The Lord may graciously help
me, I turn your prayerful attention to the prophecy of Zachariah
and chapter 4, and reading verses 6 and 7 for our text. Zachariah 4, verses 6 and 7. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great Mountain? Before Zerubbabel, Thou shalt
become a plain, and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof,
with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it. Zechariah 4 and verses 6 and
7. We read together some of the
history that surrounds this prophecy. The history of Israel, a very
interesting history. They had gone down into captivity
because of their idolatry and their forsaking God, really. And it was prophesied by Jeremiah
that they would be 70 years in captivity. That was Judah. The
northern tribes had gone in for longer into captivity. But for Judah, they were to be
70 years, and they didn't really believe him. The kings at that
time tried to squash Jeremiah's message, but it stood, and they
did go indeed into captivity for 70 years. Then we have that
great word that we read in Ezra, how that Cyrus, the king of Persia,
we read, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
king of Persia. And I want to contrast this actually
with Pharaoh. Remember, many years before,
Israel was in Egyptian slavery. And God showed his mighty power
by signs and wonders, by the plagues, by the death of the
firstborn, by the parting of the Red Sea, by killing the hosts
of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, by drowning. Dramatic, great, powerful
signs that God is able to do. Contrast that with what we have
here, when God brought Israel out of captivity, he changed
the heart of the king of Persia. We're told specifically that
the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that
he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in
a writing. What a difference! How the Lord
is able to work in mighty things, showing that he's in control
of the sea, in control of the plagues, in control of everything.
But he's also in control of the hearts of every man and woman,
boy and girl. And he's able to change that
heart. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit. He's able to
change, you see, the hearts of the King of Persia. The heart
of the King of Persia, Cyrus, is a wonderful testimony to the
validity of the Word of God. You see, the name, this King
Cyrus was named by Isaiah 150 years before this happened. 150 years before this happened, Cyrus
was not yet born. Israel had not yet gone into
captivity. Isaiah says, Cyrus, my servant,
you look at it, in Isaiah 44 it is. There's a prophecy here,
what God would do. There's a wonderful, showing
the wonderful working of God. Isaiah 44 verse 28, that Seth
of Cyrus, he wasn't born, yet, that Seth of Cyrus, he is my
shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem
there shall be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall
be laid. 150 years before it happened, Isaiah
prophesied the name of this man, that God would change his heart
and put in his heart to give this decree that Israel should
come out of captivity. And we see here the power of
God, both he can work in great external things, or he can change
the heart. And so much, when it comes to
regeneration, it's a change of heart, isn't it? Yes, God does
work in dramatic outward things sometimes, but real conversion
is a heart matter. It's a heart that was an enemy
to God and turned around to go in the ways of God. Interestingly,
though Cyrus is named as God's shepherd and we're not sure that
he was actually a Christian man, but he did what God commanded
him to do, and he gave this decree. And so God used him, and we're
reminded of that in our leaders today. We may have leaders over
us which are not godly people, but God is still able to use
them and to make them come up with laws and decisions which
are for the benefit of his people, even though they don't really
appreciate God's people at all. So we realise the power of God
here. So I'm just really trying to
reiterate the account that Cyrus was raised up to give this command
that the people of Judah should go back and build the temple. This was the great work. And
I just want to... You see, the whole Bible is very
symbolic. We have the temple being, first
of all, the tabernacle was in the wilderness that Moses at
Mount Sinai was told to build, and that was built, and then
Solomon built a temple. We looked at that a little bit
in Sunday school this morning. Solomon built that temple, and
then that was destroyed, you see, when they went into captivity,
and then now it was gonna be remade. It was going to be rebuilt
and Cyrus was raised up to tell them to do this and to give them
permission to let them go back. then we read that it happened,
that Zerubbabel and Joshua, Joshua was really the high priest and
Zerubbabel was the governor, he was in the Davidic line of Christ
really, and these two men were very pivotal in building this. And we read together to start
with about how well the work went on. there was this, they
came together and by God they'd been commanded
to build and they did the foundations. And I suppose perhaps in the
building of a normal house, the separation between the foundation
and the house is perhaps often somewhat Not ever so clear, you
know, the builder comes and he digs the foundations and he lays
the concrete and perhaps two days later he's starting to actually
build on those foundations and, you know, when he's finished
the foundations and when he started the building, it's perhaps not
quite so clear to see exactly when it goes from one to the
other. It's all part of the building. It's all part of the building
process, shall I say. But here, there was a very clear distinction
between the foundation and the building. I think there's something
here. Because you see the foundation.
