Shall we tonight now get into our study
of the book of Zechariah, beginning with chapter
one.
Now if you remember when we studied the
book of Haggai last week, Haggai was dating
his prophecies in the second year of Darius
the king.
And his first prophecy was in, I think,
the sixth month of the second year.
He had another prophecy in the seventh month,
and his last prophecy was in the ninth
month.
Now Zechariah also dates his prophecies in the
reign of Darius, the Medo-Persian king.
And so between, and at the same time
that Haggai was prophesying, you remember he prophesied
in the seventh month and the ninth month.
In the eighth month, the word of the
Lord came to Zechariah.
The eighth month in the second year of
Darius.
So Zechariah and Haggai were contemporaries.
They were both prophets of the post-exilic
period.
The children of Israel had returned, that is
a portion of them, 50,000 of them,
from their exile in Babylon.
Seventy years of Babylonian captivity had more or
less weaned them from their idolatry, for it
was because of the idolatry that they went
into captivity.
But the Jews learned something in Babylon of
commercialism.
It seems that the Jewish people are very
adaptable.
And whatever they do, they learn to do
it well.
Babylon was the commercial center of the world.
And when the Jews were taken captive to
Babylon, they began to go from the agrarian
culture to a more commercial.
And they began to excel in the commercial
field so much so that by the time
the 70 years of captivity was over, many
of them had no desire to return to
the land at all.
They were now wealthy merchants.
They controlled the commerce of Babylon.
And they had learned well the lessons of
commerce, and they have not forgotten them.
And still are very successful many times in
the commercial field.
It is interesting that when the nation Israel
was reborn, and the people went back to
the land, that these people who had excelled
so much in the commercial field, wherever they
went in the world, they were always involved
in commerce.
But when they returned back to the land,
many of them returned to the soil, and
some of the most advanced agricultural techniques in
the world are now being practiced in Israel,
and they teach the world the art of
agriculture.
Now, here were a bunch of bankers and
businessmen and store owners and all.
They go back to Israel, and they go
back to the farm, and it isn't long
before they've developed the drip system of irrigation.
They've developed the sprinkling system of irrigation, and
they've begun to farm the desert, and they
have become extremely profitable now in their farming
interests, and they actually fill Europe with fresh
fruit and vegetables all year round.
So, they are a fascinating people.
And they were so successful, as I said,
in their commercial ventures, that many of them
did not return.
And this will be brought out in some
of the prophecies here in Zechariah.
But those that did return were not really
prepared for what they found.
You know, it is interesting when you leave
a place, so often in your mind you
have memories of that place, and usually it
was when you were a child, you grew
up in a particular locality.
And there always seems to be within the
heart of a person a yearning to return
to the place of your childhood.
And, oh, it was this, and it was
that, and, you know, you've built it up
in your mind over the years of absence.
But sometimes one of the most disillusioning and
disappointing things can be to go back to
the place of your childhood, especially in these
days, and especially if your childhood was in
Orange County.
And you find the whole place has changed.
It's not as old as you remember it,
where you used to go hunting for cottontail
and all.
Now there are busy shopping centers, and the
whole thing has changed.
Those who returned came back to a desolation
like they never dreamed.
The destruction of Jerusalem was so thorough by
Nebuchadnezzar that there wasn't any rebuilding, really, of
the city.
All they could do was cover the rubble
and the waste of the past and start
building anew on top of it.
They started the rebuilding of the temple, but
they soon became discouraged.
When Solomon built the temple, he had hired
150,000 men with 3,000 superintendents and
an unlimited supply of money.
And he was able to build a beautiful,
glorious temple unto the Lord, which was one
of the sights of the ancient world.
The Queen of Sheba, when she came and
saw it, she said, Oh, I heard of
the glory, but the half was not told
to me.
He used great stones, cedars from Lebanon, covered
everything with gold.
But of course, the gold was taken by
Nebuchadnezzar.
The huge brass pillars were broken up and
taken to Babylon.
And all that was left were these huge
stones that they could hardly move around.
And after a time of attempting to build
the temple, there were a lot of people
that were there in the land that were
harassing them, and they finally just gave up.
They just felt, can't be done.
We're just not strong enough.
There's not enough of us.
And they just, they just gave up the
attempts to build the temple.
That's when Haggai started getting on them.
Hey, you people look around.
Check things out.
Your crops been bad?
You're planting a lot of seed?
Harvesting a little?
Does it seem like your purses have holes
in the bottom?
Your money is just disappearing.
The reason why is that you are dwelling
comfortably now in your sealed houses while the
house of God lies desolate.
And Haggai was encouraging them to get back
to the building of the temple, promising them
that when they would, that God would begin
to bless them.
Mark this date, put it on your calendar,
and see if from this time God doesn't
begin to bless you as you return to
the work of building his house.
So at that same time, Zachariah came on
the scene.
Zachariah was probably a young man at the
time that he prophesied.
Zachariah, of the minor prophets, has the clearest
insight concerning the coming of Jesus Christ than
any of the other minor prophets and writes
more concerning Jesus Christ than all of the
rest of the minor prophets combined.
And as we get into Zachariah, you'll be
amazed at his prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, both
the first and the second coming.
Zachariah makes some amazing predictions that we will
be getting in our third study and final
study of the book.
Predictions that are coming to pass right now.
Predictions that have come to pass in the
last few years.
And as we read them, you'll see how
clearly God gave him an insight into the
history of the nation of Israel at the
present time.
So let's get into Zachariah.
The eighth month, the second year of Darius,
came the word of the Lord into Zachariah,
the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddu,
or Iddu, the prophet, saying, The Lord hath
been sore displeased with your fathers.
Therefore, say thou unto them, Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, Turn ye unto me, saith
the Lord of hosts, And I will turn
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
This basically is God's message to the people
through the ages.
