All right, let's look at Zechariah
chapter 4. Now this, this is the gold, the
vision that Zechariah was given by the Lord is the vision of
the golden candlestick, the golden candlestick. Zechariah had received
four visions in this one night so far and each one of these
visions assuring him and the people of Israel of that day
and assuring us those who trust in Christ, believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ today, of the certain accomplishment of God's purpose,
our Savior's abiding presence, he'll never leave us, he'll never
forsake us, and his constant, powerful, gracious care and protection
of us, no matter what comes against us. Remember in that first vision,
the man among the myrtle trees, that was Christ among his churches. He came where we are. It's His
incarnation, the God-man, and saved us, redeemed us by His
precious blood. The second vision was the vision
of the four horns and the four carpenters. Those horns represented
the enemies of the church, the enemies of Christ, whom He conquers
by His power. And then the four carpenters
who represent Christ himself as the minister of the covenant
who works through his ministers preaching the gospel, showing
that our warfare with the world is not a physical warfare, but
a spiritual warfare. Our weapons are not carnals.
Paul wrote in second Corinthians chapter 10, that our weapon is
the word of God, the sword of the word, which cuts both ways. You remember the third vision,
that was the man with the measuring line, Christ seeking out and
gathering his sheep through the preaching of the gospel, the
measuring line being his word, his gospel. The Bible says that
we are the circumcision, that's the new birth, the cutting away
spiritually the filth of the flesh, the heart. We worship
God in spirit and we rejoice, have confidence in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. That's the measuring line
right there. Our confidence of salvation in
all of its aspects is conditioned on Christ who fulfilled all those
conditions by his obedience unto death as our substitute, as our
sin-bearer and sin-offering. And then in the fourth vision
we see the high priest before the Lord And that's a picture
of Christ in the justification of his people as he put away
our sins and imputed his righteousness to us, resulting in peace and
rest in his kingdom. Now, you could look at it this
way as we see what Zechariah is doing. You remember he's preaching,
prophesying to the people of Judah as they had been in captivity
for 70 years. And God enabled them to come
back to the homeland, to Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple and rebuild
the city. So, he's prophesying in a way
to encourage them to rebuild the temple and reestablish the
worship of the Lord. All of that which typifies what
we've been talking about in the gospel, the gospel of Christ,
the gospel of God's grace. That's what that temple was all
about, the sacrifices, the priesthood. Every aspect of that temple had
something to do with the glorious person and finished work of Christ
and the salvation and redemption and preservation of his church.
And so, what we could say is in Zechariah 3, when he speaks
of the justification of a sinner before God based on the blood
and righteousness of Christ, that's a picture of Christ laying
the foundation of the church. That's the ground of salvation.
The blood of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ, is the
ground of our salvation. That's what brings peace between
God and his people. Well, here in chapter four, the
golden candlestick, you can say this is a picture of Christ building
his church, as we typified by building the temple, brick by
brick, bringing his people into the kingdom by shining forth
the gospel light. the light of christ through his
church through his ministers look at this is the fifth vision
look at verse one he says and the angel that's that talk with
me this is the interpreting ministering angel you you know a lot of times
what we saw this back in in uh... uh... chapter three verse one
the angel of the lord there was christ himself he's the angel
of the covenant but here this angel is the ministering angel
that attends zachariah throughout these visions And he communicates
with this angel, and he calls him Lord, but not capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D, which means Jehovah. This one is the word that can
be used for other beings, like men who are lords or masters
over a manor or something like that. So it says, the angel that
talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened
out of his sleep. Now a lot of commentators make
a lot out of this about Zechariah that we're so weak in the flesh
that even during visions like this we're liable to go to sleep
and I know that's so, I mean that's so, I mean we're weary
you know the disciples when the Lord asked them to stay up with
him in the garden of Gethsemane they couldn't do it and he said
the spirit's willing but the flesh is weak and that's so but
I believe this issue of Zechariah being wakened out of his sleep
introduces what he's about to say concerning the salvation
of a sinner. In other words, what he's teaching
us here is this, is that not only do sinners have to be justified
before God in Christ by the grace of God, as illustrated in chapter
3, sinners also must be awakened out of the sleep of spiritual
death by the Holy Spirit. We must be born again by the
Spirit. Now, I believe that's what he's
talking about. Now, that was alluded to back in chapter 3 when the
Lord said to put the fair miter on Joshua's head, and then he
spoke of Joshua walking in his ways and keeping his charge.
