I hope that the message will
be a blessing to the Lord's people this evening. It's what I always
desire. And I hope that even the introduction
will be a blessing to you. Who wrote this book? I know it's written by the Spirit
of God, there's no question about that, but God the Spirit uses
men. He used a man to write this book
and preach to the people who exited out of Babylon and who
went to the land of promise, that is to Judea and to Jerusalem. And he's identified actually
in chapter 1 and verse 1. Go back to that. Let me see if
the Lord doesn't have something for us right here at the beginning.
Zechariah chapter 1 verse 1 in the 8th month. In the second
year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the
son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet. We know his name. He is Zechariah. I've already told you his name
means Jehovah Remembers. I thought of that passage in
Isaiah 49, can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget,
the Lord says, yet I will not forget thee. And He says, Behold, be amazed,
be astounded, pay attention. I have graven thee. I have graven
thee upon the palms of My hands. Thy walls are continually before
Me. He's the Lord who'll never forget
us. He's the Lord who always remembers
His covenant He always remembers His people, and He always remembers
His promises. The psalmist said in Psalm 136.23,
Who remembers us in our low estate, for His mercy endureth forever. You remember the prayer of the
believing thief? Remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom And I'm sure you will remember what the Savior
said He said verily Verily I say unto thee today Thou shalt be
with me in paradise He always remembers his people But the Scripture gives us a
little more information than just his name, Zechariah. It says he is the, notice the
next expression, he's the son of Berechiah. That was his father. That name means the Lord blesses. Jehovah blesses. If He blesses, none can curse. And we were blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That
means since God blessed us in Christ Jesus with all spiritual
blessings, we cannot be cursed. We cannot be condemned. We cannot
be judged. We have all spiritual blessings. Jehovah blesses. He has blessed
us with electing grace. He has blessed us to adopt us
into His family. He has blessed us to redeem us
by the bloody sacrifice of His Son. He has blessed us with full
and free forgiveness. He has blessed us with unconditional
justification. We're righteous in His sight.
He has blessed us with regeneration. He has given us spiritual life,
and He will bless us with glorification. We're blessed. And Jehovah remembers, and Jehovah blesses. And then we find out that this
man, Zechariah, he had a grandfather, and his grandfather was Iddo. Iddo. And that means in God's
time. All things happen in God's time. That's when Christ came and died.
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The children of
Israel were in Babylonian captivity, and this included the remnant
according to the election of grace. Perhaps the few saints
of God who were there in Babylon, perhaps they wondered, has the
Lord forgotten us? Maybe you've asked yourself that
question. Has the Lord just forgotten about
me? Does He see what's going on with
me? Has the Lord forgotten? Here's
the answer. And the answer is to be found
in the name of this writer. in the name of His Father, and
in the name of His Grandfather. Now here's, I hope this will
be a blessing to you. The Lord remembers, the Lord
blesses, and He does so in His time. In His time. The Lord's not bound by time
like we are. All things happen in this world
and all things happen to His people in His time. Ecclesiastes 3.11 says, He hath
made all things in His time. In His time. The Lord remembers
you. And the Lord blesses you. and
His memory of you and His blessings to you, they will come in His
time, not in your time. The Jews had been in captivity
for 70 years. Had the Lord forgotten His people? Will they remain in that heathen
city? Will the Lord ever bring them
out? Jehovah remembered them. Jehovah blessed them. And in
His time, 70 years after their captivity began, it ended. And it all happened in His time. Hold your place here. Look at
Isaiah chapter 60. Let me show you a verse over
here. Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60. Look at verse 20. Isaiah chapter
60 and verse 20. This is speaking of the beginning
of that everlasting day when all of the people of God will
be gathered unto Himself. When our Lord Jesus shall come
back and establish righteousness on this earth, He'll take His
people home unto Himself. He will punish all the wicked.
And here's what the Scripture says, Isaiah 60 verse 20, Thy
sons shall no more go down. Neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself. For the Lord, the Lord shall
be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning, they
shall be ended." Do you weep? All of God's people weep. We
weep over our sins. We weep over various circumstances
that we find to be in this life quite painful. but your mourning, it shall be
ended one day. Verse 21, thy people also shall
be all righteous. Oh, isn't that good? Isn't that
an encouragement? Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the Lord says, the work of my hands. that I may be glorified. And a little one shall become
a thousand. And he says, a small one shall
become a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it.
