WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.480 We're gonna turn in our Bibles if we could to Zechariah chapter two. 00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:09.280 Zechariah chapter two and we're going to read the whole chapter. 00:00:09.680 --> 00:00:15.075 Zechariah chapter two and this is the third vision that Zechariah has. 00:00:15.635 --> 00:00:21.075 And I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. 00:00:21.635 --> 00:00:23.475 Then I said where are you going? 00:00:23.475 --> 00:00:30.230 And he said to me to measure Jerusalem to see what is its width and what is its length. 00:00:30.630 --> 00:00:47.155 And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, run, say to the young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of the people and the livestock in it. 00:00:47.635 --> 00:00:54.915 And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in the midst. 00:00:55.410 --> 00:01:06.690 Up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. 00:01:06.690 --> 00:01:11.250 Up, escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. 00:01:11.385 --> 00:01:22.505 For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. 00:01:22.825 --> 00:01:29.180 Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who serve them. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:33.260 Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:40.060 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. 00:01:40.655 --> 00:01:52.175 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in your midst and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 00:01:52.750 --> 00:02:00.110 And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the Holy Land and will again choose Jerusalem. 00:02:00.350 --> 00:02:08.175 Be silent all flesh before the Lord for he has raised himself from his holy dwelling. 00:02:08.735 --> 00:02:14.655 Now the book of Zechariah as we look at it focuses very specifically on the city of Jerusalem. 00:02:14.655 --> 00:02:31.250 The prophet was one of those who returned to Jerusalem around five eighty three BC to restore the city after its desolation some fifty years earlier at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 00:02:31.890 --> 00:02:34.530 They had not come to reestablish the nation of Israel. 00:02:34.845 --> 00:02:46.445 They hadn't come to reestablish the Davidic monarchy but rather to restore what had been for four hundred years the very center of Jewish life, the city of Jerusalem. 00:02:47.210 --> 00:03:13.425 Now Jerusalem's significance of course goes way back into the Old Testament since David's establishment of the city as Israel's capital and the home of the Ark of the Covenant in the tenth century BC and especially after the construction of Solomon's Temple on Mount Zion, the city was the spiritual center of God's people and God dwelt in Jerusalem and there the people came to worship. 00:03:13.990 --> 00:03:22.550 But as the record of the prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah shows there was a false sense of security which arose over time. 00:03:23.190 --> 00:03:29.945 The people came to believe that no matter how great their sins were Jerusalem as God's city would never fall. 00:03:30.745 --> 00:03:34.905 And the events of five eighty six BC changed all that. 00:03:34.905 --> 00:03:45.840 God allowed Jerusalem's walls to be breached, the giant stones of the temple were toppled, the city's walls were broken down and the people fell by the sword. 00:03:46.160 --> 00:03:54.240 And this experience might have led to a decline in the spiritual importance of the city because the city was left in absolute desolation. 00:03:55.005 --> 00:03:55.725 Donald E. 00:03:55.725 --> 00:04:11.840 Guyan in one of his commentaries on the book of Zechariah says this, The events of history have thoroughly demonstrated the falseness of any belief in Jerusalem's invulnerability and the prophets had already explained the inadequacy of such a belief. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:24.405 If anything new was to come out of that devastating experience presumably it ought to have been a theology and practice that de emphasized Jerusalem since it had been the site of their greatest failure. 00:04:24.805 --> 00:04:31.685 But the prophets labored hard to keep the people from losing their interest in the city of God. 00:04:31.925 --> 00:04:42.680 Isaiah for instance spoke to his generation that would return and he spoke these words in Isaiah chapter 52 in verse one as he thinks of them returning. 