Good evening. Good evening once
again. As we study the book of Zechariah,
I apologize for the first recording of this message, which was done
on Wednesday. There was a small wire broken
inside the speaker and a lot of people were attempting to
listen to it, but there was nothing there. So we erased it and we
hope you'll try it again. Book of Zechariah, we're going
to be in the very early part of chapter one tonight. We've looked at the past at kind
of an overview of this book. We've looked last week at that
wonderful name that we find so often in this book, and that's
the Lord of Hosts, the Lord Almighty, the Lord of Armies, And we mentioned
at that time that wonderful passage of Nebuchadnezzar when he described
the God of heaven as it was given to him by God himself. And tonight
we'd like to look at verse four. And particularly in this verse,
we'd like to look at the word turning and hearing and hearkening. In this verse of scripture it
shares with us, be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former
prophets have cried, saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings. But
they did not hear nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. First of all in that verse of
scripture we have the word turn. They did not turn and the Lord called on them to turn
and yet they did not turn. Turn ye now from your evil ways
and from your evil doings. but they did not hear. If you
would join me in the book of Isaiah for a short reading, Isaiah
chapter 9. In Isaiah chapter 9 we have this
used, this word used, and we look at it and understand it
that if we're ever going to be turned, we must be turned by
someone bigger than us, greater than us. higher than us here
in the book of Isaiah chapter 9 verse 12 says the Syrians before
and the Philistines behind and they shall devour Israel with
open mouth for all this is his anger is not turned away but
his hand is stretched out still What a commentary upon natural
man and a commentary upon Israel here. If we look at Israel we
find out that they have been treated with the best possible Blesser of all
that's God Almighty and he uses them as a type and as a picture
if God does this so much for the nation of Israel and they
don't turn What do we have? What opportunity do we have?
I will use the word what chance do we have? well, we have none
but yet we find out that there's no difference between Jew and
Gentile and We're all under sin, we all fell in Adam, and here
is the thought here about that we just turn not. We are unable
to do that very thing. God requires it, God demands
it, and yet we're stuck in the mud and we can't turn, and no
one can turn us. Would you turn with me? to the
book of Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah chapter 17 brings up
this idea of not just turning but also healing. Jeremiah chapter
17 and there in verse 14. Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse
14. Heal me O Lord and I shall be
healed. Save me and I shall be saved. For thou art my praise. Now what
a wonderful passage of scripture here if we're ever going to be
healed. He has to do it. If we're ever
going to be saved, He has to do it. And join me here in the
book of Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31, as we think
about this, all of this requests that God puts, all these demands
that God puts out, it's an impossibility for anybody that is born of the
family of Adam to ever hear those words. We're going to get into
that in just a moment in this verse of scripture, but we have
the inability of hearing God's word He's speaking in a language
that is not We're not able to comprehend he's speaking in a
spiritual language and we're fixed among humanity We can't
reach out of that realm. We can't step out of that realm
In fact, the Lord says we must be born again. We must be born
from above. We must be born out of this realm
I don't know how many of you have ever Gone out to your car
and you stuck your key in it and the battery is dead the engine
won't even yeah Well, we have to do something to that battery
the battery is not going to charge itself it's not going to come
alive itself we either have to hook up jumper cables or we have
to put it on some type of charger but we have to reach from the
outside to put it on the inside of that battery and thus it is
with us we are dead in trespasses and sin unless we are charged
from out of our own realm and so here again we turn to the
book of jeremiah chapter thirty one And it tells us there in
verse 18, these words, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus, thou hast chastened me and I was chastened as a bullock
unaccustomed to the yoke. Now notice these words, turn
thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God. The only way we can ever be turned. Now we can look at Israel as
we go through the Old Testament and the challenges that the prophets
brought to them. And yet they're stuck, they're
unable to turn, and the only ones that ever turn are the ones
that God turned, and in turning, they recognize God as the Lord
of hosts, that He is the God Almighty. Look with me in the
next book of Jeremiah, the book of Lamentations. The Lamentations
of Jeremiah, chapter 5. Lamentations of Jeremiah, chapter
5, and there in verse 21. Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord,
