Let's read God's word together from the Old Testament, from the prophet Haggai, chapter 2, verses 10 to 19, and we'll read God's word.
On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ask the priests about the law.
If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?
The priest answered and said, no. Then Haggai said, if someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?
The priest answered and said, it does become unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, so it is with this people and with this nation before me, declares the Lord.
And so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean. Now then consider from this day onward before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord.
How did you fare? When one came to a heap of 20 measures, there were but 10. When one came to the wine vat to draw 50 measures, there were but 20.
I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail. Yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.
Consider this, consider from this day onward.
From the 24th day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider is the seed yet in the barn. Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have yielded nothing.
But from this day on, I will bless you. This is God's holy word.
We turn this evening to that passage that Corey read for us, Haggai chapter 2, verses 10 through 19.
It used to be said that the manoeuvre most likely to fail those sitting their driving test was the three-point turn.
One of my brothers, who is a driving instructor, tells me that the three-point turn is, however, no longer part of the test.
I'm not sure of the rationale behind its removal, but I think it was included because of many roads in the UK.
It's just not possible to do a UE, a U-turn, and just wheel the car around.
In some circumstances, because of the narrowness of the road, a three-point turn.
Sometimes it can be a four-point turn, a five-point turn, a seven-point turn.
It needs to be attempted. And it's a manoeuvre, if you're a driver, that you'll know requires a degree of precision, patience, to accomplish it successfully.
And if you're driving, I know a lot of people drive an automatic, but if you're driving a manual, you've really got to work hard not to stall the car.
And here in the book of Haggai, we've seen that the prophet has been encouraging the leaders and the people to kind of make a turnaround.
Through the prophet, God is seeking to restore the glory of His name in the midst of His people.
And He's urged them on a path of repentance.
But if I can put it this way, this process has turned out to be more of a three-point turn than a simple U-turn.
And that turning around, if you've been here with us over the last few weeks, began with Haggai's sermon on the first day of the sixth month, 520 BC.
And in that sermon, the Word of God really stopped the people in their tracks.
And God challenged them.
He convicted them of their apathy and their indifference, in particular to the rebuilding and the reestablishing of God's temple.
And the people were stirred up to recommit themselves to that important work.
However, just a few weeks of starting that work, discouragement set in.
And again, Haggai came to the people with the Word of God.
This time, the 21st day of the seventh month.
And that occasion, he brought a message of encouragement.
He assured them that the Lord was with them.
And he shared with them a vision of future glory and peace.
He wanted them to press on in the work and not to throw in the towel.
And this evening, we turn to the third of Haggai's sermons that are recorded for us, given on the 24th day of the ninth month.
We read of that in verse 10.
The date is calculated, the 18th of December, 520 BC.
And twice in this section, you'll notice that the prophet uses the phrase, consider, or some translations, give careful thought.
We have that in verse 15 and 18.
And it's a phrase that's already been used in chapter 1, verse 5, and verse 7.
And it's clear that Haggai wants the people to stop and to think about how they're living their lives.
He doesn't want this repentance, this turnaround, to stall.
He wants the people to move forward in faith, in the right direction, towards the rich blessing that God has in store for them.
And so, in order for that to happen, the prophet in this sermon highlights, I think, three things that he wants them to give careful thought to.
And the first of these is to do, once again, with worship.
Consider the worship that God requires of His people.
We have that in verses, really, verses 11 through 14.
The previous weeks, the people had been working on the temple, seeking to put public worship back at the center of their lives and their community.
A noble enterprise.
A good thing.
And yet, there were dangers associated with it.
And one of the dangers was that they were engaged in this work without them, in their hearts, being really given over to God.
There was a lot of hard work, but not much real worship.
They were just going through the motions.
They were not yet focused on what it meant to be a holy people.
The Holy One of Israel was not at the center of their lives.
And so, we discover Haggai, in this oracle, in this sermon, in this address, he begins really with a kind of, I suppose, a bit like a Q&A with the priests who were teachers of the law.
And so, he says,
Thus says the Lord of hosts, ask the priests about the law.
And so, what he's doing is directing the people back to the law of God, back to the Word of God.
And many of the laws were taken up with issues of holiness and purity.
These were indicators to the people that, you know, God could not just be approached in any old way.
Worship is a serious matter.
It's a serious business.
God is holy, and His people are called to holiness also.
You shall be holy, for I am holy.
