We're going to be in the book
of Zechariah chapter 12 tonight. Zechariah chapter 12. And last
week we looked at verse 1 a little bit because this chapter has
to do with the blessings to the church. the protection of the
church, how God protects the church. And it's used in symbolic
language found over here in the book of Zechariah. And we know
that it's the church that he's speaking about because we're
going to read about, they looked upon him whom they pierced. There's only one group that understands
what all of that meant, and that is the church. Piercing the Lord
Jesus Christ by putting him on the cross. So we're going to
start here in chapter 12 in verse 1. And once again, we notice
here by what authority the one that watches over the church,
the one that protects the church, the one that oversees the church,
by what authority can he do this? And it's mentioned in three different
manners in this first verse. Number one. It tells us the burden
of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth
forth the heavens. This one stretched out the heavens. This one created the heavens.
And so if we had nothing else, by that great authority, he created
the heavens. But he goes on to tell us in
that same verse, two more grand statements about the one that
is able to protect the church. the one that's able to create
the church, the one that is able to protect the church, the one
that will be able to present the church spotless, that is
this one. The next criteria that he shares
with us about himself, that stretches forth the heavens and layeth
the foundation of the earth. So again, he demonstrates here
that he has absolute power over the creation of heaven and earth. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And he demonstrates that here.
He has the power to do that. Now, if that's not enough, he
goes on to the spiritual realm in the next qualification that
he gives us about being able to protect the church because
he's the one that has formed the spirit of man within him. He's the creator of spiritual
life. He's the one that gives us spiritual
life. We cannot self-create. We cannot
create a tooth. We cannot create a heaven. We
cannot create an earth. We can't do any of that stuff,
and nor can we create spiritual life. It is of God. Just as heavens and earth are
of God, so is the spirit that's within a man. So the Lord does
this in the new birth, and then we have cognizance about what
he did. the word of God becomes plain to us. We begin to understand
how his creatability is also for our spiritual welfare. We
are a new creation or creature in Christ Jesus. So he's the
creator. Now, we get down to verses 2
through 10. We find some statements made
about how the Lord and what the Lord does in protecting the church.
Now in this passage of scripture, the symbolism is of Jerusalem
and Judah. Oftentimes we find in the Old
Testament, that is speaking of the church, this was originally
written in a verse, and it was poetic language, and poetic language
has symbolism in it. And so as we read down through
here, we're not going to find that very much of this is actually
fulfilled literally, but it is fulfilled spiritually. The blessings
of God are spiritual, and the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit, because they are spiritually discerned.
And that's why we have problems with people who think they know
something and have never been born again, and they start writing
about it like this, and before you know it, we go off on a left
field because they don't understand what they're writing about. Well,
I don't understand all of this, but I know it's about Christ
and about the Church. And if we keep that center, we'll
have a greater understanding about the Word of God. Behold,
and I'm just going to go down through here very quickly. And
then we're going to come back and look at it more in depth
because there are eight times, I believe, in this that are similar
to what we find in Ezekiel chapter 36. In Ezekiel chapter 36, it
reveals to us the I will of God. I will, I will, I will, I will. And we're not even a participant
in it. We're only a recipient of it.
And here the same thing is true. Now we notice in verse 2 it says
there, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling. Now Jerusalem
is not involved in that. We can't be involved in that.
But he, I will make Jerusalem. And that is a cup of intoxicating. It's an intoxicating drink. Well,
Jerusalem didn't actually become an intoxicating drink. But to
many people, the church is, there's not going to be any way that
I cannot overcome this church or overcome the doctrine of the
church. I'll overthrow that. And it's just, it's like an intoxicant
to them. Well, as we drop down through
here, and we'll come back and look at that second and third
verse a little more. In verse three, in that day I will make
Jerusalem a burdensome stone. And in verse four, in that day,
saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment,
and I will open my eyes unto the house of Judah, and will
smite every horse of the people with blindness. And we find in
verse six, in that day I will make the governors of Judah like
a hearth of fire. And in verse seven we find this,
and the Lord also shall save the tents of Judah, first that
the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. I will save the tents of Judah. There's something
about God taking care of his church here. I will do this. And it's in his hands. He's the
one that that came, I don't know how to put it, he came up with
the covenant of grace. We're not involved in that. We're
far from created when that took place. It was an eternity past,
an old eternity that God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit in covenant mercy agreed that they would save a
people before they were even created. He even gave them their
names. He put their names in the Lamb's
Book of Life. It was before the foundation
of the world that all of this took place. So he has a great
deal of interest in not only producing the church, but protecting
the church and presenting the church spotless in that day. And we also find here, it says
in verse eight, in that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. No greater defense does the church
have than the Lord of glory. the Holy Spirit of promise and
God the Father that he will defend. He is our defense. We just cannot
defend ourselves. We have no power, no capabilities. We have nothing, but we have
this great defense. He says, I will defend the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And the church is so thankful
that we have this great God as our defense. And then in verse
nine, it says there, and it shall come to pass in that day that
I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Well, we can turn over to Matthew chapter 25 and see all the nations,
all the peoples that are on the left-hand side that came to destroy
Jerusalem. And then in the 10th verse, it
tells us here, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication. I will do this. So his grace
and his supplication towards the church is so pronounced here. And we find that he has done
all of this. I will do this. I will do this.