If you'll turn to me, I will turn
to you.
When the king Asa had come back from
great victory over the Ethiopians and the Nubians,
the prophet of God came out to meet
him and he said, The Lord is with
you while you are with Him, and if
you seek Him, He will be found of
you.
But if you forsake Him, He will forsake
you.
Through the ages.
This is always the case.
God is always waiting for man to come.
And if you will come to God, you
can have fellowship with God and the Lord
will be with you.
But the Lord does not force Himself on
people.
God does not force you to love Him.
God does not force you to come to
Him.
He does not force you to serve Him.
He just tells you of His love for
you and because of His love for you,
this is what He will do for you
if you're walking in fellowship with Him.
But when it comes right down to it,
you are the one that has to make
the decision.
God has done all that He will do
to save you.
He has provided all that you need.
But you must initiate now.
God has already done all the initiating He
will.
In providing the way.
And now He waits for you to come.
And He invites you to come.
But you have to do it.
So, turn to Me, saith the Lord, and
I will turn to you.
Your fathers, they forsook Me.
I was displeased with your fathers.
But now if you'll just turn to Me,
I'll turn to you.
Don't be as your fathers, unto whom the
former prophets cried.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn ye
now from your evil ways and from your
evil doings.
That's what they were crying to their fathers,
but their fathers did not turn.
They did not hear nor hearken unto Me,
saith the Lord.
And your fathers, where are they?
Learn a lesson.
Your fathers perished because they did not turn
to Me.
Your fathers were carried away to Babylon because
they would not turn to Me.
But My words and My statutes, which I
commanded My servants, the prophets, they did not
take hold of your fathers.
Your fathers wouldn't listen.
And they returned and said, like as the
Lord of hosts thought to do unto us
according to our ways and according to our
doings, so hath He dealt with us.
So that which the prophets had warned them
would happen, did happen.
They were defeated.
They were carried away captives.
Now, the first of the ten visions that
Zechariah received.
A vision is similar to a dream with
the exception that you are awake and conscious
that you are awake when you have a
vision.
But it is much like a dream in
that you have a picture in your mind
of things like you do in a dream.
But as a dream is so often disjointed
and seemingly unrelated, so with visions, in
God communicating to men through dreams, there needed
to be the interpretation of the dream because
the dream was in symbols and thus needed
interpretation.
So with visions, so often, they are in
symbolic form and a vision must be interpreted.
Now, with Zechariah, the Lord gave him the
visions and in many places gave him also
the interpretation.
The Lord said, Do you understand that Zechariah?
He said, No, I don't.
What's it mean?
You don't know what it means?
Nope, tell me.
And so the Lord would have to interpret
for Zechariah the visions that he saw.
So, wherever God interpreted, then we understand the
visions.
Where God did not interpret, we can only
guess.
However, with parables, allegories, dreams, and visions, there
is what is known as expositional constancy.
Now that is a word of hermeneutics that
I don't expect you to remember.
But what it means is that in an
allegory, in a parable, in a vision, in
a dream, where you have symbolic language, if,
for instance, in parables, where the Lord is
explaining the parable of the field and the
types of seed that were planted in it,
He said, Now the seed is the word
of God and the field is the world.
And the bird is the enemy who comes
and plucks up the seed.
So, in parables, allegories, visions, dreams, wherever you
find the field, the field represents the world.
Wherever you find birds, they are always in
a bad sense.
Wherever you find the seed being planted, that
is the word of God.
And thus, oil is a symbol of the
Holy Spirit, as the dove is a symbol
of the Holy Spirit.
And there are those what are called expositional
constancies.
That is, wherever they are used in an
allegorical form, it remains through the whole Bible
so that if you are trying to understand
a parable or an allegory or a vision
and you are dealing with an oil, you
are dealing with a subject of the Holy
Spirit.
If you are dealing with birds, you are
dealing with the enemy to the true child
of God.
Where you are dealing with the field, you
are dealing with the world.
So, expositional constancy.
Now, on the twenty-fourth day of the
eleventh month, the second year of Darius, there
came the word of the Lord to Zechariah,
the son of Barakiah, the son of Edu,
the prophet saying, I saw at night, and
behold there was a man riding upon a
red horse, and he stood among the myrtle
trees that were in the bottom, and behind
him there were, there were there red horses,
speckled and white horses, so different horses behind
him.
So, here is a man riding a red
horse and horses behind him and he is
standing there under the myrtle trees.
Then said I, and I would have said
the same thing, Oh my Lord, what is
this?
You know, because just from the outset you
see a vision of this guy sitting on
a horse and these other horses behind him
under the myrtle trees and what can you
make of that?
Now, there is a type of sermonizing which
I do not follow nor do I advocate.
And that is the spiritualizing of a text
in order to interpret it.
Where a person will take a parable for
instance and he will make every part of
that parable symbolic and this is like and
this and he preaches his sermon using the
parable as the basis for the sermon.
Just this represents and this represents and this
represents and you are spiritualizing the whole thing.
The Bible does not say that it represents
those things but you can actually get good
sermons out of the parables if you will
spiritualize them because you can make them say
anything you want them to say.
But you really do not have real solid
teaching of the Word of God but there
are many who do follow that practice of
just spiritualizing things.
But really if you do that you can
also if you run out of parables use
the Three Little Pigs and preach a tremendous
sermon from the Three Little Pigs and the
importance of building a strong house.
One that will stand because the devil will
huff and puff and blow your house down
if you have not really built a strong
house and so you need to build a
house of faith mingled with the Word of
God and you know the bricks and the
mortar and I mean you can go on
and on you know with these things and
you can spiritualize almost anything and read into
it whatever you want.
As I say I do not practice that
kind of preaching because if I did not
have the interpretation of this rider on a
red horse with the speckled and white and
red horses behind him I'm sure that I
never would have come to what it is.
