Will you turn with me to the prophecy of Zechariah, chapter 4?
And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
And he said unto me, What seest thou?
And I said, I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof; and two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these are?
And I said, No, my lord.
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it.
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.
For who hath despised the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel; these are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
I want to add to that Psalm 87.
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God.
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among them that know Me:
Behold, Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia:
This one was born there.
Yea, of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her;
And the Most High Himself will establish her.
The Lord will count, when He writeth up the peoples,
This one was born there.
They that sing as well as they that dance shall say,
All my springs are in thee.
Two more verses—small in extent, but great in meaning. Here in Ephesians, the letter of the apostle Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 2, from verse 20:
Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone; in Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
To that I want to add, lastly, Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 19.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised: and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.
Shall we just have a further word of prayer?
Beloved Lord, we are so thankful that we are here once again in Your presence. Through these times, You have been speaking to us, and we are so thankful, Lord. It is always a miracle when we hear Your voice, and we are thankful that You want to reach us.
We know we are living in very difficult and increasingly dark days, and we need You, Lord. As all around us is paganized and, in many ways, demonized, we need You as never before.
Lord, we are so thankful: You are faithful Who promised. You are with us, and You will be with us right through to Your coming.
Now, Lord, we commit the speaking of Your Word to You. We know, Lord, that we need that anointing, and we ask for a double portion this evening. Help, Lord, that in such a way, beyond the human voice, we shall hear Your voice. Give us an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
And Lord, we ask You again: let the hearing of Your Word be also anointed, that, Lord, Your purpose in our time and in these days together might be fulfilled. We ask it all in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think you all very well know that the theme of this conference has been preparing for the Lord’s coming. It is centred around those verses in Revelation 22:7: “Behold, I come quickly.” And again, in Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come.”
My responsibility in this speaking has been to do with the individual’s response. I have spoken about the Word of God. The Word of God does not just contain the Word of God; it is the Word of God. The Bible does not merely contain God’s Word; it is God’s Word. It is not just some counsel of the Lord; it is the whole counsel of the Lord.
We need, as never before, in these days when a colossal assault is being made upon the authenticity, the inspiration, and the relevance of God’s Word, to be those in whom the Word is found.
We need to be those in whom Christ—the Word of Christ—is dwelling. And, as the apostle James said, we should have the implanted Word. That is much more than just reading quickly a Scripture, or having it go through one ear and out the other. It dwells in us. It is implanted. It grows in us. It is rooted in us. We need the Word of God as never before.
Then we spoke last night about presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, which is our spiritually intelligent worship and service. I will not go back over that, except to say that there is no other way to be prepared for the coming of the Lord.
If we are listless, lifeless, not really very interested—in fact, in many cases, a little afraid about the coming of the Lord—we would rather He put it off.
My dear friend, things will get so difficult that every one of us will long for the coming of the Lord. It has already started.
When I was saved over seventy years ago, I remember we used to hear missionaries. They came to speak to us, and they used to say, “You have no idea, in your country”—at that time it was Great Britain—“of the openness above you. You are able to pray. You are able to read the Word. There is just a sense of an open heaven above you.”
“We come from countries,” and they were speaking, of course, particularly of Asia and Africa, “where we have to wrestle right through. Somehow there is a heaviness and a darkness in the atmosphere. We have to persevere to come through in prayer and intercession, and even worship and praise.”
The paganization of these Western nations is bringing that same heaviness and darkness into the atmosphere. Wherever I go, believers tell me they are finding it so much more difficult now really to pray and intercede, as if somehow forces have been released to smother us, to strangle us, to silence us.
But I loved that hymn of Margaret Barber. She was a lady, but she was a real soldier of the Lord Jesus. “Lift up your hearts, all ye women.” It is a wonderful thing—a victor of victors.
Just at the time of the setting of the sun, we are not going to collapse. By the Holy Spirit Who is given to us, we are going to go through and see the fulfilment of the purpose of God.
I want to talk this evening about one further matter that is an absolute essential if you and I are to be prepared for the coming of the Lord. If there should be within our hearts a cry, “Come, Lord Jesus,” I believe that we absolutely need an understanding of God’s purpose and aim.
So many believers have no idea as to what God is driving at. They just say, “Well, we are saved, we are converted. We will read our little portion every day. We will have a few minutes of prayer before we go to work or school or whatever else. And that is it.”
