Good morning. It's time. Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 62 from the hardbacked hymnal,
number 62, crown him with many crowns. Let's all stand together.
Number 62. crown him with many crowns the
lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake my soul and sing Of Him
who died for thee, And hailed Him as thy matchless King Through
all eternity. ? Crown him the Lord of love ?
? Behold his hands and side ? ? Rich wounds yet visible above ? ?
In beauty glorified ? ? No angel in the sky ? ? Can fully bear
that sight ? The downward bends his wandering eye at mysteries
so bright. ? Crown him the Lord of life
? ? Who triumphed for the grave ? ? Who rose victorious to the
strife ? ? For those he came to save ? ? His glories now we
sing ? ? Who died and rose on high ? Who died eternal life
to bring, And lives that death may die. Crown Him the Lord of Heaven,
One with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given,
From yonder glorious throne. To thee be endless praise, for
thou for us hast died. Be thou, O Lord, through endless
days, adored and magnified. Please be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to
turn with me and your Bibles, we're going to be in Zechariah
chapter 12. Both hours this morning, we had
our meeting with the city of Apopka on Tuesday night and they
gave us the green light to proceed. So Mr. Cooper, our contractor,
is putting the final touches on the plans and I should have
those ready for permitting by the end of this week. So Lord
willing we'll see some dirt getting turned over out here pretty soon. So continue to be in prayer about
that. Digna is back home for a couple
of weeks. She had to come meet with some
doctors and she's in a good bit of pain with the one kidney,
so they're discussing the possibility of removing that kidney. I'm
not sure if they're going to be able to do that or not, but
continue to pray for Digna and our meat has been in the hospital
all this week as well, so. She's getting her strength back,
but her sodium level and dehydration had caused some serious problems
for her. All right, let's go before the
Lord and ask his blessings on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
once again you have. Been so gracious and merciful. To bring us. To this place. You've given us your word. You've
promised us your spirit. You've accomplished all the work
of redemption that we're in need of. Lord, how hopeful we are. That in this hour that you would
open our hearts. That you would enable us to. To come in faith. Before the
Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting him for all of our righteousness
and all our justification before the. Lord, we thank you for your
good providence. We. Confess, Lord, that we're. We're often troubled and resistant
to your hand of mercy. And yet we know in our heart
of hearts, Lord, that you do work all things together for
good for them that love you and those that are called according
to your purpose. We know what Solomon declared
when he said that you make all things beautiful in your time. Lord, give us the faith to wait
on you. To know that your time is perfect. And two. To rest in hope. We pray that you would visit
with us and cause us Lord to. To come before the. We ask it
in Christ name and for his sake. Amen. Zachariah Chapter 12. You have your Bibles open. I've
titled this message in that day. And I've titled the message the
second hour. That day is today. Notice in Zechariah chapter 12,
verse three, and in that day, and the beginning of verse four
in that day, and the beginning of verse six in that day, and
the beginning of verse eight in that day, and verse nine,
and it shall come to pass in that day, and verse 11 in that
day. Now, plenty of preachers have
wasted their time in interpreting that day as a historical event
of the destruction of Jerusalem, or as an event in the future
that they call the Battle of Armageddon. And they've interpreted
this passage of scripture only in light of those historical
events. And I'm sure that there is some
correlation at least that could be drawn between the prophecies
that are made here and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. But that
message does nothing for my soul. What does, what does what happened
in 70 AD have anything to do with my life or your life right
now? Right now. You see, there's a
spiritual application to this prophecy. And the spiritual application
is that that day is today. Today. In the day that God makes his
blessings known. I need the fulfillment of these
prophecies to be made real to me today, today. How oftentimes we are admonished
in scripture as the prophet Isaiah did, seek ye the Lord while he
may be found. The end of all scripture concludes
with the spirit and the bride say, come, come. Any man thirst? Come right now,
right now. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6,
now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. And when our Lord began his public
ministry by reading from Isaiah 60 and Luke 4 in the synagogue
in Nazareth, he concluded that passage by saying, I came to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. God never calls on his people
to think about it. He never says, wait. He never
says when you're ready. He says today in that day, right