This building was to be a picture of the church. The building. Jesus said, I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It's God's
building. God's church is his people. But
it's built on a foundation. And that foundation is separate
from the building, isn't it? Jesus Christ, the foundation
stone, that I will not build on anything else. And this time
that they came together and there was this building of the foundations,
and in this particular situation there was a 16 year gap between
the foundations being laid, and the building of the temple taking
place. There was a real distinction
between the foundations and the building of the house that wouldn't
normally be in a normal building. You'd do the foundations, then
perhaps immediately start building on them. But here there was a
clear distinction. And there's something also that's
very interesting about this that we read together. There was great
rejoicing when the building started. They sensed that the Lord had
mercy upon them. If you look in Ezra 3 and verse
11, the goodness and the faithfulness
of God to them. And they praise God. And we read, there was this,
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. The foundation was laid and there was great rejoicing.
But then we have a different verse. In verse 12 it says, but
many of the priests and the Levites and the chief of the fathers,
who were the ancient men that had seen the first house, when
the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept. with a loud voice. Why were they
weeping? Because they realised that this
house hadn't got the external greatness and glory that Solomon's
temple did. And they wept. And many shouted loud for joy.
So there was weeping and rejoicing. Think of this. The Lord Jesus is we sing that
lovely hymn, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Jesus is the foundation. But
when that foundation was laid, what was there? There was rejoicing.
There was also weeping, there was sadness. Who was there sadness
amongst? Mainly the priests and the Levites.
Because this house didn't have the glory of the former house. This is just the carpenter's
son. He came unto his own and his own received him not. We
read in Isaiah, he's a root out of a dry ground, no form nor
comeliness that we should desire him. There was weeping. There was sadness that this didn't
seem to have the glory. They were looking for a Messiah
that would be keenly, not who didn't have where to lay his
head. He was weeping as well as rejoicing. There were those
that saw, there were the Simeons, there were the Annas, there were
those that rejoiced, but there were those who were also sad. And so we see here that the foundation
of the house you see, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ, that the
foundation of his people was laid. But then there was a separate
process which was to be the building of that house upon that foundation. And, as I say, in a normal building
there isn't such a stark contrast, as it were, or difference. But
here there was going to be a clear difference between what was going
to be the building of the house and what was going to be the
foundation. I think there's something here of the distinction that
there is between Jesus Christ, the foundation of his people,
and his people, the church that is built on Christ, and they
are to be his glory. You see, this was a happy time
then, they laid the foundations, but then the enemies got busy.
The enemies got busy and they tried to frustrate the work,
and then they got a decree from the next king to try and frustrate
the purposes, and we read, the work ceased of the house of God,
which is in Jerusalem. So there's this foundation laid,
but there's nothing being built on it. Nothing being built on
it. And you see that's where Haggai
and Zechariah come along. They are prophets of the Lord
and their mission is to encourage Israel, Judah, You see, a foundation of a house
with no house on it is no good, is it? It doesn't do any purpose.
You can have lovely strong foundations, but if you don't build anything
on it, they're useless. They're of no value. You see,
Christ is the foundation of his church. Christ, in his life,
death and resurrection, came for a purpose. not to just have
foundations and nothing built on it. He's come for a purpose,
and that is the foundation, you see, of the faith of God's people. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, there was rejoicing, there was also sorrow,
there were those that didn't see him being grand enough, didn't
see him being great enough, despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. But his kingdom was truly glorious. You think of Solomon with all
his glory in his house. It all came to nothing some hundreds
of years later. It all got demolished. But you
see what the Lord Jesus is doing with His foundation that He laid
when He came to this earth. He laid a foundation that shall
never be destroyed. He's building a temple that shall
never be destroyed. He's putting that one brick upon
another to make a glorious house, having neither spot nor wrinkle,
or any such thing. You see this is a far more glorious
house. Those that were weeping about
it were wrong. Yeah, they were thinking of the outward glory.
