abortion. Holy Scripture is clear, the church is called to stand up for the poor and speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. And who are poorer or muter than pre-born children? In Divine Heartbeat, listening to God's heartbeat for pre-born children, Pastor Timothy Phan delivers a prophetic call to the contemporary evangelical church to awaken from its apathetic slumber toward the cause of pre-born children. You can get your copy of this clarion call to care for the least of these at www.divineheartbeat.com. That's www.divineheartbeat.com. We live in a God-centered universe. You're God's image bearers. You're his craftsmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. And you are precious to God. Please pray with me. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, our Father, our righteous Father, We praise you that your son Jesus is the bridegroom, that he has a sword on his thigh and his arrows are sharp and they pierce the hearts of his enemies. We praise you that he is a valiant warrior. We praise you also that he will be robed in the splendor of his majesty And we will see Him crowned as King, smelling of myrrh and aloes. Thank You that He will lift up His head in glory. And we praise you, Father, that his church is his bride, and she will be clothed with finely woven, multi-colored garments. We praise you, Lord, that your church, you say, will be clothed in gold, a bridegown of gold. And so, Father, we gladly forsake this world. We forsake the wickedness of this world. We turn away from it. And we turn to You, the living God, and to Your Son, Jesus Christ. And we pledge ourselves as the Church to You. We betroth ourselves to You. We, the Church, give ourselves to You. And we pray, Holy God, blessed Lord Jesus Christ, that you would purify your church, make your church holy, help your church to come out of Babylon and be clean and holy, spotless and pure, a radiant bride. Before you come again, purify your bride, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. the book of the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 1, verses 18-21. This is the word of the Lord. Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns. And I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these? So he answered me, these are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, what are these coming to do? So he said, these are the horns that scattered Judah. so that no one could lift up his head. But the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah, to scatter it." Thus far, the reading of God's Holy Word. The God of Judah is great, even as Judah herself has become very small. In the days of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, who was the leader of Judah, who brought the Jews back from Babylon to Jerusalem, in order to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. In his days, the people of Judah have become very small. They are terrified. Surrounded by giant nations that are very much stronger than themselves, the Jews are small and vulnerable. Yet the time will come when small, vulnerable little Judah will be terrified no longer. Here's the prophecy. Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 30, verse 10. Therefore do not fear, O my servant Jacob, says the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return. Have rest and be quiet, and no one shall terrify him. Judah is small. She is terrified by the mighty Persian Empire, and she's also terrified by all of the strong nations surrounding her. Judah is like a black-capped chickadee, trying to build her nest in a forest that is inhabited by hungry hawks. She is like a mother mule deer, nursing twin fawns, in an area of the woods that is inhabited by both wolves and mountain lions. At the sight of her enemies, Judah is terrified. And yet, the God of Judah is mighty. He will not allow Judah to be terrified forever. Rather, in the end, he will terrify her enemies. Zechariah 1, verse 21, And I said, What are these coming to do? So he said, These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head. But the craftsmen are coming to terrify them. That is, the enemies of Judah. They are coming to terrify them. to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah, to scatter it." In the last days of world history, the Church may not be great and mighty. The global Church, in the final days of world history, may become quite small and vulnerable. She may become terrified of her enemies. surrounded by these wicked, giant nations. She may be terrorized by many persecutions that come from her enemies, yet God, the God of Zerubbabel, the God of the prophet Zechariah, will be with her, even if she is small and terrified. God shall arise to rescue His Church and in the end he shall terrify her enemies." Little Judah has seen terror. She has already been terrorized by the sharp horns of nations. A hundred years before the time of Zechariah, the king of Assyria used its great sharp horn to pierce and destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It was a hundred years before the time of the Prophet Zechariah. And then, a generation or