and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old. Turn thou us unto thee. The prophet Jeremiah, as he's
lamenting the position of Israel in his day, he just recognizes
that if there's any hope at all, if there's ever any hope at all,
they must be turned by the Lord. So in our verse there in the
book of Zechariah, be not as our fathers unto whom the former
prophets have cried, saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
turn ye now from your evil ways. Turn and then we find out if
the Lord be pleased if the Lord demonstrates grace if the Lord
Loves that people, you know, it was brought to my attention
the other day There is absolutely nowhere in all the scripture
where prophets sit out in the middle of anywhere with a whole
host of people and said God loves you Never do we have that and
yet it is so prominent today now God loves the people loves
the people that are spoken of under the term of Jacob have
I loved and he will do everything necessary every requirement that
is God imposes I Demand that you turn then he'll provide the
turning. I demand that you believe he
will provide the believing I Demand that you come he'll provide the
coming Everything that God demands he provides and his people will
enjoy Well as we look a little further into that verse of scripture
there in the book of Zechariah Zechariah chapter 1 and verse
4 It says turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil
doings. Now here's the problem that's
listed there, but they did not hear. Now we have nor hearken. I learned in math that two negatives
make a positive, but in scripture that doesn't work. In spiritual
things that doesn't work. They were double negatives. They
did not hearken. They did not hear, did not hearken.
They were unable to do this. Now, I would like to look up
that word hear there the first time that it's used. It's not
used in so much the negative as did not hear, but I would
like to look up that word specifically what we find in the scriptures
about this word. Would you turn with me to the
book of Genesis? Genesis chapter 3. much About our own being about
what is going on? In us and those around us is
found here in the book of Genesis. It's the book of beginnings and
This is just after Adam sinned I want to point out once again
and we mentioned this from time to time that when Eve sinned
and when she beheld that fruit." Now, I don't even know whether
to call it that or not. Because when she ate that fruit,
nothing happened. She was not the responsible party.
Adam was the responsible party. He's the representative. Just
as we find that Christ is the representative for the church,
not the church for the church, But Christ is the representative
for the church. He is the one that represents. And we find that it wasn't Eve
that represented the human race, it was Adam that represented
the human race. It is the first Adam, all fell,
all sinned, all died. The second Adam, all that he
represents shall be made alive. So we look here in the book of
Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8 and it tells us about Adam and Eve,
the eyes of them both, verse 7, were open and they knew that
they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves aprons. Now upon Adam's eating of that
fruit the eyes of them both were open and then in verse 8, and
they heard. Now that's the same word that
we find over in Zechariah chapter 1 There verse 4 they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden Now that takes
some special ears God had given them the ability prior to the
fall of Knowing that the Lord was coming to visit and he's
not ceasing to do that now He's not coming down to find out what
happened. Oh my He knows what happened He's known it so well
that he's already provided a lamb to take away the sin of his people
he's already provided that a lamb slain from the foundation of
the world and as God the Lord God as Jehovah Elohim as Jehovah
God comes down and walks in the garden in the cool of that day
of the eve that day they heard him and in verse 11 it says and
he said Who has told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten
the tree whereof thou commanded thee, and shouldest not eat?
The Lord, in speaking to them in this manner, shares with them
that He absolutely knows what's going on. He wants them to know
what's going on. They did not hear. They did not
hearken. They did not hear the first time. The idea that's in this word
is they had no hearing. They're in chapter 1 in verse
4 of the book of Zechariah. Well, for a moment, these folks
in the Garden of Eden had a moment where they heard the voice of
the Lord. Now, this is going to be gone in moments. Hearing
is a wonderful fruit of the presence of God's grace of regeneration. Not to hear is natural. We are
born not hearing. We're born deaf spiritually. We don't have the capabilities
of hearing spiritual things. The Holy Spirit reveals spiritual
things, but we'll never come to the conclusion of spiritual
things on our own. In fact, it is brought up in
the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Who hath believed our report? And belief is based upon hearing. Who hath heard our report and
believed it? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? It's what Isaiah brings up. What
a blessing it is! To hear, who hath believed our
report? Something heard, the news, the
tidings, who's believed the report about the Lord Jesus Christ?