And in the Old Testament, these holiness regulations that had to be adhered to,
well, Haggai asks a question about them, and we have it in verse 12.
If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, touches with his fold, bread or stew, wine, oil, any kind of food, does it become holy?
And the priests answer, no.
They don't hesitate.
There's not any debate.
There's not any discussion.
No.
And the point that Haggai appears to be making here is that holiness is not contagious.
It's not transferable.
If we had a, I don't know, a primary four class full of healthy children, and into that class we placed another child who had, for example, chicken pox.
Would the child with the chicken pox become healthy and well because of their contact with the healthy, uninfected children?
No.
Of course not.
He or she would not become well through contact with others who are well.
And that's kind of the point that he's making here.
Placing unconsecrated, uncommitted people in an environment where they will come into contact with others who are committed to God will automatically make them committed to God.
Holiness and consecration to God is not contagious in that sense.
And then Haggai said in verse 13, if someone who's unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?
The priest answers and said, it does become unclean.
And Haggai answered and said, so it is with this people and with this nation before me, declares the Lord.
And so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.
So another question about uncleanness and defilement.
And once again, it's a question about the ritual law.
Holiness, consecration is not contagious.
Defilement and uncleanness is.
Again, the example of a child with chicken pox going into the classroom of healthy children.
What happens?
Of course, the infected child does not pick up the health of others, but they pick up the infection from the child with the chicken pox.
It's the same principle.
We sometimes talk about one rotten apple spoiling the whole barrel.
The rottenness, the decay is contagious.
And this appears to have been the situation in Haggai's day.
The fact that the people's hearts were not fully given to the Lord meant all that they did was in some sense defiled.
They were defiling the temple with unclean hearts and minds because their hearts were far away from God.
Their religious worship was infected with that same kind of spirit.
Yes, they may well have been doing the right kinds of things, but what they were offering to God was not acceptable worship.
Their heart wasn't in it.
There's a famous passage in the opening chapter of Isaiah where God says,
Stop bringing meaningless offerings.
Your incense is detestable to me.
New moon Sabbaths and convocations.
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.
They've become a burden to me.
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you.
Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.
So there's the worship that God cannot bear to witness or hear.
Perfectly possible to have the right forms and phrases and words,
and yet our hearts can be given over to idols.
We can have lively and engaging worship,
tremendous singing, great enthusiasm,
and yet in our hearts we can be living in a way that is disobedient to God,
that disregards His law and His commandments and His word.
And so God is speaking to the people through Haggai
and pointing out to them that the fact that they were trying to rebuild the temple
wasn't actually transforming them into a holy people.
You know, there's an old saying, you know,
being brought up in a garage doesn't make you a mechanic.
One doesn't follow the other.
And here the people's worship was unclean.
It was defiled.
Their misplaced priorities infected everything that they were doing.
Their focus was all wrong.
And sometimes if something's off, even just a little,
it can cause hugely destructive problems.
You know, it can happen with a car.
It's a problem, just a little thing, you know,
maybe a bearing or something.
Yet that can have a profound effect on how well the car drives.
It can affect the safety of the passengers.
One thing, little thing is wrong.
You know, I attempt to play golf.
Well, one little thing wrong in that golf swing.
Well, in my case, there's a lot of things wrong in my golf swing,
but that's another matter.
But it only takes one little thing.
Sometimes you see the top golfers in the world,
one little thing, and yet the ball's going everywhere.
And it's the same in the life of faith.
If worshiping God isn't our delight, our pleasure,
if God's not number one, if we're not enjoying Him,
everything else is going to be off, out of kilter.
I think from a New Testament perspective,
this is why our union with Jesus Christ is so vitally important,
because He alone is the truly Holy One.
The incarnate Son of God is the only absolutely holy person
to ever walk this earth.
And in the gospel, God calls us into union with Him.
And therefore, it's only out of that relationship
that a likeness to Christ and a life of holiness
can even begin to emerge.
And the laws, these Old Testament laws and regulations,
all of these were pointing towards Him.
After His appearing, they became redundant and obsolete.
You see, there is no holiness
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I came across this passage in, pardon me, J.C. Ryle.
He says this,
I pity those who try to be holy without Christ.
Your labor is all in vain.
You're putting money in a bag with holes.
You're pouring water into a sieve.
You are rolling a huge round stone uphill.
You're building up a wall with untempered mortar.
Believe me, you're beginning at the wrong end.
