Alright brethren, let's turn
to Zechariah chapter 4. We'll begin reading in verse
6. 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 the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace,
grace, unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. His hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. For who hath despised the
day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord
which run to and fro through the whole earth. God chose Zerubbabel
to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. This was after the children of
Israel had been in captivity for 70 years. You can find in
the first chapter where the Lord prayed for them. The Lord Jesus
did and he asked the father how long before you show them mercy. And so the Lord showed them mercy.
He brought them out and he chose Zerubbabel to build the temple. And Zerubbabel is a type of the
Lord Jesus. Look with me over at Zechariah
6 and look at verse 12. speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is
the branch. he shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build
the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall
sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon
his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."
That's Christ Jesus. That's the Lord Jesus. He builds
the temple of God. Now, concerning this physical
temple, They came out of Babylon, and they had begun building the
temple. They laid the foundation. Zerubbabel laid the foundation.
But this temple was smaller than Solomon's temple, and it didn't
look too impressive to the people. And they began to despise it.
Enemies arose around them, tried to stop the work from going forward. Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel
the governor, they seemed to have doubts themselves and stopped
working. And it seemed impossible. It
didn't seem like this temple was going to be built. And for
a time, the children of Israel just gave up on the work. They
just gave up on it. And then God raised up Haggai
and He raised up Zechariah. And he gave them the word of
the Lord to go forth and preach. To go forth and preach. To strengthen
their faith. To strengthen their weak knees. But this was not merely for them.
This was for us too. This was for his church in every
age. because we need to hear this word from our Lord. We need
to hear the word of the Lord. This is the message he's declaring.
The Lord Jesus is the builder of his temple. He's the builder
of his church. The Lord Jesus is. He laid the
foundation and he shall finish the building. And he will do
it not by our might and not by our power, but by his spirit. That's the word of our Lord.
That's the good news of the gospel, brethren. He shall not fail. Now first of all, Zerubbabel
typifies Christ Jesus the Lord. God's eternal purpose is to manifest
His glory in the salvation of His people. That's His purpose.
To manifest His glory in the salvation of His people. That's
why He created this world. That's why Adam fell and was
ruined and plunged us all into sin and death. The children of
Israel were carried away captive in Babylon due to their sin.
And that's a picture of you and me from the garden. We were carried
away captive in our sin by the fall of Adam. That's how we come
forth into this world. But it was God's purpose to glorify
his name in our salvation. The Lord trusted the Son of God
before the world was made. He made the decree, He determined
the end from the beginning, and He trusted His Son to build His
church, His people, His temple before the world was ever made.
And because He did that, the work was finished from the foundation
of the world. Our Lord Jesus It could not fail,
would not fail, God's purpose would never fail. The work was
finished from the foundation of the world. That should cheer
our hearts, brethren. That should cheer our hearts.
That soul of us in particular, you, you're the temple of God
individually. A living stone built up to make
up this whole temple of God and he's going to complete the work
that he's begun in his people. That's great, great good news
for us when we know we're sinners, weak and in need of him to save. Now, Zerubbabel was the lawful
prince at this time, and that's a picture of Christ. Christ is
the king of his kingdom. Now, Zerubbabel was not a high
priest. There was a high priest, and
both of them together picture Christ. Christ is the king priest. He's the king priest. But Zerubbabel
and the Lord were both of the lineage of David. I'm trying
to show you how Zerubbabel's a picture of Christ. He's a picture
of Christ. They're both of the house of
David. Zerubbabel had laid the foundation
of the temple. He had already begun this work.
He had laid the foundation of the temple. Our Lord Jesus Christ
came and he has laid the foundation of the temple and he is the foundation
of the temple. Our Lord Jesus came into this
earth and that's what he has accomplished by his blood and
by his righteousness laying down his life at Calvary. In eternity
the Lord laid the foundation, God the Father laid it, he laid
Christ our foundation by choosing Christ to do all the saving.
