The book of Zechariah, and we're
going to be in chapter one tonight, Zechariah chapter one. And that
last verse of the song we just sang, Break Thou the Bread of
Life, it says, Show me the truth concealed within thy word, and
in thy book revealed, I see the Lord. What good statements. to begin a Bible study with.
In the book of Zechariah, and we're going to read verses 13
and 14 tonight. We spent a little time on that
last week, but we're going to spend a little more time on it
tonight. Verse 13, and the Lord answered the angel that talked
with me with good words and comfortable words. So the angel that communed
with me said unto me, cry thou, saying, thus saith the Lord of
hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy. Jealousy, excuse me, jealousy.
Well, this verse of scripture really helps us to understand
the rest of the book, but it also helps us to understand the
entire Bible, that the Bible is filled with, for the saints,
for the church, it is filled with Good words, verse 13, and
comfortable words. To the church, the Bible is filled
with good words and comfortable words. And we're drawn to a passage,
we read this last week, we're gonna read it again tonight,
and we may read it again next week. It is found in the book
of Isaiah chapter 40, that wonderful passage of scripture that we
find that the pastor Isaiah was led to share with the people
of God with the sheep throughout the Old Testament as well as
today through the New Testament in Isaiah chapter 40 and there
are verses 1 and 2. We have those comforting words,
the instructions to a pastor, the instructions to a minister,
the instructions to a missionary, the instructions to a Bible class
teacher, the instructions that God has for his people is to
speak comfortable words and good words to them, and that is the
gospel. I used to say that's nothing
more than the gospel. I don't want to say that. It
is the gospel. That is good words and comfortable words is the
gospel. But we read here in Isaiah chapter 40, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. So the instructions come from
the Almighty. They're coming from heaven to
earth. They're coming from from God
to Isaiah, God to Jeremiah, God to Zechariah, God to any teacher,
preacher, minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her. Now tonight there was a, had
a discussion with some friends I'm getting acquainted with,
and I remember in religion we talked about the fall but we
never talked about ruined by the fall. We talked that people
were bad, but we never talked about the total ruin by the fall. And then we have the preacher
share with us redeemed by Christ. So we're in a terrible plight
by nature and we didn't have to do a thing about it, but to
hear the message that God redeemed his people from their sins and
on behalf of their sins. So here we have that He said
here, cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquities
are pardoned. God is saying, I am reconciled
to her. That's been an eternal reconciliation. God had a reconciliation for
his people when he wrote those names down in the Lamb's Book
of Life. He had reconciliation, he purposed
to reconcile, and he has reconciled himself to these people. And
now we have the Apostle Paul preaching, be ye reconciled to
God. He's done. Now he's going to
share with us that reconciliation. That reconciliation only comes
through Christ, only through the blood of Christ, only through
the grace of God. But we are to be reconciled to
Him. He's already reconciled. How do we know that? Because
Jesus Christ was already purposed to go to the cross to take care
of the reconciliation. on the promise of that. God said
I'm reconciled and he shares that with us even in the book
of Isaiah chapter 40 long time before the cross and then he
goes on to say for she has received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins double or we could put abundantly. Enough to answer
God's design and enough to answer God's demand. He designed that
accomplishment in his son, Jesus Christ, and he demanded of his
son to pay the full price, and we know he did. How do we know
that? He's sitting at the right hand
of the Father. That's how we know it. He accomplished his
purpose. So reconciliation has been taken
care of, and sin has been taken care of, and we have been the
ministry of reconciliation now. And that is announcing God is
not angry with the church, and God is not angry with any of
his lost sheep. And this message goes out to
you, and to you, and to you, and to you. that the reconciliation
has taken place. And in the new birth, we get
a dose of what it is to be reconciled to God. And that is, I have the
privilege and the ability to approach his throne of grace
without fear. I can come before him and pray,
I can come before him and worship, and I can come before him and
not expect him to have any anger towards me whatsoever. It's what
a pleasantry it is to have that kind of ability. So the gospel
has been carried out in this full extent. As we read there
and as we read here, he's going to share good words and comfortable
words. Now, so often we find going through
the Old Testament that there's a problem comes up and then the
solution, the fall, the solution is She shall bear a son, and
thou shalt call his name Jesus, and he will save his people from
their sins. That's the promise. That's what
he said in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 because the fulfillment
of that found in the book of Matthew and in the book of Luke,
the fulfillment of that is that very thing. Shall call his name
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. In that passage
in verse 14, it tells us in the book of Zechariah, it says, so
the angel of the Lord, so the angel that communed with me said
unto me, cry thou saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I care
about my church. That's what he's saying. Sometimes
this word jealous and jealousy can be translated zealous. And
when we look at it from a zealous standpoint, God has a lot on
the line. He is going to carry out his
word and fulfill his every promise, and not one promise will go unfulfilled. So he is going to carry it out.
