Limavady Reformed Presbyterian Church
Studies in Haggai
Study 4
Introduction
Over the past three Sabbath Mornings in our studies in the Book of Haggai we have been considering the subject of Spiritual Apathy among the people of God and we have seen that such was the condition of God’s people in Haggai’s day. We looked at the evidences of their Spiritual Apathy, The Causes of their Spiritual Apathy and the Consequences of their Spiritual Apathy and in each case we sought to make a practical application of what we discovered to our own day and generation and our own lives.
The wonderful thing about the book of Haggai is that although it starts off on a very negative note, pointing out the sins and failures of the people of God, it is nevertheless a very positive and encouraging book, because it goes on to chronicle the wonderful spiritual revival that took place among God’s people resulting in the people turning from their sin and rededicating themselves to the work to which God had called them.
Haggai saw what very few of the prophets of the Old Testament era saw as a result of their preaching, and what many a preacher today would give their right arm to see, namely, a positive response by the people of God to the preaching of the Word of God. In short he witnessed a spiritual revival among God’s people that resulted in observable, tangible changes taking place in their lives, changes that brought their lives into conformity with God’s will for them.
Having spent the last three weeks considerng the prevailing spiritual apathy among the people of God we want this evening to begin to look at the more positive and more encouraging subject of the wonderful Spiritual Awakening that took place among the Lord’s people. I want us to consider the cause of this Spiritual Awakening. How did this change come about? What was it that made the people take up once again the work of God that they had neglected for so long.
Well there were three things.
First of all there was
1) Faithful Preaching of the Word of God:
On the first day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king something happened in Jerusalem that hadn’t happened for many years. God spoke to the people through a prophet. Ezra had ministered t the people upon their return, but Ezra’s primary role was that of priest and any message he brought to the people from the Lord was by way of expounding and explaining those revelations of God’s will which had previously been given in the Law. God hadn’t actually spoken to the people through a prophet for many years. This of course was one of the consequences of their past sins. Because of the way they had mistreated the prophets of God in the past when they had spoken the Word of God to them - ignoring them, ridiculing them, persecuting them, killing them, God had said that he would punish them by sending a famine of the Word. In other words God was no longer going to speak to them. And for many a long year there was silence from heaven. No prophets came forward with an authoritative “Thus saith the Lord.” And despite the fact that the people who had returned from Babylon had been in a state of spiritual apathy for some 16years and as such deserved nothing but punishment from God on account of their sin, God in his grace had purposed to change them and to bless them and one of the means he was going to use to bring about this change to awaken his people was by sending them a man who would declare the Word of God to them. That man was Haggai. The message Haggai was to bring to the people was a
(a) Relevant Message:
What I mean by that is he dealt with the issues that needed to be addressed and he told them what God thought about the matter and what God wanted them to do about it. He knew the major area in which the people were sinning against God and it was that subject that constituted the substance of his message to them. He didn’t come along and speak to them about how the Sabbath was to be observed, or about the fact that they were not to return to worshipping idols, nor did he remind them of the sinfulness of murder, NO! He scratched where it itched. He dealt with the immediate major spiritual problem in the life of the people – their sin of spiritual apathy and all that was included in that – their self-centredness, their woldly-mindedness and their ungratefulness to God for all that he had done for them. He pointed to the ruins of the temple and told them what God thought about their neglect of that important work.
“These people say the time is not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built…Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses while this house remains a ruin…my house remains a ruin while each of you is busy with his own house”
So God raised up a man, one whom he appointed to bring a message to the people, a message that was relevant in that it addressed the issues that needed to be addressed and addressed them in such a way as to leave the people in no doubt as to what God thought about the matter and had to say about the matter.
Not only was it a relevant message it was also a
(b) Challenging Message
It wasn’t the sort of message the people would have wanted to hear because not only did it highlight their sin it also called upon them to do something about their sin, namely to turn from it and to make those changes that were necessary to bring their lives into conformity with God’s clearly revealed will for them. “This is what the Lord almighty says, go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord.” It was a message that hit home and demanded a response. It wasn’t an interesting sermon to inform their mind it was a divine message that was intended to and which did challenge their way of life. It said to them ‘you are not living as you should and God is calling you to do something about it.’
And because it was such a relevant message and such a challenging message, it would also have been an
(c) Unwelcome Message
Unwelcome in the sense that, it wasn’t the sort of message the people would have wanted to hear. It was too pointed. Too direct. Too personal. Too close to home. It dealt with matters that they would far rather he had left alone. They would have far rather heard a nice positive encouraging message abut God’s love and God’s power and God’s goodness. Something to make them feel good. They didn’t want to hear something that would expose their sin and challenge their way of life and demand that they change.
