Dennis Tuuri

# SERMON TRANSCRIPT – REFORMATION COVENANT CHURCH
## Pastor Dennis Tuuri

Today we turn to a portion of scripture where the psalm we just read responsively and sang seems particularly relevant. We’re going to look today at Haggai the first chapter. Haggai was one of the three prophets who prophesied after the restoration of Israel after their return from captivity. Haggai is a minor prophet. If you’re having trouble finding it, it’s toward the end of the Old Testament. Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

So Haggai is just before Zechariah. And indeed, he prophesied about the same time. And then Malachi was the last of the prophets before the prophetic word closed till the coming of our Savior. So Haggai chapter 1, I’ll be reading through the whole middle of the chapter or so. So go ahead and stand please. We’ll read the command word of our Lord and acknowledge it is a command word by our standing. In fact, I’ll read all 15 verses.

Haggai chapter 1. 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 Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying thus saith the Lord of Hosts, saying, “This people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” And then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you, oh ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house is waste?

Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but you have not enough. Ye drink, but you are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages earneth 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.

Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you 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. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her 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 labor of the hands.

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, 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 Haggai the Lord’s messenger and 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 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 did work in the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God, in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Let us pray. Almighty God, we ask that you would open our ears to hear this your word. Open our hearts, Lord God, that your word might smite us and make help us to reform our ways, Lord God. Prepare us for the opening of our hands in obedience to the work which you have called us to do that we might glorify you in all things.

Bless us, Lord God, with your Holy Spirit. Bless the speaker and bless the hearers. In Jesus name we ask it and for the sake of his kingdom. Amen. Please be seated.

Haggai arrives on the first day of that particular calendar. It’s related to our calendar as August 29th. A specific day in history, a very important day in the life of God’s people. Haggai came on the first day of the month. It was a new moon festival.

Much like our Sabbaths, it was a day of rest. It was also a day of festivities and rejoicing. But it was also a day when God came to meet with his people, which brings peace and rest and brings rejoicing and joy to their hearts. But it’s also a day that God comes to meet with his people—as it is every Sabbath day at our church and throughout this world now since the coming of Christ. It is a day when God comes to evaluate his people, to judge them, to bring them to a position of repentance for their sins, and then to encourage them in the work of the Lord.

520 BC. It has been 18 years since a new governor has arisen in Babylon. It has been probably 85 years or so since the completion of the people being taken into captivity had occurred. 70 years in exile in Babylon for the sins of the people. And then approximately 18 years before the date of Haggai’s first prophecy recorded in this book, a ruler came as the new ruler over Babylon.

Cyrus. That’s what that word means. Cyrus. Cyrus’s name in the original language is Koresh. Cyrus came into power over Babylon by conquering it. And Cyrus said that the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem must be built. God’s Spirit worked upon this ruler to effect the return of his people. His general policy was to allow the captives in his land to return back to their homelands. And that included the people of Israel, but specifically Cyrus said that the work of the temple must be completed and the temple must be rebuilt.

Cyrus understood more than probably many of the exiles did the importance of the worship place, the presence of God being symbolized in the architecture of the temple. And so it’s been 18 years since Cyrus let the exiles go back. They returned to the land and then a year or two began to build the temple of the Lord. So 15 or 16 years or so before the date of August 29th, 520 BC of this prophecy, the people of God had returned and had begun where one should begin with the worship of God.

They built the altar. Sacrifices could be made once more in the holy city of Jerusalem. They began then to build the temple and laid the foundation for it. But then work stopped. Work ceased. Opposition came to the land. And the people’s hands had sat idle in terms of the work of the Lord for 15 years or more. By the time Haggai arrives on the scene with his prophecy, reminding them that God’s house was to be built, that was the primary reason for their return from captivity.

