in the breath of life. There in the ground
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His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain.
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Then burst before Him, glorious day,
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Up from the grave He rose. As He stands in victory,
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His curse has lost its grip on me.
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For I am His, and He is mine,
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Bought with the precious blood of Christ. No guilt in life, no fear in death,
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This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to destiny.
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No scheme of man can ever block me from His hand.
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Till He returns or calls me home. Till He returns or calls me home.
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Here in the power of Christ I'll stand. Brothers and sisters, what a blessing it is to sing those songs.
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I don't know if you noticed that or not, but the second hymn that we sung was actually Psalm 3.
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Like, that's pretty cool to be able to sing the scripture. That's what the whole book of Psalms is for. Seeing scripture is truly a blessing.
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We're going to go ahead and do our catechism right now, so I would invite all the kids to come up here with me, please. Come on up here, guys.
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We might have to use both sides of the stage today, but come find a spot. Yeah. Where do you want to sit?
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This question might be harder than the catechism question. Right there? Okay, you can go sit there. Go ahead and find a spot.
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Yeah, you want to sit down on the guy right there? Perfect. I'll come back over here now. Well, it's a blessing to have you guys here today.
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So we have a really, really important question that we have to ask. I think all the adults in here need to be reminded of this as well.
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Last week we asked the question of what is the seventh commandment. Do you guys remember what that means to us?
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That's right. That's absolutely right. Amen to that. So I don't know if you heard what he just said, so I'll ask this week's question.
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What is forbidden in the seventh commandment? And a reminder that the seventh commandment is,
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Thou shalt not commit adultery. And what did you just say, Henry? Do you want to say it again?
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So do not have impure thoughts or unchaste actions. That's what he just said.
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That is amazing to hear that. Praise God for that. Amen to that. And so the whole idea of that is that we need to try to be obedient to God's law is to mean that we are being pure in our actions and our thoughts, right?
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And so is it an okay thing to have mean or wrong thoughts or mean or wrong actions?
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Lydia's already shaking her head, no, that's wrong, right? That's violating God's law, right? Do you want me to pray with you guys?
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Okay, let's pray. Lord God, I thank you, Lord, for just these children today,
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Lord, for the opportunity to have that adventure club this morning, Lord. And I pray that as we do this weekend and the week out,
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Lord, that you would be glorified by this, Lord, that the efforts of your people would not go in vain,
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Lord, and that you would stir our hearts to be more deliberate in raising these children up to your glory and that they might know who you are,
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Lord, and they might profess you as king. Lord, I do pray today that we would obey your seventh commandment,
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Lord, as a church, that we would not commit adultery, that we would not have unclean thoughts, and that we would not live lusts outside of our marriage covenant,
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Lord. God, I thank you so much for who you are. I say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen.
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Amen. All right, you guys, can I get a high five before you go? You got to be able to kind of walk around. There we go.
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I got one for my son. That's a good thing. Yeah, good one. Let's do it again. Bam. Nice.
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Good stuff. Nice. All right. Extreme.
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What a blessing that is. I can't tell you enough how excited
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I am to have opportunities and moments like that here at church. What a blessing. Well, before we read this text, before we even pray,
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I'll be honest with you. It's okay up here. I'll be honest with you. This week I prepared for a message today, and then as this week went on, there were other things that came up.
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I went to a conference this week, and so I don't know how the message is going to go today is what I'm trying to get at.
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I don't know how much I will follow the notes because there was a lot of things that I think we can even apply to this text and some doctrine and some issues of today that I think we need to take to heart.
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But let us go ahead and pray right now. We'll read the text, and then we'll go ahead and pray again, and we'll go through and kind of, not kind of, but I hope we will expositionally dissect what is going on here.
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We're going to be in Haggai chapter 1 verses 14 through 15. Haggai chapter 1 verses 14 through 15.
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Haggai chapter 1 verses 14 through 15. Let us go ahead and pray to open things up. Lord God, I do pray again for this season that we are in,
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Lord. Whatever season that is as a church, as a local body, whatever season that might be as individuals,
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Lord, I pray that you would be glorified in our actions, in our words, in our deeds, in our worship,
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Lord, in our service. Lord, I pray that you would strengthen us in our conversations, in our difficulties, in our trials, in our pains, in our afflictions,
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Lord. And I pray that we would stand firm upon your rock, Lord, in which we just sung, being in Christ alone.