two later, after Assyria sacked Samaria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and scattered the people to the nations, a generation or two later, the Kingdom of Babylon lifted up its proud, pompous horn, and it destroyed Judah and Jerusalem, and burned the Temple of the Lord to the ground. And when these things happened, The people of Israel were scattered. The horns of the nations thrashed Israel, and in doing so they scattered her children to the four winds of the earth. Listen for the scattering of Judah in the vision. Zechariah 1, 18-19, Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns. And I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these? So he answered me, These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Then verse 21, And I said, What are these coming to do? So he said, These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head. But the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah, to scatter it. Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem were scattered under the judgment of God. They were scattered. The people of God were scattered to the four winds of the earth. Yet, this is no capricious judgment. Rather, God had forewarned Israel a long time before this, that if she rebelled against His covenant, the covenant between God, the Bridegroom, and Israel, the Bride, If she violated the Mosaic Covenant and turned away and went after other gods, gods that she had not previously known before, and rebelled against God and committed adultery against God, then He would judge her with the Covenant curses. And one of those great Covenant curses is the curse of being scattered to the nations. Leviticus 26, 31-33, here's the Covenant curse. God says, I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations. and draw out a sword after you, your land shall be desolate and your cities laid waste." This happened. In real living history, this actually happened. Israel scorned her Lord, and worshipped idols. The Lord was patient, He called Israel to repent, but Israel would not repent. He sent the prophets to her, calling her to repent, but she would not repent. Therefore, the Lord came against her in His anger, and He scattered her children to the nations. Here's the historical fulfillment in Ezekiel 36, 16-19, reflecting on the historical fulfillment. Ezekiel 36, 16-19. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. To me, their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. Therefore, I poured out my fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it. So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. Now we must remember that this affected all of Israel, not just the wicked. There was a small righteous remnant within Israel, but even that small righteous remnant was scattered to the nations. They fell under the currents of the winds of God's judgment. And even the righteous were caught up in this judgment and were scattered. It wasn't because of their own sin, it was because of the national sin of Israel. And so both the wicked and the righteous suffered under this judgment. Even the righteous were scattered to the nations. Thus, the prophet Ezekiel and the prophet Daniel wake up one day and they find themselves in Babylon, not in Israel. Because they, the righteous, have been scattered to Babylon. And then later on, Mordecai, And Esther find themselves living in the capital of the kingdom of Persia, in Susa, because even the righteous were scattered to the nations. Psalm 44 11 is the righteous speaking. The righteous say, you have given us, the righteous, you have given us up like sheep intended for food, and have scattered us, the righteous, among the nations. The four horns, the mighty horns of the nations, have attacked, gored, and threshed Israel. In the process, they have scattered Israel's children to the nations. The seed of God's children has been scattered to the four winds. The people of God have been dispersed to the four corners of the earth. The once great kingdom of Israel, think of Solomon's kingdom in all of its glory, has been broken up and scattered over all of the earth. Yet part of the gospel, part of the mystery of the gospel, is that the God who scattered Israel in His judgments, also intended to gather Israel in the future. He scattered, but he always intended to gather. Here's the prophecy, Jeremiah 31, verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock." God is a wise farmer. He's also a sovereign, global farmer. In judgment, He scatters His seed to the nations. In salvation, He gathers his crop from the nations. He sows by scattering. He harvests by gathering. Jesus says in Matthew 12, 30, He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. In other words, Jesus says, I have now come to gather, not to scatter. John 4, 35, Jesus says, Do you not say, There are still four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. the end result of the Kingdom of Israel. By the time you reach the end of the story of the history of Israel, towards the end of the Old Testament, the end result is a scattering of God's people to the nations. It's very sad. They rejected the Covenant, so they were scattered to the nations. But, the end result of the Kingdom of Heaven is a gathering of God's people from the nations. Israel has been scattered, but Israel will be gathered. At the end of the harvest, there will be a global crop, and the Lord of the harvest will delight very much in the fruits of it. Here's the global crop of the harvest. Here's how it all turns out in Revelation 7, verse 9. Revelation chapter 7, verse 9. When God gathers His children from every part of the globe, this is what it will look like, and God will delight in it. Revelation chapter 7, verse 9. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. God will delight in that harvest. The horns of the nations were sharp and deadly. They gored Israel, they thrashed Judah and Jerusalem like wheat. They scattered Judah to the nations, The kingdom of God is greater than the kingdoms of this world. In the kingdom of heaven, the children of God are gathered from the nations. God's children are gathered once again into Jerusalem. Jerusalem is like a barn and God gathers the wheat of His crop into the barn. He gathers them back into Jerusalem. Prior to 1948, The modern state of Israel did not exist. Today, it does exist. Since 1948, many Jews have been regathered into the land of Palestine. So the question is, is this modern state of Israel an ultimate prophetic fulfillment? And I say we must be very careful here because most Christians living in the modern state of Israel today are Arab Christians. not Jewish Christians. They're Gentile, Arab Christians. They're mostly not Jewish Christians. And most, by far most, the vast majority of Jews living in the modern state of Israel today, are still living in a state of wicked rebellion against Jesus Christ. They don't worship Jesus Christ. They don't bow the knee to Jesus Christ. They hate Jesus Christ, our Lord. So we must be careful about equating the modern state of Israel with ultimate prophetic fulfillment, because the Jews have not yet repented en masse. However, I do think that the regathering of the Jews into Israel does certainly make ultimate prophetic fulfillment at least a possibility in the very near future. So we don't claim to know all of the mysteries of the end times. We dare not be so proud as to think we have it all figured out. But what we do know, with biblical certainty, are two things. Number one, concerning the Jews, the ethnic Jews, we do know, according to Romans chapter 11, that there is a future for the Jews in God's plan. We know that Paul says in Romans 11 that all Israel will be saved, which is a hard phrase to interpret, but what we do know with certainty is what that must mean is that it must be all true Israel. You're not saved simply because you're a bloodline Jew. If you reject Christ, you are not saved. So what we know is that all true Israel, meaning all of believing Israel, meaning all Jews who truly worship Christ, and have bowed to His Lordship, and are born of the Holy Spirit, all of those Jews appointed for eternal life shall be saved. in the great mystery of the Gospel. And secondly, concerning the Gentiles, this is what we know concerning the Gentiles, we know that God will finish world history, He'll bring it all to a close, once all of the nations of the globe have been harvested. The people of God, having been scattered to all nations, must now be gathered from all nations. And in God's mysterious timing, whenever He is finished harvesting the nations and gathering His people from the nations, and only He knows when that will be completed, then the times of the Gentiles will be over and the end will come. The horns of the nations scatter God's children. But the Gospel of the Kingdom gathers God's children. Therefore, our work, this is our work as God's people, our work is the work of gathering. Ours is the work of harvesting. If God will gather a remnant from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, then our job is to obey God by praying that the Lord of the harvest will send out more workers into his harvest fields so that the harvest can be completed. Therefore, we must teach our young ones, our spiritual disciples and our children the eternal value of taking the Gospel to unreached tribes in the deep jungles of Indonesia and beyond. God wants to win some from every people. And so, if one of our children grows up and gives his life to reaching some unreached people group, that is a work of eternal value. And if one of our children grows up and gives his life to translating the Bible into a language where the Bible has never been translated into that language, so that people can read the Bible in their mother tongues, That is a work of eternal value because God loves winning people from every tribe and tongue and nation and He will harvest them and He will gather them. And even if in our own neck of the woods here in America, even if the harvest is no longer abundant, even if there's a hardening going on in America and the fruit is sometimes scarce and hard to find, We must keep on laboring in the harvest fields until the Lord comes. We must keep working, we must keep