Chapter 23. It says, beginning reading with
verse 5, Jeremiah 23, verse 5, Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch And a king shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely." This is talking about spiritual
Israel, all Israel, true Israel. And Israel shall dwell safely,
and this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness." The Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness. He's the branch. That's very
clear in it. Jeremiah 33. So when I'm speaking in a few
moments on my servant, the branch, talking about my servant, the
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Jeremiah 33, verse 15, "...in those days, and at that
time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto
David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem Israel,
all the elect, the believers, shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called." A while ago we read, he shall
be called the Lord, our righteousness. And now it says, and his church,
his bride, his people, shall be called also the Lord our righteousness."
Jehovah Sidkenu. We are righteous in Him. We are
one with Him. We are one with Christ. Therefore
that makes us righteous. He is the Lord our righteousness
and in Him we are the Lord our righteousness. Now Zechariah,
Zechariah chapter 3, I read this morning. And it says in verse
8, Zechariah 3 verse 8, Here now, O Joshua the
high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, there are
men wondered at, men of wonder. We sang about an amazing grace.
Saves a wretch like me. Wonderful. For behold, I will
bring forth my servant, the branch." And now in Zechariah 6, we're
going to look at this more complete description of the servant, the
branch. In verse 9 of chapter 6 of Zechariah, Verse 9, chapter 6, And the word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Take of them, except donations,
that's what he's saying, except offerings and donations of the
captivity from those who have returned from the Babylonian
captivity. Take offerings and donations
from them of Hilda, Tobijah, Jodah, which come from Babylon,
out of the captivity of Babylon, you take offerings from them.
And cometh thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah,
the son of Zephaniah." Josiah, it is believed, was a goldsmith. Somebody said he was the treasurer
of the temple, but that may be, that may not be. But I believe
he was a goldsmith. Because the next verse says,
take the silver and the gold that you have received from those
who have returned from Babylonian captivity, take the silver and
the gold and make crowns, two crowns I believe, one of gold
and one of silver, and set them upon the head of Joshua." This
morning we talked about Joshua the high priest, didn't we? Set
these two crowns, one gold and one silver, upon the head of
Joshua, the son of Josedek. He's the high priest. Make one
crown of silver and one crown of gold and put them both on
the head of Joshua the high priest. Joshua here now, is a type and
picture of Christ, the high priest. Christ, our king priest, the
two crowns, the king wore a crown and the priest wore a crown,
a diadem. And both crowns are put on the
head of Joshua, the high priest, because Christ is both king and
priest. He's prophet, priest, and king. Throughout the Old Testament,
God sent His prophets. And God sent His priest. And
God anointed His kings. But no man ever held two of those
offices, or three. No man ever held those three
offices, but one, the God-man, Christ Jesus. He's the prophet
that God raised up like Moses. And He's the priest, after the
order of Melchizedek, with an everlasting priesthood, and He's
the king. King of kings. Lord of lords,
and put both crowns on his head. And verse 12, and speak to Joshua. Speak to him, having the crowns
on his head, speak to him about Christ. Speak to him about the
great king-priest of whom he is the type. Speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts. I wrote down in my notes here,
oh, for an ear to hear and a heart to understand what the Lord of
hosts is about to say to Joshua. Joshua sits here with two crowns
on his head, crown of silver, the priest, crown of gold, the
king. And the Lord of hosts, God of glory, is going to speak
to him. about the Christ of whom he is
the type and the picture. And he gives us nine things about
this king priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first thing he
says, and you can mark these in your Bible, number them if
you want to, study them again, but this is the Redeemer. The
first thing he says is, Behold the man. Behold the man. Where have you read that before
this time? Well, turn to John 19. Behold
the man. The man. It didn't say behold
a man. He's not just a man, though he
is a man, but he's the man. In John 19, verse 1, Pilate, Then Pilate therefore took Jesus
and scourged Him, had the soldiers scourge Him. You know what a
scourging was? A scourging was when they bared
the person's back and they used a leather whip with several branches. And they put pieces
of metal in the end of the branches of this whip. And they would
scourge the person. And you weren't allowed to give
but less than 40 stripes. If you went over 40, I don't
know what the penalty was, but you always said, 40 stripes save
one. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
scourged with this whip. And his back literally torn to
shreds. Pilate scourged him. And look
at verse 2. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and shoved it down on his head. And they took off
his beautiful robe, his seamless robe, and put on him a purple
robe, mocking him, the king of the Jews. An old purple robe,
probably An old piece of cloth that was there in the palace.