And so Zechariah when he saw the thing
very wisely said What in the world is
this?
And the angel that talked with me said
unto me I will show you what this
is.
And the man that stood among the myrtle
trees answered and said These are they whom
the Lord hath sent to walk to and
fro through the earth.
And they answered the angel of the Lord
that stood among the myrtle trees and said
We have walked to and fro through the
earth and behold all the earth sitteth still
and is at rest.
Now the children of Israel at this time
have been dispersed through the whole earth.
And so these who were sent more or
less to oversee and to see the conditions
of the earth and they came back and
reported everything is at rest and peaceful throughout
the earth.
Now here were God's people scattered, dispersed and
the world was resting and happy with that
fact and so God was displeased with the
treatment of His people that they were receiving
through the world.
Then the angel of the Lord answered and
said O Lord of hosts how long wilt
thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on
the cities of Judah against which you have
had indignation these seventy years.
And the Lord answered the angel that talked
with me with good words and comfortable words.
So the angel said to him Lord how
long until you have mercy on Jerusalem and
on Judah how long O Lord are the
people going to be dispersed and scattered.
And the Lord talked with him and I
love this with good words and with comfortable
words.
It seems whenever we're distressed and we come
to the Lord He is so patient with
us and I've always found that He talks
with me with good words and with comfortable
words.
Oh what comfort.
So the angel that communed with me said
unto me cry thou saying thus saith the
Lord of hosts I am jealous for Jerusalem
and for Zion with a great jealousy and
I am very displeased with the heathen that
are at ease for I was just a
little displeased and they helped to forward the
affliction.
In other words God was using the nations
as an instrument of judgment against Israel but
they in their destruction went beyond and therefore
thus saith the Lord I am returned to
Jerusalem with mercies my house shall be built
in it saith the Lord of hosts and
a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem
and so the Lord promises that the house
will be built.
Now they who had been working on it
were convinced this time it wouldn't be built
too much can't do it the job is
too big it's too great but the Lord
is here declaring the house will be built.
Now there is yet another temple to be
built and this prophecy not only dealt with
the times then but has a double fulfillment
because again the Lord has declared that his
house will be built in Jerusalem and there
will be definitely a temple built again in
Jerusalem.
In the 11th chapter of the book of
Revelation John is given a ruler and he
is told to measure the temple and the
courts.
Now this is during the period of the
great tribulation so I expect work to start
most any time on the new temple in
Jerusalem.
The house of the Lord will be built
in Jerusalem he promised and he said cry
yet saying thus saith the Lord of hosts
my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread
abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion
and shall yet choose Jerusalem though at this
time Jerusalem was such a rubble such a
wasted weight ruin yet the Lord promises the
rebuilding.
Now the second of his visions then I
lifted up my eyes and saw and behold
there were four horns and I said unto
the angel that talked with me what are
these?
And he answered me these are the horns
which have scattered Judah Israel and Jerusalem.
Now the four horns represent four kingdoms for
the horns symbolically are representing kings or powers
and they are equivalent to the four metals
in the great image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream or
the four beasts of Daniel's dream the four
kingdoms by which Israel was dispersed into the
world beginning with the Babylonian kingdom and then
the Medo-Persian Empire and then the Grecian
Empire and finally the Roman Empire these nations
under which God's people suffered and then the
Lord showed me four carpenters now his visions
are flipping from one to another first the
red horse with a rider on it and
the other horses under the myrtle trees and
then the next thing I saw were these
four horns now what can you make out
of four horns so the Lord told him
or the angel told him what was and
now the third vision the Lord showed me
four carpenters or literally hewers or carvers then
I said what come these to do what
are these guys coming to do Lord and
he spoke to me saying these are the
horns which have scattered Judah so that no
man did lift up his head but these
are coming to fray them to carve them
up to cast out the horns of the
Gentiles which lifted up their horn over the
land of Judah to scatter it and so
those carvers that are coming to fray the
kingdoms that scattered God's people chapter two the
next vision the fourth in the series of
ten I lifted up my eyes again and
I looked and behold there was a man
with a measuring line in his hand he
had a ruler I said where are you
going and he said to me to measure
Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof
and what is the length thereof and behold
the angel that talked with me went forth
and another angel went out to meet him
and he said unto him run and speak
to this young man calling Zechariah a young
man and that is why I said he
was probably a young man when he prophesied
he said run and speak to this young
man saying Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns
without walls for the multitude of men and
cattle therein in other words Jerusalem is going
to grow far beyond the boundaries of the
walls now if you go to Jerusalem today
you find that this prophecy is fulfilled it
wasn't really fulfilled until more recent years until
really the last century but Jerusalem has
expanded tremendously in fact there are new settlements
in Jerusalem way out towards the city of
Jericho probably 8 miles out of the center
of Jerusalem new settlements huge settlements Jerusalem has
new settlements almost to Bethlehem they have settlements
almost to Ramallah Jerusalem has expanded her borders
tremendously and so this prophecy of Zechariah was
not really fulfilled until our day and you
can go over now and see how it
is being fulfilled even now for I saith
the Lord will be unto her a wall
of fire round about in other words they
will expand from the walls and the walled
city of Jerusalem is now just a small
little portion there in the center and it
comprises just a little area of about one
square mile where I would imagine that the
city limits of Jerusalem proper now are probably
somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 200
square miles as it has expanded so large
so the Lord said I will be a
wall of fire around them they won't have
to build a wall around it for I
will be the wall of fire round about
and I will be the glory in the
midst of her of course that has not
yet taken place will not take place until
Jesus comes again that is his being the
glory in the midst of her ho ho
come forth and flee from the land of
the north saith the Lord for I have
spread you abroad as the four winds of
the heavens saith the Lord so he speaks
of their dispersion he spread them abroad as
