Blessing Upon the Unholy

woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

You see, the truly insane person isn't Luther spending six hours in a confessional trembling over every one of his sins. It's those of us with a cavalier attitude who've grown so unconcerned and comfortable with sin. And the truly confounding question isn't how can God let bad things happen to good people? It's how can God bless unholy people like you and me? And yet as we turn to this final section in the book of Haggai this morning, that's exactly what we see God saying he's going to do. He says, my people are unclean and every work of their hands, but I will bless them. How can that be? Well, we're going to see that the answer is tied to the significance of the temple and Israel's messianic hope. But before we dive into that, let me remind you where we've been. Haggai is prophesying in the year 520 BC. The Jews were exiled to Babylon in 586 BC, so that's 66 years earlier. And the whole city of Jerusalem, including the temple, had been utterly destroyed. But then in 539 BC, Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon and soon after issues a decree that all Jews can return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. And so, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua, about 50,000 Jews had returned and began reconstruction. But then soon after that, opposition to the work arose and the work stalled. And by 520 BC, over 15 years later, the work was still stalled. And it seems the Jews' determination to rebuild the temple had waned. Life was hard. Resources were scarce. Enemies were numerous. It just didn't seem to them like the right time to undertake this massive construction project. But on August 29th of 520 BC, Haggai began to prophesy. And through Haggai, God accuses his people of having disordered priorities. He says,

is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while my house lies in ruins? Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified.

And God says to them, consider your ways. You know that yes, there's drought and famine and hardship in your life, But far from those being reasons why you should not rebuild the temple, I'm the one who has sent them to discipline you and intend to stir you up to reorder your priorities and resume construction. And encouragingly, the people receive this word from the Lord and repent. And in barely three weeks time, construction on the temple has resumed. Now, as we saw last week, roughly another three weeks after that, so this is October 17th, God sends another message through Haggai, and this is one of encouragement. It seems that as the construction got underway, the sheer magnitude of the work had begun to sink in, and the people are feeling discouraged. How are we gonna get the materials? How are we gonna find the manpower to do this work? And what about all our enemies who will attack us? And then even if we somehow succeed and build this temple, there's this demoralizing sense that it's still not gonna compare to what was before, to the glory of Solomon's temple. So God sends them a word of encouragement. He says, be strong, work, and don't be afraid because I am with you and I will do for you what you cannot do for yourselves. Just as I was with your fathers when they came out of Egypt, according to that same covenant, I am now with you today to strengthen and enable you to do the work I've called you to do. And then in the end, God says, I myself am the one who will shake the earth and bring all the treasures of the nations into my house and fill this house with glory. And the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. And as we come now to the very end of Haggai, it seems that the people have indeed taken that encouragement. They've been strong and worked, and they've now reached a significant milestone in the construction process. Haggai delivers his third and fourth prophecies on the same day. You can see there in verses 10 and 20 that it's the 24th day of the ninth month. which is December 18th of 520 BC. That's almost exactly two months after the second prophecy. And verse 18 tells us that this marks the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. Or in the language of verse 15, it's the day on which stone has been placed upon stone. Now it's a little tricky to pinpoint exactly what this means because Ezra chapter 3 also speaks of a special celebration on the day the foundation of the temple was laid, but that was over 15 years earlier. So maybe that was the laying of the cornerstone and this is the finishing of the base layer. Or maybe that was the finishing of the base layer and this is the laying of stone upon stone to bring it up to floor level. If there's anything my own construction experience has taught me, there's always more steps than you think. But some significant milestone involving the foundation of the temple has been reached. And these last two prophecies coincide with that day. And as I hope to show you this morning, God's final message to his people through Haggai is that they are defiled, but he will bless them. And ultimately, that's because they have a messianic hope. So the main idea of the text in my sermon is this, God will bless his unholy people through the Messiah. God will bless his unholy people through the Messiah. And as we walk through the passage, we'll unpack that in three points. And the first is this, God's people are pervasively unclean. God's people are pervasively unclean. Look with me at verses 10 through 14.

On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ask the priests about the law. If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priest answered and said, no. Then Haggai said, if someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean? The priest answered and said, it does become unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, so is it with this people. And with this nation before me declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands, and what they offer there is unclean.

