in this morning's service with
hymn number 21 from your gospel hymn spiral hymn book number
21 the covenant ordered and sure let's all stand together God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit three in one in eternal ages past made a covenant sure
and fast God my Father chose his own in the person of His
Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home, He would keep God's holy law and
retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price he offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heav'nly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, And He brings us to the Lamb, By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word. ? By His Spirit and His blood
? ? Blessed Holy covenant God ? ? I am yours by ties of blood
? ? Ties of grace and ties of love ? ? Hold me to my God above
? Please be seated. Good morning. There's the whole
gospel in that hymn we just sang. Elected by the Father, redeemed
by the Son, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, salvation is a work
of God's free and sovereign grace. And we rejoice in giving Him
all the praise and all the glory. We're going to be in Zechariah
chapter 3 and 4 both hours this morning if you'd like to find
that book with me in your Bibles. I've titled this first message
from the end of chapter 3, The Reason for Everything. The Reason for Everything. Have you ever found yourself
wondering what is the reason for this? Why Is this happening? Well, I'm going to give you from
the authority of God's Word what the absolute reason for everything
is. Alright, let's pray together.
Our merciful Heavenly Father, we come before You looking in faith to Thy dear
Son, for all our acceptance in thy holy presence. We thank you
for the successful work of redemption that he accomplished on Calvary's
cross. Lord, how we hope this morning
that you would send your spirit in power, enabling us to set
our affections on things above where Christ is seated at thy
right hand. Lord, that you would enable us
to rest in him. And to believe. That everything
he did was perfect and fulfilled all thy purpose. Lord, we. Cannot see unless you
give us eyes to see. We will not be able to hear thy
voice unless you unstop our ears. Lord will not have hearts to
If you don't take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of
flesh. Lord, we have nothing. We know nothing. And we can do
nothing. And we're completely dependent
upon thee. Thank you for the presence of
thy the promise of thy presence. Lord we wait now for you to speak
to our hearts in Christ's name. Amen. You have your Bibles open
to Zechariah chapter 3. Men of this world have nothing
to base their hopes on but theories. Now the word theory is actually
in the English a transliteration from the Greek word which translated
means speculation. Speculation. And that's all men
have. They just have speculation. Well,
it might be this or it might be that. They have the theory
of evolution. They have the theory of relativity. They have now the the string
theory and the quantum theory and scientists are looking for
the theory of everything. One key that's going to unlock
the mystery of everything, but even if they discover that, it's
still for them not going to be anything but a theory, a theory,
a speculation. I'm so very thankful that we
don't have to base the hopes of our lives or our salvation
on speculation. The Lord said, if you know the
truth, the truth shall set you free. And where the spirit of
God is, there is liberty. If the Lord is pleased by his
spirit to show us what he has declared to be the reason for
everything, then we can rest there. We can rest there. everything
everything in time and in eternity exist for the purpose of the
cross that's it so when you ask when you're tempted to say why
Lord here's look here's God's answer the cross the cross that's
why Everything that I did in eternity prior to the creation
of time was for the purpose of the cross. The covenant of grace
that we just sang about and God choosing a particular people
and the Lord Jesus Christ entering into a covenant relationship
with his father, making a promise to come in time and to redeem
his people was for the purpose of the cross. The Holy Spirit
entering into that covenant of grace and promising to the father
and to the son to come in the day of his power and make those
whom God chose and make those whom Christ redeemed willing
in the day of his power. to open the eyes of their understanding,
to take out their heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh and
give them faith. All that took place in eternity
past, before Adam was ever created, all that took place and it was
all for the purpose of the cross, the cross. Now the Latin word
for cross is the word crux and that's where we get our term,
the crux of the matter. And the cross really is the crux
of the matter. In the big scheme of things and
in the minutia of your life and of my life, the cross is the
purpose of everything. Everything. All that took place from the
creation of Adam to the fall of Adam, Throughout all the Old
Testament, prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when
God became flesh and dwelt among us, when he bore in his body
all the sins of all of God's people and offered himself to
the Father as a sacrifice for sin, all that took place for
the purpose of the cross. And in the last 2,000 years,
everything that's ever happened. Everything. This is the truth,
brethren. This is the truth. Everything
that's ever happened, big or small, is for the purpose of
the cross. And everything that will happen
in eternity, future, is for the purpose of the cross. You see,
it's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that most glorifies God. And the purpose of everything
is the glory of God. It's the glory of God. Look what
the Lord tells us in Zechariah chapter 3, verse 9, for behold,
the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall
be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. One day. That's the one day. The one day
that took place in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago is the pinnacle
of everything and the purpose of everything. Everything. Now, I'm not suggesting that
we are able in our limited understanding to see how the events of time
and history relate to the cross. But here's the truth. We don't
walk by sight. We don't walk by sight. We walk
by faith. Faith is believing God. Faith
is resting in the truth that God has declared whether we understand
it or not. The peace of God is better than
understanding. And the only way to have the
peace of God is to believe God. To believe God. So what I'm calling
on you to do this morning, and what God has called on me to
do, I told somebody recently, I never preach to anybody, that
I preach myself first and at the same time is to believe God. Believe God and understand that
when the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, was suspended between
heaven and earth, became the sin bearer of his people, the
substitute, God's satisfied Savior, that that's what ties it all
together, ties it all together, everything. So next time you
think, I wonder why that happened? The cross. It's for the cross. That's what it was for. That one day. When all time and
eternity meet together. That one day. Look how this verse
begins in verse 9. The stone that I have laid. And God Almighty is speaking.
