At Zechariah chapter number six the Bible reads in verse number one and I turned and
lifted up mine eyes and looked and behold there came four chariots out from between
two mountains and the mountains were mountains of brass.
In the first chariot were red horses and in the second chariot black horses and in the
third chariot white horses and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses.
And I answered and said to the angel that talked with me, what are these my Lord?
And the angel answered and said to me, these are the four spirits of the heavens which
go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
Now in the book of Zechariah there's a lot of symbolism, there are a lot of things that
are kind of cryptic when you look at this but if we use scripture to interpret scripture
they come clear.
A lot of people look at the book of Zechariah and it's kind of daunting to them like it
just seems a little bit too hard to understand but the answers are all in the Bible if we
study to show ourselves approved unto God.
One of the most important things is that we always get the context of what we're reading
and so we need to understand what the book of Zechariah is about in the first place which
if you recall the children of Israel namely the southern kingdom of Judah had gone away
captive into Babylon for 70 years.
As a result of them serving other gods and turning away from the Lord he punished them
by causing them to be carried away captive to Babylon and 70 years later God is bringing
them back from Babylon and reinstalled them into the promised land, they rebuild the wall
of Jerusalem, they rebuild the temple and so on and so forth.
And God talks about how he's going to judge the Babylonians.
So even though he used this wicked nation of the Babylonians to judge his people now
he's going to turn around and bring judgment upon the Babylonians.
There are scriptures in Isaiah chapter 13 for example, Jeremiah 50 and 51 where God
talks about how he's going to punish the Babylonians.
So once you understand that context and then when you go to Ezra it talks about how as
they're building the temple they're being encouraged by the preaching of Zechariah and
the preaching of Haggai.
It encourages them in the work that they're doing.
So this book is a book that is positive toward the children of Israel because they've already
gone through punishment and now they've gotten things right with God, they've turned away
from their idolatry, they're worshipping the Lord and so now he's saying well now I'm going
to bless you guys, bring you back into the promised land and it's Babylon that I'm going
to judge, it's Babylon that I'm going to punish.
So in the book of Zechariah it's negative toward Babylon and positive toward the children
of Israel.
This is why the book of Zechariah is often a twisted and misused book because they'll
try to take scriptures in Zechariah that are positive toward the children of Israel and
try to apply that to today.
Okay well here's the thing, today's Israelites quote unquote, today's Israelis are in direct
opposition to God, to the Word of God, to the Son of God.
They don't believe on Jesus Christ, they are anti-Christ according to the Bible because
the Bible says if you deny the Father and the Son, you're anti-Christ.
If you say that there's a Christ, that there's a Messiah other than Jesus, then the Bible
says the spirit of anti-Christ.
And he says if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father.
But he acknowledged that the Son had the Father also.
So even though they're in total disobedience, total rebellion to Jesus Christ, people will
say oh but Zechariah so and so, take it out of context and try to say that they're still
under God's blessing.
Now in this passage, let's start at the very beginning and let's kind of decrypt this language
here.
Because of the fact that this is clearly symbolic, he's seeing a vision, mountains, horses that
are different colors, but a lot of these things are decrypted for us in the book of Revelation,
which is a much more clear book than the book of Zechariah.
The New Testament is always clearer than the Old Testament.
So look what the Bible says in chapter 6 verse 1, I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked
and behold there came four chariots out from between two mountains and the mountains were
mountains of brass.
Now first of all, as we study scripture, mountains in the Bible often represent a great kingdom
or empire.
For example, the Bible talks about in Daniel chapter 2 when that great stone smashes the
image of gold, silver, brass and iron.
It talks about how that stone, which is Jesus, the cornerstone, when it smashes that image
that that stone becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth.
And the mountain that fills the whole earth is actually symbolic of Jesus Christ's kingdom
that is going to be worldwide when Jesus Christ rules and reigns on this earth for
a thousand years.
So that's one example.
There are other examples in the Bible where mountains represent kingdoms or empires.
So when we understand these two mountains here are basically representative of the Medes
and the Persians, okay, because these are the two kingdoms that God's going to use to
judge Babylon.
Because remember Babylon was the great world empire, Nebuchadnezzar is the king and then
if you remember he's followed by later on King Belshazzar who is a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar,
probably his grandson.
And Belshazzar when he's in the banqueting house he sees the handwriting on the wall
if you remember and he says your kingdom is going to be divided and it's going to be given
to the Medes and the Persians and then that same night Babylon falls to the Medes and
the Persians and Belshazzar is killed.
So these two mountains represent Medes and the Persians, those two empires and it says
that the mountains are mountains of brass, well brass throughout the Bible is used as
a symbol of God's judgment, okay, judgment and so these two empires are the two empires
that God is using to judge the Babylonians, okay.
So it's pretty simple when you compare scripture with scripture and understand what things
represent.
Now it talks about how from between these two mountains, the mountains of brass, these
two kingdoms that God's using to judge, it says that there went out four chariots, okay.
And then it says in verse 2, in the first chariot were red horses and in the second
chariot black horses.
Now let me first of all point out the fact that when it says in the first chariot were
red horses, it doesn't mean like the horses are riding in the back of the chariot.
Basically it means that they're in the harness of that chariot, okay, it means they're the
ones who are pulling that chariot.
So it says that, you know, there was a chariot basically in the modern vernacular we would
say being pulled by these red horses and then we have black horses in the second chariot,
third chariot white horses and the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses.
Now flip over if you would, keep your finger there and flip over to Revelation chapter
6.
Revelation chapter 6 because we see the same colors here mentioned with horses in the four
horsemen of the apocalypse as they're often referred to.