Now wait a minute. It's in His time. It's in His time. When's the
end going to come? When will we enter into this
everlasting day? When we're going to have glorified
bodies? When is all the church going
to be joined together and all of us righteous in the Lord our
righteousness? The Lord will hasten it in His
time. He doesn't get in a hurry. And yet, all of His wheels of
providence, they turn with exact precision. And everything happens
in His time. In His time. The Lord remembers,
the Lord blesses, and He does so in His time. Go back then to Zechariah 2. In verse 1, it says, and Joe
read, I appreciate him reading this to us, did a good job. I
lifted up mine eyes again, Zechariah 2.1, and looked, and behold,
a man with a measuring line in his hand. Who is this man? And we meet him throughout the
book of Zechariah. It's a mysterious man. We've
already seen him in the first vision that the prophet of God
had. This man's riding upon a red
horse. This man is standing among the
myrtle trees. This is the man Christ Jesus. The myrtle trees, that's His
people. rather insignificant in this
world, not mighty oaks, but just little myrtle trees. And not
high up on the mountain, not flashy, not up where everybody
can see them, but down in the valley, down low. There they
all are, these myrtle trees. But in the midst of the myrtle
trees, there's a man who's always there, and that's the man Christ
Jesus. He's always with His people.
He's not ashamed to be associated with us. Look over in chapter
6 and verse 12. Here's this man again. Chapter
6 and verse 12. Speak unto him saying, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man. It's the man he's been
talking about. Well, what's his name? His name
is the Branch. And he shall grow up out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. This man,
this mysterious man, this God-man Christ Jesus, he shall build
the temple of the Lord. He shall build the house of God. This living temple made up of
living stones, He's going to go out into the quarry of mankind. He's going to mine these out
of the quarry of mankind. They'll be rough, but He's going
to polish them. He's going to wash them in His
blood and polish them with His grace. There'll be a living temple. That's what Peter talks about
in 1 Peter 2. Verse 13 here says, Even he shall
build the temple of the Lord, Christ said, I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Therefore, he shall bear the glory. Who's going to get the
glory? Not the super soul winners. Not the church workers. The Lord's
going to get the glory because it's the Lord alone who can work
in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls. It's the
Lord alone who saves sinners. He's the one who chose us. He's
the one who redeemed us. He's the one who regenerates
us. He's the one who comes in and He works in the heart. He
takes the mighty hammer of His grace, of His Word, and He breaks
the hardest of hearts. And He says He'll get the glory. He says over in Isaiah, I am
the Lord. That's my name. That's not your
name, that's my name. He said, in my glory will I not
give to another. It says, He shall bear the glory.
He shall sit and rule upon His throne. Not stand as though full
of anxiety, wondering whether His will is going to ever come
to pass. He shall sit and rule. He sits
and rules. Everything obeys His will. Nothing
escapes His attention. All things are governed by the
hand and by the might and by the mind and the purpose of our
King Jesus. And it says, furthermore, He
shall be a priest upon His throne. He's not only the King who rules,
He's the priest who offered the sacrifice for His people. He's
the priest who offered the sacrifice, and He is the priest who was
the sacrifice for His people. And the counsel of peace, the
covenant of grace shall be between them both, the Father and the
Son. Here's this man Christ Jesus. Turn over to chapter 13 and verse
7. Chapter 13 and verse 7. Here's
this mystery man. Chapter 13 verse 7. God says, Jehovah says, here's
the Father speaking. 13 verse 7, Awake, O sword, against
My shepherd, against the man, the man who is My fellow, My
associate, My near relative, one who is equal with Me, saith
the Lord of hosts. He's the shepherd. Well, he says
to the sword of justice, smite the shepherd. The sheep shall
be scattered. I'll turn mine hand of love and
mercy and grace toward the little ones. This man is the man Christ
Jesus. He's spoken of again. Go back
to chapter 1. Go back to chapter 1, verses
9 and 10. I decide I want to read this
to you. In verse 8, he says, I saw by night and behold a man