now. And my prayer this morning is
that the Lord would make that day today for you and for me. And that when he would fulfill
these promises in our hearts through faith, right now, right
now, right this very day, that we would not leave here thinking,
well, you know, that was interesting history lesson. or that's something
for me to consider down the road, but that God would meet with
us today. I fear that sometimes we overcompensate for the appeals
of the free will gospel by not calling on men to come. And, and yet the scriptures are
filled with that very urgency. The, the matter is urgent. The
salvation of our souls is at stake. The knowledge of God is
what we have to, to, to be blessed with. That's his blessing. All the promises made in the
Old Testament to Israel and to Jerusalem, as the promises in
this chapter are made, must be understood in light of the gospel
as the promises of God to us. The Lord makes it clear in Galatians
chapter four that the Jerusalem which now is, speaking of that
physical Jerusalem, is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem
that is from above is free, is free. So when God says in verse
two, behold, I will make Jerusalem When he says in verse 1, the
burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel. The Lord makes it clear in Romans
chapter 2 that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly circumcised
in the flesh, but he is a true Jew who is one inwardly circumcised
by the Spirit in the heart. So these promises that are made
to Jerusalem, to Israel, to Judah, are for us. They're for us. If they're for us, If they're
for us, then they're relevant right now. Right now, today. Forget what happened in 70 AD.
And don't believe what the dispensationalists want to tell you about Armageddon
and the battles that are going to come in that last day. They're
not true. None of that's even relevant. I say this with the most uh,
um, fear, but I can say that if the Lord doesn't apply the
truth of the gospel to our hearts today, right now, then even what
happened on the cross is irrelevant to us individually. We're not here to study history,
we're here to ask God to meet with us and to make today, today,
the day of salvation. The Lord said in Hebrews chapter
eight, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, a new
covenant. This is the house of Israel. And in Romans chapter 11, The
Lord makes it clear that in the end, all Israel will be saved. All Israel. So brethren, these
promises are for the church. They're for you and they are
for me. And what God is telling us in
this chapter is that all that is good and gracious is promised
to the church, and all that is evil will fall in judgment against
the enemies of God. This has nothing to do with Assyria
or Palestine. This is for us. God's distinguishing grace is
seen clearly in this chapter. Scripture makes it clear that
our God makes a difference between Egypt and Israel. And that question that the Lord
asked, we know the answer to, who make it thee to differ? Who
make it thee to differ? What do you have that you've
not received? God has a very special, distinguishing love
for his people. And the world doesn't know it,
but it's the only reason that they exist. The only reason that
they exist is for the fulfillment of these promises in the hearts
of God's people. So that's who the blessings are
for. They're for the church and all the blessings that we're
going to read about in this chapter. When God says in verse 10, I
will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and supplication. That's his promise for us today. right now. The Lord says, I'm
going to do this. I want you to notice not only
how many times in that day is used in this chapter, but I want
you to notice also how many times God says, I will, I will, I will. When God says, I will, you can
hang the hopes of your immortal soul on that becoming true. That's, Lord, give me the grace
to believe the I wills of God. Let the world trust in their
will all they want. God says, I will, that's what
I want to know about. What is God's will? What is he
going, what is he determined to accomplish for his church? Notice in verse one, the nature
of the blessings of God. The nature of the blessings of
God is that it is a burden, a burden, the burden of the word of the
Lord for Israel. It's for the church and it is
a burden. By burden, it means that it's
too heavy to carry. It's of weighty matters. Every
other subject, every other subject in this world can be comprehended
by the intellect of man. If you pursue the subject of
physics or some other form of science or medicine or whatever,
you can apply yourself and come to understand those subjects. But this matter of the word of
the Lord is beyond man's ability to comprehend. It's too weighty.
The natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit. Neither
can he know them for they are spiritually discerned. This is
a weighty matter. This matter of the soul is it's
beyond our ability and one. void of the Holy Spirit, one
who's not looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, will do
what many have done with this passage and other passages. They
will rest the scriptures to their own destruction. They will twist
them and understand them to mean something that they don't mean.
