Alright, in Zechariah chapter
6. Zechariah chapter 6. I've entitled
this message, Christ, Our High Priest and King. Christ, Our
High Priest and King. In the first eight verses of
chapter 6, we were shown the last of the eight visions that
Zechariah was given by God in one night. These eight visions
that started back in chapter one showed in prophecy how God
would judge the nations, how he would triumph over all his
enemies, and then mainly, and for our comfort and assurance
and faith, how God would save his chosen people from sin in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And all these visions that were
given, put together, that's the theme of them, that salvation
is of the Lord. And salvation is a judgment of
God for His people in Christ. And anybody who doesn't have
Christ, who is not found in Christ, is under the wrath of God and
has no hope of salvation. Now, beginning here in verse
9 of chapter 6, Zechariah, the prophet, is commanded by God
to perform an act that has prophetic symbolism. He's commanded to
do something. He's really not commanded to
say anything except for a few words, but he's commanded to
act out this prophecy, these symbols in prophecy. And that
ought not seem strange to us because the Lord often used that
method of prophecy. First of all, the main one that
I thought about when I read this and saw the method that God was
using here was Hosea, when God told the prophet Hosea to go
marry a wife of Hortense named Gomer. And in that act, and in
that marriage, God showed him prophecy and type. Christ and
His church, Christ the Savior of sinners. and his unconditional
love towards his people for if his love is not unconditional
towards us then it's no love at all without that love there's
nothing but judgment for us and so he commanded Hosea the prophet
to act out to go do this act that typified Christ as the Savior
and the Redeemer of his church sinners saved by the grace of
God Isaiah was commanded to do something like this when he was
commanded to name his children and each name had some prophetic
symbolism. And then I think about Ezekiel.
The whole first part of Ezekiel's prophecy was acted out and not
spoken. In fact, the scripture says that
Ezekiel became dumb. Not dumb in the head, but he
couldn't speak. That's what he meant by that. So he wasn't speaking,
he was acting out these things. And through the actions, there
was prophecy. And later on, it was always shown
what the prophecy was about. So the Lord uses that myth, and
here's what, that's what he tells Zechariah to do here in these
verses. Now, these verses, and I want,
I hope I can impress upon you the importance and the verses here that we're studying
for verses nine to verse 15, how important they are. and how
it would be good for you, good for all of us, to study them.
I'm not going to just try to deal with everything that I want
to say to you in one message. I don't have time. But these
verses are so key to an understanding of Israel's history and, in essence,
understanding the whole Bible. Back in the days when they first
discovered, archeologists first discovered Egyptian hieroglyphics. Most of you, I think, know what
a hieroglyphics are. You know the symbols that the
Egyptians used to write with right there on their walls. And
when they first began to discover those hieroglyphics, they did
not have any clue as to what the symbols meant. what they
were saying, what they were trying to communicate, until later on,
a man discovered a stone. And on that stone, it had hieroglyphics,
then it had another ancient language, and then it had ancient Greek,
and it was just saying the same thing in three different languages,
and they were able to take that ancient Greek and interpret the
hieroglyphics. It's called the Rosetta Stone.
You may have heard of that. That Rosetta Stone was the key
to understanding all the symbols of the Egyptian hieroglyphics.
And I'll tell you, this passage right here that we're studying
tonight, I would call it the Rosetta Stone of the Bible. Especially
of the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. The Rosetta Stone. There are several just astounding
things revealed in this prophecy that just opens up, by way of
a key, the understanding of what the whole Bible is about. Of
what salvation is about. Let's look at it in verse 9,
he says, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, the
word of the Lord came to him one day. And it was a day, look
at verse 10, it was a day when several men who had been in Babylon
in captivity came out of captivity and came back to Jerusalem. They
came back to the area. Now some people do not understand
this, but what he's saying, look at verse 10, he says, take of
them of the captivity. Those of the captivity are those
who were captive, that's simply all it means. They've been in
Babylon. And he says, he mentions three
men here, he says, Haldai, Tobijah, and Jediah, these three men.
