Jen and I were speaking the last couple of days that it was coming up on the anniversary of our brother's passing. I don't know, I don't say this in any way to detract from the remembrance and an anniversary, but just as an observation of my folks, it seemed the first year, maybe two or so, the memory of the date of their passing was fresh. And then as the years went a little further, it's like I started remembering their birthday a little more than I was remembering their day of passing. I don't know what significance that is. It may just be a commentary on my memory. One I've been remembering longer than others. But we thank the Lord, our brothers in glory. Thank Him for His labors here. and his worship with us as we have been together. I thank our brother Dane, too, for his stepping in, filling those shoes, and helping us very well to sing. I did notice him tonight, though. You know, I said something months ago about money coming under the table for you folks getting your requests in. I saw him tonight with a piece of paper walking through the crowd before the church started. I don't think he's waiting for it to come out of the table anymore. I think he's taking an offering. But anyway, but right. Turn if you would to Zechariah chapter 3 this evening. Zachariah 3. We were a few weeks ago coming to our survey of this next to the last of the minor prophets. Our survey was interrupted in my absence last week. We were working through a series of eight visions that are given to the prophet, and it is very possible that these visions all came in the course of one evening And I want this evening to take that up again. We looked at the first three of these last time. I want tonight, Lord willing, to finish and go through the remaining five of these visions, perhaps taking more time on the first two of these five, and then a more hurried glance at the remaining three. And for these first two, I want us to read in two distinct readings, chapter 3 and chapter 4, we'll just survey the remaining visions without reading the whole of their part in the text. But Zechariah 3, let's give attention to the reading of this chapter and this fourth of the eight visions given to the prophet. And He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord of the chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a bran plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head and 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 thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, For they are men wondered at. For behold, I will 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 engraving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts. And I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. And that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree." Amen. I trust again the Lord to bless the public reading of His Word. In the last visions that we considered, just to review them very quickly this evening, the first vision was that of a man among the myrtle trees. And notably in this vision, it is pointed out that the nations, these Gentile powers that have come against the Lord's people are at rest. They are satisfied with their oppression. They're satisfied with their gains. But God, it's said in that vision, will disturb. that rest." Something there of echoes of a future day, are there not? And they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. The second vision was that of four horns that are put before us. Horns emblematic throughout the Old Testament of power, of strength. And here the massive power of Israel's enemies is put on display. And yet we found in that vision that God is more than a match for these powers. It will be said in the last day, who was able to make war with the beast? But it will be consumed with the word of Christ's mouth. And the third vision was that of the man with the measuring line. Here and again tonight, as last time, we're shamelessly borrowing, stealing from a brother, Dr. Barrett. But he entitles that section dealing with the third vision, blessing beyond expectation. Jerusalem and its devastation and even its point of partial rebuilding was still despised. It was small. Remember with regard to the temple, those that saw it as it began to be erected were weeping because they had seen and known the glory of the first temple and this was as nothing in comparison for one to go forth and measure. What profit can there be? God said here, there will be blessing. There will be a city to be measured. His work will indeed be built. But as we come to the fourth of these visions tonight and what we've read in the third chapter, here's a precious section. And as I said, many students that have gone through a class in the Minor Prophets from down at BJA for years and then again over at Geneva. Joshua's change of raiment. One of the great needs of Israel and the focus of the prophets that are sent to the nation was to understand their need of forgiveness of sins. The individual is in view in this chapter in Joshua representative of the people as one that stands in need of cleansing. We won't take the time to do a full-orbed study or sermon on this vision and the doctrine of justification that it represents, but we've mentioned often, maybe I should have been on that early list of requests tonight for the hymn, His Robes for Mine, because here's the vision that it's based upon. Joshua representing the people is brought up before the Lord. Satan stands to accuse Him. Actually, that's one of the meanings underneath Satan's title. Accuser. He's described later as the accuser of the brethren. And isn't it true? What was Satan busy doing in Eden, the Garden of