I wanted to spend a little bit
of time looking at these verses, 12 in particular, and I have entitled
this message, The Possession of My People. And I love the fact that our
God commands me and his servants everywhere to comfort my people
and to declare unto them that their warfare is finished. They have received double from
the Lord's hand. You speak comfortably. Then the
voice said, Cry, and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass. All flesh is grass. And the goodliness thereof is
as the flower of the field, the grass withereth and the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
The people is grass, the grass withereth and the flower fadeth,
but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion, that bring us good tidings,
get thee up in a high mountain. Jerusalem that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not
afraid. Say under the cities of Judah,
behold your God. And what a wonderful description
we have of our God here and what a wonderful description of the
extraordinary promises that we have laid out before us here
We looked last week at the promises in chapter 8 of Zechariah, verse
7 and 8. I will save my people. And he
says, you behold it, you have a look, you gaze upon me saving
my people. And how does he do it? I will
bring them. They shall dwell. They shall be my people. I will be their God. I will be their God in truth
and in righteousness. Our great God makes these promises. We read about it in Psalm 111. He remembers his covenant. God's
people are saved by an everlasting, eternal covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we comfort God's people?
to God's people is, I will, I make the promises, I do the doing,
and they shall, they shall rest. And that's exactly what the Gospel
of Zechariah is declaring, and I remind you that this is the
second last book of the Old Testament, and there was a silence after
Malachi put his pen down, there was a silence for over 400 years. And so in a sense, these and
the words of Malachi are the last words of the Lord to the
people of God for all of that time, that time of extraordinary
silence, until a light shone. and the light that shone was
the light that shone on the Lord Jesus Christ. I love how at the
beginning of this New Testament age, the first public gospel
preaching was the preaching of the father of John the Baptist,
who didn't believe God, didn't believe God's messenger, and
he was silent for the entirety of the day. the forming of John
the Baptist in his mother's womb. And he was silent for another
eight days. Imagine that. He's an old man,
his wife's an old woman, well past menopause, and they have
this baby and he can't say a word. He can't say a word. Even when
it's born he can't say a word. It wasn't until they brought
him to be circumcised and named that Zachariah spoke, but he
spoke publicly. And I just love what he said
and his words echo the words of these verses in Zechariah
chapter 8. He begins by saying, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel. And listen to how he describes
the work of the Lord God of Israel. He hath visited, he's already
visited his people, and he hath redeemed them. When did he redeem
them? Lord Jesus Christ is still a baby in his mother's womb at
this time. They were redeemed before the
foundation of the world. My point is that the works of
God are finished works, brothers and sisters. All the works are
finished from the foundation of the world. And that is the
great declaration of the gospel, isn't it? Listen to what he goes
on to say, this first public gospel preacher. I know the angels
spoke to Mary and Mary and Elizabeth spoke to each other. But nevertheless,
this is a public gathering at the temple with the circumcision
of John. He has raised up and horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spoke
by the mouth of his holy prophets. And this is one of those holy
prophets. The spirit of prophecy is the
Lord Jesus Christ. All of the prophets speak of
him, which have been since the world began, that we should be
saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us
to perform, do you see? This is the first gospel, means
we're talking about a God who performs. To perform, verse 72,
the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. the oath which he swore to our
father Abraham, you'll be my people and I'll be your God,
that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness
and in righteousness. and righteousness before Him
all the days of our life. And if you think that's your
holiness, and if you think that's your righteousness, you've forgotten
what I just read out of Isaiah chapter 40, all flesh is grass. Grass. This holiness and this
righteousness is the holiness and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're going to serve Him that way all the days
of our lives. And thou, child, this baby, eight-day-old
baby, shalt be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shalt
go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give
knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their
sins. through the tender mercy of our
God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us. It's a baby. He visits his people
in these promises being fulfilled, to give to light to them that
sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace. And I think that's what Zechariah
here is talking about. He says, I will bring them, they
shall dwell, they shall be my people, I will be their God. And he talks about the entailments
of the fall and the trial of these people being under the
law of God, under its blessings and under its curses. But then
he goes on to remind them that in the Lord Jesus Christ, all
of the blessings of God are the possession of his people because
all of the curse of God has been born in his body on the tree
and there is none left. That's why he goes on to say, Verse 12, for the seed. The seed shall be prosperous.