And in time our Lord Jesus came forth and he laid the foundation
by laying down his life in a room instead of his people. Look there in Zechariah 3 and
look at verse 8. Here now, O Joshua the high priest,
thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for their men wondered
at, now watch, he's talking about Christ here, for behold I will
bring forth my servant the branch, For behold, the stone that I've
laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold,
I'll engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord our host, and
I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." We've
been seeing our Lord cry out, it's finished on the cross. He
removed the iniquity of his people in one day. One day. He did it. He did it. See, from
the world before this world was made, God said, the scripture
says, Psalm 89, 19, Thou spakest in vision to the Holy One and
said, I've laid help upon one that's mighty, I've exalted one
chosen out of the people. That's what our Lord did, our
Father did when He chose His Son to be ours arrivable, to
come and build the temple for God. And when our Lord Jesus
came forth and laid down His life by His righteousness, by
His finished work, He laid the foundation. He laid the foundation. He laid the foundation. And now
as He's risen and reigning in heaven, He's sending forth this
gospel and He is building up the walls. One living stone upon
another. He's building up His people,
calling them out, building them up together. Those that He's
called are like the children of Israel. were like the children
of Israel right here. He called them out of Babylon,
but it seemed like a small work to them, and they were discouraged. You know, he's got a little work
over here, and he's got a little work over here, and he's got
a few over here, and a few over there, and we were small in number.
and it's easy to get discouraged. You got enemies surrounding us
just like they had surrounding them, mocking them, and trying
to stop the work. Satan attacking, trying to stop
the work from progressing. And so they were discouraged,
but this was the Lord's word to them. This is what the Lord
spoke to them. This is what the Lord speaks
to us. Brethren, hear the word of the Lord. Verse 9, the hands
of Zerubbabel has laid this foundation of this house. His hands shall
also finish it. Hear that concerning our Lord
Jesus. He is our Zerubbabel. He laid the foundation of this
house. He shall finish it. Now secondly, the Lord declares
his house shall not be built by the might of men, but by the
spirit of our Lord. Verse six, 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. He had shown He had shown Zechariah
a candlestick. It had these two olive trees
on each side of it. And this is the answer. Those
olive trees were supplying oil to the candlestick. You know,
the candlestick is the church. And this is the Lord's answer
to that vision he had shown Zechariah. He said, it's not going to be
by might. It's not going to be by power. It's by my spirit,
saith the Lord. That's how this house will be
built. The temple Christ builds is a spiritual house. So it has
to be of the Spirit of God. It's a spiritual house. It's
not a carnal house. It's not a physical house. It's
not a fleshly house. It's a spiritual house. So it's
going to have to be built by the Spirit of God. We're not
born again by our own might and our own power. We can't be. His people are born again of
the Spirit of God. We can study. We can do whatever. We can do whatever men try to
get us to do. It's not going to make us be
born again. We have to be born again of the Spirit of God. The
children are born and built up not by carnal weapons. It's not
anything of a man. They're born again of the incorruptible
seed by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And
Peter said, this is the word whereby the gospel is preached
unto you. It's through this word. This
word is spiritual. You notice how men accuse us
of, well, you spiritualize the scripture. That's the only way
to understand the scriptures. their spirit. That's the only
way you can understand it. And you can only understand then
by the Spirit of the Lord. Have you ever looked into the
Word of God and you read a passage and you know the Gospel is there
but you don't get it. You just can't see it. And then
one day you read it and it's like the light went off and the
Spirit of the Lord just shows you right exactly what it means.
It's of Him. It's of Him. It's not by the
power of a man's will, it's by the sovereign will and grace
of our God. Whatever power, whatever might
a sinner has, he might be able to do things economically, he
might be able to do things in civil affairs, he might be great
in business, he might even be great in outward religion. But
we can't do one thing without the Spirit of God. We haven't
even begun. We can't have a good thought,
we can't have a good action, but by the Spirit of God, this
thing is of the Lord's Spirit. You take election and you take
justification, that's all of the Lord. Well, so is regeneration,
so is conversion, so is sanctification, so is resurrection, so is glorification. This whole thing beginning to
end is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Lord said, it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. It's the spirit
of life. Christ himself, in and in, who
is the life that gives us life. He's the strength in the inner
man. He's the one who is wisdom, spiritual wisdom, who gives us
spiritual discernment to have the mind of Christ, to be able
to hear the gospel and understand the gospel and believe the gospel.
It's all of the Lord. You picture Solomon's temple
when they got back after 70 years. It had been destroyed and it's
just a bunch of ruined stones just heaped up and there's not
much left to it. It's destroyed. Now they can't
go in there and just lay a foundation on that. They gotta clear all
that out before they can lay a foundation. Now, Lord Jesus
is going to send this gospel forth, and our great desirable,
through the Holy Spirit, through the gospel, He's going to clear
out the rubbish before He lays the foundation and the heart.
