It's a good thing when they said
unto me, let's go into the house of the Lord. Everybody's quiet
and settled. We still have a minute to go.
It's a good thing. Let's all stand together. We'll
open the service with hymn number 70 from your hardback hymnal,
hymn number 70. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and Seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in Zachariah
chapter 11 both hours this morning. And I've titled this first message
God's Forest Fire. God's Forest Fire. If you'd like
to turn with me there in your Bibles. The final public hearing for
the approval of our new building will be Tuesday of this week
at 5.30 at City Hall. The more of our folks that are
able to be there, the better it'll be to influence the powers
to be to approve that project. If you're able to come at 530,
I noticed on the agenda that we're scheduled last. I don't
know if that means 30 minutes or two hours into the meeting. I don't know how long these meetings
last, but if you're not able to be there right at 530, come
when you can. Probably it's going to be a little
while before they get to our part. Moving on, okay. Digna left Friday to go to Tampa
to stay with her son Eloy, Esteban's brother, and Esteban also. Talked to her this morning and
her son in Tampa pastors a free will church over there. And she's determined not to have
anything to do with it. And we'll be watching our services
this morning. So she told me Friday, she said,
I'll be back. They've diagnosed her cancer
as probably something that's been there for a while and is
slow growing. And probably she would not succumb
to it for at least a year. It is only, it's in her lungs
and in her liver and in one of her kidneys. As you know, Digna's
93 years old, so probably we're all gonna have something like
that when we get to be that age if we live that long. But she
doesn't wanna have any treatments, of course. That she is having
some pain in the one kidney that has cancer. And they did tell
her that they could remove that kidney if she needed them to. So that's kind of. Next Sunday,
we'll have her address in the bulletin. So it may be very encouraging
for her to get a card from all of us. And of course, her cell
phone number is still the same. So you can call her. She'd love
to hear from you. All right. Last Sunday, I preached
in Crossville, and they had a baptism after the service. And Donny
Bell, you know how Donny is, Donny got up and said, he said,
well, if there's anybody else here that wants to be baptized,
just empty your pockets and come on up. And I thought, you know,
that's the way baptism is. When you hear the gospel, you
just profess Christ in baptism. And so I will repeat my brother
Donnie. We're going to have baptism this
morning. And if anybody here wants to be baptized, empty your
pockets and come on up. And will. Will rejoice. In that. Alright, let's ask the
Lord's blessings on our time together. Our merciful and loving Heavenly
Father, We are very thankful that. We
can come into thy presence. And no Lord that. We have not
only your ear. But we have your heart. Because
of the accomplished work of thy dear son. And the hope and faith
that you've given us to look to him for all our righteousness
and all our justification before they. We confess to you Lord
that we are. We are so prone to wander from
him and take our eyes off of him. And we ask that in this
hour. That you would anoint your word.
That you would give us ears to hear. That you would speak effectually
to our hearts. And that you would cause us to
find ourselves coming willingly in faith and bowing in submission. And resting. Resting in thy dear
son. We pray for our sister Digna.
