WEBVTT 00:00:00.001 --> 00:00:23.239 Zechariah chapter 6 starting in verse 9 says this And the word of the Lord came to me, Take from the exiles Heldai, Tabijah, and Jadiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. 00:00:23.239 --> 00:00:31.879 Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest. 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:35.079 And say to him, Thus says the Lord of hosts. 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:38.240 Behold, the man whose name is the branch. 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:44.159 For he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:52.399 It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:58.280 And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:06.680 And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helim, Tabijah, Jadiah, and him the son of Zephaniah. 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:11.400 And those who are far off shall come and help build the temple of the Lord. 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:16.159 And you shall know that the Lord of hosts sent me to you. 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:23.799 And this shall come to pass if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:42.400 You turn your eyes to the world, and you look at the things of the world, and you could probably describe the world with one word, "bad." You look at your own life for a second, maybe your job. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:02:08.560 Some of you who have worked Monday, Tuesday, today, you're off tomorrow, work again Friday, you can describe it as one word, "bad." You look back on your past, things that have happened to you, but also things that you have done to other people, to other people's lives. 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:40.759 You could say, "bad." Stop looking at yourself, you start looking at our country, you turn the TV on last Thursday, thankfully I was on a plane, you watch the presidential debate, and you can describe it with one word, "bad." Then you look back in the whole history of America, much of it not to go down that road, and you describe it as bad. 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:53.099 You look out from America, you look at other countries, other countries even right now in our time period, and you can describe it as bad. 00:02:53.099 --> 00:02:58.759 You start to look at a particular country. 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:12.919 Like this past week, two weeks ago, I flew into Seoul, Korea, and I looked to the north there knowing what's north of where I was, North Korea. 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:20.639 And it's not just bad, it is terrible, awful. 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:40.400 And I don't know if it affects you the same way that it affects me, but when I see just the high volume of bad in our world, it easily could discourage me, could easily give me a bit of melancholy. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:04:03.879 You start to look at things in life, and you apply the church to the situation, and you have a good theology of the church, you know God's promises, but if you're being honest, sometimes you look at all the badness in the world, and you think that the church is not this active organism, but this passive organism. 00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:13.439 Wrongly so, and you know that, but you're like, "It's hard to think otherwise." There's all this bad that is happening to the church. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:05:21.199 And if you let yourself ruminate over that too much, you think of even more wrong things, incorrect things, and you say, "Well, if the church is passive, at least in the big things, in the spiritual things, in the country-wide things, maybe even God is passive." If he's not, at least I haven't seen him actively do a mighty work in a while, but I want to preach Zechariah chapter 6 to you to encourage you that in a world full of bad, God's people are not passive, and God's people are not passive because the God that God's people serve is not passive. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:34.240 But he not only is not passive, he has promised to not be passive, and he has promised us specific ways of how he will be and is active in our world. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:06:01.439 And when we look at Zechariah chapter 6, the way that he is active should cause us not to just look at ourselves to have this selfish worldview, but to take joy in the things that God is doing for his community, for his people, and not just me, but for his people around the globe. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:08.480 As we see in this text to show my cards up front, what he is doing is a good work. 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:13.560 He is building a house. 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:22.079 The first section of this text comes from the first few verses, which is the setting. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:35.279 As we see in verse 9, the word of the Lord comes to Zechariah, and it comes with a commandment that Zechariah is to do, and that he is to give to other men. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:59.000 And these are the men that we see their names, Heldai, Tobijah, Jadiah, men who have arrived from Babylon, and on the very same day that they arrived from Babylon, however long it took for them to get to where they were going, they are supposed to go to a house owned by the man named Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:18.839 And then it says in the first part of verse 11, "Take from them silver and gold." The fact that it says take from them silver and gold, we can see the book of Ezra and realize why these men have come from Babylon to this place. 00:07:18.839 --> 00:07:31.680 They've come because God is already beginning to do a mighty work of sending tribute through the hands of pagans, of Persian governors. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:44.759 God is changing the hearts of kings, He is stirring it however He wishes as the proverb says, and He has started with King Cyrus all the way to King Darius. 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:56.680 And these Persian kings are sending gold and silver through men like these four that we just read about to help fund the building of the temple. 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:08.100 With that being said, when it says the house of Josiah, we're probably not talking about a two bed, one bath apartment that this man owned, but probably something to do with the temple. 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:11.420 Maybe a store house of the temple or something like that. 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:15.319 So the setting has to do with the temple. 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:19.759 Really the setting of the full book of Zechariah has to do with the temple. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:38.600 It has not just a book about the doctrine of justification here and there found in chapter three that we so often like to quote, but it is about God's temple, God's house, literally three times use the house of God, the house of God, or the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord. 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:47.940 When we say the house of the Lord, we understand the temple of the Lord. 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:58.559 I want you to think for a few moments about what these men and their fathers had to go through. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:06.799 I don't want to speak too much of it because I don't want to miss the point of the text. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:10.399 These men did not live in a vacuum. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:12.899 They were real human beings. 00:09:12.899 --> 00:09:16.639 They faced real problems. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:22.480 I want you to imagine, let's take a country like just throwing a hypothetical out there. 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:29.559 Canada decides they're going to come in and re disperse the population of America. 00:09:29.559 --> 00:09:31.759 The top people coming with us. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:33.519 The rest will just leave y'all here. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:35.480 Here are men who were uprooted. 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:47.600 If not them, their fathers, their generation before them uprooted, moved to a different land with a different language, with a different culture that had different idols. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:54.360 Yes, they've probably gotten acclimated to life in Babylon. 00:09:54.360 --> 00:10:00.240 Some commentators talk about how easy life has gotten for them at this point. 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:01.240 They've gotten incorporated. 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:05.200 If you give them the choice, they're not going to choose to move back to Jerusalem. 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:06.679 They want to stay in Babylon. 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:08.279 Yes, that may be right. 00:10:08.279 --> 00:10:18.120 Again, missing the point doesn't do away with historical fact of what they faced. 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:28.639 We don't have to really infer or guess about their emotions, how they interpret their recent history of their people, how they interpret why they live in Babylon. 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:31.639 You could just look in Daniel chapter 9. 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:46.159 I won't ask you to turn to Daniel chapter 9, but Daniel speaks about the divinely authoritative interpretation of what has happened to the people of Israel in the land of Babylon. 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:50.840 Doesn't talk about how comfortable it is. 