That is taken right out of the
book of Revelation chapter 5 and verse 12. And you can mark that
and read it later or just remember the words that she sang. That
is the words of Revelation 5, 12 verbatim. And those are the
words that we're going to be singing when we get to glory
honoring our Lord. Now I'm going to go back in a
of just two, three minutes to the passage in Zechariah 1, but
I want to begin in Exodus chapter 12. So if you would, go with
me to the book of Exodus chapter 12. Why are we here? You say, well, it's
Sunday. That's why we're here. Well,
we need to be more specific. That's not a good enough reason.
Maybe I should just ask the question, why am I here? I know there are different motives
found in the hearts of different people. I don't know what your
motivation is. But I hope that we've all gathered
for worship. That's the reason to be here,
is to honor our God in spirit and in truth. I'm here to honor and glorify
the God of my salvation. I'm here to exalt the Lord Jesus
who redeemed me by his precious bloody death upon the cross of
Calvary. I'm here to magnify the spirit
of grace who revealed Christ to me, who gave me spiritual
life. And I'm here for the good of
all of God's people. I'm here to help you. Those who
are watching, I'm here to help you. I'll be a very poor servant of
the Lord if I can't be of some assistance to you, some help
to you, to instruct you in the gospel of the grace of God. If
I can't do that, I'll not even be up here. Here in Exodus chapter number
20, I'm sure you're there, God gave the law, Exodus chapter
20. And after the Lord gave the Ten Commandments,
which we're familiar with here in Exodus chapter 20, He gave Moses some additional
instructions which Moses passes on to the people. And for this,
I want to read one verse. It's verse 24. Okay, Exodus chapter
20, verse 24. He says, an altar of earth thou
shalt make unto me, not a fancy altar like the heathens built
to honor their false gods, not something impressive to the eye
of men, but make an altar of earth, just dirt. Thou shalt
sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy
sheep and thine oxen. Now this next statement is the
one that kind of arrested my attention. This really got to
me because I want God to be with us this morning. You want that,
don't you? You want the Lord to meet with
you. You want the Lord to meet with
me, with all of us. And here's the statement that
kind of greatly impressed me. That's why I'm beginning the
message with it. This last statement of Exodus chapter 20 and verse
24, and in all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee and I will
bless thee. I wonder what that means. In
all places where I record my name. Where God recorded His name is
where the Lord reminded people that He could only be worshipped
by means of a sacrifice. You see, notice the context. You see the beginning where it
says, Thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, thy peace offerings,
thy sheep, and thy oxen. Now that's a key to understanding
this. It is only in that place of sacrifice,
of bloodshedding, of the death of the innocent for the guilty,
God says, that's the only place where I'm going to record my
name, where I'm going to make my name to be remembered. And I will come unto thee. and
I will bless thee. The Lord says, in that location where you killed an innocent
victim, in your stead, according to my
word, because of your own sinfulness, God said, that's where I'm going
to meet with you, that's where I'm going to make myself known,
That's where I'm going to commune with you. Now, shortly after
this, the Lord's going to give instructions pertaining to the
building of the tabernacle. And at the tabernacle, God told
them to make a brazen altar. And upon the brazen altar, that's
where they would offer the sacrifice. And I remind you, if I need reminding,
if you need reminding, and it's my duty to do it, whether you
remember or not. Every sacrifice offered on the
Jewish altar, on the brazen altar, that it directed the attention
of the worshipers to the Lord Jesus, God's lamb. Worthy is the lamb to be worshiped. And God says, when you present
to me that which I demand, I'm going to be with you. I'm going
to be among you. And I'm going to bless you. After that, of course, the tabernacle
lasted a couple of hundred years or so, and then the Lord instructed
Israel to build the temple. And the temple was built. There
was a brazen altar there. God said, that's where I'm going
to meet with you. I'm not going to meet with you anywhere else.
I'll meet with you in that location where you remember that the only
way to draw near to me is by means of a substitute dying in
your place. And when I cause you to remember
that this is the only way to worship me by means of a sacrifice, you can rest assured of this.
