Alright, take your Bibles and
turn to Zechariah chapter 9. So if you go to Matthew, then
you can go back to Malachi, and then Zechariah will be that book
right there. Zechariah chapter 9. And our God here is speaking
to the church, declaring the salvation that He has provided
for her and for her children, saying in Zechariah chapter 9,
verse 11, As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have
sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water,
so that the Lord's declaring to the church that I have provided
all things necessary for your salvation. Therefore, he says
in verse 12, turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. My title this evening is Prisoners
of Hope. Prisoners of Hope. And we'll
have three rough divisions, looking at the stronghold, the prisoner
of hope, and what this doubling signifies. Alright, so, considering
the stronghold, brethren, the stronghold, we know who he is.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how do we know that Christ
is the stronghold? Well, God Almighty Himself declares
over and over again that Christ, His servant, His Son, is the
preeminent one. We see Him declared in all the
scriptures, right? In 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20,
it says, For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in
Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us. And in Acts chapter
4, verse 10, Peter was emboldened to say this, Be it known unto
you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised
from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you
whole. And so it is with every sinner
whom God saves by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ confesses
standing before God and men that I'm here whole because of what
Christ Jesus has done for me and otherwise I would not be
whole and able to stand here. Therefore, Peter could go on
and say in verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other
for there is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved." So, Jesus Christ, He is the stronghold. Why is the Lord Jesus Christ
the stronghold? Well, back there in verse 11,
in Zechariah 9, 11, It says, As for thee also, God speaking
to his church, by the blood of thy covenant, that is, that she
is the happy recipient of that covenant between God the Father
and his Son Jesus Christ, I have sent forth thy prisoners out
of the pit wherein is no water. which prison is really our flesh,
because in this flesh we have no ability to please God or to
do the things that God requires of us to do. We are in prison,
bound, and in this prison there's no water, there's no life, there's
nothing by which we could come before God and say, look, God,
look what I've done for you. God will not receive the works
done in this flesh. Romans 7.5 says it this way,
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were
by the law did work on our members to bring forth fruit. unto death. Unto death. That's all that we
do in this flesh, is bring forth fruit. We might think we're doing
well, but it's fruit that leads unto death. And that's all we
are. Dying thou shalt die, as he said to Adam. So, concerning
this covenant spoken of here, if you turn over to Isaiah chapter
42. Isaiah 42, and we're going to look down in verse 6 and 7.
We know that Christ himself is the covenant, right? Christ is,
it's by him that we have deliverance in this covenant with Christ,
right? Being delivered from the prison of this flesh, because
under the covenant of the law, the works of the law, we can't
please God. We can't come to God by that
covenant. So, Christ is the covenant, and he says in verse six, I the
Lord have called thee, to Christ his Son, in righteousness, and
will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for
a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Now,
who is this Lord that can speak with such authority? Well, if
you look there in verse 5, Thus saith God the Lord, he that created
the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the
earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath
unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. It's the Lord God who created
all things. He was there in the beginning,
all things were created by Him. He's speaking to Him by whom
He created all things, to His Son, Jesus Christ. In John 1,
we read, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And then
in verse 14 of that same chapter, We read, and the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glories
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." It's
this one that we speak of. It's this one that we declare
and worship and rejoice in God, our Savior, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, because He is the salvation of His people. This is the one
to whom it was told to Joseph, the husband of Mary, thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So for that purpose, Christ came
in the flesh, and he came to do that work which we ourselves
cannot do. He came to deliver us from our
sins, because we are vile sinners, unable to keep the law that God
gave. In Hebrews 2, 16, for verily
he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
Why? To make reconciliation for the
sins of the people. This is why Christ came. He didn't
come to set a good example for us to follow. He didn't come
just to make it seem or show us a way that we can make ourselves
right with God. He came because we cannot make
ourselves right with God. By the works of our flesh, we
cannot please God. So Christ came to do all the
work necessary on behalf of his people, and fulfilling all righteousness
for them. And then he laid down his life,
his life for our life, his blood for our blood. Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us." So
Christ fulfilled all that righteousness that we ourselves cannot do.
You realize in Adam, When Adam sinned, we were in Adam's loins.
