Would you join me tonight in
the book of Zechariah chapter 11? Zechariah chapter 11. The gospel according to Zechariah. On Sundays we've announced the
gospel according to Numbers. And one of the blessings of studying
the Old Testament is we find Christ. He was the one that was
preached by the apostles. He's the one that He preached
when He was on the earth. He preached himself, he preached
the Lord Jesus, he preached the Messiah. And we find in this
chapter a discussion, a comparison between good shepherds and wicked
shepherds. And the good shepherd and his
care for the sheep. The good shepherd feeds his flock
and he calls under shepherds to feed the sheep, the lambs
and the sheep, and they are called to feed the flock the good shepherd. That's what we feed. We feed
the flock the good shepherd. And this is what we're going
to find here in this chapter is a comparison of going back
and forth between what the good shepherd is and what he is to
the flock and what his under shepherds are and what they are
to the flock and his discussion about those shepherds that don't
take care of business, they don't take care of preaching Christ,
and the judgment against those. So here in the 11th chapter of
the book of Zechariah, I would like to read tonight the first
eight verses. And we'll stop there. Open thy
doors, O Lebanon. that the fire may devour thy
cedars. Howl, fir tree, for the cedar
is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled. Howl. O ye oaks
of Bation, for the forest of the vintages come down. There
is a voice of howling of the shepherds, for their glory is
spoiled. A voice of roaring of young lions,
for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. Thus saith the Lord my God. feed the flock of the slaughter,
whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty. And
they that sell them say, blessed be the Lord, for I am rich. And
their own shepherds pity them not. For I will no more pity
the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord. But lo, I will
deliver the men, everyone, into his neighbor's hand, and into
the hand of the king, and they shall smite the land, and out
of the land I will not deliver them. And I will feed the flock
of the slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto
me two staves, the one I call beauty, and the other I call
bands, and I fed the flock. Three shepherds also I cut off
in one month, and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred
me. So there was good reason that
the Lord abhorred them. All right, let's look here. I'd
like to say a few more words about verse four here. Thus saith
the Lord my God, feed the flock of the slaughter. Now we can
look at this as the Lord was truly crucified for us. And yet we're gonna find that
many of the saints in Old Testament and New Testament times were
truly, their lives were taken from them. Now, nobody that knows
the gospel would ever say they were prematurely taken from them. But from the outside looking
in, we find out that those who stood for the gospel according
to Jesus Christ often met with opposition, and many of them
were slain. It could happen today. We're thankful that we can live
in a place where we have the freedom to assemble and we don't
have somebody at the door and we don't have somebody knocking
at the door telling us we can't do that. But if that should arise,
I will have to make a decision. Will I continue or will I? I pray that I will have the grace
to say I will continue even from jail. or worse. That's what we
pray. Alright. In the book of Isaiah
chapter 6 we find that the Lord called a shepherd. Isaiah chapter
6. The Lord called a shepherd. His
name was Isaiah. And in Isaiah chapter 6, now
the beginning of this chapter is just so wonderful. In the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. That's a wonderful
statement when we can say the Lord gave me grace and I got
to see him. I got to see him. And here in
the book of Isaiah chapter 6, it's recorded about Isaiah. But
notice with me beginning with verse 9. Isaiah chapter 6 verse
9. And he said, now this is the
Lord. Now remember what we read in the New Testament about pray
ye the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into
the harvest. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of
the harvest will send laborers into the harvest. That is a qualifying
statement by the Lord about who is going to be called to go into
the harvest. It's not our call, it's His call. And woe to those
who listen to a local call. Because, anyway. In verse 9 it
says, And He said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see indeed,
but perceive not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant. Now, this can be to that generation,
it can be to the next generation, it can be our generation, and
it can be to the next generation. How long do we do this? Well,
we do it until the Lord removes us or he comes back. That's how long we're going to
do it. That's what his call is. Then said I, Lord, how long?