the four winds now in the New Testament
Matthew chapter 24 when the disciples asked Jesus
what will be the sign of your coming
and the end of the age Jesus began
to tell them the various signs to look
for and incidentally it just so happens that
one of the signs that Jesus spoke about
took up a full page ad in today's
LA Times for one of the signs Jesus
said that there will be false Christ who
will be coming and in the LA Times
today there was a full page ad and
in the major newspapers around the world these
full page ads were run proclaiming that the
new Christ is now here and will be
revealing himself to the world in two months
in a worldwide telecast to be broadcast simultaneously
throughout the entire world by satellite and he
is going to bring in the new era
of peace and prosperity for all mankind and
that everybody around the world will understand his
speech by mental telepathy so that it doesn't
matter what language you speak you will understand
him as he is speaking because through mental
telepathy his speech will be translated into your
language and you will think that he is
speaking English because you will understand him as
though he were so far this group has
spent about twenty million dollars in advertising the
Messiah or they call him the Christ who
will be revealing himself now in two months
to the world now Jesus said there will
be false Christ and they will say lo
he is here or lo he is there
or he is in a secret place and
of course right now the paper said he
is at this moment in a secret place
and nobody knows who he is except the
few chosen people that he has decided to
reveal himself to but he is already a
world leader he already has spoken out on
national issues and the world has been listening
to him but he will reveal his true
identity in two months to the whole world
now and
then Jesus said and then shall they gather
together his elect from the four corners of
the earth now those people who declare that
the rapture of the church will take place
after the great tribulation use this as one
of their key proof text that the Lord
gathers together his elect from the four corners
of the earth after he returns in power
and great glory but here in Zechariah we
find that those elect that God will be
gathering together from the four winds of the
earth are actually the nation Israel not the
church and that is also confirmed by parallel
prophecies in Isaiah so the Lord is saying
come forth now there are thousands of Jews
in Russia today wanting to immigrate to Israel
but of course at the present time Russia
has a very restricted quota against them and
has been holding them back but God says
oh oh let them go and they will
flee from the land of the north as
God has spread them to the four winds
of the heavens deliver thyself oh Zion that
dwellest with the daughter of Babylon that is
deliver yourself out of that commercialism into which
you have fallen now in the book of
Revelation God expresses his anger against commercialism as
we know it that has been guilty of
enslaving the souls of men those who have
been taking advantage of other people and taking
more profit than is necessary from their products
and God speaks of the destruction of that
commercial Babylonian system in Revelation chapter 18 chapter
17 is the destruction of the religious Babylonian
system chapter 18 the destruction of the commercial
Babylonian system now in Revelation when he speaks
of the commercial he said come out of
her my people that is the same thing
that he is saying here calling his people
to come out from that Babylon commercial system
for thus saith the Lord of hosts after
the glory hath he sent me unto the
nations which spoiled you for he that touches
you touches the apple of his eye now
God is saying that concerning the Jewish people
and I don't know what your particular opinion
of the Jews may be but if you
touch them you are touching the apple of
God's eye now because I have taken a
supportive position towards the Jews and towards Israel
because I come from a biblical base you
would be amazed at the mail that I
get and how many ministers even write to
me and castigate me for my pro-Israel
stance and I get hate mail all the
time because of my support for the Jews
and the nation of Israel but I do
believe that God said he will bless those
that bless them and curse those that curse
them and the Lord said if you touch
them you are touching the apple of my
eye yes I know that they have turned
their backs upon God yes I know that
they have been guilty of corrupting the morals
of the world I know that they have
controlled Hollywood and I know that they have
controlled a lot of things that have brought
corruption into the world and yet I know
that God has chosen them and you just
better not touch them now a lot of
people have become extremely angry because of the
dealings that they have had where they have
been taken and there are a lot of
people that just have a bitterness towards the
Jewish people but don't touch them for the
Lord said you are touching the apple of
his eye for behold I will shake my
hand upon them and they shall be a
spoil to their servants and ye shall know
that the Lord of hosts has sent me
and turning to Israel he said sing and
rejoice oh daughter of Zion for lo I
come and I will dwell in the midst
of thee saith the Lord a glorious prophecy
of the second coming of Jesus Christ and
they are exhorted to sing and rejoice because
the Lord is going to come and dwell
in the midst of them and many nations
shall be joined to the Lord in that
day and shall be my people and I
will dwell in the midst of thee and
thou shalt know the Lord of hosts has
sent me unto thee and the Lord shall
inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land
and shall choose Jerusalem again be silent oh
all flesh before the Lord for he is
raised up out of his holy habitation so
according to the scriptures Jesus is going to
come again and he's going to dwell upon
the earth for a thousand years he's going
to reign over the earth during this time
and he will set his throne in Jerusalem
and Judah the area of Judah will be
his portion and it says the kings of
the earth will come annually and present their
gifts unto him and he will be the
Lord over the earth at that time and
the peoples of the world will worship him
now in that glorious kingdom age we will
be here to live and reign with Christ
for a thousand years in fact in the
book of Revelation it says unto him who
has loved us and washed us with his
blood and who has made us kings and
priests unto God and then in the fifth
chapter of the Revelation when we are singing
praises unto the Lamb for his worthiness to
take the scroll and loose the seals because
he was slain and has redeemed us by
his blood and the song goes on to
say and we shall reign with him and
has made us kings and priests unto our
God and we shall reign with him upon
the earth so when you read of the
kings of the earth coming and presenting their
gifts unto the Lord in the kingdom age
that's you that it's talking about annually we'll
have a great tour to Jerusalem as we
gather together from all over the world I'll
come from Hawaii tell the Lord well things
are going pretty well there on Maui Lord
got things under control great worship services keep
the surf up but the kings of the
earth gathering and how glorious that's going to
