We turn to Psalms 127. We'll
be looking at two portions of Scripture here. This one ties
in well with the second. The first text will be Psalms
127. Psalms 127. A favorite verse of mine, verse 1. 127 verse 1, Except the Lord build
the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord
keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. We're going to look
at rebuilding Solomon's temple later
on. But this, in verse one of Psalms
127, whether we're speaking about or discussing Solomon's temple,
a house, or a human heart, a human heart, except, except the Lord builds. In the New Testament it talks
about A strong man armed keepeth his house, his palace. He's talking
about a man's heart. And the illustration there in
the New Testament is Satan is in there. And then if he just
goes, but is not occupied by that stronger than he, than stronger
than Satan, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, it's worse than
the first. He just vacates the heart and
leaves it open for further debauchery and further sin. But if the strong
man binds that one in the house, cast him out, then that's what
we're looking for. That's what we're interested
in. We're not interested in making a fair show in the flesh. We're
not interested in coming miles to hear a Christmas message,
or an Easter message, or if it's Mother's Day, how you can be
a better mother or father. We don't do that here. We don't
do that here. But we're interested in being
totally taken over. We're interested in being totally
subdued by the Lord Jesus Christ in giving us a new heart. And
so he says in this passage, except the Lord build the house, except
the Lord build. except the Lord initiates salvation,
except the Lord initiates righteousness, except the Lord initiates justification,
except the Lord initiates forgiveness of sin, it is vain if it is of
ourselves. And that is what modern day religion,
and modern day religion, it was prevalent in Spurgeon's day,
it was present in Augustine's day, it's been present since
Adam and Eve. There's only two kinds of religion,
the religion of Cain and the religion of Abel. We've talked
about that before. One who's trying to do good, thinks he
can do good, looking to God to accept the sacrifice of his hands,
and then there's the other religion solely based on a sacrifice,
solely based on the pure, perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God. So if we try to build this house
and we're looking at this house as salvation and changing our
heart, if we look at it trying to do ourselves, it's gonna fall,
it's gonna fail. But if God, if God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit initiates this wonderful, these
wonderful acts of mercy and love, then mercy and grace shall be
had, it shall be secured, and it shall be established because
it's his work. It'll be established. and we know that there is no
good thing born in us therefore we cannot do any good anything
honorable or wholesome in God's sight therefore he must from
beginning to end brought out this eternal life for us thereby
giving us peace with God except the Lord build this house they
labor And we are laboring in vain that build it. They're laboring in vain. Buddhists labor. Islam, Mohammed,
they labor. But it's all for naught. It's
all for naught. And in this country, Christian,
the Christian faith, it is so tied up in works. And again,
James speaks very specifically about work. Matter of fact, so
much so I read one time that Martin Luther didn't think James
needed to be in the Bible because he had just come from Catholicism. Work, work, work. And so he had
a little difficulty with that, but you know what? Faith is, grace is by faith,
or salvation is by faith and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Justification by faith, that's what he hammered home when he
stuck that thesis up in that door. Well, except the Lord build
the house, they labor in vain. And we've heard plenty, we've
heard plenty the last several months about vanity, All is vanity. Now, let us look at another builder. Let's look at another building
situation. Zechariah chapter 4. Zechariah chapter 4, starting
in verse 1. And the angel that talked with
me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of
his sleep. And he said unto me, what seest
thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick, all
of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it. and his seven lamps
thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the
top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side
of the bowl, and the other upon the left side. So I answered
and spake to the angel that talked with me, this is Zechariah the
prophet, what are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with
me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, no, my lord, no, I don't know. Then he answered
and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying,
Grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. His hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. For who hath despised the
day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. These are the eyes of the Lord,
which run to and fro through the whole earth. So we've got
this second section, second part of this outline. There's something
going on. There's something being built
here. This one called Zerubbabel. Who is he? Who is he? And you
can write these down. We're not going to turn. Ezra
chapter 3, Ezra chapter 5, Nehemiah chapter 12, Haggai chapter 1
and verse 14. It is this one's Zerubbabel in
the Jewish state. He is a tribal head among his
people in captivity. Secondly, he was a master builder
engaged in the building of this rebuilding the temple the second
time. This is all in Nehemiah, Ezra, the history, in the Chronicles
as well. And thirdly, if you want to look
at Matthew chapter one, we don't need to turn there, it's interesting,
he's of the lineage of David. So he's a type of Christ. So
who is this Zerubbabel? He's a chieftain or he's the
head of the tribe of his people in captivity. He's a master builder.
