Thank you. Okay, we've been here over the past couple of weeks. We've been working our way through the book of Zechariah, and we now come to a seventh week in Zechariah, and we've arrived at chapter six. So I'll ask you if you would turn there. If you get to the New Testament, Zechariah is pretty close to the start of the New Testament, right before Malachi, last book in the Bible. Historically, what's happened is God's people have gone into exile, and as they've gone into exile, God planned that for a 70-year period, and now they are coming back from that exile. And as God is working in history to draw them back, he is revealing to us more and more clearly what his plan is for gathering a people not just out of Israel, but throughout all the whole world. And he does that, and one of the places that he does that, as he brings that clarity to us, is here in Zechariah 6. So we're going to look at that. It is a series of two pieces. One is a vision, and then the second is something worked out in history that is a picture that God's people are gifted by him to carry with them in their hearts. So let's look here in Zechariah 6. Then I turned and raised my eyes and I looked. And behold, four chariots were coming from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. Now with the first chariot were red horses. With the second chariot, black horses. With the third chariot, white horses. And with the fourth chariot, dappled horses. Strong steeds. Then I answered, and I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these, my Lord? And the angel answered and said to me, These are the four spirits of heaven who go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth. The one with the black horses is going to the north, the white are going after them, and the dappled are going toward the south country. Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth. And he said, go walk to and fro throughout the earth. So they walked to and fro throughout the earth. And he called to me and spoke to me saying, see those who go toward the north country have given rest to my spirit in the north country. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Receive the gift from the captives, from Heldi, Tobijah, and Jediah, who have come from Babylon, and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Then speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the branch. From his place he shall branch out, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Yes, he shall build the temple of the Lord, he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on his throne. So he shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. Now the elaborate crown shall be for a memorial in the temple of the Lord for Helem, Tobijah, Jediah, and Hain, the son of Zephaniah. Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you and this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord, your God." And there we end the reading of the Lord's word. Now, this week I got a little pressed because I went to Concho, so I didn't give you an outline. But I hope at least you'll be relieved that I have one up here. So maybe I'll give you just a little bit of where we're going to start. First of all, we're going to start with that first vision. And in that first vision, what we're going to see is God making a way, making a path for in providence of the church being prospered or the church being blessed. Now where do we get that from? The first thing I want to say as we're going to look at this is we're looking at a vision and my guidance to you throughout all of these visions has been to be somewhat of a minimalist interpreter. Okay, so in this, and here's what I mean by that, in this vision, there are four sets of horses, and the four sets of horses go between two bronze mountains. And you might ask yourself, what do the bronze mountains say? Or what do the bronze mountains mean? And I'm going to tell you, well, the Bible doesn't give me an interpretation of the bronze mountains, so I'm not going to give you one. Okay, now I might be wrong there, I'm just to say, but I don't feel real comfortable standing on what my understanding of the Bronze Mountains are, because God doesn't say anything about that. Then we've met these horses probably before in chapter one. And so if you turn back there for just a second. Right, chapter one. In verse 8, I saw by night a man was riding a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and around him were horses red, sorrel, and white. Now the colors don't exactly match, right? So it might be a different herd of horses or just another herd of horses. But in chapter 1, what are they doing with the horses? They're riding them. In chapter 6, what are they doing? They've got a chariot. What's the significance between riding and having a chariot drawn? I don't know. Or I'm at least going to encourage you in a minimalist interpretation of that. That is, what's going to happen after this, as happens in all these visions, is the angel's going to ask, Do you know what you're looking at? And Zechariah's going to go, no, I don't. And the angel's going to say, well, this is what you're looking at. Now, when you read those words, when the angel says, this is what you're looking at, that's where you need to center the strength of what you believe those things are showing you, right? So if the angel said, well, the Bronze Mountains, they're this. I'd say, hey, the angel said they're this, they're this, right? The angel doesn't say