The Book of Zechariah, Zechariah
14. I just want to say a few words
before we get there. What a wonderful study it has
been up to this point. What a God-honoring statement
the prophet, the preacher Zechariah made. He is a preacher of righteousness
just like Noah. He's preaching the righteousness
of Christ and just like all the other writers, that we have of
the Old Testament, they were preaching Christ and Him crucified. Those sacrifices that were made
were reminders of believers that their Messiah would go through
this, that He would be crucified, He would be put to death for
their sin. The Zechariah, as well as all
the other Old Testament prophets, were speaking by the Spirit. Christ is the Spirit of prophecy. So I just want to divert your
attention for just a moment over to the book of Revelation. Revelation,
the last book there, chapter 19, and we have this statement
made about our Savior. So when we read that as the Lord
said, Moses wrote of me. We have this mentioned to us
in the book of Revelation chapter 14, or excuse me, chapter 19
and verse 10. These words about that, what
the Old Testament was about. And I fell at his feet to worship
him and he said unto me, see thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of
the brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So from Moses to
Malachi, we have those men of God. They were raised up for
a purpose. They were raised up on purpose,
and they were raised up to preach the gospel of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we have it in type and shadow
and picture. And in the New Testament, we
have it all brought out how it was going to be fulfilled just
according to promise. The reason the prophets of God
were raised up was to declare Christ, Christ and his ministry,
Christ. And we find that they all had
this to say, someone is coming. I really appreciated what Brother
Henry shared with me that time. Such a simple outline of the
Bible. Someone's coming, someone's here,
and someone is coming back. Well, these prophets spoke of
that. Genesis to Malachi, someone is coming. And through those
400 years from Malachi up to the birth of John and then the
Lord Jesus, they continue to share that. Even though we don't
have the written record of it, they continue to share that the
Messiah is coming. And as we go through the book
of Zechariah chapter 14, let's remember and go back with me
to the book of Zechariah chapter 1. The book of Zechariah 1, a
wonderful verse is mentioned here that we looked at so long
ago, not that long ago I guess, but in Zechariah 1, verse 16,
we have these words, therefore, thus saith the Lord, I am returned
to Jerusalem with mercies. And we're going to read a lot
in chapter 14 about the punishment that he is going to mete out
to the enemies of the church. But here for the church, he's
returning to the church, he's returning to Jerusalem, and he
says here, with mercies, my house shall be built in it, saith the
Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. So he's sharing with us in this
verse of scripture, the rich blessings of grace, the rich
blessings of the purchase that the Lord will make when he goes
to the cross. I pray that we will examine this
14th chapter of the book of Zechariah with this in mind. Revelation
chapter one, verse one. the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, it would not harm us if
we said that as we began reading the book of Genesis. or Exodus,
or Leviticus, or Numbers, or Deuteronomy, or any other of
the Old Testament books, or the New Testament books, the revelation
of Jesus Christ, the revealing of Jesus Christ, the enlightening
that we have from Jesus Christ. This revelation of Jesus Christ
is certainly going to be brought out here as it has way all the
way through the book of Zechariah so far. The revelation of Jesus
Christ in many aspects, the preaching of Christ and him crucified,
the righteousness of Christ. And we find as we follow through
this book of Zechariah chapter 14, that there's something said
about this when we look at it from a contrary standpoint. Now,
I don't know how many commentaries I read, they just couldn't have
had it right. If we base our end time theology
on the lack of God being able to do what he said he would do,
let's just back up and say, we have it a wrong, not a right. We have it a wrong. We read two
or three times on Sunday that all the promises that God ever
promised Israel were fulfilled. Joshua mentions it twice, Solomon
mentions it in his great prayer on the dedication of that temple,
and we find out That if we don't have a right, we're not being
led by the Holy Spirit. And we find by, and I'm not saying
that this is our problem, but natural man does not see the
things of God. And I've read some commentaries,
and I'm sure that the real problem with them is they were looking
at it with a natural eye. They had a natural inclination. They were looking at it from
a natural standpoint, and we need to look at it and pray to
God that He would help us to look at it from a spiritual standpoint. There's no benefit in just a
historical account. There's benefit in seeing Christ
and what He has done for the church. His promises will be
fulfilled in Zachariah as well as in Matthew. His promises will
be fulfilled. The church still has problems
understanding that verse of scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and
verse 14. The natural man Receiveth not
the things of God, things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they
are spiritually discerned. Now, to have full grasp of that,
I probably won't get it completely until I'm in the presence of
my Savior. the totality of that. We speak to our friends, we speak
to our neighbors, we speak to our relatives and wonder why
can't they see this? And then we have to go back to
this verse of scripture. And yet, sometimes we say, why
can't they see this? So it's a wonderful thing to
have the spirit of God testifying to us that these prophets of
old were writing about Christ. They had the message of Christ.
