Book of Haggai, chapter one. A short but very powerful book near the end of your Old Testament's there between the two Z books in the back, Zephaniah and Zechariah, the short book of Haggai. And it wasn't but I think three weeks ago now that I was here last and we looked at verses one through 11. of Haggai chapter one and this morning we will be finishing chapter one looking at verses twelve through fifteen. But as there are a number of people here this morning that weren't here for the first sermon from the beginning of Haggai chapter one in our reading of the text I'll begin at the beginning of the book of Haggai and we'll read the entirety of Haggai chapter one and so hopefully gain some continuity as we continue this short two part series and Haggai chapter one this morning. So let us now give our attention. To the reading of God's word from Haggai chapter one. Let us hear now the word of our Lord. In the second year of Darius the king in the sixth month on the first day of the month the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governor of Judah. and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways, go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why, declares the Lord of hosts, because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast and on all their labors. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, And Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnants 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 feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnants of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God. On the 24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius, the king. Please join me now as we pray and ask the Lord's help as we look to his word. Our most gracious and heavenly father. May, by the grace of your spirit. We be those this morning upon whom you have promised to set your eye. Those who are humble. and contrite in spirit. Those father who tremble. At your word. We pray that you would do this for your glory and pleasure. And that you would exalt your son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Greatly in our midst this morning. For we pray these things in his name. Amen. We live in a world that would, if it could, squeeze out of you every drop of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It would, if it could, quench every pure thought of God, every movement of love for Him, and every act of obedience for His glory. As Christians, we are truly pilgrims in a strange land. And we do not make our journey unaffected by the evil intentions of this fallen world and the evil that yet remains in our own hearts. We struggle often to fix our eyes on Christ when so many influences are pulling us in other directions. So many voices are competing for our attention. against the voice of our Lord. And over time, we can lose a clear vision of our Savior. We can forget who God has called us to be and what He is accomplishing through His people for His glory in this fallen age. We see God's people experiencing this spiritual decline in Haggai chapter 1. Last I was here, we looked at verses one through 11 and we left God's people in a very precarious situation. They had been overcome by a condition of spiritual lethargy, spiritual laziness. But the Lord in his grace had spoken to them through the prophet Haggai, and he had called them to repentance and to new obedience. How will they now respond? As we look now to verses 12 through 15 of Haggai chapter 1, we see the response of God's people to the preaching of the prophet Haggai. And what we find is a great spiritual revitalization. We find the people of God rediscovering the joy of spiritual vitality. This morning, we will look at four aspects of this rediscovery. And Lord willing, we will consider these four aspects as integral components of our own rediscovery of spiritual vitality. First, we will look at the instrument of spiritual vitality. Second, the signs of this vitality. Third, the blessing of it. And fourth and lastly, the source. Where does this vitality come from? And so if you are here this morning longing to discover the joy of the Holy Spirit, longing to rediscover following Christ and embracing him with the joy and peace that comes with knowing the Savior, then pay special attention to our text, for in it we see the paradigm of the Lord's grace of revitalization. And first, we come to the instruments of this spiritual transformation. By what means did the Lord bring about this glorious change of heart in the lives of his people? The answer is writ large on our text. It was by his word. Verse 1 of Haggai chapter 1, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Verse 2, thus says the Lord. Verse three, again, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet. Verse five, now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts. And verse seven, again, thus says the Lord of hosts. In verses one through eleven, the central role occupied by God's word is unequivocal. But remember that God's voice is not thundering from the heavens unmediated. The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. And so we read in verse 12 that all the remnant of the people obey the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God has sent him. And the point here is not that the voice of the Lord and the words of Haggai the prophet are two separate things. The point is that Haggai was called and sent as a mouthpiece of the Lord so that through Haggai, the Lord might truly communicate his desires and his thoughts to his people. Haggai's personality, Haggai's idiosyncrasies, but ultimately, the Lord's message for his people. We don't have any explicit information about Haggai's preaching up to the point of the beginning of Haggai chapter one. How long has he been preaching this message to God's people? We simply don't know. But remember, looking again with me in verse two of chapter one, the Lord cites the words of the people The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. And so there were preachers, very likely Haggai himself, who had been preaching to the people that they needed to obey the voice of the Lord in this matter. Preachers had been preaching, it's