I'd like to turn this one in
your Bibles to the Book of Zechariah. The Book of Zechariah, for many
reasons, one of them is of course that it speaks so. powerfully
and wonderfully, and it's one of the last books of the Old
Testament, but as the Old Testament drew to a close, the writers
drew clearer and more succinct and powerful pictures of the
Lord Jesus Christ and His coming into this world to save His people
from their sins. So I'd like to read these verses
from Zechariah 2. I lifted up mine eyes, and looked,
and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I,
Whither thou goest? And he said unto me, To measure
Jerusalem, to see what the breadth thereof What is the breadth thereof,
and what is the length thereof? And behold, the angel that took
with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him. And
he said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem
shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men
and cattle therein. For I sayeth the Lord, of fire round about, and will
be the glory in the midst of her. Ho, ho, come forth and flee
from the land of the north, saith the Lord. I have spread you abroad
as the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord. Deliver thyself,
O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus
saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory hath he sent me unto
the nations which spoiled you, for he that toucheth you toucheth
the apple of his eye. For behold, I will shake my hand
upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants. And
you shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. Sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come. and will dwell in the midst of
thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in the midst
of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent
me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit duly
his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again,
be silent over all flesh before the Lord. For he is raised up
out of his holy habitation. Zechariah is a book with these
nine glorious visions of the Lord Jesus Christ coming. in
triumph and they speak with such clarity about what would happen
to him, how he would be betrayed by his friend for 30 pieces of
silver, how he would be pierced, how he is the branch who is to
come. He in every way has come as he
promised to save his people from their sins. The church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we spoke last time a couple of weeks ago about
the fact that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is gathered
by him and they're measured. in his hand, when he does his
glorious work, it's always done in truth and justice. And his
people, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is glorified by
his presence. And many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord
of hosts hath sent me unto thee." What a glorious picture we have
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the protection of his church. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
says in verse 5, I will be unto her a wall of fire round about
and will be the glory in the midst of thee. And it speaks
of many things, doesn't it? The children of Israel went for
those 40 years and every night, every night there was a pillar
of fire. What a remarkable thing that must have been to see. It
would have been enormous, wouldn't it? Not just some little tiny,
it was huge, wasn't it? And every day, every day for
40 years, And when the Egyptians were coming
to meet with the people of Israel and thought they had them trapped
at the Red Sea, that pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud
stood between the people of Israel and the Egyptians, and the Egyptians
cannot touch them. They cannot touch the children
of God. to this world. And that's what he did 3,000
years ago at the Red Sea, or a bit longer, and that's what
he's doing exactly today, isn't he? If you remember in John chapter
12, we didn't read that verse, but the Lord Jesus Christ healed
himself from those people, and that's a horrifying thing when they saw the magnificence
of what was going on in Jerusalem, they would have thought that
there was anything special that could possibly be in Bethany. God was
in Bethany and God wasn't in Jerusalem. And these people that
Zechariah is speaking to have been sent back by the providence
of the Lord in the most remarkable ways. The remarkable hand of
God moving the hearts of kings like Cyrus and Darius to not
only send the children of God back to furnish everything that
they need to build the temple. And Zacharias come to a people
who are languishing with all of the opposition around them. And rather than rebuking them
for their tithiness, he wants to tell them how glorious their
God is. And that's how the children of
God are raised from their lethargy, isn't it? We need to hear how
glorious He is. We need to hear how successful
He is. I will be unto her a wall of fire, round about, verse five,
and will be the glory in the midst of, what was the glory
in the midst of Israel? The Shekinah glory that was in
that tabernacle, wasn't it? And the Shekinah glory was over
the mercy seat. What's the Shekinah glory, God
looking at? It's looking at the blood on
the mercy seat, where God is just and the justifier of the
ungodly. The children of God are scattered.
They're scattered abroad. They're scattered to be gathered.
Listen to what Moses said about the scattering of the children
of God. He says, the children of God are scattered. Verse 32, verse eight. He divided the nations
for their inheritance. He separated the sons of Adam.
He set the bounds of the people according. to the number of the
children of Israel. That's that number that in Revelation
chapter 5 is around the throne. You have redeemed us and by your
blood you've brought us back. And then what are they singing?
What are they singing in heaven, these people that have been gathered?
