Zechariah chapter 2. We're going to look at, in particular,
verse 13. Zechariah is led by the Holy
Spirit. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. As Zechariah is led by the Holy
Spirit, he comes to a conclusion of some thoughts here with regard
to chapters 1 and 2. We remember that the original
was not in chapter form and it was not divided by verses. That
has been there and I am thankful for it because it's so much easier
than going through a scroll trying to figure out where we're gonna
be. So I'm thankful for that happening. But sometimes the
thought is not at the end of the chapter. Here, we're gonna
turn our thoughts in chapter three to a high priest by the
name of Joshua. At the close of this chapter,
we have some concluding thoughts. God said, Be silent, O all flesh,
before the Lord, for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
Now it's kind of interesting if we just read up to verse 10
of this chapter. It says, sing and rejoice, O
daughter of Zion. Lo, I come, and I will dwell
in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. The Lord dwelling in Zion
gives great reason for us to sing, and the church sings great
praises to the Lord. But in this passage of scripture,
we find that The doubters and the detractors, as many as they
are, who believe not the word of God are called on by God,
be quiet. Be silent. What has God shared
so far in this wonderful book of the gospel according to Zachariah?
And I would just like to pick out a few things in chapter one
and chapter two that the Lord has given us great comfort in
as we read them. And he shares with us that he
is not asleep. It tells us there. in the latter
part of verse 13, for he raised up out of his holy habitation.
To many, God is slumbering. And we're gonna look at that
a little bit. He's asleep, he's in a far country. And that passage
of scripture over in the book of 1 Kings, when Elijah made
those comments about the priests of Baal, he was bringing up what
they believed. He was not charging them hilariously,
but he brought up exactly what they believed, and that's the
beliefs of religion today. Well, let's back up here. Chapter
1 and verse 4, let's just look at that verse of scripture. Be
ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have
cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts. What a wonderful
thing it is that God would speak to a people and he would speak
as the Lord of hosts. That is the sovereign rulership
of God, that he is powerful enough to say what he means and to accomplish
what he says. He has all rights to do that,
all power, and all authorities given unto him in heaven and
on earth. So thus says the Lord of hosts, turn ye now from your
evil ways, and we're thankful that Turn me and I shall be turned
Without that we'll continue on in the diametrically opposed
direction from God just as the fall puts us but in that turning
God turns us to him and We rejoice that he would do that that he
would care to do that and then in chapter 1 and verse 6 it says
but my words and my statutes which I command shall My servants,
the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they
returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto
us according to our ways, according to our doings, so hath he dealt
with us. But my words and my statutes,
he declared those. He has continuously declared
my words and my statutes. And when we come to the gospel
that was given to Abel in the Garden of Eden, those were words
of command. We are commanded to believe the
gospel. We find out after that work of
grace has happened to us, we couldn't do it on our own. It's
impossible for us and we're thankful that he moved us, that he gave
us that belief and so forth. But the God to be interested
in a fallen being to begin with should make us sing. Just as
he said, Zion will sing. We sing because he has dealt
with sinners. We sing because he gave the word
through his prophets throughout all time. And even in our time,
we find out he calls someone to bring us the truth of the
gospel and how glorious that is that he would be interested
in his sheep enough to send them the good news. In chapter 1 and
verse 10 the scriptures say, And the man that stood among
the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the
Lord has sent to walk to and fro in the earth. And as we looked
at that passage of scripture we found out that the Lord of
hosts by This figure instructs us that he is omniscient, that
he is everywhere in the world at the same time. Now, many people
feel like that there are other beings that are almost like that.
Satan being one of them. That he is almost omniscient,
and he's almost omnipresent, and he's almost omnipotent. Well,
he isn't. He's a created being. He does
not know what you're thinking. He doesn't know where you're
going. But the Lord does, he knows all things, he has all
things, and he works all things after the counsel of his own
will. So these have been going to and from the earth is a picture
that God is omniscient, he's everywhere, he knows what's going
on, and he knows where his children are, his lost children are. If
you've ever misplaced a child, that's a disheartening feeling.
But God has many displaced children, lost children, but he knows where
every one of them are and in every generation he sends the
gospel to them and saves them by his free and sovereign grace
and incorporates them in the blessing of singing praises unto
him in Zion. That's his business, and he does
it so well. He has lost none. None of them
have ever been caught in the fumes of a volcano and died without
them hearing the gospel first. None of them ever went down in
a boat without hearing the gospel first. He has always had his
gospel, he's always had the preaching of the gospel foremost in their
lives, and he brings it at the appropriate time. And then, by
his grace, he gives them the new birth, and now, The volcanic
fumes can take them, and now they can go down in a boat and
drown, because they are now prepared for eternity. That's God's business.