We know much of this because the book of Ezra gives us a historical account. Turn in your scriptures to the book of Ezra, just before the book of Nehemiah. The book of Ezra gives a historical account. Ezra does as he’s preparing to come back some 75 years after the prophecies of Haggai—Nehemiah will return and begin the construction not of the temple (it will be completed by the time within 4½ years of this prophecy of Haggai), but 75 years later Nehemiah will come on the scene to build the walls of the city. You know, we’ve talked a lot in this church about the model of Nehemiah in terms of reconstruction and the rebuilding of the walls—sword and trowel, all you know all the analogies where you build and you defend at the same time.

But let’s not forget that Nehemiah followed by 75 years this particular prophecy by Haggai and followed by some 70 years the completion of the temple. The reconstruction under Nehemiah had as its basis or foundation the reconstruction of worship and the rebuilding of the temple. And that then eventually developed into the rebuilding of the walls of the city itself. And we can make an analogy between worship and civil government.

And we can say that the church is the beginning of judgment. The church must be the beginning of restoration and reconstruction. And God’s dwelling place, symbolized by architecture in the context of the Old Testament, took precedence over the building of the city itself. And as we’ll see from the prophecies of Haggai, it must take precedence over the individual establishment of people’s homes as well.

The clear message: Ezra gives a history before explaining how they led up to the situation they were in at this particular point in time. The book of Ezra does. And so in the first few chapters of Ezra, we read about the history of what Haggai is doing in the context of the prophecy we read from the book of Haggai. We read, for instance, that in chapter 3 of the book of Ezra, verse 10, we see the laying of the foundation stone.

Before this, we see the order for the people to return and build the temple. Then in chapter 3, verse 10: And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the princes in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good, for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel.

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. So we know the foundation was laid prior to this prophecy of the book of Haggai. And then chapter 4 tells us that the adversaries then come to stop the work. We read in chapter 4:1, “When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity build the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assur, which brought us up hither.”

These are the Samaritans that are speaking here.

And they say, you’re going to build, let us help you build. But the scriptures tell us specifically that they were adversaries of Judah, the people that give praise to God. That’s what Judah means—praise God, praise Yahweh—and Benjamin, the men of God’s right hand. Verse 3: Zerubbabel and Joshua that the prophecies of Haggai are directed to, and the rest of the chiefs of the fathers said unto them, “Ye have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, Koresh, the king of Persia, hath commanded, does.

Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even under the reign of Darius, king of Persia, and in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of the reign, they wrote unto him and accused against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. So the prophecy we’re speaking of—15 years before it happens—the events described by Ezra have occurred.

The people have come back under Cyrus and have begun to rebuild the temple. They built the altar. Then they laid the foundation stone for the temple. And then the Samaritans of the land say, “We want to help you build.” And they say, “No, you can’t do it. You got to be committed to God and God alone.” The Samaritans were a mixture between the faith of Yahweh, supposedly, and idolatry. And they were idolaters.

They were adversaries of God’s people. And God’s people said, “No, no, you cannot be part of this work. This work is by those who are committed and who are chosen by the Lord to be his elect. No place for syncretism, no place for pluralism in the building of God’s house.” Well, they didn’t like that much. And they then began to talk against the building project that was going on. And they became very full-fledged adversaries to the work of the temple.

And they weakened the people’s hands. The people got discouraged because of the adversaries in the context of the land who claimed, you understand, to be part of the church, who claimed to be part of the church. Those people weakened the hands of the people that had returned to build the temple. And not only did they weaken and demoralize the people, they then sent to the civil ruler who had then come into place, Ahasuerus, and they said, “These guys are bad dudes, and this is a rebellious city they’re trying to rebuild, and if you let them rebuild it, they’re going to take your taxes, and they’re going to move away.” And that king then issued a decree that the building had to stop or he would come and do battle with them and the people stopped.

So there was some reason for this delay of 15 years. First, there was the discouragement. Second, there was an official edict by a foreign ruler who had dominion over them to stop. But third, we know that wasn’t the only problem that Haggai was addressing because he doesn’t talk about that. He talks about the failure of the people themselves. Two years before the prophecy is given by Haggai—for the rebuke to them to get building again—two years before, a new ruler had replaced the one who had said they could not build anymore and that ruler gave permission. “Yeah, it’s okay again.” But they still didn’t build the house of the Lord.