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:57.039 He thinks about his past and he thinks about his past with shame. 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:03.600 "Oh God, you have punished us for our rebellion. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:08.820 You have punished us for our treachery. 00:11:08.820 --> 00:11:13.679 We have committed spiritual adultery against you. 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:14.679 We are here. 00:11:14.679 --> 00:11:17.000 We are in this land. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:30.879 However good it may be now, we are here because we turned away from you, lived against you to our shame in the present day. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:40.399 Men who are used in a mighty way now, but men who have a recent history of shame that they still deal with. 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:52.240 Again, I don't want to belabor the point of how hard it must be for these men to have to reconstitute their lives according to Babylon. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:55.840 They have to go to Babylon, they have to get their new ID cards, all that good stuff. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:12:00.840 They are learning the language and then all of a sudden the Medo-Persian Empire takes over. 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:05.159 They have to do it all over again. 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:10.240 Whatever comes with that. 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:18.000 So if you are looking at your life, you are looking at your past and you are saying bad. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.940 How about these men? 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:33.360 These are the kind of guys that if a modern day, just to paint the picture for you, if a modern day psychiatrist were to get a hold of them, they would love to put all sorts of labels upon them. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:42.860 Chronic depression, chronic anxiety, shame, lethargy. 00:12:42.860 --> 00:12:45.440 Here they need these worldly treatments. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.679 They need this sort of stuff. 00:12:50.679 --> 00:13:04.440 But instead of God shaming them going on and on about the past, we see in this text, he starts to look at the future. 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:09.480 We see in the second section, the sacrament. 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:18.200 In the sacrament that is in this text, again loosely speaking of the terms, is the crown. 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:39.799 Verse 11, "Take from them silver and gold and make a crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest." If you have the KJV, it may be take the gold and silver and make crowns plural. 00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:41.240 It is kind of a complicated thing. 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:50.759 But if you look later on in verse 14 and the crown again, ESV singular, I believe in the KJV it is still crowns plural. 00:13:50.759 --> 00:14:00.200 The verb there shall be is a singular verb in the Hebrew which is why most of your translations are going to have crown. 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:05.960 If you have the New King James Version, it has the term elaborate crown. 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:11.340 What we have going on here, it could be one crown somehow mixed of silver and gold, I don't know how. 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:15.799 Or it could be two crowns that are interwoven together, whatever it is. 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:24.879 I do like the New King James Version of calling it an elaborate crown. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:39.399 And the crown made of gold and silver, I would say, is to represent the two offices of the priestly office and the royal office. 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:56.960 But this sacrament that I am referring to, this tangible thing that these people can look to, can touch, can hold to remember the promises of God, to think about God's grace that He was already doing for them now and the present for them. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:07.360 But promises of even future grace He was going to show them in a greater, more full way is this crown of silver and gold. 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:25.000 What we are to see from this section that begins in verse 11 and ends in verse 14, that the idea of the crown forms what I guess I would call book covers to a book that is being given to us. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.399 Brother Jimmy would love this. 00:15:27.399 --> 00:15:30.480 The fancy word for it is a chiastic structure. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:41.519 So there are ends to this and the crown is at both ends. 