be when the Lord reigns over the earth
and righteousness covers the earth as the waters
cover the sea you know if you miss
that you miss the whole reason for living
you miss the whole purpose of life the
purpose of your being here is that you
might come to know Jesus Christ now as
your Lord and as your King in order
that loving him living for him and serving
him now you might continue loving him living
for him and serving him forever that's why
you're here if you miss knowing the Lord
now you've missed the whole purpose of life
and your life is in vain it's empty
it's worthless and so many people have wasted
their lives because they live for the present
pleasures for the present glories for the present
age and they haven't taken eternity into view
at all now the fifth vision the Lord
showed him Joshua now Joshua was the high
priest who along with Zerubbabel a priest was
in charge of the rebuilding of the temple
stood side by side with Zerubbabel he showed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the
angel of the Lord and Satan was standing
at his right hand to resist him Satan
is seeking to resist you from whatever work
you may desire to do for the Lord
or be called to do for the Lord
and the Lord said unto Satan the Lord
rebuke thee oh Satan even the Lord that
hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke you now I do
feel that in the scriptures we do have
a pattern when we are dealing with Satan
and that is of not directly dealing with
him I have heard people say I rebuke
you Satan and every time I hear them
say that I shudder because I am certain
that he is saying Paul I know Jesus
I know who are you it is interesting
in the book of Jude we are told
that when Michael who is one of the
chief angels of heaven when he was disputing
with Satan over the body of Moses Satan
was probably wanting to desecrate the body of
Moses and Michael was standing there and they
were disputing over the body they were fighting
over the body of Moses that Michael did
not bring any railing accusations against Satan he
didn't rail on him but Michael this archangel
said the Lord rebuke thee Michael didn't say
I rebuke you but he said the Lord
rebuke you here when he saw Satan standing
at the right hand of Joshua the high
priest seeking to resist him and Joshua was
standing before the angel of the Lord that
the Lord said unto Satan the Lord rebuke
you and so I think that if you
are going to be rebuking Satan that is
the way you should do it that rather
than saying I rebuke you Satan or even
I rebuke you in the name of Jesus
I think that you would be better off
to just say the Lord rebuke you Satan
in the name of Jesus I always like
to keep the Lord between me and Satan
I feel so much safer when I do
the Lord rebuke thee oh Satan even the
Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee is
not this a brand plucked out of the
fire referring actually to Satan he is like
a brand a coal a live coal that
has been plucked out of the fire now
the Bible uses this phrase in the New
Testament as far as our winning some of
the lost that we in winning the lost
are plucking coals right out of the fire
and there are people that are almost in
hell and by our bringing the glorious news
of Jesus Christ and their reception of it
they are like brands plucked out of the
fire now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments
now here is the high priest clothed with
filthy garments as he stood before the angel
now in the scripture garments are representative of
a person's righteousness and filthy garments represent a
person's self righteousness or that righteousness that you
have created for yourself by your own good
works Paul speaks about his
endeavors under the law in Philippians chapter 2
and in speaking of all of his adherence
to the law he said those things which
were gained to me I counted lost for
the righteousness of Jesus Christ for whom I
suffered the loss of all things and do
count them as refuse that I may know
him and be found in him not having
my own righteousness which is of the law
but the righteousness which is of Christ through
faith so here was Joshua standing there before
the Lord in filthy garments Jeremiah said our
righteousness is as filthy rags in the eyes
of the Lord how crass can we
be trying to present ourselves to God in
our own righteousness well Lord here I am
let me tell you what I've done for
you this week sit down Lord let me
brag a bit you know and I'm trying
to present myself to God in my righteousness
and there as filthy rags in his sight
in the book of Revelation John sees the
saints of God clothed in fine linen pure
and clean and the fine linen, the white
linen is the righteousness of the saints but
what is the righteousness of the saints it
is that which God has imputed to you
because you have believed in his son Jesus
Christ now if I can be clothed in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ then it's sheer
stupidity for me to try to come before
God in my righteousness and in my goodness
that just doesn't make sense when God is
willing to accept me in the righteousness of
Jesus Christ it's absolute folly for me to
try to present to God my own righteousness
so he answered and spake unto those that
stood before him saying this is the angel
of the Lord take away the filthy garments
from him and unto him he said behold
I have caused your iniquity to pass from
thee and I will clothe you with a
change of raiment oh what a glorious day
that was when God did that for me
standing before the Lord he said take off
his filthy garments and then he said behold
I'm going to clothe you with new raiment
the righteousness of Christ in which I am
clothed tonight through my faith in Jesus Christ
oh I'll tell you this was one of
the most glorious experiences in my whole Christian
walk and it came to me right out
of Romans and we're in that book right
now on Thursday nights if you want to
get rid of your old rags I invite
you to come out to Thursday night studies
and I said let them set a fair
mitre or crown upon his head so they
set a fair mitre upon his head and
they clothed him with garments and the angel
of the Lord stood by and the angel
of the Lord protested unto Joshua saying thus
saith the Lord of hosts if you will
walk in my ways and if you will
keep my charge then you shall also judge
my house and shall also keep my courts
and I will give thee places to walk
among these that are standing by so walk
in my ways do my charge do my
work and you can dwell in my courts
and judge there now the sixth vision here
now oh Joshua the high priest you and
all of your fellows that sit before you
for they are men wondered at for behold
I will bring forth my servant the branch
and here we have now the prophecy of
Jesus Christ in Jeremiah and in Isaiah Jesus
is referred to as the branch the righteous
branch that shall come out of the root
of Jesse Jesus Christ I am going to
bring forth my servant the branch for behold
the stone that I have laid before Joshua
upon one stone shall be seven eyes behold
I will engrave the graving thereof saith the
Lord of hosts and I will remove iniquity
of the land in one day and in
that day saith the Lord of hosts shall
ye call every man his neighbor under the
vine and under the fig tree looking on
into the glorious kingdom age when Jesus comes
again the branch and establishes his kingdom and
the iniquity will be purged in a day
