Here in the book of Zechariah
chapter 1, we have some, and I have to look at it from that
perspective. The people that got this message,
to some of them, they were greatly encouraged. I have to look at
it that way. Just like we have much of the
messages of the Lord Jesus to the church, they are a great
encouragement. He was used to encourage the church while he
was here. And his work was an encouragement
to the church. When they realized completely
what he was doing on their behalf, it greatly encouraged them. the
Gospels, and then all the writings that Paul was used to write,
and Peter was used to write, and John was used to write, how
they encouraged people. Here in this last chapter, in
the last few verses of the book of Zechariah, we have that principle
brought up as the Lord is sharing with Zechariah, and Zechariah
is sharing with the people that he has a great interest in the
church. He has a great interest in spiritual
Israel, As a result, we see having some interest and interest in
physical Israel. I was thinking that not much
is said in the Old Testament about the blessings of being
a national Jew, national Israel, without rich overtones of speaking
of the church. We had that mentioned to us on
Sunday as went through that Psalm, how it spoke specifically but
when we have the rich overtones to the church and how they were
encouraged. I'm encouraged by that psalm. Now, I'm convinced just like
people that lived at that time were encouraged by that, how
God had such protective care over it. All of whom the names
are written down in Lamb's Book of Life all of whom the Lord
determined to be The lamb was slain for and all whom Christ
died for on the cross make up the church Now I'm gonna go go
back. I am absolutely convinced of
Abel Absolutely convinced of Abel If you went back a little further,
I'm not going to be upset about it I But I'm absolutely convinced
of Abel. And from that time down to this
time, there has been a group of folks on this earth that believe
the gospel. And they assembled at the feet
of Jesus if they never got to assemble together. But I do find,
at certain times in the Old Testament, where there was an assembly of
God's people. And they heard the word of God. And they heard it distinctly.
And they had someone declare it to them that knew something
about God. And so we've watched that throughout
the Old Testament. In the book of Hebrews, it talks
about the church in the Old Testament, the church of Israel. And as
we follow this, we find that there is an assembly of local
bodies, too, today in particular, that we notice. Now, if there
were those in the Old Testament, I am thankful for it and those
people were thankful for it. But I am really hard-pressed
to find some scripture all the time about it. But I do find
in the New Testament that there were local assemblies where people
trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for all their salvation and only
him and they assembled together and they were there for a reason
to hear the gospel and they're also there to help one another
in fellowship, having that personal fellowship with someone else
that believe the gospel and believe the word of God. We encourage
ourselves that way. We find that those whom God has
blessed with assembly in local bodies where the gospel is preached
and they enjoy the rich fellowship of the saints, these local bodies
will not be identified by a name. Now, when I went to that little
Bible school down in Texas, I was told that you could identify
the people of God by a name. Well, more and more that name
means less and less. People have never been identified
by a name per se. They've been identified by those
who adhere to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they may
have different and various and a sundry different names. But
if we could start tracing through history, we're gonna find people
that believe the same gospel that people believe today, and
people believed it in the days of the Lord Jesus, and they believed
it during the prophets, and they believed it in the Garden of
Eden, or just outside of it, by the name of Abel. They all
believed the gospel. And I think that Abel would have
been glad to have his brother come over there and say, you
know, I agree with you. I agree with you. We would love
to have folks come in and say, I agree with you. May I be part
of this group? And we'd say, hallelujah. Yes,
we would. So many are unidentified by asking,
who did the Savior die for? They're unidentified as places
where there is an assembly where the truth is. And you simply
ask the question, whom did Christ die for? And if they say, for
those he loved before the foundation of the world, we have some commonality. And if they say, everybody in
the world, I don't have much identity there. I have a place
to preach now. I have a place to preach. Well,
here in this book of Zechariah, chapter one, and I wanna read
verses 18 and 19. And we're gonna read verse 22.
Then lifted I up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns,
You will not believe the number of commentators that immediately
jumped into some prophetic stuff. And that's not what it's about.
This book is not apocryphal. What's the other? Apocalyptic.