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:53.799 This crown in verse 14, the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to these men. 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:58.039 If they wanted to, hypothetically, they could touch it. 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:03.080 They could look at it with their eyes and be reminded of something. 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:07.720 What is it that they are reminded of? 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:09.039 Number one, we have the crown. 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.679 Number two, we have the content of this reminder. 00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:16.279 The content of the reminder is the temple. 00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:28.519 So if the hard covers to the book are made up by the crown, then the main body, the main theme, the main thesis of the book is going to be the temple of the Lord. 00:16:28.519 --> 00:16:29.519 Why? 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:33.120 Because it is at the center of this text. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:44.759 So there to make this crown, this elaborate crown, and then Zechariah is to look to Joshua, the man who kind of serves as a type here. 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:47.059 He is the high priest. 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:54.519 He looks to him and he says, "Thus says the Lord of hosts. 00:16:54.519 --> 00:17:00.080 Behold, the man whose name is the branch. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:10.940 For he shall branch out from his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. 00:17:10.940 --> 00:17:22.660 It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor and shall sit and rule on his throne. 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:34.400 And there shall be a priest on his throne and the council of peace shall be between them both." So the reminder is a reminder of a promise. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:44.339 The promise being that there will be this figure is given the name branch who will build the temple of the Lord. 00:17:44.339 --> 00:18:14.259 And you start to see that the promise of a temple is not the second temple that would be concluded within just a few years of this chapter here, if not already completed, almost completed in this text, because they are to take the crown and it shall be in the second temple in their day and it shall be a reminder of a future greater temple. 00:18:14.259 --> 00:18:30.779 A little bit more proof that we're not speaking about this second temple that will that comprise second temple Judaism is the fact that Herod a couple centuries later would end up completing this temple. 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:38.339 So the glory of this temple is not going to be completed by an unbeliever. 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:44.819 Furthermore we're told who is going to build this temple. 00:18:44.819 --> 00:18:46.500 And it wasn't anybody in the present day. 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:52.859 So we got the crown, we got the content, and then we got number three, the constructor, the builder. 00:18:52.859 --> 00:18:54.500 Who is the builder? 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:57.380 The builder is the king. 00:18:57.380 --> 00:19:03.059 The builder of this temple is not a governor, so it's not Zerubbabel. 00:19:03.059 --> 00:19:18.660 We see earlier in Zechariah, I believe chapter three or chapter four, the promise that Zerubbabel, oh yeah chapter four verse eight, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:29.339 This house, this present second temple going on in verse nine, his hands shall also complete it. 00:19:29.339 --> 00:19:39.579 But we have in chapter six something far greater because it's not the governor of the people who would build this temple. 00:19:39.579 --> 00:19:51.019 It's not the governor neither is it the high priest Josiah, excuse me Joshua. 00:19:51.019 --> 00:19:54.660 But it's a king. 00:19:54.660 --> 00:20:00.819 It's a king who goes by the name of Branch. 00:20:00.819 --> 00:20:02.619 This tells us that is not Joshua. 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:11.619 That is not somehow that Joshua the priest later on became a king and it just was not recorded in the Old Testament or something. 00:20:11.619 --> 00:20:14.539 Joshua never became a king. 00:20:14.539 --> 00:20:15.539 Never became a king. 00:20:15.539 --> 00:20:16.579 Let me let me just stop there. 00:20:16.579 --> 00:20:19.019 Let's go ahead and flip to Jeremiah. 00:20:19.019 --> 00:20:40.259 I would ask that you turn to Jeremiah chapter 23 with me. 00:20:40.259 --> 00:20:45.980 God does not leave this criteria and obscurity. 00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:56.460 He tells us the name of the man who shall build the house elsewhere as we see in Jeremiah 23 verse five who this man is. 00:20:56.460 --> 00:21:12.500 Behold, the days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and do wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 00:21:12.500 --> 00:21:19.420 In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely and this is the name by which he will be called. 