anything about that. If the angel said, hey, the chariots are significant, I'd say the angels are, chariots are significant. I listen to sermons on this to try to prepare and let me give you an idea. So people say, generally, what do you use a chariot for in the Old Testament? Well, a chariot, you go to war, right? And so before in chapter one, what are we doing? We're going to kind of do a reconnaissance, right? We're going to go out, we're going to look, we're going to see how things are going. We're going to come back and we're going to say the whole world's at peace, right? And you remember that that actually caused some distress, that because all these people had been oppressing Israel, we thought that when the report came back that God had been working out there and that God was working out there, he was gonna bring some vengeance to these people who had oppressed. But that was chapter one. So in chapter two, people say, well, once you hook the chariots up to the horses, now instead of just going out and doing some reconnaissance, maybe now you're actually gonna go do something. And I actually have a lot of sympathy for that, but I think I have a lot of sympathy for that because what the angel says, not because of that interpretation of the chariots, which I don't find here, right? Okay, so anyway, so that's, I'm just trying to show you how to walk through this interpretation in the more or most sure ways. Okay, so then, now, having said all that, we did get the picture, you see there, and then we get the question in verse four. The angel talked to me and said, what are these? And, excuse me, yes, I answered, excuse me, I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, what are these, my Lord? And the angel answered and said, these are the four spirits of heaven. They go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth. Okay, so that's so they're there they're the four spirits of the Lord and they have a station before the Lord, right? and they go throughout all the world. And then here's what it says, okay, so they go all throughout the world, and in particular, it notes these, the black horses, they go to the north country, and the white horses are going to go with them to the north country, and the dappled ones are going to go to the south country. All right, now, we had four kinds of horses. If you had four kinds of horses, you're going to go out all throughout the world. Which direction would you go? Right? You ask yourself. Well, I would send one of them north, and I'd send one of them south, and I'd send one of them east, and I'd send one of them west, right? Okay, now, why don't they do that? Well, what's west of the promised land? The Mediterranean, right? So there's water over there, right? What's east of the promised land? Desert, right? Nobody goes that direction. So the only two directions you generally go in and out of the promised land are you go south towards Egypt, you go north towards Babylon. And of course, Babylon historically is the issue that's really been at the forefront here, is God's people returning from Babylon. All right, now, when you look at the words here, in the words in verse seven, I think, you get this concept that they go to and fro throughout the earth, they go to and fro throughout the earth, they go to and fro throughout the earth, I think three times there. Now, that was similar to what we saw in chapter one. And in chapter one, verses 10 through 11, the man who stood among the myrtle trees said, they are sent to walk to and fro throughout all the earth. And so they answered the angel as they walked among the myrtle trees, and they said, we have walked to and fro throughout all the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly. So it seems to me it's reasonable that these hostas are the same. Those went to and fro throughout all the earth. These go to and fro throughout all the earth. So we have that much in the similarities. Now, going back to chapter six, when you come back to chapter six, the angel says something further. He says this in verse six, he called me and he spoke to me, see these going toward the north have given rest to my spirit in the north country. Now that's what I would say is the inspired interpretation of that picture, right? So what you saw was horses come out from God, bronze mountains, chariots pulled behind them, some went to the north, some went to the south, but if you want to know what it means is God is saying, my spirit got rest, right, in the direction of the north country. Now, when your spirit gets rest, what do you mean by that? Well, in this case, what I think they mean by that is something like this, that let's suppose you have some things that you really want to do, you really want to do, but there's these other things and they kind of keep getting in the way, right? And so, and there's no rest in your spirit until you can get these other things accomplished that you really want to, right? So, maybe to give you an example, the Apostle Paul said the Lord opened a door for him. And as he opened the door for ministry, he saw that door open and he went. But he said, I didn't have any rest in my spirit because I knew I was supposed to go back and be with Timothy. And so, and then once he starts going on the direction to Timothy, he has this rest in his spirit, or maybe when he gets to that fellowship, right, he's going to have rest in his spirit. It seems to be the same thing here. There's something in history that God says, I've been