But you see, Christ didn't come with the outward pomp and glory
of this world. But he came to build a much more
glorious house that would have an eternal foundation on himself. And that would be the blessing. That's the background, sorry
I've perhaps taken too long on the introduction. But this is
what we have here, the foundations, and it seems interesting that
there's such a separation between the foundations and the building,
and so there is in the things of God, isn't it? The foundation
is very different than the superstructure. The building, us being made,
built on Christ, it's a glorious church, but it's very different
than the foundation. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief, corner stone. Well, the work ceased. And then, you see, Haggai and
Zechariah, they're both together. Haggai was saying, you see, the
people have got to the stage where they thought, well, that's
just the way it is. They were dwelling, they've got their houses
sorted out, and they think, well, the house of God lies waste.
Well, that's just the way it is. That's the way God wants
it. But you see, Hagia and Zechariah were raised up to encourage God's
people to this great work. And so we have then this vision
that was given in Zechariah four, this encouragement. And in the
Sunday school, I showed a image or a picture of this, what was
shown here, the candlestick. The candlestick you see is, we
read in Revelations, the light of the world. The seven candlesticks,
the seven churches are to be a light to the world. Well here
we have the seven candlesticks, like a very similar description
that we have that was in the tabernacle. And yet there was
a difference. These seven candles you see were
to be fed by these pipes continually. and they were to be fed, you
see, with that oil of the Holy Spirit. And it was to come through
a means. And we might think, these two
olive trees, it seems clear, and many commentators are in
agreement, that originally these two olive trees here were symbolising
Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the leader, the governor. And there we have the governor,
he was like the kingly line. And interestingly, if you look
in Matthew chapter 1 verse 12, we have the name Zerubbabel,
but of course it's translated slightly different spelling.
But if you look in Matthew 1 verse 12, we read that name, that after
that they were brought out of Babylon, Jeconias begat Selateel,
and Selateel begat Zerubbabel, but it's just spelt slightly
differently. But that's in the first chapter of Matthew, chapter
12. Sorry, the first chapter, verse 12. So we see that Zerubbabel
was of the kingly line, and Joshua was of the of the high priestly
line, and his job was to bring that reconciliation between a
holy God that we sow of in our opening hymns and an unholy people. That's his great work, and you
see, that was to be one of the olive trees, and the other was
to be the kingly line, to reign over his people, to be the God
of his people. And then you think, but where's
the third line? We normally think of prophet,
priest, and king. because God had raised up Zachariah
and Haggai to be prophets, to bring the word of God, to give
this vision. But interestingly in this vision,
as it were, they don't see themselves. I wonder whether there's something
of a holy bashfulness here, as there is so often with the Holy
Spirit. He speaks not of himself. The
Holy Spirit's great work is to exhort the Father and to exhort
the Son. particularly the Father, particularly
the Lord Jesus Christ, reveal Christ. He doesn't speak of himself. And here you see the Prophet
doesn't speak of himself. He doesn't speak of their great
role of the Prophet. That's not shown in the vision.
But of course they wouldn't have the vision if it wasn't the Prophet
there, would they? The Prophet brought the vision.
And so therefore we have the prophet, the priest, the king.
And of course these individuals that were there at that time,
they were symbolic. You see, the whole thing's symbolic.