Every human that followed, followed after Adam. And so when Adam
heard what God said to do and not to do, and Adam disobeyed
him, we disobeyed God right there with Adam. And that's why we
are, in that moment, The whole race of Adam was plunged into
spiritual death right then and there. We were cut off. The fellowship
with God was severed. It was broken right there. So
you could say, well, why was the law given? Well, the law
was given to bring to light how wicked we are that we're unable
to save ourselves, that we can't keep that law. not to see the
law and say, oh, this is how I please God, but rather the
law was given so that we might see that we cannot keep that
law, that we might beg God for mercy, that he should save us
and deliver us from this. The scriptures declare to us,
that we cannot please God. Romans 7.10 says, "...the commandment
which was ordained to life I found to be unto death, for sin taking
occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me." So that
the Scriptures declare to us And many people miss it, but
the scriptures declare plainly that we're dead in trespasses
and sins. Until God comes to us and has
mercy upon us, we don't know how to approach Him. We don't
even know that we're cut off from Him. We think that we're
worshiping God by the things that we do, and we don't even
realize how dead we are. in this sin and how the darkness
that's upon us that we can't even understand or realize that
we've offended God and God is not pleased with us. He's not
pleased with the charades that men do in their religion, that
they're cut off. And the reason why is that now
We come forth in natural birth enemies against God. Enemies
against God in our own minds, in our thoughts, in our hearts,
in our deeds, and oftentimes we think that we're doing things
that please God, and that's the folly of it all is that we're
so deceived and in such darkness that we don't even realize that
when we do works that men call good, And we do them not in faith,
not believing in Christ, not covered in the blood of Christ.
We're just doing religious works that God isn't pleased with.
And so we need Christ. Christ is the righteousness of
God. And the reason why is because
we're enemies of God. We are natural-born enemies of
God Almighty. In Romans 8, 7 and 8, it says,
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. And that's a good, good scripture
for us to remember. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. And we like to forget about that.
But that's what the scriptures declare and what they say to
us and they make it plain to us. Until the Spirit pulls back
that veil of darkness that we're under, we don't see how we've
offended a holy and a righteous God. So the Lord comes to us
in power. It's He who comes to us in power,
declaring the gospel to us, declaring that we are saved by the blood
and the righteousness of another. not our own. Jesus isn't just
a good man or a good prophet or something like that. Jesus
Christ is the salvation of His people. All His people are saved
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord comes to us in power,
bringing that gospel to us, enabling us to hear it, and He says in
that gospel, turn you to the stronghold. Turn to the Lord
Jesus Christ, because that, in Him, that's where I'll meet you,
that's where you'll have peace with me, that's where I'll fellowship
with you again. You were cut off in Adam, I'll
have fellowship with you again under the blood of Jesus Christ.
Don't face me in judgment, standing before me, boasting of your own
righteousness and your own works. Don't dare stand before God coming
with your own righteousness and your own good works. God will
not receive you. You'll be cut off. Alright, our
next point, the prisoner of hope. So, we turn to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the stronghold. Rather, we're made to flee to
Christ, the stronghold, when God shows us who He is and what
we are by nature. So, God gives us life in His
Son, showing us that we are dead sinners, that we have a need,
that we have a desperate need and we must get to Christ. We
must know Him. We must understand what these
words mean. Why were these words given? To
show us the Lord Jesus Christ. So we begin seeking the Lord
and what a mercy it is if the Lord spares us from years and
years and years of just going through all these different so-called
churches and the confusion where you go there, you hear them open
up the Bible and talk about the Bible or talk about Jesus, but
You go away still thinking that there's something that you have
to do and there's something that you need to add. That it's Jesus
plus something that I do. And that's not the gospel. The
gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ did all the work and there's
nothing more for me to do. But he'll give you a heart. I
mean, he will give you a heart in which you desire and rejoice
to serve the brethren and to meet with one another and rejoice
in that same God that saved you together with your brethren,
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. So he'll give you a heart to
serve him and to do things that are good works, but Not at all
because you're trying to earn salvation or trying to make up
because you're a sinner, because we all are sinners. We all know
what we are by nature and we still see that we fall and stumble
and sin and that we desperately, continually, always need the
Lord's grace. But He does give us a heart to
want to join together and to worship and serve Him. The Lord,
applying the scriptures, will show us our need, that we're
all sinners in need of his grace. And that's why it says, All we
like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord did what? He hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. So that we begin to see and understand
that this was no light thing that the Lord did. I truly am
a vile and a wretched sinner. And that the Lord will continue
to show, it's not even just the outward things. Many people look
at the outward things, smoking or drinking or something like
that, but it's a heart matter. By nature, we hate the Lord.
