Once our Lord Jesus had been
delivered into the hands of wicked men, according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, just before he was dragged
off to Calvary, where he would be nailed to the cursed tree,
spit upon, mocked, and put to death by an angry religious mob,
he was brought before that bloodthirsty religious mob of people by Pilate,
crowned with thorns with a purple rag thrown over his shoulders,
and Pilate said, Behold the man. Now I have no doubt Pilate did not
have any idea the significance of those words, and those who
heard those words had no idea of their significance. The Lord
Jesus Christ is preeminently the man. He is the man who is
God, after whose image and in whose likeness the first man,
Adam, was created and made. He is the man who is God, the
creator of all things, And indeed he is the man, not only by whom
all things were created, but for whom they were created. Listen
to these words found in Revelation chapter 4. The four and twenty
elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship
him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power for thou hast created all things. Now
listen, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. God Almighty created you for
his pleasure. And contrary to the opinion promoted
by religious fools around the world, He didn't create the world
for your pleasure. He created the world and you
in it for His pleasure. And all things that are brought
to pass by His hand in providence, He brings to pass for His pleasure. Now long before Pilate held him
forth as the object of ridicule and scorn in the judgment hall,
The Lord God Almighty sent forth His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
before His servants as the man to be worshipped, trusted, and
obeyed as God our Savior. Turn with me, if you will, first
to Ezekiel chapter 9. It is this man that I set before
you today. I set before you the man, Christ
Jesus, who is God our Savior, and call upon you to worship
him, to trust him, to honor him, to glorify him as the man who
is the branch. In Ezekiel 9, the prophet of
God sees a vision of the Lord Jesus standing beside the brazen
altar as the executioner of divine justice upon the wicked. And
beginning at the sanctuary of God, we are told he shall pour
out God's furious wrath upon all his enemies. His eye shall
spare none. He declares in verse 10, as for
me also mine eye shall not spare. Neither will I have pity, but
I will recompense their way upon their head. Then in verse 11
we read, And behold, the man clothed with linen, which had
the acorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done
as thou hast commanded me. This man, Christ Jesus, with
the acorn by his side, wrote the names of God's chosen in
the book of God, and put a mark upon their foreheads, preserving
them from judgment We're told in verses 3 and 4, in the last
day when he has made all things new, when all people chosen of
God and redeemed by his blood are gathered in, and he has preserved
them. You remember in John's vision
in Revelation, the Lord God sent his angel and said to John, now
hurt not the earth. until these who are sealed of
God, the 144,000 who must be saved, are sealed and the mark
of God is put in them. He's talking about the salvation
of God's people, same thing here. He said, now once these are all
brought in, once all the ransomed, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
are presented before the glory of God's presence, the Lord Jesus
Christ, this man, will say with joy, Lo, I and the children thou
hast given me. And then the man, Christ Jesus,
Jehovah's righteous servant, who undertook our cause before
all worlds, will say, I have done as thou hast commended me. That is, I saved all my people.
I've glorified your name. I've done everything for which
you trusted me before the world began. Now that's exactly what
Zechariah saw in the last of his series of visions as it is
recorded in Zechariah 6 verses 9 through 15. I want you to turn
there and just stay right there. This is going to be our text
this morning. In the first verses of this chapter,
Zechariah saw two mountains of brass. representing the purpose
of God and the decree of God. And he was made to understand
that God in his, or the purpose of God, the providence of God,
and he made to understand that God's purpose is accomplished
in this valley of time between the two mountains, according
to those chariots and horses he sends forth into the world,
thus assuring us and his prophet. that God Almighty is always,
in all things, at all times, performing His good pleasure
toward you, His people, throughout this world. That's what He's
doing. That's what He's doing. When
things look utterly dismal, when it appears that God has just
picked up the world and tossed it up and let it come down in
chaos when it looks like your life is just exactly that. Just chaos. And you can't make
any sense of what's going on. You seem to be totally incapable
of understanding the things you're experiencing and what's going
on around you. Children of God, be assured. God Almighty is accomplishing
His purpose in all that comes to pass in time. And His purpose
is the glory of His Son in the everlasting salvation of His
people. That ought to be enough. That
ought to be enough. We ought need no more. And if
we look for any other consolation, I assure you your consolation
in all matters of difficulty and time will turn to bitterness
rather than consolation. And now Zacharias sees one more
vision. He sees this vision of the Lord