00:21:19.420 --> 00:21:22.579 The Lord is our righteousness. 00:21:22.579 --> 00:21:24.339 So he's the branch. 00:21:24.339 --> 00:21:25.900 He's the branch and he is the king. 00:21:25.900 --> 00:21:26.900 He's the king. 00:21:26.900 --> 00:21:29.980 The fact that he comes from David the king. 00:21:29.980 --> 00:21:37.059 Well to prove that Joshua is not somebody who later on became a king that Joshua is not from the line of David. 00:21:37.059 --> 00:21:43.259 So this is not fulfilled by Joshua or else God is not good at keeping his promises. 00:21:43.259 --> 00:21:47.980 Well we all know what the connection there is with that. 00:21:47.980 --> 00:21:49.980 God is maintaining his promises. 00:21:49.980 --> 00:21:55.579 This is not about Joshua. 00:21:55.579 --> 00:22:03.059 And I want to point out something to you in this text, a small little detail. 00:22:03.059 --> 00:22:16.799 The beginning it says say to him that is say to Joshua not just to the man that are there but say to Joshua. 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:26.420 So these are promises that Joshua is also to be reminded of. 00:22:26.420 --> 00:22:33.299 They're looking for someone that is not in the setting there. 00:22:33.299 --> 00:22:34.980 They were hoping for someone. 00:22:34.980 --> 00:22:51.980 They were called to hope for someone that was not in the room and someone who would do far greater than what they would see in their day with the second temple being completed. 00:22:51.980 --> 00:23:03.339 Please hear me out I'm not degrading the fact that the second temple was completed in their day historical facts that are mighty works of God. 00:23:03.339 --> 00:23:08.380 But we can't stop there. 00:23:08.380 --> 00:23:23.779 Not only is he a king but in the fact that Joshua is a type of this person Joshua being a high priest the fulfillment the greater Joshua is also to be a high priest but he is the great high priest. 00:23:23.779 --> 00:23:26.799 He is to be the priest king. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:42.900 He builds the temple bears royal honor sits and rules on his throne and there shall be a priest on his throne and the council of peace shall be between them both. 00:23:42.900 --> 00:24:00.579 Now when it says between them both I would say that it is not two different individuals but it is two different offices being brought together perfectly united into one person. 00:24:00.579 --> 00:24:06.180 This branch the king the priest. 00:24:06.180 --> 00:24:22.539 Don't want to have my cards we see that the person who anybody would be waiting on to build the temple is not Benjamin Netanyahu not Donald Trump. 00:24:22.539 --> 00:24:25.660 We're not looking for another temple. 00:24:25.660 --> 00:24:28.579 We're not looking for another person. 00:24:28.579 --> 00:24:36.740 We're looking for the explicit description given in this text and that is Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:39.099 He is the builder of this temple. 00:24:39.099 --> 00:24:40.980 He is the righteous king. 00:24:40.980 --> 00:24:43.380 He is the one that rules on the throne. 00:24:43.380 --> 00:24:46.779 He is the one that has the council of peace upon him. 00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:50.299 He is the one that is the great high priest. 00:24:50.299 --> 00:24:59.299 Psalm 110 I'd ask you to open your Bibles of Psalm 110. 00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:06.859 The Lord says to my Lord this is David speaking this sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. 00:25:06.859 --> 00:25:12.380 The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter rule in the midst of your enemies. 00:25:12.380 --> 00:25:14.299 He's the king. 00:25:14.299 --> 00:25:18.819 Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. 00:25:18.819 --> 00:25:22.579 He's the priest from the womb of the morning. 00:25:22.579 --> 00:25:26.259 The do of your youth will be yours. 00:25:26.259 --> 00:25:30.059 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. 00:25:30.059 --> 00:25:38.900 You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 00:25:38.900 --> 00:25:43.460 He is the one who has come from the land of David. 00:25:43.460 --> 00:26:11.579 He is the temple builder and the crown that they were to pick up place on Joshua's head later on tape and put in the temple is the tangible thing that they can look and must believe in must believe in in order to be saved. 00:26:11.579 --> 00:26:14.319 They were not saved by some other method. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:19.720 They were not saved by obedience to the Mosaic law and honor to the second temple. 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:26.859 They were saved by faith in Christ who would come to build the great temple. 00:26:26.859 --> 00:26:31.019 They were saved by that alone. 