September 11, 2022 – Sunday Service Live Stream

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Let's take a couple of moments and prepare our hearts. Please stand.

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Oh, that the people of God here assembled would know that we have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living

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God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

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Oh, people of God, we have been invited into the presence of our

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God. It is an awesome thing. We have no encumbrance to our communion with him because of the perfection and meritorious atoning work of Christ.

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So let us come with hearts filled with joy and worship him. Please pray with me.

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we gaze with wonder. We look up to you and wonder why you have called us and made us your friends.

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Oh, Lord, we tremble at your holiness and then we find ourselves comforted by your love.

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We see our inadequacy and we see the perfection of Christ.

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We have reason to despair when we look upon ourselves and our circumstances, but we only have hope and a glorified future when we look upon you and your kingdom.

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Oh, Lord, I pray that you would turn the hearts of your people toward yourself today, that our hearts would exclaim and worship how great is our

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God and that the name of Jesus would be hallowed here among these your saints.

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We pray that these psalms and hymns and prayers and the sacrament and the word preach, all this would be to your glory and for the building up and strengthening of your people, the church.

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We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin.

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Let us confess together with one voice, Almighty Father, God of gods,

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Lord of lords, Father to the fatherless, husband to the widow, defender of the helpless, judge of all the earth, have mercy on us.

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We have not bound up the broken, even though you healed us. We have not forgiven others, even though you forgave us.

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We withhold kindness from the needy, even though you freely gave us your own son.

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We are without excuse, but not without hope. By your power and grace, account our sins to Jesus' death and amend our ways by the power of his glorious resurrection.

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Amen. Please stand. Come now, let us reason together, says the

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Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow.

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Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. The Lord says, for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

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Hallelujah. Amen. Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 310.

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Rejoice, the Lord is king. Please remain,

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Jeremiah. That came to Jeremiah from the

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Lord, saying, Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.

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For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity my people

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Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

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Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. For thus says the

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Lord, we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear and not of peace. Ask now and see whether a man is ever in labor with child.

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So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale?

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Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is that time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

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For it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds.

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Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom

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I will raise up for them. Therefore do not fear, O my servant Jacob, says the

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Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity.

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Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid. For I am with you, says the

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Lord, to save you, though I will make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you. Yet I will not make a complete end of you, but I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished.

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For thus says the Lord, your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause that you will may be bound up.

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You have no healing medicines, all your lovers have forgotten you. They do not seek you, for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased.

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Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable, because of the multitude of your iniquities.

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Because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you. Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity.

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Those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and heal you of your wounds, says the

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Lord. Because they called you an outcast, saying, this is Zion, no one seeks her.

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Thus says the Lord, behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places.

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The city shall be built upon its own mound, and the palace shall remain according to its own plan.

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Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, in the voice of those who make merry. I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish.

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I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be as established before me.

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And I will punish all who oppress them. Their nobles shall be from among them, and their governor shall come from their midst.

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Then I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach me. For who is this who pledged his heart to approach me, says the

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Lord? You shall be my people, and I will be your God. Behold, the whirlwind of the

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Lord goes forth with fury. A continuing whirlwind, it will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

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The fierce anger of the Lord will not return until he has done it, and until he has performed the intents of his heart.

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In the latter days, you will consider it. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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Let us now confess our faith through the singing of the Apostles' Creed. 53.

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This song has a little bit of extra meaning, as did number 310 today, in light of the message.

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Let us ask ourselves the question, do we really love thy kingdom, Lord? And our response should be, yes,

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Lord, we love your kingdom. Let us sing heartily unto the Lord, number 353. Today, so we need more men to pray.

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I would ask that we not repeat, pray a second time, unless we've had enough of a pause to give other men a chance.

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So, men, this is a time, if you haven't been praying, today is the day to step up and pray for us.

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Let's pray together this word in unison. O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsel, and all just works, give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ, our

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Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, God forever.

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Amen. The Lord says, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.

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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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Have mercy on us and help us to recognize when we have transgressed this law,

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Lord, we are so easily deceived and readily make idols of anything and everything, putting anything in your place,

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Lord, that doesn't belong there. We pray that you would show us where we have idolized something or anything and give us mercy and that you would grant us repentance,

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Father, that you would help us to recognize where we idolize anything.

