Haggai 2:15-19

Emmanuel shall come to receive us by thine advent here.

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee,

O Israel. O blessed grief, thine own from Satan's tyranny, dance the veil thine impendence.

Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee,

O Israel. O compassion's bind, all people cease.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee,

O Israel. Alright, so we'll go ahead and do our children's catechism moment, so I would invite all the children here to please come up front.

We're gonna ask another really important question as we always do every single Sunday, but come on up here with me guys.

So today I'm gonna ask you guys a really important question. Do you guys remember what last week's catechism question was?

And so Guy wasn't here last Sunday, so I don't remember either. So the last week's catechism question was, what is required in the ninth commandment?

And the answer that you guys said last week was the ninth commandment requires maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own, and of our neighbor's good name, especially in witness -bearing.

And so this week's question is this, what is the tenth commandment?

You guys know? No? Well let's read that answer together, okay guys?

The tenth commandment is, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house.

Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, or his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

Is it a good thing, so we asked this question a while ago, is it a good thing to steal your guys' brothers or sisters toys or their stuff?

It's not good to do that, right? Is it good to sit and make a plan on how you're gonna lie about stealing their stuff?

No, right? Because that's their property, right? And that's what this is saying, it says the tenth commandment is, thou shall not covet what's not yours.

You shall not think to take, have a motive about taking something that's not yours. Is that a good thing not to do?

It is a good thing not to covet those things, huh? That's right. Would you guys mind if I pray with you right now?

Okay, let's pray. Lord, I just thank you just so much for the joy it is to have these children in church,

Lord. I thank you just for the opportunity it is to hear our gym here, just full of laughter and joy and feet running around this building,

Lord. Lord, I pray along for the day that we have to talk about replacing parts that the kids are running around on,

Lord, and pray for the time to go and get more crayons because they're just, they're out.

And so, Lord, I just pray that you would be with these children, be with them as they learn these questions. Pray with them, be with them through the family's prayers,

Lord. And God, I just pray that you would bless their parents, that they would raise these children up upon your rock and in your name, and just through your glory,

Lord. Lord, be with them today, and we just ask and know that your will be done.

And we say this in the mighty Lord Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alright, you guys remember the rule, you have to give me a high five before you guys go down, okay?

Can I get a high five? Bam. Bam. I like your hair, I've never seen it like that before.

Nice. Is that a nice little bow that you got in it? Nice. Nice. What a blessing it is to have those little ones here in church.

So today, our message is going to continue in the book of Haggai. We're going to be in Haggai chapter 2, verses 15 through 19.

So as you are making your way to that book, just a heads up, that book, again, it's that really short book that's right before Zechariah.

It's before the New Testament, of course, so it's towards the end, getting close to that book of Matthew. But just a really short book.

In fact, again, you could read it several times over again in the length of one of our messages that we have here in the book of Haggai.

But there's some sweet truths that are in it, some encouragement for us as a church, and some looking forward to what the

Christ was going to be for them. And we can now look back and relish in what the seed is, the incarnation of our

God that we are singing Christmas hymns about. So let us go ahead and pray. Lord God, I do just thank you,

Lord, just for the wonderfulness it is to come and celebrate your resurrection,

Lord, as we long for the day that we can see you face to face, Lord. I encourage and revive our hearts again today that we would worship your name,

Lord. And God, in the worshiping of you, in the looking to you upon the cross and for our salvation,

Lord, I pray that we would bear fruit for your glory, Lord. That we bear fruit for being in your vine, being engrafted into you,

Lord. And Lord, I just pray that this fruit would not be something that we look at our own hands for, but it would be for your own glory and to your praise,

Lord. And for your kingdom upon which we are so thankful to be in.

And so we just say this in, again, that mighty name, Jesus Christ, in whom we go into this world.

Amen. Haggai chapter 2, verse 15 through 19 today.

Let's go ahead and read over this text. We will pray over it again. We'll go into some context. And I think it's very important for us to understand what this text is today.

We're gonna read verse 9 to verse 14 for us here in a moment. But let's read the selected text for today.

Verse 15 to 19, it says, But now, O set your heart, consider from this day onward.

From before one stone was set on another in the temple of Yahweh. From when it was that one came to grain heap of twenty measures, then there would only be ten.