God? Accusing God. to Adam and Eve, trying to plant evil thoughts of their Creator within them. And of course, Satan sadly succeeded and Adam fell, and we with him. Now Satan would stand before God to accuse us. And here he has a case. With God it is all a lie. With us, there's truth. We stand as Joshua in filthy garments. The description here is vivid, soiled, vile garments. And yet, what do we find? These pieces, this emblem of justification that's put before us again, we, in a sense, hasten through. But what we find here is that the need is great. Joshua doesn't stand there in clean garments. He doesn't stand there with some mere slight soil, as it were, but yet even that is a mark of imperfection that can't enter the presence of God. But know He stands representative of what we read elsewhere in Scripture that not just our sins, but even our righteousnesses are His filthy rags. And so His need is great. And the accuser comes and points to His filth and points to His need. But what happens? The Lord rebukes the accuser. The Lord issues sovereign and summary judgment that this one who, yes, is clothed in filthy garments is to have those garments removed. His iniquity taken away. And clean garments placed upon him. This justifying act is a gracious act. We don't find the Lord addressing Joshua, telling him to go perform some work, telling him to perform the task of cleansing himself and ridding himself of his defilement and producing and finding some other garments whereby to come. No, all is taken from Him by sovereign direction and power, and all is given to Him by sovereign direction and power. The need is great. The act is gracious. And then we find even the resultant activity. And here we could go on and preach a sermon from justification into sanctification. Because now His service is being rendered. When you think of that, stand in God's presence and serve. One of the mysteries we speak of often with regard to our redemption is that period, the rest of our lives, between our justification and our glorification. We're to grow in grace as we saw this morning. We're to increase in righteousness, in holiness, but yet, all this is yet falling short until the day of glory in which being transformed finally into the image of Christ, we can in His presence rejoice and serve. There's salvation from sin. Salvation notably through this servant. The branch. Isaiah's great servant theology could be capsulized in that service of Christ for His people. the great servant of the Lord. As God's Israel has failed, Christ has not. The servant standing. And what do we read in the Gospels? I remember one of my dear companions in seminaries, we were meditating together and just coming to rejoice more and more in the doctrines of grace. and so much we'd been under. And we took on board and a lot of it was preached well and very applicable to us, but our need to serve, to walk in holiness, to be right in the midst of a crooked generation, truth in all of that, but some of the foundation was missing. And then to meditate on that text, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto. but to minister, to give His life a ransom for many. You want a foundation for your own service? Meditate on that text. The Son of Man came not to be served. but to serve. And there's a ground for service to know you've been cleansed and accepted in the courts of heaven. But read with me now, if you would, the fourth chapter. The fifth of these eight visions. The angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of his sleep and 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 the seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof. So he 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 unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? 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? 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 has sent me unto you. 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 that 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." Here is an emblem that speaks to us of power or service. The vision or the imagery of the lampstand is common in Scripture really both Old Testament and New. The lampstand in the tabernacle and temple with regard to the light. We go to the New Testament and our Savior is described as the light of the world, and yet we find in that same Gospel that we, His disciples, are spoken of as the light of the world. And we come to the last book of the canon of Scripture, the book of Revelation. And we see there that the church, the people of God are described in those seven letters as lampstands. And so here, the imagery of God's people and their service for Him is put on display. And yet the lessons here are great indeed. We come to see it and again we can't press every detail in a survey. But as this candlestick, that center shaft, the three branches off to each side, is made of one piece of gold, there's a bowl above it, and to that bowl flow golden pipes that stem from two olive trees that stand next to the candlestick itself. And the imagery here is plain. The olive trees are the source of the oil. That oil is directly flowing through these pipes into that bowl that supplies all the little parts of the vessels of the candlestick for the light to be continuously shining. And here we have description of the Lord endlessly, constantly supplying the need of His people in their service. I love this particular section of Zechariah. There's some choice phrases that we find in this particular section. Maybe it's of particular comfort to ministers of small works that these things become precious. But the lessons here are many. There's a great