So we come back to Zechariah
and to chapter 13. Do you know, it's five months
now that we've been doing this. This has been a long series,
but I feel it's been very beneficial, and I hope you've found it so.
This is such treasure. You know, they talk about life-changing
experiences, like winning the lottery is a life-changing experience,
and no doubt it is, but finding this treasure here in the Word
of God, in these words that we have before us, in the end of
Zechariah chapter 13, well, throughout it, It is such a treasure. It is riches beyond measure.
It is all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Think of the riches of that. Think of that. You see, the message
of the Bible is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God was what
Jesus came preaching. He came preaching the kingdom
of God. John the Baptist said, the kingdom
of God is at hand. This is its message. It's the
kingdom of God. and, crucially, the qualification
of the people, the multitude that God loved before time for
that kingdom, citizenship of that kingdom. It's eternal life. It's true life. It's the life
of God, our Creator. All life has its origin in God,
who created all things. But this is the eternal life
that God gives to his people in that intimate communion that
is there at the end of verse 9. It is my people. and they
shall say, The Lord is my God. God and his people together.
This is the purpose for which he created his people. Here we
live in the ruined kingdom of God. This creation Originally,
at the beginning, was the kingdom of God. It was perfect, it was
without sin, but then the fall came, and Adam handed over his
viceroyship of that kingdom to Satan. And the fall happened,
and death came in, because in the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die spiritually, and they did. But the life of
God is eternal. The life of God is timeless. It's not just here and now. Whoever
you are, this should grab your attention. It really should.
Oh, it's nothing to do with me. I just go about my business.
I go and do what I normally do. I'm not interested in this. No,
no. This should grab your attention. The life of God is eternal and
timeless and not just here and now. This life, your life, the
life that you're living, all of us, it's said in the scripture
that we're like a flower that fades. Our garden's doing quite
nicely at the moment in all this sunshine, but you know, you see
the green shoots coming up in March, and then as you go through
April, the buds start to form, and then the full flower comes
out, and we've got some beautiful irises, but you know what? They're
fading, and some of them are gone brown, and in another week,
they'll all be gone. And that's what we're like, the
flower that blooms and fades. You know, I quote it often, but
Hebrews 9.27, it's appointed to man to die once, and then
the judgment. And as you enter eternity, that's
how you remain everlastingly. It says that, it says in the
scriptures, that as the tree falls, it doesn't move, it stays
there. It says in the end of Revelation,
that which has rejected God all its life will stay in a state
of God-rejection in hell for eternity. How you enter eternity
is how you remain everlastingly. You, any of you, who rest in
hopes of annihilation, that the lights just get switched off,
as Ludovic Kennedy once said, the lights just get switched
off and that's it, you're wrong, you're wrong. It's appointed
to man to die once, and then something, the judgment. but
God has a people. God has a multitude that he has
saved from sin and the consequences of sin, the judgment of sin,
the justice of God against sin. He saved his people from the
lies of Satan, who is the father of lies, and he's qualified his
people for God's kingdom. Who are they? Who are the people?
It says in Zechariah 12, verse 10, there, I will pour upon the
house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace.
And in 13 verse 1 it says, in that day there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
These people are described as the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And it's It's poetic, allegorical
language for God's multi-ethnic elect multitude. John saw in
Revelation 7, he saw a multitude that no man can number of every
tribe and tongue and kindred. Now, in verses 7 to 9 of this
chapter, God shows his accomplishment of divine justice satisfied. Divine justice must be satisfied,
and God accomplished it. And it shows that as a result
of that, he's bringing of his elect people into eternal fellowship
with him, as we read at the end of verse 9. So we have, first
of all, the Lord's shepherd. Then we have the Lord's sword. Then we have his sheep. And then
we have their journey to Zion. So the Lord's shepherd then,
first of all. Verse seven. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. This is the word of the Lord
of hosts. And you'll notice in your Bibles
that Lord there is in capitals. This is almighty God. This is
almighty God, not just the manifestation of God to us in Christ. And when
I say just, I don't mean it in any derogatory way. This is God
in his holy essence. The Lord of hosts has said, awake
O sword against my shepherd." God calls for a sword to smite
his shepherd. And he describes, who's your
shepherd? He says, he's the man that is
my fellow. Who is this shepherd? And why
does God require him to be smitten? And what is the result of it?