and the Lord will reign and every man
neath his vine and fig tree shall live
in peace and be not afraid and they
will beat their swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooks now the angel that
talked with me came again and he walked
and he waked me as a man that
is wakened out of his sleep and he
said unto me what do you see and
I said I have looked and behold there
is a candlestick of gold and there is
a bowl on the top of it and
there are seven lamps and the seven pipes
are leading to the seven lamps which are
upon the top of it and there are
two olive trees by it the one upon
the right side of the bowl and the
other upon the left side so I answered
and spake to the angel that talked with
me saying what are these my Lord and
the angel that talked with me said don't
you know what these are and I said
no my Lord and 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 who art thou O
great mountain for before Zerubbabel thou shalt become
a plain and he shall bring forth the
headstone thereof shouting grace, grace unto it so
this next vision is like a Rube Goldberg
contraption one of the jobs of the priest
was to daily fill the cups of the
menorah, the lampstand, the golden lampstand in the
tabernacle with oil because God commanded that the
light should never go out the golden lampstand
within the tabernacle was a symbol that Israel
was to be the light of the world
or that God would through them shine forth
his light to the world even as Jesus
said to the church you are the light
of the world the city set on the
hill cannot be hid neither do men light
a candle to put on their bushes but
on the candlestick that it might give light
unto all that are in the house so
let your light so shine before men that
when they see your good works they'll glorify
your father which is in heaven God's people
he has always intended to be a light
in this dark world and that is why
God said don't ever let the light go
out so everyday the priest had to pour
the oil into these cups and any task
that you do everyday can get monotonous dishes,
diapers, whatever when you do it everyday it
can become tedious and so man is always
using his inventive mind to get out of
work and we are always figuring out contraptions
by which we can make our work a
little easier isn't that true?
you're working on some kind of job and
you think well now if I did this
and fasten this here I can make this
and always make it a little easier so
Zachariah being a priest was struck with this
brilliant idea he said if there were just
plumbing pipes connected to the olive trees that
would go right into the bowls then the
oil could flow right out through these pipes
and keep the bowls full there would be
a constant supply of oil and so when
Zachariah saw this contraption with the pipes coming
from the olive trees into the bowls he
said what in the world is this?
constant supply of oil never running out of
oil the Lord said don't you know what
this is?
no this is the word of the Lord
to Zerubbabel saying it's not by might nor
by power but by my spirit sayeth the
Lord now in allegories, parables dreams, visions oil
is always symbolic of the Holy Spirit that
is why the Lord said it's by my
spirit sayeth the Lord that is there is
a constant source available of power for you
through the Spirit and the work of God
for the filling of the oil and so
forth was the work of the Lord assigned
to the priest but the work of God
is not to be accomplished by might or
by power but the work of God can
only be accomplished by the Spirit of the
Lord therefore it is extremely important before we
engage in any work for God that we
seek to discover the leading of the Spirit
the secret to any successful work for Jesus
Christ is discover how the Spirit is moving
and move with the Spirit for it is
not by might nor by power the word
might is the assembling of armies the organizing
of forces or committees
to organize forces the word power is the
word force itself now we see so many
people trying to force the work of God
trying to force the gospel down their friends
trying to force the issues I've often said
to people who have asked me concerning how
can you know the leading of the Lord
and how can you know what God wants
to do I've said God so often leads
us through open doors and if God opens
a door go through it but if He
closes it don't break it down that's where
we make our mistake so often we think
oh God wants me to do this and
a door will close and I'll say alright
I'll bash that one down and I'm going
to push it through I'm going to make
it go and more energy and effort and
money has been spent in trying to make
a dead program go I spoke a few
years ago in Lubbock Texas at a Southern
Baptist Church Pastor Jones back there and he
said you know I came to the place
in my ministry when I was so tired
of pushing a program we decided that we
weren't going to give artificial support to any
more programs in the church if it didn't
run on its own initiative we were going
to let it die a decent death and
he said you'd be amazed at how many
things have died around here just not going
to push programs anymore we're just going to
let the spirit operate and govern in the
church that which He wants and if it
doesn't run on its own initiative we're just
going to let it die with dignity their
Sunday school even died I said well what
about that he said great we love it
they've gone to junior churches and all but
it's I think legitimate I think that the
church has made a terrible mistake in trying
to push programs trying to force a program
to work trying to organize and mobilize the
forces to get the work of God done
it's not by might nor by power but
by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts
when we had built a little chapel a
block away and things were going great into
triple services had enlarged the sanctuary putting 500
chairs out in the patio and the place
was just jammed all three services on Sunday
morning we were faced with a dilemma winter
was coming what are we going to do
fellow in the church said well he said
I was with the syndicate we bought 10
acres over on Fairview and we've just lost
it he said we've been trying to make
deals on it for years nothing works he
said I believe that God wants that for
the church I think that's why the Lord
had me go with the syndicate to just
hold the thing four years ago so that
the church could have it and he said
I would be very glad to just accept
my losses if the church got that 10
acres he said we just couldn't keep up
the payments anymore in fact they took a
four year note from the lady who owned
it and the four years had come due
and they just didn't have the money to
go on they had purchased it four years
earlier for $456,000 and I said well
we don't have that kind of money there's
no way we can afford 10 acres then
I got to thinking well let's see if
we sold off 5 acres we could probably
get our money back if we could buy
it for a decent price if we could
say move into what their position was even
and buy it for $456,000 maybe we
could sell off half of it and all
we need is 500 that's 500 more than
we'd ever need for our church I had
tremendous faith one of the fellows in the
church then I dismissed it oh that's just
too much money we just don't have it
we can't do it you know you can't
borrow churches have difficult time borrowing money so