That's the walk of faith. But here, this whole vision here,
this fifth vision, CONCERNS GOD BRINGING LIFE AND LIGHT TO HIS
PEOPLE THROUGH THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL, THROUGH THE MINISTRY
OF CHRIST, WHICH IS DONE THROUGH HIS CHURCH HERE ON EARTH. AND
SO, JOSHUA IS AWAKENED, AND THAT'S WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES FOR
US WHEN HE BRINGS US SPIRITUAL LIFE. WE'RE AWAKENED NOT JUST
OUT OF A SLEEP, BUT OUT OF THE SLEEP OF SPIRITUAL DEATH. WE'RE
BORN DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS. HAVING BEEN RUINED IN ADAM, We
fell unto spiritual death, and that's how we are by nature,
spiritually dead. And you hath he quickened, Ephesians
2.1, who were dead in trespasses and sin. We have no capacity,
spiritually speaking, to come to God, to come to Christ. That's
what a dead man is. We have no spiritual eyes, no
spiritual ears. We don't have a beating, a spiritual
heart that beats spiritually. We don't have anything. We don't
have any spiritual desires. We have desires, we have life,
but it's all physical. And the physical is all marred
and fallen by sin. That's what the flesh is. And
that's why when we talk about somebody, for example, understanding
what we say. I heard a preacher say one time
about his message. He told his people, he said,
now if you can understand what I'm saying, that means you've
been born again. I disagree with that. And I'll
tell you why. And you don't have to turn there,
but think back on Acts chapter eight, where Stephen, stood in Jerusalem and preached
the gospel to those people. And what happened when they heard
what he said? Well, they picked up stones to
kill him. They understood exactly what Stephen said. They knew
what he was saying. Stephen was saying, you're lost
and you have no hope of salvation but in the one whom you crucified,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they hated that message.
Now that's where spiritual death is shown. It's not shown, you
can't understand what I'm saying. You can understand it, but here's
the, do you believe it? See, that's what the spiritually
dead cannot do. Do you love it? Is that word
your life? You remember when the multitudes
left Christ and Christ turned to his disciples and he said,
will you go away also? What did Peter say in speaking
for all the disciples? He said, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of life. This is our life. I must have
the word of God. It's my life. I must feed upon
the preaching of Christ. NOW PEOPLE BY NATURE CAN UNDERSTAND
WHAT WE'RE SAYING BUT THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT THEY'RE
NOT GOING TO LOVE IT THEY'RE NOT GOING TO WALK BY IT UNTIL
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT RAISES THEM FROM THE DEAD THAT'S WHY CHRIST
TOLD NICODEMUS YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE
FLESH IS FLESH AND THAT'S ALL IT CAN PRODUCE BUT THAT WHICH
IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS SPIRIT. THE WORK OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US. NOW LISTEN TO ME. THE WORK OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US IS NECESSARY FOR SALVATION. NOBODY IS SAVED
WHO IS NOT BORN AGAIN. THAT'S RIGHT. AND IT'S NECESSARY FOR THIS REASON
BECAUSE IT'S THE FRUIT AND THE RESULT OF CHRIST'S WORK FOR US
ON THE CROSS. BECAUSE HE DIED, WE LIVE. You see what I'm saying? Because
Christ died, His people live. He said that in John chapter
12 when He was speaking of His death. We need the Holy Spirit
to give us life from the dead spiritually and we need the Holy
Spirit in our lives as believers to continually wake us up out
of the sleep of indifference. Don't we grow indifferent? We
get weary. All things that would divert
our attention away from Christ, nothing between my soul and the
Savior. We let so many things get in
between. We need the continual presence and indwelling and motivations
of the Holy Spirit through the Word to keep our eyes focused
on Christ. Because if He lets us go, what'll
happen? We'll turn away. We'd fall a thousand times a
day, Brother Mahan, you say. And that's so. We need him. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 4,
let me read this to you. It says, the Lord hath given
me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak
a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning
by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Morning
by morning. Morning by morning. It's a continual
thing. Well, look at what Zachariah
sees in this vision. Verse 2, He said, And said unto
me, this angel that talks, said unto me, What seest thou? What
do you see, Zachariah? And he said, And I said, I have
looked, and behold, a candlestick. Probably a more A truer translation
of that from the literal would be a lampstand. And the reason
you say that is because this is, you can refer back to the
lampstand in the tabernacle. So when we think of a candlestick,
we think of a candelabra, that you put a wax candle in your
light. And that's not the kind, this is more of like of a lampstand,
but they call it a candlestick. And it's all of gold, he says.
