Please turn in your Bibles tonight to the Book of Ecclesiastes. I'm sorry, not the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Book of Zechariah and Chapter 4. Zechariah and Chapter 4. Zechariah chapter four, and I'll read the entire chapter. Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me as a man who was awakened from his sleep. And he said to me, what do you see? And I said, I see and behold a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it. also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side. Then I answered and said to the angel who was speaking with me, saying, What are these, my Lord? So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my Lord. Then he answered and said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you will become a plain. And he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace, grace to it. Also, the word of the Lord came to me saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the eyes of the Lord, which range to and fro throughout the earth. Then I answered and said to him, what are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left? And I answered the second time and said to him, what are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes which empty the golden oil from themselves? So he answered me saying, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my Lord. Then he said, these are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth. So this evening, I give you another sermon. This one was from Warren Peale of Northern Ireland. And it was this passage that he chose to preach at the recent pastor's conference. And the word that was most encouraging to him was in verse six. Then he answered and said to me, this is, the angel said, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. So in this vision, which the prophet Zechariah saw, we have a lampstand. And this lampstand is not the menorah that is found in the temple, but it is a separate lampstand which represents the Church of Christ as we see in Revelation chapter 2, the kingdom of God, the Church of the Lord Jesus. The lampstand, it has a bowl on the top. And the bowl feeds the lamps, the seven lamps of the lampstand. And there are two olive trees on either side with pipes from the olive trees, which produce oil. And the oil pours through the pipes down into the bowl. And the bowl is continually feeding the lamps to keep all of the lamps lit. What the vision is teaching here is that God is always supplying his people with the oil of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is always constantly being poured down from heaven from the Lord Jesus to give life and strength and grace to the church. Three things we can see in this passage. The first is the need for strength, the need for strength. And we see the need for strength by the mountain that is mentioned in verse seven. What are you, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? You will become a plain, and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace, grace to it. So the mountain here is the obstacles, the difficulties that the people of God faced at this time. They were returning from the Babylonian captivity, They had been in the captivity for 70 years. And they returned under Zerubbabel, who led them back to the land of Israel. Zerubbabel was the governor. The Temple of Jerusalem had been destroyed. The land had been desolate by the invasions of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. And now they had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild after the 70 years of destruction and neglect. When they returned, there was nothing but a heap of rubble. And they laid the foundation of the second temple. But then came opposition. And the people around them were opposed to them. And the people of God became discouraged. and disheartened, and so God raised up these prophets, two prophets, Zechariah and Haggai, and he sent them to the people to encourage them, to strengthen them in the work, be strong and continue in the work, is what the Lord was saying here through the prophets. There was a need for strength to overcome this mountain. We see the same thing much today in our own land in regard to the Christian church and the gospel. It is like climbing a mountain because in our society we have the mountain of the culture in which we live, where the gospel is viewed as unpopular. It is viewed as out of date, archaic, meaningless to us today in the modern world. It is often contrary to the thoughts and the ways of the world. It is rejected. It is often despised. And so we have the mountain of the world around us. And then we have the mountain of what we might call general evangelicalism, in which, in many ways, people seem to hold to the word, but in a very shallow and superficial way. In many ways, they are opposed to great truths that are found in the word. At the same time, we have the mountain of our own sin. We have the mountain of our own coldness. We have the mountain of our own weakness and the circumstances in which we live. And so there are all of these mountains that we need strength to overcome and we have these great demands that are upon us. So we have the need for strength. But the question here is where will this strength come from? Will it come from man or will it come from God is the issue in verse six. We first look at the inadequacy of human strength. He says here in verse six, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, and it was not by might and not by power, not by human might, not by human power will the kingdom of God be built. In these days here, it was not by military strength, not by human