Okay, so God has Haggai ask the priests some questions about the transmission of holiness and uncleanness. And the priests rightly answer that if someone's carrying holy meat in their garment, then that holiness does not transfer to them in such a way that other things they touch would also become holy. But if someone touches something unclean, like a dead body, the uncleanness does transfer to them in such a way that other things they touch also become unclean. Okay, so uncleanness is transmissible or contagious in a way that holiness isn't. And this should have been a very familiar illustration to the people. They would be living out this law every day of their lives. But of course, God had given that law for a purpose. He had designed this whole system of ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness in order to teach his people spiritual lessons and help them understand something about what's required for them to be in a relationship with a holy God. So notice how God applies this to the spiritual condition of the people in verse 14. Haggai says,

so it is with this people and with this nation before me declares the Lord and so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.

In other words, just like the uncleanness of a person who touches a corpse spreads to anything else he touches, well so does spiritual uncleanness. The sinfulness of the people contaminates every work of their hands and even their sacrifices themselves. It's like when your three-year-old's been playing in the mud and he comes into the living room. You know, every work of his hands becomes a problem. Our sin is like that. It's not just the things that we do. Sin is more fundamentally a condition of our hearts. It's the hatred, the pride, the jealousy and selfishness, the lust and the greed, the unbelief that resides within us. And that not only causes us to do outwardly bad things, but it also taints and contaminates even the best things we do. And so we might serve tirelessly in the church, but do it just to get approval and recognition from others. Or we might abstain from drunkenness or pornography, but then be puffed up with pride as if we're better or superior to others. or we might be really nice to people, but not because we truly love and care about them, but because we care about what they can do for us. You see, there's all sorts of ways that sin taints and corrupts even the good things we do. That's why Isaiah 64, six says,

but we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.

I mean, even the finest silk is reduced to a filthy rag when you put it on an unclean, festering sore. And at the end of the day, the only thing that's actually pure in God's sight is when what you do is primarily motivated by a desire for the glory of God and flows from loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And anything less than that is sin, is unfit for our holy God. So even if you sell everything you possess to give to the poor, and you do it out of a compassion for poor people, but you don't do it out of a love for God and a faith in Him and a desire to honor Him first, you've actually still sinned. I mean, it would be sort of like if someone brought a bunch of gifts to your children because they thought you weren't being a good enough parent. You see, even charity can be an insult to God. Or even if you memorize the whole Bible and you share the gospel with thousands of people and preach the most powerful sermons, but you do it to impress people. I mean, it's like if someone showed up at your wedding and tried to steal the show with some performance of their own. You see, we rob God of His glory when we try to share the spotlight with Him. And the point is, sin is utterly pervasive in our lives. And friends, the reality is, probably not even for one moment of a single day have you or I ever done anything that's truly pure in the sight of God. And like the Jews, we're unclean. And that uncleanness transmits to every work of our hands. And then to make matters worse, it's not like holiness can be transmitted back to us in the way that uncleanness can. You know, God draws attention here to the fact that it generally only goes one direction. And as much of the Jews may have hoped that their sacrifices would offset their uncleanness and make them holy before God. Notice that verse 14 says, and what they offer there is unclean. In other words, far from their sacrifices being effective in curing their uncleanness, the people's uncleanness is contaminating their sacrifices. They might as well be offering pigs. The sacrifices are unclean because their hands with which they offer them are already defiled. And for us, if you think there's some sort of sacrifice or good works you can do to earn God's favor or make up for your sin, I mean, you're actually only making the situation worse. I mean, just imagine someone murdered your family, and then to try to make up for it, they said, here's $100. I mean, would that not be infuriating? I mean, all that would communicate is how little they appreciate the seriousness of what they've done. And friends, it's the same thing when we try to offer our good works to offset our sins before God. You see, the sad reality is that we are sinners, and there is nothing we can do to fix it. There is no island of righteousness or purity left in the human heart. We're totally contaminated by sin, and we're helpless in it. Sin is like a cliff. Anyone can fall off it, but that doesn't mean you can climb back up. So why is God telling them this? What does God want his people to do? Some have read this and thought, well, there must be some specific sin God's calling them out for. He wants them to repent, and maybe that's why their sacrifices are unclean. But I don't see an indication of that in the text. And in fact, if anything, it seems that the people have been particularly faithful of late. I mean, this day marks a day of achievement as they rebuild the temple in obedience to God. So I don't think God is calling them to repent of a specific sin here. I think he's wanting them to understand the reality about their sinful condition. He wants them to understand that even in their faithfulness, their faithfulness and sacrifices are totally insufficient to earn his blessing or make them acceptable in his sight. In other words, their only hope is not in themselves, but in the Lord. And effectively, what verses 10 through 14 are doing is bold, italicized, and underlining what God himself will do. And friends, that brings us to the second point. So God's people are pervasively unclean, but God will bless them. Number two, but God will bless them. Look with me at verses 15 through 19. Haggai continues,

now then, consider from this day onward, before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord. How did you fare? When one came to a heap of 20 measures, there were but 10. When one came to the wine vat to draw 50 measures, there were but 20. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. Consider from this day onward, from the 24th day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider, is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on, I will bless you.