A dear friend of mine shared with me one time recently that
he had a conversation with a dear person in his family, and this
dear person says, you don't believe I'm saved. And he says, I know
you're not. And she said, how do you know
that? Well, number one, you've never been a sinner, and number
two, you don't believe the report. You don't believe the word of
God. And that's just, those two things sew up the difference
between saved people and lost people. People who even think
they're saved, most of them, you get to visit with them and
they're so proud of themselves, they've never been a sinner,
and yet they also don't believe the word of God. When you bring
to them about the gospel and about how God is a God that actually
saves and didn't make anybody savable, they rankle up. They
must believe the word of God. God tells us that. Too often
men hear the words sounding like drums and trumpets outside their
walls. An old preacher in England shared
this. And they are filled with admiration of the material music,
but their city gates fast closed and vigilantly guarded so that
the truth has no admittance but only the sound. You know, it's
a tinkling sound. And people guard themselves greatly
from hearing the word. So we have to have some outside
intervention for us in order for us to hear the blessed word
of God. People hear strange things. The Bible tells us this very
thing. Things are brought up that are
spiritual people have strange interpretations about what's
going on Here in the book of Matthew. Would you turn over
there in the book of Matthew notice with me in the book of
Matthew chapter 27 Matthew chapter 27 the Lord Jesus speaks something
from the cross one of his seven sayings from the cross Matthew
chapter 27 and verse 40 verse 47 Verse 46, he says this, now this
is almost a direct quote from the 22nd Psalm, and if these
folks who claim to have known the scriptures as they did, and
probably could quote ten times more than I can quote, and yet
they passed over when they heard these words It says, in about
the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying the 22nd
Psalm, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now they didn't have that interpretation.
I'm thankful that the Holy Spirit gave it to us as we read this
verse of scripture today. But notice the very next verse,
some of them that stood there when they heard that, When they
heard that cry from the cross, when they heard the Lord Jesus
cry this from the cross, when he quoted Psalm 22 from the cross,
it says, this man calleth for Elias. When they heard that,
it said, this man calleth for Elias, or Elisha, calling for
the Old Testament prophet. Well, he's not doing that. He's
declaring the position that he's in. My goodness when our sin
was imputed to him and God the father poured out his deepest
The human wrath upon him in that crucible of the cross We hear
him saying my god my god. Why has thou forsaken me? He's
not crying for help from Elisha. He's not crying for help from
anybody he's he's sharing with us what he is enduring on that
cross and He is enduring the judgment for our sin on that
cross as he Was given our sin as it was placed upon him and
God poured out his wrath upon him We hear him say that now
we have him say seven different things from the cross the next
thing Says into the hands I come in my spirit or it's finished.
So the fellowship is restored right here He's not talking to
the father. He's talking to God Well those
around him misunderstood Misinterpreted misquoted what was going on?
Would you turn with me to the book of Luke? people hear the
strangest things in Luke chapter 23 in verse 8 Luke chapter 23
in verse 8 and We have this passage of scripture
given to us to put us on guard about why and what we've heard
about the Lord Jesus. Some only look at him from a
fleshly standpoint. They look at him as a dinner
ticket. They look at him as a means of
getting through this life and paying their bills. It's a social
gospel. It's a economic gospel. And here,
We have Herod saw Jesus. He was exceeding glad For he
was desirous to see him of a long season Because he had heard many
things of him now my goodness Some this is just say he's he's
wanting to hear something about the gospel. No read the rest
of it. I He hoped to have seen some
miracle done by him. My religion is just in that category. They want to see something of
the flesh. They want to see something, a
miracle. They want to reach in and grab
snakes. They want to have all sorts of
things happen, but they do not want to actually hear the word
of God. It's all physical. It's all in
the flesh. And that's what Herod's telling
us. People hear the strangest things. Here is the God of glory
standing before Herod, and all he could hope for was that somebody
would come in that had some kind of problem, and Jesus would heal
him. And it wouldn't have changed his mind one bit anyway. John
chapter 12. Would you look there with me
in John chapter 12? Again, people hear the strangest things. When
it comes to religion, you can hear anything. I used to have
a friend that would say around this place you can hear anything
but meat fried in a fry pan and money jingling in the pocket.