And from when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty troughs full, then there would only be twenty.

I struck you and every work of your hands with scorching wind, mildew, and hail.

Yet you did not come back to me, declares Yahweh. O set your heart to consider from this day onward.

From the twenty -fourth day of the ninth month and the day when the temple of Yahweh was founded.

Set your heart to consider. Is the seed still in the barn?

Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree.

It has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on,

I will bless you. Let's pray. Lord God, I do thank you so much for this text.

Lord, I do pray that we would lean upon what this text says here, Lord. That it would encourage us, that we would have a better understanding of your manifestation, of your glory, of who you are,

Lord. And that we would not take this text and apply it inappropriately in our lives, but that we would have the proper place for it.

And Lord, let us be using this as a guardrail, this text here, to understand what it is that's being spoken of in here.

What is to come for the people of Haggai in this text. Lord, again, help us look to you and your cross today.

And we say this in your name. Jesus Christ. Amen. So let us begin by just making quick mention of the immediate context of what the whole book of Haggai is for.

Again, as we do every Sunday, to help center our mind upon what is being said in this text. This text is being written in 520

BC. This prophecy, I should say, is being received by Haggai in 520 BC.

And it's being written to the people of Israel to go and rebuild the temple that they have, in this specific text, they have started on rebuilding that temple.

At the beginning of the book of Haggai in chapter 1, they had not started the building. They laid the foundation and then they stopped.

And so that means that 20ish years, from 539 to 537

BC, since Cyrus released the captives and said, go back and rebuild, they have not been rebuilding.

They went back, they laid a foundation, and then they worried about themselves. They built their own houses. They sought for their own satisfaction.

Instead of being obedient to what God told them to do, they went back and were selfish. They were man -centered in this whole book.

And so that's what the entirety of the book of Haggai is for, is there's four messages given to the people of Haggai.

One is to keep on rebuilding. One is encouragement in their distress. Another one teaches us about some principles about God, and that's the text that we're in today.

And then in the fourth text, we're going to see here in coming weeks the heavy emphasis of the

Messiah, the future Christ that is to come. So, in this text, as I made mention of, this text, we're going to see some principles.

As Rick talked about last week for us, as Rick preached, I was unfortunate to not be able to be here with us that day.

But from what I heard, it sounded like he did a great job at applying the text to us in the New Covenant, what this was back in their day.

So let us just go ahead and read from verse 9 to 14 here. Because the reason

I read that is that it's going to help us understand what 15 and 19 are. Verse 9 is from the second message from the book of Haggai, and verse 9 is going to be really the anchoring from the rest of what's going on here.

Verse 9, it says, The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says Yahweh of hosts, the

Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares Yahweh of hosts.

And we know from the New Testament that gives us light unto the old. It's the way that we need to read the

Old Testament. It's in light of the new. It's clear that the latter glory of this house is referencing whom?

Jesus Christ, the better tabernacle, the better temple, the better builder of his house.

That the latter glory will be far greater than the physical temple that never took away sins, that never brought actual peace, but it was a shadow bringing the people unto

Christ. So, last week Rick then read these verses. It says, So this is the third prophecy of Haggai to the people.

Bread with the food, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food.

Will it become holy? And the priests answered, no. Pause there for just a moment and remember what is a priest for.

A priest was to answer these questions in many ways and in many times. The priests were meant to answer these questions about ceremonies, about the judicial and ceremonial law.

The priests were the ones to be able to answer those things. And so the priest says, will this holy food make these other items holy?

They say, no. The ceremonial holiness in that old day will not be transferable.

You can't take holy meat and think it'll make this wine, this oil, this stuff clean. It doesn't work like that.

Then Haggai said, if one who comes from a corpse touches any of these, so in that day, again, a corpse would make you unholy, would make you defiled.

It says on these, will the latter become unclean? And the priests answered, it will become unclean.

And so we see this principle that holiness in that day was not transferable, but uncleansliness, sin, evil, was.

That that ceremonial unrighteousness, unholiness, this defilement was transferable.

And so then because that is the question asked to these priests, this makes

Haggai's statement in verse 14 that much more clear about what he's saying. Then Haggai answered and said, so is this people.

Now think about that for a moment. What did verse 13 just say? The priest answered, this will make it become unclean.

