Verse 8 of Zechariah chapter
9, we have this lovely promise from our God. He says, I will
encamp about mine house, because of the army, and because of him
that passeth by, and because of him that returneth, that no
oppressor shall pass through them any more. for now i have
seen with mine eyes And then the very next verse is, Lord
willing, we'll look at next week, but it's glorious, isn't it?
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, upon the colt, a colt, the foal
of an ass. It's a lovely picture of the
promise of our God to his people that he will encamp about his
people. Words used many, many times in
the Old Testament, 143 according to my Bible, and it's often referred
to in numbers about pitching a tent. But what a glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ encamping around God, encamping God protecting his people. There's
a lovely term that's used by Preachers and theologians call
it provenient grace. And it means that the grace of
God has never changed. The grace of God is like God
himself. It's eternal grace and it's saving
grace. And God's grace protects his
people in their days of unregeneracy as much as it protects his people
and watches over his people through all of the rest of our days.
It's a lovely thing to think of, isn't it? The eternal security
of the saints of God. People sort of talk about once
saved, always saved, and they criticize the preachers of the
gospel for declaring that. And the answer to the question
of whether that's true or not is, who does the saving? If man
has any hand in the saving whatsoever, then it's as strong as man's
hand. If God does all of it, our salvation
is as secure as God Almighty. Our security before God is as
secure as the covenant that we're in. Listen to what David says in
Psalm 27, verse three. David's confidence was in the encamping
of the Lord. It goes on in that Psalm. In Psalm, to speak of
the glory of God, but in Psalm 34, It speaks of the church of God. It says, this poor man cried,
verse six, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all
of his trouble. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about
them that fear him and delivereth them. Oh, taste and see that
the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. So here we have this promise
in this glorious chapter of the scriptures. And it's a promise
that Zechariah has referred to earlier in Zechariah chapter
2. He says, For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her, will
be unto his church, will be unto his people. I will be unto her
a wall of fire round about and glory. I will be the glory in
the midst. I will encamp around my people. The salvation of all of God's
saints is very old. It's as old as eternity, not
that eternity has an age about it. But our salvation continues
and concludes with God the author and the finisher of it. These people in Zechariah's day
were a remnant, weren't they? They were a remnant that returned
as promised by God, and they were a remnant that were surrounded
by enemies on all sides, just as the nation of Israel has always
been a small nation, except for some very brief times, and continually
assaulted by enemies. The God's remnant, God's portion
is his people and he encamps around them. A small remnant,
a very secure remnant. God brings his sheep back and
he brings these people back from the captivity of Babylon, which
is a picture of our captivity to sin. And he brings them back
in the midst of nations around them that had been witnesses
to the glory of God and witnesses to the gospel and stood as enemies
to it. And he brings them back with
a purpose that they will build a temple of the Lord, a place
where God is glorified in the holy of holy. God is glorified
in what he does amongst his people, and he does the building, and
he does the gathering, and he does the securing, and he does
the encamping around them. And it's done in such a way,
I love what Nehemiah has a description when he finally finishes building
the wall around Jerusalem. that sets the encampment, the
bounds of the encampment of the children of God. And it says
in Nehemiah chapter 6 after they had finished, and if you read
the earlier chapters you'll see that it was all done with much
opposition from outside and opposition and deceit from inside. And then,
and so verse 15, and so the wall was finished, the wall is this
picture of the Lord surrounding his people, he's a wall unto
them, was finished in the 20th and fifth day of the month of
Elul, in 50 and two days, just 50 and two days, a month and
a half is extraordinary. And it came to pass when all
our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about
us saw these things, They were much cast down in their own eyes,
for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. Our enemies will not perceive
as those enemies did in this life, but there will come a time
when the Lord having gathered his people and encamped around
them and protected them and shielded them from all of the enemies
that are without and within, that it will be perceived that
this work is the work of God. And that's what we want, don't
we? We want and we desire and we long for all of our salvation
to be the work of God from beginning to end. We want Him to get all
the glory and we want to get all the comfort in knowing that
He began the work and He finishes the work. And that's what Philippians
1.6 says, isn't it? He that has begun a good work
in you. Don't you love that? This is a confidence, this is