Well, in religion you can literally hear anything. And over here
in the book of John, chapter 12, verse 28, it tells us here,
John chapter 12 and verse 28, Father glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again. What a wonderful voice spoke
from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye him. In this passage
of scripture we have the Father speaking from heaven. I have
glorified it and will glorify it again. The people therefore
that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said
an angel spoke to him. Now isn't that something? This
is how deaf we are when God of Heaven speaks to His only Beloved
Son we would categorize it as thunder or some spiritual being
speaking to him. There's more said about angels
by religion than there is about the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
got these things around necks, we've got all kinds of decorations
about these angels, protective angels and so forth, and have
not one whit, one thought about the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Savior. Again, over here in the book
of Acts chapter 9, In the book of Acts chapter 9, we have some
more that hear anything. Acts chapter 9, this is that
passage of scripture where we are made acquainted with Saul
of Tarsus. In verse 1, Saul, yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord, went unto the high priest. And we know the rest of the story.
You could read it along. Let us drop down here to Verse
seven of this. And the men which journeyed.
Now what was said? Jesus spoke unto Saul and said,
I am Jesus whom thou persecuted. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. What did he say before that?
Saul, Saul. He named him by name. Why persecutest
thou me? What a lovely statement we have
here with regard to the love that the Lord Jesus Christ has
for his church. And when it's persecuted, he's
being persecuted. And then he told him who he is.
I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And in chapter 9 and verse 6,
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. and verse seven, and the men which journeyed with
him. Now he didn't go alone. This man doesn't do most of his
dirty work. This man is traveling with a
great host of people that he is the leader of and they're
in agreement with. And it says, the men which journeyed
with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. Now,
that is just what religion is expecting. Hear a voice and want
to see something. That's why Christianity is so
strange among what's in the world, because they pray, God's people
pray to someone they've never physically seen. They pray to
the God of Heaven. They're directed by a Holy Spirit. They're not directed by some
picture, or some glass, or some item, some stone. They're not
directed by that. They're not led to that. So,
hearing they heard not. And what a blessing it is to
hear, and it is so blessed that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
said, My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice." Now,
we read over there in the book of Zechariah that the prophets
came and told him, this is what you need to do, turn. They couldn't
turn. They're stuck in the mud. They
can't turn. And then he says, they would not hear and they
would not hearken. They would not hear. Now, the
words were out there. The prophet is not speaking in
an unknown tongue to those folks, but it is, from a spiritual standpoint,
it is virtually an unknown tongue. There is nothing comprehensible
about it. It's no wonder that people are
so tied up in their own righteousness because that's the language that
the natural man understands. It's no wonder that they're tied
up in doing their own work because that's the language that natural
man comprehends and understands. And almost all the preachers
that are preaching anything about the Bible are preaching about
this work that you must do. You must step, because God's
done all He can do. It's left up to us. It's left
up to them. And we find out, when it comes
to the spiritual things of the Word of God, we can't do one
of them. We are absolutely in desperate
need of help, and yet the Lord has promised that He will do
all that is required in order to take care of the problem.