We ask for your hand of grace and strength and encouragement
to be upon her. We thank you for the many years
of encouragement that she's been to us and. Lord. We know that. That your mercy. And your gentleness and your
kindness towards your children is is abundant and we thank you
for it. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Let's read together the first
six verses of Zachariah chapter 11. Open thy doors O Lebanon
that the fire may devour thy cedars. God's forest fire. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that
the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree, for the cedar
is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled. Howl, O ye oaks
of Bashan. So now we've got cedars, fir
trees, and oaks. For the forest of the vintage
is come down. A great fire has been kindled
and the forest has been consumed. There is a voice of the howling
of the shepherds for their glory is spoiled. A voice of the roaring
of young lions for the prize of Judah is spoiled. Thus saith
the Lord my God, feed the flock of the slaughter. whose possessors
slay them and hold themselves not guilty. For they that sell
them say, bless me, the Lord, for I am rich. And their own
shepherds pity them not. For I will no more pity the inhabitants
of the land, saith the Lord. Below, I will deliver the men,
every one into his neighbor's hand and into the hands of the
king, and they shall smite the land and out of their hand I
will not deliver them. And the first part of verse seven,
and I will feed the flock of the slaughter. And we believe that every word
of this book is inspired of God. We believe that holy men of God
were raised up and that they spake by the power of the Spirit
of God and wrote the infallible, unchanging inspired Word of God. We believe in the literal interpretation
of the historical narratives that are in the scripture. We
believe that Jonah really spent three days in the belly of the
whale. We believe that there was a great deluge that flooded
the whole world and that Noah and his family built an ark and
they were the only ones that survived. We believe that the
axe had floated and that the earth stood still. All those
historical narratives that God has given us in his word, we
just believe them. We believe everything that God
has said. But not only do we believe them as historical events,
but we also believe the message that those events portray, that
they illustrate. That Jonah in the whale was a
picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That the ark is a picture of
Christ. And Noah and his family in the
ark. And all those historical narratives
in the Old Testament communicate to us different aspects of the
gospel of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We also believe that there are
prophetic passages of scripture that are not intended to be understood
as literal historical narratives. They're written in figurative
language. They're written in allegory and
in parables. And this is one of those passages. that the Lord is communicating
to us through prophecy, through language that's not literal,
but rather figurative, things that comfort us in our hope for
salvation. We believe that God's word is
timeless. and that it's relevant to every
generation. We believe that it's quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and that the
word of God is able to divide us under the thoughts and the
intents of our hearts. And we believe that throughout
all of scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ is the subject of the
matter. In the volume of the book, it is written of me, for
lo, I have come to do thy will, O God. So with that being the
premise of our faith, what? Does this prophecy say to you
and me? Open thy gates, oh Lebanon. That the fire may devour thy
cedars. How fir tree the cedar is fallen
because the mighty are spoiled. How oh ye oaks of basin. Now, Lebanon is north of the
same place it is today. It's north of Israel. And it was known for its white
mountains. And the word Lebanon translated
means white. And here the Lord is speaking
to you and to me. And he's saying to us, oh, Lebanon,
you want to be white? Now, what does white represent
in the scripture? We know the saints of God were all seen in
glory at the wedding feast with white robes of righteousness,
the purity of God's holiness dressed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that when the veil of
our Lord's humanity was removed for just a moment on the Mount
of Transfiguration, that the radiance of his glory was so
white that the disciples could not look upon him. And so the
Lord saying to us, to me and to you, oh Lebanon, open your
gates, open your gates, that the fire may devour thy cedars. What about Bashan? Bashan is
on the east side of the River Jordan, and it's a very fertile
land. It's where the tribe Manasseh settled after the taking over
of the Promised Land. And it was known for its fruitfulness. And the word Bashan actually
means fruitful. So the Lord's speaking to me
and you, and He's saying, Lebanon, you want the righteousness of
Christ? You want to be perfect in the presence of God? You want
to have the hope of eternal life? You want to be numbered among
those saints in glory that are robed in the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Open your gates. I'm going to
come in and burn down your cedars. Bation, you want to be fruitful? You want to have the fruit of
righteousness? They, you want to be, you want to be attached
to that vine that can only make you fruitful in salvation and
in hope and in service to your God. So you want to be, you want
then open your gates, open your gates for your Oaks must be burned
down. This is the symbolic language
that the Lord is using for me and you to be saved. Now when God says open your gates. It's not an invitation. It's
not an invitation. It's a command. Now there's the
difference between what we believe and the and that free will gospel
that says you know it's up to you. God's done what he can do
and now it's up to you. You've got to. You've got to
be willing. He's he's knocking. And if you don't open the door,
And some artists, you know, he portrayed that passage in Revelation,
I stand at the door, knock, if any man, and if you look at that
picture that, I don't recommend it, but there is a famous picture
that this man painted of a man that's supposed to be Jesus standing
at a door with vines around it, and there's no handle on the
outside of the door. And his point in the portrayal is the
handle's on the inside, and if you don't open the door, God
can't come in. That's the view that the world
has opened the door. No, it's not an invitation. It's a command. And what God
commands, God provides what God commands. God provides. Now we know that God commands
all men everywhere to repent and to believe on the Lord, Jesus
Christ. All men. And from Romans chapter one,
we know that those who have never heard the gospel are accountable
to God without excuse, the scripture says, because God has made himself
known through conscience and through creation. And they've
rejected that revelation of God. And so whether or not a person's
ever heard the gospel, if they, by nature, reject the revelation
that God's given them, Through conscience and through creation,
they stand before God condemned without excuse. We know that those and only those
to whom he reveals himself will open the door. Only those to whom he reveals
himself. Oh, and they do it willingly.
