I'd like you to turn in your Bibles
to Zachariah again in chapter 4.
Zachariah chapter 4.
Indirectly, Zachariah has been giving to us some
good counsel on how to live in a
troubled time when the work of God is
apparently being defeated and not going ahead.
And his guidance is in broad principles of
recognizing the present care of the Lord, his
supervision, his interest and his exercise of heart
interceding for us.
We saw that in the first vision.
The first vision presented to us the presence
of Jehovah amongst God and his people.
The second vision gave to us God's powerful
control over the circumstances ultimately to effect God's
protection and provision for his own.
The third vision then drew to our attention
that God was going to center his kingdom
in the nation of Israel and in particular
the city of Jerusalem.
And the city was laid out and the
dimensions were all prepared and God's inviting his
people.
They are going to effectively call the nation
back into a fellowship with him and his
people in a time to come.
And we are urged in a similar way
to separate ourselves from the inequity, the lack
of balance in our life.
And identify ourselves with the Lord and the
work of the Lord and God's people.
The fourth vision drew our attention to the
priesthood and the need for the cleansing of
the priesthood.
It would be appropriate then if God is
going to cleanse the priesthood first that he
would now turn toward the economical, political part
of the nation and cleanse and empower that.
And that's the next logical step.
That's what is done in the book of
Revelation in chapter 17 and 18.
In Revelation chapter 17, the fulfillment of God's
eternal purposes, he cleanses and judges the ecclesiastical,
the religious pomposity of the world and does
away with that and then turns to the
economical, political world in chapter 18 and destroys
that.
So the same process is given to us
here.
Chapter 4 presents to us God's purposes capacitated.
God has the ability to capacitate, to enable,
to empower people, but he does this to
accomplish his purposes.
It's not a promiscuous donation of his Holy
Spirit that you should be enabled to do
anything that you would like.
There is very little in the Holy Scriptures
that would lead me to think that that's
an accurate view from Scripture.
God capacitates us to accomplish his purposes.
He enables us if we are passive and
submissive and willing and surrendered to him and
in desirous of having that divine enabling, he
will give us the help to do his
work.
He will give us the help and the
enabling to cheerfully strengthen, to be capacitated to
accomplish his purposes.
As an example, in the city of Troas,
as Paul passed through, it would appear that
it was not his purpose to see souls
saved in Troas at that particular epoch in
the city's history.
And the apostle passed through.
He ultimately arrived in the city of Corinth
and he sought to leave Corinth and God
says, No, you must stay here for I
have much people in this city.
And then Paul was used to reach that
much people.
These and this perspective of evangelism and the
work of God needs to balance out our
thinking.
Some of us become very discouraged because you're
in a community of a few thousand people,
your testimony isn't growing and I am not
encouraging dilatory neglect of self-discipline and outreach.
But I mean, for those of you who
are seeking to go on well, you might
well be discouraged if there isn't that great
revival-like fire that might be somewhere else.
God gives enabling to do the work that
he is seeking to do.
And when we try to do something more
in the flesh, we are going to be
hazarding our own spiritual welfare.
And the lesson that's illogical to come now
through Zachariah to Zerubbabel, Joshua is going to
shortly get the message that he needs to
be cleansed and straightened out because he's a
prefiguring of Christ and the priests that are
in association with him, they are to prefigure
the wonderful blessed priestly service of our Lord
leading the whole nation into a priestly ministration.
Now Zerubbabel needs a little encouragement too.
He came back with the original company.
Zerubbabel is their political leader, he is their
governor.
He came back with the original group and
he has labored hard and he's tried to
do something and he's tried to be a
good and faithful leader and he's been doing
his best as he is able.
And now there is a message for Zerubbabel.
Possibly it might have a practical message for
you in the place of leadership in one
of the assemblies.
A role that you have tried to undertake
and do faithfully and yet feel that you
have been relevantly ineffective.
The angel of the Lord that talked with
me came again and waked me as a
man that is wakened out of his sleep.
