I wanted to spend a little time talking to you about a memorial. We do this in remembrance of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We remember who He is, we remember
why He came, we remember what He achieved in His coming. We remember His coming again.
We are declaring the Lord's death until He comes again. We are declaring the victory
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in His coming. And I wanted
us to talk, if you turn with me in your Bibles back to Zechariah
chapter 6. There is, at the end of chapter
6 verse 14, a mention of a memorial. There's a memorial in the temple
of the Lord. And this was a real memorial
in the temple of the Lord. And that memorial was there maybe for hundreds of years.
Like so many other extraordinary things in the temple, it's amazing
that they lost the Ark of the Covenant. It's amazing that they
lost the Urim and the Thummim. It's amazing the things that
went missing, but these crowns The crowns in verse 14. The crowns
shall be to Helam, and to Tobijah, and to Judiah, and to Hen, the
son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord. And they shall come, they that
are afar off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord. And
you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you,
and this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice
of the Lord your God. The memorial. is a memorial made
from the silver and gold that these men who have returned from
Babylon. Babylon is a picture of this
world. Babylon is a picture of the fallen religion of man in
this world. Revelation chapter 17 speaks
of Babylon, that great harlot who has made the whole world
drunk with the wine of her adulteries. This world is full of drunk people. No wonder they do silly things.
No wonder they say silly things. They are drunk with the wine.
No wonder the religions of this world are so perverse in so many
ways. Let's go back. to verse 11 and
look at where these crowns come from. You take the silver and
the gold. These men had returned late from Babylon and we're not
told why, but they had returned after the temple had been built
and the wall had been built and they came in the time of Zechariah. There was still more to be done
but they They came and they brought silver and gold and he says in
verse 7, You take the silver and gold and make crowns and
set them upon the head of Joshua and the Joshua's name is the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His name. You set them
upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of Jehoshaddak,
the high priest, and speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord
of hosts. Behold. This is what you speak
when you have these crowns that are made. Behold the man whose
name is the branch. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He shall grow up out of his place. You grow up in your place. We
are children of Adam and we grow up in this world. The Lord Jesus
Christ came from heaven and he grew up, not in heaven, he grew
up here on earth in Mary's womb for those nine months and for
the other 33 and a half years of his life he grew up out of
his place. And listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ shall do. And he shall build the temple
of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ will build
the temple of the Lord. He will build the place where
God reveals Himself. He will build the place where
God gathers His people together. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 6 says
this is the temple. You are the temple. The gathered
people of God are the temple of God in this world. The place
where God meets with his people, the place where God meets with
his people on the basis of blood sacrifice. Redemption accomplished
is where he meets with his people. But this is the glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. He shall bear the glory. All of the glory for all of the
building goes to Him. Which means none of the glory
for any of the building goes to man. Always. If God does the building, He
gets all the glory. If man does the building, God
gets no glory and He's not involved in it at all. Everywhere where
God lives, He gets all the glory. And then He says, He shall. I want you to be reminded again
that every time you read a will and a shall from the mouth of
God Almighty, you can write beside it, done. finished, accomplished. He shall sit and rule upon his
throne. He'll sit and rule as a king.
The Lord Jesus Christ is king over everything in this world,
over you now and your thoughts, and even your thoughts that might
have disagreed with what I just said. He rules as king over everything. He shall sit and rule upon his
throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne. And if you know
something of the Old Testament, kings and priests, there never
was a priest who sat upon a throne. The Lord Jesus Christ is a priest
upon his throne, and the Lord Jesus Christ is a king upon his
throne. He is the prophet, the priest,
and the king. And I love what he goes on to
say, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. There is a counsel, there is
a purpose, there is a wisdom of peace between them both. There is a counsel of peace.
between the king and priest in one man, this Joshua, and you
take these crowns. I love the fact that our God
is called the God of peace. The very God of peace, sanctify
you holy, 1 Thessalonians 5. The God of peace shall be with
you, Philippians 4. He's called the God of love.
and peace. Melchizedek, who pictured the
Lord Jesus Christ in the most remarkable way, was the King
of Righteousness and the King of Salem, the King of Peace. I like peace. This world causes
so many troubles. This world ruffles our feathers,
this world upsets, it gets upset and turned upside down in so
many ways. Peace is precious isn't it? Peace with God is precious. No wonder the New Testament letters
written to the saints in the churches speak of grace and mercy
and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says, let the peace of This is that council of peace.
These crowns are memorials of this. Where has peace been made? Colossians 1.20, having made
peace through the blood of his cross. When we participate in
the Lord's Supper, we are declaring that he has made peace. He has
made peace. Christ is our peace. It's called the gospel of peace.