It had a bowl. upon the top of it that is a
like a cup and he says and his seven lamps there on and seven
pipes or seven conduits to the seven lamps which are upon the
top thereof and so he saw that lamp stand and then he saw two
olive trees by one up on the right side of the bow and the
other up on the left side of the bow a golden candlestick
A golden lampstand with seven lamps, a bowl at the top of it
containing oil. That's what it was. It was to
contain oil. Oil to keep the fire burning. And there were
pipes running from the bowls to the lamps, you see. That was
a conduit. And there's two olive trees,
one by each side of the bowl. And as I said, here's an allusion
to the golden lampstand in the Tabernacle. You remember that?
It was in the holy place. Remember when you come into the
tabernacle, you had the open court there, and there was the
brazen altar, and then as you went back into the holy place,
before you got into the holy place, there was the golden labor
that they washed, and then you went into the holy place, and
there was the table of showbread, and there was the golden lampstand.
But there are some differences here between that golden lamp
stand in the tabernacle and this one here. Now, basically, it's
the same one, but there are some differences, there are some additions
here, because that golden lamp stand in the tabernacle didn't
have a bowl on top, didn't have pipes, conduits, and didn't have
olive trees connected with it in there. And what are these
olive trees and those conduits and this bowl full of oil? What
does that symbolize? Well, what it means is it symbolizes
an unlimited supply of oil to the lamps to keep it burning. Look over at verse 12 of Zechariah
4. He says, and I answered again
and said in him, what be these two olive branches, that's the
trees, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden
oil out of themselves. So this oil going from the olive
branches or the olive trees through those conduits and into that
bow and into those pipes and into the lamps. And the lamp
stand in the tabernacle and in the temple, you know what that
typified. It typified Christ, the light of the world. He is
the light. John the Baptist spoke of that.
The light of the world. John the Apostle, when he was
writing in John chapter one, he spoke of Christ the light. And that light means truth. In
first John chapter one, it speaks of Christ and his light BEING
THE GROUND OF THE FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN GOD'S PEOPLE AND THE
GODHEAD, THE FATHER, SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. IT'S A FELLOWSHIP
OF LIGHT. WHAT IS THAT LIGHT? IT'S THE TRUTH. IN OTHER WORDS,
THEIR FELLOWSHIP IS NOT BASED UPON A LIE, IT'S BASED UPON THE
TRUTH. IT'S THE GLORY OF GOD, THE LIGHT OF THE GLORY OF GOD
IN CHRIST. And then other times, this lampstand
is typical of the church of God shining forth with the light
of Christ, the light of the gospel, the gospel witness as witnesses
in a dark, fallen world. Turn over to Revelation chapter
1. We've been studying the book of Revelation in our Sunday school. But look at Revelation chapter
1 and look at verse 12. John, and seeing this glorious
vision of Christ here on the Isle of Patmos. He says in verse
12, And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and being
turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. That's lampstands. And verse
13, And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one likened to
the Son of Man, this is the churches, the seven churches, Christ in
the midst, He's the foundation of the church, He's the heart
of the church, He's the head of the church. And he's clothed
with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with
a golden girdle. That's the vision of Christ among
his churches. And then look at verse 19 down
there in Revelation 1. John is commanded by the angel
to write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which
are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of
the seven stars which thou saw'st in my right hand, that's his
minister, that's Christ's ministers. And I always say when you call
a minister a star, he's not a movie star. He's not a celebrity. He's one who shines with the
light of Christ. He shines forth in his preaching,
in his witness with the light of Christ. And he says, in the
seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels or
the ministers or the messengers of the seven churches. and the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."