According to the number of the children of Israel. The children
of Israel of the redeemed of the Lord, and they sang a new
song. Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof,
because thou hast slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has
made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth. to himself. He says, I'll be
in the glory and the midst of her. He says, come and you flee. He's always saying to his people,
flee. Flee to me. Flee from. Flee from this world and flee
from the religion of this world. Flee from man-made religion in
this world and you flee to me. There's a glorious parable in
Matthew chapter 13. that speaks of all of what's
happening in all of this world for all of time. This is a parable
of all human history, isn't it? Matthew chapter 13. It says,
the kingdom of heaven, he spoke another parable, Matthew 13,
24. The kingdom of heaven is likened
unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept,
the good man didn't sleep. There is just one good man, this
is another good God. While man slept, his enemy came,
and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. And when the
blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also." So tares and wheat look very, very much alike. They
look very much alike. The big difference is seen when
the fruit comes upon them. And the tares stand up, looking
exactly like wheat, with a head that stands up very tall. And
the wheat, as the wheat ripens, and gets more and more ready
to harvest, it bows, bows and bows and bows and bows. That's
the difference. It's a glorious picture, isn't
it? So the servant said to the householder,
Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field from whence
And he said unto them, an enemy has done this. And the servant
said unto him, will thou then that we go and gather them up?
We can go out, we can see them now, we can go up and gather
them all up. And he said, no. Lest, while you gather up the
tares, you root up also the wheat within." And listen to what God
says to His children who live in this world and live in the
midst of Babylon and the influences of Babylon all around. Let both
grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest,
I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares and
bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. We don't have to debate about
what this story says. If you read down in verse 36,
the Lord explains it. So we don't have to have, it's
not about anyone's opinion. It's his opinion, isn't it? The disciples came to him saying,
Declare unto us the terrible parable of the tares of the field.
He said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked
one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is
the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth
His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things and shall cast them into a furnace
of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
father, who has ears to hear. Let him hear. all of our career gone, where's
our righteousness? Where's our righteousness? Our
righteousness is of Him. That's why the son said, I'll
speak of His righteousness. He is all of my righteousness,
not some of my righteousness, not a righteousness that I polish
by something I do. He is 100% of my righteousness. I have no other righteousness.
All the righteousness that I think I have and other people might
think I have, According to God, just filthy rags. It's a parable
that speaks of all of creation, doesn't it? Our God is a saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ calls his
people to himself. And he says in verse 7 that he
spoils those nations that he sent them to. But then he says
at the end of verse 8, it's glorious, isn't it? He says, for he that
toucheth you, touches the apple of his eye. It's a glorious description
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his love for his people. He that
touches you, touches the apple of his eye. You will be touched
in this world, brothers and sisters. If you stand up for the Lord
Jesus Christ, the promise of God is that you will be persecuted.
The promise of God is that people of your own family will become
enemies to you. The promise of God is not a promise
for you to walk through this world. for the cause of the Lord
Jesus Christ and to have an easy time of it. That's why church
is so precious, that's why the gathering together is so precious.
We're reminded again about the wall of fire round about and
we're reminded again of the glory in the midst of us and we come
together and we send out into this world according to the Lord
Jesus Christ as lambs among wolves. We have this glorious promise. The apple of our eye is the pupil.
It's the most tender part of our body. I call them to the optometrist
and I need to put drops in them all the time and so all I need
is a little tiny bit of dust from an angle grinder or a lawnmower
or something and I'm in all sorts of pain. That dust doesn't affect
the rest of my body one little tiny bit. But you get something
in your eye and all of a sudden it's incredibly sensitive. And
God is saying that so precious is his people to himself. So
precious and so sensitive. The apple of the eye is protected
because of its vulnerability, isn't it? The apple of the eye
is the part of our body through It's all of those pictures of
us seeing Him. It's vital to our sight. The
apple of His eye and the members of His body. And that's why Moses
prayed, he said, you keep me, keep Him, keep me as the apple
of His eye. In Psalm 17, he says, verse eight,
keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me. them. He that touches you touches
the apple of his eye. It speaks of union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. It speaks of protection. It speaks
of mercy. He loves his people. They're precious. And he gathers his people, he
gathers his people, he says, all of those, he's going to shake
his hand upon them and they shall be spoiled to their servants.