00:26:31.019 --> 00:26:59.180 And I understand and I'm speaking with love speaking very sensitively, but I want to show you I want to show you the clarity of Zechariah chapter 6 the clarity of what it says about the work of salvation the clarity of what it says about Christ and what he has to do with with the temple and whether or not there's a future temple that's going to come later on because later in this text we're going to talk about how the temple is built. 00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:09.539 But just to show you the clarity, we are not looking for a sign of any red heifers coming into Israel. 00:27:09.539 --> 00:27:27.920 We're not looking for a sign of some red cows being imported into a physical geopolitical land. What you should look for if you have not yet is the red blood that is imputed to you who believe in Christ. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:35.660 That is why he is the one who builds the temple. 00:27:35.660 --> 00:27:48.460 This has to do with eschatology and again, good brothers in here that would disagree with me on eschatology say with all love full of. 00:27:48.460 --> 00:28:02.440 But if we start to look for another temple, we start to miss the temple that Christ is building. 00:28:02.440 --> 00:28:08.859 You look over at the news in Israel and you say that's bad. 00:28:08.859 --> 00:28:13.619 I guess the temple is not going to be built in our day. 00:28:13.619 --> 00:28:19.900 Wrong. 00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:26.700 Christ the temple builder. 00:28:26.700 --> 00:28:31.519 He is the temple builder. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:34.339 He builds it with his blood. 00:28:34.339 --> 00:28:47.160 He uses his blood, but to be more specific, he builds it in the way that we see in verse 15. 00:28:47.160 --> 00:28:49.220 We see the setting. 00:28:49.220 --> 00:28:51.819 We have the sacrament. 00:28:51.819 --> 00:28:59.440 Now we have the structural ingenuity. 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:08.059 And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. 00:29:08.059 --> 00:29:10.779 You start to see the cohesion of the text. 00:29:10.779 --> 00:29:15.019 Not only with the bookends of the crown, it forms a book. 00:29:15.019 --> 00:29:16.460 We see the heart of the book. 00:29:16.460 --> 00:29:23.279 God shows us what's the heart of the text is the temple, but you see the fact that the phrase house of the Lord is repeated. 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:24.859 You can say the house or the temple. 00:29:24.859 --> 00:29:25.859 Same thing. 00:29:25.859 --> 00:29:29.940 Temple of the Lord is used three times. 00:29:29.940 --> 00:29:35.900 It's used twice in reference to who is building the temple. 00:29:35.900 --> 00:29:38.779 That is Christ. 00:29:38.779 --> 00:29:45.619 It's used this third time here in reference to the helpers of the builder. 00:29:45.619 --> 00:29:48.859 The helpers of the builder are those who are far off. 00:29:48.859 --> 00:29:54.299 Again, these guys held eye to Bayhjah Jadiah. 00:29:54.299 --> 00:29:58.339 They've come a long way. 00:29:58.339 --> 00:30:05.960 But we see that we're speaking of something far greater than just what is happening in this setting. 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:12.059 Those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. 00:30:12.059 --> 00:30:16.259 I remember reading this text a few months ago. 00:30:16.259 --> 00:30:19.099 Take a little bit more time reading in our say to myself, wait a minute. 00:30:19.099 --> 00:30:27.339 That phrase you who are far off those who are far off is some familiar phrase. 00:30:27.339 --> 00:30:30.960 We heard a preach to us maybe a year or two ago. 00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.859 We see it in Ephesians chapter two. 00:30:34.859 --> 00:30:38.200 Ephesians chapter two. 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:48.900 In verse 17. 00:30:48.900 --> 00:30:59.099 We see that we're not left to ourselves to interpret this text, but we have apostolic authority to interpret it for us. 00:30:59.099 --> 00:31:06.900 And he came that is Christ came and preached peace to you who were far off. 00:31:06.900 --> 00:31:08.660 Those who are far off. 00:31:08.660 --> 00:31:14.759 Okay, yeah, those who are far off heard a message, but it doesn't say anything about temples. 00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:17.660 It doesn't say anything about them helping or anything like that. 00:31:17.660 --> 00:31:22.859 We'll just keep reading on and those who were near for through him. 00:31:22.859 --> 00:31:26.940 We both have access in one spirit to the father. 00:31:26.940 --> 00:31:30.579 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. 00:31:30.579 --> 00:31:46.180 You who were far off, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. 00:31:46.180 --> 00:32:13.900 Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord and him you also you who you who are far off are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. 00:32:13.900 --> 00:32:30.160 The structural ingenuity is not that this branch, this man has come or someone else will come and put one stone on top of the other in a beautiful way. 