They'll give some some historical or theological application to
them and miss Christ, miss the meaning. This is a burden. It's a weighty matter. It's the truth. And God's people come before
the throne of grace and they say, Lord, I need to know the
truth. I need to know the truth. I had
a man say to me a couple of weeks ago, he said, so you're reformed,
huh? After hearing me preach the gospel.
And he, as soon as he asked the question, walked away. It wasn't
an interesting answer. If I'd asked me with an interest,
I would have said, well, I used to be. I used to be. But really what I want to ask
him is, but is it true? Is it true? Turn with me to Matthew chapter
11. We're considering The, um, the nature of the gospel,
the nature of the word of the Lord, the nature of the blessings
that God has for his people and its nature is that it's a burden. It's beyond our ability to comprehend
or to carry. We are dependent upon God to
reveal the truth of it to our hearts. Look what our Lord said in Matthew
chapter 11 beginning at verse 20. Then he began to upbraid
the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because
they repented not. They did not believe. They said,
We'll hear you another day. Come back, perform some more
miracles. We'll take that into consideration. We'll think about
it. Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida, for
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes. The judgment that the religious
who take the very word of God and pervert it, is greater than
those pagan irreligious folks that have never even considered
the weighty matters of God's word. But I say unto you, it
shall be, verse 22, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And now Capernaum,
which exalt, which art exalted unto heaven. Why was Capernaum
exalted unto heaven? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was there and where he is, is exalted unto heaven. And he said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I
am in the midst of you. What are we saying? This place
right now is exalted unto heaven. Of Capernaum, he says, thou shall
be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which have been
done in thee have been done in Sodom, it would have remained
until this day. But I say unto you that it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment
than for thee. And at that time, at that time. Now here's the distinguishing
grace of God toward His children, toward His church, and this is
what Zechariah chapter 12, it's the blessings of God declared
for Israel and the curses of God declared for His enemies.
And so he's already told the curses and now he says in verse
25, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes. How is the gospel made known
to our hearts? Well, Lest you become as a little
child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. We come before
God as a babe. Lord, I can't bear this burden. I can't understand the weighty
matters of the gospel when it comes to the salvation of my
soul. You're going to have to reveal it to me. Even so, father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered
unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father,
neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona."
Flesh and blood didn't make this known. This is the weighty matter
of the gospel. My Father which is in heaven
has made this known unto you. You're not going to, it's too,
it's too weighty, it's too heavy. We're not going to be able to
bear it. We're not going to be able to understand it. But here
the Lord says, I'm going to reveal it. I'm going to reveal it. And then he concludes with this,
come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden and I'll give you rest. You can't bear the burden of
this weight. You don't understand what's at
stake when it comes to the salvation of your soul. You can't comprehend
how urgent this day is. Come to me. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you
shall find rest unto your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden
is light." The Lord Jesus Christ himself bore the burden for his
people. He said, come to me, come to
me. My burden's light, my yoke is
easy. You're not going to be able to
bear this burden alone. Go back with me to Zechariah
chapter 12. The burden of the word of the
Lord is for Israel. It's for Israel. Oh Lord, bear
that burden for me. Bear the burden of my sin. bear
the burden of my need to be righteous. The burden of the word of the
Lord for Israel, saith the Lord. Notice the rest of verse one,
which stretches forth the heavens and lay at the foundation of
the earth and form of the spirit of man within him. Now here's what God say into
his church. I am able to perform that which
I promised. I'm the one that stretched forth
the heavens. I'm the one that laid the foundations of the earth.