And Haggai says, so are you. Just like this meat will defile everything, so have you become the ethnic people of Israel.

The ethnic Jew is unclean in this text. So then when he goes on, he says, and so this nation before me declares

Yahweh, and so is some of their work, it says, and so is every work of their hands.

And what they bring near to me there is unclean. That is where Rick left off for us today.

And so now we're going to be looking at the text for us today. So as a reminder, what has just been told about these people of Israel, this ethnic people, they're unclean, their defilement has been transferred from one person to another person to another person, that every work of their hands has been unclean.

And so verse 15 starts out like this, but now, but now.

The reality is, especially in the New Testament, I love this, there are some beautiful buts in the

New Testament. And I mean with one T, not two Ts. One T in there. There's some beautiful buts, right?

When you were dead in your sins and your trespasses, but God being merciful.

Whenever we see it in this text, this but, it should remind us of the faithfulness and goodness of God.

That when we are undeserving of God and we're undeserving of His blessings, when we are unclean, but God, but now.

That's what's going on in this text. It's changing from what the people have done and what they deserve to what

God is going to be doing from them. It's changing from defilement unto, guess what?

God's goodness, His purpose and what Israel, ethnic Israel, was supposed to do and what they were back then.

He says, but now, oh set your heart to consider from this day onward.

There's a transition in the text. Unclean to, but now you people do this.

Set your heart to this. It's a change from wickedness to blessing. Set your heart, be planted in the truth of God.

Set it where it needs to belong. Not upon your wickedness of your hands, but set it upon the truth of who

God is. Before you do anything else, people of Israel, set your heart to where it needs to be.

Where we just read from for our call to worship in Matthew chapter 7, right after that text where he says, many will come unto me and say,

Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons? Have we not prophesied? Have we not done all these many mighty miracles in your name?

And Christ says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Guess what he says right after that? Be planted upon the rock.

Build your house upon me, the rock, Jesus Christ. And when the winds come, it will not collapse.

We see this. We've read this several times throughout the book of Haggai, as well as many times throughout

Bible study, that Christ is our sure foundation, the builder of the better house.

If we use the same works, if you have a Christian next to a non -Christian, and they both do the same identical works their entire life, the

Christian is doing it for whom? God. The non -Christian is doing it for whom? Themselves.

One is unclean. One is bearing fruit for God. One is used as a means of justifying themselves before a holy

God, which uncleanliness, your defilement, will never justify you.

If you are planted upon the rock, Jesus, you're justified. And so that's what this is essentially getting at in here.

Set your heart. Don't continue on another day in your uncleanliness,

Israel. There's a quote today.

So when we have in here that it says set your heart today, set your heart from this day onward. Today, do this,

Israel. There's a quote that I heard when I was LDS, which I think that they actually stole it from somewhere else, so I don't feel bad quoting this to you guys.

But I remember hearing when I was young that if you wanted to plant an apple tree, when is the best time to plant an apple tree?

It was 15 years ago, right? So that you would have apples today. The second best time to plant an apple tree is today, so that you can prepare for 15 years in the future, right?

Just because Israel in these seven, and like I said, that quote, I know I've heard it elsewhere than just them, so don't think that I'm quoting

LDS people right now. But the important part is that the planting of something is to bear fruit in the future.

Would it be wise if I said I really want an apple tree to be planted?

I really want to have apples in 15 years from now. Would it be wise of me just to go and grab a mixed bag of seed, and I was to grab one seed out of there,

I don't know what's in the bag, and I go and plant it. Would that be a wise way for me to bear apples? I know all the ranchers in here are like, no, that's not wise, right?

That's not the way, and I don't know much about agriculture, so I'm probably messing stuff up already in this analogy.

But the point of it is that you do things with a purpose. You don't just randomly do this. And so, again, how are we to bear fruit for God's glory is you need to be planted in the vine.

You need to be planted upon that rock before you ever plant a seed. You need to have an understanding of what you're bearing and the purpose of why you're bearing it before you just randomly plant a seed.

So I would even say in that story of when is the best time to plant a tree is, yes, 15 years ago would have been better, but don't delay.

Today is now the day. But make sure that the way that you're planting it and what you're planting in the ground is with a purpose and is deliberate.