a confidence that God's people have. These little churches that
Paul and the apostles established were in the midst of, they were
surrounded by enemies on all sides and they had many, many
enemies within. This is Paul's confidence of
this church in Philippi. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform. Who does the performing? Who
keeps us in grace? Who brought us into his kingdom
and who keeps us? Who's the one that reveals himself
to us? He'll perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. end. The great shepherd of the
sheep. John chapter 10. He did not lose
one of his sheep. The great shepherd goes out over hills and dales
and he gathers his sheep and he brings them into his fold
and they're secure in him and he encamps. He encamps around
them. The Lord will not, Psalm 94 verse
14, the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake
his inheritance. He encamps about his people. And I want us to see, just briefly,
who they are that stand around Jerusalem. And it's a picture. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his church. The angels are encamped around
them. We see through the eyes of faith
what the world will never see. We see the glory of God through
believing his word. I love what Elisha said to and
prayed to the Lord when he was surrounded by enemies and everything
was against him. There's a great army against
him and the Lord says, Elisha prayed to the Lord, Lord open
his eyes that he may see. And beyond what man saw and feared
was the glory of God and the hosts of angels. He says that
his angels are encamped around us today. The angels see both
heaven and earth. What do they see in heaven? They
see the glory of God in the crucified Saviour, don't they? They see
that throne of grace that we are called to come to again and
again in our time of need. The spiritual reality is when
we come to the Scriptures and we see these physical things
happening, there is beyond it and above it, just like there
was with Elisha's servant, there is beyond and above all the things
that we see, the very power and the very glory of God. The heavens
do rule. God rules. So let's go back to
verse 1 and look at why the Lord says this in Enoch. And so we
start to the northeast of Jerusalem and the northeast of of Israel. with fire. And he's going down
the coast of Israel now to places that we hear a lot about in the
news at the moment. Ashkelon shall see it and fear. Gaza also shall see it and be
very sorrowful. And Ekron for her expectations
shall be ashamed. And the king shall perish from
Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a bastard shall
dwell in Ashdod. And I will cut off the pride
of the Philistines. and I will take his blood out
of his mouth and his abomination from between his teeth. But he
that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall
be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. these nations that surround and
out of those nations the Lord Jesus Christ had his people and
his elect and he was going to gather them. But in gathering
them he has to, as he does by the glorious work of the Holy
Spirit, he has to reduce them down as he does with us. They picture the enemies of our
flesh that surround us. But prior to that, we have this
glorious description of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of chapter
eight. In those days, thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those days
it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all
languages of the nation, even shall take hold of the skirt.
So out of these nations, these enemies, take hold of the skirt
of him that is a Jew. There is just one true Jew, isn't
there? and all the true Israel of God
are in him. The Lord Jesus Christ, we will
go with you for we have heard that God is with you. The enemies of God will be silenced. Don't you love what Psalm 110
says of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his enemies, it's
us included. The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. He's able to bring
his people down. He's able to subdue all of our
enemies. All saved people are enemies
of God until the Lord saves them. In their hearts aren't they their
enemies? Romans 5 describes the children of God. For when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. Thank God that he died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man would one die, but yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth
his love toward us, that in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. and now being justified by his
blood shall we be saved from wrath through him. For if when
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son,
much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ we now receive the atonement our enemies are declared when
we were enemies we were reconciled to god we didn't know about it and the Blessed Holy Spirit comes
and reveals to us that all of our sin has been taken away in
the death, the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So all of our enemies are exposed on the cross. And the Lord took
all of his bride into himself and he, in a sense, encamped
around his bride. And all of the wrath of God fell
on him as it did on Noah's ark. The just wrath of Almighty God
fell on him, and we take hold of a Jew. We take hold of this
one Jew. We take hold of him by his skirt. Don't you love the glorious fulfillment
of that word in that lady who came to the Lord Jesus Christ?