Caleb, you brought this out from the Song of Solomon where the
husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, puts his hand on the door and
speaks to his wife and she doesn't come. She doesn't come. And so
he departs and she smells his presence and she comes to the
door willingly. And she goes out begging the
other daughters of Jerusalem, where's my beloved? Have you
seen him? Have you seen my husband? I'm looking for him. And there's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ saying to his bride, open the
door. Open the door and she may be
slow and reluctant to open it, but when he speaks effectually
and when the and when the aroma of his grace is sensed by her
and the beauty of his presence is seen by her, she comes willingly. She doesn't come kicking and
screaming. She's made willing. In the day
of his power. And she comes. God's command
to come is our warrant for coming open the door. Oh, Lebanon. And who over opens that door
and sees Christ knows that it was the Lord. It was the Lord
that gave them the desire to come. It was the Lord that caused
them to get up out of their bed and open that door. Those who do believe give to
God all the glory for their salvation, knowing that it was His particular,
irresistible call that made them to come. Nevertheless, God says
to you and to me, you want to be white like Lebanon? You want to be fruitful like
Bashan? Open the door, because I'm coming in to burn down your
fir trees. I'm coming in to burn down your oak trees. I'm coming in to destroy your
cedars. So what is our prayer in light
of this? What is our prayer? Well, it's the same prayer that
Moses prayed in Exodus chapter 33. When Moses, after having
experienced the 10 plagues of Egypt, after having experienced
the dividing of the Red Sea, after having heard the voice
of God at the burning bush and all the demonstrations of God's
glory, what does Moses say now? He's standing at the mountain.
And at Mount Sinai, what does he say? What's he say to God
in prayer? Oh God, show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. Lord, if you'll
show me your glory, I'll come. You'll show me your glory. I'll
open the door. That's why we preach Christ.
That's why we preach the word of God. That's this is the means
by which God causes us to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is where he is. This is where he is so beautifully.
Revealed in his word. And he said, and I, if I be lifted
up, will draw men to myself. No man can come unto me, unless
the Father which sent me draw them." How does he draw them?
How does he draw them? Does he beat them into coming?
Does he force them to come? Does he bring them against their
will? No. All he has to do is show himself
to them. That's all he has to do. And
they come running. Open the door, Lebanon. You want
to be white? You want to have the righteousness
of the Lord, open the door. You want to be fruitful, bation,
open the door. And God's people say, Lord, show
me your glory. Bid me, bid me to come unto thee. Now what Peter said when he was
in the boat and the Lord was walking upon the water, Lord,
call me. No one has ever asked God to
show them His glory or ask Him to bid them to come unto Him
that He didn't do it. He didn't do it. Our God's willingness to save
is so much greater than our willingness to be saved. We don't excuse our unbelief
with the sovereignty of God. We stand, God saying right now,
to you and to me, open the door. Open the door. Now trees are mentioned often
in the scriptures, and here again we have symbolic language. Lebanon
and Bashan represent me and you. The opening of the door is a
picture of the irresistible, particular call of grace that
God gives to His people, apart from which we will not come.
