Good morning again. Tom's going to come and lead
us in number 33 in your hardbacked hymnal. Stand up and bless the
Lord, ye people of his choice. Stand up and bless the Lord,
your God, with heart and soul. and voice. When the Lord told
that woman at the well, God seeketh those who worship him in spirit
and in truth. May the Lord send his spirit
to our hearts, enabling us to worship him in not just voice,
but in heart as well. Mark it on your calendar the
last Sunday of this month. We're going to stay together
after the service for a covered dish fellowship. So I think it's
the 28th. Is that right? 28th of this month. Okay? Let's stand together. Tom,
you come please. Number 33. Stand up and bless the Lord,
ye people of His choice. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God with heart and soul and voice. So high above all praise, Above
all blessing high, Who would not fear His holy name, And Lord
and magnified? O for the living flame, from
his own altar brought, to touch our lips, our minds inspire,
and wing to heaven our thought. God is our strength and song,
and His salvation ours. Then be His love in Christ proclaimed,
with all our ransomed powers. Stand up and bless the Lord,
the Lord your God adore. Stand up and bless His glorious
name, henceforth forevermore. Please be seated. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 76 for our call to worship. Psalm 76. In Judah is God known. Only in Judah is God known. His name is great. in Israel. In Salem also is his
tabernacle. God was made flesh and tabernacled
among us. In the city of peace, this is
Jerusalem. Salem is peace. This is Judah. This is Israel. This is where
God is pleased to tabernacle among His people and His dwelling
place is in Zion. See, all these words are used
to describe the church. There, there. Say, how do I know if I'm a part
of Zion, if I'm not just a spectator? Well, there break he the arrows and
the bow. Arrows and bows are all weapons
of warfare. And what the Lord does when He
makes one who is at enmity with Him, His friend, He causes them
to put down their weapons. Their swords are beat into plowshares
and their spears into pruning forks. They go from being in
opposition to God to being willing servants of God. There break he the bow, the arrows
and the bow, the shield and the sword and the battle. Thou art
more glorious and excellent than the mountains of praise. Now
that's God speaking about his church. He said, You're of great
value to me. You're more excellent than all
the mountains and all the prey of this world. The stout-hearted
are spoiled. They have slept their sleep,
and none of the men of might have found their hands. At Thy
rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and the horse are
cast into a deep sleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared. And who may stand in thy sight
when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to
be heard from heaven, and the earth feared and was still when
God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth. Surely, surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee." Now when was man's wrath most angry towards
God? When was his wrath? When did
man seek to destroy God? It was at the cross, wasn't it? And here the Lord says, Surely
the wrath of man shall praise Thee. What man did by his wicked
hands, God has ordained and used for His glory. And the remainder of wrath, in
other words, whatever wrath man has towards God that God can't
use for His glory, He'll restrain. He'll restrain it. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, how hopeful and needful we are
as a poor and needy people for Thy mercy and for Thy grace to
be shed abroad in our hearts in the face of Thy dear Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we. We thank you that. You purposed. The wrath of man. To be used
for your glory. Lord, how we pray that you would
be glorified in our midst this morning. We don't in looking
to ourselves understand. How you could put such infinite
value on your church? But Lord, we don't walk by faith
or by sight. We walk by faith and we and we
believe. That the Lord Jesus Christ shed
his precious blood. As the only ransom price sufficient
to purchase us to the. So Lord, we pray that you would
find us. To be. People of worship and. People
of submission make us to be so. but we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Look upon me, Lord, I pray thee. Let thy spirit dwell in mine. Thou hast sought me, thou hast
bought me. Take my heart and make it thine. Not I ask for, not I strive for,
but Thy grace so rich and free. This Thou givest by the Savior,
He hath all things who hath Thee. Precious is the name of Jesus,
Who can half his worth unfold, Far beyond angelic praises, Sweetly
sung to harps of gold. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. Please be seated. Adam Cheren's
going to bring special music down. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's hand. And sinners plunge beneath that
blood, lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty
standings. Lose all their guilty standings. And sinners plunged beneath the loose
bones. A dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his hand. And there may I go, vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. There may I go by and see. Wash all my sins away. Your dying lamb, thy precious
blood, shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sing no more. Be safe to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more. Till all the ransomed church
of God be safe to sin no more. There since, by faith, I saw
the stream, I will not survive. Redeeming love has been my faith,
and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my thing. And shall be till I die. I'll sing thy power to save I'll
