Zechariah chapter 6 and verse
9. And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Take them of the captivity even of Heldi,
of Tobiah, and Jediah, which are come from Babylon, and come
thou the same day, and go to the house of Josiah the son of
Zephaniah. Then take silver and gold, and
make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of
Jehoshadak the high priest. And speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall
build the temple of the Lord. And even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them. The man whose
name is the Branch. The Branch. Let me give you the
historical setting here. Cyrus had came back, some of
them, came back to rebuild Jerusalem and build a temple. And Jeroboam
was sent to do it. He was the governor and Joshua
was the high priest. And they were rebuilding the
temple and there were three Jews who came from the captivity,
came from Babylon from the captivity. And their names there in verse
10, Hadiah, Tobijah, and Jediah. And they came to make an offering
for the building of the temple. And they brought some silver
and they brought some gold. Well, the Lord told Zechariah
to go the very same day that those men came with that silver
and gold. Take the silver and gold and
make crowns. Make a silver crown and a gold
crown. And go get Joshua the high priest. Put those crowns
on him. Put those crowns on him. They're
his crowns. and tell him that behold a man
whose name is the branch. And of course, Joshua, of course
his name is Jesus, Jehovah our Savior. That's what it means. And this was done not as an honor
upon Joshua, but was a type, a picture, typical, prophetic,
symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ who is to come. I read there
in Isaiah 11 where he was the branch, there should be a rod
that shall grow up out of the stem of Jesse and thou shalt
call him the branch. And the Spirit of the Lord shall
be upon him. And so you see, this was the one who was to come
who was to wear many crowns, not just silver and gold. Silver
in the scriptures always speaks of redemption, gold speaks of
deity. Power, value, worth. And he was
the one who was to come. And that's why it says, Behold
the man. Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ
who would come as the man. And what he would do, the branch.
And not only here, but over in Zechariah 3, he's called the
branch over here. Let me show you this before I
get into my message. He was the root of David, of
course, and here in verse 8 of Zechariah chapter 3, Zechariah
3, it says this, Here now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy
fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wondered at,
for behold, I will bring forth my servant, the branch. The branch. Now this branch,
of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no doubt about
that. He said, Behold the man, the
servant, my servant, the branch, out of the branch, out of the
rod, the stem of Jesse. This is one of our Lord's names.
He has many names. This is one of His names. And
I've been trying to say a few things about His names. And here
He's called the branch. The branch. And over in Jeremiah
He's called the branch, the righteous planning of the Lord. Let me
say a few things about a branch that is obvious to us. First
of all, a branch bears the fruit, reveals the character of the
tree. Now you know that's what our Lord said, a good tree cannot
bring forth corrupt fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. And a branch bears the fruit and reveals the character
of the tree. And our Lord Jesus Christ has
Jehovah's branch, has to behold the man, the Lord's branch. He
revealed the character of his Father Almighty God. When our Lord came into this
world, He was God manifest in the flesh. Great is the mystery
of Godliness. And without controversy, it's
great. For God was manifest in the flesh, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and justified by
the Spirit, received up into glory. But as a branch, He came
to reveal the character of God Almighty, His Father. And he'd
done it in so many ways. First of all, he'd done it by
his words. His words, he says, the words that I speak, they're
not mine, but of him that sent me. Not that he did not have
words of his own, but yet he says, the words that I speak,
my father gave them to me to speak. I obey him. He put his
word in my mouth, and I speak what he says for me to speak.
And I'm my father, I'm one. Now you keep Zechariah, and look
over here with me in John chapter 7, just a moment. You know, by
His words He glorified the Father, by His words He bore the fruit
of the Father, and revealed the character of the Father. And you know our Lord Jesus, and people did not believe His
word then, and they won't believe it now, but that doesn't make
it any less than the words of the Father. That doesn't make
it any less. He says, you know, He told the
Jews, He said, before Abraham was, I am. When they heard that,
they said, this man is blaspheming, why are you going to stone me?
