Yes, Zechariah 6. I'm going to read one verse and then
we'll look at it. Zechariah chapter 6 and verse 13. 6 and
verse 13. even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory of building that temple,
he'll 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 both. He shall build the temple and
bear the glory. Now this is exciting news if
you're that temple, if you're a part of that temple, if you
wanna be part of that temple. If you don't know if you're a
part of that temple, may God reveal it to you that you are. But before I proceed, we must
ask the question, Of whom does the passage or the prophet speak? Who is he speaking of in verse
13? We'll go up one verse. And he
says, and the prophet says, and speak unto him, saying, thus
saith the Lord of hosts, saying, behold the man whose name is
the branch. He shall grow up. out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord." So whoever
this person is, the branch, now I didn't think about this until
just now, so I'll pause, but a Mormon friend said, that's
Joseph Smith. I said, no it isn't. No, it's
not. So again, what you're talking
about in Bible class, people, they just don't believe. They
don't, you know, they will not believe. Well, he's talking about
the temple, you know, the Mormon temple and this and that. No,
no, no. They're blind and they're leading
blind and they'll both end up in a ditch. But I couldn't, you
know, I couldn't convince this person That's not Joseph Smith. We know it's the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's who the branch is. It's our sovereign Redeemer.
It's the one among a thousand, says Job. It's Jesus the Christ. For our meditation this morning,
I want us to look at He, Christ, shall build the temple of the
Lord. That's each individual believer
That's the church collective, the temple, temple of the living
God. And he, Christ, shall bear the
glory. We don't share in any glory of
building God's church. We don't share, I say it this
way, we honor to whom honors do, but it's God's glory. It's his ultimate glory to save
his people from their sins. That's why he came. That's why
he suffered. That's why he bled and rose again.
He will bear the glory and we are to bear his image. Are we
not? Are we not? Well, I got three, just three
thoughts. First off, let's talk about,
let's look at the temple. Secondly, let's look at the builder. And thirdly, let's look and see
how that builder Christ bears the glory it's his own work so
let us look at this again in verse 13 even he even he is your
is that he and your Bible capitalized Nathan we were just talking about
this it is okay okay so there's no question when you read it
who he's speaking of but even he shall build the temple we'll
kind of go backwards let's look at this temple this temple is
each individual believing sinner, or the church universal, or the
collective remnant, or the elect, whether they're here, whether
they're in Ashland, whether they're in Almonte, Michigan, it's wherever
his people are is the temple. He, Jehovah God, in the person
of Emmanuel, and by the agency or working of the Holy Spirit,
he is the one. He is the one, the only one who
is said to build. Even he shall build. And we see
this in Acts four, there's only one name given among men whereby
we must be saved. He's talking about Jesus Christ.
So Christ is the builder of this temple. And when he builds, this
is what's beautiful, when he builds, no man can tear down. No man can tear down. Christ
is the alpha and the omega in salvation and justification,
sanctification and righteousness. Matter of fact, Deuteronomy 32
says in verse four, his work, and this is his work is building
the temple. His work is perfect. Now, when I look out at us and
I certainly know myself, I'm like, that's pretty far, that's
pretty far from it. But in God's eyes, Even he shall
build the temple of God's hand is upon us It will be perfect. It will be it will be made like
him every stone cut and Set in their proper order in their proper
time and their proper station in life So, you know why my children
I've been praying for the salvation of my children since before they
were born and Grandchildren, same thing, and yet they're not
saved. They make no profession. They've
requested not the waters of baptism. He. He. Every stone is cut. It's set
in its proper order. It's set in its proper time and
station in life. We, being a fast food society,
we like to see results. That's why this invitation system,
that's why Charles Finney, boy did he deceive so many people. That's why the invitation system
is so popular. We want to see, like Bruce said,
touchy feely, we want to see some work. Can we resist the Holy Spirit?
It says we can, but not when the Holy Spirit is active. When
He gets into the heart, the heart will change. We're new creatures,
new creations. These stones stand upon or rest
upon, and first Peter says, the living stone, well, that's Christ.
And we are ourselves called in the next verse, in first Peter
chapter two, verse four, now in verse five, we are said to,
are called ourselves lively stones and are built up. Who builds? He builds. These, us, these temples
or this temple, We are to imitate and be as Christ is to us and
in us. We are to be consecrated, sincere,
without hypocrisy, easy to be entreated, kind and full of love,
and of the grace of God. When he's building this temple,
each individually and collectively, he's making us like himself.