That's got to be done. He's got to do that. He makes
us hear the law convict us of sin. I don't mean just that we've
stomped our toe. I mean that through and through,
inside and out, the only thing we are is one mass of sin. That's what he has to make us
know. I mean know it. I mean know it to the point that
you cannot pick your head up to God. You can't come to God.
He has to clear the rubbish of all our vain thoughts that somehow
by something we've done we've brought ourselves to God, or
we're making ourselves righteous, or we're making ourselves holy,
or we're somehow making ourselves presentable to God. That's just
like those broken down stones that was on that what used to
be Solomon's temple. He's got to clear that off before
he's going to lay the foundation in the heart. You've got to clear
away all our self-righteousness. He's going to do that by revealing
our sin to us. He's going to do that by revealing
us that He is the righteousness and holiness of God. He's going
to do that making us see that it took our Lord Jesus, it took
God coming down to where we are. It took God going to the cross.
It took God laying down His life in our room instead in the person
of His Son to put away the sin of his people. That's how holy,
that's how just, that's how righteous God is. When God says it must
be holy to be received, it means it must be perfect. It must be
perfect. We can't accomplish perfection. We can't work perfection. Perfection
is God. Perfection is Christ. It's his
Son who be provided. That's the perfection we have
to have to be accepted of God. This foundation stone was laid
by Zerubbabel. Christ laid this foundation,
and he's going to lay this foundation in the heart of his child. He's
going to clear away the rubbish, and he's going to lay this foundation
in a new heart that he's made, a new heart that he's made. The
law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
He persuades us that we're saved one way, by Him, by His precious
blood, by His righteousness, by Him sanctifying us. We're
saved by Him. That's what He teaches His children.
That's what He teaches His children. And He don't stop teaching us
this, does He? He keeps teaching us this. We
can't have but one hope, and He's that hope. He's that hope. We got such a tendency I want
to turn to these old broken down stones. And that's not going
to be part of this temple. It's not going to be part of
this temple. I was thinking about this the
other day. The Lord said no man can look upon Him and live. Well, there's a part of you and
me that's just a man. That's all we are. It's just
a sinful man. And he also says that when we
see him, what part of you that's born of God is going to see him?
Your new man's going to see him, not just body of flesh. And when
you see him, you're going to be just like him. Now you put
them two together. What's going to be death to this
flesh? We're going to see him and our flesh is going to be
dead. It's going to be gone. And we're going to be just like
him. And everything will be his building. It will be his, what
he created. Nothing of us. Nothing of us. That's why Paul said, it's touch
not, taste not, handle not. The things that men are doing,
looking to those things, they're going to perish when these bodies
perish. But not the work Christ has accomplished,
not the work that he's done in giving you faith to trust him. That's not going to perish. He's
going to keep you trusting him to see that the works that's
going to last is what he's done for you. He that begins the work of grace
in the heart, he's going to perform it to the end. He said, not by
might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts.
He keeps on clearing away our rubbish. He keeps strengthening
the inner man to stay on Christ alone. That's how he's clearing
away the rubbish. He keeps turning you, setting
your affection on Christ, growing you inwardly so that you Think less of self, and look
to self less. And that's not making you more
holy, that's just working with what he's already done. Making
you see him, trust him. He's keeping us walking by faith
in Christ with absolutely no confidence in our flesh. Worshipping
him in spirit. And it keeps us offering to Him
the calves of our lips. There's some spiritual sacrifices
involved. And it keeps you worshiping Him
with a broken heart and a contrite heart. Don't you think really
the only time we really and truly praise God is when our heart
is broken? When we're really calling out to Him and thanking
Him for saving us this hour. That's when you praise Him. That's
when you really praise Him. to homecoming unto a living stone,
disallowed in need of men, but chosen of God in precious. You
also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. Now, thirdly, I want you to see
the reason the Lord sent this word to them is because the adversary
was trying to stop the work. That's why he sent the word to
him. The adversary was trying to stop the work. I'm not going
to do it right now, but you can go over and you can read the
first six chapters of the book of Ezra, and you can read all
about it. The enemy trying to stop the
work. So for 19 or 20 years, the work stopped. About 19 or
20 years. We've been meeting here, what,
15 years? Think of that. 19 or 20 years, the work just
ended. because they were opposed and
the enemy would not stop opposing, would not stop opposing. God help me. I need grace. I need mercy from God right now. This is a type, rather than the
enemy, is a type of Satan in every enemy of the gospel. We're
calling for to believe on Christ and trust Him. Unite under His
banner and trust Him. And the enemy says, no, we can't
have that. We have our own carnal mind and
we have our own sin. And it's just as big an enemy
as the ones without. Our problem is we're looking
at the ones without more than the one that's right here in
us. We become despondent. We become full of doubts. We
become full of fears. And you know, here's the sad
thing. While that was going on, they didn't build God's house,
but they built their own houses. They built them some nice houses.