And you notice as we go down through there, that we had no
part of it. We're recipients. We're just
recipients of it. I heard a man tonight say, you
know, if we were promised $1,000 and the person who promised came
and delivered $1,000,000. Well, that's just kind of what
we find out here. We have so much more than we
ever thought possible in Christ the Lord. Well, let's go back
up here to verse 2 if you would up to verse 2. In verse 2. It says, Behold, I will make
Jerusalem a cup of trembling. unto all the people round about
when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against
Jerusalem." Another translation put this verse thusly, I will
make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes nearby nations
stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and
Judah. I will make them as an intoxicating
drink. Natural man does not understand
the power of God. And when we read down through
here, we see statement after statement about God's great power
on behalf of the church. Everything that takes place is
for his glory and for the glory of the church. Every bit of creation,
everything that takes place, he is for his glory and for the
glory of the church. And so we have here that this
passage denotes that God is going to inflict punishment excuse
me, denotes that the punishment inflicted by the Lord upon the
enemies of the church. Natural man does not understand
the power of God, never has, never will. That's why we have
people teaching and preaching, you must believe and then God
will do it. Well, that's not the God of the
Bible. The God of the Bible says, I will do it, because he knows
how dead we are. We don't comprehend it. I don't
think in our lifetime we ever will comprehend it. But we do
come to this conclusion. Without his resurrecting power,
we'd be dead in the dust. As we look at this, we have here
the words of our Lord to Saul of Tarsus. You remember what
he said to Saul of Tarsus there in Acts chapter 9? Saul said,
who are you? He says, I'm Jesus whom thou
persecutest. Now who's he persecuting? Well,
he's persecuting the church. And Jesus said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest. That's how close the Lord of
glory is with his people. When they're persecuted, he's
persecuted. And so he brings us to Saul's
attention. Turn with me over to that book
of Acts, if you would. Acts chapter 9, verse 4 and 5. Acts chapter 9, verse 4 and 5.
And we find that people throughout history have come up against
the church, thinking they can eradicate the church. They put
the church down. It was happening during the times
of the apostles. It was happening during the ages
between Malachi and Matthew. It was happening before then,
through the times of Ezekiel, through Daniel, through Isaiah,
through Jeremiah. There were people that would
be raised up with the idea that they could put God's people aside
in the days of Esther. It was the purpose of that rascal. to destroy all the Jews and even
in that great turmoil, God raised up someone he knew was gonna
raise up to protect the church. Well, here in the book of Acts
chapter nine, Acts chapter nine, verse four, it says, and he fell
on his earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is
hard for thee to kick against the bricks. Now, we've come to
an understanding here that when the Holy Spirit is working effectually
in someone, the Holy Spirit will win the battle. When it's a general
call, the Holy Spirit seems to be resistant. I resisted the
Holy Spirit. I went home and told my wife,
I hate that man. I didn't want to hear any more
of that. But you know, the effectual work of the Holy Spirit is all-powerful.
We're talking about the God that created the heavens and the earth.
We're talking about the God that laid the foundations of this
earth. We're talking about the God that creates the spiritual
part of man. This God, He works both to will
and to do his good pleasure, and he works in us both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. All right, going on here, if
we back up to chapter seven here in the book of Acts, we find
Acts chapter seven, remember that whole passage of scripture
is dedicated to Stephen and his words in response to the people. Now drop down there to verse
58 if you would. Verse 58. They took Stephen, now they came
up against him, but they couldn't defeat him. They killed him,
but they couldn't defeat him. He couldn't be destroyed. He
had a created spirit. God gave him his spirit. God
gave him the new the Holy Spirit and that was not going to be
destroyed even though they destroyed the body but notice here in verse
58 it says and cast him out of the city and stoned him and the
witnesses laid their clothes at a young man's feet whose name
was Saul now Saul thought he was doing God a good service
Saul thought he was eradicating the problem And if we go to the
next chapter, if you join me in the next chapter, chapter
eight, there in verses one it says, and Saul was consenting
unto his death, and at that time there was great persecution against
the church, which was at Jerusalem. You know, Saul thought he was
doing God a service, thought he was taking care of the problem.