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.720 He says, Awake awake on your strength, O Zion. 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:49.875 Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. 00:04:49.875 --> 00:04:52.195 Thinking of the children of Israel returning. 00:04:52.835 --> 00:05:01.635 And from the perspective of the New Testament we see why the theme of the holy city was so important because it pointed to something greater to come. 00:05:02.090 --> 00:05:06.010 The New Testament church, the eternal city of God that's in heaven. 00:05:07.050 --> 00:05:18.685 And Abraham of course is the model of faith because if you remember we're told in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10, he was looking forward to a city with foundations whose designer and builder is God. 00:05:18.765 --> 00:05:28.205 We're told in Hebrews twelve twenty two, it tells us the early Christians, You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. 00:05:28.605 --> 00:05:38.990 And the city of Jerusalem was not an end in itself, but it was an important means that God wanted restored and a model for God's future work in the church. 00:05:38.990 --> 00:05:40.670 It was there pictorially. 00:05:40.670 --> 00:05:44.830 It was there symbolically for something greater that was to come. 00:05:46.265 --> 00:05:56.665 This brings us to the heart of our study in Zachariah's third vision a message that we can rightly title this evening The Church God Sees. 00:05:56.985 --> 00:06:04.030 And here God overturns the mere human measurement of His people and He sets before us His own expansive purposes. 00:06:04.270 --> 00:06:08.750 And in this chapter we see four important truths concerning the church. 00:06:08.990 --> 00:06:19.035 First of all, we see God's perspective on the church correcting our limited worldly measuring lines with His own great measuring lines. 00:06:19.275 --> 00:06:26.715 Secondly, we see God's vision for the church, a vast ever expanding city without walls open and overflowing with people. 00:06:27.675 --> 00:06:34.750 And then thirdly, we see God's presence in the church Himself, the wall of fire around her and the glory in her midst. 00:06:35.150 --> 00:06:48.465 And then fourthly and finally we see God's invitation to join the church, the urgent call to flee the fearing city of this world and take our place in the everlasting city of God. 00:06:48.465 --> 00:06:59.905 And may the Lord as as we think of these things use this vision to lift our eyes from the rubble of human expectation to the magnificent future he has planned for his church. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:04.760 So first of all, I want you to see God's perspective on the church. 00:07:04.760 --> 00:07:07.080 God's perspective on the church. 00:07:07.080 --> 00:07:14.600 God spoke to Zechariah about the city of Jerusalem in this third vision and it was given to the prophet around five twenty BC. 00:07:15.195 --> 00:07:24.875 The first vision is recorded, if you remember, in chapter one verses seven to 17 in which God promises to return to Jerusalem to build and to bless. 00:07:25.195 --> 00:07:37.500 The second vision occurs in chapter one verses 18 to 21 which we looked at last week and it's an assurance of God's ability to overcome those who threaten to attack and scatter His people. 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:43.005 The first vision is about blessing and the second vision is all about security. 00:07:43.725 --> 00:07:50.285 The third vision picks up on a statement made in the first vision about God's planning to build up the city. 00:07:50.285 --> 00:07:55.565 We read in verse 16 of chapter one, the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 00:07:55.880 --> 00:07:59.960 And then we move into chapter two and we meet the man with the measuring line. 00:08:00.840 --> 00:08:07.880 Verses one and two of chapter two, and I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:09.640 And then I said, where are you going? 00:08:10.115 --> 00:08:15.955 He said to me, To measure Jerusalem to see what is its width and what is its length. 00:08:16.515 --> 00:08:22.355 Now there are a variety of opinions regarding the identity of this man who's got the measuring line. 00:08:22.355 --> 00:08:28.660 Most commentators see him as one of the many angelic messengers who populated Zechariah's visions. 