And he said unto me, What seest thou?
And I said, I have looked, and behold
a candlestick, all of gold, with a bowl
upon the top of it, and his seven
lamps thereon and the seven pipes to the
seven lamps which are upon the top thereof.
The two olive trees by it, one upon
the right side of the bowl and the
other upon the left side thereof.
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 answered
and said, Knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, No, my Lord.
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord of
hosts.
Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel?
Thou shalt become a plain, and he shall
bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying,
Grace, grace unto it.
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid
the foundation of this house.
His hands shall also finish it, and thou
shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath
sent me.
For who hath despised the day of small
things?
For they shall rejoice, and shall see the
plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those
seven.
They are the eyes of the Lord, which
run to and fro through the whole earth.
Then answered I, and said unto him, What
are these two olive trees upon the right
side of the candlestick, and upon the left
side thereof?
And I answered again, and said unto him,
What be these two olive branches, which through
the two golden pipes empty the golden oil
out of themselves?
And he answered me, and said, Knowest thou
not what these be?
And I said, No, my lord.
Then said he, These are the two anointed
ones that stand by the Lord of the
whole earth.
The simple candid advice that comes to us
who want to do the work of God
here in this particular vision, I would envision
it being that human ability and human strength
and human resources is absolutely inadequate.
We cannot do the work of God.
Divine power alone can achieve God's holy purposes.
And in this vision, our minds are drawn
to an exercise of heart that Zechariah has.
Have you noticed the change in the tone
of this vision as compared to the preceding?
Preceding, he would ask and the angel would
give an immediate answer.
Now he asks and says, What these be?
Mind you, he had no questions in the
fourth chapter.
Regarding that preceding vision, in chapter three rather,
excuse me, in the fourth vision, he had
no questions.
Being a priest himself, he grasped and comprehended
and entered into the whole manipulation and he
grasped the whole concept and raised not a
question.
Because he was practically involved with this.
But now he has questions, and his questions
are not answers.
Why?
Quite possibly because the answer is too important
to just casually give the answer.
I should hope you would do the same
thing with your children.
They come and ask you a question.
Hopefully you and I are intelligent enough not
to answer our children, but to ask them
questions back again and make them think.
Learn that they should communicate, evolve their thinking,
and verbalize their thoughts, and then you'll know
exactly where they are, how mature they are,
how they express themselves, and know better how
to illustrate.
Sometimes you're talking to a five-year-old,
very precocious and able, and he or she
may have a lot more ability to think
and make relevant thoughts and present concepts and
express them than maybe a teenage boy.
This is exactly what God's doing.
He says, what's the answer?
Now that's easy.
Some of these school children ask that, and
when you give the answer right back, or
if you do that in a class and
you give the answer, the child never has
remembered that.
The student never has grasped it.
That's why you don't learn from preaching.
Hopefully, by hearing preaching, you get interested in
the Word of God and go back, and
then you learn.
Most of us cannot remember what we heard
on Sunday.
Possibly some of us can't remember what we
heard yesterday.
What am I saying now?
We do have flight of ideas, and there
are times when we don't hold on to
things.
But you learn what you have to think
about and become involved in.
And this is exactly what's happening here.
He says, don't you know these things?
Now, the reason why this is drawn to
our attention is because it's been preceded by
verse 1.
He is being prepared for the vision in
verse 1.
Then verses 2-5 is the presenting of
the vision for us, and then the purpose
of the vision is the remaining part 6
through the end of the chapter.
First, the preparation for the vision.
And he waked me as a man that
has wakened out of his sleep.
Have you ever fallen asleep during prophecy meetings?
Have you felt kind of drowsy and heavy
and bored while you've been studying Zechariah?
Does your mind wander?
I don't see any head shaking.
You don't want to commit yourself, huh?
It shouldn't surprise you if that's so, because
there's biblical precedent for it.
