A little book of Zechariah. Zechariah. I don't see any new faces in
here. You all know why we've been going
through the Old Testament. The Lord preached through it,
and so we went back and started going through it. He said, they
are they which testify. Christ said, the whole Old Testament
speaks of Him. To Him give all the prophets
witness. And we've seen that very clearly,
haven't we, in every book. We've seen Christ, because He's
given us eyes to see. He's hidden these things from
most, but revealed them unto us. How blessed we are. You're
God's elect. You're God's children if He reveals
Christ to you. So we're so blessed. No book
speaks of Christ crucified more clearly than Zechariah. Did you
read it? It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing the verses of Scripture that speak very clearly of Christ
and Him crucified. Zechariah, his name means Jehovah
has remembered. What a good name. What a thing
to think about. Our God remembers. He remembers
our frame. He knows what we are. That's why He sent Christ. He
knows our frame. He knows what man is. And He
remembered His covenant. He never forgets His covenant. He does all things according
to His covenant, His purpose, ordered in all things and sure.
He's our covenant God. Boy, if we could get a hold of
that, that's our salvation. I was going to go back, I had
Psalm 78, I had 15 verses of Scripture, Psalm 106, 15 verses
of Scripture to look at how we forget and He remembers. I love
the thought that what we can't remember, God can't forget. That's
His covenant we often forget. And what we can't forget, our
sin, God can't remember. There are sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more, He said. The only thing God can't remember. Well, our Lord sent the prophets,
apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers To remind us that
we might remember. That's what I'm doing. They're
called the Lord's Remembrancers. You remember reading that? To
remind us of God's great mercy. To remind us what we are. Always. Always remind us of what we are.
Because the gospel means nothing to you if you forget the pit
from which you were dug. And I remind us of God's great
mercy. As Martin used to say, anything
this side of hell is mercy. That'll keep us from complaining.
That'll keep us thankful. That'll keep us coming. All the Old Testament points
to Christ, who is the love, the mercy, the grace of God. Zechariah
is so full of Christ. Chapter 1. And it sounds just
like Isaiah and all of them. It starts with man's rebellion. So it starts. Read with me verses
1 through 6. In the eighth month and the second
year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, son
of Berechiah, son of Edo, the prophet. His grandfather was
a prophet. The Lord had been sore displeased with your father.
Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts. I will turn unto you,
saith the Lord of Hosts. Be not as your fathers, unto
whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the
Lord of Hosts, Turn ye now from your evil way, from your evil
doing. Does that sound like Haggai?
Haggai said, Consider your ways. Isaiah, this people's whole head
is sick and heart is pain. Same message. Every prophet begins
with talking about man's sin and rebellion. Verse 5, your
fathers, where are they? The prophets, do they live forever?
But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants
of prophet, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they
returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto
us, According to our ways and according to our doings, so have
they dealt with it. It's like, who was it? Was it Jeremiah or Ezekiel? I forget. It says, wherefore
should a living man complain for the punishment of his sin?
Everything that happens to man, he deserves it. So that's how it begins. Now
look at verse 12. He says, Then the angel of the
Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou
not have mercy on Jerusalem, on the cities of Judah, against
which thou hast had indignation? The Lord answered the angel and
talked with me with good words and comfortable words. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, he said through Isaiah the prophet.
And that's what I want to do from here on. Mindy and I were
talking after, I don't know which book it was, but Zephaniah or
whatever, and we were very honest with one another in that
so much woe, so much woe, so much destruction and all of that
throughout the Old Testament. And I personally, I don't like
to preach that. And we've been going through,
is anybody tired of hearing about woe? And I'm honestly, you know,
I'm looking at a room full of people, most of whom profess
to love God and know Christ, and I believe you do. I'm not
preaching woe to you. I've got comfortable words for
you. I've got really good news for
you. These words of woe are to the
unbelieving world. That's not who I'm preaching
to right now. I'm preaching to God's people, the church. So
from here on out, I'm going to preach comfort throughout Zechariah. What is our comfort? Who? Christ
is our comfort. Good news. Good news for sinners. We've got to be reminded what
we are, don't we? The Spirit of God keeps reminding us. Our
old flesh keeps reminding us. Chapter 2, verse 10, sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion, lo, I come. And I will dwell in the midst
of these, saith the Lord. Lo, I come. What does Christ
say in, what does scripture say in the volume of the book? It is written to me from Genesis
3 to Zechariah, Malachi, he's The next book is Malachi, and
it says, the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple. That's what this whole Old Testament
is about. To those that look for him, he's
coming to turn them, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So he says, sing and rejoice.
