Zechariah. Tonight, we're so
good to be here, so good to see each one. As we continue our
study of the book of Zechariah, we're going to be spending our
time, bulk of our time, not just here in the book of Zechariah,
but there's a number of other passages of Scripture that we
want to look at. One of my favorite verses in
this whole book that I've found so far is found in verse 9. That kind of brought up our lesson
for tonight. Then said I, oh my Lord, what
are these? A question. And it just shares
with me that the Lord is pleased when we ask questions. Now, back
it up just a little bit. Verses one through six, we found
the first division of this book. Verses one through six starts
out with a date and time and a place and who's in charge.
Verse 7 we have a similar passage of scripture as we do in verse
1 upon the 4th and 20th day of the 11th month now this section
of Zechariah last down through the 8th chapter of the book of
Zechariah and then in chapter 9 through verse 14 we have the
last part of this book and In this passage of scripture that
we want to read tonight, we have, beginning with verse seven, on
the 24th and 20th day of the 11th month, which is the month
Sabbath, in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord
unto Zechariah, the son of Berchia, the son of Ido, the prophet saying,
I saw by night And behold, a man riding upon a red horse. And he stood among the myrtle
trees that were in the bottom. Behind him were their red horses,
speckled and white. Then said I, O my Lord, what
are these? And the angel that talked with
me said unto me, I will show thee what these be. And the man that stood among the
myrtle trees answered and said, these are they whom the Lord
hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. And they answered
the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said,
we have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the
earth sit is still and is at rest. Then the angel of the Lord
answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not
have mercy on Jerusalem? and on the cities of Judah, against
which thou hast had indignation these threescore in ten years. And the Lord answered the angel
that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. So the angel that communed with
me saith unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased
with the heathen that are at ease. For I was but a little
displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore, thus
saith the Lord of Hosts, saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem
with mercies. My house shall be built in it,
saith the Lord of Hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth
upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the
Lord of Hosts. My cities through prosperity
shall yet be spread abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion
and shall yet choose Jerusalem. We're going to stop there for
our reading tonight and we're going to find as we go through
the book of Zechariah that the prophecies of Jesus Christ and
the messianic era abound in Zachariah. Now I appreciate Zachariah saying
those words. What does this mean? Because
sometimes we truly read the word of God and we ask ourselves,
and when we do I trust we're asking the Lord, what is this
all about? Now, I read some scholars And
they declared that much of this book is not only prophetic, but
also apocalyptic. So if you have a tendency in
a direction of interpretation, you're going to look at these
passages of scripture instead of being germane to the gospel. and to the Lord Jesus Christ
in symbolic form telling us the greatness of our Savior and the
greatness of our salvation and the way he carries out his business.
If we have a tendency towards not having that, then we're going
to fall into a pit. So if Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah,
We read in them that none of those had any idea about the
pronouncement in latter times that Israel was going to be the
object of worship. We find that the Lord is the
object of worship. The church is the beneficiary,
and we worship him. It would be interesting to note
that Zachariah, Daniel, or Ezekiel never conceived that their writings
would fall into these comic book states. So tonight I'd like to
spend a little time looking at what the Bible has to say about
the Bible, and then we're gonna end up in the book of Galatians.
