Let's go back to the book of
Zechariah, chapter 14, and this will be our last message, at
least unless the Lord changes my mind. It's going to be the
last message from the book of Zechariah, chapter 14. Chapter 14 of the prophecy of
Zechariah. The first few words of the first
verse read this way, Behold the day of the Lord cometh. This isn't a 24-hour day, but
it is a definite period of time. And we have an understanding
of the beginning of this day It was at the birth of our Lord
Jesus. And we have an understanding
of the end of this day of the Lord, and that's when he comes
the second time. And from that first advent unto
his second advent, that is the day of the Lord. It's not a 24-hour period. It's actually a period of time
that we have no awareness of the length of it. We just know
when it began, and we know that it will end when our Lord Jesus
comes back to this earth. We don't know the duration of
it. Pay absolutely no attention to the date setters. There are
always men when something happens in the world that they think
is going to trigger the second coming of our Lord Jesus. It's
like these prophecy majors seem to come out of the woodwork like
bugs and set a date for the coming of our Lord. Well, it's close
now. Only thing I can tell you is it's closer now than it's
ever been before. I can tell you that with certainty.
But the Savior said, and He's speaking, He spoke in His capacity
as the Son of Man. He said even the Son of Man doesn't
know when that end is going to be. He said the angels don't
know. But He said my Father in Heaven
knows the end of this duration, the end of this period of time
called the Day of Our Lords, from his first coming to his
second coming. It's actually the reason that
I selected the songs that we sang this morning, because the
first song was about his first coming. And this hymn that we
just finished singing is about his second coming. And everything
in between, and only God knows how long this period of time,
the gospel day, the age of the church, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the day of our Lord, only God knows how long this will be. But during this age, I'll call
it the age of grace, the age of the gospel, the message of
God's redeeming grace to poor sinners continues to go forth. It shall not be hindered in any
way whatsoever. God's saving His people. God's
drawing His elect unto the Lord Jesus by the power of the Sovereign
Spirit's effectual call of grace. The message of redeeming love,
of redeeming grace goes forth throughout this gospel age The
message of our Lord Jesus and his successful work of redemption
and reconciliation continues to go forth. And the Spirit of
God takes this message and he teaches people, he woos people,
he draws people irresistibly to the Son of God. For you see,
the Word of God shall never be a failure. No word of the Lord
shall ever drop to the ground as that which is lost. All of His purposes shall be
fulfilled, and the gospel will always be successful in the thing
whereunto He sends it. Yes, our Lord came the first
time. A lot of people are talking about
His coming, especially this time of year. We can be sure of this,
he actually didn't come December the 25th. And Christmas, though
it is a national holiday, and it is on our calendars, Christmas
is not a religious holy day. It's not set forth in the Bible
that we ought to celebrate his birth. I'm thankful it came.
And I'm thankful that at least I have the opportunity to tell
people this time of the year the reason that He came into
this world, because the world doesn't know. Our Savior came
into this world to save His people from their sins. He was on a
mission of mercy. He's not a babe anymore. He's
not a man hanging on a cross anymore. He's not a man who's
in a tomb anymore. He who came lived a life of perfection,
died a death of substitution, satisfaction, a sacrifice presented
to God. And upon the basis of him fulfilling
God's purpose of redemption, he was raised from the dead.
40 days later, he went to glory and he sat down at the right
hand of God. And that's what I'll be preaching
on tonight, at the right hand of God. That's where he's at
right now. Our Savior, when he came, was
victorious, as he always is. The first time he came was in
the weakness of infancy. The second time he will come
in great power and great glory. The first time he was despised
and rejected In fact, no sooner was he born and Herod received
word that he had been born, Herod set out to murder him. Yes, he
was despised and rejected of men, but when it comes the second
time, all will acknowledge he's the Lord. He's the sovereign
king. When he was born, few saw him.