task. Can you remember Zacharias ministering in that season where the temple and the city are in process of being rebuilt from the devastation of their captivity? The people have been chastened at one point for letting the work of the temple cease. They were building their own houses. If we can't see the work of God fully established, at least we'll make something of our own lives is kind of the picture. And of course, we can see and make application to ourselves very often in that way, can we not? But one of the struggles was the smallness of the people. The smallness of the work, both numerically and even tangibly. The temple that paled by comparison to the one that had been before. And yet God says, I'm in this. Number one, the enemies and obstacles can be great. The effort and the results of your work might seem to be small. But don't look at it in that way. And you see the lessons of this vision. Working for God can only be done by the power of the Spirit. We need the constant and filling and presence of the Spirit of God in all our labors for Him. If we're to shine His lights and be a blessing to this world, then we need oil. We mentioned something this morning of the parable of the virgins needing their lamps trimmed and oil within them to be ready and watching for the bridegroom's appearance. But also here, not only that solid lesson of the necessity of the Spirit for labor in God's kingdom, but that every obstacle will be removed. What mountain are you there before, Zerubbabel, You're going to be made into a plane. You're going to be leveled out. And then Zerubbabel and the companions are instructed here in v. 10, "...who hath despised the day of small things." No work is too small. No work is too insignificant. You think of the little pieces Not merely in the outward performance of the Lord's work, this rebuilding of Judah and Jerusalem in preparation for the first Advent. Our preaching and our living, ministering the Gospel in preparation for the second Advent. Works great. Works small. All needing the Spirit. All significant. in the advancement of His purposes and His Kingdom. I think I was looking through some notes for the students a few days ago and just found a note I made to myself, an application. We never know what small little thing we might do. Maybe something so small we would forget about it in months or as years go by. But that little thing done in that other person's life may have been a big thing for them. Think of the small little pieces, say, in a life like Spurgeon's. That unknown member of the church in the snowstorm, the preacher wasn't even there, that just brought a very simple, unpolished word. The Lord met with Spurgeon. Let us never despise. the day of small things. But here, this supply and we see the olive trees and the illustration goes further with reference to Joshua and Zerubbabel and the Lord anointing their service and the rebuilding of the nation there in preparation for Christ's coming. Here, power for service following salvation from sin. The sixth vision as we come to chapter 5 I'll not take time to read the whole of this vision, but just the first verse. I turned, lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, a flying roll. Now, lest you get to thinking about yeast rolls from your favorite restaurant, it's a scroll. It's paper here that is in view. Interestingly, what is described are the dimensions of that holy place. Not the Holy of Holies, but the holy place, the outer part of the temple and tabernacle. It's probably, I think, 15 by 30 feet if we translate the cubits that are here. It's not a small thing. It's not quite, but approaching, well, the dimensions at least of the lower floor of our large two-staged auditorium. But it's flying. The scroll representing God's Word, God's Law. The large proportions of this scroll, it would be hard to miss as it is flying. I was taken back at one of Dr. Barrett's illustrations here. It said something like a military drone seeking out from its perch above the ability to move and see and discover the enemies. And in this vision, we have reference put before us of God's justice, of God's law searching out and finding transgressors against it. In other times, obviously Israel in her seasons of trouble and discouragement and oppression by the Gentiles, we as the church of this age looking at the world, Sometimes as the psalmist looked and looked in a wrong spirit and heart and became envious, or perhaps in a better frame of mind, not envious, but looking at their ungodliness, not desiring to share in their ungodliness, but wondering why they're allowed to continue in their ungodliness. Well, God sells us in this way, not to fret. They're not outrunning His law. They're not outrunning His sight and His observation of their sin. Justice will prevail. God will not be toyed with. God's people can be comforted that their enemies are found out. You come to the seventh vision. We find here a vision of a woman in an epah It's a basket. It is perhaps something akin to a bushel. I'm so removed from farming and understanding such things that I need somebody to interpret the interpretations of these visions. But the point is not the relative size, as it were, of the epa or the bushel basket. But there is a woman that is depicted here. And again, we're not taking time to read the whole of these visions. And this woman is placed inside the basket and the lid or covering of it is placed over her and two other women come and carry the basket and it flies off to Shinar and is tucked away into its room. It's gone. Dr. Barrett, in working through this, not so deep into the grammar lessons, but he said it's not uncommon