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Lord, I pray again for the children here at Valley Baptist Church, the parents, and I just pray for our local body,
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Lord. I just pray that you would be glorified in the day opening your word and in the worship that we have before you.
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And we just say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Haggai chapter 1 verses 14 through 15 is where we'll be at for today.
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Let us go ahead and read this text, verses 14 and 15. So the
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Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shattil, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of the people.
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And they came and worked on the house of the
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Lord of Hosts, their God, on the twenty -fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.
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This is our text for today. Let us pray again over it. Lord God, I pray today that as we look at the short words here,
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Lord, that we see that it is truly the word of God before us. And Lord, though it was written many, many years ago,
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Lord, that we would understand its context, that we can apply it properly, that we would understand and be encouraged by this,
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Lord, and that you would stir our very spirits, Lord, today to do the work of your house,
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Lord. Lord, I pray that when we look around this room and we see one another, that we would see fellow workers, that we would see your church, that we would see your bride, and we would value each other as being covered by the perfect Lamb, Lord.
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And God, I just lift these things up to you. In the name of our
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King, Jesus Christ, we say these things. Amen. So, again, as we went through verses 10 through 13 two weeks ago, as Rick led us through those texts, let me just read again this context for us.
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It says in verses 10 through 13, Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
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And I called for a drought on the land, and on the mountains, on the grain, and on the new wine, on the new oil, and on what the ground produces on men, on cattle, and all the labor of your hands.
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Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shattiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadek. I'm sure when
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Rick read this text for us two weeks ago, he was able to pronounce all those words, names, far more precisely than myself.
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But it goes on to say, The high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the
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Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent them.
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And the people showed reverence for the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the
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Lord, spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people, saying, I am with you, declares the
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Lord. This is the direct context, as I said, this was gone through by Brother Rick of this church two weeks ago.
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And as we do not have means to record sermon audio for our pulpit supply right now, my wife made mention of how
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Rick beautifully went through this text, and how he mentioned that we are, this is being spoken of in the
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Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and how he pointed us to how we are members of the
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New Covenant. That is something that stuck with my wife from two weeks ago. And I hope as we continue on in these verses, through verses 14 and 15, and particularly today with the baptism, we can talk a little bit about what it means to be a member of the
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New Covenant. And I hope that this is going to be something that ties us to previous texts, as well as ties us centrally to the
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New Testament. But, this text, again, was written in the year, roughly, 520
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BC, after roughly 20 years have gone by that God had told them to go back and build a temple.
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20 years have gone by, and all that has been laid is the foundation. This is a slothful people, this is a people that have not obeyed the
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Word of God, it's a people that have not gone after what God has commanded them. And we need to understand that we need to not act like this, we need to obey
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God's command and follow Him today. But we must not think of ourselves better than what they were, as we've looked and we see.
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How can we build the house of God today? Well, we can go after the Great Commission, which we'll talk about here in a moment.
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We can follow God and obey His laws and His commandments today. But we often forsake those things, so we cannot see ourselves better as the people in this text.
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We can't. So when we come here to verse 14, I want to make mention of one little sentence here in verse 13.
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It's at the very end there. It says that the Lord spoke by the commission of the
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Lord to the people, saying, I am with you, declares the
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Lord, declares Yahweh, this name of God, the self -existing
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One, the One that Jesus Christ claims to be this same Yahweh, this same
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Lord. And He says in here, I am with you.
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I am with you. God had not departed from His people. God was there with them.
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I am with you. I am with you. This should be very, very remarkable of a statement that is said here by God to the people of Israel in this text.
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I am with you. It's not just Braden is with you. It is not just Nick is with you. It's not just Chad is with you.
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Yahweh Himself is with you. That is amazing.
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Why do I make mention of this text before we even get into verses 14 through 15?
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Because God Himself has said this very same thing to us, the church. Have you noticed that?
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Matthew chapter 28, as I just made mention of, in verses 17 through 20, says,
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After the eleven disciples fall down and worship Jesus Christ as being God, they worship
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Him. God being the only proper subject of worship. The eleven fall and worship Jesus. And Jesus says,
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All authority has been given to me under heaven and on earth. Go, therefore. He gives them a command.
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This should be almost identical to what's going on here in the book of Haggai. He gives them a command.