It says in Revelation chapter number 6 verse number 1 and this is when the seals are being
opened by the lamb in Revelation, it says in chapter 6 verse 1, I saw when the lamb
opened one of the seals and I heard as it were the noise of thunder one of the four
beasts say come and see and I saw and behold a white horse.
And it says that he that sat on him had a bow like a bow and arrow and a crown was given
unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer and when he had opened the second
seal I heard the second beast say come and see and there went out another horse that
was red and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the earth and
that they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great sword and when
he had opened the third seal I heard the third beast say come and see and I beheld
in law a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand and I heard
a voice in the midst of the four beasts say a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures
of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
So, so far we've seen the first three horsemen and if we notice the colors, the first one's
on a white horse, second one's on a red horse and third one's on a black horse which are
three of the same colors that we saw back in Zechariah, aren't they?
Now what do they represent?
Well the white horse, there's a man on it who goes forth conquering and to conquer.
We know that man as the Antichrist but either way it's basically a man who is going forth
to conquer and throughout history there have been these great conquerors and if we think
of the Babylonians who was the great conqueror?
Nebuchadnezzar, you know, and then of the Medes and the Persians we have King Darius
and King Cyrus who were these great conquerors, right?
And then with the Greeks we have Alexander the Great conquered, Julius Caesar, you know,
whoever you want to mention throughout history, Genghis Khan, you know, later on in history.
These conquerors, that's what that white horse represents.
In this case it's the Antichrist going forth to conquer.
He's that final, you know, conqueror of this world.
So when we see the red horse we see that peace is taken from the earth and that they kill
one another.
The black horse represents warfare and then the black horse represents famine because
when the black horse comes it talks about how a measure of wheat is sold for a penny
and three measures of barley for a penny.
Well in the Bible a penny is a day's wages so you're paying a day's wages just for a
measure of wheat or a measure of barley.
Imagine, you know, working all day making 100 bucks, 150 bucks, 200 bucks and then that
buys you a measure of wheat.
You know, that's pretty expensive when you're spending 100 bucks or a few hundred bucks
on a measure of wheat.
So we have those three horses and we see that they are all bad things that are happening,
aren't they?
They're all negative things.
Now the period that's described there in Revelation chapter 6 is known as the tribulation period.
And in that tribulation Jesus describes in Matthew 24 as being, you know, famines, pestilence.
He talks about the warfare and them killing one another and death by all these different
things.
This is negative, okay?
So let's look at the fourth horse quickly in Revelation chapter 6.
It says in verse 7, when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth
beast say, come and see.
And I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed
with him.
And power was given on him over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with
hunger and with death and with the beast of the earth.
So this is just death on a mass scale through a variety of means, different ways that people
are dying.
So let's go back to Zechariah chapter 6 with that in mind.
So God is basically bringing forth judgment upon the Babylonians, upon the empire of Babylon,
and the tool that he's using is the Medo-Persian empire.
That is the instrument of his wrath.
That is who he's going to use to bring forth judgment.
That's why they were represented by the two mountains.
The four horsemen here, in this case it's chariots pulled by horses of those colors,
represent the death, the destruction, the carnage, the warfare, the famine that God
is punishing these people with using his human instrument, the Medo-Persian empire.
Does everybody understand?
So it says here in verse number 3 of chapter 6, and then the third chariot, white horse,
and the fourth chariot, grizzled and bay horses.
And the grizzled and bay horses would correspond with the pale horse singular of Revelation
chapter 6.
Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord?
And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens which
go forth from standing before the lord of all the earth.
So these four chariots, the Bible tells us, are these four spirits of the heavens that
are going to go forth from standing before the god of the earth.
So what does this mean?
Basically they are the ones that are going to go and make sure that these bad things
happen in those areas.
These four spirits are going to go from standing before the lord and they're going to go to
these different places and cause there to be warfare, cause there to be famine, cause
there to be death and pestilence.
These things are spiritually induced because it's the judgment of God upon Babylon that's
causing these things.
Now what's interesting about that is that when you then think about Revelation chapter
6 and say okay, what about the horses in chapter 6?
The first one represents the anti-Christ, second one is all the warfare that's going
to take place across the world, famine.
But if you think about it, it all starts because there's a book with seven seals that the lamb
is opening.
You know I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, one of the four beasts said, Come
and see.
And I looked and behold a white horse and this and that.
So this is where some of these people become confused because they say to themselves, you
know, is it God doing this or is it man that's doing it?
You know, is this something that is the will of God?
Is God causing these things to happen or is it sinful man and his agenda that caused these
things to happen?
But we have to understand that it is God's will that Babylon be judged and that's why
God is making sure that they get judged and he's using the means and the person to do
it.
He's going to use the Babylonians to judge the children of Israel even though the Babylonians
are wicked.
So God can sometimes work in the hearts of wicked people and yet cause them to ultimately
carry out his will, that his will would be done.
Now this is kind of a complicated subject, you know, philosophically people get confused
about this.
I don't really think it's that confusing once you kind of wrap your mind around it, but
let's go back to Genesis chapter 50.
There's kind of a classic scripture on this subject of bad things happening.
So go back if you would to Genesis chapter 50 and this is of course the story of Joseph
and if you remember his brethren had sold him into slavery and they lied to their dad
about it, they threw him into a pit, roughed him up, lied to dad, sold him into slavery
and he went through all kinds of pain and suffering down in Egypt but the Lord was with
him and in the end he ends up running the place.
He's the second in command of the kingdom and eventually after he kind of plays a trick
on his brothers, he's revealed unto them, he helps them.
Well after dad dies, you know, after Jacob dies, Joseph's brethren are a little bit worried
that maybe it's going to be payback time.