a fellow in the church came to me
and he said I believe that the woman
who owns that property would sell it for
$300,000 cash he said you see her
taxes have lapsed and she's been living off
of the money the interest that these guys
have been paying her and now that she
doesn't have the money coming in she's in
bad shape and actually the taxes are due
and she can't pay them I think she'd
take $300,000 cash just to get out
of it and that will last her well
for the rest of her life because she's
in her late seventies I said oh she'd
never take $300,000 cash she'd just foreclose
on a $456,000 note and they bought
it four years ago the price has gone
way up since then he said would you
give me the permission to offer her $300
,000 cash in the name of the church
I said sure of course foolish man and
he called me up on the phone all
excited he said she accepted it I said
great what do we do now where do
we get $300,000 cash he said well
he said I have a note that I
think she'll take it's a first trust deed
on some apartments and it's for $90,000
and I'd be glad to loan that to
the church for one year interest free the
church had $60,000 in the bank and
he said I think the savings and loan
because it's such a good buy will loan
you half of it on a property loan
for two years so we went down to
the savings and loan and it was such
a good buy they said yes they would
loan us $150,000 for two years and
11% interest so we bought it now
this was obligating us pretty heavy because this
was just bare farmland at that time and
we knew that we had to put parking
lot we had to put street improvements on
sunflower boulevard sidewalks over there we had to
put you know we had to put the
buildings in and everything and we knew it
was going to run a parcel of money
and so I would drive home from church
coming up sunflower avenue here and I'd park
at the left turn signal to go on
down Fairview and I would look over at
this bare 10 acres and I'd start getting
heart palpitations and I'd say Chuck what
are you doing obligating those people for that
property and the purchase of the property is
just the beginning what are you getting yourself
into and I begin to think I wonder
if we can back out of it I
wonder if there's something we can do to
get out of it what am I doing
what am I doing you know and I
just would start getting frantic thinking about the
money that was going to be needed for
all of this and as I was sitting
there my palms would begin to sweat and
I'd think oh please light turn green I
can't stand this I can't stand looking at
that property over there it's wiping me out
and the Lord would speak to me and
he'd say whose church is it I said
it's your church Lord he said then what
are you worried about if it's my church
what does it matter to you if it
goes broke what difference does that make to
you if it's my church I said well
we don't know Lord I guess it doesn't
make any difference your church fine you created
the problem take care of it and by
the time I'd hit the San Diego freeway
I had such glorious victory just praising the
Lord for his church I was driving
up the street parked at the corner looking
over here and the first payment was coming
due on the we were paying interest only
on the $150,000 that we borrowed in
the same amount and it was $1100 a
month which wasn't bad at all and it
was well within our budget we could handle
it and I said Lord it's your church
huh do you think that's a wise way
to spend your money what are you getting
from that that's just interest Lord that's just
going right into their coffer and you're not
going to even see that again do you
think that's a wise way to spend your
money Lord as long as it's your church
why don't you pay off the $150,000
you ought to be able to do that
and I got home and my wife said
honey Ed Riddle called why don't you call
him back Ed Riddle was the realtor who
was in the syndicate that bought the property
and lost it told us about it so
I called Ed he said Chuck he said
I just got a call from Shell Oil
Company he said they looked on the records
and they thought our syndicate still owned the
property and they want to buy the corner
for $150,000 he said you suppose the
church would be interested in selling off the
corner for $150,000 you notice the Shell
station on the corner I'll tell
you after that I didn't worry again his
church and he's been doing a fantastic job
taking care of it and it makes it
so easy for me because I can just
kick back and watch the Lord develop his
church because it's not by might not by
our organized efforts it's not by our forcing
issues driving and forcing it but it's just
the glorious power of the Holy Spirit by
my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts and
the mountains they'll become a plain before Zerubbabel
those mountains will disappear those mountains will just
level right out before him and you know
it's glorious the way the Lord can level
the mountains before him it's interesting that so
much of our worry is about things that
are yet in the future yes I've got
enough for today but oh I don't know
what I'm going to do next week you
know God's taking care of me up till
now I'm here God's taking care of me
up till now but it's not right now
I'm worried about I'm worried about next week
next month but it's interesting that so often
those things that we spend so much time
worrying about by the time we arrive there
the mountain has already been removed and it's
just a plain it's flat land how God
can remove the mountains before us it's glorious
when the Spirit of God is working in
your life now with Zerubbabel the word of
the Lord it was a word of encouragement
he had been discouraged in the building of
the temple he had given up they had
quit can't be done they had organized the
men they had organized the efforts they had
men that were in charge of cleaning up
debris men that were in charge of carrying
rocks and they had organized the whole efforts
and they were pushing and forcing the men
and they weren't doing anything they weren't getting
the job done they gave up it was
just too much and the word of the
Lord came and said hey it isn't by
your organized efforts it isn't by your force
but it's by my Spirit saith the Lord
the women who were on their way to
the tomb said who is going to remove
the stone and they were worried as they
talked among themselves and who is going to
roll away the stone from the door of
the sepulcher all worried about it when they
got there what did they find the stone
was already rolled away so typical of so
many of our worries what are we going
to do when we get there we find
that when we get there the Lord has
been there already and took care has taken
care of everything for us and the mountains
turn into plains before the Lord moreover the
word of the Lord came to me saying
the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house and his hands shall finish
it Zerubbabel had given up he had quit
working but the Lord said look he started
it and he's going to 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 now this
of course was one of the discouraging things
as they laid the foundation the old men
started wailing you know terrible you know because
they could remember the glory of Solomon's temple
and now these people are building this little
dinky thing and all the young guys had
never seen Solomon's temple they were so excited