Good question, but the answer is right there. And he answered,
until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without
man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed
men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. So the Lord shares with Isaiah, I have called you. And
who will go for me? Well, if Isaiah had not been
there to hear that, he would have not been called. He was
put into position to hear that. Who will go for us? And how long
will I do it? And it was to be all his life. So, that is a shepherd that God
called. Now, the book of Isaiah is pinned
by this shepherd. The book of Isaiah is pinned
by Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is pinned
by a holy man of God who spoke as he was moved by the Holy Spirit.
Now, he is a human being and he has human frailties, but God
had put him into a position by the call of grace. Isaiah would
have been just like everyone else if it hadn't been for that
special call. That general call is not enough. It must be that very specific
call to the individual. The Lord does not flopshoot.
The Lord goes after his very own lost sheep. Now we go, we
do the general call. I appreciated that mention on
Sunday, the general call. That is our responsibility and
that's as far as it goes. It is our responsibility to preach
the gospel. It is our responsibility to support
the gospel. It's our responsibility to uphold
the gospel. But beyond that, we have no inner
hope. We can't get there from here.
So, Isaiah was one of those shepherds. And he was a shepherd to this
flock of people, and the Lord already told him what kind of
people he was going to preach to. Now, it appears that throughout
this writing, that there were a few that heard what Isaiah
had to say and only because the Lord opened their eyes and ears
and their understanding because he said generally you're going
to find out that their ears are going to be stopped and their
mouths will not speak glorifying things of the Lord and on it
goes. Well let's look at another place
here in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 1 it mentions
another shepherd that is called and this Old Testament shepherds
were just like the New Testament shepherds They had a message
to give and the Lord called him I'm thankful for reading about
Matthew who was a collector of taxes Follow me And he followed him I find no
record in the scriptures that anybody that God ever called
that did not come. When He called him. Now some
people, well look at Jonah, he ran. Well, the Lord didn't leave
him alone, did He? He was right there. He had every
step for Him. He had every step for Him marked
out. Alright, here in the book of
Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 4. Then the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly, I
knew thee. Now that's the Lord speaking
about this shepherd that he's going to call when he is at an
age that he could be called. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee. You know, we are thankful
to find out that the Lord had an interest in the church before
the foundation of the world. And truly, he sanctified them
and set them apart and marked them out. And wherever they go,
it seems that we're going to hide ourselves in all humanity.
But the Lord is gracious to have us marked out. The gospel is
going to reach us, the Holy Spirit is going to reach us, and we'll
be plucked out of the circumstances that we're in. Amen. Discussion. that I've had a couple of times
is, are there people in all of this other stuff that are saved?
Well, the Lord finds us in that other stuff. That's where we
are by nature. We're generally in some kind
of religious group, or we say to ourselves, I'm an agnostic,
or I'm an atheist, which is really just another form of religion.
And the Lord finds us there, and he said, I have called you
out. Over there in the book of Revelation,
he said, out of every kindred people and tongue. Now he may
leave us in the language and he may leave us in the culture,
but he will not leave us in the religion that we're in. He will
bring us out. And there may only be two or
three that can be gathered together. But the Lord said, two or three
gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst
of them. So we're thankful for that. I'm thankful. that there's
probably more people in the world that are worshiping the true
and the living God than we think there is. I'm just thankful. I just pray that there are people
in some of the oddest places that they don't know about us
and we don't know about them. Now I had the privilege of visiting
with Brother Lance. yesterday and today, no, day
before yesterday and yesterday. And I said, how's the work going
down there since he's in Houston? He says, Norm, you cannot believe
what the Lord is doing in New Guinea. Pastors are being called
out, churches are being, just going on as it's supposed to
if they know the gospel. And he said, I don't know how
long we will be going back down there. But it's nice to hear
that the work is continuing. And in many respects, there's
been a flock of people that have been saved down there. And we
just thank the Lord for one or two. It's just a blessing to
hear that in that place where it's just kind of off the edge,
the Lord is working the work of grace. And Lance said that
he just feels part of his purpose right now is to write some materials
for those folks that when he cannot go back, just to encourage
them and, you know, anyway. So remember that work down there.