00:08:28.900 --> 00:08:37.060 And the point of the measuring line is that Jerusalem so desolate and ruined in Zechariah's time would be built up and it would be inhabited. 00:08:37.635 --> 00:08:43.235 And there's another view however that makes good sense in the context of this third vision. 00:08:43.235 --> 00:08:52.435 Bible scholar Elizabeth Aktemeyer sees this figure with the measuring line as a visionary symbol of human expectations for the city. 00:08:52.700 --> 00:08:57.980 A measurement of the width and the length of Jerusalem according to human reckoning. 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:04.460 And she says this, This man has believed the prophet's message that Jerusalem will be rebuilt. 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:13.865 He expects the new Jerusalem to be no different from the old and he would therefore conform its measurements to those that it had before the fall. 00:09:15.305 --> 00:09:19.145 And this view makes sense because of what happens next. 00:09:19.145 --> 00:09:23.260 Look at what we're told in verses three and four of chapter two. 00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:38.765 And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, run, say to that young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of the people and the livestock in it. 00:09:39.885 --> 00:09:44.845 And here the human perspective is corrected by God's perspective on the city. 00:09:45.485 --> 00:09:52.160 With great urgency, the angel is sent to stop the man measuring for the wall he assumed would be built around the city. 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:58.720 This presents a point that should really be taken in by us and applied to our hearts today. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:02.560 From what source are we to get our perspective on the church? 00:10:03.215 --> 00:10:07.775 Is it on ourselves or is it on God? 00:10:09.135 --> 00:10:14.975 What should provide our vision and aspiring expectation regarding ourselves as the people of God? 00:10:14.975 --> 00:10:17.935 And there are really only two choices which I've already alluded to. 00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:23.210 And those two choices are either a perspective from man or a perspective from God. 00:10:23.770 --> 00:10:29.850 And if we're to take our view of the church from man, we might listen to the measurements of the world. 00:10:31.475 --> 00:10:34.595 Perhaps the sociological surveys that are done. 00:10:35.475 --> 00:10:37.235 And they're common of course today. 00:10:37.555 --> 00:10:39.795 They tell us how many of us there are. 00:10:40.355 --> 00:10:44.915 The beliefs that are popular within the church, the heresies that are rising in the church. 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:53.960 And at best these tell us only what is, but they don't tell us what ought to be. 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:55.400 What ought to be. 00:10:55.480 --> 00:11:03.035 And looking at these surveys, we often feel the way Zechariah did as he surveyed the toppled ruins of a once glorious Jerusalem. 00:11:03.035 --> 00:11:09.595 The situation seems worse all the time or getting worse all the time with little hope of improvement. 00:11:09.595 --> 00:11:24.450 Indeed, whenever we view the church through human yardsticks as the man with the measuring line was doing in Jerusalem in Zachariah's vision, we end up limiting God by our meager worldly appraisal of what can actually be achieved. 00:11:25.645 --> 00:11:33.245 And Zachariah's vision reminds us that we need our measuring line to be corrected and controlled by God's measurements. 00:11:34.845 --> 00:11:42.740 It's to him that we must turn for a vision of the church both in terms of what it ought to be and in terms of what it will be. 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:47.620 And specifically it's from the Bible that we learn what the church really is. 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:55.140 What is its expectation or what its expectation should be and what God intends to do in it and through it. 00:11:55.655 --> 00:12:02.855 The church we're told in Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 21 is the shoot that God has planted. 00:12:03.015 --> 00:12:07.095 God says the work of my hands for the display of my splendor. 00:12:07.575 --> 00:12:09.975 And the church is the beloved bride of Christ. 00:12:10.570 --> 00:12:22.330 It's the body of Christ that's the flock over which God is shepherd precious to Him and purchased with His blood in which God intends to display His manifold wisdom to the heavenly realms. 00:12:22.650 --> 00:12:24.010 It's all set out in Scripture. 00:12:24.805 --> 00:12:26.565 What's your vision for the church? 00:12:26.565 --> 00:12:27.845 Look at the Bible. 00:12:28.405 --> 00:12:31.685 What's the truth concerning the church? 00:12:32.165 --> 00:12:39.445 It's how God has a perspective on it and it's getting your mind engaged with His perspective and not your own ideas. 00:12:39.940 --> 00:12:43.940 And what's true of the church is also true of us as individuals. 00:12:43.940 --> 00:12:49.540 Our expectations for ourselves derived from the world are always lower than God's expectations. 00:12:50.020 --> 00:12:51.380 We want to be comfortable. 00:12:51.780 --> 00:12:52.980 We want to be happy. 00:12:53.140 --> 00:12:54.180 We want to be secure. 00:12:54.845 --> 00:13:05.085 But God intends for us to bear and reflect His own glory forever and that's why He refines our character and faith in trials and tribulations and in difficulties. 00:13:05.805 --> 00:13:08.365 God's perspective on the church. 00:13:09.430 --> 00:13:14.070 But then secondly I want you to see God's vision for the church, God's vision for the church. 00:13:14.070 --> 00:13:23.350 If this prophecy tells us that the human perspective must be overruled by God's perspective it also gives God's vision for His city. 00:13:24.395 --> 00:13:31.755 We learn this from the angel who gave instruction to the angel who served as an interpreter for Zechariah. 00:13:31.755 --> 00:13:42.450 If you look at verse four there it says, Run, say to the young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. 00:13:43.090 --> 00:13:48.370 And there's a great description of the church here, a city without walls. 00:13:48.930 --> 00:13:56.015 And the most immediate meaning has to do with the sheer abundance of people and provision God intends for this city. 00:13:56.015 --> 00:14:03.295 He doesn't envisage or envision a modest enterprise easily encompassed by walls. 00:14:03.695 --> 00:14:11.920 Literally the angel says the city will be as a walled village because of the expanse of her people and beasts. 00:14:11.920 --> 00:14:19.920 And the idea is that of an ever growing urban sprawl and the way that cities today keep growing outwardly. 00:14:20.545 --> 00:14:36.570 You know some commentators argue that this prophecy has never been found in a literal sense, in an earthly fulfillment and therefore they point to some future time perhaps in a national Israel or in a millennial kingdom after Christ's return. 00:14:36.890 --> 00:14:47.530 But I would respond by pointing out that the basic idea was fulfilled in the years following Zechariah for the rebuilding of Jerusalem was such that it was reestablished. 00:14:48.255 --> 00:15:00.495 That the nation did grow, the nation did prosper barely in a way that Zachariah would have hoped, but this vision of expansion is fulfilled in the church of Jesus Christ. 00:15:01.900 --> 00:15:03.820 Think of the age of the apostles. 00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:16.780 Jesus sent them first to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, but He directed them to move outward from that to witness to all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth, and that's exactly what happened. 00:15:17.075 --> 00:15:29.635 The book of Acts records the expansion of the gospel out from the Jews to the God fearing Gentiles to the Samaritans and finally to the pagan Gentiles and across the ancient world to Rome itself. 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:36.880 And this is the very thing that the angels showed Zechariah, an ever spreading city of God. 00:15:37.040 --> 00:15:41.760 And today that city has expanded to every continent on earth. 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:49.615 And the vision forcefully confronts us if we're pessimistic about the success of the gospel. 00:15:49.855 --> 00:15:58.895 It's easy for us to think of the church in a beleaguered state to see ourselves as weak and besieged and therefore to become inward focused and even pessimistic. 00:15:59.150 --> 00:16:17.385 But God tells us as He told Zechariah that his city will be vast because of the multitudes brought in and we're engaged in gospel labor and a giant divine enterprise that is designed as God said to Abraham to bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth. 00:16:17.385 --> 00:16:20.425 Remember, go back to Genesis chapter 12. 00:16:21.145 --> 00:16:31.020 And that must have been a staggering thought to Zechariah, part of the small and weak remnant that had returned to reestablish this broken, wrecked, ruined city. 00:16:31.740 --> 00:16:40.380 And like us the prophet needed God to lift his eyes above the present struggles to see God's own vision for His own city. 00:16:40.975 --> 00:16:52.255 And to quote Elizabeth Aktemeyer again, she says, So few seem to take the word to heart and the body of Christ appears weak over against the powers and propaganda of the world. 00:16:52.255 --> 00:17:06.150 She continues, But here is another picture, God's redeemed crowding the streets of the New Jerusalem bursting out beyond the city limits, covering the surrounding hills as the sun covers the seashore. 00:17:06.710 --> 00:17:18.005 The most obvious meaning of this description is numerical expansion but surely this idea of a city without walls speaks of the very character of the church as well. 00:17:18.725 --> 00:17:29.890 We are a city, yes, we have a certain society with our own cultures, our own way of speaking, our own way of acting, and we shouldn't be troubled by that. 00:17:30.210 --> 00:17:32.770 We shouldn't be troubled to be different or peculiar. 00:17:32.770 --> 00:17:40.715 Yet ours is a city without walls, that is without needless barriers open to all who will come inviting those who will inquire. 00:17:41.195 --> 00:17:51.755 And the churches to be the farthest thing from a secret or a closed society instead, we're a city without walls freely sharing our secrets and inviting all to come in. 00:17:52.560 --> 00:17:55.280 Isn't that what happened? 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:59.120 And isn't that what we find in the age of the apostles? 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:01.680 Israel had been a city with walls. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:09.975 It had been caught up with all sorts of restrictions, circumcision and prohibitions and table fellowship were all about at this time. 00:18:10.055 --> 00:18:20.455 And we read in Acts and the epistles we find all of these temporary regulations are abolished as the church spread outward into the world, openly inviting all who would come. 00:18:21.120 --> 00:18:40.245 And in the greatest contrast to the walled Judaism Paul writes, Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and sentient slave free, but Christ is all and in all. 00:18:40.645 --> 00:18:43.365 And this is the way it must be today as well. 00:18:43.605 --> 00:18:50.980 All must feel free to come, be welcomed, feel loved, And yes, they must hear God's message. 00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:55.860 They must hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour from sin. 00:18:56.020 --> 00:19:07.835 But there must be no barrier see of that of their own unbelief and that must be powerfully confronted of course with God's Word and God's grace and they can be found in the church. 00:19:07.995 --> 00:19:09.275 They can be saved. 00:19:10.235 --> 00:19:12.875 God's vision for the church. 00:19:14.075 --> 00:19:17.675 But then thirdly I want you to see God's presence in His city. 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:33.690 God's presence in His city or God's presence in His church and this vision begs a question that would have been obvious in Zacharias time, if the city had no walls, where's the protection? 00:19:35.365 --> 00:19:36.645 Where's the protection? 00:19:37.365 --> 00:19:39.925 What about the hostile forces on the outside? 00:19:40.005 --> 00:19:42.805 The answer is stunning in its simplicity and power. 00:19:42.805 --> 00:19:45.125 Look at verse five, what does it say? 00:19:45.125 --> 00:19:50.140 God says, I will be to her a wall of fire all around her. 00:19:50.540 --> 00:20:00.380 And Jerusalem had a great wall before, but that didn't keep her from destruction, that didn't keep her from being overrun. 00:20:00.860 --> 00:20:03.100 Walls alone never provide real protection. 00:20:03.375 --> 00:20:08.335 And that's not just true spiritually, but it's true militarily. 00:20:08.495 --> 00:20:17.375 As Genghis Khan is said to have remarked, It's not the stokeness of the walls, but the spirit of the defenders that determines the strength of a city. 00:20:18.040 --> 00:20:20.680 And the reality was not lost in Zechariah. 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:31.480 And to quote Elizabeth Aktemeyer again, she writes of this vision, Lying at the young man's feet are the stones and the rubble of the old walls that furnished no protection. 00:20:31.975 --> 00:20:35.975 Zechariah projects that picture into a lesson for the future. 00:20:36.135 --> 00:20:44.455 She says the only sure defense for Israel is God Himself, who will be like a wall of fire round about His people. 00:20:45.090 --> 00:20:56.290 And we're intended to recall the pillar of fire that guided Israel through the Exodus and so shall God always be for His church even surrounding us with that Almighty presence. 00:20:57.275 --> 00:21:05.195 And this is why it's the greatest folly for Christians to rely on worldly sources of protection and strength. 00:21:05.195 --> 00:21:16.350 The Old Testament made this point over and over again when Israel's king sought worldly power instead of God's favor, He invariably brought about their defeat. 00:21:17.470 --> 00:21:22.670 But when the people humbled themselves before God in prayer, the Lord Himself came to their defense. 00:21:23.325 --> 00:21:33.085 And God always says to His people what He said to the faithful king Jehoshaphat, Stand firm, hold your position and see the salvation of the Lord. 00:21:33.085 --> 00:21:35.325 Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. 00:21:35.325 --> 00:21:37.965 The Lord will be with you. 00:21:39.100 --> 00:21:52.700 And think of the walls we Christians tend to erect around our own lives, none of which offers the kind of security only God can give, money, position, relationships, political leverage. 00:21:53.385 --> 00:22:03.065 Take the example here of the political process taking this last example, we're surely allowed to participate in a political process. 00:22:04.025 --> 00:22:21.655 Of course we are, But you know sometimes instead of bombarding Stormont and Westminster with carefully crafted objections we would do better to live out our faith boldly before the world while we seek help from God in fervent prayer. 00:22:21.655 --> 00:22:37.640 God alone is the protector of His church and He is an all sufficient defender and the whole church history bears this out for as Jesus told Peter the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. 00:22:38.120 --> 00:22:46.280 But some will reply, well the church might be persecuted and yes God will preserve his church in persecution. 00:22:46.280 --> 00:23:01.805 Consider the church in The Sudan, one of the war torn villages there, Chali, which was also one of the first missionary stations in that country from which the Odok tribes were thoroughly converted to Christianity. 00:23:01.805 --> 00:23:13.580 Way back in 1996 Charlie was attacked by forces, Islamic national government forces, and the church there was blown apart. 00:23:13.580 --> 00:23:20.345 Bibles were gleefully torn up on the pages used to rule cigarettes. 00:23:20.825 --> 00:23:22.505 And most of the men were killed. 00:23:22.505 --> 00:23:25.865 Some were crucified while the women were taken and abused. 00:23:25.865 --> 00:23:29.305 And all this was because of their Christian faith. 00:23:30.025 --> 00:23:33.545 And this may lead some to question God's ability to protect his own. 00:23:34.260 --> 00:23:38.100 But the Odoks themselves don't question this about God at all. 00:23:38.580 --> 00:23:44.900 When they recaptured Cali or when the rebels recaptured Cali in 2000 the Christians returned. 00:23:46.020 --> 00:23:48.820 And the first thing that they did was to rebuild the church. 00:23:49.425 --> 00:23:53.345 And there they gathered to worship and pray and worship God. 00:23:53.745 --> 00:24:02.385 And of God's sufficiency for them their pastor Simon Mahmoud remarked, he said, We have nothing but we have everything. 00:24:03.030 --> 00:24:09.750 We have nothing but we have everything and God is able to protect and prosper His church in the face of the sword. 00:24:09.830 --> 00:24:11.110 What about the pen? 00:24:11.270 --> 00:24:17.270 God can preserve His church from the assaults of intellectuals and sophisticated unbelief. 00:24:18.355 --> 00:24:29.715 One man who thought God could not was the French atheist Voltaire if you remember whose writings were very popular during the enlightenment. 00:24:30.115 --> 00:24:37.080 And he wrote that in fifty years from his time no one would remember Christianity. 00:24:37.320 --> 00:24:40.120 In twenty years he said Christianity will be no more. 00:24:40.120 --> 00:24:47.640 My single hand shall destroy the edifice and it will destroy the writings of the 12 apostles. 00:24:48.915 --> 00:24:53.075 But you know twenty years passed and Christianity remained. 00:24:53.555 --> 00:24:57.795 And Voltaire however, he died and he did die. 00:24:58.035 --> 00:25:00.915 He even in his death remembered Christianity. 00:25:01.235 --> 00:25:04.035 He cursed Christ in his death. 00:25:04.830 --> 00:25:19.470 But you know fifty years after Voltaire's famous boast, the house from which he had assaulted God's church with his pen became the headquarters of the Geneva Bible Society from which the church was mass producing and disseminating Bibles. 00:25:20.645 --> 00:25:26.325 What God promised for His church, He also promises for each of His people individually. 00:25:26.485 --> 00:25:29.525 We can think this evening of Psalm 121. 00:25:29.685 --> 00:25:31.605 It's used to comfort us all isn't it? 00:25:32.560 --> 00:25:34.880 The Lord will keep you from all evil. 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:36.000 He will keep your life. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:42.400 The Lord will keep you in your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. 00:25:42.800 --> 00:25:45.885 God's presence first means protection. 00:25:46.285 --> 00:25:56.685 Zechariah two:five goes on to say much more, I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst. 00:25:56.685 --> 00:26:05.310 And surely Zachariah would think of the return of God's spirit, His glory to the temple, the people were to be rebuilding Jerusalem. 00:26:05.310 --> 00:26:12.030 What a motivation this is for God's people that God will come to be the glory within His church. 00:26:13.075 --> 00:26:18.275 We think forward to that final consummation if you're a member of the church. 00:26:19.555 --> 00:26:30.670 Revelation 21, And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God having the glory of God. 00:26:30.750 --> 00:26:45.265 Its radiance like the most rare jewel like a jasper clear as crystal and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb. 00:26:45.425 --> 00:26:53.905 And given all that is still to come, how tragic it is when a church exalts in mere earthly riches. 00:26:54.540 --> 00:27:01.420 Unlike the man in Zachariah's vision many today have adopted worldly ways of measuring the church. 00:27:02.220 --> 00:27:09.740 And I've heard of these measurements the ABC of church success attendance buildings and cash. 00:27:10.945 --> 00:27:20.865 And it's not true that the first question you is it not true that this this first question usually asked of the church is how many attend? 00:27:21.585 --> 00:27:22.945 How many members do you have? 00:27:23.580 --> 00:27:27.820 You know what we ought to be asking when we think of a vision for the church? 00:27:28.140 --> 00:27:30.220 Is God present in your life? 00:27:34.620 --> 00:27:37.260 Is he the source of your power and your protection? 00:27:38.025 --> 00:27:40.105 Is his word proclaimed and adored? 00:27:40.105 --> 00:27:42.905 Is God himself your glory and your strength? 00:27:43.385 --> 00:27:48.425 And that's how the Bible assesses the church, and it's the way that we should be thinking as well. 00:27:48.905 --> 00:27:49.785 Begins with us. 00:27:49.785 --> 00:27:50.425 Thomas v. 00:27:50.425 --> 00:27:55.110 Muir in his commentary on the the book of Zachariah says this. 00:27:55.110 --> 00:27:57.910 We learn here the true glory of the church. 00:27:57.910 --> 00:28:21.235 It's not in any external pomp or power of any kind, not in frowning battlements either of temporal or spiritual pretensions, not in rites and ceremonies, however moss grown and venerable, not in splendid cathedrals and glorious vestments, and the swell of music and the glitter of eloquence, but in the indwelling glory of the invisible God. 00:28:22.790 --> 00:28:26.630 This applies as much to us as individuals as to the church. 00:28:26.950 --> 00:28:45.895 Remember the words of Jeremiah, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord. 00:28:46.375 --> 00:28:48.855 God's presence in his church. 00:28:50.460 --> 00:28:57.100 And then fourthly and finally God's invitation to the church, God's invitation to the church. 00:28:57.100 --> 00:28:59.980 We have sought God's perspective on the church. 00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:02.460 We have seen God's vision for the church. 