These are usurpers, they came in. And they were destroying,
quote unquote, the Judaism and the law keeping and all of that
stuff. And he was going to take care
of it. And you know, God had him at the right place at the
right time to hear that account of Jewish history. by Stephen
and he even consented to the death and they killed him and
then we find him breathing out threatenings and slaughter over
here in the book of Acts chapter 8 Saul was consenting unto the
death and at that time there was great persecution against
the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles
and in verse 3 and Saul As for Saul, he made havoc of the church,
entering into every house and hailing men and women and committed
them to prison. This is that Saul that consented
to the death of Stephen. We notice what he's doing here.
And yet, He is brought to his knees by the same God that appointed
him to be there and witness the death of our brother Stephen.
He's there by divine appointment. He is doing this and yet in chapter
9 God stops him, arrests him, gives him the new birth, he recognizes
him as Lord, and this man never ever took a thought of going
back to that which he was in, that religion. He never once
entertained the idea of ever going back under the law, or
going back under circumcision, or going back under anything.
In fact, when it came to baptism, he says, I thank God that I baptized
none of you. And then he says, well, there's
two or three. that I baptize, but that's not the intent. The
intent is the preaching of the gospel. So as we looked over
there in Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 2, we find that Jerusalem
shall be like an intoxicant. It's an invitation to attack.
An intoxicating drink, and from every side we see that take place,
but the deliverer of the church, God Almighty, is protecting it
because he has promised to deliver the church to his presence without
spot or blemish. This illustration gives us a
great deal of comfort that even as the church is persecuted,
God is working out his business just like he determined to work
out his business and will save his people from their sins. All
that have ever been saved started their lives as enemies of God
and enemies of grace. We're born that way. Everybody
that has ever been born has been an enemy of God and an enemy
of grace. We're friends with works, enemies
of God, enemies of grace. Yet it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. In chapter five of the
book of Acts, would you join me there? Chapter five of the
book of Acts. As we think about everybody that has ever been
born, they're all enemies. And the church has always been
Right there, taking the abuse of the entire world. Taking the
abuse of the entire world. Not a religion will agree with
the church. Nothing will agree with the church
of free grace in Christ Jesus. Sovereign grace. Here in the
book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, the scriptures share
this. But God commandeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter 5 and
verse 8. This is God's word about our
position. Even while we were yet sinners,
he went to the cross and died in our place. We find that the
Lord will make the enemies of the church to look on the church
in such easy pickings. That's so interesting to find
out that the Lord has allowed the world to look at the church
as easy pickings. And yet in that, the very thought
of that, He overcomes all by His own power. The problem, they
will crumble. The world says this about the
church. been at the very verge of crumbling, how many years?
Since the very beginning. In the book of 2 Kings chapter
16, we have an incident here, 2 Kings chapter 16, there was
a friend of the prophet that was just wringing his hands over
a problem. We have the enemy at the gate.
We have a prophet, we have his friend, his servant, And we have
the armies surrounding this town where the prophet is in Acts
16, excuse me, 2 Kings chapter 16. 2 Kings chapter 16 and verse
15. And King Ahaz commanded Uriah
the priest saying, upon the great altar burn the
morning. I'm in the wrong place. This passage that I intended
to write down had the prophet's servant go
out and look and see all the armies of the enemy in the hills
around there. And the prophet prayed, Lord,
I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. Well, I'll have to put that in
next time. Let's go back to Zechariah. Sometimes it's very humbling
to be reminded you're human. You read it and put it down wrong. Alright, in Zechariah chapter
12 again, Zechariah chapter 12. Zechariah chapter 12 and verse
3. And in that day will I make Jerusalem
a burdensome stone. In another translation that is
translated an immovable stone. A stone that cannot be dug up.
A stone that cannot be moved over. A stone that is right where
it belongs. And from a spiritual standpoint,
we find out that the church is a stone that is immovable. When it comes to God, the church
believes in an immovable God. He cannot be moved from his position. He cannot be moved from his grace. He cannot be moved from his mercy.
