Well, if you would tonight, join
me in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14, and I would
like to read verses 13, 14, and 15 tonight of this 14th chapter
of the book of Zechariah. And we'd like to spend some time
on the subject of God ruling over the lost. In the book of Zechariah, chapter
14, there in verse 13, it says, And it shall come to pass in
that day, that a great tolmont from the LORD shall be among
them, and they shall lay a hold every one on his hand of his
neighbor, and his hand shall rise against the hand of his
neighbor. They're going to depend on someone else to help them
stand up. Verse 14. and Judah also shall
fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the heathen
round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and
apparel in great abundance. Verse 15. And so shall be the
plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, of the ass, and
of all the beasts that shall be in these tents as this plague. Now there's some things here
that are hard to be understood. I don't understand all that's
going on here. I try to look at these passages of Scripture
from a spiritual standpoint, a spiritual view. And we have
much greater success in understanding what the Lord is writing when
we go to it with a spiritual view, trying to see the spiritual
here. I do know that in that last verse
that we read that every one of those beasts is an unclean beast.
But I also read the Apostle Peter was called on to rise up and
eat, and he said, nothing like that has ever been in my mouth.
And the Lord said, don't you ever call what I have made common
or unclean. And at that point, there's a
knock at the door, and he is invited to go preach the gospel
to some Gentiles. So I know that the Lord is interested
in some Gentiles. And what that picture is, Lord
willing, maybe next time we'll have something to say about it.
But I'd like to spend our time tonight, particularly in verse
14. In verse 14, do you remember
what the scriptures say about Esau? Two boys are born. Esau is Harry,
and he is his daddy's twinkle in his daddy's eyes. And the
other boy, Jacob, is his mama's boy. Now, the promise was made
to that mama. Would you just turn with me over
to Genesis, Chapter 25? Let's go over here to Genesis,
Chapter 25, and I think we see in this verse of Scripture, as
well as in a number of verses of Scripture here in the book
of Zechariah, these words are being played out. In the book
of Genesis, Genesis, Chapter 25, Genesis chapter 25, we have
these words, and the Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit
to have these words brought into the New Testament in the book
of Romans, and we'll go over there in just a moment. But in
Genesis chapter 25 and verse 23, now, we would do well to
read this whole passage of Scripture, but let's read verse 23, and
then we'll make some comments. In verse 23, ìAnd the LORD said
unto herÖî Now, these words that are following are direct words
from our Lord. Theyíre direct words from the
mouth of God. Now, we rest in the fact that
all the Bible is the Word of God. But I really love it when
we go to a passage of scripture like this and we see the direct
words of the Lord. Now, these words are to a mama
that's about to have children, and she's in a little turmoil
right here, and she's going to have twins. Now, it is no mistake
what the Lord shares with this mama about what the results of
this birth will be, because he goes on to say, two nations or
two peoples are in thy womb. The two manner of people shall
be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger
than the other people. Now notice this last phrase,
because I believe we see this played out what we read there
in the book of Zechariah. The last phrase, the elder shall
serve the younger. The elder shall serve, did you
notice that word? Serve. Now it's unbeknownst to
the elder the kind of service he was going to perform. is unbeknownst
to lost people, the kind of service that they are called on to perform. But God said that the elder shall
serve the younger. Now the elder is probably stronger. The elder probably is more masculine
in this passage, but we're going to find out that even whatever
circumstances there are, everybody that has ever been born on the
face of the earth and on the left-hand side, they are servants
of God's elect. They are servants of God's chosen
people. And they don't realize it, but
they are. Turn with me back to the book
of Genesis chapter 2. That word serve over here is
found, I'm only going to read three places here in the book
of Genesis. There's many places that this word is used, but in
Genesis chapter 2, we have this word used as the same word is
found over there in the book of Genesis chapter 25, where
it says, that the elders shall serve. The elders shall serve. Now here in the book of Genesis
chapter 2 and verse 5, we have these words. And every plant
of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of
the field before it grew, for the Lord God hath caused it to
rain upon the earth. And there was no man Now that
word till, now we know what plowing is, we know what farming is,
we know what putting a garden in is, that's what that word
is, till. Now over there in the book of
Genesis chapter 25, that word till has been translated serve. shall serve the younger. The
elder will till the soil for the younger. And we see that. Now, very few of us actually
grow enough food for us to live on all the time. We may grow
some really nice tomatoes. We may grow lettuce. We may grow
radishes. And they taste so much better
than the ones that you buy. But very few of us grow grain
so that we can grind it into bread. We depend on other people. Well, that's what the Lord is
sharing with us here, that He has raised up a people to till,
to serve the younger, to serve the church, to serve believers,
to serve the elect. He has raised them up for that
purpose, to serve. The elder shall serve the younger.