He's employed by the Lord to rebuild the temple, and he's
of the lineage of David. But he's also a type of Christ.
Turn to Haggai chapter 2. I can find it. Hey, God. Chapter 2. And look at verse 23. In that
day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel,
My servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make
thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of
hosts. is literally a picture, a type
of Lord Jesus Christ. He's the signet and He is chosen
by God the Father. But back to our text in Zechariah. If you were a captive people,
let's say you were a Jewish person, you were captive in Babylon in
a strange land and you got the necessary funding and supplies
to return to your own land and rebuild a most significant building
for you and your people, who better than Zerubbabel? Who better than Zerubbabel? If, by sovereign grace, you have
been made aware of your very own bondage and captivity and
slavery to sin, Who would be better than the Lord Jesus Christ
to set you free and build anew, that is, a new nature within
you to serve the living God? No one better. Historically,
Zerubbabel, you know, we've had this, this building was built,
I would not necessarily say they were master builders, but, you
know, There are those who set them apart. And God sets Zerubbabel
apart because of his qualifications. Both hands. And he was excited
and he desired to do it. So who better? Who better? Who
better? He says in our text in verse seven and eight, the hands of
Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of his house, his hands shall
also finish it. So it's a vote of confirmation, this man knew
what he was doing. And then it says, we will rejoice
because we shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. He obviously knows what he's
doing. So we would be thankful that we didn't necessarily have
to worry about getting done correctly, to proportion, As specified,
and so too, I say the Lord Jesus Christ is ours irrevocable. Now let's look at these verses,
verses 1 through 10, and let's see the Lord Jesus Christ in
here. First of all, we have His vision. You have a candlestick,
which is the church, out of Revelations. Then you have this bowl on the
top of it, and seven lamps, And you notice something about this,
those lamps that were in the tabernacle, they always had to
be serviced, did they not? They always had to have oil ready
and service them. Man had to service those things.
Not so in this picture, this vision. And the two olive trees
by these candlesticks, by these bowls, one upon the right side
of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof. Look at
verse 12, and I answered again and said unto him, What be these
two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the
golden oil out of themselves? You see that in verse 12? The
olive trees are by the golden candlesticks, which are by the
bowls, which are by the seven. It was just, it was, they just,
it fed it. Nobody had to crush it. Nobody
had to harvest the olives. It just fed it. That's just like
our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't keep ourselves. We don't
keep ourselves brightly shining. Oh, I've got to get up this morning
and recharge my batteries or pray a little bit harder or pray
a little bit more or maybe read a little bit more. We ought to
do these things, but it is by God's total sovereign grace that
our candles, they stay lit. We don't have to, you know what
I'm saying? You see what I'm saying? This
vision, it's like a circle. And it's not broken. It's Christ
at the beginning, it's Christ in the middle, it's Christ in
the end. And this situation here, because he says it, I said to
him, what are these two olive trees upon the right side of
the candlestick and upon the left side of the candlestick?
Verse 11. What are these two olive branches which through
the golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? God's
worse sin abounds. Grace did much more abound. If you and I have to start trimming,
if you and I have to start keeping ourselves, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. This picture,
it's just a beautiful picture. that the vision is God simply
supplying everything necessary to build up his church, whether
it's talking about the whole church here or the individual
members. We've got the candlestick, the bowls, the olive tree, oil
for the lamps of his church, and it's constant supply. He
will keep you from falling. He that started a good work in
you will finish it. Yes, excuse me, yes, we petition
and ask Him for grace every day. We ask Him for forgiveness because
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But we confess our
sins. These are things that simply
believers do. We live upon Him because we need
Him. We feast upon Him and His Word.
