Let's go deep into the Old Testament
again this morning in the book of Zechariah, and we'll go to
Zechariah chapter number nine. It's the next to the last book
of the Old Testament, the book of Zechariah, chapter nine. I've got two verses that I want
to read to you this morning and then speak to you on the subject,
Release the Prisoners. Release the Prisoners. Those two verses are in chapter
nine, verses 11 and 12. Chapter nine, 11 and 12. It begins, as for thee also,
and he's speaking to the sons of Zion. He's speaking to the
church of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've already identified this
Zion as being a city of truth. It's a city where the Lord dwells. He says, as for thee also, by
the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out
of the pit wherein is no water." And the next verse he says, turn
ye to the refuge or stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. We're all prisoners,
but we're not without hope. We're prisoners of hope. And God says even today, do I
declare that I will render double unto thee. Now in that verse
11, we have a word covenant, which isn't a word that we use
quite a lot today, but think of a contract. That's what a
covenant is, or really it's a legal binding agreement. It involves
promises, it involves obligations, and it involves obedience to
that which you have promised in the covenant, in the agreement. those, that covenant you have
obligated yourself to fulfill whatever is your responsibility
in the covenant. Now, know this, everybody that
God deals with ever since the beginning, He's always dealt
with people on the basis of covenants, never just one on one, but rather
he's dealt with us, he's dealt with all of mankind upon the
basis of a legal binding agreement. And he did so through one of
two men. Because out of all the covenants
in the Bible, and the word covenant is used quite a lot in the Word
of God, but of all the covenants that God made, two of them kind
of rise to the surface, and those two are especially very important
to all of us. Now, there's the covenant God
made with Noah. He put a rainbow in the sky.
that the Lord said, that's a token of the fact that I'll never destroy
the earth again with water. That was a covenant he entered
into with Noah. It was an unconditional covenant
because all of the promises and all of the obligations and all
of the fulfillments was totally with God. Noah wasn't responsible
for anything in that. God said, this is what I'm going
to do. And then there's the covenant He made with Abraham and other
covenants throughout the Bible. But two of them, only two of
them you really need to remember. The very first one is called
the covenant of works. God made that with all mankind
through one man, who was the head or the federal head or representative
of all of us, and that man's name was Adam. God made a covenant
with him, a legal binding agreement in which God made promises And Adam, he made promise unto
God that he would fulfill his side of the covenant. And of
course, we know God will always fulfill his side of the covenant.
There's no question about that. And God said, you will live. You will live in my garden, the
Garden of Eden, beautiful garden. You'll live and all will go well Unless you eat of the fruit of
a tree that's in the middle of the garden, the tree of knowledge
of good and evil, for in the day you eat of that, you'll die. That's the consequences of breaking
the covenant. In other words, I would simplify
it for you and kind of bring it into today's language. God
said, basically, obey me and live. But if you disobey me, you die. And God entered into a covenant
with Adam, and Adam was the representative of the human race. It's like
if I enter into a covenant with you, and we go down to a lawyer's
office, and we say, okay, this is what is required of you, Jim,
and of this person you're making a covenant or a legal binding
agreement with. So here's what Jim's got to do,
and here's what this other person's got to do. Our both of you in
agreement to fulfill your responsibility in this covenant, in this legal
binding contract, And I say, yep, I'm willing, and I'll sign. I'll sign. I'll sign my name. Let's say it's with Bill. And
Bill says, yep, I'll sign too. And so we're both then legally
obligated to abide by the terms of the contract or the covenant. So God made a covenant. He made
a legal binding agreement with Adam, but Adam was not acting
as a prophet individual. He's acting on behalf of all
the human race, okay? And God said, now Adam, obey
me and everything's fine. You'll live and enjoy this creation
that I have made for you. Enjoy the animals, enjoy the
weather, enjoy the fruits, enjoy the crops. But Adam, now here's
a stipulation. I promise you'll live. But here's one stipulation. Don't
break this law that I'm going to give you. For in the day you
break it, It's gonna be consequences to
you, and here's the consequence. It's gonna be death. Now, all
of you can understand that now. That's a covenant of works. And Adam, we know, he broke his
part of the legal binding contract because he ate of the fruit that
God told him not to eat of. Now, you gotta remember, that
tree of life in the center of the garden,
that picture of the absolute authority of God. You got all
these other trees, eat the fruit of all the rest of them, but
not this one. Because remember, Adam, I'm God,
and I'm telling you what to do. This is all my dominion. And
now you take care of the garden, but don't you eat of that fruit.