00:29:02.540 --> 00:29:15.275 We have been shown God's presence in the church as our protection and as our glory, and we now turn to God's invitation to join the church, which is the prophet's own application of the text verses six and seven. 00:29:15.900 --> 00:29:24.620 Up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. 00:29:24.620 --> 00:29:29.740 Up, escape the Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. 00:29:30.395 --> 00:29:35.755 And you know an application of our passage, meaning of verses six and seven is clear. 00:29:35.755 --> 00:29:46.020 After all the wonderful things God has said about his church, this city that neither has nor needs any walls, he now invites everyone to come to salvation. 00:29:46.340 --> 00:29:58.340 And by this, he doesn't merely mean that you should seek an affiliation with some particular church, although perhaps you should, but that you should come in and therefore be actually in his city. 00:29:58.865 --> 00:30:06.865 And there you should join in the everlasting communion of all the redeemed through faith in the savior God that he has actually sent. 00:30:06.945 --> 00:30:15.560 And if you're not a Christian, if you have not come to to God in faith, God invites you to come out of the world and into His city. 00:30:15.560 --> 00:30:24.280 Yes, He acknowledges this world and all it stands for seems to be so strong according to the man's measurements of it. 00:30:24.760 --> 00:30:28.280 Its glory, its glittering, it seems to be sweet in its reward. 00:30:29.585 --> 00:30:36.065 Paul writes, This world in its present form is passing away. 00:30:36.945 --> 00:30:47.990 Indeed the day of judgment is coming and the day of judgment is such that Christ will consummate His church and all who are truly in will be with Him. 00:30:48.550 --> 00:30:55.910 The invitation here in Zechariah chapter two verses six and seven is especially addressed to the Israelites who are still living in Babylon. 00:30:56.025 --> 00:31:00.985 There were those who were still in Babylon who didn't want to return because life was so good. 00:31:01.065 --> 00:31:03.225 They had forgotten their true citizenship. 00:31:04.185 --> 00:31:07.785 How great a danger this poses to each of us. 00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:15.400 If you're a Christian then you must love God's church, the city in which you hold eternal citizenship. 00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:19.720 You must make God alone your glory, the joy of the Lord your strength. 00:31:19.800 --> 00:31:27.135 You must offer all that you are and have to Him and to his great redemptive work through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:31:27.135 --> 00:31:32.415 And this is what will last forever long after every earthly fortress has fallen. 00:31:32.575 --> 00:31:36.975 And so we offer ourselves to God for the building of his city. 00:31:37.800 --> 00:31:41.560 And through faith in Christ, we have membership now in that city. 00:31:42.120 --> 00:31:50.680 And though now we see that city only by faith, one day, one day we're going to see the church consummated in the way that it should be. 00:31:52.605 --> 00:31:56.205 The throne of God and of the lamb will be in it, we're told. 00:31:56.365 --> 00:32:03.565 And his servants will worship him, and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. 00:32:04.380 --> 00:32:10.300 They will need no light or lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever. 00:32:10.300 --> 00:32:18.860 Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates. 00:32:19.635 --> 00:32:23.315 God's invitation to join the church. 00:32:23.875 --> 00:32:44.560 So to draw this all together in Zachariah's vision of the city, the city without walls, we have learned that our view of the church and of ourselves must be corrected by God's perspective rather than limiting things by human measurements. 00:32:45.360 --> 00:32:52.055 We've seen the expansive vision for a vast, open, ever growing people who welcome all who will come. 00:32:52.055 --> 00:33:01.420 And we've been assured that the Lord himself is our wall of fire and the glory in our midst, our only true protection and highest boast. 00:33:01.740 --> 00:33:11.820 And we have heard his urgent invitation to leave every fading earthly refuge and take our place in the everlasting city that he's building. 00:33:12.485 --> 00:33:26.805 These truths, I hope, lift our eyes from present weakness and worldly yardsticks to the magnificent future that God has secured for you and for me. 00:33:27.837 --> 00:33:30.397 May God bless his word to our hearts.