We go to meetings, which are sometimes boring, sometimes lively. We go to prayer meetings, which are nearly always boring. And we wonder, “What kind of life is this Christian life?”
It is because we do not understand what God is driving at. We do not understand: what is His goal? What is His aim? God is not aimless. It is not as if He does not have a goal.
Why did He persevere with us when we failed? I have often thought, why did He not create a new Adam and Eve? Would it not have been better to start all over again?
Why did He persevere with fallen mankind? Why did He, through the Scriptures, promise a coming Messiah right from the beginning, in Genesis 3? Why, when the Messiah came and lived here on the earth, died for our sin, finished the work of our salvation, and was buried—and on the third day rose again, and forty days later ascended in glory to the right hand of the Father—does He not have a purpose? Is it all just a kind of sequence of events?
That is why we need the Bible. And let me say something else: pin your ears back for a moment. We need the Holy Spirit.
No one else is able to give us revelation. No one else is able to pierce the gloom that often is in our brain—that kind of dullness, that kind of inability to hear the Lord or to see the Lord. We need the Holy Spirit.
Two thousand six hundred or more years ago, a Jewish prophet had a vision. His name was Zechariah. He was one of those who had returned from Babylon. He had seen the whole destruction of the land, Jerusalem, and the house of God. He had managed to live through it all until the emperor of Persia’s decree was finally given in 536 B.C.
He returned, and with him was another prophet. His name was Haggai.
Zechariah was apparently asleep, which, after all, is quite normal—although some Christians seem to spend twenty-four hours asleep. But that is a little bit abnormal, to say the least.
Zechariah was asleep when an angel shook him. Well, I imagine if an angel shook you—shook me—we might just be somewhat startled. Then the angel said, as Zechariah sort of sat up on his bed, “What do you see?”
And Zechariah, who knew the Lord, said, “I see a lampstand, all of gold, with seven lamps. And on either side of it I see two olive trees, and branches that come to the lampstand.”
Then, in Hebrew—not in English, but in Hebrew—it says those branches were emptying out gold. Your translators have added “oil,” because they cannot understand how in the world olive trees could produce gold.
Tell it not in Ashkelon. Publish it not in Gaza. We might have a gold rush otherwise, while everyone comes rushing to see if they can get gold out of olive trees. Of course, there is no such thing.
The fact of the matter is, this was a vision. That gold was the same nature as the Messiah, Jesus. Those branches were opening and pouring gold, which became light.
The life of Jesus became the light. This is the testimony of Jesus.
This vision that dear Zechariah had transformed him. He and Haggai, and the faithful people of God—those that were faithful, a pretty small remnant, but within that group a remnant of truly faithful people—they were so depressed, so cast down.
When they first came back, they had built the foundation for the temple. Then they faced monstrous problems. All kinds of things came against them, and they gave up trying to do anything more. Only the foundation was laid. The walls were not built. The roof was not put on. Nothing was done. It was the house of God, the temple of the living God.
These two prophets together were used by the Holy Spirit to challenge the people of God, that they should rise up and believe that God was going to fulfil His purpose in spite of insurmountable difficulties.
In spite of the antagonism of the devil, the antagonism of the forces of darkness, the purpose of God was going to be fulfilled: that the temple of the Lord should be completed, and Jerusalem rebuilt, with her walls rebuilt and her gates hung again in their right place.
Then Zechariah has a very interesting character. He knew very well what the lampstand was. He knew that the lampstand was the lampstand of the tabernacle and the temple. He knew it.
It was the only thing in the tabernacle or temple that gave light. There were no windows, no way of having light within. It was only that seven-branched menorah, that lampstand, that gave the light.
But the thing that interested him was the two olive trees. “What are these, Lord?” he said.
And the Lord said to him, “This is the word to Zerubbabel.” Zerubbabel means “born in Babylon.” He was of the tribe of Judah and was the governor of the remnant that returned.
This is the word to Zerubbabel:
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Does that sink in? Listen again. Not by might—and the word in Hebrew is “armies”—nor by power, ability, but by My Spirit.
Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.
Is there any difference between a flat plain and a huge mountain? An enormous difference. An enormous difficulty removed—not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.
Beloved brother, beloved sister, listen to me. The Holy Spirit is the supervisor of all the work of God.
