Zechariah chapter 14, and I wanna
read verses 16 and 17, and we're gonna spend our time tonight
on verse 16. And I've just decided in this
last part of this chapter, like so much of this book, we're just
gonna go verse by verse, because there's so much in each of these
verses. There's just so much. And it's
so good to see what Zechariah was preaching in his day and
time is the same what we're preaching today. He was looking forward
to the cross. He was looking forward to the
coming of the Messiah. He was looking forward to the
Savior. And we look back, we see him
coming. We find him identified that it
was Jesus of Nazareth. That's who he is. Behold the
Lamb of God. So he was doing all this identification,
but like so many in the Old Testament, he knew the line that he was
coming through, but he never saw him with his physical eyes,
but neither did we. We're given faith. We're given
the faith of God's elect to believe what God had to say about his
son. Well, here it says, and it shall come to pass that every
one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem,
shall even go up from the year to year." Now, we mentioned last
week that remnant, according to the election of grace, and
we noticed throughout the Old Testament, as well as the New
Testament, that God always was just dealing with a remnant.
Now, there were all those others that he had overshadowed, and
it turns out that most of them could be summed up when we look
at the book of Joshua, they were hewers of wood and drawers of
water. They were going to be an example
to the believers of what God would do to unbelievers. And
so he used them, he ordained them. We read today that there
are those who will stumble at the word and they were appointed
to it. Now I was asked, how can you
hold it? I said, I don't argue with it.
My view of God has changed. He's able to do what he wants
to do. And he does what he wants to do. And dealing with us is
just simply out of grace. There's nothing else. All right. And then it goes on to say in
that verse, those who are left, the remnant, according to the
election of grace of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts. and keep the
feast of tabernacles." Well, in this passage of scripture,
we find out that the church, those, the remnant, are going
to go up And this word year to year, this word is a little freer
than just what we have is 365 and a quarter days. And we will
see this as we read in the Old Testament. In fact, it's brought
up in the New Testament that a thousand years is with the
Lord as the day and a day is a thousand years. We have some
indefinite time. Everybody in every age that God
ever saves is going to come to Christ and they're gonna worship
And they're gonna worship not something, they're gonna worship
someone. And he is known as the Lord of
hosts. And then it tells us in there,
and they shall keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Well, we're gonna
look at that in just a moment. But turn with me, if you would,
in your Bibles, back to the Psalms. Back to the Psalms. As we look
at this subject of coming year to year, I'm thankful. I'm thankful that we don't take
that literally. I'm thankful we're permitted
to meet on Sunday and Wednesday or any other time, especially
during camp time. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
and God's people truly worship God every day. It's not a year's I'm sure there
are some churches that wish that that's all they ever came together.
But here, now, in the book of Psalms, in the book of the Psalms,
chapter 65, or Psalm 65, you look at that with me, Psalm 65. This message that we find through
the scriptures, Psalm 65, and there in verse 11, it says, Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness. Isn't that a wonderful verse? Even in the night seasons. Thou
crownest the year with goodness and thy paths drop fatness. So
the Lord to his church is always forever for an eternity, doing
exactly what we find here in a summed up, in a year. Thou
crownest the year with thy goodness. So wherever we start in a year,
wherever we start with our walk with Christ, wherever we start
with Him's new birth, He drops fatness. It's good. He crowned
us the year with goodness. And then in Psalm 90, we have
something, what we find over there, in Peter, Psalm 90 in
verse 4, talking about these years. It's not just a yearly
thing. It's not just a weekly thing.
It's not a bi-weekly thing. It's a constant, ongoing pleasure
that God has given the church to worship the Lord of hosts,
to worship the King. Here in Psalm 90 in verse 10,
The Word says, And the days of our years are threescore years
and ten. And if by reason of strength
they be fourscore, yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow,
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Well, it doesn't matter
how long we live. We're going to come to the end.
And somewhere in that time, for all of God's elect. It was brought
up tonight. I just was thinking, and I shared
it with those guys on that other Zoom meeting, you know, when
not very many of us can trace our genealogy back a long ways,
and if I could, I would probably not find very many, if any. I can't go back anywhere and
find anybody that knew anything about the gospel. And yet God
in his purpose brought all of those generations down through
time to deposit at here. So I was brought into the world.
God was purposed to reveal the gospel to me at the right time.
And who else? I don't know. I could visit with
all my brothers and sisters and find nobody that we can agree
on worshiping the Lord of hosts. Nothing. There's nobody there.
And I could go back to my mother and dad's generation, and I can't
find anybody that knew anything. Now there were some religious
people, but they didn't know anything about the gospel. They
didn't know anything, and they didn't worship the Lord of Hosts. They worshipped religion and
all sorts of things. Turn with me in verse 10, excuse
me, I read verse 10. I want to go back to verse four
of that same Psalm. Psalm 90 verse four, for a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and
as a watch in the night. We have that almost repeated
in the New Testament. We have that brought out when
we get over to the thousand year reign. If you look at that in
a literal sense, we're making a big, Big mistake, number one,
and the Lord's reigning a lot longer than that time. So a thousand
years on my side is but a yesterday. Well, in God's infinite wisdom
and purpose of grace, time means nothing. He brings his lost sheep
into this world at the appointed time, and at the appointed time,
they meet the Savior just like the woman at the well was appointed. He must go, needs to go through
Samaria, or just like Zacchaeus, or just like Matthew, as he dealt
individually with people during his own personal ministry at
the appointed time. And it didn't matter how many
generations back or how many generations forward, This is
when God's work of grace took place. And so year by year, it
means let's do it every day. Let's do it every minute. Let's
have a worshipful attitude about these things. And we find out
to worship the Lord of hosts. Now, worship of any other God
or system, or ordinance, or confession of faith, or church, or is religious
idolatry. To worship the Lord of hosts,
the King, the Lord of hosts, is a worship that God brings
to us. We find that we may use the flesh. I was thinking about this. We
use the flesh to carry that which God gave us in the new birth.
We carry it with us. We take that to church. We take
it to our prayer. We take it in our visits. That
part that God gave us, the Holy Spirit in us. He never created
a new man in us in the sense that he's got something special
new there. He never dealt with the flesh
except to bring it under subjection from time to time, and we're
thankful for that. But we do carry that which God
gave us in the new birth. The flesh carries this. But with the flesh, we do not
worship God. There is no worship factor in
the flesh. We cannot worship God. And most
worship today is just to satisfy the flesh. Now, the scriptures
tell us in John chapter four, would you turn there with me,
John chapter four, verse 24? You know this verse of scripture,
what worship truly is. God is a spirit. He's not flesh
like we are, he's a spirit. And it tells us there in John
chapter four and verse 24, that all the fleshly efforts that
we put into it. Now, I shared with some of you,
I have a dear sister that comes here and she always sits on the
front row and she always raises her hands. You can't get them
to sit on the back row. They wanna be up front. They
want to show. It's a fleshly demonstration. Well, here in the book of John
chapter four and verse 24, we have this mentioned. It says,
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. There is that glorious, regeneration
that God gives to his people enables us to worship him in
spirit and in truth. Now we cannot worship him in
spirit and falsehood, and we cannot worship him in the flesh. In the truth, it's just the contrariness. We worship him in spirit and
in the truth. We cannot encumber the ground
with false doctrine and say that we're worshiping him. We cannot
go to him and worship him and say, we don't even believe that
you died for a certain amount of people. You died for everybody.
That's not worship of God. We must worship him after the
dictates of his word. And he reveals that to us. It
becomes common to us in the sense that we worship a God in spirit
and in truth. So this worship that God gives
us, it's drawn out, it's mentioned in the Old Testament, but even
following the Psalms and saying, I'm going to follow this, does
not mean we're worshiping. It's something God gives to us.
It's a glorious gift to be able to worship God, to worship Him
in spirit and in truth. And it's not something that we
do naturally. Naturally, we want to get our flesh involved in
it. Why did the Lord tell those people, don't pray on the street
corners? They thought they were worshiping. And God said, no,
that's not what worship is. It's not by repetition of words.
It's not by loud speech. It's none of those things. Worship
is the heart worshiping a true and living God, Savior, a Savior
that actually saved me from my sin. In the book of Psalm again,
would you join me in the Psalm again? It's so full. David was
so full of worship. And he was used to write so much
about worship that it is just a natural thing for the regenerated
heart to do, is to worship God. We think so much of him. If he's
a great savior, great sinners think a lot of him. He's the
one that drew them out, lifted them up, brought them to life.
He's the one that breathed into our nostrils the breath of life
and we became a living soul. Worship is just a natural event
that a regenerated heart has for God. Thank you, Lord. We
love you. It's Psalm 29. Let's go back over there before
I lose my place. Psalm 29 and verse two. Look
at this verse. This is a Psalm of David, verse
one. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto his name. What's that mean? Only a regenerated
person has any idea what that means. The glory due to his name. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for what? He shall save his people from
their sins. To be saved from our sins is
a glorious thing to worship God about. And then it goes on and
says, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. There's not
going to be any flesh involved in that kind of worship. Now
we do carry the part of us that worships. We are used to carry it to services,
and here are the worship. Hear the story. It's part of
us, but that's not the part that worships God. The part that worships
God must be in spirit and in truth. And in the same book of
the Psalms, in Psalm 99, again, this is brought up about worshiping
God. Psalm 99, and there in verse
five, Psalm 99 in verse 5, exalt ye the Lord our God. Psalm 99
verse 5, and worship at his footstool for he is holy. You know, in
other places it says he will reign until he makes his enemies
his footstool. Worship at his footstool. You
know, everyone that's ever been saved has been at one time an
enemy of God and an enemy of grace. But he gives us the privilege
of sitting at his feet and worshiping him. Having adoration, having
thanksgiving, having glory. praising him for what he did
to lift us out of a horrible pit, to set us upon a solid rock,
to establish our goings, to give us a new song. We never had that
by nature, but we have all of that because of Christ. And then
in verse nine of that same Psalm, exalt the Lord our God and worship
at his holy hill. You know, the Lord draws us to
this one person that sits on his one throne. This, we worship
the Son of God. We worship Him. And when we do
that, we're worshiping the Father and the Son, or Father and the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will testify
of me, is what the Lord says. So worship Him and you're taking
care of all the rest. We don't have to worry, well,
am I worshiping the Father enough? Or am I worshiping the Spirit
enough? Well, if we're worshiping the Lord with all our heart and
all our being, as we are called on to do, and we're able to do
the only after we've been saved, then we're taking care of the
whole Trinity, the whole Godhead. Exalt the Lord our God and worship
at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy. What worship
is, it's inexplainable, but it is a heart crying out to Almighty
God in Thanksgiving that you would give up the son, your glorious son, as
a sacrifice for me. Worship the king. The leper worshiped
him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt. The leper worshiped him and said,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. That's found in Matthew
8 too. Lord, he worshiped him though,
and then said, Lord, it's really up to you. Whatever you choose, and that
is really coming to the conclusion of worshiping God, that he would
be the first commander of all our decisions. Thank you, Lord,
that I can worship you and do as the leper did. Now, we are
all lepers, cleanse lepers, but we still say, Lord, if thou wilt. Lord, if thou wilt. You can make
me clean. We find the Lord speaking about
a whole group of people and says, in vain they do worship me. They're going through the pretense
of it. They're pretending to worship me. That's an interesting
thought when so many didn't even recognize who he was. What they're
saying is, in vain they're worshiping God. Because that's who they
were thinking they were bowing before. They had no idea who
this was. But in vain they worship Him, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. Now in vain, that's worship,
that's vanity worship. Bringing out the commandments
of men and saying, this is what you're supposed to do. And then
we find that wonderful passage of scripture over then the book
of Revelation. It says, these did not worship the image of
the beast. Why? Because their names were
written in the Lamb's book of life. Did not. That's in Revelation chapter
20 in verse four, which did not worship the beast. We thank God
that we've not been given over to that. That's going to be everyone
else Now we may have gone through the pretense of it, we may have
thought we've been there, but thank God he prevented us from
worshipping the beast. Now to me the beast is our own
natural religion. Prince and power of the air,
natural religion. We're just will worshipers. Now, if it's something else,
God's going to take care of it in a right way. But I am convinced
that most worship is just self, self-willed worship. And if God
leaves us in that condition, we will never see him. But he
interrupts us. I'm so thankful that God interrupts
us. God gets involved. God comes
down and does something and goes crossways to the path that we're
traveling. Saul of Tarsus had a path he
was traveling and God got involved and he just interrupted it totally. And you know, Saul of Tarsus
never wanted to go back to any of that stuff that he'd ever
been in because why? He's worshiping the Lord. He's
worshiping the King, the Lord of hosts. so much better than
anything he's ever had in his life. And that's the same that
is true with the church today, this worship. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This worship by
the remnant is directed toward only one, and that is the Lord
of Hosts. Now, that's a name that's been
given to him many times in the Old Testament, and we've looked
at a couple of times, half a dozen, 25 times, where that Lord of
Hosts really has his center. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said.
God never calls on anybody to worship anybody less than the
Lord of hosts. The King, the Lord of hosts,
never asked us to stop by and worship any God less than the
King, the Lord of hosts. Now he gives the church the ability
to worship the King, the Lord of hosts. They recognize him
as almighty God. If we worship anything less than
that, it's idolatry. There is nothing in it. If we
worship, and if we're worshiping God, and we're worshiping God
in spirit and in truth, we're worshiping the King, the Lord
of hosts. We have a high regard for this
Savior. We have a high regard for salvation.