This is a gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's going
to comfort his people. Now there was these horns that
came. He said, I lifted up my eyes
and saw, and behold, four horns. And I said unto the angel that
talked with me, and I take great comfort when I read those words. And we've read them several times
here in the book of Zechariah, and we're gonna read them a few
more times. What does this mean? What does this mean? Zechariah
chapter one, and it says, verse 19, I said unto the angel that
talked with me, what be these? And he answered me, these are
the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Now, from a strictly national
Israel position, this one has identified some peoples that
did persecute national Israel. And it's very easy for us to
go back and find out who they were. Babylon, Persia, these
people really did persecute national Israel. But when we're looking
at this from a gospel view, when we're looking at this from a
church view, we find that there has always been and there ever
will be those who will persecute the truth and people who believe
it. Now I said that to say this, turn with me to the book of Genesis
chapter four and verse eight. The church has always had, and
always has come under attack by the non-church. These are
horns. They are the ones that come in,
and they come in and push things around, and we read a lot about
that in the writings of Paul, John, Peter, Jude, about those
who come and start pushing their beliefs onto the body. Well,
in the book of Genesis chapter four and verse eight, we have,
and I can't help but think that Abel was probably a fairly decent
guy. Grace has that characteristic
about it, is to make people that love peaceable living. Genesis
chapter 4 and verse 8, it says, And Cain talked with Abel his
brother, and came to pass, when they were in the field, that
this great big horn, called Cain, pushed his brother and killed
him. The church has always come under
attack. Just as we watch these four horns
push national Israel, the strong undertone is, this is a picture
of what happens to the church, has happened to the church, and
I believe will continue to happen to the church, is there will
be those that the Lord said that come wolves in sheep's clothing. I was thinking about this today
as I was going through the passages of scripture, particularly in
the New Testament, but Jeremiah covers a lot about it and Isaiah
covers a lot about it, about the blessing that God gave to
the church that there will be these coming. Now, if we just
go back and say, he didn't say a word about it and left it to
us to discover it. that would be much harder. But
we have him speaking and we have his servant speaking throughout
the New Testament and quite a bit of the Old Testament about there
will be those coming who will want to push the church around. There will be these horns. There
will be these guys that come along. Look with me to the book
of Galatians chapter four, if you would. Galatians chapter
four. In Galatians chapter four, We
have this taking us back to the Old Testament and it's those
that are mentioned here in Galatians chapter four and verse 27. This
is looking at a picture, a type or a shadow from
the Old Testament about two boys that really actually lived and
were sons of Abraham, and they're used as a type. One is used as
a type of a great horn, pushing people around, and that's what
it tells us right here. Verse 27 of Galatians chapter
four, for it is written, rejoice thou barren that bearest not,
break forth and cry thou that travailest not. For the desolate
hath many more children than she that hath a husband. Have
you ever thought about that? The desolate hath many more children
than she that has a husband. The descendants of Sarah through
Isaac are minuscule compared to those that come through the
half-brother. And what's that a picture of?
It's going to go on and tell us. Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
are children of promise. He's talking about the elect.
He's talking about the children identified before the foundation
of the world. And there is many more of the
half-brother's children, then there are Isaac's children. Goes on, but as then, he that
was born after the flesh, underline that, in your mind at least,
born after the flesh. And that's what we're gonna find
over here when we talk about national Israel and all the wonders
that God had provided for them. There were those born after the
flesh. Now, We get to looking at most
of those that were national Israel, were born after the flesh. But
they had no spiritual relationship with God. They were only born
after the flesh. There was only a fleshy relationship.
They came for the food, they came for the bread, they came
for the fish, they came for that thing. But when it came to the
Lord Jesus talking about, I am that bread that came down from
heaven, we don't want that. Goes on to say here in Galatians
chapter four, verse 29, But as then, he that was born after
the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even
so it is now. So we're going to have over here
in the book of Zechariah identified, there's four horns. We could
easily go back and say, well, these are these countries. Don't
stop there. Because this shares with us that
there's always going to be opposition to the preaching of the gospel.