Mary was there, of course. Joseph, the shepherds came in,
directed by the angels, and the oxen and the cattle,
whatever animals were in the stall there, they witnessed his
birth. But when he comes a second time,
there won't be anything secretive about it. You read Revelation
chapter 1, every eye shall see it. There's a national preacher,
has a commercial on, he's advertising his book. And he talks about
in that day the Lord's gonna come and he shows pictures of
people being all together and then a bunch of them, suddenly
they all disappear. And they call it the secret rapture.
Now, if you want to believe that, you go ahead. I think I'll just
believe the Word of God that says every eye shall see Him.
Won't be anything secretive about it. You'll know when He comes
back if you're one of His, if you're a believer, if you've
been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, robed in the
garments of salvation, you'll know when He comes back because
you'll go up to meet Him in the clouds. If you don't know Him,
if you're unwashed, if you're unrighteous, if you're unfit
for His coming, you'll know it as well because you'll be immediately
dragged off to the judgment to face the wrath of God that you
must endure throughout the endless ages of eternity. But everybody's
going to know when He comes back. When our Lord came the first
time, he came to usher in the age of grace. When he comes back the second
time, it will be to usher in the age of eternity. No more
time. When he came the first time,
he came as the servant of Jehovah to fulfill God's redemptive will. As He was descending, He said,
according to Hebrews chapter 10, Lo, I come to do Thy will,
O God. What will was that? The will
of justifying sinners by His blood. The will of satisfying
divine justice by His death. The will of putting away all
the sins, all the trespasses, all the iniquities of His people
forever. the will of God to bring in everlasting
righteousness for all of those chosen of God in the election
of grace. Yes, at his first coming, he
came as the servant of Jehovah. When he comes the second time,
he will come as the judge who will divide the sheep from the
goats. I thank God by the witness of
the Spirit I am to be numbered among the sheep of God in that
day. Which group you going to be in
because in the end there will only be two groups of people.
Now there's something to ponder. We're so bound by what's going
on right now. Are you one of the Lord's? In
that day, will you be found safe in the Lord Jesus Christ? You
see, somewhere along life's way, the sheep are brought to love
and believe and follow the shepherd. Somewhere along life's way, the
Spirit of God will teach you the necessity of the shepherd
coming into this world to pay the debt of sin the sheep owed. Sometime during your lifetime,
if you're one of the Lord's sheep, you will be brought to fall at
the feet of the true Shepherd of the sheep, the Good Shepherd
who laid down His life, the Great Shepherd who's come again, the
Chief Shepherd who shed His blood. You will fall down before Him
in your heart and believe on Him and say, Thou art the Lord
forever. You're my Savior. You're my God. I need no other. In that day, he will sit as the
judge, read Matthew chapter 25, and there will be a great separation.
Actually, the division took place before the world ever began. It will be manifested when time
shall be no more. I remember reading in the book
of Exodus after the children of Israel, many of them had fallen
down and worshiped the golden calf. And Moses gathered all
of Israel before him. He said, who is on the Lord's
side? Who's on the Lord's side? Let
him step over here. And I ask you, are you on the Lord's
side? Are you on the Lord's side? I
say by the grace of God I am. Because he put me among his people. That's God's free and sovereign
grace. He shall come the second time
to be the judge and the standard by which all men will be judged
is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be thinking,
Jim, I'm as good as you are. Well, whoop-dee-doo, I'm no good. If you're better than me, you
ain't saying much. But I'm not the standard. Christ
is. Now how do you stack up next
to him? See, that's the issue. The standard
of righteousness. and all who have been brought
to believe him are made the righteousness of God in him. In him. He came the first time to be
the savior of sinners. He came to lay down his life
for his sheep. He honored God throughout his
ministry. and then he died to save his
people from their sins. In his second coming, he will
come as the shepherd, the great divider, and in that day will
be made known publicly before all of the universe, before all
of creation, who are his and who are not. I tell you, we're privileged
to be living in the day of our Lord. We're greatly privileged. And in this chapter, the prophet
of God is led to mention this day seven particular times. The key phrase in this chapter
is, in that day. And he uses those specific words,
he uses those words seven times. And this is my outline, this
is my title, In That Day. So, I'll give them to you. If
you want to mark them, fine. If you don't, that's okay, too.