You must come to Christ first,
and He shall give you His sanctifying Spirit.
Let me ask you tonight,
do you know anything of the work of the sanctifying Spirit in your heart?
Are you worshiping the Lord?
Have you an appetite for God?
Are you happy to spread out your needs before Him in prayer?
How much does public worship matter to you?
Sometimes it astonishes me at how casual and dismissive
some professing Christians are to the means of grace.
A take-it-or-leave-it attitude
is often a sign of deep spiritual malaise.
Yes, the worship of God involves outward form and ritual,
but true worship involves more than that.
It's an all-consuming thing.
It's always a matter of the heart and soul.
It's internal as well as external.
Consider your ways.
Don't just go through the motions.
Consider the worship that God is looking for.
And then secondly here,
consider the discipline that God sends in verses 15 through 17.
Now then, consider from this day onward,
before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord,
how did you fare?
When one came to a heap of twenty measures,
there were but ten.
When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures,
there were but twenty.
I struck you.
And all the products of your toil,
with blight, with mildew,
and with hail.
And yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.
So, hi guys, asking the people to consider
how things have been for them in the land.
It's not a story of abundant blessing and fruitfulness.
It's quite the reverse.
Life has been hard for these returning exiles.
Poor harvest, crop failures, extreme weather,
all had contributed to economic hardship.
Hard times for all.
And we noted previously that these hardships should have been assigned to the people
that there was something wrong.
Deuteronomy 28.
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God,
being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today,
the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you,
if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
And that chapter then continues in verse 15.
But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God,
or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you,
then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
Cursed shall you be in the city,
and cursed shall you be in the field.
You see, the hardship of the people that they were experiencing
was not to be understood as a kind of accident of nature.
They were to understand it as a judgment, as a discipline of God.
God was seeking to discipline His people, to waken them up.
And He'd spelled out to His people in Deuteronomy 28,
the dire consequences of unbelief.
God had done that because He wanted them to be faithful and obedient to them.
He desired their love and affection.
Now, of course, we need to be careful with any text like this.
Not all hardship or difficulty can be attributed to God's disciplining of His people.
Take the example of persecution.
The hardships, the privations associated with it.
They often come upon believers not as the result of unfaithfulness,
but rather faithfulness to the Lord.
And similarly, when bad things happen in our lives,
it's not necessarily down to sinful rebellion.
We have to be very careful.
Hugely dangerous to attribute all illness or hardship or difficulty
that people come to experience as being due to a sin or a lack of faith.
Beware those who so easily and readily make such claims.
Very dangerous.
There is often a mystery to the providence of God,
and discipline is not God's only purpose in adversity.
But that being said, sometimes God does bring hard things into our lives
to wake us up from our spiritual slumbers.
C.S. Lewis famously wrote,
Suffering is God's warning signal to us.
It reminds us that this life isn't everything.
Suffering and hardship encourage us to look to the living God
and to put our faith and trust in Him.
He is the one from whom our help comes.
I've noticed that over the years,
suffering and painful experiences tend to have two effects.
Either hearts become hard and brittle
and seemingly impervious to God's Word
as people turn away from God, reject Him,
or hearts are softened and become sensitive and receptive to God's Word.
Either these things you see are driving us closer to God,
or they are moving us further away.
So let me ask you tonight,
if you are going through a hard time,
what is actually going on in your heart?
Are you being drawn closer to the Lord,
or are you actually drifting away from Him?
What have you given your heart to?
Proverbs 4.23,
Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
Jesus said,
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where is your treasure?
If suffering comes, if hardship comes,
that's a call to consider our ways.
So, consider the worship that God requires,
consider the discipline that God sends.
Thirdly here, consider the hope that God brings in verses 18 and 19.
Consider, from this day onward,
from the 24th day of the ninth month,
since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid,
consider, is the seed yet in the barn?
Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate,
and the olive tree have yielded nothing.
But from this day on, I will bless you.
Here again is God's gracious promise to His people,
I'm going to bless you.
I'm going to turn this situation around.
Now, obviously, this promise is given to the people
in a very specific situation.
God very directly promises to bless them.
They had previously been under a curse.
Now, blessing was on its way for sure.
And so, He's giving to the people hope for the future.
The seed had been sown to little effect.
Vine, fig tree, pomegranate, olive,
these things, these fruits, they'd yielded not little.
Actually, He says, they'd yielded nothing.
It was a dire situation.