They think, you know, maybe Joseph was just nice to us because of the fact that he respected
our father Jacob and now that Jacob's gone, he might want to take revenge for the fact
that we threw him in that pit, sold him into slavery and ruined many years of his life.
So they come to him and they make supplication unto him because they don't want to be punished.
Look what the Bible says in verse 15 of chapter 50 of Genesis.
And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us.
Peradventure means maybe.
They're saying, you know, Joseph might hate us.
Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we
did unto him.
And they sent a messenger unto Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died saying,
so shall you say unto Joseph, forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren in their
sin.
So they did unto thee evil and now we pray thee forgive the trespass of thy servants
of the servants of the God of thy father.
And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Now, you know, I don't think dad really said that but they're like, oh, by the way, one
more thing.
Dad told us right before he died that you're supposed to forgive us because they're just
worried but he'd already forgiven them.
So when they say this to him, Joseph starts crying.
He's weeping.
And look what he says unto them because he'd already forgiven them.
He already loved them and then let it go.
It says in verse 19, Joseph said unto them, fear not for am I in the place of God?
But as for you, ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day to save much people alive.
Now therefore fear ye not.
I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindly unto them.
So what we see here is that Joseph's brethren did something that was sinful.
It was wrong.
There's no way to justify what they did.
Beating up your brother, throwing him into a pit, lying to your father, selling a man
into slavery.
In fact, kidnapping someone and selling them, the Bible put the death penalty on that in
the Mosaic law.
Very serious sin that they committed by doing that.
There's no way to say, oh, what they did was fine.
It was right.
It was okay.
And the Bible says here that they meant it.
It says they did it, if you would look down at your Bible there at the famous verse 20,
it says ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good.
So God basically had a plan to use Joseph in Egypt in order to save them all alive.
They didn't realize that when they did the wrong.
So this is where people look at it and say, well, wait a minute, you know, is it God's
will that people do bad things?
You know, is God playing?
What it is, though, is that man has evil devices in his heart and God uses those evil
devices to bring to pass his will.
It's not that he, and this is where people become confused because it's not that God
wants people to do bad things.
You know, God, look, it's the will of God that we be sanctified, the Bible says, that
we do right.
You know, it says this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain
from fornication.
The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance.
So we know that it's God's will always that we do that which is right.
But because God knows that people are sinful, he does know that in their flesh they do wrong
things, he will sometimes use the wrong that they do for his glory.
He will use bad things that they do for bad reasons.
He'll turn it around and use it for something good.
But that does not mean that it was God's will for us to do wrong.
And that's why we need to understand that distinction.
You know, let me give you an example from my own personal life.
When I was 12 years old, the church that we were going to went bad and we were having
trouble finding a good church to go to.
And so my parents ended up kind of having this attitude of, you know, we can't find
a good fundamental Baptist church to go to.
And so maybe we're just crazy, you know, because it was like we couldn't find an independent
Baptist church that was old-fashioned, that was, you know, preaching right.
And so they kind of just threw in the towel and gave up and they said, hey, maybe we're
just, maybe we're just crazy, maybe we're just too strict.
Let's try to go to the more liberal churches, you know.
So they kind of took us to the Baptist churches that were the more liberal type with the rock
band and the NIV and all that stuff.
So we actually spent five years in those type of churches.
From the time I was 12 to the time I was 16, I went to these NIV preaching, dead as
a doornail, rock and roll churches, I mean, hardly anybody ever got saved, almost no one
ever got baptized.
I mean, I remember one person getting baptized in years of being there and they made a big
deal out of it, like, oh well, somebody's being baptized.
Because there's just absolutely no soul winning going on in these churches.
Churches were awful, okay.
Now at the end of that, when I was 16, almost 17, I ended up starting to read my Bible cover
to cover just on my own in the King James Bible, I never switched to the NIV, I always
knew that that was the voice of the stranger, you know, something didn't sound right, even
though I didn't know the doctrine.
But I just knew there was something wrong with the NIV, so I stuck with the King James.
But I started reading my Bible cover to cover and right around that time, God, you know,
showed me this church, Regency Baptist Church in Sacramento, California to go to.
And it was kind of miraculous how it came about because I was out in downtown Roseville,
California, and I was just at a used bookstore because I was really interested in reading,
so I was buying a bunch of books and I was walking out of a bookstore and a guy comes
up on a bicycle and he says, hey kid, you want to go to church?
And he hands me an invitation to church and it said right on the front of it, do you know
for sure if you died today that you'd go to heaven?
And I looked at it and I said, yes, I do know for sure I'm going to heaven, I'm saved.
And I said, in fact, you know, I'm also a Baptist because it said on it, you know, Regency
Baptist Church.
And I said, you know, yeah, I'm Baptist also.
And he said, well, do you guys go out and knock doors and tell people how to be saved?
And I said to him, no, but we should.
And he just said, amen, and just rode away on his bike.
It was weird because I wanted to talk to him.
I thought it was a great conversation, you know.
And you know what's amazing, though, is that he said to me the one thing that I needed
to hear more than anything else because at that time in my life, I actually had a burning
desire to get people saved.
In fact, about a year or so before this, I had gone to my youth pastor and asked him,
is there any way we can go out and knock doors and just tell people how to be saved?
And he wouldn't take me.
He said, well, maybe we'll just follow up on people who visited the church or something.
And I'm just like, that's not what I'm talking about, you know.
I want to do real soul winning, but I'd never been soul winning.
And so that was what I was looking for.
And you know what the Bible says?
Seek and ye shall find.
So you know, here I am just a young, worldly teenage boy, but you know what, I was reading
the Bible for the first time cover to cover and I had a desire to get people saved.