First of all, look at verse 4. We're talking about the day of
the Lord. And his feet shall stand in that day. Now remember,
we're not talking about one 24-hour day. We're talking about a day
that began at his birth and will end at his second coming. And
his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives,
which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives
shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the
west. And there shall be a very great
valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north,
and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to a valley
that has therefore been opened up, because he cleaved it." There
will be a valley opened up in this mountain, And He says, that's
where you'll flee to, because that's going to be the path of
safety. That's going to be the way to
salvation. For the valley of the mountains
shall reach unto Azel. Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the
earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And the Lord my
God shall come and all of his saints with him." Much is said
in the four gospel narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
about our Savior and this mountain, the Mount of Olives. Luke tells
us, Luke 21, he went as he was want as he was used to do to
the Mount of Olives. It's where he spent a lot of
time in the Mount of Olives. He would go there and seek God's
face in prayer. He would go there to rest. He
would go there to be alone with God. It was to this very mountain
that David went. David went up this mountain one
time barefooted and weeping. Because Absalom was on his trail,
Absalom the rebellious son, who took power away from his father. And David went up the Mount of
Olives barefooted and weeping as a type of Christ. In John
chapter 7, the Pharisees were hounding our Lord as they often
did. And the last verse of chapter
seven says, and every man went to his own house. And chapter
eight, verse one of John says, and Jesus went to the Mount of
Olives. It was from this Mount that he
taught the Mount Olivet discourse. That's Matthew chapters 24 and
25. In that message, in that discourse,
he preached about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which
would happen in 70 AD. In that passage of Scripture,
he spoke about his second coming. In that passage of Scripture,
he brought the parable of the fig tree, the parable of the
ten virgins. Five were wise, five were foolish. the parable of the five wise
servants and the five foolish servants. And he finished it
up in chapter 25 with that great message concerning the separation
of the sheep and the goats at his second coming. You'll remember
after he instituted the Lord's Supper, he had conducted the
Passover, which he is God's Passover lamb. And then, after they had
had the Lord's Supper, the bread and the wine, it says they sang
a hymn, and then he went out. Where did he go? To the Mount
of Olives. The Mount of Olives. And the
Mount of Olives was a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem,
which was roughly a mile. And from the elevated city of
Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives could be seen. On the night that
our Lord was betrayed, He entered into Gethsemane's garden at the
foot of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives, of course,
was a mountain known for its olive trees. which when pressed,
the olives brought forth olive oil." That's a very healthy thing. And if you do any cooking at
all and do any reading today at all, you know how important
olive oil is. And our Lord Jesus went to the
Mount of Olives and into the Garden of Gethsemane, and there
he began his sorrows. It was on the Mount of Olives,
at the base of the Mount of Olives, that he began his agony. As he prayed and sweat, as it
were, great drops of blood. Yes, the Mount of Olives was
very significant in our Lord's ministry. And then it was to this Mount
of Olives, to the base of it, to this garden, that the soldiers
came, led by Judas Iscariot. That's where he was arrested.