He said, they pick up stone. Why are you going to stone me?
For what good work are you going to stone me? We're not going
to stone you for good works. We're going to stone you because
you, being a man, make it yourself to be one with God. Make it yourself
to be God. And we cannot have a man who
claims to be God. I don't care how many miracles
you perform, how many good works you do, we cannot have a man
in our midst that's poor from Nazareth, from Galilee, from
poverty with no education, that's nobody from nowhere, and all
of us, we got our power, we got our prestige, we got our offices,
we got our authority. To have you to claim to be one
with God, to be God, we can't have that. So they picked up
rocks to stone him. But look what our Savior said
here in John 7, 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and talked, talking about our
Lord, revealing the character of Jehovah by His words. And
the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having
never learned? Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine. What's this now? But his is Sydney.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. Christ our
Lord did not come to make a new religion, to set up a new religion. He come, beloved, just to continue
the true religion that started in the Garden of Eden. He came
to be the one that God set up. as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. There was plenty of religions,
and there are still plenty of religions. Christ didn't come
to set up with Christianity as a new religion. There has only
been one salvation, one true gospel, one Savior. And that's
why he says, if a man will do his will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Now watch what he says here in
verse 18. He that speaketh of himself, brings up his own doctrine, teaches
his own truths, and comes out of himself. He seeketh his own
glory. But he that seeketh his glory
that sent him, the same is true. And there is no unrighteousness
in him. Look with me in John 8, verse 13. Our Lord Jehovah's
Branch, He revealed the character of His Father. And He had the
fruit of God all in His life. All the power, all the glory.
He says in verse 13, The Pharisees therefore said unto him, You
bear record of yourself. Thy record is not true. Our Lord
answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself,
yet my record is true. For I know where I come from
whence I came, and I know where I'm going. But you can't tell
whence I come, and you don't know whether I came from above,
and you don't know that I'm going back above. And you judge after
the flesh, I judge no man. And yet, if I judge, my judgment
is true, for I am not alone. Watch this, I and the Father
that sent me. It's also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bare witness
of myself, and the Father that sent me bareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where
is your father? Our Lord answered, You neither know me nor my father.
If you had known me, you should have known my father also. Oh,
he came to reveal God, to show the character of God by his words.
Not only by his words, but also by his deeds. By what he did,
by the works that he did. You know, Nicodemus says to him,
he says, you know that he said, Master, no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. And oh beloved, do
you think You think of all the deeds that our Master did while
he was in this world. John said it this way, he said,
I suppose that if everything that he had done, everything
that he had said, and all the miracles he had done, all the
works he had done, if they all had been written down, I suppose
the books of the world could not contain them. And see, when
he opened the man's book that was born blind in John chapter
9, They began to call him a sinner.
Said, this man, we don't know where he come from. And that
fellow whose eyes was open, he looked at him and he said, you
know, it's never been told, never been heard, never been seen since
the beginning of the world that a man that's born blind received
his sight. Never. Never. And as our Lord
Jesus Christ said, as the Father raises the dead and quickens
the damned, even so the Son of Man quickens. Gives life to whom
He will. And oh, how many times did He
give life to three individuals. Raised them from the dead. And
then all the life that He gives us when He raised us from the
dead. And all the life that there is, He gave us by His deeds.
And He opened the side of the blind. And it says there a minute
ago, I read it to you in Isaiah 11, the lion shall lie down with
the lamb. And all of us with our ferociousness and our enmity
and our meanness and our awful characters. Now we lie down with
the Lamb of God Himself. We rest with the Lamb. We eat
the grass like an ox now. We're not demeated. We're not
ferocious. We take the food, the bread that
God gives us, the bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the fruit of this branch, the fruit of this branch, which
comes from the Father, is love, grace, truth, Compassion, holiness,
pity, mercy, truth, life, righteousness, power over creation, power over
life, power to touch lepers and cleanse them and not be affected.