his shepherd is the Christ of God. That that is plain in scripture
is one of the most obvious statements ever made. If you turn to Matthew
chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26 and verse 31, Jesus is speaking
to his disciples in Jerusalem before he goes to the cross of
Calvary. And Jesus said unto them, verse
31, all ye shall be offended because of me this night, for
it is written, what is written? I will smite the shepherd and
the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after
I am risen again, go into Galilee. Jesus quoted this verse, verse
seven of chapter 13, as applying not only to him, but to him that
very night, and that his sheep, his disciples around him, would
be scattered. They would be offended because
of him. He said this applies directly
to him. He said that he was the Lord's
shepherd, because it says there, against my shepherd. Who said
that? The Lord of hosts said, my shepherd.
He says that he is the Lord's shepherd. And God's word portrays
God as shepherd of his flock. The Lord's my shepherd, I shall
not want, says Psalm 23. The Lord, this is the testimony
of the child of God. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Then in John chapter 10, turn
over there into John chapter 10. In John chapter 10, verse
11, who is the Lord Shepherd? Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd. In verse 14, he said, I am the
Good Shepherd again. And he said, I know my sheep,
and I'm known of mine. I give my life for the sheep. He loves his sheep. He's the
good shepherd who gives his life for the beloved sheep, and he
knows his sheep, and they follow him. They follow him, verse 27. My sheep, says the good shepherd,
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. They're not
like the Pharisees in verse 26. He says, you Pharisees, you don't
believe because you're not of my sheep. But God has a flock,
a sheep, a multitude, before the beginning of time, that will
come to believe in him. And he says to those Pharisees,
this is very blunt, isn't it? He says to them, you don't believe
because you're not amongst my sheep. He is that great shepherd,
Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 in the well-known
doxology at the end of the epistle to the Hebrews, verse 20. Now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, listen, that great shepherd of the sheep, there, clear. He
is that great shepherd of the sheep. In first Peter and chapter
five, In 1 Peter 5 and verse 4, when the chief shepherd shall
appear, he's called the chief shepherd. When he comes again,
he's the chief shepherd shall appear, the shepherd of his flock,
of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
shepherd. Awake, O sword, against the man
that is my fellow. He is that shepherd. but he's
also the man that is God's fellow. You know that God will not, God
cannot by his very nature, share his glory with another. It says
it several times throughout the scripture, but Isaiah 48 verse
11 says, I will not, cannot share my glory with another. Yet here
is a man, Here is an Adam, because that's what the name Adam means,
man, the man created in the image of God. Yet here is a man who
is the second Adam, and he is God's fellow, the man that is
my fellow. Jesus said to his disciples and
to his people, I call you my friends, you are my friends.
Moses was the friend of God. Abraham was the friend of God.
God calls people his friend, but he never calls anyone his
fellow other than this man. His fellow, his equal. Look at,
I thought, where can we look? Because we're always looking
at this passage in Philippians chapter two, but it can't be
bettered. So let's look at Philippians
chapter 2 verse 5 again. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, listen, who being in the form of God,
he was God's fellow, the man who is his fellow, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He took
nothing away from God that wasn't his by right. Jesus Christ, who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. and being found
in fashion as a man, in human flesh, made of a woman, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Whereof, wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him,
and given him a name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and
earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
His name is above every name. He's God. He's the man that is
my fellow. He is the son of God, which is
the manifestation in a form that we can relate to. He is the manifestation
of God. He is God manifest in the flesh. So he is therefore not only the
son of God, but he's the son of man. He called himself that
name, the son of man, more than any other in his earthly ministry.
He is God made of a woman. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made of
a woman, made under the law, made to redeem those who are
under the law. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh, yet without sin. He was tempted in all points
as we are in the flesh. He experienced hunger. He experienced
weariness. He experienced sorrow. He was
a man of sorrow. He was acquainted with grief.
