Several years ago, Brother Scott
Richardson and I were preaching together down south. It's been
a long time ago. And he made this statement with
regard to the religion of this age. He said, it's so slick,
I thought I can get it and never know it, swallow it and never
taste it, and lose it and never miss it. And that's just about
as accurate a description as I know of the experience of religion
in most people. Most of the people you know and
I know who profess faith in Christ never know anything of struggle and heartache and heaviness and
fear in their souls. They know nothing about it. Because
their religion is all fact and theory, it has nothing to do
with life in Christ the Lord. In every example you will find
in the Old Testament, it sets before us a picture of the believer's
experience of grace. And in every example you find
throughout the Word of God that shows us a personal picture of
the believer's experience of grace, that was not the case. Not in one example. Not in one
example. If you will turn with me to the
book of Zechariah. The whole purpose of the book
of Zechariah is to encourage us with confidence that our God
who begins His work of grace will finish His work of grace,
and He will do it all exactly according to His purpose all
the time. Now, the picture before us needs
a little background setting. In verse six of Zechariah four,
we have a message that God gave to His servant Zechariah, Zerubbabel. It says in verse six, 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. How are these things going
to be accomplished? How is this temple going to be
built? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord
of Hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? And you can just put anything
you want to there, whatever the mountain is. 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."
Then in verses eight, nine, and ten, we're allowed to read God's
message to His prophet Zechariah with regard to the work committed
to Zerubbabel. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, 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 hath 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 That
is with those seven eyes that were seen in the foundation stone
laid by Zerubbabel before Joshua back in chapter 3. And these
seven eyes, they are the eyes of the Lord which run to and
fro through the whole earth. In other words, when Zerubbabel
has finished his work, when the temple is built, when the headstone
is put in place, He who laid the foundation will lay the headstone
in place, and he'll drop a plummet line and say, there it is, just
like I planned. And you will see that all the
work of God's providence has been at work, engaged all the
time in performing this work. Now let me give you a little
bit of historic background. If you want to read it for yourself,
read Ezra chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 at your earliest opportunity. The history of Israel in the
Old Testament, from the time that God brought them out of
Egypt to the time the Old Testament closes, is little more than a
history of perversity, depravity, corruption, and rebellion. All
you read throughout the history of Israel, continual turnings
from God, continual rebellions, continual idolatry, continual
perversity of every imaginable thought, nothing but perversity
continually. We have repeated illustration
after repeated illustration of God's immaculate mercy, His absolute
free grace, His incomparable goodness in His dealings with
Israel. Well might David sing as we sing
with David. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. And yet, throughout
their history, the Lord God dealt with them in such a way as to
always show His displeasure of the people of whom He typically
approved, His displeasure of their sin. His displeasure with
their iniquities. David, as a man after God's own
heart, accepted in Christ what the thing David did, displeased
the Lord, and he showed it. And so it was with the children
of Israel. He sent prophet after prophet to them to reprove them
for their sin, to correct them, to stir their hearts, to turn
them and call them to the Lord. And he sent chastisement after
chastisement upon them because of their iniquities. And again
and again and again, he sold them into bondage to their enemies. Among those times that he sold
them into bondage to their enemies, the most striking, historically,
is that 70 years of Babylonian captivity, which came to pass
according to the word and the purpose of God. When the Jews
were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, The temple was laid in heaps,
burned to the ground, everything in the temple destroyed, Jerusalem
laid in heaps, and the whole of Jerusalem carried away into
Babylonian captivity where they stayed for 70 years. Until God, according to the exact
words of his prophet, 200, 250 years before it ever came to
pass, raised up a man by the name of Cyrus. a pagan king,
and put it in his heart to rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the temple
at Jerusalem. And so Cyrus gave the decree,
said, The God of heaven, the only true God, has told me to
do it. And he sends out a decree that
it should be accomplished. And a sizable remnant of the
children of Israel came back to Jerusalem And their object
was to rebuild the temple which had been laid in ruins, having
been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and laid there for 70 years.