All right, it goes on here with the book of Jeremiah chapter
one. He says in verse six, then said I, ah, Lord God, Behold,
I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say
not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Now, to have
faith as a child is a good thing. And we're going to find out here
that the Lord is speaking to one of his children. And he says,
this is what you're going to do. I'll be with you. Be not
afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith
the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand
and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, behold,
I have put my words in thy mouth. I just, I read that and said,
hallelujah. Just, I have put my... Now this is a shepherd.
This guy is going to be greatly mistreated in his ministry. He
is going to be slapped around. He is going to be mistreated
and maltreated. And not fed properly and all
the other things that can go with it. But he had the Lord's
words in his mouth. Now that's truly the shepherd
that God gave to his people. A person who had the words of
the Lord in his mouth. Alright, I'll move just a little
further over in the book of Amos. Amos brings out some good points
here. The book of Amos, chapter 7. A good shepherd. Now there's
going to be multitudes of evil shepherds, wicked shepherds.
How many were prophets of Baal? gathered there and Here's one
man with all these prophets of Baal The Lord had 7,000 who had never
bowed the knee to Baal I'm convinced that if they were his he had
put his word in their mouth, too They had a ministry they
had someone that he intended to speak to here in the book
of Amos chapter 7 verse 14 and Amos chapter 7 verse 14, Then
he answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither
was I a prophet's son, but I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore
fruit. That was his call. That was his
job. And then he goes on to say, And
the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said
unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore,
hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest prophesy not against
Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord, thy wife shall be at Harlot in the city,
and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and
thy land shall be divided by line, and thou shalt die in a
polluted land and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth
of his land." Now, those are tough words to be stuffed in
a man's, a prophet's mouth to say to a people. He put his words in his mouth
and that's all he could do was leave that message. The whole
book of Amos, the whole book of Jeremiah, the whole book of
Isaiah is an example of God's word to Israel. And some of it
is, you shall be punished by the Lord. And some of it is to
his people, I will call you out of this place and that place,
you will know me, I've known you, and on we go. Now in the
book of Amos, chapter three, verse 12, is a verse, a scripture
that has just been such a blessing to me over the years. I ran into
it one time. We brought a message from it
here. It's just one I go back to because the shepherd, the
good shepherd, here in the book of Amos chapter 3 and verse 12,
it says, Thus saith the Lord as the shepherd taketh out of
the mouth of the lion two legs and a piece of an ear. Now, the
Lord saves his people but from On His side, we are not much. We don't have much bragging rights. It's not by our righteousness
that He called us. The illustration here is just
a piece, and nobody wants it. But the
Lord chose it. before the foundation of the
world as a shepherd, as a shepherd. And that's what a shepherd does.
Now David, he was a shepherd and he slew the lion and he slew
the bear to protect his father's sheep. And I'm thankful that
the Lord does that for us. In verse 5, going over to Zechariah
chapter 11 and verse 5, we have those comments made there. Chapter
11, verse 5 of the book of Zechariah. It tells us here, whose possessors
slay them. That word possessor means similar
to a person who owns the flock. I have bought this flock only
to fleece them. That's the attitude that they
have. I am here in this position just to fleece the flock. I'm
going to abuse them. I'm going to use them. And whose
possessors goes on to slay them and hold themselves not guilty. In all ages, the religious leaders
have led in a wayward path. You know, I was just thinking
about the two in the very beginning that brought an offering, a sacrifice,
Cain and Abel. I never find the Lord dealing
with Cain after that event. He had a mark on him, he sent
off, and the Lord never intercepted him again. His own child, Abel,
is mentioned in the New Testament in very positive terms. By faith, Abel offered a more
excellent sacrifice. And then the blood of Christ
has greater value than the blood of Abel. It has redemptive value
to it. And so, Abel is spoken of very,
very dearly, and Cain is mentioned not in any positive sense, even
there at the Garden of Eden. And we notice that here, they
continue to teach the commandments of men. That's what Cain did. He taught his own command. I'm
okay, I can bring this. And he brought that to his children
and his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren, that line
of thought. And we find it throughout the
Old Testament among those shepherds who had no care for the flock.