And the book of Galatians, for all intents and purposes, is
the book in the New Testament that deals with, is Israel still
valid? Is national Israel still a beneficiary
of the gospel? Or I shouldn't say that, a beneficiary. Because they refused the gospel
in the Lord's day. So let us look at a few things. There's some parameters that
we want to look at when we're writing. And that is, if you
turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter 24. The book of Luke,
chapter 24. The writers that God gave these
visions to was speaking in some way of the Lord as that is the
message, as that is the message of the gospel. The Lord is the
message of the gospel. And many of these people have
been taken in and overcome in interpretation of scripture and
put into a category that they never intended to be in. All
right, over the book of Matthew, chapter 24 and verse 44, We have
these words that the Lord spoke, and I don't know how many times
we've been here recently, but it's been kind of a hallmark
passage for us as we've gone through the Old as well as the
New Testament in most of our studies. In Luke chapter 24,
and there in verse 44, the Lord said, he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled. which were written in the Law
of Moses. Now as we go through Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, there is an outstanding
statement made here about the subject of those books. And if
we fall into the pit that the subject is the law, we've missed
the point of the gospel. The subject of those books is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to say here,
it meant in the prophets. Now, if we go to the prophets
looking for some prophecy about future events, we're going to
be greatly mistaken because these books are also The subject is
the Lord Jesus Christ, his salvation of his people, the salvation
of the elect, the salvation of the church. That's one of the
things when I was in religion, there was no church in the Old
Testament. It wasn't there. It was created
on the day of Pentecost or a little bit of time before that. But
one of the blessings that we have with regard to the scripture
is that the church has always been There has always been a
called out assembly of believers. From Abel, from Adam and Eve
on, there has been a called out assembly of believers. And they
have consistently and faithfully preached the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there have been many that
have interrupted them. There have been many that lost
their lives in the preaching of the gospel. but the gospel
has ever been declared. So it goes on in this same passage
of scripture and in the Psalms concerning me. Now we looked
when we were going through one of the minor prophets that it
is in the Psalms because it was written in musical And so the Psalms are. There
are a number of Psalms. Job is one of the Psalms because
of the way it was written. And other passages, Song of Solomon. There are other places that are
the Psalms. They were written in that type of wording. And
when we read a song out of one of our books, we are looking
at words that are significant spiritually in another realm. Just as we look at the Lord Jesus
Christ as our door, but we certainly don't look at him as that kind
of door. We look at him so much spiritual. The blessing is there in the
spiritual view of the Lord Jesus Christ, our door. What are these? What are these? That's what Zachariah
said, and the person that answered him says, let me tell you about
them. Well, we're not going to spend our time on that tonight.
We'll take time to do that as we go through the book of Zechariah
because there are clear statements in figurative language about
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his purpose for the church
in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. That's
why we can read it today and it still has application. And
that's why Jesus Christ could read it during his time and it
had application. And that's why Zachariah could
read it in his day and it had application. And if it had been
written earlier, Moses could have got the same application
out of it as we do. It's the spirit giving the word
of God to a man to give to us. Now, the immediate receiver of
that was the people that were in Jerusalem. But we're secondary. We get to enjoy it too. We appreciate
that. In the book of Hebrews, would
you turn there to the book of Hebrews, we would never look
at the types and shadows found in the tabernacle or the temple
as reality. That's one of the blessings of
the salvation that we have in Christ. We look at those things
as symbolic, pictorial. So let's go over here to the
book of Hebrews for just a moment, chapter 10, verse 1. Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 1. We don't want to let the red
horse and the white horse and the bay horse, and the speckle
horse interrupt our study of Christ. We want to keep on track. Because those things are not
telling us about apocalyptic things, end times
things. That's a misinterpretation. Anyway,
it's speaking of enlightening. It's speaking of giving us light.
And he uses those pictures, types, and shadows. So over here in
the book of Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 1, We have this wonderful
passage of scripture that lends itself to our view of all the
tabernacle, and all the temple, and all those services that went
on. It says, for the law having a
shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of things,
can never with those sacrifices. So we're talking more than just
the legal part. We're talking about the sacrifices,
all of those sacrifices. What does it say? can never, with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year, continually make the comers there
into perfect. They were just a shadow of good
things to come. They were a picture of good things
to come. Here is a picture of my grandma.
She's going to be here in a month. Hallelujah. She arrives. It's
wonderful. So we have this, the shadow of
good things to come. in every sacrifice, every, all
of those sacrifices that Solomon offered at the dedication of
the temple, they remind us of the person Jesus Christ, but
they also remind us that we'll never get the job done on our
own. We'll never be saved on our own. There is not enough
blood that could be offered to do that very thing, especially
if it's animal blood. So it's a shadow of good things
to come. Before we make a diligent study
of this book of Zachariah we need to get a handle on two or
three key verses and That's the key to the entire Bible when
we're studying the Bible now. I make reference to other authors
I make reference to Robert Hawker and I was reading in a sermon
by Charles Spurgeon the other day, and he made reference to
Robert Hawker. And he said, Robert Hawker always takes you to Christ.
Doesn't matter what the subject is, he always takes you to Christ.
Well, he wrote that 150 years ago. So I go to Robert Hawker
at times in his commentaries, and I read that. And I get just
a bit disgruntled when he says, this is just too simple to mention,
and I'll go on. I wish you had said something.