And they showed great zeal. They were zealous for God's honor,
thankful for God's goodness, and they clearly manifested that
their hearts and affections lay in that direction. Now, the leaders
of that remnant that returned were zerubbable. Zerubbabel,
who was the civil head, who was actually the prince in Judah
at the time, and Joshua, who was the high priest. We saw a
picture of him over in chapter three. Now, the first thing they
did when they came back to Jerusalem and prepared to build the temple
was they set the altar of God up on its bases. and they offered
burnt offerings and sacrifices morning and evening to the Lord
as the law required. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles
and the Feast of the Lord. And then in chapter 3 of Ezra,
we read that the foundation of the temple was laid by Zerubbabel,
laid before Joshua, the high priest, and his brethren. And
that's the picture that we could read in chapter 3 of Zechariah. after they laid the foundation
stone. You can imagine their excitement. Some of you fellows were here
when you laid the foundation stone, and you remember where
you came from. Man, this is going to be great,
the excitement you do it with. And you know what they did? Everything
came to a screeching halt. Just a dead standstill. and progressed
then with great, great slowness for nearly twenty years. From the time they laid the foundation
stone to the time the temple was finished, it was almost twenty
long years. Now it's true, this temple was
in every respect inferior to the temple Solomon had built.
But it was honored far more greatly than Solomon's temple. Hold your
hands here and turn back a couple of pages to Haggai chapter 2.
Haggai chapter 2. It was into this temple, rebuilt
by the command of Cyrus, into this temple that the Son of God
Himself came in the fullness of time, exactly as Haggai here
prophesied. Zechariah 2 verse 7. God says,
I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall
come. Now, that's not an indication
that all people everywhere desire the Son of God. Nothing could
be further from the truth. But He is the desire of His people
among all nations. And I will fill this house with
glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold
is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts.
And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts."
Now all these things are literal historic facts. They all literally
came to pass exactly as they're written in Scripture. But do
not ever imagine that anything written in this book with regard
to historic facts is written just to give historic facts. It is not. It is not. These things
happened to them that they should be examples to us, and these
things are intended of God and recorded by God to be examples
instructing us in spiritual things. They are done as typical pictures
of something far greater. of a work performed by one far
greater than Zerubbabel, even the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he
typified." Now that brings us to this text here in Zechariah
chapter 4, verses 8, 9, and 10. The words of the text contain
a literal promise, yes. It was a promise given for the
desponding Jews who had seen the temple foundation stone laid
and then everything brought to a halt. who thought the work
would never be finished. And as such, the words of this
text are a promise from our God, assuring us that the Lord Jesus,
our mighty surrenderable, shall by his hands alone build his
temple, his church, and finish it to the glory of God. Now that
applies to the church of God as a hope that applies to every
believer called by his grace. He who has laid the foundation
will put the headstone in its place, and when he does, he'll
do so with shouting, crying, Grace, Grace unto thee. I'll show you where I'm going,
and you'll have some idea as we move along by giving you the
visions. First, I want to show you the typical significance
of the temple. And then I want to talk to you
a little bit about the laying of the foundation, and then briefly
about the building of the walls and, if we have time, the finishing
of the work. First, let me show you that the temple itself. was
built by God to be a picture, according to the pattern of things
in heaven, of another temple. And that other temple is the
church of our God. God was pleased to save me 1967. That's a while back. I was not
quite 17 years old. And do you know one of the first
things I recall I recall hearing that they've already got the
rocks for the rebuilding of the temple in the harbor over in
Jerusalem. It's about to come to pass. God's
going to rebuild the temple. And you know, I still hear idiots
talking that nonsense. Still here. Let me tell you something.
There will never be a day when God Almighty returns to the worship
of himself, bringing men to worship him at a Jewish altar in a Jewish
temple by a Jewish priesthood. If that ever comes to pass, mark
it down, you and I have never known the Son of God. Either
Jesus Christ fulfilled everything those things typified, or he
is an imposter. One of the two. One of the two.