If I touch a leper, I'm unclean according to the law. Our Lord
Jesus could touch a leper and the leper would be clean and
he wouldn't be unclean according to the law. Oh, what fruit come
from death. And Philip said, if you'll show
us the Father, if you'll just show us the Father, we'll be
satisfied. We won't ask no more questions.
We won't bother you anymore. He says, Philip, Philip, have
I been with you such a long time and you've not seen me? Neither
known me? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. So as the branch, our Lord Jesus
Christ, We build the character and the fruit of God Almighty
Himself. And then look back over here
at Zechariah 6. The branch as a person. He says, Behold the
man. Behold the man. Watch what it says here now.
Behold the man whose name is the branch. That's one of the
names of our Savior. And it says here that he shall grow up out
of his place. He shall grow up. Grow up? The Scripture says he
grew in wisdom and stature with man and God. And he shall grow
up out of his place. What was his place? What was
his place when he came into this world? What was his place? First of all, his place was born to poor parents that
had nothing. Had nothing. He was born in a
stable. born and laid in a manger where
they feed cattle, born lowly, born in the lowest position,
born of the lowest parents, born in the place where he was born
as one of humility, one of sorrow, one of grief, one of rejection. And everything shall grow up
in this kind of atmosphere. This grow up in humiliation.
Grow up treated as one who is to be humiliated. Grow up in
sorrow. Grow up there in Galilee. And they said, can any good thing
come out of Nazareth where he was born and yet he was raised
in Galilee? And all this won out of humility
and sorrow and rejection. And he grew up. He grew up. He had to suck his mother's breast.
He had to be taken care of as an infant. Then he had to be
taken care of as a toddler. And here's God doing this. And
he began to grow up. And he had to learn. And he learned
to read. He learned to write. wrote on the wall in the temple
there where they were having that feast that Belshazzar was.
And he took his finger and wrote on the wall, wrote the Ten Commandments
on tables and walls. That same finger had to be took
by his mother's hand and held and let alone. He shall grow
up. And he grew up until he became
a man. And thirty years old, when he grew up, he entered into
a ministry. And he entered into a ministry
where he was despised and rejected, and he was acquainted with grief
and sorrow. And he grew up till he went to
the garden of Gethsemane, and he laid there and wept and cried
till his sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood. And
he grew up to do one thing, go to the cross. and on that cross
to be a substitute for sinners, to take his place there with
the sin of his people upon him. He shall be Jehovah's branch. And beloved, there he grew up,
and as he hung on that cross, as he grew up to go to die, he
grew up to die as the Lamb of God, as the sin offering, as
the sacrifice, as a substitute. And all the sins of God's elect
were laid on Him. All the sins of God's people
were charged to His account. And when they were laid on Him
and charged, and He grew up to do that, to face that, to deal
with that. And when they were found on Him,
Jehovah Himself came down, turned out the light, And a great transaction
was made. The blood was taken and offered
to God Almighty, and God smelled it as a sweet-smelling savor.
Sin was put away once and for all by the sacrifice of Christ.