But it's not these means, it's not these graces that keep us.
It's always been Christ and shall always be Christ. So the first
three verses, Now, we see in verse five, or basically, he
has a conversation, verse four and verse five, and then the
angel answered him in verse six, we see the declaration of God's
sovereignty, his supremacy, and his work. Then answered and spake
unto me. He answered and spake unto me,
saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
not by might, not by power, but, by my spirit." This work of the
church, this, except the Lord builds, this resetting of the
temple, whether it actually happened, it physically actually happened,
God was going to make sure that it got done. This temple is going
to be guaranteed because of who He is and what He's done. We
will sit with Him on the right hand. We will see Him in glory
because He says, it's not by your might, it's not by your
power, but by My Spirit. This rebuilding, whether we're
talking about an individual or the church universal, is but
by His Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. But by our might, our
power, this work can never be accomplished. It can never be
accepted. It'll never be satisfactory. Never, no, no. But if it's His work, by His
Spirit. Turn to John chapter 1. See what
he's saying in John chapter 1. I know people try to twist it.
But what he's saying in John chapter 1, in verse 12 and 13,
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Word, which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, But we're born of God. So there's your
free will, you've got none. It's bound. Spurgeon has an article,
Free Will of Slave, just a good little track. We're born, born from above,
not of blood, so it's not what your mom and dad have done or
whether they believe or don't, nor the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, not what you want to or don't want to, it's
by God's will. His sovereign will and grace. In this passage here, 2 Timothy
2, this is one of John Sebald's favorite passages, this right
here, 2 Timothy. verse one, chapter one, verse
nine, who has saved us? And he's speaking about, well,
be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, verse
eight, or of me as prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, God who
has saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before the world began.
I don't have to look at the Greek. I don't have to expound that.
It's just pretty well straightforward. It's not according to works.
It's not according to our works. That's what He's saying. Not
by might. Not by power, but by My Spirit. Then in verse 7, we see the greatness
of this one Zerubbabel or the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7, Who
art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? This mountain is going to be wiped out. This mountain
of a problem, which salvation is a mountain of a problem for
those seeking sinners, for those who understand their need and
understand that they can't do a thing. It's a mountain. But
to Him, to these great mountains before this great Zerubbabel,
it will become plain. It will just be leveled out.
Leveled out. our sight, behold the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says, and he shall bring
forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, grace, grace
unto it. The headstone, the Lord has taken
the stone and has become the headstone of the corner. It's
marvelous in our eyes. That's what he says in Psalm
118 and Isaiah. Look, turn to Isaiah 28. Isaiah
28. Isaiah 28 and verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tridestone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And he that believeth
shall not make haste. Well, this is the rebuble. He
shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, grace,
grace unto it. It's got to be by grace. Salvation's
never been by works, never been by works. It's grace, grace indeed,
because grace becomes Christ our Savior. Grace, He controls
it, and He only can dispense it, and He does so to whomsoever
He chooses. And those who receive it are
those whom He chooses. In this book, they're called
sinners, lost, undone, filthy, unclean, vile. That's you and
I. Do we take ownership up to those
titles? Because Christ came to save sinners.
And He will save sinners. Verses 8-10 in our text. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. He did historically. But our
Lord Jesus Christ, He will lay the foundation of this church.
That's why Upon this rock, the gospel, not Peter, not the Catholicism,
they say, Peter, that means Peter, no. Upon this rock, the church
shall never be moved. It's upon the gospel, it's upon
the truth. The truth which the church has, and it dispenses. Our foundation is not the truth,
it's Christ, but he's given it to his people. And we tell others
about it. We tell others about it. But
we see our strong, successful elder brother, he won't fail.
This is what these next verses, the hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. Now wouldn't, like I said,
wouldn't you be glad And you're out there, you know, you're out
there at a construction site, and boy, we got a big, this is
a big job, and you know, not really sure, I can read a little
bit of blueprints, but I can't do this, I can't do this, then
somebody else says, well, I can do a little bit of this, and
so we're kind of trying to piece, and then you got somebody comes in,
and he's the foreman, and he knows exactly what he's doing.