He's promised that. He is going to fulfill his word.
He's promised that. He is jealous or zealous. He
has a jealousy or a zealousness for the church that is so protective. It's in a bubble, if you please.
There's a wall of fire about it. We're going to find that
in the book of Zechariah. There's much more for us than
there are for them. We find that over in the Kings. So what a wonderful statement
it is to find here that God is careful, zealous, jealous over
the church. He was jealous, to illustrate
this point, over Israel and Jerusalem. And he showed them great things,
but they did not have a heart to believe it. And many of those
died in unbelief. Sometimes, as well, turn with
me if you would to the book of Jeremiah. Back up to the book
of Jeremiah, the gospel according to Jeremiah chapter 25. Now,
in the book of Jeremiah chapter 25, we have something that is
said here with regard to our study in the book of Ezra. The
fulfillment of this is in Ezra. The fulfillment of God's promise
to Israel is found in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. They will
spend 70 years in Babylonian captivity. And if we look at
that from a spiritual standpoint, Thomas Brooks once said, no man
can understand spiritual mysteries by carnal reason. And that's
the truth. you cannot understand spiritual
things by carnal reason. That's why the Bible is a spiritual
book and it must be given to spiritual people and we can only
worship God in spirit and in truth. And we can only do that
by regeneration. We cannot do it outside of that.
We cannot understand the scriptures outside of that spiritual blessing
that God gives us that we call the new birth. So to understand
the Bible from a spiritual standpoint, we must be given something by
God. We must be given a spiritual
understanding or at least the desire to see some spiritual
things found in the word of God. If we're looking at it from a
carnal standpoint, we'll just see facts. If we look at it from
a spiritual context, we're going to be looking for Jesus Christ. That's the promise. All right,
here in the book of Jeremiah chapter 25, I had a long list,
a long reading here, but you can read chapter 25. I do want
to go to verse 11 though. This is speaking so much of what
is the result of the fall. This is looking out on the scheme
of things, looking out on the world. It says, in this whole
land shall be a desolation. That certainly speaks about the
fall, speaks about us. It is, the whole land is a desolation. There's not part, as I mentioned,
I heard a lot about the fall but I never heard about the ruin
by the fall and the complete inability on my part to get to
God on my own, by my own self-righteousness, by my works. I just, this whole
land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations
shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Now the blessing of
that is there is an exact time when that will be over. I'm not
looking at the, oh, look at how long that is. I'm looking at
it, it's going to be over in time. And that's the way it is
with God's people. We may be in utter desolation,
and we may get along in years, but there is a time when God
said 70 years are finished. And He is going to release us
from that captivity of sin. He's gonna release us from the
captivity of this world. He's gonna release us so that
we can see Him as the God of heaven, as the glorified God
of all, the great God, the merciful God, the God that grants grace.
That is going to be such a blessing when that happens. When it happens
to us in time, we can say, I've served my time. What Adam did
to my family has been reversed after 70 years. Well, another
passage in the book of Jeremiah. Would you go with me to the book
of Jeremiah chapter 29? Jeremiah chapter 29. Again, we're
looking at the conclusion of it. It's a wonderful thing to
see that there's an end to this desolation for all of God's people. The lost that are God's, there
is an end to their desolation. Our family, our friends, when
God has them marked out, there will be an end, even as the Apostle
Paul said, will it please God? Well, that's what we read about
here. with regard to Judah and Jerusalem in Babylonian captivity. Well, we know there's some reasons
for that. We had to have that line go out to Luke and Matthew. We had to have that Judah line
go out to, it had to get there. There was a promise that there
would be a Messiah born and it's gonna happen. Well, it also illustrates
the point as we read here in Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse
10. Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse
10, for thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, I will, isn't that wonderful? I will visit you.
God will visit his people. There is a time marked off by
God that all of his lost sheep will be visited. Now we've said this in the past,
some way God's going to get us so we can hear the gospel. That
glorious good news that is announced in Isaiah chapter 40, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. That he will take away our religious
paraphernalia. and he will grant to us Christ.