They were interested in teaching Worshipping by teaching the doctrines
the commandments of men turn with me in the book of Matthew
chapter 15 And keep your finger here in the book of Zechariah,
but turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 15 and verse
19 They continue to come teach the commandments of men and that's
just where we are It has been always that way there has been
those that have faithfully been touched by the word of the Lord
and That word is what goes out There are those that have never
been touched, and so they're going to bring something else.
They're going to do what we find here in the book of Matthew,
chapter 15, and verse 19, and verse 9, excuse me. Matthew,
chapter 15, verse 9. The scriptures share this. But in vain they do worship me. Teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Now let's go up here for just
a moment and find out who he's talking to. It says in verse
three, but he answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress
the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded,
saying, honor thy father and thy mother, and he that curses
father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, whosoever
shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift. by whatsoever
thou mightest be profited by me. And honor not his father
or his mother, he shall be free. Thus saith ye, thus have ye made
the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye
hypocrites, well did Isaiah the prophesy of you, saying, This
people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and dishonoreth
and honoreth me with their lips. But their heart is far from me,
but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. And what is that? Everything
outside of this. Human philosophy, human thoughts
about religion. My God would not do that. And absolutely, you're right.
Your God would not do that, but my God would. So we find that
brought out in the scriptures that these that are called shepherds
in the book of Zechariah, they're evil shepherds, they're wicked
shepherds, just like Israel dealt with so often. And down through
the ages, we've had these that taught for the word of God, the
commandments and traditions of men. In the book of Titus, would
you turn there with me? The book of Titus. The Apostle
Paul shared much about this very subject that we find over in
the book of Zechariah. In the book of Titus, as he was
giving instruction, now it was interesting when Nancy and I
were on Crete that this term came up about the Cretans. They're
slow bellies and liars. You know, they talk about themselves
being recorded in the Bible like that. Well, here in the book
of Titus, the Apostle Paul is writing to this, I'll get there
in a moment. Titus chapter one, verse 10. It says, for there are many unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.
And that's religious people. They were religious people. They
were the Jews, whose mouths must be stopped. Now, the Apostle
Paul left Titus in Crete to preach the gospel. Titus had had his
mouth touched by the word of God, and he left him for that
purpose there. He goes on to say, whose mouths
must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves,
even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are Always liars,
evil beasts, slow bellies. Their witness is true. Wherefore,
rebuke them sharply that they may be found in the faith, not
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that
turn from the truth. Unto the pure, all things are
pure. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving, there's nothing pure. You can't." Well, I was
just looking at a magnet that Nancy gave me. It's on my file
cabinet in there. William Shakespeare said this,
there's small choice among rotten apples. That is a precept that is found
so true in the script. There's just nothing that you
can find among rotten apples that is positive. And here the
Apostle Paul is talking about these, these guys that come in,
and they have great swelling words, but when you get down
to it, they are not preaching Christ as the only hope and salvation. Goes on to say, they profess
that they know God, but by their works they deny him. What does
that mean? Well, you have to add something
to this. There's some self-righteousness
that must come into this, and that's abominable. Our only hope
is Christ's blood and righteousness. There's nothing else that we
can go on. And disobedient unto every good work reprobate. This
is Paul speaking to Titus. about what was going on there
on Crete, but what was going on on Crete, this would not have
been in the Bible if it was not intended for us to take record
of it today, the book of Titus. And in the book of 1 Corinthians,
back up if you would to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians
chapter 14. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14,
we have Paul again, used of the Holy Spirit to write to the Corinthians,
Chapter 14, verse 37, it says, if any man think himself to be
a prophet or spiritual, if any man think himself to be
a prophet, what is it? Called. God called. Anybody think
he's God called or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
You know, if somebody thinks that they're a prophet or spiritual
and disagree with the Apostle Paul's teachings, they are not
a prophet and they are not spiritual. Paul says if they don't agree,
where did Paul get this? Paul, by nature, was not preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul, by nature, was preaching
circumcision. Paul, by nature, was preaching
Judaism. But when the Lord saved him and
called him and put his hand upon him and put his words in his
mouth, he said, if you are a preacher, if you're a prophet, if you think
you're spiritual and you're saying anything contrary to what I've
already taught, then you're not. You're not a prophet. You're
not a good shepherd. You're not a under-shepherd.