and taken over to Jerusalem, and tried before a religious
court and found guilty, and tried before a civil court and found
worthy of death based upon the accusations of the religious
leaders. And our Lord Jesus died upon
the cross of Calvary on Mount Calvary facing the Mount of Olives. This is the area of His great
sorrow, His great agony. This is where He suffered, bled,
and died to pay for our sins. And it may be when our Lord Jesus
comes back that He will literally split that mountain, because
I know He's going to come back to the Mount of Olives when He
touches this earth again. Because in Acts chapter one,
the messenger from God, the angel said to the disciples who watched
the Savior ascend up to heaven, said, why stand you here gazing
up into heaven as though you'll never see him again? This same
Jesus shall so come again in like manner as you have seen
him go, and he ascended from the Mount of Olives. And it may be when he comes back,
he will literally split that mountain. I don't know. But I
see something else here, because I'm always looking for Christ
and his gospel. I'll tell you what I think this
means. When our Lord Jesus died upon the cross of Calvary, the
mount of our sins, oh, what a mountain it was that stood between us
and God. The Lord said to Israel, your
sins and iniquities have separated you from me. And like a great
mountain, our sins stood in the way of us and a holy God. And
our Lord Jesus came and the mountain cleaved. He split it in two. And he opened up a path through
that mountain, a way unto God. And he is that way. He did what
nobody else could ever do. He did something about our sin
problem. The mountain of our sins, it
cleaved due to the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
destroyed our sins. He brought in everlasting righteousness
and he opened a way to safety. And the prophet of God says,
flee, flee through this valley, through this path that's opened
up. And I call upon all of you, and may the Spirit of God make
the effectual call to you. Flee to Christ, the only way
to safety. He's the only way to God. You
see, our Lord Jesus, just like those olives were pressed, and
the olive oil came out, our Lord Jesus was pressed, pressed by
the wrath of God. And that which came forth as
a result was not only redeeming grace, but regenerating grace,
the work of the Spirit. And the Spirit is so often typified
in the scriptures as being the oil of gladness. When the poor traveler was beaten
up and left along the roadside and a priest and a Levite came
by and they couldn't help him whatsoever. The good Samaritan
came by. He poured oil into his wounds. I tell you, the Spirit of God
wounds us over our sins. He wounds us over our guilt.
And then he pours in the oil of gladness. Christ the Savior
died for your sins, and he put them all away. Yes, the prophet says, in that
day, in that day, something happened on the Mount of Olives. It happened
when he came the first time, and something's gonna happen
when he comes back the second time on that mountain. Secondly,
I've gotta go quickly. In that day, verse six, it shall
be neither, clear nor dark. Look at verse six. And it shall
come to pass in that day. Here's the second time that expression
is used now. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark. That is in this gospel day, in
this gospel age, the age of grace, this last day, the period between
our Lord's first coming and His second coming, it will be for
the people of God a mixed state of darkness and light. We were
in darkness, the darkness of evil, the darkness of death,
the darkness of religious error, But we have been brought into
the light. Christ is the light. And the
scripture says, in thy light we shall see light. The spirit
of God illuminates us with the light of the word of God, because
thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. And the
word of God enlightens us. We were in the darkness of ignorance,
but we've been brought into the light of the knowledge of God
through Christ Jesus our Savior. But such is our state of sinfulness,
that light that we walk in is not perfect light. It's mixed with darkness. In
fact, all of the people of God, must not we say this? We're light
in the Lord. but there remains much darkness
in us. We don't have perfect knowledge.
We don't have perfect faith. We have perfect righteousness,
but that's imputed to us. But nothing about us is perfect. The light isn't perfect as of
yet. As of yet. We don't have perfect
knowledge. No wonder we read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 13, Paul said, we see through a glass. What's the next
word? Darkly. Darkly. We don't see anything real clear.
Say, Jim, there's a lot in the Bible I don't understand. I mean,
I'll be honest with you, there's a lot in Zechariah chapter 14
I don't understand. We see through a light, through
a glass, darkly. We don't have perfect vision.
We don't have 2020 spiritual vision as of yet. It's a mixture
of light and darkness. However, however, there is coming
a day when there shall be no more darkness. Look at verse
seven. But it shall be one day which
shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night. That's where we're
at now. But it shall come to pass that
at evening time it shall be light. There's coming a day when there's
not gonna be any night. There's not gonna be any darkness.