I wanted to be a soul winner.
I didn't really know how to do it.
I tried and failed many times, but here comes a guy who just comes along, gives me an invitation
to a soul winning church and says, hey, do you guys go out and do soul winning?
And I said, no, but we should.
And he just said, amen, and just left.
And I wanted to continue the conversation.
So I brought that paper home to my parents and I said to them, I said, this is where
we should be going to church because I read the whole paper and it looked great.
And I said, this is where we should be going to church.
And my parents said, yeah, we'll try it, you know?
So we were all going to go to church while I was sick.
I got sick before we could go the first time.
So the first time my parents went without me, I wasn't there.
So they came home and I said, you know, well, how was it?
And they're like, they said, wow, you know, this is some hard preaching.
They said, you know, we loved it, but they're like, I don't think you can handle it.
That's what they said to me.
All right.
They said, I don't think you can handle this preaching.
They're like, this guy preaches hard.
You couldn't, you couldn't.
I don't know if you kids are ready for this.
I'm like, dad, I can handle it, you know?
Like, what are you talking about?
I said, I went to camp one time and there was this guy who preached really hard and
he was yelling.
He's like, you've never, my dad's like, you've never heard preaching like this.
I'm like, oh man, wow.
So then I go the next Sunday, right?
And I get there and what do you think is the first thing I did when I get there?
I try to look for the guy who invited me.
Never saw that guy.
To this day, I have no idea who that was because he wasn't there.
So it just shows you, I mean, God used that guy, whoever he was, and here's the thing.
I believe that it was either one possibility is it could have been just somebody who was
passing through maybe like a missionary or just a missionary soul winning.
Yeah, that probably wouldn't happen.
But anyway, you know, there's probably a guy passing through trying to be realistic here,
but anyway, that was a joke.
But it might've been somebody passing through because I know when I've visited churches,
sometimes I'll grab a stack of invites, you know, for when I'm doing soul winning in the
area or whatever.
You know, God either just used somebody who was passing through because it wasn't somebody
who went to the church or else I think it could have just been an angel of the Lord,
literally, that God just sent this guy to me, you know, just to give me that invite
and to send me because he knew that I was looking and I wasn't finding what I was looking
for.
And so either way, I believe it was definitely a divine intervention, you know, because without
going to that church, there's no way I'd be, you know, preaching and passing and everything
because, you know, that church is what taught me soul winning and really changed my life
a lot.
But the reason I tell that story in the context of this sermon is that, you know, I definitely
believe my parents were wrong and I'm not, you know, faulting them, obviously, you know,
we all make mistakes, but I definitely think it was wrong for us to go to those churches
for five years that were just these dead NIV rock and roll churches, you know, that
were just so lame.
I don't believe that was God's will for us to go to those kind of churches, but I can
tell you this, though, it actually worked for good in my life because of the fact that
by going there, I sat there for five years with a King James Bible in my hand, listening
to the NIV with a King James Bible in my hand, so guess what I learned?
Everything that the NIV says and how the King James is different.
So then it allowed me later on when I learned the truth to just know that subject pretty
well of what the NIV says and also it just exposed me to the whole world of New Evangelicalism
and the whole world of what it's like to be in these liberal churches.
So when I see fundamental Baptists start to go down these liberal roads, I'm like, I know
where they're going, I've been there, I've seen that because I've been to all the small
group Bible studies and I've been to the cell groups and I've been to the NIV churches
and I know how they roll and I know it like the back of my hand and I can see it a mile
away and so it actually helps me to guard against that and I've been able to preach
a lot of sermons where I expose that movement, expose the NIV, expose these modernistic type
churches and these contemporary churches for what they are.
So that knowledge that I gained by being on the inside for five years allowed me to
preach a lot of sermons.
So that's how it takes something that was done wrong but God could use it for good in
my life.
But we don't ever want to turn around and say, oh God wanted me to do that, oh God wanted
me to throw Joseph in the pit and beat the snot out of him.
That's not right.
Think about this.
What about the people who crucified Jesus?
Weren't they carrying out God's will in a sense because of the fact that it was Jesus'
plan to come and suffer and die?
But does that make it right when the Jews screamed, his blood be on us and on our children,
crucify him?
Does that make it right when the Saturian, you know, was leading his troops to nail him
to the cross?
They're still committing sin.
So just because God has foreknowledge and that God will sometimes use sinful man to
carry out his will, it does not mean that God is controlling sinful man or that God
condones of sinful behavior or that he is the author of that sinful behavior.
Does everybody understand the distinction there?
It's important.
Go to Revelation chapter 17, this is another example of this.
Revelation chapter 17.
Because I'll say this, you know, anybody who knows anything about warfare knows that it's
horrible.
You know, and sometimes Hollywood and video games might glorify warfare, but it involves
a lot of bloodshed and suffering and there's a lot of death and a lot of people are hurt
and a lot of wives who lose their husband and children who lose their parents and innocent
people get shot in the crossfire and people get bombed and, you know, it's horrible.
Anybody who thinks that war is wonderful and glorifies it, you know, has something wrong
with them.
Okay, you know, we shouldn't be pro-war.
You know, David said, I'm for peace, but when I speak, they're for war.
We should not be one who glories in carnage and bloodshed and warfare.
But yet, God will often use warfare to accomplish his will.
He uses sinful man.
Let me take it a step further.
God even uses the devil sometimes to fulfill his will.
He'll use him.
He knows what the devil's like.
He knows what his demons are like and he will allow them to do their thing and, for
example, look at the book of Job.
You know, he turns Job over to the devil to wreak havoc in his life.