So I hope you understand the timing of what’s going on here with the prophecy of Haggai. It’s really quite simple in terms of biblical chronology. The people have come back from the land 15, 20 years earlier. They begin work on the temple. They do the altar, get worship going. They’ve hit the foundation stone of the temple in place and then work stops for 15 years.

Fifteen years. Now, those 15 years were not years of a great deal of external prosperity for the people. They had adversaries in the land, people that troubled them. Building was slow in their own personal homes. People—some people—was all they could do to eke out a meager living in the context of the land. Others could eke out a living, maybe get a little bit of luxury in their homes. The scriptures talk in the book of Haggai about people with wainscoted houses. Some had that, but they didn’t really see themselves as part of a community.

What had happened was the communal vision of the restoration of the people from exile in service to Yahweh had fallen away into a bunch of individualism and no concern anymore for the corporate community, no concern for the worship of God beyond a mere fulfilling of the requirements of the sacrificial system and no concern ultimately for the honor and glory of God.

That must be where work starts. And so Haggai comes on the scene. Haggai gives five prophecies or five statements, words from God. The first four are given to Joshua and Zerubbabel, but also by way of implication to the people. As I said, this first one is given at a festival season. Haggai means “the festal one.” That’s what the name means. Remember, it’s like Festus from a negative side. We talked about in the book of Acts—the party man.

Well, he is a party guy, too. But his parties are ordained and ordered by the God of the scriptures. And so he is the festal one. And he comes to give his prophecy on a festal day, a day of rejoicing and rest, a day of God’s presence with the people. And he brings an evaluatory word. He tells the people, “What is going on? You came back to build God’s house. You’ve stopped. You started well, but you must continue what you started.

What’s going on?” He said, “You people say it’s not time to build yet? When we get our own houses in order, when the economy gets in a little better condition, maybe when we’ve raised our kids, maybe when the culture is more established and Christian commerce and Christian political action—not Christian, of course, but obviously believers based upon the word of God. When those things happen, then it’s time to focus—then as a kind of a capstone to it all—to build a dwelling place, a visible architectural manifestation of the presence of God.”

He Haggai says what God says to that kind of talk is this: Is it time for you to live in good houses? I think not. God says when you place your interests first above the interest of God, God finds that wanting. And he tells them that there is judgment upon their head. He says, “You can’t get no satisfaction, can you? You eat but never enough. You drink but that’s never enough. Now, you can’t get enough clothes to put on your back and shelter.

You can’t build your homes completely like you want to. You put in a lot of seed, but there’s not profit at the other end of the deal. And you’re wondering, what is this? You know, we know that sometimes God does those things. Always, he does it—it is partially part of the reason—is to try us, make us patient under affliction, to remind us not to set all of our desires and goals on this earth that we have to have a heavenly orientation.

But remember, too, that all those things are based upon a heavenly orientation and they do picture us the blessings of God. And specifically, Haggai is talking about covenant curse upon the people. He’s using portions of the book of Deuteronomy here in terms of food, clothing and shelter, drink. God said in Deuteronomy 8, Deuteronomy 28, and Deuteronomy 10 that those three things would be wanting when a people breaks covenant with God and fails to have his interests at heart in what they do.

The people had become despairing, slothful, sluggish in doing the work of the Lord. And Haggai tells them, “Bad deal. You want a corrective word? Here’s the word.” He said, “Don’t work harder at your own personal endeavors. Don’t try to invest more wisely. Recognize that you’ve placed your priorities above the priorities of the One who has saved you and called you and given you deliverance from sin and damnation and then the earthly manifestations of that in terms of evil rulers and being in exile because of their sin. God’s delivered you and he’s the one you must serve. He’s the one you must honor with your first fruits.

You don’t start with yourself first. You don’t pay yourself 90% and then give God the 10%—the tithe. You start with honoring God. He takes the first fruits. He takes the first of our tithes. And his building should be established first.”