The gospel of peace. Have your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. We're declaring that God
is at peace with his people. There is no sin in them. They are holy before God. God has no reason. Nothing obstructs
his love. because the Lord Jesus Christ
has borne all of their sins away. This is the memorial in the temple.
What was the temple all about? The whole picture of the temple
was the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Every little bit
of it was about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
the high priest took his people in there with his names on his
heart and their names on his shoulder and took all of the
elect of God with blood into the Holy of Holies and met with
God. That's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ does with all
of his people in this world. No wonder it's called the Gospel
of Peace. The fruit of the Spirit, the
work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of this one fruit that
has many aspects, isn't it? Love, joy, peace. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness
and faith. Romans 15 speaks of the joy and
peace in belief. Where's my peace gone? Unbelief. Again, where do my troubles all
begin? Unbelief. The joy and peace in
believing that ye may abound in hope. The Lord Jesus Christ says in
John 16, these things I have spoken unto you In me, you might have peace,
John 16, 33. In the world, you're going to
have tribulation. Just get used to it. That's life
in this world. You're going to have troubles.
But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. This world is under the control
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we overcome the world? 1 John 5, faith, faith. So these are the crowds. These
are the crowns. You make these crowns and you
set them upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ and you take
them into the temple and they are there as a memorial. A memorial for a particular group
of people. They're named there under Helam
and Tobijah and Judiah and Hand. a memorial in the Temple of the
Lord, something to be remembered. When you went into the Temple
of the Lord, there was something to be remembered. And so their
names, everything in the Scriptures is incredibly significant. Everything
in the Scriptures, the little words and the big words, are
all incredibly significant. When you went into the Temple
and you saw those crowns there, and you were a Helam, you would
see the Helam's word means strength. Where's all of my strength? My
strength, all of my strength, is in this one who is the branch,
this one who sits, the one who is worthy of the crowns. While
I'm talking about crowns, it's good for us to be reminded that
this world talks about the crowns that everyone's going to get
at the end, don't they? When I came back from India we
continually got people telling, well I didn't continually, but
I had a number of times people telling me, well you're going
to get more jewels in your crown, or you'll get a brighter crown,
you'll get a bigger crown, and you'll be a little bit closer
to the throne because you've done these things. What a load
of nonsense. If they knew anything in my heart
they'd never say that at all. There is a crown, there is one
crown of righteousness, and who's our righteousness? There is just
one righteousness, isn't there? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is my righteousness. I don't have any righteousness
of my own. He is my righteousness. Listen to what Paul says. He
says in 2 Timothy 4.8, Paul has got this laid up for him, a crown
of righteousness. You would think Paul would get
that because of all that he's done. No. No. which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing. I love His appearing. I love His appearing on my behalf
before the world began. I love His appearing in creation. I love His appearing in the Old
Testament, making all these remarkable promises, the ones that we're
reading here. I love His appearing. That's the crown, isn't it? I love His appearing when He
reveals Himself in the coming of the Gospel. So when people
talk about crowns, and you'll hear it in time no doubt, just
remind them that there is one crown and that crown is not something
that anyone earns. and the jewels on their crown
are not something. There is one. He's worthy. The
Lord Jesus Christ said in Revelation 19, on his head are many crowns. All the crowns go to him, don't
they? But there is a crown, isn't it? In that day shall the Lord
of hosts be, Isaiah 28.5, be for and a diadem of beauty unto the
residue of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
crown. The crown of righteousness is him. So the crowns, these
crowns are a memorial in that temple. So you went into that
temple, so Helam went into that temple, and his name is Strength,
and he has no strength in himself. All of the strength of all of
the people that go in there to that temple for that memorial,
to see that memorial, will realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is
all the strength we have. Don't you love it? We sing it
at the end of our service every week, isn't it? He is able. He is able. He has the power. He is able. And you go there,
you realize that you are weak. When we were, Romans 5, when
we were without strength, when we were without any strength
whatsoever, Christ died for us. Tobijah, this memorial that they
were to take in their Tobijah Name means Jehovah is my good. Isn't that lovely? Pleasing to
Jehovah is what his name means. So if you are without strength
and you are pleasing because Jehovah is my good, you're pleasing
to him, then you will have that memorial. Jediah means God Jehovah
has no or for whom Jehovah cares. in the temple aren't they? Those
who have no strength of themselves but see the Lord Jesus Christ
as all their strength. Those who see that the Lord Jesus
Christ is all of my good. Those for whom they can say that
the anoint of God Jehovah knows and Jehovah cares. Hen means
favour. It's for a memorial. That's for
the memorial. It's a memorial to the branch.