wisdom. It is not by human resources. Eloquence, it is not by human wealth. It is not by political powers and legislation that the kingdom of God is built in the earth. We could think for a moment on the manpower that Solomon had when he built the first temple. Solomon had 200,000 workers. He had 4,000 tons of gold. Zerubbabel had a far fewer number of people when he returned to Jerusalem. And we could imagine the Jews at that time saying, if only we had what Solomon had, then we could build a great temple and do great works in the kingdom of heaven. We might think today, if only we were living in a time of revival, if only we had a megachurch, more people, better preaching, more charismatic personality to lead the church, more dynamic people, more younger people. If only we had these things, then What great works we could do in the kingdom of God. But these are all human things. These are all things from men and what men can do. And what the Lord is saying here, it is not by might. It is not by human might or human power. It is not by any human strength that the kingdom of God is built. Not by human resources at all. If we had all the human resources, If we had all the human strength that man can provide, it would not move the kingdom of God one inch forward. It would do nothing in the kingdom of God by itself. It would not produce a single conversion. It would give no true comfort to the saints. You can do nothing apart from me, says Jesus. And so by ourselves, we can do nothing. And we cannot trust in these human things. He is not saying here that God does not have things for us to do in the kingdom. He is not saying that we do not labor, that we do not bear witness of Christ and evangelize. He does not say that we do not Pastors do not study and take pains in their preaching, but all human eloquence and all human brilliance can never build the church. Jesus says, I will build my church, and the gates of Haiti shall not prevail against it. He blesses our human weakness. He uses our frail labors. We are weak, but the kingdom of God does not depend upon us. The kingdom of God depends upon him and his power. Our frailties and our weaknesses, they cannot prevent him from his power, building his kingdom. Jesus said, my grace, is sufficient for you. He said, my power is perfected in weakness. That's where my power is most made known. That's where my power is most evident in places of human weakness. Does God need our human power to build his church? Can you imagine the kingdom of God depending upon the strength and the wisdom of men? And so we see the need for strength, but we see also here that he states the inadequacy, the complete and utter inadequacy of human strength But then in the third place, we have the source of true strength, which is by my spirit, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord, by my Holy Spirit. That's where all the power of the kingdom of God comes from. Here is where everything that we need comes from. from the work of the Holy Spirit. The oil of the Holy Spirit flows continuously from the trees into the bowl, from the bowl into the lampstands to keep the lampstands burning. What is needed is not more money or more people. What is needed in the church is not more human might or human gimmicks or the inventions, the ideas of men, the cleverness of men in what they do. What is needed is people who depend upon the Holy Spirit for his work above all other things. That's what's needed, men and women who believe in the Holy Spirit's power to build the church. The Spirit uses our labors. The Spirit blesses and feeds the church. The Holy Spirit comes and gives comfort and understanding and new life. The Spirit, the Spirit, the word the Spirit is a Hebrew word and it's also a Greek word that means, speaks of that which is filled with unlimited power. power of the Holy Spirit in creation who created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the deep and when God spoke the Holy Spirit in His power brought all order and beauty into this world. The Holy Spirit has the power of creation and the Holy Spirit alone has the power of the new creation. He raises the dead in that visions that Ezekiel saw where the valley of dry bones and he prophesied and the spirit came by the word and gave life to the dead bones. The Holy Spirit is promised, Ezekiel chapter 36. I will put my spirit within them, he says, and I will give them a new heart. And I will take away the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within them and cause them to be careful to walk in my commandments. So there is nothing that we can do apart from the power of the Holy Spirit in the church. We cannot mortify our sins. We cannot do anything apart from Him, and so we must always be praying for the Holy Spirit. in the Christian church. This is the priority of our prayer meetings. It ought to be on our Wednesday nights as we gather that Jesus promises us that if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more does our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. So we cannot skip our prayers. We cannot neglect our prayers for the Holy Spirit. We cannot reverse verse six and say that we will no longer depend upon the spirit. We will depend upon the might and the power and the wisdom of men. We cannot depend upon ourselves, our abilities, our own so-called wisdom. Whatever might and power we may have, it is nothing. Only God can take the mountain of verse 7 and make it into a great plain and level that mountain and take away all obstacles and every hindrance and difficulty that lies in the way of the kingdom of God and make it grow as he sees fit. And then the top