So God's saying, mark the day. Consider from this day onward, I will bless you. You can look back from this day and see how you have suffered famine and fruitlessness and blight and mildew and hail, but you will be able to look forward from this day. and see my blessing upon you. And notice the repetition of the word consider. That was also a key word back in chapter one. In chapter one, the people had failed to consider their ways and realize that the cause of their futility and calamities was God himself. Well here, God's saying, don't make that mistake again. You know, when I bless you, don't credit it to good luck. Don't credit it to better farming strategies. Don't forget how hard things were before, but mark it down that as of this day, things will change and know with certainty, it's because of me. And friends, just as an aside, I mean, this is a reminder to us that we should strive to be cognizant of God's discipline and God's blessing in our lives. how he's working providentially all around us. But the real driving question for us is, but why will God bless them? I mean, after everything he said in verses 10 to 14 about their uncleanness, you would expect just the opposite. So why bless them? Well, it's clearly connected to the rebuilding of the temple, right? God is marking the day of this blessing as the day the foundation of the temple was laid. And on one level, it is in response to the people's obedience. There's chapter one made clear previously God was disciplining his people for not rebuilding the temple. Well now he's gonna reverse that discipline with blessings since they are rebuilding it. But that can't be the whole picture. Because it's not like the act of rebuilding the temple has suddenly made the people clean. You know, verse 14 doesn't say, well, you were unclean before you started rebuilding, but now things are different. No, God says you are unclean. And the whole point of the discussion about the non-transmissibility of holiness is that they can't make themselves clean by doing good things. And further, if you look ahead to Ezra and Nehemiah and Malachi, it's very clear that these people are gonna continue to behave uncleanly in sin. Divorce, there's intermarriage, there's oppression of the poor, they're offering blind sacrifices. So there's this tension. It's the same one we discussed with Martin Luther at the beginning. How can an unholy people be blessed by a holy God? Well, at least the first ingredient to the answer isn't tied so much to the act of rebuilding the temple itself but to what that act symbolized. You see, the temple represents the presence of God. By offering sacrifices without committing to rebuild the temple, the people had been previously saying, in effect, we don't need God's presence. We hope he'll bless us for bringing these sacrifices to him. We hope these sacrifices will cleanse us in his sight. But they were content to be without God. In the language of verse 17, they had not turned to the Lord. They were trying to get along without him. But by rebuilding the temple, they were seeking God's presence. They were at least symbolically saying, God, we need you to be our source of salvation and cleansing. And God chooses to bless them in conjunction with the rebuilding of the temple to make the point that he is the one. who's going to do just that by his own power and grace. As Hoon already read for us from Ezekiel 36, God's people are totally unclean, totally undeserving. But God says,

I am about to act not for your sake, but for my holy name's sake.

And God says,

I will sprinkle clean water on you. And you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

God's saying, I myself will cleanse my people. And his temple symbolizes his presence among them to do just that. In fact, as you come to the end of the book of Ezekiel, there's this vision of a restored temple. And it's a temple of grand proportions. But perhaps what's most striking of all is that out of the temple, there's water flowing. And the water flows out and creates this vast river. And Ezekiel goes in and every hundred cubits, it gets a little deeper, or every thousand cubits, it gets a little deeper until finally he's swimming. And then he says, on either side of the river, there are these lush fruit trees, and there's these vast schools of fish. And then the river flows out into the dead sea, and the sea becomes fresh. So it's a picture of cleansing. life and blessing flowing from God's temple out into the world. And that's the picture I think God wants to reinforce here in Haggai 2. He's connecting the restoration of the temple with his own presence, coming forth not to judge, but bless his people. Him coming to make his temple glorious and ultimately to bless the world. But that still doesn't answer the question of how this is gonna work. Because what's gonna keep this from spiraling downhill like the first time? Solomon already built a temple and Israel wound up in exile. And if God is a holy God, how exactly can he draw near to cleanse and bless his people without consuming them in the process? Well, that brings us to our third and final point. Right, so number one, God's people are pervasively unclean. Number two, but God will bless them. And number three, this will ultimately be realized through the Messiah. This will ultimately be realized through the Messiah. Look at verses 20 through 23.