You're like, the Lord Jesus Christ is our
elder brother, And if he has started this work, he will finish
it. Church universal, there's not
going to be one sheep left behind, or you as an individual, if you,
by faith, have laid hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ. From start
to finish. He laid the foundation, he says,
he's laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish
it. From start to foundation to finish,
God in Christ Jesus is totally involved in His work of saving,
shaping and growing and delivering His people whom He foreknew. It's a circle. It can't be broken. And the beautiful thing about
this, He says, And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has
sent Me unto you. Thou will know. We'll know. I'm one of those people that
fall in the camp that believes you can know you know. Now, it
depends. If you get me on a bad day where
I'm looking at myself, and I'm looking at somebody else doing
better than I can do, I may say, well, I probably, I don't know
if I, but by faith, faith, we have a sure anchor. And so when
we look to Christ, we know His Spirit bears witness with our
spirit. We know. Like Tim James said, if you're
trying to find assurance, you won't find it. Because he said,
assurance is, I can't remember how he phrased it, but as soon
as you think, when you get your eyes off Christ and you look
for assurance, it's gone. It's fleeting. Because you're
looking here. You look to Christ, and you'll
have peace. Because that peace, He gives.
and you can't find it anywhere else. Thus, therefore we know
and acknowledge Him to the glory of God forever. In the next verse,
verse 10, for who hath despised the day of small things? Everybody
does, in this world. We don't despise His day of small
things, but the world does because they consider this church, it's
themed, there's nothing going on here. There's nothing going
on down in Smyrna. There's nothing. It's just, you
don't know. Grace works are small. I'm talking about today. I'd
love to see something happen here. I'd love to see that the
Lord take us under His wing and us be responsible because we're
going to have to tell people. We can't just sit around and
not say anything to anybody. If that happens, I pray that
the Lord does to you like He did to me. You hold your mouth
and then your mouth burns and you've got to speak. It would
do with David. How many opportunities do we
have we had? How many opportunities do we have? And we talk about
the weather, we'll talk about work, we'll talk about everything
but Christ. Why? Because we're afraid. We're
afraid somebody will hear us. We're afraid we'll be offensive.
We're afraid we may lose our job. We're afraid we're going
to lose friends, and that's exactly what's going to happen. But when
you realize you're not significant anywhere, and you realize that,
I hear these people, my sister-in-law, 40, however old she was, she
goes, I don't know my purposes in life. I do. Our purpose, we're
sent here to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and tell sinners
how they can be saved. Or, I can't talk to them, invite
them. Get a bulletin, boom, a business
card, just invite them. Because we don't, not everybody
has, can speak. And again, I have the fear of
Banteay. I struggle with it all the time. So let us not despise,
like this world does, that they have small things, even in conversions. Conversions, it's a small thing,
but the angels desire to look into it, and they rejoice when
one sinner repents. Did not our Lord send a boy to
defeat a giant? A sling? A boy? Did not our Lord raise up a baby
to eventually deliver a whole nation? Moses? And what does it say in Proverbs? The Cones, they're feeble folk. But they hide in the strong rock,
in the cleft of the rock. Cones, they're little rabbits.
Feeble folk. Don't despise. Let us not despise.
I understand and get discouraged. This pastor gets discouraged
when I look out and I see so few. But then the Lord rebukes
me every time I go through this. I go through it time and time
again. Old Pastor Jack Shanks, down in Houston. The pastor,
he's passed away. Down in Houston, Texas. And he had it in his bulletin. He said, who hath believed our
report? And he started off, he said, I get so bummed out. I
look at the, you look out there and he said, I don't, there's
not many people believe in it. He said, then the Lord flips
it on them and rebukes them. And that's what he does with
me. I look out here and I see you have believed this report.
You have believed it. Not many mighty, not many wise
men, not many noble, that's okay. But the fact that we are this
little group, you have believed it, and the Lord just rebuked
Jack and rebuked me, and when he put that article in his bulletin,
to see that His grace is sufficient. We still have to grow in grace.
