All right, would you join me
tonight in the Book of Zechariah? Book of Zechariah, Chapter 4.
The Book of Zechariah, Chapter 4. This whole chapter is a wonderful
chapter, a wonderful statement is made in this. Two particular
statements are made in this, and that is, it's not by might. nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. And that is verse six. And then
we find in the verse seven that it says, 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. Well, last week we looked at
the section that Zachariah, had another viewing. That angel,
that messenger of God woke him as it were out of sleep and asked
him what he saw. And he describes what he saw
to the best of his ability. Now sometimes when we describe
things that we know from the scriptures and we're sharing
it with people, they don't understand what we're talking about because
the first thing that they don't have the revelation of Jesus
Christ. If you have faith, if you've been given faith, then
we don't have to go through a lot of explanation. But if we don't
have faith, no explanation will really get down to the substance,
get down to the heart. So here we have a revelation,
a view that was given to Zachariah. And he was asked what he saw,
and he saw a candlestick. But this was a very particular
candlestick. It is much different than any
other candlestick that we find in the scriptures in the fact
that it was made of God and all the workmanship and all the oil
and everything about it is made of the Lord. That's why he shares
with there in that verse about it's not by might and it's not
by power. Before we go ahead, I'd like
to go back to a passage of scripture that I thought I had in my notes
last week about the building of that candlestick for the tabernacle. So if you would keep your finger
here, we'll be back here, but would turn with me to the book
of Exodus chapter 31. In Exodus chapter 31, We have
a person that has been identified by the Lord as a very, very,
very fine craftsman. He is given wisdom beyond his
years. He is given wisdom beyond his
ability to learn things. He is given wisdom by God on
how to build the furniture of the tabernacle as was prescribed
by the Lord and as was shared with Moses when he saw the pattern
in the mount. Now these things are all a pattern
of things of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have a candlestick in
heaven. We have Christ. We don't have
a table of showbread in heaven. We have Christ. We don't have
a mercy seat in heaven, per se. We have Christ. We don't have
a labor in heaven. We have Christ. He is the reflection
of all of these types and shadows. He is the fulfillment of all
of them. He is the antitype of all of those. But these patterns
were given to Moses in the mount when he was up there visiting
with God. And he was able to bring them down. And it tells
us here. Exodus chapter 31 verses 1 through 5, Exodus chapter 31
verses 1 through 5, these words, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, See, I have called by name Now that's a very important
statement that we have here in this book, as we find in so many
books of the Bible. I have called by name, Baaziel,
the son of Uriah, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. Now
this particular person is not of the Levitical priesthood.
This person is of the same tribe that we're going to find our
Savior is born from, the tribe of Judah. He is the lion of the
tribe of Judah. And the book of Hebrews tells
us a great deal about him, that he is not of that priestly tribe,
that earthly priestly tribe of Levi, but he is of the tribe,
or he is of the priest after the order of Melchizedek. Nothing
was ever spoken of this. Nothing ever spoken of Judah
having a priesthood. But the Lord Jesus was never
going to put on, even in type, he was never going to put on
that there was salvation in the law. He was going to be of a
different tribe. The law could not save anybody.
But this lion could. This lamp could. This table of
showbread could. This laver could. This altar
could. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, it tells us about this person that I have filled him with the
Spirit of God." What a statement is made here by God to Moses
about this person that he is specifically called to this specific
task. Now this man of the tribe of
Judah, Bezael, this person is a wonderful picture of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus. For it says, I have filled him
with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding. Now someone
asked me today again about the gospel. And I said, you know,
the gospel is a savior. The gospel is good news. And
in fact, it is such good news that he is all my wisdom. He
is all my righteousness. He's all my sanctification and
he is all my redemption. Everything that I desperately
need is found in Christ Jesus. Well, here I'll put him in wisdom
and understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship. Now, it's interesting that tonight
we were in that Zoom meeting I am involved in, we got over
to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus. Now that word workmanship has
to do with making cloth. We're his fabric. We're his cloth. Here it says, in wisdom and in
understanding in all knowledge of all workmanship to devise
cunning works to make in gold and in silver and in brass and
in cutting of stones to set them and in carving timber to work
at all manner of workmanship. This guy is a person who understands
very highly all the trades. Now, I could see him being a
workmanship in brass or gold, but in wood, too, and in carving,
too, and in stones, too. This person has been given the
grace of God to be able to deal with many facets, and he is in
charge of building this tabernacle, which is a representation of
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in every capacity. Now, we must
say this in comparison to that candlestick that we read about
over here in the book of Zechariah though. Everything in the tabernacle,
every piece of furniture, every covering, every board, every
rod, every altar, the golden wings of cherubs that covered
the mercy seat, the mercy seat itself. Everything had been involved
with human workmanship. God never created any of that
stuff. He left it up to men to take
care of. Now, there's only two things
that I can remember around the tabernacle or in the tabernacle
that God took care of himself without any human intervention. One of them is in the Holy of
Holies and that's the Shekinah Glory. That cannot be reproduced. That cannot be made. That is
of God alone. The second thing that I find,
that God had to take care of by himself, alone, without any
human intervention, and that is the fire that fell from heaven.