So this word of the Lord came to Zechariah on a day when several
men had come from Babylon, and they had gifts. They were bringing
gifts from Babylon, gifts of silver and gifts of gold to dedicate
to the temple that was now being built. And he says, which are
come from Babylon and come thou the same day, Zechariah, you
come on that same day that you take of these men. And you go
into the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, and then you
take silver and gold and make crowns. This is what you're commanded
to do. Take that silver and the gold
that these three men brought from Babylon, and you make crowns. And set these crowns upon the
head of Joshua. You remember Joshua, the high
priest back in Zechariah chapter three? Remember there were two
men who were chosen and anointed by God to be the
leaders of the nation coming out of captivity to do the work
of God. Zerubbabel, he was the civil
leader. He was mainly in charge of building
the walls of Jerusalem, but he had a part in the temple too.
And then there was Joshua, the high priest of Israel at that
time. And he was mainly in charge with the rebuilding of the temple
and the reestablishment of the worship of God in the land. And
this was Joshua. Remember Joshua standing before
the Lord and Satan, his accuser. This is the same man here. He
says, you take those crowns and you set them upon the head of
Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest. Now Joshua was the
high priest now. And what he's saying here, remember
that the children of Israel, they'd been in captivity. And
then Zerubbabel, who was the civil leader, and Joshua the
high priest, led a group of Israelites, about 50,000 in all, back to
the city of Jerusalem to begin reconstructing the temple. And
then after a delay, they are constructing the temple. That's
what they're doing now. And Zechariah and Haggai, they
were the two prophets that were there to encourage and exhort
and command the people, stirring up the people so that they'd
do their work and they wouldn't delay. And right here, this is
about two years after Zechariah received that last vision. The
temple had been constructed for two years and then it wasn't
finished yet. Two years later it would be finished.
But this is what he says, Zechariah is told to take the silver and
the gold that these men brought for the temple, make crowns,
set them upon the head of Joshua the high priest. Now why crowns? Now, he mentions crowns plural
here. And some people say, well, that's
one crown with several, it's one diadem with several crowns
on it. Some play it's two crowns, I
don't know for sure. But I know what's being pictured
here, you know, a diadem with many crowns, you know, we sing
that song, crown him with many crowns. And that's a good song,
yeah, that's a good hymn talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
The silver here, that's an emblem of redemption, you know, silver.
in the tabernacle and in the temple was always the medal of
redemption. When the people brought atonement
money, it was always silver because it pictured the blood of Christ.
It pictured the payment for redemption. So that pictured redemption and
that was really appropriate to the priesthood, that silver was. And then he said, gold, take
gold. Now gold was an emblem of deity. You remember, many
of the vessels of the temple, the furniture pieces of the temple,
were made of wood covered with gold. And that pictured the deity
and the humanity of Christ, the one person with two natures.
That gold being his deity, that wood being his humanity. And
that's really appropriate here. So the gold speaks of his deity
and is really appropriate to his kingship. And here we see
Joshua, the high priest, crowned with crowns of silver and gold
by God's appointment. God commanded this for one reason,
that this man Joshua, the high priest, might typify our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
who was both the king of Salem and the priest of the Most High
God. Now, what I want us to understand, I'll get into this a little bit
later now, and I'm going to deal with it in a whole message, is
that is so significant. Here is a priest that is being
crowned as a king, and it says in verse 13, he shall be a priest
upon his throne. That is a startling revelation,
especially to the people of that day. That had never been done
before under the old covenant, but hold on to that thought.
Let me deal with these crowns. Over in the book of Revelation
chapter 19, and why are there crowns plural? I believe it's
a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our priest
and our king. And this is what it's talking
about over in Revelation 19. This is when John sees another
vision of the glorified Lord whose name is Faithful and True.
And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. In verse
12 of Revelation 19, listen to this. It says, his eyes were
as a flame of fire, the penetrating all-knowing eyes of God, and
on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And you know what that means?
It means his name has to be revealed to a sinner. We don't know it
by nature. His name is His glory, and it
says, and He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, His
suffering unto death for the salvation of His people, His
satisfaction to law and justice, and His name is called the Word
of God. He's the Word made flesh and
dwelling among us. Over here in Zechariah chapter
6, the word of the Lord came unto me. This is the word of
God in Christ, the one who is crowned with many crowns. Crowns of silver, speaking of
his priestly work to redeem us from our sins by the shedding
of his precious blood. Crowns of gold, which speaks
of his deity. He is God and man in one person. which speaks of His ability.
