I'll turn back with me to Zechariah
chapter 1. I know we read it again this
week as we read it all in full last week to start this series.
But I want to focus this morning on verses 7 to 21. The Bible as a whole, as I often
say and as I know most of you know well, The Bible is God's
message to his elect multitude in this world. And that message,
the message of God to his elect multitude, the multitude that
no man can number, chosen in Christ by God, by pure grace,
before the beginning of time, that message is this. It's Christ,
who is God himself. Christ, who is God, manifest,
made known. It is Christ, who is God's Redeemer,
God the Redeemer, from the curse of sin of his people, lest all,
all without sin, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, all of God's elect. But God has redeemed in Christ
his people from the curse of sin, the curse of the law, by
him taking that condemnation. to satisfy the justice of God.
He's done all of this. And this book, the Bible, is
God's message to his people. It's the secrets of the heavenly
war rooms. We're in a warfare, a warfare
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And we're
in the territory of Satan. And he tells us the secrets of
the heavenly war rooms concerning the recovery, the triumph of
God's eternal kingdom. How do I know that? Jesus said
it in John 15. He said, you're my friends. And
he said, I don't call you servants anymore. You're my friends. Because
why? What do friends do to one another? What do friends do? They tell one another their secrets. And Jesus says in John 15, I've
told you all the secrets that my father has revealed to me
concerning his kingdom. Are you a believer this morning?
Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust God, God
our help in ages past? Do you trust our great, glorious,
almighty God, our loving savior, Jesus Christ? Do you trust that
one? when so few do in this world?
Well, if you do, you're an agent of God's kingdom in alien territory
until the time when God at his decree, his perfect decree, takes
you out of it. And for each of us, that will
be different until he comes again, when he takes all those who remain
out of this world. You see, as that old song used
to say, I more and more find that the old songs that we used
to sing, and I dismissed them for years as basically Arminian
motivated and inspired, but in actual fact, this one that says,
this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. It
is. It's true. If you see the message
of this book ever more clearly, this world is not my home. I'm just passing through it.
It's just a sojourn. It's just here for a little while.
We live in it, but we're not of it. As John says to those
he wrote to in his epistles, little children, little children,
love not the world. I know there's all sorts of things
that entice, but little children love not the world. Paul says
in his epistle to the Colossians, if you're risen with Christ,
which you are, if you're his true child and true believer,
seek those things not here, but seek those things which are above
where Christ is, your eternal home in sinless intimacy with
our creator, with our savior, with our God. God said to Abraham,
what are you going to get? What are you going to get? God
said to Abraham, Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward.
God is the reward of all his people. What more could we want? What more could we want? Crowns
that show that we've been better at keeping God's law in this
life than others all around us, so that we can brag around with
many more stones in our crowns on our heads, as some falsely
teach? No, God is our exceeding great
reward, and we accept in this life, yes, I know, things come
along our way, we accept with thanks whatever God providentially
gives, but don't covet it. Seek it or strive for it. Don't, don't, don't. He gives
us what we need. Rather, covert, set your heart
on his kingdom. You know, we are here because
God has decreed that the people he saves out of sin and out of
this world should continue here for a while. Jesus prayed in
John 17, verse 15, I pray not that you should take them, his
people, his believing people. I pray not that you should take
them out of the world. He could have done, but I pray
not that you should do that. But while they're here, while
they're here for a while, learning things that they cannot learn
any other way in the providence and grace of God, but that you
should keep them from the evil, he says. Keep them from, not
just evil in general, but the evil, the evil which is Satan
and his kingdom. Why? What will it do? Spending
time here, spending years here, believing in God and living in
this world with all of its sin and corruption around us, but
kept by God, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Why are we kept here? I'm sure it's this. It's to make
heaven. and God's kingdom ever more precious,
ever more longed for. So then. What secrets does God
reveal to his people via the prophet Zechariah? Is it 14 chapters? Something like that. I think
we're going to be quite a while in this book. He gives them a number
of visions. I won't say a specific number
at this stage. We'll come around to that later
in the series. But he gives a number of visions,
which are heavenly revelations, meaning that you can't work it
out for yourself. God must show it. God the Spirit
must come to individuals, his people, and reveal things that
you cannot see any other way. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. Why? Because they're spiritually
discerned. Where do you get spiritual discernment?
Well, you do this and you go to that place and... No, no,
no. God must reveal. They're heavenly revelations.