Now the rest of it is human made, by wise men. God made them wise
to do this. He gave them the best that he
could, he called the best that he had, gave this person the
gift to understand all the pattern that Moses had seen in the mount
and then to reproduce it just like the pattern. But he and
other people were involved with every step of it. The sewing
of it, the dyeing of it, the coloring of it, the building
of it, the cutting of the wood. That great candlestick was made
out of a talent of gold. Now that's where I'm starting
on Sunday as we have our first Easter message. That talent of
gold, John Gill said weighed 120 pounds. A 120 pound block of gold was
hammered out. There was no pouring of it, there
was no casting of it, it is completely Pounded out hammered out by the
workmen that had the ability of doing that given to him by
God now all of these things though every Hammer swing was done by
a human being The thing we find out about this candlestick in
the book of Zechariah is it is made of God and Now, I want to
read two verses of scripture in the New Testament about this
very thing, that all the furniture and all of the altars and all
of the decor and everything in the Old Testament, the material
was made by God. We realize that. Trees are grown
because of God's purpose. Rocks are formed into jewels
because of God's purpose. The cloth, the goat skins, and
all of the other stuff, God created those animals and they brought
forth that fur and it was used for that purpose. But the actual
building of all of these things, God left to men. This is so typical of the law
that there is so much human involvement in it that there cannot be any
salvation in it. We are not saved by the works
of our righteousness. works of our righteousness. We're
not saved by works at all. So turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Galatians chapter two, Galatians chapter two. In Galatians chapter two and
verse 21, we are reminded of what went on over here, whether
exactly by word for word, the principle is here. And the Apostle
Paul, in writing to the saints in Galatia, had this to say about
works. All right, Galatians 2, verse
21. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, look at the implications. then Christ is dead in vain. Now that is, that's more, that's a bunch.
If righteousness come by the law. Now all of this furniture
was built by humans. It was pounded out, cut out,
sawn out, polished, sewn together, dyed by humans, every bit of
it. The crimson that was used was
taken from a worm, the blood from a worm, and was used for
the scarlet dye. But they still had to dye it. There was nothing here but two
things I can think of, and I mention those. The Shekinah glory and
the fire that fell from heaven to consume those sacrifices,
and the rest was tainted by human work. So nobody could be saved
by this. It's completely out of the realm
of salvation. So here we have the Apostle Paul
sharing with us, I do not frustrate the grace of God. Now he's dealing
with some people, some people here in the churches of Galatia
that had fallen into this trap that righteousness comes by the
law. In other words, righteousness
came by that candlestick and that mercy seat and that, uh,
It's altar and on and on it goes. Well, turn with me now to the
book of Philippians. Philippians chapter three. Philippians
chapter three and verse nine. That is why it is so important
when we look here in the book of Zechariah that Zechariah was
informed, Zerubbabel is informed, we are informed. It's not by
power and it's not by might. But by my spirit saith the Lord. Now to the world that is just,
it just doesn't make sense. Because we're so prone to be
like this very good craftsman over here and all of those sub
craftsmen that were there of doing the very best job possible. And then to find out it's not
enough. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
9, the scripture says, and be found in him not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law. Paul's prayer, be found in him
not having my own righteousness which is of the law. but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Now, faith does not procure it. Faith is the fruit of regeneration. If God has given us faith, then
it's the faith of Jesus Christ that he has given us. We don't
procure our redemption. We don't procure our salvation.
We don't procure our new birth by faith. It is the gift that
is given to us as a result of the new birth. All right, so
Paul, in many places, I've just picked out two, said all the
pounding, all the dying, all the sowing, all the hanging,
everything that was in the Old Testament there, even though
it was built beautifully, Masterfully, the joints fit in all the pieces. They didn't have to use putty.
