Thank you, Susanna. Let's go
to the book of Zechariah again this morning, Zechariah chapter
four. Our subject today is the gospel,
the gospel temple, the gospel temple. Let me read you just
a few verses and then I'll bring you my comments from these verses. Zechariah chapter 4, and the
angel that talked with me came again and walked with me. As a man that is wakened out
of his sleep and said unto me, what seest thou? This angel that spoke to him
is the messenger from God, and this is our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. He said unto me, and we're thankful
that the Lord speaks by His Spirit to us still today, not in an
audible voice, such as what Zachariah heard, but He speaks to us through
this book, through His Word. He speaks to us, and He speaks
to us through the preaching of the Gospel. So he said unto me, What seest
thou? And I said, this is Zechariah,
I said, I have looked, and behold, here's what I see, a candlestick
all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and his seven lamps
thereof, there were seven seven pipes to the seven lamps, which
are upon the top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon
the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side
thereof. In other words, here's a golden
candlestick. It doesn't need men to put oil
in. Remember in the tabernacle in
the wilderness, and then also in Solomon's temple, there was
a golden candlestick, indicates our Lord Jesus, who said, I am
the light of the world. The only illumination inside
the tabernacle was that golden lampstand. And there is but one
light in this world. and that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He must shine in our hearts to reveal the gospel of His grace
to us, to reveal Himself to us. The world is a world of darkness.
Our hearts are hearts filled with darkness. The only way we'll
ever perceive have some understanding of the reason Christ came into
this world and the reason that He had to die to satisfy God,
to put away our sins. The only way we'll ever have
an inward understanding of this is for that One who is the light
of the world is to take the gospel light and shine it in our hearts
and give us a revelation of Jesus Christ. Preacher, why don't people
believe the Gospel? And we pray that they will. You
and I have family members who know nothing about the Gospel
and they're not interested. They're more interested in what
they can do for God rather than what God must do for men. You
say, what has got to happen? Well, remember they're in spiritual
darkness. So don't get angry with them
for their unbelief. Ask God to shine the light in
the hearts, to illuminate. You see, in that tabernacle,
in the holy place, and in the temple, if it weren't for this
golden candlestick with the seven lamps burning, there would be
no light. And, of course, this speaks of
the ministry of the Spirit of Grace, that is, the Spirit of
God. Now, as far as that first golden
candlestick in the tabernacle and then in the temple, there
were men, they were the priests, who went in every morning and
every evening and they had to attend to the golden lampstand
because that which burned the oil That which was the fuel was
olive oil. And they had to put olive oil
in there in the morning. They had to put olive oil in
there at night. In fact, the Lord said it's to
be kept burning all the time. But that which the Lord's servant, Zacharias,
sees, he sees a golden candlestick and the gold shows it's valuable. But what he sees is a golden
candlestick that is in no way dependent upon men to keep it
burning. Because on either side of this
golden lampstand, there was an olive tree. And the Lord, the Lord kept the
lamp burning. Know this. We can't give light to anybody. We can tell them the truth. Tell
people about our awful condition. We're sinners. We're just saying
only a sinner is saved by grace. I really believe that. I hope
you believe it. That's all I am. Just a sinner.
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my
all in all. The Lord has done something for
me. And we need the Lord to do something
for our friends, our loved ones. We cannot illuminate them. Try to give them the truth. We pray for them, right? We pray
for them. But the only one who can give
light is that one who is the light, the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, may he illuminate darkened
minds and hearts. That's what's necessary. So in verse four, we pick up
our reading again. So I answered and spake to the
angel, to the messenger, really to the Son of God who talked
with me, saying, What are these, my Lord? And the angel that talked
with me, then he answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not
what these be? And I said, No, my Lord, I don't
know. I don't know. I need somebody to teach me. It reminds me of the words of
the Ethiopian eunuch over in Acts chapter 8. He's reading
Isaiah chapter 53, which is a glorious passage of Scripture that speaks
about our Lord's sacrifice, His sufferings, His death. In fact,
Isaiah 53 reads as though it's something that had already happened. In order for us to understand,
we have to be shown. And the eunuch is reading the
Bible. He's reading that passage of
Scripture. And Philip asked him a very simple
question. Do you understand what you're
reading? There are people who read their Bibles every day,
and that's a commendable thing. I mean, I would never speak against
that. It's a commendable thing to read
your Bible every day. But I would then ask you this,
do you understand what you're reading? That's the first question Philip
asked him. Do you understand what you're
reading? And he said, how can I? Except some man guide me. I need somebody to teach me.