There is something that happens when we envision
the unknown and the unseen.
And I do not pretend to have any
knowledge or insight into it except the authority
of the Bible, personal experience.
Do you remember when the Lord went up
onto the mountain?
It was not in the night time particularly.
He went up onto the mountain for the
purpose of praying.
After a short time of prayer had been
had, when we are expressly told that the
Lord was praying concerning His death that He
should accomplish in the future at Jerusalem, and
then what are we told?
Peter and Nathan were with Him and were
asleep.
Why?
There is something about the future that arouses
our curiosity in idle, casual thought.
But when we actually begin to consider spiritual
verities, the machinations of God's purposes, when you
begin to apply your soul to eternal truths,
you are very likely to find a veil
of heaviness.
Ever fallen asleep while you're praying and really
exercised of heart and concern?
Ever find a veil of vagueness and imperturbability
in your mind that you can't seem to
weed your way through all the complexities of
thought?
You get mentally tired?
Greater men than you have had the same
experience.
Look at Daniel chapter 10.
And I, Daniel, saw the vision, for the
men that were with me saw not the
vision, but a great quaking fell upon me,
so that they fled to hide themselves.
Now in verse 8, Daniel 10.8, Therefore
I was left alone and saw this great
vision, and there remained no strength in me,
for my comeliness was turned in me into
corruption, and I retained no strength.
I heard the voice, but when I heard
the voice, there was, well, in a deep
sleep, on my face, my face toward the
ground.
The angel touched me and set me upon
my knees and the palms of my hands.
Daniel had his strength left, his vitalities were
sat, he had dozed into sleep.
Zechariah had spent an evening on this March
24th with these visions being poured into his
soul, great experience, and now he must be
roused as a man that's wakened.
There's a lethargy, there's a veil, there's a
heaviness in his spirit, and God says, Now
be sure you're awake, Zechariah.
Get this message.
Are you awake?
Are you listening?
It's not by might, and it's not by
power, but it's by my spirit, saith the
Lord.
That's the message that must get across, and
it must be passed on to Zerubbabel and
all those in roles of leadership.
The description of the vision that's used to
constitute this now is rather interesting.
He sees a giant golden column, a candlestick.
Upon the top there's a large reservoir, a
bowl.
In the bowl there are seven separate little
bowls, and in each of those little bowls,
apparently floating in golden oil, there are seven
little wicks in each, which is not exactly
clear in the King James Bible, but it
is both in the Hebrew and I think
your New American Standard Bible makes that clear,
that there are in all 49 little wicks.
Seven bowls, seven candles in each, and then
seven conduits roaming down, feeding each of these
bowls.
That there's a perpetual feeding of golden oil
through a golden conduit, that the light, once
it's been lit and illuminated, is perpetually glowing.
Now immediately this man, used to priestly ministrations,
knowledgeable thoroughly with the Old Testament and the
tabernacle candlestick, he has a contrast.
And the contrast is what grips his mind.
And what you and I are to see,
through that Old Testament perspective, rather than through
a Gentile eye, picture yourself a priest, used
to and familiar with the fact that every
morning one of his jobs would be to
go up and trim the seven lamps and
be sure that there is enough oil for
that lamp to burn all day long.
And in the evening, trim the seven wicks
and add the oil in order that there's
enough oil for that lamp to burn all
night long, that the sanctuary and the presence
of God, there is always illumination.
For our God is light.
It's not the light, He is essentially light.
And the light must glow.
There was always illumination from our great God.
Now immediately Zachariah would see that.
What is it that he sees?
There is no human involvement.
There are no wicks to trim.
The trees are growing right there, providing the
olives.
Supernaturally, the olives apparently are plucked, squeezed, prepared,
turned into oil, and the oil seeping down,
constantly feeding the luminary, and no human agency
is involved, that this great, massive light glows
and greens.
And as a result, there is an impact
to Zachariah's soul.
He said, what does this mean?
Are we going to change our whole system
in the sanctuary?
