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7-10-2022 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Haggai 1:1-9; 2:6-9

Sermon Title:  The fake temple and the real temple

       Prophet Haggai was the prophet who preached the word to those who remained after 70 years of Babylonian captivity. If we want to know what happened at that time, we can read Ezra and Nehemiah to find out how they lived and what God’s word came unto them. How hard must it have been for those people who came out of 70 years of captivity? Korea had been subjected to double the 36 years of Japanese colonialism that Korean had suffered as slaves. Why? God gave them “words of reproof, words of hope, and guidance” through Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi to those who were persecuted physically and spiritually. Today, we want to hear the voice of the Lord through the words given through Haggai.

         Haggai 1:1,2 says, “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 Josedech, the high priest, saying,

2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.” he said.

      Now, they should build a temple. Why did these words come to them? When they returned, they found that the temple had been destroyed by fire  and Jerusalem had been burned down. Still, the Israelites were focused on building their own houses. Then, they said that it was time to build the Lord’s house, the “temple,” but it was not very sincere.

          We must first understand what the building of this temple means for us. At that time, according to the law, sacrifices were devoted in the temple to receive forgiveness of sins and to see the glory of God. Indeed, the glory of God came in the building itself. Because it was before the Holy Ghost came to this earth, the glory of God fell on the building. So at that time the building was called  temple. However, it was not the temple that Herod built. Herod was not an Israelite, but he was descendant of Easu.  It was simply built as an appeasement  to rule the people, modeled after the previous temple.

     Because of this, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up..”(John 2:19) . So, they asked, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?” (John 2:20). There is no way for them to know that the body of the Lord,  the body of those who have received the Holy Ghost, is the temple. In fact, the temple was completely destroyed, and there was no ‘glory of the cherubim’ or ‘glory of God’. When the Lord came, the Holy Ghost only came upon Him, so in the Old Testament times, the place where the glory of God came from was the temple, “Only the Lord is the temple in heaven and on earth.” “You destroy the temple” means “You kill me. then I will rise on the third day.”  But they couldn’t understand it.

         Where is the temple today? There is no temple in Israel. There is only a ‘Islam mosque’ in its place in the destroyed temple. It is said that when the church is building a temple, they collect building donations and decorate it beautifully. Where is the temple? Who is the temple? Jesus went up and sent the Holy Ghost, and the person who received the Spirit is the temple of God. Churches spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build so called temple, but they do not know that their own temples have been already destroyed. Although the building exists, but they do not know that the true temple has been gone. Where is the ‘temple’ today?

         The Catholic adopted Babylonian religion after the Council of Nicaea. Such Babylonian  religion has been incorporated into most churches. They do not know that the bodies of the saints, that are the real temples, have all been destroyed. It is the same as those who said that it was not time to build the temple and only built their own houses. Apostle Paul said, “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”(1Thess. 5:23), because our body  is the  temple.

            What was the Old Testament temple like? Our ‘body’ is the ‘courtyard’ of the old tabernacle temple. Enter the ‘yard’ through the four doors. These ‘four gates’ refer to the ‘four gospels’ of Matthew, Mark and Luke, John. Go inside the ‘door’, wash  hands at the ‘laver’, and enter the ‘sanctuary’. Our ‘soul’ is the ‘sanctuary’. The ‘sanctuary’ has ‘golden candlestick’ and ‘breads table’. The six loaves of bread on the left and the right mean ‘66 books of the Bible’. Passing through the ‘golden candlestick’ and ‘breads table’,   enter the ‘most holy place’. ‘The Most Holy Place’ corresponds to our ‘Spirit’. The high priests met God who is the Spirit there. We too must be able to see the glory of the Lord when we eat the Word and go through the Courtyard and the Holy Place to enter the Most Holy Place and pray. Only when the ‘body’, ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ are holy and clean can we meet the Lord. Today, the rebuilding of ‘the ‘temple,’ is done in this way.

