Thank you, ladies. Beautiful. Let's open our Bibles again this
morning to Zechariah chapter 4. And we will continue our study
in Zechariah this morning. In one night, the Lord gave to
his servant Zechariah several visions. And the visions on the
surface, Zechariah chapter 4, the visions on the surface and
historically were to encourage the people of Israel to continue
in rebuilding the temple. The message of the Lord to them
was really quite simple. Don't be worried about the enemies.
I'll take care of them. You do that which I have called
you to do, that is to rebuild this temple so that worship can
once again go forth from the temple, from the city of Jerusalem
to the Lord. And he's already made some very
powerful statements about the Lord's work. Go back to chapter
2. If I may just kind of refresh
your memories, chapter 2, look at verse 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled
you, For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. For behold, I will shake mine
hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants. And ye shall know that the Lord
of hosts has sent me. I will take care of your enemies."
That's what God says. Look back in the previous chapter,
chapter 1 and verse 16. Chapter one, verse 16, therefore
thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. With mercies, not with judgment,
not with wrath, not with anger, not with my fury, but with mercies. And then God makes this statement,
my house shall be built in it, that is in the city, saith the
Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. I'll take care of your enemies,
and God says, I assure you, my house will be rebuilt. I will
see to it. And there will be a resuming
of worship through this house. Now that's the historical meaning,
and of course that was important to the Jewish receivers of this
message from the lips and through the pen of Zachariah. But there's
a spiritual meaning. And the spiritual meaning, the
deeper meaning of this, is that our God, he says to his people,
I will take care of all of your enemies. And our enemies are
numerous. Certainly, the first enemy is self and our sins. But he's taken care of that.
He's taken care of the enemy of sin. Well, how'd he do that? He sent his son to die for us
and to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the
west, as Ron prayed. Buried them in the depths of
the deepest sea. They are no more in the eyes
of God. They have been removed from Him,
put behind God's back. He has dealt with our great enemy
of sin, and He has dealt with our great enemy of Satan. In
fulfillment of Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, the Lord Jesus
has... He crushed the head of the serpent. He severely and mortally wounded
Our Lord has put a chain around his neck. Revelation 20, verses
1 and 2 says that. He has bound the old serpent,
Satan, our enemy, the one who instigated this issue of sin
into this world, or introduced it, as he tempted Eve. And she
fell for the temptation, and then Adam, he went into it with
his eyes wide open. He sinned, and so sin entered
into the world. It's our enemy. It is your mortal
enemy. It wants to destroy you. And
it will destroy you except for the grace of God. The Lord has
dealt with our sins in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
He has dealt with our enemy, Satan, through that same sacrifice. And then there's the enemy of
the world. The world that allures us, the world that tempts us,
the world that teases us. We see the world and all it has
to offer, the pleasures of the world, which Moses realized were
only for a season. But the world is not, it is not
your friend. It's the enemy of grace and it's
the enemy of God. But our Lord, our Lord, He has
destroyed the power and the influence of the
world over the child of God. It's not going to have ultimate
influence over you and we're thankful that the Lord is watching
out for us and He's dismissing or He's removing these enemies
from us in order that we would be liberated in order to please
Him through our worship and through honoring the Lord Jesus Christ. The deeper meaning here is that
the Lord has overcome all of the enemies of His people. Our
Savior has made our peace with God by His own bloody death. The
scripture says, There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. They have no peace with God.
But we are at peace with God through the blood shedding of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace with God. So the enemies of the gospel,
the enemies of our souls, are under the domination of our Lord.
And He is building His spiritual temple today. The Lord goes out
into the vast quarry of mankind. And for His own glory and according
to His own purpose, He chisels out the stones that He has ordained
for salvation, and He gives them life, spiritual life. Life in Christ Jesus. You must
be born again is the message of our Savior to Nicodemus. And
the Lord, He gives life to these stones so that Peter says in
1 Peter chapter 2, we're living stones. And He puts us in the
very spiritual temple of God. The Lord is building His house.
