Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together part of a long hymn?
Number 79.
Number 79. It would be nice to sing the whole hymn, but forsake of time. Let's begin at verse 7.
And see, the Spirit's power has opened. The heavenly door has brought me to that favorite hour when toil shall all be ore. And here's what we've had before us. Although on the heavenly side of things, there on the hidden bread of Christ, once humbled, here that's the manna. God's treasured store forever fed his love, my soul.
Here, looking on to the wonderful future that is before every believer #79 beginning at verse seven. And we'll sing it to the tune. Welcome voice.
Uh.
Nsnoise.
Oh great. Well.
There all day and I thought.
My soul.
Was great spring break on spring.
Light winds to my voice.
Uh.
00:05:16
When a brother from the local gathering here in Saint Louis asked me to take the responsibility of this meeting.
I asked him is it a young people's address?
And he said no, it's just whatever the Lord lays on your heart for everyone.
I trust before the Lord that there will be some things for those who are younger, but perhaps some things for every age group, including my own, although I am by no means the oldest one here, not by a long shot.
But let's turn, please, to a short book in the Old Testament that I have been occupied with lately, the book of Haggai.
The book of Haggai, right toward the end of the Old Testament.
A very short book, only two chapters, and yet much that is in it for our souls.
I may say at the outset of this meeting.
That much of what I had on my heart has already been said.
In various ways. Next said much of it yesterday and I reminded him of that when we were chatting together. And some more of it has been said during the reading meeting this morning.
So that's all right.
I can well remember and pardon the personal reference, but when I was in medical school I can remember.
A professor saying to us, you probably are looking at the mass of things that you will have to learn and wondering however you are going to absorb it all. But he said, remember anything that's important will be repeated over and over again.
So repetition is not all bad, but we trust that what we have from this book will be fresh and from the Lord.
Just to get the setting here.
Haggy, I prophesied in a very short time, probably less than one year.
And we can pin it down pretty much when that was.
For those that are interested, we'll give a few dates in a minute, but what is the background of Haggai's book?
He is one of what we call the post captivity prophets along with Zechariah and Malachi. He prophesied after the Babylonian captivity of Israel or we might say Judah.
He prophesied specifically to those who had come back from Babylon under Zerubbabel and Joshua and others whom Cyrus had told to go back to the land of Israel.
And rebuild the temple.
Sad to say, relatively few of those who had left in the captivity came back. Fewer than about 50,000, but they did come back.
We know that Nebuchadnezzar took over the land of Judah in and this is pretty much accepted in 606 BC.
Probably about 538 BC are the events of Daniel chapter 5 when Belshazzar was slain by the Meadow Persians and it's recorded that Darius the Meade took the Kingdom, but Darius only lasted a couple of years and then was succeeded.
By a man whose name has been prophesied by Isaiah, probably about 175 years before a king by the name of Cyrus. And Cyrus was a Persian.
And he was the one who?
Told the Jews to go back to the land and rebuild the temple. And they did, and for a while, under Zerubbabel and others, they worked with a willing hand. They built the altar of the Lord 1St and offered sacrifices. Then they laid the foundation of the temple and began to build.
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It was what we might call a time of.
Real rejoicing. And yet when we read about the foundation of that temple being laid, we find that there was a generation gap. There were older ones who had seen the Temple of Solomon and they wept, and they were younger ones who hadn't been there to see that old temple. I say old in the sense of previous.
And they shouted for joy, and the two sounds were so commingled that you couldn't, it says, distinguish the one from the other.
And I believe the Lord accepted both.
He recognized both.
But then something happened. We find that the people eventually lost heart, and as a result, they stopped building the temple.
And later on, of course.
And this is often a principle with God. When the people lost heart, God allowed there to be a royal decree which prevented them from building.
Without going into too much detail, but if Cyrus proclaimed the liberty for anyone who wanted to go back and build the temple, probably in 536 BC, that corresponded, didn't it, with the prophecy of Jeremiah, who had foretold that there would be 70 years of captivity, and that was fulfilled right to the letter.