And he gives an overview of his eternal purposes of grace. Why does he do it? Why does he
give this message to us? What do we need in this world
of turmoil with trials and tribulations and opposition and persecution
and being treated like we're utterly irrelevant while the
world tells its lies all around us? And sickness and disease
arise and all sorts of things. What do we need on this journey? We need comfort. We need comfort,
and God comforts his people by his word. He gives comfort. When
all else is despair, God gives comfort to his people. When everything
tells you, like the world around, to despair at situations, God
gives comfort to his people. He gives us confidence in his
word, that what he has said is true. We have, as what it says
in Hebrews, the full assurance of faith. He shows us to trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In God we trust. I think it says
that on American banknotes, doesn't it? I think so. He gives us that
faith to trust him. To trust means you put all your
weight on it because you know it will support you. If I trust
that chair, I trust that if I sit on it, it's not going to collapse.
I trust it. He gives us patience because
things don't happen when we think they ought to happen. He gives
us patience by the message of his word to wait for his timing. We want to hurry things up. We
want things to change. We want to do certain things.
He gives us patience. And above all, he gives us that
knowledge of salvation, which is rest, rest. You know, Sabbath means rest.
Christian Sabbath is the rest in Christ's finished work. I'm
not anxious about my soul, for I know it's safe. I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him,
my soul, my eternal soul, my immortal soul. He's able to keep
it until that day of judgment, that day when his kingdom comes
in triumph and take me to it. gives me Sabbath rest in that
knowledge that Christ has finished the work. There is nothing left
for me to do. There is nothing that can pluck
me out of the Father's hand. So in Zechariah 7 chapter 1 and
verses 7 to 21, we have the first two of the visions that God gave
to his people via the prophet Zechariah. Two and a half thousand
years ago these were given and they confirm that that God is
with us. That's the first thing. They
confirm that God is with his people in this world. They confirm
this vision that Christ intercedes effectively for us. And then
thirdly, that the Lord in this kingdom of Satan gives us all
that we need to triumph against it. So let's take them in turn.
Our God with us in this world, in verses 7 to 11, it was a specific
time when the word of the Lord came to Zechariah. Zechariah
the prophet, he was the son of Berechiah who was the son of
Iddo, but it was Zechariah that was the prophet. And he gives
him a picture that he can look at. He sees it. He sees it. It's before his vision. Tangible
things. You know what tangible things
are? Things you can get hold of. Things that you can grasp.
Your physical senses. Observe them. He gave him tangible
things to picture and convey spiritual meaning. A bit like
the parables, in a sort of way, you know? Earthly story with
heavenly meaning. He gives a picture that you can,
yeah, I know what myrtle trees are. You go to various places
in the world, and in the middle of France, at the right time
of year, you can get a delicious tart, which is made out of the
myrtle fruit. And you can go and crush the
leaves and smell the, these are all tangible things. like parables,
but this is the word of the Lord. It was the word of the Lord that
came to Zechariah. The word of the Lord, and you'll
notice that Lord is in small capitals in the script. Sometimes
it's in lowercase, but Throughout here, with one or two exceptions,
it's small capitals, meaning God Almighty, God who dwells
in unapproachable light. And this is given by divine revelation. As Jesus said, all that my Father
has told me, I've shown to you, my friends, all of it, and this
is it, the Word of God, who dwells in unapproachable light, the
Almighty God, That comes to his people. He speaks to his church
in this world. 500 years before Christ came,
the people of Israel, who were the symbolical people of God,
Israel and Judah, the scattered tribes of Israel in the north,
but Judah in the south was the people that were sent into captivity.
The northern tribes had already intermingled. with Assyria and
become mongrel in their breeding, in their purity of race. But
that which represented the people of God was dwarfed in an alien
world of satanic empires. They were the satanic empires
of the kingdom of Satan. Egypt Assyria, we read about
them in Revelation 17, they're pictured there. Egypt, Assyria,
Babylonia, Chaldea, the Medo-Persian Empire, which was at this particular
time, because the Babylonians had been overthrown by the Medo-Persians.
and then the Greeks, Alexander the Great, and then the Romans,
and then everything that followed on from that. And they'd been
sent back at God's decree after their three score years and 10,
there, verse 12, indignation, these three score and 10 years,
that's the 70 years of exile. When Jerusalem was destroyed,
the temple was destroyed, the riches of Jerusalem were taken
to Babylon, taken to that city which pictures the world in opposition
to God. And they'd had their 70 years
exile there. And they were commissioned by
Cyrus, who God said 200 years before he came that he would
raise up to send them back to rebuild the temple and to rebuild
Jerusalem. Ezra and Nehemiah were the ones
sent back, and Ezra to reestablish the temple, Nehemiah to rebuild
the walls and reestablish Jerusalem. And yet they were overwhelmed
with opposition. You would think if God said it's
going to happen, how can anything stop it? But they were overwhelmed
with opposition. The people locally were against
them. They did everything they could
to make life difficult for them and to prevent them completing
the temple and the walls. They were inclined to give up.