But see, God had a plan to turn around and use it for good, didn't he?
Look at Revelation chapter 17.
This kind of goes back to the sermon I preached last Wednesday night when I preached Zechariah
5 about Babylon.
What does the Bible say in verse 16?
From the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, those are the ten kings, these
shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn
her with fire, for God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and to give
their kingdom unto the beast, the beast is the anti-Christ, until the words of God shall
be fulfilled.
Now, in Revelation 18, we read about the great destruction of Babylon.
How in one hour Babylon's going to be destroyed and it's going to be burned with fire.
But the question is, is it God who brings fire from heaven and destroys Babylon in Revelation
18?
Because the Bible says that it came into remembrance to God to give unto Babylon the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
So God is bringing the fierceness of his wrath on Babylon.
He's angry.
He's punishing Babylon.
He's bringing judgment, but hold on a second, who's the one who actually does it though?
It's the ten kings.
Because God put in their heart to fulfill his will and to agree and to give their power
unto the beast until the word of God shall be fulfilled.
So why do the ten kings, why do they hate the whore?
Why do they attack Babylon and burn it and destroy it?
To fulfill God's will.
See what I'm saying?
So therefore we see that even the anti-Christ being put in power by the ten kings is ultimately
a part of God's plan, even though he's not behind it.
But he allows it and he uses those events to carry out his will.
So by giving you several examples here, I'm trying to get you to understand the concept
that God uses sinful man often to carry out his will.
It does not make him sinful or the author of sin.
Does everybody understand the distinction there?
It's very important.
Let's go back to Zechariah chapter 6 with that in mind then.
So we understand then that the Medes and the Persians are going to come through, they're
going to kill, they're going to slaughter, there's going to be famine, people are going
to be dying, people are going to be suffering.
God is using a sinful nation to carry out his will because it was his will that Babylon
be judged and he's using sinful man to do it.
And it's the same thing in Revelation chapter 6.
Even though man is the one causing war, man is the one causing famine, man is the one
causing death, but it's all part of God's plan in the end.
It's sort of like that story where Ahab is going to fall in battle and God asks the question
up in heaven, you know, how am I going to get Ahab to go into battle?
And basically a lying spirit, you know, this is obviously some devil, says I'll be a lying
spirit in the mouth of the prophets, the false prophets.
I'll be a lying spirit.
He says, yeah, you will actually, you will and you will succeed.
You know, so basically God allows that lying spirit to go forth in the mouth of all these
lying preachers.
Does that mean it's God's will that preachers lie?
No.
But God allows bad things to happen and a lot of people, they hate God and they get
angry at God, you know, why does God allow bad things to happen?
Because he gives people free will and he lets people do bad things and he lets people make
their own bed and then they have to lay in it.
Whereas we expect God to fix all the problems when it's not his responsibility to fix everyone's
problems and to right every wrong in the world.
Or sometimes people will say, well why did God even allow anything bad to happen in the
first place?
Because if God were to make everything be all good and sunshine and rainbows and unicorns
all the time, then there would be no free will at that point.
Then God would just be creating robots who do what's right all the time.
Anytime you create something and then give it the ability to choose between right and
wrong, you're opening up the possibility of wrong being done and bad things happening
and sin resulting in death.
So by God giving free will to mankind, he allows a lot of bad things to happen in the
world.
The only way to prevent bad things happening in the world is if he took away our free will
and made us all do right all the time.
He doesn't do that.
He wants us to choose to believe in him, choose to serve him, choose to obey him and not to
be mindless robots.
So God is sending forth his judgment into these different places.
He's judging the Babylonian empire and he's judging all the nations associated with Babylon.
Read Isaiah, read Jeremiah, he's bringing judgment on everybody.
But he says in verse number seven, then the bay went forth.
He's talking about geographically where the different curses are going to go and take
place.
It says in verse seven, the bay went forth and sought to go that they might walk to and
fro through the earth.
And he said, get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.
So they walked to and fro through the earth.
Then cried he upon me and spake unto me saying, behold, these that go toward the north country
have quieted my spirit in the north country.
Now the north country that he's referring to is Babylon and he's saying, by sending
these curses upon Babylon, by sending this destruction by the hands of the Medan Persians,
he's saying, they've quieted my spirit in the north country, meaning, you know, okay,
now I'm placated, now I can relax, you know, now my wrath is appeased because I've seen
them punished.
They've quieted my spirit in the north country.
Look at verse number nine.
And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, take of them of the captivity, these are the
Israelites, even of Haldai, of Tobijah, and of Judea, which are come from Babylon, and
come now the same day and go into the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah.
Then take silver and gold and make crowns and set them upon the head of Joshua, the
son of Josadak, the high priest, and speak unto him saying, thus speaketh the Lord of
hosts saying, behold, the man whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his
place and he shall build the temple of the Lord.
So we're getting back to encouraging God's people.
The first eight verses of this chapter had to do with God's judgment, God's wrath upon
Babylon and how he's using the Medo-Persians and he's using war and violence and famine
to do that, okay?
But now we have the encouragement for God's people here and he talks about the fact that
the branch is going to build the temple of the Lord.
Now the branch, if you remember, we talked about this a few weeks ago, I'm not going
to re-preach that.
The branch is a prophecy of the son of David, okay?
Branch is like a branch of the family, okay?
If you look up all the verses about the branch, it'll say there's going to be a branch that
comes out of the house of Jesse, you know, the branch is going to be the son of David.
So when we have these prophecies about the branch, they have a double meaning, a two-fold
interpretation.
Number one, they're talking about Zerubbabel because Zerubbabel is the descendant of David
that's going to rule in Jerusalem, okay?