But then eventually, when the people lost heart, they stopped the building and there was a period of time when they devoted themselves to their own interests.
And Haggai comes along in the reign of a man by the name of Arctic Xerxes. In history, he's generally known by the name of Smurdus or Pseudosmertus. We won't go into the reasons for that. And he began to reign at 522 BC. So there was a period of time there when the people were relaxing.
He didn't rain that long.
Because about a year later, a very brilliant and strong man by the name of Darius. And there were several men by the name of Darius in the Old Testament. But this Darius is what we he goes by the name of.
Darius Histospace kind of a mouthful and he eventually murdered this Arctic Xerxes and took the throne from him in 521.
BC so there are some dates for those that are interested in pigeonholing when things happened.
I'd like to look at the prophecy of Haggai and make 4 distinct points which I trust are from the Lord, because the days in which you and I live are much the same as the days of Haggai.
As Israel was a failure, so in an outward way the Church has been a failure. And yet God in His grace, and it was brought out in the Reading meetings both yesterday and today, has graciously brought back the precious truth that He gave at the beginning concerning the Church, and enabled you and me once again to live and walk in the good of it.
Let's look then at what happens and what Haggy I has to say.
AGI chapter one, verse one.
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, unto Zerubbabel the son of Shallotteal, a governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Joseph the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts say this, people say, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying.
Is it time for you or ye 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. Ye eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he earneth wages. Earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
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Thus set 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 very much. And Lloyd came the little, and when he brought it home I did blow upon it. Why saith the Lord of Hosts? Because of mine house That is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
I'd like to make an application of what we have here.
First of all though, sometimes you and I find that things don't go well in our lives.
And clearly and simply, the Lord sometimes allows there to be difficulties in our lives for various reasons, and it isn't always for what we are going to bring out from this chapter. But sometimes things, things don't go very well in a natural sense. And sometimes things, things don't go very well in a spiritual sense.
And sometimes they don't go well in a spiritual sense individually.
Sometimes they don't go well collectively.
It's always easy to point the finger at circumstances, or perhaps at someone else.
I have heard it many times, and perhaps I've used it myself too, because there's truth in it, where when I have talked to individuals who find that things are not going well in their lives, or I talk to those who bemoan the condition of things among the Lord's people.
The statement is made and it's true.
Satan is sure being active today, isn't he? The devil is working overtime to cause problems in our lives.
That is true.
And I don't take away from it.
But may I say it's a half truth?
Satan cannot do one thing to you and to me unless the Lord allows him to do it.
We won't turn to it, but you see that perhaps most clearly in the book of Job, where Satan, almost, as you would say, had to get permission from the Lord to do something to Job. And the Lord told him how much he could do and how far he could go.
And it's the same today. And if the Lord has allowed perhaps even in natural things to happen, what we have seen here in this chapter, or perhaps spiritually He has allowed it.
Twice over, Haggai says these words. Consider your waste.
It's easy to point the finger. I say it the devil. It's easy to point it at someone else.
And shall I say it out loud?
When there are problems and difficulties that the Lord allows among His people collectively, it's easy to point the finger.
At those whom we figure are responsible for the difficulty, and I want to make it clear that I refer in no way to any particular difficulty because.
At this very moment, I know of more than one in this world.
Among those gathered to the Lord's name.
The Lord perhaps is saying to me and to all of us, consider your ways. And if I fail to do that, then I miss the blessing.
Oh, the Lord is willing to bless. He wants to bless. But if you're anything like me, I like to see things go on smoothly. We like everything to go on nicely. All the nice conferences that we enjoy attending here in North America, all the nice camps and young peoples get togethers and harvest parties and various and sundry things that we have the freedom to do and the liberty and Ways and Means to do.
To and I don't take away from them one bit. They're wonderful.