And then they, with that, there he stood. And they put a reed
in his hand. You remember, it was a scepter.
They said a king ought to have a scepter. And then they bowed
their knee and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they began to
smite him with their hands, their open hands, and slap him. And Pilate therefore went forth
again and said to them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that
you may know I find no fault in him." The Father found no fault in
him. The law found no fault in him. Because there was no fault
in him, he is perfect and holy. But he stood there as our representative,
as us, bearing our shame and guilt. And there he stood. Pilate brought him out. Then
came Jesus forward, wearing this crown of thorns, holding in his
hand that mocking wreath, and draped with that purple robe,
what an awful sight, with blood streaming, his back literally
torn to shreds. And Pilate said to them, Behold
the man. D-man. There are just two men. The first man by whom we fell,
by man came death. His name was Adam, the man. God
made Adam and us in him. And by that man's sin, death,
by that man's offense and sin, sin entered this world and death
by sin and death passed on all of us. That man was a big, strong,
handsome genius. I can just picture Adam. He must have been something to
behold, made in the image of God, with a brilliant mind and
strong body. Without any disease or sin, he
lived seven million hundred years. And that's the man in his pride
and arrogance covetousness in whom we fail. And then this man, behold this
man, by man came death, by this man came life. The shameful,
he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, took on himself the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of sinful flesh. and bled, and suffered,
and died, and was obedient unto death, even this shameful death
of the cross. By that man we live. In Adam
we die in Christ. Ah, behold the man! Behold the
man! Behold the man! By one man's
disobedience we were made sinners. By one man's obedience. He stood
there obedient unto death. My representative. Then the second
thing he said about him, his name is the Branch. Turn back
to Isaiah 11. Isaiah chapter 11. His name is
the Branch. Isaiah 11. His name is the Branch. And what
this is saying is that this man is a descendant of David. He's a proper man. He's the anointed
man. He is the prophesied king, the
seed of woman. It says here in Isaiah 11, And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse." That
was David's father, Jesse. And a branch shall grow out of
his roots. It's got to be the right one.
There were lots of Messiahs that swang up here and there and yondered
and said, follow me, just like today. But this is the man. This is the one called Branch.
He has the credentials. He has the anointing. He's the
one who came from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah, tribe
of Judah, and Jesse and David. Listen. The Spirit of the Lord
shall be upon Him. Spirit of wisdom and understanding.
The Spirit of counsel. His name is Counselor. And might,
the mighty God. The Spirit of knowledge, the
everlasting Father. And the fear of the Lord. It
shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes." He knows
the heart of men. "...nor reprove after the hearing
of his ears." He doesn't need us to tell him what's going on. He knows. Ah, the branch. And then Isaiah 53. Listen to
this. Isaiah 53. His name is the branch, Isaiah
53. Who hath believed our report?
Who believes this gospel? Oh, thank God I do, don't you?
To whom is the arm or the power of the Lord revealed? He shall
grow up as a tender plant, as a man born of a woman, made
in the womb and brought forth, a tender plant. And as a root
out of a dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness. When
we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows, a tender plant acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from
him. He is despised and we esteemed
him not. The branch. And then it says,
thirdly, he shall grow up. He shall grow up out of his place. It may be that several things
are meant here. He shall grow up. In the fullness
of time, God sent forth His Son made of a woman. Came forth as
a tender plant, as a babe, and He grew up. He grew up. He grew up, first of all, according
to prophecy, from the right lineage and house. Mary and Joseph, if you'll turn
to the book of Matthew, and I've told you to do this before, but
perhaps you've forgotten it, but here in Matthew chapter 1, You have the genealogy of Joseph. Now, Joseph was foster father. Our Lord was born of a virgin.