riding on a red horse. He stood among the myrtle trees
that were in the bottom and behind him were red horses, speckled
horses, and white horses. These horses represent all kinds
of people from all over the world. Then said I, O my Lord, what
are these? And the angel that talked with
me, he said unto me, I'll show you what these mean. The man
that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are
they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth. There stands one tonight. And
this shows his I'm not a presence. He's seated upon His throne of
glory, ruling over all things, and yet He stands in our presence
tonight. He's here with us. Wherever the
people of God meet, He's always with the myrtle trees. He's not
with the big religious oak trees. He's not with the trees that
appear to be quite impressive and beautiful to the eyes of
the world. He's not with the cedars. He's
with the lowly myrtle trees. He's with us sinners. That's
where He's at. He stands with sinners bought
with His own blood. He assembles with us. He's always
with us. Well, what's he doing? What's
this man doing here in chapter 2? Well, look, it says this in
verse 2. In verse 1, he's got a measuring
line in his hand, like a tape measure. Then said I, whither
goest thou? Where are you going? He said,
I'm going to measure Jerusalem. What is Jerusalem? That's the
city of God. Now literally, Jerusalem was
an actual city. It is an actual city. It has
roads, it has walls. But this city, this city of Jerusalem
is not a physical city, though it is a real city. It's the city
of God. It's the city of which all of
the inhabitants are the Lord's people. This is His city. He
dwells in this city. And He says, I'm going to measure
Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the
length thereof. This is His house. He's measuring
it. He's measuring it. Who are included
in the Lord's temple? All of His people. All of the
saints of God. He chose this city. He redeemed
this city. He builds this city. Hold your
place here and turn over to Hebrews 3. Here's a good passage of Scripture
over here. You see, this is the house of
God. Not this house right here, not
this building, but the temple that he's building is the house
of God. It's the temple of God. It's
where God's people dwell. We dwell in Christ Jesus, and
He dwells with us. Look at Hebrews chapter 3, verses
3 and 4. was counted worthy of more glory
than Moses, insomuch as he who hath built the house hath more
honor than the house. For every house is built by some
man, but he that built all things is God. What is more honorable
than the house of God? What is more honorable than the
temple of the living God? Here's what's more honorable,
the one who builds it, and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
man who's building the house. He ordained this house before
the world began. He redeemed this house. What's
He doing now? He's bringing, drawing, calling
the people of God into the dwelling of everlasting life and salvation
enthroned by Him. This is the city of God, and
He's building it. He's building the city. He's
adding to the church daily, such as should be said. Why? He's the one who protects the
city. Notice back here in Zechariah 2 and verse 5. For I, saith the Lord, will be
unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory
in the midst of her. This is a city that is surrounded
by a wall of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. What surrounds us? What keeps
the people of God safe? The Lord does. He is our safety. He is our preserver. He's the
one who watches over us. He's never far away from any
of us. He's the wall of fire. round about us. And He's the one who will build
this church and continue to build it until He finishes it. Go over to chapter 4. Chapter
4. And we're introduced to a man,
his name is Zerubbabel. And He's the governor. He's the
governor of Jerusalem. He's a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Notice what it says here in chapter
4, verse 6. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
who's a picture of our Savior. He's the type and a figure of
the Lord Jesus, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my
spirit, saith the Lord. Now watch. Now, there were a
lot of obstacles to the building of the literal temple of the
Lord. And there are many obstacles
to the building of the spiritual temple of the Lord, but there
are no obstacles to God. Because look what it says, verse
7. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain. There's no mountain before the
Lord. You face a lot of mountains in life that you can't overcome.