We don't love his truth. We don't love his salvation.
And it goes deep, deep, deep into the heart so that the Lord
has to uncover that and show us. We could hide many things
on the outward, right? We can hide a lot of things from
one another, but you can't hide the true sin of the heart from
the Lord. It says of Christ, he was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And so the scriptures declare
that Christ is that Lamb of God. He's the one that was ordained
from the foundation of the earth to die in the place of His people,
to be that covenant blood for His people, that we should be
saved under that covenant, not under that covenant of works,
but under the covenant of Christ's blood. He's the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, and He says, if any man have
an ear to hear, Let them hear. Let them hear what the Spirit
sayeth. Because, right, you could go to many churches, you could
even sit under the true gospel for many, many years, and until
you are made to hear it, you won't. In fact, let me read this
in Acts. I was reading this last night,
and I thought, I never saw it before. An X10-43. Peter is there preaching to the
Gentiles, right? This is the first household that
he goes into and he's preaching to Cornelius and there's other
Gentiles there, friends of Cornelius, some family members and things
like that. And it says, and Peter says to him, give all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. And look at this verse, verse
44, while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on
all them which heard the word." There may have been people there
that Cornelius gathered that didn't necessarily hear it, but
it says the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word. And I never really caught that
before. We were showing that. And that's why when you see the
beauty of that, when Christ says, if any man has an ear to hear,
let him hear. So the Spirit has to take the
Gospel and lay it to our hearts and show us our need of Him. If any man hears the Word, they'll
hear it and they'll believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what we see there with Peter when he was preaching to the
household there at Cornelius. They that heard the Word received
the Spirit. So Christ is the Lamb of God. He's the one who
came to lay down His life and shed His blood. Again, His life
for my life. His blood for your blood. He
died in our place. He is the substitute and the
surety that we need, the salvation that we need. That's why Paul
could say in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. If any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us. The Word of Reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the
righteousness of God and Him." Over and over, the Scriptures
declare to us that Christ is salvation. Get to Christ. He's
the stronghold. He is where God will have peace
with you, where God forgives His people, where God puts away
their sin. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're never going to do it as
long as you're striving and trying to do do-do and do your own works
and do what you got to do, what you think you got to do to please
God. You'll never have peace with God. You'll constantly find
fault. Because that's why the law was
given, to show you your faults. Not to show you a way that you
can make yourself holy, but to show and point out, oh, I can't
please you, Lord, by doing these things. There's nothing I can
do to save myself. Must get to Christ. So, Christ
is the one in whom God has set forth, and by His Spirit, He
teaches us that in the heart, by His Spirit, He gives us those
gifts, He creates in us that new man, giving us those gifts,
so that we come to understand that the gifts that we have,
the faith that we have, we can't even boast in, because we know
that the faith that we have is a gift from our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember when Abraham sent his
servant out there to get Rebekah to be a wife for Isaac? And when
they got there, they gave her gold necklaces and all these
jewels and things like that, rich jewels. And that's just
what the Lord Jesus Christ does for His bride. He comes and He
gives her rich jewels and precious jewels and fine things like hope. and faith, and love, and joy,
and rejoicing in Him. These are all precious gifts
that we don't have by nature, not for Him. By nature we hate
Him, so He brings these things and He gives these things to
us. And then as we see Him and as
we grow in Him, then we own what we are by nature. that we are
just vile, dead dog sinners in need of His mercy, in need of
His grace, and we come as beggars seeking Him. But until we have
life and we hear it by the Spirit, we're gonna be just like those
Jews who murmured and complained against Christ, saying, or Christ
said to them, to those Jews which believed on Him, many people
believed on Him, but He said, if ye continue My word, then
are ye My disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be
Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest
thou you shall be made free? We're not prisoners. We don't
have need of a deliverance. What are you talking about, Jesus?
So Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever
committeth sin is the servant of sin. And carnal man hates
that message. He won't receive it, because
we're saying that there's nothing that you can do to save yourself.
You need a Savior, and that Savior is provided in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Another example is from John
9, 39. Jesus said, For judgment I am coming to this world, that
which they that would see not might see, and that they which
see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now ye say, We see. Therefore
your sin remaineth." And the lesson there is that so long
as you seek to justify yourself and say, well, I'm not that bad. I'm not as bad as my neighbor
or not as bad as these other people. I'm pretty good. So as
long as we seek to justify ourselves, we're not justified with God.
There's no justification with God. You're not going to argue
your way out of this one. So, but in Luke 22, 23, Jesus
said, well, let me just say, Christ came to deliver the blinded.
He came to deliver the prisoner. It's those who need a Savior
that He came to save. So that's why He teaches you
your need of Him so that you'll see that you need Him and that
He's precious to you. He's made precious to you by
the Lord God Almighty. Jesus said, Go tell John what
things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised
to the poor the gospel is preached, and blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. I would ask you, do you hear
a description of yourself from what Christ told those disciples
of John? Are you deaf? Are you blind? Are you a leper? Do you own that? Are you poor, so poor that you
need His righteousness and you have no righteousness of your
own? Or, do those things offend you? And do you say, that's not
me, I don't need that. I don't need that kind of salvation.
Does that offend you? Or do you find that to be sweet,
knowing that that's exactly what you need? Because you are blind,
and you are poor, and you are a prisoner, and you are in darkness,
and you do have a great need. And only Christ can fill that
need. Brethren, you've heard Christ
preach to you, and there's hope for the sinner in Christ. Christ
came to set the sinner free, came to set them free from their
prison and the darkness that they're under by nature. Christ
is the Savior of sinners. We read in the Gospel of Luke,
Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners, for to
hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And we say, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, because that's our
gospel, that you receive sinners and you eat with them. Lord,
that's my hope because you've shown me what I am, that I am
a sinner, that I am in need of your grace and I have no hope
outside of it. Thank you, Lord, that you receive
sinners. There's hope for me yet. There's
hope for me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord read in the
synagogue that passage from Isaiah, which reads in Isaiah 61, 1 and
2, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord
hath anointed me, right, he's the preeminent one, to preach
good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn. And then we read, he closed up
the book, right, and he gave it again to the minister and
sat down, and all the eyes were fastened on him, all the people
in the synagogue, and watched him go, and he sat down, and
he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And then he continued to speak,
and it says, all bearing witness and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth. But it was only a little bit
after that, as he described those that he came to save, that they
were offended in him. And the things that he said,
they became offended in him because he was saying to them, you're
broken hearted, you're lame, you're the leper, you're the
widow who has need of someone to come and provide for them.
And they didn't like hearing that. They did not like hearing
it because they didn't own what they are by nature. They weren't
saying, I'm not sick. I don't have need of a savior.
I'm not in prison. I'm not bound so that if we read
eventually that all day in the synagogue when they heard these
things were filled with wrath and they rose up and thrust them
out of the city and led them unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built that they might cast him down headlong. The reality is that the scriptures
declare that we are in desperate need. We've offended holy God. In Adam, we offended God. Right
then and there, God severed fellowship with Adam. And all we were in
him, and that fellowship is severed. So that we cannot know God. We cannot please God. The law,
you know, people were dying before the law was ever given by Moses.
Right? People were still dying at that
time. The reality is that we can't save ourselves. That law
was given simply to show us our need of Christ. And that's why
I declare to you over and over again that we're sinners, we're
sick, we fell in the fall, we died in the fall, and there's
no hope for us outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why
Christ was given to save His people. Alright, now in our text
in Zechariah 9.12, Zechariah 9.12 says, Turn you
to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare
that I will render double unto thee. So what does this double
speak of? Well, contained in the Old Testament,
we read of there being a covenant of works that was given by Moses
to the children of Israel. And the covenant of works, it
demands perfect obedience by by the person who is under that
covenant. We must be perfectly obedient in every point, every
jot, every tittle, everything. You can't leave anything undone
or else you will not have kept the law of God perfectly. And
there is no saint who was ever saved under the covenant of law.