He didn't have a human father. Mary said, I can't have a son,
I know not a man. The Lord, the angel said, the
Spirit of God will come upon you, and the power of the highest
shall overshadow you, and that which is born of you shall be
called the Son of God. But Mary and Joseph both were
in the house and lineage of David. Israel was at a low ebb. They
were in bondage to the Roman Empire. But nevertheless, the
house and lineage of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah
and Jesse and David did not stop. He'll grow up out of his proper
place. You know, the Baptists around
here used to try to trace their house and lineage back to John
the Baptist, and it sure is a difficult job to do that. But this ain't no difficult job.
My Lord, in His proper house and lineage, came from Abraham
and Isaac and through David. And here is the house and lineage
of Joseph. It says here in the book of the
generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat
Judah. Now you come on down to verse
16. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband
of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ. That's
Joseph's genealogy. Joseph goes right back to Abraham. through David. And he was in
line for the throne. Now turn to Luke, if you will.
You'd write down right there on your margin, Joseph's genealogy. That's Joseph back through David
to Abraham. Now in Luke, this is important. My, go up out of his place. He's
got to be. in Luke chapter 3, verse 23. Now I want you to write here,
right under verse 23, Mary's genealogy. This is the house
and genealogy, Mary's family tree, back all the way. Now Jesus Himself began to be
about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Heli. Say, hey, this is Joseph again.
No, this is Mary's genealogy. But the Bible never traces a
woman's genealogy. It's her husband. He's the son-in-law
of Heli. See that? Mary was the daughter
of Heli. But the Bible doesn't trace the
genealogy in her name, but rather in her husband's name. And so
Mary is the daughter of Heli. Joseph is his son-in-law. You
can write that here right there. Which was the son of Mephet. Mephet was Mary's granddaddy.
Heli was Mary's daddy. See that? That's Mary's genealogy. And it goes back, look at verse
31. which was the son of Melia, which
was the son of Medan, which was the son of Martha, which was
the son of Nathan, which was the son of David. Mary's family
came through Nathan, son of David. Joseph came through Solomon. If you look back at Matthew and
you'll see where Joseph came through David's son Solomon,
Mary came through David's son Nathan. But both Mary and Joseph,
well, back to David. And David, Abraham, and our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what they were doing in
Bethlehem. Turn to the book of Micah, chapter 5, right back. Micah, he shall grow up out of
his place. Behold the man, the branch, and
he shall grow up out of his place from the right lineage and house. This is, in fact, the Son of
David. Look at Micah 5, verse 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be the ruler in
Israel. This has got to be. He's got
to be born in Bethlehem, this Messiah, this Redeemer. Out of Bethlehem shall he come
forth unto me." That's to be the ruler in Israel whose goings
forth have been from a woe from everlasting. He's got to be born
in Bethlehem. So, when Mary was nearly nine
months pregnant, expecting her first child with Jesus, Herod
sent out a decree that all the Jews were to go to their home
cities and be taxed, be numbered. And Mary and Joseph had to make
that long trip from Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem, her
heavy with child, because thus saith the Lord, he's going to
be born in Bethlehem. See that? That's what Zechariah... Here sits Joshua the high priest
with a priest's crown and the king's crown, and God said, Now
listen to me. Behold the man, the branch, shall
grow up out of his proper place, the land of Judah, the town of
Bethlehem, from the proper house and lineage of Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Judah, Jesse, and David, and he shall come from his superior
place to the inferior place, and that's where he'll grow up,
man of sorrows acquainted with grace. identified with the lowest
of the low, man of solace. He left his place, his father's
throne above, so free, so infinite his grace. He emptied himself
of all but love and died for our sinful race. Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me." Well, let's look back at our text. Zechariah
6, the fourth thing. Behold a man, name is Branch,
you grow up out of his place. He'll build the temple of the
Lord. He said, I'll build my church.
I'll build my church. He'll build the temple of the
Lord. His church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. It's His building. It's His temple. It's not that
temple in Jerusalem. It's the temple where He dwells.