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We pray that we would seek to put you first above all things because you alone are God and you alone are worthy of worship and praise and glory.

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We ask that you would give us the strength and the mercy to live all our days according to your law.

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In the name of the Lord, that is pleasing to you, we pray this day in Jesus' name. You shall not not take the name of the

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Lord, your God, in vain. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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Father, we pray to you this morning that we would respect and honor your name and give it the glory and honor that it is due, but I pray that you would allow all of us to keep our words pure,

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Lord God, and to take care and call over how we use your name. Father, I pray that you would allow us to keep the other part of this commandment that we would, as your name bearers,

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Lord God, as Christians, as the children of God, that we would keep your name protected by acting like it.

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Lord God, that as Christians we would not act like the world that we do to you, Father, and that we would protect and honor your children as your followers, in Christ's name we pray.

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Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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Honor your father and your mother. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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We thank you that you have given us fathers and mothers. We thank you, Lord, that you are our father, and we thank you that in some way, shape, or form you've given us the church as our mother.

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We thank you, God, for our elders and all those who are over us, and we do pray that you would have mercy upon us to incline our hearts to keep this your law, that we would honor those who are above us, honor our father and mother, our grandparents, that you would receive glory on the earth as onlookers look onto your church and they see how we're obeying this your commandment.

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Help us, God, in Jesus' name, amen. You shall not kill.

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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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Tell us in your word that if we are simply angry with our brother, we have committed this sin of killing them in our hearts.

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We pray, Father, that you would cause us to be a loving, gracious, and forgiving people, that our hearts would not even dare to break this law, even just simply for a moment being angry with another, especially a fellow brother or sister in Christ.

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We pray, Father, that you would help us in all things to see the good of others, to preserve life and preserve the dignity of all those around us.

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You shall not commit adultery. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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Dear Heavenly Father, I pray as we meditate on this your law, we shall not commit adultery, that we would be disgusted at the thought of it in all its shapes and forms.

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May it bring great disdain and distaste to our mouth, to our hearts, and to our souls.

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May our minds not, by your grace and by the strength of your spirit, give us in Christ.

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May our minds not wander in this regard. May we keep our hearts and our minds pure.

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We pray, God, that you would give us the strength to to flee from sexual immorality.

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I pray, God, that if there be it so in this congregation, in this covenant community,

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God, that it would be eradicated, that we would be sorrowful for our sin and be on our knees daily repenting of this sin, seeing that it would be destroyed in our hearts.

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I pray, Lord God, that families would be intact and by and through Christ, that we would be living in a way that exemplifies his marriage to us.

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And I pray, Lord God, that that would bring purity to our hearts and to our lives, and that we would love each other better and love you as we should.

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In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. You shall not steal. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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This your law and be mindful of what it means to steal. Lord God, while many of us might not commit outright theft, even though that is a sin that some struggle with,

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Lord God, we steal in so many other ways. We steal from our employers by not being diligent and respectful of the time that they pay us for, the efforts that they put in.

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Father, we steal in stealing others joy and others time. Father, there's so many different ways and small ways that we break this commandment.

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Father, I ask that you would allow us to be mindful of what you mean here.

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I pray that you would be respectful of others' property, Lord God, and that we would honor you in doing so.

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You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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You shall not covet. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind, and strength.

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Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.

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Amen. Please stand with joy. Take up our

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Psalm of the Month, Psalm 83.

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Please turn your Bibles to Zechariah. I'm going to begin reading today in verse 7 to remind you.

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We're going to go to chapter 2, verse 5. Brethren, this is

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God's holy and infallible 1 -7.

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On the 24th day of the 11th month, which is in the month

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Shabbat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the

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Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet.

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I saw by night and behold a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees and the hollow, and behind him were horses, red, sorrel, and white.

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Then I said, My Lord, what are these? So the angel who talked with me said to me,

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I will show you what they are. And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said,

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These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth. So they answered the angel of the

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Lord who stood among the myrtle trees and said, We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly.

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Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you were angry these 70 years?

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And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me with good and comforting words.

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So the angel who spoke with me said to me, Proclaim, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts,

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I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease, for I was a little angry and they helped, but with evil intent.

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Therefore, thus says the Lord, I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, says the

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Lord of hosts, and a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.