It's not just random that you're doing this. Set your heart today from this day onward.

Be purposeful in this. And what God then says in here is before one stone was set on another in the temple of Yahweh, so before the work of the people had even started in here, it says this amazing thing that happens in this text.

It says from when it was that one came to a grain a heap of 20, so meaning that when they came to get 20 heaps, these measures of grain, it says that there would only be 10, that these people would only get 10 grains a heap, grain heaps from it.

And it says that when they came to the wine vat to draw 50 truffles, which

I don't even know how much wine that is, it sounds like a lot of wine, truffles, then there would only be 20.

I struck you and every work of your hands with scorching wind, mildew, and hell, yet you did not come back to me, declares

Yahweh. Now, there's a caution that I need to give to you all in this text right now.

We can't live our lives always looking for signs to tell us if we're doing the right or wrong thing.

Let me give you an example of that. If you drive somewhere and you're saying, OK, God, should I tell somebody about the gospel today?

And you're driving, you're looking for a sign to the answer that you have, and you hit a red light. I guess

God just told me, nope, I shouldn't be going out and telling people the gospel today. Is that a wise way to behave?

No, that's not right. We can't be a type of people that look for experiences in order to justify our truths.

Truth is independent upon our experience, and it's independent upon our feelings. An analogy

I use all the time that we talk about is 2 plus 2 is 4, regardless of your feelings.

What happens if I said 2 plus 2 is actually 5 because I hit a red light down the road?

You'd be like, Braden, what are you talking about? Experiences don't justify the truth. Truths are independent upon experience.

And so in the New Testament, we have clear application upon what we as the people of God are to be doing.

And it is true. It is absolutely true. God does punish His people in different ways and in different means to discipline

His children. We see this in Hebrews 12, verses 4 through 12, which let me read here for us just in short.

Hebrews 12, verses 4 through 12. It says this.

For what son is there whom the Father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time and seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness.

Isn't that beautiful and wonderful? That in the time of our discipline, in the time that God might be turning

His hand against us, we see it as sometimes hard. But in reality,

God is doing it so that it's for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness.

And all the discipline for a moment seems to not be joyful but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it.

Afterwards, it yields peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble. Go back to Haggai now with me.

So Haggai chapter 2. When God is saying, I struck you in every work of your hand, what is taking place in here?

It's remarkable when we understand, why does God tell only the people of Israel to build a temple?

Why is it that God doesn't go to the Babylonians or the Medo -Persians or the people that are in those days and say, you build me a temple.

Why is it only the ethnic Israelite? It's because those are

God's old covenant people in an old covenant land promising a future redemption for all people.

The seed that's within the Old Testament Israel is Jesus Christ. And so this

Old Testament people, we need to understand that the old covenant is different than what the new covenant yields for us.

And we'll discuss this here in short for a moment. But in this day, just remember that there are some people that are absolutely unclean.

The defilement has done that. All people are absolutely unclean. Let me say that here quickly. But the people that actually have faith in Yahweh, they have had peace in what verse 9 says.

The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says Yahweh of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares

Yahweh of hosts. We know in the book of Hebrews that it says that none of the Old Testament sacrifices ever took away sins.

But in Hebrews chapter 11, it says that Abraham, Moses, all these Old Testament figures, they had faith in God.

And therefore they were justified. They were reckoned with righteousness. So in this old covenant, you would have people like Abraham, Moses, these people that had faith in Yahweh.

But it was mixed with people that actually didn't have faith in Yahweh, people that were just a part of the covenant people.

They were born into the old covenant. You might say, well, how do you get that,

Brayden? The Jewish Pharisees that crucified our Christ were a part of this old covenant. They were equally partakers of this old covenant with Abraham, Moses, Isaac, and so on.

But they did not have faith in Yahweh. How do I know that? Because they crucified the

Incarnation. God in flesh, they crucified Him. And so in this old covenant, you would see that you could have people that actually believed in Yahweh, such as Abraham, Moses, and Isaac, and so on, that could go to their neighbor and say, believe

Yahweh. Believe in God. Believe. Believe. In Hebrews chapter 8, when it talks about our new covenant that we're in, it says that this new covenant that I made with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob is not like the former.