They put Him in the tomb, laid Him in the tomb, and then He
grew up, also to come again from the grave. He grew up to come
out of that grave! To come again from the dead! And oh, beloved, look what else
he'll do. He grew up. How can you know? There's too much here to deal
with at one time, but I'm going to try to do it. Then look what
he says here. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. Ain't you grateful that he builds
the temple of the Lord? He called his body the temple
of the Lord one time. They took him and showed him
the temple that they were building here. And he looked at the temple
and said, Oh, look at all this great temple. Look what a beautiful
place. There shall not be left here one stone for another to
do. Tear it out and destroy this temple and I'll raise it up again
in three days. Speaking of his own body. But beloved, the temple
he's talking about here is his church, his people. He shall
build the temple of the Lord. Now God gave Moses the pattern
for the tabernacle. I mean, gave him down to the
jot in the table how to build that tabernacle. And then Solomon
build a temple and that temple was both of those are typical
of our Lord Jesus Christ in every way in every way Solomon built
that great temple and everything that was added to that temple
of Solomon's you know there was never a hammer in that building
there was never a stone cut in that building everything was
done outside that building and fitted and fixed and brought
to the building and there was not a hammer heard it was all
prepared over here and brought And our Lord Jesus Christ prepared
us, built us, made us, hewn out the stones, cut down the trees,
done all He wants. And He puts us in the temple
of God. He builds us in the temple of God. Now you, Mark, Zechariah,
look with me over in Ephesians 1. In Ephesians 1. Let me tell
you something about this temple. You know, the temple was the
place where God put His name. That's where He put His name. And that's where the place He
revealed Himself. You know, under the law and in the temple, if
you saw God and He revealed His Shekinah glory, He done it in
the temple. He revealed Himself in the temple and in the tabernacle. And it was the place of worship.
They went there to worship. And it was the place where they
brought offerings. It was the place where sacrifice
was given and blood was shed. But here and in Christ, He built
our temple. Look what it says here in verse
22. And God hath put all things under
His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. Now watch this, which is His
body, the fullness. The church is the body, the fullness
of Him who fills everything. The church is the body. His church
is the fullness of him who fills all things. Now look down here
in verse 20 of chapter 2, Ephesians 2. It says here, you are not built. You are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. The foundation has already been
laid. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, now watch
this, in Christ, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth together unto a holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are built together,
watch this now, for habitation of God through the Spirit. God
dwells in his people, dwells in his church, and he does it
by the Spirit. It's not a physical building.
It's a spiritual building. And our Lord said, upon this
rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. And so He built the temple. He's
the one that's going to build the temple. He's building the
temple. He's built the spiritual temple. And He says, you know,
as Eve came from the side of Adam, the church came from the
side of our Lord Jesus Christ through His death. And it says
in Acts 20, 28, He says, you know, He purchased the church
of God. With what? His own blood. And then look
what it says here about Him. Not only will He grow up out
of His place. And He shall build the temple
of the Lord. And He shall bear the glory.
He'll bear the glory of the temple. And you know, this is strange
language. To bear the glory. To bear the
glory. Like His son. Like there's some
weight to it. And if I understand this right,
what it means is this, that our Lord Jesus Christ had to bear
the weight of bringing all the glory to God, the responsibility
of bringing all the glory to God, in saving His people, in
building His temple, In creating the world, upholding the world,
and doing everything that's been done in this world and is doing
in this world, he has the responsibility to bring all the glory to his
Father. So God laid on him all the way. And that's why our Lord
said, I glorified you on the earth. I finished the work that
you gave me to do. I glorified you. Now glorify
thou me with the glory that I had with you before the world was.
The glory of the temple will be all. of himself. He has the weight of the glory
of salvation. Now salvation, beloved, salvation
is something that's completely done outside of ourselves. It's
objective. It's something that was done
2,000 years ago. It was something that was accomplished.