He will strip us of our self-righteousness and clothe us with the righteousness
of Christ. That's a wonderful thing that
God stripped Adam and Eve of those coats of skins before he
ever went and clothed them. We can't tolerate the two. That's
works and grace, that's law and grace, however you want to put
it. They're going to have one covering, and that covering was
the appropriate covering given to them by the Lord God Almighty. All right, notice here in Jeremiah
29 and verse 10, it says, for thus saith the Lord, that after
70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform
my good word toward you in causing you to return to me. to this place. Now from a physical
standpoint, God is gonna bring Judah out of Babylon and bring
them back to Jerusalem. From a spiritual standpoint,
he's gonna take us out of wherever he finds us in this world and
bring him to himself. No other. Not gonna give it over
to someone else. He will do that very thing. Now
there's an illustration of this back in the book of 2 Kings chapter
seven. 2 Kings chapter seven. I was visiting with Brother Drew
on the phone yesterday, I believe it was. He's going through this
passage of scripture, and he brought up something that we
went through a long time ago about four lepers, four lepers
outside the wall. And they make a comment here
that is so true, but they also are led by the Spirit of God
to do something. So would you turn with me to
the book of 2 Kings chapter 7, 2 Kings chapter 7. And in verse three, and there
were four leprous men. Now that could have been said
over that passage of scripture we just read where it says the
land was desolation. This is desolation when you have
leprosy. Now, when we get to the point
that we have it spiritually, then God's shown us something. When we get to the point that
we have spiritual leprosy, God has shown us something, because
we won't claim that on our own. God let us know that there were
four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. They were not
on the inside. They're kept on the outside because
of the law. And this city has been put under
siege for some time, and you and I, are not able to comprehend,
none of us have been in this place that they're in, in that
siege. Now it's terrible, we can say
that. It's oppressive, we can say that.
There are things going on that we just don't even want to talk
about, we can say that. And that's just like where we
are by nature. I was visiting with that young
preacher and I said, there's one thing about the cities of
refuge. And I've told you this before. You never have to ask
anybody that just panted as they came through the gates why they're
there. We don't have to compare notes about our sin. We know
why we're at the city of refuge. We're sinners. Well, as it goes
on here, it says in 2 Kings 7, verse 3, and there were four
leprous men at the entering of the gate. And they said one to
another, why sit we here until we die? These guys, God has done some
kind of work for them. If we say we will enter into
the city, then the famine in the city, and we shall die there.
If we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore, come and
let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us
alive, we shall live, and if they kill us, We shall but die. So we're dead, dead, dead and
dead. So they went over there. Now
they rose up at twilight and go into the camp of the Syrians.
And when they came to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold,
there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host
of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses,
even the noise of a great host. And they said, no, one to another,
lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Isn't that just
the way religion is? Superstitious to the core. Wherefore,
they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their
horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled
for their life. And when the lepers came to the
uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat
and drink, and carried then silver, and gold, and raiment, and went
and hid it, and came again, and entered into another tent, and
carried then also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to
another, we do not well. This day is a day of good tidings. This day is a day of good tidings. We have good words and comfortable
words. We hold our peace, we tarry till
the morning light, come mischief will come upon us, now therefore
come, that we may go and tell the king's household, and we
know the rest of the story, they go back. Now the prophet, Elisha,
has already said, tomorrow we're gonna be able to buy flour and
all this for two cents. And yesterday it was worth $5,000. I'm just comparatively speaking.
It's going to be worth two cents. And one of the king's aides says,
no, no, no. It's not going to be that way.
And Elisha said, you'll see it, but you won't get to partake
of it. Remember what these four lepers did? They said, we have
good news, comfortable words. Let's go back to the city and
tell them. And they went back, and the city
gates were open to them, and they spoke about what they had
found, and the king sent out an ambassador. He came back and
says, they're right. They're right. What are we but
beggars? telling other beggars where we
found bread. At God's place, that's where
we found it. At His disposal, that's where
we're going to find it. So these people, these four lepers
described to us, oh, it just looks like we're the only ones.
And then they realized we have good news. We have good news. We have good news. Let's go tell
a whole bunch of other beggars where we found bread. And they
went back, and a whole bunch of other people. Now there was
some naysayers there, and they didn't get to enjoy it. But there
was some that were so glad that they came with that news. Grace
is given to us. It is nearly impossible to describe
the place natural man is in by nature unless we are caused to
view the great day of the cross. That's as close as we can come.
The agony the Son of God endured to pay for our sin. And that's just an illustration
of how bad the situation is. How bad the leprosy is. How bad
the desolation is. How bad we are by nature. How
terrible the fall is. The ruin by the fall is exercised
at the cross as the Son of God was given our sin debt. We realize it's beyond us. I
can't get my hands all the way around it. But we do come to
this, grace is given us in Christ Jesus. That we can't get around
it. Grace is given us in Christ Jesus. Over in the book of Luke, let's
look at some good words over here in the book of Luke chapter
7. Book of Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7, verse 19. Now, I ask myself, why Did John
ask this question? And why is it recorded in the
Word of God? I had to come to this conclusion. John asked this question and
it's recorded in the Word of God for you and for me. That's why it's there. Or if
we didn't need it, we wouldn't have it. All right, now the question
is, John asked this question and I've heard all kinds of things
said about John. I'm not going to try to impose
myself on John's mind because this was written for me. This
is written for us today. This question is written for
us. We do not understand and we cannot comprehend the ways
of God. I just, that's just, that's the
way it is. We will never understand the
ways of God. There's that song, we'll understand
it by and by, better by and by or whatever. That's not a point
that we should even be concerned about because we won't need to.
