Every now and then I will, in
the course of reading some aspect of history, read that such and
such a man founded this church or that. Sometimes I will see
when I read a pamphlet or some announcement concerning a church,
see the pastor's name, his degrees written in large letters. and
founder of this church. And when I do, I think how sad. That looks like something he
would have built. Churches hire preachers, and I use the word
hire in the most contemptible way possible. Any preacher who
can be hired for anything is not worth the salt and powder
it takes to kill him. Now it says that about any preacher,
any preacher. Churches hire preachers because
they have a reputation for being great builders of churches. And books are written on how
to build churches, how to be a successive church builder. When I was in college, I was
compelled, if I stayed in school, to sit through seminars and classes
and lectures about how to build churches. And I grant that men
do build churches. They sure do. They build Baptist
churches and Pentecostal churches and Presbyterian churches and
Catholic churches and Episcopal churches and Methodist churches
and countless other churches, but not God's church. He who
builds the church of God is Jesus Christ alone. I said to you a few weeks ago,
anytime we attempt to build the church, if you ever get it in
your head, or I ever get it in mine, that somehow we've got
to do something to build the church, I promise you, the result
will be compromise. Not sometimes, all the time,
because we will compromise every principle revealed in this book
and everything we know to be true to get accomplished the
goal we have set. Our business is to worship God
in the preaching of the gospel of His grace, proclaiming His
grace to perishing sinners and watch him build his church. Now, that's my subject this morning.
Christ is the builder of his church. Our text is Zechariah
6, verses 12 and 13. Zechariah 6. Now, we know that
this is a prophecy speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark it
down when you read the scriptures, especially when you read the
Old Testament prophets and especially when you read the minor prophets.
How often have you read them and scratch your head and say,
I sure wish I knew what they're talking about. I wonder what
that means. Mark it down. It's talking about
Christ. It's talking about Christ. It
is written to reveal something about the person and work of
our Redeemer. And this is obvious as we read
Zechariah chapter 6, look at verse 12. And speak unto him,
saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the
man whose name is the branch. Now, those words, wherever they
are found throughout the Old Testament, the branch, as they
are applied to a man, apply to no man except the God-man, Jesus
Christ our Lord. So let's talk about Him. He shall
grow up out of His place. He who is God the Eternal Son,
whose goings forth have been from everlasting in the fullness
of time, came into this world, and He grew up before God our
Father as a root out of dry ground, as a tender plant springing up
in the earth. And He grew in this world, in
wisdom and in stature as a man, and obey God Almighty perfectly
unto the full satisfaction of justice by the sacrifice of himself. He shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory. Now, there are three
things in that last line of verse 12 and in the first line of verse
13 which stand out just like glaring lights calling for our
attention. First, the temple, and then the
builder, and then the glory. First, we must understand what
the temple is that is here spoken of. Without question, The immediate
reference of the prophet is to the building of the second temple
in Jerusalem, the rebuilding of Solomon's temple. That is
the immediate context. But the immediate context is
not the message of the book and the message of the prophecy.
The prophecy reaches beyond the immediate context, saying clearly
that it's talking about that one who is to come, whose name
is the branch. It's not talking about that physical
temple that once stood over in Jerusalem. Now please, please,
please, please understand what the Scriptures teach. All those
Old Testament things, those physical ordinances of carnal worship,
the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the holy days, the
Sabbath days, the ceremonial law, all of them are completely
and forever fulfilled and ended and done away in the obedience
of Christ completely. Don't listen to these religious
numbskulls who want you to focus all your attention on Jerusalem
and the Holy Land, or for that matter, on America and the things
going on here. Focus your attention on Him of
whom the Scripture speaks. who is our salvation, our hope,
our God, and our Redeemer. Well, what's this temple talking
about, Pastor? It's talking about that which is described in the
New Testament as the Temple of God, the Church of God, the House
of God. is, throughout the New Testament,
set forth before us as the temple of God. And ultimately, as you
read the book of Revelation, you find that the temple of God,
made perfect, is heaven itself. So that when we are gathered
together with Christ in His holy temple at last, we dwell forever
in the immediate presence of our God in the perfection of
holiness. Let me show you this from the
Scriptures. I don't want you to take my word for it. Let's
look at two or three passages. You turn, if you will, to Ephesians
chapter 2. I want you to see clearly that the teaching of
scripture is that the Old Testament temple, the temple built by Solomon
and this second temple rebuilt by Zerubbabel was a typical temple
portraying the church of our God and the work of Christ our
Redeemer for and in and through his church. Listen to this. I've
read it to you many times in 1 Corinthians. Paul writes and
says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit
of God dwells in you? Urging us to have nothing to
do with the unfruitful works of darkness. And he's not talking
about going to a restaurant that sells beer, and he's not talking
about working with a fellow in a union who's an unbeliever.