It's the temple where He's worshipped. It's the temple of living stones.
This is 1 Peter 2, verse 5, the temple of living
stones. Listen here. He says, You are
living stones. You built up a spiritual house,
temple, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. I'll build my temple. That temple
will be made up of living stones. Living stones. And I know who
they are. I can tell you exactly who they
are. Those who are in this temple,
those that make up His spiritual dwelling place, they are as many as... Our Lord said this in John 1,
as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become living
stones, sons of God. As many as received Him. Lord
and Savior. Redeemer, Messiah. Willingly, lovingly, personally,
rationally, permanently receiving. As many as. They're in that temple.
And then in John 17, he was praying that high priestly prayer, and
he said, Father, you've given me authority over all flesh that
I should give eternal life to as many as you gave me. So, who's going to be in the
temple? As many as received Him. As many as the Father gave Him.
And Peter said, this promise is to you and your children,
and as many as the Lord our God shall call. Everybody whom He
calls will be in that temple. And then, Paul said this, I turn
to the Gentiles. You judge yourself unworthy of
this gospel? I'll turn to the Gentiles. And
the scripture says, and the Gentiles were glad. And as many as were
ordained to life believed. That's who's in the temple. As
many as received, as many as the Father gave Him, As many
as the Lord called by His gospel, and as many as were ordained
alive. He built His temple. Solomon
built that temple in Jerusalem. The Lord built this temple. And
He's the foundation. He's the chief cornerstone. He's
the master builder. He built it by Himself. He built
it on Himself. And He built it for Himself. And listen. It says, He shall
build it. Can you imagine our Lord failing
to accomplish what He set out to do? He shall build it. Look at the
next line, verse 13. Even He shall build the temple
of the Lord. That's the fifth statement. You
say, that's the same statement. I know it. And the Lord by His Spirit is
repeating it. If any doubt should linger in
any mind of any hearer, the prophet repeats what he said. He doesn't
repeat anything else here. But he repeats this for confirmation,
for assurance, he shall build his temple. He cannot fail. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that while I am there you may be also.
Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. I have finished the work you
gave me to do. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall finish that work in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I would like you to turn
to this Scripture. Corinthians 15. I've referred to this Scripture
dozens of times, and I'll do it dozens more if the Lord lets
me preach a few more times. But I want you to see something
here in 1 Corinthians 15. He shall build His temple. He
shall not fail. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning. He declares the end from the
beginning. And He says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 24, Then cometh the end, when He,
the Lord Jesus, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father, when He shall have put down all rule, all authority,
and all power. For He must reign. He has, and
He does, and He will, till He puts all enemies under His feet.
And the very last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,
death in the earth, death in the creature, death in anything. For he hath put all things under
his feet. When he saith, All things are
put unto him, unto Christ, it is manifest that he is accepted,
who put all things unto him. The Father is not unto the Son,
but he is the only one who is not. Isn't that clear, Rob? The Father is the only one who
is not unto the Son. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then the Son, Then shall the Son also Himself
be subject unto Him that put all things unto Him that God
may be all." He can't fail. I believe someone recently preached
here, maybe it was Joe Terrell, about Joseph being the surety
for Judah, being the surety for Benjamin. He said, I'll bring
him home. If I don't bring him home, I'll
bear the blame forever." And our Lord Jesus Christ, back in
the Council Halls of Eternity, in the Covenant of Grace, took
upon Himself the suretyship of every last one of His people
and God's Kingdom, and He said, I'll bring them home. And that's
what this is talking about here. He shall not fail. He'll build
His temple. Alright, the next thing we see
about Him, number 6, and He'll bear the glory. Zechariah 6,
verse 13, He'll bear the glory. It's only right that the one
who does the work gets the glory, isn't it? Isn't it? It's only right that
the one who does all the work gets all of it. But of Him are
we in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that it is written, as it is
written, He that gloryeth, let Him glory in the Lord. He planned
our redemption, not us. He chose us, we didn't choose
Him. He loved us, we didn't love Him.
