Thank you for that song. I thought the song was weak.
Therefore I wrote the last two stanzas several years ago to
give it some gospel. And my words even blessed me
this morning as I listened to them. Thankful for the special
music we have. It ministers to me. And all the
music is honoring to the Lord. And we're thankful to join in
worship. Going back to the prophecy of
Zechariah this morning. And back to chapter number 13
of Zechariah. In the last three verses, excuse
me, in the last three verses, are the ones that I want to look
at this morning. Christ's death and its results. Talk about the death of our Savior
and the results of that death. Let me begin by reading the first
verse of my text, which is verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd
and against the man, the warrior man, the mighty man that is my
fellow, that is my associate, that is my equal, saith the Lord
of hosts, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.
The Lord says, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. Hear the call. Verse 7 is for
the sword of divine justice to awaken against that one whom
God identifies as being my shepherd, that is, the one appointed to
be the shepherd of the sheep that God gave him in covenant
grace. Our Lord is that shepherd. He's the good shepherd who gave
his life for the sheep. He is the great shepherd of the
covenant of grace. And he is the chief shepherd
who is one day going to come again. This sword interests me. And if you remember, we've already
read about this sword back in the 11th chapter. If you'll look
back in chapter 11 and verse 17, Chapter 11 and verse 17. Our Lord is speaking to the false
shepherds. He's speaking to those men who
ought to have been delivering the message of grace, the message
of salvation through the Son of God, the message of salvation
by substitution and satisfaction, These men who professed that
they were shepherds appointed by God, but they were false shepherds. They did not have the gospel.
They did not care for those to whom they preached. They had
no love for the great shepherd of the sheep. They are false
shepherds. And our Lord has some very, very
stern words for them in chapter 11 and verse 17. Look at it with
me. Woe to the idle shepherd. Woe to the useless shepherd. Woe to the worthless shepherd
that leaveth the flock the sword It's the same sword that's mentioned
in chapter 13, verse 7. This is the sword of vengeance.
This is the sword of judgment. This is the very sword of wrath.
God said in Deuteronomy chapter 22, this sword is very sharp
and glistening. And the Lord here in chapter
11, He pictures or portrays this sword as being drawn out to do
damage to false shepherds. It says, the sword shall be upon
his arm and upon his right eye. Upon his arm, that's his power,
that's his strength. and upon His right eye. The eye
is often used for understanding, for seeing things. God says,
My judgment is upon these who are false shepherds. And My sword
of judgment is going to fall against their power. I'm going
to destroy their power. And I'm going to destroy their
understanding. And it says in the rest of this
verse, His arms shall be clean, dried up. There's no life in
these shepherds. They don't have the message of
life. They don't have the message of salvation by grace alone. They don't have the message of
Jesus Christ, who is the life that God gives us. They don't
have the very truth of God. They have no understanding of
how God in heaven can save sinners on earth. So the Lord says his
arm shall be clean, dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly
darkened. And if God utterly darkens a
man while he's in this vile world, he will never see the truth.
He will never come to understand how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. And so here the sword of justice
is raised against worthless and useless shepherds. They have
many awful attributes. There's no question about that. But the false shepherd has one
great distinguishing characteristic and attribute. And it was read to us in John
chapter number 10. Go back to that passage, please.
I asked Ron to read this because our Lord has something to say
about these false shepherds. who are worthless, who are useless,
for they do not have the message of life. They do not have the
message of righteousness. They do not have the message
of God's salvation. They do not have the message
of salvation by a crucified, buried, risen, ascended, exalted
Savior. They don't have the message of
salvation by the innocent dying instead of the guilty. They don't
have the message of salvation by the sovereign will of God. You see, false shepherds always,
inevitably, must describe salvation to the sinner. And that's a characteristic
of the false shepherds. Look in John chapter 10. And
let me just say this, the speaker is our Lord Jesus. He's the true
shepherd of the sheep. And those of you who've studied
John chapter 10, and many of you have, you have an understanding
of John chapter 10, we know that our Lord is presented as the
good shepherd of the sheep, and His sheep are those that God
gave Him in the covenant of grace. In fact, our Lord later in the
10th chapter of John, He will be accosted by those who are
enemies of His gospel who wouldn't believe Him. And He said, the
reason you don't believe is because you're not of My sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me." You don't hear me, you don't follow me, you
don't believe me because you're not of my sheep. But my sheep,
they'll hear, and they'll follow me. So he identifies himself
as the true shepherd. He's the speaker in this passage
of Scripture, but He's speaking to, and this is very important,
in any time you read a portion of Scripture, you've got to take
into consideration the context, passage before it and after it,
who's doing the talking, and who is being spoken to. Do you
know who the Savior is speaking to? Look back in chapter number
9, verse 40. Just a couple of verses back.
Remember, chapter divisions aren't inspired. Very helpful, but they're
not inspired. And a lot of times we tend to
think, okay, we get to chapter 10, it's going to be something
brand new. No, it isn't something brand new. He's speaking, look at chapter
9 verse 40, and some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these
words. He's speaking to the Pharisees.
And you see the Pharisees were the great teachers and preachers
of religion in Jerusalem and throughout the nation of Israel.
These were the shepherds of the people, but they were false shepherds. And our Lord, He immediately
lays the axe to the root. He gets right to the heart of
the problem. This is where the rubber meets
the road. What was it about these men? that our Lord certainly, He saw
and understood what was it about them that was their greatest
attribute or characteristic. And it's still the greatest attribute
or characteristic of every false shepherd in the world. Did you pick up on it when Ron
read this? It's in verse 1. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door." Now, who is
the door? Well, our Lord Jesus identifies
Himself in this passage of Scripture, in His
message, He identifies Himself as being the door. Verse 9, I
am the door. I am the door. He's the door
to salvation. He's the door to heaven. He's
the door to forgiveness. He's the door to righteousness.
Would you come to God? You've got to come by the door.
In order to come into this room, we had to come in through a door.
Well, Christ is not a door as though there were many, but He
says, I am the door, the only one. If you would do business
with God, you must come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, Christ said, I am the door. There isn't another one. But here's the thing about false
shepherds. They enter not by the door. But they climb up. Here are some
very important words. Underline them. Mark them in
your mind. They climb up. He says, some
other way. You got that? Some other way.
And yet in John chapter 14, our Lord said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, but they come some other way. That's their chief
error, and that's how you know them. You see, the world is filled
with false preachers and false shepherds. They're everywhere. They're Antichrist. I know people portray Antichrist
as being like a devil with a forked tail, he's got horns coming out
of his head, and he's all red, and people say of the Antichrist,
he's some great leader down the road. You know what John said
in his first epistle? He said, even now there are false
Christs or Antichrists in this world. You see, anybody, any
shepherd who deviates our attention from salvation in Christ alone,
by grace alone, received through God-given faith alone, anybody
who directs our attention some other way, and he says there's
some other way to come to God, he's false shepherd, he's antichrist. Don't be fooled. Antichrist doesn't
walk around with 666 on his forehead. You see, Antichrist, he dresses
up as though he were a sheep. And every preacher who does not
preach Christ the way, the truth, the life, he is Antichrist. You say, but they're so nice,
they're so congenial, they seem to care about their people. They're
anti-Christ. They're against the salvation
of God. And they try to come into the
kingdom of God some other way. That's the key right there. And they'll say, you know, God
is love, but He loves everybody. No, that's some other way. That's
not the God of the Bible. You need to read the Bible. The
Bible says God hates the workers of iniquity. You need to read
the Word of God. God said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God does not love everybody. But a false shepherd will tell
you that he does. And he has to draw this conclusion. If God loves everybody, then
the love of God really doesn't have anything to do with salvation.
And therefore, he has to preach it's the sinner who makes the
difference. You see, that's endeavoring to
get into the kingdom of heaven some other way. And they say Christ died to save
everybody. His blood was shed for everybody.
But it's your repentance and your faith that kind of kicks
His atonement into gear. But if you don't believe Him,
then His death, as far as you're concerned, was wasted effort. Only some false shepherd will
tell you that. You see, our Lord Jesus, His
redemption really redeemed. His death really accomplished
the salvation of His people. Our Savior did not come to attempt
to do something or other or to try and save everybody. He came
to save His people from their sins. But a false shepherd presents
the will of man, the way of man, the strength of man, the faith
of man as being that which is necessary to validate what our
Lord Jesus Christ did. And you need to understand, those
men who teach that everybody's got a free will, God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. Spirit
of God is trying to save everybody. That's false shepherd. Let's
be clear about that. I don't want to mince words.
Don't listen to them. Don't give them a dime. Because
they do not speak for God. And they'll tell you, as long
as you're sincere, You'll get into heaven, that's
coming some other way. You need to be baptized and wash
your sins away, that's some other way. You need to change your
life and start living a better life, that's some other way. Don't listen to them. That's
false shepherds. The sword of God's justice is
going to catch up with every false, worthless, useless shepherd
one of these days. And if you side with them, it
will catch up with you too. We've got to be direct. You're not misunderstanding me. Our Lord Jesus is the mighty
shepherd of the sheep. And He says, I am the door. I am the door. You're not coming
to God except through Jesus Christ the Savior. I don't know how
you can misunderstand that. Will you not bow to the Word
of God? Will you not acknowledge there's
one way to God? And Christ said, I am the door. And every shepherd who teaches
something else, he's a false shepherd. Say, but, oh, so and so, he's
so nice. Well, I'm sure he is. He's a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing. Well, don't you think all these
preachers do good in this world? They're lying devils. It'll be
a blessed day when God shuts every lying mouth. You read in
the book of Revelation chapter 18. You see, false religion is
set forth as Babylon. And when Babylon falls, when
all the false shepherds fall, the useless, worthless shepherds,
when they all fall, and everybody who follows them, when they all
fall, you read in chapter 19 of Revelation, the saints of
God sing, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. I'd be glad when he shuts their
mouths. Some time ago, an evangelist in the United States
died. I said to somebody, I said, well,
I'm thankful God shut his mouth finally. Unfortunately, there'll
be two more to rise up in his place. They said, oh no, he was
a good man. He helped feed the poor. He helped
build hospitals in poor foreign countries. But he's lying on God. Does that
matter? He sought to come to God some
other way. And if you try to go to God some
other way than Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen, ascended,
exalted, you try to come to God any other way, you will be rejected. There's a right way to come to
God. The way. Our Lord Jesus is the
way. These false shepherds have no
concern for the glory of God. Their real concern is for themselves. And the sword of vengeance is
set forth as being in the hand of God raised against these men. These men who endeavor to get
into the kingdom of God some other way. I tell you, there are a lot of
preachers who will tell you, you need to be baptized and wash
your sins away. That's the church of Christ.
Let me just identify them. Their message is, be dipped or
be damned. That's their message. That's
coming some other way. But they're sweet people. I'm
sure they are. That's not the issue whether
they're nice folks or not. The issue is, does the shepherd
that they follow teach them to come to God by some other way? And they do. I aim to be understood. You say, well, I don't think
you're doing a very good job making friends and influencing
people. Well, I ain't trying to make
friends. I'm trying to honor God. And anybody who says you
can come to God some other way, the Bible says they're a liar.
They're a false shepherd. And God will, in time, raise
the sword of vengeance against every false shepherd. But over here, go back to Zechariah
now. Over here in our text. So it
isn't surprising to me that the sword of vengeance would be raised
against these false shepherds. They were useless and worthless.