It won't be a need to know then. And right now, we don't need
to know. All we are called on is to trust. Trust God. John chapter 7 verse 19 this
question is posed and John calling upon him two of his disciples
sent them to Jesus saying art thou he that should come or look
we for another I'm not going to try to get into John's mind
and figure out why he's saying that but I know this he said
for me the answer is for me or it wouldn't be here alright it
goes on And then the men were come unto him, they said, John
Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, art thou he that should
come, or look we for another? And in that same hour he cured
many of their infirmities, and plagues, and evil spirits, and
unto many that were blind he gave them sight. Now here's the
answer. Jesus answering and said unto
them, in our darkest moment, here's the answer. Here's good
news. Here is the blessing from Almighty
God. This is the blessing for John.
The question comes up for us and the message was taken back
to John just as it's given to us today. This is go your way
and tell John what things you have seen and heard. Good news,
comfortable words, good words and comfortable words. How that
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached,
and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." There's
the answer. That's for my generation. That's
for me today. When I look and see, I'm contemplating
why all of the things we go through, I can hear Jesus say now, just
look at the word and see what I've done in the past. I'm doing
it now and I will do it until the end. Good words and comfortable. Every one of those lepers he
healed, he didn't heal them all, but he healed a bunch of them.
Those he raised from the dead, he didn't raise everybody from
the dead, but he raised some from the dead. He said, look
at what is happening here. This I am God, and beside me
there is none else. Beside me there is no other God. Nobody else is doing this but
me. Jesus said unto them, go your
way and tell John what things you have seen and heard, how
that, and goes on and on and on. Hallelujah. Good words and
comfortable words. greatest of desperate situations
in John's life. What was the message that God
gave to him? I am almighty. I'm the everlasting God. I'm
the everlasting King. I am, I am, that I am. And you
know what? I believe John was comforted
just like every one of God's people are comforted when they
realize this is falling out for the furtherance of the gospel.
Good news. Comfortable words. Now, good
words and comfortable. Turn with me to Romans chapter
9 for closing, if you would please. Romans chapter 9. This passage
of scripture has been so maligned, but let's look at the comfortable
words, the good words and comfortable words. Romans chapter 9, verse
13. Would you look at that with me?
Romans chapter 9 and verse 13. It says, as it is written. Now this isn't the first time.
We went to Malachi and we found the time that it was found in
the Old Testament, but we find the whole experience over there
in the book of Genesis. The whole thing plays out for
us to watch, to see, and see the comforting words. Now what
is really a blessing to me and a comfortable word to me in this
passage of scripture is, have I loved. Jacob have I loved now. That's God speaking Jacob have
I loved scoundrel Jacob have I loved and That means if he
can love Jacob he can love other Jacob's just like him Jacob have
I loved I'm not going to go to the other part because that doesn't
apply to me I Jacob have I loved in verse 15 of that same passage
of scripture I Will have mercy That's a comfortable word That's
a good word Romans chapter 9 in verse 15 for he saith to Moses
I will have mercy What a characteristic and attribute to discover What
a characteristic and attribute for the church to discover about
the Savior, that not only does he love his people, but he has
mercy. I will have mercy. And in chapter
9 and verse 16, it says there, so then it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. Good words, they're just not
room enough for us to get anything that God would be attracted by,
but he will show mercy. And then in verse 21 of that
same, what a wonderful thought is found here in verse 21. It
says, hath not the potter power. Now, he can write anything after
that he wants. Hath not the potter, what's that
say? Verse 21, hath not the potter
power. Now he goes on to write, and
he can write anything. He has power over all circumstances. He has power over the weather.
He has power over all disease. He has power, but in that passage
of scriptures, his potter has power over the clay. of the same
lump to make one vessel into honor and another into dishonor.
The point I want to make is good news and comfortable words is
He has power. He has power to fulfill every
one of His promises. He has power given unto Him,
Jesus Christ, in heaven and earth. All power is given unto Him in
heaven and earth. So He has power. He has mercy
and He has love. Good words. comfortable words. And that's what Zechariah was
shown over there in the book of Zechariah chapter 1. And then
it goes on to conclude in chapter 1 and verse 14. I am zealous,
jealous over Israel. I'm zealous over Jerusalem. I'm
carefully marking them out, taking care of them in such a way that
every one of them will be given the ears to hear the gospel,
and the eyes to see Christ wherever we go in the scriptures.