Open—D. Perry, B. Christensen, T. Porter
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56.
0979 6.
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We also sing 127.
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A few days ago.
I reread the letter of invitation to this conference.
And I noticed that it started with a quotation from.
Psalm 127.
Accept the Lord, build the house.
They labor in vain that build it.
This reminded me one of the one of the Old Testament prophets.
He doesn't actually call himself a prophet, he calls himself a messenger.
And yes, not one message, but 5 messages for builders.
And I refer to the Prophet.
Perhaps we can read the 1St chapter?
In the second year of Dorothy the King, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord I Haggai the prophet, unto Zerubbabel the son of Shallotteal, governor of Judah, and to Josette the high priest, saying so, and Joshua the son of Joseph the high priest, saying. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying This, people say, the time is not come.
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The time that the Lords House should be built.
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying.
Is it time for you OU to dwell in your sealed houses? And this house lie waste? Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts. Consider your ways. You have so much and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there is none warm. And here the earnest wages, earnest wages to put it into a bag with holes.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways, go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house.
And I will take pleasure in it.
And I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
You look for much and like it came to little.
And when you brought it home, I did blow up on it.
Why, I said the Lord of hosts, because of mine house, that is waste. And you run every man to his own house. Therefore the heavens over you is stayed from do, and the earth has stayed from earth fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
Then deruppable the sun shall a tale. And Joshua the son of Jonathan the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord dear God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai the Lords messenger, the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel.
The son of Shilla 2, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jodadec, the high priest.
And the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did work in the House of the Lord of hosts, their God, in the four and 20th month, sorry, four and 20th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
Perhaps we need a little bit of background to set this scripture and its context.
We know that the children of Israel are after.
Repeated idolatry.
Were declared by God as not my people.
And taken away captive to Babylon.
Then, according to the prophecy of.
Jeremiah.
After 70 years, the king came along. Cyrus.
And he invited.
The Jews to go back to Jerusalem.
We might have thought well.
That was a great opportunity.
But we find that of the perhaps millions of Jews that were in exile in Babylon, only a few.
Responded to that call. Only a few remarks responded to the call to act on God's Word and return to God's divine center. And so we find a remnant of some 40,000.
Return to Jerusalem.
They returned with lots of enthusiasm. They put the.
Ultron its base.
They resume the offerings.
That continual burnt offering which?
Speaks to God of Christ.
They started to build the foundation and they built the foundation of the temple.
And then they quit.
True that, their enemies.
Got the new thing to.
Forbid them to do the work and. But here we find from Haggai that.
It wasn't just a case of the command of the king, it was a question of what was in their hearts.
They were building them some cells, some fancy properties.
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But if you ask them about the Lord's house, well, someday we'll get round to it.
Not the right time.
And Haggy, I heard the Lord's message that gives them a message.
What is the message?
First I go up into the mountains and bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
This is the first message, first message of five and go through all of them.
Start building that house.
You know we can. When we take up the Old Testament, it's a series of pictures.
And what's the picture that we get here?
Where do we read about Christian construction?
Well, in.
3rd chapter of First Corinthians it says you are labourers together with God.
God's husbandry and God's building.
And then the Apostle Paul then goes on to talk about the quality of construction.
Somewhat.
Add gold, silver and precious stones and others would hang a stubble.
But notice what it says here.
I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
Well, I believe as Christian builders, if the Lord is our object, there'll be no problem with the quality of construction. If self comes in it in any way, then it's woodland.
Let's look also at first. First, sorry, Ephesians 4.
The 7th.
But unto everyone of us it's given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Now their time is limited. Let's go on to the verse 11. And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Well, we get some of the prominent gifts here mentioned, but notice that.
Seventh Verse To every one of us is given grace.
Everyone that knows the Lord Jesus Christ in this room.
Is given something.
That I can use.
To build in his church.
Every one of us.
And so as we think of that prophecy of Hadiya, he wanted to stir up the people to build.
Are we building?
What's our objective in our pathway down here? Is it to make ourselves as comfortable as possible, like those who in Hagel S time 14 years went on and there was no construction in that house. They just built to make themselves comfortable?
But to every one of us is given grace.
And the responsibility to use it.
In the building of that house, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying, that word edifying means building up.
The evangelist builds up the church by adding bricks.
What about the rest of us?
Well, we know we all have to do the work of the evangelist.
Is there someone who needs encouragement?
Is there someone who needs help? Maybe practical help?
Are we exercised that we might build?
Or are we content to turn up on Lord's Day morning and then go home and look after ourselves?
Is a scripture in the 4th of.
4th of Zechariah.
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That describes these days.
It was just a remnant that answered the call to come back to Jerusalem.
But notice what it says.
Verse ten of four. Oh sorry, I should read from verse 9.
The hands of the rubble have laid the foundation of this house. Yes, the rubble.
He would have been rightfully king had they not been under the domination of the Babylonians. He was the man who was right for the king.
The hands of the rubble have laid the foundation of the house.
On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So we get a picture there of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His hands also shall finish it.
And thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me unto you.
Who hath despised the day of small things?
For they shall rejoice.
And see the plummet in the hand of the rubber ball with those seven.
They are the eyes of the law which run to and fro over the whole earth.
What's the message here?
Sir Robert was building.
The Lord said I will build my church.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for him.
He might sanctify it.
Clinching, he might present it to himself, a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
And they rejoiced to see the plummet, the Plumb line in the hand of rubble. The rubble was building, even though it was the day of small things. It was only a remnant.
Just a few.
Out of the whole nation of Israel.
Are you building?
MI.
Let's get on to the next message. We don't have a lot of time.
We find that the result of that message was that there was an exercise to build and rubber ball begins building.
The next message is.
Verse 12, Sorry. Verse 13 then Haggai, the Lord's message.
In the Lord's message and to the people saying.
I am with you.
Set the law. I am with you, saith the Lord.
A remarkable statement because as we mentioned, it was only a few a remnant. It's the word remnant is used in this chapter a couple of times.