Jesus Christ represented in this man Joshua the high priest whom
we saw back in chapter 3. He saw in the last of his visions
these things. First he was commanded to go
to the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah where he was to
meet three men. Three men who were just now returning
from the captivity and brought with them silver and gold, sacrifices
of thanksgiving and praise to God for bringing them out of
the captivity back to Jerusalem and back to his house. These
three men are named specifically. Hilde'i, his name means worldly
or led through the world. Tobijah, his name means Jehovah
is good. And Jedidiah, whose name means
the Lord knows. It seems obvious to me that these
three men represent all God's elect who come to Christ with
sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise, being delivered by Him
from a bondage in captivity far worse than that of Babylon. My
name is Hilde. The Lord my God has taken this
man of the world and all the days of my life led me through
this world, marking my steps and ordering my steps every part
of the way. And so he shall do until he brings
me at last into his glorious kingdom. My name is Tobijah. I am the object and the unceasing
beneficiary of Jehovah's good. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And my name is Jedidiah. I am a man known of God. Known of God. The Lord God knows
me. He knows me with the knowledge
of his everlasting love, knows everything about me, knows all
that I need, and knows how to deliver me. Now being brought
from the captivity in which I was born, the captivity I love by
nature, by his almighty grace, I gladly bring the sacrifices
of praise to him, giving honor and glory to him. trusted him
alone for all things. Look at verse 11, Zechariah 6. Then take silver and gold, and
make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of
Josedek the high priest. Zechariah was commanded to make
two crowns, one of silver and the other of gold. The crown
of silver It seems to me, it just seems
to me, and I admit I'm guessing, but I'm guessing with some basis.
It seems to me that this crown of silver has a direct correlation
to the sockets and fillets or fasteners, the hooks of silver
that were used in the tabernacle, the shackle of the sanctuary
by which atonement was made, and the silver chargers that
were made and kept before the altar of the Lord. They are representative,
then, of our Savior's priestly office, of that which is performed
by which we are given acceptance with God and blessed of God.
The crown of gold clearly has reference to our Lord Jesus in
His kingly office, as is evident from Revelation chapter 14. And
then Joshua, the high priest, being set before the prophet,
is set before him as an imminent type of Christ. In chapter 3
we saw him clearly as one who is an eminent type of the believer
made a priest in Christ by God's grace and set forth as Christ
Jesus himself before whom the foundation stone of the temple
is laid and that one who is also Zerubbabel who shall build the
temple. Here he typifies the Lord Jesus who was to be crowned
with these two crowns. Now as you know the name Joshua
is the Old Testament name for the New Testament name, Jesus. In fact, Joshua in Acts chapter
7 is called by Stephen, Jesus. The word means Jehovah saves. He is the deliverer of God's
people. And this name is given to two
imminent men. Moses' successor, that one who
was to make Israel possess the land of Canaan, was called Joshua. He goes in and leads Israel triumphantly
over their enemies, defeating their enemies, possessing their
land, and God's people were by him brought into their inheritance. But this Joshua, this Joshua
was one of the Babylonian captives. He was a high priest in Israel.
And now he stands before Zechariah again, and God commands him to
take these two crowns, a priestly crown, and a kingly crown and
place them on the head of this one man. Obviously the vision
is symbolic. It's difficult for one fellow
to wear two crowns. He's giving us a symbolic vision
meant to give us spiritual instruction. Here is Joshua the high priest,
by divine appointment, made to typify our Lord Jesus, who was
priest forever, and is priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek,
who was both king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. Now, look at verse 12. As Zacharias
sees Joshua crowned with these crowns, as if to identify the
typical meaning even more pointedly, the Lord God commands him to
declare Behold the man whose name is the branch. Verse 12, speak unto him, saying,
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose
name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and
he shall build the temple of the Lord. Here he describes the
glory and the work of this man. And the words he uses are words
that can never fully apply to any man except the man, Christ
Jesus, who is God our Savior. I don't doubt for a moment. I
don't doubt for a moment. Zechariah understood that. He
understood that he was talking about this one who is to come,
the Messiah, our Redeemer, who truly will build a house, not
a physical one, a temple, not a physical one, but the house
and the church of the living God. Now let me show you several
things stated here. First, the Lord Jesus Christ
is called the man. That's such an unmistakable reference
to our Savior. Both the Jewish Talmud, their
rabbinical commentaries, and the Targum, that is the Aramaic
paraphrase of the Old Testament, translates the words like this.