But it's at this low point that God speaks,
that God moves, that God intervenes.
It's often when things are at their darkest
that He shines His light.
He speaks and brings to His despairing people
this word of hope and blessing.
Often, it's when people have given up on themselves
or reached that point of desperation
that they discover that their only help
is in the name of the Lord.
It's here when things seemingly cannot get any worse
that God's grace meets and restores them.
Reminder of a story
Martin Lloyd-Jones recounts
in his book on preaching,
preaching and preachers, a great book.
And through the book,
he tells some stories and anecdotes
of his life and ministry.
And there's one where he,
I could have paraphrased it,
but I'll just read it, I think.
He says this,
I knew a poor man being converted
from a terrible life and sin
who'd become a fine Christian.
That was when I was in South Wales.
But afterwards, unfortunately,
for various reasons,
this poor fellow had become a backslider,
fallen very deeply into sin,
run away from his wife and children
to live with another woman.
They'd come to London,
and there he'd lived in sin,
squandered his money.
He'd actually gone home
and told his wife a lie
in order to get further money out of her.
The house in which they lived
was in their joint names,
but he got this changed,
put into his name.
Then he sold it in order to get the money.
He'd gone very, thus very, very far
into the far country,
sinned terribly.
Now the money had finished.
The woman had deserted him.
He was utterly miserable and ashamed.
And so he solemnly decided
to commit suicide,
feeling that in his deep state of repentance,
God would forgive him.
But he could not forgive himself.
He felt that he had no right
ever to approach his family again.
And so he decided to walk
to Westminster Bridge,
throw himself into the Thames.
And he was actually on his way to do this.
And just as the poor soul
arrived at the bridge,
Big Ben struck half past six, 6.30.
And suddenly a thought
flashed into his mind.
He said to himself,
referring to me,
he will now just be entering
his pulpit for the evening service.
And so he decided that he would come
and listen to me once more
before he put an end to his life.
He made his way into Westminster Chapel
in about six minutes,
got through the front door,
walked up the stairs,
was just entering the gallery
when he heard these words,
God have mercy on the backslider.
I uttered that petition in my prayer.
And they were literally the first words he heard.
Everything was put right immediately.
And he was restored.
Friends, there is hope.
There is blessing in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
even for the vilest of offenders.
None are too far gone
that his arm cannot reach.
And so tonight,
whoever you are
and whenever,
whatever you find yourself,
let me tell you,
there is hope.
There is hope in the gospel.
There is hope in Christ.
There is hope for sinners.
And sometimes people can get
in a very low place indeed,
submerged in guilt and shame and fear,
and there appears to be absolutely no way out,
no hope.
And yet it's often here at the very bottom
when folks can get no lower,
that God in his grace reaches out
his hand of mercy.
I recall the story of Corrie Ten Boom
in the Netherlands,
Second World War.
She and her sister Betsy,
prisoned by the Nazis,
trying to rescue Jewish citizens,
eventually incarcerated
in the Ravensbrook concentration camp.
Brutal conditions,
abusive guards,
murder of fellow prisoners.
And yet these two sisters
ministered to others
and shared the gospel.
They had a little,
small, smuggled Bible
in the camp.
And yet as many prisoners
came to Christ,
Corrie's sister Betsy fell ill.
And in her great frailty
and weakness,
and on her deathbed,
she took her sister Corrie
by the hand,
and she told her this,
tell people what we have learned here.
There is no pit so deep
that Christ is not deeper still.
Friends, maybe that's a word
for someone here tonight.
Perhaps you've dug a pit
of your own making
through your sinfulness
and selfishness.
Or maybe someone else
has dug that pit
and cast you into it.
Yet remember this tonight.
There is no pit,
no sin,
no situation,
no hole so deep
that Christ is not deeper still.
Maybe this evening
God is speaking
into the apparent hopelessness,
despair even,
of your own situation.
And he's saying,
I will bless you
and I will use you
and we're to restore you.
Because here's the God
who brings hope
even to his faithless people.
Here's the God
who removes the curse
to bring abundant blessings.
Indeed,
is this not what
the Lord's table proclaims to us?
That the great curse of sin
has been lifted
through Jesus' death
on the cross,
that we might come
to know God
and enjoy his blessings
forevermore.
And so there's hope here
wrapped up in this prophecy,
ancient prophecy of Haggai,
given the 18th of December,
520 B.C.
And the prophecy
is a bit like
an engagement ring.