I'll be with you. I'm going to bless you. And we go to the New Testament
and we find out that God's Lamb was sacrificed. Here's the meaning of this. And you need to get this, and
I wish God would give preacher's ears to hear, teacher's ears
to hear. Listen, if you want God to bless
your lesson, if you want God to bless the message, if you
want God to be with us, We must worship Him by means of Jesus
Christ and His sacrificial death. It's only as we honor God through
substitution and satisfaction, through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ by which we are made the very righteousness of
God. It is only as we exalt Christ
in His work of redemption that God says, that's where I'm going
to be, and I'll bless you. I wonder how many so-called churches
are gathering together today, and the blessed dear Lamb of
God won't be exalted. He won't be praised. They won't
be speaking about His blood. They'll talk about Him being
full of love and full of charity. Well, He is love. They'll talk
about His mercy, talk about being good, but they don't exalt Him
as that Lamb of God whose life was taken from Him, actually
whose life He laid down in order to save His people from their
sins. And let's look at the negative
of this. If our Savior isn't honored,
if our Savior is not proclaimed, it doesn't matter who the speaker
is. Me or one of you men who speak in my absence or any preacher
anywhere, if we do not keep to this old, old story, of the bloody
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus which satisfied God's justice and put
away all the sins and iniquities and transgressions of His people. If we don't stick to that, we
need not expect God to meet with us. He won't. He won't. We can call it a worship
service if we want to. But you're not going to worship
God apart from the Lamb of God being presented and preached. Earlier, back in the book of
Genesis 22, and you know this story, when Abraham was told
by the Lord to go up on a mountain and offer Isaac to him as a burnt
offering. And the Lord went up, or the
Lord sent Abraham and Isaac out, and then Abraham and Isaac went
up on the mountain, and they told the servants, said, now
you two fellows, you stay here. That's what Abraham said. And
I and the lad will go yonder and worship. That's exactly the words of Abraham.
We're going to go worship. You stay here. And they went
up on the mountain, Got everything squared away and Isaac says,
well now Lord, I heard you say we're going up here to worship.
I've been carrying this load of wood on my shoulders. And
he got the fire and he got a knife. Where is the lamb? Where is the
lamb? You see, Isaac knew that which
most people do not know. There is no worship of God apart
from the Lamb. Where is the Lamb? That's what I want to say sometimes
when I listen to a message on sermon audio and the gospel hasn't
been preached. I want to say and I'll say it
out loud sometimes even though the preacher doesn't hear me.
Where is the Lamb? You said a lot of good things,
but really all that you said was no good because you didn't
preach Him. We've got to exalt the Lamb of
God. You see, if we do not preach
God's Lamb, then the presence of God is not
going to be with us. Now you can just forget about
that. the God of glory won't be in
our midst. And I'll tell you, if the God
of glory is not with us, it ain't any use in us meeting. It's futile. Just to go through the steps
of worship, the outward words that we say and the songs that
we sing, If everything doesn't redound to the glory of Jesus
Christ and His work of reconciliation
that He accomplished, we might as well just stop meeting. You
understand what I'm saying? Now, let me see if I can show
you our Lord Jesus presented in the book of Zechariah. Now
go back over to Zechariah chapter 4. Look at chapter 4. May the Lord fulfill
His promise when He said, where two or three are gathered together
in My name, I'll be in the midst. That's the key. Actually, two keys gathered together,
gathered by the Spirit of God. and gather together in the name
which is above every name." The Lord said, I'll be in the midst.
Now look over here in Zechariah chapter 4, and I'm really going,
I'm just going to deal with one verse, maybe a line or two of
a couple of other verses, and I'll break this vision open,
the Lord willing, next Sunday morning. But here's what I want
to focus on, because I didn't get much past the first verse,
just to be honest with you. And the angel that talked to
me, and that's the angel of the covenant, that's the angel of
God. We need to understand who's speaking to Zechariah. It's Jehovah, the Son of God. He's the messenger of the covenant.
And it's the angel who's been talking with him. And the angel
that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is
awakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, and I'll
stop right there. Here's the title of the message. Very simple. Remembered, awakened,
spoken to. You can keep up with that, can't
you? You can write that down. Awakened, remembered, awakened,
and spoken to. The man who was led of the Spirit
of God to write this book that bears his name is Zechariah. His name means he whom God remembers. He whom God remembers. Oh, if God would but remember
our names. Oh, if God would but think upon
us. Of Noah, it is written in Genesis
chapter 8 and verse 1. And God remembered Noah. Where is he? He's in the ark. He and his family are in the
ark. Floodwaters are receding. There
he is. All of the rest of the population
of the whole world is dead. And the scripture says, God remembered
Noah. You see, Noah, he's in the place
of safety. That's very important. God said, Come thou into the
ark. The ark's a picture, a portrait
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was one door into that
place of safety. There's one door of salvation.
Christ said, I am the door. And Noah entered into Christ.