Now, God does use men to teach. He uses preachers. He uses teachers
of the Word of God. But ultimately, the only one
who can teach us the Gospel to our hearts is the Lord. Right? And you agree with me,
I'm sure. The messenger says, do you know
what these are? Do you know what this is all
about? Do you understand the message,
Zachariah, that I'm sending to you? That I'm giving to you?
And he said, no. No, my Lord. You say, well, he
didn't know much, did he? Let me tell you something. He's
a willing learner. And that is the best way to come
before the Lord regarding spiritual things. I just don't know. I don't know. You know, in our day, and I found
this to be true, I've been in the ministry 45 years, there
are a lot of people willing to try to teach me a thing or two,
and that's not to say that I don't need to know a thing or two.
But, you know, they've learned two or three verses of Scripture,
and all of a sudden, they know more than the preacher. Well, here's the problem. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. one of the best things
you can do. Now if you're really serious
about knowing God, about salvation, about your sinful soul being
washed and cleansed and robed in the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, you've got to come before God as a willing learner. I'm ready to hear. Teach me. Lord, I don't have the answers.
There have been a lot of times somebody has come to me and said,
Jim, what does this passage mean? Brother Alan Eisen and I were
talking the other day. And I commented to him, I said,
you know, sometimes don't you find that people think you're
a walking encyclopedia of biblical knowledge? And people ask you
a question and they immediately think, well, you can rattle off
the answer. Well, there have been many times when I've had
to say, I'm going to have to get back with you on that. I don't know. And I don't have
all the answers. But I'll tell you who has all
the answers. And the answers to those questions
that you ought to be asking. And that's the Spirit of Grace.
And here's the kind of question you ought to be asking. How can
God be just and justify the ungodly? Ask a man that. He's talking
about his preacher. He said, I love my preacher and
I love his preaching. I said, well, does he ever raise
this question and then answer it? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? He said, no, I've never heard
him say anything about that. Has he ever said anything about
how can he be clean that is born of a woman? No, but we ask him
questions like, you think the signs are right for Jesus to
come back now? People are asking the wrong questions. They ask questions like, how
many angels do you think can dance on top of a pen? Or they want to say, who was
Cain's wife? They're not asking questions
that ought to be asked and need to be asked. And if you would
ask the right questions honestly, we'd get some answers. Why did God's Son come down here
to this earth? Well, He came to save. That's
what His name means, Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sin. How does God convict a sinner
of his neediness? By the work of the Holy Spirit. Why is it that a person is brought
to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
It's by the very power of the Holy Spirit of God who gives
those two gifts. People are asking the wrong questions. I don't know when the Lord's
coming back. That is, I don't have an exact
date, but if you want me to tell you when the Lord's coming back,
come back tonight and I'll tell you, because that's going to
be my message tonight. But the Lord said, do you know
what these things be? Do you see the lesson I'm teaching
you? Here's an honest man. No, my
Lord. And then he answered and spake
unto me, now I'm in verse 6, saying, this is the word of the
Lord unto Zerubbabel. The name Zerubbabel means one
who was born in Babylon. He was a Jew who was born in
Babylonian captivity. He was the one that God used
to lead a bunch of Jews out of that Babylonian captivity. Zerubbabel. And this is the word of the Lord
unto Zerubbabel, and here's what he said, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,
saith the Lord. And then he says, Who art thou,
O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? In other words, is there any
obstacle before Zerubbabel that he can't overcome? And the Lord
answers, Thou shalt become a level, level plain. And he shall bring
forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying grace, grace
unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, Lord, I've got something else to say to
you. The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house and his hand shall also finish
it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts hath 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 earth. Now let me tell you, the Lord
has sent word to Zechariah to encourage him and to encourage
a prophet who preached about the same time, Haggai, to encourage
them to speak to the people to get busy building the temple
of God. The Lord had brought the Jews
out of Babylonian captivity, and here's the instruction of
the king of Persia, who ordered their release. Go home, go home,
rebuild the temple, resume the worship of God by means of sacrifices,
and then rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem. That's
the instructions that King Cyrus gave to Zerubbabel and those
who left. So here comes a big wave of Jews,
thousands of Jews leave Babylonian captivity. They were taken into
captivity by somebody you've heard of, Nebuchadnezzar, right? You remember Nebuchadnezzar,
taken captive by him. and hauled off to Babylon. He
took all the vessels of the temple and so forth and so on. And then
after him, Belshazzar. And then Belshazzar, he was overthrown. And then the Medes took over.