There are four great blessings of this covenant of grace in
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed shall be prosperous,
the vine shall give her fruit, the ground shall give her increase,
and the heavens shall give their due. And the promise of our great
God is that he will cause the remnant of this people to possess
all of these. Our great God, as we read this
glorious, glorious book that He has written, makes these extraordinary
promises to His people and He signs them and seals them in
the blood of His dear and precious Son. And these promises are like the
promises in Ephesians chapter one. He says, verse three, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. I'll be their God and they shall
be my people. I'll bring them to myself and
they'll dwell with me and they'll dwell in me. to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the blood. I don't feel accepted in a whole
lot of things, and I don't feel accepted in a whole lot of places
in this world. But if I'm accepted in the blood,
the rest of it doesn't matter too much, does it? Our God speaks and he makes these
glorious, glorious promises and these are the blood-bought ascension
gifts of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's ascended on high. He's ascended
on high and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
Ephesians 4 verse 12, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ. That's what we're here for. That's
what we're here, we're gathered here to read the last will and testament
and the promises of our great and glorious God. I will, I will
and they shall. We are here to declare again
and again the sure mercies of David because there is a surety. How sure and how secure are your
possessions? You think you own them, don't
you? Mostly they own you. And God says that he just blows
on them and they are gone. This is no place, if you're a
bird, to build your nest in this world. There's no place to have
your security here. How sure are the things of your
life? In a heartbeat, things are taken
away from people. The ability to enjoy all of this
so-called bounty in this world can be taken away in a heartbeat.
Your relationships with the people of this world, they can be fraught
with all sorts of problems. And sometimes those that seem
extraordinarily close and extraordinarily sure can be taken away in a heartbeat. is as sure as their surety is
sure. While ever our God reigns in
heaven, all of the promises that he makes in these scriptures
are fulfilled. And when he comes back, he'll
take his people to himself and he says, I will bring them and
they'll dwell. They'll dwell with me, they'll
dwell with me forever. The seed. Let's look at these
four things briefly and I wanted to spend a little bit more time
looking at the sureness of the promises at the end of it. For the seed shall be prosperous. Now the Lord Jesus Christ of
course is the seed, but there is a seed that declares the seed
and there is a seed that declares the seed that actually becomes
the life of the people of God. And so we like to talk about
this seed, don't we? The Lord speaks of it. He says
He speaks in Isaiah chapter 55, and he reminds us that his thoughts
are not our thoughts, and neither is his ways ours, and I'm so
thankful that that's the case. He says in verse nine, for as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the
rain cometh down and the snow from heaven returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it
may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please. and it shall prosper in the thing
where to I sent it. That's happening right now, isn't
it? Wherever the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, the seed is being
sown and God is being glorified. Listen to 1 Peter 1.22 Seeing you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently. That is the fruit of being born
again, that love for the brethren, that love for the Lord. Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
the glory of man as the flower of the grass, and the grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. Verse 25, but the word
of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. How do you hear the word of God?
According to God, you hear the Word of God when the Gospel is
proclaimed. And where there is no Gospel
and where the Lord Jesus Christ is robbed of His glory and robbed
of these sure mercies and robbed of His throne in Heaven, there
is no Gospel and there is no Word from God according to God. Why are God's people particular
about the Gospel? about the Saviour. We are the
bride of Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ. And if you
love your husband, you will rise up in anger when he is publicly
defiled before men. Surely that's what love acts
isn't it? We love him and therefore we
hate every false way. The seed shall be prosperous. Now this word goes out as the
gospel is preached. And this word has a powerful
effect on the children of God. If you're in 1 Peter just turn
over a few pages and with me to 1 John chapter 3. And what
a remarkable thing. Paul Peter talks about you've
purified your souls. Your souls are purified in believing
the gospel. And he says, he says, Beloved,
behold, ye behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
on us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the
world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now
are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Every man that
has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
Whosoever commit a sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested. This is the appearing of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was manifested to take away
our sins. And he took them because he bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. But listen to what he goes
on to say. And in him, right now, is no sin. No sin. The sin is gone. Whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not. And whosoever sinneth hath not
seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commit a sin is of the
devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God, commit sin. In him is no sin. If we're in him, our sin is gone. That's all it is to be justified.