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But if the Lord for a moment puts a little bit of a damper on any of that.
We should not hesitate to consider our ways because sometimes the Lord has something to say to me that maybe has little or nothing to do with what appears on the surface, and maybe He wants me to deal with something in my own life.
Sometimes it has to go a ways back, but there is a time in your life and mine when God would have us to consider our ways again. I don't want anyone to misunderstand this because self occupation.
Is not God's purpose for us, and the individual who is occupied with himself is never happy.
Never God wants you and me to be occupied with Christ and with all that we have in Him. But sometimes self examination and self judgment are necessary. And it was necessary in Haggai's day. And the result of considering their ways brought real blessing.
To see that go on a little bit in the chapter. What happens in verse 12?
Chapter One. Then the Rubble, the son of Shall Teal and Joshua, the son of Josadec.
The high priest and notice this, they took the lead, but it says with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their 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 Haggy I and notice this again the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message under the people saying I am with you, saith the Lord.
I am with you.
Oh, I say that to each one here. And it has all been ready, been reiterated in the meetings, in the readings. The Lord is still with those who want to call upon His name. And there is no reason why anyone in these last days of the Church's history cannot enjoy the Lord just as much as anyone did right at the beginning of the dispensation.
Now we'll talk about that a little more in a moment, but the Lord says, here I am with you. What a wonderful thing it is to remember that the Lord wants to bless. And if you say I don't see much blessing, I don't see that things are going on in the right way.
I say maybe the Lord wants you to be as a Rubble or a Joshua and take the lead.
And maybe as a young person, you say, I don't know how to do that. Do you really expect me to grab hold of the reins of things and override those who are much older in my local assembly than I am and start putting things right? No, no, that's not what it means. But again, and it was said in the readings.
What carries far more weight than anything, whether you're young or old, is our walk and our ways.
Our walk and our ways are far more important because then the power of God is behind us.
And when there is an effort to deal with something before the Lord and to do what is right, we often find the Lord comes in at a wonderful way. And it happened here. We won't go back to the book of Ezra to see all that happened, but it's interesting you have to read Haggy Eye with Ezra to get the whole picture.
Because Ezra is more of an historical book and it gives the facts, but Haggai is a prophetical book and it talks about the moral condition of the people. So Ezra doesn't talk so much about the moral condition of the people, except that later on Ezra, who lived a long time after Haggai's time, I don't suppose they ever knew each other.
But.
Ezra confesses the sins of the people in the 9th chapter of Ezra, but other than that the book of Ezra gives historical facts but haggy ideals with the moral state of the people and doesn't give the history. So you need the two together. What happened when those people started to build here supposedly against?
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The decree of King Arthur Xerxes.
He wasn't around anymore. He wasn't around anymore. And when they went to this king Darius, some of the people and said what about these Jews that are building this temple?
Then Darius went and took a look in the records, and he apparently had a great respect for Cyrus, and when he looked back into the records he found that it was indeed a decree of Cyrus to rebuild the temple. And he said.
Let those Jews alone, and not only let them alone, but you give them everything they need out of the King's revenue. He supported them.
Isn't it wonderful that when we strike out for the Lord with His mind, then we find that all of His power is behind us, even sometimes the secular authorities? Well, let's go on here because we don't have a lot of time.
That's number one. Sometimes we need to consider our ways. Chapter 2.
In the seventh month, a little bit later, in the one and 20th day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shall Teal, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josadec the high priest. And to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left of them among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now?
Is it not in your eyes, in comparison of a comparison of it, there's nothing. Yeah, no, be strong. Those are rubble, saith the Lord.
And be strong, O Joshua the son of Joseph the high priest. And be strong, O ye people of the land, saith the Lord. And work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.
According to the word that I covenanted with you when he came out of Egypt. So my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not.
And I'm going to read that fifth verse approximately as it is in a better translation in the Darby translation.
Leave out the words according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my spirit remain among you. Fear ye not His Word and his Spirit.