And because this message was so relevant and so challenging and so unwelcome, it required both courage and faithfulness on the part of the prophet to deliver it. Haggai would have been all to aware of the way in which the people had treated the prophets in the past when, in the name of God, they reproved the people for their sin, challenged them with regards to their selfish attitudes and worldly conduct and called them to repentance and obedience. He knew that some had been mocked, others threatened, some disowned not only by the people in general but also by their own family circles, some had been thrown into prison and others had been murdered. He knew that if he stood up and proclaimed the Word that God had given him to preach, on the human level there was a very real possibility that he might end up being treated in the same way as his predecessors. But Haggai didn’t shrink from the task. God had given him a message to declare. It was a message that the people needed to hear if ever there was going to be the radical change that was needed in their lives. And so on the first day of the sixth month in the second year of the reign of Darius, that is on the 29th August 520 B.C. Haggai demonstrated both his faithfulness to God and his courage before man when he stood up before the people and proclaimed the Word of the Lord to them. And Haggai’s faithful preaching of God’s Word was one of the means God used to awaken his people from their spiritual apathy and revive their zeal for and commitment to the work of God.
And you know brethren when God purposes to bring about a spiritual awakening in the life of an individual believer or in the life of a congregation of his people, one of the means he uses to that end, indeed the primary means he uses to that end, is the faithful preaching of the Word of God. Preaching like Haggai’s. Preaching that is relevant to the needs of the hour. Preaching that addresses the spiritual issues that need to be addressed. Preaching that turns the thoughts of God’s people to subjects which, if given the choice they certainly would not have selected for consideration because they know that such subjects will expose their failings, their sins. Preaching that points the finger at sin, exposes it for the horrible, selfish, God-dishonouring thing that it is and challenges those who profess to be God’s people to confess those sins, turn from them and make those changes in their life that are needed in order to bring their lives into conformity with God’s will for them. When God’s people are falling into or have fallen into a state of spiritual slumber, when they are becoming or have become undisciplined in their Christian lives, not living as they should be living, not serving God as he requires and expects, not reading their Bible, not praying, not attending worship, not tithing, not witnessing and so on; When a child of god or a company of God’s people are in such a spiritual state and God in grace has purposed to restore them, it is the faithful preaching of the Word of God that He uses to awaken them; to rekindle their spiritual affections, to restore their spiritual desires, to reinvigorate their spiritual activity.
You get a beautiful illustration of this in Ezekiel 37 where we have the record of the vision that God gave to the prophet of the valley of dry bones. And in that vision God is not only showing the prophet that he can and will do what appears to be impossible, namely the raising to life again of His people who to all outward appearance seem to be a dead, defeated army, but also that one of the chief means he is going to use to bring about this revival is the preaching of the Word of God. “Son of man…prophecy unto these bones and say t them, dry bones hear the word of the Lord” And although it seemed hopeless, although it seemed in a sense irrational and a waste of time and effort, the prophet nevertheless obeyed the Word of the Lord. “So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I was prophesying their was a noise and a rattling sound and the bones came together, bone to bone…”
The revival that took place during the reign of king Josiah came about as a result of what? As a result of the Word of God being found and then being brought to the king and explained to him. When this was done and the king realised how far God’s people had strayed from God’s will, in other words when their sin had been exposed for the heinous thing that it was in God’s sight, the king and the people repented and turned to the Lord in renewed covenant obedience. There was a revival among the people and it came about as a result of them hearing the Word of the Lord.
Now God does not speak to me or to any other preacher in the same way that he spoke to Haggai – by direct revelation. I do not sit in my study during the week and wait until I hear a voice from heaven giving me the message that I am to bring to you each Lord’s Day. That is not how God speaks to us in our day and generation. God has given us the completed revelation of his mind and will in the scriptures, the 66 books of the Bible. And when a preacher faithfully expounds the passage of scripture with which he is dealing; when he gives the accurate sense and meaning of the passage as originally given and shows how it applied to the people then, and then goes on to draws out from that passage the legitimate practical implications of that portion of scripture for us today, God is speaking to us in that message. I will be dealing with this again next week (DV). Suffice to say here brethren, that if in the course of the regular exposition and application of the scriptures some sin in your life is exposed, some failing pointed out, some raw nerve touched, do not despise either the message or the messenger, whoever he might be. It may be that that God has gracious purposes in mind for you, that he is going to bring spiritual blessing into your life; that he is exposing your sin in order to make you face up to it, confess it, turn from it and thus be brought into a much closer walk with Him in which you will experience the blessing of God upon your life which on account of that sin you have been missing out on.
And if the preaching of the Word is the means God uses to bring about a spiritual awakening among God’s people; particularly preaching that is relevant and challenging then brethren we need to be praying that God would raise up many such preachers in our day in the churches throughout our land. Preachers who are faithful to the charge God has given them. Courageous preachers who as and when necessary are not afraid to expose sin, to challenge God’s people, to call them to repentance from sin and reformation of life. Preachers who as they expound the scriptures are able to say “Thus saith the Lord”. Preachers who fear the face of God more than the face of man. Pray that the churches of our land will be filled with such preachers brethren.
But whilst faithful preaching of the Word of God was one of the means God used to bring about this spiritual awakening, it was not the only means God used. For we see secondly that He also used
2) The Effectual Working of The Spirit of God:
We see that in v14 “the Lord stirred up the Spirit of Zerubabel son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people…”
The preaching of the Word of God was vitally important but in and of itself such preaching would not guarantee a positive, life changing response from those who heard it. Others of God’s prophets in the past had been faithful in bringing the Word of God to the people only to witness the people hardening their hearts to the message they heard. Zechariah, a contemporary of Haggai, reminds the people that this was how their forefathers had reacted to the message of former prophets “They refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets.”