preparing for, I've been preparing for, I've been preparing for, and he's sharing it with us now in what we call anthropological terms, right? It's not like God was, you know, worried or anxious or, and unrest in a certain sense, right? But just that over the course of this 70 years of exile and now God's people are coming back, that God in history has worked that out and now God has blessed his church and that people are returning to the promised land. So that when it says there that I've gotten rest, I would say that what God has gotten rest for, when you pair that with what's historically going on in history, is that God's people are coming back to the promised land. Now, another reason I say that, other than just generically that's what's going on in history, is because the very next picture that we're given is exactly that. So then in verse 9, you see, the word of the Lord came to me saying, receive a gift from the captives, Heldi, Tobijah, Jediah, they have come from Babylon, see? Why did the captives come from Babylon? Because God did something over there so that the captives could come back from Babylon now into Palestine. So that would be my best guess, I hope my best understanding of what that scripture means as you see the scripture itself interprets the picture and then the context gives you something of what God's rest means as God's people come back, okay? Good. Now, one just bit of application that I keep making here all the time, that's how I would encourage you all to read these kinds of texts. When you read a vision, look for the inspired interpretation and lean your weight on that. Don't go out and say, well, you know, Bronze Mountains, this is what they're all about, and write three pages on Bronze Mountains, right? That's probably not as solid a spot. Okay, I know I've said that. For those of you who are here every week, you go, yeah, yeah, okay, good. But everybody who's not here quite every week, that's one of the emphases that we've been trying to do here. Good. Now, so the first point here is that God has overcome his enemies, and what that's doing is freeing the church to come to him or to prosper in this sense. And so here these men come, and they bring this gift. And as they bring this gift, now what God's doing is He's going to draw us a picture, and He wants you to pay attention to the picture, right? In fact, what He says, one of the main words here in this text is, behold, right? Set your focus upon this. So now, what is the picture? All right, so these men, they come and they bring a gift, and the gift is silver and gold, or at least amongst the gift is silver and gold. So in verse 11, God says, take the silver, take the gold, make an elaborate crown. So apparently they're supposed to take the gold and do some things with it and then separately dig the silver and do some things separately with it and put it somehow together with a crown. Now here I want to just mention that, okay, well he's going to make it make a crown I'll mention in just a second. Okay, make it and set it on the head of Joshua and who's Joshua? In this historical occasion, Joshua is the high priest. Now make the point. A crown is different from the word that they use for the priest's hat. You remember when the priest, he showed up to us and he was all, he looked like a firefighter had just come out of a building, right? He was just, it was a brand plucked from the fires, another way it's said. And so they changed his clothes in another version. And then Zechariah yells out, put a fair mitre on his head. Okay, that word that comes across as miter in English is this hat that the priest wore, but it's never called a crown, right? And the king never gets the miter, right? So then what this is, is now this crown is a hat which the king wears. And so you should set the hat, not on the king though, but set it on the high priest. And when you do that, it says, pay attention, right? Behold, this man and his name is the branch. All right, now we've already run into that phrase, the branch. And so we'll just turn to that. You may not even have to turn a page. If you look at chapter three, verse eight, chapter three, verse eight, Here, O Joshua the High Priest, you and your companions who sit before you, they are a wondrous sign." Now you remember we looked at that a couple of weeks ago and we said, okay, here's what God's done. He's put in history a bunch of priests. And as He's put in history there are a bunch of priests. They're not just priests there. But in history, in redemptive history, what God said is, I'm going to make those people a sign so that they're a sign for you here, these days, many years later. And what are they a sign of? They are a sign that God is doing something in the midst of his people. And we looked at that point. I don't have time to develop it all now. But that God is making a kingdom of priests, right? He's making you into kings and priests here in his church. That's part of your identity, right? And these priests are a sign of this that's pointing forward, right? That's part of where we get this concept of types in the scripture, a type that Jesus, that David, King David, was a type, a sign of who Jesus would be a king. How the city of Jerusalem is a type of the heavenly Jerusalem that God will give us later. These priests are a type, right, of God's, okay, but at any rate, the reason we got into this verse was because of this phrase, I'm bringing forth my servant, the branch. Okay, so now in chapter 3, you