Wonderful.
You know when some of those came back from Babylon.
Especially those that could remember the 1St house, it was easy to feel discouraged.
They were looking at the past.
It's not wrong to remember the past. A few days ago, a brother was reminiscing a little bit.
And he's my age.
And he said to me, Bill, you know, it's good to remember the past and enjoy it. But he said it's good not to live on it.
Some time ago.
I listened to a cassette tape and it was a real cassette, it wasn't ACD.
I still have a cassette player. Old, old people still have those things and I listen to a cassette of a meeting.
At Wheaton, IL between 55 and 60 years ago.
It brought back good memories.
And unlike most of the CDs today, they also had the singing on it, which perhaps some of you realize that I particularly enjoy. And it brought back tears to my eyes as I heard the brother start the hymn. And I knew who it was by his voice too.
And I heard the groundswell of volume come up from however many hundreds of people there were at that conference. You remember that, Bob?
Wheaton Conference. I'm sure you do. Anyway, the point is, I enjoyed that, but you know, living on the past is not a good thing.
It's good to remember the past.
But God wants us to to look on to the future.
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There's a danger, and I speak to those of us that are older, of looking at the past.
And wishing things were back the way they were.
And sometimes, shall we say, there's a danger in the other direction of trying to recreate the past.
And shall I say this even though we would not want to do it, and if it were suggested to us, we would probably immediately cry out against it. It is there sometimes the thought.
That we are recreating Pentecostal days.
Is there sometimes the thought, shall I say it, that yes, we are living in the last days and we are living in the great House of Christendom, But thank the Lord, there is one part of the great house where things are done right. And even though we might not say it out loud by implication, well, yes, and that's where we are.
Things ought to be done right.
Yes, they should.
But to quote a brother who's some will recognize this quotation, it may not be word for word, but it's a good one to remember that wherever there is an attempt to set up and display the position in the unity, there will be nothing but a mess and a failure.
God will not take this place with us.
I do not limit what the Spirit of God can do, but in order to be in the place of God's strength, I must be in the place of His mind, and that is in the recognition of the failure of the church.
We are at the end of a ruined dispensation where things are broken up and by God's grace He has given us, and it is His grace and nothing else, because we're no better than anyone else. He's given us the opportunity to give expression to that same precious truth that He gave at the beginning. But just as.
Those who came back with a rubble and Joshua could not hope to have the glory of the days of Solomon, or be an independent nation, or have the Shekinah glory in the temple, or all of those things that had characterized Israel in their days of glory. So you and I in these last days must recognize where we are.
But the Lord has not changed. And how does He direct our hearts?
Verse five to His Word and His Spirit. Now in the Old Testament no one was indwelt by the Holy Spirit, if we could use the term reverently on a permanent basis.
The Spirit came upon them from time to time, gave them the word of the Lord, whether it were to write the scriptures.
By inspiration or to give expression to it orally.
But nevertheless, it was the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And the Lord gives both of these here in verse five of chapter 2. And you and I have both today, but so much more than they had.
There were some in this day that we're saying, and it was said today in the reading, is it worth it? Is it worth it? Look at this pitiful house that we're trying to build. Is it really worth it?
What does the Lord say? I am with you.
Oh, God values that which honors the name of Christ. He values that.
And giving up on it is not what God would have us to do.
Is it difficult? Sometimes? Indeed it is. Indeed it is, and we don't minimize the difficulties.
And sometimes.
The devil attacks very specially when difficulties come in and it's a lot easier to say.
As one brother said to me one time, Bill, I want some peace and quiet. I could relate to that because the devil especially going to attack that which seeks to honor Christ in any way, shape and form in this world.
In foreign lands, as we had before us earlier today in the prayer meeting, he sometimes attacks.
By persecution from the outside.
And it's very, very difficult, very difficult, one wave after another of constant harassment, sometimes by the civil authorities.
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And it never seems to end.