For Adam, you, as a man who represents all the other men and women who
are going to be born as a result of the union of you and Eve and
on and on and on till the end of time, if you disobey me, you're
going to die. You're going to die. Spiritually,
because you and I will be separated. We can't have any more fellowship
together. I can't walk with you in the
evenings of the day. I can't commune with you anymore.
If you break this, and God didn't say if, He said when you break
this, there will be a tremendous separation between us, a gulf
that cannot be spanned. And Adam, you're going to die
when you eat of that fruit, when you break my law. And not only
are you going to die spiritually, losing the life of God that's
in you, losing the uprightness in which I created you, losing
communion with me, But you will also die physically. And unless God was pleased to
show him grace, he would have died eternally. There's the contract. There's the covenant of works.
You got that now. Adam broken. Wherefore, as by
one man, One man, something entered into
this world, it's called sin. It entered into this world and
death by sin. That's exactly what God said
would happen. Death by sin. And so death passed
upon all being, all mankind, all of humanity, all of our population,
from Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Seth, and all of Abraham's
descendants, and then all of the people who lived up to the
time Christ came, and then everybody who's lived since Christ came
to this world, everybody has been born into this world to
the very end of time, All of us died in Adam. We're in trouble. We are prisoners. We're prisoners of death. We're
prisoners of Satan. He holds us captive at his will. And we're prisoners of the justice
of God that says the soul that sinneth shall die. That's all
in the covenant of works. That's really important, isn't
it? You should, you must remember
that. You need to learn this. That's
why we're all sinners. Because of what one man did. But there's another covenant
you need to know about. And though the covenant of works
was introduced there in the garden, and by the way, it was amplified
at Mount Sinai. But there's another covenant
you need to know about because I want to give you some good
news. I've given you the bad news. Let me give you some good
news. Before God ever created the world,
before He ever made Adam and then gave him a wife called Eve,
way back in what I refer to as eternity past, There was another
covenant formed. What is a covenant? Legal binding
agreement, promises on the one hand, obligations on the other
hand. God made that covenant with Adam,
I promise you life. On Adam's side, you must obey. And God said, if you don't obey,
here's the consequence, death. But back before God ever made
the world, there was another covenant. It's called the everlasting
covenant of grace. Grace. That one of works, that's
a very scary thought. Because you know, and I know,
we can't even begin to obey God. on anything, though even as believers
we seek to be obedient, obedient children. I want to be an obedient
child of God, don't you? I certainly do. But my obedience
is not perfect obedience, and that's what God demands, because
he's not going to accept anything less than perfection. Leviticus
22, 21, it shall be perfect to be accepted. So when I look
at that covenant of works, I'm driven to my wits end and I say,
is there no hope? I'm a lawbreaker. You are too,
whether you recognize it or not. But then I read about another
covenant, the covenant of grace. And it was made before the world
was created, back in eternity. between God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit. And in that covenant of grace,
God chose a people unto salvation with no consideration of anything
that they would do during their lifetime. This is just God's
choice, God's determination. And He made this agreement with
His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost,
the Spirit of God. And they all, as it were, legally
bound themselves by this covenant of grace. The Father said, I
will choose a people unto salvation, and He gave them to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to be redeemed by Him, bought
with His substitutionary sacrifice, forgiven of their sins by His
bloody death, and made righteous in Him by that One who is the
Lord our righteousness. And our Lord Jesus, as it were,
and now forgive me for using a little liberty here with my
imagination. It's like the Son of God and
the Father shook hands together. The Father said, I give them
to you. Will you accept? full responsibility for their
safety, for their salvation, for their redemption, for their
forgiveness, for their righteousness, and will you bring them all home
to glory in due time?" And the Son of God said, I will. Boy, that sounds good to me.