And people are going to come along and say, we believe just
like you do, except, or they want to tell us that by some
reformation, I'm doing the best I can, and yet, He that is born
after the flesh will persecute and always persecute those that
are born after the Spirit. Nevertheless, what saith the
scripture? Cast out the bondwoman. Go ahead, cast out the bondwoman. Don't tolerate that. Cast out
the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall
not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. And Paul is
sharing with us, After Christ went to the cross, we do not
need the law. We do not need it in our life. We don't need it as a guide for
our life. God is going to give us his law written on our hearts. He uses in Romans chapter four,
he uses now a woman that's married to a man, when her husband dies,
she is legal to go marry another one. And he uses that to say
when you're dead to the law, you get to marry Christ. He becomes
your husband and not Adam. What a blessed position. And
as a result of that, we don't have that law hanging over us
anymore. We don't have the condemnation
of the law hanging over us anymore. It is not our rule of faith and
practice. We don't have to go to it for
our righteousness. And Paul brings a whole lot out
about if we do, we don't know real righteousness. Righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ and not the righteousness of
the law. All right, but as we have here, it is constantly this
way, that which is born after the flesh is gonna persecute
that which is born after the spirit. This verse in Zechariah
speaks of four horns. These may be identified, as we
mentioned, by real countries, but that's not the point today.
The point is, what does it mean to us? And it means to us there's
always going to be a division over this one person. It's not the name of the body
that we're associated with. It's not the declaration or articles
of faith that we agree on that makes the difference, but it
is a person. This is the person that has divided
the world. In fact, he said, I came to divide,
I came to bring division between a father and his son, a husband
and a wife. And truly it does, and his name
is Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Lord. Persecution comes as a result
of this one. Now people persecuted National
Israel because they, quote unquote, had the God leading them. But when it came down to it,
they didn't have any more allegiance to the God than everybody else
did. But the picture is there that
if you have the God and you're trusting him only as all your
righteousness and all your salvation, there will be people in our own
family, if you please, that will disagree with us. And Pastor
Bill was told he was called to reprobate the other day. Well,
You know, everybody wants to sling mud. If you don't agree
with them, they want to sling mud. And he didn't throw anything
back. Didn't have any need to. It wasn't
part. So is he effectual in his work? Is Christ effectual in his work?
Is he getting his job done? Is he getting it done without
any help? Well, he has called on people to declare the gospel.
But I have found out, if one won't, he has moved on another
that will. So he has purpose that we hear
the gospel some way, and he will make it so we will hear the gospel,
and he is effectual. Is he purposed in his work? I read about this God of the
Bible, and he does have a purpose. He is doing things according
to the purpose of his own will. He is accomplishing what he has
determined to do beforehand. Is he powerful in his work? Is he the king of his work? Is he the master of his work? Is he doing it effectually and
doing it on purpose and accomplishing the task? Well, we know by reading
the scriptures that he is almighty and he can do all things that
ever he wished he could. And what he puts is, he thinks
about it, it will happen. That's just the way it is. So
this one, and all of these issues can be issues. People can bring
them up. Is he the source of all his work?
Is his possession a people identified as the church? And the answer
is yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. 1 Corinthians, chapter
11. 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse
18. Paul writing to the Corinthians,
he says, for first of all, when you come together in the church,
I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe
it, for there must also be heresies among you, that they which are
approved may be made manifest among you. Now, what does that
mean? Those of you that are approved,
who gives the approval? Where is the approval come from?
What do we base our approval on? The only thing we have is
the word of God. That is the only thing we have.
And we have to go back and say, what does it say in the book?
We cannot base our doctrine, our teaching, our anything on
some men's writing. It must be based upon the word
of God. And he said, heresies are going
to come, divisions were going to come. It is going to prove
who is the wheat and who is the chaff. That's what it's going
to prove. Verse 10, for I looked for a city, which, excuse me,
verse 18, 19. I'm in the book of Hebrews. I want to be in the book of first
Corinthians chapter 11 and verse, 19 for there must be also heresies
among you that they which are approved may be made manifest
among you. When you come together there
for one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. And we're,
we're not going to go into that, but just the point that there
aren't going to be those great horns get involved. And that's on purpose. And God
brings them along and it says, God is saying, all right, who's
attached to the rock. Who's attached? Does it mean
anything? Is it worth anything? Do we,
I always use that example of the Lord when 5,000 left, I don't
find him going over and says, now what can we do to fix this? He wasn't into that. In fact,
he turned around to his own disciples. Those 11 answered correctly. One of them, if he answered,
he didn't know a first thing about it because the Lord goes
on to say in the very next verse, he knew that he was a devil.
So, approved. What do we do with the word of
God? Where are we on the word of God?
