I'll turn with me in your scriptures
back to Zechariah the second last book of the Old Testament
so you go to Matthew and then back to and you'll come to Zechariah. We've had a break from Zechariah
for some weeks and so I thought I'd Nice to spend a little bit of
time before we have the Lord's Supper and depart to read this
vision that Zechariah had. He's had a number of visions
and this is a vision of four chariots. In verse 1, chapter
6 he says, The Holy Spirit says about Zechariah, and I turned
and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came four chariots
out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains
of brass. In the first chariot were red
horses, in the second chariot black horses, in the third chariot
white horses, in the fourth chariot grizzled and speckled and bay
horses. Then I answered and said unto
the angel that talked with me, What are these, my Lord? And
the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits
of the heavens which go forth from standing before the Lord
of all the earth. The black horses which are therein
go forth. into the north country, and the
white go forth after them, and the grizzled go forth towards
the south country. And the bay went forth and sought
to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth. And he said, get you hence and
walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through
the earth. Then cried he upon me and spake
unto me, saying, Behold, These that go toward the north country,
the black ones and the white ones, have quieted my spirit
in the north country. I'd love to read on. I'm excited
about what the next part of that chapter speaks so gloriously
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as does this. All scriptures are God-breathed. All scriptures are useful, profitable
to us. All scriptures point us to the
Lord Jesus Christ. I heard someone say the other
day, the Bible declares much in many ways about only a handful
of subjects. Listen to that again. The Bible
declares much and in many ways about only a handful of subjects. If you think we're repetitive
here, That's exactly what the Bible intended us to be. The
Bible speaks much and in many ways about a handful of subjects.
It speaks about the greatness and glory of God in all the majesty
of his being. It speaks of him in all of his
glorious attributes in creation and in the new creation, created
in holiness and true righteousness. It speaks a lot. about fallen
man. It speaks very little about unfallen
man. There's very little in Genesis
about Adam and Eve before they fell. But it speaks a lot about
fallen man and declares them in a multitude of different ways
to be sinners. And the Bible declares a lot
about the Lord Jesus Christ, the one mediator, the one hope,
the one saviour, the one substitute, the one sacrifice, the one atonement,
the one redeemer, the one price that is acceptable to God. And
I love how this chapter, as several other chapters in Zechariah begin,
it begins by a look Matthew Henry said, if we look for Christ in
the scriptures, we'll find something worth seeing, admiring. We'll find something to be in
awe of. And here before us are these
great mountains. So listen to what Zechariah did
in verse one. He turned, he turned. We need to be turned to see God
in his glory. We need to be turned from the
things of this world. And if we're gonna see, we're gonna
have to lift our eyes. We have to lift our eyes up.
You might think of Moses at the burning bush. He turned and the
Lord saw that he turned and he was amazed at the sight before
him. Well, Zechariah's about to be amazed at this particular
vision that he sees. He turned, he lifted up my eyes
and looked and behold. And what did he see? He saw these
four chariots. Four chariots, four in the scriptures
is the number for the earth, the four cardinal points of the
earth, north, south, east, west. So every time we come across
that number, generally in the scriptures it's a reference to
that, that our God is the God of all the earth, the God of
all creation. He reigns and rules over all that he made and controls
it. But these chariots in the scriptures
are particularly a picture of God powerfully and triumphantly
doing his work in this world. Do you remember in 2 Kings, I
haven't got time to read it, but you can turn to 2 Kings at
some time, chapter 6, and you'll remember Elisha surrounded by
that army and about to be put to death. And his servant goes
out and he looks and he sees this army, this huge army, surrounding
him. And Elisha prayed to the Lord. He says, Lord, open his eyes.
Open his eyes that he may see. What did he then see? He saw
the chariots of God. Saw them. He saw that the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. No one gets to God's people in
this world before they have to deal with God Almighty Himself. Our God, in Habakkuk 3, thou
did ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation. Remember when Elijah was taken
to heaven, it was a chariot that came and took him to heaven.
In Psalm 68 verse 17, the chariots of God are 20,000. These are pictures, aren't they?