The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the 24th day of the month. Speak to Zerubbabel. governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.

So God first reiterates his promise from chapter two, verse six, that he's going to shake the earth. And as we discussed last week, this is when God shakes all the evil and sin out of the world, just like we might beat the dust out of a doormat. And only God's unshakable kingdom will remain. And notice also that God says he will overthrow all kingdoms and horses and riders will go down by the sword of their brother. So just like he did on multiple occasions in the Old Testament, God will turn the swords of his enemies against themselves. He's demonstrating his absolute power and sovereignty. What I wanna focus on here is God's promise to Zerubbabel. He says,

I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you.

Now, a king's signet ring represented his authority. He'd use it to stamp and authenticate some decree or document he'd issued. And it was also personally identified with the king himself. So it symbolizes something precious to him. But the mention of a signet ring also takes on added significance in light of Jeremiah 22, verse 24. So in that passage, God said to Jehoiachin, who was among the very last of the Davidic kings of Judah,

though you were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life. I will hurl you into another country where you were not born and there you shall die.

And that's what God did in the exile. I mean, it's as if he took off the signet ring of the Davidic dynasty and threw it away. I mean, he had enough of their sin and these kings who were just evil. And so by all outward appearances, the Davidic line had failed. There was no more kingdom. and there was no more king, and therefore it would seem there could be no Messiah. But now, the significance of what God's saying to Zerubbabel here is that he is in effect putting the signet ring back on again. You see, remember, Zerubbabel is of the line of David. In fact, Jehoiachin was Zerubbabel's grandfather. And so God has preserved the line. And what God is saying is that the messianic hope of a son of David is alive again through him. Now the point isn't that Zerubbabel himself is the Messiah. We're not really used to using names this way. But for example, in Ezekiel 34, the Messiah is called David, even though David's long been dead. But the point is, Zerubbabel stands in the Messianic line. And God is renewing the promise of a coming Messiah through him. And notice something else here. Up to this point in the book, we've always seen Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubbabel and Joshua. And now we come to the end, and it's Zerubbabel alone. And given that we've just been talking about the temple, you'd think, if anything, God would have something to say about the high priest. Where's Joshua? What about the line of Aaron? I mean, who's gonna make sure that this new temple is as glorious and holy as it's supposed to be? But subtly, and I think significantly, God focuses all attention on the messianic line alone. Because ultimately, the temple The priesthood and the kingship are all coming together in him. In fact, as the Jews should have already known from Psalm 110, God had already said of the coming Messiah,

the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

All right, so the Messiah will be the priest. The line of Aaron is gonna come to an end. And as Malachi 3.1 says,

the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

In other words, the Messiah comes not only to reign as king, but to be the high priest. who brings cleansing to God's people so that they can be blessed by him. And friends, I just wanna show you as we turn to the New Testament how all of this is beautifully fulfilled in Christ. First of all, when you look at Jesus' genealogy in Matthew chapter one, notice that Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, is listed right there in the middle of it. God was faithful to his promise that the Messiah would come through him. And then, if you flip over to John chapter one, when John is describing the coming of Christ into the world, note that he says,

and the word became flesh and dwelt.

The word is literally tabernacled among us. That's temple language. He's saying that Jesus himself is the true tabernacle or temple of God. Jesus is the very presence of God come to dwell in our midst. And that's why it's also from Jesus himself that we see the cleansing and blessing of God flowing out to the world. So for example, there's this crowd pressing around Jesus and then a leper shows up. And you can imagine all the people in the crowd just desperately trying to get away from this leper lest they touch him and become unclean. And yet the leper says to Jesus,

Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

And Jesus says,

I am willing, be clean.

And he stretches out his hand and touched him. And then in the complete reverse of what we just read about in Haggai 2, verses 10 to 14, it's not the uncleanness of the leper that transmits to Jesus and defiles him. It's Jesus's cleanness. that transmits to the leper. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. You see this is almost like a little microcosm of the blessing that was being promised by Ezekiel's temple coming to pass. But it's not just that Jesus brings the blessing of physical healing. Jesus brings the blessing of forgiveness itself. So when a paralytic is lowered through the roof right in front of him, Jesus looks at him and says,

man, your sins are forgiven you.