He's talking about by unfruitful works of darkness, false religion. He says, what agreement hath
the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. As God said, I will dwell in
them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. Now look in Ephesians chapter
2, verse 19. Paul is talking about us being joined to Christ. Talking about the believer's
union with Christ. We who are far off are now made
nigh by the blood of Christ, who is our peace. who makes both
one, breaking down the wall of partition that separates us.
Verse 19, Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Now look at verse
21. in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together
for the habitation of God through the Spirit." So the temple, spoken
of back here in Zechariah 6, of which the Lord is said to
be the builder, is the church of God. Certainly that speaks
of the local church. of true gospel churches. The
gathered assembly of God's saints for worship. Gathering here as
we have today in the house of God, we are the house and the
temple of God. The church, even the local church,
is not this building. This is a This is just a building.
It's just a building, nothing else. It's consecrated and used
for holy purposes, but it's not a holy building, and this is
not a holy place. It's not a sanctuary. This is
just an auditorium in which we gather to meet. And it wouldn't
matter, as far as us being or not being a church, it wouldn't
matter whether we were gathered out yonder in the field or whether
we were gathered in some barn somewhere in seclusion or gathered
in someone's living room. It would not matter. The church
is not the physical building, but rather the people gathered
together in the name of God to worship God in spirit and in
truth. trusting Jesus Christ our Lord
and Redeemer. This is the house of God. That's what Paul calls it in
1 Timothy. Imagine that. This is the house of God. Not my house, not your house.
God's house. God's house. And I'm going to
tell you something. I'm going to tell you something.
I'm just a man. And not much of what? But I'm
going to be honored in my house. I'll not only open the door,
I'll open the door and toss you out of your ear if I ain't. I'm
going to be honored in my house. And God's going to be honored
in His house. God's going to be honored in His house. He alone
is going to be honored in His house. Gathered believers in
the blessed holy bonds of sweet communion in the name of Christ
for the purpose of worshiping God These are the temple of God,
gathered here today. We worship our God, folks, all
around this part of the country, all down through the islands,
worshiping God right now, right now. Gathered around His throne
spiritually, worshiping Him. All the temple of God. In just
a little while, folks who are an hour behind us are going to
gather in succession. Following right where we are,
worshiping God. Just a little while, folks out
on the West Coast are going to follow them. Folks in Hawaii are going
to follow them. And on around the world, till
the sun sets, so that throughout the world, successively, day
after day after day after day, God gathers His people in local
assemblies just like this, around the world, worshiping Him. Worshiping
not at some material altar. We don't have a material altar. Anywhere where you find a material
altar, you find the synagogue of Satan, not the house of God. Our altar is yonder in heaven. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord, and we worship in spirit, not at a material altar here,
but yonder at the throne of God. We worship Him in spirit and
in truth. Now, what I've said concerning
every true local church, The Scriptures clearly teach us it's
true with regard to the Church of God universally. What do you
mean when you talk about the Church universally? There are
folks, you know, who we live in this part of the world where
there's some Baptist who spells the name Baptist with capital
letters all the way through, and they think they're the only
ones who matter at all to God, and they're the only ones who
have a corner on God. And they would say concerning your pastor
and others like me and you, well, those folks are universalists. They believe that all the churches
go together and make up one big church. And they know better. No, no, that's not what the scriptures
teach. That's not what the scriptures
teach. But what do the scriptures teach about the church universal?