time to rebuild the temple. And yet the people kept responding, it's not yet time. And it is only at this point September 21st, 520 B.C., that there is a genuine response of the heart to the preaching of Haggai. Again, verse 12, they obeyed the voice of the Lord, their God, and the words of Haggai, the prophet, as the Lord, their God, had sent him. Do you see what had happened? The change that had taken place Before this time, the people had heard the preaching of the word, but they had stopped at the voice of the preacher. Oh, that's just old Haggai flapping his gums again about us needing to get up and start the rebuilding of the temple. Or maybe their response was a little more aggressive. Who does this Haggai think he is, ordering us around like a bunch of slaves? He doesn't know what I'm going through, how difficult the circumstances of my life have been. But on this day, something took place and something changed in the hearts of God's people. Something changed in the way that God's people heard the preaching of the word. They stopped listening only to the voice of the preacher. And they finally heard the voice that had been speaking to them all along, the voice of the Lord. They had been hearing the preacher, but they hadn't been hearing the Lord. And for the first time in a long time, they finally had ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to understand what the Lord had been trying to communicate to them. And before this change of heart had taken place, perhaps some of them had even had a certain enthusiasm for Haggai's preaching. But did you hear Haggai today? That was some fine preaching, wasn't it? He really put his heart and his soul into that sermon, didn't he? But then they would return home thoroughly unaffected by the preaching of the word in any discernible way. content to give lip service to the preacher, but never actually heeding the message that the Lord intended for them to hear. And of course, we never do this, right? We never merely content ourselves with a general enthusiasm for the preaching while failing to allow the word of God to search our hearts and to root out the indwelling sin that yet remains. that we might obey our Savior with greater zeal and more joyful obedience and love. Allow me, first of all, to speak for myself. Between the time of my conversion and my entrance into gospel ministry, I heard a lot of sermons. How different might my life look if I had listened to every single one of those sermons as to the voice of Christ himself. And had I allowed his word to penetrate into the deepest recesses of my heart and expose those dark places of my heart to the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. It pains me to think about time and opportunities lost, sanctification lost to this disease of spiritual lethargy. How are you responding to God's word? Is it with an outward display of enthusiasm while your heart remains largely unaffected? Or is it with a careful application of the message to an honest appraisal of the condition of your heart? Think of the last time you heard a sermon on repentance. Did you remark to your family and friends Wow, that sure was a convicting message, wasn't it? I really needed to hear that message. And then you went home and it was business as usual. Or did you search your heart and pray to God? Oh Lord, reveal to me those areas where I am in so desperate need of repentance and grant the gift of repentance by your mercy and for your glory. Or what about the last time you heard a sermon about the preaching of the word? Well, I sure am glad to be reformed where we really prize and uphold the preaching of the word. After all, the preaching of the word is the primary means of grace that God has given to the church. And then it was right back to business as usual. week after week of sermons that bounce right off of you as though you were wearing some sort of impervious shield because you're paying lip service to the means of grace, but you're not receiving and feeding the message. The Lord himself is trying to communicate to you by his spirit. Paul says to the church in Thessalonica in First Thessalonians two and verse 13, We also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. And this is the crux of the matter. Whose voice are you listening for in the preaching of the word? Preaching was never meant to be pious advice, simply the opinions of a man that you can take or leave based on your liking of them. I have no desire to stand up here if all I'm doing is delivering my own opinions to you. My job and the job of every minister of the gospel is to as faithfully, clearly and forcefully deliver to you the words of Christ himself as he has revealed himself in the scriptures. Yes, God uses the personality, the creativity, even the idiosyncrasies of the individual. But when the scriptures are faithfully preached, it is Christ himself speaking to you through the weak, imperfect and broken vessel of his chosen instruments. If it's just my voice, Then it's all the easier to write off the conviction of the spirit as simply the opinions of a man. But if it's Christ's voice speaking from his word in the power and the conviction of his spirit, then we must listen and heed with reverence and awe. Think about the extraordinary intimacy of preaching. that week in and week out, Christ has chosen to speak to us from his word and communicate to us this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. I am simply a broken and a flawed vessel. Listen to the voice of Christ. Michael Shane Sapp is but a servant an ambassador and a messenger, one who loves all of you very much. Listen to the voice of Jesus. Listen to the voice of the king who was called and sent him to you, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear him speaking from his word. As sheep that belong to the great shepherd, hear his voice speaking to you by his spirit. God promises in his word that when you hear Jesus voice speaking in the power of the spirit, your life will truly change. There will be no more excuses or self-justifications, but there will be a reverence and an awe commensurate with the majesty of the one who is speaking to you. For the word of God is