And then in verse 13 of this chapter, it says, and the Lord
answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable
words. How gracious it is to hear the
gospel. Those are good words and comfortable words. I was
talking to a friend of mine today, and he told me about what he
preached last Sunday. And all I could say is, did you comfort
the saints? He looked at me a little strangely.
I'll tell you what, giving people the history of the Christmas
tree is not a comfort to the saints, but the history of the
gospel that comforts God's people. All right. And then in verse
16, it tells us here, And therefore, thus saith the Lord, I am returned
to Jerusalem with mercies. Now, truly, there were people
that left Babylon and got to go back to Jerusalem. And it
appears to me now, as we're going through the book of Ezra, that
a whole bunch of that group that went there first, they were just
charged with building a building with not much knowledge about
it. And those who went the second time, they had some interest
in what God was doing with that building. It's kind of looking
like that to me. But those were called out to
do that too. But he says, I'm returned to Jerusalem. Oh, he
left Jerusalem in a sense when he put Adam and Eve out of the
Garden of Eden. But to call his people into the
church, to into Jerusalem, then he says here, I am returned to
Jerusalem. Hallelujah. We have the presence. We have the presence of God in
every one of his children, and we have the corporate presence
of God when that group of people meet together. We're thankful
for that. Well, moving on to this glorious gospel, we find
in verse 19 that there are four horns that were brought up, and
they are described as those who bring oppression. And that would
be a sad thing. But the very next verse, verse
20 and 21 of this first chapter, It tells us this, and the Lord
showed me four carpenters. And then said, what come these
to do? And he spake, saying, these are
the horns have scattered Judah, so that no man can lift up his
head. But these are come to fray them. There's only one accomplishing
thing that will accomplish what God intended, and that's preaching
the gospel. That's it. And it frays people. It puts
them. They realize that God is almighty
and they are nothing. And his salvation is grand and
glorious. The gospel frees people. It puts us in our, it causes
us to see our rightful place before God. As the, so often
the authors of those hymns, worms. Worms, but save worms. That's a good thing, saved worms. And then moving on to chapter
two, and it says there in verse four, chapter two and verse four,
these are the activities of God, and here the world said he's
off asleep somewhere, because he's not paying enough attention
to Jerusalem. He's not paying enough attention
to Israel. He's not paying enough attention.
It seems like things are moving too slow. Things are just not
happening enough. And here in chapter two and verse
four, And he said unto him, run, speak to this young man, saying,
Jerusalem shall be inhabited. Well, my goodness, to a person
that's been in Babylon for some time, and then to have some spiritual
understanding about the word of God, not only am I going back
to that place, but I've been taken to that place spiritually.
The Lord, say, Jerusalem shall be inhabited, a town without
walls, where the multitude of men and cattle therein. Great
numbers, but no walls. I am a wall of fire about her."
How God has shared with his people the blessings of God and have
people in the world say, oh, he's off in a far country. Look
at this. I heard the other day how mean
God is because he is allowing this to happen. No. How mean
natural man is, and how gracious God is. That's the thing we see
in the scriptures. And then in verse 5 of this chapter
2, it says, and for I, saith the Lord, will be under her a
wall of fire about. No city has ever been protected
like that protection. When God said, I will be her
protection, I will be the wall of fire about her, nothing can
get to his people. Now, we may have the touch of
natural disease, we may have the touch of natural infirmities. We may have the touch of natural
mental problems. All of those things. But nobody
can get to God's people spiritually. They are secured in the blood
of the Lamb. That there's nothing can destroy
the position that God's people have in Christ Jesus. Not even
the people. They cannot destroy that. It
is a wonderful relationship, and it is one-sided. God to us,
it is one-sided. We are weak and feeble creatures.
We are just children of Adam, but God in his great strength
and in his love for his people has a one-sided affair with us,
and that is, I will save them to the uttermost. And we sing
in Zion over that very thing. And then in chapter 2 and verse
10, it says, sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I
come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.
