Thank you, ladies. That song
was written based on the last couple of verses of the last
chapter of the book of Habakkuk. And that may be the next book
that I'm going to preach through after I finish the messages in
the book of Zechariah. I mentioned that Joe is out sick. We have several people who are
out due to illness. And among those, and several
of you have asked about my wife, she's been sick now for two weeks. And she has been very sick and
is still quite ill. Got some new medicine for her
down at Lung Center Thursday. And we're hoping that
that's going to help break up a lot of the respiratory congestion
that she has. But I'm sure she's watching this
morning, as are several others of our congregation who are sick. And we hope and pray that the
Lord would have them Come back and worship with us again very
soon. Let's go to the 12th chapter
of the book of Zechariah. I don't usually tell my dreams,
but I'm going to share this one. I shared it with Sun School class. And I dreamed last night knowing
I was going to be leading the singing. And forgive me for putting
some foolishness in the mess. I'm going to put it at the beginning.
But I had this dream knowing I'm leading the singing. I'm
so busy, I had asked David to pick out the songs. And so he told me, he said, the first
song is Climb Every Mountain. Yeah, that's what I did. I nearly dropped my book. But
I said, OK. So we sang it, and then we got
to that real high part on the course. And Susanna just lifted
up her voice and sang, just hit those high notes like a couple
of you other ladies can do. And then everybody stood and
gave her a round of applause. And I told David, I told him
this morning, I said, I'm never going to ask you to pick out
songs again. But thankfully, we didn't sing
that one. You can watch whatever that movie
is. Well, let's get serious. We'll
go here to Zechariah chapter 12. And my subject is very serious. It is, Behold the Pierced One. Two of the verses that Ron read
to us out of John 19 mentioned the Savior who was pierced. His
hands and feet were pierced. And then, the apostle John refers
to as it is written, they shall look on him whom they have pierced. So my subject is behold the pierced
one. And I'll begin at verse 9, verse
9 of chapter 12 of Zechariah. And it's come to pass in that
day, now let's understand this. Throughout the book of Zechariah,
he keeps mentioning this expression, keeps using it in that day. That's
the gospel day. It is that day that began with
our Lord Jesus in this world. And it's the day, it goes up
to the day when our Lord Jesus is coming back the second time.
You remember the angel said to the disciples, why stand you
gazing up into heaven as our Lord ascended back to glory,
said this same Jesus shall so come again in like manner as
you've seen him go. So when you read through the
prophetic books, you'll often see this expression, in that
day. It means in that gospel era,
in that gospel age. And he says here in verse 9,
it shall come to pass in that age, in the gospel age, he says,
I will seek to destroy all the nations that shall come against
Jerusalem. Now, this vengeance that God
is going to have against those who come against His people,
It would be seen and for us it has been seen in our Lord's substitutionary
sacrifice because that's where He dealt with all the enemies
of His people. Satan had the power of death
and our Lord came and He crushed his power. And all the demonic
forces that followed Him, our Lord destroyed them all. He poured
out His vengeance upon them. And so that is a portion of what
this means, that all of the enemies of God's Jerusalem, all of the
enemies of God's city of peace, you see, the Lord inhabits His
people. We are His Jerusalem and He inhabits
us. Wherever the people of God are,
wherever you may be, some of you watching by way of the Internet,
wherever you are, You're part of the city of Jerusalem, the
city of peace. Our peace has been made by the
Lord Jesus Christ. So it includes that judgment,
that vengeance, that destruction that came upon Satan and all
of the fallen angels when our Lord Jesus died on the cross
of Calvary in fulfillment of Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15.
He crushed the head of the serpent. But it also refers to the end
of the age of the gospel when our Lord Jesus comes back and
destruction will happen to all of those who die in unbelief
and in rebellion against our Lord Jesus Christ. I speak to
those of you who do not know the Savior, and I'm very earnest
about this, and I'm very concerned about you. I can't read anybody's
hearts, of course, but I'm certain in a congregation this size and
with folks who are watching by way of the Internet, there are
unbelievers. Unless God the Spirit is pleased
to reveal Christ to you, the only Savior of sinners, if you
remain in unbelief, if you remain in rebellion against God, God
will destroy you. The Lord says, vengeance is mine,
I will repay. If you neglect His gospel, If
you turn your nose up against the Lord Jesus Christ and His
sacrificial death, if you have no interest in the Redeemer,
no interest in His great salvation, no interest in the glory of God
that is seen in the salvation of poor miserable sinners, if
you live and die in that condition, God says, I'm going to destroy
you. He will have vengeance. He is
full of fury toward those who oppose Him. I say, bow down to
King Jesus. Bow down to the Lord of glory. Sue for mercy. He's the only
one who can help you. God help you to cry out to Him
for saving grace. And then he says this in verse
number 10. He says, and I will pour upon
the house of David. Now who's the house of David?
You know, because you have been instructed for many years, those
of you who have been attending here, you know that so often
when the Scriptures speak of David, especially through the
Psalms, and very often through the prophetic books, when the
Scriptures speak of David, it's speaking of the Son of David,
that one who is David's son and David's Lord. It's talking about
Christ Jesus. So we could read here without
doing any damage to the text. The Lord says, And I will pour
upon the house of Jesus Christ, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the city of peace, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon Me, whom they have pierced, And they
shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn." Now, as the Lord is going to pour out, vengeance
upon the ungodly, as he poured out his vengeance upon Satan
and the one-third of the angels that fell with Satan when our
Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, and as God's going to
pour out his vengeance and fury at the end of the age upon all
those who believe not the gospel, as the scripture says, those
who obey not the gospel. As He is surely going to pour
out His judgment, He also says, And I will pour upon the house
of Christ, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace. And in my heart, and surely this
is the way you're thinking now, and I hope as I lead you along
in this message, you will even see this to a greater degree.
I hope that you will pray to the Lord, Lord, don't pour upon
me your vengeance, but rather pour upon me the spirit of grace,
the spirit of supplication. What is supplication? It is praying
in dead earnestness. It is in treating the Lord. And may we all entreat the Lord
right now, right now, Oh God be merciful to me, be gracious
to me. I don't deserve it. I'm not worthy
of it. I don't merit your salvation. The Lord's salvation and grace
and mercy and forgiveness and righteousness, these are yours
to give, if you will, and I petition you. I'm a suppliant. I'm a mercy beggar. I come to
you entreating for you. Oh God, pour out upon me the
spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication. And so, That's kind of the basis
of what I want to talk to you about this morning, and I'll
give you four points to this. Four points to the message. Number
one, behold the promise of the Father. And I'm going to give
you a road map. We're going to stay on the map
now. We're not going to chase rabbits. We're going to stay
on the map. Behold the promise of the Father. Number two, behold the power
of the Spirit. Behold the promise of the Father.
Behold the power of the Spirit. Number three, behold the pierced
one. Behold him. And number four,
here is behold personal weeping over sin. Number one, behold the promise
of the Father. The Lord says, Jehovah says,
and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. Thank God
he has sent his spirit to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to sinners
like you and like me. He sent His Spirit from heaven
based upon the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied divine
justice by His substitutionary sacrificial death upon the cross
of Calvary. Hold your place there and turn
with me to the Gospel of John chapter 7. The Gospel of John
chapter 7. God says, I will pour. Make sure
you get this, when it comes to the salvation of a sinner, it
is not in fallen man to change his own heart. You got that? It is not. It is not in fallen
man to change his own heart. God has to pour into our souls
the spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication. You can't change
your heart. You can't give yourself life. We who are accustomed to doing
evil, we can't suddenly start doing good. Can the leopard change his spots?
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Neither can you or myself,
neither can we, who know evil quite personally, suddenly make
a change and start doing good. We can't do that. The Father,
therefore, must pour out the spirit of grace and supplication
and perform a work within us. Are you in John 7 now? Look at
John chapter 7 and look at verse 37. John 7.37, in the last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Are you thirsty
for a right relationship with God? Are you thirsty for God's
salvation? Are you thirsty for righteousness? Where are you going to find life?
Where are you going to find forgiveness? Where are you going to find forgiveness?
Christ Jesus said, if you're thirsty, come to me and drink. Not come to the church, not come
to the front, not come to some supposed altar, not come to the
preacher, not come to the baptismal waters. Come to me, Christ said. Where is salvation to be found?
Hear me, it's found in somebody, Christ Jesus. Come to him right
now in your heart. And drink. He's the living water. Now look at verse 38. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. And then John puts this in parentheses. But this spake he of the spirit. And remember in our text, the
Lord says I will pour out the spirit of grace. and the spirit
of supplication. But this spake he of the spirit
which they that believe on him should receive. Watch this. For
the Holy Ghost was not yet, and the word given is italicized,
added by the translators, was not yet given. And the reason
is because Jesus was not yet glorified. Let me see if I can
make that understandable for you. The Spirit of God came after
our Lord Jesus Christ had, by His death, honored God's broken
law, put away our sins, brought in everlasting righteousness,
and then our Lord, having died, He was raised again, He went
back to heaven, and He told His disciples, don't do anything. till the Holy Spirit is given.
That's why he said one, don't do anything. Well, some people take this and
they kind of scratch their heads and say, so you mean the Holy
Spirit hadn't been given as of yet? What does this mean? Does it mean that the Holy Spirit
wasn't present in the Old Testament? That is not at all what it means.
David said in Psalm 51, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And everyone who was converted
in the Old Testament, they were regenerated, they were quickened,
they were born again by the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of truth,
the Spirit of righteousness, the Spirit of God. All of those
who were born again were born again by the Holy Spirit. It's
the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the New Testament who reveals
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ to sinners. Well then
Jim, what does this mean? What is the meaning of John's
words when he says, the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus
was not yet glorified? It simply means this, He was
not yet given to the Gentiles. He was given to the Jewish people.
But after our Lord Jesus had honored God's law, God's justice
in laying down His life as the good shepherd for His sheep,
satisfying God, God took Him back to glory, and upon the basis
of our Lord's life laid down, God sent the Spirit, Christ called
the coming of the Spirit, the promise of the Father. That's
what he called it. Acts chapter one and verse four.
He says it's the promise of the Father. And the Spirit of God
was given not merely to the Jews because he was primarily, the
Spirit of God primarily worked in the hearts of Jewish people
in the Old Testament. There's no question about that.
But the Spirit of God was poured out, the Spirit of grace, the
Spirit of supplications, was poured out upon the fact that
our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied everything God demanded for the
salvation of His people, and the evidence that He satisfied
God was this, God sent His Spirit. And if you're a believer this
morning, the only reason you're a believer is because the Spirit
of truth, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of supplication has
come to you for this reason. Christ honored God's justice
for you. Go back to our text then. So,
behold the promise of the Father. That's the gift of the Holy Spirit. Someone brought this accusation
against me. There are a lot of things that
if you accuse me of, I'm probably guilty of. But somebody brought
this accusation against me. You don't preach enough about
the work of the Holy Spirit. And to that charge, I say that
is not right. Because the work of the Holy
Spirit, our Lord Jesus said, when the Spirit of truth comes,
He will not speak of Himself. That's what He said, one. That's
what Christ said. He will not speak of Himself. He'll show you things of Mine. He'll teach you about Me. That's
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And it's the Spirit of God who
gives us light. who brings us out of darkness.
You see, God purposed all grace before the world began. We know
that. And all grace comes to us through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Father purposed grace.
And all grace comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and His
satisfactory work of redemption to the Father. And all grace
comes to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. You cannot have
the grace of God in your heart apart from the work of the Holy
Spirit. And if you believe this gospel,
that's the evidence. that the Holy Spirit has done
a work within you. So behold the promise of the
Father. Here's the second thing. Behold
the power of the Spirit. God the Spirit here in our text,
back in our text in Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10, he's
called the Spirit of grace and of supplications. All grace comes
through him. Grace doesn't come to you because
you make a decision. And grace doesn't come to you
because you said, Lord, show me your grace. Grace comes to
you in, through, and by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Grace
comes through the Spirit. He's the Spirit of grace. Regenerating
grace. Condensing grace. Believing grace,
converting grace, sealing grace, keeping grace, glorifying grace. Turn back to Zechariah chapter
4. Behold the power of the Spirit. Chapter 4. Remember these words? Chapter 4 and verse 6. Zechariah
4, 6. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,
saith the Lord." See, when people say, you know, what we need is
another outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Well, actually, the Holy
Spirit, It was poured out one time only. That's at Pentecost. That's when the Holy Spirit was
given to the Gentiles. And we don't need another Pentecost.
You say, oh Lord, give us another Pentecost. There's not going
to be another Pentecost. Because the Holy Spirit was given
once, poured out by the Father. The promise of the Father has
been fulfilled and we see the evidence, the power of the Holy
Spirit when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to the salvation
of our soul. You couldn't believe without
the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the reason I don't say
look to the Spirit of God. We're never told to look to the
Spirit of God. We're told look to the Lamb of
God. Well, who shows us the Lamb of
God? The Spirit of grace and of supplication. I said a while ago that supplication
is entreating the Lord. It's begging the Lord. It's not
a half-hearted, well, Lord, send your Spirit to me. Lord, save
me. No. I tell you, if the Spirit of
God works in your heart in convicting power, it's because God has sent
Him to you. And it's that work of grace that
leads you to call out, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, when God has purposed
His saving mercy, the Spirit of grace causes us to pray for
mercy. It's the Spirit of God that we
need to work in our hearts. The Spirit of truth. And what
is He going to do? You know, He's called the Spirit
of life. He gives life. He gives spiritual life. And
here it's the Spirit of grace. He shows us the grace of God
for poor fallen sinners in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the power of the Spirit. And we supplicate the throne
of grace. But our supplication is not the
cause of the Spirit of God working in us. It is the result of the
working of the Spirit of God in us. And you need to see that
difference. If we supplicate the throne of
grace, if we entreat the Lord, Oh God, be gracious to me. That's
not the reason God shows us grace, because we ask for it. It's really
the result. It's the result of the work of
the Holy Spirit working graciously within us. You see, here's what the Lord
does. The Lord sends His Spirit to us when He purposes according
to His eternal purpose, that time of revelation, that time
of regeneration, that time of salvation. And He sends His Spirit
to work in our hearts, and the Spirit of God causes us to cry
out, O God, be merciful to me. The reason for that cry out to
the Lord The reason is because the Spirit of God is working
in your heart. That's the reason. You see, it's never of us. It's
always of God. He stirs up the heart to cry
for mercy. And let me tell you something.
If right now, you in here in this congregation, and those
of you who are watching, if right now you're in dead earnest, you
say, Oh God, I need the Savior. Oh God, I need mercy. Oh God,
I need grace. I'm worthy to go to hell. I deserve
to perish in my sins. But oh God, if you will, if you
will be merciful to me, that cry from your heart to the heart
of God is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit. It's truly
marvelous. Here's the third thing. Behold
the pierced Son. See, when the Holy Spirit works
in the heart, He leads us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ
who was pierced or crucified on account of our sins. It says
here, and they shall look upon me, Christ says, whom they have
pierced. Whom they have pierced. I'll
tell you when you look to the Lamb of God, when you see that your sins,
they were present at Mount Calvary, that your sins, your sins nailed
Him to the cross. Your sins caused His agony. your sins were there and they
cried out to God for judgment. And judgment against your sins
and my sins fell upon the beloved Savior's soul. Our sins were
there. And when you see that your sins,
when I see that my sins nailed into the cross, that'll break
our hearts. That'll break our heart. You
won't get over that. You can get over a religious
experience, but you're not going to get over seeing and realizing
Christ died for my sins. My sins were imputed to Him,
transferred to Him, placed upon Him, heaped upon His head. Iniquities
laid upon Him, the scripture says in Isaiah 53 and verse 6.
And when you see he was wounded and bruised for your transgressions,
that'll flat break your heart. That's when you weep. That's
when you'll truly repent. You'll turn your back on your
false religion. You'll turn your back on the
love of the world. You'll turn your back on everything,
on idolatry. You'll turn your back and you'll
run to the Lord Jesus Christ as fast as you can go. as fast
as your faith legs will carry you, you'll run to Christ. You'll behold the pierced Son
of God. Isaac Watts wrote over a thousand
different hymns. In one of them, he wrote these
words, "'Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors
were. Each of my sins became a nail. And unbelief, the spear. And when you see that, nobody's
going to have to talk you into a decision. You'll run to the
Savior. And you'll believe Him. And you'll
trust Him. Isaiah says he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Why did our Lord Jesus have to
be pierced and crucified, put to death? Because divine justice saw my
sins were on him and your sins were on him. And the justice
of God struck out in full force against our substitute. And justice
leaves us alone, right? Leaves us alone. Justice found
the only righteous victim that could be found, the perfect son
of God. And justice dealt with him. and
mercy deals with us. I say look to the Lamb of God. And here's the last thing. Behold
the personal mourning over sin. It says at the end of verse 10,
and they shall mourn for him. That's when we'll mourn when
we see it was our sin. that nailed him, as one mourneth
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Well, your heart
will be broken, and Zachariah is led by the Spirit of God to
liken it to the broken heart of a mom and a dad when their
firstborn dies. Just crushes the soul, crushes
the heart. Some of you, perhaps, have lost
a child. You know that grief. Well, that's
the kind of grief the Spirit of God's gonna bring to your
heart when He shows you Christ's time
for your sins. And here's what's gonna happen.
In that day, in that day, in that day when
God's dealing with you in grace, and you're supplicating Him for
mercy. In that day, there shall be a
great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadad-remin in
the Valley of Megiddo." That's where Josiah was mortally wounded
in battle. Josiah, great king, great king
in Judah, and they brought him back to Jerusalem, and he died
and the whole city was broken up. I tell you what you'll be
broken up to when you see that a greater than Josiah died for
you. He died in the battle, but his
death was not a defeat, his death was a triumph. Because in his
death, we see our life. And he rose again to die no more. And then notice in verse 12,
and the land shall mourn every family apart, the family of the house of David
apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Nathan
apart, their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi
apart, their wives apart. The family of Shimei apart, and
their wives apart. All the families that remain,
every family apart, and their wives apart. In other words,
the Spirit of God, He doesn't deal with a great big group.
He deals with you by separating you apart. He gets you one on
one. Sometimes, I know in years past
when I used to give an altar call and that kind of junk, you'd
see a whole family come walking down the aisle. His mom, dad,
and all the little ones that come down there, everybody says,
that ain't that sweet. That's so sweet. What about them
being one by one apart? I'm not saying God isn't able
to save a whole family. But I'll tell you what. He doesn't
deal with people as families. He deals with people one-on-one.
Has He set you apart? Apart from the rest. Has He put
you, has He transferred you from the broad road that leads to
destruction to the narrow road that leads to life? He don't
just take a group and put them over here like that. It's one
by one. One by one. That's the spirit
of grace working. And the spirit of supplication,
he leads you to entreat the Lord. Oh, Lord, I need you. I need you. Be merciful to me.
Get your psalm books out.