She came and she said, if I can just touch the hem of his garment,
I shall be made whole. Jesus turned him about and said
unto her, Daughter be of good comfort, thy faith hath made
thee whole. And she was made whole from that
very hour. Our God is good in gathering
his people over the enemies. Listen to the descriptions of
the enemies in verse 2 of chapter 9. They are very wise. We were
very wise in our own eyes until the Lord showed us how foolish
our wisdom was. We, like Tyrus in verse 3, we
build ourselves a stronghold in this world, don't we? A stronghold
of wealth, a stronghold of righteousness, a stronghold of what I have done
and what I will do. And we heap up fine gold. Verse 4. Our power, the Lord will smite
our power and cause us to be those that lay hold of him. Verse
five, Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron, their expectation, we have an
expectation that has to be dashed, isn't it? Our expectation is
that somehow you will be as God and by your doing, you'll be
in right relationship with God. God somehow is going to reward
your good deeds and your religious activities. And in verse six,
it's called the pride of the Philistines. Remember the pride
in these activities. They had witnessed the works
of God for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. They'd
seen what God had done. They'd seen God fulfill his promises
in destroying nation Israel and sending them into captivity again
and again. God had proved himself faithful
that these nations stood opposed, but out of those nations there
was this glorious remnant. The pride of thine heart hath
deceived thee. What a true word from Obadiah. Our God says that out of all of those
people he will gather his own to himself and he will encamp
around them. He will be a wall of fire. I will encamp about my house. Whose house we are. The church
gathered is the very house of God. This is the place where
God gathers himself and reveals himself as the household of God.
And we've been gathered out of all these nations. We've been
stripped of all those refuges of lies. And the Lord God himself
says that he will be the shield and the strength of his people. I will be. I will encamp about
my house. Our God not only reveals the
corruptions of our evil deeds, He reveals the corruptions of
our righteousnesses and he strips them away. And he gathers his
people as he did the people of Israel and gathers them back
from the captivity of Babylon, the captivity of this world.
And he brings them into a place where he reveals himself. He
brings them into a place where his glory is revealed in what
he does as he builds them. And then he says, I'm around
you, I'm surrounding you. We read it earlier in Romans
chapter 8, isn't it? But it's a glorious thing to
think, isn't it? That in faith we believe that
God works all things together for good. He says, no harm ever
comes to the righteous. No harm ever comes to the righteous. Our God encamps around his people
and he makes these covenant promises with them. I want to finish by
reading those verses which are on your bulletin out of Jeremiah
chapter 32. This speaks to this gathering of these people. We
read it at the beginning. He says, I will gather them. I will gather them. out of all
the countries, Jeremiah 32, 37, whether I have driven them in
my anger and in my fury and in great wrath, and I will bring
them again into this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely,
and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, and
I will give them one heart, the Lord Jesus Christ is the
way, that they may fear me forever. They'll reverence me. They'll
be in awe of who I am. They will truly fear. What's the true fear of God?
The fear of God is the fear of standing in the presence of God
Almighty without the perfect and complete covering of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God is to be feared. It's the heart that he gives
them. For the good of them and their children after them and
I will make an everlasting covenant. This is this encampment, isn't
it? With them and I will not turn away from them to do them
good. I will put my fear in their hearts
and they shall not depart from me. The wall has two effects,
doesn't it? The encampment has two effects.
It gathers the people of God in and it keeps the enemies out
again and again and again. He does all things so well. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good. We ought to be amazed at the
fact that God rejoices in his salvation. in his glory, in the
salvation of his people. I will rejoice over them to do
them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my
whole heart and with my whole soul. Seeing our daughter of
Zion, that's exactly what they did when the king comes in, when
the king comes in and reveals that he is encamped around his
people and all of his promises are fulfilled. This singing that we'll look
at next week is a shouting in Israel. Be glad and rejoice with
all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. In that day, this
is Zephaniah 3.16, in that day we shall be said to Jerusalem,
fear thou not and desire and let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of thee, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee, encamped around
thee, is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with
joy, he will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. What a glorious picture of our
God. What a glorious picture of him
gathering us and encamped around us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly
Father, we pray that you would bless these glorious words of
the finished work and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in declaring
it is finished. in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank you, Heavenly Father, that you hedge our ways and you cause
us to be sheep of the great shepherd, herded into the fold by the sound
of the voice of the shepherd. And in that fold, we are surrounded
by grace and mercy and love. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you might cause our hearts to rejoice with your rejoicing over
your people. And we pray especially for Ben
and Tegan as they prepare for a married life, Heavenly Father,
that there would be great joy in heaven and great encouragement
among the saints as you carry them through this time of their
lives. We pray your abundant blessings and mercy upon them,
our Father. Keep shepherding them into the
arms of the Great Shepherd and cause them to find deep love
and mercy and grace. in the company of each other.
Bless their marriage and their future together, our Father,
for we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for his
glory. Cause us to remember him as we
take these elements. Remember his broken body and
his shed blood for us, for us, our Father, we pray.