Because that means that the salvation of my soul is not dependent upon
me. It was laid upon the shoulders
of him of whom it is written in Psalm 89, God said, I have
laid help upon one who is mighty. He's a mighty God. He's the everlasting
Father. He's the Prince of Peace. And
the Spirit of God got in on this because it was a Trinitarian
promise and covenant. And the Spirit of God says, I
promise, all of these that the Father has chosen whom the Son
of God will redeem and save by His bloody sacrifice, I will
make certain that they hear the gospel of the grace of God. They'll
hear about the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. and His work
of redemption by His sacrifice. And I will work in their hearts.
Yes, Adam is going to die and all of his race is going to die.
But to the Father, He said, all those you have given to the Son
of God, I will make them spiritually alive. I will quicken them. I will regenerate them. They
will be birthed into the kingdom of God, born again from above. I'll see to it they hear the
gospel, and I will make that gospel of the grace of God, of
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will make it effectual. I'll
make sure it does a work of grace in their hearts. That's what
God the Spirit said. Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, all of them were in agreement. And therefore, the covenant of
grace became legal and binding way back in eternity. And let me tell you something.
There's no hope for you in the covenant of works. And so many people, in fact,
most people, think that if, well, if I can do something to kind
of get God's attention, I'll do some good things, then God
will show favor to me, and then when I die, he'll take me on
to heaven. No, that's not gonna happen. Because the covenant of work
says you gotta be perfect. Outwardly, yes, but also inwardly. You see, God never gave the covenant
of works. He never gave the Ten Commandments
as a means of salvation. You know why God gave the Ten
Commandments? You know why He gave the law
to Moses? To shut everybody's mouth and
leave us guilty before God. Romans chapter 3 says that. And
I know there are churches and places where the Ten Commandments
are listed, and I love the Ten Commandments, but I can't keep
them. Because that's what God demanded. If you want to be accepted by
God on the basis of what you do, you just look at those Ten
Commandments. And I'll tell you what, if God
the Spirit opens your eyes to them, That law will shut your
mouth and leave you saying before God, I'm a guilty sinner. It
was given to show us guilt. It's not the way of life. Here's
what Paul says. It's a message, the ministry
of death. And I'm telling you, all of you
who are here and all of you who are watching, If you lift one
little finger thinking by doing this, that, or something else,
God will save me, you're under a covenant that will result in
your death. I'm talking about eternal death
now. There's no hope in what you do. See, we are all prisoners, and
we cannot get ourselves out from under the prisons that we're
in. Be it the prison of law and justice, or the prison of Satan,
or the prison of sin. We're reigned over. Here's what Paul says. He says,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but by his
mercy he hath saved us. See, not works, but mercy. Not labor, but grace. Not you
by doing something, but Christ who has done everything necessary
to satisfy God. The good news for sinners is
God doesn't look to you for anything. He looks to His Son who has fulfilled
everything God demanded. And God gives us grace to look
to Christ also who has done everything. And I do look to Him. Don't you? I look to Him for everything.
And I'm so thankful, I'm so glad that God made salvation, the
salvation of this man, God made this salvation for me. totally to be the responsibility
of his son who promised, he promised in the covenant of grace, I will
save, I will redeem, I will justify, I'll put the sins away of everybody
you've entrusted to me. Good news for sinners. And here's what God does. Look
there in verse 11 again. He says, By the blood, that's
the sacrifice of Christ. You look through the scriptures. Oh, what a prominent position
the blood is always in. The blood, it's the blood that
makes atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Whose blood? Not your blood. Not the blood of the martyrs.