And then the Persians took over the Medes as well. And the king
that Isaiah 44, the last verse of
the chapter. These words were spoken to Isaiah,
and he wrote them 200 years before this man Cyrus was ever born. Okay? So this is well in advance of
Israel even being taken into Babylonian captivity. You with
me? They're not in captivity yet. And the one who's going to order
the release of these captives from Babylon, He's not even born
yet either. So here's what the Lord says.
He says of Cyrus, verse 28, chapter 44 of Isaiah, He is My shepherd. He's a beautiful picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Who came into this world to do
what? Deliver the captives. People
who walked in darkness. People who were in bondage to
sin and Satan and the world. That saith of Cyrus, God says,
He's my shepherd. and he shall perform all my pleasure,
even saying to Jerusalem, watch it now, thou shalt be built. See, that's what we're reading
about over there in Zechariah. Thou shalt be built, and to the
temple. And that's the real big issue
there in Zechariah chapter four, because the people are discouraged,
they've stopped building the temple. But the Lord has said,
He says to Isaiah, and He says in advance to this
man Cyrus, of the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. In other words, get the picture.
Here, let me, let's all huddle together as it were. Let me talk
to you just real frankly and clearly. Before Israel was ever
taken into Babylonian captivity, God had already arranged a man
who would liberate them. Is that a gospel picture or not? You see, before we fell, before
Adam fell and all of his race fell into sin as a result of
his transgression, before we ever became captives, before
we ever became in bondage, in bondage to iniquity, in bondage
to receive false gospels and false messages. Before that bondage
ever occurred, God had already provided in His purpose a great
Deliverer, Christ Jesus the Lord. And all arrangements for the
liberation of these sinners was taken care of, everything was
taken care of, way back in eternity past in what's called the covenant
of grace. God determined to deliver His
people, and He determined who the deliverer would be, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see the beautiful gospel
picture before it ever happened. Just like here with Cyrus. The
Lord gives these words to Isaiah, and He says, let me tell you
about a man that I'm going to raise up. He's not even born
yet, Isaiah. He'll be born in a couple of
hundred years. But let me tell you, Isaiah, and Isaiah predicted
this, as did Jeremiah predict this, Israel's going to fall
into bondage. They're going to become captives.
because of their sinfulness. But I'm going to raise up somebody. And in their captivity, they
won't even have any idea of the man that I'm going to use. He's
an unusual man. But I'm going to raise him up.
I am, God says, in effect, I am going to be personally responsible
for the liberation, the deliverance, may I say, the salvation of all
of these people. You see, I told the Sunday school
class this morning, before there's ever a sinner, there's already
a Savior. Before we fell into bondage,
our liberation, our deliverance had already been purposed by
God. And before we became captive
and in bondage and in debt to God's holy law, God had already
provided a redeemer. Oh, the love of God to unworthy
sinners. And notice what Isaiah continues
to speak about this man Cyrus. Look at verse one, chapter 45. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,
that is to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden. You see,
the Lord speaks as if it's already been done. But that's what he
does. He calls things that haven't
happened in reality yet as though they've already happened. Whose right hand I have holden
to do what? Subdue nations before him. And I will loose the loins of
kings to open before him the two-leaved gates and the gates
shall not be shut." Let me tell you something. God appointed
a Savior. He is coming to this world to
subdue multitudes of people, nations of people, and to loose the loins of the
cruel kings that rule over them, and to open the gates that have
been shut. And we know He is Himself the
gate into glory. Christ is. He's the door of salvation. Look at verse 2. I will go before
thee. He says this to Cyrus now. He says this about Cyrus. 200 years before Cyrus, before
his mama gave birth to him. I'll go before thee. and I'll
make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass, I'll cut and sunder the bars of iron. I'll give thee
the treasures of darkness." Let me tell you something. We, God's
people, we are His treasures who were in darkness. But we're
His jewels. In fact, the Lord says, when
I come back, I'm going to get my precious jewels. We're His
treasure hid in a field, hidden in the world. I'll give thee,
He says, the treasures of darkness. We're in spiritual darkness,
but we've been given to Christ in eternal covenant love and
grace. And hidden riches of secret places,
the secrets of His grace, the secrets of His mercy. That thou mayest know that I,
the Lord which call thee by thy name, I am the God of Israel. I'm the God of my people. For
Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even
called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though
thou hast not known me. And God raised up Cyrus. And I'll tell you, there's so
much about the life and ministry of Cyrus that typified our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, the Jews in Babylonian
captivity, they got comfortable there, as they're 70 years, raised
families, got jobs, probably started shops and businesses,
and they got comfortable. Then the Lord raised up Cyrus. And the Lord says, lead My people. Deliver My people. Now, who is God going to specifically