Everything fit perfectly, as perfectly as a human being could
get it. But God said, this is a picture
and not enough. And then when it comes time to
sacrifice, we find out he went out into the field and got a
lamb or a goat or an ox or a heifer and offered that animal. And
God tells us plainly, it is not enough. We're not redeemed by
the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own son. All right. Turn with me, if you
would, back there. to the book of Zechariah chapter
four and let us look for just a moment here at verse six again. Zechariah chapter four and verse
six, then he answered and spake unto me saying, this is the word
of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying, now remember Zerubbabel is the
governor. He's been appointed by the Lord.
And we're going to look at a few things about Zerubbabel tonight.
And guess where we're going to have to go? To the book of Ezra. I thought I was through with
the book of Ezra for a while, but you can't be, because right there
in the middle of it, Zerubbabel is mentioned. So we're going
to go over there in just a moment. But not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. This view
shares that nothing of sinful man is involved in that candlestick
that is here in the book of Zechariah. The oil didn't have to be supplied,
it is given by those trees. And then it goes on to tell us
about what those trees are. And by the grace of God, we'll
be able to give some light on that in the future. But this
very thing, now keep your finger here for just a moment, and let's
jump over to the book of Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9,
as we think about all the works that went on in that tabernacle,
they spent a year. building that tabernacle. They
parked at Mount Sinai, Moses was given the instructions, then
he called on those folks to bring the gifts of gold and silver
and all that stuff, and they started working, and they built
that tabernacle, and that tabernacle was built by men, and there was
no efficacy whatsoever in any part of it. none whatsoever. All right Hebrews chapter 9 verse
10 which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings
in cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come and high
priest. Now if you drop down through
verses one through nine, you'll find out there's a much said
about the tabernacle itself. It's just a very quick statement
about what was going on in there. And yet we find that there's
nothing there until we get to verse 11. But Christ being come
and high priest of good things to come. by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered into once in a holy place. Now
this is just a blessing to the church, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Having obtained, by his sacrifice
of himself, once for all time, he has obtained eternal redemption
for his people. Now that's so good. And that's
what we have in this picture that is over in the book of Zechariah.
Step back and quit viewing the tabernacle as a building and
lift your eyes up and see Christ. Now the only ones that can are
the ones that have had some back surgery. God has raised us to
see that. All right, let's go back over
here now. Now there is a man that is mentioned
here in this fourth chapter, and there in verse six, and his
name is Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is mentioned a number
of times in the Old Testament. He's mentioned in the book of
Haggai as the governor of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. He's
in charge. He is in charge of this. That
man who was given the wisdom to build the tabernacle is a
beautiful picture of Christ. This man, Zerubbel, once again,
is a beautiful picture of Christ. And as we look at him, we're
going to go to the book of Ezra. Would you join me in the book
of Ezra? We're going to go back over there to the book of Ezra,
and we're going to read in Ezra chapter 2. the book of Ezra chapter
2. Now remember that Cyrus had been
stirred upon by the Holy Spirit to move to let these people go. They've been in captivity for
70 years. I don't know how many commentaries
I read that said, well, that number is not really correct.
70 years, I don't know, is more like 50 years, because it doesn't
agree with this man who was there, and this man was here, and the
time that was in between. I tell you, I'm just going to
not even argue with it, because the Bible said it was 70 years.
I don't have to go back and prove it. It's 70 years. They were
in captivity for 70 years. That's what the Bible says. And
Jeremiah said, after 70 years, they'll be released. Well, here
we have the first crew going back after Cyrus was given the
go ahead. Against the, I'm sure, against
the better advice of all of his advisors, he sent them back. And here they leave. Now, in
chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. Notice here, in chapters 2, verses
1 and 2. Now these are the children of
the province that went up out of the captivity of those which
had been carried away when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried
away unto Babylon and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every
one unto his city, which came with Zerubbabel. First time he's
mentioned in the book of Ezra, but he is the leader of this
group going back. I remember when we went through
here that the odd numbers of folks in all the groups, and
it just shared with me how God has a specific number. Now, Nancy gave me one of these,
it's not a piggy bank, it's one of those banks that you put the
coins through and it keeps track of how much. I just cannot put
two pennies in it and have $57.02. I have to wait until there's
five. Now, she's asking, why do you do that? I said, because
I want to. But you know, God isn't that way. God has a specific
number, and it doesn't matter if it's odd or even. He has a
specific number here, and he had a specific leader for these
folks that are going back, and his name is Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel
means sown in Babylon. Now, whether he was old enough
to remember going or whether he was born there in Babylon,
it doesn't matter. But our Savior was brought and
sown in this earth. He inhabited this earth as the
God-man. And he was tempted in all ways
that were tempted, yet without sin. He has never given up his
position as king of kings and lord of lords. And this man is
the governor, and it tells us there in verse 2, which came
with Zerubbabel, Jehoshua, Nehemiah, Zariah, Reaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan,
Mizpahar, Bigveah, Ruhem, Baan, and the number of the people
of Israel, and then it goes on and lists their numbers. Now
the next time I'm going to have one of the mics read those names. But Zerubbabel, he's in charge
of this. He's been given the responsibility
of leading these people back to Jerusalem. He has been identified
by God. I just cannot believe that he
said, I think I ought to do it. God called him to this. We find
that that's what God does. He calls his people to this.