He cannot be moved from his word. It's an immovable stone that
the church is upon. That day, this immovable stone,
and all the nations will gather against it. Notice that in that
verse of scripture? It says, in that day will I make Jerusalem
a burdensome or immovable stone for all the people, all that
burden themselves when it shall be cut in pieces though all the
people of the earth be gathered against it." Every religion has
come up against the church in some form or other through the
ages and said, let's compromise, let's have And religions have
said, I'll take part of yours and you take part of mine, and
it's happened all over the world. But the Church of the Living
God has been an immovable rock, always declaring that it is grace
and grace alone, it is Christ and Christ alone, and it's by
His faith and His faith alone, and been immovable on that. Not
given in, not submitted, not given up. Somewhere on this earth,
somewhere in all ages, there have been people that have come
to this and said, God is great and he is not going to be moved
on this subject. If you remember over in the book
of Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18, it says, upon this rock,
I will build my church. upon this rock. And I kind of
look at the Lord pointing to himself upon this rock. He's
not talking about Peter. He's talking about himself. Upon
this rock I'll build my church. Well, he is a rock. He's a stationary
rock. He's a rock of a fence. He is
a rock that stands still. He doesn't give and give in. And in the Psalms, if you look
over there in Psalms, this is one of my favorite Psalms in
Psalm 40. Has such meaning here about him delivering us from
this world and in this verse of scripture this passage of
scripture it is a horrible pit Now that's where we find ourselves.
We look down after we're saved brought out of it. That is a
horrible pit that religion I was in is a horrible pit there was
no hope or help in that religion here in Psalm 40 verses 1 2 &
3 and To the chief musician, the psalm of David, I waited
patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my
cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon an
immovable rock. It is not going to be pushed
around. This rock is Christ. Set my feet upon a rock and establish
my goings, and hath put a new song in my mouth, and even praise
him to our God. Many shall see it in fear and
shall trust in the Lord. So this rock that is immovable,
Jerusalem is like an immovable rock. It's immovable because
it's foundation upon Christ. The church will not be pushed
away. It will not be pushed around. It will not be pushed out of
existence. It will be here until the last sheep is saved. And
then it will meet at the throne of God. In Psalm 27, Psalm 27,
would you look at this verse with me? Psalm 27, look at this
rock, the immovable rock. It's interesting, when we looked
there in the building of the temple, they took some absolutely
gigantic stones, But they took those stones and placed them
on a rock. Gigantic stones that were the
foundations of that temple. But that foundation stone was
sitting upon Christ, upon the rock. The church sits upon Christ. Our only strength is in Him. Psalm 27, and there in verse
5, For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock,
an immovable rock. And there will be time and time
again assaults against this rock. People that cave never were on
the rock. People that are on the rock will
never cave. It is security there. And this
rock is Christ. And in Psalm 61, turn there with
me. Psalm 61. Psalm 61. And there in verse 2, Psalm 61
and verse 2, it says, From the end of the earth will I cry unto
thee, when my heart is overwhelmed Lead me to the rock that is higher
than I. Now, from a human standpoint,
we're nothing. So this rock is higher than us. We'll always look at it that
way. He's not equal with us, and he's not lower than us. He
is above us. He is higher than us. And in
1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul reflected upon that rock we're
about to run into in the book of Numbers. That rock which flowed,
the water flowed out of it. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4. We have a rock mentioned here.
1 Corinthians 10, verse 4. And did all drink the same spiritual
drink. Everyone that was saved in the
Old Testament drank from the same spiritual drink. There's
a lot of people drank from that water and saw nothing. But there
were some people, the elect of God, who drank of Christ and
it was spiritual water for them. They didn't all drink of the
same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Christ
was in the Old Testament. Christ is in the New Testament.
Christ is between the Testaments. And so we have a rock that is
immovable. And so the message that goes
forth from the rock, it has never changed. The message of the gospel
has never changed. This rock is immovable. The gospel,
the message doesn't change. The Christ doesn't change. Salvation
has never changed. The Savior has never changed.
It's an immovable rock. It's stationary. It's put there
for purpose. God established the purpose of
God in the gospel, and that's where it's going to stay. It
has never changed through all the ages. People have changed
it, but the gospel has continued unfettered, unmaligned, through
all ages, and God uses it to bring it to people, His elect,
and they will hear the gospel, and God will give them the new
birth. I can see in my mind's eye in
that verse of scripture over there in the book of Zechariah,
chapter 12 and verse 3, that hosts of people surround this
rock and say, we're going to change you. We want you to change
for us. The rock, this rock, and I'm
reminded of a message that I heard from our pulpit one time, Brother
Rupert preached the message, their rock is not our rock, from
the book of Deuteronomy. The rock of religion is not the
rock of Christ. It is not the rock that we have.