use to lead them? I go back now to Zechariah chapter
4. You know who He's going to use?
A man by the name of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel. He's the governor. He's the one
who's in charge. And our Lord Jesus is pictured
by Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel's name means one born
in Babylon. That is, one born as in the world. That's our Lord Jesus. He came
from above. He's always been God. He was
God while He was here, but His human nature, He had a real soul
and a real body that came into existence in reality, is always
in existence in the purpose of God. It was actually born in
Bethlehem's manger, conceived in the womb of a virgin by the
power of the Holy Spirit. And he came to fulfill that which
God had purposed from old eternity. Deliver his people. And Zerubbabel,
using unusual wisdom and knowledge, and according to the edict, that
law of Cyrus, Zerubbabel said, let's go. We've been delivered. And He leads the people. And
our Lord, He leads us. He leads us beside the still
waters. He leads us all along the paths
of life. He leads us and He'll lead us
home to glory. Or it's going to use the rubbable.
He's a picture of Christ. But there's another man God's
going to use. Your first one is Cyrus, right? The second one is Zerubbabel. The third one is a man by the
name of Joshua. Well, what's his job? Well, he's
the high priest. And as the high priest, he does
two things. Number one, he offers the sacrifice
to God. You see, the sacrifices had stopped. That's why the Lord says, Rebuild
the temple. Start offering the sacrifices
again. And Cyrus says, the Jews are
free. Go home. I've ordained your deliverance. That's what God has done. He's
ordained the deliverance of His true people. And Zerubbabel is
the leader. That's what Christ does. He leads
us. He directs our paths. And then, Joshua's a picture
of our Savior. Because Joshua, he came and offered
these sacrifices that put away our sins. See, it was a shameful
thing that the Jews had forgot about the sacrifices. And of
course, the sacrifice could only be offered in Jerusalem at the
temple. And I'm sure many of the people
of God, Zerubbabel and Joshua, Zechariah and Haggai, and many
of the other people of God who were there, they longed to worship
God again by means of the blood. The blood. It's the blood that
makes atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. So they go back and Joshua is
the one who's going to re-implement the sacrifices. Because he's
a picture of our Lord Jesus, our great high priest. He offered
the sacrifice to God that put away the sins of all of his people. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Christ shed His blood. And there
is remission. He washed our sins away. And
God said way back in Exodus chapter 12, when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. And God passes over all for whom
the blood was shed. God passes over all in His wrath
and in His judgment. It passes over all who are washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We love to sing the old
songs. Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you? Are you? I am. I've been washed. The Lord has washed me. I'm everywhere
clean. Before Him, I stand in the righteousness
of the Son of God. Do you? Boy, you better be asking
yourself that kind of question. And I'll tell you, by the grace
of God I am. Joshua offered the sacrifice
and he prayed for the people. That's what Christ does. He makes
intercession for us. And I'll give you one more thing
here. That temple will be rebuilt and
the shouting will be, grace, grace. Grace started and grace
is going to finish it. And the hands of Zerubbabel,
who began the work, he laid the foundation. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
He's the foundation upon whom the great edifice of the temple
of the gospel, the gospel temple is built. He's the foundation.
And one of these days, he's going to lay the top stone. He's going to bring in all the
people of God. All that God gave Him in covenant
grace. He's going to bring them all
into the fold of salvation. And then, as I'm going to show
you tonight, that's when the end will come. I don't know when
that will be, but that's when the end will come. And when we
all get to glory, you know what we're going to be singing? Grace! Grace unto it. Saved by grace. That's our last song, by the
way. 512.