You are in it for a lie. And that's serious business.
And you know what we find the Apostle Paul wrote? Romans, 1st
and 2nd Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians, and all
of that talks about God's great sovereignty, and God's great
salvation, and God's great gift of salvation, and what He does
to people, and how He makes them new, and all of this stuff, and
God does that, and Paul was preaching that, and he said, if they don't
agree with this, they will not agree with God, because He's
the one that gave it to me. And then over here in the book
of 2nd Peter, in 2nd Peter, Second Peter chapter 2. Second
Peter chapter 2. Second Peter chapter 2, verse
1. But there were false prophets. Now, a false prophet is the same
as a false shepherd. Old Testament description, New
Testament description, they fall into the same. But there were
false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of." You believe in grace? Yeah, I don't like you. Evil
spoken of. It's just common. You know, it
shouldn't even upset us. Because that's just a common
reaction to grace. I still cannot understand why
I told Nancy I hated that man. Why didn't I keep that in my
head? You know, because we can think
things and never bring it out and nobody knows the difference.
that man was preaching, there was no works in it. Works were
excluded and Christ was preached and that made me mad. Well, it
goes on here, sir, and through covetousness shall they be with
vain words make merchandise of you. What does that mean? Last night I was listening to
someone on YouTube, a country western singer, and it happened
to be on a show And it swung around, and I said, Nancy, do
you suppose we need one of these? And it was one of those boards
that you find in churches. I said it facetiously. Offering
today, offering last Sunday, attendance today, attendance
last Sunday, and building fund. And it was right there in that
gal was singing a song. And I thought, wow, that just
took me back a ways. Making merchandise. It isn't
valuable that there were 89 people there. It's valuable how much
was the offering, making merchandise. That is, among the religions
of the world today, it is just that. I cannot tell you how many
people have been astonished when I said, come to church, we don't
even take an offering. Well, how can you do it then?
Well, we just trust the Lord in it. Don't take an offering? Most churches, that's the most diligent part of the service.
And if there's not enough, we'll send the plate around again.
Well, making merchandise of you. This is a description of those
prophets in the Old Testament that did not have the words of
the Lord. They were in it for themselves,
and it just carried over through the 400 years that the Holy Spirit
didn't give a message to any prophet that we have record of.
And when Zacharias was here on this earth, and he got word that
he and his wife were going to have John, and then Mary. Heard
that the Messiah was coming, and we pick up the New Testament
times? We have the same thing. Jesus Christ dealt with the Sadducees,
the Pharisees, and the lawyers all over this very same issue.
The Apostle Paul wrote many words to churches about this very same
issue, and what is it? Lion shepherds that care not
for the flock, but care for their own bellies, their own And it
goes on to tell us here many things. Verse 3, it just said this, and through
covetousness, so they have fiend words make merchandise of you
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not. Mike and Yvonne spent a long
time up in Alaska, and I was up there one time, and he mentioned
this about that missionary that was up there that visited every
home in Alaska. Now, Alaska is two and a half
times the size of Texas. Not near as many people, so you
have a lot farther to walk, because you can't get there from here.