So this lampstand, here's what you have in this vision of Zechariah,
the lampstand which is a type of Christ the light who shines
through the church, his churches, his witnesses with his light
together and both are called candlesticks, lampstands. That's
what Matthew chapter 5 is talking about. Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and do what?
Give you the key to the city? No. Applaud you? No. Pat you on the back? No, that'll
swell your head, remember. Man's the only animal, you pat
him on the back, his head gets bigger. No, let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your father which is in heaven. The light is not the good works,
the light is the light of truth, the light of Christ which shows
us to be his disciples. Christ is the light and the light
is put into the lampstand and into the church of God by the
powerful influence, the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit.
It's called the golden oil over there in Zechariah 4 and verse
12, that golden oil. Revelation chapter 4 and verse
5 John saw seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which
are which he called the seven spirits of God What does that
mean? Well, that's the perfect complete
grace of God the Holy Spirit in his operations of grace whenever
the Holy Spirit does his work and Through the light of this
lampstand, through the light of Christ, working through the
churches who are the witnesses of the light, it's a complete
work. He never leaves it half finished.
It's not a cooperative work. It's not one he says, well, you,
I'll do this part. You do yours. No, sir. It's a
complete finished seven fold work. And by the power and grace
of the Spirit, Christ, the light of the world, shines forth into
the world by the preaching of the gospel. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Listen to this. Listen to this. This is a very,
very teaching moment in the scripture here. Because there are so many
people who are in the darkness of Satan Now listen to what I'm
saying. They're in the darkness of Satan,
and they think they're fighting Satan. And that's the way Satan
is. He's a deceiver. Remember his
two main weapons. Remember what Satan's two main
weapons are? Deception and accusation. That's his two main weapons.
He deceives. And he deceives by disguise,
by false religion, much of it which comes in the name of Christ,
but denies the doctrine of Christ, denies the light. And so, there's
so many people who think they're fighting Satan, but they're in
the darkness of Satan. And how are they going to get
out of that? Well, look at verse 3 of 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He says, But if our
gospel... Now, there's the key. What is the gospel? It's the
good news of how God saves sinners by His grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the blood. It's the gospel of the blood.
That's satisfaction to God's justice. IT'S THE GOSPEL THAT
PAUL WROTE IN ROMANS 1, 16 AND 17 WHERE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF
GOD IS REVEALED. YOU SEE, YOU NEED A RIGHTEOUSNESS.
I NEED RIGHTEOUSNESS, NOT MY OWN, NOT MAN'S, BUT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS
OF GOD IN CHRIST. THAT'S THE GOSPEL. HOW GOD CAN
BE JUST AND JUSTIFY THE UNGODLY. JUST LIKE, REMEMBER JOSHUA, THE
HIGH PRIEST STANDING BEFORE THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. in filthy,
filthy clothes, filthy garments. That's us by nature, even our
best. You remember what I said? Somebody
said, well, he should have wore his best. He was wearing his
best, but it was filthy garments because man's works at their
best cannot measure up to the standard of God's righteousness.
You see, if we want to put on the best, we put on Christ, Galatians
chapter three. We put him on. We believe in
him and rest in him. So if our gospel be hid, now
that's the one truth that Satan doesn't want people to find out.
Right there. You need a righteousness you
can't, Satan wants you to try to produce one of your own. Because
he knows that'll damn you forever. He don't want you to know that
there's one freely provided by the son of God incarnate that
cannot be destroyed or marred or contaminated. If you want
to talk about something that cannot be contaminated, think
about Christ, His blood and His righteousness. So if our gospel
be hid, he says in verse 3, it's hid to them that are lost. IN
WHOM THE GOD OF THIS WORLD HATH BLINDED THE MINDS OF THEM WHICH
BELIEVE NOT, LEST THE LIGHT OF THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF CHRIST,
WHICH IS THE IMAGE OF GOD, SHOULD SHINE UNTO THEM. FOR WE PREACH
NOT OURSELVES, BUT CHRIST JESUS THE LORD, AND OURSELVES YOUR
SERVANTS FOR JESUS' SAKE. FOR GOD WHO COMMANDED THE LIGHT
TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS HATH SHINED IN OUR HEARTS TO GIVE
THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE
OF JESUS CHRIST. in the person and work of Christ.