He's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. He's able because of His deity. That's the power of His deity.
That's the efficacy of everything that He did to save us from our
sins. But He's also able because of
His humanity. Because it had to be a man taken
from among men. Every high priest must be taken
from among men. Hebrews chapter 5 says he had
to identify with us in our name in our name in our nature human
nature without sin and as God man he obeyed the law perfectly
put away the sins of his people as they were charged to him and
Established everlasting righteousness so that this priest king rules
with a righteous scepter the justice of God. And that demands
the salvation of every sinner for whom he died. Every name
that was written on that priest's breastplate and on the amulets
on his shoulder was a symbol and type of his church as it
named the tribes of the children of Israel. But that's his church,
that's God's elect which he purchased with his own precious blood. Now this symbolic act that Zacharias
commanded to do was to be done as it was designed to teach the
children of Israel of his day some definite truths. And that
is as it sets forth the person and work of the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in doing this, what Zechariah
is showing them by the Word of God and by the authority of God
is, friend, this is what it's all about. This is what it's
all about. It's not about an earthly land
or an earthly temple. or animal sacrifices, or an earthly
priesthood. Those things are all temporal.
They have a set time. They're important. It's not that
they're insignificant. They were significant. That's
a good word for it because they were signs. And it's not that
they had no use at all, but their use was limited. For example,
the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. They
could only picture and typify and symbolize the blood of the
Lamb of God, which does take away sin. An earthly priesthood
could not purge the conscience of any worshiper that came there
because that earthly priesthood, listen, that priest, he had to
go into the holiest of all with the blood for his own sins as
well as the sins of the people. And then he died and he was replaced
with another priest. That was the order of the Aaronic
or Levitical priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron. That was
the order of it. Every year they made sacrifice.
Every year at the Day of Atonement. And each year that one died,
they were replaced with another from that same order, and it
was always temporal, it was always physical, it was always ceremonial,
it was never eternal, it was never spiritual, it only typified
Christ, the eternal, the spiritual high priest. Now, it would do
us some good, too, to take just a moment to consider the meaning
of all these names here, too. For example, look at verse 10.
Take of them of the captive even Heldi. Heldi means worldly or
literally led through the world. Led through the world, that's
what his name means. And then he mentions Tobijah.
Tobijah means Jehovah's goodness. And then he mentions Jediah.
Jediah means Jehovah knows. These three men that came out
of Babylon are symbols themselves. They represent God's elect people
who were in captivity in Babylon. That's our fall in Adam, that's
our sin, that's our depravity, born dead and trespasses, and
that's our cursedness by nature. And they were brought out of
Babylon and they come and that represents God's elect brought
out of sin coming to Christ with sacrifices of thanksgiving and
praise With sacrifices of redemption, pleading the blood of Christ,
the God-man, being delivered by him from their captivity,
and then being led through this dark, cursed, ungodly world by
God's goodness and God's grace in Christ. And who are secure
in the saving knowledge of God. Here's Haldai. Led through the
world. That's what you're doing right
now. You're being led through this world. by the goodness,
that's Tobiah, Jehovah's goodness, you're led through this world
by the goodness and grace of God in Christ. And here's your
security, it's Jediah. That means that we're secure
in him, Jehovah knows. Our security is this, that God
knows his people. God knows us. Nevertheless, the
foundation of God standeth sure, the Lord knoweth them that are
his, 2 Timothy 2, and verse 19. He mentions up here in verse
10, Josiah, the word, the name Josiah means Jehovah finds and
heals. Well, God found his, he found
us, Christ found his sheep, and he healed us, didn't he? And
then Zephani, Zephani means Jehovah has treasured. Some say, and
some of these names, you know, scholars will argue over, some
say it means secreted, Jehovah has secreted. And so the way
I look at it is this, we're Jehovah's secret treasure. We're his secret
treasure, his church. Because we're to the praise of
the glory of his grace. Now you look at most of us, we
don't look like much of a treasure, do you? Do I? None of us do. But we're His secret treasure
because in a sinner saved by the grace of God, God is glorified
in every attribute of His character. Now we come to Joshua. Well,
you know what Joshua means. Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent
of the name Jesus. The name Jesus. Or some pronounce
it Yeshua or Yeshua. Either way, This is what Joshua,
he is what Joshua represents. Jesus, God, our savior. The high priest. And literally,
Jesus means the Lord is salvation. Or the Lord, our salvation. Jehovah
saves. Matthew 121, his name shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now
who named him? Who named him there? God did.