These things were intended by God to be pictures of something
better. The picture, number one, of the
temple is of Christ's own humanity. You remember in John chapter
2, our Lord had performed a miracle at marriage and feast in Cana
of Galilee. And while folks were standing around, he had their
attention. He's standing there and he says, destroy this temple.
And in three days, I'll build it again. I'll raise it up. Our fathers were 40 years building
this temple. And you're going to raise it
up in three days? Who do you think you are? But
he spake of the temple of his body. So the temple was first
and foremost that which typified the physical humanity of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And his disciples, once the Spirit
of God took the word and showed them the things of Christ that
he had spoken, understood why he was talking about his body
back yonder. You can read it for yourself
in John chapter 2. In the temple, it was that God was pleased to
manifest himself throughout the Old Testament. all the way through
the Old Testament. Did you ever notice that our
God is described as He that dwelleth between the cherubim? Ten times
that exact statement is found in the Old Testament. The cherubim,
you remember, made an ark of the covenant, covered it with
a mercy seat, formed on either end of the mercy seat are the
cherubs. And God said, that's where I'll meet you. I'll meet
you on the mercy seat between the germs." And there he displayed
himself in his glory, in his mercy, in his grace. There and
there alone he manifest himself. Once the temple was built, all
the sacrifices of God, all sacrifices offered to God, every sacrifice
was required by God that it be offered only in the temple. Only in the temple. Listen to
this. Take heed to thyself, that thou offer not thy burnt offerings
in every place that thou seest, but in the place which the Lord
shall choose in one of thy tribes. There thou shalt offer thy burnt
offerings, and there shalt thou do all that I command thee. Now
don't miss what he said. Only in this place that I choose
Can you offer an offering to me? And only in this place that
I choose can you do what I command you to do. You mean, Pastor, that all obedience
to God was done in the temple? That's what the law required.
That's what the law required. But folks weren't in that temple
all the time. That physical temple could never supply all that was
required of the temple. It was only typical. Fact is,
God Almighty is manifest in the flesh, in Jesus Christ, in the
temple of His body. And God Almighty receives sacrifices
only through Jesus Christ, our Mediator, who by His one sacrifice
has rendered all that we are forever accepted before Him. And God Almighty is obeyed by
us only in Jesus Christ, who was typified in this temple.
When our Savior obeyed God's holy law and fulfilled all His
holy will, every chosen sinner, every sinner who now believes
or ever shall believe was perfectly, completely obedient to all God's
requirements, absolutely even to the satisfaction of justice
in Christ, only in Christ. And that's the only way we fulfill
what God requires. More than that, in the Old Testament,
worship, all spiritual worship, was offered to God only in the
temple. Do you remember how Solomon prayed
when he dedicated the first temple? Repeatedly he said, Lord, if
your children pray toward this house, then hear their prayer. And so you have folks today who
think that if you bow down and pray in a certain geological
direction, you're praying right. What stupidity. No, no, no, no. Lord, I recognize you said you'll
meet us here. And because you said you will
meet us between the mercy seat, it's your people. No matter where
they are, no matter how they earn, no matter how they sin,
no matter what they do, if they will turn toward you in this
holy place, hear their prayer and forgive their sin. He always
does. He always does. We worship God
in Jesus Christ, our Savior, who alone is the place of worship. He is our temple. He is our altar. He is our mercy seat. He is our
sacrifice. He is our priest. He is everything. Everything. The significance,
then, of the temple representing, typically, our Savior's humanity
is just this. We cannot come to God except
as we worship Him in and by Christ. God Almighty will never accept
any worship except that which is offered to him through faith
in Christ. No prayer, no petition, no supplication,
no desire is ever acceptable to God except as it passes through
the blood and righteousness of God's darling son. But the temple
was also typical of Christ's mystical body, his spiritual
body, the church. And when I say the church, I'm
talking about the whole church of God, the whole of God's elect,
from the beginning of time to the end of time. That's the church,