The world has its allurements and its charms, and we so often
get carried away. That's why gathering together
is so important. That's why hearing the Word preached. That's why
the means of grace, and I've been speaking of this the last
month or so, I'm really convinced that prayer, fellowship, unity,
the bond of perfectness, all these things are important because
it By the use of the Holy Spirit
making use of these things Conforms us to the image of Christ. We're
the temple. We're his temple Well, what does the scripture
say about this temple? 2nd Corinthians, you don't have
to turn there and 6 and 16 what agreement? Okay in Amos 3 3 2
cannot walk together unless they be agreed and You can have friends
outside the church. I'm not saying that. You can
have acquaintances. We work with unbelievers. I'm not saying that. I'm saying you better be very
careful. Very careful. And I'm not going to send any
boundaries. That's the Holy Spirit's. I'm going to leave it to Him
to dictate these things. But listen, the Scriptures, to
me, I hadn't seen it like this. What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? with idols. We know that evil
communications corrupt good manners. It doesn't work the other way
around. What you have in you, Christ, is not going to rub off
on somebody else. Usually when you're with people
and stories get told, I know, I've worked for years and this
is my story, you get talking like other people. You get thinking
like other people. not the temple of God. That's
just that's how we are. What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? He abides in us and with us. He dwells in his people and his
people in him. John says, we as his temple serve
him firstly. Seek ye first, not seek ye first. And He is to have the preeminence
in all things, especially with His own building. As we are His
temple, with His own building, He must have the preeminence.
We are His devotees. We serve Him before any other. We worship Him because we adore
Him. and jealously guard our relationship
with Him." Jude 1, verse 23 says that we are to hate... well,
let me just turn there. I have it written down partially. Jude 1, verse 23, "...and others
saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even
the garment spotted by the flesh." That's what we are. We're a temple. We're God's temple. We're God's
creation. We're God's work. And again,
we work in this world. We pay taxes. Christ said, run,
run, O Caesar, that which is. So we're not trying to break
the law. We're not trying to be a cultist. We're not trying
to sidestep the laws of the land or the government. We just need
to be careful. Why? Because he builds the temple
of the Lord. We are the temple of the Lord.
Secondly, now let us turn our attention to the builder. Even
he shall build. He is singularly the builder
of his people. He's singularly. It's not this
plus Dr. Gill, as many good things as
he has to say. It's not this book plus Spurgeon,
even as many good things as he has. They're just brethren. But
they're brothers with errors and faults, and that's the same
way we are. He builds the temple, and he uses This word, this word,
every word of God is pure. We just read that back there
in Proverbs, back there in the men's study. He wants no help
or assistance in this work because if it's grace, it's no more works.
If it's works, it's no more grace. As soon as we put our hand to
it, it's not grace. It's not grace. He who has purchased
all the materials, so to speak, by his own blood and sacrifice,
he made this grand structure of mercy and grace by himself.
No assistance. He prepares them. That is us,
his temple, to commune and reside in each one safe center. No help
on our part. As a matter of fact, we could
look at, we've done this before, I preached a message a year or
two ago on 1 Kings 6 about the stones that were going to be
carried and placed in the temple. They were cut and fashioned and
smoothed before they even got there. Because there was not
to be any noise of hammer or chiseling. That's man's works.
There isn't any. So this builder predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son. He binds us together. And this
is what my desire for us here. God binds us, his temple, together
like no other family in history. Now I know we think we can stand
on our own. We can't. We need one another. Freely, willingly, obedient servants
of the Most High God. We all have need of Him as the
temple and of one another. Ephesians chapter 2. Turn there
with me if you would like. Ephesians chapter 2 and starting
in verse 19. Now, therefore you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household or temple of God and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles, prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. Not only is he the chief cornerstone,
he's the builder. in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through
the Spirit." Now, some of us are close to our family, our
blood family. That's fine. How else are they
gonna hear about the gospel if you're not close to them? Some
of us are not so close because maybe we've said some things
and they didn't like the gospel. Some of it was just our self,
we're just mean, whatever. But this family, this family,
even though from varying backgrounds, generation gaps, and these things
are all real, But there is, and there should
be, and there needs to be something special about the family of God. Ephesians says we're a holy temple
built up together. May it be so here. Lastly, we've seen the temple, that's
us. We've seen the builder, that's Christ. Now Christ is, he says
that he's gonna bear the glory. I just love how this is worded
in this passage. Even the Lord, even he shall
build the temple of the Lord and he, he shall bear the glory. He does all, and I'll try to
put it in words where I wrote it down in words where I could
understand. God through Christ does all the lifting and working
and architectural foundation of his temple, his church, his
particular people. Thus, he has all the glory, because
he's done the blueprints. When they had blueprints when
we had this building, we kept referring to him. I didn't draw
them. Bruce didn't. We didn't draw them. It's the
architects. He's the architect of this building. He does all the heavy lifting.