People are thinking, who can this be? I mean, who can forgive sins but only God alone? And then Jesus says,

but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, rise, take up your bed and go to your house.

And the man gets up and does just that. So Jesus brings the forgiveness and the cleansing and the blessing of God to us. And he's able to do that not only because he is God, but because he also became the sacrifice that we need. Throughout the Mosaic Law, not only does God teach his people these principles about the transmission of holiness and uncleanness, But he also teaches them that the only way unclean things are cleansed is through sacrifice, through the shedding of blood. But as Hebrews explains to us, the blood of bulls and goats could never truly take away sin. That's why they had to be continuously repeated. They were all along meant to point to the need for something more, something greater. As Haggai chapter two just told us, even the sacrifices of the people were themselves unclean because the people were. But Jesus has now come as the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As Brian read from Hebrews chapter nine, it says,

but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, Then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh

through an outward ceremonial sense alone.

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

You see, Jesus cleanses us from our works that lead to death by suffering the punishment for our sins in our place. He is the sacrifice the propitiation that bore the wrath of god so that we would not have to And he is our high priest Who sprinkles his cleansing blood not in an earthly tabernacle or temple? Which are but copies of the heavenly reality? But in the presence of god in heaven itself ensuring our eternal redemption Which can never be taken away? And that's why, as Martin Luther eventually came to realize, we're not saved because God is gracious enough to just sort of overlook our more minor failings. No, every single sin would plunge us into hell. We're saved because Jesus paid it all. Because the full penalty of all our sin, great or small, was paid in full by Christ on the cross. And therefore, even though we're just like the Jews of Haggai's day, we're unclean and every work of our hands is defiled. But God will bless us. God has blessed us. And that blessing has been realized in and through his promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who has become God's true signet ring. because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. The one who is our great high priest and God's temple itself, who even now is present with us and through his church is causing God's cleansing and blessing to flow out into all creation, in anticipation of the fulfillment of that glorious vision of the new Jerusalem, we looked at briefly last time from Revelation chapter 21, and Jesus is the one who's coming back. will shake the heavens and the earth and shake all nations and establish everlasting peace. And so friends, as we prepare to close, what does all this mean for us? I just want to briefly mention a few points of application. Number one, our sin is so much worse than we think. As you walk away from this sermon, I hope that the pervasiveness of sin in your heart and life is more clear to you. I hope you can see why, for Luther, who didn't understand the gospel at the time, why it wasn't crazy to spend six hours in a confessional. That's the reality of how sinful we really are. And therefore, number two, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I pray that you would flee to Christ. I hope this sermon helps you understand why there's nothing you can do to approve yourself before God. Why no amount of good deeds you can offer or any religious service could possibly earn your place in heaven. Your only hope is to turn to the Lord, to seek his mercy. And the amazing news of the gospel is that

whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Anyone who comes to Christ, he will by no means cast out. It does not matter how sinful you are. His cleansing blood is enough for you. Number three, if you are a Christian, I pray that this would make us so much more grateful. I mean, God has blessed us by his sheer mercy and grace. It's totally undeserved. Our sins were like scarlet, but he has made them white as snow. just to bask and rest today in the sheer goodness of God, the reality of what he has freely done for us in Christ. Number four, I pray that this would increase our confidence in the wisdom and faithfulness of God. I mean, friends, isn't it amazing to see how God brings all of his promises to yes and amen in Christ? But I hope this is an encouragement to you to wanna study the Old Testament more, to wanna understand the law God has given, to wanna understand the prophets and see how God has intricately woven all of those things together to foreshadow and point us to Christ, to show us his wisdom and his great faithfulness. And then number five, I pray that this would increase our assurance. You know, how easy it is to doubt are standing before God when we look at ourselves. And we think, you know, do I measure up? And how freeing it is to know that you're actually much worse than you think, but Christ paid it all, that God saves us by his grace, that it wasn't something good we did that commended us to God in the first place. Grace saves us, grace keeps us, grace will bring us home. Oh friends, as John Newton said at the very end of his life,

My memory is fading, but I remember two things very well. I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.

May the same be said of us. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Father, how we thank you for Christ. How we thank you that even as we can confess to you that we are great sinners, He is our great Savior. May you be honored and glorified through us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. And now please stand and we'll sing as our song of response, Complete in Thee.