Everything in this world—everything, even you and me—originally came, originated, with the Father. It was through the Son that it was all brought into being, and for the Son. But it was the Holy Spirit Who watched over the performance and fulfilment of the work.
For instance, when you read Genesis 1, the very first verses, we are told that in the beginning God created, and then it tells us what; and then it says it was formless and void.
Then it says, “And the Spirit brooded,” and it uses the most amazing word in Hebrew, of an eagle—a bird of prey—sitting and brooding. It is looking for a perch, looking for a place to rest. It could find nothing.
It was that Spirit that supervised the Word of God. Every time God said, the Holy Spirit made sure it became fact.
Who brought the Lord Jesus into this world? It originated with the Father. It was the Son. But Who conceived the Son in the womb of Mary? The Holy Spirit.
Who was it that enabled Jesus to offer Himself up on the cross for our sins in the moment of desolation and unutterable agony? It was the everlasting Spirit.
Who raised Jesus from the dead on the third day? It was the Holy Spirit. I hope you all realise these are all Scriptures I am referring to.
What happened on the Jewish festival of Shavuot, fifty days after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus? The risen, glorified Messiah took the promise of the Spirit and poured Him out upon one hundred and twenty human beings, all Jews, in an upper room.
At that moment, something happened in history that had never happened before. The God of glory had again and again filled the temple so that no one could stand or minister. But never before had the Holy Spirit come into one hundred and twenty human beings and joined them to a Saviour, Head, and King at the right hand of God.
It was a totally new beginning. It was the beginning of the house of God, the spiritual house of God.
Those one hundred and twenty became members of the Lord Jesus and members one of another. The New Testament uses a picture that is nowhere else found in the Bible: head and body. The church. Jesus is the Head. The body is His, and it is the church.
It is an organism, not an organization. It has organization, but principally it is a spiritual organism. These one hundred and twenty people were suddenly made one with a Head at the right hand of God.
Whilst they heard Him and obeyed Him, they turned the whole of Jerusalem upside down. Whilst they continued to hear Him and obey Him, the whole of Judea and Samaria was turned upside down.
In the end, it got to the Gentiles. All those Gentile Roman officers came together in Caesarea in a drawing room, and suddenly the Holy Spirit fell upon them all. They spoke in tongues.
Peter was nearly roasted by the folks back in Jerusalem. They said, “What in the world have you been doing? Did you give them an invitation? Did you make an appeal?”
He said, “No, no, no. I was rehearsing what happened with the Messiah, and suddenly, whilst I was speaking, I noticed that the whole great crowd of Gentile officers were not listening to me.” Now, many preachers notice that.
They were not listening to him, and suddenly they began to speak and glorify God. They were saved, and Peter said, “What could I do? I did not ask them. I did not make any appeal. God sovereignly did something.”
It was the Holy Spirit.
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Holy Spirit.
I said yesterday evening: you cannot live the Christian life if you are not ready to die. Because once you let go and die, the Christian life blossoms. You do not have to produce it. You do not have to push it. It just happens.
It is the power of His resurrection life. It begins with a death, and it begins with your identification with Him. Then the Christian life begins to blossom, and you bear fruit.
Go back to this vision that Zechariah had. I am sure you have heard our brother Stephen, and others, say it many times: God longed for a home. In one sense, He was homeless. He longed for a dwelling place.
In the old covenant, that was the temple. That is why everything is centred in the temple. You have the whole of Chronicles—two books—and the whole of Kings—two books—and it is all to do with relationship to the temple and to the Word of God.
It is very interesting, if you are still with me, that when poor Zechariah and Haggai, Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, and all the other faithful ones were so depressed, so feeling somehow pushed down, with no way through, then the Lord showed Zechariah the lampstand, all of gold, and he immediately understood.
God was choosing the lampstand to represent everything else in the temple and in the tabernacle. He did not choose the table of showbread, tremendous as that is. He did not choose the golden altar of incense, tremendous as that is. He did not choose the altar of burnt offering, tremendous as that is, or the laver, tremendous as it is. No, not even the ark of the covenant.
He chose the lampstand—the seven-branched lampstand. It is almost as if God was saying, “I am choosing this to represent everything else now.” Are you with me?
Do you remember what we said last night, what our brothers have been saying? The Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. That is what the lampstand represents.