Basically Josiah begat Jeconias, Jeconias begat Salathiel, Salathiel begat Zerubbabel.
So this is that son of David in that kingly line of the kings of Judah that's going to
be governor in Israel, that's going to be governor in Judah.
But then of course the double meaning, the real son of David, the real branch is Jesus,
okay?
So a lot of these scriptures about the branch are prophecies of Jesus.
This is how a lot of Old Testament prophecy is.
There's an immediate fulfillment that's a small time fulfillment and then the big fulfillment
comes later.
So yeah, there's the branch, Zerubbabel, but then there's the branch, which is Jesus, okay?
You know, yeah, Babylon is judged in Jeremiah 15 and 51, but then Babylon's really judged
in Revelation 18, much bigger, swifter, more extreme judgment, a lot of things in the Bible
like that where there's an immediate fulfillment and it's a foreshadowing of something bigger
down the road.
So the Bible talks about how Zerubbabel, the branch, is going to build the temple of the
Lord.
That's talking about the physical building.
Zerubbabel's hands started the foundation of it, he said in the other chapter, and his
hands are going to finish it and then you'll know that the Lord has sent me.
He's predicting and saying, look, I'm a false prophet if this doesn't happen.
You'll know that God sent me.
When you see my words fulfilled, that Zerubbabel will finish this house.
His hands laid the foundation of it, he'll finish it.
But now think about the greater fulfillment in Jesus.
What did Jesus say?
Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
When you think about that, the Bible says in the New Testament that thou mayest know
how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God.
So what was the house of God in Zechariah's day, in Ezra's day?
The house of God was the temple.
But what's the house of God in the New Testament the Bible says is the church, because he said
upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
So the branch said he'll build the house of God.
Zerubbabel built the temple, Jesus is building his church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
So the Bible says here about the crowns of silver and gold.
The crowns are for Joshua and Zerubbabel, other men that are going to rule and lead
with them.
But Joshua and Zerubbabel are the two central characters in the book of Zechariah, Joshua
being the high priest and Zerubbabel being the governor.
The political ruler, so we have basically the religious ruler, the high priest, and
the political ruler being Zerubbabel.
But look what the Bible says here.
The Bible says in verse 12, speak unto him saying thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying
behold the man whose name is the branch and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall
build the temple of the Lord.
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory and shall sit
and rule upon his throne and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the council of
peace shall be between them both.
Now Jesus actually fulfills both the role of being the king and the high priest.
He does both.
He's the son of David, yes, but he's also a priest, high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek.
So in the Old Testament there was a separation of powers because you had the high priest
who's a descendant of Aaron who's a descendant of the sons of Levi, okay, and then you have
the son of David who's sitting on the throne ruling.
They weren't supposed to cross that line.
Remember when Saul made the mistake of offering the sacrifice and he got in big trouble with
Samuel because he crossed that line.
Also later on King Uzziah takes a censer, goes to the house of the Lord and offers incense.
Uzziah, king of Judah, took the role of the priest and was punished by God where he got
leprosy and he was leprous as a result of that sin whereas Jesus can fulfill both roles
of being the king and the high priest in one.
The Bible says it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which tribe Moses spake
nothing concerning priesthood and is yet far more evident for that after the order of Melchizedek
there arises another priest who says he's not from Aaron, he's not from Levi, he's from
Judah only but yet he's the high priest because he's of the order of Melchizedek.
So here we have two men that are needed to kind of fulfill this in the immediate term
but then it's clear that it's talking about Jesus because it basically talks about one
guy fulfilling it.
One guy who's the branch, he's the governor and he's the high priest both in one whereas
immediately it had to be fulfilled by two men, Joshua and Zerubbabel.
Bible says in verse 13 he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory
and shall sit and rule upon his throne and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the
council of peace shall be between them both and the crown shall be to Helam and to Tobijah
and to Judea and to Hen the son of Zephaniah for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
So they're supposed to manufacture these two crowns and put them in the temple just as
a memorial of this prophecy that they would remember and these two crowns of course will
be fulfilled in Jesus.
Crown him with many crowns, you know the song goes, the lamb upon the throne.
You know he is crowned with many crowns the Bible says in Revelation 19 because he fulfills
all these different roles.
In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
The Bible says Christ is all.
You know he fulfills everything.
He's all we need.
So the Bible says here that they're going to be a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
Verse 15, and they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord and
ye shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you and this shall come to pass if
you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Now notice this promise is conditional.
Does he say here hey no matter what you do this is going to happen.
No he says if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God these things will
happen.
This will come to pass if.
Now a lot of the promises in the Old Testament have a big if associated with them and yet
people pretend like that if isn't there.
You know they have the oh well God just made an unconditional promise of all the land to
Abraham and that land belongs to Israel and that's an unconditional promise.
There's so many conditions on that promise and if it was unconditional then God has broken
his word several times when he took them out of that land or when he gave chunks of that
land to foreigners.
No no no he did not give them an unconditional promise of that land.
There was always a condition placed upon it of obedience that then they would dwell in
the land and if they went after other gods if they broke his commandments they'd be removed
from the land.
Always conditional.
Now if we take a spiritual application of this God promised to build the church and
that's talking about each and every church.
That's not one certain church okay.
The Bible talks about church as plural churches of Galatia the church at Ephesus the church
at Corinth church as and listen God has promised to build the church if we will diligently
obey the voice of the Lord our God then he'll build that church.
Okay he told them if you diligently obey my voice this temple will be built Zerubbabel
will succeed it will get done but his message unto us in the New Testament is that he will
build the church if we diligently obey the voice of the Lord our God.