They're pictures of our God riding and sending his people out triumphantly. And they come out from these
two mountains, and these mountains are brass, and we are to imagine
enormous mountains. And I love the fact that Zechariah
expresses his ignorance. He says, in verse 4, he says,
what are these, my Lord? What are they? I've seen them,
but I haven't got a clue. And it's just so good, isn't
it, that God has to reveal, even to his prophets in the Old Testament,
he has to reveal what is going on here. He has to reveal himself
in all of the scriptures. Our understanding and our knowledge
of God comes by revelation. By revelation. And he says in
verse five, God says, the angel answered me and said, these are
the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing
before the Lord of all the earth. And so as much as there are chariots,
and as much as there are horses there, they are the four spirits
of the heavens. So they're the four spirits that
go out into all this world. And they begin their journey
standing before the Lord. And they stand before the Lord
between these mountains of brass. These mountains of brass. And
they go into all the earth, north, south, and east, and west. because
God has his people scattered throughout this world. And then,
what does he say in John's Gospel? Then I must bring you in and
there will be one fold and one shepherd. And so here we have
a glorious Old Testament picture of how that's to be done. He
says in verse five of Isaiah, 543 says, fear not for I am with
thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every
one that is called by my name. All of the bride of Christ, bears
the name of her husband. They call by my name because
for I have created him, for my glory I have formed him, yea,
I have I don't want to dwell too much
on the red horses, but red in the Bible is often a picture
of the proclamation of grace and salvation in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Black is often a picture of judgment,
and the speckled and grey, the grizzled and grey, may speak
of mercy and judgment, but the white horse, the white horse
always speaks of the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
with me to Revelation chapter 19. I do love this picture. Anyone who thinks the Lord Jesus
Christ is a pathetic wimp, a try-hard who fails, you listen to what
he says in verse 11. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
on this white horse. And I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse, and he that sat on him was called Faithful
and True. And in righteousness doth he
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. You know what that means. And
his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were
in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that's the word of God, that with it he should
smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, And he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. What happens when you meet this
King of Kings and Lord of Lords? You bow, kiss the sun, bow and
kiss him. This notion that he can try and
fail just doesn't seem to be there in the scriptures anywhere.
He rides triumphant, our great God and Saviour. Now the gospel
is a triumphant gospel. We read it in 2 Corinthians 2,
isn't it? Our gospel is a triumphant gospel.
It always achieves its purposes. Now thanks be to God, unto God,
which always causes us to triumph in Christ, making manifest the
savour of his knowledge by us in every place. Our God rides triumphant in Isaiah
chapter 66 it says, And they shall bring all your brethren
for an offering unto the Lord out of all the nations, upon
horses, and in chariots, and in litters, upon mules, upon
swift beasts. to my holy mountain Jerusalem. But I do love what verse 8 says
in Zechariah. And the black horse of judgment
is followed by the white horse of salvation and grace. And that's
the order of things, isn't it? God brings down, God reveals
His glory and reveals what you are. And then the gospel comes
and brings as a sweet balm to a broken-hearted sinner. Brings that sweet balm. It says
when they've done their work, that I have quieted. and they have quieted my spirit
in the North Country. I've been completely at rest
in that country. I'm completely content with the
work of my horses and the work of my son. He shall see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied for the joy set before him. Our
Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross at Calvary. I love what
it says, and his rest shall be glory. So just go back a couple
of books, one of my favorite verses in all the scriptures
is in Zechariah. Let's just back a couple of pages. It says in verse 14, Sing, O
daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all
the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgment. He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. In that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem, fear thou not, and to Zion, let not thy hands
be slack. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of 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. Do you believe God's doing that? He said it, didn't he? Is that
sufficient? Is that sufficient to be comfortable?
I love the fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ, that night before he went to the cross, he sang with
his disciples. What a voice he must have heard.