All who were chosen in Christ from eternity are still in Him. And they're going to remain in
him forever. And that is his body, the church, spoken of in
scripture as the church of the firstborn, whose names are written
in heaven. All who are born of God, who
have been born of God, in heaven and on earth, are his church. We are one in Jesus Christ. All who shall be united to our
Redeemer, redeemed by His precious blood, called by His Spirit,
chosen in everlasting love, from Adam to the last saint, called
by God's grace, out of darkness into light, is His Church, which
is His body, the Church of the Firstborn. Now, as we go through
this Scripture this morning, from this point on, that's what
I'm talking about. When I talk about the temple
of God or the church of God, I'm talking about the whole body
of the saved. The whole body of God's elect. Well, why is the church described
as the temple of God? Let me give you just two reasons. First, the temple was the place
of God's specific dwelling in the Old Testament. Turn to Exodus
25, I want you to see it. We know that the Most High dwelleth
not in temples made with hands. We know that. Yet by divine ordinance
and by divine law, by divine command, God established first
the tabernacle, and then His temple at Jerusalem, and made
it His dwelling place, so that between the wings of the cherubim
above the mercy seat, Constantly shine forth the Shekinah, the
manifestation of God's gracious and glorious presence. Yes, the
omnipotent God is everywhere. My grandson Will, I got his attention. I know he's downstairs. Here's
his name, you pay attention. We were sitting out at Bobby's
the other day fishing, and he said to me, he said, Pop, where's
God? I have sung God's everywhere,
as I have many times. But, you know, kids will keep
asking questions to test you. Now, did he really mean that?
He said, Pop, is God on top of my head? And at first I thought he was
just being silly. No, he tested me. Is God really, is God in
me? Is God in me? Son, God is everywhere. Everywhere. David said, if I
soar into heaven, there he is. And if I make my bed in hell,
there he is. Darkness is light before thee. God is omniscient, everywhere
present, all the time. He says concerning his holy temple,
this is where I'll meet you. This is where I am. In the gospel
day, his church is his dwelling place, the house of God. If you want to find a man, say
you got business with a fellow and you want to find him, the
first place to look is at his house. That should make sense,
doesn't it? Go to his house. You want to
know Him? The place you want to be is in
His house. Because outside His house, He puts on a mask. Outside His house, He behaves
differently. Outside His house, He guards
Himself. In the house? Ah, now you know the man. There
he sits and drinks his coffee and talks to his wife and romps
in the floor with his children and grandchildren and jokes and
laughs and is serious. lights, and there he just, he's
open, because it's in his hands. If you want to know God, go to
his house. That's the only place on this
earth where God Almighty has promised he'll meet with men.
The only place. Oh, but preacher, I worship God
when I'm out, sitting by the river bait fishing. No you don't,
you worship the earth and fish. Well, I feel so close to God
when I'm out in the woods. Well, that might be all right,
but God reveals himself in his house. He shows His wisdom and
His power in the sun and the moon and the stars above and
all the things He's created so that they cannot be denied. He
shows His character, writing His law on every man's conscience
so that it cannot be escaped. You know that soon you must meet
God. You can't escape that. You can
cry atheist all you want to. I say to every man who says,
I'm an atheist, you're a liar. Your heart tells you otherwise.
You cannot, cannot suppress the Word that God has written upon
you in creation. Not going to happen. Try to forget
what I just said when you come to die. It ain't going to happen.
It ain't going to happen. But we know God, and God meets
with us in His temple, in His church, with His people. Look
here in Ezekiel 25, verse 22. The Lord gave Moses commandment
concerning the mercy seat. The mercy seat, you remember
that? table that sat in the Holy of Holies was covered with a
lid called the Mercy Seat. Underneath the lid, the Ark of
the Covenant with the Law of God and Aaron's rod that budded.