And before he can get misled, he said,
are you sure you don't know what this
means?
No, my Lord.
Tell me.
Do you ever get interested in Bible study?
Do you ever get down before the Lord
and say, Lord, what does this mean?
Lord, I'm not going to get off of
my knees until you tell me.
I want to get a hold on your
truth.
I want to grasp your word.
Young men, you will not get it in
a little afternoon Bible study or a devotional
time.
There must be one day out of that
week.
Men, when you come home from work, you
must take that Monday night or that Tuesday
night, early in the week, and don't go
anywhere else, and don't let the television or
the newspaper or the children or anything interrupt
with your setting aside.
Freshen your face.
Take a shower if necessary.
Refresh from your work.
And sit down with the Word and your
concordances and your Bible and whatever expository books,
and get on your knees and read and
study and work.
And your local church will feel the impact
of it.
And Zachariah is involved.
He said, now I don't know what it
means.
Lord, teach me.
And then the message comes with a ringing
simple clarity.
This is the Word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, the political leader.
This is not a priestly matter now.
Ah, this changes the scene.
But now he's better able to grasp.
What's happening?
All the pipes, all the conduits, all the
gold and oil, the spontaneous, no extracting.
What's happening, Lord?
Teach me.
He says, all right, this is the Word.
Not by might nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
God has already cleansed the priesthood.
Now He is going to demonstrate that the
nation of Israel itself is going to be
the light of the world.
And God views that little company, that small
remnant, that day of small things.
My goodness, poor Haggai took a look at
the temple that they had and he wept.
And all the old people wept.
Boy, not like the old days.
We have a good back in the old
days.
Have you ever heard an expression like that?
The old days are a lot better always
than today.
And yet as best as I can look
back on the old days, they weren't so
hot.
The good old days lack a great deal,
don't they?
And we can't live in the past.
And you're not accountable for the past.
We learn from the past.
We experience instruction from our godly older brethren
and their weaknesses and their strengths and their
blessings, and we amalgamate it with the Word
of God and carefully weave it into an
intelligent pattern for us to be instructed by
God.
But this is something unique and special and
different.
God is still in control of the Gentiles.
And He sees approximately 60 to 100,000
people and all their weakness and all their
frailty and all the filth of the priesthood.
But what does He say?
It's a golden candlestick.
Now if that doesn't remind you of something,
beloved of God, we are negligent in our
grasp of the Word of God.
If God looks down and He sees His
people and He views it as a golden
candlestick, that should bring something to your mind.
What portion of Scripture?
Revelation.
Chapter 2 and 3.
Why there?
What does God see the church as?
A golden lampstand.
And every one of us, our view, your
little congregation, your little assemblage, by reason of
application, not here now.
The local church is not seen here in
this.
But by application, it reminds us, and we
are mutually interpreting spiritual things with spiritual, so
we stay within the canon of Scripture and
we see that God is trying to impress
you and me with that faithful little lampstand,
with all of its impurities and imperfections, as
you struggle to be right before God.
He says you're a golden lampstand.
Now there's a lot of correction needed over
there in Revelation 2 and 3.
And each of those seven individual congregations standing
alone, looking to the Lord for their provision
and head-shipping from that special messenger sent
by the Lord, that prophetic ministry given to
them in the oversight of elders.
These various things that we treasure as local
church truth, but God says it's a golden
lampstand.
And you are the luminaries in this world.
Be encouraged in your soul.
Not proud.
Encouraged.
Strengthened.
But the logical thing now is if the
rubble bell ever gets a hold of this
message, and if Zechariah ever tells them that
the nation looks like a golden lampstand, and
he's going to be a great, powerful ruler
and leader, what's he going to do?
He's going to start with conscription.
Get an army together.
And he'll start raising the taxes to strengthen
himself.
And he'll start imposing legislation.
And he'll build a little bit bigger car
for himself and put an extra big basket
on top of his camel.