And that's why the gospel is something that's done. Something
complete. Something perfect. Something
full. Something free. And that's nothing for you to
do. God Christ did it all. He bore the glory of it all. You know, when you start talking
about grace, you start talking about Christ, and people say,
yes, salvation is all of Christ's butt. There ain't no butts, are
there? There ain't no butts. Either
Christ does all the saving and gets all the glory, or you have
a part in it and you get some of the glory. And God said He
will not share His glory with another. And I am so thankful
that salvation, Salvation, that I have no part in it whatsoever. I can't even take care of material
things, much less spiritual things. And oh, He bore the responsibility
of Redeemer. There was a debt that had to
be paid. There was a debt that we owed. Justice held us captive. Truth wouldn't let us go. The
law of God must be honored and magnified. And we were held captive
by the justice of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
and paid justice its due. Paid justice its payment. And
he done it with his own blood, with his own death. The soul
that sinneth this hell died. Justice demands that. Cursing
is ever one that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the Lord of nobles. So we didn't do that. Cursed under
the curse. Christ came and bore the curse
to redeem us. He faced justice and paid his
full debt. And now, beloved, the debt's
been paid. And now, since Christ paid it,
God cannot come and ask us to pay any part of it. I don't owe God a thing. People
say, I owe the Lord this. No, we don't owe God nothing. You don't find in the scripture
where anybody said they owe God anything. They say they're debtors
to the Greek, debtors to the bond, debtors to the free, the
barbarians. We're debtors to tell men the
gospel. But everything we got from God came free. If you paid
for it or you worked for it, then you owe Him something. Now
we love Him, and we bless Him, and we praise Him, and we thank
Him, and we worship Him, and we adore Him, and we honor Him,
but everything we got, we got free. Oh my, let me show you this,
now you keep Zechariah, look over here in Isaiah 22, just
a moment. Just a moment. This is a wonderful verse of
scripture over here. Isaiah 22. You know, that's why I said,
open up, O ye gates, O ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts, strong and mighty in battle. And he won, and now
it's time to go, and the glory takes the glory with him. Here
in Isaiah 22 and verse 23, look what it says, And I will fasten
him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. Now watch this, And they shall
hang upon him all the glory of his father's house. Listen to this, the offspring,
and then the issue from that offspring. And then all the vessels,
small quantities. You fellas, you know those of
us that's got little bitty vessels? Those, you know, dibber-sized
vessels? Even to all the vessels of the flask. God said He'll
hang off on him all the glory. That's why it says Christ is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Why? That no flesh should glory in His presence. You know, He's
the one that's crowned. And not only He's going to bear
the glory of salvation, the glory as a Redeemer, but the glory
as a mediator. There's only one mediator between
God and man. You don't go to somebody who
wears his collar backwards or a big long robe, I saw, I called
Mary in this morning, I said, you got to come see this. I was
flipping through the channels and come across this place, a
great big huge auditorium. And right in the stage they had
this great big wooden cross. Choir singing, oh they're singing,
oh my goodness they're singing of course. Oh just incredible
how they were singing. And oh they had all these people
playing all these instruments and there's a bunch of people
bowed down in front of that cross, laying prostrate in front of
that cross. Like there was some virtue in
laying down in front of a wooden cross. That that was going to
have some kind of effect on your spirituality or your relationship. And you know, they talk about,
we have a priest. There's only one high priest.
That's our Lord Jesus Christ. They talk about, they had it
on the news, and I saw this this morning. A Greek Orthodox church
had this little bowl. that belonged to St. Andrew,
one of the apostles, a little bitty bone, and they kept it
up on the altar with a picture of him. Well, somebody stole
that out of that Greek Orthodox church. And they just tore all
the pieces because they lost that little icon, that little
record. And they reverenced that, and they prayed for that, and
they prayed for intercession to St. Andrew for that. But Christ bears the glory as
the only mediator between God and man. If you're going to speak
to God, you're going to speak through Jesus Christ. God's going
to speak to you, He's going to speak through Jesus Christ. If
you come to God, you're going to come through Jesus Christ.
If God comes to you, He's going to come to you through Jesus
Christ. He ain't coming no other way. And I tell you, God will,
as old Scott said so many times, God will not speak to nor be
spoken to by any member of the human race. Apart from a perfect
sacrifice, and that perfect sacrifice sits at God's right hand as the
only mediator. You know, a mediator is not a
mediator of one. God don't need a mediator. We're
the one that needs a mediator. God's one. He's perfect. He's
holy. He's right. He's just. He's true.
We're the ones that need somebody to mediate between us and God.
And so God provided a mediator for us. We need someone we can
go to and say, oh, Father, oh, my Master, please, Lord Jesus. And He bears our name, He bears
our responsibility. And then, oh, look what it says
here again in Zechariah. Not only will He bear the glory,
see, He's the one crowned. Look what it says now, not only
will He bear the glory, and shall set and rule upon His throne.