Now people who lack faith in the Bible they lack faith in God they feel that they have
to build the church themselves and so they take it into their own hands and they say
well let's figure out what the world's methods are let's figure out the psychology of advertising
let's figure out what people want to hear let's figure out the tried and the true methods
of the big mega churches of Joel Osteen and TD Jakes and what Kenneth Copeland is doing
and what Rick Warren let's get Rick Warren's book let's get people are walking out of certain
no I'm just kidding you know Bill Hybels you know let's figure out what Bill Hybels
is doing let's figure out what Rick Warren's doing let's figure out the tried and the true
methods of how these people are doing it in the flesh and then we'll build the church
that way instead of saying hey if we will diligently obey the voice of the Lord our
God then Jesus will build the church.
Now I remember you know in the early days of starting this church and I remember even
before I started the church wondering do I have what it takes you know I don't know
if I can do this job I don't know if I have what it takes to start a church to be a pastor
and wondering if I had the ability and I remember just when I sunk in and when I realized you
know what God builds the church it's not my responsibility to build the church I don't
have to worry about how am I going to build this church what am I going to do to make
this happen because it was just a very much of a relief when I just realized you know
what God's going to do it God's going to build the church and I read through scripture where
you know when King Saul was appointed by God there went with Saul a band of men whose hearts
God had touched and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved so I
looked at all that and said you know what all I have to do is just obey the Bible I
don't have to figure out what works and what doesn't work and do all this stuff all I have
to do is just stay with the Bible preach the Bible knock doors just do the best I can to
obey and serve God and carry out his will the best I know how and I have to just rely
on him to do it you know I came to the conclusion that without God's help I will fail if he
doesn't build it then it won't get built now here's the thing if you're building a
rock concert type church you don't need God's help you can do that 100% without God's help
Joel Osteen's proving it Bill Hybels proves it every week well Rick Warren and TD Jakes
these men are of Satan they're not of God I just saw that idiot TD Jakes somebody sent
me a video where he's a oh homosexuality is a complicated issue hey it's not complicated
buddy you know the reproductive system in human beings is a two-piece puzzle buddy and
it's not that complicated you know maybe for a moron like you it's complicated but anybody
who has ever worked with tools or anything knows that the nut goes into the bolt fool
you can't put two bolts together and you can't put two nuts together but it's complicated
it's complicated shut up you fool and let someone get in the pulpit who understands
that one plus one is two let someone get in the pulpit that knows that a nut and a bolt
go together if you are too foolish to figure that out you have no place in the pulpit and
he tried to backpedal his comments oh that's not what I meant you know what he said he
said oh well gays they should go to a church that lines up with their beliefs and and that
will affirm their lifestyle you know I watched the guy talk he never one time said that they're
gross they're disgusting it's wicked it's a sin it's an abomination they're gonna burn
in hell no those type of things didn't come out of his mouth oh you know I talk to gay
people all the time and they're all different and it's complicated and you know yeah I definitely
absolutely they can exist in our church and you know yeah it's great yeah well well but
you know I don't support gay marriage but you know but look shut up you fool there's
nothing complicated about it it's sick it's vile it's disgusting and AIDS is the judgment
of God what's complicated about that and you know some of you right now might even be offended
by me saying that you know what you're brainwashed why don't you wake up and understand the Bible
condemns this filth the Bible says it's vile the Bible says abomination the Bible says
they shall surely be put to death and I'm supposed to sit here and get up here and say
oh well you know it's complicated you know he's these guys are squirming around on TV
like like they're a little kid who needs to go to the bathroom they're like squirming
around they're like doing a potty dance on TV because they're afraid to get up and preach
the Bible why don't they just get up and say it tell it like it is you know why they won't
tell it like this they don't have the guts to tell it like it is oh you're crazy you're
extreme no you're crazy if you think homosexuality is normal you're crazy I'm sick of being on
the defense I'm going on the offense I'm not gonna go running scared oh oh well you know
I mean yeah I guess the Bible does say some stuff about you know is it getting hot in
here is it just me you know no no I'm gonna take it to hey I'm gonna say it's sick you're
sick now that's what we ought to be saying oh it's complicated but you know what that
TD Jakes he doesn't have the Holy Spirit inside of him you know what he has in him love of
money that's what he has in his heart the love of money money money money big bucks
mega church pastor millionaire so he doesn't want to condemn the homos because he's going
to lose people because you know what when you start ripping on the homos people do get
I was kidding earlier but people do get up and walk out during those sermons and people
persecute you and they punish you and you know what let the chips fall where they may
because somebody's got to preach the Bible somebody's got to preach the truth but these
guys with their big mega church models they ask TD Jakes they asked him they say you know
are Muslims going to hell well I don't know are Hindus going to hell well you know I leave
that up to God hey he that the Bible says he that believeth not the sun shall not see
life but the wrath of God abideth on him you know what the Bible says the Muslims are going
to hell and I don't say that because I hate Muslims but the Bible says that if you do
not believe in the Son of God you're damned that's what the Bible says they have another
Jesus not the Jesus the Jesus of the Bible is God Almighty not just a prophet inferior
to Mohammed that's not the God of the Bible that's not Jesus no Islam's a false religion
and Muslims need to get saved they need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ their Savior
and that's the only way they're going to get to heaven but TD Jakes doesn't love Muslims
because if he loved Muslims he'd tell them the truth oh I'll just leave that up to God
I don't know you know God said he has sheep of other pastors and other folds no no he's
talking about the Gentiles he's not talking about other religions that are going to get
a free pass into heaven not going to happen because Jesus saith unto him I am the way
the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me but these guys get on
TV and they are all they're thinking about some money money money and they lie and cheat
and steal and they're fraud and they write books about how to start a church and they
write books about how to make your church grow and how to build the mega church and