We have a high regard for God and His work. We may not, and
we don't understand most of it, but we do not go contrary and
say, you know, that's not right. You know, that's not right. That's
not fair. God is absolutely right and fair in every one of his
dealings. He is right to save his people
from their sins, and he is right to have a bunch of people on
the left-hand side. He has made all things for himself,
yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. You know, I'm the
first one to admit I don't understand that. but I have to believe it. And I worship the Lord that said
it. The Lord, the King, the Lord of hosts. We worship the Lord
of hosts. We know since Christ went to
the cross. Let me back up. Go over to the
Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. You know,
it may not be too long, but I'm gonna have to do what Mike has
been asking me to do all along, and that's type it up so I can
put it in the right order. But anyway, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter one. This is such a wonderful verse
of scripture that talks to us, shares with us about this Lord,
the King, the Lord of hosts. This is who the church worships.
It's not a God that has ever said he's trying. It's not a
God that has ever said, I will bow to the whims of man. A God that has never said that
salvation is up to man, and once they respond to me, then I can
do something for them. This God, as described in Hebrews
chapter one, verse three, it says, who being in the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, now notice
this, and upholding all things by the word of his power. Now
that's the King, the Lord of hosts, and that's who we're permitted
to worship. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power. When he had by himself, and another
miracle, purged our sins. It's beyond our comprehension.
It is beyond our amazement that he could purge our sins. He could pay for our sins in
totality. But once the Lord saves us, we
get to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, who did exactly
that, purged our sins. And beyond that, this one, the
Lord of Hosts, who upholds all things by the word of his power
and has purged our sins by himself, is now set down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. He has sit down. The work's over.
It is finished. We're not looking for him to
do something else. We're not looking for him to
do something greater. He has done his work. He has
put aside the law. He has put aside all the ordinances
of the Old Testament and said, they are fulfilled in me. Worship
the King, the Lord of hosts. And we find there that we must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. And if we don't, we're
not worshiping the Lord of hosts. All right, now, it tells us in
that verse of scripture there in the book of Zechariah chapter
14 and verse 16, that those who do this, those that are brought,
the remnant are brought to worship the King, the Lord of hosts,
Year by year, day by day, it's gonna be a constant thing. God's
people are gonna worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and
they are going to, what's it say in that last part of that
verse? It says something about the Feast of Tabernacles. Zechariah
14, verse 16, it says there, to worship the king, the Lord
of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Now we know,
we know that since Christ came, did his earthly ministry, went
to the cross, died on the cross for all his people and paid all
their sin debt, that all of the feasts and all of the sacrifices
are finished. We're not called on. I've been
asked recently, what do you think about doing the Passover? And
I says, it would be nothing but idolatry. What do you think about
the Feast of Tabernacles? Keeping it nothing but idolatry. satisfaction for the flesh. Either
Jesus Christ fulfilled them all or he didn't fulfill any of them.
And since he fulfilled them all, they're not on our radar anymore. Now we're gonna look at the spiritual
blessing of the Feast of Tabernacles. And there's many things that
we could see in this, but we find that the Feast of Tabernacles
is a picture. The original Feast of Tabernacles
is a picture of what we have in reality. We have a picture
over here and we have the real. We have the sacrifices over here
and now we have the true sacrifice. We have King David over here,
but we have King David over here. We have the true King, the Lord
of hosts. The feast is looked up at not
literally, but we want to look at it spiritually. The life of a believer is always
always enjoying the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, the life of
a believer is a constant feast of the Tabernacles because of
what it means. Now, the Feast of Tabernacles
was instituted by Moses, by the direction of God, that they would
go out and they would dwell in booths. Now, one of the first
places they came was called Sukkoth, and that's the word for those
booths that they were to make. And they were to camp in for
seven days. Now, what they're demonstrating
to us is, what we read about Abraham, he was a pilgrim and
a sojourner in this world. He was nothing but a pilgrim.
We are dwelling in the tents of the Feast of Tabernacles.
We're just passing through this world. We're not of this world,
but we're passing through this world. We find that, well, let's
turn over here to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter
11, verse nine. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
nine. This, here it is. Anybody that's
been given the faith of God's elect have this to hang on to,
to enjoy, to appreciate. This is, we can worship God here.
By faith, he sojourns in the land of promise as a strange
country dwelling in tabernacles, Abraham, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
And he looked for a city. Okay, let's not stop right there
though. Which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He dwelt in tabernacles, dwelling
in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, dwelling in tents, not
in the city, but dwelling in tents. And then it tells us there
in dropping down just a little bit, verse 16, I think it is
that, But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly,
wherefore God is not ashamed to call their God, for he hath
prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac. So we have this constant reminder
of what God does for us by faith. And he says, every day you get
to practice the Feast of Tabernacles. You get to enjoy just passing
through. There's no continuing city here.