Who's this for? The old daughter of Zion. The
church, God's people, who are they? How are they known? Well,
Isaiah said this, to this man will I look. This is the one
that I'm going to give comfort to, to him that is poor and of
a broken and contrite heart, and tremble at that my word.
To those who hear the word of woe and sin and rebellion and
tremble and turn, the Lord turns them, gives them repentance,
turns them to Him. They call on the Lord for mercy
and grace, and He hears them, and He gives them this good news.
of somebody to come, somebody who came, put away their sin. And He says, I will dwell with
them. Look at verse 13 of chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 13. Be silent, O all flesh, before
the Lord. He's raised up out of His holy
habitation. I like that. Be silent. He's coming. He did. Christ came. You know what? He's coming again. Oh, how this world is loud and
proud. I need to be silent. He's coming. Chapter 3. Chapter
3 verse 1, he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before
the angel of the Lord and Satan standing in his right hand to
resist him. Now who could that be speaking
of? But our Lord, Jesus Christ. When he came and Satan resisted
him from the beginning, Before the world began, angels rebelled
and Satan was at the head of it. And then when Christ came
into this world, who did he face first? Satan, our enemy. That's why he came, he said.
That's why He came. To put away sin, but to crush
the head of evil, which is Satan himself. So He came. Verse 8, Here now, O Joshua,
the high priest, now and thy fellows that sit before thee,
their men wondered at. Behold, I will bring forth my
servant, the branch. We already looked at that in
Jeremiah 23. The branch, the rod of Jesse,
the branch, the tree of life, the vine, Christ the branch. And verse 9 says, Behold the
stone which I have laid. He's the foundation stone, the
one stone. And shall I engrave the graving thereof?
I'll remove the iniquity of the land. My, my, this is all Christ
in it. And that day, verse 10, shall
ye call every man his neighbor unto the vine of his victory.
That's Christ. It's all Christ in it. Chapter
4. Speaks of candlesticks, seven
lamps, and two olive trees. How many times are those things
spoken of throughout Scripture? Candlestick. In the Revelation,
it clearly tells us that's His church. through whom the gospel
is preached, the light, said, you're the light of the world,
he said to the church, you're the light. And they get this
light from the Lord himself, from this oil of gladness, which
is the gospel. And these two olive trees, That's
the Law and the Prophets, that's the Prophets and the Apostles,
that's the Word of God, Old and New Testament, all of which bear
witness of the Son of God. Chapter 4, verse 6, it says,
This is the Word of the Lord undesirable, saying, Not by might
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Our
Lord came and said much about His Holy Spirit to His disciples. He spoke to His disciples. They
understand. We understand what the Spirit
of God does, don't we? We understand that the Spirit
of God bears witness of Christ, that He takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto you. He doesn't make people talk like
blooming idiots. He makes them talk the truth
as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't make them wallow and
holler and shout and jump and hang on chandeliers and roll
in the aisles. That's another spirit. That's
an evil spirit. He sits you down and clothes
you and puts you in your right mind. You're sitting at the feet
of Christ, hearing him. You've got your mouth shut. It's
obscene. That's what the Spirit of God
does. He takes these things, shows you it's irrevocable. Verse
7, who is he? Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? You'll become a plain. Here's
what Zerubbabel's going to do, bring forth the headstone. Christ
is not only the foundation stone. Everything's built on Christ,
the solid rock. Everything's built on Christ,
the foundation. Of the foundation can no man
lay which God hath laid, which is Christ, the solid rock. And
Christ finished the work, and when this is all over, He's going
to lay the headstone on this temple, the last stone in His
temple, saying, it's all by grace. Grace. Grace unto it. By grace He's saved. What is
the grace of God? Christ. Gift of God, eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's what grace means,
to give. And he's irrevocable, isn't he?
Inhabitant of Babylon. Chapter 5, verse 3 speaks of
a curse. There's a curse that goeth forth
over the face of the whole earth. Genesis begins with God creating
man. Upright and holy. Then from then
on, And it ends in Malachi with a curse. The last words of Malachi,
a curse. The whole earth under a curse.