Not Joseph, not Mary. His name shall be called Jesus.
And then it says in verse 23, his name shall be called Emmanuel
of Matthew chapter one, which being interpreted as God with
us. And anytime I see that, when
I talk about his name like that, Jehovah, our salvation, Joshua,
Yeshua, however you wanna pronounce it, it's the same thing, Jesus. I think about Simeon in Luke
chapter two. Remember how Simeon said it in
Luke chapter 2 and verse 28, when it was revealed he was an
elderly man. He was probably a priest of the
temple. He was there at the temple. He was a just and devout man.
Luke tells us in Luke chapter 2, that means he was a sinner
saved by the grace of God. To be just is to be justified.
To be devout is to be born again by the Spirit. And he was a just
and devout man, and the Holy Spirit had revealed to this man
Simeon that he would not die and leave this world until he
had seen the Lord's Messiah, the Lord's Christ. Actually seen
him, not just with the eye of faith, but physically. And then
after eight days, Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus into
the temple to do for him as the custom of the law, and that was
circumcision. And Simeon saw that child and they put the child
in Simeon's arms, you remember? It says in verse 28 of Luke 2,
let me just read it to you. It says, then took him up in
his arms, Simeon took that baby up in his arms, and he blessed
God and sang away in a manger. No, he didn't do that, did he?
And I don't mean just to be making fun now. But you know what, most
people who sing away in a manger don't have any idea who this
person is that Simeon held in his arms. He said in verse 29
of Luke 2, Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace according
to thy word. What word? Words like Zechariah
chapter six and verse nine. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. That's Yeshua, I've seen Yeshua,
I've seen Jesus. Mine eyes have seen God's salvation,
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people." Now
there's something significant there, and you're going to see
that in Zechariah too. Not just the Jews, but for all
people. And then he even gets specific,
Simeon did this, and this was very, you have to understand
that words like this, spoken in the Old Testament by Zechariah,
you'll see that in the end of this prophecy, and words like
this spoken by a man like Simeon in the temple in Jerusalem, they
were very offensive to the Jews. He said, which thou hast prepared
before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles. Whoa, now wait a minute here. Let's back up here, Simeon. You
mean a light to lighten the Gentiles? And the glory of thy people Israel.
Gentiles too? Where did you get that from,
Simeon? Got it from the Old Testament. That wasn't just New Testament
doctrine. You see, God has a people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation, and you know something? They're all saved
by the grace of God in Christ. Not one group one way and another
group another way. So here you have Joshua back
here in Zechariah 6. He's a type of Christ, our great,
eternal high priest. It says here that Joshua was
the son of Josedek, Josedek means Jehovah is righteous. That suffix on the end of the
name Sedek or Zedek, it means righteous. Melchizedek, that's
what that means. He's the king of righteousness.
That's what his name means. This Josedek is Jehovah is righteous. What's that speak of? Well, here
you have a priest who is a king. That seems out of order now,
doesn't it? It is out of order according to the terms of the
Old Covenant. So how can he be just? Well, he is just. His scepter
is a righteous scepter because his kingship is founded upon
justice satisfied, righteousness established. In other words,
his kingship, his lordship is founded upon the accomplishment
of his priestly office. That's what the priest was there
for, to present the blood. of the land, to stand as the
representative of the people before God in the holiest of
all with the blood of judgment. The wrath of God poured down
upon the substitute, righteousness established." That's what it's
all about, see? His scepter, the way he rules
as king is founded upon righteousness established. That's the priest
king. All right. Now, Jehovah is righteous. Jehovah is holy. Now, one of
the things that the people of Zechariah's day had to be reminded
of is the reason for their existence as a nation. The reason why God
punished them. The reason why God delivered
them. They were coming back from Babylon. They had to be reminded
of the reason they were even building a temple. What's that
temple all about, you see? You know, the people of this
day, of Zechariah's day, you know who their great enemy was?