We have some relatives here today from Canada, and I guess they’re from Eastern Canada. It’s probably not wise to mention Western Canada in light of what’s going on politically in Canada, but it is true. Craig is in his commentary on this particular portion of scripture says that in Western Canada, apparently the area where he grew up, it was quite common as settlements would be established—and you know, if you’ve been in Western Canada, it’s still to this day quite open, quite a lot of wide open spaces. And when that place was being established and founded by Christian people, they would begin not with the establishment of their homes first and then get their community order, then build the church. They build the church first. They built the visible manifestation of the presence of God at the center of the community first.

And I believe that’s what Haggai is chastising God’s people for here, 520 BC, August 29th, in specific words, telling them that you’re going to build your house, you think. But no, God will frustrate that effort. Matthew tells us, God tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.

Haggai gives a series of words here. But the first word, the word that must begin our Sabbath day, is a word of correction and a word from God to consider our ways when we come forward to worship him every day—as a model of what we do throughout our lives. We come forward and first confess sin and Haggai brings Zerubbabel and he brings Joshua—leaders of church and state, or state and church in the order I said them. And he brings the people to an awareness of their sin. And then he tells them what they should be doing. He says, “Build the temple of the Lord. Do the work you have been called specifically to do.”

The people of God here respond as they had 15 years earlier obediently. They’re like this church. You know, I speak. When my words are consonant with the word of God, it is amazing to see the fruit in people’s lives. Last week, talking about the basis for a godly appeal, and I know that some of you immediately put some of those truths into place based upon the word of God, and God blessed you because of it. I talked about the dangers of delay, and some of you moved in specific areas of your life to shore up some of your delays.

We’ll have a manifestation of that today symbolically as well as Dick signs the covenant with Reformation Covenant Church. People in this congregation were like the people then—they hear the word of God and they correct and they repair when God brings chastisements or judgments upon them, interpretation of those judgments. You know, frequently we need people outside of ourselves to help understand what’s going on in our lives.

These people really needed a word from the Lord outside of themselves to help them understand what was going on, to help them. We’re supposed to consider our ways by the way, isn’t it always a lot more fun to consider somebody else’s way? You know, to meditate on their sin, their shortcomings. Now, they haven’t performed up to the word of God, but you know, Haggai doesn’t say consider your neighbor’s way.

He says, “Consider your way.” Throughout the word of God, consider your ways. Think through what you’re doing. Be self-evaluatory, but recognize that process frequently needs a word from outside. One of the reasons you’re given elders, teachers, and friends and counselors is to bring a word from outside to help you evaluate what’s going on in your life and help you make sense of it. And Haggai comes here to bring evaluation to the people.

They respond in obedience. They hear the word. They repair. They begin immediately. They commit themselves to obey and fear the Lord. That’s what the text says. Their first response is a commitment to do what’s right. They’re going to obey and they’ve been brought to a renewed fear as well as a fear, a dread of his judgments upon them. They come to that fear and a desire to obey God.

And then the second word of Haggai comes—a very short word within weeks of the first word—and that second word simply is this: that God is with the people. He begins with rebuke. He moves then to encouragement or to blessing rather in terms of a response to the people’s obedience to the word of God. The second word from Haggai is a message of blessing spoken on September 21st we believe, 521, about four weeks later. The people had committed themselves—there’d probably been building committee meetings—there probably been discussion of what they could do—and then the word of God comes in blessing and says that God is with you and the people respond to that with actually beginning the work—the construction itself—that day.

And so we have this message from the book of Haggai correcting the people and then immediately their response of repentance, their response of obedience, and then the blessing of God, and then renewed work on the part of the people.

I brought outlines. Well, I didn’t bring outlines. I made very detailed outlines, and then I left them at home. The providence of God—we’ll have those in two weeks. I want to spend two weeks on this particular book of Haggai.

The third message, however, is an important one for us to consider. We won’t turn to the scriptures now. We’ll do it in a couple of weeks. But on October 17th, another four weeks later, Haggai comes to them and he says, “You know, some of you are looking at the foundation here and you’re looking at what the work is going to be doing in terms of the restoration of this temple and the reconstruction of it and you’re discouraged.