have that the branch is a servant, and in Zechariah 6, the servant. Isn't this interesting? If you're going to make somebody a servant, what else would you make him? I doubt very seriously you'd make him the highest priest there is, but that's what we've done, right? The servant is the highest priest. And if you're going to have a servant, who else would you make him? They made him the king. So he is going to serve his people as a priest and a king, and you're supposed to put that in your mind. Okay? Now, why should you put that in your mind? Because up until this point in history, that's not been done. Right? In fact, you're not allowed to do that. You'll remember that one of the kings thought, well, I'm the king, I'm going to go into the temple and I'm going to offer a sacrifice. And when he did that, it did not end well for the king, right? Because what God had been doing throughout all this point is he'd been saying, There's going to be a king and there's going to be a priest, but those were separate people from separate lines. One was from the line of Judah, one was from the line of Levi. But now what he's saying is, I'm giving you a sign that I'm going to draw those two offices together in one person, the servant. That's the glorious good news that's proclaimed to you today. And of course the servant is? Jesus, right? This is pointing forward to Jesus who is both a priest and a king and who came to serve, right? So that's who we're talking about here. Now, one of the reasons we know this isn't just talking about Joshua himself. As you drop down to verse 14 there in Zechariah 6, And in Zechariah 6, it says there, this elaborate crown, after we've done these things, it's going to be a memorial in the temple of the Lord. So what it's going to do is it's going to remind you of this vision forever, or at least as long as it's in the temple. And it's going to say, there's coming a day when the priest will wear the crown of the king. There's coming a day when the priest will wear the crown of the king. It's a memorial of this message that God has. So that's going to point forward to Jesus. So this king who's a servant, who's a priest, that's one aspect of this person we want to look at. Now there's another aspect of the person that we want to look at, and that's his aspect of being the branch. Now if you go to verse 12 there, there's some details that we can pull out there. He's going to branch out from his place. Now, what that seems to indicate from the interpreters is that he's going to branch out from his own strength. That is, he's going to become this branch not because men make him this way, but because he makes himself this way. Or we might say that God is the one who does this, right? So that this is what John Calvin says. John Calvin says that he, this branch, would attain this status of branch and the things that he does without any earthly helps. That is, he would, and what he would attain is his own elevation to the prophet and priest. And so, at least that's one interpretation of that as to why it talks about in that phrase, he will grow up out of his place. All right, now, in, excuse me, whoops, okay. Then in verse 13, it says, he's going to bear the glory, right? Now, what glory is he already bearing? He's bearing the glory of a crown, right? And he's bearing that on his head. He's wearing this thing. So as he's pointing forward to this branch, this branch is going to be glorious, right? Now, how do I know that we're talking about the crown? Because as you continue on through the passage, it talks about the things associated with being a king. So this verse 13, he's going to bear the glory. And what's that going to look like? He's going to sit and rule on his throne. And he's going to be, if you missed it there, he's going to say he's going to be a priest on his throne, right? So he's going to reign there. And then lastly, what it says is this interesting thing, and the council of peace will be between them both. Now who's the both right there, as we've been talking about in the context, right? There is the king and there's the priest, and there's going to be a council of peace between the two. Now, does that mean that throughout history, the priests in the temple and the king over in his palace, they were always fighting with each other, right? No, that is not what this means, right? We know in this context what it means is we're taking two things previously that God had separated and we're putting them together. Let me give you another example of a similar concept here as how this comes up. In the New Testament, what we say is that one of the things Jesus did is he took down a dividing wall between two kinds of people. And those two kinds of people were the Jews on one side and the Gentiles on the other side, and he's made them one people, right? So he took down that dividing wall, and he's the one, through his sacrifice, is now showing that the Gentiles and the Jews are all being one people. Well, where did that dividing wall come from? It came from the law, right? And the law had lots of laws in it that said we should make a separation between the Jews and the Gentiles. And why did we have those laws? We had those laws because what God is saying is in history what I'm doing is I am reaching down and I am getting a people for myself. And this people that I'm getting for myself, they are different from everybody else. right? And so I want to make some laws and I want to make sure that you all realize you are different