It's a memorial to the one who builds the temple. It's a memorial
to the one who bears the glory. It's a memorial to the one who
sits and rules upon his throne. It's a memorial to that priest
and that king. And it's a memorial to the Council
of Peace before them. That's exactly what the temple
is about. It's exactly what the Ark of
the Covenant is all about. And listen to what our God does. This is what our God does. These
people have come out of Babylon. If you've come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you've come out of Babylon. You've come out of this world,
and you've come out of all the false notions that this world
gives you about who you are, who God is, and how God saves
sinners. All the false notions about who
the Lord Jesus Christ is, and they abound today, don't they? They abound today. All these
notions that our God, rather than being this glorious God,
is a God who tries. A God who loves and he can't
get his love reciprocated. And won't you please do him a
favour by coming down the front and praying the sinner's prayer.
A God who died for everyone and shed his blood and wants everyone
to be saved but he can't do it. That's not the God that Zechariah
witnessed here. It's not the memorial that's
in the temple of God. Where does God meet with his
people? Where these very things that we're talking about are
revealed about our Lord Jesus Christ and about us. He can not
fail. Our God rules all. Now listen
to what he says in that rulership, in this kingship, in this glory
of his being a priest and drawing his people to himself. He says,
they that are far off shall come. Don't you love that? You were born far off from God.
We're all afar off. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast off. How far are we from God? So far that only God Almighty
coming in human flesh, only God Almighty living perfect holiness
and righteousness, only God Almighty dying on a cross of Calvary,
only God Almighty resurrected and reigning can bring you into
God's presence. That's how far off you are. If
you're far off, you need someone to bring you there. You're so
far. You're not going to get there by human wisdom. You're
not going to get there by human works. You have to be brought
there by Him and Him alone. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
as a good shepherd. He goes, doesn't he? He leaves
the 99 in the wilderness. What a place to leave 99 sheep
in the wilderness. And he goes because of one, doesn't
he? Luke 15, you can read the story.
He gets that one, doesn't he? And he puts it on his shoulders.
When he comes back, what does he want everyone to do? You rejoice. You rejoice because a lost sheep
has been found and brought back. They shall come. All of them. Every single last one of the
sheep shall come. Abraham was a far off, but I
love what he goes on to say, and build, listen to it, he shall,
verse 12 says, he shall build the temple. The Lord Jesus Christ
shall build the temple. They that come from afar off,
they shall come and they'll build in the temple of the Lord. And you shall know that the Lord
of hosts has said unto you, You're building, aren't you? You're
building right now. You're building something, somewhere,
and for someone. All of us have plans in our minds,
don't we? We're all building. What a great
description of the building of the Lord. If you have come from
afar off, you'll build in The Lord says, you bring my sons
from afar. He says, I create the fruit of
lips. Peace, peace to him that is afar
off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. Where does he meet? in the Lord. They've been built
together into a house, into a habitation of God by the Spirit. Where does He build? Where He
does the building, where He bears the glory, where He sits and
rules on His throne, where He is a priest on His throne, where
the council of peace, the purpose of peace is revealed. I want to be built by God. I want to be built in His place. I want to be joined to Him. I want to be where He is working. I want to be where He reveals
Himself. I want to be where He speaks
peace to my heart. I want to be where His blood
is precious. O LORD, my strength, Jeremiah
16, 19, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction,
the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth
and shall say, this is what you'll say when you come from afar off,
surely our fathers have inherited lies. Vanity, that's nothingness. and things wherein there is no
profit, but they'll come. Therefore behold, I will cause
them to know my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name
is the Lord. There's a temple being built
by our great and glorious God. You are the temple of God, says
our God. The building of that old temple
was just is the spiritual temple and the
real temple is being built by God Almighty here. Know ye not
that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you. In wonderful, wonderful you. As we remember our Lord, may
he cause us to eat and to drink worthily. What's worthily? There's one cause of worthiness. Belief. To believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Take, eat, this is my body which
is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. This is the cup In the New Testament,
the eternal covenant in my blood, this do ye as often as you drink
in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till
he come. Till he come. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank
you. We thank you for You're revealing
Yourself to us in the person and work of Your dear and precious
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. O our Father, You alone can cause
Him to be precious to us. You alone can cause His blood
to be precious to us. You alone can cause us to come
in reverence and bow, but in reverence to adore Him. to who He is and to what He's
done, and to what glorious things He is doing now. Oh, our Father,
we pray that You'd continue to work in our hearts to knit us
together in love, that we together might have our eyes fixed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we are brought near to
You by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, may we be brought
near to each other, that we might be a place, Heavenly Father.
For you are revealed, and by this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Grant
us this love in your dear and precious Son, and for his glory
we pray. Amen.