This man experienced things that we as people experience. Dare
I say that he was also as a man apprehensive. How can you say
that God in flesh was apprehensive when he knew all things, yet
when it came to the moment of going to the cross to be made
the sin of his people, to redeem them from its curse, He said
this, didn't he, to his father? He prayed in earnest to his father. Father, if it be possible, it
was dread, he sweat as it were great drops of blood because
of the dread of what was, the apprehensiveness doesn't cover
it, the dread of what was coming upon him. If it be possible,
take this cup of the wrath of God for sin, take it from me,
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. This man was a
true man, yet, it says in Colossians 2 verse 9, in him dwelt the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. You know John chapter one, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The Word, that's his name in
Revelation 18, on his thigh, the Word of God, that is his
name. He is the Word of God. He is
the manifestation to us of the thoughts of God. He is the Word
of God, and He was God, and He was in the beginning with God.
And the Word was made flesh, said John. The Word was made
flesh. God the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That very man prayed in John
17, Father, restore to me the glory I had with you from the
beginning. In verse 18 of John 1, it says, no man has seen God
at any time. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He has manifested
Him. He is the blessed man of Psalm
1. You know Psalm 1 verse 1? Blessed
is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed
is that man. Who is that man? Is it you if
you try really hard? Oh, come off it. We're sinners.
We don't get close. He is the blessed man of Psalm
1 verse 1. Blessed is the man that walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly. Psalm 80 verse 17. Let thy hand
be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom
thou made as strong in thyself. This is who it is. Isaiah 46
verse 11. He is the man that executes God's
counsel. That's what it says in Lamentations
3 verse 1. He is the man afflicted under
God's wrath. He is, Zechariah 1 verse 10,
the man standing among the myrtle trees that we saw in that first
vision many months ago. In chapter 6 of Zechariah, in
verse 12, behold the man whose name is the branch. He is that
man. This is Christ. This is our God
manifested. And even the heathen Roman governor
Pilate, Pontius Pilate, before his crucifixion, when he was
trying to let Jesus go, but the Pharisees wouldn't have it. And
he brings them before, he brings Jesus before the council and
he says, behold the man, which is exactly what we're told to
do. Look, look unto him, look unto him. He is the man, the
man. He is the man who is the one
mediator. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He is
God. Stephen read it for us earlier,
Hebrews chapter 2. This is so profound. But he is
the man who was made, as it said in Philippians, humbled himself,
made lower. He's made lower than the angels
by being clothed in the flesh of his children. And why was
he clothed in the flesh of his children? Read those verses again
in Hebrews chapter two. It was so that he might die in
their place, for God could not die. The price of sin The price
to satisfy the justice of God for the sins of his people is
death, and the life is in the blood, and so blood must be shed.
God has no blood. God could not shed blood, but
God was made man that he might shed blood. And so it is by the
blood of God that he purchased his church, as Acts chapter 20,
verse 21 says. He is the one whom God called
for the sword to smite him. He is the one. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Why did it have to be done? Because
the sins of his people would bar them from his presence for
eternity, except his justice was satisfied for those sins.
So let's see the Lord's sword. A sword is an instrument of killing. It was sharp. In Ezekiel chapter
21, we read about a sword like this. Ezekiel chapter 21 and
verse 3. And say to the land of Israel,
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I am against thee, and will draw
forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the
righteous and the wicked. Seeing then that I will cut off
from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword
go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the
north, that all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth
my sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.