from those other people. So you run into laws like this. When you make yourself a garment, don't make it out of cloth that has these two different kinds of things that you make cloth out of. And you say, well that's a interesting commandment. What is he trying to get at there? One of the things he's trying to get at is, you are separate from those folks over there who are not my people, right? So that's one of the things God did, and when Jesus came, he made it clearer to us now that he's taking his people from all kinds of nations, right? So now that law has been fulfilled in Christ, and we no longer need to do that. It's the same thing with this law with respect to priest and king. Before Jesus came, you must not put the crown of the king on the priest, right? Except in this one case when he's going to be the memorial. You may not do that. And you may not put the miter of the priest upon the king. Those are two separate offices and they are, and why are, okay, now why do we do that? We do that because the, what is the point of this, this text? We're looking for somebody. Is David that somebody we're looking for? Solomon, that's somebody we're looking for. Abraham, that's somebody we're looking for, right? No, no, those people, why do we know they're not the ones? Because they're not the ones who have put those two officers together. Jesus is the one. This is to confirm to you that you understand who the Savior is. This text is telling you he is that one who is the king and the priest. And so that message has told us that God has, this message has told us, behold, this man who's the branch, who's a king, who is a priest, and he's going to do one more thing, and that's the third part of the sermon here. It says he's going to build the temple of the Lord. Okay, so this is the next part, right? So now, what he's going to do is he is going to form you all. Because what the New Testament tells us is that people are the temple that God is building for his house. They're the ones where he's going to dwell in the midst of them. And so this branch, who is a priest and a king and a servant, is going to cause his temple to be built. Now, how is the branch going to build? Let's just take the picture of a building. If I want to build something, let's say I don't know anything about building, and I'm going to start with mud. We pile a little bit of it up and it all oozes back down and it makes a great big mess and after a while nobody wants to live there, right? That makes sense. So then somebody says, well, you know, this will work a lot better if you got mud that has clay in it. And if you fashion the mud with the clay in it, and then you stick it in a kiln and you make bricks out of it, and then we're going to, then we're going to get somewhere, right? Okay. Now what the branch does, one of the things the branch does is he takes mud and he makes it into bricks. What is, he takes people who were not his people and he turns them into his people. He takes people that, if you built a house with unsaved people, what are they going to do? They're going to fight, they're going to hate, they're going to be selfish, they're going to be proud, they're going to be covetous, they're going to be a disaster to build with. That's like building with mud, right? You're not going to get anywhere. But what God does is he takes people whose hearts are completely oriented in that way, that's kind of like mud, which is no good at all, and he turns their heart now and they begin to worship him and love him. Now, they might look like those bricks that you get down at the, you know, that used to be in previous construction, right? They could still use a lot of knocking the concrete off of, and they could still use some shaping, right? Okay, but then that's us now, right? That we're not perfect, but God has saved us, and he's building with us, right? So what he's done, so what he's doing is he's, what he's doing is he's changing our hearts. That's one of the main things. The other thing he's doing is he's giving to us gifts. He's given all of us, all of the people in this body together. He has given to us different gifts in various persons, right? And he does that so that, as you saw in the text, it's not just that the branch is going to build the house, but there, if you look in verse 15, There's going to be people who come from afar and build the temple of the Lord. Now who are we talking about there? These people who come from afar are the people who come from the north, they come from the south, they come from all over the world. They're you all, right? You are, as I was just saying, those blocks and you are becoming more and more better You're becoming a better fit for the house of God as God works with you. And at some point in history, what are you going to become? Perfect, right? And God's going to dwell in you perfectly. That's given to us at the end of history. And so this branch is going to build. Let's see, how is it that these folks here who are going to come from afar and build the temple of the Lord, as the branch is bringing them in and as the branch is shaping them beautifully, how are they going to build? So what they're going to do is they're going to bring, like these brothers here in this text, they're going to bring their gifts. Sometimes that means money. Sometimes that means focus. Sometimes that means time. Sometimes that means working together. Sometimes, you know, that means all the things, and sometimes that means specific talents, right? There