But what is a shock is that the sword of judgment would be raised
against the Lord Jesus Christ. And that shocks many people. It's raised against this one
who was chosen to be the shepherd of the sheep. Against the man, chapter 13,
verse 7, the man, the warrior man, the mighty man that is my
fellow, my associate, my relative, saith the Lord of hosts. And the sword of vengeance receives
a command to smite the shepherd. Let me talk about Christ's death
for just a little bit. The sword was awakened to smite
him, the shepherd of the sheep. He must be smitten. And consider
his death in these four ways. With respect to our God, it was
an act of justice. Because you see, he died in the
stead of the guilty. He took the sins of His people
upon Himself. He's dying the innocent, the
just for the unjust to bring us to God. So this is an act
on the part of God. It's an act of justice. Though
He was never contaminated with our guilt nor with our sins,
yet all the sins of His people were made to meet on Him. Isaiah
53, verse 6 says that. 1 Peter 2, verse 24, "...who
his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that
we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes ye were healed." Something happened in that transaction
upon the cross of Calvary. We were healed. We were rescued. Because you see, his offering
to God was a matter of justice. For God's law demanded death. Christ gave the law exactly what
it demanded. Death. Therefore, no sheep of
the shepherd can ever die eternally. That's an impossibility. And with respect to God, it was
an act of mercy. because our Savior had agreed
to lay down his life for the sheep in old eternity. God found
a replacement for us, a substitute for us, one who would take the
place of the guilty. But with respect to those who
physically crucified him, well, it was an act of murder and cruelty. I would have you remember that
those people who insisted, who absolutely demanded that our
Lord Jesus Christ die were considered to be, by the Israelites, the
most holy people on earth. These were the very straight-laced
religious folks. These are not the whoremongers
and the drunkards and the rapists and the murderers and think of
any other kind of horrible crime that you can think of. It's not
that crowd that demanded his death. It was the goody-two-shoes,
church-going leaders of religion that demanded he die. And the reason they demanded
he die was because he brought a message that was contrary to
theirs, for their message was some other way. But not him. Not this man. You see, we stand today even
as our Lord and His disciples stood back in those days against
the tide of religion. The religion of man is a religion
of works, it's a religion of man's will, it's a religion of
man's worth, but it isn't the religion of pure grace. So we
go against the tide. They hated it. And you know the message that
is most despised today? It is the victorious substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the behalf of His chosen people. Men and women despise that message,
but that's the true message of God's Word. With respect to the people who
crucified, it was an act of murder and cruelty. And with respect
or on the part of the shepherd, it was an act of obedience and
humility. He willingly laid down his life
for the sheep. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I have the power to lay it down.
I have the power to take it again. It was a supreme act of mercy. After all, greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
And on the part or on behalf of the people in whose stead
he died, his death meant our life. When I read of the suffering
shepherd, and I read of his agonies upon the cross of Calvary, you
know what I see? I see my salvation. I see my
life. I see their Redemption obtained
by our Lord Jesus Christ. I see all of my acceptance with
God right there in the person and work of Christ the Savior. He's all I need. You can have
your works, you can have your will, you can have your worth,
you can have all of that that men are trying to force-feed
you today. but I'll just have Christ only
for me. What about the results of his
death? Notice verses 8 and 9. It shall come to pass in all
the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off
and die, and the third shall be left therein. What is that
third? You know what that is? That's
a remnant. That's a remnant. That's what
that is. See, everybody's not going to perish. And you may,
as you sit there, or as you are at home watching, you may in
your mind, I hope this isn't the case, but you may be saying,
I don't believe what he's preaching. Well, I can't force you to believe. But I'll tell you this, there
is a third who will. There is a group of people who
will believe what the truth is, because God chose them unto salvation,
and our Lord has redeemed them. And the Spirit of God is calling
them through the preaching of the gospel, just like you're
hearing right now. And if in your heart you are
saying, you know, He's preaching right out of the Bible, He's
giving all the glory to Christ Jesus the Savior. This is the
gospel I need. Well, then come to Christ. You're of the remnant. See, there's the remnant and
then there's the rest. I don't want to perish with the
rest. God has revealed the truth to
me and I'm just bound to deliver it. So the Lord says, I'll bring
the third of them through the fire, fiery trials of life, but
He brings us through. And I will refine them as silver
is refined, and I'll try them as gold is tried. And He says,
and they shall call on My name. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's what it says. They're
going to say, Lord, save me. And then He's going to tell them
through His Word, I've already saved you. That's why I put the
call in your heart. God says, they shall call and
I will hear. And I will say. And may He say
this to all of His dear children this morning. The Lord will say,
it's my people. My people are calling on me. And know this, if he puts that
call in your heart, he'll hear you when you call. And he'll
say, it's one of my people calling. And they shall say, the Lord,
he's my God. The Jehovah who saves, He's my
God. This is the God for me. The God
who rules and reigns and governs and saves. And the God who's going to catch
up with all of His enemies one of these days. I tell you, I'm not one of His
enemies. I've been brought to submit. Brother Scott Richardson,
you say, stack your shotguns up in the corner. I'm not at
war against God anymore. There was a time I didn't go
for His way of salvation. I believed in some other way. But that's not the case anymore.
I surrender to You, Lord. This is Your Gospel, and You
get all of the glory. And I thank you for that, and
I'll do my best the rest of my life, as long as you give me
halfway strength, I'll brag on you, tell people about who Christ
is, who said, I am the door. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved. That's what the scripture says.