The blood of the Son of God, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sins. You can't cleanse yourself of
all sins, but Christ's blood did. Christ's blood cleansed. And he says, by the blood of
thy covenant, I have sent forth. Literally, I have released. I
have released them. The prisoners out of the pit
where there's no water, there's no good news, there's nothing
to refresh. Tell you a true story, it's out
of the book of Jeremiah. If you've been following in the
messages on here from the book of Zechariah, the children of
Israel were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. And during the
ministry of Jeremiah, he prophesied He said, the city of Jerusalem
is going to be ransacked. You better get out of this city,
because God is going to judge the city of Jerusalem for their
idolatry. And He is coming through. He
is going to send the Babylonians in, and they are going to tear
everything apart. You better get out, save yourselves. If you wanna spare yourself from
the judgment that's gonna fall physically upon our city, you
better get out of here. Well, the enemies of Jeremiah
went to the king and said, he's trying to upset everybody. He's
preaching judgment. And we don't like that. We're
a peaceful city and we don't believe anything bad's ever gonna
happen to this city. And king said, well, what do
you wanna do about it? And they said, we wanna throw
him in a pit. There's no water in that pit. And you know that's
what they did? Only thing down in the deep bottom
of the pit, there was mire. And they put Jeremiah in that
pit and he couldn't get out. He was a prisoner in a pit with
no water. See, that's our condition under
the law of God. under the servitude of Satan
and under the cruelty of sin. We're in a pit where there's
no water. But Jeremiah had a good friend. And that good friend, he came
along and said, Jeremiah, I'm gonna go talk to the king about
you. And he went and talked to the king. He said, let me get
him out. He's in a miserable condition.
The king said, get him out. This man, he went to the mouth
of the pit. Hey, Jeremiah, how you doing
down there? Jeremiah said, I'm in the mire
and I can't get out. Oh, won't somebody help me? He
said, I'm going to drop a rope down to you. He fed a rope down. He said, here's some old clothes,
too. Put them under your armpits and
then wrap the rope around you. and we gonna pull you out. And
they pulled him out. They released him from the pit. Now, you and I are in a pit where
there's no water. But here's where that man, Jeremiah's
situation was different from ours. We're spiritually dead
and we can't grab hold of a rope. We can't put the any used clothes
up under our arms, because we're spiritually dead. We're in a
pit where there is no water, and we don't even know we're
in a pit. And here's what the Spirit of
God does. He troubles us. He wakens us from our Dead condition. We say, oh, I'm in a mess. I'm in a pit where there's no
water. I need Christ, the water of life. I'm thirsty for him. I'm thirsty for righteousness.
I'm thirsty for forgiveness. And the Lord said, here's the
gospel. And the Spirit of God drops a
rope around you and puts garments, as it were, under your armpits.
And he wraps a rope around you. And God himself pulls you up
to safety. Ain't that a beautiful picture?
That's what salvation is. It's not what you do for God.
It's what God does for you. The Lord says, I've sent forth
the prisoners. I have released the prisoners.
You can't release yourself. You have to be released by the
Lord. And I'll tell you what, when
He comes to us in quickening grace, He tells us this, look
at verse 12. He says to us, turn ye to the
stronghold. Turn to the refuge. Who's the
refuge? Christ Jesus. Turn to the refuge. Turn to the stronghold, ye prisoners
of hope. I'm gonna give you some hope.
There's a savior. There's a redeemer. There's one
whose specialty is releasing prisoners from the pit. And even today, God says, I declare
unto you, I'll rent double to thee. That is, I'm gonna forgive
you of all of your sins by the blood of the covenant, and I'm
gonna make you totally righteous. Isn't that a beautiful passage,
isn't it? Just a pure gospel passage. May
God give you and me and all of you who are watching an understanding
of the covenant of works, which is the covenant of death. If
you try to do anything to please God and earn God's grace, God's
salvation, God's mercy, there's no hope for you there. There's
only death there. It's a ministration of death
and condemnation. But maybe, maybe God will be
pleased to quicken you and show you there's the Savior of sinners.
You say, oh, God saved me. And you look to the Lamb of God
and you found out in Him there's a double blessing. Forgiveness
of all your sins and righteousness before God. Wow. Are you interested? Boy, I am. I don't know about
you, but I am. I say, Lord, you've given me
an interest. I look to Christ only for salvation. Well, what do you think about
that? That's a blessed story. That's glad tidings of great
joy. And I tell you what, this is what I say. Jesus, I come. 242 is our final song for the
morning. 242. Jesus, I come. And I just want to sing one stanza. 242, Jesus, I come. I come just
as I am. I come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Savior of sinners. Well, let's stand together and
sing this one stanza only, then you can go on.