sing thy power to I'll sing my power to save. I know it's a meaner song. I'll sing my power to save. Thank you, Adam. Love that hymn. Let's open our Bibles back together
to Zechariah. Zechariah. The reason for everything
is what took place that one day. One day. Isaiah chapter 10 verse
17 says, The light of Israel shall be for a fire and His Holy
One for a flame, and it shall burn and devour His thorns in
one day." One day. The fire of God's wrath fell
from heaven and consumed all the sins of all God's people
and put them away that one day. That's what we read here. You
have your Bibles open in Zechariah chapter 3, for behold the stone
that I have laid before Joshua. upon one stone shall be seven
eyes. And we saw that those eyes are
the eyes of the Spirit, the eyes of the Lord that go to and for
throughout all the earth in order to find each individual one for
whom Christ died and bring them by the infinite value of the
blood that was shed for them into the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's something else about
these eyes. The eyes that are upon the stone. I thought of
at least seven eyes that are fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes of the Father, first
and foremost, are fixed on Him with infinite love Infinite pleasure
and perfect satisfaction. These eyes of God are focused
on the Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes of the Holy Spirit are
fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ as he directs the children of
God to look to him. The Lord said when the Spirit
of God comes, he will lead you into all truth. and bring you
to myself." The angels in heaven are fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ
with wonder and with amazement and with worship they are looking
intently on the Lord Jesus Christ. The church, the church that's
in heaven The scripture refers to the church in heaven as just
men made perfect. They gaze on him. They gaze on
him unflinched as the object of their worship. And all the
saints that are still here in this world look on him with satisfaction. And they look on him as all their
righteousness before God. And he himself is the object
of their worship. The scripture makes it clear
that even the reprobate will look on him and tremble as he
says unto them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for
I never knew you. The demons look on him in fear. You remember that legion of demons
that was in that man at the gatherings when they, the demons, spoke
out and said, We know who thou art, our son of God. Hast thou
come to torment us before our appointed time? Even the eyes
of the demons are fixed on him, fearing that day when they will
be cast headlong into the lake of fire. All eyes are fixed on
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world."
And so here the Lord says, this stone, shall be seven eyes,"
and notice the rest of verse 9, "...and I will engrave the
graving thereof." Now, the seven eyes of the Spirit that we saw
in Revelation chapter 5 go to and fro looking for everyone
that's written in that book that only the Lamb had the authority
to open so that none of God's sheep will be lost. And here
the picture is, goes all the way back to Exodus. You remember
when God told Aaron to take two onyx stones and wear them on
your shoulders and engrave in the stones. Turn with me there,
Exodus chapter 28. Exodus chapter 28. Child of God, this will be a
great encouragement to you. This stone has an engraving. This stone which has seven eyes.
This stone on whom all eyes are fixed. This stone has the names
of the children of Israel written on them, on it. Notice in Exodus
chapter 28, and we'll begin reading in verse nine. And thou shalt
take two onyx stones and grave on them the names of the children
of Israel, six of their names on one stone and the other six
names of the rest on the other stone according to their birth.
with the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings
of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names
of the children of Israel, and thou shalt make them to be set
in ouches of gold. and thou shalt put the two stones
upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the
children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names
before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. The scripture tells us in Isaiah
chapter nine that the government shall be upon his shoulders. The Lord Jesus Christ's shoulders. Aaron is pictured here as the
high priest, the one who intercedes before God on behalf of Israel. And he's got the names of the
tribes on these, graven on these stones, on his shoulders, representing
how the Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest, bears our sin. and bears the weight of his people
on his shoulders and presents them perfect and acceptable before
God. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and his shoulders, though
our shoulders often become weak when it comes to bearing the
burdens of our lives, of this world, our circumstances, and
most importantly, our sin. His shoulders are able and he
presents before God Almighty the names of his people. And
so go back with me to Zechariah chapter three. This is the stone. in which is engraven the names
of the people of God. These are the eyes that go to
and fro, the eyes of the Spirit, to search out everyone for whom
Christ died, each individual one of them having infinite value. And he says, I will engrave the
graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts. Job said, oh, that my words were
engraven in a stone with a pin of iron and of lead. Oh, that they would remain. Well, Job, they are. They are. The word of God is engraven. The law was written in stone.