Now, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ was typified beautifully, illustrated beautifully
in Zechariah chapter 3. Take away the filthy garments
and give him a change of raiment. Think about that. Think about
the Pharisees. Go back to Zechariah 4 now. Think
about the Pharisees. The Pharisees, Christ said, he
described the Pharisees in John chapter 8 and verse 44 as children
of the devil. He said, you're of your father
the devil. What were the Pharisees trying to get people to do? Well,
you can read about it in Romans chapter 9 verses 30 and on. They
were inspiring, motivating, uh... trying to uh... uh... inspire
people to seek to make themselves righteous before god by their
works that's what they're trying to do And as long as a sinner
is trying to make himself righteous by his works, he cannot see the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. He'll always think more of his own experiences, his own
works, his own attempts than he would of the blood of Christ.
Always. And that's where Satan wants
him. But you see, we have to be waked up out of that. out
of that spiritual death. And how are we going to do it?
Through this lamp stand. Think about it. By the light
of the gospel, lost sinners, like the lost piece of silver
that the woman was looking for, are searched for and found. False
doctrine, the doctrine of works, is exposed and detected and God's
people are enlightened and comforted and led to Christ. You notice
here he said this lamp stand back here in Zechariah 4 is all
of gold. You know what that means? That
means it's valuable. It means it's worth something.
This is the only thing that's worth anything, really. Think
about it. You know, actually, he speaks
of the value of the glory of God here. There's nothing more
valuable than that. The glory of God in Christ. There's
nothing more valuable to a sinner in need of mercy than Christ
himself and what he accomplished on Calvary. There's nothing more
valuable to the Lord than his church. Now, that doesn't mean
we have any value or worth or worthiness in ourselves. We don't.
We're worthless. That's it. But the values found
in the glory of God in Christ in the salvation of such worthless
people as we are. That's right, worthy is the land,
the church, which Christ purchased with His own blood. It's precious
to Him because of the glory of God that shines forth in our
salvation. Now here in Zechariah 4, there's
one lampstand with seven lamps branching out from it. One church,
but seven churches in the world, you see. Remember over in Revelation
1? And that means we're united, even though there's a church
here, there's a church in other places. We know, we know our
brethren in other places. We're all really one, but he
spreads us out the light of Christ throughout the world and where
Christ witnesses throughout the world, various groups coming
together. He's not talking about denominations
here or factions or divisions. Now that's, that's a blight.
Divisions are a blight on the church. They happen, but they're
a blight on the church. They're an embarrassment. That's
what they are. Denominationalism that denies the doctrine, that's
heresy. But even when divisions come
amongst brethren, and it can come, that's an embarrassment. That's a blight. But here he's
talking about those who are shining forth as lights shining in darkness
in a dark world. That's what he's speaking of.
Look back at verse three. He says, in the two olive trees
by one up on the right side of the boat, this is Zechariah four
verse three, the other upon the left side thereof. And he says
in verse four, he says, so I answered and spake to the angel that talked
with me saying, what are these my Lord? And the angel that talked
with me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these
be? And I said, no, my Lord. Now
listen to this, he said, Then he answered and spake unto me,
saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. Two olive trees here. And in
the immediate context, they symbolize Zerubbabel. Who is this Zerubbabel? You remember him, he's the governor.
He's the one, he's the civil ruler. over the people of Judah
when they came out of captivity. He is the overseer of the building
of the temple, the rebuilding of the temple and the rebuilding
of the city of Jerusalem. He's the civil ruler. He's from
the tribe of Judah. He doesn't occupy the throne
of David, but he's a type of that kingship, that lordship.