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Again proclaim, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, my cities shall again spread out through prosperity.

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The Lord will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem. Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns.

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And I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these? So he answered me,

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These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

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Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said, What are these coming to do?

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So he said, These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could lift up his head.

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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.

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Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.

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So I said, Where are you going? And he said to me, To measure

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Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length. And there was the angel who talked with me going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, who said to him,

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Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because the multitude of men and livestock in it.

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For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.

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May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most holy word today.

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Please pray with me. O Lord, we wish to see more and more of the glory of Christ.

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We want to be changed. We want to be transformed more and more into your glorious image.

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We want to love your kingdom, Lord. We want to have greater hope and greater faith in your promises and walk in greater obedience.

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O Lord, I cry out to you and pray that you would bless us in this pursuit today.

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It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Please be seated. Four horns, four craftsmen, and a wall of fire.

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For those of you who are taking notes today, the breakdown is very simple. The first one is taken from the first two words of the title,

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Four Horns. Point one is four horns. Point two is four craftsmen.

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Four craftsmen. And the only one not found in the title is, number three, a man with a measuring line.

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A man with a measuring line. And then four, at least partially,

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God himself is our wall of fire. Four horns, four craftsmen, a man with a measuring line, and God himself our wall of fire.

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The wicked nations exalting their horns in pride will be dismantled.

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The bowed heads of God's people in shame, cowering on the weight of exile and oppression and mistreatment by the nations in opposition to our

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God, their heads are going to be exalted. For the

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Lord is their shield and their strength. He defends them and he makes his abode with them and communes with them there.

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In the future, there is going to be one exalted horn. The horn that represents the everlasting kingdom of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. All other horns will be displaced.

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Let's consider our text, looking again at chapter one, beginning at verse 18.

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Another vision has come to Zechariah. I believe these come in succession.

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Of course, I maybe have mentioned this already. There's different opinions about that. I believe these are successive visions that Zechariah receives.

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Look at verse 18. Then I raised my eyes, and this is a clue that he is receiving the vision, and I looked, and there were four horns.

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And I said to the angel, the angel who talked with me, what are these?

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So he answered me, these are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

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So the first question that has to be on your mind is, what's with the four horns? What does it mean?

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I believe that these horns represent the Gentile nations, past, present, and future.

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There is a real earthy context in which these four horns could be represented, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that.

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But they are emblematic and picturesque of the world in opposition to our

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God. These are the ones, the kingdoms, the horns represent the kingdoms.

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It's right there in our text. These are the ones that have scattered

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Judah, Israel, Jerusalem. These are the wicked nations that oppress

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God's people. This language of horns, when used in this figurative sense, typifies power and strength.

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References like Amos chapter 6, and in 17 weeks or 18 weeks,

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Jeremiah 48, we'll read about it. There have been many nations that have scattered

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God's people. Much speculation has been made in attempting to specify the identities of these four nations to correspond with the four horns of exalted power and strength.

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You could make a connection here very easily between the world powers from every quarter of the world who engaged in harming

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God's people. If you've ever seen a real map of the world,

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Jerusalem, Israel, Canaan is the center of it. I don't believe that's an accident.

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There are kingdoms to the north, to the south, and the east, and to the west.

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The compass center point runs through Jerusalem, the center of God's activity in the world, the cross of Calvary, the birthplace of Christ, the calling and establishing of Abraham.

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The promise is for this location. The trade routes run through Jerusalem.

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The oceans find their way to Jerusalem. The mountains form a shape around Israel.

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The whole of the earth kind of revolves around in this God's redemptive economy around the nation of Israel as we come to this point in Zechariah.

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There are many nations who have oppressed the people of God.

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I believe the best interpretation seems to be that the four horns represent and symbolize world power, worldly power under the sway of the enemy of God, the serpent,

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Satan himself, and his minions, and all who don't believe. This allows for not only political entities and nations, but every power or resource and effort that and the world at large would mobilize to harm and to destroy

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God's people and to suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness. All of that, I think, is swallowed up and subsumed under this heading of the horns.

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These are the horns that have scattered Judah. Powers at work defining themselves by their hostility to God and his people.

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The imagery of horns has a rich heritage in scripture. In royal context, you might remember that the ceremony of anointing a king, a new one, comes through the pouring of oil through a horn onto his head.

