All right, let's turn back in
our Bibles to Zechariah chapter 4. And I'm going to continue
in this message of the vision of Zechariah. God gave Zechariah. This is the fifth vision that
God gave Zechariah in the night. It's the vision of the golden
candlestick. The golden candlestick. And remember
these visions. The Word of God. That's what
they are. They're truth. that God reveals
to His prophet to be taught and preached to His people in that
day as Zechariah, the prophet, and others were inspiring and
seeking to motivate the children of Israel to rebuild the temple.
They had just gotten out of their captivity. They'd been there
for 70 years. And the Lord enabled them by
His power and His providence and His goodness to come back
to their homeland. And the first commandment he
gave them was to rebuild the temple. The temple had been destroyed.
The city lay in ruins of Jerusalem. And he said, rebuild the temple.
The most important thing in the lives of this nation was that
covenant that God had made with them on Sinai, that covenant
which pictured eternal salvation and final glory in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what he was telling them
through the prophets at that time Really what he told them
through the prophets in their whole history was that's what
their existence was all about. It was a preparation. Israel's
existence as a nation under the old covenant was a preparation
for something better. That's the theme of the book
of Hebrews. Christ is better. Christ is better. He's a better
messenger. He's a better leader. He's a better high priest. He's
a better sacrifice. All of that. Their whole existence
was a preparation for the coming of the one whom he calls in chapter
three and verse eight, my servant, the branch. And as I said, that
branch refers to Christ's humanity. He's the branch of David, the
branch of Jesse. That refers to his humanity,
which is, he was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. The coming of the Messiah. And
so, to inspire them and motivate them in the rebuilding of this
temple, he gave Zechariah these eight visions in one night, and
they were visions of encouragement. Now, Zechariah's book started
off with calling the people to repentance because of their lack
of interest and their lack of zeal. And boy, I tell you, that's
something that we can understand, can't we? You know, we get that
way too, even true believers. We have to be waked up. Look
at verse one of Zechariah four, and the angel that talked with
me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of
his sleep. We can certainly identify with Zechariah as it takes a
sovereign, powerful work of God the Holy Spirit to wake us up
out of the sleep of spiritual death in the new birth, regeneration
and conversion. But not only just that one time,
we have to be stirred continually in our lives as believers. I think about Paul in the book
of Ephesians where he commanded under inspiration of the Holy
Spirit for those in that church to wake out of their sleep. Because
we have a tendency, because of the weakness of this flesh, to
become uninterested, lack of zeal, and we take things for
granted, don't we? So we have to be waked up, you
know, continually through the preaching of the gospel. And
when we see these truths come forth, that's what they do. You
know, I thought about you and everybody eating Thanksgiving
turkey, and then the first thing you want to do is go to sleep.
Well, it ought to be the opposite with spiritual food. When we
take in spiritual food, we ought not want to go to sleep. We all
want to be stirred to obedience and service and love and unity
and all those things in the spirit of God by his grace. But these
are the visions that he gave. And this is the vision of the
golden candlestick. Let's just read. I'm not going
to go back all through the first few verses. I want to finish
it out tonight. But he said, he wakened him out of his sleep.
And it says in verse 2, and he said unto me, What seest thou?
What do you see, Zachariah? And I said, I've looked, and
behold, a candlestick. Or a better translation would
be a lampstand. An olive gold, a lampstand of
gold. And a bowl or a cup up on the
top of it. And his seven lamps thereon,
and seven pipes, these pipes were like conduit pipes, feeding
the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof, feeding that
lamp with oil. And then he said, beside the
lampstand, he said, in verse three, and two olive trees by
it, one upon the right side of the boat and the other upon the
left side thereof. And he said, so I answered and
spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these,
my lord? Then the angel that talked with
me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, no, my Lord. You see, we don't know anything
of eternal spiritual matters, but as those things are revealed
to us by the Lord. Spiritual knowledge is a necessity. And spiritual knowledge comes
from God in Christ. And we're going to see that the
real knowledge that Zachariah needed, the real knowledge that
we need concerning all of these symbols and all of these types
and pictures that he's mentioning here. And anytime we read any
scripture, the real knowledge of that comes as we find its
culmination, its understanding as it relates to the Lord Jesus
Christ, His glorious person, His finished work, the blessings
of salvation for His people, His church, the ministry that
He's given us, and all of that. You see, without understanding
Him, there's no understanding at all. The Bible says, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. And I think about
that a lot. You know, when Christ spoke to
the Pharisees in John chapter 5, as it's recorded, and He says,
you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. But they are they which testify of me." You read Moses. You trust in Moses, meaning they
trusted in their works of the law. He said, but Moses will
be your judge. Moses wrote of me, he said. I
think about when he sat down with his disciples before he
ascended into glory, and he taught them out of the scriptures, out
of the books of the law, the books of Moses, and the Psalms,
and the prophets, the things concerning himself. and the death
that he would die. That's the crux of redemptive
history right there. The glory of God revealed in
Christ and him crucified. I think about when he said what
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3 when he talked about the children
of Israel, they saw Moses coming down out of Mount Sinai and there
was an effulgent glory coming, a light coming from Moses that
was so bright that they couldn't even look thereupon, they had
to put a veil over his face. And that whole thing was an object
lesson. And Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians
3, he said even today in Jerusalem in his time there was a veil
over their heart. that they couldn't see the glory
of God in all of those things and you know what he said there
in second corinthians three you can read it sometime he said
he said now when it turns to christ then the veils removed
you see christ is the line now that's the first thing that we
come to in this uh... candlestick This lampstand, you
might think of the first reference, I mentioned this last time in
going back to the book of Exodus and the book of Leviticus. When
Moses was instructed by God on the vessels of the tabernacle,
one of those was the golden lampstand, which was put in the holy place,
right before you went into the holiest door. You had the veil
that separated the holy of holies and the holy place and that candlestick.
And it was to ever be burning, that candlestick, that lampstand. And that lampstand was a picture
of Christ, the light of the world. And the Bible has so much to
say about that. John chapter one, you don't have
to turn to these scriptures. I'm gonna turn here to first
John chapter one if you wanna read along. But just mentioning
several, you can think about John one where it opens up talking
about the deity of our savior, that he is the word. The revelation
of God. Whatever we know of God, especially
in a saving way, we know through Christ. He said it in his high
priestly prayer, he said, this is life eternal that they might
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. But he starts off there, he talks about how Christ is
the light. John said, I'm not the light.
John the Baptist said, I'm not the light. But He who's coming
after me, He is the light. He's the light that lighteth
every man that comes into the world. Any light that a person
has comes from Christ, especially the light of salvation, especially
the light of the glory of God revealed in the salvation of
sinners through Christ and Him crucified. that's given to his
people. Christ said it in John chapter
8 and verse 12. He said, I'm the light of the
world. But listen to this in 1st John chapter 1. He says, here he says this in
verse 5, he says, this then is the message which we have heard
of him and declare unto you that God is light. Now what is light? It's truth. It's truth. Light exposes reality. Light shows the way. That's what
light does. Christ said, here's the reality,
I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, and we cannot save ourselves.
The best that we can do will not save us or make us acceptable
before God. The best religious efforts, the
best charitable efforts, the best moral efforts will not make
us righteous before God. We're sinners. That's what the
light exposes. And even our attempts to save
ourselves by our works are wicked and evil in the sight of God.
We read this last time in John chapter 3 and verse 19 when Christ
said, this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
And men love darkness rather than light. They hate the light
because their deeds are evil. Even our best deeds to save,
trying to save ourselves. You know, work salvation is an
evil, evil religion. And somebody might say, well,
that's being too hard. Not as hard as God is. You think
about it. Go ask Cain if it's too hard.
Cain who brought the best of his works. Cain walked in darkness,
bringing his works to God to seek to be justified, to be righteous. Abel brought the blood of the
Lamb. Abel walked in the light. God is light. And it says that
in him is no darkness at all. God cannot tolerate darkness.
Wherever God is, there is light. And that is in a saving way.
And he says in verse 6 of 1 John 1, if we say that we have fellowship
with Him, now, how do we have fellowship with God? Well, we
have it in Christ. You can't have fellowship with
God outside of Christ. For a sinner to have fellowship
with God, he's got to be righteous. Now, how am I going to be righteous?