I refer to Gil. I read Gil. I read other commentators. But they must, they must coincide
with what the scriptures have to say. Or what they have to
say isn't worth reading. practice our reading skills with
them, but that's it. So would you look with me at
some key verses that hedge us in on the subject of the study
of Zechariah or any other book, and particularly when we start
going through some visions. Now the other day a young man
asked me, he said he had this vision, he had this dream, and
he wondered what it meant. And I says, there's only one
place that I ever take dreams serious. He says, what's that? And I says, the Bible. Only in the Bible. I dream the
stupidest dreams. And people dream the stupidest
things and want an interpretation for it. It came by too much chili
beans. So that's the only place. There
are a number of dreams in the Bible that were interpreted by
people in the Bible by the Spirit of God, and I can take that to
the bank. But the rest of it, I'm going
to take Zachariah's vision to the bank, because it was given
to him by the Lord. And I know this, that that dream,
that vision that he had, Whatever it might be is going to be in
agreement with the rest of the book. And there will be no contradictions
in his visions or his dreams over the gospel. Turn with me,
if you would, to the book of Romans, chapter 4. As I was thinking
about the study that we're going to do in the book of Zechariah,
and some of it is, Lord, what does this mean? What is this? What are you trying to tell me? Brother Henry shared this with
me, and other preachers have shared this, and I've shared
this with you. We know what it doesn't say. Sometimes we don't
know what it says, but we don't have to go there because we know
what it doesn't say. It's not going to conflict with
three quarters of the rest of the scriptures. Right, Romans
chapter four, verse three. Would you look at that verse
of scripture for me? Paul, in dealing with a wonderful
subject, He brings this up, and so dealing with any subject in
the scriptures. What's it say? For what saith
the scripture? That is really a hedge for us
in any of our studies. And we pray to God. That whenever
we make a comment about a passage of scripture, that we're not
in conflict with another passage of scripture. We do our due diligence,
we do our best, and yet sometimes we find out that this is in conflict
with what this scripture has to say, so we have to reckon
it. and say, I've got to put this together, I made a mistake.
We are fallible, God is infallible, and his word is infallible, and
he will always give us the truth in it, and it will not conflict
with each other. All right, what does the scripture
say? It says there, verse one, what shall we say then, that
Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath bound? For
if Abraham were justified by works, He hath whereof to glory,
but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Yahoo! Paul just put a great
big hedge about us. He says, don't ever go there
and say that Abraham was justified by works. He believed God and
it was counted unto him for righteousness. So what say of the scriptures?
Again here in the book of Hebrews, would you turn there with me
to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Now we
may not always be able to come to the conclusion of what is
written in the book of Zechariah. But what we do understand, we
want to be able to say, this agrees with these scriptures.
This agrees with these scriptures. Romans chapter 11 verse 2. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. What ye not
what the scripture saith? Romans chapter 11 verse 2. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. What ye not
what the scripture saith of Elijah? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel saying? Now let's back up to verse one.
I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of
the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast
away his people which he foreknew. Why ye not what the scripture
saith? Oh my, that's my, that's the hard part of me. knowing what the scriptures say.
I'm thankful for Strong's concordance. I'm thankful for those who diligently
listed verse by verse so I can find those verses of scripture
that I'm looking for. God help me, help us to have
thus saith the word of God. What does the scripture say about
this? And if it doesn't say what we have in our mind that it's
going to say, then we need to change our mind about what it's
saying. You know, a whole lot was taken
care of when the Lord saved me. I just had a trust in his Holy
Spirit to lead me into all truth. and I didn't have to go reading
some book. I had a discussion with my sister
one time, and I said, you're gonna go home and read the book
over again that you just told me that you got this stuff from.
You know, that's where we get most of the stuff. We read a
book, and it's based upon some guy's idea. Well, if the guy's
idea is based upon falsehood about the gospel, then we need
to shy away. All right, one other verse, Galatians
chapter four. Would you turn to Galatians chapter
four? Galatians chapter four. So we go through Zechariah. Oh,
what does the scripture say? That's red horses mentioned in
the book of Revelation. Let's compare them. I know what
the book of Revelation is about, the book of the lamb. Victory
of the Lord Jesus Christ over every opponent the church has
sin Death all the opponents he was victorious, and he tells
us how victorious. He is in that book Galatians
chapter 4 verse 30 Nevertheless what sayeth the scripture? Cast
out the bondwoman and her son for the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman so then brethren
We are not the children of the bondwomen, but of the free. Now
we're going to make reference to this passage of scripture
in just a little bit, but the point I want to see here is nevertheless,
what says the scripture? Let's go back to the Old Testament
and see what is written there. Or if we're in Zechariah, let's
go to the New Testament and see what is there. Because that New
Testament shares much about what we have in the Old Testament,
particularly the book of Hebrews. covers a whole area for us. All right, the second hedge.