living and active. sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. And this is exactly what these believers are now experiencing in our text. Look with me again at verse 12 of Haggai chapter 1. They obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. They feared the Lord. There was no reason to fear Haggai when all they heard was the voice of a man. But now they hear the voice of the Lord their God and there is truly cause to fear to tremble before his word and to obey his voice. This brings us to our second consideration the signs and the manifestations of spiritual vitality. We see in our text the manifestations of this revitalization are twofold. When God's people finally hear the voice of their Lord, they obey him and they fear him. God's word strikes their hearts with conviction and they respond with obedience and with fear. This is how you know if you are truly hearing the Lord's voice. Are you responding with obedience and with fear? It's interesting. that these are precisely the two things that the world despises more than anything else. If you're familiar with the popular music industry, you know about the countless millions of dollars that have been generated by the message of disobedience. If you want to make money in the music industry, talent is helpful, but perhaps more importantly, send this message. A, I don't obey anyone, and B, I don't fear anything. This is what it means to be spiritual today, to break free from all external constraints and to follow on whatever paths your heart might lead you. It sounds nice, except that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? We are masters of self-deception. That which is most wicked, disobedience to the Lord and our thumbing our nose at his majesty becomes our very glory and our boast. Brothers and sisters, let us resist the influence of the world. and cleave to the path illuminated for us by the word of our Savior, the path of obedience to the Lord and the path of fear of the Lord. Everyone fears something. The question is, do you fear the one thing that alone is capable of freeing you from all other fears? The world sees the fear of the Lord as something that binds us and shackles us. But they do not realize that the fear of God is the one thing that can truly liberate men and women and set them free from the fear of all else. The fear of the Lord is not the fear of the oppressed to the oppressor. The fear of the Lord is the fear of a son to a father. The fear of displeasing the one who has created us and who has redeemed us with the blood of his only begotten. and who calls us to holiness in his spirit. When these believers had been fearing other things, whether economic unrest or political turmoil or the ridicule and persecution of their neighbors, when they feared other things, they were tossed to and fro and unable to move forward spiritually. But when they were once again brought to fear the Lord, All of the excuses vanished because they finally had their eyes once again fixed on the only one whose opinion truly matters. And with their eyes fixed once again on the majesty and the glory of God Almighty, they were then spiritually equipped to rededicate their lives to his glory and to walk in gospel obedience. an obedience rooted in the glory of His grace. Do you fear the Lord? Can you testify, as we sang this morning with the psalmist in Psalm 19, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The way we know whether or not we fear the Lord is not mere feeling. Religious feelings by themselves do not constitute fear of the Lord. Fear of God is proved true when it results in spiritual industry, when it results in spurring us heavenward in our affections and in our actions. The truest index of your fear of the Lord is the degree of your obedience to the Lord's will. Remember the end of Ecclesiastes, the end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. And in this way, the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord are simply two sides of the same coin. And did not our Lord Jesus say something very similar to the preaching of Ecclesiastes in John 14 and verse 21? Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And what does Jesus say will be the reward of this love of ours manifested by a gospel obedience? Again, John chapter 14 and verse 21. He who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Is there any greater motivation to gospel obedience than the promise of Christ that as we manifest our love for him in the keeping of his commands, we are loved by the father and we are loved by the son and the son himself will manifest himself to us. And this leads us directly to consider the blessing of spiritual vitality. If the signs of its manifestation are obedience and fear to the Lord, what is the blessing? What is that same blessing of communion with the father that our Lord Jesus has promised to us? We see these believers in our text partaking of it. Look with me at verse 13 of Haggai one. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. When we dedicate our hearts to obeying and to fearing the Lord, the Lord promises to be with us, to strengthen us no matter the opposition, and to bless us with the abundant riches of knowing him. The blessing of all blessings is to know the Lord and to be assured of his gracious presence. Isn't it fascinating that the Lord declares this blessing to the people before they had come even close to finishing the building of the temple? I thought the temple was the visible sign of God's gracious presence, and this is exactly why the Lord was so upset with his people for neglecting this duty in the first place. And now he is proclaiming the blessing to them before the job is even close to being finished. But you see, the issue was never, never simply about the building of a physical edifice. The crux of the issue is always the condition of their hearts before the Lord. Yes, the temple was the visible sacrament of God's presence with his people. But it was only a sign pointing to a far greater reality, the reality that is so clearly revealed to us in the New Covenant, that God's dwelling place is within believers by his spirit. You are God's dwelling place by his spirit. And