They say this is what Zechariah said. Behold the man, Messiah
is his name. Behold the man whose name is
the branch, he is the Messiah. So Zechariah looks at Joshua,
this priest. places a crown of silver and
a crown of gold on his head, and he said, that's him. That's
the one we're looking for. That's the one who shall come.
That's the one who shall deliver us. How delightful it is to see
that this man is God our Savior. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. I insist on this a good bit.
You hear me refer to it constantly. And the reason is justified. Accept Jesus Christ. Be fully
God. And fully man. In one indivisible
person. Redemption is an impossibility. Salvation can never be performed. and we must forever perish. Man
was required to obey God, and we have broken God's law. Having
broken God's law, God demands satisfaction for our sins. But
no man, no mere finite creature, no, not all the human race combined,
should we all be cast into hell, could ever quench the fires of
divine judgment, because the sufferings of the finite can
never satisfy the justice of the infinite God. And God takes
upon himself human flesh. so that now he who is God in
our flesh is able as a person of infinite worth and infinite
value both to obey the law of God for us, bringing in everlasting
righteousness, and to satisfy the justice of God for us in
his one death, by which he put away sin, forever satisfying
the justice of God, so that he has forever quenched the wrath
and fury of God against us, having put away all the sins of his
people by the sacrifice of himself. This man is called the Branch. This well-known title is ascribed
through the scriptures to our Redeemer and is applicable to
none but Him. Hold your hands here and turn
to Isaiah chapter 11. Here the prophet Isaiah was inspired to
speak of our Lord Jesus as the Branch. But he uses a different
word. The word that Isaiah uses for
Branch is the word that is commonly translated, Nazarite. Look in
Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1. There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch, a Nazarite, shall grow
out of his roots. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
the Nazarite who was from old eternity, from the womb of eternity,
devoted to his Father, to the glory and will of God Almighty. His name, when he came forth
from his mother's womb, is called Jesus, for he shall perform his
Father's will. He shall save his people from
their sins. Here in verse 10 of Isaiah 11.
And in that day, in that day when this Nazarite, the branch,
comes forth, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign, a banner, a rallying point of the people. To it, to
him, shall the Gentiles seek. That is, this one who is the
root, the branch, the Nazarite, fulfilling all the will of God. In his day, he will stand, once
he's fulfilled all he came to do, he will stand as a rallying
banner. To him, his people scattered
through all the earth shall look. What does he say? And I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
is this one who is the branch, the Nazarite, who has come to
save. But back here in our text in
Zechariah, the word that's translated branch is a different word altogether.
The word means the sprout. It's the same word that's used
in Jeremiah 23. You know the passage. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David
a righteous branch, and the king shall reign and prosper, and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, in
the days of this one who is the sprout that comes out of Jesse,
the branch, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.
And this is the name whereby he shall be called, whereby he
shall be worshipped. The Lord, our righteousness. This is what it is to call on
the name of the Lord. How often religious people quote
the words, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. And people have this silly, ridiculous, superstitious
idea that if they will just say, Jesus save me, everything's alright. Somebody's in a car wreck and
Hear them call Jesus. Somebody lay on their death bed
and hear them call Jesus. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard folks say, oh, I know everything's alright. The last
word I heard mama say was Jesus. That's not what it means to call
on the name of the Lord. To call on His name, Larry, is
to worship Him as God our Savior who is alone power. It is to worship Him, as Jehovah
said kidnew, the Lord our righteousness. When we read that the man is
the man whose name is the branch, we are thereby assured that this
is no mere man. This man is both David's son
and David's Lord. He is himself Jehovah. He is
Jehovah said kidnew, the Lord our righteousness. Now third,
We read, and he shall grow up out of his place. And the prophet leads you to
that. We're not told what his place
is, out of which he shall grow up. Surely he is that one who
came forth from heaven, who is in heaven. His goings forth have
been of old from everlasting. And so he grows up in time out
of God's eternal purpose before the world was made. Perhaps this
is a reference to Bethlehem, the house of bread, that little
village in the land of Judea of the tribe of Judah. Our Lord
Jesus, who is the bread of life, was born there exactly as Micah
hypothesized in Micah chapter 5, verse 2. The words, he shall
grow up out of his place, may have reference, and I think this
is nearer the point. to his miraculous birth, this
one whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,
the man whose name is the Branch, did not grow up as any other
man did. He came forth as that one who
was conceived in the virgin's womb, that one conceived in the
virgin's womb without the aid of a man, by the miraculous power
of God the Holy Spirit overshadowing her. That holy thing which he
would sacrifice unto God, his body, was prepared in the virgin's
womb, and from her womb he came forth out of his place. by God's
power and his own. And then fourth, Zachariah was
commanded to speak of the office, the work and the character of
Christ as the builder of his church. You remember our Lord
Jesus said, I will build my church. And the church is the temple
of God. That's what was represented in
the physical temple back in the Old Testament. Zechariah says
he shall build the temple of the Lord. Clearly he's talking
about Joshua along with Zerubbabel and Zechariah and Haggai and
those laborers in Israel building the temple in Jerusalem at that
time. But that temple has long since been destroyed and will
never be rebuilt, and it has no concern to anybody today except
folks who have no understanding of this book. He's talking more
specifically and deliberately about the building of God's church,
His holy spiritual temple, the saving of God's elect. And then
those same words are repeated in the very next verse, verse
13. as if to emphasize the great importance of this work and the
dignity of Christ as the man, the branch, who will perform
it. Look at verse 13. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne. There never was another one.