Could he be forgotten of God? You who have by faith entered
into the Lord Jesus Christ. You have believed Him by the
grace of God. You've embraced Him. You trust
Him. He's the ark of your salvation.
You have no other hope. except the Savior. And you believe
that when the judgment of God fell on Him, it fell on you in
Him. See, that's what happened for
the ark. The judgment of God fell on the
ark, but everybody inside was safe. And the judgment of our
God fell on the Lord Jesus Christ and everybody that God had put
into Jesus Christ from the beginning of the world are safe. And we have entered into Him
by God-given faith. Do you believe the Savior? I
mean, do you really trust Him? Have you laid hold of Him? Have
you entered in? Well, if by the grace of God
you have, God remembers you. He's never gonna forget you. In Genesis chapter 19 and verse
29, there's a lot down in Sodom. The thunderbolts of God's judgment
are about to come crashing down upon those ungodly cities. The
lightning bolts are about to flash. And the scripture says, God remembered
Abraham and his covenant and he sent Lot out. God remembered his covenant that
he had made with Abraham and therefore a lot was sent out. Do you know why those of us who
believe, do you know why judgment will never touch us, condemnation
will never come over us? Because God remembers his covenant
made with his son. I tell you on his deathbed, that's
what David found comfort in, God's covenant. Multitudes of
people know nothing about that covenant of grace, that everlasting
covenant of grace of which the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the seal of that covenant. God chose a people in His Son. He gave to Christ all of these
people. Christ the Shepherd and the Father
gave Him all of these sheep for which to bear responsibility. And I'm going to tell you something,
the reason He called you. You a believer? Only you can
answer this now. You a child of God? You trust
the Lord Jesus Christ? The reason you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ is because God remembered His covenant made
with His Son and He delivered you from judgment. It's by grace,
my friends. It's by grace. We live spiritually and we live
eternally because of a covenant God made with our surety and
our representative, the Son of God. When Israel was groaning
in Egyptian bondage, we read again. God heard their groanings and
remembered His covenant. I tell you, you can learn something
right here if you don't know it already. All of God's dealings
with men are by way of a covenant. That's right. all of God's dealings with men
by way of a covenant. There's the covenant of works
made with Adam, who failed. He didn't live up to his part
of the stipulation. Obey and live. When he disobeyed,
he died and we all died. And by nature, we're under that
covenant of works. Perfection means life. Any imperfection at any point
means death. Covenant of works. Thank God
for an older covenant called the covenant of grace in which
you and I had a representative, Christ the Lord. He was our shirt, the scripture
says. He stood for us in that covenant. And he said, Father, all of their
sins I will bear. And if I may, and I'll be as
reverent as I can be, the Father said something to
him kind of like this. Your responsibility is to bring
all of these people safely home to me. You must save them. You must
keep God's law. You must honor every commandment.
And you must die under the penalty of breaking the law because that's
what they're going to do. And the Savior said, I promise. I vow. I will do that. And it's as though the Father
and the Son and the Spirit, and I know it didn't happen like
this, forgive me for my, perhaps the carnality of my imagination,
but it's as though the Father and the Son and the Spirit shook
hands and said, it is agreed, we will save a people. I choose
them, Son, You redeem them. Spirit of God, You quicken them,
You call them and lead them safely all the way back to Me. Bring
them home. You reckon any of the ones that
the Lord gave to Christ are going to be lost? That's the impossibility. The memory of God. God remembered Zechariah. God remembered Zechariah. And
his mom and dad, thinking of God's remembrance, said, let's
name our little boy Zechariah. It kept them in mind of God's
wonderful memory, God's remembrance. There's a verse of scripture
caught my attention this week over here in the Psalms. Look
at, where do I want to go? I wrote
it down. Psalm 136. Here it is. Psalm 136. It's a
very short verse. I'll tell you, it is quite powerful. Okay, Psalm 136, and I'm going
to give you a three-point outline right here on one little verse
of Scripture. And all these three words are
going to begin with M. Okay? Psalm 136, 23. Who remembered us in our lowest
state, for His mercy endureth forever. Here's a little three-word
outline for you. Memory, misery, mercy. Memory, misery, mercy. Who remembered us? Who remembered
us? What a mercy that God would remember
us. I think about that believing
thief. The Spirit of God did a work
of grace in his heart. The Lord didn't work with that
other thief. He didn't do a work of grace
in his heart. And he observed the same situation, the same
punishment of the man on the middle cross as the one who believed
it. To who do we attribute the difference
between these two men? The difference is attributed
to the grace of God given to one and not given to the others.