inasmuch as these believers were manifesting the condition of their hearts of belief and of faith, So, too, they receive assurance of the spiritual blessing that comes along with it. And so it is with us as well. Believers, though we are, we cannot expect to have an abiding assurance of God's gracious presence if we are living in a state of spiritual lethargy. But when we apply ourselves once again to obeying the Lord and to fearing his name, and so manifesting our love for him, the Lord will surely seal his presence to our hearts. How can you be sure of something when there is little to no evidence of its reality? So too with our faith, that it is when our faith is producing fruit that we are then in a reasonable position to sense God's presence and the pleasure of our Lord in our lives. Do you long to experience what the Church of Christ is experiencing here in our text? Do you long for a renewed spiritual vitality? You experience this vitality when the Word of God comes alive in your mind and in your heart, and you truly hear the voice of the Lord speaking to you. It manifests itself when you apply yourself to a renewed gospel obedience and fear. And it results in the blessing of the Lord, the Lord's assurance to you by his spirit that I am with you, declares the Lord. And you then realize that from beginning to end, the source of this vitality is the Lord himself. And all the blessings and riches of salvation are found in Christ alone. When you apply yourself to the will of the Lord, you come to find that it was the Lord Jesus who equipped and strengthened and prepared you for the task. It was Jesus who made his word to bear fruit in your life. It was Jesus who gave you those twin graces of fear and obedience. And it was Jesus who gave you that most blessed assurance of his gracious and powerful presence. The more you commit yourself to fearing and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ, the more he will seal his presence to your heart and the more you will see that he is the source of all of your strength and all of your blessing, all according to the will of the father and by the power of his spirit. Look with me in verses 14 and 15 of our text. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God. The Lord supplied the conviction. The Lord supplied the obedience. It was the Lord who supplied all of the strength of his people that they might rededicate their lives to pursuing his glory above all else. The verb translated here stirred in our text is often used in the context of being roused from sleep. If someone is roused from sleep, this is that same verb that is translated here stirred. We've been speaking in our study of Haggai chapter one about the condition of spiritual lethargy and how appropriate that the remedy of the Lord is to rouse us from our slumber to smack us about the face that we might awaken from this deadly spiritual condition and realize that we have no greater joy. We have no higher pursuit than to seek his glory and to seek his pleasure. that we have no greater joy or glory than walking with Christ in filial fear and gospel obedience. But if you don't want the Lord's blessing, then here's what you need to do. The service will end. You'll have some pleasant conversations with people. Perhaps you'll think to yourself or maybe say to someone in your family before you head home, Wasn't that a nice service? What a blessing it is to worship the Lord with such freedom. And then simply get on with your life as though nothing had happened. As if you hadn't spent that morning hearing the voice of Christ giving you rebuke and instruction and encouragement. And yet, how often have we done this very thing? And in terms of practical significance in our sanctification, it wouldn't have been much different if we had slept in and skipped worship altogether. But at least we came and warmed the pews. You see, these believers had been warming the pews for years, perhaps decades, and still had managed to dig themselves into a deep pit of spiritual negligence. But God is gracious. God will not allow his people to continue in this condition, unrebuked. And praise be to God that he poured out his grace, that he was faithful to his people. And he came with his word and the power of the spirit to shake them awake to the invigorating truths of who they were as the people of God. and the glory of what God had called them to participate in in this age as his sons and his daughters. And on the 24th day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius, the Church of Christ once again reclaimed her identity. Verse 14, and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God. Maybe you have been experiencing this spiritual lethargy. And Christ is calling you this day to return to him with all of your heart and to hold nothing back in the dedication of your life to his glory and the purposes of his kingdom. Return to your first love. Return to the Lord Jesus Christ. Return to the one who died in your place, who shed his blood for you, that you might forever live to his glory and might forever have eternal life in his name. In Christ alone are found all the resources of grace that you might live to the praise of the Father's glorious grace. And here we sit, the 24th day of the seventh month, In the year of our Lord, 2011. How will you respond to the sound of his voice? Let us pray together. Our Heavenly Father. We do praise you. That you have not remained silent. That you have spoken to us and revealed yourself to us in your scriptures. And that you have revealed yourself most gloriously and perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior. That our Lord Jesus is the radiance of your glory. And father, we pray that you would open our hearts and minds to hear his voice speaking to us out of his word. And that in the hearing of that most beautiful and pure voice. That we would respond. Joyfully. Willingly. That we would exalt in the giving of our hearts to our savior. and in the walking after him. In gospel fear and obedience. We pray that you would accomplish these things in our hearts this day for your glory. And for our salvation. For we pray it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.