It's God's instrument of judgment. judgment, for sin. It's God's
instrument for that. The soul that sins, it shall
die. It is the sword, look, it says, awake, O sword. It's the sword that slept, it
would seem, in poetic language. The sword that slept from the
fall in the Garden of Eden. I put an article Hawker, Robert
Hawker's comments on this very verse. And I put that in the
bulletin. So get that and read it. I think
it's so profound what he says, because he says, and I tend to
agree with him, that this sword is that same sword that was placed
at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. And it's there not so
much as a thing to stop people coming to Christ, but it's to
point to Christ as the only way to the tree of life. That sword,
that sword to keep the way to the tree of life, is a sword
that slept from the fall. Judgment was restrained, but
here God calls for the sword to wake up. Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow. Smite the
shepherd. Sword, do your work of punishment
on the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. God calls
for it to wake up and to do its work of retribution against sin. But I think there are only two
times it is called to wake and serve its purpose. Firstly, is
this one here, where it's speaking of the sword awaking in judgment
against Christ, loaded with the sins, made the sins of his people,
that he might there pay the penalty of those sins and thereby justify
his people for the citizenship of his kingdom. This is number
one. Here at Calvary, when divine
justice was satisfied for the sin of God's elect, when he who
knew no sin was made sin, that his people might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Here at Calvary it says, he bore
the sins of his people in his own body on the cursed tree on
the cross. He paid its penalty to the justice
of God, to the full, to make his people righteous. And when
he was done, he cried just before he died, it is finished. And he died. He who had been
lifted up, as Romans 4.25 says, he'd been lifted up on the cross.
Why was he lifted up there? For the transgressions of my
people was he stricken. He was lifted up there on the
cross, but he didn't stay dead. He was raised for our justification
that we might be there in eternity. That's the first time the sword
awoke, but also In Revelation 16 verse 17 is the battle of
Armageddon, the end of all things. And there the judgment of God
falls upon this kingdom of Satan, this fallen world. And there,
where Jesus said, it is finished, The term goes out, it is done. The justice of God is satisfied. The sword has awoken again. The
sword of God will fall then on all sin not paid for by Christ
at Calvary. What was it that caused the wounds?
Verse six, what are these wounds in thine hands? And he shall
answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
What caused those wounds? You'd say, oh, the crown of thorns,
let's paint a picture, as the artists did. It was the nails
of the cross, those are the wounds in his hands. It was the nails
being hammered into that cross as he was lifted up. It was the
soldier's spear through his side when blood and water came out.
Yes, yes, I don't disagree. It was all of those things. but
much, much more. It was the sword of God's justice
against sin. It was my sin, it was my sin
that nailed him there. It was my sin, verse 10 of chapter
12, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall
mourn for him. I have pierced him, me, my sin
has pierced him. It was God's justice against
sin that caused that. Read it again. as we often do
in Isaiah 53. I'll just read these verses to
you again. You know them so well by now, I'm sure. But look, Isaiah
53 and verse four, speaking of this very thing, surely he has
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded
What are these wounds in your hands? He was wounded for our
transgressions. Who's the our? The our is his
people, his elect people, his elect multitude. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. The thing that bought our peace
with God in eternity was this, with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, He's the
shepherd of the sheep. But all we like sheep have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He made him who knew no sin to
be sin for us. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. 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. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. You shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. You can look
at it again in Romans chapter 3, which we look at often, but
verse 19, now we know that all things whatsoever the law says
It says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, we've got no excuses. And all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law,
all it does is show us that we are sinners. But now, the righteousness
of God that we need, without legal obedience, is manifested,
is made known, being witnessed. Where's it come from? Is it brand
new? No, it's in the law and the prophets throughout. even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
by what he accomplished. Not our faith in him, that's
the means by which we apprehend it, but the faith of Jesus Christ
in accomplishing this. Unto all and upon all them that
he brings to believe, for he brings everyone that he chose
to believe him, for there's no difference. All have sinned,
all of them, all the elect of God have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God, but in Him all are freely justified by His
grace. Through the redemption, that's
the redeeming price, that's the payment made to justice, that
is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation,
as a turning away of anger, of wrath, through faith in His blood,
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He, God, might be just. He is a just God, but also the
justifier of sinners, of him which believeth in Jesus. If God's sword of strict justice
was not awoken, as it was called for in Zechariah, In Zechariah
chapter 13, if that sword was not awoken against God's shepherd,
against the man that is his fellow, his Christ, to smite him in the
place of his sheep for their transgressions, there could never
be reconciliation between God and his people. That's why it
had to happen. So then let's look briefly at
the Lord's sheep. the multitude loved by God before
time. The sheep will be scattered,
the little ones, he calls them. His sheep, in the context of
this prophecy's fulfilment, are the disciples that were with
him when he spoke to them. And they were fearful when he
was arrested. And he says, this night you'll be scattered and
you'll deny me. No, we won't, I'll never deny you, but they're
all dead. but they represent all of his elect multitude. They
are his little ones, the ones that God will bring to eternal
glory, because God's shepherd was smitten instead of them in
their stead. He, the Lord, the good shepherd,
knows them, every one, and they're all brought to know him. and
they hear his voice, and they follow him, as we read in John
10, and they discern truth from error. For a hireling, it says,
a false shepherd, they will not follow. Is that not the case?