It is the only light in tabernacle and temple. That is the Word of God. Of course, the Messiah had not come; He was promised. The line was there from Judah to David. It was all there in place, but He had not come.
But it is still the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus—that lampstand. Now, follow me in this.
When John had his vision in a forced labour camp in a copper mine in Patmos, not far from one of my homes in Greece—just a few miles away—John said, “I am in Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”
Within a very short time, God gave him his first enormous revelation. He saw the Lord high and lifted up. He saw Him glorified, the risen Messiah glorified.
And then he saw what? Seven golden lampstands all around Him—the same lampstand that Zechariah had seen.
Only this time, it did not represent the old temple. It represented the church—not what so many of us have come to understand as the church, but what God means by the word “church.”
Seven golden lampstands. Then he hears the Lord Jesus with a message for every one of those seven. It ends always in the same way: “To him that overcometh.” “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
Dear family of God, we have sometimes to repent. We should be clear on these things. But even those who are in fellowships or assemblies that have some understanding about the church, there is a listlessness, a heaviness, a slowness of moving, an inability really to understand the battle that we are in and the colossal, strategic need of intercession.
But how can we become intercessors when, instead of being spiritually mature adults, we are little children? We are babies. We need to be rocked. We need little comforters and all the other things—you Americans have different words from the old English.
We have to give all these believers all these little things to suck and play with. We rock them all the time, you know.
Where are the soldiers of the Lord Jesus? Where are the overcomers? Where are those with clear vision of what God is aiming at?
Why did He say right from the beginning, “You shall not offer your offerings or make your gifts anywhere that you shall choose, but unto the place where I will cause My name to dwell”? That in itself is an extraordinary statement: “Cause My name to dwell.”
What does that mean? Of course, it was Jerusalem, but what does it mean—the place where I have caused My name to dwell?
Names in Scripture mean so much. Isaac: laughter. Joseph: addition. David: beloved. Daniel: judgment of God. Samuel: heard of God.
These names mean something. It is almost as if God is saying, “Look, this place that I choose, where My house shall be built, is the place I have caused My name to dwell. This is My”—may I put it, I hope reverently—“personality expressed. This is where My character is seen. This is where you will meet with Me, and I will meet with you.”
From that moment, the tabernacle to begin with, then the temple, became as it were the heart of everything. Every king’s reign was judged by his relationship to the house of God.
Dear David—why was he so beloved by God? Because he said:
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
But the aim of the Lord is something more than a physical temple. The aim of the Lord was what happened on Pentecost, when one hundred and twenty very ordinary human beings were joined to a Head at the right hand of God—not just in some distant manner, but joined like a body is joined to the head.
You cut off my head, my body dies instantly. The point of head and body is: it is one organism, one whole, one living life.
Dear family of God, we are facing an enormous problem. So often, our meetings lack the fire of God, the passion that there should be in them, the desire to seek the Lord at all costs.
I feel certain—I know this is dreadful for me to say it, but I am going to say it—I feel so sorry for the Lord sometimes. He says, “Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst.”
I think sometimes He is there in our midst and He must wonder, “What is all this about?” These lifeless, passionless, fireless believers mouthing words, and nothing more.
When the Holy Spirit came into that one hundred and twenty, the fire of God went everywhere in Jerusalem. The Jewish establishment did not know what to do. It turned them upside down.
Within a few moments, three thousand people were saved, without all the normal systems we have in crusades and evangelistic things and so on. It all happened.
Within a few weeks, it was five thousand. A great company of priests and Levites believed. I often think it was those who were in the temple the day Jesus died.
Suddenly there was a sound like an earthquake. The whole place shook. Looking into the temple with horror, they saw the great veil torn in two from top to bottom. The first thing they thought was, “Sacrilege! Sacrilege! What could have happened?”
But as they saw what happened on the day of Pentecost, they began to think, “I was there. I saw the temple’s veil torn in two. The way into the holiest place was open.”
Dear child of God, I hope I am not boring you, but there is so much to say on this matter.
If you take Jewish history, the whole of Jewish history is ebb and flow: ebb backwards, flow forwards; ebb backwards, flow forwards; ebb backwards, flow forwards. Every flow was the work of the Holy Spirit, and every ebb was the backsliding of the people.
But just wait, lest you start to take a wrong view of Jewish history. The history of the church is exactly the same.
Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” But there has been in church history ebb and flow, ebb and flow.
