We ask you tonight to turn with
us in your Bibles to the book of Zechariah. The book of Zechariah,
and we're going to be in chapter 11 of the book of Zechariah tonight. We're going to be reading verses
12 through 17. Much of this is prophetic, but
it is not end times prophetic. eschatology prophetic. It's not
eschatological prophetic, but it is prophecy. It's foretelling
what is going to happen. Now most of what is happening
here that is shared with us by Zechariah has been prophesied
in the past. But here we have a summation
of that prophetic statement and it tells us the shepherd that
has been watching over national Israel in the Old Testament The
shepherd has been watching over the church in the Old Testament
is brought to a forefront and now he requests What would you
pay me for all my shepherd work in the past? What would you pay
me Israel for taking you for 40 years to the wilderness? What
would you pay me for taking you into the promised land? What
would you pay me for taking care of you in the promised land and
then to the church? I? We have that and we have nothing
to pay. We have nothing that we can barter
with. So let's read this beginning
in Zechariah chapter 11. And I'd like to start reading
here with verse 12. We looked at verse 12 and 13
the last time we met, but here's a prophetic statement brought
to us in the New Testament with regard to Judas. Judas sold the
Lord Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Now it's brought out here, it
says, And I said unto them, What ye think good, give me my price,
or my wages. Pay me my wages. Now, we have
someone that has served so graciously for so long, And now he's asking
those that he has watched over and guided and guarded and put
up with their nonsense, what is my wages? So they weighed
for my price, $3 zillion. No, they weighed out the price
of this shepherd, this good shepherd, this great shepherd, this chief
shepherd, they weighed out 30 pieces of silver. Now, if we
go to the Old Testament a little further, we'd find out that if
you had an ox and your ox gored, killed a servant, then you're
responsible to pay the owner of that servant 30 pieces of
silver. All right, now let's go to the
next verse here. And the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the
potter a goodly price that I was prized out of them. And I took
the 30 pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house
of the Lord. Now we remember the account in
the New Testament that Judas, he contrived with the priests
about how much will you give me to identify him. It says a
lot about the Lord Jesus Christ when he didn't want to be identified,
he was not identified. And the same is true today. He
only reveals himself to the church. He only reveals himself to the
elect and the rest are blinded. That's what the scriptures say.
So we have him and Judas. had been a member of his group
for these three and a half years. He was chosen by the Lord, and
yet the Lord distinctly shares with us that Judas was chosen
for one purpose. In fact, the Lord shares with
us it would have been better that he had never been born,
but he was born according to the purpose of God. He worked
with him. He was with them, and I'm convinced
that he preached, and nobody else could tell the difference.
Maybe he didn't have the impetus or didn't have the feeling in
it, but he still went through the formality, and nobody came
back with him when they went out two by two, or the 70 went
out two by two and came back and says, Lord, I think there's
something weird about this guy. Well, it's very difficult for
a natural man, for even saved people, to do that. In fact,
the Lord told his own disciples in that parable. He said, it's
not your business to root out It's my business. Just let him
grow. Let him grow. So he was given
30 pieces of silver. He betrayed the Lord by kissing
him. Now, when he was identified,
and he asked, who do you seek? He responded, I am. And they were all in the dust.
He was not taken. He went with. He went with. No man took him. He was sovereign
king. He was in control of everything
that was going to happen. All right, well, let's go back
over here now. And we find in verse 14, and we'd like to read
the rest of the chapter here. In verse 14, he is going to take
that second staff that he had, second point of agreement that
he had. He's already shared with us earlier in this chapter that
one of those staffs is gonna be broken. And he identified
that as the staff that he had with Israel, national Israel.