laboring, for even if there's not a lot of fruit, who can estimate the value of even a single soul, even if it's just one, even a single soul, won over for Jesus Christ. Who can estimate the value of that? If you labored your whole life and you only won one soul for Jesus Christ, how valuable is that? It's so valuable. So don't stop working. Beloved Church, don't stop. Keep on proclaiming verbally with love and boldness, the Gospel of God. The harvest time is not yet finished. There is still much labor to be done in the harvest fields. There are still souls yet to be gathered in the harvest. Beloved Church, work hard now. Do the hard work of laboring in the harvest fields now. For when the Lord of the harvest comes, there will be no more time to work. And each of us individually will have to give Him an account for how faithfully we labored in His harvest fields. Now is not the time to rest. Now is the time to do the hard work of the harvest. And when the Lord of the harvest comes, then we shall have our everlasting rest. So the four horns in Zechariah's vision are the horns of the nations, and they are wicked. They scattered Judah. But the horn of the kingdom of God, there's a different horn, God's horn, is good. It gathers Judah. It doesn't scatter Judah, it gathers Judah. Yet the question is, in Zechariah's vision, why are these four horns called horns? What does the vision of the four horns really mean? What are the horns and what do they mean? Well, let's pay attention to them now. Zechariah 1.18, Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns. And then verse 21, And I said, What are these coming to do? So he said, These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head. So there's an association between horns and the phrase being lifted up. But the craftsmen, verse 21, are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up, there it is again, lifted up the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. So do you hear the association between the horns and the verbal phrase, to lift up? The horns scattered Judah, and in doing so they kept all the people of Judah downcast. They didn't lift up their head. They didn't lift up their head because they were downcast. Yet the wicked pride of the nations is described in that they, the nations, lifted up their horn. They took their horn and they lifted it up in pride, wicked pride. So we are speaking then of horns as kingdoms and powers. We are speaking of the rise and fall of nations. When we talk about horns, we are talking about the exaltation of kings and the pride of nations. The four horns represent the haughty self-exaltation of the nations that rage against God. Listen carefully to Psalm 75, 4-5, and you'll hear this. Psalm 75, verses 4-5, I said to the boastful, do not deal boastfully, and to the wicked, do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with a stiff neck. God, in His judgments against Judah, allowed the horn of Judah to be cut off. The Kingdom of Judah was cut off. The King of Judah was debased. And in the process, the horns of the nations were lifted up in their wicked pride. This was God's judgment against Judah. Lamentations 2, verse 3, He has cut off in fierce anger every horn of Israel." And then Lamentations 2.17, the Lord has done what He purposed. He has fulfilled His word which He commanded in days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied. He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries. So, when Judah's horn was cut off, the horns of the nations were lifted up in wicked pride. Now, of course, God is sovereign over all nations. He controls the lifting up and tearing down of nations. And He even foretells these things in advance, the lifting up and tearing down of nations, through His servants, the prophets, for example. The prophet Daniel prophesies about a male goat. He sees a vision of a male goat with a large noticeable horn. This goat has a huge noticeable horn on its head. Here's the prophecy of Daniel 8, verse 8. Therefore, the male goat, which by the goat he's talking about the kingdom of Greece, the coming kingdom of Greece, coming in the future, Therefore the male goat of the kingdom of Greece grew very great, and when he became strong, the large horn, now that large horn in Daniel's prophecy represents Alexander the Great. Which is amazing, because Daniel lived hundreds of years before Alexander the Great was ever born, and yet he's prophesying about the coming of Alexander the Great. And he says the large horn, Alexander the Great, and the kingdom that he established, was broken. And in place of it, four notable ones, four notable horns, came up toward the four winds of heaven. And this is amazing, because this is exactly what happened. Alexander the Great died, much later, after the time of Daniel, and then his kingdom was partitioned into four different kingdoms. So God foretold this hundreds of years in advance. This is the warring of kingdoms. When we speak of these horns, we hear of wars and rumors of war. We hear of nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Yet the grand vision in Scripture is always that Satan