And sometimes we have to back up three verses to find out what
this is written about. In the book of Revelation chapter
three, Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter three. Now
I don't believe that this is a specific time period. I remember
hearing when I was a kid about these seven churches represented
seven church ages. I think at any one time, anywhere
in the world, there are churches that just reflect all of these.
They're just an example church. One of them gets a commendation.
The rest of them get some recommendations. The church at Laodicea, it tells
us here in Revelation 3 and verse 14. And under the church of the Laodiceans
write, these things sayeth the Amen, the faithful witness in
the beginning of the creation of God. And that's the architect
of the creation of God. We have him coming to this church
in the same capacity we came to all the rest of the churches.
Almighty God. Lord and Savior. Amen. The one who can bring it to pass.
I know thy works. He's also sharing with us, like
he did with the rest of them, his omniscience. I know what's
going on down there. I know thy works, that they are
neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or
hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now,
when God says something like that, that's, oh, pretty good,
spewing. read the book of Jonah and find
out how many times God prepared something to take place in the
book of Jonah. So he can take care of what needs
to be taken care of to correct everything he needs to correct.
So he says here, you say, verse 17, I am rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And that
reflects on every prophet that was worth his salt in the Old
Testament and every apostle worth his salt in the New Testament.
And every believer that has ever been, that is the summation of
them right there. Poor, wretched, blind, without
Christ. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice,
and has that ever been taken out of context? And open the
door, I will come unto him, and sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his
throne. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And we're thankful
that only God can give that ear. God gives hearing ears. Now to some, I'm convinced of
Laodicea says, oh my goodness. That preacher brought that message
and they said, I think we need to fire him because we don't
like this kind of talk. Things are going smooth. And
then there was a group of people that said, oh my goodness, everything
he had to say to us is right, true, and honest. It isn't like
it should be. Well, in the book of Luke, we
find that it is impossible, but that offenses will come. In 2
Thessalonians, it says, and for this cause, God shall send strong
delusions. He is not doing things by mistake.
Things that are happening are happening on purpose, and that
is even in the religious world. Remember what was said, the descendants
of those born after this world are far greater than those that
are born spiritually. That's just the truth of it.
And there is no way, it is impossible in fact, for those born after
the spirit to ever win this fight. It's been won. It's been won. The Lord God Almighty
on the cross won this fight. Now, over there in the book of
Zechariah, let's go back over and read a couple more verses,
because here's the hope in the whole thing. Yes, there are going
to be those who come along, and when we go through the last two
chapters of the book of Ezra, we're going to be reading a lot
more of those verses found in the New Testament, because there
was a problem there. And Ezra was relied upon to help
with that problem. But it's much more than them
Marian foreigners. It's much deeper than that. But
anyway, here in the book of Zechariah, let's look there again in chapter
one, and we have God's way of taking care of the issue. He
said here, verse 20, and the Lord showed
me four carpenters. And once again, Zachariah gets
to ask his question. I just feel so comfortable reading
this first chapter because Zachariah didn't know everything. And it
just gives us such blessings to know that there's some that
don't know everything. And when they do know everything,
they probably don't know anything. He says, what does this mean? He says, what can these do? And
he spake, saying, these are the horns which have scattered Judah,
so that no man did lift up his head. But these are come to fray
them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up
their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. There are carpenters
coming. It is a wonderful word, this
word carpenter. It's translated that way several
places, but in other places it's translated so much grander. Let's turn over to the book of
Exodus chapter 35. The same word is used over here
in the book of Exodus chapter 35 and here we have some information
given to us with regard of the building of the temple or tabernacle. Exodus chapter 35 verse 30. Exodus
chapter 35 and verse 30. What is it that God sent to Israel? Now, the Lord says, I sent a
lot of prophets to you and you stoned them and killed them.
What did God do for Israel, Judah, Jerusalem? So often, right here
in the book of Zechariah, he's doing it again. He's sending
a carpenter. He's sending someone who knows
something. Here in the book of Exodus, chapter
35 and verse 30, this word is used in verse 35, and I'd like
to read that first. Chapter 35 and verse 35 says,
then hath he filled with wisdom to work all manner of work of
the engraver and of cunning workmen, and embroider in blue, and in
purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of all the weaver,
even them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning
work." We find that word right there, engraver. Engraver. The work of the engraver. That's
the same word that's translated over in Zechariah as carpenter. Now let's back up here for just
a moment and see how did they become engravers, embroiderers,
Chapter 30, verse 30, and Moses said unto the children of Israel,
see the Lord hath called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the
son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he hath filled him with the
spirit of God. Oh my goodness, we have carpenters
that know something. Those guys pushing the horns
around don't know anything. But the carpenters are coming.