oh look the foundation they were all excited
but the old men were there wailing and
weeping quite a scene but those who were
wailing and weeping discouraged those that were building
oh such a little thing it's nothing and
who hath despised the days of small things
now there are many times we are wanting
to get ahead of the work of God
in our lives God brings us in our
spiritual growth along in a very important pace
but there are many times we're not satisfied
with the pace that God has set we
want to get ahead of it and so
often we despise the days of small things
in our own lives a person comes up
to me and says you know I really
feel like I want to serve the Lord
and I like to serve the Lord here
at Calvary Chapel and I usually will say
to them wonderful go over and talk to
Mike in our Sunday school we're in need
of Sunday school teachers and there's an excellent
opportunity for you to serve the Lord oh
well that's not what I had in mind
I was thinking if Romaine maybe wanted to
quit or if you wanted to resign I
could pastor Calvary Chapel they
despise the days of small things they want
to do a big work for God and
there are a lot of people sitting around
not willing to do the little things waiting
for the big door to open waiting for
Billy Graham to call and say hey I'm
ready to step out and I want you
to come and take over and preach at
these great meetings alright I've been waiting for
that yes but you're not prepared for that
you see God starts us out in the
little things I started out teaching Sunday school
classes then I was advanced to teaching and
leading a youth group started out in small
things too many people despise the small things
but if you're not faithful in the small
things God will never be able to raise
you up to the bigger things don't despise
the days of small things whatever it is
that God has called you to do get
in and do it for the glory of
God and if you are faithful in the
little things then God will make you ruler
over the bigger things and so there were
those who despised the days of the small
things and that's true today and that's always
sad because you'll always be restricted and limited
you'll never grow, you'll never develop until you're
willing to get in and to be satisfied
with the least thing that God has called
you to do and be faithful to those
least things to which the Lord has called
you for who hath despised the day of
small things they shall rejoice and see the
plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those
seven these are the eyes of the Lord
which run to and fro throughout the whole
earth the seven eyes are the seven spirits
which stand before the throne of God in
Revelation chapter 5 then I answered and said
unto him what are these two olive trees
upon the right side of the candlestick upon
the left side thereof and I answered again
and said unto him what are these two
olive branches which through the two golden pipes
empty the golden oil out by themselves and
he answered and said don't you know what
these are and I said no my Lord
then he said these are the two anointed
ones that stand by the Lord of the
whole earth the two anointed ones these are
the two witnesses of the book of Revelation
read it in chapter 11 these are the
two olive trees of the branches that stand
before the Lord of the earth there in
Revelation chapter 2 God's two witnesses in the
last days and we pointed out that Malachi
tells us that Elijah will be one of
the two witnesses and it is possible that
Zerubbabel himself will be one of the other
two witnesses according to the prophecies of Haggai
it would appear that perhaps Zerubbabel will be
one of the other two witnesses in the
last verse of Haggai chapter 2 verse 23
in that day saith the Lord of hosts
I will take thee O Zerubbabel my servant
the son of Shittil saith the Lord and
I will make thee as a signet for
I have chosen thee saith the Lord of
hosts and he's speaking of the last days
and the overthrow of the kingdoms of the
world so then I turned and I lifted
up my eyes and I beheld a flying
roll now this must have been a weird
looking sight a flying saucer kind of a
thing and he said unto me what do
you see?
and I answered and said I see a
flying roll and it's about 30 feet long
and it's about 15 feet wide then he
said unto me this is the curse that
goes forth over the face of the whole
earth for everyone that steals shall be cut
off on this side according to it and
everyone that swears shall be cut off as
on that side according to it and I
will bring it forth saith the Lord of
hosts and it shall enter into the house
of the thief and into the house of
him that sweareth falsely by my name and
it shall remain in the midst of the
house and shall consume it with the timber
thereof and the stones thereof so there is
judgment associated with this scroll or the flying
roll now beyond that I don't know because
the scripture doesn't tell us anything beyond that
the last or the ninth of the tenth
visions then the angel that talked with me
went forth and said unto me lift up
now your eyes and see what is going
forth and I said what is it?
and he said this is an e-path
which is actually a bushel equivalent to about
a bushel and three pints that goes forth
and he said moreover this is their resemblance
through the whole earth and behold there was
lifted up a talent of lead and this
is the woman that sits in the midst
of the e-path and he said this
is wickedness now we are dealing actually with
e-path and the talents with commercialism and
God's view of it is it's wickedness and
he cast it into the midst of the
e-path and he cast the weight of
the lead upon the mouth thereof then I
lifted up my eyes and I looked and
behold there came out two women and the
wind was in their wings for they had
wings like the wings of a stork and
they lifted up the e-path between the
earth and heaven then I said to the
angel that talked with me where are they
carrying the e-path and he said unto
me to build it a house in the
land of Babylon Shinar and it shall be
established and set there upon her own base
so the God's rebuke against the commercial system
that would be headquartered in Babylon that was
headquartered in those days in Babylon and does
speak of the modern day commercial system that
will be destroyed in Revelation chapter 18 when
Zachariah gets out of these visions and we
have just one more then you'll find the
reading a lot more clear and your understanding
will be a lot clearer once we get
out of these visions I have a little
hard time with these visions you know they're
sort of weird some of them and they
do take explaining and I'm glad that the
Lord did explain them or else we would
really be lost may the Lord bless you
and keep you steadfast in the love of
Jesus Christ our Lord and may you experience
each day more of His love more of
His spirit working in your life as you
yield yourself to God may you know that
power through the Holy Spirit and may God
thus enable you to do His work and
may your life be blessed as you serve
the Lord in the opportunities that He gives
to you this week maybe they seem like
very small things but God help you to
be faithful in the little things and not
to despise the days of small things for
if you are faithful in the little things
then God will place more responsibility upon you
but don't force it just flow with the
spirit and have a beautiful week in Jesus