So even when we read in the Old Testament There's not a single
saint, there's not a single child of God that was ever saved by
their keeping of the law. They were all saved by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto the coming of the Messiah. Because the reality is, it's
impossible to please God by the law. Here's a good summary of
the law. In Deuteronomy 6, 24, it says, and the Lord commanded
us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our
good always that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day
and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these
commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded
us." And if you've ever tried to keep the law, you know that's
a big if. It's an if that's impossible
for us to keep. We cannot keep the law of God. And it was, so, well, if you
turn to Acts 15, Acts 15, We see how the Lord used the
apostles to show us and to declare to us plainly, even after Christ
came and was crucified and rose again, to declare to us plainly
that we're not under the law now. The law has no part in our
righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
So in Acts 15 verse 5, We read that there arose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise the Gentiles and to command them to keep the
law of Moses. So there was men in their day
that were driving men back to Sinai, just as there's men in
our day driving us back to Mount Sinai and adding confusion to
the gospel, right? Because the gospel declares plainly,
you're a sinner. You can't save yourself. Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Flee to Christ.
And then there's other, there's many churches though that still
teach, oh yeah, Jesus is salvation and that's how you're justified,
but you gotta keep the law if you're gonna be holy and if you're
gonna be sanctified with God and if you're gonna please God,
start going back to the law and they drive you back, away from
Christ, right back to Mount Sinai and encourage you to keep the
law, just as these guys were doing in their day. And the apostles
and elders came together for to consider of this matter. So,
after some discussion that goes back and forth, Peter stands
up and he declares how God had saved the Gentiles through the
preaching of the gospel, apart from the law. They didn't have
the law, he was just preaching and declaring Christ. And the
Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word. Now therefore,
he says, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the
disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But
we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall
be saved even as they." So it's not only that we need God's grace
to save us, but that we must have God's grace to save us because
we're not going to be saved any other way. It's certainly not
going to be by our keeping of the law, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear, Peter said. So the purpose of the law
is the law entered that the offense might abound. That's why God
gave the law, to make it very obvious to us that it's not by
the law that I'm going to come to God, because I'm a sinner.
The law exposes my sin very plainly to me. Now, if you're still under
a veil, it's hard to see that. It's hard to recognize that or
see it. But until the Spirit takes that
veil away, but when He does, then you see plainly what's going
on. Again in our text, 9-11, I'll
just read it. As for thee also, by the blood
of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein is no water. So brethren, that covenant of
works, there's no water. There's nothing there to help
you or to give life to your dead flesh. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul
describes it as the letter which killeth. And it's a ministration
of death, he says. It's a ministration of condemnation. But what does the verse in our
text say in Zechariah 9, 12? Turn you to the stronghold, ye
prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. So God, because we needed a better
covenant, the covenant of works was not going to work for us. It doesn't work for us. We need
a better covenant, the covenant of Christ His Son. So this word
double, what I wanted to show you is that this word double
also means second. And I'll read a verse in Jeremiah
52, 24, where you see the same word. It's used to mean second,
all right? And the captain of the guard
took Sariah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest. That's the same word as what's
used here that the Lord will render double to thee, or render
a second unto thee. And what God is saying there
is that I'm taking you out from under this covenant of works
that was given just to show you that you're sinners, to show
you that you can't please me by the works of your flesh, and
I'll put you under the covenant of blood, the covenant of my
Son, Jesus Christ." So that if you turn to Hebrews 8, you can
see that's what the Apostle is saying there in Hebrews 8, in
verse 6. But now hath Christ obtained
a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant which was established upon better promises.