And what did he do? He wrote home. so that he would
have more offering given to him because he is visiting every
home-made merchandise of the people. And our responsibility
is to preach Christ. Preach Christ and Him crucified. Preach the blood of Christ. Preach
the mercy of Christ. Preach Christ and Him crucified. It tells us in verse 10, but
chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness
and despise government. Now, I looked that up and I thought,
well, they're despising Washington, D.C., or they're despising, that's
not what it's talking about. They're despising authority,
the authority of the Lord. What did we find over there in
the book of, I have it here, Luke chapter 19. We'll not have
this man rule over us, or reign over us, what's over there. They
despise authority. They despise that God would save
a people. They despise that he had a people
chosen before the foundation of the world. They despise that
he's in charge. They despise that he's a sovereign God choosing
his people, electing his people. That's despising authority. That's
despising governments. Someone that rules in such a
capacity that he knows all his people before the foundation
of the world, and the Lord Jesus Christ died for all the people,
And the Holy Spirit is after and finding and bringing the
gospel to all the people. That's despising governments.
That's a serious crime against God. That you despise Him that
reigns. The church has worshipped a reigning
king. And they delight in the fact
that He is reigning, that He reigns over us. He reigns over
us. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the reigning King. I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. His train filled the temple. How glorious is that? And so,
this is what we have, these folks, they denied the gospel, they
denied the Lord, they denied His rule, they denied His reign.
And then, so often, as we found over there, I'm rich. Finances
enter into it, and then the Lord told those folks, you know, if
you weren't finding widows to betray and
take their property away from them, and
then have great long prayer that you didn't do anything wrong,
you wouldn't be rich. And that's financially rich.
They devour widows' houses for a show, make long prayers. In the book of Revelation, you
should be there in 2 Peter, but in the book of Revelation, those
who say they're rich. Now, there has become very prominent,
but it's not in just today. It was in the generation past,
it was in the ten generations past, that if you have money,
the Lord is blessing you. And that's just been common among
the world. Just common. If you're rich,
the Lord's blessing you. Well, no believer will ever tell
the Lord that he's rich. Now we may have a good place,
a good home, we have good food, but this riches that we're talking
about so often is spiritual riches and we don't have any of our
own. Notice this passage of scripture in the book of Revelation chapter
three, excuse me, verse 14. and unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans." Now that angel there is messenger, he's
writing to the pastor. We have a problem, pastor. These things said the amen, the
so be it. The one who is the rainer, the
one who is raining. Faithful and true witness in
beginning of the creation of God. He's the architect of everything.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would
that thou were cold or hot, But then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because
thou sayest, I am rich. and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to
buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thy eyes with eye
salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
What a statement. I say, I'm rich. The Lord says,
you're poor. The church says, I agree. We
agree with the Lord. Our riches. Not long ago, the
subject of rewards came up. It was on the Zoom. The subject
of rewards. And someone just brought out
that wonderful passage of the book of Genesis. The Lord is
my exceeding great reward. That's what the Lord told Abraham.
I am the exceeding great reward. Nothing compares to that. We're
not trying to serve the Lord so we'll have a better position
in heaven. Everybody is their equal. Same
ground. Everybody that is saved by the
grace of God has been given the same faith. Everything is equal. Same words, same faith, same
spirit, same soul. The shepherd that came out, the
Lord said, I will feed my flock. And I'm thankful that he fed
his flock in the Old Testament through his prophets. He gave
them the words to speak, and they spoke it. Now they were
maltreated by people, but they were honored by the Lord. The
Lord said there in verse 6 of Zechariah chapter 11, I'll no
more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord. And
then in verse 7, I will feed the flock. I will comfort with
two staves, beauty and bands. Now we're going to look at that
next week. Our time is up, but I want to say this. Turn with
me to the book of Psalms. Psalm 23. Most shepherds that
we find in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament
only had one staff. We find the Lord has two staffs.
And he's got a name for them. And here in the 23rd Psalm, we
have this wonderful passage of scripture of great encouragement
to the church ever since this was penned. It's been an encouragement
to the church This 23rd Psalm, well a 22nd and a 21st too, and
a 24th, but there in the 23rd Psalm in verse 4 it says, Yea,
though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, and do you
know what? We're doing that every day. Yea,
though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me, now notice here, thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. So the Lord has a rod and a staff
and over here in the book of Zechariah it gives us the name
of them and we'll look into that Lord willing next time. So next week we'll be back in the
book of Zechariah chapter 11 and looking at those names.