in Hebrew that the feminine gender is used to personify abstract ideas. We find something akin to that in Proverbs, as wisdom is personified and put before us as a person. Sometimes people struggle because if they do a little bit of work in the grammar, it's feminine there, but it's just a literary device to use that as a picture of personification. So we don't shrink back even from seeing divine wisdom. It's Christ. Well, the case here is that, as it were, in reverse. Not the personification of wisdom. Not the personification of that which is good. but the personification of that which is evil. Evil in itself is wrapped up in this woman that is taken, tucked away in the basket and flown forever. It's one thing to think of particular enemies. One thing to think, as it were, of particular battles. We might even think if we look in the prophetic word of that description, probably a little more popular than it should be in our pop culture of Armageddon. The enemies that come against Jerusalem, the armies of the man of sin that we spoke somewhat of this morning. But it's not just specific enemies, specific nations, specific battles, specific ungodly people. It's evil in itself. There's coming a day in which God is going to remove the curse. Anything that offends will be removed from His Kingdom. It won't be in our presence anymore. Here, the ultimate triumph over evil. And the vision, the eighth vision, we come to, and again, not reading it together, but this is a vision of four chariots. We find these chariots are packed with horses. The image here, perhaps in the use of the word chariot, struggle a little bit in our minds. It's not that normal picture we think of. This has been a little while, but the chariot race in Ben-Hur, you know, the small chariot with a guy in it and a lot of horses, and that's an instrument of battle, as it were, in the military. It's not so much that type of chariot. It's more of a wagon. It's more of a vehicle to carry armaments that's in view. And these wagons full of horses are put before the prophet. These horses obviously depicting strength and that of armies are here. Varied colors of the horses are put before us, perhaps not real significance to the colors, but to the direction, to the things these wagons and the horses within them do. Some are separated and go to the north. Some are separated and go to the south. Some are separated and go everywhere else. And then some are held in reserve. The north and the south are traditional directions in Scripture, if you will, that speak of the direction, the approach of God's enemies. The south, reference to Egypt and obviously Israel's history there, and Egypt as an enemy, and even many times a type of the world Babylon, geographically more east than north from Jerusalem, yet in the path of that described as the Fertile Crescent, they would have, as so many others, invaded Israel from the north. The enemy will be taken care of. Babylon. Egypt as an enemy taken care of. all other directions, all other foes that would approach Israel from all other directions taken care of. And yet another wagon filled with horses that aren't even necessary and aren't even used. Here, not only God's dealing with every known foe, but God still has power on reserve. The infinite power of God. The final victory of God over the enemies of His people. These are hasty surveys of the eight visions that God gave to Zechariah. But again, mindful that in this season, the people are preparing, as it were, for the promised first advent of their Messiah. Those days, the fulfillment of the vision at Zechariah 9 we've referenced already that so clearly speaks of that triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But we are waiting for that. And we can have the same fears. Fears with regard to our own sins. Fears with regard to our own inability to serve, to accomplish anything. Fears with regard to the strength of the enemies. And for every one of these fears, for every one of these real problems, God is enough. His promises are sure. His resources are infinite. He but speaks the Word and all is done. So let us in reading of the encouragements given to Zechariah in their time of need, be encouraged that we have the same justifying, sanctifying, glorifying God that is saving us. Dealing with all His and our enemies as our catechism phrases it. And let us take courage even though things seem small. Let us not despise a day of small things. Even though we would labor, let us be mindful that it isn't by might. It's not by power. Sometimes a church grows and has seeming power. That's not what's really getting anything done for the kingdom. Sometimes a church is small and despised both individually and corporately. That's no hindrance to the advancement of the kingdom either. It's by God's invincible, omnipotent Spirit that true work in His kingdom is done. The same God who gave encouragements and promise to Zechariah and his companions is the God that gives encouragement to us. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Heavenly Father, we come and ask, even as we have with haste surveyed these at times perplexing images, and yet, Lord, such clear pictures. Lord, what a recurring picture of the need for filling with oil. Let it be true of us. Give me oil in my lamp. Let us make that our prayer. Prosper Your Word to us. We've considered in this day. Help us as we go to our homes. Lord, make these, we read that precious and yet challenging phrase, as the days of heaven upon the earth. and let our light so shine before men that they might see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. We pray these things in Jesus' worthy name, Amen.