CHURCH BUILT OF RIGHT MATERIAL

  God did not need a “House,” but Solomon had a temple built for Yahweh atop the Foundation Stone; the same rock on which Ornan did his threshing. Surely the temple was somewhat of a threshing place to separate the grain from the chaff, and winnow out the chaff into the abyss below the threshing stone. The abyss beneath is thought to be the access to Hell, whereas atop the threshing stone was ingress into Heaven.
  God could have threshed the unrighteous from the righteous without a stone, but He chose the very rock from which the dust for Adam was taken to thresh-out Adam. The Adamic Covenant was his redemption by grace, and that the same grace is available to all Adam-kind.
  The threshing stone was God’s handiwork. It is holy! (In modern times, it is holy to the Muslims as well, and is covered by the Dome of the Rock. It has served its purpose as the holy place of Yahweh and now is unclean because a dead prophet has touched it - Mohammad by name. It is the place of the harlot Babylon, I believe) Many times that holy rock has been defiled, and each time, it has been consecrated again to the Lord. Unclean hands upon that rock defiles it. God made that point as the Second Temple’s foundation was about to be built on the same Foundation Stone. (Note that the Foundation Stone built by God’s handiwork was the true Foundation, but then the Levites built another foundation atop it.) The Levites were the priests, and their job was to be servants to the Lord. They were required to build the temple! The Jews who remained in Judah defiled the temple and work stopped for sixteen years.
  Why would God allow the work to stop? Because the people were more concerned about building houses for themselves. The Temple for God was secondary, and God stopped work on it. Then God spoke to Haggai and Zechariah. They changed the plan; they changed from building the temple for themselves to building a Temple for God! Why the change in attitude?

KEY VERSES: 

A Temple for Whom? According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 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. (Hag 2:5-7)

How the work was defiled? Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean. (Hag 2:13-14)

Examine the way the foundation of the Temple had been defiled firstly (2:12/13). The unclean people who had remained in Judah were defiled by intermarriage with Gentiles, as well as dissension among them all. God chose who was His people, and the Jews who remained behind chose God's people for Him. God made it plain who was in charge when He spoke to Haggai: “I will destroy the strength of the Gentile Kingdoms” (Hag 2:22c).  Blood on the hands of the builders and unclean peoples contaminated the Foundation Stone.
  Therein is a lesson for Christians. The works of the hands defiles the Temple within the person’s soul. Unclean hands kept God away from His house for sixteen years until the people were ready to build for God a House for right reasons (hold that thought).

  On a personal level, I will recount when the foundation of my own “temple” for God was under construction; to wit:  In my teenage years, I feared God. That is a pre-requisite for wanting a House for Him; the same as for the Jews. I didn’t love God, but feared His judgment, so I attended church in God’s House. Just like the Jews, I learned the Ways of God. The Jews learned the Law as the Torah was read verbatim, and without commentary. That was God’s way of calling His people to Him. They came, not out of love, but fear. They constructed a new foundation on God’s Foundation Stone. God wasn’t pleased with that as the Holy of Holies would be either atop or beneath that Stone.
  I learned about God by taking a catechism class at church. Although I learned about God, I had no desire to be His “temple.” Upon completion of my class, the minister announced to the congregation that I had received an “A” and would become a member of the Methodist Church. I remained no more than an educated heathen. The minister and I defiled God’s House. He was endeavoring to build the invisible Church with dead stones. Scripture calls for lively stones!
  The second attempt for a preacher to build the church with stones cut by hands was in a Baptist church. At church camp, whoever wanted to remain and pray were asked to do so. The kid beside me did, so I did as well. That night, the preacher announced to the church that I had been “saved.” That was not the case, I was still only a stupid heathen. Not much progress had been gained in building the Church because stones built by man’s hands can never be “stones” of the pillars of the church, as is written, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev 3:12). I was faulty material never consecrated by rebirth to be made holy for God’s invisible “House.”