You know, book of Ezra says that some of the older men wept aloud. You couldn’t hear who was cheering or who was crying and weeping as the temple was being rebuilt because the older ones there remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple. And they said, “This temple is nothing in comparison.” They were discouraged in the work and it is easy to grow discouraged in the work of our Lord.

These people had begun to build and some remembered former days that were better than these days. And Ecclesiastes warns us against that. You know, it’s not a wise thing to ask, why were former days better than these days? And these people were given a degree of chastisement. They had to be reminded that indeed God would bless them greatly. That this temple, Haggai said, is going to be greater and more splendid than Solomon’s temple.

Now, it wouldn’t architecturally, but Haggai begins to move toward a reconsideration of what this temple is all about. Speaking to the coming temple, the Lord Jesus Christ, the body that God prepared for our Savior, the body he came and suffered in. And his body is the ultimate temple. And then his people represent that temple as well.

So after the building began, the blessing of God comes upon them. They continue the work and then they grow discouraged somewhat and a message of encouragement comes from Haggai to the people.

And then the fourth word in the text of Haggai in chapter 2 is an exhortation to personal holiness. He tells them in Haggai chapter 2 he gives them a teaching lesson. He says you know how does holiness work, folks? He says if you have something that’s holy do the things that it touch become holy too by way of association? Ask the priest this. The priest say well no they don’t. He says well if you’ve touched a dead thing, if you’ve become unholy, is uncleanness rather transmitted to people that you contact? He said well yes it is and he was using this to bring to the people a recognition that it wasn’t enough just to build the temple of the Lord. They themselves, as they were reforming and reconstructing the temple of God, had to reform and reconstruct their own lives.

If they brought offering materials, if they worked on the temple in an unclean state themselves without paying attention to their moral integrity, apparently that’s what they were doing. And Haggai says, “Your work is unfit then. Not enough. Best to build the temple. You must at the same time recognize the reality of what that temple is picturing to you. The temple pictures the holiness of God as well as their ritual integrity, their conformity to proper worship in the context of building the church.

The tabernacle at that time, the temple at that time, was important. Moral integrity was just as important. It’s what it symbolized—the purity of that temple, the presence of God in the midst of his people. And God doesn’t live in the midst of an unclean people. And any people that set themselves to a task must remember that the fulfillment of that task, God requires moral purity on their part. Their hard attitude is constantly being evaluated by God.

It’s not enough to do the work. It’s not enough to raise your kids. It’s not enough to go off to work and do what you’ve got to do to get the job done. God says all that becomes unclean before him, not seen as a good thing by you, if your moral integrity has lapsed, if you’re involved in personal sin you haven’t repented of. So Haggai says you got to be morally upright.

And then he gives his fifth word to Zerubbabel, giving him a word of encouragement. We’ll talk more about the whole thrust of the book in a couple of weeks. But I want us to see here that what we’ve got going on in the context of the book of Haggai, particularly the first chapter, is recalling the people to a consideration of their ways and that a commitment to building the temple of the Lord, which had been stopped because of the laxity of the people.

Calvin drew an analogy between the book of Haggai and the times that he lived in. He said, “You know, God has done a great thing in our day and age. He’s brought us out of exile, so to speak. He has given his people freedom by turning them to correct understanding of his word and doctrine and called them to live in now a reformed area that was once dominated at that time by an idolatrous church.” Calvin said there’s some corollaries here because the people in our day and age—the people at Geneva—had grown somewhat lax to their duties to God in their moral integrity in their commitment to building the church of God.

And I think that it’s important for us to think through where we’re at today at Reformation Covenant Church. As we stand here today, consider our ways and what God has done with us. There’s much correlation between the work of the people during Haggai’s time and our work as well. The last 10 or 15 years, God has done a work here at Reformation Covenant Church. He’s done that work in various other works across this country and indeed across the world.