Whosoever is born of God doth not For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. What's he saying? The seed shall be prosperous. God says the seed shall be prosperous. This seed, this word of God shall
be prosperous. In this, verse 10, in this the
children of God are manifest and the children of the devil,
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother. Once again, love is the test
and love is the evidence. We love him and we love the brethren
because he first loved us. The seed shall be prosperous. We declare simply the word of
God. And as God enables us, we try
and declare and we seek to declare that word as widely as we possibly
can throughout this world. And so do all of God's people.
We pray for a door of utterance to be opened that we might just
declare what God said. That's our testimony. This is
what God has said about God. Okay, the next one, the vine
shall give her fruit. And you who are following along
with us in John's gospel will realize that this is exactly
what is the Lord speaking about in John chapter 15. He says,
I am the true vine. I am the true vine. This vine
is a glorious vine, isn't it? He says, the good father, the husband.
He said in verse 5, I am the vine and you are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For, you ought to underline this
in your Bible, for without me you can do nothing. if any man abide in me. Herein, verse eight, herein is
my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you
be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you. Continue in my love. He is the vine, and the vine
shall give forth her fruit. Elsewhere in Romans, Paul The
Holy Spirit talks about being grafted in. I've kept trying
to do some grafting at home and I fail all the time. I don't
know what I'm going to do, but somehow I'll figure it out and
then I'll be away. But when you graft, and when
we are grafted into Christ, if you graft a branch into a vine,
you have to do two wounds. You have to wound the vine and
you have to wound the branch and they are joined together
in their wound, aren't they? And then when they grow together,
they grow together so, so much as one that you can't tell the
difference. All of the avocado trees you
have at home are all grafted. You go down and try and find
whether you're grafted these days. That's exactly what's happened,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ was wounded,
and we were wounded in Him, and then we are joined together in
newness of life. Two things about, two or three
things about grafting. One is that only like can join
to like in a union of life. when they're grafted together.
The other thing about it is it doesn't happen naturally, except
very rarely. The gardener does the work, not
the graft. We're in union. The union produces
fruit. The vine shall give her fruit. There is a union between the
Lord Jesus Christ and his people, and it's a fruitful union. The
ground shall give her increase. Luke chapter 8 the Lord Jesus
talks about that ground in the parable of the sower and I don't
for want of time I can't go through all of it but you can read about
it in Luke chapter 8 and in other gospel accounts but there is
a good ground verse 15 Luke chapter 8 the good ground and they which
In an honest and good heart, hear the word, and keep it, and
bringeth forth fruit with patience. He speaks of this good ground,
sprang up and bare fruit a hundredfold. And he says to us, if you have
ears to hear, you hear. There is that seed, the word
of God is sown throughout this world and it's sown indiscriminately. We don't know where the good
ground is and we don't know what it looked like. Paul didn't look
like good ground 2,000 years ago when he was there egging
on those people and stoning Stephen. He looked like the most unlikely
ground you could ever wish to have. And it's wonderful, isn't
it? I've done a lot of farming over
the years and when you sow seed, you're sowing something that
looks dead into a field that looks dead. And yet, and yet,
in the miracle of God's grace, There is life in what appears
to be dead. And the good ground is ploughed
ground. The good ground is ground that's
dug up, a bit like the vine. There is a wound. The soil has
to be treated in the most extraordinarily difficult ways for it to be reduced
to good ground. The clods have to be broken up
and the weeds have to be killed. It has to be dug deep. The good
ground shall give her increase. We are, according to Ephesians
2.10, we are the very workmanship of God. We are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. You work out your salvation,
says Philippians 2, with fear and trembling. Why? For it is
God that worketh in you, to will and to do according to his good
purpose. There is fruit. The seed shall
be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground
shall give her increase. I love to think about that fruit
of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is just
one fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is a glorious description
of Christ in His people, isn't it? The fruit of the Spirit is
love. What's love? He is love. Our God is love and we love Him
because He loved us. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. We joy in Christ Jesus our Saviour. The fruit of the Spirit is peace.