The enemy shall not prevail against it. His work is sure. because of
who the worker is. It's the Lord himself. He has
purposed to gather unto himself the multitudes that he gave to
Jesus Christ our Savior in covenant election and grace before the
world began. These are those who've been redeemed
by the bloodied death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit
of God uses the preaching of the gospel to draw the hearts of men and
women to Christ. In fact, He gives us a new heart
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord is building
His house. And all who are in His house
are safe. All who are in His house are
assured of everlasting glory. The psalmist said the Lord will
give grace and glory. And he who gives grace, he who
gave us grace in old eternity, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
9. He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the world was ever
formed. He has given us his word. This
is the word of him who cannot lie. The Lord will give grace
and glory. You'll make it, child of God.
You'll be there in the presence of the Lord Jesus someday. You
say, but I'm so weak. Yes, you are. But He's almighty
to save. He who was given a people before
the world began. He who was entrusted with the
full responsibility for our salvation, He has redeemed us by His blood. He has sent His Spirit to woo
us and call us and draw us effectively unto Himself. He has gifted us
with the gift of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He will keep us. He will keep
us, and one day we shall cross the river of death, and yet not
by ourselves, but He has promised to be with us. And then we shall
inherit everlasting glory. Isn't that wonderful? Everlasting
glory. So that's the spiritual meaning
of all of these visions. Now this morning we're looking
at a golden candlestick. Let me read just a few verses
to you. You're there. Zechariah chapter 4, verse 1. And the angel that talked with
me, that is the angel of the Lord, this is Christ Jesus, this
is the Son of God in pre-incarnate form. And the angel that talked
with me came again and waked me as a man that is awakened
out of his sleep. And he said to me, what seest
thou? What do you see? And Zechariah said, he said,
I looked, and behold, a candlestick. That's what I saw. A candlestick. It had seven lamps. All of gold. Beaten gold. Made of pure gold. With a bowl
on top of it. And it had seven lamps thereon,
and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top
thereof. Now look at verse three. And
two olive trees by it. So here's the symbol. Here's
the picture. Here's the candelabra. See it in your mind? That's seven
lamps. And on this side of the lamp,
there's an olive tree. And on the other side of the
lamp, there's another olive tree. So here you got seven lamps,
the bowls, and the two olive trees. Look at verse four. So I answered
and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these,
my lord, my master? And then the angel that talked
with me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these
be? In other words, you tell me. What lesson am I teaching you,
Zachariah? What are you to learn from this
golden candlestick with the bowls? and the pipes that run to olive
tree on this side and olive tree on that side. What do you think
these mean, Zachariah? Do you understand? And Zachariah
said, no, my lord, I don't understand. And I suspect that neither do
we. I hope I can be enabled by the Spirit of God to clarify
what this means. And then in verse 6, Then he
answered and spake also unto me, or spake unto me, saying,
This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. And I'll have
much more to say about him next Lord's Day. He was like the governor. He was the ruler. who would be
in charge in Jerusalem of making sure the temple was rebuilt,
saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord. I'll show you several things
here. Number one, and I mentioned this, of course, last week. There's,
first of all, awakening grace. You see, the only way a man can
receive the things of the Spirit of God is for the Lord to wake
us up from our sleep of death. By nature, we're all dead in
trespasses and sins, and in the Bible, sleep is symbolic of death. We're dead to God. We're dead
to the things of God. You say, I don't understand why
my husband or my wife or my brother or my sister, I don't understand
why my children, why don't they believe this gospel of grace?
Why don't they see and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
Savior of sinners? I just don't understand why they
don't. Well, I can tell you. Let me help you with that. They're
spiritually asleep. They're in the sleep of death.
You say, preacher, I just don't get what you're saying. I see
you take what you speak about from the Bible, and that's good,
but I really don't get it. I don't perceive what this is
all about. I don't see the glories of Christ
Jesus. I don't understand fully the
necessity of His death and what He accomplished by His death.