When you're a true child of God, believing this gospel, and you
hear of people that you once kept company with, and you may
remain in contact with them, but you hear what it is that
they're listening to in the name of Christianity, and it horrifies
you because you know it's the voice of a hireling and not the
Good Shepherd. These ones are those sheep who
are, as it says in Acts 13, 48, ordained to eternal life, and
when they hear the gospel, the good news of accomplished redemption,
They believe it. Why do they believe it and others
don't believe it? The answer is this. It is God's
spirit who makes his people willing in the day of his power. Those
that he ordained to eternal life from before the beginning of
time, they believed and embraced the gospel. They're the symbolical
third. In verses eight and nine, it
talks about two thirds being cut off and dying and a third
being left therein. And I will bring the third, these
people, through fire. It's that symbolical third, not
a mathematical third, it's just symbolical. Chosen out of all
humanity, plucked as brands from the fire of judgment, and set
on the narrow way to eternal bliss. This is the question. Are you among them? Are you among
them? Ask yourself that. Do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust in him? Has he shown
you as you read his word, the truth of God and the gospel of
his grace and the accomplishment of all that he's done? And if
you are, you're on that path to eternity. You're on that narrow
way to eternal bliss. But it is a journey through fire. Verse nine, I will refine them
I'll bring them through the fire, I will refine them as silver
is refined, I will try them as gold is tried. We sang about
it in one of the hymns. You know, it's the fire that
purifies the precious metal, the silver and the gold. It's
the fire that burns off the dross. It's the fire that burns out
the impurities and purifies it. Having accomplished redemption,
having satisfied justice, having qualified his people for the
kingdom of God, The people are not taken straight there. That's
what it says in John 17 in his high priestly prayer. I pray
not that you take them out of the world, but that you leave
them in the world, is what he said. Left in this world for
a while. Why? Because God's purpose is
to refine his people. It's not to make them more holy.
It's not progressive sanctification. They cannot be more holy. We're
sanctified by the one offering of Jesus Christ. We're made the
righteousness of God in him. We cannot be made more holy than
we are. We're still in bodies of sin
and bodies of flesh, but the one that is redeemed, the new
man that is redeemed by the redemption accomplished by Christ cannot
be made more holy No, but there is a refining to be done. There
is a refining to bring his people to call evermore on God's name. As silver and gold are refined
by intense heat, so God's people pass through degrees of trying,
different in each case, degrees of testing, troubles, tribulations,
pain, so that they cry, as did the God-man, if it be possible
that this cup pass from me, please take it away. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thine be done. And this is it. God promises
to hear them. Look there, second half of verse
nine. They shall call on my name in their trials, in their experience
of this life, and I will hear them. When you cry to God, you
think there's nobody there and nobody listening. But God says,
I will hear them. God promises to hear them. He
promises to own them. He promises that they will own
him and he will own them. He promises to intensify their
experience of the reality of God and eternal life in him. And I think it also prompts,
does it not? It prompts brethren. on this same journey to that
multitude in eternal glory, to empathize with one another, to
sympathize with one another, to support one another, to help
one another, to pray for one another. Well then, I hope that's
a blessing and something to meditate on. My desire and my prayer. is that the more we see this
marvelous saving, it is marvelous in our eyes, this marvelous saving
work of God in Christ, what he has accomplished, what he has
purchased by his death, the state he's put us into by that death,
that his people are brought more to rest in his grace and goodness,
and in the process, to bear that fruit of his spirit in the new
man and what he does, to bear testimony to the truth of it
in this world as he opens doors for his people. Well, we look
forward to carrying on into the final chapter next time, God
willing.