          The temple must be holy and clean, but these days, the church so called the temple is packed with Babylonian religion. Easter rabbits and candles, and the celebration of the sun god on December 25 were also practiced in Babylonian religion. Pilate and Herod, who used religion when they tried to kill Jesus, became friends and exchanged gifts. It has been like this since ancient times, and now the body of Christ, the church, is full of all kinds of programs. The church was completely destroyed. Jeremiah told them not to be deceived by the people who said this is the temple. The building of the church is no longer the temple. The glory of God has departed. Their words in Haggai 1:2, “The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.,” is  the same as saying, “When will the Lord come?” Now is not the time to prepare to meet the Lord.” . They have eyes, but cannot see, and have ears, but cannot hear.

             Someone called and said, “He doesn’t go to church, because they talk about the world not words of God.  But when I listen to the  CD of this church, only preach the words of God.”  Now he know that the time has come to rebuild the temple. He didn’t know it because ne didn’t have the words of God, but after hearing the word, he now becomes to know  it. As Haggai 1:4 says, if we do not intend to build the ruined temple of God, but are busy building our own house, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye 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.” (Haggai 1:6). God said that  these things to be followed that ruin agriculture, spoil all food, and waste money even if it makes money have nothing to do with us.

          Now is the time to build the temple. Are we not temples, aren’t we? We must rebuild our body, soul, and spirit as well. We have demolished the temple. God said this because it had to be rebuilt. 2:3 “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? ” . The gold and silver that went into Solomon’s temple in the old days were enormous. Over 600 talents. That’s great gold. David had all the materials he had left behind and built it gloriously out of pure gold.

          When we believed in Jesus and repented, we felt like fly to heaven, and read the Word of God  and evangelized, and how much “glorious life” did we live? By the way, where did all that “first glory” go? The people of the church in Ephesus thought it would be okay to sin because they did a lot of work. It doesn’t matter what we work for. The Lord doesn’t reward us for doing a lot of work. The Lord’s work is to believe in God. It is believing in the words of the prophets whom God has sent. Of course, we have to work for the Lord, but more than that, “to become clean and become the Lord’s bride first” is to do the Lord’s work. What we do as the bride of Christ is rewarded. The Lord is waiting for us to be his bride. The groom is preparing to build a house and live together, but will he wait for the bride to earn money at the Jagalchi Market in Busan? Do you want to make money by selling apples in the yard of the train station without doing anything? Nope. The first thing we wait for is the “bride”. When we first believed, as we walked with the Lord, we were  thankful for everything, always rejoiced, and it was okay if anyone insulted us

          If that “first glory” is abandoned as the thing of yesterday, the ‘destruction of 2:7 is to come as said,  ” And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. ‘  In fact, what all nations should hope for is the return of Christ. It is only when he comes that true peace will come to this earth. There are “hidden ones and remnants” among all peoples, right? they are waiting for Christ.

       However, there are many more who do not wait for him. Destruction comes to them. Today, this “destruction” in Haggai 2:6 is also found in Hebrews 12:26-29. “Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29 For our God is a consuming fire.“

 When God came down on Mount Sinai, the earth shook, and he said that if they came near, he would stone them. If they are guilty, they will be punished immediately.

       At that time, only the earth shook, but when the heavens are opened on Mount Olive and the Lord comes back to this earth, the heavens will also shake. It is said that the heaven is to be rolled up like a scroll and burned. The heaven will be shaken and rolled up, and those who see the White Throne of God will be judged and fall into the lake of fire. There are thunder and earthquakes, and the heaven shakes. Those whose temple within the body is destroyed will perish just like that.

       However, after the earth and the heaven are shaken, we receive the “unshakable kingdom as said, ” Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29 For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28).

            Malachi 3:1 says, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. “ To those who have laid the “foundation of the temple” before this sudden coming of the Lord, ” Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’S temple was laid, consider it. 19 Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.” (Haggai 2:18,19).

        Those who prepared through prayer and those who laid the foundation to build the temple and worked hard to rebuild the temple within us have already received blessings from that day. Before that, there was no blessing when the temple was destroyed. It is to give us blessings from the day we prepare to be the clean bride. What is the real blessing? Rather than asking for the blessings of this world, saying, “I want to be prepared before the Lord!” “Hey, is this still there?” And it is a real blessing to receive the “blessing of meeting the Lord in a wonderful way when the Lord comes” It is the real blessing when we receive as the day in Revelation 19 and Zechariah 14.

Amen! Hallelujah!