And he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as that stone. That, you remember the stone
that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness?
And the scripture makes it clear that that stone was Christ. And
Moses was to smite that stone with the rod of justice. And
out of that stone came rivers of living water that sustained
the children of Israel all through their wanderings in the wilderness
for 40 years. The second time, children of
Israel cried for water. Moses, the Lord told Moses, you
don't smite the stone again. You smote it once. And the rod
of God's justice smote the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross
one time, and God's law was satisfied. And what was Moses to do after
that? From then on, after he smote the rock one time, what
was he supposed to do? He was supposed to speak to the stone.
but instead he smote it again. And he wasn't able to enter into
the promised land. And what do we do? We speak to the stone. The stone's
already been smitten. The law of God has already been
fulfilled. He was all satisfied on that
one day by that stone that God laid Listen to what Isaiah 28
says, verse 16. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
foundation that God laid and God tried him. God tried him
for 33 years. The Lord Jesus Christ was tried. He was tried by the contradiction
of sinners. He was tried by the law. And
he proved to be precious in the sight of God. Listen to what
that verse says. Behold, I lay in Zion for foundation a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. That word precious, we in the
South sometimes will use the word precious to refer to the
cuteness of a child. Well, wasn't that precious? But
the word precious in the scripture refer, it actually literally
means priceless. Priceless. We often refer to
something as priceless, but I doubt very seriously there's anything
in this world that's really priceless. But here we've got something
that's priceless. You can't put a price. Now, what
does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and loses his
own soul? What would a man give in exchange
for his soul? All the wealth of this world cannot measure
up to the value of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that tried stone.
And now God is saying, I've laid in Zion a stone, a foundation,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And then that
verse goes on to say, and he that believeth shall not make
haste. Shall not make haste. Now, what
is the opposite of making haste? The Lord's not saying to us,
don't make haste to get to Christ. Make haste to get to him. Come
now. Today is a day of salvation.
The urgency of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ is real, but
what's the opposite? This word haste is running to
and fro. And what's the opposite of that?
The opposite of hasting is resting. Resting? Rest on that stone. Build your house on that stone.
This is the stone that God laid. And when the storms come, the
house built on that rock will not fall. It will not fall. What does the world have to build
their house on? Shifting sand. That's it. Just shifting sand. Paul says in Ephesians chapter
2 verse 20, speaking of the church, the church is built upon the
foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being that cornerstone. So when Peter confessed Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Do you remember when
the Lord asked Peter, whom do you say that I am? Whom do you
say? See, that's the matter. That's
the crux of the matter. Whom do you say that I am? Peter
said, Thou art the Christ, the anointed one, the long-awaited
one, the one who came in that one day in order to settle everything
that was purposed of God for eternity and for time. And what
the Lord say, upon this rock, the declaration that you just
made, Peter, that I am the Christ, the son of the living God, upon
this rock, I shall build my church and the gates of hell shall not
be able to prevail against it. I'm going to take down the gates
of hell and I'm going to bring out captivity, out of captivity,
all my elect. And I'm going to build my church
stone by stone, stone by stone. For no other foundation can any
man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. No other
foundation. There's no other foundation.
No other place to go. You know, that's the offense
of the gospel. You know, men love politically
correct language. because politically correct language
is ambiguous. It's vague. It gives everybody
that's listening to that language an opportunity to interpret it
how they want to interpret it. And I wrote a little article
in your bulletin this morning. This week I was typing on a computer
and I wrote out the phrase in an article that I had written.
As a matter of fact, that article is in the bulletin also. The
word Christ particular redemption. Christ particular redemption.