And as we read there, and if you'd follow me in the verse
15 of that same chapter, this is brought out again. And the
LORD God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden, to
dress. to dress it and to keep it. That was his responsibility.
Well, we find out that this is also the responsibility that
God has imposed upon those that will be servants of the elect. They will be used to dress us.
Now, I'm saying that in a physical sense, but they also, in many
other ways, do we find that God is going to use lost people to
take care of saved people. That's just the way he's promised
it. The elder shall serve the younger. Now, it's going to be
in a physical sense because there's nothing spiritual about the elder
that we're interested in. I'm not interested in works for
salvation. I'm not interested in the law
for salvation. I'm not interested in a profession
for salvation. I'm not interested in signing
a card for salvation. All of those things are the product
of the elder. But the elder has been promised
by God before they were born Before they had done any good
or evil, he said, the elder shall serve the younger. And that's
his promise. So we depend, the church is thankful. The elder doesn't realize what
they're doing, but the church is thankful that we're provided.
I get to go to the grocery store and buy a gallon of milk instead
of owning a cow. I get to go get a dozen eggs
instead of having some chickens. Now, they're not quite as good
as the ones you raise, and their milk is not quite as, you know,
all that stuff. And we get to go buy, what's
that good bread? killer bread. We get to go buy
killer bread. We can pay six dollars a loaf
for killer bread, and it's worth every penny. But someone else
has provided it for us. Well, one other place I want
to stop here in the book of Genesis is chapter 3. Genesis chapter
3, and there in verse 23, after the fall, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 23,
after the fall, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden to till. One more time. Now this word
is used many, many times. The original word is used many
times in the Old Testament. I'm only bringing out three,
but they all have a statement about servitude. that there will
be service provided. There will be servitude in it.
And every one of the Esau's that has ever lived has been a tributary
to the Jacob's. They have provided the money
so that we can eat. They've provided the money so
that we can give to the Lord. Heat our building, put the lights
on, repair it when necessary, put a kitchen in when we need
it. All the things that we depend on has been provided by the Lord. When He said, the elder shall
serve the younger. Now I'll just be reminded again,
I'm not interested one whit in the religion of the elder. Not
one whit. I look at Cain and Abel and the
elder's religion was so poor that he's kicked out. And the
younger's is an honor to God because the Lord even tells us
in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 that that by faith he offered
a more excellent sacrifice. It wasn't something that he just
conjured up, some conclusion he came to by reading something. The Lord revealed that to him
and showed him and gave him the faith. Gave him the faith that
he shows us, and that's the fruit of the faith. That's what God
does for us. Well, keeping that in mind, let's
travel over to the book of Romans. The book of Romans we find here
in chapter 9. Now, I forget what Mike calls
this, these passages of scriptures mentioned a number of times,
the unreadable, the classifieds, the classified chapters, yeah,
in the book of Romans. Romans chapter 9. But the church
rejoices in it because we find that God has taken care of our
sin. God has taken care of our issues
with Him. God's taken care of it all, and
it's not by anything that we have done that He did that. We're
sinners saved by grace, as that author, that composer put together. All right, here in Romans 9 and
verse 12, let's look at this verse again. And as in verse
11, for the children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It's not
our works, but he calls us. That's it. Now it was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger as it is written. Jacob
have I loved. But Esau have I hated." Now that
does not mean he loved less. There's only one reason that
we can say, as the Lord brings it out, that we could say that
the Lord ever said that, and that is their sins were never
taken care of. God did not propitiate for their
sins. God did not atone for their sins.