It's a pledge
of all that is to come.
And the blessing,
you'll notice it here,
promised to those
of Haggai's days,
was an unashamedly
material one.
The seeds,
the vines,
the trees that brought forth
nothing were going
to be fruitful again.
God was going to turn
what had become
a wilderness
into a veritable garden.
That's an important thing
for us to underline.
Corey was reminding of us
of this this morning.
The Christian hope
is unashamedly
physical and material.
It's not something
vague and ethereal.
It's not clouds and harps.
It's not insubstantial.
It's something real
and tangible.
As Christians,
we believe in what?
We believe in the
resurrection of the body.
The Christian hope
is not to die
and go to heaven,
but to die
and be with the Lord.
Our hope is in Him.
Our hope is not
for some vague
disembodied existence.
It's for new
resurrection bodies.
Our hope is for
a new heavens
and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
And so,
these material blessings
and hope
given to the people
of Haggai's day
are really a pledge
of what God
will one day do
when the curse
is finally lifted.
He's going to usher
a new world
in a new world.
Revelation 22.
John writes,
No longer will there
be anything accursed,
but the throne of God
and of the Lamb
will be in it,
and His servants
will worship Him.
They will see His face,
His name will be
on their foreheads,
and night will be no more.
They will need no light
of lamp or sun,
for the Lord God
will be their light,
and they will reign
forever and ever.
It's a picture
of a new Eden.
The curse gone,
God's throne established
for all to see,
abundant life
and healing
for the nations
now flourishes,
where before there was
only death,
decay, frustration.
Before there was rebellion,
now there's worship
and service.
Before people could not
see God's face
and live,
now they can,
His face can be seen,
and His face
can be gazed at
in wonder,
love,
and praise.
We sometimes sing,
don't we,
that hymn,
Joy to the World.
We usually sing it
in Advent.
Actually,
it's about a hymn
about the second coming.
What will happen
when the Messiah comes
in power and majesty
and glory?
No more let sins
and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest
the ground.
He comes to make
His blessings flow,
far as the curse
is found.
There's the hope
that God brings to us
through the prophet Haggai.
It's something so real
that one day
you'll be able
to touch it
and smell it
and taste it.
In keeping
with His promise,
we are looking forward
to a new heaven
and a new earth,
the home of righteousness,
says Peter.
Paul says,
no eye has seen,
nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man
imagined what God
has prepared
for those who love Him.
And so friends,
through faith
in Jesus Christ,
we have a truth
that towers
above all the wickedness
and evil in this world.
We have a hope
that has swallowed up
all our sins
and drawn even death sting.
Martin Luther famously
called the Christian life
a life of repentance.
And with the Spirit's help,
it is a life
of constantly turning
from self and sin
and turning to God.
it is one big U-turn.
Repentance is not simply
a one-off action.
It's a way of life.
It's a mindset.
And as Corey reminded us
this morning,
our repentance
is never perfect.
It's never complete.
But it can be real.
It can be genuine.
That's why the Lord's Supper
is so vital
to the health
and well-being
of God's people.
Because here we meet
with Jesus.
Here our eyes are opened.
Here at the Lord's table,
Christ himself
draws near
to woo us
back to himself.
And here's the reason
that defiled,
unclean sinners
like us
can come into the presence
of a holy God.
We have a crucified
and risen Savior.
And tonight,
we come to the table
of the one
who has borne
the curse of our sin.
We come to the one
in whom there is
the promise
of untold blessing.
As Corey was preaching
this morning,
I was thinking of that
great communion hymn
of Horatius Bonner.
Here, O my Lord,
I see thee face to face.
Here would we touch
and handle things unseen.
Here grasp with firmer hand
eternal grace.
And all my weariness
upon thee lean.
The worship God requires,
may he be first
in our affections.
The discipline God sends,
may it
soften our hearts.
The hope God brings,
may he prepare us
for that great tomorrow
when in Christ
all things
shall be made new.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you
that
though you are a God
of holiness
and perfection,
a God whose eyes
are purer
than to behold iniquity,
yet you have provided
a way for us
through your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
that we might meet with you,
that we might encounter you,
and that we might be changed
by you.
And by your Holy Spirit.
Lord, bless us
and encourage us.
Meet with us
and speak to us
as we turn from
your written word
to the sacrament
of the Lord's Supper.
Meet with us there
around this table
and do us good, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.