stone, the last stone, is one of grace, grace, Grace, the grace of God upon all believers in the church. So in this verse, we have two things that are opposed to one another. On the one hand, we have human might and we have human power on the one hand. On the other hand, we have the spirit of God. And the two are contrary to one another. The two are exclusive to one another in the sense in which they are spoken of here. On the one side is human might and human power. On the other side is the power of the Holy Spirit. And the prophet is telling us here that all the blessings that come to the church, they come by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings the blessings of the Word upon us. And God here ascribes to Himself all of the prosperity, all of the strength, all of the safety of the church. The church may be in need of many things, but they can all, and they can all be supplied by God, by the Holy Spirit working through his word. He employs means, yes. He employs his word. We preach, we speak, we pray. He has means that he makes use of, but the power comes from him and from him alone. The church may be in great poverty. The church may be surrounded on every side by dangers, by enemies. The church may be destitute of all earthly aids. What happens when the church finds herself in a destitute state in terms of human strength and human aid? Does that mean there is no hope for the church? Does that mean there is no future? No, because it is not by human strength, not by human power, but by my spirit, God says, that I will build my church. This is a supernatural work of God. That's what he's saying. It is not human strength that can build the church. It is a supernatural work of God alone by the Holy Spirit using the means that he has appointed. By his word, By his preaching, by preaching, those are the means, but only as the Holy Spirit is the source of all power and life and light and conversion to the souls of men. If men were convinced of God's power alone, in building the church. They would not be so eagerly looking for human inventions and human gimmicks and human ideas. And they would not be so dependent upon them, the ways and the plans of men. They would be looking to the Holy Spirit and to him alone. So it is an extraordinary, divine, and supernatural work of God that is the only work that will build the church. We ought to be dependent upon him alone, and we ought to be fully persuaded that his power by the Spirit alone is what we need. It is enough. His power alone is enough. And he speaks here as if he needs no aid to come from any other quarter, from any other source than himself. As if God had no need of any earthly help. And what takes place in this vision is that we have the two olive trees who continually pour their golden oil into the bowl, and then the bowl by the spouts continually into the lampstands to keep the fires, the light burning in the lampstand. All of it seems to be by a hidden power without anything from men, but only by the gift of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin writes on this passage, he writes this, when therefore we now see things in a despairing condition, let this vision come to our minds that God is sufficiently able by his own power to help us when there is no aid from any other. For his spirit will be to us for lamps, for pourers, and for the olive trees, meaning everything in the vision, so that experience well at length show that we have been preserved in a wonderful manner by his hand alone. So it is the hand of God. that alone can preserve and help us and all churches in the earth. Men can do what they can do. And there are things that men can do. There is might, the verse assumes. There is such a thing as human might. And there is such a thing as human power. And so there is what men can do by their might and by their human power. But what is that compared to what God can do by his mighty spirit? Men can put up appearances. Men can create shows and men can invent and have their own ways. And men can create things to look as if they have the appearance of something great going on. But what is that? when it is set beside the power of God by the Holy Spirit. We could have a list on the one hand of the things that men could do, and then we could have a list on the other side of the things that only God can do. What can men do? Men can speak, men can educate, but they cannot regenerate the soul. Men can persuade with their arguments, but they can never sanctify in the truth. And men can preach, but men cannot give saving faith. Men can put on a show of religion, but they cannot produce the power of religion. Men can teach, but they cannot enlighten the mind. Men can dress something up. and they can perfume it, but they cannot give it life. Men can gather crowds, but they cannot save sinners and bring them safely into heaven. There are many things that men can do that have the appearance of might and power, but it cannot compare in the least to what only God can do. And that's what the church needs. What do we see in the book of Acts? They preached, they prayed, and Christ built the church. That's the way it was, and that's the way it will always be. So when he speaks to Zerubbabel here, he is really speaking to all the people of God. He's speaking to the church today. When earthly aides fail us, we must not despair. But we must depend upon God by the Holy Spirit and by his wonderful power alone to help us in such times of need. This is what happened to Martin Luther in the Protestant Reformation. And I read you a quote from Martin Luther. This is what Luther said in the midst of the Reformation. He