First one is, what's the scripture say? And if you have verses of
scripture that lend themselves to our study of the book of Zechariah,
don't be afraid to share them with me. All right, the second
hedge. Would you turn with me to Matthew
22. Matthew 22, now this is a very
simplified hedge for me. What's the scripture say? And
over here the Lord Jesus brings up a question about himself.
Now it's interesting when we study about the people that the
Lord Jesus is speaking to here, they look at the world very physical. They look at the world very physical. The Pharisees looked at the world
very physical. It was very important that they
physically could trace their lineage back to Abraham. That
was very important. Their religion was based on physical
activity. The Lord dealt with that very
much during his ministry. Then he passed that ministry
on to the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was led to deal
with a whole lot of that physical religion that the Jews, the Pharisees
had. They abundantly gladdened themselves
in their relationship to Abraham physically. Now the Lord brings
up a point here in Matthew chapter 22 beginning with verse 41. Matthew
chapter 22 and verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them. Now he's not asking for information
from them. He's asking for an opinion from
them. And he gets their opinion. And it is wrong. Because they're
looking at everything physical. The church looks at things spiritual. The world looks at things physical. Because they can't get out of
that realm. The Pharisees could not get out of this realm on
their own. It was not a spiritual world. It was a physical world.
And they, Jesus said, Matthew chapter 22, verse 42. Jesus asks them saying, what
think ye of Christ? Now let's put this definition. What do you think of the Messiah?
That's what that word means. Whose son is he? Now those Pharisees are going
to be quick to answer this because they do have an opinion. It is
not a spiritual opinion. It is a physical opinion. And
they said unto him, the son of David. Now that's true from a physical
standpoint. And David is going to agree with
that. But the Lord Jesus said, now David had more to say about
it than I'm the Messiah. The Messiah is simply a physical
descendant from David. Jesus brought up an Old Testament
verse of scripture that David said by the Holy Spirit. Listen
to this. He said unto them, how then doth
David in spirit call him Lord, saying? Now in spirit, by God's purpose and God's power,
by the spirit of God, by revelation, by spoke holy men of God spoke
the word of God. David is under the influence
of the Holy Spirit when he brings us up, but David believed it
too. It was not just words that David
was bringing up, because David is not only speaking about his
descendant, but he's speaking about his savior. This is David's
savior. He said here, how is it then?
How then does David in spirit call him Lord Sain? The Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. If David then called him Lord,
how is he his son? And no man was able, with the
theology that they had, no man was able to answer him a word. Neither durst any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions." Now, the Lord brought this question
up. What think ye of Christ? The
Messiah. Now it is the opinion of the
Pharisees. It was the opinion of national
Israel that the Messiah that had been promised to come would
set up an earthly kingdom and get rid of the oppressive Roman
Empire. Or whatever empire was there
when he showed up. They only could look at things
from a physical standpoint, and they never, because of their
unbelief, because of their lack of having regeneration, could
ever look at anything spiritual. And the Lord goes on and says,
your father David looked at this from a spiritual standpoint,
and he said, yes, he is my physical descendant, but he is long before
me too. He is the Lord. He is my Lord. These Pharisees had a very unscriptural
view of the scriptures. They believed that the Messiah
would come, establish a physical kingdom. And when he didn't, we had to
have plan B. And that's where the gospel came
in and the cross. Well, that is all bogus. That
is so far out from God's plan about anything. So when we're
studying these four horses over there in the book of Zechariah,
we're not studying about a national Israel. We're studying about
the church and God's view of the church and the church's view
of God. Just as David looked at the Messiah
as his Lord, he spoke by the Spirit. They had a physical interpretation
of the Old Testament, and that's all they could grasp. And that's
why we have views of the Old Testament that only speak of
it from a physical standpoint. The temple is going to be rebuilt.