The rock, they want change, the religion to change it, it's against
it, it's against it, in every generation, yet the rock has
been immovable. People have moved, but the rock
is immovable. Now turn with me, if you would,
over to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy, if you would. 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy
chapter 2. Verse 13. Well, we say, I haven't done
a very good job. My life is a wreck. I just haven't
been... I'm so thankful for this verse.
If we believe not... Now, he's talking to the church
here. He's not talking to lost people. In the church, sometimes
we say, how can that be? How can He take us through this?
How can He put us through this? And yet, the Lord said, if we
believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He abides faithful. Delivering
the church is His responsibility. Let me put it that way. Delivering
the church before the throne of grace is His responsibility. It's not my responsibility. Now,
I want to serve Him. I want to love Him. But when
I'm in falling, he said, though you believe not at this moment,
yet I'm faithful. I abide. He cannot deny himself. What did he say about himself?
I'll present the church spotless. What did he say? I'll lose none.
What did he say? I'll die for my sheep. What did
he say? I'll lay down my life from the foundation of the world
for them. And so it goes. Here we are unfaithful servants.
And yet he said, I am faithful. This is the immovable rock. I am immovable. I will not be
shuttered away from any of my people. Sometimes they don't
act like it, but I'll not lose them. I'll not lose any of them.
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself.
And that word means to contradict himself. He cannot disavow himself. He cannot refuse himself. His
word standeth sure. So going back to the book of
Zechariah there in chapter 12 again, we find that the Lord
has taken great care to share with us that it is he that is
the one that is protecting the church. Here's his credentials. I've laid out the heavens, I've
laid out the foundations of the world, and I have created the
spirit that is within a man. No man can replicate this. Nobody. And don't even think about trying.
It cannot be done. God alone. And then we find there
in chapter 12, as a result of that, in verse 2, he said, behold,
I'll make Jerusalem a cup of trembling. Unto all the people
round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against
Judah and against Jerusalem, I'll take care of them. They'll
say we can overthrow them. I feel bad that I didn't have
that verse written down correctly, but that young man could not
see. And the prophet prayed and said,
Lord, open his eyes. And when his eyes were open,
he saw that they were for The prophet were much more than those
that were for the enemy. And that's by faith he was able
to see that. We find here in verse 3, in that
day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome, a stone, a stumbling stone. For all people, all that burden
themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people
of the earth be gathered together against it. There's not a nation,
tribe, people, kindred, or tongue that's not in opposition against
God and against grace, and they will all come up against the
church. And yet, as we found with Saul
of Tarsus, one of the greatest opponents of grace, and the greatest
opponents of God. God stopped him on the road to
Damascus, just like he stops every one of his elect, he arrests
them, he causes them to come to a dead stop, if you please,
reveals Christ unto them, and then they say, Lord, what will
you have me to do? So I'll be with Jerusalem, I'll
be with Jerusalem and Judah, and in verse four, in that day,
saith the Lord, I'll summite. Every horse with astonishment.
You know, that's the thing that we're going to find out as we
look at that. You're just stopping a moment, but a horse is often
used to illustrate what people depend upon. Don't depend on
horses. Don't depend on Egypt. Depend
on Christ. I'll smite all of the things
that people depend on with blindness. It'll mean nothing. And that's
what we find over there in the book of 1 Thessalonians. He says,
you've turned to God for dumb animals. I smoked those. So how blessed it is that he
has all the power to do all the things that he said he would
do, and is rider with madness, and I'll open mine eyes upon
the house of Judah. What a blessing to have God looking
upon the house of Judah, upon the church, and will smite every
horse of the people with blindness. I'll take care of every enemy
of the church. We certainly saw this at the
cross. We see that every day when people
come up against the church. And then those that come up,
the Lord saves, they become a radical. representative of the grace of
God and shun everything that they ever held dear in their
life. And as Paul the Apostle put it,
it's nothing more than refuse. It's nothing more than done.
Well, Lord willing, we'll pick this up next week here in verse
three and four, and we'll look at some more of the ways that
the God of heaven protects the church and takes care of it till
the very end. Not to leave us stranded, but
to be with us till the very end. Well, until next time, may God
bless you.