And our computer has set up a grammar check And the grammar check flagged
that phrase, Christ's particular redemption, and suggested that
I take out the word particular in order to make the sentence
more precise. That's what it said. Take out
the word particular in order to make the sentence more precise. And my first thought was, wow,
even my computer hates the gospel. But, you know, taking out the
word precise or taking out the word particular would have made
it more, but that's what the world wants. They don't want
us to speak with particular language. They don't want us to, you know,
give us an opportunity to interpret it how we want. Speak in generality. Speak in terms that we can insert
our own meaning. You know, when somebody comes
here, I want them to leave here either glad or mad, but I don't
want them to leave confused. I don't want them to leave confused.
Let them leave glad or let them leave mad. But I don't want anybody
coming out and leaving here with a question mark over their head
wondering, well, what did he mean by that? What did he mean
by that? The Lord Jesus Christ, He is the one foundation. Turn
with me to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Religion speaks in vague generalities. They use politically correct
language. You know the free willers will
say Christ died for you and you can
have the benefits of his death if you believe, if you make a
decision, if you accept him into your life. And the Calvinist, I've met a
lot of Calvinist who will say Christ died for everyone that
believes. Now which one of those two statements
is more ambiguous? Which one is more vague? The Calvinist statement is more
ambiguous. It leaves more room for interpretation
to say that Christ died for everyone that believes than to say that
Christ died for everyone and if you believe you can be saved.
They're both a lie. They're both a lie. But here's
what I'm saying. We don't want to speak in that
kind of language. We want to say, without ambiguity,
the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for the sheep that God
chose according to his own will and purpose in the covenant of
grace before time ever began. And he successfully, he successfully
redeemed them through his work of redemption on Calvary's cross.
He offered himself to the Father and he saved his people. And in time, in time, everyone
that he died for, the Spirit of God will give them ears to
hear and not one of his sheep will be lost. Not a single one
will be lost. Is there any confusion about
who Christ died for? No. No. First Peter chapter 2, look
at verse 4, speaking of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what do you hear religious people say all the time? Well, I came
to Christ. Well, look what God says, to whom coming. Now that's present tense. Now
here's what I'm saying, child of God, don't look back. to an
experience that you had in the past, however life-changing that
experience was, however real that experience may have been,
don't look back to a past experience for the hope of your salvation. That's feeding on yesterday's
manna. And yesterday's manna's got worms
in it. It'll make you sick. To whom coming? How do I know
that I'm saved? Because I'm coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ right now. He's the only hope I have. And
I've got no place else to go but to Him. To whom? Coming,
as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God. And here's that word again, precious. This is the rock that
was laid down that's precious, priceless, chosen of God. You
also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. The only thing that's acceptable
to God is that which is offered up by Jesus Christ. If I offered
it up apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not acceptable to
God. I don't care how sincere I am.
It's fraught with my sin, but if it's offered by the Lord Jesus
Christ, then it's acceptable in his sight. We don't dare come
into the presence of God without the Lord Jesus Christ as our
advocate. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scriptures, and here's that passage from Isaiah 28 that
we just read, Behold, I lay in Zion." Now, where is Zion? You're
sitting in Zion right now. This is the only place this stone
is laid down. It's the only place. You see,
the stone is laid down through the preaching of the gospel.
And the gospel is not being preached anywhere except in the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. That's what in the Isaiah passage
it says, shall not make haste, shall not be confused, shall
not be running to and fro, but shall sit down and rest in the
glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious, but unto them
that be. Now you see that word disobedient? You can look it up. It's the
word apathy, apathy. Apathy is a Greek word. It means
to be indifferent. God's people are not apathetic
about the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not indifferent. They,
they've got to have him. And so the Lord says, but to
them which be apathetic, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same has become the head of the corner. So the builders
could not fit this stone into their structure. And so what
do they do? They cast him aside. And God
takes that stone and uses that stone to build his church and
makes it to be the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling,
a rock of offense, even to them, which stumble at the word being
disobedient where unto also they were appointed. They were appointed. Here's here's, this is hard language.
How many times we read in the scriptures where people were
listening to the Lord Jesus Christ and they said, this is a hard
saying, who can hear it? Who can hear it? You mean the
God that I thought loved everybody appointed before time began that
some would be vessels of destruction, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? That God made them and left them
to themselves? appointing in his sovereign purpose
to be disobedient. That's what scripture says. That's
what scripture says. Now God doesn't have to do anything
in the lives of the reprobate in order for them to be reprobate. All he has to do is lead them
to themselves. You see, God has to be actively
involved in order to take an unbeliever and make him a believer.
But God's just passive towards the unbeliever. He just leaves
them to themselves. Lord, don't leave me to myself. Come, be active in my life. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. That word
peculiar is the word purchased. Some of us are more peculiar
than others, but the word here is actually the word purchased.