which is His body. And I'm talking about every true
local assembly of many women, saved by free grace, worshiping
God. This right here is the temple
of God. And I'm talking about that body
you're sitting in. the body of every believer indwelt by the
Spirit of God. Let me show you from the Scriptures.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. The Holy Spirit calls for us
to come out of Babylon continually through the Scriptures. In 1
Corinthians 6, this is what it's talking about. I know folks use
this to talk about, you know, believers ought not to being
Boy Scouts, or believers ought not to be in a labor union, or
believers ought not to marry unbelievers. All those things
may be true, but that's not what this is talking about. This is
talking about idolatry and false religion. 1 Corinthians 6, verse
15. Verse 14, he calls for us to
come out from among them. Here's verse 15. Here's the reason. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? Shall then I take the members
of Christ and make them members of Enharlot? God forbid! What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to Enharlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall
be one flesh. For he that is joined to the
Lord is one spirit." Look in 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians
6, verse 60. What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye 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. Not only is it true that the
whole body of Christ collectively, his whole mystical, spiritual
body, the church, is his temple, but there's something that can
never be replicated. And I hope for everybody who
hears this on tape, watches it on video, I hope you listen to
this part and get it if you don't get anything else. There's something
that can never be replicated in our gathering here as we have
right now. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter
3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Brother
Rich read this passage back in the office and I thought I'm
so glad you read You remember what our Lord said concerning
the gathering of his people? He said, where two or three gather
together in my name. In my name. Now that doesn't
mean gather together and say we meet in Jesus' name. That
means gather together in my name. Trusting me. Worshipping me. Seeking my glory. I wonder if
there's just two or three here. Doesn't matter if there's 5,000
in the building, just two or three. Gather together in my
name. A couple of weeks I'm going to
be going down and preaching to some congregations where there's
just three or four. Five or six. I go right regular to them. Oh,
why would you do that? Our Lord said, well, there's
just two or three. Gather together in my name. There
I am in the midst of them. So that the Church of God gathered
together as we Come together. I'm sitting here watching folks
come in tonight. Here comes God my Savior. Is that what he's saying? The
church of God, the local church, Ephesians 2, when Christ meets
with us, gathering together in the house of God, is an habitation
of God through the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. Paul is talking about folks who
cause division in the local church. Know ye not that you are the
temple of God? What? A local church? when we meet together, God, the
Holy Spirit, dwells in our midst. And that's how we worship Christ.
Tapes are good, videos are good, fantastic, good tools of teaching. But if you think that you can
sit down and listen to an outstanding sermon by an outstanding preacher
given at an outstanding time in an outstanding place by which
God moved multitudes." Well, I'll get that. I'll listen to
that. Sorry I missed it. I had to go watch Superman or
something. I'll plug that and listen to
that. You might plug my voice in, but you're not going to plug
God in. It ain't going to happen. Nothing will ever supplant the
worship of God in his house. This is the temple of God. The
temple of God. Hmm. Well, Brother God, that
kind of makes public worship important, doesn't it? Kind of
does, doesn't it? Kind of does, doesn't it? And
every believer, as he is born again by God the
Holy Spirit, is made to live by God invading
his life. God Almighty came into you. He didn't stand at your heart's
door and knock and ask you to let him pretty please come in.
First time you knew he was there, he had knocked the door, damn
bolt and barn, you were glad he was there. He had already
set up his throne and had taken over inside you. And He dwells
there forever. So that by His Spirit, we worship
Him as one body, not as some material altar on this earth.
We don't have altars in our churches. My soul, what idolatry. I'd just
as soon go to a papist confessional booth or an altar and go to a
Baptist altar. There's not any difference. No.
Our altar's in heaven. And we're not worshiping in a
physical place, we're worshiping here at this physical place with
the new Jerusalem in the General Assembly of the Church of the
Firstborn where the altar is in heaven. There is where God's
people always worship. And that makes this thing totally
spiritual. Totally spiritual. The foundation
of the temple of our Lord was laid before the world began in
covenant mercy. When our Lord God looked upon
our Savior as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world
and trusted Him as our mediator and surety, and then in the fullness
of time it was laid when Christ assumed our flesh. God joining
to manhood. I like to read theology, and
folks may not think I know it, but I know the terms, and I know
what to say about that stuff, the hypostatic union and all
that stuff. Do you know what hypostatic union is? That's a
word that men use to tell you they don't have a clue what they're
talking about. God Almighty assumed humanity into union with Himself
forever. forever, for the greatest possible display
of His glory, which He had ordained to be the salvation of sinners
through the accomplishments of this God-man mediator, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And by His hands, the building
of the temple was done. When He cried, it is finished. There is continual work. Folks
say, well, the Lord's work is all over. The Lord's work of
salvation is all over. Oh, no, it's not. He's still
moving. He's sitting in heaven. And God's Father has given Him
power over all flesh so that He can give eternal life to as
many as the Father has given Him. And the day is coming when
He will finally bring about what's described in this book as the
redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. And
the finishing of the temple won't be until that day. But as it
came to pass in time that the foundation was laid in the physical
temple, exactly according to God's purpose. And the foundation
was laid in the incarnation of our Redeemer, and He built the
walls of His house by His obedience. And the walls of His house, I
know what they are, because we're told in Isaiah 26, they are salvation. These are the walls of Zion.
So it comes to pass, according to God's purpose, at exactly
the time He has appointed, that He lays the foundation of His
grace and mercy. in the hearts and lives of chosen
sinners. And it is a mighty work that
he does. And upon that foundation, he
builds the walls of his house until he finishes it. Now, let
me talk to you a little bit about laying the foundation. Foundation
work is never pretty work. It's never pretty work. It's
never The kind of work that when you get done, you go back and
have a picture of it and say, well, look at that. It's never pretty work. Can you imagine what these Jews
who returned from Babylon after seventy years must have beheld
when they walked to that spot where Solomon's temple once stood? Seventy years of mounting debris. and pieces of burnt scrap, and
overgrown briars and weeds, and wild beasts of every imaginable
kind, and serpents everywhere, all in one huge, ugly, hideous
mound. And that's a pretty good picture
of where God found you. when he came to lay the foundation
in you. Heaps upon heaps and piles upon
piles have got to be rolled away in wheelbarrows in order to make
the ground clear and level so that you can mark out the pattern
of the building and lay the foundation. There's got to be some clearing
away of debris hauling away of trash, and there's got to be
some digging done. The Lord God comes by His mighty
hand, and He causes the sinner whom He's chosen, to whom He will be gracious,
to come face to face with what He is. And God Almighty begins to show
you what you are. I promise you. I promise you. If you could observe what's going
on, you'd look at the fellow and you'd say, I wouldn't treat
a mad dog like that. By the work of His law, He shows
you the law's requirements and your utter helplessness. And
He takes your little pretty self-righteousness and your goodness and your uprightness
and that which, you know, sets you apart and pokes you down
on the other side of the tracks. All those things that you're
so proud of. Those things that deep down inside you really think
God smiles at and shows you that it's nothing but ugliness. Pretense. Shame. That's what Paul describes in
Romans chapter 7, verse 9. That's a good man. Man, he was
a good man. Yeah. He filled an application
in any business you'd hire. Good man. Good man. He said,
when the commandment came, when for the first time in my life,
God made me understand, what He required. Sin, enmity, hatred
for God welled up in me when I realized He wouldn't have me.