There never was another one. And the counsel of peace shall
be between them both. Now let's look at this for a
minute. The Lord Jesus is the foundation stone of his house,
and he is the builder of his house, and he will have the glory
of it. Paul speaks of this in Hebrews
chapter 3, if you'd like to turn there. The Holy Spirit tells us that
we are living stones, built up a spiritual house and a holy
priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Christ Jesus. We are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. His temple we are, an habitation
of God through the Spirit. Now look in Hebrews chapter 3
verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him. He did all
that he was commanded as Jehovah's Servant to do, as also Moses
was faithful in all his house. For this man, Christ Jesus, was
counted worthy of more glory than Moses inasmuch as, that
is, because He who has built the house hath more honor than
the house, for every house is built by some man. But he that
built all things is God, and Moses verily was faithful in
all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which
were to be spoken after. But Christ, as a Son over his
own house, whose house we are, Do you see what I've been telling
you? Jehovah's temple, Jehovah's house is His church. You and
I who are born of His Spirit, called by His grace, whose house
we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm
unto the end. And He who is the builder of
the temple shall bear the glory of it. Turn to Isaiah chapter
22. Isaiah 22. Christ is the builder of his
house, and he, and he alone, bears all
the glory of him. All who know him, all who are
taught of God, all who are born of God, hang on him, and him
alone, all the glory of his saving grace. Let's see if this is what
the book says. Isaiah 22 verse 23. And I will fasten him as
a nail in a sure place. Now I don't know about you, but
I like a nail in a sure place. I like something to hang on to
when I need something to hang on to that will hold all my weight
secure. The Lord God says I'll fasten
my son as a nail in a sure place. Now watch this. And he shall
be for a glorious throne to his father's house. And they shall
hang upon him all the glory of his father's house. The offspring
in the issue, all the vessels of small quantity from the vessels
of the cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. Let me give
you another rendering of that. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. All who are taught of God, all
who worship in God's house, all who are born of God's Spirit,
hang all the glory of everything on Jesus Christ, the man who
is the branch. But Pastor, I know people who
are fine Christians, who give Christ the glory, but not all
of it. When they talk about the new birth, they interject their
will. When they talk about righteousness,
they interject their works. Now, they don't deny the will
of Christ, and they don't deny the work of God's Spirit coming
from Christ, and they don't deny the work of His grace, and they
don't deny His righteousness and His blood, but they don't
give Him all the glory. But now, surely, surely, surely
you couldn't say that these folks don't know God. I wouldn't say
that at all. No, I'd never say that. God did. God did. who worship in God's
house, hanging on this nail God has fastened in a sure place,
hang on Him alone the glory of His house. All the glory of redemption,
grace, and salvation belongs to our all-sufficient Christ.
Robert Hawker said, There is and ever will be glory in His
cross and glory in His crown. This is what John saw. For he
said on his head were many crowns. Our mighty Savior wears the crown
of creation, for he created all things. He wears the crown of
providence, for he rules and disposes of all things. And he
wears the crown of grace, for he gives eternal life to all
as he pleases to give it. Every sinner saved by his blood
Saved by His righteousness, saved by His grace and power, puts
a new crown on the Savior's head. I bid you now, I bid you now,
fall down before Him and cast all crowns off your own head
and put the crown where it belongs, on Him. I have no hope but your grace.