For you and for me in these favorite lands, though sometimes it comes from within the House of Christendom, sometimes it comes from that which professes the name of Christ. And although I in no way minimize that which comes from the world outside, sometimes that which comes from within the great House is even harder to bear.
Because it comes from those from whom we might have expected support and help.
If we were to go back to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we would find that the opposition in many cases came from those who were right in the land, those who were in the northern part of the Kingdom, the Samaritan Kingdom.
Who tried all kinds of Wiles and all kinds of attacks in order, all kinds of things in order to try and stop the work of building the wall and carrying on. And it happened when they were building the temple too, in different ways.
I am with you Seth, the Lord, the word that I gave and he goes right back to the beginning when they came out of Egypt and my spirit remaineth among you. Fear he not. I say that to each one, especially to the young people here, because you have a difficult Rd. in the world of today, but the Lord says I am with you.
That's number two.
But I wanna say something just to support one remark that I made and that is.
When they said that this house looks kind of pitiful, what does the Lord say in verse?
Six, chapter 2, verse six. For thus saith the Lord of hosts. Yet once it is a little while is that phrase repeated in the New Testament a few times. Indeed it is. And I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land.
And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations, that's the Messiah shall come. And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. And it should read not the glory of this latter house, but the latter glory of this house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts.
And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord.
Oh, the Lord says, don't look back, look to the future. The Scripture hasn't been fulfilled yet. All the Messiah has come. But the glory of that house that is prophesied here, that has to wait until the millennial day. But it's coming. And God is going to give a glory far, far greater than even in the days of Solomon. I say to you and to me.
Yes, we can look back.
But the Lord says, I want you to look forward.
Let me tell a story that maybe I've told before, but someone repeated it to me a few days ago.
Some years ago.
My elderly aunt by marriage, Auntie Ruth from Ottawa, went to be with the Lord. She had lived in her home there in Ottawa all her life. Her parents lived in that home when she was born and when she got married she moved into the lower story of that home and her parents moved into the upper story. She lived in that home.
For more than 96.
Years. Eventually she got cancer and had to be in a hospital and it was very clear that it was only a matter of time until the Lord would take her home.
She was going into Hospice care, which was only a matter of few blocks from where she had lived, and as the ambulance was taking her there, her grandson, who is a paramedic and was riding in the ambulance with her, he said. Grandma, would you like to go past the old house one more time?
Her remark thrills my soul.
She said. Oh no, Matthew, I'm not looking backward, I'm looking forward.
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Don't bother taking me back to that old house, I'm looking for a better one.
Didn't even want to be bothered going by the old house.
The father's house loomed up out of her.
Let's go on verse 10. Our time is going in the four and 20th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius. Now here's Darius.
Very powerful king, reigned for a long time, about 36 years. Really did a lot for the Persian Empire. Although just as an aside, he managed to pick fights with the Greeks and incur their wrath and antagonism and.
Down the road that translated into an Alexander the Great who eventually smashed up the Persian Empire and took control of it. But that perhaps is beside the point. But it just mentions the time frame here.
In the four and 20th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the Prophet saying.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the priest concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt to touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, should it be holy?
And the priest answered and said no.
Then Haggy, I said, If one that is unclean by a dead body, touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, said the Lord, And so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer there is unclean.
And now I pray you consider there's that word again from this day upward. And before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord.
Since those days were when one came to an heap of 20 measures, there were but ten when one came to the press fat for to draw out 50 vessels out of the press, there were but 20I smote you with blasting them with mildew and with hail, and all the labors of your hands. That's what had happened during that time, that they were not paying attention to the Lord's work.
Yet ye turn not to me, saith the Lord.
Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and 20th day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid considerate.
Is the seed yet in the barn? Yeah. Is yet The vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree is not brought forth from this day I will bless you.
I say again, much of this was covered in the last reading meeting. What was another problem? Why the Lord wasn't prospering them. Oh, there was not a separation between clean and unclean.