My goodness, I used to be just thrilled to death when my grandmother
and my grandfather used to come and visit with us, have Christmas
dinner or Thanksgiving dinner or Sunday dinner with us. to
have the Lord dwell among us? The God of heaven, the Lord of
glory, the Lord of hosts dwell with his people? How glorious
is that? And that is for now and for eternity. Now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face, it will be a reality that we can't truly
comprehend in this life, but it will be that. This is the
blessed start of it. We have access to the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ and we're called on to come boldly
before his throne of grace and lay out our petitions before
him. And then to find out he has knowledge of what we have
need of before we even ask. And we recognize and see that
he already has the answer on the way before we've even prayed
about it. How could that be? Because he
is God. And then in verse 11 of this,
it says, and many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that
day. Gentiles. Gentiles shall be added. Jews and Gentiles. And in this
body, we find that the Apostle Paul was led to write, there's
not male or female, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, there's an equality
there even though in this life we may be in bondage. but not in Him. We may be a Jew
or a Gentile, but not in Him. We have this glorious representation
by the Son to the Father of every one of His children, and there
is nothing that comes between God and us, nothing. Even in our worst moments, God
still has an outstanding love for His people, and He cares. He was tempted in all ways we're
tempted, yet without sin. He is a faithful high priest. He is one that sits at the right
hand of the Father, making intercession for us. How glorious is that? And it truly gives us, sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come dwell in the midst
of thee, saith the Lord, as we read there in verse 10. So, quietly,
or with a great noise, we find that God always works all things
after the counsel of his own will. Oftentimes through the
Old Testament, we find God acting very quietly, moving mysteriously,
and then we find him breaking loose like a thunderbolt at times,
and yet every act of God is under the counsel of his own will.
And that is great. Be silent, God said to the world
there in that last verse. Be silent, O all flesh. I have my singers over here.
I have my choir over here. I have those singing amazing
grace over here. I have those singing the wonderful
truths of God's word over here. But the rest of you, silence. Be quiet. Because you have nothing
positive to say. God has said, though it may seem
to you that I have been asleep, I'm not. No, it's a wonderful
thing. It was brought up there in the
50th Psalm. Would you look with me to the
50th Psalm? In the 50th Psalm, we heard this
in the Bible class the other day. Well, last Sunday and the
Sunday before it was brought up. 50th Psalm, verses 16 through
21. 50th Psalm, we find this is a
problem that the world has. Now, the church doesn't do this. We don't compare God with men,
because he gives us a view of God that he is the Lord of hosts. He's not a man. He's the God
man. Here in Psalm 50, and there I
want to read verse 16 through 21. But unto the wicked, God saith,
what hast thou to do, to declare my statutes, or thou that shouldest
take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing that thou hatest instruction,
castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then
thou consentest with him, and hadst thou partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil,
and thy tongue framed with deceit. and speaketh against thy brother. Yes, thou sittest and speakest
against thy brother, thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These
things thou hast done, and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that
I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove thee
and set them in order before thine eyes. Thou thoughtest I
was altogether such a one as thyself. I have, as we look here,
that there's, through the grace of God, God has only grace and
mercy and peace and protection for the church. And the world,
and especially religion, the religious world has pictured
God as small and impotent and lacking, and in the need of help. And there's nothing more illustrates
this than the modern day system of giving an invitation. That
just says, God, you need help. And we're here to do that for
you. Well, we find that God is not one such as we are. Would
you turn a little further in the Psalms to Psalm 120? Psalm
121. Here in Psalm 121, we find that
God is active, and He's always active. In fact, He tells us
here in Psalm 121 and verse 4, these wonderful truths about
God. To me, it's amazing that when
I, in my life, that probably close to one-third of my life
is in bed? Sleeping? One third of my life,
that's just, eight hours a day is not bad, but one third of
my life when I get to the end, so if I live to be 60, 40 years
is what I've been awake, and 20 years I've been asleep, and
we just carry that out further, 90 years, 30 years I've been
asleep, Well, look here in Psalm 121 and verse 4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. What a glorious thought that
God, even in our unprotected state of sleep, is overriding
all things. I was listening to a sermon just
this last week, and he was talking about We must love the Lord our God
with our whole heart and whole soul and whole body and whole
mind. And he said, you know, some people might be able to
do that fairly well during the day, but how much control do
we have over it in our dreams? Now he's just making a point.