is behind every wicked kingdom that exalts itself against God's kingdom, and that the horn of Satan shall be lifted up and raised to power in the last days." So Satan is behind the rising up of these horns, the lifting up of these wicked horns, and Satan shall raise his horn in the last days. Revelation chapter 12 verse 3, And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. And then Satan invests his power in some global national power, national global beast. In Revelation 13, verse 1, Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his head a blasphemous name. In Zechariah's vision, there were four horns that were lifted up against Judah in their sinful pride. These horns, I think, represent the nations from the four winds, from the four points of the compass, who were constantly at war with Judah. They were always surrounding Judah and harassing Judah. And the largest of these horns was Babylon. Babylon was the great horn that finally pierced Jerusalem and burned Jerusalem and scattered Judah. Yet in the last days, the book of Revelation says, in the days of the church age, there shall be a new Babylon, a new large and noticeable horn, and there shall arise an antichrist who shall lift up his horn against the church. So the horns of Zacharias' vision, which are wicked horns that lift themselves up in pride, warn us of the horns that shall come against the church in the last days. But the good news is that all of these wicked horns shall be cut off by God. Psalm 75, 10. All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off. I will cut them off. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. The nations rage against God. Satan through the beast, the new Babylon, lifts up the horn against God. Yet there is one in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, whose horn is much, much more powerful than any horn that Satan can raise up. And the horn of Jesus Christ shall in the end prove to be unconquerable. Hannah's song. This is Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2, verse 10. Hannah sings, The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces. From heaven He will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His Anointed, His Messiah. Dear listener, You who have now heard the vision from the words of the Prophet Zechariah, it is now time to repent and turn away from all pride. Dear unbelieving listener, Do not lift up your horn against the blood of Jesus and against His holy commandments. For every horn that is so lifted up in wicked pride shall be cut off and thrown down. Every cultural wave or political system that lifts itself up against the fear of God shall be cast down under the wrath of God." and those who join the crowds, because the crowds flock to these things. The crowds don't flock to the true gospel. The crowds flock to the false gospel and the false Christ and the Antichrist. Those who join the crowds in lifting up the horns of the nations and in defying God's holy laws shall find themselves with the crowds, cut off, thrown down, and trampled upon with weeping and gnashing of teeth on Judgment Day. It's time to repent. If you are an unbeliever, it is time to repent. The time is short. You must humble yourself now. You must be broken now before the throne of God in repentance, crying out for salvation. Don't fall under this judgment. If you are a Christian, dear Christian, do not put your trust in any other horn, save the seven-fold horn of the Lamb who was slain. Do not, Christian, trust the horn of the global stock exchange. Do not hide behind the horn of the emerging global university system. Do not think you're safe in hiding behind that system. Be very wary of the growing blasphemous horn called the United Nations, and all that they're trying to do in undermining the holy laws of God. Instead, dear Christian, trust in the horn of Christ alone. Pour all of your stock, all of your educational credits, and even your own sense of self-security Pour all of that into the one horn, the one eternal invisible kingdom of Christ Jesus. For all other horns shall be cut off and cast down, but the one horn of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be lifted up to rule the nations. And while all the other kingdoms of the world will perish with a terrifying downfall, the increase of His government And His peace shall have no end. So pour your soul into that kingdom and that horn. Invest your life in it. Lose your life for it. And you will gain your life in the end. So the four horns represent the kingdoms and the powers of this world that war against the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. This much we now understand, at least to the best of our ability. Yet what about the craftsmen? If there are four horns in the vision of Zachariah, why are there also four craftsmen? So I'll end by looking at the craftsmen. Zechariah 1, verses 20-21. Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, what are these coming to do? So He said, these are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could lift up his head. But the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. So see, the craftsmen are good, The horns are bad, the craftsmen are good. They are God's good servants. Yet, who are they? Are they soldiers who are experts in war? Are they craftsmen of war and destruction? I think not. I think, rather, that they are ordinary, unnoticed, unappreciated craftsmen. They are blacksmiths and carpenters. They are engravers and metal workers. They are very much like Bezalel, the son of Uri. Do you remember him? God in the book of Exodus appointed Bezalel to be the craftsman who would construct the tabernacle. And God appointed him to construct and build the altar of the burnt offering for Israel, an altar that contained no less than four horns on its four corners? Exodus 38, verses 1-2. Betzalel, the craftsman, made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. Five cubits was its length, and five cubits its width. It was square, and its height was three cubits. He made its horns. He made the horns. He made its horns on its four corners. So there were four horns. The horns were of one piece with it and he overlaid it with bronze. This is a craftsman. Here's a craftsman. Bezalel is a craftsman. And his vocation is the kind that is chosen by God to defeat the four powerful horns of the nations. The horns are proud, pompous kingdoms, full of military muscle and ideological hubris. Yet the craftsmen are simple, pious men. These aren't rulers and kings and rich men. These are the craftsmen. They work with hammer and chisel, with fire and iron forceps, and with screwdriver and screw. These are not the kinds of guys who rule over nations. They're craftsmen. They're carpenters and electricians and other skilled workers. They're not rulers, but they do know how to take their tools and saw off horns. They know how to saw horns off of a wild goat or a wild ram or any other wild beast. But how? How do craftsmen in real time and space throw down the horns of great kingdoms? I mean, if you're talking about a great national superpower with a huge military, how are simple craftsmen going to throw them down? Well, here is the Gospel truth. This is where the vision of Zechariah becomes very exciting. The Gospel truth is that these craftsmen throw down kingdoms, the wicked kingdoms of the world. by building God's temple. That's how they do it. They don't do it by fighting. They do it by building God's temple. Think about it. Was it not the craftsmen who built the temple of God in the first place? And when the temple needed repair, when it was very damaged and needed repair under the reign of King Joash, was it not craftsmen who repaired it? 2 Chronicles 24.12 Then King Joash and Jehoiada gave it, meaning the offering that had been collected, to those who did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters, those are craftsmen, to repair the house of the Lord, and also those who worked in iron and bronze, iron workers and bronze workers, those are craftsmen. to restore the house of the Lord. Moreover, here's what's even more important to note, Zerubbabel himself, remember the prophet Zechariah is preaching in order to encourage Zerubbabel, the leader of Judah, to finish rebuilding the temple, even though they've been persecuted and they're very discouraged. Zerubbabel himself, before the time of the prophet Zechariah, just a few years before Zechariah started preaching, Zerubbabel himself had started rebuilding the Temple, and when he started rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem, he hired craftsmen to do the work. He hired craftsmen. Ezra 3, verse 7, they, meaning Zerubbabel, Yeshua, and the other leaders who were rebuilding the Temple, also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, or the craftsmen, for the rebuilding of the Temple. Apparently craftsmen are very important to God. We know this because Jesus Himself came to us as a craftsman. He wasn't born as a king or a prince. He was born as a carpenter. The people of Nazareth ask in Mark 6, verse 3, is this not the carpenter or the craftsman? the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" So they were offended at him. Why were they offended at him? Because they said, he can't be the Messiah, he's not rich and powerful, he's a craftsman. So they were offended. Who is important in the Kingdom of God? Is it the princes, the rulers, and the big bankers? No. In many ways, it is the craftsman. For the craftsmen of God build the temple of God. That's why they're so important. They build the temple. And the temple of God, once built, has the power through God's presence in it and God's blessing upon it, to throw down the four horns of the nations. So do you want to throw down wicked governments? Do you desire to see the oppressors of men fall to the ground? Do you want to throw down, cast down the evil philosophies and ideologies that slay the innocence of little children all over the world? If this is your desire, then throw down the wicked horns of the nations by becoming the kind of craftsman who labors to build the house of God. I think Paul understood this. The Apostle Paul himself was not a rich, powerful military man. He was not a political, powerful man. He was a