They could take the easy path. They could just intermingle back
in to that world of unbelief. But God says in verse three,
he calls to them, turn to me and I will turn to you. Don't
give up. My kingdom shall triumph. He
goes on to underline it in these visions of the whole book. A
scene is set before Zechariah's eyes, images that he could describe. Look there in verse eight. He
gets this word from the Lord and he sees, by divine inspiration,
he sees by the revelation of the Spirit of God, it was night. It was a nighttime scene. And
there's a man in the middle of the scene riding upon a red horse.
And he stood amongst myrtle trees that were in the bottom, in the
valley, low down. And behind him there were red
horses, speckled and white. And I said, Oh my Lord, what
are these? And the angel that talked with
me said to me, I'll show you what these be. And the man that
stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are
they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth. Right, let's just stop there.
So it's a scene of darkness, of night, down in the bottom
in a low place amongst myrtle trees and various horses. And there's a man on a red horse
in the middle of them. The myrtle tree is a small tree. It's a fragrant tree. You crush
its leaves and there's a fragrance that comes from it. It's fruitful,
as I've said. You make very tasty fruit tarts
with these when the fruit season is right. But they're low down.
They're not prominent in the world's view. They're not like
the great majestic cedars of Lebanon. They're not like that.
They're not like the western red cedars of California. Not
prominent in the world's view. Is this a picture of the church
of God, the body of Christ, in a world that is against it? Here they are, insignificant,
low down, of no prominence in this world. And there are various
horses, red horses, speckled and white. Could that be? I'm
only suggesting, could that be different peoples? Because God
says his people, his church, will be composed of those from
every tongue and tribe and kindred. But they're sent, verse 10, they're
sent by the Lord to walk to and fro through the earth. Is that
not what God has done? for his church, his believing
people, I pray, Lord, that you take them, pray, Father, that
you take them not out of the world, but that you keep them
from the evil. That was the prayer of Jesus
in John 17, verse 15. There's in this world, we as
believers, if you're a believer, if I'm a believer, we're in this
world to walk to and fro through the earth and to observe and
to interact with it. And what do we observe? Verse
11, verse 11. They answered the angel of the
Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said, we have walked
to and fro through the earth and behold, all the earth sitteth
still and is at rest. The earth, this world all around
us sits still and is at rest. Well, it actually seems to us
in these days, like it's in great turmoil, doesn't it? But what
it means is this, this world, this kingdom of Satan, is very
happy and content with its godlessness. It is prospering in its unbelief. It wants nothing to do with the
kingdom of God, and the edicts of God, and the word of God,
and the kingdom of God. It's still and at rest. It reminds us of Psalm 73, the
Psalm of Asaph, who says, God is good. God is good to Israel.
But for me, I'd well nigh slipped. My feet had well nigh slipped.
I nearly lost my position in the kingdom of God is what he's
saying there. Why? Because he says, I was envious
of the wicked, at the unbelieving world. I was envious at them. They don't seem to get the problems
that we get as believers. They seem to find it easy. They
prosper. Things seem to go their way without
any trouble whatsoever. They don't seem to have any difficulties.
But verse 15, God is very displeased. He says, I am very sore displeased
with the heathen that are at ease. God is very sore displeased
with this world. They seem to be at ease, but
they are actually answerable to God. It's appointed to man
to die once and then the judgment. They seem to prosper while God's
people suffer under them. They rule while the church in
this world is completely insignificant. I don't mean the false church,
I don't mean the Catholic church, I don't mean the Anglican church,
I don't mean any of that. I mean the true church of God.