then an independent Baptist buys their book and wants to pattern it after that you want
to pattern it after these people who preach lies for filthy lucre's sake no no I want
to pattern it after this book and you know what I don't care if it hair lips every dog
in the county I don't care if every single person got up and walked out while I'm preaching
I will continue to preach and I will tell my kids come back and sit down you don't have
the option but you know I'm not going to sit here and follow and by the way you know
everything I do I try to not pattern it after those people even just building a church website
just creating an invitation to the church I always tell whoever works on any graphic
design for anything to do with our church I always say don't make it look like one of
these liberal churches don't use the style of these liberal church don't make it look
like these mega churches these new evangelical churches I don't want nothing to do I spent
five years with those idiots and I'm through with it look we need to understand that it's
Christ who builds the church and you know what pride pride says I'm going to build the
church because I am so smart and I have such great methods and I've learned from TD Jakes
and Bill Hybels and I know what people want and I'm going to give it to them that's pride
because you're trusting in yourself but see the humble preacher says you know what I'm
not smart enough to decide which parts of the Bible to preach and which ones to leave
out I'm just going to preach the whole thing I'm not going to stand in judgment of God
and decide which of his words are appropriate and which are not I'm going to preach all
of them see that's what the real humble man of God says and the humble man of God says
well you know what I'm not talented enough to build this church anyway I'm just going
to let Jesus do it well you're never going to build a church preaching sermons like that
Pastor Anderson yeah you're right I know I'm not going to and people say oh if you preach
hard like that the style of preaching that I do they say you'll never build a church
like that and they're right I never will Jesus will he already has well you know why
do we have 200 people in our church why because Jesus built the church I didn't do that don't
give me the credit Pastor Anderson built a church of 200 people no he didn't I didn't
do it all I did was try to diligently obey the voice of the Lord and just preach the
word of God and let the chips fall where they may and God built the church I can't take
credit for it because I it wasn't through my look it wasn't through my people skills
or what a wonderful person I am you know I've tried to be the best I can but that's not
why it has succeeded it has succeeded simply because God wanted it to succeed because God
agrees with the message that I'm preaching because he's the one who said it first I'm
just redounding it to the glory of God here I'm just saying the same thing so we need
to understand that it's God who builds the church we should never get this attitude that
a lot of pastors have well you can't preach hard like that you won't build a church like
that I mean that kind of preaching is fun at special meetings but you know you're not
going to build a church on preaching like that yeah but it was very liberating to realize
it's not my job to build a church as long as I obey the voice of the Lord God's going
to build the church I'll leave it up to him and you know what yeah a lot of people do
leave and get offended when I preach hard against homosexuals you know why I preach
so hard about it because nobody else is because people all week long are getting brainwashed
through TV and magazines and radio and newspapers somebody has to grab you and tell you the
truth about these things or you're going to go insane like this insane country we live
in that calls good evil and evil good that calls sweet bitter and bittersweet that puts
light for darkness and darkness for light hey you need a reality check today come to
church and get a reality check and that's why I preach hard and you know why I preach
hard because I don't care whether you leave I mean I want to have the attitude like Jesus
had where people all are leaving by the droves and it says you know from that time forth
many people stopped following him in John chapter 6 verse 6 and you know what he says
to the people that are left oh please don't go no you know what he said to him hey do
you guys want to leave too that's what he said he was preaching hard and he said hey
will you also go away will you in the Bible language means do you want to hey you guys
want to leave too because guess what there's the door and they said Lord to whom shall
we go thou hast the words of everlasting life you know there are always people who want
to hear the truth that will stick around and hear the Bible preach and to the rest
I say adios sayonara dos vedanya you know don't let the door hit you on your way out
why because it's God if you know if God has touched your heart and makes you a part of
this church great if God adds you to the church great but you know what if you if you don't
like it lump it you know go find somewhere else is what I say see I don't beg now listen
I will beg people to be saved I've said this many times I'll beg you to get saved but I'll
never beg anybody to come to this church it's not that important to me because I leave it
in God's hands you know if God wants our church to grow great I mean it look if our church
grows to be several hundred people or even grows to be a thousand people I think that's
great I would love to see that I would love to see our church run a thousand I would love
to see our church run two thousand but honestly if it doesn't it's not going to break my heart
at all because that's not what I live for you know I'm just trying to be faithful and
just trying to obey the Lord and just preach faithfully and teach the people and do what's
right and honestly if God sees fit for it to get big great if he sees fit for it to
stagnate I don't even care honestly why because we can't be so wrapped up in that or it'll
lead to compromise if we just get so wrapped up where it's just it's all it's all about
what's the attendance what's the offerings you know can you see how that could lead to
compromise if that becomes the measuring stick or the motivator now look again we don't
want to get imbalanced in the other direction we do want to strive to do great things for
God and strive for growth but we got to let it be his growth the right kind of growth
and we need to not just get caught up in that where that's what we live for honestly we
need to just live for being faithful and just live for obeying the Lord and doing what's
right and let the results rest with him where they belong let us worry about our job and
let him worry about his job let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we
thank you so much for this great story Lord in the Bible about Joshua and Zerubbabel Lord
and how you use them to build your house on this earth Lord but you told them that if
they would diligently obey the voice of the Lord that the work would be done the work
would get done and obviously the implication is that if they don't obey it's not going
to happen Lord help us in the New Testament to diligently obey your voice not to just
say move over Jesus we'll do it ourselves by Rick Heibel's method you know help us Lord
rather to leave it with you and let you do the job Lord that you have said you would
do and in Jesus name we pray amen.