He'll destroy them in such a way that their servants will rule
over them. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts, verse
nine, has sent me. And this is what we sing about,
don't we? Listen to what he says. Sing
and rejoice, verse 10, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come. and I dwell in the midst of thee. I dwell in the midst of thee,
and many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and
shall be, listen to his glorious description, they shall be my
people. That's just the most amazing
description, I'll be with you, you are my people. I own you. I own you by creation. I own
you by redemption. I own you by love. And I'll come to you. You shall
be my people and I will dwell in the midst of thee. And thou
shalt know that the Lord has sent me unto thee. You shall know. What are you
singing about, O daughter of Zion? precious son. This grace and
this glory is seen by his people, isn't it? When someone touches
the apple of your eye, there's an immediate reaction to it,
isn't it? And the Lord immediately reacts to his people. Our God,
our God says to his people that anyone touches you. Can we see
that? So we don't see grace and glory
as much as we ought. We don't see the Lord encamping. He says that the angels are encamping
around us now. He says he walks in the midst
of us. He walks in the midst of his candlesticks. And just as the children of God
don't see the grace and glory, the people of this world don't
see the judgment of God on this world. He keeps saying to us, you stand still and you'll see
the glory of God. And these people see no glory
in our God. They see no glory, they see no
comfort in our gospel. The Lord sends a strong delusion
to the nations. He leaves people, countless multitudes,
in Satan's palace and he leaves them in peace. He leaves them
with their refuse of lies untouched. Nothing moves them as they stand
opposed to God and His people, just like those people in Jerusalem. After three and a half years
of the Lord's ministry, not a single sermon that He preached moved
their hearts. Not a single providential warning
moved their hearts. Not a single miraculous declaration
of who he is touched the hearts of his people. Oh Father, my
Father, make us to know your presence, to make us to know
how precious it is for us to be the apple of your eye. And
for us to be your people, to be a wall of fire for your people,
to be the glory in the midst of us. That's what we sing about,
brothers and sisters, isn't it? It's not about us and what we
do, it's about the glory of our God. His glory is great in His
salvation. His glory is great in gathering
the Gentiles to Himself. He says in Isaiah 60, Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon you. When you met him and heard about
his glory in salvation, was it like a light that shone? I remember. I remember just the skipping
and the rejoicing. I just rejoiced to think that
God was in the midst, was with me and in the midst of me. Isaiah
29 says, thy God, thy glory. Listen to how the Lord spoke
of his people in Isaiah chapter 62. For Zion's sake I will not
hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness and salvation thereof as a lamp
that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy
righteousness, and kings thy glory. And thou shalt be called
by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. And thou
shalt also be a crown of glory, in the hand of the Lord, and
a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be
termed forsaken, neither shalt thy land any more be termed desolate,
for thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beurah. For the
Lord in thee, and thy land shall be
married. For as a young man marrieth a
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as a bridegroom rejoices
over his bride, so shall the Lord thy God rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen on thy walls,
O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day or night. You that make mention of Keep coming and pleading with
him. You that make mention of the
Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest. Give him no rest. We come with weeping and pleads
to him, give him no rest, till he establish, till he make Jerusalem
a praise of the earth. The Jerusalem that is above,
the mother of us all, will be the place of the earth. Sing,
sing, O daughter of Zion. I come, and he has come, in that
day he came, in that hour he came. I dwell in the midst of
thee. The many nations, the Gentiles
shall be joined, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts The
God of the armies of heaven sent me to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the Lord's coming. We thank you that he came as
promised. We thank you that he gathered his people that were
scattered abroad in many nations, and he gathered them to himself.
And when he gathers his people to himself, he reveals his glory. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your care and your protection of each and one of us, that anyone
that touches your people touches the apple of your eye. Make us,
by your grace, Heavenly Father, if it's your will, to see things
as you see things and to see our journey in this world as
you've ordained it, Heavenly Father, that we will be ornaments
and treasures and trophies You camp around us, Heavenly Father.
You're a wall of fire around us. No harm can befall the righteous. Our great and sovereign saviour
has come and shed his life's blood for his church, and we
are safe and secure in his hands here. Bless your word to our
hearts, heavenly father, cause us to see your son high and lifted
up, and cause us to sing, cause us to sing the songs of Zion
in this land.