And Craig brought that lesson last week about national Israel
and spiritual Israel and the difference and the way that the
Lord treated them differently. One, they could do nothing to
erase their position with him, and the others couldn't do anything
right. Well, it says here, then I cut asunder my other staff,
even bands, that I might break the brotherhood, now notice this,
between Judah and Israel. I might break the relationship
between Judah and Israel. Now we find out that truly Israel
was taken off and assimilated by many countries and Judah went
off sometime later and was put into Babylonian captivity. Now
they were there 70 years. There was one reason and one
reason alone. that they were not assimilated
in the rest of the world. God protected Judah for one reason. The line of our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, came through Judah. And we're going to have them
protected. Now the rest, it didn't matter. But to Judah, it was
of great importance. So he protected that line. And
we find out there were times that, just as in the New Testament,
when the Lord was born, how Herod attempted, in every way he could
possibly do, to do away with the Christ child, just in his
infancy. And he had baby boys killed by
the hundreds, great wailing in Rameth, it tells us, as it was
prophesied. Well, here we say, we find out,
I'm going to break that brotherhood between. Part of it happened,
part of it's going to happen. The Lord said unto me, not eschatological,
but in the future times from this point. The Lord said unto
me, take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For lo,
I will raise up a shepherd in the land which shall not visit
those that be cut off. Neither shall seek the young
one, nor heal that is broken, nor feed that standeth still. But he shall eat the flesh of
the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idle shepherd
that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm,
and upon his right eye, and his arm shall be clean dried up,
and his right eye shall utterly be darkened. Now remember that
this passage of scripture was written in verse originally.
We have a poem in its original form. Doesn't necessarily rhyme
even in the original, but it was written with pictorial language. It was written in language that
could be interpreted, but it was not literal language. As
we find many places in the scriptures, the Lord is called a door, but
we don't look for a real door. He's called water, but we're
not looking for real water. And he's called the bread, but
we're not looking for a loaf of bread. He is those things from a pictorial,
from a spiritual standpoint. Well, we find here that we really
see, again, Israel's display, their natural enmity toward the
king's shepherd and sell him for a slave price. Now, turn
with me, if you would, over to the book of John, chapter 19.
I want to show you this, that on the day of his crucifixion,
when it comes to this point, This is the chief priests, and
the chief priests were the most responsible people in Israel
for the Word. The chief priests were the most
responsible people in their day for presenting the Word and preserving
the Word. Now there was, I have to step
over here, on the side there were the apostles, on the side
there were the prophets, on the side there were the people who
actually knew something, but these people were given the responsibility
of knowing something, they were highly educated, and yet they
didn't know the key to the scriptures. They did not know Christ. And
it is very telling here, as we read in the book of John chapter
19. In the book of John chapter 19, we find towards the end of
the earthly ministry of the Lord prior to his crucifixion, that
we have the high priest speaking, and they're speaking for Israel.
And in reality, these are the words that are the fulfillment
of what we just read in the book of Zechariah. Here in John chapter
19 and verse 15, John chapter 19 and verse 15, they make this
great confession. They say, but they cried out,
away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto
them, shall I crucify your king? Shall I crucify, will you put
that, shall I crucify your shepherd? Now, Pilate didn't understand
what he was saying. Pilate didn't understand a number
of things what he was saying. He didn't understand why he left
that superscription on the cross. But what he has written, he has
written because God gave those words to be put on that cross.
This is the accusation. As interesting as Mike was teaching
on Sunday about Lazarus, I just never thought about him just
being thrown out there in the Valley of Hinnom. But except
for the preserving act of Almighty God, Jesus would have been put
there too. He was crucified as a common
criminal. He was crucified as just a common
servant, if you please, because that is exactly what his wages
were extracted as 30 pieces of silver. But we notice here that
the chief priests, those who represented the temple, those
who represented all the sacrifices, Those who represented even the
Day of Atonement, the sprinkling of blood in the Holy of Holies,
all of the services that went on around the temple. We find
them say these words, and it is very indicative of their enmity
against Almighty God. For they say, the chief priests
answered, we have no king. Look at the next two words. We
have no king but Caesar. Now whether they believe that
or not, that's what came out of their mouth. And they understood
that they could not perform capital punishment upon this Jewish man
without permission from Rome. So that's why they're bringing
it to him. And he says, we have no king,
we have no shepherd, we have nobody except Caesar. Now that's a telling statement
about these very intelligent, well-learned, studious people
that have studied the Old Testament and Saul of Tarsus could have
fit right in there with them. And he later says that the stuff
that they held to was nothing but dung. That's what he agreed
about himself. All that was nothing more than
that. So we have no king but Caesar. And we also find out from an
Old Testament standpoint that even Jacob understood that there
was going to be a time when Judah even was going to be cut off.
There would be no longer any need for the tribe of Judah.