It cannot be changed. The word of God is written in
stone. Scripture says heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away. So the
names of God's people are written in stone. They are being bore
before God on the shoulders of our high priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And brethren, we have a priest
who is able to sympathize, to sympathize with the infirmities
of our flesh. are being tried in all ways that
we are, yet he was without sin. He knows, he knows the burden
that we bear. Don't you love when the Pharisees went before Pilate
after Pilate wrote on that plaque that was to be hung at the top
of the cross, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And the Pharisees
said, change that and say that he says he's the King of the
Jews. And Pilate said, what I have written, I have written. And
what God has written, God has written. It's engraved in stone
and it cannot be changed. There's our hope. Our hope is
the immutability of our God. That's what he said. He said,
you sons of Jacob, you know how fickle you are? How prone you
are to change? How one minute you can worship
me and another minute you can be so worldly? How you can go
from one emotion to another and one thought to another thought
so easily? You know how you are. You sons
of Jacob, I am the Lord. And I change not. And that's the only reason that
you're not consumed. It is the immutability of our
God. It is the fact that He has etched
everything in stone. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever that gives us hope and comfort for our salvation.
He's chosen a people that cannot be changed. Christ redeemed a
particular people that cannot be changed. God is going to keep
his people from falling and he will finish the work that he
started. Look at the rest of this verse,
and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In one day. Someone said to me recently,
well you know our sin dies with us. No, if you're a child of
God, your sin died with Christ. It died with Christ. It's been
put away in one day. Every single bit of it. Daniel
chapter 9 verse 24. You remember when God gave to
the prophet Daniel that prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.
And it was to be happening in 70 weeks. And here's what the
Lord said the Messiah would do when he comes. Finish the transgression. Make an end of sins. make reconciliation for iniquity,
and bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy,
and anoint the most holy. That all happened in one day.
In one day. He put an end to sin. He put
it away. That's the only hope we have. The only hope we have is that
God has put away our sin. You say, but I still sin. It's been put away. If you're
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as the hope of your salvation
and believing that God accomplished the salvation of his people on
Calvary's cross, that that cross is the reason for everything,
and you believe what God says here, I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day, I will hide them in the depths
of the sea, separate their sin from them as far as the east
is from the west. You see, brethren, it's not just the things that
you feel bad about in your past. It's every sin that you're ever
going to commit in your future. It's been put away. You can't do anything to change
what Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. you can add to it, you can't
take away from it. And the unbeliever will hear
language like this and they'll say, preacher you're just giving
people an excuse to sin. It's the only thing that makes
me not want to sin. The only thing that makes me
not want to sin is when I consider the fact that Christ has already
paid for it. The strength of sin is the law.
If I think that I've got to do something in order to satisfy
the justice of God by keeping the law, that's only going to
make me want to sin all the more. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 says,
for by one offering he hath, he hath, past tense, perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Believe that. That's what the
Lord's saying. By one offering. all the blood
of bulls and goats offered in the Old Testament never put away
sin, but by one offering, His precious blood, His precious
blood hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He did that in one day. One day. It's finished. It's done. It's accomplished. Look at verse
10. And in that day, saith the Lord
of hosts, shall he call every man his neighbor under the vine."
Now you know what the vine is a picture of, don't you? The
Lord said, I'm the true vine and you're the branches. And
the vine, in order to bear fruit, must abide in the branch. And
if it does bear fruit, the husbandman's going to prune it so that it'll
bear more fruit. So what's the Lord saying? He's
saying, everyone that I saved in that one day are going to
come to me. They're going to come to the
vine. They're going to see that apart from them being in union
with the vine, they have no hope and no life. For the vine, the
branches that are detached from the vine, the scripture says,
are going to be cast into the furnace. And then he says they're
going to be under the fig tree. Now the scripture speaks of a
man who has a garden and in that garden is a fig tree. And the
fig tree is unfruitful and the owner of the garden threatens
to cut the fig tree down and the servant says, oh no, let
us dung it, let us fertilize it, let us prune it and trim
it and work on it and see if it'll produce fruit next year.