I'm the one that breathed life into you. And I'm able. And I was thinking if, if, if
a man made a promise to us and that man had integrity, but he
had no resources We might think, well, he's got good intentions,
but I don't think he's going to be able to come through. If
a man had the resources but did not have the integrity, we might
think, well, I'll believe it when I see it. That man can't
be trusted. What's God saying to you and
me? He's saying to us, I've got the integrity and I've got the
resources. It's impossible for me to lie. I'm the God who stretched
forth the heavens. I'm the God that formed the foundations
of the earth. I'm the God that breathed life
into you. And these promises are for my
people. And I will, I will in that day
perform them. Turn with me to Job 38. Job 38. I saw something in Job I'd never
seen before this week and I mean I knew it was true but it didn't
strike me like it did this week and that is that after Job's
friends who represented a works freewill gospel had finished
speaking, Elihu comes as a gospel preacher and preaches the gospel
to Job. And then God speaks to Job. Elihu had to preach the gospel
to Job before Job could hear the voice of God. And that's the way it is. Faith,
which comes from God, comes by hearing, and hearing comes by
the word of God. The gospel has to be preached
before God speaks. And now Elihu has preached the
gospel, and now look at what happens in chapter 38. Then the
Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind. Here's the weighty matter of
the gospel. The gospel's just been preached,
it's been heard. The weight of the urgency of
salvation has been placed on Job, and he's experiencing a
whirlwind. And God says, who is this that
darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins
like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare,
if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measure thereof
if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line
upon it? And for the next three chapters,
the Lord interrogates Job with these sort of questions. Job,
where were you when I put the stars into the sky? Declare if
you know it. And in chapter 40, at verse four,
Job responds by saying, behold, I am vile. I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth once I have spoken. But I will not,
but I will not answer ye twice, but I will proceed no further.
Lord, this is a, you're gonna, you're gonna have to do all the
speaking. I'm gonna have to do all the listening. That's what
the Lord's saying in our text. So I stretched the heavens. I laid the foundations of the
earth. I breathed life into your soul. Your soul belongs to me.
I'm the creator and sustainer of all life, both physical and
spiritual. And he's not talking about just
that which is celestial and that which is terrestrial. He's talking
about the gospel. He's talking about the gospel. If this day is going to be my
day, God's gonna have to speak from heaven and show me what
He did on the earth. He's gonna have to reveal Himself
to me. And in doing so, He says, come. What God is saying, I reign,
I reign. And if you come to believe that,
you'll bow with Job and say, behold, I am Bile. Lord, I had
heard of thee by the hearing of mine ear, but now mine eyes
have seen thee, and I repent in dust and ashes. Lord, I'd
spoken out of turn. I didn't know. The Lord saying to you and me,
I'm sovereign. I'm omnipotent. I'm omniscient.
You can trust me. I've got the resources and the
integrity to fulfill all the promises for my church. And I'm not dependent on man
for anything. I don't need man to do his part in order for me
to be able to fulfill my promises. He's dependent upon me for everything.
Everything. What the Lord say to Sarah when
he promised that she would bring forth a child that time by that
time next year and she laughed and God said, is anything too
hard for God? Anything too hard? Is his arm short that he cannot
save? Is his ear deaf that he cannot
hear? Will he not fulfill all of his promises? Will he not? And God's people say yes, amen. Lord, fulfill them in my heart
right now. Give me faith to place all my
hope, all my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for all my salvation
right now, right now, in this day. Go back with me to Zechariah
chapter 12. The Lord formed the spirit of
man within him. He made him to differ from the
rest of the animal world. Behold, behold. Look now. Look, here's my promise. Behold, I will make Jerusalem
a cup of trembling until all the people round about, when
they shall be in siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem."
Now, Judah and Jerusalem, that's us. What's the Lord saying here? I'm going to bring judgment.
I'm going to bring judgment against all those who stand at enmity
with me and my people. In verse 3, And in that day, will I make
Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people? That's what the Lord said in
Matthew chapter 21. He said to the Pharisees, have you not heard
that the head of the, that, that, that, that the stone of stumbling
has become the head of the corner. And they who fall on this stone
shall be broken, and everyone whom this stone falls on shall
be crushed to powder. In this day, Lord, cause me to
fall on the stone of Christ. Cause me to be broken of my righteousness. Cause me to realize that I've
got nothing that I can offer you. To to. To earn my salvation. I'm completely dependable, Lord.
You're the one that stretched forth the heavens. Lord, I need
to know that I need to know that this day. This is the. This is the weighty,
the weighty stone. Daniel speaks of it in Daniel
chapter two. You remember when Nebuchadnezzar
had that vision of that great figure with the head of gold
and arms of silver and belly of brass and legs and thighs
of iron and feet mingled with iron and clay? And then at the end of the vision,
what happened? He saw a hand cut a stone out
of a mountain. And that stone crushed that figure.