And pretty soon he'll start really feeling important.
And so the message has to get through.
It's not by might, nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord.
Now that's not even a sentence.
There's no subject, there's no predicate.
It's a slogan.
Not by might, not by power, but by
my spirit.
The Hebrew word might here has to do
with hosts or armies.
And actually what he is saying now, be
sure you tell the rubble bell this, it's
not by any army that he makes up.
Don't start a draft board.
Don't start conscripting the men.
That's not how God's purposes are going to
be done.
Not by your plans, and not by your
working things out.
It's not by might.
It's not by a host or an army
or a strength of many people.
If you would look at Hosea chapter 1,
this is also affirmed in a very simple
sentence.
Hosea 1.7 I will have mercy upon
the house of Judah and will save them
by the Lord their God and will not
save them by bow nor by sword nor
by battle by horses or by horsemen.
What's going to save and empower and give
us spiritual enlightenment where we are?
The spirit of God.
And he must be free to work amongst
us.
Something's cluttering up the conduit.
God says, I have the plentitude of the
spirit.
And he's ready to pour it into our
lampstand that our light will shine.
But it's not by might.
It's not by anything that we do.
Now, indeed, you can get together a group
of men and go out to witness.
And you can get together a group of
women and have this, that, or the other
activity.
But that in itself is not the answer.
It's not by might.
It's not by our administrative capacities.
Nor is it by power.
That has to do with that natural reservoir
of human nature.
Sometimes today we think of persons as having
a certain charisma.
No attachment.
Now, grammatically, no attachment to the charismatic movement.
But the idea of gifted, capacitated, real leadership.
And we think, wow, he's a leader.
But that's not the work of God.
That's not where God is blessing.
And now I want to speak so affectionately
and openly, but as a genuinely penetrating spirit.
Some of you quiet, more retiring brethren have
cloaked yourself in your own ease and neglect
because you're not a salesman.
You're not aggressive.
You're not an outgoer.
And you think the word of God and
the work of God cannot go on because
you are just a quiet, soft-spoken person.
Shame on you.
It's not by might.
It's not by our genius and organizational powers.
And it's not by our inner power or
strength or attributes or qualities.
It's by the spirit of the living God
that he wants our testimony to be an
illumination.
How much of the Holy Spirit have you?
We've just been told from the word of
God by the Lord's servant.
We've been sealed by that spirit.
He wants to take over our lives.
He wants to capacitate us.
He wants to shine through you and me.
He wants to anoint your lips when you're
talking to your own children.
He wants to bless and enlarge you.
Something is blocking the flow of the oil.
It's not God's side.
The trees are there.
The golden conduits are there.
The purity of this lovely golden oil.
The wicks are there.
Everything waited to be ignited.
What's missing?
Just that little kindling of fire.
Of saying, Oh Lord, I am so weak.
I am not able.
Get down before God and acknowledge that.
Not to hide your weaknesses.
Not to cover up and cover for a
lack of activity.
But in a humble, genuine, modest sense, ask
the Lord to ignite that fervence of spirit
that you might burn fresh for God again.
He'll provide the oil.
He'll bless the enlightenment.
And he will do the work.
Who art thou, O great mountain?
Zerubbabel must have been casting his eye around
to the political powers.
The mountain in the word of God, if
not always, is frequently a picture of kingdoms.
And this great massive kingdom of Syria to
the north.
Babylon has not yet been destroyed out there
to the east.
And down to the south is the Egyptians.
And all around, these powers around them.
What can they do?
Intimidated and fearful.
And the message comes to Zerubbabel.
Who art thou, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel, that little man in there in
Jerusalem, the people without a wall in their
city, without an army, without a single boat,
without any kind of navy, without any military
forces.
But before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.
He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with
shoutings, crying, Grace, Grace.
Mr. Unger in his exposition translates it, All
of Grace.
Even then he understood it then.
That when it really gets a hold of
Zerubbabel, he will grasp that it is all
the kindness and goodness of God that has
placed him in a role of leadership.