He is in the process of bringing his people out of exile, so to speak, out of captivity to sin and out of bondage to the sin errors of Arminianism or of a liberal reformed church that does not see the word of God as the basis for every area of life and thought in terms of this congregation. God has done a tremendous work in delivering us out of servitude to a messianic state and a thinking that the state can save us. The state can provide old age security. The state can provide a proper education for our children. The state can provide a safe net of physical sustenance for its people. That’s where this country is. And that’s where we were apart from the grace of God.

And we were in churches that denied God’s law, that put a distinction between the law of God and the grace of God instead of seeing the graciousness of God’s law. And most of us were in churches that saw only darkness ahead in terms of the future. There are people in this congregation that stopped having children because they didn’t want to raise them up for Christ. We’ve been delivered from much here. We’ve been blessed by God mightily. He’s brought back his people and he is in the process of restoring his church in our day and age. Praise God for that.

Let’s not forget the blessedness of the position we stand in. Let’s remember that for many of us, the last dozen or 15 years have been ones of great deliverance. God has raised up mighty men to give us tremendous instruction. I’ve never seen such an amount of reading material that points us in the correct way to applying the word of God and challenges us to do it. Every year that amount grows. We can mention many things—the homeschooling movement, etc. The point is, I hope you recognize what God has accomplished in your life through the secondary means of in part at least Reformation Covenant Church.

But it’s easy for us to grow weary. It’s easy for us to grow discouraged in the work of the Lord. Particularly so when there are detractors in the context of the visible church—as there were during Haggai’s time—who said it can never be done. Forget all about that. The vision is too big. You’re just frustrating people left and right with such words. Or saying that you’re rebellious in a harlot city. That’s what they said about Jerusalem.

That’s what they’ll say about a reconstructed and reforming church. “Always reforming. Rebels against authority.” That’s what their charge against Haggai’s people were. Detractors. It’s easy to go discouraged. And while the people may not have left Jerusalem, they sure got a little slowed down about doing the work that God had called them to do. Sloth is a tremendous factor in the life of God’s people.

God’s people—called them to consider their ways and he wanted them to understand that they had become slothful in the classic sense of the word. They had lost heart. Remember I’ve talked to you about this: acedia or acidia. Loss of heart was the term that the early church used when it talked about sloth. The slothful man loses heart for a task. And after he loses his heart for the task, he comes up with lots of reasons why he shouldn’t be doing it. The slothful man says, “There’s a lion in the streets. I can’t go out today. There’s danger out there.” The slothful man is more conceited in his own wisdom than seven wise counselors. He knows more. It won’t work. He says, “Too much danger in all of that.”

Ah, you got to watch it there because if you start getting involved in buildings, well, that’s the physical stuff. What we really want to focus on is the spiritual stuff. Well, now it can be and frequently is in churches idolatrous to consider building projects. But that’s what Haggai is about. He’s taken hits by the way—Haggai has—from some commentators who are just worried about a building project.

Now, of course, he was talking about the temple and I’m talking now about application relative to physical structures of churches today. But there is a correlation. There’s not a one-to-one correlation. We don’t have a prophetic word saying when we should build in the exact architecture, etc. But there are correlations because that temple was a visible manifestation of the presence of God in his people.

Was he there anyway? Yes. His word had just come to the people. He’d been with them for 15 years. He’d been with them bringing them out of exile. He was there. But it is a visual manifestation of the presence of God. And it is a test of people’s commitment to honor God with the first fruits of their lives. How much is the glory of God their desire? Or how much is the well-being of their own self or their house or their little group of friends, their desire? What comes first? The church of Christ or other things?

A slothful man says lots of reasons why we can’t do those things. The slothful man, to be brought out of that sloth, needs to have a heart tuned back to the project. But first and foremost, he needs a heart tuned to God and turned to God as well. His motivation must be the glory of God. It must be once more to do war against the flesh, to sacrifice, to take up one’s cross and to put the glory and honor of Jesus Christ before his own personal well-being.

That’s always what leads us away. And it’s always the first step to recovery—to have our hearts return to our first love. As the Revelator said to the church of Ephesians, they’ve done much work. Good doctrine, they don’t like evil people. You lost your first love. He says the Lord Jesus Christ. The context of New Testament times, the temple of God, the church of God, the community of God—and that includes long-term and architectural structure as well.