So listen up, you who are prisoners of hope, for if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. for finding fault with them, that is, with the
people, us, you and me, finding fault with us and our flesh and
our inability to please God by the works of the law, right,
being bound in our sin and bound in darkness, for finding fault
with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. and
with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that
I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued
not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind, and write them in their hearts. This is the gospel law,
brethren. And I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away." So then, that's why we're under
the new covenant, the covenant of Christ's blood. That's where
God cleanses and washes away all our sins. We're as holy and
as righteous and as sanctified as we're ever going to be in
the Lord Jesus Christ. For of God, he has made Christ
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He's made him all things to us. And we did nothing. So that Christ
is precious to us and he gives us a heart to love him and a
heart to serve him. You don't need the law to whip
yourself and to whip your brethren with, because that's what happens.
As soon as you bring the law in, you start becoming inspectors
of one another. Once you feel like you've finally
arrived a bit, as long as you're down and you're struggling with
your sin, your eyes are on yourself, but once you feel like You know,
I think I kind of kicked that thing finally. I think I got
it. And all of a sudden, you're noticing your brethren. You're
like, wow, you know, like I'm showing up five minutes earlier
than they are. I can see that. Why aren't they getting here
more on time? You know, you start inspecting other people's fruit. You become
fruit inspectors, as one of our brethren says, fruit inspectors.
So, that's not what we're called to do, is be fruit inspectors,
but to love our brethren, to encourage them in the Lord Jesus
Christ, to rejoice in what He's done for us. And trust that He'll
teach us. He'll show us the things that
we have need of and that we ought to comfort one another in the
gospel and declare what Christ has done. Because that's how
our hearts are warmed to Him. Not by the whipping and the fear-mongering
and beating people with the law, but declaring what Christ has
done. That He has saved them from their
sins. So when Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 15, he says, even unto
this day when Moses is read, the administration of condemnation,
he says, the veil is upon their heart. So that when that veil
is on your heart, you don't know, you don't hear the law right,
that the law is condemning you. It's condemning you because you're
not keeping the law. None of us are keeping the law
the way it should be kept. Nevertheless, when it, the heart,
shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now, a good
question is, well, wait a minute. How's a dead sinner, how's a
dead sinner's heart gonna turn to the Lord? He has no spirit
to do that. But, well, verse 17, now the
Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there
is life and liberty. But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changing to the same
image from glory, that first covenant of that ministry of
condemnation, unto glory. To the glory of Christ, the second
covenant established in Christ's blood upon better promises, even
as by the Spirit of the Lord. Because that's the only way it's
ever going to happen, is that the Spirit attends that word,
lays it to your heart, shows you that Christ is sufficient.
There's nothing more you need to do. And know, if the Spirit
of God truly lays that to your heart, know you're not going
to go off and do what you want to do. I mean, you will go off
and do what you want to do, but it's not that you're going to
go off and sin him, because he turns that heart. So, that's
not the things that you want. The flesh always lusts for it.
That's why Peter said, brethren, don't lust. Don't pursue the lusts of your
flesh which war against your soul. Give up these things. The
flesh isn't getting any better. And the law isn't going to make
the flesh any better. The law is only going to make the flesh
more crafty, more evil, more hurtful against his brethren.
So, we're delivered from that. Wherefore, Romans 7.4 says, Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. So before, all we did was bring
forth fruit unto death, and now, by His Spirit, we bring forth
fruit unto God, so that the Lord breaks us from the bondage of
the law and the covenant of works. He puts us in Christ, making
Christ all things to us. all things needful, all things
necessary. He fulfills it all. For this
is my covenant to them when I shall take away their sins." So God
meets with us, turning us to the Lord Jesus Christ, showing
us that He's a sufficient stronghold. that God shall meet with us in
the Lord Jesus Christ, God shall put away our sins in the Lord
Jesus Christ, God shall establish peace with us in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He makes them sufficient to us so that we are satisfied. Just as God is satisfied with
Christ, we're satisfied with Christ. So we're not going out
and striving to do more than what Christ has already done.
We trust that God has meant what he said when he said that, in
Christ you'll be saved. I put away your sin in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now are we delivered from the
law, that pit, that being dead wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter. So brethren, I just declare to
you that you who know what you are by nature, that you're bound
and in prison of this flesh, Look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's why God sent Him, to put away the sin of His people. And
if you forgot that, remember, again I declare to you, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the salvation of His people. Turn to Him, He's
the stronghold. Flee to Him, and the Lord promises
to meet you there, and to deliver you from your bondage and your
sin. Amen.