And you never will get it until you're awakened by the grace
of God. So that's what we pray for. Lord,
wake up the dead. Wake up the dead. Here's the
need for awakening grace. In the Gospel of John, you need
not turn there, but in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 27
through 36, you have the last words of John the Baptist. I'm
always interested in the last words of somebody who's in their
right mind and their judgment isn't clouded by medicine or
whatever. Well, here are the last recorded
words of John the Baptist. John chapter three, verses 27
through 36. Read it later, please don't read
it now. But he started off by saying, a man can receive nothing
except it be given him from above. We need God the Holy Spirit to
be our teacher. And he's gonna have to wake us
up from a sleep of death. Zachariah is awakened. And like
I said last week, even the people of God can become spiritually
sleepy, lethargic, not as active and quick-thinking and meditating
upon the goodness of God and the grace of God and the death
of the Lord Jesus. Like we used to be, we sometimes
fall asleep spiritually. It's not talking about physical
sleep. Spiritual sleep. So there's the need for an awakening. Here's awakening grace. Secondly,
here's revealing grace. I just read to you, Zachariah,
he saw. He saw. He saw the golden candlestick,
the candelabra, the seven lamps, the bowls, the pipes running
to the two olive trees. He saw, but he didn't understand. He had no knowledge of or awareness
of the significance of this golden candlestick. I'm sure it put
him in mind of the golden candlestick that first stood in the tabernacle,
remember, in the holy place of the tabernacle. There was a table of showbread,
the golden altar of incense just before the veil, but there was
also the golden candlestick. So I'm sure it put him in mind
of that, but he didn't really understand what the significance
of this one was. And it's a blessed day when the
Lord awakens us and then teaches us blessed gospel truths, which
we will never understand unless the Spirit of God teaches us. So that brings me to the third
thing. Here's awakening grace, here's revealing grace, understanding
the vision. Here's a golden candlestick,
the lamps, each with a bowl on top containing oil. There were
conduit pipes running to the two olive trees. And of course, as I said, I'm
sure it brought to the mind of Zachariah thoughts of the golden
candlestick, first in the tabernacle, then in Solomon's temple, and it would be placed again
in the rebuilt temple. But there's an obvious difference. And the obvious difference was
this. In the tabernacle and in the
temple, that golden candlestick with the seven lamps, it had
to be continually kept burning by men who attended to the golden
candlestick. In fact, every morning, Aaron,
and the priests entered into the holy place after they had
offered a sacrifice out there at the brazen altar. That picture
of Christ crucified, you can't do business with God apart from
a sacrifice. There must be the Lord Jesus
Christ and His death upon the cross of Calvary to satisfy the
justice of God. So before they could go to do
business with God, enter into the presence of God as it were,
they first of all had to offer a sacrifice. And then they washed
at the laver. We've got to be washed in the
water of the Word of God. And washed in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Then they entered into the holy
place And they would take care of trimming the lamps, making
sure the bowls were filled with oil so that they would continually
burn. But this golden candlestick consisting
of seven lamps, each one having its own bowl on the top of it,
each having a pipe that led to an olive tree, these features
mean Unlimited, unlimited flow of olive oil from the olive trees. An uninterrupted, uninterrupted
flow of oil. In other words, in the tabernacle and in Solomon's
temple, Light inside the holy place. Remember, it's all enclosed.
There was no outside light that entered in. In the holy place,
there's the table of showbread with 12 loaves of bread on it.
That's feasting and fellowship and communion. There's the altar
of incense before the veil. But you couldn't see those things. You couldn't perceive what they
were unless man kept the lights burning. But in this spiritual temple,
remember, that's the true meaning of this vision. In the spiritual
temple, the lights, the illumination, is not dependent upon man at
all. the lights were kept burning
by the oil that flowed through the seven conduit pipes from
the two olive trees. And I'll show you next week,
but I'll tell you right now, the two olive trees represent
Joshua, who's the high priest, speaking of Christ Jesus, our
high priest, and only Mediator, and Zerubbabel, the king or the
ruler, the leader of the people of God. You see, our Lord is building
His church. He said that in Matthew chapter
16. Do you remember when the Savior
asked His disciples, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
And they said, well, one of the prophets, which was really a
put-down to our Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the prophet of God.