Whether we grow in number, we still have to grow more like
Christ. So this day of small things, who has despised it?
The world does, but the believer treasures salvation, treasures
conversion, Treasures these times we can get together. And it's
marvelous and it's magnificent in our eyes indeed. Thank God
he has set up a place for us to gather together here in Jackson,
Missouri. There's not many places. We know
several places, but comparatively, not many. And look at what he says, for
who hath despised the day of small things? That word despise
means to disrespect. I ask you and I implore myself,
may we not disrespect this place. May we not disrespect one another,
because we are the church at this building. We've met here.
We didn't meet here. We've met at the workman's hall.
We've met in kitchens. We've met in storefronts. We've
met. It's the people. So let us not
respect, disrespect the church, no matter how small it is in
the eyes of the world. What is the believers, what is
our joy? Well, here in the text, for they,
that's us, that's these members of this temple being rebuilt,
shall rejoice and see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. Now, you know what a plummet
is. Everybody knows what a plumbob is. And I haven't seen one in a long
time. I don't even know if I've got one. Bruce's grandpa, grandpa's
probably got one, you probably got it at your house, probably
got it. But you take it, and you tie
that weight on the end of it, and if you want to see if that
corner's straight, if you want to judge whether that corner
is straight, now anymore they use these transits. That's what
I use. You use transits. You spot them.
But you gotta start somewhere. And it's gotta be true. We rejoice. that all judgment is put in the
hands of Christ. He's going to take care of everything,
and everything He does is right. So this is a device used to judge
the work, whether it's straight or not. If you've got a leaning,
like Nathan asked me about the wall I've got at the house, it's
starting to lean. Well, it's going to have to be redone. If you want to make sure that
that work is true, you take a plummet. And this plummet, we rejoice
and see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. We see the plummet
in our Redeemer's hand. All judgment is given unto Christ. Turn to John chapter 5. John chapter 5. There's not going
to be a stone laid in this rebuilding of a temple that doesn't belong.
There's not going to be granite, granite, and then sandstone where
that middle stone crumbles. No, each of us are fitted together.
Fitted together into the house of God. John chapter 5 and verse
22. He says, for the Father judges
no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. He's going
to be the one judging. And now turn back to Isaiah 28. We've just turned there, but
look at the very next verse. I read verse 17. Verse 18. Isaiah
28. Verse 16. I'm sorry, verse 16 is what I
read. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion
a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment
also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet. Our Lord. And nobody's going to be able
to escape. Not the so-called atheists. because they do believe
in something. There's no such thing. It may
be their own God, but they believe. But they don't believe on the
God. They're going to be laid in the
balance and found wanting. In closing, let's turn to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 3. Verse 14, these things, says
Paul to Timothy, write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee
shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou
mayest know how thou ought to behave thyself in the house of
God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground
of the truth. Our Lord has made it this way.
His church, we're on that rock. The rock is Christ. He has made
it so that the church is the ground and pillar of the truth.
Woe unto them who have abandoned truth for show, for ceremony,
or tradition. May it not be said of this place
that we decided we wanted to be more current, more contemporary. No, because in the back of my
mind, I still see Zerubbabel, and I rejoice that he's got that
plumb line. It says about pastors and teachers
that they be found faithful. It's the same with you. It's
a Roman, I believe, it's a reasonable service to be found faithful. And I think that goes into being
disrespectful. of the day of small things. God's
people are not ashamed of our Redeemer. God's people are not
ashamed of one another. And God's people are not ashamed
of the church. No matter if it's a hundred years old and then
five years old. That's fine. What are we going
to do? We're going to improve it. We're going to make it look
nice. We're going to make it presentable. Because people in
this country, they expect a building. They don't expect a house. That's
fine. We could be like, was it Jacob
or Joel met under a tree? But it's the people. But may
we rest assured that ours are rootable, has laid the foundations,
and he'll finish it. He'll finish it. To God be the
glory. Bruce, would you close us?