He's got a throne. You see, there are two offices
of our Lord Jesus Christ here. The rule upon His throne, He
shall be a priest upon His throne. Here we see Him as the King,
and here we see Him as a high priest. And as birth, He has
a throne. He shall set and rule upon His
throne. He's not going to try to rule.
He's not going to attempt to rule. He's not going to wait
for somebody to let Him rule. There's no debate over whether
He's going to rule or He's going to be Lord. He shall rule upon
His throne. Huh? And He'll have His throne
after He by Himself purged our sins. He sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. And oh, beloved eyes, God gave
him all authority and all power. And he rules. The governments
shall be upon him. And it don't say shoulders. It
says shoulders. Shoulders. Just one shoulder
is all it takes for him to bear the governments of this world. That's all it takes. Just one. Oh, he's got the power. He's
got the authority. And this idea, you know, that
Jesus wants to and can't listen. When we see everything going
on in this world, it don't look like nobody's in control. But all believers know exactly
who's ruling this out. We know exactly what's going
to happen in the election. We know exactly how things are
going to come out. We pray that they come out This
way and that way and other way, but we say, Lord, not our will,
but yours be done. Because he's the one that rules.
He's got the authority. He's got the power. And then
it says here, he should be a priest upon his throne. So he's a priest
and a king. God said, thou shalt be a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek was a priest
and a king. He was the king of Salem, which
is the king of peace, king of Jerusalem, the king of righteousness,
And I'll tell you something about priests. Priests never sat down
because their works never got done. Offering oftentimes the
same sacrifices which can never take away sin. But this man,
after he offered one sacrifice forever, sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. The priest sits on his throne. No other priest had a throne.
But our priest has a throne. And all see a king, he provides
for all the needs of his subjects. He provides their clothes, he
provides their protection, he provides their food, he provides
their work, he provides everything they need, a king does. And the
priest provides for everything they need spiritually. The priest
offers a sacrifice. The priest presents it to God.
The priest makes it acceptable to God. And all beloved, and that's what
it said, he has two crowns here. Two crowns. In fact, he has many
crowns. He is crowned king. He is crowned
high priest of baronies before the Father. And then let me close
with this right here. The last part of that 13th verse. It says, In the counsel of peace,
the counsel of peace shall be between them both. Now, I think
this means it could be between the father and the son in the
covenant of grace, the covenant of peace. But I think the council
of peace here is between the king and the priest. That they
is the one, that the king and the priest here, our Lord Jesus
Christ, this branch of Jehovah, that the council of peace was
between them. And what happened was, as a king,
our Savior came and subdued us. He came and brought us guilty
before himself with his power, and the day of his power he made
us willing. He subdued us, made us feel our
guilt, made us feel the burden of our sin, made us feel our
shame, made us feel the weight and guilt and conviction of our
sin. And then as the priest, as a
priest who made atonement by his own blood and by his own
sacrifice, he comes and applies that blood to our conscience.
and brings peace to our heart because he made peace by the
blood of his cross. Then he takes the blood of that
cross and applies it to our hearts and in peace. The council of
peace was between them. You know, people say, make your
peace with God. Christ already did it. Christ
already did it. We know peace and we have peace
and we have rest in our hearts. And as the old hymn writer says,
bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. Crown him Lord of all. Our Father, in the precious name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for letting us meet today.
Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for your word. Bless
this word to our heart, to our understanding. to the enjoyment
of our souls. Father, we pray for those who
have never yet embraced Christ, never yet submitted to Him, never
yet confessed that He is all they need and all they want.
Father, enable them to do so. Enable them to by your grace
to come to him, to embrace him, to come to know him, to rejoice
in him, to find the rest and peace that comes in knowing him.
Thank you for your mercies today. Bless these dear saints. We thank
you in Christ's name. Amen.