Over the Mercy Seat are the two cherubs facing down toward the
mercy seat, as if to say their eye is ever on the blood, the
sacrifice of the Passover, Christ, our Passover, who is sacrificed
for us. He's the sacrifice. He's the
mercy seat. He's the fulfiller of the law.
He's the atonement for sin. And now listen to what God says.
In Exodus 25, verse 22, And there will I meet with thee, and I
will commune with thee from above the mercy seat. between the two
cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things
which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."
I'll meet you on the mercy seat. I'll meet you where my sacrifice
is. I'll meet you where my Son is. I'll meet you on the mercy seat. I'll meet you in Christ. I'll
meet you in my house where my Son makes himself known amongst
the poor and the contrite with whom I am pleased to dwell. I'll
meet you in my house with my people." Not only was the temple
the place where God dwells, the temple is the place where the
Lord God reveals Himself. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. When the Lord is pleased to meet
with us in a manifest display of His
grace and greatness and glory. When you come here and Rex, you
hear something other than my scratchy voice. And God speaks. He opens to you His covenant
and His secrets. He makes known to His friends
from the mercy seat through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer. Timothy Dwight, if I remember
correctly, was the first president of Princeton University. He wrote this hymn we sing rightfully. I love thy kingdom, Lord, the
house of thy abode, the church, our blessed Redeemer, saved with
his own precious blood. I love thy church, O God, her
walls before thee stand, dear as the apple of thine eye. and
written on thy hand. For her my tears shall fall,
for her my prayers of sin, to her my cares and toils are given,
till toils and cares shall end. Beyond my highest joy I prize
her heavenly ways, her sweet communion, solemn vows, her hymns
of love and praise." This being the place of divine
worship, where God dwells is the most blessed, delightful,
useful, helpful, important place on this earth. Because here where
God dwells, and here alone, sinners like you and I worship So, Pastor, don't you think we
worship Him day by day? Not if you don't worship Him
in His house, you don't. You're just playing a game with
yourself. Now, don't you think I can worship God wherever I
choose? Yeah, but you're not going to choose to do so if you
don't worship Him in His house. This is the place where God is
worshipped. Here again this morning, Doug
will recall. I think I've told this in front
of him before. He came out to ask for Faith's hand in marriage. Part of a father's responsibility
is to make the fellow a little uncomfortable, you know. So I
tried to act like I wasn't really quite ready for that yet. Doug
started to tell me what all he was prepared to do and how he
had prepared for this. I was going to take care of faith
and I said to him, I'm not interested in anything you have or anything
you might have. Nothing. Nothing. I ask only one thing of you.
Worship God with my daughter. Nothing else matters by comparison. Did you hear me? Nothing else
matters by comparison. Nothing. The most significant, meaningful,
important, blessed, profitable meeting of men in
this world at any time is where two or three sinners meet in Christ's name to worship
Him. Oh, hear me, children of God. Arrange your life around the
worship of God in His house. Why do you think all those commandments
were given in the Old Testament? We've got to go up to Jerusalem
three times a year? Every man in Israel? And leave
his whole family for a whole week? All his cattle and all
his property? Well, preacher, that's not reasonable!
Talk to God about it. Why somebody come in and steal
our cattle? Why burn down our houses? You know what God said
about that? He said, I'll fix it so they won't even want your
cattle when you go worship me. I'll fix it so nobody shall desire
your wife when you go worship me. I'll fix it so everything's
taken care of as you come worship me. Worship God Almighty and
He takes care of everything. Everything. Everything. I remember
Faith was a baby. I was in college. I went and
applied for a job. I couldn't make enough money
working the job I was working to feed my family, go to school,
work in part-time. And I found out they paid twice
as much per hour if I'd go over rather than selling shoes and
load trucks. And I went and applied for a
job. And, of course, they took one look at me and figured I
could load a bunch of freight. And the fellow said, well, all right.