God did not die for their sins. Therefore, He has every right
in this world to hate them because they are an abomination. Only
those whose sins have been paid for and promised to be paid for
before the foundation of the world could He ever love. And
that's what we read in the scripture. So, we have this principle that's
brought out. The elder shall serve the younger. Now, I'm going to go to an Old
Testament book that I've often said, if you only had this book,
well, it's only one chapter long and it's Obadiah. Obadiah. Would you turn with me to the
book of Obadiah for just a moment here? The Esau's of the world
are prepared of God to be servants to the Jacob's. someone put all
that gasoline in the tank at the gas station so that I could
pull in, and I really used to love it when they filled my tank
for me. Now I have to get out and fill my own tank. But that
gasoline has been put in that tank so I can put it in my car
so I can drive out here. Someone did that for me. The
elder shall serve the younger. All right, notice Obadiah chapter
one. There's only one chapter and
it's in verse 18. Verse 18 of this, and the house
of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame.
and the house of Esau for stubble." Now isn't that interesting? Jacob
and Esau. The house of Jacob shall be afire. What is Esau? Stubble. What do you do with
stubble? You burn it. It used to be that
people went and gathered it and put it in their stove. They heated
their homes with it. And they shall kindle in them,
and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining of the house
of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it." There is a time coming when
there will not be any of the house of Esau remaining. And when we, by the grace of
God, sit before the Lord and sing praises to Him, there will
not be one hindrance, but we will thank God that the Esau's
served us in this, our life. People say, I'm praying for you
when you fly. I say, pray for the pilot. Now
he is, generally speaking, he's an Esau that's serving me. I've
never met one yet that knew the first thing about the gospel.
Now if I did, and I do, I'll be thankful. I look for those
kind of people. And there's an attraction that
we have. And you know what? Every Jacob will rejoice in the
sovereign grace of God. And every Esau cannot handle
it. It's just unable to handle it.
All right. The Esaus of the world were prepared
to be servants by God from the very beginning. Esau�s built
this house. Esau built houses. Esau paved
the roads to this house. Esau plows snow for Jacob�s. Esau does that. They�re servants
of the Most High God and unbeknownst to them. And many times I have
found it�s the Esau�s that fly the planes. They furnished the
fuel. God has used them. Now, this
brings me up to that wonderful passage over in the book of Joshua. Would you turn with me to the
book of Joshua? I love this passage of Scripture. There was some
people that came in among Israel when Joshua had taken possession
of the land. And we find that Joshua was instructed
by the Lord to give them this sentence. The book of Joshua chapter 9. There we go. Joshua
chapter 9. Joshua chapter 9 verse 21. Now there's this restatement
of what we read over here in the book of Zechariah, what we
read in the book of Genesis, what we read in the book of Romans.
Here we have a illustration, an illustration of what God has
said earlier, that there will be those who will till the soil
and there will be those who will give us clothing. Now there's
nothing spiritual that I want from them. I remember a preacher
calling up a pastor and saying, we have a bunch of this group
that are attending here and they want to join us. And he wrote
back to them and says, don't let them join because you have
everything they need and they have nothing to offer. All they're
going to do is bring in their faults. The Lord changes their heart.
We open our arms. If the Lord gives them salvation,
we open our arms. But we do not need Esau religion
at all. Now, we let them come. Doors
are open. Welcome them. How many times
have we shaken hands with people we have no idea where their history
is, what they're doing? Every Sunday we probably do that.
But when they start preaching a false gospel, they start spreading
a false gospel, they must be stopped. As long as they sit
and listen, hallelujah, we never know what it's going to be. All
right, here in the book of Joshua, it tells us here that there was
some folks that just really, really wanted to be part of the
Israelites and so they made themselves dirty and clothed themselves
with old clothing and had worn out shoes and came into the camp
of Israel and said, we're just like you, we want to join you.
Well, you know, Joshua being just a man, he thought this would
be a great thing. And it tells us here, beginning, let's, I'm
just going to start with verse 21. It says, and the princess
said unto them, let them live, but let them be. Now this is
the instructions that Joshua is going to be led to give to
this whole group of people that wanted to come in and be just
like the Jews, just like Israel. And they pretended to be. We've
come from so far, turned out to end, come any distance at
all. And he says, let, but let them be hewers of wood and drawers
of water unto all the congregation as the princes had promised them.
And Joshua called for them and spoken to them saying, wherefore
have you beguiled us saying, we are very far from you when
you dwell among us. Now, therefore, he are cursed.
and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen. Esau,
the elder, shall serve the younger." The elder shall serve the church. The elder shall provide for the
church. Those on the outside, those without
help and without hope and without God in this world from day one
to the last day have no position in this world except to be servants
to the church of the living God. So here you're gonna be hearers
of wood. Have you ever chopped wood? Isn't it great to have
someone take care of it for you? From a spiritual standpoint,
isn't it great that all of this is taken care of? You know what? I just cannot imagine us owning
a natural gas well, drilling for a natural gas well so we
can heat our building. But we call on a company to come
out here and drag 150. I talked to the guy that did
it. He was a former student. I found out what he was doing.