They were telling us of natural man's condition. They were telling
us of the manner and means of how the Lord God Almighty would
take care of the natural man's conditions, those that he had
chosen Christ before the foundation of the world, and we find as
we travel through the Old Testament that this message is going to
continuously come out. We have a problem. God is the
answer to the problem. He has it already figured out.
He's not leaving it up to us to figure it out. or to come
to some conclusion and then accept it. He's going to reveal himself
to his people and then we truly are given the gift of faith to
believe the Word of God. This 14th chapter of the book
of Zechariah has truly been maligned. All you have to do is read a
little bit about it and you find out it's truly been maligned. This chapter has been used to
present hundreds of talks. I was watching two grandchildren
on Sunday evening. My wife and daughter were gone.
I finally, they got them into bed, they're asleep. I turned
on the TV, go to Netflix, look up Zechariah chapter 14, verse
four. And there must be 150 or 200
different messages on that. And all of them that I listened
to were incorrect because they want to put it in an eschatological
view. And this is the sign of the end. Well, this is the sign of Christ. This is the glory of Christ for
us found here in this book of Zechariah. This book of Zechariah,
chapter 14 included, is going to share with us about an almighty
God doing an everlasting work on the behalf of his eternal
chosen people, and he is going to do it in a glorious manner
that will honor him and bless the church. Everything that God
does is going to honor God. He never will do anything that
dishonors his name, dishonors his truth, dishonors his word. He will always honor himself. And everything that he does is
to be a blessing to the church. Now, sometimes we may not look
at it from that standpoint, especially when we're going through some
affliction, but he is going to honor his church. What does it
say? If we don't get some from God,
we are not children of God. I won't use the term the Bible
does. You'll have to read it for yourself. All right. Zechariah 14 is the truth of
the gospel. It is the highlight of this book.
It is the glory that is brought out. I want to read a verse of
scripture over in the book of Before I read this, I want to
go over and read a verse of scripture in the book of Malachi chapter
4 and verse 5. Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5.
Now, this sets the tone for what we're going to find out when
we go to the New Testament. This is a wonderful verse of
scripture. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. You know what we're going to
find out? Jesus told his disciples that Elijah has come and caused
them to understand that it was John the Baptist. We'll read
a verse of scripture there in just a moment about that. So
if you read the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord, If we were not setting our sights on the right thing,
we'd be led astray and off here. Great and dreadful day. It's
a great day for the saints, a dreadful day for the non-elect. And that's
when Christ went to the cross and paid the due payment for
his people. All right, let's go back here
to this book of Zachariah chapter. 14 Zechariah chapter 14 and we
want to read this chapter Zechariah chapter 14 verses 1 through 21
Behold the day of the Lord cometh and They spoil shall be divided
in the midst of thee For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled,
and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off
from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth
and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day
of battle. And his feet shall stand in that
day upon Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem. Now it's
interesting to me to find out that Mount of Olives, Mount Zion,
and Mount Moriah are clustered right together near Jerusalem. And if we took time right now
to look at the significance of Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, and
now Mount of Olives, we'd find out there's a gospel message
on every one of them. It was Mount Moriah where Abraham
was told to take his son up. And it's Mount Moriah where the
temple was built. And Mount Zion is mentioned so
often through the Psalms as a picture, a type, and a shadow of the church.
God's redeemed ones. And now Mount of Olives. It's
mentioned one other time in the Old Testament as the Mount of
Olivet, and we'll look at that eventually. And so often people
look at this verse of scripture and say that this is the time
of the rapture. Well, this morning I told Nancy,
I says, I just had something slap me in the side of the head.
This cannot be that, because when Jesus Christ comes back
for his sheep, We're going to meet him in the air. He doesn't
need to touch down. He's not going to touch this
mountain and split it in half in a literal sense. We're going
to look at this and see that it's a spiritual sense that he
does that. He's going to make a way of escape.
And Sunday we read that verse of scripture where God is faithful
always to make a way of escape for all of his people in any
situation that he brings them into. Who is the way of escape
for the church? Christ is the way of escape.
Always the way of escape. If we look at this from a spiritual
standpoint, we're going to have to find out that Jesus Christ
is pictured here doing something far beyond our thoughts or imagination,
because it's spiritual. And we're going to get away from
the idea that this is speaking about the second coming of the
Lord in that manner, that he has to come down here and make
a way of escape for a bunch of people out into the wilderness.