You can't go around them. It seems like you can't go over
them. A lot of things get in your way. Nothing gets in His
way. Nobody can hinder Him. Nobody
can frustrate His purpose. It says, He shall bring forth
a headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace! Grace! Unto it! Nobody can stop our Lord Jesus
from gathering His people unto Himself. The Gospel goes forth. He makes it effectual. Look at
verse 8. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. His hands shall also finish it. He who began the work will finish
the work. And it says, Thou shalt know
that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. Our Lord's building His city. And those things that appeared
to be obstacles to us are not obstacles to Him. The church
of our Lord Jesus Christ in the days of Saul of Tarsus, they
found Him to be a big mountain. Boy, what an obstacle. Why, this
man, he's out to stamp out Christianity. He's going to arrest anybody
who believes the way of grace, the way of Christ. Who art thou, O great mountain? O Saul of Tarsus, before our
great Zerubbabel. He goes riding into Damascus. Papers authorizing him to arrest
anybody who believed in the way of grace, the way of Christ.
Watch the obstacle fall. Watch the mountain come tumbling
down as the Lord knocks him to the ground. And he then cries,
Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus whom you persecuted. And the mountain came down."
There are no mountains to the Lord. There are no obstacles
to Him. They all fall before Him. Look over at chapter 6 again,
and I'm going to read verse 13. Again, chapter 6, verse 13, even
he shall, this man, shall build the temple of the Lord, he shall
bear the glory, he shall sit and rule upon the throne, he
shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace shall
be between them both. He gets the glory of it. So you
see, really, the book of Zechariah has a physical fulfillment, there's
no question about that. I mean, there was a real people,
a literal people, a physical people who were released. They
go back to Jerusalem. In time, the temple will be rebuilt. It won't be to the glory of Solomon's
temple, but it will be a glorious building, and the worship of
the Lord will be reinstituted. There's no question about that.
That's the natural interpretation of this. That's the meaning on
the surface. But the deeper meaning that the
eye of faith sees is that our Lord Jesus Christ is gathering
together all of His chosen people, by free and sovereign effectual
grace, He's drawing them unto Himself, and He says of the church
of our Lord, I am a wall of fire around you, and I am standing
in the midst of you. That's how important we are to
the Lord. Now, you'll notice back here
in chapter 2, he's got a measuring line. What is the measuring line? Well, I believe it's the purpose
of God. The Lord has already purposed
exactly what He's going to do, and everything that happens is
to be measured by that which God Himself has predestinated
to happen. Nothing is going to happen except
that which God has ordained. I don't believe in the permissive
will of God. I don't read the word permissive
in the Bible. I just read of the will of God.
That's the measuring line. What's going to happen in this
world? How will things line up according
to the purpose of God? You want to know what's the purpose
of God? was for today, well, read tomorrow's newspaper and
see what happened today. That's the purpose of God. That's
the will of God. The will of God is always being
carried out. So while He lets men do this
and He lets people do that, He sovereignly ordained all things
before the world began. That's just the way it is. and
He uses men and women. I'll put it this way, He manipulates
everybody to fulfill His purpose. This is the measuring line of
the purpose of God. And it's the measuring line of
the righteousness of God. He's going to build His church
And the measuring line, the tape measure, as it were, is going
to make sure everything is absolutely square and according to righteousness. It's got to be that way. You've
got a measuring line. Nothing's going to be out of
the order. Nothing's going to be wrong. Nothing's going to
be leaning one way or the other. It's going to be straight to
fulfill His purpose. And it's the measuring line of
the grace of God revealed in the Word of God. I remind you, the measuring line
is in the hand of the man Christ Jesus. And all will be done according
to His will. You'll notice in verse 3, that the angel of the Lord, that
is Christ Jesus, the one who's talking with Zechariah, there's
another angel that then appears and the Lord Jesus, the man speaking
to Zechariah, speaks to this other angel and he says to him
in verse 4, Speak to this young man saying,
Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towers without walls for the
multitude of men and cattle therein." Run and tell the good news. This
is indeed glad tidings. That the Lord is going to build
His spiritual city and it's a city without walls. Because the Lord
is the wall around the city. And He says, go tell Jerusalem,
this is good news. There'll be a multitude of people. You say, well, at any given time,
it seems like the church is so small. Local assemblies are. For the most part, just little
pockets of believers. And I'll tell you, when they
were all gathered together in the last day, John saw them and
he said, it's a multitude which no man can number. What does
this mean, a multitude of men and cattle therein? The Lord
has a multitude of people and a multitude of provisions for
His people. He takes care of His people.