Little flock, as Jesus called them. They rule while the church
is insignificant, but they won't continue. Look in verse 21, just
quickly look in verse 21. These who represent that kingdom,
In the end, they will be scattered. Their horn over the land of Judah
to scatter it, they will be scattered. We'll see clearly just a little
bit later. It's the same today. In those
days, it was what represented Israel 500 years before Christ,
trying to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem, which were the
symbols of the kingdom of God on earth. They pictured that
which Christ is the head of, that which he rules over. And
it was such a struggle. They seemed so insignificant
against those worldly empires. Is it not the same today? God's
true church seems so insignificant. We seem to be in the dark bottom
of the world's razzmatazz, out of its gaze. But there's a man. on the red horse. Behold a man
riding upon a red horse, and that man on the red horse is
the Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah. He is God
manifested to his people. He is the Word become flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God, and he became flesh. No man has seen God, the
Lord, at any time. But the only begotten Son, this
Lord, this Adonai, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the
Father, He has made Him known. He has declared Him. He is the
Lord. He is the angel of the Lord.
He is the Christ. The messenger is what angel means.
the messenger of the covenant. Behold, he shall come, even the
messenger of the covenant, whom ye delighted, saith the Lord.
He is the Lord, God's messenger, the Christ, the manifestation,
the showing openly of the hidden God as man to his people. Adam was a man, and the human
race, we're all descended from Adam. Man made in the image of
God. Man, as the scripture says, made
in the image of God, and man fell into sin, and handed over
the kingdom of God to Satan, to make it the kingdom of Satan.
But God's kingdom will triumph, and the second Adam has come.
The second Adam is this man. He sees a vision, and God appears
in the midst of his people. But God appears as a man, because
he is a man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is
with his people. We read at the start in Isaiah
chapter 12 and verse 6, great is the Holy One of Israel in
the midst of thee. It's a picture throughout Scripture. God is with his people in this
world. Do you despair at what you see
all around you? Are you discomforted? Are you
anxious? Are you concerned? Are you worried? Listen, God is with his people. How often does God in the Scripture
say, fear not, I am with you? Though you walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, fear not, I am with you. I am with
you. God says, I will not leave you
nor forsake you. In Revelation chapter one, we
see it. And when we studied it a couple
of years ago, again, in Revelation one, verse 13, there he is in
the midst of the golden candlesticks, which represent the church. The
church in this world is represented by seven golden candlesticks.
And in the midst of it is the son of man. is the Son of God,
is God manifest to his people. In Matthew 28, Matthew 28, the
very last verse of Matthew's gospel, verse 20, he says, and
lo, I am, Jesus said, Jesus who is our God, going back to heaven,
he says, I, go into all the world, go into all the world and preach
the gospel. And don't be worried, for I am with you always. How long, how long? Even unto
the end of the world. In Revelation 13, you see a picture
of this world in which we live, with the beasts, the one from
the sea and the one from the earth, and they're all the manifestations
of Satan's kingdom. The evil, you know, you cannot
buy or sell unless you have the mark of this evil beast on you,
this sign of this world that the people all around us revel
in. And you think, oh, what a desperate thing, what a desperate thing.
Read on, chapter 14. of Revelation, verse one, and
I beheld, he's on earth, he's on earth, because he hears a
voice from heaven, so he's on earth, and he beholds, and what
does he see? A lamb on Mount Zion with his
144,000. That's us in this world, little
flock. It is night as believers in this
world. We're low down as Zechariah's
vision. We're persecuted, maybe not persecuted
physically, though in parts of the world they are, but persecuted
by being ignored and sidelined and just life with this world
made difficult. We're ignored while the world
prospers in its godlessness, but Almighty God is with us,
with his people, caring for us, protecting us, keeping us, until
he takes us to his eternal abode. Look up. Look up. We're down in the bottom, in
the valley, in the dark night. Look up. Keep looking up. For
how long, though? For how long? Verse 12, for how
long? The angel of the Lord answered
and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy
on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah? So that's the second point.
The God-man, this one, interceding on behalf of his people. Look
at it, verses 12 to 17. Let's just read them. The angel
of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt
thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against
which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?
And the Lord answered the angel and talked with me with good
words and comfortable words. So the angel that communed with
me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, with a great jealousy,
and I am so displeased with the heathen that are at ease. for
I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore, thus saith the Lord,
I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built
in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched
forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, My cities, through prosperity, shall yet be spread
abroad, and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose
Jerusalem. How can we sinners dare to come
into the throne room of the Lord of hosts, who is a consuming
fire? We are sinners, how dare we come?
God is with us, but how can we as sinners commune with him?