And it's given by His Word, His Word anointed by His Spirit.
Now, what Ezekiel, Ezekiel, the Lord asked Ezekiel, can these
bones live, son of man? What did Ezekiel say? Lord, thou
knowest. If they're going to live, you're going to have to
make them live. Prophesy to them. Preach the gospel. Tell them
about Christ. And then he had to preach to the, he had to call
upon the spirit of God, the wind to come and to give them life. And it's still that way. It's
the word of God and the spirit of God that gives life to God's
people. What about these trees? Well, we come face to face with
trees right from the very beginning, don't we? In the garden. We've
got the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We've got the
tree of life. The tree of life. And when Adam
fell, when sin came into the garden, the Lord put them out
of the garden and there was a An angel, a great angel with a burning
sword, guarding the garden at the East gate so that Adam and
Eve could not come back in. What was he protecting? What
was that angel protecting? The tree of life. That tree of
life is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of
Revelation, the scripture refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the
tree of life, Revelation chapter 22, at the very end of the scriptures. And he speaks of that river that
flows clear as crystal from the throne of God and from the Lamb.
And on both sides of the river is the tree of life, which bears
its fruit in 12 seasons. Every month it's got a different
fruit on it. That tree of life is Christ. What are the two sides
of the river? Well, here it is, brethren. This
is such an encouragement. We're on one side of the river
right now, and we're going to be on the other side of the river
in just a little bit. That's the two sides of the river. And
we feast on the same tree, the same tree, the same fruit, the
same grace. One of these days, the Lord's
going to take us across that Jordan River. Word Jordan means descend. It's
a picture of death. It empties into the Dead Sea,
doesn't it? And the Lord divided that Jordan
River so that Joshua could lead the children of Israel across
the Jordan. And that's going to happen to me and you one day
soon. One day soon. He's going to divide the river.
And he's going to take us from one side to the other. And the
tree. that we're smelling now, the
tree that we're tasting of now, oh, we're gonna experience the
fullness of him, the fullness of him when we get to the other
side of the river. And here the Lord speaks of cedar
trees and fir trees and oak trees. In the scripture, the palm tree
is likened to the child of God. And he calls the child of God
the trees of righteousness which are the plantings of the Lord.
So this common analogy that we have in the world of trees, the
Lord uses them to illustrate Christ, he uses them to illustrate
his people, he uses them to illustrate his church. Israel is called
an olive tree and a fig tree and the wild olive tree of the
Gentiles are grafted into that tree of life. The church is likened unto a
tree that the birds come and find their nest in. The Lord
said, if you had the faith of a mustard seed, and that mustard
seed, when it's planted, grows into a great bush, and the birds,
the fowls of the air, come. We're those birds, and we find
our rest in that tree. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed
himself to Moses as a bush, a burning bush that was not consumed, a
picture of the fiery wrath of God's judgment that came upon
Christ on Calvary's cross and yet did not consume him. Moses at, I think it was, Marab,
Marab, Marab, bitterness is what the name of the place was. You
know, the children of Israel came to an oasis, but the water
was bitter. They couldn't drink it. And the Lord told Moses,
said, cut down that tree and throw it in the water. And Moses
cut down a tree and put it in the water. And the water was
made sweet and they were able to live. There's a picture of
the tree of life. And how can we look at trees
in the scriptures without knowing Cursed is every man that hangeth
upon a tree. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is called a tree. And that's that tree that was
thrown into the bitter waters. The scripture likens all men
to trees, and the Lord says, where the tree falls, there shall
it lie. One day God's gonna put the ax
to your tree and to my tree, and to whatever direction we
fall, that's where we're gonna lie for all eternity. The Lord says, open your gates,
oh Lebanon. Open your gates, oh Bashan. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
a root that comes forth or springs forth out of dry ground. Well, we only have to go to scripture
to find out what these trees represent. In Leviticus chapter
14, when a leper, a person who was afflicted with leprosy, came
before the priest for cleansing, the Lord told Aaron, he said,
take a piece of cedar and two live birds and some scarlet and
hyssop, and he gave him a ceremony that he was to perform. And,
uh, and, and through these instruments, the, the miracle of healing was
to take place for the leper. And, uh, you and I are born with
leprosy. It's in the blood. We've got
a, we've got an issue of blood, don't we? Just like that woman
did. And our leprosy is it's well, it affects every part of
our bodies and men know. Men know, all men know they've
got, all men know there is a God with whom they must do and all
men know that they've got a sin problem. They may not understand
the full gravity of it. That's what religion's all about.