And He's the wall of fire around them. And then he begins to say
in verse 6, he begins to speak to those who would not come out
of Babylon. Now you remember that when Cyrus,
he issued this statute. The Jews, you're all free, as
many of you as you want to, you're free to go back to Jerusalem.
You're free to go back to Judah. But there were a lot of people
who wouldn't go. Perhaps through marriages or business, ventures,
they decided to stay in Babylon. And now the call goes out to
people who are in Babylon, and the call is, verse 6, Ho! Come forth! Flee from the land
of the north. You remember what the Lord said
in Revelation chapter 18 and verse 4, Come out of her. Come
out of Babylon, lest you be devoured with her." You can read that.
Jot that verse down. Revelation 18 verse 4. It's the
effectual call of grace. Come out of her. Come out of
false religion. Babylon is always pictured as
being the enemy of the people of God. And Babylon still exists, not
literally, but it is real false religion. Not location-wise,
but spiritual Babylon is scattered throughout all the world. And
here's the call to the people of God, to those who are made
by the Spirit of grace to be concerned about their souls.
Come forth. Ho! Ho! Come forth! Flee! And so he says in verse
7, Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of
Jerusalem. Come out of her. Separate yourself from her, lest
you be consumed in the wrath. And then the Lord says in verse
8, For thus saith the Lord of hosts, after the glory hath he
sent me into the nations that spoiled you, for he that touches
you touches the apple of my eye. He who strikes you. Let the church
of God know. Let the people of God know. Those
who reach out to you to do you harm. It's as though they're
reaching out to our Lord to do Him harm. That's why the Lord
said to Saul of Tarsus there in the book of Acts, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Was he physically attacking the
Lord Jesus Christ? No. But he was doing it to the
Lord's people. And to touch them was to touch
the apple of the Lord's eye. that which is precious to Him. So He says in verse 9, He's going
to shake the nations. Behold, I will shake mine hand
upon them. They shall be a spoil to their
servants. Who are the servants? The Jews
were their servants, and now He says, I'm going to give you
as a spoil to those that you held as servants. and ye shall
know that the Lord hath sent me." Everybody's going to know
who Jesus Christ is one day. He's the Lord of lords and the
King of kings. So, what should the temple of
God do? Verse 10. Sing and rejoice, O
daughter of Zion. For lo, I come. and I will dwell
in the midst of thee." And you can put this one of three ways. His first coming, I will come
and dwell in the midst of thee. You can put it to that time of
grace when He comes to us individually. Lo, I come, I will dwell in the
midst of thee. That's when He comes to us in
conversion, in saving grace. And lo, I will come." That's
His second coming when He comes in glory. And this is what the
Lord is doing. Look at verse 11. And many nations
shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. See, He's going to have a people
out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. They shall be my people, God
says. I dwell in the midst of them.
Watch this. This is Christ speaking. Look
at this last line of verse 11. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. Sent Christ to you. You'll know that. You're going
to learn that. The Spirit of God is going to
teach you that. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion
in the holy land and shall choose Jerusalem again. Isn't it interesting? The Lord is our portion and we
are His portion. And then verse 13. In light of all of this, what
God is doing through His Son, gathering the people unto Himself. Be silent. Be reverent. Be respectful. Stand in awe. Be silent. Oh, all flesh before
the Lord. for He's raised up out of His
holy habitation to gather His people unto Himself." What's
the Lord doing today? He's gathering His people unto
Himself. If you love the gospel of grace,
He's gathered you already. But there's some more He's going
to gather. And when they're all gathered
together like sheep into the sheepfold to worship and honor
the Shepherd who laid down His life for them, when they're all
gathered in, that's when the end's going to come. And that's when we'll be with
Him forever and ever. This is the man with the measuring
line. I'm so glad that we're not measured. We're not measured by mere men. Because they'd measure us and
they'd say, you don't measure up. You can't be one of the Lord's
people. But He who has the measuring
line is the all-seeing Christ. He knows what we are by nature. He knows we're flesh. He knows
there's nothing good to us. But you see, He is our all in
all. And He measures His people, not
by what we are in ourselves, We're measured by what we are
in Christ Jesus. And we measure up because we're
made the righteousness of God in Him. Well, may the Lord bless His
Word.