But then Matthew begins where Christ comes and says, blessed. Blessed. Removes the curse by
being made a curse. You know that. Oh, how many people
know that? Not many. Verse 4 speaks of false
prophets, doesn't it? That swear falsely by my name. See that? Verse 7 and 8 speaks
of a woman, verse 8, which is wickedness. What's that? That's false religion. The religion of Babylon throughout
the Scriptures. A woman of wickedness. If it's
a woman, It's wicked. So this whole mess started, and
it continues that way. Women aren't more evil than men,
but Scripture plainly says that the woman was deceived. And so
the woman is deceiving the world, continues to do so. Right? And
God chose men to be preached. If it's a woman standing up to
preach, it's evil. It's false. Those who hear her
are under the curse. All of Catholicism worships a
woman. No. Well, chapter 6, look at
this, verse 11. Take silver and gold, make crowns,
and put them on the head of Joshua. Crown him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
sounds, drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and
sing of Him who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless
King through all eternity. Verse 12, Speak unto him, saying,
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose
name is the branch, he shall grow up out of his place, he
shall build the temple of the Lord. Who's going to build it?
Is it Reveval or the branch? Yes. They wanted to say. Joshua. These three are one. Joshua is Reveval, the branch.
It's all Christ. Verse 13, Even he shall build
the temple, unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it. So Christ is the builder of the
temple. He's desirable. He's Joshua.
He's the branch. Chapter 7, the Lord sent, verse
8, sent Zechariah and all the prophets, verse 8, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of Hosts, chapter 7, verse 9, Thus speaketh the
Lord of Hosts, saying, Execute judgment, show mercy and compassion
to every man who is brother. Oppress not the widow nor the
fatherless or stranger. Didn't our Lord Jesus Christ
come speaking these very things? Didn't He preach these very things?
He said, Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, You tithe,
mint, anise, and cumin had omitted the weightier matters of the
law, justice and mercy. Didn't it? He preached these
very things. Verse 11, but they refused to
hear Him. He says, they stopped their ears. Verse 11. They literally did
that when our Lord was preaching. They stopped their ears. They
put their hands up. We don't want to hear that. It's
the same today. Verse 12, they made their hearts
as stone, stony hearts, hard-hearted. No, no. Hearts of stone. And they wanted to stone Him.
They wanted to stone Him. And which one of the prophets
did they not kill? They killed Zechariah. Our Lord
said that. Which one did they not kill?
Elijah is the only one we know of because the Lord took him
to glory. Nothing's changed. God hasn't
changed. Man hasn't changed. Truth hasn't changed. Salvation
hasn't changed. Still turn away their ears from the truth. Oh,
blessed are your ears. Blessed are you. You've been
given ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to receive. Taking
away that... Well, I'm getting ahead of myself
here. We're going to roll away the stone here in about 30 minutes. But he's taking away that stony
heart, giving you a heart of flesh. Chapter 8, verse 6, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts. It's marvelous. This is marvelous
in the eyes of the remnant. This gospel, this great salvation
is marvelous in the eyes of who? A remnant, according to the election
of grace. The world turns their ears away
from this glorious gospel of God's people. It's marvelous
in their eyes. And it's marvelous in His eyes.
You see that? Shouldn't it also be marvelous
in my eyes? Verse 7, Behold, I will save
my people. Verse 8, I will bring them and
they'll dwell in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I
will be their God in truth and in righteousness. No ifs, ands,
buts, or maybes about it. It's all yay and amen. All the
promises of God in Christ. You see, when we keep laboring
this point, that all this so-called gospel today, they're saying
about a Jesus who came and wants to save and tried and failed
and shed his blood for everybody and it's up to you. That's a
false gospel. Because our God says, I will and you shall. Our
gospel says, the gospel of the truth. The good news is, God
said, I've spoken it, I'll do it. I've purposed it, I'll bring
it to pass. I'm sending my Son to put away
sin. to save my people. And I'm not
going to ask them. I'm going to tell them. I'm going
to do it. You're looking at the prodigal
son. You're looking at him who's had
a heart of stone. My dad, nobody, my mother, nobody
could get through this young fellow. But God says, you will. All that the
Father giveth me shall come unto me. Is that not your hope for
your lost loved ones? It's the only hope. The only
hope. He said, I will bring them. Well, if you preach the election,
you believe, you know, only those God elect will be saved. If He
did, nobody would be saved. If He didn't choose somebody,
nobody would choose Him. If He didn't call them, they
won't come. If He didn't give them life, they'll stay dead.