He knows as well as we do that our thoughts during the day are
not honoring to God. But in those eight hours, we
do a lot of dreaming. And my gosh, I'm not going to
share. We do the stupidest things in
our dreams. The only dreams that I have any
thought of is the dreams recorded in the Bible and the dreams interpreted
in the Bible, and the rest of them I'm gonna leave alone. But
anyway, he neither slumbers nor sleeps. Now over here in the
book of 1 Kings, would you turn there with me, the book of 1
Kings? In the book of 1 Kings chapter 18, we have what is commonly
called a contest. It is not even a contest. It's
a demonstration. Elijah is saying, knowing full well these folks
are not going to be successful. He knew that. He believes the
gospel. He believes God. He knows that
God will answer, but these folks are just going through a pretense.
But notice here in 1 Kings chapter 18 and there in verse 26. 1 Kings
chapter 18 and verse 26. And they took the bullock which
was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of
Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. Now, there's another place in
scriptures, and that's in the New Testament, the book of Acts,
when there was some denaro taken away from very religious people,
and they said, O Diana, O Diana, O Diana, for hours they went
through this, chanting this. Well, that's one of the reasons
the Lord says, our prayer, don't be repetitious. It doesn't get
you anywhere. These folks can't get anywhere
with that and here they are crying for how long, obey, hear us.
But there was no voice nor that answered and they leaped upon
the altar which was made. Some translations say they leaped
around the altar trying to gain attention and some says they
leaped up on top of the altar. It doesn't matter. They're doing
a lot of foolish things. And this is religious people. Just put it there. They're not
oddballs. They're religious people. Here
is a bunch of Jews. These are the children of Abraham,
the Sands of the Sea children of Abraham, and they're jumping
around an altar with a cut up bullock on it, trying to invite
their God to do something. And it came to pass at noon that
Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud for he is a God. Either
he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey or peradventure
he sleepeth and must be awakened. Then they went on in religion,
there's from praying through to doing really foolish things
to yourself. It's interesting to read what
goes on around Easter around the world. The self-punishment
that people put themselves through. But that isn't just at Easter,
it's all the time. People beating their backs, people
doing all kinds of foolish things. And what are they trying to do?
The same thing that these prophets of Baal were trying to do, attract
their God. By this, they hope to attract
their God. Well, Elijah knows you don't
attract God like that. And you don't. And these people
are doing what Elijah said is exactly what they believed. That
God sometimes is on a far journey and he's not paying attention
to us. I brought up the other day about that song. While on
others thou art waiting, do not pass me by. The more I hear that,
the more I get sick. We're not in that boat. We don't
have to attempt to attract God's attention. We've already been
attracted. God has been attracted to our
attention before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus.
He has his attention on us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And it's not any of these things that are going
to catch his attention. It's not praying through. It's
not going forward. It's not going to an altar. It's
none of those things that are gonna attract God to get him
to do something for us. That's what these prophets of
Baal were practicing, and that's what religion practices, and
God said to the world there in Zechariah chapter two and verse
13, you think I'm asleep. You think I'm ineffectual. You
think I'm out of the picture. I'm not. Everything is carried out for
my glory, my praise, and I will not share my glory with anybody. Elijah did not bring up these
things for mockery's sake. He did, but he's just bringing
up what they believed. And they practiced this every
day. They practiced about the need
to attract God. He declares that they believed
that after they were required to do these things to gain attention
of their God, even to the point of self-mutilation. Notice this. The next part, they
cut themselves. Why? To attract their God. I am really serious. And you
read through the history of natural man and find out what religion
has done to get a God attracted to give a good crop. Well, God
doesn't work that way. God commands the world to be
silent. He's spoken his word and it will
not pass away. We find that a number of places
in scripture. Heaven and earth may pass away,
but my word will never pass away. It will always be here. He mentions
that in the book of Luke, but he also mentions that in the
book of Isaiah. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word will never pass away. We're carrying something that
is infinite, eternal. It was the word of God before
the foundation of the world. It will be the word of God after
this world is consumed. We are spoken of many times in
the scripture as a flower or grass. The flower faded, the
grass died, but my word will never pass away. How careful
God is to share with us the knowledge about this great God. He raised
He is raised up out of his habitation. That's the last part of Zechariah
chapter 2 and verse 13. That word raised, we find it
through the scriptures. It's to be roused. God never
was asleep anyway. But from our viewpoint, how wonderful
it was for him to apparently arouse himself and come in our
direction. Now, it wasn't that he had to be aroused. God's never done anything for
me. And then by the grace of God, we hear the gospel and he
does something great. God's never done anything like
that for me. I remember a lady sitting out in our congregation
one time, we mentioned a new birth. She says, that's never
happened to me. And I want to tell her, you're right. But when
it does, then we find out it wasn't on
a fluke. But it was on purpose that God
brought the gospel to us. Well, Zechariah 2, verse 13,
that latter part, it says, for he is raised up out of his holy
habitation. He's been there all the time.