He's a type of Christ. He's a rebel, And then the other
one we've already spoken of in Zechariah chapter three, that
was Joshua, the high priest. He was the priestly leader. He was the, you might say it
this way, Zerubbabel was the civil leader, Joshua was the
spiritual leader. He was the high priest. And he
was to lead the people in the worship of God. He too is a type
of Christ, as the high priest is. The office of high priest
was a type of Christ. our great high priest and that's
what this vision is all about and this look look down at verse
11 he says then answered I and said unto him what are these
two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon
the left side thereof and he says and I answered again and
said unto them what be these two olive branches which through
the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves
what he's talking about is these two olive branches who are used
as instruments instruments to to witness the light in the power
of the holy spirit that's what he's talking about be just like
a preacher preaching in the power of the holy spirit the preacher
has no power of himself Just like the candlestick, the church
has no light in themselves, we shine forth with the light of
Christ. He's the light. And he says in
verse 13, and he answered me and said, knowest thou not what
these be? And I said, no, my Lord, then said he. Now here
they are. These are the two anointed ones. If you have a concordance
in your Bible, what does it say? It says sons of oil, doesn't
it? Sons of the spirit. That's what he's talking about. These are the two sons of oil. They've been anointed, anointed
by God, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Who are these
two sons? There's Zerubbabel and Joshua. Who do they represent? They represent Christ, our king,
and Christ, our great high priest. And these are witnesses. They
have the authority and the word of the king of kings And they
have the authority and the word and the power of the high priest.
And it's from Christ, our King and Christ, our high priest,
by whom the Holy Spirit and all his grace and all his word and
power is continually poured into his church. Christ is the life
of the church. He's the ruler of the church.
He is the light of the church. He is the glory of his church,
his people forever and ever. He is our prophet, our priest,
our king. That's his mediatorial offices.
There's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. And that's what he's saying.
These are the two witnesses. Let me show you that. Turn over
to Revelation chapter 11. I'm just going to whet your appetite
with this one. I'm not going to go into detail.
Again, we're studying this in Sunday school, and I've just
finished most of this chapter in our Sunday school lessons.
I ended up having to divide it up in like four or five lessons.
And the reason is because there's so much that you can turn to
in the scripture that, you know, most of the book of Revelation,
as far as its symbols and what it means, is found in the Old
Testament. But look here, now, you know, in the last days, God
said he was going to send two witnesses. Look at verse 1 of
chapter 11. He says, There was given me a
reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood, saying, rise and
measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship
there. Now, you remember in Zechariah chapter 2, the man with the measuring
rod? That's what he's talking about. You'll see that analogy
in Ezekiel 2. Ezekiel, in Ezekiel chapter 40,
he talks about one measuring the temple, setting off the boundaries. And what's that symbolized spiritually? Preaching the gospel. That's
how the church is measured by the truth. It's the pillar and
ground of truth, Paul told Timothy. We believe the gospel. And any
group that calls themselves a church that doesn't believe and preach
the gospel, they're out of this measure. They're out of line.
They don't fit with the plumb line, you see. They're not a
church, not a true church. It's a false church. It's a tear
that Satan has sung. And so he says, you measure the
temple of God in the altar and them that worship therein, but
the court, which is without the temple, leave out and measure
not, for it's given unto the Gentiles. Now, I'm not going
to go into all this because I don't have time, but you remember when
Christ went into the temple in his day and the money changers
were there? They were in the court of the
Gentiles. And that represents false religion. That's what that represents here.
In other words, those who just claim to be Christian, but they're
not. They're in it for the money. They're in it for the prestige.
They're in it for the honor. They're in it for the pride.
Whatever they're in it for, they're like the money changers. And
he says, you leave them out. That's what he's talking about.
And he says, in the holy city, shall they tread under foot 40
and two months? They're going to persecute the true church.
But look at verse 3, and he says, I will give power unto my two
witnesses. Now, if you've ever done any
study of the book of Revelation, you know people have gone all
over the map with who these two witnesses are. And I'm not going
to list all that they say. It would be too much time. But
who are these two witnesses? Well, my position is that the
Bible tells us exactly who they are. Look at it. And they shall
prophesy 1,203 scored days. That's representative of the
whole entire time between Christ first coming and his second coming
clothed in sackcloth That's the that's the the nature of their
message. It's leads to repentance The
gospel, you know member God is not willing that any of his people
should perish but that all should come to repentance but look at
verse 4 These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks
Standing before the God of the earth That sound familiar to
you Well, we just read it. Look back over at Zechariah chapter
4. That's who he's talking about. These are the two olive trees.
These are the two sons of all. Back here, as it applied to national
Israel, it was two men, Zerubbabel and Joshua. But as it applies
spiritually and eternally, who is it? It's Christ, our King. and our high priest as he is
witnessed through his church. That's what the two witnesses
are. The reason it's two is because that was the number required
under the law to establish a witness. You couldn't do just one. You
had to have two. And that's why he says it. It's not literally
two men in Revelation. It's Christ The king, our great
high priest, being preached and witnessed to the world through
his church, established under the law, under the word of God.