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:46.039 But the fact that he is putting one believer with another in a beautiful way that he is building his temple not with stones, but with soul. 00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:58.740 The cornerstone was laid on the earth to build a house using stones from the corners of the earth. 00:32:58.740 --> 00:33:05.380 How beautiful how unspeakably beautiful. 00:33:05.380 --> 00:33:07.019 I get chills thinking of it. 00:33:07.019 --> 00:33:08.019 I do. 00:33:08.019 --> 00:33:09.339 You can ask my wife. 00:33:09.339 --> 00:33:10.740 I come home from a trip. 00:33:10.740 --> 00:33:14.380 Yes, it's a little bit to do with the jet lag, but I get in the car. 00:33:14.380 --> 00:33:23.579 I think of our brothers and I cry like a baby thinking of the beauty of God's church. 00:33:23.579 --> 00:33:25.539 What God has joined together. 00:33:25.539 --> 00:33:30.940 Let not man separate. 00:33:30.940 --> 00:33:34.099 It's Christ who is building his church. 00:33:34.099 --> 00:33:36.279 It's not a charlatan. 00:33:36.279 --> 00:33:37.279 It's not methodologies. 00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:38.279 It's not music. 00:33:38.279 --> 00:33:45.940 It's Christ everywhere. 00:33:45.940 --> 00:33:49.839 We could also see it in first Peter chapter 2 verse 5. 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:53.500 For time's sake, I won't turn there. 00:33:53.500 --> 00:34:00.380 You shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. 00:34:00.380 --> 00:34:05.079 The new King James says, then you shall know the Lord of hosts has sent me. 00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:13.820 But that would imply that after a second temple is built, then you can see that Isaac, Aria and a prophet of God. 00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:25.260 But I would say that it should be and you shall know the Lord of hosts has sent me because again, we're not speaking of things that are finished in their day. 00:34:25.260 --> 00:34:31.179 There's not something that's going to be finished in their day to prove that Zachariah has been sent from God. 00:34:31.179 --> 00:34:37.340 After all, they have this promise, this tangible promise of a crown set in the temple. 00:34:37.340 --> 00:34:39.539 So this is just a commandment. 00:34:39.539 --> 00:34:43.500 You must know that I'm sent from God. 00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:49.900 You shall know kind of like the 10 commandments is a future tense, but it's kind of like a present commandment. 00:34:49.900 --> 00:34:57.579 You must know you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me and the name of God. 00:34:57.579 --> 00:35:02.059 I speak these things to you. 00:35:02.059 --> 00:35:07.019 You don't need any other promises. 00:35:07.019 --> 00:35:13.539 You don't need to find anything on the news to give you encouragement. 00:35:13.539 --> 00:35:18.460 You don't need whatever it is that makes you feel better to make you feel better. 00:35:18.460 --> 00:35:20.619 You name, you need this. 00:35:20.619 --> 00:35:30.739 This says the Lord, he has promised that he is saving people and he is saving people. 00:35:30.739 --> 00:35:36.420 He is. 00:35:36.420 --> 00:35:41.099 It shall come to pass. 00:35:41.099 --> 00:35:44.739 You shall know the Lord of hosts has sent me to you and this shall come to pass. 00:35:44.739 --> 00:35:49.539 If you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. 00:35:49.539 --> 00:35:53.659 That verse deserves a sermon on its own right. 00:35:53.659 --> 00:36:01.420 Much that I must leave out on this, but this is not to say that the promises depend upon you. 00:36:01.420 --> 00:36:10.099 The promise does not depend and just hope that grace Bible Church can do this. 00:36:10.099 --> 00:36:13.940 Please not. 00:36:13.940 --> 00:36:27.460 We see this earlier to Joshua the high priest you as I priest if you do this then you will have this temple that the temple the house will be inherited. 00:36:27.460 --> 00:36:30.840 We see it spoken to Solomon. 00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:36.780 If you build the house if you will diligently obey me then the house and the courts will be built. 00:36:36.780 --> 00:36:37.780 We see it with kings. 00:36:37.780 --> 00:36:40.260 We see it with representatives. 00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:43.659 So again just a fast forward that through this. 00:36:43.659 --> 00:36:45.539 And I know I'm preaching to the choir here. 00:36:45.539 --> 00:36:46.539 I trust. 00:36:46.539 --> 00:36:55.940 I hope that you see the need for Christ to represent you that you cannot stand before God on your own. 00:36:55.940 --> 00:37:02.940 If you stand before God on your own ask yourself this if he were to hypothetically ask you I don't think you will. 00:37:02.940 --> 00:37:04.340 I know we won't. 00:37:04.340 --> 00:37:09.619 But if he were let's say ask you why should you be allowed into heaven. 00:37:09.619 --> 00:37:20.619 If you say well I did this I did that I did this hell hell for eternity. 