From our standpoint, I can see him now. He has been constantly
vigilant. He has been constantly aware. He's always been. He's been prepared. for the right time. He has an
appointed time to bring the gospel, and when that time comes, it
appears to us, he got aroused up. But, he's always been there. But I would like you to turn
with me back to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32, for just a verse
here. Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse
11, we have the same word. mentioned back here, and it's
something that is illustrated among critters, and then we'll
look at it and we find out this is exactly what God did for a
group of people in preparation for Cyrus to let them go back
to Babylon, and for those people themselves to be interested in
going back to Babylon. But here in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 32 and verse 11, the scripture says this. As an eagle stirreth up her nest. Now that's the same word, stirreth,
as riseth. As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
flutterth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,
beareth them on their wings, so the Lord alone did lead him,
and there was no strange God with him. As an eagle stirs up
her nest. Well, now carry this over, if
you would, to the book of Ezra chapter one. Ezra chapter one. We find here in the book of Ezra
the same word is used here, and it's what God does. There's the
illustration. See that eagle up there in that
nest? She's getting her young ready to fly. She's preparing
them. Here in the book of Ezra, chapter
one, in verse one, it says, now in the first year of Cyrus, king
of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
king of Persia. Cyrus would have had no interest
whatsoever of ever doing anything like this. If God had not worked
on him, he stirred him. He put it in his mind. He brought
it to the attention. You should do this. And he carried
it out. It wasn't that Cyrus said, oh,
that's a bad idea. I don't think I'll do that. God
stirred it to the point that it was even effectual work, and
Cyrus spoke. These people are gonna go back.
Now drop down, if you would, to verse five of that same chapter.
And it says, then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah
and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites. Oh my goodness,
we got some people that are gonna follow God. Let's see what the
reason is. With all them whose spirit God
had raised up. This is the power of God to effectually
raise us up. And he pictures that to the world
when he says, and to us. We don't know any different.
We don't know the activities of God. We may have read them,
but they don't mean anything to us like they do after the
new birth. And then we find out God has
always been active on my behalf. Before the foundation of the
world, he was active on my behalf. And down through time, he was
active on my behalf. Even if nothing more in the sense
of having 25 generations back, someone come to some place so
the rest of the generations could be in the right place so that
I could hear the gospel. How glorious is that? If we finally
left to ourselves, we'd be just like those pagans, dancing around
a cut up calf, cutting ourselves, trying to get God's attention.
We probably did enough of that before, but now we find out that
isn't what God's interested in. God's interested in doing all
his perfect and glorious will in Christ Jesus. One other verse,
the Psalms. Once again, the Psalms. Once
again, if you'd join me in Psalm 7. Psalm 7. Psalm 7 and verse 6. It says, Arise, O Lord, in thine
anger, and lift up thyself against the rage of my enemies, and awake
for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the
congregation of the people come past thee about, For their sakes,
therefore, return thou on high. Notice that in verse six. Arise,
O Lord, in thy anger, and lift up thyself because of the rage
of my enemies. What happened at the cross? God
truly raised up against the enemies of the church and put them to
silence. So this God has always been active,
even to the world and for We find out after we've been saved
that we've never been included in the judgment of the world.
It looks like it is, but we find out that he has an everlasting
love for his people. He has everlasting mercy for
them. He's never had wrath towards them, all of these things. But
we don't know that. But when we find out, we're thankful
to God that he has had that from eternity. And so as Zachariah
writes here, in this passage of scripture that just leads
us up to what he's going to do to a faithful minister of the
gospel, Joshua, by name. He says here, be silent. O all flesh, before the Lord,
for he is raised up out of his holy habitation. We don't need
what the Baalites had. We just need what God's command
is. worship me, pray, serve me, and
I'll take care of the rest that's left over. I'll take care of
it all, every bit of it. So as we get preparation for
chapter three, we're introduced to Joshua, the high priest. And
one of the very blessed things is they're going to strip him
of his filthy garments and put on clean garments. All right.