The answer is this, it's here. the angel, this one, the angel,
the messenger of the covenant, the God-man, the man that he
saw riding on that red horse amongst the myrtle trees, the
second Adam, the son of God, the son of man. He who is God
pleads with God for us. This is the mystery of the Trinity. There is one God, only one God,
yet our God is manifest in three persons. And in those three persons,
the different Aspects of God, if I can put it that way, that
we need are manifested to us. The mystery of the Trinity. He
who loves his bride and gave himself for his bride, the Son
of God, the second person of the Trinity, God himself, he
pleads for its mercy. He shed the blood of God to purchase,
to enable God to be merciful to sinners. There's no mercy
in his church, there's no deserving of mercy, yet he's merciful to
his people. The story is told of the time
of Napoleon Bonaparte, where one of his soldiers, a French
soldier, was sentenced to death for some crime that he'd done.
And the mother of the soldier went to see Napoleon to plead
for mercy. And she got an audience with
Napoleon and she pleaded with him for her son, please be merciful
to my son. And Napoleon apparently said
to her, but madam, he does not deserve mercy. And she said,
sir, if he deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. God is merciful to
sinners. We don't deserve it, but he's
merciful. He speaks with, verse 13, good
and comfortable words. Go and tell my people this. These
are the good and comfortable words. Go and tell my church
this. I'm jealous for them. I'm jealous
for Jerusalem and for Zion. I'm jealous for my church in
the days in which we live. What is it about jealousy? We
say jealousy, that's not a nice trait, is it? What it means is
this. Jealousy has the two aspects to it. The aspects of love and
of hatred. Love for the object of that love. Love for his people, love for
his church, and hatred of anything that would draw them away from
him. Everlasting love. He has loved
his people with an everlasting love, but he hates whatever draws
them away from him. God says, I hate putting away. I hate separation of that sort. The heathen are at ease. He hates
what they do to the church, trying to pull them away from God. Now
here is the thing. This one, this one has prayed
to his father. The angel of the Lord answered,
O Lord of hosts, how long? This is Christ pleading, interceding
on behalf of his people with his father who dwells in unapproachable
light. He intercedes. There is one mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And God the Father,
when he prays, God the Father cannot refuse the Son. Verse
16, therefore thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem. Yes, I'm coming with mercies.
And my house shall be built in it. Yes, then 500 years before
Christ. The ruined temple. of Jerusalem
would be rebuilt. The walls of Jerusalem which
were flattened would be re-established. It would again be populated with
a prosperous people. The Lord is jealous for Jerusalem
and he's returned. Verse 17, cry yet saying, thus
saith the Lord of hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet
be spread abroad. The church is what that pictures.
That's what it pictures. Jerusalem then pictures the church,
the church, the body of Christ. It shall be completed. Christ
is building his church. He's gathering his elect in from
this fallen world. His kingdom shall triumph. And
when God says shall, nothing can frustrate it. When God says
shall, it most certainly shall happen. Look at Matthew 16 and
verse 18. This is where Peter said, you
are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says to
him that you are Peter, the little stone, and upon this rock, not
the same, this mighty rock, this mighty rock of faith of what
Christ is, upon this rock I will build my church. The church is
built upon Christ and what he has done. That is the rock. That
rock was Christ, it says, in the wilderness. The rock that
Moses smote when the water came out to quench the thirst of the
people, that rock was Christ. Upon this rock, which is Christ,
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. He speaks in 1 Peter of building
his church, and each of the believing people is a living stone in that
church, cut out of the quarry of humanity. Until when it goes
on, he builds it until the end of time. So don't worry about
anything. Nothing can stop God's plan from
being completed. Rest in his power. You know,
what do we need in this world of turmoil, in this world that's
at ease with itself, but to us seeing the truth, it's a world
of turmoil. Rest in his power. Rest in the
promise of God. He will build his church. Nothing
will stop it. He's completed redemption. Wait
patiently, be comforted. You have an eternal home that
is your inheritance. Come you blessed of my father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Look up. Again, I say, look up. You say,
okay, but look at this world today. Look at this world today.