He's already done that for the church. He's made our escape. He is our escape. All right,
let's go on down here. He shall cleave in the midst.
I read there in the New Testament that he is going to tear down
the middle wall of partition. There's been a dividing factor
between the Jews and the Gentiles, and we meet in one in Christ.
The Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the
east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley,
and half the mountain shall remove toward the north and half towards
the south. You know, there's always been
a separation between the elect and non-elect, between Jews,
real Jews, spiritual Jews, and the rest. And Jesus said, what
if God, willing to show his power And he did. And they shall flee
to the valley of the mountains, and to the valley of the mountains
shall reach unto Aziel. Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled
from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And the Lord my God shall come
and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it
shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day
nor night, but it shall come to pass that at evening time
it shall be light. And it shall be in the day that
the living water shall go out from the... I was really struck
here, too. This is not a stagnant pond.
This is living waters. And how often do we find the
Lord talking about that very subject in his gospel ministry? He's a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. If you knew who was talking to
you, you would know that it's he that can give you living water. Well, it wasn't very long. It
was revealed to her where living water really comes from, from
the Lord. And it says, the Lord shall be
king over all the earth. In that day shall there be one
Lord and his name one. That's an interesting title for
the Lord, one. There's no difference between
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and their desire
to accomplish their eternal purpose, and it will be carried out. All
the land shall be turned as a plane from Gibeah to Rimon, south of
Jerusalem, and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place,
from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto
the quarter gate, and from the tower of Hananiel, unto the king's
winepresses. The land shall be turned as a
plain, and men shall dwell in it. You know, we're going to
find another verse of scripture that says that every valley shall
be exalted and every hill shall be made low. Now, when we looked
at that one time, we saw and it's been brought about or brought
to our attention by some of the old writers that said that this
was what needed to be done yearly so that people could get to the
cities of refuge without obstacle. And truly every obstacle has
been removed from the way to Christ. The only obstacle we
face is ourself. And we're so thankful that He
draws us to Him. There is no obstacle in the way.
There's no need for baptism. There's no need for works. There's
no need for anything else. It is only by the grace of God
that we're drawn to Him. And then it tells us here, the
men shall dwell in it and there shall be no more utter destruction,
but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be
the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that
have fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall consume away
while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume
away in their holes and their tongue shall consume away in
their mouth. What judgment shall be upon all enemies of the church. He is speaking about everything
shall be judged. And if we look at their feet,
their eyes, their body, it covers every aspect of natural man that
are against God shall be judged. And it shall come to pass in
that day that a great tollment from the Lord shall be among
them, and they shall lay hold every one of the hand of his
neighbor, and the hand shall rise up against the hand of his
neighbor. 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, and so shall be the
plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, of the ass, and
all the beasts that shall be in these tents as this plague."
What about all of those animals that we read of? They're all
unclean beasts. They're a statement about don't
put these, don't mix these with grace. It come to pass that everyone
that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
shall even go up from year to year, what? To worship the King,
the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And
it shall be that who shall will not come up of all the families
of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of
hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. Judgment shall fall,
bow, or doom. This shall be the punishment
of Egypt and the punishment of the nations that come not up
to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day, there shall be upon
the bells of the horses. Look what the translators did
for us in that verse of scripture. Capital, capital, capital, capital. Holiness unto the Lord. House
shall be like bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem
and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all
they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and see them.
Now notice this last part. And in that day there shall be
no more Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. no more
unbelievers, no more false teachers, no more false preachers, no lies
being told on God, it shall be done away. There shall be no
more of the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. And
that shall be, as we read in the book of Revelation, there
shall be no whole list of people that will not enter in. Now,
such are some of us. God said that, the Lord said
that, Paul was used to write that, such are some of us, that
whole terrible list. But those who are never given
grace and those who are never born again, they shall suffer
the judgment of that very thing. All right, we're gonna spend
some time here in this book looking at chapter 14, and it may take
us some time. There is so much in this chapter.