You read Haggai, the Lord said, you built fine houses. You had
it on and did everything else. My house lay in waste. Then there's
the malice of the enemies of the gospel in the world we face.
These all combine to hinder the work, within and without. But
it was no hindrance to our Lord. It wasn't a hindrance to him
then. It's not a hindrance to him now. Never has been. Just like our fallen Adam, just
like our first birth in sin was no hindrance to him, the enemies
are no hindrance to our Lord, brethren. Not whatsoever. He has given us opportunities
by the enemy, in you and without, to see God's grace at work and
His power at work. To see that He's the only one
building the house. The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house. His hands also shall finish it,
and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to
you." That was Zechariah's word to him. Zechariah came preaching
it. He's just a man preaching this
to them. They don't want to hear that. It's going against everything
in them to hear that the Lord's building this house. And he said,
well, he laid the foundation. He's going to finish it. And
you're going to know the Lord sent me to you. Now, lastly,
this is how we see the ongoing need and the benefit of the gospel. See, the Lord has, he's provided
the food for our soul. And it's the gospel of Christ
the bread. It's the gospel of Christ our
righteousness. That's the food. That's what he's going to strengthen
us with. And so he's going to make us see how we need the gospel. He's going to keep us having
a thirst and hunger for this gospel. The Lord sent Haggai
and Zechariah to preach his word, to declare to them, the Lord
will finish this house. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes. You that believe, you
know this is the power. This is the power that subdues
your flesh. This is the power that exalts
Christ. This is the power by which he
causes people. This is the power by which he
builds his house, this gospel. You know that. It's a power of
God unto salvation. It's foolishness to them that
don't believe, but to you that believe, this is the power of
God, because Christ is the power of God, and we need Him. Zechariah
came forth, and he's declaring, Zerubbabel has laid the foundation. He'll finish the building. And
the Lord declared through Zechariah this. He said, Who art thou,
O great mountain? Before it's arrivable, thou shalt
become a plain. We face a lot of great mountains.
And they're put there on purpose. They're put there on purpose.
You know why? So we can't get around them.
That's the purpose of them. What did Brother Greg just read? If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you can remove a mountain. How is that? I've heard people
preach on that, talk about they just exalt faith and exalt the
sinner, and about how, boy, if you just believe enough, you
can do anything. Christ is the one that moves
the mountain. If you just trust Him, He's the one that'll move
the mountain. You're not moving the mountain.
Read it again. He got to destroy that mountain
in us first. Quit looking to us to move the
mountain. And then whatever else mountain he'll make you see,
he's going to move that mountain. I love the reason the Pharisees,
I mean the apostles asked the Lord to increase their faith.
He said, if your brother sins against you 70 times 7 in a day
and repents 70 times 7, you forgive him. That's going to make him
a repeat offender. The Lord said, forgive him. Aren't you one? They said, Lord,
we're going to need you to increase our faith to move that mountain.
And you are. You are. But he will remove it. Sometimes we feel like giving
up. I'm not kidding you. I have quit preaching. I've quit
the ministry a hundred thousand times since I've been preaching. I think I quit it every week.
But the Spirit of the Lord is going to bless the Word of our
Redeemer. He's going to bless it to your heart. He's going
to turn us to Him so that nothing can frustrate Christ's work that
He has begun. That's what He's going to do.
That's what He's going to do. The Lord's going to do this,
and what He's going to do by this is He's going to make us
see His faithfulness to us. That's when you see it, when
you're just despondent, and you just, you know, you know what
the Pharisees, you know what, I keep saying Pharisees, you
know what the apostles were confessing to the Lord when they asked Him
to increase their faith? That they couldn't. And that they couldn't do anything
without Him. And he's going to keep us seeing that, and you
know how he's going to do it? By coming in and showing you
he's faithful to you when you're not even being faithful to him.
That's how he increases our faith. It's beholding his faithfulness.