The sovereign mercy of the Lord. And that thief, a work of grace
was done in his heart and he said, Lord, remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
I believe you're the king. I believe you're going to have
a kingdom. I believe you're the Lord. And when you come into
your kingdom, Would you remember me? Would you take notice of
me? Would you have a heart interest
in me? Remember me? And the Lord Jesus gave him some
very assuring words. Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. I'm going to remember you. Lord,
if you just remember my name, Remember my name. My salvation, now you listen
to me. My salvation is not dependent
upon my memory of the Lord because I too easily forget. And the
day may come when I may even forget most everything I know. And I may even forget His name.
It's not my memory of the Lord that saves me. It's His memory
of me. Lord, remember me. Memory. Second word. He says, Who remembered
us in our lowest state? Misery. Ours was a sorry condition. A spiritual bankruptcy and depravity. Unfit for heaven, fit only for
hell. Miserable. Miserable. It's what the Lord said to the
church at Laodicea. You think you're rich and increased
with goods? You don't know that you're miserable
and poor and needy and wretched. You don't understand your misery. What's necessary then? Here,
our lowest state? Here's what's necessary is the
Lord to come to us in our misery. You remember there in Luke chapter 1, when the angel
Gabriel came spoke to Mary, and then Mary met with Elizabeth,
and then Mary had some things to say. She said, she said, the
Lord, the Lord has, he considered me in my low estate. And what she is saying, I'm a
miserable sinner, but the Lord remembered me. And isn't that your testimony? Those of you who know God, or
as Paul said, who are known of God, is that not your testimony? God's memory of you in your miserable
estate, when you had no goodness to get His attention, no righteousness
except that which stunk to the highest of heavens. He remembered you. in your lowest
state. And he told his son, go down
there and redeem him. Go down there and redeem her.
Pay her sin debt. Suffer judgment in their stead.
I tell you, the Lord not only turned his attention toward Mary,
but he formed his son in her. And that's what He does to poor
sinners today. He forms Christ in us, the hope
of glory. Memory, misery, third word is
mercy. For His mercy endureth forever. God didn't give us what we deserve. I've had foolish people say to
me, who have no understanding of the gospel, I just want what's
coming to me, preacher." Really? Do you have any idea what's coming
to you? Do you know what you naturally
deserve? You're already spiritually dead,
and you're going to face physical death, and you deserve eternal
death. Is that what you want? I just
want what's coming to me. I don't want what's coming to
me except that which our Lord Jesus Christ has secured for
me by His substitutionary death on my behalf. I want Him. And if I got Him, I got everything. I lack for nothing. Mercy. His mercy, how long does His
mercy endure for those who are by nature in a low estate, a
miserable estate? Forever. Forever. So, number one, the Lord remembers. Number two, go back to my text
just real quick here in Zechariah chapter 4 verse 1. It says in
verse 1, Thank God he remembers us. That's what Zachariah's name
means. But before he talked with Zachariah,
notice what is required. Something's got to happen to
Zachariah. And the angel that talked with me came again. He
woke me up. As of a man is awakened out of
his sleep and said unto me. Then he spoke to me. There are two kinds of sleep.
Number one, there's the sleep of death in which every person
finds themselves by nature due to sin. You remember when Lazarus
died? You remember reading that in
John chapter 11? And our Savior spoke of the death
of Lazarus as sleep. And he said to those who told
him, said, well, ain't no use to go there anymore. No use to
go to Bethany. You can't help him because he's
dead. And the Lord said in John chapter
11 and verse 11, our friend, Lazarus, sleepeth, but I go to
awaken him. He was dead. The Lord said, I'm
going to wake him up. And the Lord went to the tomb
of Lazarus. And with his own words, oh, there's
power in the word of the Lord. There's power in the gospel of
grace. The Lord said, Lazarus, come forth. That's all he said. Lazarus, come forth. Guess what
happened? That dead man woke up. You see, that's what we need
to happen to us. You say, I don't understand why
my family members don't believe. They're in the sleep of death.