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Go, therefore, make disciples, baptizing them. Go unto the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them all that I have taught you, all that I have commanded you.
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And lo, I am with you even until the end of the age.
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I am with you. God Himself is with us.
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He's given us the very means of having success because God Himself is with us. We have nothing to fear.
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There is not a day in our lives that goes by that God is not with the Christian. God is with us.
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Just as Haggai and the people of Israel could say, The Lord is on my side. The Lord is with me.
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We too get to say that same thing. The Lord is with me. The Lord is with us.
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The Lord is with us. This is going to be very, very important here in a moment when we discuss this great commission and baptism.
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Let us continue on here in verse 14. It says, So the Yahweh, the
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Lord. Yahweh, that self -existing title that God has. The only name that God, the only person that could be, the only being that could be called the self -existing one is
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God Himself, Yahweh. So the Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shattael.
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Now, I want to first, before we talk about stirring up of the heart, I want to talk about this character of Zerubbabel.
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Somebody from this church reminded me a couple weeks ago about who Zerubbabel is. I didn't even realize that this is a very significant character for us, not only in the
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Old Testament but in the New Testament. It's one that we can quickly and easily miss if we are not paying attention to Matthew.
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Matthew chapter 1 verses 5 and 12 through 13 says this.
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Matthew chapter 1 verse 5 says this. And I want to read verse 5 here to remind us of something.
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This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ. In fact, verse 1 says this. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David and the son of Abraham.
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Verse 5 says this. Solomon was born Boaz. Which I bring this up because where did we just come from before the book of Haggai?
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The book of Ruth, right? We have Boaz. So Boaz by Rahab. And so Boaz was born
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Obed. And Obed was born by Ruth and Obed Jesse.
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And so we see the lineage is going through Ruth and Boaz, this family. And then when we come to verse 12 to 13, it says this.
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And after the deportation to Babylon, to Jiconia was born
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Shattiel and to Shattiel was born Zerubbabel. It's the name that we're talking about here in the book of Haggai.
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We're reading right now out of the book of Haggai a descendant of where we were reading out of the book of Ruth.
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So why is this important? Why is it important for us to see this here, this genealogy of Jesus Christ?
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Zerubbabel is going to be a type. And we'll see this as the book of Haggai carries on. He's going to be a type, a shadow, a forerunner, a pointer to Jesus Christ himself.
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He's going to be a man that points us to Jesus Christ as being a great, great, great, great, great grandfather.
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I don't know how many greats I need to throw in there, but he is a descendant. Jesus is a descendant of him.
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He's of the line of Zerubbabel. Now, when we think about this, this is going to play into how we understand covenants.
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There is a lot of speculation and thinking on how covenants work.
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Covenants is an agreement between two or more parties. Did you know that most of us in here have entered a covenant in our life?
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Probably all of us have in one way or another. If you are a new covenant member, then you absolutely have. How many of us are wearing our wedding ring today?
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Okay, I see a couple hands raising right there. Did you know that this is a covenant sign of a covenant we made with our spouse?
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We made a covenant with our spouse that we would love them. Whatever your marriage ceremony that you said, that was your promise to them.
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And this is the sign to the world that you are married to that person. It's a sign.
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That's a covenant. It's an agreement between two parties. And often in covenants, there's punishments for when the covenant is broken.
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Okay, and we can see that throughout. If we live in an apartment and we've signed a contract, we've entered a covenant with that apartment, leasing.
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And if we violate the terms and the agreement in that covenant, we can lose that apartment, right?
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We can be kicked out. We can be told to leave and pack our stuff and move. That is entering a covenant.
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We've all entered covenants in our lives, whether you like it or not. The world works by covenants often, agreements, two or more parties.
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And so what do we have in the Old Testament? The reason I bring this up is that yesterday in a conference,
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I was mostly Presbyterians that were teaching there. And I love our Presbyterian brothers, but they said something that really kind of brought a lot of attention to my mind.
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And he said that we were in the Abrahamic covenant. And this is going to be a great distinction that we can have between Baptists and Presbyterians on the way we view covenants.
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And so the Presbyterian in their thinking is that we are under the same covenant as that being in the
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Old Testament. We are a part of the same Abrahamic, Davidic, Adamic, Noahic covenant.
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We're under that same covenant, but under different administrations. This is the wording that they would use.