Religion is all about man trying to make up for his sin and atone
for his sin that he might be able to one day stand in the
presence of God. And the Lord is saying to me
and you, open your gates, oh Lebanon, I'm going to come burn
down your cedars. You're not going to use your
cedar to put away your leprosy. Your leprosy is going to only
come when I feed you with the bread of life. He goes on in
this passage to say, and I will feed the flock of the slaughter.
So all the things that men do in order to try to perform the
necessary ceremonies to put away their sin or to cure their leprosy,
God says, when you open your door, I'm gonna come and burn
down your cedars. The fire of my wrath that falls
upon the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna take away from you any
hope of salvation that you have. in anything other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. The fir tree is mentioned twice
in the scriptures. Second Samuel chapter six, the
fir tree is used to make musical instruments for worship. And
then the fir tree is mentioned multiple times in the construction
of the temple. And God is saying to you and
to me, open your gates, old Lebanon. There's a forest fire coming.
And whatever you think you're going to do to fashion an instrument
of praise that's going to give you access into the presence
of God, I'm going to burn it down. And whatever temple you
think you're going to build me so that you can, so that you
can come into the presence of God, I'm going to burn it down.
I'm going to burn your fir trees down. I'm going to burn all your,
all your, all your cedar trees down. What's the Lord say? I'm going to strip you of anything
that you can do and take away from you all these types and
pictures that you see men still continue. We, we know that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of these types. Okay, God who
at sundry times and in divers manner spake to our fathers in
the times past by types and shadows, hath now spoken unto us by his
son. You see the fir tree is no longer,
is no longer, that ceremony is no longer good for putting away
leprosy. Don't come to a man and let him
put the blood of a bird and scarlet and hyssop and fir wood together
and see if that's gonna, that's what people do in religion. Don't
think that you're going to make an instrument of praise that's
going to be acceptable to God apart from the Lord Jesus. God's saying to me and you, I'm
going to come and I'm going to send the fire of my justice. And when you see what that fire
did to my son, when you see what it did to him,
all your forest is going to be taken away. Genesis chapter 35, don't turn
there, the first mention of the oak tree is after, you remember,
after Jacob reconciled with Esau. And now Jacob's settling his
family in Bethel, and God sends him to Bethel. And on his way
to Bethel, he stops at a place called Shechem, and Jacob gets
all of his family together, and he commands them to bring together
all their idols that they brought out of Laban's house. And he
gets all their idols together, and he digs a great hole under
an oak tree, and he buries all those idols under an oak tree
in Shechem. You see, this is all symbolic
language. It's prophecy. God is saying, open your gates,
O Lebanon. Open your gates, O Bashan. You
want righteousness and fruitfulness with God? I'm gonna send a fire. You see, the fire's already been
sent. Fire's already been sent. The fire fell from heaven 2,000
years ago. What Elijah did on Mount Carmel
was just a type, a picture of what would be accomplished at
Calvary. All these types were fulfilled
by the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to put you in a place
where you've got no place else to go and nothing else you can
do to achieve righteousness and fruitfulness other than resting
in and believing on my dear son. who is the fulfillment of all
these types. See, God has sent a forest fire.