I had no forgiveness, but your blood. I had no righteousness,
but your righteousness. I had no hope for you! Lord God,
receive me for Christ's sake. And let us cry on Him every day,
all the days of our lives, as you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walking in Him, hanging on Him, all the glory
for everything. Trusting Him, we crown Him, and
give praise to Him, to the praise and glory of God the Father,
who before the world was, now listen, hung on Him, all the
glory of His house. What did Paul tell us in Ephesians
1.12? It is God's purpose in saving
us, choosing us, adopting us, redeeming us, and accepting us.
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
Christ. Merle Hart, this is what we do
by faith. Exactly what the triune God has
done with Him from eternity. We hang on Him all the glory. We hang on Him all the glory. Alright, now look at the fifth
thing. Zachariah describes Christ as
the king upon his throne. He says he shall sit and rule
upon his throne. He is king, crowned king of the
universe. He rules everywhere. He rules
everyone. He rules everything. He rules
always, and I love the way Zachariah saw it. He said, he sits. He sits and rules. I do most of my work sitting.
But my work involves no physical exertion at all. It's principally
mental. But a king who sovereignly controls
everything always sitting. Sitting? What's he telling us? This one, the man who is the
branch. rules with all the ease and confident
serenity of divine omnipotence. He rules by His mere will, governing
everything and everybody. Oh, well may we trust Him and
rejoice to trust Him. who as the sovereign monarch
of the universe sits and rules upon his throne. The Lamb is
in the midst of the throne still where he sits and rules and this
is his promise. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my Father's throne even as I also overcame
and am set down with My Father in His throne. Now, if people read that passage
in Revelation 3.21, and I must admit, I've been guilty of reading
it that way, and say, well, if you hang on and hold out and
last and endure and finally overcome everything, you're going to make
it to glory. You'll be all right. That's not
what our Lord's saying at all. What does the Scripture tell
us? We're more than conquerors through him that loved us. Sounds
to me like, Rex, we've already overcome. Greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. This is the victory that overcomes
the world, even our faith. Believing the Son of God. trusting
Him, hanging on Him, all the glory, calling Him the Lord our
righteousness. We are assured that we shall
sit with Him in His throne because He has overcome and we overcome
in Him. And He has already made us to
be. Not He's going to make us to be. He's already made us to
be what He is. What does John say? As He is,
so are we in this world. Here He is, a priest on His throne. And He has made us kings and
priests unto God, and we shall reign with Him on this earth. So that we are given power from
within, By which being ruled of his spirit, Christ in you
the hope of glory, we rule over ourselves and the world around
us, and we are priests doing business continually in the holy
place accepted of God. Next we read, and he shall be
a priest upon his throne. Ah, this is glorious. Zachariah
saw two crowns placed on this man's head. a silver crown of
priesthood, and a golden crown of royalty. The throne upon which
our great King sits and rules is both a throne of irresistible
power, and it is distinctly described this way, the throne of grace. He sits and rules upon His throne
in the constant exercise of grace for His own. Now, those words
take on new meaning, don't they? Let us, therefore, come boldly
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. O children of God, Hang on Him. Cast your care on Him. You may have noticed over the
years, when unbelievers come among us,
or new believers, newly converted by God's grace, I tend to deliberately
spend more time with the babes in the kingdom than with you
who have been around a while. And you may wonder why. The babes need help walking. But my purpose as a pastor is
not to be a pastoral counselor, a religious psychologist or psychiatrist. I would urge none to pursue such
a foolish career. The whole workings of the religious
world are designed intentionally by men who are real papist at
heart to make you think the only way you can get to God is through
them. My purpose is to so preach Christ
to you that you bypass me altogether. and go directly to God in Him. Worship Him. That doesn't mean,
and I hope you know it doesn't mean, I'm not concerned for the
things that concern you. I am. I weep with you when you weep
and rejoice with you when you rejoice. But if you want comfort
for your heart and direction in your life, Go to Christ, the
man, the branch, who is your priest and your king, sitting
on his throne, and there you will obtain mercy and grace to
help in every time of need. Now, look at the last line of
verse 13. And the counsel of peace shall
be between them both. In other words, by this man,
who is our king and priest, in one person, God Almighty shall
accomplish all his covenant of grace, bringing you peace forever. And then, I'll have to quit,
but you know, verses 14 and 15, these things These crowns, Christ's priesthood
and Christ's kingship, these things shall be set in the temple
of the Lord, set in the Lord's house for a memorial, that is
for a memorable thing, a thing to be ever remembered by Hilda
and Jediah and Josediah. They shall be remembered by all
those led out of captivity into the house of God, remembered
of God, and loved of God, for the honor of God our Savior. Amen.