He is our peace. The fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering.
How long-suffering is our God with us and how long-suffering
we be with others. The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness.
How gentle our Saviour is. How gentle He is. The fruit of
the Spirit is goodness. He is all of our goodness before
God. The fruit of the Spirit is faith.
And He is all of our faithfulness. The last of these extraordinary
blessings is then the heavens shall give their dew. There's lots of dew on the grass
in these mornings, these lovely autumn mornings that we're having.
The dew comes down from heaven, not because of man's work. It
comes silently. It comes at night. Christ is
the dew of heaven. I can give you some of these
verses, but you'll have to, for want of time, you'll have to
go and look them up later on yourselves. But in Hosea chapter
14, verse 15, the Lord Jesus Christ is Isaiah 14 verse 5,
he says, I will heal, verse 4, I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely. The cause of his love is not
in us, the cause of his love is in himself, that's what it
means to be free. For mine anger is turned away from him. I will
be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as a lily and cast
forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell is as Lebanon. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
as that dew in so many other places. It's picturing the new
birth. As the dew of the herbs the earth
shall cast out her dead, Isaiah 26. It speaks of resurrection. Isaiah 26 verse 19. Thy dead
men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out her dead. The Word of God comes, Moses
says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall
distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and
showers upon the grass. There's so much more to say about
this, but I want us to look at the last phrase in verse 12. And I will cause. I will cause the remnant of this
people to possess all these. If you have Christ, you have
everything. But we have Christ because God
has made these extraordinary promises to us. So many people
get so caught up in things that they are to do as Christians
because we so often mix up. fruit and the root. God promises that he will do
a work in the hearts of his people and God's people will see that,
and God's people in grace will see that this is a work of God
and not a work of man's effort. The seed shall be prosperous,
the vine shall give her fruit, the ground shall give her ink,
the heavens shall, God says shall, shall, shall. In verse 80 says
I will bring, they shall dwell, they shall be my people, I will
be their God in truth and righteousness. Our God continually says in the
New Covenant, throughout the Old Covenant and throughout the
New Testament, He says, I will ordain peace. The Lord will ordain
peace for us. On what basis? Of us doing things,
if we're humble, if we're contrite, if we tremble? For you wrought
all our works in us. You have wrought all of our works
for us. I'll just read some of these,
Psalm 57 too. I will cry unto God most high
that performeth all things for me. He that doeth truth cometh to
light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought
in God. God wrought the works. Psalm
68 verse 28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Strengthen, O God,
that which thou hast wrought for us. He's wrought faith in
us, he's wrought repentance in us, he's wrought us coming to
him. I will cry out to God most high,
who worketh all things, performeth all things for me. Psalm 87,
seven. As well the singers as the players
on instrument, shall they be all my springs. the springs of all the gift of
God. We just read out of Hosea chapter
14, read on a little bit further. What have I to do anymore with
idols? I have heard him. I've heard
that seed. I've heard that word and observed
him. I'm like a green fir tree. From me, says the Lord Jesus
Christ, is thy fruit found. He restoreth my soul, says the
Great Shepherd. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. Again and again throughout the
scriptures we are reminded that God will restore us. The seed shall be prosperous,
the vine shall give her fruit, the ground shall give her increase,
the heaven shall give their due, and God will apply that to every
single one of his people throughout time and throughout our journey
and all the struggles we have here. I'll close by reading about
this covenant in Hebrews 13.20. You can read along with me. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
That's what we're reading about here in Zechariah. That's the
peace of these people. That's the blessing that they
have. That's what salvation is according
to God. What shall he do through the
blood of the everlasting covenant? Verse 21, make you perfect in
every good work to do his will, this is what he goes on to say,
working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight. Now I remind you, there's only
one sight that matters, brothers and sisters. There's only one
sight that matters. There's only one set of eyes
that matter. Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen.