Thank you so much. If you would
go to the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 13. And we'll visit this
portion of scripture, this chapter again this morning and again
next Lord's Day morning. I'll consider the last two verses
of this, but this morning I want to look at chapter 13 verse seven. This is as wonderful a portion
of scripture as any minister of the gospel could ever preach
upon. And there's no doubt as to who
is being referenced in these words. Chapter 17, verse 7. Against my shepherd and against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the
shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And then he says,
and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. A passage that
Ron read to us out of Matthew chapter 26, Judas had left during the Lord's
Supper, the instituting of the Lord's Supper during the Passover,
part of the supper our Lord revealed who it would be that would betray
him. And after he left, then he was
just with those 11 men who loved him, who believed him, who rested
in him, men for whom he would lay down his life, give his life
a ransom for them. And after they had taken the
Lord's Supper, Scripture says they sang a song, sang a hymn
out of the Psalms, no doubt. And then they went out and As
they were going out, our Lord said, all men will be offended
at me tonight. Remember, it was early in the
morning. These, the all men, all of you,
literally, those were the 11 men who believed Him, who followed
Him. And you remember, I was thinking
about this a little earlier this morning in John chapter 6. Thousands
of people followed the master and they were offended because
of his teaching. And there was a mass exodus. Everybody left except for his
disciples. And our Lord Jesus looked at
them and he said, will ye also go away? And by the way, in that
passage in John chapter six, the emphasis is on the ye. Will
you also? Will you men also forsake me? Will you deny me? Will you stumble over me? Will
you be offended because of me? And of course, Peter said in
response to the Savior saying, will you also go away? Peter
said, to whom shall we go? We believe in her. Sure, you
have the words of eternal life. And we believe you're the Son
of God. To whom shall we go? We won't be offended because
of you. We won't leave you. We won't
forsake you. But they did. They did when the
going got tough. But you see, thankfully, theirs
was not a total apostasy as was that of Judas. It wasn't a total
departure from Him like those who listened to Him preach and
then left Him. But these men became offended. In fact, here in our text, in
Zechariah chapter 13, the Scripture says, the Lord says, "...and
the sheep shall be scattered." They were His sheep. They believed
Him, but they were scattered. They were fearful. They lacked
courage. And they were offended. Let's be a little bit patient
with people who seem to leave for a little bit. Ask God to
bring them back. These men, these were the people
of God. And even when they went out with
him too, and our Lord said, come with me and pray with me, he
said, couldn't you pray with me for an hour? You fall asleep. It is a fact of all of the people
of God, those who love the Savior, those who've been ransomed by
his blood shedding, it is the fact that we still have much
carnality within us. Let's be patient with people.
Let's be forgiving. Say, well, people have disappointed
me. I bet you've disappointed people
too. I've said before, I've been a
disappointment to myself before. But here we have our Lord saying
the sheep shall be scattered. And when they came to arrest
Him, that army of men coming after Jesus of Nazareth, He said,
Whom seek ye? And they said, or He said to
them, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And He said, I am, I am He. And they all fell backwards at
the power of His Word. He is the eternal Jehovah. He
is the unchanging God. And he spoke those words with
such power, with such authority that they fell back. And they
got up and he said, "'Whom seek ye?' And they said, "'Jesus of
Nazareth.' He said, "'If you seek me, let these go their way.'
And those men, they went their way." They went their way, and
their way was away from him. because they proved themselves
to be not men of courage, men of bravery, men who would stand
fast by the Savior. But in that hour, they proved
that they were cowards, just like us on occasion. When something needs to be said,
when you need to stand up for the Savior, you just decide,
well, I'll just keep my mouth shut. I don't want to upset anybody. Oh, don't be afraid to upset
somebody on their way to hell. Don't be afraid to upset somebody
who doesn't know the gospel of God's grace. Be brave. Be courageous. This portion of scripture that
I read to you, this is a reference to our Lord Jesus because that
passage that Ron read to us from Acts chapter 26 shows this. Where our Savior quoted a portion
of this verse. Where he said, he said, smite
the shepherd. The sheep shall be scattered.
The reference he was referencing was here in chapter 13 of Zechariah
in verse 7. Remember the prophet of God has
just said that the Lord Jesus is the fountain open for, He's
open for sin and for uncleanness. Back in verse 1. But now we're
given more information as to how the fountain was opened. And so I begin this message by,
first of all, asking this question, who ordered the fountain to be
opened? Who ordered the death of the
Lord Jesus? And the answer is God did. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit met together
in covenant grace before the world began. And our Lord Jesus
was ordained to be the Savior, the surety, the substitute, the
sacrifice for the sheep. It's God the Father who speaks
here. You see, only God could dictate
these words, only God could ordain these things to happen, and only
God could bring it about. He orders a sword to be unsheathed. And it's God who does it. And I know blame can be laid
at the feet of many humans, Pilate, Herod, Judas, the Sanhedrin,
the Roman soldiers who actually carried out the crucifixion,
And certainly our sins were involved in this, as we've already indicated
in previous messages. Because the reason he was nailed
to the cross of shame, the reason he died such an ignominious death,
the reason he had to suffer the wrath of God was on account of
our sins. There could be no removal of
our guilt apart from satisfaction to God's holy law that said the
soul that sinneth shall die. So we all, all of God's people,
all of those back then who nailed Him, who were instruments used
in nailing Him to the cross, we're all guilty, but ultimately
who ordained this come to pass? God did. All you have to do is read Acts
chapter 2. He was foreordained to this death. Read Acts chapter
4. All those who raised their hands
against our Lord Jesus were gathered together to do the saints of
God said whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel before ordained
to be done. And you see, if God ordained
this happen, and we're all agreed on that, if God ordained that
this death take place, then He also ordained the results of
this death. This is a death that's on purpose,
and it's a death with a purpose. A two-fold purpose, to do something
for God, to honor Him, to satisfy Him, and to do something for
us, to save us from our sins. It was only upon the basis of
this sacrifice that our sins could be atoned for. There's
no other way for God to be just and justify. There are legal mandates in the
Scripture. Sin has got to be punished. And
God set out to do that before He ever made this old earth. He set out to punish sin, the
sins of His people, in a substitute, a suitable substitute, even our
Lord Jesus Christ. Which brings me to the second
thing I want to say this morning. Here's a solemn call to God's
vengeance. Awake, O sword! This is God speaking. This is
not Zachariah speaking. This is Zachariah who records
the words of God Almighty. And God Almighty speaks to His
own justice speaks to the sword of vengeance, and he says, Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow. Smite the shepherd, smite him,
smite him with the sword. Not chastise him with a rod, but smite him, kill him with
a sword. That's a big difference. It isn't merely bruise him, but
take his life. And in a way, this is not a death
that he would die as a great warrior, but as a convicted felon. This is not in the eyes of men
an honorable death. When the multitudes walked by
and they saw a thief, and then Jesus of Nazareth, and then another
thief, the people would say, what crimes did they do to deserve
this? The most painful death of all
that the Romans can inflict upon non-Romans. What in the world
did they do? You see, our Lord, it was not
in the eyes of men an honorable death. Not in the eyes of men. It was a death that brought great
shame upon him. Because the scripture says he
was numbered with the transgressors. Though He had no sin in Him,
though He did no sin, yet hanging there on the middle cross, the
middle cross, as though of these three men, He's the worst. And God's justice, the sword
of vengeance, recognized that in that sense He was the worst
because the sins of all of His people were imputed to His account. And though he died in the eyes
of God an honorable death, it was the death of a criminal. I'm gonna be speaking tonight
how Christ, when he came to this world, he humbled himself. My,
what kind of humility is this? Oh, how low he stooped! Not to die as a general brave
upon the battlefield and to be recognized as, hail the king
of the Jews who died an honorable death. Oh, no, no! He's despised
and rejected of men. And when Pilate released Barabbas,
It was traditional to release somebody, a criminal, a notable
criminal on the time of Passover. And there was Barabbas, apparently
a very guilty man in prison. And there's Jesus of Nazareth.
Pilate said, which of the two should I release to you? They
said, release Barabbas. He said, what then should I do
with Jesus of Nazareth? And they said all together in
unison, as though with one voice, crucify Him, crucify Him. He's the worst of the lot. Of
all the men in the dungeon, of all the men who have been arrested,
of all of the men who've been convicted by the Sanhedrin, Jesus
of Nazareth is the most horrible one of all. Crucify him. And you know what Pilate said?
I find no fault in this man. Crucify him. What a coward. And yet he is fulfilling that
word of God that ordained that Christ would die. And so God
the Father sends a call out to the sword of justice. The sword that had been pulled
out of its scabbard, out of its sheath on occasion. Certainly the sword of vengeance
was active in the deaths of all of those unbelievers who died
in Noah's flood. And throughout the Old Testament,
you can go to various occasions of great slaughters that God
brought about. But really, there was just a
little bit of the sword of vengeance. It wasn't the full banishing,
brandishing of the sword. It wasn't the full exhibition
of the power and the vengeance and the awful, the horrible death
that this sword will inflict. But when it came time for our
Lord Jesus, to lay down his life. He's not going to be peacefully
put to sleep. They're not going to give him
some kind of shot to kind of take the sting away. All the soldiers offered him
sour wine, kind of take the edge off. He said, no. I'll feel this
pain. He felt the very pain. that God
himself inflicted. No man has ever suffered the
vengeance of God like our Savior did. When God the Father said, Awake! Wake up, sword! And as it were, you can picture
somebody pulling a sword out. And that sword was thrust into
the very soul of our Savior. That's what it took to save us. God drew out His sword. You can
read several passages of Scripture. Deuteronomy 32 comes to mind. Ezekiel 21. Talks about God bringing forth
his sword. He said, my sword is sharp. It's
shiny. It's ready for battle. It's ready
to kill. And on this occasion, according
to this prophecy, when our Lord Jesus would die in the stead
of His people, it wasn't really at the hands of men, it was at
the hand of divine vengeance and fury and wrath and judgment. Awake, O sword! Against who? Who's the sword going to be against?
The sheep? Oh no. The shepherd of the sheep. He's
the one who must die. Just as Daniel prophesied in
Daniel 9, 26, he said, Messiah must be cut off. What's God gonna
use to cut him off? The sword. The sword of vengeance. As it's stated back in the book
of Judges, the sword of the Lord. The sword of the Lord. God says, I command my sword
this day to be drawn against my son. It had been for so long in its
sheath. And the Old Testament saints
wondered for years and years and years, when is Messiah coming? The sword really wasn't pulled
out all the way. And then a little infant was
born to a virgin, and he grew up. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Oh, that's the Messiah. That's
the Savior. That's the one appointed to save
His people from their sins. Well, how is He going to save
them? Will He drive all the Romans out of Israel? No. He's not that kind of Savior,
He's not that kind of King. Will He declare liberty for all
of the Israelites and say, I'm overcoming all of your captors? No. The only way He can save
us is for the sword to be drawn, thrust into His heart. And I'm telling you who are the
people of God. That sword has forever been sheathed,
as far as we're concerned. We feel the rod of correction
from time to time, and for good reason. But he felt the very sting of
death, and that was for good reason. because he bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. Awake, O sword! What a solemn
call by God to his vengeance. Here's the third thing, I guess.
Whom is this sword to be awakened? He says, my shepherd. He's the
shepherd of God's appointment. The Lord calls for his sword
to awake against that one who is our shepherd by divine appointment,
but God's shepherd also by divine appointment. Who made him to
be the shepherd? Who ordained that he be the shepherd
of the sheep? And you read that glorious portion
of Scripture in John chapter 10 where our Lord said, I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Jesus of Nazareth, God come down. He's the shepherd of the sheep.
And He's the one who must feel the agony of a glittering sharpened
sword in His soul. It goes against the shepherd. And He's our shepherd. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. As I said,
Christ said, I'm the good shepherd. He said, I'm the shepherd who's
raised from the dead. And I'm the chief shepherd who's
coming again for my sheep. And notice not only is this sword
awakened against one who is God's shepherd, but against the man. The man, if you have a concordance,
if you like to do a little word study, this word man here is
not the same. When you guys speak, don't go
into Hebrew and Greek. That's way over everybody's heads. But as you get a concordance,
like God created man in his own image. That's a very general
word. But if you look up this word
in your Strong's Concordance, or Young's, or Cruden's, or whichever
kind of concordance you use, if you look this up, it's an
invincible man, a warrior man, a man who's brave, a man who's
courageous. You see, only such a man could
save us. He can't be like those weakling
disciples who bails out in the time of
trouble. He is in that sense a warrior
man. A man who will stand fast. A man when everybody else leaves
him, he will stand alone. And you'll notice this, it says,
against the man, a particular man, just not a man, not some
man, but the man. Who is this the man? The man Christ Jesus. The one who is the mediator between
God and men, the man, the man, he's a particular man. It's the
reason He joined His deity to our flesh to be the man who would
fill the very wrath of God in His soul. The man Christ Jesus. No wonder
Isaiah says in Isaiah 32, a man shall be as a hiding place from
the wind. This is the man Christ Jesus.
He's the one we hide in. He's the one that is our shelter
in the time of storm. And then God says of this shepherd,
of the man, he's my fellow. And what that means is this one
who is our Savior, he's more than the man. He's God's associate. He's God's equal. He is the essence
of God. All of the Trinity dwells bodily
in the man, Christ Jesus. He is both man and God, not half
man, half God. He's totally God, He's totally
man. He's my fellow. One translation
says, my close neighbor. Why? He's been God's close neighbor
forever. Because they're co-equal in every
way. He is divine. He had to be divine
to fulfill everything God demanded. And he had to be a man to suffer,
bleed, and die. He is the man. And God says,
He's my fellow. He's my fellow. He's my companion. Or if you want to know the word,
He's my relative. He's the Son of God. Right here in this verse. Oh,
that's the reason I say, you couldn't find a more wonderful
verse of Scripture to preach from, especially on the day when
we're going to observe the Lord's Supper. Here is the God-man. And the sword of justice is going
to be raised against him. And here's the fourth thing I
want to show you, a dismal consequence. When this shepherd, the man,
the fellow was smitten, the sheep shall be scattered. And they were. Peter said, though
all men shall be offended, I won't be offended. And we also read,
so said them all. I don't know about everybody
else, but you can count on us, really. We'll see how strong you are
in the hour of difficulty. And they all fled. Where are
they? Where'd they go? What a dismal consequence. The
Savior said they were offended. They went away, but thankfully
not permanently. Because you see, the Lord is
not going to let His people go away permanently. Hey, we wonder. Sometimes our love grows cold.
I'll tell you what, the arms of God's everlasting love brings
us back into the fold. He reminds us whose we are and
the reason we belong to the Lord. He adopted us into his family
while he chose us unto salvation. And the sword of vengeance was
raised against that one whom the Lord says is my shepherd, the man, that one who is God's fellow.
Dismal consequence. God help us to stand. But lastly, here's a glorious
promise. The last statement of verse seven
says, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. Not a hand
of judgment. No, the hand of judgment held
the sword. And the sword has been put back
in its sheath. Because there is therefore now
no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. We have no fear of the
sword. My sins, which were many, have
been borne by my substitute, and God has satisfied his own
judgment by taking that sword and piercing the very heart and
soul of my substitute, and the sword goes back in. It gives me great comfort. No condemnation to me. No judgment. No judgment. This is a glorious
promise. He says, I will turn mine hand
upon the little ones. Not his hand of judgment, but
his hand of mercy. His hand of blessing. And the
Lord graciously, notice the language, I will turn my hand in kindness
and in love and in grace upon the little ones. That's who we
are. We're his little ones. You have your little grandchildren.
Lisa was telling me about having grandchildren yesterday. Little
ones. Those of you who have children,
who have grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren, those
little ones, you'd do anything in the world for them, wouldn't
you? Because you just love them. Our Lord Jesus did everything
necessary to save his little ones. When you think of little
ones, you think of helpless little ones. You think of little ones
who cannot protect themselves, who cannot feed themselves, who
cannot provide for themselves. Thank God He takes care of His
little ones. Can I have one of them? Are you? Why was the sword raised against
this one rather than against the little ones? to correct the
damage done by the fall, to exalt every attribute of God,
to put away our sins, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to honor the shepherd, and to open a fountain of poor, guilty,
vile, unclean sinners. The fountain was opened. Who
did it? God did it. And then he put his
sword in his sheath. The Son of God, having died,
was raised again and exalted. And we call him Lord. He's the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've come to honor him this
morning by remembering his death until he comes again.