It was their captors. Babylon, the Medo-Persian Empire,
later on the Greeks, that's who they saw as their great enemy.
When Christ came to this earth, the great enemy of the people
of Israel was Rome. and they hated Rome, and therefore
they sought a messiah, they sought a savior, a redeemer who would
come and deliver them from Rome. They lost sight of something,
something that we all should never lose sight of is, and that
is this, our great enemy is sin. That's our great enemy, it's
not Rome, it's not Babylon, it's sin, that's our great enemy.
So what do we need? We need a Savior who will save
us not from Rome. We need a Savior who will save
us from sin. That's what we need. One who can conquer sin. And
not only who can conquer sin, but who can do it in a way of
righteousness. One who can establish righteousness
and one who can give eternal life. That's what we need. We'll look back here at verse
12 of Zechariah 6. Here he gives us the meaning
of this prophetic act. Now why do you want me to do
this, Lord? I'm sure that hit the mind of Zechariah. Why do
you want me to do this? Well, here's why. Look at verse
12. He says, and speak unto him,
speak unto Joshua. You're gonna make these crowns.
He doesn't really give us a timetable here. We don't know if he went
over and made the crowns right then or if there was a time lapse.
We don't know, it doesn't matter. You know what God put in this
book? What we need to know. The rest of it, you can speculate
about if you want, but it's not going to do you any good. All
right? But here's what it's all about. He says, and speak unto
him. Now, this is the first time that Zacharias commanded to say
anything. And he says, saying, thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts. There's the sovereignty of God
right there. God who cannot be defeated. Lord of hosts, the
Lord of a great army. He cannot be defeated. This cannot be thwarted,
this cannot be hindered. Whatever God is showing here
prophetically is going to happen. There's no failure here. Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the branch. Well, you know who that's talking
about. That's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold the
man whose name is the branch." It speaks of the Messiah in prophecy. Back over in Zechariah 3, turn
back a page. You remember when Joshua the
high priest was standing before the angel of the Lord and he
was being accused? And the Lord stepped in on his
behalf and said, take away his filthy garments and put on him
a new robe, a robe of righteousness, put a fair mitre on his head. It says in verse 8 of Zechariah
3 here, it says, Here now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy
fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wondered at
their signs. What he's talking about is the
high priest and the other priests, they were types pictured. For
behold, I will bring forth my servant, the branch, Christ the
servant of his people. In the book of Matthew, Christ
is portrayed as the king, the king, the descendant of David,
David's greater son. Remember, he asked the question,
what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They said, well,
he's David's son. He said, you're right, but how
could he be both David's son, David's offspring, David's branch? That's what that is, David's
seed and still be David's God. How could he be both David's
offspring and David's? They didn't know. You know what
they didn't really understand? They didn't understand the Old
Testament. These were the doctors, the lawyers, the scribes, the
Pharisees, the masters, the theologians. They didn't understand their
Old Testament. They didn't have the Rosetta
Stone of the Old Testament. And of course, to understand
that Rosetta Stone, not only do you have to have the words
on the page, But you have to have the power of God the Holy
Spirit to reveal it to you. Isn't that right? You say, how
can he be both David's Lord and David's son and David's God?
Well, we know how. Behold the man whose name is
the branch." That's how. He's both God and man in one
person. He wears a crown of silver. That's
the sacrifice of his humanity upon the altar of his deity for
the redemption of his people, and he wears a crown of gold.