He calls them to salvation. He calls them to particular service.
He calls, gives them their gifts. It's not us volunteering for
it, but he gives it. He calls us. Well, this same
person is mentioned in chapter three, verses one through four.
Would you join me over there? Chapter three, verses one through
four. Zerubbabel travels all that distance
with all these folks and he gets over there and, you know, he
finds a ruins. That temple had been ruined,
destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. He is really upset with those
Israelites. He's really upset with Judah
and Benjamin. The Israelites had already been
dispersed. He's really upset and he is so upset that his men
destroyed the temple. And it's in ruins. Now when it
comes time to rebuild it, notice with me here, in Ezra chapter
3, this man, Zerubbabel. And when the seventh month was
come, the children of Israel were in the cities, and the people
gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem, and
then stood up Jehoshua, the son of Josedek, and his brethren,
the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his
brethren, and built the altar of God of Israel to offer burnt
offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man
of God. And they set the altar upon his
bases. Now when we went through here,
we found out that that new altar went exactly where the old altar
was. God is telling us that the truth
of the gospel is always the truth of the gospel. That the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus is always the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Nothing is added, nothing is taken away. They put this altar
and Zerubbabel is involved in where this is going to go. Can
you imagine the dusting that had to go off, the clearance
that had to go off, and they found the original footing for
that altar and they put it exactly there. They weren't off an inch. It is so vital that wherever
the gospel is preached, it is the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we don't alter it one scintilla, that we don't
add anything to it or take anything from it, that we don't make it
more palatable. You know, the gospel is offensive,
and we don't want to take away the offense of the cross. We
don't. The cross, the reason for the
cross, the one on the cross, the death on the cross, the blood
of the cross is offensive to natural man's righteousness.
And we don't want it palatable. We want it to be offensive. God
wants it to be offensive. It will be offensive. So leave
the altar where it was. Leave Christ where he is. Don't
try to move him. Make him more palatable, more
friendly. He is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. And the gospel has always been
the gospel. People have tried to twist it,
change it, move it, make it more palatable, make it easier, make
it... And people come along and write books about it. And if
we just sing enough hymns, we can get someone to move. Well,
that's not the gospel. The gospel is the preaching of
Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified. A young man today
asked me, what do you tell someone that comes to you and says they
want to be saved? And I says, what did they do
with lepers in the Old Testament? He says, they put them out. And I says, who was there to
meet them? The only healer, Christ. That's an area. that we don't
have any ability over. I shared with that young man,
one man, Apollos, planted, Paul, watered, but God gave the increase. And when we get out of that,
we move the altar, we move the gospel, when we get people to
have to do something. What must I do to be saved is
the cry of the world. God says believe and don't move
a muscle. Alright, so we have him setting up the altar, setting
it up in the right place, Zerubbabel is right there. Let's look at
another place over here in the book of Ezra chapter 3 and verse
8. Ezra chapter 3 and verse 8. Now in the second year of their
coming unto the house of God in Jerusalem. In the second month
began Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son
of Josedek, and the remnant of their brethren, and the priests,
and the Levites, and all they that came out of the captivity
of Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from 20 years and old
and upward to set forward the work of the house of the Lord."
Where is Zerubbabel now? He's in charge of building the
house of the Lord. He is, as Christ is, the master
builder. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that
said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. It is God that does the building.
Zerubbabel is here. There's others mentioned here,
but oh, we find the line as he goes through here of what his
business is. He has the responsibility of
building this temple, and the Lord Jesus Christ has the responsibility
of building the house of God, of building the church, as it
pleased God to add unto the church daily such as should be saved. There again, it's God's business.
He does it. What's our responsibility? Preach
the seed. And this is the seed. We don't
have any other seed. Preach the seed. Cast the seed. Throw out the seed. We know from
what the scriptures have to say that it's not all going to be
effectual. Because some falls where it's not going to grow.