If that voice is a voice that calls and his people come, and
one day that voice will call, shout triumphantly and everyone
that's ever been buried in this world will be brought out. What
a powerful voice. But he sings with his people,
doesn't he? He rejoices over his people who
are singing. He rests in his love. But I want
us to spend this last 10 minutes or less just looking at these
mountains of brass. Mountains in the scriptures speak
of something which is everlasting, which is secure, which is stable. It's above us. To be admired,
you're in awe of mountains. Those who have seen proper mountains,
we don't have really proper mountains in Australia, we just have fancy
hills, but in some parts of the world you have mountains. The
mountain we lived on in India just rose out of the plains and
it rose higher than Kosciuszko out of the plains. The only problem
was that I only ever saw it once in eight years of going backwards
and forwards because the pollution was so bad there you couldn't
see it. They had to invent a new way of surveying the country
because that part of India is in the doldrums so there's no
wind and everyone's lighting fires of either cow manure or
little sticks to cook all their meals and the smoke just goes
up and just hangs there. But one day I was travelling
across those plains and I don't know what happened but I actually
saw this mountain And it just rose as this extraordinary colossus
out of the plains. And that's nothing compared to
the Himalayas or the mountains in Switzerland. They were just
quite remarkable. But we are in awe of mountains,
aren't we? They are strong, they are immovable,
they are unchanging, they humble us. Mountains just stand there,
don't they? They're unaffected by our doing,
but they cause our eyes to be lifted up. And these mountains
are mountains of brass. They're enormous mountains, and
brass is... The brass in the scriptures is
probably an alloy of copper and tin. Brass is an alloy of either
copper or tin or copper and zinc. And of course where there is
this mixture of things, it's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
in both his humanity and his deity often, isn't it? But these
mountains are places where earth and heaven meet. Mountains are immovable. You
can have your opinion about a mountain. It means nothing to a mountain.
You can kick it and it means nothing to a mountain. You can denigrate
it and do all sorts of things to a mountain. It just stands
there, stands majestic. And these two mountains have
a valley between them from which these chariots go from the presence
of the Lord. And these two mountains picture
so many things. When the children of Israel went
into the land of Israel, they had these two mountains which
pictured both the cursing and the blessings of the law. Half
of nation Israel stood on one mountain and half on another,
and they proclaimed the blessings and the cursings of the law.
But so often in the scriptures, These mountains of brass are
the decrees of God and the acting upon those decrees. It's the
character of God and the Word of God that goes out into this
world. It's a declaration of the character
of God. Just like the mountains, God
says, I change not. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm
the same yesterday, today and forever, I'm unmovable. He says,
my purpose will stand and I will do all my pleasure. Nebuchadnezzar had to be taken
by a dark horse to a dark place in Daniel chapter four to learn
something remarkable about God, about his God. He says at the end of this seven
years that Nebuchadnezzar was sent out into the wilds and crawled
around like a beast in the fields and his hair grew and his nails
grew and he was... He was in the most appallingly
dark place. The dark horse had done its work.
But at the end of the day, Daniel 4.34, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted
up my eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me,
and I blessed. the Most High, and I praised
and honoured him that liveth for ever and ever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? You need to go through Nebuchadnezzar's
experience to declare that about God. You need to be brought to
where Nebuchadnezzar is. But God does all things according
to the counsel of his own will. That's why Romans 8 is so often
quoted and so much misunderstood, isn't it? God is not passive
in what's going on in this world. God worketh all things together. We know that all things work
together for the good of them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. And then he talks about what
this is. He has a will and He has a purpose, and He acts on
that purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. And what can we say? What do
you say when you hear that? What then shall we say to these
things when you hear them? What's the answer to that question?
If God be for us, who can be against us? We have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
that worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
What's happening in this world? God is doing his will. If you
want to know what he did yesterday, you used to be able to say find
a newspaper, now you have to find something else to find out
where the truth is, but it's his story, the history of this
world. The mountains are secure, stable,
and they're completely and utterly unchanged by the activities of
nature. Spiritual realities come before
and superintend and come over all the physical realities we
see. If we want to understand the physical realities, we need
to see the spiritual realities. Then we'll start to see them
clearly. They're unchanged by the activities of man. They're
unchanged by the activities of Satan. God does his will. He is a sovereign God. And that's the mountains from
which These glorious high brazen mountains are the mountains from
which God sends out. his decrees and his purposes
and his activities and sends out his people. The word angels
means messengers. He sends out his messengers from
those mountains, from between those mountains. And so the messengers
that are sent out declare the glory of the God of those mountains,
of his will and his purpose. It says in Isaiah 46, he says, Remember the former things of
old. For I am God. There is none else. I am God. There is none like me. You can't compare God to anything
in this creation. He's not like anything. He's
God. God is like God. like us, not
like the puny gods of this world. Listen to what he says. There's
none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from the
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My council
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. All of it. I will do all my pleasure. Just
in closing for a couple of minutes, I want us to look at another
Two immutable things in Hebrews chapter 6, if you turn there
we'll finish looking here at this glorious declaration of
our God because His will is enacted and His will is enacted according
to His word of promise. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 13 we
have the promise of God declared when God made promise to Abraham
because he could swear by no greater he swore swear by himself
saying surely blessing on I will bless thee, and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater. You go into a court, you swear
on a Bible, and people swear on things that are bigger than
them, aren't they? For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them the end of all strife. When there is a promise made,
that's the end of all strife. Wherefore God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability, the unchangeability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable,
two unchangeable things, in which It was impossible for God to
lie. Don't you love that description?