In Christ. For a fellow to be in fellowship
with God, for a sinner to be in fellowship with God, he's
got to be forgiven. Now, how can I be forgiven? Through
the blood of Christ, you see. For a person to be in fellowship
with God, he has to have life from God. How do we get life
from God? Through the Holy Spirit, from
Christ, who is our life. And he says, if we say that we
have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, that is a lie,
a false gospel, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk
in the light, As He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. There's the light right there.
That's what this lampstand represents back here in Zechariah 4, Christ,
who is the light of the world. Now, as you compare it to the
lampstand in the holy place, you see some differences. There's
some additions here. And what are those additions?
Well, he says back here in Zechariah 4, he says there's a bowl on
the top of it, that's a cup, and that cup is filled with oil.
And there are pipes that go to conduit pipes, that's the continual
uninterrupted supply of oil. And what is that picture? Well, oil pictures the joy of
Christ that is given through the light being revealed and
being preached out in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what
he's talking about. And then he says, he said, which
are upon the top, then you have two olive trees. There weren't
two olive trees. Later on it says olive branches, but it means
trees. There were two olive trees that were here in this vision,
one on each side of the lampstand. Now in the holy place there weren't
two olive trees, but here in this vision there are. What's
he teaching? And he says, and that's why Zechariah says, I
don't know what these are, what are these? Well look at verse
six. He says, then he answered and spake unto me, saying, this
is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. In other words, this
vision, this composite of the lampstand picturing Christ the
light of the world and the olive trees and all the cup and the
conduit pipes, this whole composite picture, is a symbol, a type
of the word of the Lord spoken unto Zerubbabel, saying, and
here it is, not by might, now that word might there, you might
have in your concordance army, all right? What he's talking
about is not by the power of man. It's not by the power of
man. It's not by his strength. It's
not by the power of his body. It's not by the power of his
mind. It's not by the power of his will. Whatever he's talking
about, it's not by the power of man. Paul wrote it this way
in Romans chapter 9. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. All right? He said, so it's not
by might nor by power, but it's by my spirit. Whatever he's talking
about, it's by the spirit of God, and that's the Holy Spirit
there. I know there's a little s there, but that's talking about
the Holy Spirit. The God, the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the Trinity, saith the Lord of hosts. Now,
what is this? Well, look at verse seven. Now,
he starts out, he says, who art thou, O great mountain? Now,
mountain here represents an obstacle. something that stands in the
way that man is totally impotent to move. Can't move a mountain. And he says, who art thou, O
great mountain, before Zerubbabel, literally a plain. In other words,
this mountain is going to be leveled. Before Zerubbabel, thou
shalt become a plain. This mountain is going to be
leveled. This obstacle's gonna be removed, all right? And he
shall bring forth the headstone. Now the headstone is the capstone,
that's not a graveyard stone there. This is a capstone, it's
a finishing stone. So the headstone here means that
whatever Zerubbabel's going to do in removing this mountain,
it's a work that has to be completed, has to be finished. So he's talking
about a finished work and he says, and he shall bring forth
the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, grace, grace unto it. Now what is all that talking
about? Well, what he's talking about here is the witness of
the gospel, the witness, the preaching of the light of Christ
throughout the world. That's what this is all about.
He's talking about, what he's saying to Israel in his day is
this, he says, now, you're the people of God in a ceremonial,
temporal, covenantal way, and you should shine forth in this
world as lights with the witness of truth, the witness of the
gospel, the witness of the coming of the Messiah. That's what you're
to do, that's why you're here. Really, you think about it, they
have no other reason to exist but this right here. to shine
forth in a dark world as light, pointing sinners to Christ, and
praying in the power of the Holy Spirit, preaching in the power
of the Holy Spirit, and men and women coming to faith in Christ
and true repentance in the power of the Holy Spirit, because that's
the only way men and women are gonna come, isn't it? Regeneration
and conversion. So what do you have here in this?
Well, who is Zerubbabel? You remember Zerubbabel, he's
the governor. He was a man who was of the seed of Judah. He was of the tribe of Judah.
He didn't occupy the throne of Israel because there was no throne
at this time, but he was the one who would have been had there
been a throne there. Zerubbabel is a type of Christ
our King. Now, there are two olive trees
there. Well, who's the second olive tree? Well, I'll get to
that in just a moment, but I'll just tell you, it's Joshua the
high priest that we read about in Zechariah 3. And they're called
the two anointed ones down in verse 14, the two sons of oil. So here you have Zerubbabel who
represents Christ the King. That's what he represents. And you have Joshua the high
priest who represents Christ, our great high priest. You have
the witness of the Holy Spirit. who brings forth the truth, which
is Christ our prophet, you put it all together, what do you
have? The witness of truth, the witness of the light throughout
the world by Christ and His church. And that's what this represents,
that's what this typifies. This typifies us. The church
of the living God founded the pillar and ground of truth, founded
upon the doctrine of the prophets and the apostles, shining forth
in Ashland, Kentucky, and surrounding areas with the light of the gospel,
which says, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord, shining forth, crying, grace, grace, unto it. Salvation by free, sovereign,
unmerited, unearned grace in Christ. That's our message. And that's what this whole composite
picture is. Let me show you something. Turn
to Ephesians chapter 5 with me. Brother Bill read this in the
study a while ago, and I didn't get with him on that either.
So, you know, we'll say, well, that must have been providential.
Well, you know, that's silly for us to say that, because I
think everything's providential, don't you? But look over at Ephesians
chapter five. In Ephesians chapter five, he's
talking about being obedient servants of Christ, being followers
of God as dear children. And he says in verse eight, he
says, for you were sometimes, this is Ephesians five and verse
eight, for you were sometimes darkness, darkness. That's what
we are by nature. That's what Adam plunged the
whole human race into, darkness. But now are you light in the
Lord. Now that light in the Lord is
exactly what Zechariah is seeing in that vision of the candlestick.
Light in the Lord. You see, we shine forth with
a light that's not our own. It's Christ. We preach Christ. I read it last week. Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your father which is in heaven. What is our light?
Our light is Christ. We don't shine forth with our
own light. You know, we used to sing that song as children,
this little light of mine, I'm gonna, and I don't know what
we thought. I don't know what, I know I didn't know Christ at that
time. But the light that we shine forth as a church, as a witness,
is the light of Christ. It's the light of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's the light of His person,
who He is. We tell sinners who Christ is. Why are we so adamant
about that? Because that's who it took to
save us from our sins. It took one who is both God and
man in one person. Now, I can't explain all that
to you. I cannot logic it out to rationalize or anything, I
just know it's so. And you know why? Because God's
word, and who wrote the word of God, see? You know, we talk
about being filled with the spirit, all that. Well, how are you filled
with the spirit? You're filled with his word. Who wrote the
word? Men wrote it as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And so, we shine forth in the light of His person. We shine
forth in the light of the cross. What Christ accomplished on Calvary
to save us from our sins. The shedding of His blood. The
working out of a righteousness. That is, you know, righteousness.
You read it there. Righteousness is light. Well,
where is that righteousness in Christ? Now, if you talk about
the righteousness of men, you're talking about darkness. But when
you talk about Christ's righteousness, you're talking, you're light.
That's light. All my righteousnesses, what,
you know, light exposes reality. Well, all my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, Isaiah 64 says. But His righteousness is
the righteousness of God Almighty, the God-man. And I stand in Him,
complete, washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness,
and in that light, When that light shines on me, it tells
me from God's word, by the power of the spirit, just like that
oil going through that conduit, see? Shedding forth that light,
that God will not, and I'll say it this way, this is not irreverent
now. God will not and cannot charge me with my sin. You know
why? Because he's a just God. And
he charged my sin to Christ. He'd be unjust if he charged
it to Christ and to me. That's why this notion that Christ
died for so many who end up in hell, it's ungodly. That's what
the light shows us. But look on in Ephesians 5, he
says, for you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light
in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For
the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. See, we wanna
be the light that shows sinners what is accepted in God, what
is acceptable. You see, it's not my self-efforts
that's gonna make me accepted. It's Christ, I'm accepted in
the beloved. And he says, and have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
them. Now, how you gonna do that? You shed light on them. You see,
here's a man who says, well, I know I'm saved because I was
baptized. Well, let's shed a little light
on that. Let your light shine there. And what's it going to
say? Well, that's wicked. That's evil. God doesn't save
sinners because they're baptized. God saves sinners for Christ's
sake alone. Isn't that right? Now, anything
else is evil. Let's shed some light on that.
All right, he goes on. He says in verse 12, For it is
a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them
in secret. We can all think about people who tried to commit crimes
in secret. And they get caught. And I think
about this world today. I mean, you know, we're seeing
so much on television about child molestation and how awful that
is. That's something that a pervert
would want to do in darkness, you see, under the cloak of darkness,
and then it comes out. We can think about that. But
you know, if you want to talk about the things about shame,
you know the first time that man was ashamed was Adam in the
garden, Adam and Eve, when they knew they were naked. They knew
they were exposed to the wrath of God. And what was the first
thing they did? Something they should have been
ashamed of, they tried to cover up with their own works. And
what did God? He shed some light on it. You
can't hide from God. You can cloak your sin under
false religion and ceremony and all of that, but it will not
hide you from God. The only thing that's going to
take away our sin, our shaman-ness, our nakedness is the blood and
righteousness of Christ. And that's it. So look at verse
13 of Ephesians 5. But all things that are reproved,
that is discovered or uncovered, are made manifest by the light. In other words, reality is shown
here. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Now think
about this. Remember what Christ said of
the Pharisees? I think it's recorded in Matthew
23. He said, outwardly you appear righteous to men. But now you
shed some light on all that. What does he say? He says, you're
full of dead men's bones. You're like open graves. Isn't
that right? That's what the light exposes.
And they hated the light. But when the Holy Spirit comes
in power and shows us reality, makes manifest in the light and
shows us ourselves and our depravity and our wretchedness, What does
he do? He drives us to Christ, the lampstand,
the light. He drives us to the cross for
forgiveness, for pardon. One more scripture here, look
at Philippians chapter 2. Now this, see that's what Ezekiel's
vision, or Zachariah's vision rather, that's what it's about. Christ, the light, shining forth
as a witness in this dark world through his church. through his
church. And look at verse 13, or yeah,
verse 13. Well, look at verse 12. He says,
wherefore, my beloved, Philippians 2.12, wherefore, my beloved,
as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do his good pleasures, the power of
God, do all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may
be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you
shine as lights in the world." You see that? That's God's people. That's the church at Philippi.
That's the church in Ashland, Kentucky. That's the church in
Jacksonville, North Carolina, others that we know around the
world. Now, how do we shine forth? Look at verse 16. How do we shine
forth? Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in
the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored
in vain. Holding forth the word of life. Go back to Zechariah. That's what this is all about.
And what is that word? Not by might. not by power but
by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts grace grace unto salvation
by grace we're people of grace and that grace is amazing grace
look at verse 8 of Zechariah 4 he says moreover the word of
the Lord came unto me saying and he said the hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundation of this house Now you remember, we talked
about the mountain. Verse 7, who art thou, O great
mountain? There's an obstacle. When it comes to the salvation
of sinners, there are many, many obstacles. I mentioned some of
those in the last message. For example, we can talk about
the mountain of man's sin. We're sinners. And the soul that
sinneth must surely die. If I'm going to live eternally,
the mountain of my sin has to be removed. I can't do it. One old writer said that a man
could as easily climb Mount Everest with no arms and legs than he
can remove sin. It's impossible. I'm unable to
do it. Let me tell you something. In
my natural state, I'm even unwilling to do it. In fact, in my natural
state, I even relish in my sin. Why would I want to move it?
It takes one who is able and willing to move the mountain
of my sin. And the Bible says, Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Took the
God-man to move the mountain of my sin. He removed it. and
cast it into the sea. There's the mountain of God's
justice. God must be just. His law must
be satisfied. I can't do that. You can't do
that. It's not by might, not by power. It has to be grace.
Righteousness has to be established. You can't do it. I can't do it.
But grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. He was made sin. Christ who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Now in all of that, all the removed, the mountain of our spiritual
deadness, can you raise yourself from the dead? No, you can't.