You remember when the Lord was walking down the road and he
saw that fig tree that had no fruit on it and he cursed it?
And the next day they came back and the disciples saw the same
fig tree and noticed that the fig tree had completely lost
all of its leaves and had withered and died from the curse? What is the fig tree a picture
of? It's the church. It's the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the fig tree. And those
trees that are unfruitful in lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ,
those who call themselves the church of God, but in fact are
not preaching the gospel, they're not lifting up Christ, they have
nothing to look forward to but the curse of God. But the Lord
says in that day, everyone's gonna come to the vine and they're
gonna get under the fig tree. You remember when Nathanael was
brought to the Lord. They went to Nathanael and said,
we found the Messiah. He's Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael
said, what good can come out of Nazareth? And Andrew said,
come and see. Come and see. So he brings Nathanael
to the Lord. And the Lord sees Nathanael and
says, Nathanael, an Israelite in whom there is no guile, And
Nathanael said, Lord, how did you know me? How do you know
anything about me? Oh, Nathanael, I saw you when
you were under the fig tree. And Nathanael bowed in worship
and called the Lord Jesus Christ God, Lord. Oh, Lord. Where's that? You see, when we
come to the house of prayer, the Lord was saying to Nathanael,
Nathanael, you've been praying in church. about about the coming
of the Messiah and I'm here to answer that prayer for you. I'm
here to reveal to you the one who's going to put away iniquity
in one day and save all of Israel. God's pleased to call out one
of his elect. He puts him in his church. He
makes him part of the body of Christ. Now I want to speak for
just a moment. I know that we have people that
watch our service regularly. We've got folks that have been
supporting this church for years, who for one reason or another
cannot, have not been able to get to a local assembly. And
I heard a preacher say recently that God, the Holy Spirit, does
not bless recorded messages. uh... i cannot agree with that
statement but i will say because i know
also that there are people that watch the services who could
get to a local assembly and don't i will say this i'm not going
to say that the lord doesn't bless a recorded message but
i will say that there is much missing in the translation There's much. You see, we have
the spirit by measure. We're going to see that in this
passage in just a moment. The spirit of God promises to
bless the assembly of his people in the live preaching of the
gospel. tree was baptized just a few weeks ago here and she
lives in Pensacola that's seven eight hours from here not able
to get here very often she told me this morning said it's not
saying been watching online as a can drive eight hours every
weekend but but all to be here is just not the same there's
listen brother and if you can get to a gospel church and I'm
speaking to those that watch the service it's not the same
There is definitely something missing in the translation if
all you have is a recorded service. What's the Lord saying here?
In that day, I'm going to bring them to the vine and I'm going
to put them under the fig tree. They're going to become a part
of my assembly, my church, my people. And the angel that talked with
me, chapter 4, verse 1, the angel that talked with me came again
and waked me. Oh, you've had it happen. I had it happen just the night
before last. We had a water leak in our house the day before.
It was a very minor water leak and I was able to fix it. But
that night, in the middle of the night, I'm having a dream
about a water leak that floods my house and I'm running all
over the house trying to fix this water leak. You've had that
happen. Oh, how relieved I was to wake
up and oh, that was a dream. I mean, it was as real as real
could be. Our house was being flooded.
Everything was being destroyed. But it was a dream. You see, the men of this world
live You ever heard somebody say, well, I'm living the dream.
I'm living the dream. Yeah, that's what you're living.