Salvation is up to the Lord. And you're looking at an example,
a living example of salvation up to the Lord. I don't know, your loved ones
may be wild as a wild ass's coat, none more than me. Now, I'm ashamed
of it and I'm bragging on it and I'm bragging on my Lord who's
able to say to the uttermost, the goodermost. That's our only
hope for our lost loved one. It really is. So what do we do?
We call on Him. We call on them and call on them
and speak to them. They're not going to hear us.
Nobody knows that more than I do. Preach thousands of messages. I can't get through to anybody. But I've seen God do it. And I pray, keep hoping and praying
He'll do it again. Again. I believe He will. The
gospel is still being preached. It's a remnant. Remnant. Many are called, few are chosen. And so this whole book is about
somebody's coming to save, you see, not try to. If he doesn't
save us, we won't be saved. If he doesn't call us, we won't
come. If he doesn't put away sin, we're going to be punished
for it. Right? Chapter 9. Chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Uzziah! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, upon a coat and a foal of an
ass." He literally did just that. He said there's a coat tied up
between two ways, a wild ass's coat. What a picture this is
of me! You, isn't it? There's a wild
ass that's cold, tied up in bondage between two ways. He doesn't
know if he's going or coming. Go loose him, Christ said. Bring him to me. Lord, nobody's
ridden him before. Watch this. They brought him to Christ and
that old wild ass that's cold just dropped his head and our
Lord got on him and he His whole purpose was to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ who tamed him, who broke him. And so he lifted up
the Lord Jesus Christ and exalted the Lord. That's what
salvation is all about, His glory. Our Lord literally did that,
rode into town on a wild ass cold. Why did he do that? Let me just go ahead and say
it. Why did he ride into town on a donkey? Why didn't he ride
in on a big white steed, a big black steed? Why? You know? Because
there's not one person, not one person anywhere that said, would
you look at that donkey? Hey, he's something. Look at the Lord. Look at Him. Look at Him. Chapter 10, or I'm
sorry, chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse 12. Look at this. Oh my. If you think good, give me my
price. If not, forbear. So they weighed for my price
30 pieces of silver. And verse 13, they cast it to
the potter. They bought a field. That's literally quoted in the
Gospel in it. Christ was sold for 30 pieces
of silver, and they took that money and bought a potter's field
with it to fulfill the Scriptures. A field where they could bury
the poor. That's where I want to be buried.
Crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and rise again. In
the next hours, we're going to rise again. It says in chapter 12, verse
1, the burden of the Word. Verse 2, that I'll make Jerusalem
a cup of trembling. Verse 3, And that day I made
Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. Our Lord is that
stumbling stone, that rock of offense when He came into Jerusalem. He's that rock of offense, that
burden, that stone of stumbling. And then when Christ went to
Calvary's tree, He was sold, betrayed and sold for thirty
pieces of silver. And they took Him and put Him
on Calvary's tree. The whole earth shook. Scripture
says the whole earth shook. It was in darkness for three
hours and then the whole earth trembled. That's what it says. It'll make Jerusalem a trembling.
Who is this? The Son of God dying on Calvary
trail. Why did He do that? Because God
sent Him. Sacrifice for sin. Daniel 9 says
He'll come and finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make reconciliation
for iniquity, bring in an everlasting righteousness, seal the prophets,
and anoint the Most Holy. That's my game. Messiah, the
Prince, the Lord Jesus Christ. He keeps saying, in that day,
verse 3. In that day, verse 4. In that
day, verse 6. In that day, verse 8. In that
day, verse 11. In that day. The day of the Lord. The day of the Lord of hope.
Now look at this and prepare to jump your pew. Verse 10, I'll pour upon the
house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and supplication. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him.
Mourn over their sins. And mourn as one in bitterness.
And that day, verse 11, will be a great morning in Jerusalem.
Verse 12, the lancer mourned every family apart, that is,
every person who sees Christ crucified in his stead. Every person. And in that day,
verse chapter 13, in that day there is a fountain
open. There is a fountain filled with
blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plundered beneath that blood, to lose all their
good stuff. That's what this book's about.
What book? All of it. Of Christ. Oh my, so much more. We just,
we just, Preaching part, don't we? Every verse, every line speaks
of Christ and him crucified. God's glory. Okay.