It will be all light, all light. I'm sure Marty remembers this
song, probably Joe remembers this song too. In the land of
fatalist day lies a city four square. It shall never pass away
and there is no night there. God shall wipe away every tear. There'll be no death, no pain,
no fear. And they count not years, they
count not time by years and years, for there is no night there. But there's no need of the sunshine
there either. Because we read in Revelation
chapter 21, the Lamb, the Lamb is all the light in the city
of God. I tell you, we're heading to
a land that's absolutely glorious. And the most glorious thing about
the land to which we're going to is that Christ is there. And the brilliance, the radiance
of His own glory will illuminate all of heaven and all of earth.
Because John, I will remind you, said in Revelation chapter 21,
he saw the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride prepared
for her bridegroom. Somehow we're going to have access
to heaven and earth. And there won't be any more sunshine.
Won't be any more moon. won't be more stars shining because
there won't be any night. The only glorious light that
there shall be in that day is the Lamb of God, who is all the
light, all the light in the city of God. Thirdly, in that gospel
day, here's something else, look at verse eight. And it shall
be in that day, here's the third one, in that day that living
waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the former
sea, half of them toward the hinder sea, and it flows, this
river of living waters will flow in summer as in winter. That is, there will be no drought
in summer to stop this river from flowing, this river of life. There shall be no winter when
the waters will be frozen. No one will be able to stop the
flow of living waters. Where do they come from? Well,
first of all, from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the church. The
reason we exist is to set forth the living waters of the gospel. That's the reason we preach the
gospel of Christ, salvation through his bloody sacrifice over and
over again. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified
and the living waters go forth. And you know what? The living
waters are going forth this morning. And ultimately the living waters,
I'll tell you where they come from. Revelation 22 tells us
they come from the throne of God. That's where the living
waters come from. The living waters of salvation. In fact, Christ himself is the
living water. He's the water of life. He stood
and cried the last day of the feast of tabernacles and said,
if any man thirst, let him come to me, come to me and drink. Come to me, not come to the church,
not come to the baptistry, not come to the 10 commandments,
not come to the law, come to me and drink. Because he's the
living water. And I'll tell you who will drink,
people who are thirsty. Are you thirsty for healing?
I know God creates a thirst for forgiveness. That's true. God
creates a thirst for righteousness. That's true. God creates a thirst
for salvation. That's true. But that heart that
has been operated on by the Spirit of God, as David said, as the
heart, as the deer panteth after the water book, So panteth my
soul after thee, after thee, O God. I thirst for Christ. Our
Lord said to a woman at Jacob's well, that Samaritan woman, he
that comes to me, he that drinks of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst again. No wonder Isaiah said, therefore
with joy shall I draw water from the wells of salvation. You thirsty? Take your feeble little dipper
of faith and dip down in the water and drink. Because you
see these living waters, they just keep on flowing. And you
know what the waters do? They revive God's people. They refresh God's people. They cause God's people to perk
up. The river of living waters. And
they shall flow. And they flow through all seasons. That's what it says. In summer
and winter. That's why Paul said to Timothy,
preach the word, be instant. You remember what he said? In
season and out of season. When there seems to be a dearth,
a famine, a dryness among people and they're not much interested
in hearing of the gospel of God's redeeming grace of the living
water. Just keep on preaching. And when people seem frozen,
cold, hard-hearted, just keep on preaching. Summer and winter,
because the gospel of the living waters of grace cannot be stopped. They shall flow. I like the way it's worded here.