That's what you're living. You're living in a make-believe
world. Only God's people who are awakened by Him are able
to see the truth. You see, the world in their flesh
walks by sight. All they can see is the benefits
of this world. We don't walk by sight. walk
by faith. You remember when when Elisha
was telling the king of Judah everything that the king of Syria
was planning against Judah. The king of Syria would get his
army together and he would go to a certain place to attack
Judah and Judah would be gone. And finally, the king of Syria
says to his advisors, he says, we've got a spy among us, and
I want to know who it is. And one of the servants said,
it's not us, it's Elisha. And he's down there in Dothan,
and he tells the king of Judah everything that you say, even
in your bed chambers, in your secret conversations, he knows
everything. and the king of Syria said, fetch
him, go get him. And the scripture says that he
sent chariots and armies and foot soldiers and swords. I mean,
he was determined to get this one little prophet in this one
little town called Dothan. And the servant of the prophet
goes out that morning and he looks around and he sees the
army of Syria surrounding him. And he comes back in and he says,
oh master, what shall we do? What shall we do? We're surrounded. It's just me and you. And Elisha
says, Lord, open his eyes that he might
see. And he went back out and God
gave him eyes to see. And between Elisha and the army
of Syria was an army of angels in flaming chariots surrounding
the prophet's house. Oh, brethren, the world is living a dream. The reality, the reality, the
truthfulness of that which is real is not seen. It's not seen. We look on that which is not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. God gives us eyes of faith. He wakes us up from our dream. And He causes us to see that
all these things that we fear Like our flooded house was nothing
but a figment of our imagination, it was but a dream. And the reality
of life is in that which is eternal. The Lord said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. I go and prepare a place for
you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, receive
you unto myself that where I am there, you may be also. So you're precious in my sight.
You're of infinite value to me and the armies of heaven are
sent to defend you. Now the world can't see that. They can't see it. Turn with me to Ephesians 1. Paul is praying for the church
at Ephesus. And I often am reminded of this
prayer when the Lord enables me to pray for us. to pray for
us. In verse 16, he says, I cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him. And you're not going to see that
with your physical eyes. You're not going to balance that in
your checkbook. You're not going to be able to check that out
under a microscope. This is something that has to
be revealed. We've got to be waking from our
sleep. the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty
power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above
all principalities and powers and might and dominion and everything
that is named not only in this world but also in the world to
come. and hath put all things unto his feet, and gave him to
be the head over all things, the church, which is his body,
the fullness, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." How valuable is your body to
you? Pretty valuable, isn't it? You get sick or gets injured,
you tend to it real quick, don't you? We're the body of Christ. It can't be seen with physical
eyes. Colossians chapter 3 says, set your affection not on things
of the earth. The Gentiles, they look at those
things. What am I going to eat? And what
am I going to drink? And what am I going to put on? What am
I going to wear? Your heavenly father knows you
have need of those things. Consider the lilies of the field.
Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed as one of them. Oh, that the eyes of our understanding
would be enlightened. That we would have some understanding
of the breadth and the height of His love and His grace and
His mercy toward us. Otherwise, we're going to find
ourselves in a dream This world is a dream world and everybody
in it is just living a dream, living a dream. Turn back with
me to our text. Verse 1 of Zechariah chapter
4, And the angel that talked with me came again and waked
me as a man that is waked out of his sleep, and said unto me,
What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and
behold, a candlestick all of gold. Now I'll just interpret
this dream as we go along, and you know what this candlestick
is. You remember in the book of Revelation when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes and walks among the seven golden candlesticks?
And those seven golden candlesticks were the seven churches of Asia
Minor representing all the churches of all times of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then when he says to Ephesus,
the church at Ephesus, he says, I know your works. And he commends
them for their good works. He commends them for their intolerance
towards false prophets. And then he says to them, however,
I've got something against you. You have left your first love. Repent. repent, lest I remove
your candlestick from its place." So now God's giving Zachariah.
He wakes him from his sleep. He's not having this vision in
his sleep. He's fully awake. He's seeing the truth for what
it is. He's been delivered from his dreams. And now the Lord
gives him a vision of a golden candlestick. That's the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. with a bowl upon the top of it.
Now this bowl was for holding oil. And here's a picture of
the hearts of God's people. The anointing of the Spirit of
God is given to the heart and the pouring out of the oil of
God's Spirit upon God's people. and His seven lamps thereof,
and the seven pipes of the seven lamps, which are upon the top
thereof." So each one of these, this candelabra now has seven
lamps. That's all the, the number seven
is the number of completion. That's the full church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the seven eyes that
the Lord has? It goes to and fro to find everyone
that's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. When God starts,
God finishes. He does a perfect work all the
time. He's not like us. He doesn't
leave something unfinished. In verse 3, on the two olive
trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other
upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake unto
the angel that talked with me saying, what are these my Lord? What are these my Lord? Zechariah
is confessing his ignorance. And the angel says to him in
verse five, No, it's now not what these be.