And our Lord said, well, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed
art thou, Simon, son of Jonas. Flesh and blood didn't teach
you that, but my Father, which is in heaven. Upon this rock,
I will build my church, the rock of who I am. I'm the rock of
ages. The Lord's church is being built
on me. I'm the foundation of it. Of
Zerubbabel we will read and study next week. He laid the foundation
for the temple and he'll lay the top stone of the temple.
That's our Lord Jesus. His spiritual temple is being
built. He laid the foundation for He
is the foundation. He's the chief cornerstone. And
finally, when the last child of God is called into the kingdom
of grace and brought to believe the gospel, He'll lay the topstone
on it, and then the word will go forth. Grace! Grace! This
is all of grace. This is all of God's doings. You see, it's the Lord Himself
who keeps the lights on. without the aid of men, that
is, through no works of our own. And we're called to be faithful,
to honor the Lord, to preach his gospel, but you remember,
and I need to remember as well, nothing of any real spiritual
significance can ever happen unless the Lord makes it happen. The oil of the Holy Spirit must
flow into this place, which is likened to a lampstand in the
scriptures. Now, the meaning of the golden
lampstand is twofold. Let me give them to you quickly.
First of all, Christ is the golden candlestick. Pure gold it was. Christ is precious. He's precious to the Father.
He's the glory of God, the glory of God. Where is it seen? It's
seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is pure gold. He is perfection. He is the very
glory of the Lord, the glory of the highest. The Scripture
says, For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for
God giveth not the spirit By measure unto him, he has the
fullness of the Spirit. The seven gifts of the Spirit
are set forth in Galatians chapter five. And we're given the gifts
of the Spirit, but our Lord Jesus has them all. He has all these
gifts in their fullness. And it is his Spirit who flows
graciously For he said, I am the light of
the world. I am the light of the world.
We walk in darkness until the Lord Jesus himself comes to us
in power. And he enlightens us. Oh, Lord,
turn the lights on. Turn the lights on. Send forth
the oil of your Spirit even now into the hearts of these who
hear, into the hearts of these who hear and watch. Send the
oil of the Spirit of Christ Jesus that men and women and young
people would believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and
come to Him by faith, faith that only He can give. The psalmist said, for with thee
is the fountain of life. In thy light, we shall see light. It's only in Christ that we have
spiritual life. The dayspring on high, Zacharias,
the father of John the Baptist, said this in Luke chapter one,
the dayspring from on high hath visited us to give light to them
that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death to guide
our feet into the way of peace. Do you see these things? Do you
understand the gospel? Do you love, have you been brought
to love the Lord Jesus Christ and see the purity of Him who
is like pure gold, precious to the Father? Has He been made
precious to you? Well, if so, it's because the
lights have come on. But secondly, this golden candlestick
portrays the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look with me and
I'm gonna give you two references. First of all, Revelation chapter
one. Revelation chapter one. John has been exiled to the island
of Patmos for preaching the gospel. Revelation chapter one. He hears
a voice speaking to him on the Lord's day. And he looked, verse 12, Revelation
1, 12. Are you there? Okay, here I'll
read it. And I turned to see the voice
that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden, guess what, candlesticks. He saw seven of them. In Zechariah's
vision, how many did he see? He saw just one. But now John,
he, having heard the voice, the mighty voice of the Son of God,
he turns to see and he sees seven golden candlesticks, and in the
midst of the seven candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man,
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about the
paps with a golden girdle. His head, his hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and his feet like into fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.