He said, oh, that's no problem. The gate's not a problem. We
got 150 feet of hose on our line, on our truck. We can just fill
that right up. I'm thankful. He's a hewer of wood and drawer
of water for us. I'm thankful. I told him I was
thankful. I wasn't going to adopt his religion. Alright, it goes on to tell us, to destroy all the inhabitants
of the land from before you. Therefore we were sore afraid
of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. Now,
behold, we are in thy hand, as it seemeth good and right unto
thee to do unto us. And so did he unto them, and
delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, and
slew them not. And Joshua made them that day. Hewers of wood. What did we read
in the book of Genesis? The elder shall serve the younger. Can you imagine all the labor
that was delivered from them, from Israel? Get me some water. Yes, sir.
Get me some wood. Yes, sir. I'll take care of it,
sir. Because they feared for their
lives. All right. Goes on to say, for
the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, even to this
day in the place which he should choose. So as long as we read
here in the book of Joshua, and as long as we read human history,
we will read The elder shall serve the younger. The elder
shall serve the younger. And the church is thankful for
all the help that we get as the God of heaven imposes on them
to take care of the church, provide us a place to rest, electricity
for our lights, gas for our furnace, paper for our printing, and whoever
made the copy machine, and the clocks, and everything else for
our good use, and all the people that put all their effort in
all the books that I get in my library. I'm thankful. God said, the elder shall serve
the younger. All right. Now, in that same
verse of scripture, we found this. If you would turn with
me back to the book of Zechariah, we found in that verse of scripture
that there's going to be people that are going to serve the Lord.
They're going to serve God, and they don't know a thing about
Him. What does it tell us here in this book of Zechariah, chapter
14, and there in verse 14. And the wealth of all the heathen
round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and
apparel in great abundance. Now, when we go back to the book
of Exodus, we find this literally fulfilled. when the children
of Israel are preparing to leave Egypt by Pharaoh's invite. After all that stuff had happened
and that death angel, the Lord came through and slew every firstborn,
they are invited to leave. But let's go back over there
to the book of Genesis for just a moment. Exodus, excuse me, Exodus. Exodus
chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3. In Exodus chapter 3, this is a literal
fulfillment of that. We find that so often it's taken
care of that way from a spiritual standpoint. We don't have to
be too concerned about where Abel got his sheep. Because he said he was a herdsman.
He had sheep. He didn't go over here to his
brother and buy sheep. He had his own sheep. But you
know, as time went on, we're going to find out that those
lambs that were used for the sacrifices, sometimes those people
did not own those sheep, but they were provided. We find the
Lord taking care of a big problem there in Jerusalem at the temple
one time. It wasn't so much that it was against the law for buying
a sheep to offer as a sacrifice. It was the means by what it was
taking place. That was not the right way to
do it. But there are times that we are required to go to somewhere
else to get what we need. And that's, we find that with
the children of Israel. Not every one of them were going
to be shepherds, but there were people who were shepherds. Well,
here in the book of Exodus, we find that God is using this from
a literal standpoint that we just read over there. Exodus
chapter 3 and verse 22, Exodus 3, verse 22, the Scripture says
this, Now, what was this material used for? We follow just a little bit out
there in the wilderness, and we're going to have all of the
different vessels of the tabernacle. We have all of the coverings
for the tabernacle. We have all of the jewels for
the breastplate and on the shoulders provided. Let's go just a little
further in chapter 11, in Exodus chapter 11. And there in verse 2 and 3, Exodus
chapter 11 verse 2 and 3. jewels of silver and jewels of
gold. And the Lord gave the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very
great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants,
in the sight of the people. And then in chapter 12 of the
book of Exodus, we find chapter 12 of the book of Exodus. And here in verse 33, Exodus
chapter 12 and verse 33 we read this, And the Egyptians were
urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the
land in haste. For they said, We be all dead
men. And the people took their dough
before it was leavened, their kneading troughs, being bound
upon their clothes, upon their shoulders. And the children of
Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they borrowed of
the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And the Lord gave the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians. The elder shall serve the younger."
Now, not all Israel was of Israel, but we see as a picture and a
type and a shadow. They're a picture of the church.