And Zacharias said, no, Lord, I don't understand. I don't understand. If you and I are going to have
any acceptance into the presence of God, we must come into his
presence knowing nothing. having nothing, able to do nothing. Completely teachable. Lord, I,
you know, we might be able to impress one another, but we're
not gonna impress God. Zacharias said, Lord, unless you teach
me, I'm not gonna know. And what'd the Lord say? They
shall all be taught of God. Come and learn of me. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. I'll teach you. I'll teach you. You see, in the
presence of God Almighty, we always are students, aren't we? We're always teachable. We're always children asking
to be taught. It's unnatural for the pride
of man to admit his ignorance. You know, one of the hardest
things for a man to say is, I don't know. I don't know. I'm going
to tell you, you know why men don't ask for directions? I'm
going to tell you why men don't ask for, generally speaking,
he's not going to ask a woman because, generally speaking,
she doesn't know. All right? I said it. And the
reason why he's not going to ask a man is because the man
is too proud to say, I don't know, and he'll make something
up. So you're going to get bad directions
either way, whether you ask a woman or whether you ask a man. Isn't that true? I don't know. Lord, I don't know. What did
that Ethiopian eunuch say? How can I? Lest a man should
guide me. I don't know what this means.
Teach me. Teach me. The Lord told the Pharisees,
He said, you search the Scriptures, you're diligent students of the
Bible, because you think that you got it all figured out, and
you've missed the main point of the Word of God, because these
are they which testify of Me. And then in the next verse He
says, you will not come unto Me that you might have life.
How can you believe which which which get glory from man you
see you know I am interested in the glory of God you receive
honor from one another so how can you believe Lord I don't know you gonna have
to teach me so the Lord is going to teach
him now verse 6 He answered and spake unto me, saying, This is
the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel historically
was the man that God used to come back from Babylonian captivity
and build the temple for the worship of God. But like all
these characters, he represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Zerubbabel's
name translated means sown in Babylon. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this Babylonian world, and he was birthed of a woman
under the law to redeem those who are cursed by the law. Born
in Babylon, this is the word of the Lord undeservable, saying,
not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
What are these two olive trees? These two olive trees are also
spoken of in Revelation chapter 11 as the two prophets. It is the Spirit of God and the
Word of God that are feeding this candle with oil through
pipes. What are these pipes? Well, they're
just conduits. They don't create the oil. They
don't improve the oil. They don't change the oil. They
just get the oil from the olive tree to the lamp stand. It's
the preaching of the gospel. That's what the pipes are. The
value is in the olive tree. That's where the oil is coming
from. And notice in the last part of this in verse 13, and
he answered and said to me, no, it's not not what these be. And
I said, no, my Lord, then said he, these are the two anointed
ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. These are the two anointed ones. This is the spirit of God. and the Word of God. Sending the oil of God's anointing
to his church for the lighting of the candle. The Lord said
no man puts a candle under a basket. He puts it on a candlestick and
puts it up in a room so everybody can see. And that's what I was
saying earlier. We want the message of the gospel
to be so clear and so bright that nobody's confused about
what we're trying to say. And here the two olive trees represent
the Spirit of God and the Word of God. They provide the oil
of anointing through the preaching of the gospel to the candle to
light the light of life. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Nicodemus in John chapter three, he said, except a man be born
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Now the water is the word of God. In Revelation chapter
11, the scripture says these two prophets, these two witnesses
are left dead on the streets in Jerusalem. And that's where
the Word of God and the Spirit of God is among the people of
this world today. People of this world have got
no interest in the Word of God. Not as it's preached according
to the gospel. All flesh is as grass, 1 Peter
chapter 1. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. So if the gospel's not being
preached, the word of God's not being preached. And here's the
spirit of God sending the oil of his anointing to light the
candle. And Zachariah's being taught. He said, not by might, not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's of God that