And his voice is the sound of many waters. He had in his right
hand seven stars. Out of his mouth went forth a
sharp two-edged sword. And his countenance was as the
sun shineth in his strength. When I saw him, John said, he
sees the glorified Christ. When I saw him, John said, I
fell at his feet and was dead. He laid his right hand upon me,
saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am
he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and death. Write the things which thou hast
seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be
hereafter. And now he gives us some understanding. The mystery
of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and
the seven golden candlesticks, he says the seven stars, are
angels or messengers. These are preachers of the gospel
in the Lord's right hand. These are the angels of the seven
churches. And the seven candlesticks which
thou sawest are the seven churches." And if you took the time, if
we took the time to read, we're not going to do it now of course,
but if you read Revelation chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 3, each
one is a lampstand. And the words are addressed to
the angel or the pastor, the star in the Lord's right hand
addressed to the preacher. So, this is a golden candlestick. See? We're a golden candlestick. What keeps us burning? What keeps the spiritual lights
on? Who is it that continually gives
forth to us the oil of the Spirit of grace, enabling us to remain
faithful to the gospel, of our Lord Jesus Christ, well, is the
Lord Himself, and we're a golden candlestick. Now go with me to
one more passage, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. I say the golden candlestick, first
of all, it pictures our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the light
of the world. And secondly, it portrays or
pictures the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter
5, our Lord is preaching his Sermon on the Mount. And he has
this to say in chapter 5, verses 14, 15, and 16. In fact, I'll
read 13 also. He says to his people, ye are
the salt of the earth. We preserve the earth. How do
we preserve the world? The world will stand as long
as the Lord's people are here. We're the preservative of the
world. When the Lord takes the salt
away, that's when the world's gonna be destroyed by fire, okay? So ye are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out, to be trodden underfoot of men. Ye are the
light of the world. A city that is set, fixed, established,
that's what set means. You're a city that's fixed, set
according to the purpose of God, on a hill that cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but
on a candlestick. and it giveth light unto all
that are in the house. You see, the Lord has lit this
candlestick many years ago. And the oil that keeps the light
burning is the oil of the free grace of God through the ministry
of the Spirit of grace. He is the oil that keeps this
lamp stand, this golden candlestick keeps it burning. If the Lord
forsakes a church, no light, no light. Lord, don't forsake
us. And I know He won't, but we don't
presume upon His presence. Lord, keep the lights on. So
he says this in verse 16, let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father. which
is in heaven. Why is the church a golden candlestick? Well, because we're precious
in His sight. You say, well, we're worthless. Hang on a minute. We've been bought with the price
of Christ's blood. That's a precious price. And
we're not precious to the world, I know that. But we're precious
to Him who saved us. I tell you what, he bought and
paid for his people who gather in various locations as God enables
them. He's the one who gave us light,
and he's the one who maintains it, and thankfully, he won't
take the oil away from us. He's promised to be with us.
Certainly, we receive light and regeneration, And this light right here, this
golden candlestick, we're the light of the world. Every local
church, every church where the gospel of the grace of God is
preached, consists of men and women who've been bought with
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every local church is the Lord's
golden candlestick. And yet, we're all one in Christ
Jesus. Well, what is it to let your
light shine? What is it for us as a congregation,
as the people of God, as the golden candlestick in this area? What is this light that we must
shine? Remember, we don't do anything
to get the light. That's the Lord's work. He is
the light. He said, I'm the light of the
world. And we exist that the Lord Jesus and His glorious gospel
go forth from here, the only light that there is in this darkened
world. That's all there is. So I'm going
to commune with God out in the woods or whatever. Only one problem,
there's no light out there. Here's where the light will be
found, where the gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
is preached. That's where the light goes forth,
because Christ is the light. And our business is to shine
the light. Well, what does it mean here,
preacher? Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. You may taste some good works.
Public worship. That's a good work. Acknowledging to your friends
and family members the necessity of being found in Christ, not
having your own righteousness, but having the righteousness
of God, which is to be found in Christ Jesus. Those are good
works. Oh God, keep the lights on in
here. Keep the light of the gospel.
We're your golden candlestick. Nothing here is dependent upon
men. We're fully dependent, O Lord,
upon you. That's the difference of the
candlesticks, you see. That candlestick in the tabernacle
and temple? Dependent upon men. Let me tell
you something. The building of the Lord's church,
though He uses us He's not dependent upon us. We're dependent upon
the power of the Lord Himself. Well, we'll go back into this,
the Lord willing, next Lord's Day. Get your psalm books and
we'll sing a closing hymn, number 318. Number 318.