are some, okay, so I'll give you an example. I need a treasurer in Williams, okay? Some of you should not be the treasurer in Williams, right? I mean, I agree with that, right? Everybody agrees with that, okay? So that's what I'm talking about here with gifts. So that's the kind of thing that we're talking about. Now, So how does the body grow in that? I mean, even in your bulletin, you could just take out the giving that we've been giving over the time. And if many of you have been here for some years, you realize that giving doesn't reflect what it used to be, right? That God has been growing his church here in the gifts of his people that have been given in the midst of this congregation. And so we would ask, and so then now, all right, if those gifts are given to build the church, then what have we got to do with them? All right, now I do want you to take up your bulletin. And on the back of your bulletin, I want you to look. And you're gonna see down at the bottom, in the back, this thing that says Presbyterian Church. And underneath that, is a summary of the mission of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church that we have taken here as the Prescott Presbyterian Church to lay before you as a summary of what the scripture says that the church ought to be doing to build the church, right? How are we going to be instruments to do that? Okay, number one, you're going to be in fellowship and obedience to Jesus Christ. That is, you're not going to do this in your own strength, right? Anybody here want to build the temple of, right? No, it's going to be the branch who does it. The branch is going to do it through us. Right? And we're going to do it his way. Right? And so what does his way look like? Well, his way looks, we're going to glorify God and we're going to enjoy him through divine worship. One of the things you're doing here, right? We're going to mutually edify one another. We're going to do Bible studies. We're going to get on the phone and call one another. We're going to counsel with one another. We're going to encourage one another, right? We're going to mutually edify one another. We're going to engage in diaconal service, right? You get in a tight spot, you can come to the church. We'll help you. We love you, right? We're going to build one other up. And we're going to gospel witness. And so what we expect as the church, as a body, to do those things corporately. Now what context do you do those in? You do those in a couple of bigger, broader contexts. Number one, God says what we should do is work six days and rest a day, right? So you've got that rhythm that you've got to do. That means that you all are going to have jobs, you're going to have to wash dishes, you're going to have to take care of children, you're going to have to go work for an employer, you're going to have to do all those kind of things, right? Good. Then the second big thing here is that is the Prescott Presbyterian Church the extent of Jesus' church? No, right? We are not the extent of Jesus' church. So when you use your gifts, when you use your talents, when you use your focus, you can use those anywhere in the kingdom of heaven, right? And many of you do, and we want you to do that. Now, as you have jobs, and marriages, and callings, and all these kind of things, and you do what God wants you to do, and as you see the broader church, and you say, my gifts could help there, and there, and there, and there, okay? As you have other things to do, or you have other opportunities to serve, you say, well, I'm not really doing anything, but I could be useful. You can use those things here, right? So that's what we're looking for. Maybe another way to say this application, How many people out there wake up one day and say, there's got to be more to life than this, whatever they're doing out there, right? Now, what this message is for, is for that kind of person. That God is doing something in history. And you can get on board with what God is doing in history. Because the branch is building a house and he's giving you opportunity to be used of him, to have him work through you to build that house too. That's what's going on in life. That's what there is. That's what life is about if you want to know the central essence of it. And all those other things that we do are the other things that God has given us to do to demonstrate his glory wherever he calls us in whatever callings in the church and in this life. And so that's what Zechariah 6 is about. What do I do with my life? Good one, huh? All right. Well, the reason you can do those things with your life is because the branch has saved you and he is working with you to build the church. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the work you've given to us. We thank you for the families you've given to us. We thank you for the focus and the gifts and the change of heart that you have given to us, because you have made your branch a king and a priest. We thank you, Lord, that he is building his house in history, and that's the most significant thing that's going on in history, and that you give us an opportunity to participate in that significant thing in history. And so we pray, Lord, that you would help us wherever in the body of Christ that we might be used to build your church. We thank you so much for releasing captives out of this world to come in to the body of Christ to be your special people forever, who themselves are a kingdom of priests. In Jesus' name, amen.