And I said, no, there's just one thing. I can't work on Sunday. So I picked up the application.
So the trash can said, we can't use you. We can't use you. And I knew that everybody worked
there. Worked every Sunday. Now please understand me. I'm
not saying to you don't work on Sunday. I'm not saying that
to you at all. I was a preacher and I could
not allow myself to have anything to interfere with worshiping
our God and preaching the gospel of his grace any time. But I
said to him, I said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I go to school
from 7 o'clock in the morning to 1 o'clock every afternoon,
Monday through Friday. Any other time, except Sunday
morning, Sunday night, you need me, I'll be here. Second shift,
third shift, in-between shift. He said, you'll work any time
we ask you to work. I said, any time. I think, to this day, the
only fellow they ever hired to load freight, condition he didn't
work on Sunday. And I never had to. Never had
to. But it don't always work that
way. It always does if you want it to. It always does if you
want it to. It's just that simple. This is
the place where God worships. And yet, the thing required for
worship is faith in Christ. Blessed and beneficial as the
outward means are, the outward means are nothing apart from
faith in Christ. Our Lord tells us in Luke chapter
18 of two men, who went up to the temple to pray, the one a
Pharisee and the other a publican. The publican believed God, and
he didn't much know how to pray. He didn't pray a pretty prayer.
Not to you, but oh, how sweet in the ears of God. look on the blood sprinkled on
the mercy seat and be propitious to me." And the other stood and played
with himself. And I said what I meant to say.
He stood and played religion with himself. But he went to
hell and the publican went down to his house justified. The difference
being the one loved religion, the other loved the Savior. The
one loved religious duties, the other loved the blessed Redeemer. The one delighted in himself
and his righteousness, the other trusted Christ and his righteousness. All right, now, let me tell you
something about the Builder. I've got to be very brief. Spend
all my time on the first part. I'll come to this another time.
Let me show you three or four things. First, when Solomon built
his temple, he built the temple precisely according to the pattern
showed to Moses when he was in the mount and he made the tabernacle.
The same pattern we're told that God gave to Moses back in Exodus
25. Solomon received in 1 Chronicles 28. And we're told this specifically
in Hebrews chapter 8. These things are repeated and
repeated and repeated to make us understand that when Solomon
built his temple, he didn't go down to the local engineering
firm and get them to draw up lathes for him. But rather, God
Almighty said, build it this way, with these materials, by
this dimension, and do it in this manner, at this time, precisely
as I showed you. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our
great Solomon, builds his temple exactly according to God's purpose,
revealed and established in covenant grace between the Father and
the Son before the world began. You know what the purpose is.
Whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate. Whom he
predestinated, then he also called. Whom he called, then he also
justified. Whom he justified, then he also
glorified. All that Jesus Christ might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Solomon built his temple on Mount
Moriah, the place God had selected. But when time came for him to
build the temple, you know, God required him to
use the stately cedars of Lebanon, and there wasn't one of them
in Jerusalem. There wasn't one there. There wasn't one there.
God required him to use stones and gold that could not be found
in Jerusalem. But there was a fellow out yonder
by the name of Hiram, who was the king of Tyre. Now don't let that slip by you.