Oh boy, it's going to be over there. That's not what they're
talking about. We find out that from a spiritual standpoint,
the temple has been rebuilt. It fell in Adam. It's been rebuilt
in Christ. We are the temple of God. So
we look at these Old Testament pictures, types, and shadows,
and we look at them from a spiritual standpoint. We walk away saying,
hallelujah. We walk away saying, thank you,
Lord. And if we look at it from a physical standpoint, oh boy,
when these things happen, we better be careful. The Lord's
going to come. That's not the point. They answered
the question. They said unto him, the son of
David, and the Lord's answer was, yes, David as a prophet
spoke. And he spoke of a Messiah that
would be his physical descendant. But this physical descendant
was the Lord of glory, from before the foundation of the world,
the Messiah, and our conclusions of Zechariah, or for that fact,
any book of the Bible must agree with all the scripture and honor
the Lord. What think ye of Christ? Now,
if we have any information about the Lord Jesus Christ revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit, we will gladly say, yes, he was
the physical descendant of David, as was promised, but he is the
almighty God. And the Spirit can allow us to
say that and rejoice in it. Let us look at the answer to
what saith the scripture before we delve into the visions mentioned
in Zechariah. Now, when we look at the word
of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, to the Galatians,
to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, wherever we go we're
going to find out that the Apostle Paul is dealing with a group
of people that believe in the literal Translation of the Old
Testament. They only could look at things
through the flesh. Those are the guys that followed him around
when he preached grace, and they would come in and say, yeah,
we agree with that, but you have to be circumcised. They could
only look at things from a physical standpoint. This is the symbol
of the covenant. Symbol of the covenant is the
blood of Christ. It's not this. So let's go over
to the book of Galatians for just a moment because the Apostle
Paul deals so much in the book of Galatians with this problem
that was being faced at that time. Remember very early on
in the book of Galatians, he said, I marvel that you are so
soon left the gospel. Well, what had they done? They
had gone back under Judaism. There were some in the church
that had gone back under Judaism. They'd never left it. And that's
the problem. That's why we cannot say that
Israel is physical. Today, we know that throughout
the Old Testament, as well as now, that Israel is spiritual. They are the blessed ones of
the covenant. They're the ones that have all
the blessings of the covenant. is spiritual Israel, because
God said, I'm finished with national Israel. Why? The Messiah's here. I don't need him any longer.
Now, there was never a person saved in national Israel by their
works. Paul's going to bring that out
in all the books he ever wrote. It wasn't by their works. Abraham. They pointed to Abraham. Look
at him. No, no, no. Abraham was, believe God, it
was counted unto him for righteousness. just as it is for everyone else
that ever is going to be in the church of the living God, that
is going to be in spiritual Israel. The bulk of the book of Galatians
is given over God's view of these visions in the book of Zechariah.
They're not apocalyptic. They're revelation. They're gospel. Let's rejoice in that. What we must look at to know
the truth of the scriptures is the scriptures and What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? If he's nothing
more than a physical descendant of Abraham, woe is me when it
comes to salvation. But if he is the Son of God,
which he is, and he came as promised through David, then we rejoice
in David's salvation. and Abraham's salvation and Moses'
salvation in Jesus Christ. Turn with me to the book of Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. I thought about taking off
a little time and going to the book of Galatians right now,
but I think I'll go back to Zechariah. We'll just hit on it from time
to time. But in Galatians chapter 3, well, before we get there,
Galatians chapter 1, let's look at that in verse 6. I marvel
that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. What's he talking about,
the grace of Christ? The gospel. the grace of Christ
gospel to another gospel. And what is this other gospel
that came, snuck in? It was the revival of Judaism. It was the revival among those
folks that Paul thought probably they'd had it removed from them,
that they'd got away from the position that it was national
Israel was the blessed people of God and the church. They took it as secondary or
thirdary. And Paul said, no, no, no, no,
no. That is not where the blessing
is. The blessing is to the elect
of God. The blessing is unto the children
of God. The blessing is unto the picture
as Abraham had children. Those who are of faith are the
true children of Abraham. Not these other folks. So he's
trying to deal with, let's put away the physical because there's
nothing in it, and let's look at the spiritual. How can we
do that? Only in regeneration. We just
can't get there from here without it. He gives us his spirit, he
gives us his spirit to teach us all truth, and it will prevent
us from falling into that pit for a long time. We'll have someone
like Paul come along and says, ''How dare you leave the gospel?''