And now God is blessing and anointing.
Now how will they know this?
What will the sign be?
The word of the Lord came unto me,
saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the
foundation of this house.
His hand shall finish it.
The man who started the work will finish
it.
God has his program and it will be
accomplished in his vessel.
Dear brother in the Lord, trying to do
something for God in that local assembly?
If God touches you, and it's appropriate for
yourself, dig a sentence and a phrase and
a concept out like this, and apply it
to your soul, and see that God has
called you, and given you something that you
can undertake and do for God and for
his people.
Trust the Holy Spirit of God, and anticipate
that in your lifetime, your work will be
finished.
Because you'll give yourself to the work of
God.
Not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord.
What kingdom can stand in front?
What power can thwart God's purposes?
Now what is being said, of course, here,
towards Zerubbabel, is meant in the context, prophetically,
the primary interpretation is that there's going to
be a greater king coming.
That's implied in Haggai's prophecy in chapter 2
as well.
And that this name, Zerubbabel, this one is
symbolic of one who's going to come later
just as Joshua is of Christ, so Zerubbabel
is of our Lord in the political realm.
And the Lord will be a priest, chapter
3, king, chapter 4.
The only one in whom both of these
offices can be consummated.
And this is the last paragraph after the
last vision in chapter 6, where these things
are all drawn together and we see our
blessed Lord Jesus heading up all the plans
and programs of God.
The question comes, who has despised the day
of small things?
You and I don't have to be small.
It might be that God would prosper you
and enlarge you and enrich your life and
ministry, and it might be that He shall
not.
But who were these people in Jerusalem to
despise what was going on?
It was God's plan.
He moved Cyrus' heart.
He protected them and brought them there.
They're starting their work.
They've allowed us to be deterred, but God
says, it's my candlestick, and it's going to
shine for me, and ultimately my purposes will
be accomplished.
Positive, confident assurance in what?
Not might, not power, by my Spirit.
Free the Holy Spirit amongst you.
Be knowledgeable of His presence.
Read in the Scriptures that which from your
New Testament exhortations would keep Him from being
grieved and hindered.
Allow His ministrations the joy.
Acknowledge those that have gifts in your local
church.
Set aside your own personal desires or seekings
or place, whatever it is, and acknowledge those
that have the gift.
And see them preach the Gospel and see
souls saved.
See them teach the Word and see ourselves
serving and helping supportively in whatever role we
fit in.
Stop thwarting the purposes of the Spirit because
of your self-consciousness or because of your
petty indulgence and preoccupation with your business.
It's time to set aside and give God
a place, and you may be the very
vehicle to announce that Word.
In other words, allow the Spirit of God
to work through us, among us, for Him,
that God will get the glory.
And thank God if you do have leadership
that walks around measuring things by the Word
of God.
For that's exactly what's said of Zerubbabel.
They shall rejoice and see the plummet in
the hand of Zerubbabel.
What's he doing?
He's measuring the wall.
Is it in accordance with God's Word?
And he drops the plumb line.
Is this wall going up straight and square?
Is everything there?
And the plummet.
And if you have a brother or sister
in the assembly of your gathering among believers
with whom you meet who is using the
Word of God intelligently, lovingly, affectionately as the
plumb line for his work, rejoice in that.
And if you've been so blessed to have
leadership that have been raised up by God,
not trusting their administrative abilities, not trusting their
own powers or personality, but relying in the
Holy Spirit and the Word of God, rejoice,
because the work of God will be done.
God's purposes are capacitated by Him, by His
Spirit.
Free the Holy One to work amongst us.
Enjoy His ministration.
Encourage wherever you see it wrought, and young
or old, as we together fit in to
God's blessed purposes for His honor and for
His glory.
Turn to 531.
531.
Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way.
Thou art the potter.
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will
while I am waiting, yielded and still.
Sing the first and fourth stanzas of 531.