And as this word brings out, and as this passage brings out,
God called these people, and God put in them His Spirit, says,
filled them with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding,
in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Hallelujah. Someone's going to come along
and put those great horns to shame. By what? By preaching
Christ. That's the only hope of the church,
is to hear the preaching of Christ. The only hope of Israel is Christ. So these carpenters come along,
these engravers come along, these workmen come along, these people
that have been blessed by God, called by God, filled with the
Holy Spirit of God, come along with the message that God had
given them. Let's look at the rest of this.
To devise curious work, to work in gold and in silver and brass. And what are they going to build?
The temple. And when we get down to the tabernacle
here, but when we get down to the temple, we're going to find
some same kind of people are called to do this kind of work.
God put some people in charge of those folks so that they came
out with a structure exactly like God gave the plan to Moses
in the mount. I like it when he says he called
him and filled him with his spirit. And in verse 33, and in the cutting
of stones to set them, and in carving of wood to make any manner
of cutting work, and he hath put in his heart that which he
may teach, both he and Ahaliab, the son of Ahishamash of the
tribe of Dan, them hath he filled with wisdom of heart. And the
only wisdom that a believer has is not their natural wisdom,
but it's the wisdom who is Christ to work all manner of work. of the engraver, of the cunning
workmen, of the embroiderer in blue and in purple and scarlet
and fine linen, and of weaver, even of them that do any work,
and of those that devise cunning work. The Lord called them all,
the Lord filled them with His Spirit, and He put them to the
task that He called on them. Now that's our carpenters that
are gonna come along, and they come along in every age. Every
prophet God ever sent to Israel, he sent them with the same message. Everyone he sent to Judah, he
sent with the same message, and everyone he sent to Jerusalem.
It wasn't a different message that he sent to them. Just like
there was no different messages to the churches in the New Testament,
we find that Paul was used to write that there was a lot of
people going along with what they used to believe, and you
can't have that. It's just not going to work.
It's not the same. It is not the gospel. Well, we find here that they
have been filled with the wisdom of heart to work in all manner
of work and the engraver, the blessing of having someone sent. Now, in closing, in closing,
turn with me to the book of Luke. I don't think I'll ever forget
this, the study of Luke chapter one, because it made such an
impression when in the Bible class, Mike was going through
here and he brought this up, Luke chapter one, verse 67. I was reading this earlier today
and it struck me again that Elizabeth recognized the mother of her
savior. That's what she mentions. I said,
whoa, that's cool. Well, verse 67, It says here,
Zacharias says this, and his father Zacharias was filled with
the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God
of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people. Is this
after or before the cross? I love it. and hath raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
since the world began." All through the ages, there have been those
identified, as was identified there in the book of Zechariah,
chapter one, as carpenters. engravers come along with the
gospel. They have been given something
by God. They've been given the regeneration. They have some idea of what the
gospel is. They know something about God
and they're able to share that message about God with other
folks. And that's the hope of Israel. It's Not, well, I think we better
take a tact against these great horns that are coming along.
What makes the horns run? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The horns can't tolerate it.
They won't put up with it. They'll leave. That's our hope. is the gospel. Well, it goes
on here, it says in verse 74, that He would grant unto us that
we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve
Him without fear. Wow! Just as it reads over there
in the book of Zechariah, that God is going to deliver them
out of the hand of the enemy, and holiness and righteousness
before Him all the days of our life and Thou child shall be
called the prophet of the highest. He's talking about his own son
and he is identifying him as the prophet of the highest. And
when the time comes, listen to him because he's going to talk
about the true carpenter that came along, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, those four carpenters come
along and they're able to deal with the four horns. and put
them in their place. And then the next passage we
read in Zechariah chapter two, we have someone out there measuring
out Jerusalem. With a string. Just like he promised. I will build my church and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it. I promise that. Trouble will come. The horns
will come. The adversaries will come. The
wolves will come in sheep's clothing. But the gospel is the only thing
that will save the people and put them to flight. All right,
we're going to close tonight with that.