It's symbolic of a building being built. And all flowing, you see,
from the Lord Jesus Christ in his priestly office, his kingly
office, and his prophetic office, bringing the word of God to the
people. So we have this view and these
pipes bringing continual fresh supplies to the church. How is the church going to be
built? How is it going to be the light of the world? Is it
going to have its own generation system to keep its lights burning? No, it's going to be continually
fed. And this is the great message
that the Lord had for Zerubbabel. And it's a message to his people. Then he said, and spake unto
me, and said this, What is the word of the Lord unto Sir Rubble? Saying, not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit. That means the work of the building
of this temple was not going to be with a great army, it was
going to be the Lord's work, working in the hearts of his
people. To make them willing to work there, what's going to
be work for Zerubbabel to do? Zerubbabel and Jeshua were not
to do nothing. They were not to say, well, it's
the work of God, so you sit down and do nothing. It doesn't say
that. But while doing the work of God,
they were to realise that they were only instruments. And the
work of God was that sending forth of His Spirit, that that's
what changed the hearts. That's what was going to change
the hearts, and we think of that with our young people. We think
of that with the world around us. What is going to change them
from loving the world and the things of it, to loving Christ,
and His Gospel, and His humility, and His grace, and His mercy,
and His longsuffering? What is going to make them prefer
humility to pride? the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
as they've received something of that grace themselves, and
seen something of the beauty of holiness, and seen something
of their need of forgiveness, then they start to delight in
mercy. Before they were happy with fighting
their own end, and standing in their own righteousness, but
now they're not. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, this is the word of the Lord, not by might, nor
by power, but by my spirit. This is how it's going to be
performed, Zerubbabel. You've got these enemies, you've got
these people that are stopping the work and they managed to
stop it for 16 years, but how is it going to get going again?
There was going to be another heart of another king that was
going to be changed. Another king was going to have
his heart changed. And he was going to give another
edict which was going to overthrow the previous one that said he
couldn't build. And he was going to go back to
Cyrus' one that said he could build. And so therefore they
were going to have another edict to build. The hearts, not by
might, not by power. It wasn't that Zerubbabel and
Joshua have a great big army and fight them. He didn't. He
changed the heart, not by mind, not by power, but by my spirit.
He was going to work, you see. And you see, this was a tremendous
obstacle for Zorabba, wasn't it? How was he going to work?
They'd had an edict, you see, that they shouldn't build after,
when the troublemakers came and they got another edict from the
king to stop, and then they needed another one to get it going again.
And you see, this was a great trouble. Not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So the Lord
is going to work in the hearts of his people to change the heart,
to change the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill. He's
going to work, you see. He's had the hearts of all men
in his hand, and really in this account, we don't have any armies.
We don't have any great battles, although we have opposition,
certainly. But you see that God is able to change hearts. And
you see this, you might say that this is all to do with something
that happened a long, long time ago. It did happen a long time
ago, something like 600 years before Christ. So something like
2,600 years ago. You might say, well what has
something that happened 2,600 years ago approximately got to
do with us today? Because that church that was
symbolized there is still being built. The actual temple took
four years to build. After they started the building,
then within four years they built it on those foundations. But you see, when we come to
what this building signified, the building is not yet finished.
The building is not complete. And surely Zerubbabel must have
thought, well I've laid all these foundations, will I ever see
it finished? Will I ever see this complete?
All these enemies, all these people wanting to pull it down,
all these discouragements, all the people happy to live in their
own houses and make them look beautiful, but the house of God
lies waste. Will there ever be a completion? who are thou, O great mountain,
before survivable thou shalt become a plain. A mountain here,
of course, some of us enjoy going on holiday to mountains and we
enjoy them in the sense that we spend the day perhaps climbing
them and seeing great heights and beauties from those mountains. And so perhaps our impression
of a mountain is something wonderful, something lovely, something spectacular,
something majestic. But if you're trying to get from
A to B and carry a lot of goods and you've got a mountain in
front of you to get from one side of the valley to the other, A
mountain is a tremendous obstacle. And that's the sense of it here,
a tremendous obstacle. You can't easily, you see, if
you're carrying heavy loads, carry it to the top of the mountain,
down the other side, it's a tremendous difficulty. Who art thou, O great
mountain? It's a rhetorical question. It's
saying, whoever you are, before Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel
has long passed away, hasn't he? So if this only meant Zerubbabel,
if this was actually literally Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel only,
then it wouldn't help us today, would it? But if the Lord's anointed,
which he was, if you look in, I'll just show you that, in Haggaiah
2, Haggai 2, verse 23, we read this. In that day, saith the
Lord of hosts, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the
son of Sheateel, saith the Lord, and I will make thee as a signet.