And then that stone grew into the kingdom of God. Now that's,
that's, that's the weighty stone. That stone is Christ. He's the
stone of stumbling. And he's the one that's going
to bring all this to an end. And the only thing that's going
to survive is the kingdom of God, Jerusalem, Judah, Israel,
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that day will I make Jerusalem
a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with
it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be
gathered together against it. And the truth is that all the
people of the earth are gathered against Christ and his church.
They all. They stand in opposition to the
truth. And this is God's promise to
his church. You say, well, that's a future
event where the Lord's going to destroy the world. No, it's
a current event where God puts into the hearts
of his people a hatred, a hatred for the false gospel, a hatred
for all the lies about their God that's being told in this
world. You see, God puts to death. Paul said, I die daily. die daily. This is a current fulfillment
of prophecy when the Lord does work of grace in our hearts.
Notice over in verse 9 of chapter 11. Then said I, I will not feed
you, that that dieth, let it die, and that that be cut off,
let it be cut off. I've talked to people who say,
well, I believe the gospel. I believe what you're preaching.
But, you know, I think there's still hope for my church. I'm going to stay here. I'm going
to be a part of it. I'm going to be a witness in
it. I'm going to see if I can be a change agent in a false
church. And God says, if it's been cut
off, just leave it cut off. If it's dead, if God's killed
it, let it die. That's what the Lord meant when
he said, come out ye from among them and be separate, saith the
Lord. And that's what he's saying here in that day, I'm going to,
I'm going to destroy the earth and all that's in it, in your
heart, in your heart. Look at verse four. In that day, saith the Lord,
I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with
madness, and I will open my eyes upon the house of Judah, and
I will smite every horse of the people with blindness." Now,
a horse is a picture of strength, and it's a picture of weaponry
against God. And, uh, in that day, if today
is the day of salvation for you and for me, God smites those
horses and makes them blind. There, there, there's no, there's
no strength. There's no, there's no, there's
no hope of salvation apart from Christ. Verse five and the governance
of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem
shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God. all of Judah and all of Jerusalem,
look to the hope of salvation in one another and in the church
as they have their hope in Christ. There's no salvation outside
of him or outside of his church. In verse six, and in that day,
Well, I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among
the wood and like a torch of fire in the sheaf. And they shall
devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the
left. And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place,
even in Jerusalem. Has that happened to you today?
Is that happening to you right now as you read God's word? Is
he, is he, causing you to find your hope in Christ, realizing
that there's nothing in this world? I love verses seven and eight.
And the Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that
the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah in that day shall
the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem and he that is feeble
among them at that day shall be as David and the house of
David shall be as God and the angel of the Lord before them.
Now. The people that lived out in
the countryside in Judah were less privileged than the city
dwellers in Jerusalem. And the Lord's saying, I'm gonna
save those less educated, those poor people first, so that the
privileged in Jerusalem don't become proud in thinking that
they were singled out because of something in them. And, uh,
and he said that the feeble, uh, that are among them, they're
going to become like the house of David and like our God. What does the Lord say? Same thing he said in first Corinthians
chapter one, um, that, that well, I'll turn with me there. Turn
with me to first Corinthians chapter one. Verse 18, for the preaching of
the gospel is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which
are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? We've got children right now
meeting in Sunday school that know more about the gospel than
professors that I sat under in seminary with multiple PhDs. That's just the way it is. God's
not gonna let man, I'm not gonna share my glory with another. Look at, Look at verse 27, but
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty and the things which are. The things
and the base things of the world and the things which are despised
have God chosen, yea, the things which are not to bring to naught
the things which are that no flesh of glory in his presence. That's our Lord's promise. That's
what he's saying to us in Zachariah. I'm going to save the feeble. I'm going to say the less privileged.
And and they're going to be a. They're going to be a testimony.
A child shall lead them. And that what the Lord said.
Alright. In that day. My hope is that
God will make this day, that day, for you and for me. Let's take a break.