We don't worship the tribe of Judah, we worship Christ. We
worship the one that came through, the promised seed, the one that
came from Adam down to Mary and Joseph. We worship him, the Lord
Jesus. So would you turn with me to
the Old Testament again in the book of Genesis chapter 48. In
the book of Genesis chapter 48, Jacob was given the ability by
the Holy Spirit to look at each one of his sons and be able to
say, this is what this son will be like. To us, it's uncanny. To God,
it is just normal. This is what he could do to every
one of us, but he sees not fit to do that. Here in the book
of Genesis chapter 49, we find that Jacob is close to the end
of his life. Genesis chapter 49, and through
this chapter, he has assembled his 12 sons. Now, Joseph gets
a double portion. His two sons are represented
here. It's kind of interesting that the Lord paid him double
for spending all that time down there preparing for the people.
But in Genesis chapter 49, verse 8, notice here, now this has
to do with Judah. Now, I don't understand all this
has to say about Judah, but I know this. It has something to say
about Christ. Jesus Christ is the lion of the
tribe of Judah. A great deal of time is spent
in the book of Hebrews sharing with us that Judah had nothing
to do with the priesthood, but a change of the law required
a change of the priesthood. And Jesus is a priest after the
order of Melchizedek, not after the order of Aaron. He did not
have that Aaronic priesthood. He had the order of Melchizedek,
who had neither beginning of days or end of life. That's our
Savior. He had neither father or mother.
That's our Savior. Now from a human standpoint,
he had his mother. His father was in heaven. His
mother was Mary. But here it tells us Judas, excuse
me, Judah, Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand
shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children
shall bow down before thee. What a prophetic statement that
Judah had as his father Jacob gives this information to him.
Judah is a lion's wealth. From the prey, my son, thou art
gone up. He stooped down. He couched as
a lion and as an old lion who shall rouse him up. The scepter,
now notice this. The scepter, the king's scepter.
Now they don't even have a king yet. There's a king that's always
been on his throne. He has never not ruled. That's
part of the real issue about prophetic prophecy today is he's
waiting to rule. What a slap in the face of him
who's been ruling from eternity. He rules, he rules, and he rules. All right, it says here, the
scepter, the king's scepter, the king's symbol, the signet,
however you want to describe this that identifies him as king,
his royal crown, whatever, the scepter shall not depart. Now that's a key word in there.
There's going to be a departure here. There's going to be a departure
Judah is going to lose his responsibility. Judah is going to lose his position.
Judah is also going to come to the end as a tribe that is going
to provide what God has ordained with here, because he's going
to come. So we're talking about, it's a prophetic statement, but
it's going to be fulfilled when Jesus is born in Bethlehem, all
right? A scepter shall not depart from
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until... Now when this until happens,
it's going to depart from Judah. It's going to be in the other
king's hands. Now, we find David was in this
line, we find Solomon was in this line, we find many kings
in this line, and some of them were good, and some of them were
horrible. You know, the genealogy of the
Lord Jesus Christ is part of what he had to endure. Can you
imagine people coming up to him and says, your great-great-grandmother
was a harlot down there in Jericho. And your great-great-grandmother
committed adultery with David. That kind of harsh, and it was
reality. The Lord could not deny it, and
He did not deny it. That's part of Him coming to
this world. He says here, the scepter shall
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between His feet until Shiloh
come. And to Him shall the gathering
of the people be. So when Shiloh comes, when the
Lord comes, this word is only found in this one particular
place. Shiloh come. peace until him who has peace
comes. Then the scepter is passed on.
It's no longer needed. We don't need any kings after
that. We don't need any priests after that. We don't need any
temple after that. We don't need anything after
that except the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that's
the only thing that has truly been required in every age is
the gospel. It wasn't a temple. It wasn't
an ark of a covenant. It wasn't a table of showbread.
It was not a candlestick. It was not a brazen altar or
a brazen where they kept water, labor.
It wasn't that stuff. It was all pointing to Christ.
So the scepter shall not depart, shall not be removed, shall not
come to an end until Shiloh come. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ
was born in Bethlehem, here we have him. who was spoken of by
Jacob so many years before. We have this patriarch who is
spoken of as the Lord speaks about his covenant of grace.