And we find that Egypt is a picture of this world and it will serve
the church. It goes on, so that they lent
them such things as they required and they spoiled the Egyptians.
Again, what did most of this stuff go into? Now, I realize
there was a little bit went into a calf. But much was taken and used to
build all of the finery, all of the covering of gold over
the mercy seat, the gold over the table of showbread, the gold
here and there, all the utensils of gold, all of that. How great
was it? And they borrowed it. And it was given to them willingly,
willingly. Well, the Lord is a great God. He has shared with us early on
throughout the scriptures, the elder shall serve the younger. We are thankful. We are thankful
for God's dealing with people on the behalf of the church.
We are thankful. In the book of 2nd Kings, and
I think we have time to read this. In the book of 2nd Kings,
everything that was mentioned there in the book of Zechariah
is brought out here in the book of 2nd Kings. And we have some
four very perilous people. They're called leprous. I love
this account. It's in the book of 2nd Kings
chapter four. 2nd Kings chapter four. It's been really difficult times
for Israel. They have been imposed upon. And yet the Lord, one more time,
shares with us that the elder shall serve the younger. One
more time. Here in the book of 2 Kings 4,
and I'm, let's start there. It tells us in verse 1, Oh boy. I'm going to go back one. I have the wrong address. And I'm sure I checked this.
It's about four leprous people. Chapter 7. Alright, thank you. Now why would I put 4 when I
meant 7? Yeah, it looks like a 4. Chapter 7, verse 1. I'm going to drop down to verse 3. And there were four leprous men
at the entering in of the gate, and they said one to another,
why sit we here until we die? Now, why are they on the outside?
They're leprous. They can't go in. Why sit we here until we die?
If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is
in the city, and we will die there. And if we sit still here,
we die also. Now, therefore, come and let
us fall into the host of the Assyrians." Now, the Assyrians
had come up against, and they had caused dire circumstances
in Israel. There was dire circumstances. Food was Food was gone. And the Assyrians were there
holding out until they surrendered. And if they save us alive, we
shall live. And if they kill us, we shall
die. And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp
of the Assyrians. And when they were come into
the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no
man there. Now God had taken care of it.
The elder shall serve the younger. They left everything. They thought,
they thought that the Egyptians had hired, or not the Egyptians,
the Israelites had hired soldiers to come defeat them and they
ran and left their horses and beasts of burden and their gold
and their food and their tents and their clothes and everything.
The elder shall serve the younger. They came in and there was no
man there, for the Lord had made the host of Syrians to hear a
noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of
a great host. And they said one to another,
Lo, now we know why people don't come back. But I said one to another, lo,
the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they
arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their
horses, and their asses, even the camp, as it was, and fled
for their life. And when the lepers came into
the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent And they
did something they hadn't done for a long time. They ate and
drank and carried thins silver and gold and raiment and went
and hid it and came again and entered into another tent and
carried thins also and went and hid it. And they said one to
another, we do well. This day is a day of good tidings.
We got good news. We hold our peace. If we tarry
till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now
therefore come that we go and tell the king's household. So
they came and called the porter of the city, and we know the
rest of the story. They found in there everything
that we find in the gospel. They found drink. They found
food. They found raiment. They found
silver. They found gold. And that's the
way God takes care of his people. Now in our scripture reading
over there, we're going to find that the heathen are going to
give up their gold and their silver and their raiment to the
church. We look at that from a spiritual
standpoint and God has used them. to provide for the church. God
used Esau's to take care of Saul of Tarsus, now we know him as
the Apostle Paul. He got a free ride to Rome. That
was perilous, but he got a free ride to Rome. He's there, he's
under the protective care of the Caesar, and he has free food. He has guards over him. God's
taking care of him. Isn't it wonderful that the elder
shall serve the younger? I'm thankful for the guys that
keep the road open. the elder shall serve the younger.
I'm thankful for the pilots that fly their planes. The elder shall
serve the younger. And I'm thankful that by the
grace of God, we can give back to the Lord because the Lord
gave us jobs. And very few people that I worked
with knew the first thing about the gospel. And yet God gave
them And we reaped from it and the Lord allows us to give back
to him. What rejoicing in the church
to realize that the elder shall serve the younger. God's rule
over the non-elect. That's what he does. And he rules
over the church. That's what he does. He's the
king of kings and lord of lords. All right, we're going to stop
there tonight.