Sin revived and I died. And then God, by His mighty grace,
comes and lays the foundation by the work of His Holy Spirit,
the foundation of His mercy-giving Convincing you of sin. Not, folks
talk about, you know, well, the Holy Spirit convicted me, I ought
not go to the picture show. Somebody told me the Holy Spirit
convinced me I ought not dance. All that stuff, you know. The
Holy Spirit convicts folks of three things. All other conviction
comes from men. Now, you can mark it down. The Holy Spirit convinces folks
of three things. Your sin. That's what you are. And some
of you are not convinced yet. You're not convinced. No. But when he comes in mercy,
he'll convince you of your sin. That's what you are at the core
of your being. And of Christ's finished righteousness as the
sinner's substitute. But how do you know that's what
he's talking about? He said, because I go to my father. He came down here
to bring in everlasting righteousness. He can't go back to the Father
without doing it. End of judgment. Judgment finished for me. Finished for me. Righteousness
done for me, a man who's nothing but sin. And then trouble comes. I won't turn back and try to
read those passages, but you go back and read what happened
just as soon as foundation was laid. There were some fellows
who came along and they said, because the reverend said, let
us help you build this temple. We worship God just like you
do. Let's mix a little works with
this thing. Okay, the Lord told you to lay
the foundation, and that's good. We're glad to give you that honor.
I'm glad you did that. But you know you're not going
to finish this by yourself. Let's mix a little work of our
works with Zerubbabel's works. And Zerubbabel said, we don't
have anything to do with you. Goodbye, and went right on with
it. They didn't like that much, so
they hired some counselors. And they sent letters slandering
Zerubbabel and the children of Israel. As soon as God lays the
foundation of His grace in the soul, trouble comes. And it's clearly typified in
what happened to these people. Their enemies weakened their
hands with trial after trial after trial. Tried to frustrate
their purpose, hiring counsellors against them, false prophets
leading them in the wrong way. They slandered them, accusing
them of hypocrisy. How often I struggle with such
things in my soul. Rather than that, it ought not
be like that. I agree, it ought not to be like
that until the way it is. They sent a word, they said,
who commanded you to do this? Who commanded you? Who called
you? How can you be sure that God called you to believe? God
hasn't called you. No, that can't be. And then they
had some bigger problems than that. They had some folks in Judah who looked at that temple that
was built, as they were building it, and finished the work. While the young fellows who didn't
know any better were just tickled to death and rejoicing, these
old dead-headed fellows, they just cried crocodile tears and
said that temple was nothing like what the other temple was. It never can be. We've seen God's work before,
and this ain't it. And I struggle with that in my
soul. Not now and then. All the time. You see, when the Lord Jesus
lays the foundation, Satan is in a rage. And just as these
Israelites were driven continually to almost despair, overwhelmed
with gloomy doubts and fears and apprehensions and despondency,
vexed all the time, God sends this message. And He says, that laid the foundation will
lay the headstone in its place with shoutings crying grace,
grace unto it. And that's what the book of Zechariah
is all about. And I said all of that because
I want you to hear me, my friends. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you? Oh, but brother Don, my faith
is so insignificant. Mine's a lot weaker now than
it was thirty years ago. I'm telling you the truth. At least wise in my apprehension. When I was twenty years old,
there wasn't anything I didn't know and nothing I couldn't do
and didn't have any fears either. It's not that way anymore. Not
that way anymore. But Brother Don, I'm sometimes
assaulted in my soul with doubts and questions and unbelief. That's not what I ask you. Dost
thou believe? on the Son of God. Oh, Pastor,
the evil of my heart, my rebellions against God, the
vileness of my heart and mind. Surely no man like this can lay
claim to the name Christian, believer, child of God. Dost
thou believe on the Son of God? Do you? Do you? Well, there's just about one
thing I can say with confidence, yea, Lord, I believe. I have no hope but the Son of
God. I have no righteousness but His
righteousness. I have no sacrifice but His sacrifice. I have no gift but His gift. I have no life but His life. That's it. Nothing else. Well, let me tell you something. Zerubbabel's mighty hands have
laid the foundation in you. And he will finish his work in
you. And he will bring the headstone And you will shout with him as
he prevents you thoughtless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. Grace, grace unto it. Amen.