For I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. That's Haggai
2, verse 23, showing how these two olive trees, they were anointed
by God. Zerubbabel was anointed by God
in a position, you might say, but he was only a man, how could
that be? God uses instruments. It's through the word of God.
He anointed Aaron to be the high priest. He anointed Joshua to
be the high priest at this time. Joshua, the son of Josedek. And
they were appointed in that position, and so they were used to be conduits. that the oil of grace would flow
to the church. It was not ultimately then. You
see that very clearly in what should be said when the end result
should be. And they shall bring forth a
headstone thereof with shoutings crying, Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel. No. Grace. Grace unto it. Where's the rubble
gone? Where's Joshua the high priest gone? They were but instruments. The
work was God's. And you see Who art thou, O great
mountain, before Zerubbabel? Zerubbabel had been appointed
to be a blessing at that time to Israel. Later on, it was going
to be a different governor. 90 years later, it was going
to be Nehemiah, who would be such a blessing to them. And
Nehemiah would come and not build the temple, because that was
built, but he would build the walls around Jerusalem to give
them protection. That was 90 years later. But
Zerubbabel was raised up at this time. And you see, God has his
people, who he raises up to be a blessing to his church. As I say, this building project
is not yet complete. This, in verse 7, is still to
take place. In the sense that, and he shall
bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying grace
and grace to it. Each individual stone that can
be said of, but the headstone is not finished yet. The building
is not complete. That will be when time will be
no longer. The last trump will sound. Time will be no longer.
The building will be complete. Then this prophecy will have
reached its true ultimate meaning. The rubber ball will have pale
into insignificance and it will be the one that Zerubbabel was
representative of. Looking forward to that greater
than Zerubbabel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would indeed be the
anointed one, the chosen one, that would truly do all his pleasure. And he would be that one who
would be raised up. This is the word of the Lord
unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might. Surely there's a lot
here for us today to think about. You see, we think in terms of
man's greatness, impressive people, impressive things. That's what
we need if we're going to prosper. But The word of the Lord to Zerubbabel
was not, make sure you have 50 horses to run in front of you,
Zerubbabel, so you're a great man, and then make yourself big,
and then there'll be a blessing in my house. It doesn't say that. It's not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit. But that didn't mean Zerubbabel
wasn't gonna do anything. Zerubbabel had much to do. Haggai
got on to them because they weren't working. You see, this is Haggai
chapter 1. It says in verse 7, Thus saith
the Lord God of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountains
and bring wood and build the house, and I take pleasure in
it. And I will be glorified, saith the Lord. You look for
much and it gains a little. And when you brought it home,
I did blow upon it. Why saith the Lord? Because mine house
lay that is waste, and ye run every man into his own house.
Ye sort your own houses out, but ye don't sort the house of
God out. Therefore the heavens over you is staid from dew, and
the earth is staid from fruit. and I call the drought upon the
land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the
new wine, and upon the oil, and upon the ground bringeth forth,
and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands." So
Hagia was saying here, in those 16 years, I've not blessed your
labours. I've not blessed you in this
returning from captivity. And I've done it for a reason,
because I want you to think. And then in verse 12 you see
it, the son of Sheateel, and Joshua
the son of Josedek, the high priest. These two, depicted as
these two olive trees, in which the grace of God was going to
flow, and it was going to be a blessing to this church, and
a church that was going to glorify God, to be a true light to the
world, and a true glory of God. The church of the firstborn,
which is truly glorious. As Moses said, who is like unto
thee? A people saved by the Lord with
an everlasting salvation. This is the church. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
and Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, with all the
remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. How lovely that is. Poor Jeremiah
and Isaiah, they preached so often to Israel about what would
happen, and said, why do you do all these things, and why
do you spend your money for that which satisfies not? Why do you
carry on? And they carried on, headlong,
didn't take any notice. Went into captivity. Teer, then
Zerubbabel, the son of Sheateel, and Joshua, the son of Josedek,
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 unto the people and did fear
the Lord. You see, there was a performance.