He's already done it. He's already done it. Ahab told Elijah, you trouble
Israel. And Elijah said to Ahab, no,
I'm not troubling Israel. Israel had gone through three
years of drought. And Elijah said, I'm not troubling
Israel. You're troubling Israel because
you're leading them to worship Baal. He said, do you want to
see who the god is? You bring all of your 450 prophets
of Baal up to the top of Mount Carmel, and I will rebuild the
altar of God that's fallen down. That's what we do every time
we preach the gospel. You see, what we know and what we've heard
because of our influences in this world, we've got to rebuild
the altar every time we come together, don't we? And that's
what Elijah did on Mount Carmel. He rebuilt the altar. And he
said, you bring those prophets of Baal. I'm going to bury them
under the oak tree. They're going to be put away.
And so. Elijah says to the 450 prophets
of Baal, you go and build your, here's two bullocks. You pick
whichever one you want. Pick yourself the bullock. I'm
sure they inspected those two bullocks very closely. And they
got the one that they thought was going to be the most likely
to appeal to God. And they cut up the bullock and
they put it on the altar. And Elijah said, the God that
answereth by fire, he will be God. And they agreed. Yes, the God that answered by
fire, he'll be God. And they danced around that altar
and they prayed to their Baal God. And while Elijah's mocking
them, Elijah's mocking them. Maybe he's going on a journey,
you know, cry loud or cut yourself deeper, you know. And he just
mocks them for hours. And no fire falls from heaven.
And then Elijah says to his servants, take four barrels, fill them
with water, pour them on my altar. He built a trench around the
altar. And when they did it, four barrels of water poured
on the altar. He said, do it again. Do it again. Three times,
12 barrels of water. Soaked. The trench was full.
The wood was wet. Can't get a fire started like
that, Elijah. That water was a picture of the
spirit of God being poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the anointed one. And then Elijah prays to God.
God answered by fire and fire fell from heaven and consume
the altar and licked up the water that was in the, this is, this
is the same prophecy. Open your gates. Oh, Lebanon,
open your gates. Ovation. You've got your Cedar
wood that you use to try to, to try to cleanse yourself of
your leprosy. It's not going to work. You've
got your fir trees that you try to build your musical instruments
by and build your temples by? Not gonna work. Those musical instruments, that's
my son. That temple, that's my son. You've
got your oak trees that you try to bury your idols under? I'm coming to burn them down.
There's gonna be a great forest fire. And all these things are
going to be consumed. Why is the gospel so offensive
to men? Because they love their trees.
They love their trees. They don't want the fire of God
to consume their trees. Their glory is spoiled. Look
at, look at, look at verse, um, Verse three, there is a voice
of the howling of the shepherds for their glory is spoiled. The trees of man-made self-righteous
works free will religion is spoiled. And God's people say, amen, Lord,
spoil my free will, spoil my religion. Take away my hope in
anything other than Christ. Leave me stranded so that Christ
is all I have. Make me to open my door. Their glory is spoiled. Last Saturday, I had a wedding
in Tennessee for Seth and Kaylee. Lord willing, they'll be moving
here sometime next year. And Kaylee's father is a pastor
of a large Southern Baptist church, and he wanted the wedding to
be at his church. So that's where we had it. And
I tried to preach the gospel as clearly as I knew how to preach
it. And somebody told me, said, well, that's the best day this
church has ever had. There was a bunch of folks there
from that church. And I said, yeah, and it may
be the worst day they ever had. Worst day they ever had. I fear that Kaylee's father is
doing damage control right now, right this very minute. He's
got to get that same group of people together that he's pastoring
and try to explain to them the things they heard last Saturday. I want to say to them, but is
it true? Is it true? And I fear that they would say
exactly what. What? Pilot said truth. We're not here for truth. We're
here feel good. We're here to say we're here
to have someone say to us peace, peace when there is no peace.
They don't want their trees burned down. How about you? How about me? Is it OK? OK with you? God, take away your cedars. God,
take away your fir trees. God, take away your oaks. Leave
you with nothing but Christ. Is that OK with you? Amen, Amen
Lord, do it. Alright, let's take a break.