Someone will come along and challenge us. How do I know that? Because
Paul challenged Peter on this very thing. Paul got in Peter's
face and says, ''How dare you?'' How dare you go back under this
Judaism when people from Jerusalem come down that are your friends
and you know what happened? Paul challenged him to his face
in front of everybody else and you know what? Peter said, Paul's
right. Paul's right. That's foolishness. So God will send somebody, some
Paul to us and say, I'm sorry. But you started out well, and
now you're stuck down here under Judaism, and I challenge you
on it. And oh, the Holy Spirit come
to Peter and says, I've made a terrible mistake here. All
right, let's go over here to chapter 3, verse 18. For if the
inheritance of the law, it is no more a promise, But God gave
it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made. You know, the church, churches
said, you know, this was only used, Judah was only used, Israel
was only used till the seed came. We're no longer under that. The
seed is here. The Messiah came. The promised
one is here. That's why a man could walk into
the temple, pick up the babe Jesus and say, now I can die
in peace because my eyes have seen the Lord's salvation. He
didn't have to depend on Judaism. You know, if we're depending
upon anything but Christ, we have not faith. He, we must have
all in Him. And the only way we can do that
is through the new birth. It goes, verse 21, is the law
then against the promises of God? God forbid, for if there
had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture saith, the
scripture hath concluded all under sin. that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, to
the elect. For before faith came, ye were
kept under the law. Shut up then unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was a schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Now who was the law a schoolmaster to? To Israel. And that's it. We try to put
the law on people. We're not even dealing with the
right group of people. And then the Lord said, when
the seed came, that's done away with. We no longer have those
observations. We no longer have those sacrifices.
We're not going to have the need for the temple anymore. And if
it was left here, Just look at what they do with a little bit
of the foundation of that temple. What would happen if the whole
thing was here? We'd have every Baptist in the United States
going over there on a mission tour to see all that stuff. My goodness. He did away with
it just like he did with that brazen serpent, not to make it a god. And here
they dug up a little bit of it. The pictures we see are just
some Jewish people there, but I guarantee you, if most of the
people in religion in the United States today were given the permission,
they would be touching it and trying to get their prayers answered.
My goodness. Oh, in chapter 4, chapter 4 and
verse 22, we're going to have to stop here, but let's read
this part. chapter 4 verse 22, for it is
written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory?
I think very easily we could go over to the book of Zechariah
our next time and say, you know, Paul used that word about Hagar
and Sarah. I think maybe we could use that
about these four horses and let's see what they mean. Instead of
jumping into the pool and say, oh, this is apocalyptic and this
is the signs of the end. The sign of the end will be the
last elect saved. We don't have to worry about
anything else. We have seen, and every generation has seen,
a departure from the word of God. But even in all of that,
he still saves his elect. Which things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants. What two covenants? The covenant
with national Israel, and the everlasting covenant, the new
covenant. And they don't mix. There is no way to mix them.
One is physical. One is spiritual. One is an agreement
between a bunch of people with God. And the other one is agreement
with God for a bunch of people. The one with Mount Sinai, which
is genderless bondage, which is Agar. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to, look at this, answereth to
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free. The two Jerusalems. This one
is physical. This one is spiritual. This one
is depending upon the law and all the physical activity, and
this one is depending upon Jesus Christ as Savior, and He provides
the faith that we could trust Him with our whole being. So, when we go through the book
of Zechariah, we're going to be looking for allegories. Blessings
of Christ. We're gonna compare scripture
with scripture. We're gonna try to keep in view
Christ. What think ye of Christ? This
cannot go astray. If we keep Christ as the center,
we cannot get off into the brush. There's some horses and there's
a man standing down in some myrtle trees who's called the Lord of
Hosts. I wanna find out more about him. I want to find out what he's
doing there. I want to find out what did he say about we've been
going to and fro in the earth. Well, we'll leave that to another
lesson. We may pick up a few of these
thoughts in the book of Galatians next time, but if not, you know
they're there. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious Father, we thank you for this time you've given us
together, and we pray that you'd bless us as we study the book
of Zechariah. And it's in Christ's name we
pray, amen.