He says, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. This man knew something about
God that most people of his age did not know. Just as in the
days of Abraham, he knew something about God. He knew something
about God's forgiveness. He knew something about God's
salvation. He knew something about the new birth that very
few people in his age had any inkling about. He's called out
of Ur of the Chaldees. And thank God he does that for
every one of his children. He brings us out of our idolatry
and sets us down on a solid rock. So we have the Lord has come. The Judah is dispensed with. We no longer need it. And we
find that those high priests on that day of the crucifixion
said, we don't have any king but Caesar. They identified themselves
as being not in line with the gospel. They identified themselves
as just being natural men, natural women that were enmity against
God. So we have this. All right, would
you turn with me to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 21? The book
of Ezekiel, chapter 21. This again is brought up here
in the book of Ezekiel. As the Lord speaks and shares,
there's a time coming when Shalom will come. There's a time coming
when one more worthy will come, that is more worthy will come.
There's when the Messiah comes. All of these things will be summed
up in one person. All the Old Testament prophecies
will be summed up in one person. All of the types and shadows
will be summed up in one person. We have Him, the last King in
the line, the Lord Jesus, who has ever reigned. ever reigned. Alright, Ezekiel chapter 21 and
verse 24. Ezekiel chapter 21 and verse
24. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered in
that your transgressions are discovered so that in all your
doings your sins do appear because I say that ye are come to remembrance
yea shall be taken with the hand and thou profane wicked prince
of israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end thus
saith the lord god remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same. Exalt
him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn,
overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until he come
whose right it is, and I will give it him. I will overturn, overturn, overturn. He gets involved in the history
of mankind at every turn. And he is going to overturn.
We have, as Ezekiel is writing, he's writing during a sad period
of time. You know, we shouldn't even expect
anything different. They were people just like we
are. Before God saved us. Without help and without hope
and without God in the world. They're just like us. They were
national Israel, they had nothing. God had a covenant with them,
you do what I say, I'll give you the land. They didn't do
what he said, they don't have the land. All right, I wanna
share with you that the best, best oversight that I've ever
had over any people on this earth, without a heart to know it, they
didn't know me. They got water from me. They
got quail from me. They got shoes that didn't wear out. They
got clothes that didn't wear out. They made it 40 years. And yet, they did not have a
heart to believe. And so he says, I'm going to
take off your scepter. I'm going to take off your reign.
I'm going to take you off as one that is in authority. And
what does it say right there? Verse 27, until he come whose
right it is, and I'll give it to him." Now, he's always had
the right. He gave up a season, gave up
for a season the glory that he had with the father before the
world began. He gave up for a season. But even at that, he was the
king. Who else could bring a fish with
gold in its mouth to pay the taxes? Who else could walk on
water? Who else could take and feed
5,000? Who else could take water and
turn it into wine? The Creator did those things. The creator of heaven and earth
did those things. One with all power and all authority
did those things. And you know what? He's his people's
savior. He's declaring unto us what a
great savior we have. We have someone that has been
promised in every age. Ezekiel brings out there's someone
more worthy coming along. Can you imagine trusting in that
king who just led us into Babylonian captivity? What they trusted
in was God said, you'll be there 70 years, and then you're going
back. That's why Jeremiah came along. That's why he said, Cyrus,
who is going to do this? The Lord is doing all of this.
And so he says there, I will overturn, overturn, overturn
it, and it shall be, I'll make, no, I'll take this away. I'll
turn it upside down. I'll be like kids. playing with
blocks and someone else comes in and just turns it upside down.
I'll overturn it, I'll overturn it, I'll overturn it until someone
worthy comes along and he gave it to him. He's had it all along,
he gave it to him again, he had all power and all authority given
unto him in heaven and in earth. Now in this same book of Ezekiel,
would you back up just five chapters to chapter 16? Ezekiel chapter
16. In Ezekiel chapter 16, we have
Ezekiel talking to this national Israel and sharing with them
their pedigree. Now it was very, it was a very
harsh statement that he made to them and he was very unpopular
for bringing it because every one of them would say, I traced
my line back to Abraham. I traced my line back to Noah.
I trace my line back to Adam. But this is what this prophet
was decreed to share with Israel about their pedigree. In the
book of Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 3. Now to the church, we'd
say, you're right on that. You're right. I'm a nobody. I don't have a good pedigree.
I just don't have a good pedigree. You're right. I'm a sinner. Well,
verse 1 of chapter 16, again the word of the Lord came to
me saying, son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, this is direct words
from God. Tell them this message. Now that's
what we do with the gospel. And it is so unpopular. If we
added just a little bit of works, it becomes a lot more popular.