Would you turn with me to the book of John chapter 8? John
chapter 8, as we think about this subject of hearing, what
a blessing it is to hear, to have our ears unstopped. John
chapter 8, verse 47. John chapter 8 and verse 47. John chapter 8 and verse 47,
it says, he that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear
them not, because ye are not of God. Now the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only preacher that ever spoke to a congregation of people
and knew those that were his that were yet lost, and those
that were his that were found, and those who were never going
to be his. He knew. We don't. We're called
on to preach the gospel to every creature. Opportunities arise
we have the proper privilege of declaring the glory and riches
of Christ's salvation in his perfect death upon the cross
his holy righteousness is what we need and here the scriptures
say He that is of God heareth God's words It's not a problem. God gives hearing ears. He unlocks
the ear that we're born with it's a ear that only her hears
a language and that is compatible to works. Only here's a language
that is compatible to our own self-righteousness. We can't
get over, we can't get out of it. God has to give us hearing
ears. He has to give us, unstop our
ears. He has to create ears, in other
words, so that we can hear the things that be of God. But he
said, he that is of God, he that's born again, he that has God as
his father, Jesus Christ is their Savior heareth God's Word God's
words but You hear not because you are
not of God now that could be said about almost all of those
folks over there and in the book of Zechariah chapter 1 and verse
4 they did not hear they did not hearken and even though they
were preached to by generations of folks. I'm going to go on
and share with us, where are the prophets? They're dead. Where
are your fathers? They're dead. Well, it continues
on to this day. The preaching of Christ and the
preaching of the gospel continues on, and we pray that God would
unstop ears, give ears to hear. In the book of Luke, chapter 7, we have this
mention about a message to take to John, John the Baptist, who
is in prison at this very time. It wouldn't be very long. John
would be taken, his life would be taken from him. At the right
time, according to the purpose of God, the purpose of grace,
he would fulfill in his death the way that God would receive
glory in anybody dying. He does. He's going to receive
glory in the death of his saints. And it says here, Jesus answering
those investigators, those that John sent. They're sincere. And John is in prison, and Jesus
said, take him this message. Take him this message. By it,
he'll know. Then Jesus answering said unto
them, go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and
heard. Now these are some of the things. How that the blind see. How the
lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The
deaf hear. The dead are raised. To the poor, the gospel is preached. Now, every one of those things
can be taken from a spiritual sense, too. And that's where
we're going to say this is spiritual, that the Lord Jesus has done
all of these things, how the blind see, how the Lord gives
us eyes to see, to see the glory of God, to see the glory of Christ,
to see the glory of the cross, to see the glory of our sins
being put away, and it's a glorious salvation that he allows us to
see. And it tells us here, the lame
walk, we're all bent over because of the fall. We were once upright,
but no longer are we, And we're able to rise up to walk. The lepers are cleansed. Leprosy
is so often termed and spoken of as a picture of sin. And lepers are cleansed. Sinners
are cleansed. The deaf hear. We're finally
able to hear the glories of the gospel whether they were our
ears. We have new ears We have spiritual
ears granted to us now There's so much about the Bible that
even those who have spent their lifetime studying it. Well will
Honestly, they'll say I know very little about this word It
is so deep We had a dear brother in our congregation that teaches
the Bible class, and this last Sunday in his Bible class, he
says, launch out into the deep, and it is deep. And the more
we go out, the more we will see. The more the Lord opens to our
eyes, the more we'll see. But we've got to have eyes given
to us to see. We have to have ears given to
us to hear. We have to have legs given to us to serve him and
walk towards him. I used to hear he only has His
only legs are our legs and his only hands are our hands in that
foolishness. That is just absolute foolishness God works a new life
Into dead people here. It says right there the dead
are raised to the poor the gospel is preached Tell John these things
and as he spoke these things he's also telling people Everyone
that is going to have the privilege of reading these words These
folks that Jesus Christ is dealing with we get the benefit of hearing
about and we also get the benefit of participating in that his
blessings to us in the book of John chapter 5 John chapter 5
It says here John chapter 5 and verse 25 This is us again here. We are the hour is coming and
Verily I say unto thee, John chapter 5 verse 25, verily, verily
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. Now, there's such a blessing
that God has for us when he goes through this world. As the preacher
preaches the gospel, as we hear the glorious gospel, the truth
of the cross, the truth of salvation, the truth of God, the truth about
sin, the truth about salvation, the truth of the blood, the truth
of all the word of God. Uses a preacher to present that
to us and we walk away Unhearing if we really were able to hear
we'd flee to him, but we were just deaf It's just words and
there's just no doubt we looked at it There's just not enough
works in that this can't be right. I've got to be doing something
well when the Lord does what he said he does here when he
goes through a Says the hours coming and now is when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God Now there's a demonstration
in the scriptures about Lazarus and we make reference to him
often but Lazarus just a demonstration of God raising a Physical person
a physically dead person to to life But we look at that from
a spiritual context and we find it takes the same power that
Jesus exhibited in the creation of the heavens and the earth
the same power that was going to be demonstrated in his own
resurrection. It takes that same divine power
to raise anybody from the spiritual dead, and it is God alone that
can do it. The Lord of hosts is the only
one that can do this what is necessary. The hour is coming,
and now is, and I'm thankful for that hour that came when
God, by His providence, permitted a preacher of the gospel to come
to where I lived and preach the gospel, and I heard it, and I
was upset about it, but in the end, God did His work. The hour came, and now was, when
he raised a dead person, spiritually speaking, to life. The gospel
call. God used it in a miraculous way. And just as it says here, the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall live.