The ebb has been every time human hands have somehow taken hold of divine things and the purpose of God, and made it human—humanized it. The flow has been every time the Holy Spirit has launched a new, great initiative by the Lord Jesus.
Wherever you look: Donatists, Montanists, as I said the other night, Bogomils, Paulicians, Waldenses, the Reformation—thank God for it—the Lutherans, the first great evangelical awakening, the Moravian revival; and we could come right up to date.
Every flow has been the initiative of the Builder of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now let us ask ourselves a question: is the Lord going to desert us near to His coming? No.
Why do you think He has put in the book of Revelation that amazing cry of triumph?
Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.
Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him:
For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
Quite honestly, when I look at most believers that I see everywhere when I travel, they do not look as though they are getting themselves ready.
And all I can say is this: I believe that the Lord will launch a last initiative, and the Holy Spirit will work it.
Years ago, Austin-Sparks said to me, when we were talking about the end, “When I was a young man, in my late teens, early twenties, I was given a ticket to go to the United States. I had already become a believer.”
He said, “I determined that I would go to hear three great American preachers: A. J. Gordon, R. A. Torrey, and A. B. Simpson.” He said they were all a blessing, but A. B. Simpson, far and away, was the most spiritual and the greatest of them.
Typical of Mr. Sparks, he went and saw him and said, “Could I see you? I would like to ask some questions.” And A. B. Simpson, who was incredibly gracious, said, “Do come. Ask your questions.”
Mr. Sparks said to him, “It cannot be so long before you go to be with the Lord. What do you think about the last stage of church history before the coming of the Lord?”
A. B. Simpson thought for a moment, and then he said, “There will be a new discovery of the person, the power, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
He said, “Nothing else will carry the people of God through the last phase of world history and into the fulfilment of God’s purpose.”
I think he was right.
Well now, I also read to you that eighty-seventh Psalm. All I want to say about it—I will not spend so long on it—is: do you not think it is an extraordinary little Psalm? It is only seven verses, tiny, and this one Psalm encapsulates the whole eternal purpose of God from the beginning to the end.
Listen to it:
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God.
Think of it. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham whilst he was still in Ur of the Chaldees, and said to him, “Get out into a place that I will show you.” Somehow Abraham, by the Spirit of God, saw in the glory of God the city of glory.
“Glorious things are spoken of thee.” Everything to do with glory is associated with that city of Jerusalem. That is why it has lasted all the way through history. Nineveh has gone. Thebes has gone. Rameses has gone. Babylon has gone. They have all disappeared—not Jerusalem.
And it will not disappear until His blessed feet stand upon the Mount of Olives and He once again goes into the city. It will happen more surely than I stand here.
Why does he say, “His foundation is in the holy mountains”? Is that not the most extraordinary phrase? His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Now, I do not want to criticize the Word of God, but I just want to make it clear to you. I wonder whether the psalmist was having a nap, or had eaten too much cheese. I mean, what was wrong with this? Something disagreed with him that he had eaten?
What does he mean, “His foundation is in the holy mountains”? What is a foundation? Supposing I were to say to you, “Come and see my foundation,” you would think I was nuts. What is your foundation? A flat piece of stone? Or maybe cement, concrete? What is wonderful about that?
What he was saying was all to do, in the old covenant, with the temple. A foundation is nothing unless it is built upon. You have to build upon the foundation.
Those of you who know your New Testament well will immediately remember that the foundation has been laid, which is Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah. What does that mean? If He is the chief cornerstone, supposing I said, “Come to Jerusalem, I will show you my home,” and I took you in and there was this flat foundation—no walls, one cornerstone, no roof, nothing; no water, no electricity, nothing—you would say, “He is nuts. Something has gone wrong with his brain.”
People do not normally do this. If they say, “Come to my home,” they do not show you just a foundation. But what God was simply saying is this: the foundation is there, but what about the building?
Now you come back to Zechariah. They had stopped building. They were so depressed, so downcast, so lifeless, so beaten by circumstances and difficult people that they had just given up.
For sixteen years, the foundation lay there for the house of the Lord, and not a single thing was built upon it. Until suddenly Zechariah began to prophesy with Haggai, and they fired the people of God—at least those who were faithful—and they began to build. Within a few years they had built the whole house of God.