They have the authority of that word. And then look back at Zechariah
chapter four and look at verse six. Now here's their message.
What's their message? How can you recognize them? Well,
look at it. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This
is the word of the Lord unto the rebels, saying, Not by might,
nor by power, but my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." It's
not by the works and the power and the wisdom of men. No, sir. The church's success and the
church's power is not the power of the human instruments, but
it's the Spirit of God who comes forth from the Father and the
Son leading sinners to Christ, bringing sinners to repentance
of dead works and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then look
at verse seven, who art thou O great mountain? What is this
mountain? The mountain there is every,
it's obstacles that would hinders. See, here's the message for us
today here. The salvation of Christ's church
and the overcoming of all obstacles is totally by His power and grace.
Look at it. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel, a plain? In other words, Zerubbabel's
gonna level you. Christ is going to remove every
obstacle that would hinder the salvation of His people. That's
what that means. AND HE SHALL BRING FORTH THE
HEADSTONE. THE HEADSTONE THERE IS NOT A
GRAVESTONE, IT'S A CAPSTONE. THAT MEANS HE'S GOING TO FINISH
THE WORK. WHAT IT MEANS IS, WHAT HE STARTED, HE'S GOING TO FINISH. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMEBODY START
WORK THEY DIDN'T FINISH? IT'S FRUSTRATING, ISN'T IT? YOU
EVER HIRED A CONTRACTOR TO COME IN AND DO SOME WORK AND THEY
GET IT STARTED AND THEY LEAVE IT AND THEN THEY NEVER COME BACK? WELL,
THAT'S NOT THE LORD HERE. THE LORD HERE, WHAT HE STARTS,
HE FINISHES. And he says, thereof with shoutings
crying. Now look at it, grace, grace
unto it. It's all of grace. Not of works
lest any man should boast. Think about it. All obstacles
that would hinder or prevent the building, the establishment
and the preservation of his church The salvation of his people.
Think about this. Let me give you this. There's
the mountain of God's inflexible justice against our sin. That's
a mountain. That's a Mount Everest, brother.
God's inflexible justice against my sin. God must punish sin. And I want to tell you something,
man tries to remove that mountain by his own works and he fails
every time. There's nobody that's ever planted
a flag on top of that. No man has ever planted a flag
on that mountain. But Christ removed it and he
did it on Mount Calvary by the shedding of his own precious
blood. Christ removed it. And then there's the mountain
of our spiritual deadness, unbelief. Man tries to remove that by his
logic, his persuasions, his methods, his religion, his emotions, but
he fails. We can't even raise ourselves
from the dead, let alone somebody else. But Christ removes it by
sending his spirit to give life. The body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And then look
at all the mountains we face in our spiritual walk, the mountain
of the world, the mountain of the flesh, the mountain of the
devil, but Christ has overcome them all. You see, he's leveled
them. They're a plane before him. They're
a level place before him. And why? Why? Because we deserved
it or earned it? No. Grace. Grace. Unto it, he
says. Now that's shining forth in the
light. of God's Word. You see, the whole
work of salvation, the whole work of building God's spiritual
temple is a work of grace. And he's going to lay that capstone,
that finishing stone by grace. He told the Apostle Paul, he
said, my grace is sufficient for thee. We have no redemption
but that which is of his grace that he's accomplished on Calvary.
by His blood. We have no justification but
that which is through grace that He's performed. For as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 521. We have
no righteousness but that which grace has bestowed upon us through
Him. We have no salvation but that which grace has worked We
have no faith, but that which grace has given. We have no hope,
but that which grace has put in us. And we have no sanctification,
but that which grace has done. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Grace, grace unto
us. Well, let me stop there and we'll
pick up there on the next time. But that's the golden candlestick,
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
All right.