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As a Baptist, we have a different understanding. And this is important for us to understand is that we are not in the
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Abrahamic covenant. We are not in that way. We are a member of the new covenant.
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And as we've talked about in the book of Hebrews, what is that word that we keep on seeing that is used?
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Better, better, better, better, better. And why do I bring this up? Let me read real fast out of Hebrews chapter eight.
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This is so, so important because I think this is fundamental to the way that we understand what the new covenant is.
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Hebrews chapter eight verse six says this. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry.
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By as much he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
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For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.
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And then it tells us what the new covenant is here in verses eight through 12. I would encourage you to read that later.
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And so what is the old covenant for? Why is Zerubbabel important? Why is this lineage of Jesus Christ important?
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What was the old covenant even for if we're not a part of it? I would like you to think of the old covenants.
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This is the way I've always viewed it. And I think it's a way that we ought to view it. Is that we, there's an importance in the old covenants because the old covenants was the pregnant woman carrying the seed of Christ.
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And that is the new covenant. Do we have place in the old covenants through the seed?
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Yes. Through the child that the woman is bearing, we have place in those old covenants.
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But today we don't need to circumcise our male children on the eighth day to be a part of the land.
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We don't need to do that. That's part of what the old covenant was. So the old covenant had, what was the requirement?
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And I would like you to think about this for a moment. The old covenant, especially with the Abrahamic covenant, was that the
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Abraham would have children and his prosperity, his prosperity would have to be circumcised on the eighth day.
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So there was the natural birth. And then what was the sign of being in that covenant?
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Just as you have the wedding ring on, what was the sign of that? It was the circumcision.
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You were born naturally and then you were circumcised. And that's how you participated in the old covenant, the
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Abrahamic covenant. How do you participate in the new covenant today? This is a very important question.
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Very, very important question. We don't participate in it by anything that you and I have done.
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We are made participators of it. In John 3, it says you must be born again.
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So the first covenant was one of natural birth. The second one was spiritual birth, being born from above.
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And after you are born from above is then when you receive the signs. What are the two main signs that we have in the new covenant,
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Church? Baptism and the Lord's Supper. When we do those things, we are showing the world that we have made a covenant.
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That we are a part of a covenant. We are a part of this new, better covenant.
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So when we talk about Zerubbabel and this genealogy of Christ, I would say and ask you to be thinking this old covenant was the pregnant woman that was caring about Jesus Christ in this new covenant.
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It was the means and the method that God was bringing this sovereign road to be to the cross.
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We are saved under the new covenant. I would ask you to read later today all of Hebrews chapter 8 all the way to the end of chapter 13 if you would like to know more about that.
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So when we come here to verse 14 of Haggai chapter 1, it says that the
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Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shattiel, and the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshaphat, and the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.
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Now I would like you to take notice of this. The stirring up of these different individuals, this remnant, the stirring up, what is that getting at in here?
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It's through the conviction of what Haggai is talking about, what Haggai is giving as a message to the people of Israel, that the people of Israel are being convicted in what?
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In their wrongdoing, in their violating of God's command and in obedience to rebuilding the temple.
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They are violating this, and so they are convicted, they are pierced, they are cut to the quick, they are captive by their conscience.
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They are held captive in this way. Now, the question must be asked, if the Lord had not stirred up the spirit of the
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Old Testament people here in this text, would they have built the temple? Lydia just said it, no, they wouldn't have.
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How do we know? Because 20 years had passed and they had not done it. Who were the ones that built the temple?
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Well, it was these people here, but who was the one that had convicted them and had stirred their hearts to do it?
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It was the Lord Himself. It was the Lord that was doing these things. Now, there's two things that should be said here, and I think the first one is obvious for us.
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Today, being these new covenant members, and us building the house of God, us going out, evangelizing us, telling people to be baptized and repent and believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, us doing these things, should you ever ignore a conviction to say something?
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A conviction to go and do something? You shouldn't, absolutely not.
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If the Lord has put something on your heart today, whatever it might be, you ought to probably do it if the
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Lord has done this. If the Lord is stirring you today to tell your neighbor, if the Lord is stirring you today to tell your brother, if the
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Lord is stirring you today to go to the world and tell them about Jesus Christ, you better do it because it's the
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Lord who's stirring you. The second thing, which is the danger of this, is we cannot use feelings to justify the breaking of God's Word.