He does all the work. And therefore he bears the glory.
Why? Why does he bear the glory? Well,
there's got four points on this. This is pretty interesting. Why
does he bear the glory? Well, first I want us to notice,
look at the badness of the material. Look at the weakness and frailness,
which I'm reminded every day when I get up, the knee didn't
bother me, it bothers me this morning. Now where did that come
from? Is that because I'm not exercising or is that simply
old age? We're falling apart. Everybody,
we're falling apart. The weakness and badness of the
material. It says we have stony hearts.
We're born with stony hearts. We're rebellious and stiff-necked. is what we are and what we do.
That's the material that He has. He had to create us anew. He had to give us a soft and
tender hearts. Never such horrid and lousy and
cold material had our Lord. Yet nothing is impossible and
nothing is too hard for Him. Stop right there and praise His
sovereign grace. That's why He gets the glory.
Because the material that he's working with, he had to create
new. Secondly, notice, he's one of
a kind. He's one of ability, one of perfect
sacrifice for sins. And his work is most excellent,
sure, and satisfying. No one else could do for sinners
but him who is a purized and behold iniquity and not do something
about it. And he did do something about
it. He came, he saw, he conquered, he suffered, he bled, he died,
and he rose again. And now he's sitting at the right
hand of God to make sure that this temple that he's built,
his own glory and his own name is on the line, will be with
him as he says where he is. Well, Thirdly, notice this, the magnitude
of this work, this building, this temple. I know in many projects,
many projects never get finished. They're too hard. It becomes
too expensive. It's too long. But not our Lord. He patiently bears with each
of us who, we already talked about the material, it's called,
it's seconds. It's worse than that. You know,
when you go to the lumber yard, when I go to the lumber yard,
and if they let me pick out the lumber, I'm always looking, because
they'll just give you stuff that is pretty bad stuff. But I'm
looking, and I'm moving stuff aside, moving stuff aside, because
I know what I want for that project. Is this not a poor example of
our Lord? He knows exactly what He wants.
He knows exactly what He's doing. And He's done it. and done it
most successfully. There's nothing too hard for
him when it's in respect to his own glory. Lastly, notice this,
the finished product. The finished product. He does
that which will ever bring him most glory. This temple shall
be, and it already is in his sight, perfect, complete, and
finished in the beloved. How do I know that? Well, Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
10, and you are complete in him which is the head of all principality
and power. You're complete in him. First
Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30. But of Him, are you in Christ
Jesus, this temple builder, this one who will bear the glory,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Everything needed. That's why
it upsets me when I myself, when I get hit with a situation, I
don't know how to handle it, go to Him. I don't know how to
handle it. Well, he's wisdom. I need wisdom.
Go to him. Go to him. Righteousness. We must have a perfect righteousness.
We already have it in Christ. Sanctification. We've been set
apart. We're made meat for the master's use. Redemption. It's
complete. First in James, if any man lack
wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and appraise
not. So in closing, Everything in
the economy and production of our Lord must have his hand upon
it and he will bring it to a determined end. Or as the prophet said,
I like how this is worded, Mr. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet,
said in Jeremiah 29, you don't have to turn to verse 11, I know,
he says, the Lord God, I know the thoughts that I think towards
you. Sayeth the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give
you, to bring you to an expected end. It's his temple. It's his work. He's the builder. He's the sustainer. He's the
finisher. and He will bear the glory. He
will bear the glory. Revelations chapter 1 in closing.
In verse 5 and 6. Revelations 1 verse 5 and 6. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead and
the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us
kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and
dominion forever. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord and he shall bear the glory. I'm so thankful that
our God is completely successful. Aren't you? Nathan, would you
close us please?