showeth mercy. You can't will yourself into the kingdom of
God. You can't work yourself into the kingdom of God. It's
by my spirit, saith the Lord. That's the vision. The vision
is the gospel. And without my word, God, He uses the word of truth. If
we're not born by water and by spirit, we shall not enter into
the kingdom of God. You remember Ezekiel chapter
37, don't you? when the Lord took the prophet Ezekiel to a
valley where a battle had been fought many years before. And
the dead bodies had already been bleached dried by the sun. And
the bones had been picked clean by the birds of the air. And
the marrow of the bones had been hollowed out by the insects. And so the scripture says this
valley was full of bones that were very dry. And God says to
Ezekiel, man of God, son of man, can these bones live? And what
did Ezekiel say? What did he say? Lord, if they're
going to live, you're going to have to make them live. Lord,
thou knowest. I don't know. How am I going
to make them live? Prophesy unto the bones. Preach
to the valley of dry bones. And this whole valley at the
end of Ezekiel chapter 37, the scripture says, is all Israel. That's you and me. See, we're
the valley of dry bones. And so Ezekiel begins to preach
the gospel to these dry bones. And bone comes to bone, and sinew
begins to grow on the bone, and flesh grows on the bone, and
they take on the fashion of a man. But the scripture says, yet there
is no life in them. There's no life in them. So what
did the Lord say to Ezekiel? Son of man, prophesy unto the
wind. The wind is the Spirit of God.
You see, it wasn't just the preaching of the gospel that was necessary
for the salvation of Israel, but it was the coming of the
Spirit of God. That's the two olive trees. That's the two witnesses. That's the two prophets that
are lying dead in the streets of Jerusalem today. And the only
place where these two olive trees are dispensing the oil through
the preaching of the gospel to the candle so that the light
can shine and God's people can be saved is in Zion, is in the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wanna be a part of that. I
want to be a part of that. Outside of that, it's just a
dream. It's just a dream. It's all a
dream. It's not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. We walk not by sight, we walk
by faith. Lord, enable me. How are we going
to learn these things? Lord, you're going to have to
teach me. Lord, I don't know. I don't know. I don't understand.
Show me. And right now, this morning,
God's been teaching us, hasn't he? He's been showing us. You
come before the throne of grace to find help in your time of
need. As a teachable child, Lord, show
me, teach me the truth. Wake me from my dream. Show me
what's real. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father. We are needful. Of your spirit. To teach us. To lead us to Christ. Show us
the truth. Thank you for this table. Thank
you for the bread and for the wine. Lord, might we be enabled
by your spirit to receive. These things in memory. Of thy sinless son who shed his
precious blood. That we might be saved. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. and ask the men if they'll come
and distribute the bread and the wine. Tom, we're going to
sing number 17 from the Spiral Hymnal. You just remain seated,
please. Number 17. See the table spread before you
See the feast of bread and wine These are symbols of our Savior
Tokens of His love divine Bread that's broken is his body Crushed
beneath the wrath of God Wine poured out is a reminder Of our
Savior's precious blood Children of our God, remember how he bought
your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. wine. Jesus came, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us never forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us home to glory. Praise his name. With this hope and expectation
We rejoice to keep this feast Celebrating our redemption Till
we lead on Jesus' breast God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. This is my body, the unleavened bread, sinless
perfection, which is broken for you. As often as you do this,
do it in remembrance of me. We were talking about the wedding
feast at Canaan last night, and that wine that the Lord made
from water, what it must have been like. The guy that's over the feast
was asked, you know, why'd you save the best wine for last?
Save for last. Everybody puts out the good wine
first. Well, the best wine was saved for last. It's the blood
that the Lord Jesus Christ shed on that one day when he put an
end to transgressions, put away inequity once and for all, brought
his people to the vine and to the fig tree. Now he's pouring
out his oil through the preaching of the gospel from the spirit
and the word. Often as you do this, do it in
remembrance of me. And all God's people said, amen,
amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Robert, would you lead us in prayer, please? Father, we come before you this
morning, Father, with lifting hearts, Father, Yeah.