We have so much said about our Lord. We have so much said about
judgment. We have so much said about the
church. We have so much said about God consummating the whole
world and having it finished up and done away with. We will
stand before the Lord in great grace, worshiping the true and
the living God. Now turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17, we have
these words that the Lord gave to his disciples. Matthew chapter
17, verse 10. Matthew 17 and verse 10, and
we want to read down through verse 13 of this chapter. And his disciples ask him saying,
why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? The scribes knew the verse. The
disciples want to know what it means. Where do we go? Where did the disciples go? They
went to the one who authored the words. And it says here,
Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall come
first. Now, what did we read over in
the book of Malachi? That great and dreadful day. It's gonna
be a great day, a dreadful day. The cross means so much to some,
and it means nothing to the rest. It says here, and Elias shall,
truly shall first come and restore all things. Now, you know, I
looked through a glass darkly on that verse of scripture, because
I have some things I'd like to know about that verse, but he
said he restored all things. The prophets were unto John,
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Moses speaks about him
there. Well, the prophets were unto
John. Now look at this, but I say it to you that Elias is come
already. Jesus speaking to his inquiring
disciples, the scribes have brought this verse of scripture up They
can't give us the answer. Why? Because they're not spiritually
understanding. But they brought it up. Tell
me the answer to this. Tell us. And I send you that
Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but they have done
unto him whatsoever they listed. Now we're going to find out,
as in everything, They did what they listed or wanted to do with
John, but it was all according to purpose. The Lord's purpose
is in here. John was ushered into the kingdom
of heaven, the very presence of God as a result of that. Sometimes
it looks like the way of escape that the Lord gives his disciples
is that very thing. Taken out of this life, put in
the presence of the Lord, All right, now let's read the rest
of this. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John
the Baptist. And when they were come into
the multitude there came a man, a certain man, kneeling to him
and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son. Well, we're going
to stop there. The point I want to make here is that there's
much been said about John the Baptist, even in the days, or
excuse me, Elias, even in the days of the Lord. And Jesus Christ
cleared that mystery up. He said, Elias has already come
and the disciples understood that the forerunner was John
the Baptist and he would restore all things. Well, we follow the
ministry of John the Baptist and he was preaching the gospel.
Well, Zachariah is going to be doing the same thing as that
coming of that great and terrible day of the Lord, Elias, John
the Baptist came and he preached the gospel of the kingdom of
Jesus Christ. Grace, grace, grace, the same
thing that has always been preached. There are a number of times that
that subject is brought out here in the Bible about John being
the forerunner. Isaiah spoke about it. So as
we look here at the book of Zechariah chapter 14, we're going to find
out that it is not different at all. It may have hard sayings,
but it is, as we read over there, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is interesting to me that
in this book of Zechariah, in this last chapter, there are
seven times that it says, in that day. Now, we have some idea
of what that day is. That day is the day of the Lord.
That's the day the Lord has been active. I look back, I shared
today in an email to a lady about being raised in religion, Having
a preacher call me to preach, pastoring in a false church,
hearing the gospel and saying, I hate that man. And then realizing
God did me the greatest favor in the world to let me hear something
that has been hidden to most. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of John, chapter 12. John, chapter 12. And I pray
that this is our prayer as we go through this 14th chapter
of the book of Zechariah. John, chapter 12, verse 20. And there were certain Greeks
among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came,
therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Greeks, certain
Greeks. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew,
and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them
saying, the hour is come that the son of man should be glorified. Now, I thought that was an interesting
comment that the Lord brings up here when people ask to see
him. Well, I hope we can see in this
book of Zechariah chapter 14, the hour has come that the son
of man might be glorified. And also, if you'll turn with
me to John chapter 5, the same thing that we read here in John
chapter 5 is brought up with the book of Zechariah by way
of introduction, John chapter 5 and verse 46. Jesus is speaking
to some Pharisees, some religious people. And he tells them here
in verse 45 and verse 46. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, had
you believed Zechariah, Had you believed Malachi, had you believed
Numbers, had you believed Moses, you would have believed me. Why?
For he wrote of me. Had you believed Zechariah, you
would have believed me. So when we go through the 14th
chapter of the book of Zechariah, I want us to be reminded Since
we believe Zechariah, we're gonna believe what the Lord has to
say. And then it goes, tells us in verse 47, but if you believe
not his writings, how should you believe my words? Well, as
we go through this last chapter of the book of Zechariah, let's
keep in mind, Zechariah wrote of Christ. The message that we
find here is the message of Christ. And the people of God, the elect,
are going to be given great glory, and judgment shall fall on the
rest. What if God, willing to show
his power, made some vessels for destruction? And that's what
he's gonna bring out in here. But on the converse of that,
since you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, you shall be with me and even the horses shall have holiness
unto the Lord written on them. Everything will have holiness
unto the Lord, even a horse. We're going to stop there tonight. We're thankful for you joining
us. by Zoom. We hope you'll join us as we
study the rest of this chapter and go on to something else eventually.