It wasn't that because it was going to be by the spirit of
the Lord, it didn't mean that Zerubbabel could be lazy. It
didn't mean that he had nothing to do. that he was going to be
aware that he was but a conduit, but something that the Lord was
going to use to bring about his purposes. And you see that hasn't
changed. The Lord today uses men to be
a blessing to the church. He anoints them, he appoints
them, Not so that they will have the glory, but so his church
will glorify him. So that this building will be
complete. So that every stone will be in
its right place. So that this church of the firstborn
should be a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle. This
is the great work, not by mind, nor by power, by my spirit, my
spirit's going to do it. I'm going to make people willing
in the day of my power, like he did to Zechariah, to Zerubbabel
and to Joshua. Instead of carrying on living
in their own houses and doing their own thing, they raised
up the people and guided them and led them into building. this
great work and sorted out all the legal requirements because
they had an edict against them not to build and they managed
to overturn that by sending letters and going through the right means,
they managed to overcome that. Who art thou, O great mountain? There was mountains in the way
of the church being built. The enemies didn't want that
church to be built. And Satan doesn't want one single member,
one brick, to stand on that foundation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He'd
be happy if the work of Calvary benefited nobody. But you see, this is the beauty
of this prophecy. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain? And he shall
bring forth the headstone. The headstone, I understand,
is at the top, as it were, of the building. It's the finishing
stone that completes the building, to say the building is now complete. And he shall bring forth the
headstone thereof, with shoutings, crying grace, grace of the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This building is not going to
be about Zerubbabel, it's not going to be about Joshua the
high priest, although they were anointed people, although they
were greatly used in the work, but the work is not about them. It's about the building, it's
about the one who was the ultimate master builder, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that had laid a foundation that no other man could lay.
A foundation of forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb. Of mercy
through standing in the place of His people. A foundation that
nobody else could lay. Nobody else could stand and receive
the wrath of God for their sins. And apart from receiving that
in hell forever. but to receive it on behalf of
others and to pay that price and to make a foundation so that
all the church could rest on that foundation in a place of communion with
their Lord. No longer rebels, no longer far
off from God, no longer enemies to God. Who art thou, O great
mountain? We think of our church, we think
of the church of God here below. All the many enemies, all the
edicts that go forth from men of authority and power, which
seem to crush the church. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel, before the one who Zerubbabel points to,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that the one foundation before Him thou
shalt become a plane. You see how the great men of
Zechariah's time, they were moved, not by might, nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. They were moved to
help the work. to make it possible so the work
would go on. So how is the work to go on in
the church building, the church here below? Is it to be with
human greatness and glory and impressiveness in the eyes of
the world? There was weeping you see, and
when those foundations were made it wasn't impressive enough. But this building you see is
the most impressive building that will ever be built. It's
a building that will never pass away. It's a building which is
made to do what God made us to do, which is to glorify him forever. That's the building. And it's
a wonderful thing if in any way, A, that we're part of that building,
but also be used of God to build that building. Yes, Jesus says, I will build
my church, but he uses means. I will build my church. And the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But he sent his apostles. And he sends preachers and teachers
and down through the ages. He uses people, not so that they
can have some part in it and to glory in themselves. No. Then answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and he shall. bring forth the headstone thereof
with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. The rubbable literally
experienced that four years down the line. They literally did
finish the temple. But this was symbolic of that
which is still yet to be finished. And it is our prayer and our
desire that each one here may be part of that building. whose
builder and maker is God, part of that glorious building, all
on the one foundation, all declare I nothing am, but built to glorify
God and to enjoy Him forever. Amen.