He's God in human flesh. My servant, the branch. In the
book of Mark, he's called the servant of God. In the book of
Luke, He's the son of man. In the book of John, he's the
son of God. He's all of those. He's called the branch throughout
the Old Testament. And let me read this to you. Isaiah 4 and
verse 2. Prophecy of the Messiah. Isaiah 4 and verse 2. In that
day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. That's
talking about his person. God-man. Behold the man and the
fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are
escaped of Israel He's gonna save his elect. He's gonna save
the remnant They're gonna be his fruit Isaiah 11 and verse
1 another prophecy of the Messiah listen this Isaiah 11 1 and there
shall come forth a rod or a sprout out of the stem of Jesse who's
Jesse David's father and a branch shall grow out of his roots and
That's Christ, the son of David. And even though Isaiah 53 doesn't
use the term branch, the language fits right with it. Listen to
Isaiah 53 in verse 2. That's Christ, the branch of the Lord. And then
my favorite passage Jeremiah 23
verse 5 Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth and in his
days Judas shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and
this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness
Jeremiah repeats that in Jeremiah 33 and then applies that name
to the church because the church is his bride, married to Christ,
bought and paid for by Christ, and we have his name. Well, he
says, behold the man back here. Well, obviously that speaks specifically
of his humanity. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2
and verse 5, there's one God and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. In Genesis 3, 15, he's called
the woman's seed, or he was born of the Virgin Mary. That speaks
of his humanity. His deity wasn't born or created.
You cannot birth or create deity. Deity has no beginning and no
end. Isaiah spoke of that in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6.
He said, unto us a child is born, unto us a son, the Son of God,
the second person of the Trinity, is given. He's called the woman's seed.
He's called Abraham's seed. He's called the root of Jesse,
the seed of David, for he was born of the seed of David according
to the flesh, his humanity. The Bible teaches in Hebrews
chapter 2 that this must be because he has to identify with his children
as partakers of flesh and blood. He without sin, so that he substituted
himself in our place and put away our sins. Great is the mystery
of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. Behold the man whose
name is the branch. And it says here, "...and he
shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple
of the Lord," in verse 12. It goes on, verse 13, "...even
he," that means only he. Only he, nobody else, "...shall
build the temple of the Lord." We don't build the church, Christ
builds the church. That's what he's talking about.
He will branch up or branch out and build his temple. How's he
going to do it? We could use the analogy of the
branch and the root and the seed here. Because in John chapter
12 and verse 23, that's what he used when he was teaching
his disciples concerning the building of his church. He said,
except a seed of wheat fall in the ground and die, it will not
bring forth fruit. But if it goes into the ground
and dies, it'll bear much fruit. Later on it says he spoke that
describing what kind of death he would die. The Son of Man
must be lifted up that all would be drawn unto him. He's told
Peter and the disciples, upon this rock I will build my church. Paul described it in Ephesians
chapter two, verses 20 through 22, how Christ builds his church
and the church is fitly framed together, brought together, built
upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief cornerstone. He's the foundation of the church.
He's the cornerstone of the church by which all things are measured.
He's the heart of the church, and He's the head of the church.
The church is His body. The church is His bride. The
church is His house. The church is the dwelling place
of God. And God dwells in salvation and
glory only through His Son, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He laid the foundation. He sets the cornerstone. He builds
the walls, and He will set the capstone. he'll finish what he
started. Look at verse 13 again. Even
he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the
glory, the honor and glory belong to him alone. As he bore our
sins in his body on the tree as he was made sin and suffered
and bled and died as he was cursed and guilty by the imputation
of our sins to him as he was separated from the father and
suffered like nobody else that we cannot even describe unto
death he's also going to bear the glory he bore the shame of
the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He'll bear the
glory. The glory is, listen, our glory is His glory. We only
have glory as He is glorified. We're connected with Him. We
have no glory. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
are the circumcision. We worship God in spirit and
in truth. We rejoice in Christ, that means
we glory in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. He must
increase, we must decrease. Let him the glory of glory in
the Lord. And then look back at verse 13,
it says, it says, and he shall bear the glory and shall sit
and rule upon his throne. That's his mediatorial lordship. He rules as God-man mediator,
as the advocate, as the savior of his people. Now, as God absolutely
considered, he always ruled from eternity past to eternity future.
But as God-man, that's what this is talking about, he took possession
of what the Father promised him. He spoke of it in his high priestly
prayer in John 17. He said, give me the glory that
I had before the world began, which glory we had together before
the world began. Why? Because he finished the
work that the father gave him to do. He redeemed his people. And notice it says here in verse
13, and these look, now this is what I'm talking about, the
keys to all this. Look it, it says, he shall sit and rule upon
his throne. Now who's gonna do this? What
it says, he shall be a priest upon his throne. Here's a priest
sitting down. Number one, he's sitting down.