00:37:20.619 --> 00:37:53.900 But if you can stand before God and not point and say I obeyed I diligently obeyed not even halfway you should look and say this has come to pass because Christ the son has diligently obeyed the commandments of the father stood in my place used his blood to wash me used his sovereign hand to gather me called me into fellowship with himself saved me by his spirit I'm united to him. 00:37:53.900 --> 00:38:00.340 I stand before you because of Christ. 00:38:00.340 --> 00:38:06.699 He has saved me. 00:38:06.699 --> 00:38:15.260 He would hypothetically say that is exactly how my temple is built. 00:38:15.260 --> 00:38:21.619 That is exactly how my dwelling place is built. 00:38:21.619 --> 00:39:04.059 Christ has diligently obeyed the voice of the father our King humbled himself as a servant to obey all of the law actively and passively for us and is either interceding for us as King the branch was planted into the tomb of death sprouted on the third day that we may be branches grafted into the tree of life by his work. 00:39:04.059 --> 00:39:14.940 Told you I would close with an example an illustration of this. 00:39:14.940 --> 00:39:34.699 One of the men that I referred to earlier is a pastor has been for a long time by the grace of God his mother his grandfather and his brother were killed in the killing fields in Cambodia in the 70s. 00:39:34.699 --> 00:39:45.820 I talk about making history come to life for you think about the evils of Pol Pot in the Khmer Rouge man who doesn't know of somebody who was affected by it. 00:39:45.820 --> 00:39:49.539 He was affected by it. 00:39:49.539 --> 00:39:53.019 He could easily do one of two things. 00:39:53.019 --> 00:40:02.579 Oh, I'm going to look on my past and recognize my past as something that debilitates me. 00:40:02.579 --> 00:40:06.059 I'm a victim of bad things that have happened to me. 00:40:06.059 --> 00:40:11.179 I can't go on I can't do this. 00:40:11.179 --> 00:40:16.619 But instead he holds to the promises of God. 00:40:16.619 --> 00:40:19.579 He looks to the reminders. 00:40:19.579 --> 00:40:23.139 He trusts and thus says the Lord. 00:40:23.139 --> 00:40:28.860 And when you hear him talk you don't hear him talk over and over about the loss of his family. 00:40:28.860 --> 00:40:32.139 I couldn't imagine I truly could not imagine. 00:40:32.139 --> 00:40:41.860 We think of fact just I'm with my family this week and one of our favorite things to do is family is talk about the good old days. 00:40:41.860 --> 00:40:44.539 My grandmother just came up from Mississippi. 00:40:44.539 --> 00:40:46.860 She talked about to me about her good old days. 00:40:46.860 --> 00:40:48.860 We're talking about a long time ago. 00:40:48.860 --> 00:40:49.860 It's good. 00:40:49.860 --> 00:40:53.539 What a gift family is a man who does not have that. 00:40:53.539 --> 00:40:58.820 It's the things in his country. 00:40:58.820 --> 00:41:05.500 And this man is going on to plant and be a part of 10 church plants. 00:41:05.500 --> 00:41:08.500 10. 00:41:08.500 --> 00:41:11.420 It could be easing into spiritual retirement but he's pray. 00:41:11.420 --> 00:41:14.739 He asked us to pray recently for an 11th. 00:41:14.739 --> 00:41:21.019 Look I want to do an 11th and then beyond that I'm already kind of envisioning a 12th in this other area. 00:41:21.019 --> 00:41:22.099 Please pray for laborers. 00:41:22.099 --> 00:41:24.900 I pray for so and so they're put in the spot. 00:41:24.900 --> 00:41:25.900 They're going to be ordained. 00:41:25.900 --> 00:41:33.780 They're about to be pastors on and on and on about the work of God and how he is building his house. 00:41:33.780 --> 00:41:36.860 I truly hope I hope this encourages you. 00:41:36.860 --> 00:41:46.739 I hope this encourages you that you can look not just to your own life that you can look to the world and not say bad. 00:41:46.739 --> 00:41:48.900 Say good. 00:41:48.900 --> 00:41:55.380 And glory to Christ the branch is reigning as our king and interceding for us as our priest. 00:41:55.380 --> 00:41:58.380 Let's pray. 00:41:58.380 --> 00:42:07.179 Oh God glory to Christ. 00:42:07.179 --> 00:42:10.139 Glory to Christ. 00:42:10.139 --> 00:42:13.539 We I just preached an hour long sermon. 00:42:13.539 --> 00:42:23.820 Oh God and can't even think of the half of the glory of Christ. 00:42:23.820 --> 00:42:26.980 How glorious your son is. 00:42:26.980 --> 00:42:30.340 Holy holy holy of the Lord is the Lord of hosts. 00:42:30.340 --> 00:42:35.079 The whole earth is full of your glory. 00:42:35.079 --> 00:42:43.699 We have family members gone that we would love to see you use as living stones brought to the cornerstone. 00:42:43.699 --> 00:42:46.059 Save their souls. 00:42:46.059 --> 00:42:50.380 Please save their souls. 00:42:50.380 --> 00:42:53.860 Save their souls not so that they would have just an easy life. 00:42:53.860 --> 00:43:01.099 God save their souls so that Christ would be even more glorified as the merciful one. 00:43:01.099 --> 00:43:05.780 The gracious one whose blood is perfect. 00:43:05.780 --> 00:43:09.619 Cleanse us from our sins. 00:43:09.619 --> 00:43:13.099 Give us a greater love for you. 00:43:13.099 --> 00:43:18.860 And in light of this text God give us a spirit brought unity. 00:43:18.860 --> 00:43:20.860 Christ and that we pray. Amen.