And some is going to appear to sprout, and it's no root in itself,
and it's going to die out. Some the birds are going to take
away. But that that falls on good ground is going to bring
forth fruit, some 100, some 60, some 40-fold. Well, one more
time that we run into this blessed man in the Old Testament here
in the book of Ezra is chapter 4, verse 1. Chapter 4, verse
1. And now when the adversaries
of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity
built the temple of the Lord God of Israel, woe knew spread
quickly. We've had this under control
for all this time. We've had nobody over there messing
around, we've run it like we want to, and someone comes along
and starts to build the temple of the Lord, what's the Lord
God of Israel? And they came to Zerubbabel and
to the chief fathers and said unto them, let us build with
you, for we seek your God as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto
him since the days of Ezra Haddam, king of Asher, which brought
us up hither." Oh, my. Church is going to grow right
here so quickly. We're going to have all these
additions. I'll never forget the pastor of the church I grew
up in coming around and my dad said, what do you do? He said,
oh, we're out trying to get some church members. We're on a church
member drive. I thought, I didn't know anything,
but I knew that's wrong. There's no such thing as people
doing a church member drive. That's God's business. Here it
is. We're going to have a whole bunch
of help people. These folks over here just wore out. Our people
are wore out. Here's the opportunity to get
some help in here. Zerubbabel, what are you going
to do? He says right there. What does
it say? But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and
the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them,
ye have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God. but we ourselves together will
build unto the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the King of Persia,
hath commanded us." No thank you. No thank you. Can you just believe those guys
when he said no thank you? We're offering good help. Well,
what goes with that good help? All that nonsense that they'd
been taught. They didn't agree with what Zerubbabel
believed about God. They're telling us, we've been
worshiping just like that king that brought us up here worships.
And what was that? False gods. Lies. Untruths. Nothing to share about
the Lord God of heaven. So, Zerubbabel here once again
brought to the forefront and he says, sorry, can't use your
help. I'm amazed from the first time
I remember reading about those 5,000 folks that Jesus preached
unto, 5,000 men. I don't know how many others
there were. But when he preached the gospel of God's free grace
in Christ Jesus, that no man can come to the Father but by
me, and many of his disciples left and walked with him no more,
that he didn't say, how couldn't we fix this? The modern preacher,
how can we fix this? Because we need your tithes.
He just turned to his own disciples and said, are you going to go
away too? Those disciples, 11 of them, said, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. Now they're going to make some
real foolish statements later, and they're going to run away,
but they believe that in their heart. One didn't believe it. Lord kept him on for one reason,
appointed one reason. Betrayal has to happen. But the
others were, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. It was a rubable that was instrumental
in telling those Nimrods, get lost. We have nothing to do,
you have nothing to do with us to build a house to our God.
None of their labor, none of their material, none of their
works, none of their sincerity, and none of their religion was
welcome at all. And we find throughout the New
Testament, the Apostle Paul was used many, many times to share
with the church, watch about those guys that want to come
in and share their material with you. Watch about those guys who
want to come in with another gospel. Watch them. Don't accept
it. Don't let them in. Now, we would
never turn anybody away that would keep their mouth shut.
Come and hear the gospel. Where else would you want them?
Well, when they start to sow nonsense, I must get involved. All right. The truza rubable
declares to the governor of the area, not by might, not by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord. So that's what we find in the
book of Zechariah. There in chapter four, as he
was shown, going to be shown some more about this wonderful
picture of this candlestick that has cups up here and pipes of
oil running in it and these olive trees producing the oil and nobody's
involved with the squeezing process, nobody's involved with putting
the oil in there like in the tabernacle or in the temple later.
It's all taken care of by God and Zerubbabel is informed, just
remember, it's not by power and it's not by might, but it's by
my spirit, saith the Lord. That's the truth in every generation. It's not by power, and it's not
by might. It's not by our power, nor is
it by our might, but it's by the Spirit, saith the Lord. And
he does according to the eternal, everlasting purpose of the Godhead
in the covenant of grace. And we sit back and say, thank
you, Lord. Thank you. Well, I want to read
one other verse, and then we'll be dismissed for tonight. And
that's verse 7, in just chapter 4 and verse 7, in preparation
for the next time we're permitted to meet. Who art thou? O great mountain, before Zerubbabel
thou shalt become a plain. A great mountain is going to
be leveled. And he shall bring forth the headstone. Now a headstone
to me is out there in the cemetery, but that's not this headstone.
This is the capstone of the building. This is that perfect capstone. This is the head of the corner
that we find a number of times in the New Testament. Christ
is the head of the corner. So, shall bring forth the headstone
thereof with shoutings, crying, and that's the cry of the church.
Grace, grace unto it.