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The sign of strength and power is exalted over the head of the new king, and the oil is used, the vessel is the horn itself, to pour the oil that anoints the new king.

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It's a symbol of strength. It's the vessel of anointing. I'd like you to turn to 2

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Samuel chapter 2. Please turn there with me. 2

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Samuel chapter 2. What are these horns?

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What is this all about? Might be 1

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Samuel. I might have the wrong reference. I had something very funny happen while I'm trying to figure this out.

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This happened sometime to me. It's actually 1 Samuel chapter 2. I wrote the reference down wrong.

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I apologize. We were doing the prayers of the people, and it's so funny when this happens.

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I sat there and I said, what am I preaching on today? And I had no idea what I was preaching on in my mind. I couldn't remember what

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I was preaching on. It's very funny. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2. This is verse 1, and we're trying to see how this language of horns was used for Samuel chapter 2.

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And Hannah prayed. Remember Hannah praying, longing to have a child, longing to be blessed.

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She was barren. She asked the Lord to provide her a child that she would consecrate him to the

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Lord's service if he would provide a child for her. And this man became the prophet who would be the king maker.

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He's the one who anoints Saul and David. Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the

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Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.

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No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none beside you, nor is there any rock like our

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God. Talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the

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Lord is the God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

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The bows of the mighty men are broken. It's interesting that Hannah's prayer contains this element.

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Those who stumbled are girded with strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger.

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Even the barren has born seven, and she who has many children has become feeble.

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The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up.

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The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and lifts up.

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He raises the poor from the dust and and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.

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For the pillars of the earth are the lords. He has set the world upon them.

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He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness.

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For by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces.

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From heaven he will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

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He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

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Certainly Samuel's mission and life corresponds to this great king of David, but I think it points to the greater kingship of Christ.

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The exaltation of the horn, the victory symbol, the sign of strength of kings and nations, that's what these horns represent.

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Now let's go back to our text in Zechariah. Historically there's something that's happening here.

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The four horns, there's nations that could be identified by the people who would maybe represent the four horns, and I think they do represent contemporary nations, but I think this representation is bigger and more grand in that this thing that's happening in real time in their presence speaks to bigger and eternal realities, things that will be accomplished in the future.

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Historically Assyria scattered the northern tribes of Israel into exile during a three -year siege of Samaria.

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You might remember that from 2 Kings in chapter 17. A little bit more than a hundred years after that, the southern tribes of Judah, the primary audience here, fell to Babylon with Jerusalem and the temple being destroyed.

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So we've got a couple nations here. Other smaller nations, we sang about them even in Psalm 83 today, they were guilty of violence against them as well.

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Edom reveled in the defeat of Judah and sent those fleeing

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Judeans, they're running for their lives from Babylon, they send them back, they capture them and send them back to the

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Babylonians. After the people were exiled, we learn from the prophet

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Obadiah, the Edomites looted and plundered the wealth of God's people and they celebrated with drunkenness.

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They go in, they steal their possessions and they have a big party. Other parts of the land were overthrown by the

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Phoenicians and that old foe the Philistines as well as the

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Ammonites. The use of horns is here drawing on a well -known motif that represents powerful, aggressive, and in this case wicked nations.

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The significance of the horns is more tied to maybe the number four than the individual identities of them.

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Later in Zechariah, four chariots are tied to the four winds of heaven, symbolic of the broad scope of the whole entire world.

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That comprehensiveness, I believe, is in view here. Gentile nations, past, present, and future.

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The four horns therefore signify the totality of the hostile nations of the

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Lord of the world against our Lord and against his people. The current real events of Zechariah and his audience, the things they were expressing tangibly in real time follows a redemptive cycle of God's people that they have experienced throughout the ages.

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Now when we think about the horns and their dismantling, which will be the second point we'll be considering the four craftsmen,

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I want to put something in your mind to be thinking about as we go through the explanation of the four craftsmen.

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Think about Pharaoh dealing with Moses, the slaves of Israel.

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I think just picture these slaves in Israel, the slaves of Israel in Egypt, are under the heavy oppression of Pharaoh.

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It gets to the place, their brick layers, their building structures, which I think figures into the kind of this imagery here that we're talking about today in Zechariah.