Not like the covenant that we see in this text. The new covenant that he makes with the house of Israel, no longer will any of the members of it go unto their brother or their neighbor saying, know the

Lord. For they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them. So when we look at the comparison between the new covenant and the old covenant, the new covenant that we're members of,

I don't get to go to Kelly or Maryland and say, know the Lord, because guess what? They already know

Him. It's a covenant that actually saves.

It's better than what the old covenant was. The old covenant, what was the old covenant? It was a shadow of the new covenant.

It was what was going to bring about the new covenant, the new covenant that we're in.

And so what is the purpose of God punishing these old covenant people, these old covenant members?

It says here in. So let's read it. Verse 18 and 19. It says, Oh, set your set your heart to consider from this day onward from the 24th day of the ninth month from the day when the temple of Yahweh was founded.

Set your heart to consider. Is the seed still in the barn, even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, the olive tree?

It is not born fruit. Yet from this day on, I will bless you.

Take notice of this. The four things that are listed there in verse 19 are the four major fruits that are in Israel, in the land of Israel.

The pomegranate, the vine. That's where they would get their wine from.

Fig trees and their barn, their seed, the wheat. Those four things that would have been noticeable to the

Israelites. God is saying it hasn't borne fruit. Which again, Old Testament days,

God would use these these famines and these ways to illustrate what the people were like unto him.

People that were not bearing fruit. So these these plants, this this barn, it hasn't been able to satisfy them.

It wasn't bearing what they needed. They went to go and draw 20. They only got 10.

They went to go draw 50. They only got 20. They weren't being satisfied by the works of their hands.

But God, but now in verse 15 again, but in verse 19, it says that even though these things have not borne fruit.

Yet from this day on, this is God that says this. Yet from this day on, I will bless you.

We should all marvel at this. We should take a lesson from God's mercy in this text.

How many days throughout our weeks do we see the wrongdoing and the injustice even towards ourselves as humans?

How many times do we sit and look to our neighbor and say, though you've done this, I will still bless you.

I will still be kind to you. I'll still love you as I would like to be loved. We fail to do this all the time.

Yet God and his infinite and everlasting being, his essence of who he is, is so much greater than us.

And we sin against God. And God has every right to be just against us today and have us be annihilated right here where we stand.

God has every right to do that. But yet the fact that we can sit here a day longer shows that we have a

God that is long suffering. Shows that we have a God that says, yet from this day on, even though you've done that, yet I will still bless you.

And so the question then comes, why does he say this to this Old Covenant people? Why does he say that even though the seed is still in the barn, the vine, the fig tree and the pomegranate, it's not bearing fruit.

Why does God say, why does he in his long suffering to this Old Testament people say, I will still bless you, people of Israel?

What is the purpose of that? Verse 9 again.

The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says

Yahweh of hosts. And in this place I will give you peace, declares

Yahweh of hosts. Verse 9 is so important to the entirety of the book

Haggai. I want to finish out here by reading from John 15 here for us here.

Just speaking about planting, speaking about bearing fruit, speaking about these things being planted and rooted in the rock,

Jesus Christ. John 15. We'll read verses 1 through 11 and we'll make mention of some very important things in here that I think are very important for why it is that we're in a new, better covenant.

As the context that goes is that John 15 is being stated as Jesus, it is thought and historically taught and contextually believed that Jesus is actually standing and looking at the temple when he's speaking to his disciples in this text.

And do you know what the temple that he's looking at is in that text? It's the very temple that the people of Haggai built.

The very temple that Haggai is building in that text is the very temple that Jesus is saying these things to.

And when we understand that, John 15 comes alive for us. On this temple that Haggai builds in the book of Haggai, it's historically written, and I believe it's

Josephus that records this for us, I might be wrong on that, but it's said that there was a large golden vine that was put around that old temple.

And why is it that they put this golden vine around the temple? It's because the people of Israel taught that they were the vine that God had called out of Egypt.

And so on this temple they put this golden vine. Psalm 80 actually teaches us a little bit about that.

That this calling out of Egypt, they were the vine that God had called out of it. And so they put this golden vine on there to represent what they thought themselves to be.

So that makes so much more sense than why Jesus, looking at the temple, this golden vine, says this.

I am the true vine. Ego emi, the true vine. And my father is the vine grower.