And what the Prophet was saying here was.
If something is there.
Does the fact that the priest touches it make it clean?
And the priest said no, it doesn't.
OK, but supposing something that is unclean touches those things, does that make them unclean? And the priest said yes it does.
What is the point?
The point is very simple. If I were to ask any child here, or any child old enough to have handled fruit, if I were to take.
An apple with a good rotten spot in it and put it in a bag with half a dozen good apples and sit the bag on the shelf for three or four days. What would happen if I open the bag up?
What? I find that all the good apples had made the rotten one nice and good to eat. What is that? What would happen? You know very well it wouldn't happen. I see John roosing over here, grinning. He runs an apple farm. He knows very well what would happen.
No good chance they'd all be rotten by that time, or at least have something rotten in them.
What the prophet is saying here, it is important for separation between clean and unclean and we don't need to be labor the point except that we live in a world which is full of uncleanness. No, I don't want to be misunderstood because there is a difference between separation and isolation. And if there is a lost world out there, and some of us were talking about this at lunch.
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We are in this world, but not of the world, and the Lord would have us to go out to a lost world and reach them with the gospel and to be so separate from them that I never have anything to do with them.
Is not God's way. No, no. I should be the first one to help out if the world needs help. I should be the first one to tell them about Christ. I should be the first one to bear a Christian testimony to them.
But follow them down that pathway of uncleanness? Absolutely not. And as was brought out in the reading, it is so easy today.
To get into that uncleanness.
I'm going to re echo a remark that another brother made in an address several years ago and I thought it was a good one.
He was lately, although he didn't say so, but he was likely referring to the Internet or the television and maybe things like Facebook and stuff like that.
He said 60 seconds is one minute too long to be feeding a dead man.
I think the meaning is pretty clear, isn't it? What's the dead man, the old sinful flesh in each one of us?
And it's liable to get fed very easily if we don't look out. And I speak to my own heart. Don't think I'm preaching at you.
It is just as much a problem for any of us.
But it's so easy today.
And pretty soon we're going down a road and we said where am I heading?
I know how easy it can happen.
And the devil is made it very easy.
Some years ago.
I was looking up something in the medical field on the Internet. I still don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden there I was on a site of ***********. I wasn't looking for it. Nothing I punched in in any way, as far as I could tell, attracted that, but there it was. I was shocked at how easy it came up. I don't. I don't. I still don't know how it happened.
I'm thankful the Lord gave me the grace just to click it off instantly.
Because I guess I've known enough from talking to other people.
Where that kind of a road leads.
But the point is, it's so easy today to fall into those traps. And it's not all just the Internet. It's social interchanges. We have to live and move and work in this world. And the moral standards of this world have fallen down so low that just about anything goes today. You know that, you young people, probably a lot better than I do.
Let's remember this and remember.
That moral and spiritual leanness in our lives can often be traced back to this, whether individually or collectively. And yet, what does the Lord say here?
Again, he doesn't just give them negative things. What does he say?
He says verse 19. We read at the end of verse 19, From this day I will bless you.
Maybe you look back on your life and you say, Oh dear, I've succumbed to some of those temptations. I've been guilty of some of this uncleanness.
There's anyone here that can say, and I've never been tainted by any of it. I'd like to talk with you afterwards because.
I admire you.
It's so much all around.
The Lord always provides a way of repentance and coming back. Oh, he says come on back, come on back. I want you. And if I have allowed some difficulties and some problems.
I will not allow it to go on any longer, not one bit longer than I need in order to accomplish my purposes in you. And that is just as much true collectively as individually.
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Sometimes we get upset when difficulties and problems go on longer than we want.
And I must confess that I'm that kind of a person.
I'm not naturally very patient. I like something done.
Yesterday if possible.
And so it's not easy sometimes to have to wait on the Lord and let him work.