And Solomon made a league with Hiram, the king of Tyre, and
found favor in Hiram, the king of Tyre, who didn't know God
from aboard. And Hiram sent his servants out
at his expense and cut down every cedar tree in Lebanon that Solomon
needed to build the temple. Not only that, his servants loaded
those things up on rafts and brought them across sea and land
to Jerusalem to the place where they were needed. And Solomon
needed some gold. Do you know what Hiram did? Read
for yourself in the book. Hiram's servants showed Solomon's
servants where to get the gold, and showed them what route they
could take to bring the gold back to Jerusalem and help them
fetch it. Now, I don't know about you,
but I find that astounding, because we read in Ezekiel 28 about a
king of Tyre who is sent before us as the personification of
Satan himself. Our great God and Savior, our
Master Builder Solomon, so powerful, so wise, so skillful, so mighty
is He that according to the purpose of God Almighty, He employs everything
right down to Satan and his servants and all of creation to gather
cedars for His house. and fetched them to his place
day after day in his good providence. What does he say? He made a league
with the beast of the field and even with the creeping things
of the earth for him. So that all the providence is
subjected to him for the building of his temple. The temple, however,
Though it is built with the use of means, though God uses both
his servants and his angels and wicked men and all the events
of the world to build his temple, unlike Solomon, the work is altogether
his. People object to us teaching,
as the scriptures plainly teach, that God uses means for the saving
of his people. That means you're preaching words. No, no. Our Lord Jesus Christ
cuts down every tree and planes the tree into boards, saws it
into boards and planes it and polishes it and sets it in its
place. And the work is altogether his.
Though he uses instruments to perform the work, it is altogether
his as much as though he just said, well, hop over there in
the temple. It's altogether his work, totally
his work. We've started a garden up there,
and everybody knows that Shelby's Garden, but I help once in a
while. And folks ask me how we raise the garden. And if I tell
them I raise it with Hoes and hoses. Would anybody imagine that I
meant to say that hoe out yonder hanging in the garage and that
hose hanging on the reel has any ability to raise a garden? I don't know anybody quite that
stupid except religious folks. Nobody else. No, I take the hoe. Well, I don't, shall we? But
I do take the hose and chop down the weeds and water the garden
and work it with the hoe and the hose. But the work is not
the hose nor the hoses, it's my work. And when Christ saves
His people, He uses dull hoes and dirty hoses like you and
me. that the excellency of the glory
may be of God and not of man. That which is true of the temple
is true of every stone in the temple. Look ye to the rock from
which you're hewn and the hole of the pit from which you're
digged. The mighty mallet which smashed us out of the rock
is in the hand of our mighty Savior. And the mallet he uses
is the word of His grace. And he brings the rocks to their
place in the temple. Each rock, each stone, set exactly
where it was marked for it to be set before the world began. But you remember, there was not
heard in all the temple the sound of a hammer, a chisel, or a saw. Well, how do the rocks, those
huge stones, get placed in the wall of the temple? They are
taken in the hands of the Redeemer, and by the power of His Spirit,
each joint fitly compacted together, stone rubbing against stone, to fits just right. Each stone needing the other
to fit in its place. I thought about this this morning
sitting here. Lindsay was teaching assets. Young black man, told
me he's 22 years old by the day of last night. Raised in New
York, were you? Raised in New York City. New York City, the commercial
says. And that's Oscar Bailey. Seventy
years old. Close to it anyway. Raised down
here in Mercer County. And it takes each one to fit
with all that Christ brings with each one. rub it until they're fitted and
grow into a holy temple unto the Lord. In that temple, in that temple, there was a huge golden labor,
brazen labor, a sea, as it were, a sea of glass. And everybody who went in that
temple, as they walked into the temple, washed themselves in
that laver. And that laver is Christ, the
sea of His blood, in which He washed us at Calvary, and in
which we wash ourselves continually, believing Him. And everything
in the temple? I must confess, I'd like to have
seen it. I'd like to have seen it. One
of the wonders of the world. Man, I'd like to have seen it.
Everything in that temple, every piece of shidom wood, every cedar
board, every stone, every piece of furnishing, Inside that temple,
everything was completely overlaid with pure gold. The gold protected the wood. The wood could not be harmed
without first marring the gold. The gold covered the wood, and
the gold made the wood tremendously valuable. Tremendously valuable. We are, maybe some of you could be described
as stately cedar boards. I'm a worthless shit and wood
twig. but covered and completely encased
in and one with Him who is pure gold. And that makes me precious of
indescribable value to God Almighty. Now having said that, Let this last point preach itself.
He shall bear the glory, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and thy truth's
sake. Amen.