Now that's a miracle. Dead people hearing. And yet,
God tells us in his word that that is the business of God to
take dead people and cause them to hear. That's his business.
He's dealing with dead people, dead in trespasses and sin. And verse 28 of that same chapter,
marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are
in the grave shall hear the voice, hear his voice. There's going
to be a host that no man can ever but they'll all hear Now
we can apply that to this life As we go through it and god is
saving all of his elect out of every nation country people and
tongue And we also see that at the end time When all the last
saved The last elect is saved there's going to be a resurrection
and all will hear that voice and all be brought out of the
graves But what a marvel marvel not at this for the hour is coming
in which all that are in the grave shall hear. God is not
going to lose one of his people to this death that we have in
the flesh. The death that we were brought
up on us in our father, Adam, this death, he is going to be
superior to that death and raise his people from the spiritual
dead. Over in the book of Mark, There's
an interesting passage of scripture here about the fame of the Lord
Jesus When they heard that he was around The fame of the Savior
It tells us that he had gone across on a ship, verse 54 of
the sixth chapter of Mark, and when they were come out of the
ship straightway, they knew him, and they ran through that whole
region round about. These that had observed the Lord
coming off of that ship. They'd been watching that ship
crossing that sea, and as they watched it, they saw him come
off the ship, and they straightway, when they recognized him, they
ran through the whole region roundabout and began to carry
about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. My goodness. We hear people say,
and I heard this for years, My dad was a Bible class teacher,
didn't know a thing about the gospel. We'd go home after church
and listen to a fellow by the name of Graham. And oh, he lauded
him, praised him, talked about him. He preaches a good gospel
and so forth. And that man didn't know a thing
about the gospel. And he would tell anybody that
made some profession of faith, go to the church of your choice. Now that's evidence that he didn't
know a thing about the gospel, because if you know something
about the gospel, you're going to go and you're going to send
people to where he is. They brought the sick where they
heard he was. The only place we can send those
that are deaf is to where he is. The only place we can send
people to those that are blind is to where he is, where the
gospel is being preached. It doesn't do any good to send
them anywhere else. No counseling session, no act
of prayer, nothing can help them out. We must take them where
he is, where the gospel is being preached. We don't understand
all the ways of God, do we? My goodness, we just can't comprehend
how God would take somebody that is dead in trespasses and sin,
they hear the gospel and by the Spirit of God would reveal Christ
to them in a new life. I don't understand it, but I'm
going to preach it. God is gracious to us to have
hearing ears. God is gracious to us that he
would bless us with the ability to hear his word. We don't have
that comprehension by nature. We're born deaf and we'll never
get that fixed. There's no hearing aids that
will fix that problem. It isn't the matter of hearing
the physical words. If it was that, all we'd have
to do is define the words as they're defined in the dictionary
or a concordance and people would flock to it because that would
be right. But you know that that doesn't happen. It takes the
grace of God, takes the mercy of God, takes the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Flesh and blood did not reveal
this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. Well, as
we come to the close of our study tonight on the book of Zechariah,
this series as we go through, we find that the Lord shares
with us through the prophet Zechariah. Turn ye now from your evil ways
and from your evil doings, but they did not hear nor hearken
unto me, saith Jehovah. Now that's who they didn't hear,
and that's who they didn't hearken to. It wasn't just that prophet
that was preaching. It was they didn't hear God. They didn't hear Jehovah. Why? They had no ears to hear. They
had no eyes to see. That must be given to us. We must be given the eyes and
the ears and the mind that God gives in the resurrection, our
resurrection, so that we'll be able to hear God. If we don't
hear God, we are none of His. Well, bless you tonight as we
think about these things and we look forward to the next time
we can be together. Thank you.