That was unheard of. There were no chairs in the temple
or the tabernacle. The priest of Levi never sat
down. And the reason was because their
work was never finished. But you see, this one who is
coming, the Messiah, of whom this whole thing is all about,
he's going to make a short work of it. He's going to finish it. By what offering He hath perfected
them that are sanctified forever. He sat down on the right hand
of His Father. He accomplished redemption. He
made an end of sin. He brought in all the righteousness
that you and I need to be accepted eternally and unchangeably before
the Father. That's what's imputed, charged
to us, a righteousness of God that can never be flawed, can
never be tarnished, and can never be removed. He sat down. And
not only is this priest sitting, look at where he's sitting. He
shall be a priest upon his throne. Now there's something significant
there. Something different. Something seems out of order
here, you see. Here's a priest and he's crowned.
He's a man, the branch, he's crowned. Under the Old Covenant,
the office of king and priest were always kept separate and
distinct by God's command. No priest under the Old Covenant
now could ever be a king and no king could ever be a priest.
And whenever a king tried to do the office of a priest, what
happened? Think about King Uzziah when he brought strange fire
to offer in the place of a priest. And he was struck with leprosy,
and he was a leper all of his life. That's just one example. In the Old Covenant, never has
a priest been a king or a king a priest. The priests were of
the tribe of Levi, the kings were the kings of Judah. But
Joshua pictures one who's both king and high priest. Now, who
can fit that bill? There's only one. And he must
come after another order. Not the order of Levi. Not the
order of... He must come after the order
of Melchizedek. And that's Christ, the king priest. This picture is the glory of
his person and the work that he was sent to do. This speaks
of a great change. Did you know that? I want to
show you just one verse on that. Turn over to Hebrews 9. Now,
when I come back on this, I'm going to take you through the
book of Hebrews and show you how this applies. how this Rosetta
Stone of the Scripture, how it opens up all these keys. But
let me just show you one verse in Hebrews chapter 9 tonight,
and then I'll close this message and take up again. He's talking
about the Old Covenant priesthood and the duties of that priesthood.
And he said, what he's saying here in Hebrews 9, and we'll
read more of it in the next message, but what he's saying here is
that while that old covenant priesthood was in effect, was
going on, while they were doing their duties, he says in verse
8 that the Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing. And you see this is all connected
and everything revolved around that tabernacle and the priesthood,
that old covenant. So as long as that was going
on, that was the Holy Ghost testifying that Christ had not yet come
and entered into the holiest of all himself. The Messiah had
not yet come. So he says in verse 9, which
was a figure or a type for the time then present. in which were
offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. It cleansed
him as to the purifying of the flesh ceremonially, but it didn't
cleanse that conscience, that guilty conscience, he said. And he says, because in verse
10, it stood in meats or meals and drinks and divers washings
and carnal ordinances, physical ordinances. imposed upon them,
that is forced upon them, until the time of reformation. Reformation, that means change.
And what's the next line in verse 11? But Christ being come. Now over here in Zechariah 9,
chapter 6 and verse 13, That's talking about a change
that's coming, that time of reformation. And how are you going to know
when this change comes? Well, there's going to be a priest
upon his throne. A priest upon the throne. Well,
Aaron couldn't do that. No, this is not after the order
of Aaron. Levi couldn't do that. No, this is not after the order
of Levi. This is after another order, the order of Melchizedek,
who was a king and a priest before the Old Covenant. who is a type
of Christ. That's the change that's coming.
And so what he's saying here is this. There's a priesthood
of a different order, a better priesthood. That's what Hebrews
is talking about. This is a better priesthood with better sacrifices
and better promises. Why? Because they're eternal,
they're spiritual. And it's a testimony to the final
end of the old covenant fulfilled by Christ. That's a change that's
coming. And Zechariah, along with all
the prophets, is telling the people of his day this. My friend,
this is a change that you ought to look forward to. You ought
not dread it. And in that great change, there's
going to be a salvation like you've never seen, because God's
going to bring people from afar off, and He's going to bring
them to obedience, It's not going to be imposed or forced on them.
That's the law written on their heart. We'll look at all that
when we come back. But that's the change. Christ is coming.
He's the priest's king. He is our high priest and our
king.