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If you feel like today you have been stirred to go and cheat on your wife, that is not a stirring from the
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Lord. And so there's a balance there. We have to manage and navigate what is a conviction from God versus what is a feeling of pleasure in what we want.
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We have to be careful in these things. We have to be careful in these things. There's caution in these things.
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We can let our tongue run too fast, and we can say things that God was not wanting us to say, going outside of His command.
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We need to be careful in this, but we need to obey those convictions. When God has told us to do something, and we are convicted to do it, you need to do it today.
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Don't wait any longer. So the Lord God Himself has stirred the spirit of these different individuals
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Zerubbabel, we have in here that He has stirred Joshua, and also the remnant of the people.
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Now what is this, the remnant of the people? The Bible uses this term often in the
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Old Testament, the remnant of the people. The remnant. The remnant.
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Let's go ahead and just turn real fast here to Romans chapter 9. This remnant is spoken of often, as I just said.
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Often it is used. Romans chapter 9 verses 24 through 27.
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Romans chapter 9 verses 24 through 27. Romans 9 verses 24 through 27 says this,
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Even us, whom He also called not from among the Jews only, but also from among the
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Gentiles, as He says also in Hosea, I will call those people who were not
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My people, My people, and who were not beloved, beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them,
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You are not My people, there they shall be called the sons of the living
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God. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sands of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.
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For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth thoroughly and quickly.
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Again, verse 27. It is the remnant that will be saved. If you just flip a few pages over to chapter 11 verses 5 through 7.
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We'll also read verse 1 in here. Romans chapter 11 verse 1. It says, I say then
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God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be, for I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
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Verse 5. In the same way then, there was also come to be at the present time a remnant, according to God's gracious choice.
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But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then, that which
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Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
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Ron, as we read this, our ears should perk up as Ron reminds us on every
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Bible study, the chosen in that text right there. A remnant according to God's gracious choice.
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So what is a remnant of Israel that is speaking of here in the book of Haggai? It's the few that still believe in Yahweh.
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It's a few that are not just physically born of Abraham, so therefore they're not just of the flesh, but they are also true believers in Yahweh.
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And how do we know that they're true believers of Yahweh? That they actually believe in God, the one that has released them from captivity from Babylon?
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What does it say that this remnant does here in Haggai? It says,
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And they came and they worked on the house of the
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Lord of hosts, their God. See, we, you and I, can walk out into this world, and we talked about this on Bible study, we can go and we can meet thousands upon thousands upon thousands of professing
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Christians. Ones that say, yep, I believe in Jesus Christ.
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Well, if someone says they believe in Jesus Christ, but they do not bear the fruit of a
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Christian, that should be alarming to us. That's what we have in this day.
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We would see many would say, I am of the tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of Abraham. Well, why aren't you working on the temple then?
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Because the rest, the remnant, the rest of Israel has gone out to work on the temple. I think there's a lot of application that you and I can make in here that we, as our satisfaction of salvation goes, is not the works of our hands, but is the works of Christ on the cross.
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And it is there that we have salvation. It is there that we look to, to have assurance of what has been done for us.
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But as we are looking there, our fellow brothers and sisters should be able to look at us, and they should be able to see the fruit that is stemming from us, because we have partaken in the vine that is
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Jesus Christ. The fruit is an assurance to our brothers and sisters that we are truly saved.
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Our knowing of our salvation is in Jesus Christ alone. And so, how do these remnant of Israel, the remnant of the people, how do they know that they have been saved?
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It is because the Lord has stirred them to go and do this work. How do the rest of the Israelites know that they are the true
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Israel, part of this remnant people? It's because they see them doing the work of their God on the house of the
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Lord of hosts. Which, by the way, is the fourth time that we have seen this phrase used,
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Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, their God. And here in verse 15, we have something particular that is said,
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On the twenty -fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king. This is a hard thing for us to understand in this calendar way of speaking here in this text, but what should work for us to build a timeline of events here, is look at verse 1 of this chapter.
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It says, Now if you look here at verse 15, it says the twenty -fourth day, versus the first day.
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So we can start to build a timeline. How long did it take for the message of Haggai to go out to the people, and for the
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Lord to stir the hearts of those individuals? Twenty -three days.
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Twenty -three days, work continues on the house of the Lord. That's remarkable to think about.
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How many of us in this room have tried to get in a lazy group of people to do anything? Takes a lot longer than twenty -three days, does it not?