So let's just finish with these last three or four verses, 18
to 21. the Lord with his church in this world. I lifted up my
eyes, and I saw, and behold, four horns. And I said unto the
angel that talked with me, what are these? And he answered me,
these are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and
Jerusalem. And the Lord showed me four carpenters. And I said, what come these to
do? And he spake, saying, These are
the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift
up his head, but these carpenters are come to fray those horns
which scattered Judah, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles,
which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter
it. We're aware that we're in a world
which is in opposition to the kingdom of God, then These four
horns represented, horns represent power, worldly power. They're
symbols of power, they're symbols of strength. If you're a farmer
and you've got a bull with a good set of horns on his head, you're
very careful with him that you don't get the wrong side of him,
because they're quite severe weapons. Four horns, four represents
the world, creation, this world. The horns are the powers that
are in this world, and they've scattered the people of God,
Judah and Israel and Jerusalem. They've scattered the church
of God throughout the kingdoms of this world. Satan's kingdom
has always tried to destroy God's kingdom. It started with corrupting
the line of faith from Seth, you know, Adam and Eve, and then
Abel, and he was killed by his brother, and then Seth, And so
it went on. And by corrupting that line,
the sons of God looked on the daughters of men that they were
fair, and they intermarried, and the line was corrupted. That
was Satan's doing. And it went on down to the flood,
when it had got so bad that the thoughts of the intentions of
their heart was only evil continually. So God destroyed Satan's kingdom
then in a flood, and he left just Noah and seven other beings. But from that, very soon, Nimrod
arose, and Babel, and the tower, and the disbelief of God, and
the attempt again by fallen man to reach its idea of heaven. without the justice and righteousness
of God. And the Old Testament empires,
the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians,
as in Zechariah's day, all the way down, all sought to destroy
the people and the kingdom of God. Just as Revelation 13 paints
us a picture today of how Satan's kingdom tries to crush, tries
to sweep into conformity with the kingdom of this world, the
people of God. Materialistic evolution is all
around us. The corruption of truth in education. Just in my lifetime, I find it
staggering the extent to which it has progressed. The reverence
to people like David Attenborough, with his lovely pictures on the
television of this creation, but his totally corrupt view
of how it came about, and his godlessness. People like Richard
Dawkins, I think he's retired now, but no doubt replaced with
others, with the same evil intent of spreading unbelief of God,
the abandonment of godly morality in our society, how things have
changed. in just public morals, the corruption
of environmentalism, of net zero, of healthcare, of all of these
things, they're all a satanic origin intended to scatter God's
true people, to wash them into conformity with the godless world.
But God has promised judgment. It's in Psalm 75. For example,
we could have read the whole thing, but for time, we'll just
read verse 10. Psalm 75, verse 10. Listen to this. All the horns
of the wicked also will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous
shall be exalted. God's people will not be crushed.
How? How will he succeed? By four carpenters. He showed
me four carpenters. Was not Jesus known in Nazareth
as the carpenter's son? Wasn't he? He was an apprentice
carpenter to Joseph, the husband of Mary. These are in the pattern
and the line of Jesus. Four carpenters. What was he?
He was the Word of God become flesh. He was the Word of God
become flesh. What did he do? He preached the
kingdom of God. He preached the truth. And these
carpenters are in the line of Jesus, the word, proclaiming
God's truth with the good shepherd's voice. These are preachers, God's
preachers in this world. And what weapons do they wield?
What weapons do they use? My kingdom is not of this world,
else my servants would take up weapons and fight, but they don't
because it isn't. They're preachers wielding the
weapons of God's kingdom. What are the weapons of God's
kingdom? His word tells us. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4, the
weapons of our warfare for the kingdom of God against the kingdom
of Satan, they're not carnal, they're not fleshly, they're
not physical, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds. What do they do? They fray those
horns of this world. Look there, these have come to
fray them, the horns of this world. These carpenters with
their preaching have come to fray, to shred them, to scatter
them. to cast out the horns of the
Gentiles and to scatter them. That's what they're for, that's
what he does. Is not his word, says Jeremiah, is not the word
of the Lord, is not his word like a fire and like a hammer? It's just a word, it's just words.
Is it not like a fire and like a hammer that breaketh a rock
into pieces? The gates of hell shall not prevail
against the triumph of God's kingdom. In Isaiah 54, in verse
17, it says this, Isaiah 54, no weapon that is formed against
thee, my people, church of God, no weapon of this world, of the
kingdom of Satan that is formed against thee shall prosper. And
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord. And their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord." Imputed righteousness from God. Do you
fear as this world grows ever more evil and contrary to God,
and how weak and insignificant we appear? But remember this,
always remember this, and be comforted by it. Romans 8, 31.
If God before us, who can be against us? Answer, nobody, nobody. Nothing can prevail against the
building of the church of God. Be comforted, be confident in
his promises and be patient to rest until his perfect time comes. Amen.