But the gospel is not our gospel. It is God's gospel. And I don't
think I'll ever forget the raspberry until you put it to the trumpet.
That's all we are. Just air for the trumpet. And
the trumpet is the gospel. We're just preaching the gospel,
and if we don't have that, we have nothing. Well, he says here,
son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, verse
three, and say, thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy
birth and thy nativity. Oh man, Abraham, Abraham, he's
gonna talk to us about her family. There's no skeletons in our family.
He goes on to say, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. No, that can't be. And then he goes on to say, thy
father was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite. Now that's
the voice through the trumpet. You're totally depraved. That's
how we put it today. Sometimes we have to make it
plain like this. Your mother and your father were just not
good people. Alright, an Amorite. My father
was an Amorite and my mother was a Hittite. Now you study
Amorites and Hittites and you find out it's not a positive
statement he's made to them. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast
thou washed in water to supple thee, and thou wast not salted
at all, nor swaddled at all." And what a statement he makes
here about Israel. Now we can understand if he said
that about the Hittites, or the Amorites, or the Americans. But Israel? Well, Turn back to the book that we're
studying on Sunday morning. The book of Numbers. We'll get
to this point sometime. But in the book of Numbers, we
have this statement made. Book of Numbers chapter 14. Now
in chapter 14, the children of Israel listen to ten spies. Instead of listening to those
who know the truth, and the truth would set him free. It's wonderful to know that our
Sabbath is Christ. It's not keeping the day. It's
wonderful to know that our sanctification is Christ. It's not up to us
to do good or bad, or not go here, not go there, or go here
and go there, not do that, not do this, do this and do that.
We don't have to keep up with that stuff. Now, never does the
Lord ever lead us into contrary things from His Word. But we're
not counting that stuff, it's already sanctified. Our holiness
is not dependent upon us. He is our holiness. He is our
sanctification. He is our resurrection. He is everything. Now here in
the book of Numbers, the children of Israel, and God knew exactly. You know, I hear that God purposed
exactly. It wasn't that He just had knowledge
of it. He purposed it. Now He's going to do some sifting
with this purpose. He's going to do some great sifting
with this purpose. Here in the book of Numbers,
chapter 14, verse 28. I'm not going to read this whole
chapter. We will get to it, read it. But it says here, in verse
28, saying to them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord. Now
that is an interesting statement. As truly as I live. Takes me right over to Peter's
confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. So as truly as I live, saith
the Lord, as ye have spoken in my ears, will I do to you? Your carcasses shall fall in
this wilderness And all that were numbered of you, according
to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land
concerning which I swear to make you dwell, therein save Caleb
the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little
ones, which ye said, should be a prey, the ones that would be
destroyed if we go in. should be a prey. Them will I bring in, and they
shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you,
your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness, and your
children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear
your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.
After the number of the days which ye search the land, even
forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities,
even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise." It's
interesting here, he already credits them for two years. How
gracious. And I, the Lord, have said, I
will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered
together against me in this wilderness. They shall be consumed, and they
shall die. And the men which Moses sent
to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation
to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land. That's truly their heart. It
was a slander. upon God's description of the
land. Even those men that did bring
up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the
Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
And Moses told these things unto all the children of Israel, and
the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the
morning, and got them into the top of the mountain, saying,
Lo, we be here, we will go up unto the place which the Lord
hath promised, for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore not
do ye trespass the commandment of the Lord ye, but it shall
not prosper. One more verse. Go not up, for
the Lord is not among you. that ye may be smitten before
your enemies." What a statement God makes here. As we read in
the book of Zechariah chapter 11, the final, there's no shepherd
can do what my shepherd can do. There's no king that can do,
and you gave him 30 pieces of silver for all that he did. How we are by nature, we don't
recognize quality. We don't recognize value. We
don't recognize blood. We don't recognize sacrifice.
We don't recognize anything. We can't even recognize our own
sin. But by the grace of God, by the grace of God, by the grace
of God, we have Him who was appointed, the Good Shepherd, the King of
Glory, the One that was promised, there in the book of Zechariah.
He is the Good Shepherd, He is the Great Shepherd, and He is
the Chief Shepherd, and He is the Shepherd and Bishop of our
souls. We have Him, there is nothing
to fear. We'll stop there for tonight.