But the Lord never allows a difficulty or a problem in your life and mine, either individually or collectively, to go on any longer than we need in order to accomplish what He wants to do. And may I say one more thing? And it was also brought out in the reading. Sometimes you yourself may search your own heart and say, well.
I can honestly say that despite failure in my life.
I am not at this moment aware of any single thing that the Lord is drawing to my attention.
That I have to deal with.
That can be true. I'm thankful if it is. I'm thankful if you search your heart and consider your ways and say I don't really find any particular thing that the Lord is wanting me to deal with.
All I say is remember Caleb and Joshua.
They were faithful and they could have complained bitterly and said why do we have to wander 40 years in the wilderness?
Because of the failure of 10 other spies and ultimately the whole nation that decided that they weren't ready to go into the land of promise. Why should we waste the best years of our life in the wilderness when we were faithful that.
Isn't fair.
Does anyone ever hear anyone here ever thought that God wasn't fair?
I think we have it sometime, haven't we?
Let's not entertain that thought. Sometimes we need to suffer with the people of God to let God accomplish His purposes. And I'm thankful that I don't recall any word of complaint from either Caleb or Joshua in the wilderness. It must have been hard for them, but the Lord rewarded them. And when they got to the land, we find a Caleb 45 years later being able to say, I'm as strong as the day when Moses gave me this.
And I'm not quoting that accurately. And so on. He could count on the Lord, and the Lord didn't let him down. We never lose by allowing the Lord to do His work, not only in our hearts, but maybe in the hearts of others.
Our time is nearly gone. One last comment, verse 20 of chapter 2.
And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and 20th day of the month, saying, Speak unto Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth. Well, just a minute, Haggy, are you already said that? But there's a little difference here. And I will overthrow the throne of the Kingdom of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heaven of the heathen rather, and I will overthrow the Chariots.
And those that ride in them.
And the horses and their riders shall come down everyone by the sword of his brother. But notice this. In that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shall Teal, saith the Lord. And I will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of Hosts.
You know, there's a wonderful truth conveyed in that verse, that last verse, because if you trace the genealogy, you will find that Zerubbabel was in the royal line and was actually the rightful king. It must have been a very humbling thing for him as the rightful king to come back.
To the land of Judah and find himself under the domination of a foreign power. And he realized, I believe from the prophecies that had been given, that God was not going to re establish Israel in their land right at that point. And here he was the rightful king, taking the lead among his people, yes, but no longer able to exercise the authority and power that normally would have been his.
What does the Lord say to him, Zerubbabel?
You are a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a type of Christ here and in a coming day when the Lord Jesus takes his rightful place, isn't it beautiful?
00:55:11
That you and I are going to be associated with them.
Won't it be worth it? In that day we sung that him as young people and I still like it. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus, life's trials will seem so small and so on.
Oh, what a wonderful future we have to which to look for. And to me what is so beautiful here is that this is a rubble is so closely connected with the Lord Jesus himself, the Messiah, that being in the royal line, the Lord uses him through Haggai as a type of Christ. And the application I make of that is that the Lord is really saying to you and to me, I have left you in this world.
To represent me in a very difficult day.
Are you prepared to do it? Zerubbabel was. He was prepared to take the low place and say by God's grace, I won't go back to that land. I will take the low place. I will rebuild a small temple that doesn't even compare to the previous one. I will go along with that small group of people there rather than seeking my own ease and pleasure.
And the Lord gives him a tremendous compliment and a tremendous reward for that. There's a reward waiting, too, for those who wish to be faithful.
Let's sing part of another hymn in closing. We have a minute or two left.
#173.
173.
This hymn bears that phrase a little while.
Beginning with a little while the Lord shall come and we shall wander here no more then going on to verse two, He'll come again. Let us the precious hours redeem our only grief to give him pain our joy to serve and follow him watching and ready may we be as those that wait.
Their Lord. To see, let's sing the last two verses, verses 3:00 and 4:00.
Of 173.