tent maker. He was a craftsman. And he understood this. He knew that when he built the house of God, he was in the process throwing down the empire of Rome. 1 Corinthians 3, 10-11, the Apostle Paul writes, according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder, a craftsman, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it, but let each one take heed how he builds on it, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And Ephesians 2, 19-22, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. The builders of God's temple, God's church, are those who throw down the wicked horns of the nations. You don't conquer the world through money and political power. You conquer the world by building the temple of God. And, of course, Jesus conquers through us. And we are merely servants, slaves, doing our work. And it's all for His glory. Beloved child of the Father, do you feel quite ordinary and unnoticed? Are you so small in the eyes of the great horns of the nations that you are quite invisible, if not expendable, to them? O Christian brother or sister, if you are laboring to build the Church of God, the Temple of the Living God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, then, no matter what the world says, you are indeed doing a mighty work. If you are applying your spiritual craftsmanship to the work of family-based discipleship in the home, and bold evangelism in the public sector, and the rearing of spiritual children, spiritual offspring in the gospel of Christ Jesus. then you are indeed building the temple of God. And if you are building the temple of God, by the grace of Jesus Christ working through you, then you are, by definition, throwing down the horns of the nations. You see, mothers have the power to conquer nations, because mothers disciple children, Christian mothers, God-fearing mothers, disciple their children in the fear of God, and in doing so, they throw down nations, because they're building the temple of God, the church of God, the family of God. The world may laugh at what it calls your silly, insignificant, teeny-tiny little work. But in reality, your work, O Church, is the work that overthrows nations and, by the grace of Christ, sets up the Kingdom of God on the earth. But then who is the greatest craftsman? Is it not Christ Jesus? Christ who will saw off the horns of the wicked nations when He returns and cast them to the ground? He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the one who built His church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. He has built His church, He is building His church, and He shall complete the building of His church prior to His second coming. The temple of the church shall be completed. The Lord Jesus Christ shall carve all of her panels and all of her door frames. He shall carve them complete with cherubim and pomegranates, for He is a master craftsman. And when He finishes building His church by His breathtakingly divine architecture and His wondrously human artisanship, when He finishes it, He shall inhabit it, He shall live in it, in the fullness of His glory. He shall fill the temple of His church with His glory. And the church, which is the new temple of God, shall be completely filled with the light and the radiance of His glory. And the horns of the nations shall be cast down. But His horn, the horn of His anointed kingship, shall be lifted up with heavenly authority and to the shouts of angelic praise. And He, with the horn of His power and kingdom, shall reign upon the earth forever and ever. Amen. As we now come to the table of the Lord together, We dare not come with wicked pride. We dare not come lifting up our own horns of pride. We come remembering that Jesus Christ, the Anointed of God, was lifted up, not in pride and pomp, but lifted up, naked and bleeding on the cross for us. He was lifted up on the cross, and by that cross He has conquered the world. Before we go to the table, let's hear the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, who cast down the four horns of the nations. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Master Craftsman, who has appointed us, His under-craftsmen, to build His Church. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who gathers the scattered children of Judah into the harvest barn of the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen. Please pray with me. O Sovereign God, Please send out this vision from Your Prophet Zachariah in the preaching of Your Word to gather all of Your scattered children into the barn of Your salvation. We pray that You would have Your harvest and that the horn of Jesus Christ, His glory and His Kingdom, would be exalted in His Church. In Jesus' name. Thank you for joining us for the preaching of the Holy Scriptures. You can find more resources at our website, www.godcentereduniverse.org. You may also send correspondence to us at the following address, PO Box 461978, Aurora, Colorado 80046. God-Centered Universe is a faith-driven ministry that exists to encourage the Church in family-based discipleship and to call the Church to continue trembling joyfully at God's Word.