Every branch that is in me does not, or every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

And every branch that bears fruit, he cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because the word which

I spoke to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine.

So imagine on this temple, this golden vine that's on the temple that has these pictures of fruit, this depiction of fruit on this golden vine.

Jesus is pointing at it and saying that thing that you, the people of Israel, you think you're the true vine that was called out of Egypt.

I am the true vine. The fruit that you think you have borne, you can only bear that if you abide in me.

The latter glory of this temple will be far greater than the previous. Verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up.

Let me actually read verse 5. I skipped verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

This is a wonderful text and I want to take it at large to help us understand what's going on here in the book of Haggai.

The people in that day that think they're bearing fruit, they've actually transferred their defilement onto those works of their hands.

Because they are not clean people. In the Old Testament there, those people that God is speaking to are unclean.

What does chapter 15 of John, verse 3, it says, You are already clean because of the word which

I have spoken to you today. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit for itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

The wonderfulness that the whole purpose of the temples, all the vines, all these shadows, all these priests, everything that's in the

Old Testament, it was pointing us, it was a shadow, it was taking us into some place.

And as we've talked about several times, as I'm even reminded looking here on this pulpit right now, that if I put up my

Bible like this and I see the shadow that's being cast from it, and I can see that if I started over here at the shadow, the shadow ends right where the feet meet, that those

Old Testament shadows were bringing us unto the feet of Jesus Christ. The vine that was called out of Egypt, the temple, the priests, all of it was bringing us unto

Jesus. And so the question there in verse 19, why is it that God says, yet from now on,

I will bless you? What was the purpose of God doing that? It was to bring about the

Messiah. It was to bring about the Christ that we have to place our faith into.

It was to bring about the true vine that if we abide in him, we are saved, we are made clean, and therefore we bear fruit.

Is it fruit for us? Is it fruit that stems from us? Is the source from us? Where does the fruit come from?

And I'm looking at the ranchers in here right now and the people that actually know this type of stuff. The fruit comes from being, it doesn't come just about from being itself.

It comes about, its source comes from the vine and the root. It comes from what it's able to get from that.

That's where it gets its nourishment from. We can only bear fruit that glorifies

God, not because it saves us, not because it's making us clean, but because we're already clean and we are in the vine.

So today, the important thing is, is if any of us have come here today and we're not engrafted, we're not planted, we're not in the vine and we're not clean, today is the day to repent and believe in what the shadows were pointing to.

Jesus, his perfect life, the God becoming flesh, his perfect life, him dying for me, him being buried and rising again on the third day.

That is the gospel message. That is the vine and we must be engrafted into it in order to be made clean.

Brothers and sisters, the book of Haggai has been a blessing to go through. We have one more message that we're going to have in the book of Haggai.

Next Sunday is going to be at 7 p .m. 7 p .m. we're going to be doing a Christmas service.

And the message that we're going to be discussing that night, that evening, is we're going to be discussing where that shadow and the feet meet.

Where the shadow and the feet meet. Because in the incarnation of God, that's where the shadow and the feet meet.

That everything that was pointing towards the Christ is there in its fullness in the work of Jesus.

It was always pointing to him. So I would encourage you next Sunday to please bring your family members, please bring your neighbors and your friends as we consider the incarnation of our mighty, wonderful, long -suffering, patient, covenantal

God that we have. But let us go ahead and pray. Lord God, I do just thank you again for this lovely

Lord's Day, Lord. God, I pray that any of us that this has spoken to, the consideration of being planted in your vine,

Lord, that we would go about bearing fruit because we are a part of the source, we are a part of you,

Lord. And that we would do these things for your glory and for your purposes. And that it wouldn't be a means to justify ourselves as we are unclean,

Lord. God, I do pray and ask you that you would be with each one of us today. That you would be glorified in our festivities, in our enjoyment and consideration of your incarnation this week,

Lord. And God, I just pray again for the families that couldn't be here today, Lord. I just pray that you would be with them, that you would bless them, and that you could help them in whatever is going on in the midst of their day today,

Lord. God, thank you again for the fellowship that we have here. Thank you for who you are,

Lord. And we just say this in your name, Jesus the Christ. Amen. Brothers and sisters, please stand with me.