It takes somebody who's powerful, who's sovereign, who has life
in himself to raise a sinner from the dead. Christ, in his
death, brought forth life for his people and he sends his spirit
to raise us from the dead spiritually in the new birth. We must be
born again. Just like Nicodemus, you must
be born again. Or you can't see or enter the kingdom of heaven.
Well, all of that, all of that is accomplished, not by us, but
by the heavenly Zerubbabel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse nine,
the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house.
When did he lay the foundation at the cross? That's when sin
was put away and righteousness was established. That according
to the power of God and the purpose of God before the foundation
of the world. So He laid the foundation of this house by the
blood of His cross. He died for our sins. He finished
the transgression. He made an end of sin. He brought
in everlasting righteousness. He sealed up the vision and the
prophecy and anointed the most holy. The holy place. How did
he do it? By his blood. By his death. By his substitutionary work.
And then it says, his hand shall also finish it. What's he doing
when he calls a sinner? By the witness of the light throughout
the world. What's he doing when he calls
a sinner? One of his sheep into the fold.
What's he doing? He's building his church. He's
going to finish it. And then he's going to lay the
headstone, he's going to lay the capstone. He's the author
and the finisher of our faith and he says in verse 9, "...and
thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee."
There'll be no doubt in our minds who this is. This is the Son
of God incarnate. This is Messiah. This is the
Lion of the tribe of Judah. This is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. This is the Lord of glory. This
is Jehovah our banner, Jehovah our righteousness, Jehovah our
peace. This is the Lord Jesus. This
is our Savior. Now look at verse 10. Now, in
light of all that, Listen to what he says here. He says, for
who hath despised the day of small things? Well, I'll tell
you who. Us. I want you to think about
that. Who despises the day of small
things? We do. Man by nature. Think about it. We, by nature,
despise the day of small things. Think about it. The reference
here, I believe, to the immediate situation is here these people
are, they've come out of captivity and they're rebuilding the temple.
They've laid the foundation. But if you compared this current
temple that they're building to Solomon's temple, there's
just no comparison in its size, in its beauty, in its grandeur.
It's just a small, insignificant thing. And they began to despise
it. But what Zechariah is telling
them, what the Lord is telling them through Zechariah is, look,
the grandeur and the beauty and the immensity of this temple
is not in the physical makeup or appearance of it. Its beauty,
its grandeur, its immensity, its power, its glory is shown
forth in the one whom it typifies. the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation
by Him. You see, we despise the day of
small things, but God is great, and He uses the smallest, the
most insignificant things to accomplish great things. Think about it. Think about God's
way. He can find, we read it in 1
Corinthians 1 there, He takes the smallest, the most insignificant,
the most ignoble things to show forth His glory, that no flesh
should glory in His presence. People today, think about today,
people today measure the presence and power of the Holy Spirit,
the blessings of God, by great buildings, organizations, numbers,
bank accounts. The bigger the better. And it's
not so. It's not so. The greatness and
glory of God in Christ is shown that He takes that small thing,
that insignificant thing that nobody takes notice of, and He
does great things to glorify Himself. He does that in nature.
You know, there's an object less... Any of y'all who plant a garden,
you ought to know this well. You take that little old seed,
put it in the ground, that little, small, insignificant, nothing
seed that will fit in a bird's throat and belly, Put it in the
ground and it comes up either a stalk of corn or a bright red
tomato. That's an object lesson in nature.