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How many times do we have to tell our kids to go clean their rooms? A lot. Sometimes it takes far more than twenty -three days, let alone trying to encourage them to go build a temple.
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God has stirred His people in this text to do that which He has commanded them to do.
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And all praise and glory should be to Him. Now as we build out this timeline a little bit more, we'll see here in verse 1 of chapter 2, on the twenty -first day of the seventh month.
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So here it's about a month later here that we have. And so that's gonna lead us into the next text as we look here in chapter 2.
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But I hope that in this we can see a multitude of things that is going on in here.
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Is that God has a sovereign plan for His people to obey
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His commands so that it would bring about the Christ. What is the temple pointing us to?
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Jesus Himself. It says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us.
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And Jesus says that you destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days.
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And the Jewish Pharisees say, what are you talking about? It took our forefathers forty -two years to build the temple.
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And it says in there that they did not understand that He was speaking about His body.
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You see the old temples was not the substance.
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It was not the better new temple that we have in Jesus. The old covenants that brings about, just as the old temples brought about Jesus Christ and pointing us forward to Him.
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The old covenant is not the same as the new covenant that we have in Jesus Christ.
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You are made members of this new covenant. He is the mediator of this new, better covenant.
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He is. That's what we see over and over and over again here in the book of Hebrews as we go through for our
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Bible study. Which if you're going to be here on Tuesday, I would encourage you to please come and participate in these
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Bible studies with us. So, how do we then today, let's go ahead and read
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Matthew 28 for us. Because this is the explicit command church to you as the
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Christian. This is often known as, called the Great Commission here in Matthew 28.
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We have read it several times and we'll continue to read it. It says, and Jesus came up and spoke to them saying,
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All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.
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Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I command you.
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And lo, I am with you. Who is with us church? Yahweh Himself, God Himself, Jesus the
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Christ. He is with us. I am with you. Even until when?
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Does it say even until next week? Even until bad things happen?
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Even until good things happen? No, He says even until the end of the age. Christ is with us.
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We need to obey His command and go. And go.
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If you have ever seen this remarkable thing take place of regeneration.
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I'm going to turn to Acts chapter 2 here for us just shortly and just read this real fast. After Peter has given a beautiful sermon to the very people that were there probably saying,
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Crucify, crucify to Jesus Christ. After Peter preaches a message to them about repentance and belief in Jesus Christ.
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About the crucifixion of Jesus Himself. It says here in verse 36 of Acts 2.
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And what does Acts 2 37 says? It says, What shall we do?
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And what does Peter then tell them to do? Take the signs of the new covenant.
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Baptism. He tells them. And you shall receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. For the promise. The promise. That speaking of the
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Old Testament, Old Covenant. The promise. Is for you and your children and for all who are far off.
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As many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself. So let us consider these things.
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Let us consider our own baptism. If you haven't been baptized today. And you say, I am a member of the new covenant.
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I have been saved through the cross of Christ. You better be having a stirring of your heart saying, what shall
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I do? And the answer is be baptized. Participate in the
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Lord's Supper. Go and make disciples. Do that which is the new covenant members do.
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Let us go ahead and pray. Lord God, I thank you again. For this text here in the book of Haggai.
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That we have studied and we have looked at, Lord. God, I pray that in any way that each of us individually.
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Are being stirred to go out and tell people of who you are. Lord, I pray that we would be obedient to those things.
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That we would not ignore these types of stirrings. These convictions. These grippings of our minds and of our hearts.
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Lord God. But I pray that you would intimately write the letter of your law upon our hearts. That we would be obedient to them.
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And that you would cause our feet to go in joyful cheer. To wherever those convictions are leading us to,
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Lord. God, I pray today that we would glorify you. In the means of our service.
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Through the means of our worship. Through the means of our fellowship, Lord. And God, that we would build your house,
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Lord. Lord, I pray that you would help us be these priests in your temple.
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As we see in the New Testament, Lord. And we thank you for the better New Testament.
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New covenant that we are a part of. Lord, I just say these things in your holy name. Jesus Christ.
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Amen. So what we'll do now is I would invite you to please stand as we sing our final song today.
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We'll have the children come back in here. And I get to ask the great privilege of Don some wonderful questions.
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And brothers and sisters, I can't express how much Don has been a blessing to me in this last year and a half that I've known him.