You start looking for your faithfulness. You start resolving, oh, I'm
going to increase in faith. You're going to decrease. It's
only when you see His faithfulness. I just try to preach to you His
faithfulness. That's how you're going to grow
in faith. I try to preach His love to you. That's how He's
going to grow us in love. The Lord is going to keep teaching
us that He loved His people with an everlasting love. That's why
He drew us in the first place. That's why He keeps drawing us
in spite of us. It's an everlasting love. He
keeps showing us His righteousness and His wisdom, and He keeps
growing us to trust Him more in ourselves less. Some of you
can testify to this faithfulness of our Lord. He's come to you
when you've been backslidden. He's come to you when you're
full of doubts and fears. And where sin abounded, grace
did much more bound. And you can attest to it. You
can testify to what I'm telling you. This is what he does. I
see you smiling. Well, the Lord blessed the word
of His prophets. He sent Zechariah and Haggai.
He blessed the word. And the Lord, by His Spirit,
He stirred them up. And Zerubbabel finished the house. And he used his people. Now go
over to Haggai 2, just a few pages back to your left. I want
you to see this. Haggai 2, verse 13. Then said Haggai, oh wait, chapter
1 verse 13. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's
messenger, in the Lord's message. Don't you like that? He spoke
the Lord's, he's the Lord's messenger, and he spoke in the Lord's message
unto the people, saying, I'm with you, saith the Lord. And
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak,
the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people,
and they came and did work in the house of the Lord, a host
their God. And look what happened when they finished. Go over here
to chapter two now. When they finished, this was
the Lord's promise to them. And verse 6, Thus saith the Lord
of Hosts, He said, Yet once, it's a little while, and I'll
shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land,
and I'll shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall
come. That's Christ. The desire of
all nations shall come. He doesn't have to desire everybody
in all nations. He desires that He makes He makes Him our desire
in His people and all nations. Then He'll come, and I'll fill
this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver
is mine, the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory
of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith
the Lord of Hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of Hosts. You know who that glory is that
came to that house? What made that second temple
have more glory than Solomon's temple. The Lord came to that
house. The Lord Jesus came in person,
in body, and went into that temple. He's the glory that came to that
house. He came to that house. And He, by His blood on the cross,
brought peace for His people. That's what He did. He's the
glory that also shook heaven and earth when He cried, He's
finished. The veil ran in two, from top
to bottom, And he declared, that ain't the temple I've been talking
about all along. It's the temple I'm building. That's the temple
he'd been talking about all along. And he shook heaven and graves
open and men came out of the graves to worship him. And you
know what happened when he entered into your heart for the first
time? He shook heaven and earth for you too. He turned your world
upside down. Sure did. He created peace in
our new man, making us be reconciled to God by faith in His Son. And
you know what He's promised to do? He's going to shake heaven
and earth again, because He's coming. He's coming back. And
when He comes back, He's going to shake heaven and earth, as
in everything that can be shaken and dissolved is going to be.
But He's given you and me a kingdom that cannot be moved. Have grace. Have grace. Trust Him and serve
Him and reverence Him and don't look to the enemy that tries
to stop the work. Trust Him. Trust Him. Now, you try to imagine the joy
of the children of Israel when that topstone was brought to
Solomon's, to that second temple, and they laid that topstone on
that temple. You just think of the joy after all they've been
through and them 20 years of despondency doing nothing, and
they finally, Zerubbabel brings that topstone. Don't you know
they were rejoicing? Child of God, our spirituals
are rivalable, has laid the foundation, and if he's laid the foundation
in your heart, he's going to finish what he started. And he's
going to bring the last living stone, just like he did the beginning,
the first one, crying grace, grace to it, grace beginning
to end. all of Him, nothing we merited,
everything we demerited. Grace, grace, grace to it. And I will tell you something,
the glory of that temple, the glory of that house is going
to be surpassing anything we can imagine. Go to Revelation
21. And you know what I am talking about when He brings you to glory,
it makes us see Him, be with Him. Look here in Revelation
21. Oh, that's what all this is typifying. Revelation 21,
look at verse 22. Talking about the glory of this
temple now, look here. Verse 22, I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. He's bringing us to Him. We're
one in Him. You know, I can't imagine what
that really means. that we're so one with Him, but
we're the temple and He's the temple. That's going to be something. It's never entered into the mind
of a man, the things God prepared for us. Listen to this now. The Lamb, the Lord God Almighty,
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need
of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory
of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. The glory of this latter temple
is going to be greater than any other temple there has ever been.
It's Him. I pray the Lord make us trust
Him. I pray He bless that and strengthen us, every one of us,
to believe Him. Amen.