It says, the living water shall go out. They shall go out. Can't be stopped. Here's the
fourth thing in verse nine. In that day, there shall be one
Lord. And the Lord shall be king over
all the earth. In that day shall there be one
Lord in his name, one in that gospel day. What happened? What happened early in this gospel
day? Our Lord Jesus laid down his
life for his sheep and he earned the right to be the Lord, one
Lord. That's why Paul says in Philippians
chapter 2, because he was obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross, God has exalted him, highly exalting him above all,
and given him a name which is above every name. Jesus is the
Lord. Jesus is the Lord. He's the King
over all the earth. One Lord. One king. It doesn't, it really doesn't
matter who the president is or who prime ministers are or the
rulers of the, it doesn't matter really. Because I know who's governing
all of those men and women. I know who's running the whole
shootin' match. One Lord, one king. and it rains forever. I'm not
saying be disinterested in what's going on, and I would say be
a good citizen. Vote according to morality. But after you do what you feel
like is the right thing to do, you just sit back and say, I'm
thankful God's in control of this. My savior is. My elder brother rules all things. I shall not worry about it. like
that woman riding on a passenger ship. It came up a terrible storm,
and she was asleep. She was rooming with another
lady who decided to take the cruise, and the other lady couldn't
sleep, and this one lady slept solid all night. The next morning,
the lady who couldn't sleep said, how could you sleep through that
storm? She said, that's my Lord governing
all things. He's the king of the storms. Said, he's not sleeping, so I'm
gonna sleep. Because you see, our God neither
slumbers nor sleeps. Don't be afraid, don't worry. One Lord. Verse 13 is the fifth
one. And it shall come to pass in
that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among
them. A great trouble. That's what he's talking about.
You remember our Savior said, I didn't come to bring peace. He said, I can't bring a sword. There's a great tumult going
on, great tumults going on in the world, and there's a tumult
going on in your own heart. We're at peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. But this gospel day is a day
of tumult. It's a day of trouble. It's a
day of disappointments. It's a day of wars. But you'll
notice here the tumult comes from the Lord. This is not a day of ease. It's
a day when the people of God are called to take a stand for
the truth. Our Lord said to his disciples,
before he prayed in John 17, he said in John 16, in this world,
you shall have tribulation. You're looking for an easy time
through life? You're not gonna have it. Oh,
there'll be a few easy times, but trouble. Man that is born
of a woman is a few days, and you know what Job then said?
Full of trouble, full of tumult. You say, I've got troubles. Well,
join the rest of the human race. Our Lord said you're going to
have tumult. It's a day of tumult. You will be opposed. The truth
of God will be opposed. Why, there have been times during
this age of grace when the children of God have been pursued to their
deaths. I'll say to you what Paul said
to those Hebrews over in Hebrews chapter 12. He said, you've not
yet suffered under blood. In chapter 11, he talked about
that long list of martyrs who sealed their faith with their
own blood. He said, you haven't suffered
the blood yet. You're going to have difficulties
and oppositions. but they're all under the sovereign
authority of God. And then number six in verse
20, in that day there will be universal holiness. Look at verse
20. In that day shall there be upon
the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord. Where have you
heard those words before? Well, when we studied about Aaron
the high priest, he wore on his head not a miter like the hope
wears, but a turban." That's what Aaron wore, a turban. And
on the front of it was a plate of solid gold engraven with this,
holiness under the Lord. And I'll tell you in that day,
holiness under the Lord, that's going to be the mark of the people
of God throughout eternity because Christ is our holiness and we're
holy in Him. Universal holiness. God has made Christ to be to
us wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption. Holiness. Oh, blissful day. No more sin. What's the cause
of all your troubles? It's sin. That's it. Sin. Take sin out of us. We'll be all right then. And
there's coming a day when sin will be cut out of us, as it
were, and we'll be holy in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is looking forward, of course,
to that eternal day when Christ comes back and establishes perfect
holiness. And lastly, in the end of verse
21, and in that day, At the end of this day, there shall be no more the Canaanite
in the house of the Lord of hosts. And I'll tell you why I know
this is not to be taken literally, because the Canaanites had already
been defeated. You see where it says Canaanite
here, that which we're to understand is those who are filthy in sin,
Those who know not our God, those who are enemies of the gospel,
where we're going in that land of endless day, where there is
no night, in that land where holiness to the Lord will reign
forever, in that land, there won't be anybody there who's
filthy in sin. The wicked not gonna come in.
Only the pure, only the righteous. Only the blood washed in that
day. Oh, I tell you, when the end
of this day comes, and then eternity is ushered in, everything will
be to the glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Holiness
to the Lord that will rule throughout eternity. I sure am looking forward
to it. Aren't you?