I think we are a little bit in this same condition. We know the truth. We have heard it again and again. It has been explained to us what God’s eternal purpose is, but somehow or other circumstances, problems, difficulties, relationships, and I do not know what else have got in the way.
How in the world can we be prepared for the coming of the Lord if the house of the Lord is not built?
So this Psalm is amazing. Even its last little verse, the seventh verse: “All my springs are in thee.” Not in worldly philosophy, not in psychiatry or psychology, or a thousand and one other things of this world.
All my springs, all my sources, are in Thee. When the house of the Lord is built, it is Christ. Everything is centred in Christ. Everything is to do with Him. He is the beginning and the end. He is everything.
And when the Lord Jesus becomes everything in you, then somehow you and I come together. That is the house of the Lord.
You might sort of say, “It is a little heavy, what you are saying.” But it is interesting, because when the angel spoke to Zechariah, he said, “Zerubbabel’s hands began it; Zerubbabel’s hands will finish it.”
Then he said, “The top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, unto it.’” Why grace? Because most Christians would think, once you have got to the place where the top stone is going in, surely they will shout, “Glory, glory!”
No, they say, “Grace, grace.” Which means that the times will be so difficult, so unbecoming to the fulfilment of the purpose of God, that when the top stone, which is Jesus, reappears, the only thing we will be able to say is, “Grace. Grace.”
It is the grace of God that began it. It is the grace of God that has watched over it, and it is the grace of God that has completed it.
Thus, when you take those seven churches, and every lampstand—all of gold—represents each one, you suddenly realise that God is speaking to us.
In the Old Testament, it was the temple and the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, it is the body of Christ. But where is the building?
Is it not interesting that Paul, writing in the Ephesian letter, says:
In Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Fellowship.
I find it amazing that when Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, which was in a total mess, he said this: “God is faithful.” God is faithful. That required some faith in the apostle.
God is faithful, through Whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The fellowship of Jesus the Messiah is the church—the real church.
It means, as I said yesterday, that when the Lord Jesus saved me and became my life, He saved you and became your life. And now there is something that binds us all together. It is the same Christ. It is the same Head.
The body may have many members, but only one Head. Is that not amazing?
And is it not just as amazing when you begin to understand the book of Revelation, that this term, “the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus,” is found more in this last book of the Bible than anywhere else?
So, with all the problems and all the difficulties, there is something marvellous about this.
It is no wonder that the writer of Hebrews, whoever he might have been, said, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the custom of some is, and so much the more as ye see that day approaching.”
What did he mean? He meant we need fellowship. We need to share. We need to build up each other. He says we should provoke one another to love and good works.
Well, I have to tell you, my experience over now quite a few years, and over quite a part of the world, is that most churches provoke one another to criticism, backbiting, and gossip. There is so little provoking of one another to love. What does that mean?
It is all to do with not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
Listen, and with this I close. God had a purpose from the beginning. We call it the eternal purpose of God.
As brother Stephen said the first time he spoke, you have a marriage in the first three chapters of the Bible. When you come to the end of the Bible, you have another marriage. The first marriage was human; the final marriage is divine.
When Jesus began His ministry, John wrote his Gospel in such a way as to give an understanding of the Lord Jesus. The first miracle he recorded was at a marriage. He turned water into wine.
Now, I know most American Christians would not touch wine with a barge pole—a ten-foot pole. But the fact of the matter is that real wine is antiseptic, and water is often a carrier of disease.
When Jesus turned that water, which is so corruptible, into wine, He turned it into something that cannot bring disease. And He did it in a marriage. Do you not think that is amazing?
So when His whole Messianic ministry began, He chose it to begin in a marriage. Wherever you look, you will find this.
Finally, when we come to the end of the Bible, we discover this Jerusalem, this heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, coming down out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband.
The purpose of God has been fulfilled. Would you not want to be part of that? Is there any sacrifice too great to make to be part of that?
Is there any worldliness so enormous that we cannot give it up for such an eternal weight of glory?
How stupid we are if, for just a few days of pleasure down here, we lose the possibility of being part of that eternal city, the bride, to reign with Christ.
May God bless you, and may He get this word into your heart in a living way, and help us to understand that it is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
This whole work is in very safe hands. It is in the hands of the Lord Jesus and under the supervision of the Holy Spirit. There is no way that it cannot be fulfilled.
Blessed be His name.