You're a purchased people. That you should show forth the
praises of him who had called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Go back with me to Zechariah
chapter 3. You remember when Jacob was fleeing
from Esau after he deceived Esau and deceived his father and stole
the birthright from Esau and his mother told him to flee and
he was going to Laban's house and on the way he went to a place
called Bethel. And in Bethel, the Lord revealed himself by
that ladder. You remember the ladder that
Jacob saw with the angels ascending and descending? The ladder itself
was Christ. And the Lord Jesus makes reference
to that ladder when he tells us that you will see the angels
ascending and descending on me. But do you remember what the
scripture says Jacob did? He took a stone and used a stone
for a pillow. And I wondered for a long time,
why in the world would you, I mean, roll up some grass or something,
but don't use a stone for a pillow. How hard would that be? Well,
it's, this is the gospel message. Christ is that stone. And he's
the one we rest our heads on. Even as John rested his head
on the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ at the last supper, we
rest on him. He's the stone. When the Lord
said, build an altar out of stone and don't hewn the stones. Don't put the tool to the stone. Don't try to dress up the stone.
Don't try to shape it. Just take raw stones and stack
them up and make an altar. Because when you put your hand
to it, you're going to defile that altar. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that stone. He's the altar. He's the reason
for everything. Everything. You remember when they were building
that tower trying to reach up into heaven in Babel? And that's
what man-made religion does. The scripture says they had brick
for stone. and that's all religion has,
is fired handmade bricks trying to reach up into heaven. For behold, get back with me
to Zechariah chapter 3 verse 9, for behold the stone that I have
laid before Joshua Upon one stone shall be seven eyes." Turn with me over to chapter
4, the latter part of verse 10,
where it says, you shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.
with those seven, which are the eyes of the Lord, which run to
and fro through the whole earth." This is symbolic language. God
doesn't have seven sets of eyes. The number seven is the number
of completion. God rested on the seventh day
because he had finished his work. and this is a reference to the
fact that the eyes of the Lord what term in the I'll show you
this in revelation term in a revelation chapter 5 this is so encouraging
revelation chapter 5 remember John saw that there
was a book in heaven and that it was sealed this is the lambs
book of life This is the book that had the names of God's elect
written in it from before the foundation of the world. And
John sees this scroll and he weeps because there's no man
in heaven nor on earth that was worthy to unlock the seal of
this and reveal the secrets of this book. And without the reading
of the names of this book, no one's going to be saved. And
the angel says to John in verse five, weep not. John, stop crying. For the lamb of the tribe of
Judah hath prevailed and he is able to unlock the seal of this
book. In verse six, and I beheld, and
low in the midst of the throne of the four beasts in the midst
of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain having seven
horns, horns is a picture of strength he's got full strength
he's omnipotent and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth so that's the that's the seven
eyes that that Zechariah is making reference to. He says, on this
stone, there are seven eyes. And in Zechariah chapter four,
he says, these seven eyes go to and fro throughout all the
earth. And in Isaiah, in Revelation chapter five, these seven eyes
are the seven spirits of God, which God sends throughout the
earth to do what? To gather his elect. Here's the
message, brethren. I'll close with this. Someone
asked me recently, what's this worth? What's this worth? And
I said, well, it's worth whatever someone's willing to pay for
it. That's what it's worth. And that's what everything's
worth. Everything is worth what someone's willing to pay for
it. The value of an item is determined
by the price that's paid for it. What price? In the world, in the world, men
try to bolster one another's self-esteem by telling them how
unique and how valuable they are. That's not my point here. My point is that you would esteem
Christ for the price that he paid for you. You see, every drop of the Lord
Jesus Christ's precious blood is of infinite value. And the price that he paid, he
said, you've been bought with a price. You're not your own. Now the scripture says that the
church is the off-scouring of the world. In other words, we
have no value to the world. And in Zechariah chapter 4 we're
going to see where the Lord says, don't despise the day of small
things. But here's the message, brethren.
These eyes of the Lord go throughout all the earth because everyone
for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died is of infinite value to
Him and He's not going to lose one of His sheep. Not a single
one. The price paid for the souls
of God's people, for the individual soul of each one of God's people,
was the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's nothing in
time or in eternity more valuable than that. In that day, in that
one day, one day, He shed His precious blood In another place the scripture
says the world is not worthy of you. Take that in. The world is not
worthy of you. The nations are but a drop in
the bucket to me. They are a speck on the scale,
a speck of dust on the scale to me. They have no value. They
have no consequence. All but my people? My people? The seven eyes of the Lord go
to and fro to redeem each and every individual one of them. Let's take a break. It's really good.