He sought us, we didn't seek Him. He called us, we didn't
call Him. He came to earth and suffered,
we didn't suffer. He died and rose again and ascended
to the right hand of God. He sustained us even in our rebellion
and kept us in our sins. Until that day, He was pleased
to reveal Himself to us and give us repentance and give us faith. And He kept us this far and He'll
keep us the rest of the way. As Joe read a while ago, He'll
keep you to death and through death and after death. And He'll raise these vile bodies
and make them like His own. To God be the glory. He bears
the glory. Not unto us who are but dust,
not to ourselves is glory due. Eternal Lord, Thou art just,
Thou art good and wise and true. You want me to give you a test,
a sure, infallible test of everybody's ministry, message, and religious
work, whether it's of God or not. Psalm 29, verse 9. Psalm 29, verse 9. Here is an
infallible test. If it's of the Lord, this is
the test. I don't care whether it's a sermon,
or a song, or preaching, or a church, or a school, or what it is. Psalm
29, verse 9. The voice of the Lord maketh
the hounds to cast. Discovered the forest and in
his temple He'll build his temple and I would say now in his temple
that he's gonna build Doth everyone speak of his? That's it Bob In his temple if he's in he bears
all the glory if he's of it if he's in it if he's part of it
if They speak of His glory. They take none to themselves,
none whatsoever, not in His temple, not in His temple. Now there
are a lot of other temples springing up, a lot of temples and gods
and sermons and preachers and religions and denominations,
you name it, but in His temple, everyone gives Him all the glory. That's it. He bears all the glory.
The seventh thing about Him, quickly, let's see this. Bear the glory, and then verse
13, He shall sit, this priest, this King sits and
rules upon His throne. You know, back in the Old Testament,
Brother Doyle and I were talking today, he brought a series of
messages in his church on the tabernacle. And I'm sure he noted,
and as I've noted to you many times, of different pieces of
furniture in the tabernacle, in the courtyard. No chairs. No benches. The priests never
sat down. Because their work was never
done. No priest could ever say, well,
this is it. This is the last sacrifice. People
are forgiven. Sin is gone. He'll be back next
morning with another sacrifice. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on his throne and rules
till God will make every enemy his footstool. But thank God, look at the next
thing, number eight. He will sit and rule on his throne
and he shall be a priest on that throne. Oh, my! Bill Clark brought
a message here one time on God's throne, throne of majesty, glory,
dwelling in a light to which no man can approach. Well, I
don't want to come before that throne, a throne of justice,
equity, verity, sees things as they really are and judges them. and burns them. I won't come
for that throne. But there's a throne of grace.
And the reason there's a throne of grace is because on that throne
is a priest, a high priest with a blood sacrifice for all his
people. Seeing we have a great high priest
that's passed into the heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, let
us come boldly before God's throne of what? Grace. that we may find
mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. He's a priest
on his throne. A priest. And then last, oh,
listen to this. Number nine, and the counsel
of peace shall be between them both. Peace between them both. Now, we're not talking about
peace between the Father and the Son. No. We're talking about, first of
all, peace between those two offices, priest and king. Christ is the king of righteousness.
He's a just and holy God. But He's merciful and gracious,
and a priest to offer sacrifice for sin. And because of His sacrifice,
God can be just and justify. God can be holy and merciful. God can be righteous and gracious. And at the cross, when the Savior
died, our great high priest, peace was made through the blood
of his cross. And mercy and truth met together,
and righteousness and peace kissed each other. And it says here,
because of him is peace between them both. but also this peace
between me and God. Therefore, being justified by
Christ through faith, I have peace with God." Peace with God. And when those angels announced
the birth of Christ, and they said, peace on earth, good will
toward men, it wasn't the baby in the Bethlehem manger that
brought peace, it was the Christ of the cross. who put away our
transgressions. And then, another peace between
them both, between Jew and Gentile. God hath broken down the middle
wall of petition between us. The Gentiles were aliens, strangers
from the covenant, without hope, without God, without help in
this world. Christ brought us, and both Jew
and Gentile, peace between us. We're all redeemed one way by
one Lord and one sacrifice. Behold the man
and never quit beholding him. Look to Christ.