said, I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip of Ansdorf, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. He said, I did nothing. The Word did it all. That's what did it in the Protestant Reformation, the Word of God. Luther preached, Luther wrote. Then he went to sleep, or he drank a beer with Philip, and the Word of God was tearing down the Roman power, the Roman papacy, took the great power of the Roman Catholic Church and brought it down and spread the Word of God over the land of Europe. Not by human might, not by human strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord. The Roman Catholic Church, they had human might. They had human power. They had human riches. It was all torn down by the word of God, by the Holy Spirit. I did nothing, he said. I did nothing. The word did it all by the Holy Spirit. Imagine that. People like to think perhaps Martin Luther did great things. He did, perhaps we could say. But the way he viewed it, I did nothing. The word did it all. So I cover one more message briefly tonight. This one is found in 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy and chapter 2. So chapter 2 and verse 24 through 26. And the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. So this message was given by Pastor Dave Chansky of the Montville Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, and he covered these verses and their meaning. How the pastor should relate to people and especially to those who are opposed to the truth and opposed to him. Negatively, first in verse 24, the Lord's bondservant, which is the pastor here, but it could include all of us. We are all the servants of the Lord Jesus. Negatively, he must first not be quarrelsome. He must be able to reprove and to rebuke at times, but he must not delve himself into all kinds of quarrels and arguments about the truth or be overly aggressive in his demeanor with those who oppose him. He must be kind to all, able to teach in the sense not just of communication of the truth, but ability to teach in such a way that he would win those who are opposed to him, kind to them so that he is able to teach them in a way that they are able to receive it. This is what we see with our Lord Jesus. He was humble. He was meek. And he was able to teach. all men, and then patient when wronged, because the context here is that the pastor will often be wronged by those who are opposed to him. If we look back to chapter 2 and verse 16, Paul says to Timothy, but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place. And thus they upset the faith of many. So there are false teachers around the church. We see this down in chapter three and verse one again, but realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self and lovers of money and boastful, arrogant revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy. Unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of money, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, and avoid such men as these, down in Verse 10, but you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings. Such has happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And so it is in the midst of much opposition that Timothy will face that Paul tells him that he must be patient. He must be kind when he is wronged. and he must bear up under the wrong that is done. In verse 25, with gentleness, or it could read in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, showing them the error of their way, showing them the way of the truth, They are in opposition, but you are to, in gentleness, humility, show them the way that they should believe and understand the scriptures. Instruct them, inform them, because they are in opposition to the word of God. And then all of that is what men can do. That's what the pastor must do. That's what we must do, each of us individually as well. In verses 24 to the beginning of verse 25, that's what we can do. But that's all we can do. And when we are done with that, then in the rest of verse 25 and 26, now this is God's work alone by the Holy Spirit that we must pray for, if perchance as we are teaching them, if perchance God may grant them repentance. God must give repentance. God must give the change of heart. It can only come from him by the Holy Spirit, if perchance God may grant them the gift of repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth. First comes a turning of the mind, repentance, and then comes the knowledge of the truth in verse 26, that they may come to their senses and may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. So the pastor and all of us as God's people, we must practice this gentle instruction, teaching of others when we are in discussions. Sometimes believers are led astray in various ways, and they need to be taught the truth. Sometimes we are speaking here of unbelievers who do not know the gospel. But we must speak in this way and look to God to grant the gift of repentance and the knowledge of the truth. So we will conclude our time tonight, and let us pray together. Father and gracious God in heaven, Thank you for your holy word. Thank you for your mercy and kindness to us this day. We pray that you would bless what we have heard. We pray that you would set our hearts upon our Lord Jesus, that we would love him and trust him and rest upon him for his grace and power to be made known to us in every way that we have need. Lord Jesus, thank you that the demands of your kingdom do not rest upon us, but they rest upon your shoulders, and all we need comes by your power and your power alone. So Lord, hear us now and bless your word to us this night. In Jesus' name, amen.