And there's only one voice that can wake up the dead. That's
the voice of the master, the one who is life. Proverbs 6, verse 22 says, when
thou awakest, wisdom will talk with you. That's
Christ. He'll talk with you. You'll understand
the gospel when He wakes you up from the sleep of death. That's
the problem, folks. Tell you what, a lot of other
voices said, Lazarus! Lazarus, come back! Lazarus,
wake up! Lazarus can't wake himself. He's
dead. I'll tell you, there stood one
there that day who could wake him up. And I'll tell you about somebody
who's sitting upon his exalted throne, and he can wake you up. Well, I'm just not going to listen
to anything you have to say, preacher. Well, okay. I ain't
going to tell you who will wake you up if he's of a mind to. He might just come by your tomb
one day and through the word of the gospel say to you, whatever
your name is, wake up! Come forth. And you'll come forth. You'll live to the glory of God. But there's also the sleep that
even believers get into. And this is what happened to
Zechariah. It's kind of a spiritual lethargy. Surely all of you who believe
the gospel can understand this. There are times when we ourselves,
we fall spiritually asleep. We're just not alert to the things
of God like we ought to be. We're not attentive. Our minds are crowded with this
and that and something else. And we fall asleep. Only the Lord can wake us up. We get spiritually drowsy. Peter, James, and John went up
on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus. And you
know who appeared with our Savior? Moses and Elijah. How would you
like to have been up on that mount? And there's Moses and
Elijah and they're talking with the Savior about the redemption
He would accomplish at Jerusalem. Oh, I'd love to hear that. to
hear the Gospel being talked about and discussed and rejoiced
in by the Redeemer and two of His saints who've left this earthly
scene hundreds and hundreds of years before that. Spoke of His death. But we read
these words, But Peter and they that were with him were heavy
with sleep. Can you imagine somebody going
to sleep on the sound of the gospel when our Lord Jesus is
talking about that gospel? I know physically people get
sometimes they're weary, they work late, or didn't get enough
sleep. I know that happens. And I'm
a little understanding of that. A little. Not much, but a little. Get good rest the night before
if you can. This is about a spiritual sleepiness. You're just spiritually dull. But when they were awake, when
they were awake, they saw His glory. I tell you what the Lord
needs to do for every last one of us who are His people, and
that includes you, to wake us up to see His glory. That's what it says. When they
were awake, they saw His glory. The glory of His person. The
glory of His work. The glory of His blood. The glory
of His righteousness. The glory of His salvation. The
glory of His exaltation when they were awake. That's when
they saw His glory. The Lord woke them up. Lord,
wake me up. Wake me up from spiritual sleep. Two times in the book of Daniel. Daniel said in Daniel 8.18, now
as the angel of the Lord was speaking with me, I was in a
deep sleep on my face toward the ground. But He touched me
and made me sit upright. Oh Lord, touch me. Wake me up. We all know, unfortunately, we
know all too well what it means to grow a little cold, a little
distracted. It's called being sleepy. Lord, wake us up. Once again
in Daniel chapter 10, when I heard the voice of His words, I was
in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground. He woke me up. What is He used to wake us up?
You who are the people of God, what is He used to wake us up?
Get this. The same thing He uses to wake
up a spiritually dead sinner. His Word. His Word. Listen to the Word
of God. He awakens us by speaking to
us. And then here's the last thing. Then the Lord talks to
His people. He remembers, He awakens, and
He speaks to His people. That's what happens here. He
speaks to Zachariah. Let me give you one more story
out of the New Testament. You remember the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus. Our Lord had been raised, and
they're walking along, and man, they're singing the blues. They're
in Depression City. They're on Main Street in Depression
City. Then our Lord broke open the
Word of the Gospel to them. He said, well, I've got to go
on. They said, abide with us. Stay with us. And He did. He
did. And when He departed, they said,
did not our hearts burn within us? While He talked with us by
the way, and He opened to us the Scriptures, that's what He
uses to wake us up. The Scriptures. Do you remember that old song?
I don't have much gospel in it, if any. I didn't look at all
the words. Now let us have a little talk with Jesus. Let us tell
him all about our troubles. He will answer by and by, so
forth and so on. I would not diminish or minimize
the importance of prayer. That's not having a little talk
with Jesus. Please don't say to me, preacher,
would you say a little prayer for me? That's words I don't
like to hear. It's some things I don't enjoy
hearing. And that's one of them. Say a little prayer. Have a little
talk with Jesus for me. I'm going to tell you what we
need. For the Lord Jesus to have a little talk with us. That's
what we need. The Lord woke up Zachariah. The
Lord remembered him. Wake up! Now I'm going to talk
to you. Lord, I know you're mindful of
me. Wake me up. Wake me up so I'm
alert. And then talk with me. How does
he talk with us? Through his words, by his gospel,
by his spirit. What is the talk we need to hear?
Well, it's found in our final song. Here's the talk we need
to hear. Jesus paid it all. That's good
words to hear, isn't it? Number 125 is the number Jesus
paid it all.