  That is much the way it was when the foundation for the God’s Temple was built. God always required altars to be unhewn (unworked) by human hands. The Foundation Stone was built by Him, and there was no need for a foundation built by men. In other words, Cyrus, by grace, had allowed the Jews to return to build a House for God on a Holy Foundation. By works, the Levites, as they often did in scripture, built the foundation by their hands. Their unclean hands defiled the Temple. That’s is why those keys verses (2:13-14) are in scripture. All that delay and patience should not be taken lightly. Churches should be built for right reasons, and since Christians are THE Church, we must be re-built (born again) as the temple, and that is for right reasons and by a thorough cleansing by God!
  Why do traditional (non-evangelical) churches fail? Because their “house” is not built with born again Christians. “Evangelical” essentially means those with doctrines that teach, “Marvel not; that ye must be born again” (John 3:7). How many times have you heard that verse preached? I bet very little, but it is THE requirement for consecrated “stones” for the Temple of God. To be a Christian requires consecration, not by our own hands, but God's!
  For whom did Zerubbabel build the Temple? God chose him, because he was of the line of David, to rebuild David’s Temple for God. He was to the Second Temple what Solomon was to the first. He was chosen directly by God (Hag 2:23b). Thereafter, the Temple was built for right reasons, and God merely ignored the foundation built by hands, just as He ignores the works of sinners’ hands for salvation.
  For whom was the Second Temple constructed? Read again the first of the key verses (2:5-7). You must think intensely when you read; note the phrase, “the desire of all nations.” The King James Version does not capitalize those words, but the New King James does. The Second Temple was for “THE Desire of All Nations.” David’s Temple, built by unclean Solomon, was torn down, and this one was built by an anointed clean “bishop.”
  Let me explain why I wrote “bishop” for Zerubbabel. Because bishops superintend the building of the invisible Church. As governor, Zerubbabel superintended building the Second Temple. For whom? Jesus, who IS “The Desire of all Nations.” Unlike the first Temple, the Second was plain. The First Temple was for a glorious God who appeared as Light on the Ark of the Covenant. The Second Temple was built plainly in preparation for the ordinary uncomely Son of Man, who was the tradesman Jesus. The focus was not to be on the building, but on God who would come in the Flesh. The Second Temple was prepared for Jesus just as our mansion is prepared for Christians by God.
  Why was the second Temple built for Jesus? Because it was the same refurbished “Herod’s Temple” which was extant in Jesus’ day. It was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the new Babylonians – the Romans – because God no longer required a House. Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple which would come after his death:

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (Mat 24:24-25)

  Why was the Second Temple destroyed? The same reason as the First – because it was defiled. Solomon’s Temple was defiled by the Babylonians and the Second Temple by evil King Herod who restored it. Herod was no Zerubbabel, and certainly it was by works that the Second Temple was restored. It was not torn down and build afresh on the Foundation of God, but a wicked half-Jew named Herod of the Hasmonean house of bloody kings. (Note that Jews still honor the Hasmoneans with Hanukkah, but not Jesus on his birthday or death day). They celebrate the restored Temple by the works of the Maccabees, but not the Holy Ghost in the “Temple” of the hearts of Christians by the work of God.
  The lesson in Temple-building is that it must be done on a firm Foundation, namely the Rock of Jesus, and the “Temple” in Christians are built by God, and not of themselves (Ephes 2:8).
  In my own situations, the minister tried to make me a Christian, and laid a faulty stone in his church. The Baptist preacher thought I made myself a Christian by simply staying to pray. Alone with my God, years later, I finally understood. Jesus made me an alive stone, and I became part of the Church. The “mortar” (faith) that was used was a gift from God, but I used what God provided. By faith, I am one “stone” in the “pillar” of God’s House. I am a worker which the bishop must superintend to ensure that hewn “stones” are not used for God’s work.
  Salvation is never by works, but by faith. Going to church is not sacramental, but being the Church is. The “Church” is not the building, but where Christians gather in Jesus’s Name. Some don’t attend church, and if they do, to make themselves righteous, the church is defiled. If they gather with others who love and obey God, and they do as well, they are consecrated by God as part of His Church. The building was made by unclean hands, but the Church is made by the Holy Spirit of God. Never take lightly that Church is the place of the Holy Spirit, and Christians, to be a Church, must adore God and others:

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost… (Acts 2:1-4a)

  The Glory of God filled His House twice, but sin drove Him out. Like the Christian Jews in their time, modern-day Christians must be of one accord with God and each other. God cannot be driven from His House, but He will remain silent, as He did for 400 years when the Jews depended on the Maccabees for salvation! He will remain silent in these times unless we humble ourselves and build the Church the Way of Jesus, and according to God's ancient plans.