I promised you life and life eternal. And I'm going to take
you out of this place in time. You're just traveling through.
You might meet one of my elect ones and share with that one
the gospel and still make all the difference in the world to
them. But you're just traveling through. First Peter chapter
one. First Peter chapter one. We're practicing. the Feast of
Tabernacles. We're coming to the Feast of
Tabernacles. First Peter 1, 17. And if you call on the Father, who
without respect to persons, judges according to every man's work,
how's he going to judge every man's work? It better be the
work of my Son that you're trusting. You better be worshiping the
King, the Lord of hosts. Pass the time of your sojourning
here in respect, worship. That's what God gives to us.
They are strangers and pilgrims in the earth. And the Feast of
Tabernacles declares that the Son of God tabernacled in the
flesh. We worship that every day. God
has come in the flesh. The Son of God has been here
and dwelt in flesh. And it was that way he was able
to go to the cross. This is Emmanuel, God with us. As we worship at the Feast of
Tabernacles, we're worshiping the God that permits us not to
be grounded in this world, but passing through this world, but
also that our Savior came and just passed. What does it tell
us about Him? The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And that word dwelt means tabernacled.
He was in a booth with us. He was in the same booth with
us. He's passing through. And along with this, we find
that this feast was at the time of the in-gathering of the harvest. It celebrated the in-gathering.
You know, God continues to have us celebrate the in-gathering
of the elect. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of John, chapter six. John chapter six. What a wonderful
statement we have here that the Lord makes. John chapter six
and verse 37. The Lord brings us up and we
rejoice in it. This is the only way anybody
is ever gonna be saved. This is the only way that we're
gonna have brothers and sisters in Christ. All that the Father
giveth me shall be brought in. shall come to me." We're going
to have an in-gathering. It's a promised in-gathering.
There will be a reaping of the harvest. There will be people
saved. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. The Feast of Tabernacles is a
promise that God will bring all his sheep into the fold, that
we may get to witness it or we may not get to witness it, but
he's still gonna bring every one of his elect ones into the
fold. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out,
come sin or high water. I will not cast them out. I am God, I change not. Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. It's a promise that God has made
to his people. We celebrate this and over there
in the book of First Corinthians chapter three, let's go over
there. Our time is about out, but we want to look at this.
First Corinthians chapter three. Verse four. Now there's a discussion going
on in the church court, and instead of the Apostle Paul coming in
and just tearing into them, he preaches Christ. If you only hope. Preach Christ. Preach Christ. It says, for while
one saith I'm of Paul and another I am of Apollos, are you not
carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos,
but ministers by whom you believe, even as the Lord gave to every
man? I have planted, Apollos watered,
but the feast of tabernacles is going to promise an ingathering
and God gave the increase. While we camp in this booth,
this sojourning, God has promised that in the preaching of the
gospel, he will bring in everyone in where that promise made to
us. And in Matthew chapter nine,
jump over there with me if you would, just as we look at this.
Matthew chapter nine. I have spoken to Mike a number
of times, this Mike. I said, how in the world did
you escape not being called to preach? How did you escape that? Because everyone else that I
knew there was called to preach. How did you escape that? Escaped. You escaped, yeah. You know,
preachers just cannot wait to get somebody called to the ministry
and they can hang their Mr. Blanchard, for years, had
me as his star because he called me to preach. He made sure that
I was in the ministry. Even though I went to him and
told him I was lost, I ended up being called to preach. Well,
look at this, would you? In the book of Matthew chapter
9, verse 4, Excuse me, verse 36, verse 36,
excuse me. But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. And
he said unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but
the labors are few, call everyone you can to preach. Not quite. Pray ye, the Lord
of the harvest, that he will send laborers into his harvest, the ingathering. God's gonna
do it. He supports those who he calls. I've never met anybody that was
a gospel preacher that ever ran from his call. They may say,
I can't do it. All right. So everyone's going
to enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles. We're going to be strangers and
pilgrims in this land. We're going to rejoice in a God
that would come down and tabernacle in flesh for the suffering of
death. We're going to enjoy a God that
takes care of his business and saves his people from their sin.
And there is a promise in gathering and it will happen and not one
will be left behind. And so enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles. Enjoy God's great grace to his
people. Enjoy worshiping the King, the
Lord of hosts and enjoy it every day. And we'll pick up with verse
17, Lord willing, next time.