We don’t want some kind of physical-spiritual dichotomy. We don’t want slothful words. We want to recognize the importance of God in giving us a vision for reconstruction. That vision has to do with our own lives. I’m a renter and it’s all too easy for me personally to be in a position of just letting that slide in. Never taken the steps necessary to move away from the bondage that renting or purchasing a house long-term is.

We must have plans personally to remove ourselves from that kind of debt and bondage. Now, maybe it’s intergenerational on my part—unless God works in a very amazing way—but there must be steps nonetheless. You don’t get there if you don’t plan and take the step to do it. That’s God’s secondary means. And maybe one of the reasons why some of us haven’t been able to attain that is because we put that priority instead of starting first with the visible manifestation of God’s presence with us in terms of a building structure at Reformation Covenant Church.

Now, there are lots of manifestations today about building the temple of God. We’ve got extended family here today and one of the ways that the temple of God is built is by faithful parents giving birth to children—holy seed. I talked about that at our graduation celebration Friday evening. There was a baby boy born this morning to the Wilsons. Pray is God’s name for that. It’s a way of God building his temple.

The people of God are the temple of God. They’re his church. The visible manifestation, again, as they congregate together. And the temple in the Old Testament, the people would encamp around it. It was a visible manifestation of the whole host of God’s people, his army, manifested in architecture and then in the structure of the people themselves.

We’re going to have a baptism of a man this morning, Mr. Hurst, and his and Mrs. Hurst’s children. Baptism is a way that God builds his temple. He adds people to the visible community of Jesus Christ. Dick is signing the church covenant. As people mature in the faith, they see the necessity and importance of membership in a local church and that’s building the temple, the manifestation of God’s dwelling place at Reformation Covenant Church.

Mark is here today. Praise God for his work, missionary work in Poland. That’s kind of a, you know, we don’t think of that. Comes from Poland. It’s instructed in the faith goes back as a missionary to Poland. Is he coming back from? Is he a missionary from Poland or America? I don’t know exactly. But the point is that missionary work trying to establish churches throughout this world. The vision that Christ gives us in the Great Commission is part of God’s building his temple.

And then finally, we have today a visible manifestation of God’s building his church. I brought some forms today that are a visible representation of what I believe we should be doing at Reformation Covenant Church in terms of application of the book of Haggai and that is to begin to plan and build for and commit to the development of a physical manifestation of the presence of God, an establishment of an outpost so to speak, a permanent place for congregation, for base of operations for the army of God—that particular platoon or battalion that is Reformation Covenant Church.

And I brought commitment forms today. I didn’t know how to get into this exactly, but you know, for two years, the prayer group leaders and the officers of Reformation Covenant Church had been praying. God has laid it on our hearts several years ago to begin to talk about and pray about whether it’s time for Reformation Covenant Church to consider building. And I’m sure that it’s well past time to begin to plan for and develop a set fund for that purpose.

We waited though. We wanted to make sure we were being led by God, that there was unanimity among the prayer group leaders and the officers and then steps were taken. We prayed first and then about I think it was probably about nine months ago or so, we appointed—actually the elders did—Elder Mayher and myself appointed Howard L. and Dave H. to head up a group. We then called a building fund committee or a building council.

We then appointed several other men from the congregation. You know the principles laid down for us in the book of Corinthians about offerings and giving is that those monies that are dedicated to particular purposes by the people should be set aside in the hands of men who could be trusted for their financial integrity and we chose men for that purpose. In addition to Dave H. and Howard L., Chris W., Takashi Pakuda, and Deacon Garrett are on that building council.

They came to the elders a couple of months ago—a month or so ago—with a recommendation for a name. That name is the William C. Beers Bethel Fund and I believe that is an excellent name, reminding us of our heritage again. What happened 15 years ago here in this portion of the state, the work of Judge Beers, calling God’s people to a self-conscious commitment. The subtitle of the fund is “brick upon brick.”

Judge Beers always said he was laying bricks, putting making bricks in the basement, building the foundation. And as we consider the foundation of a permanent dwelling place for Reformation Covenant Church, that is an excellent motto to keep before us.

I think that it is important for us to move forward in obedience to God. I think that as I said earlier, it is important as a test of our commitment to placing God first instead of our personal well-being. It is also, however, an aspect of practical application of the faith. Haggai was both a visionary and a practical person. He was a visionary who had a vision of the importance of God’s dwelling in the context of his people and the reconstruction of church and state. Remember the prophecies are directly given to church and state, the high priest and the ruler and governor of the people.

And that vision would be even more completed when Nehemiah comes on the scene and the building of the walls of Jerusalem begins. All of this preparatory, of course, to the coming of our Savior. He had a vision. He also was a man of practical application. He knew that the vision must be initiated with several steps. And so it is with us today. There’s a practical need for the establishment of a permanent dwelling place for Reformation Covenant Church.

You know, financial advisers will tell you that if you try to take care of everything you have and then see what you have left over at the end of the month as a means of saving or budgeting, for instance, for a long-term project such as building your own home or buying your own land, that you normally will never get to any money at the end of the month. But if you take that money and dedicate it first, you will get by with what’s left.

And the people of God, I believe, were firmly—in fact they were told this by Haggai. He said from this day forward, from the day of your commitment to putting God first. From this day forward those small crops you receive will turn into large crops. God will bless his people and God will also make provision for his people by being self-disciplined. If that consideration of God is placed first, then we’ll find that there is enough money left over to take care of our needs first. God promises us that in the scriptures. He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things shall be added unto you.”

I don’t want to go too long this morning, but I do think it’s important to think about the application of Haggai 1 in terms of how we then should build at Reformation Covenant Church. That’s really the title of my talk today: “How Shall We Then Build?” And it’ll be the title of my talk in two weeks as well.

And we should build with the consideration of extended family—family with a thanking of God for the children that are born into this congregation. We should build by baptizing children into visible covenant relationship with God. We should build by having people covenant into membership at Reformation Covenant Church. We should build by supporting missionaries who take that gospel all over the world in obedience to the Great Commission. And I believe we should also build by establishing a pool of money, a fund committed to offerings to God for the construction of a physical place—a visible manifestation of the presence of God in the context of our community here in Portland.

I believe that this building must begin with thanksgiving. How should we then build? We should build with thanksgiving. The people that Haggai addressed were people that were rescued from exile, that were brought into a position of salvation. In fact, Haggai in his prophecies makes mention of the Exodus from Egypt and how God blessed them then and he would bless them similarly. He’ll shake the heavens and earth, he said, and the wealth of the nations will flow into the people of God, just as I shook the heavens and earth in the deliverance from Egypt.

As surely in this congregation as we should focus and remember our deliverance, our salvation, our sovereign election by God, and him bringing us sovereignly—dragging us, kicking and screaming—to a position of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and service to him, we must also recognize the development and maturation that he has done in bringing us out of the exile of Arminian theology, bankrupt churches, no vision for the future, and a positive rejection of God’s standard as the means by which we’re to live our lives on the basis of the power of the Holy Spirit given to us on the basis of Christ’s work.

Thanksgiving and a desire to glorify God should motivate anything we do in this area. That must be the first consideration. And we must be committed, as I said, to seek first the kingdom of God. We should build by having a priority of the honor and glory of God in the context of our community. We should build with sacrifice as well. Our Lord tells us to take up our cross daily to deny ourselves and live unto God.

It’s not really placing God first if we’re all set and everything, then we happen to use what we’ve got left over for the purposes of God’s kingdom. No, he says we should build sacrificially and we should build counting the cost. Jesus said that no man builds a tower or goes out to war without counting the cost. And as we look forward to what God might accomplish at Reformation Covenant Church, it is appropriate—more than appropriate, it’s necessary—to make plans to count the cost of what we can and cannot accomplish.

Jesus was referring to contemporary examples of his day. There was a tower half built. If you’ve ever been up to Seattle in the area of the church up there, the motel we used to stay at up there…