Impossible, Titus repeats it. It's impossible for God to lie. That we might have strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. That word, strong consolation,
speaks of calling near, coming near for help and for comfort. It's a similar word to what is
used of the Holy Spirit. It's to come near, it's to be
called near into fellowship for comfort, for help, for refreshment
to be provided. That's why our God is called
the God of patience and consolation in Romans 15. In 2 Corinthians
1, he says, blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. This
consolation, these two immutable things is set before us so that
we can lay hold who have fled. That's what God's people do.
They are fleeing to him all the time. They've fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope? We have. Not that we might have. Not that
we will have if we do something. We have as an anchor of the soul
both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the
veil. Whither the forerunner for us
entered even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. Where's the anchor? Fastened
on a rock. Where's the anchor? Fastened
on a rock in heaven. Where's the anchor? It's absolutely
no use to you if it's in the boat. So don't look inside for
an anchor. We look outside for an anchor.
That's exactly what he's saying, isn't it? And we have fled for
refuge. These two immutable things. If
you go to Genesis, and I don't want to go there, but I just
want to remind you briefly that Abraham received these promises.
In Genesis chapter 12, Abraham received this remarkable command
from God, and he said, you get out of the Iraqi. Idolatry and
you come to me and Abraham didn't know where he was going, but
he just followed. What remarkable, and he was given all these blessings
and no oath given at all. In Genesis chapter 15, Abraham
says, well, I haven't got a child. And you're telling me that I'm
going to be a father of multitudes. And the Lord took him outside
and you look up at those stars. That's how many children you're
going to have. That's how many of the faith children of God are
going to be. He made these remarkable promises to him. And then he
showed him that covenant. And he didn't make an oath. In Genesis chapter 17, Abraham
had the covenant reconfirmed and was given remarkable and
amazing promises. And there was no oath. is given in Genesis chapter 22. And you know the story of Abraham
being told to take his son up to the mountain. And he gets
up early in the morning and he takes Isaac up there. And he raises that knife to slay
Isaac. And God says, no, stop. There's a ram caught in the thicket. Abraham just believed God. For three days he didn't have
a single word from God as he walked up that mountain. Not
a single word from God. He says, you go and kill him.
And there was just silence as Abraham went on that journey.
What an agonizing journey that must have been. And Abraham called the name of
the place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. God will provide. God
will provide himself, says Abraham. God will provide himself a lamb. But then we have the oath. Verse 15, and the angel of the
Lord, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, called unto Abraham out
of heaven the second time and said, by myself have I sworn. that Hebrews is talking about.
This is where the refuge is. Saith the Lord, for because thou
hast done this thing, thou hast not withheld thine Son, thine
only Son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I
will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, as the stand
which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed. my voice if
you read Galatians chapter 3 you'll see that all of those blessings
all of the blessings are in one seed and the earth comes as confirmation
when Abraham saw his day and rejoiced to see it because he
saw substitution he saw the lamb of God's providing Bearing all
of what Isaac was due to bear. Glorious substitution, glorious
blood redemption, glorious successful blood redemption, glorious promises. Glorious anchor, glorious refuge. Let's lay hold of it by the grace
of God. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would bless your word to our hearts and you would cause
our eyes to be opened again and again to see the majesty of your
glory. the absolute immutability, the
unchangeableness of all of your promises, that there is a covenant
made in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by which all of
your people receive all of the blessings of the perfect finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, Heavenly Father, help us
by faith to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. cause us
to do so, remembering him, and cause us, like Abraham, Heavenly
Father, to do so, rejoicing in who you are and what you've done
for sinners like us. We pray in the name of your dear
and precious Son, and for his glory, our Father. Amen.