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Their heavy burden of straw gathering is imposed upon them. How unlikely was it to Pharaoh that this penniless, no armor, no weaponry, slave people would topple him.

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It's impossible that they would. His boot was on their neck, but their chariots and their horsemen, they drown in the

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Red Sea. The Lord is on the side of his people. The power of Egypt was greater probably than any power in the world at that time, and this little small nation of people is delivered by the hand of God.

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It's a powerful imagery to describe the Lord's care and concern from his people.

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Remember chapter 1 verse 16, I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy.

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You've been under oppression. You've been exiled. My house is going to be built there.

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My cities again are going to spread out through prosperity. The Lord will again comfort

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Zion, and he will again choose Jerusalem. Encouraging word for a people who are saying and asking questions.

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We're here in the land. It's destitute. We have no resources. Is the

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Lord really going to be with us? Let's consider the second part of our study today, beginning in verse 20.

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The Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said, what are these coming to do?

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So he said, these are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could lift up his head.

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Imagine the horns lifted up and exalted the people, the wicked people of these wicked nations with their haughty faces and their chins lifted to the heaven whilst the people of God have their faces to the ground.

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There is no hope for this weak people. They don't have a standing army. How are they going to be let go and out from under the oppression of their captors?

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But there's craftsmen. These are ordinary craftsmen.

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The terms are used elsewhere in scripture for guys who are blacksmiths, jewelry engravers,

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Exodus 28, artisans for the temple furniture,

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Exodus 35, metal workers, Deuteronomy chapter 27, carpenters, 2

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Kings 12, and stonemasons, 2 Samuel 5.

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In other words, the picture, the overthrow, the toppling of the four horns is represented with the images of common tradesmen, not powerful armies, not kings.

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The royal imagery of the extraordinary, the horn is now dismantled by the ordinary.

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When the nations lift up their horn against the land of Judah, the result was that no man in Judah could lift up his head because of the dishonor, the shame, the oppression that was imposed upon him.

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And just as the nations lift up their horn, so now the craftsmen, humble as they are, tear them down.

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As a result, the people will once again be able to lift up their heads.

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Who are the craftsmen? Of course, one argument is that the craftsmen were the skilled workers who were rebuilding the temple.

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Now, this seems to be the case in all of the prophecies here in this section. There's four horns.

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There probably are four nations that Zechariah and his audience could identify as those four horns.

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The image of the craftsmen, no doubt there were stonemasons and carpenters and blacksmiths at work trying to rebuild the temple.

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But is there something else in view here? Who are they? Of course, this makes perfect sense that they would be those tradesmen engaged in this.

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You could probably hear the pounding of the hammer onto chisels, crushing rocks outside during the daytime as Zechariah is receiving this word from the

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Lord. But it seems to me that they typify with this real world application and fulfillment and the temple reconstruction.

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These are those divine agents who carry out God's will as he rebuilds his kingdom.

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The temple and Jerusalem rebuilding project testifies that God's people have not permanently been vanquished.

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Could you imagine when the Enamites plundered the cities after Babylon has carried them away, could they have envisioned a day when

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God's people would rebuild those ruins? Could Pharaoh have, in his mind, could he have conceived a time when

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Israel would be set free from his clutches, that his firstborn son and all the nations firstborn would be slain?

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Could he envision the victory of God over him? The craftsmen are busy at work rebuilding

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God's temple. And now this picture is God's agents, both celestial and terrestrial, both cosmic, angelic, and people are at work building his everlasting kingdom.

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The thrust of this craftsman imagery lies not in their identity but in their function.

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What are these coming to do? They're coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter them.

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Now, the thrust of this idea shows us that God is using them to bring down the horns of the

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Hadi and to lift up the heads of the downcast.

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The people of God, taken captive formerly, trampled, are now engaged in a

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God glorifying work. They are on their way to having their own fig tree, their own vineyards, taking wives, a quiver full of children, building homes, having sheep and oxen, having vats full of new wine, and having barns full of good grain.

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They have now a great hope for the future. What is also striking about this vision is the lack of covenant obligations and stipulations there are on the people of God.

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Notice this. God doesn't say to Zechariah, if you guys do this then I will be pleased to dismantle the four horns that oppressed you.