It really is. How God takes the smallest, most
insignificant things and by His power and His grace does great
things. Turn to Isaiah 53 with me just
for a moment. Think about our Savior. Think
about how the The false religionists of his
day, what they expected in their Messiah. They expected clouds
and thunder and riding into Jerusalem on a white horse with a great
army. Something big. This has got to
be big. You mean we've been waiting 2,000 years and this is all it
is? And listen to how he's described in verse 1 of Isaiah 53. Who
hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed the power of God for he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no
form nor comeliness when we shall see him there's no beauty that
we should desire him he's despised and rejected of men a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces
from him he was despised and we esteemed him not so small,
so insignificant in the eyes of men. But look what happened
in verse 12, look how it ends up. Therefore will I, and this
is because of His death on the cross, His victorious death for
the sins of His people, His establishment of righteousness. Therefore will
I divide Him a portion with the great. And he shall divide the
spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared
the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. That's
salvation. That's the eternal salvation
and final glory of every one for whom he died. Just that little
seed of Christ being put into the ground, dying for the sins
of his people. The Lord took 11 men and raised
up His churches in Judea and throughout the known world at
that time, sending the gospel throughout. Look back at Zechariah
4 and I'll close. It says in verse 10, Who hath
despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet. Now you know the plummet. If
you have in your concordance something like a stone or a stone
of tin, it's because they hung something on, it was like a string
that hung to the ground, and the force of gravity made it
hang straight. And that's what they measured
the building by, whether it was level and straight. And of course,
we saw that man with the measuring line and the plummet. Well, what
is that plummet? Well, it's righteousness. Everything
is measured by righteousness. The scripture says that. I've
quoted it so many times, Acts 17, 31, how God is going to judge
the world in righteousness. By that man whom he hath ordained,
and he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. So, in other words, this measurement here,
he shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel
the governor, a picture of Christ, with those seven, that's the
seven eyes that represent his infinite knowledge of all things
and wisdom. So in other words, if there's
anything crooked in here, God can see it, Christ sees it. You
can't fool him. Now you may fool me, or I may
fool you, but you can't fool him. He's gonna lay it all to
the line of righteousness, it's gonna measure up, and he says,
they are the eyes of the Lord, these seven, he says, which run
to and fro through the whole earth. In other words, this measurement,
this plummet, this plumb line, remember Isaiah mentioned in
Isaiah 28, verse 16 and 17, I'm gonna lay righteousness to the
plummet. And this plummet, this measurement
is going to go throughout the earth, and the Lord knows them
that are his, those who measure up. Now, who measures up? Well, the great people of the
earth, the ones who are the strongest, the wisest, the... No. Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the strong man glory
in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but
let him that glorieth glory in this, that he knoweth me, the
Lord, and understandeth that I am the Lord, the one who exercises
loving kindness. That's covenant kindness. That's
mercy. That's grace. Jeremiah 9, 23
and 24. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the gospel, which declares, Romans 1, 16 and 17,
the righteousness of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ and
His work on the cross, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth, whereupon if a sinner stands before God
in that righteousness imputed to him, he's not ashamed. That's why Paul said, I'm not
ashamed to preach this gospel. There's no shame in this gospel.
This is light. This is light for those who sit
in darkness. And he's going to hold it forward.
Now verses 11 through 14 is an explanation that I've already
given you. It says in verse 11, then answered I and I said in
him, what are these two olive trees upon the right side of
the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? Now remember,
we won't turn back there tonight, but Revelation 11 talks about
the two witnesses, and it quotes from this passage here, and these
two olive trees are the church. They're not two individual men,
even though there are types here of two individual men, Zerubbabel
and Joshua, but they represent Christ witnessing as a light
in a dark world through the church. And that's what the two olive
trees are. That's what the two witnesses are. And it's two,
not because of a literal two, but because two is the number
required under the law for a witness to be substantial, to be backed
up. And so he says, he says, what
are these two olive trees up on the right side of the candlestick
and up on the left side there? And I answered again and said
to him, what be these two olive branches, which through the two
golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves, that preaching
the gospel and the power of the spirit. And he answered me and
said, knowest thou not what these be? And I said, no, my Lord.
Then said he, these are the two anointed ones, the two sons of
oil. the witness of the gospel being
preached in the world, the light of Christ going forth in the
power of the Holy Spirit that stand by the Lord of the whole
earth. They do this upon the authority
and the commission of Christ. And always remember that, you
know, in Revelation 1, the churches are called candlesticks. Well,
we don't shine forth with our own, we shine forth with the
light of Christ. in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So what's he saying to the people of Judah in that day? This is
why you're here, to shine forth as a light, as a witness of Christ
in this world. My friend, that's what he's saying
to us today as a church. We're here, I'm not here to shine
forth the glory of Bill Parker and with my own ideas and my
own agendas and my own desires and prejudices and preferences.
That's what divides people. We're here to shine forth with
the glory and the light of the Lord Jesus Christ in this dark
world that we live in. May the Lord bless it to His
glory.