Something was needed in addition to faithful preaching and that something was the gracious, powerful and effective work of the Spirit in the hearts of the people. And this is exactly what happened as Haggai preached. God the Holy Spirit “stirred up” the people. There was a positive divine influence exerted upon the minds and hearts of the people. Spiritually speaking the people were slumbering and working through the message that the prophet brought to the people, God stirred them out of their slumber.
The words of the prophet were taken and powerfully applied to the consciences of the people and applied in such a way as would bring about a positive, God glorifying response in the lives of those who heard.
John Calvin commenting on this verse says “God roused the Spirit of Zerubabel and of the whole people: And hence it was that they received the message of the prophet and were attentive to His words…they became obedient through the hidden impulse of God…Let us know then that Haggai’s labours produced fruit because the Lord effectually touched the hearts of the people.” Calvin goes on to say by way of application of this point “we would never be attentive to his Word, were he not to open our ears. And there would be no inclination to obey were he not to turn our hearts.”
How true those words of Calvin are! Without the accompanying inner work of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts and minds of those who are being addressed, the preaching of the Word will not produce spiritual fruit in people’s lives. Sinners will not be saved unless the Spirit effectually applies the Word that has been faithfully proclaimed. Paul preached the gospel to the women gathered on the banks of the Gangites river on the outskirts of Philippi but it was the Lord who opened Lydia’s heart so that she believed the message and trusted in Christ as saviour. Paul writing to the believers in Corinth, reflecting upon his first visit to them when during the course of his eighteen month stay in their city he preached the gospel to them and many of them believed reminds them that they came to believe as a result of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in their lives “When I came to you brothers I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God…my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstrations of the Spirit’s power …” It is the Holy Spirit who imparts life to the spiritually dead soul, regenerates the soul of the Hell bound sinner and brings them to the point where they want to and where they do trust in Christ for salvation. It is the Holy Spirit who speaks to the conscience and who touches the heart of the Christian who has fallen into sin, the believer who has become undisciplined in their Christian life, the child of God who has backslidden, and who by stirring them up brings them to the place of repentance and renewed obedience.
And since nothing of any positive spiritual consequence will be accomplished through the preaching of the Word unless that preaching is effectually applied to the hearts of men and women by the Holy Spirit we ought to be much in prayer desiring not only that God would raise up faithful preachers but also that he would send forth His Spirit to work in a powerful and effectual way as the Word is being preached.
Before we come to worship each Lord’s Day we ought to take time to pray that God the Holy Spirit would so own and so apply the message that we hear from His Word, that we might be stirred up in our hearts as the people of God in Haggai’s day were stirred up in theirs.
There is a third and final means God used to bring about this spiritual awakening among his people in Haggai’s day and it arises out of and is a fruit of the two things we have already considered, the faithful preaching of the Word of God and the Effectual Working of the Spirit of God and that third thing was
3) Serious Reflection By The People of God:
As part of Haggai’s message he called upon the people to give careful consideration to what God was saying to them. In vs 5, and 7 he says to them “give careful thought to your ways” The phrase literally means “set your heart upon” or “direct your heart towards” your ways. It means to think deeply and earnestly about something. To serious reflect upon some issue or other. To turn the matter over in ones mind. And the issue of course that Haggai was dealing with was the issue of their spiritual condition, particularly the state of spiritual apathy into which they had fallen. He is saying to them, look God wants you to take time out to think about your spiritual condition. That is why he has sent me to bring this message to you. It is with a view to getting you to face up to and to seriously reflect upon the specific failings in this area of your life that He is speaking to you. “Give careful thought to your ways.”
And it is evident from the way in which the people responded to Haggai’s message, and we will be looking at that in our next study, that they clearly did give careful thought to their ways; that they did spend time seriously reflecting upon the Word Haggai had brought to them and all that was entailed in that Word. And such serious reflection upon the Word of God, serious reflection that was produced by the working of the Spirit of God, led to the spiritual awakening that took place among the people of God.
And you know folks God calls us to such serious reflection upon the preaching of His Word. We ought to reflect upon God’s Word every time we hear it being preached but there are times when this is particularly so. Times when God in His Word is exposing sin in our life and calling us to take time out to give serious consideration to the state of our spiritual lives. I believe that God has said that to all of us at one time or another in the course of our Christian lives and that He has said it on many occasions to some of us and is saying it again to us today. “Give careful thought to your ways” There are things about your life as a Christian that are not what they should be and you need to give serious thought to them. Your not as committed to me and to my work as you should be. You are not as involved as you should be. You are not growing as you should be. You are not reading and praying as you should be. You are not living as holy a life as you should be. “Give careful thought to your ways”
It was as a result of the people taking time to seriously reflect upon the message Haggai brought to them that the wonderful change that we read of in the latter part of the chapter took place in their life.
May God the Holy Spirit so apply the message of God’s Word that we have heard this morning so as to cause us to consider our ways and to respond to the Word as Haggai’s contemporaries did.
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