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God says, my craftsmen are at work right now. They're coming to terrify them.

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They're coming to cast out the horns of the nations that have lifted up and exalted their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.

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This takes us to the third prophecy. I should say the third element of this vision today is a man with a measuring line.

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Look at chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. For all the pain of exile, all that is represented, nothing should have been more discouraging to the people of God than that sense that the

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Lord had abandoned them. In lamentations, the

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Lord seems to have brought affliction upon and even rejected his people.

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What a terrifying thought. He says that he disowned them.

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He says elsewhere to Jeremiah, I have forsaken my house. I have abandoned my heritage.

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I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies.

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As an exiled, now returning people, would God really re -establish his presence among them?

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Would he really again dwell in Jerusalem? If the temple is going to be rebuilt, will the glory of God refill it?

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Third vision here picks up the theme that the Lord will return to Jerusalem with mercy.

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We just read this. He's going to build his house. Verse 16 of chapter 1, a surveyor's line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.

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This portion of the vision is very exciting to me. Zechariah now sees in this vision a man with a measuring line.

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It's already been promised that there's going to be some of this activity happening in Jerusalem.

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He's now going out to measure Jerusalem to see what is its width and what is its length.

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As you know, every building project requires the drawing of straight lines.

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There's corners to be laid out, a cornerstone to to set the walls.

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How long, how high will the structure be? The image, like the others, has this picture.

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There's probably guys out with plumb lines trying to measure the outline of the temple or out by the walls to to measure the walls of Jerusalem.

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So the image is one of reconstruction. The city lacked walls and is in the earliest stages of rebuilding the temple.

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They no doubt felt vulnerable. They have been carried off before. They've been defeated before.

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We have to go out. We have to build a fortification. We have to build a wall around Jerusalem so that we'd be protected from our enemies.

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But the man receives some very strange instructions. He's moving out.

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He's asked the question from Zechariah's angel, where are you going to measure

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Jerusalem to see what is its width and length? And the angel who talked to me, verse 3 of chapter 2 says, going out, the other angel comes out to meet him and he says to him, run, speak to this young man saying,

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Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls because of the multitude of the men and livestock in it.

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He wants to measure for what future Jerusalem will be, but the angel comes and intervenes.

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A city without a fortification would be a disgrace and vulnerable to attack.

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Both of these negatives would be fresh on the mind of these people coming out of captivity, coming out of exile, but in this case it's a vision of future glory.

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The people will be so numerous. The cattle will be so plenty.

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Can you imagine this? Sir, Mr. Surveyor, your measuring line is not big enough.

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This city is going to be so big that its wall perimeter cannot be measured.

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In fact, we don't even need the walls. We're going to be a city without walls.

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What about the future preservation and protection and prosperity of Jerusalem?

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You can imagine the eager measurer thinking, I've got to do something to lay out the plans that will be protected.

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Zechariah learns and communicates to us that God is more invested in the preservation and protection of his people than the wall builders and the temple builders could ever be.

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Here's the point. The security and the success of God's people will not be accomplished through the production of man -made fortifications or by any other human endeavor.

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It will be accomplished by his presence. He says to them, go now, forget the wall, you go and build the temple.

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That my presence might come in. That God himself is going to defend the city.

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As I think about this, we come together. It was striking to me before our prayer time, before the service.

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We have very little conception of the privilege that we have to gather in the safety and security as God's people to come into his presence.

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Coming to church is fallen on hard times. How important is it really, we might say.

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What a privilege for us to come into his presence. In the idealized world of Zechariah, they hoped there would be a place where the

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Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God, would be in the Holy of Holies and the high priest once a year could go in.

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This is the apex of glory for them to have an approach through a mediator, through a priest, that he could go in and stand in the presence of God.

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And here we are. We've gathered today and we have found ourselves in no other place than the throne room of heaven.

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We have a free and easy access and approach to the thrice holy God. Zechariah learns that God is much more invested in their preservation and protection than they could ever be.

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Security is God's presence and people of God, you have absolute security because you have the presence of God.

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The Lord Jesus Christ himself came in the flesh to tabernacle with us.

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He has, since his ascension, he has sent his

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Holy Spirit to remain God with us. Our safety and our security is sure because of this great work of redemption that our

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God has done. This takes us to our exciting conclusion today, the fourth point.

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God himself is our wall of fire. The Lord here says this

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Jerusalem is going to be bigger than your measuring line can measure.

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There's about 50 ,000 people approximately who have returned to the towns.

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We know that at the time of Jesus the the non -feast day population of Jerusalem is probably 60 or 70 ,000 people with hundreds of thousands of people flocking in on the feast days.

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I don't think he's talking just about Jerusalem here. I think what he's saying is the presence of God is coming to the world.

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He's talking about the incarnation. He's talking about what Christ is going to do.

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He's talking about bringing the Gentiles in. He's talking about the expansion of the meeting place with God to the ends of the earth.

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And he says in verse 5, for I says the

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Lord will be a wall of fire all around her and I will be the glory in her midst.

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The Lord's going to protect them and he's going to protect us. The vision speaks of a day when the inhabitants of God's holy city will need neither walls of protection nor have to search after God.

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For the protection the firewall of God will be in place and the effulgent glory of his presence its light and its heat will be felt by all.

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God will enable Zechariah's contemporaries to accomplish the work that he has given to them.

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He will defend them from foreign invaders. He will prosper the work of their hands.

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Remember they're idealizing a day and rightly so when God's presence would reside in the inner sanctum of the holy of holies.

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Much more so now for us when the presence of God has come down in Christ.

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Jesus the second person of the trinity the king of kings the ancient of days the captain of the

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Lord's armies has come and taken us to be his living stones temple and here he dwells with us.

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His abiding presence is felt with the active working and power of the holy spirit.

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His and his helper our helper I should say remains with us. He has so comprehensively drawn us into his presence that he has made us one with his own person.

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We are the body of Christ. God in the midst of us.

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God united to us in a one flesh union. Zechariah speaks to his generation.

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The temple is going to be rebuilt. Jerusalem is going to be rebuilt.

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The Lord will encircle them with his love and protection as a wall of fire.

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I found something in my study that I thought you might find interesting. The wall of fire reference to me seems kind of strange that it would be here to be honest.

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This author has written on the subject his name is Brian Gregory and I want to read a portion of this to help kind of settle this for us.

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Why this language of the wall of fire? This is his words. The Lord declares that he will be an encircling wall of fire for Jerusalem as well as the glory inside it.

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Remember all these references I believe have been taken. The four horns, the four nations oppressing

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Israel, Judah. The four craftsmen

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I believe it's emblematic that could hear and see the craftsmen working there and he sees a bigger application of this building this temple rebuilding project.

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So there's an already and there's a not yet in all of this. There's something happening but it speaks to to bigger realities that are going to happen in the future.

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I found this to be fascinating. He says the image of the wall of fire is probably an allusion to the royal

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Persian city of Pasargadae which was built by Cyrus was later the site of his tomb.

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Inside instead of walls I should say the city was outfitted with fire altars inside and outside it symbolizing the presence of a false god called

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Ahura Mazda. He believes that this image is adopted and transformed to speak of a day when

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Jerusalem would not need walls for protection because the Lord would be there with his presence.

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You say well why would he do that? Persia has been the instrument that has delivered

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Israel from Babylon. They have fire altars surrounding their city and everyone recoils back in terror because of the might of Persia.

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God says if Persia can deliver you from the hands of the Babylonians and their wicked pagans who worship false gods how much more is my protection if I will be the wall of fire that encompasses and encircles you around you keeps you safe?

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How much greater is my deliverance than the deliverance of Cyrus of Persia?

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I also think this speaks of something and I hope your mind was thinking will he go there?

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Should he go there for this? I think the answer is yes. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 21 and see if you think there's a connection between Zechariah and Revelation.

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Am I pushing the the limits here or not? Turn to Revelation 21.

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I want you to think about horns and craftsmen and measuring lines and fire and temples and all the language that we've been considering.

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Let me get reading in Revelation 21 verse 9. Oh so good.

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Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying come

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I will show you the bride the Lamb's wife and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me there the great city the holy

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Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God having the glory of God her light was like a most precious stone like a jasper stone clear as crystal also she had a great and high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates and names written on them which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel three gates on the east three gates on the north three gates on the south three gates on the west four sides four horns four chariots four horsemen verse 14 now the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the