Thank you, Mike. I had invited him to come and
play the piano for us today. Marty is at the cabin in Virginia,
and David and Susanna are on vacation. Actually, they're on
their way back. I actually, when I text him,
I said, do you know of anybody who could play the piano for
us? And he said he would. And that was a blessing. Thank you, Mike. It's good to
have you with us. Let's go back to the book of
Zechariah. This morning we have begun a
study in the book of Zechariah. As you know, Judah had been taken
into captivity for 70 years because they left the Lord. They fell into idolatry. They began to worship false gods. no longer looked to the Christ
of God who would come. Their hope was not in the grace
of God through the coming Messiah and his substitutionary sacrifice. They began to offer their offerings
and their sacrifices not to God, but to other gods, and that's
with a little g. It wasn't that they weren't religious. They were very religious. But
it was wrong religion. False religion. And therefore,
God sent them into captivity in Babylon for 70 years. But God remembers His people. Amongst those that were taken
into captivity, there was a remnant according to the election of
grace. God never forgets His people.
This man whose name is Zechariah, his name means Jehovah remembers. He always remembers His covenant. He always remembers His people.
And he always remembers his promises to his people. So all the time
that they were in Babylonian captivity, God didn't forget
them. At last, he was pleased to raise
up another empire that conquered the Babylonian empire. And then within that new empire
called the Persian Empire, actually the Medes and the Persians, the
Medo-Persian Empire, within that he raised up a mighty king. His name was Cyrus. And as the Scripture says, the
heart of the king is in the Lord's hand. And he turns it, as the
rivers of water, any which way he wants to, he turned the hand
of Cyrus to be merciful to the Jews. And he said to them, go
back home. Go back to Jerusalem. But that
wasn't all he said, because God instructed him to say more than
that. He said, you go back and you
rebuild your temple, you rebuild the walls of the city, rebuild
the city of Jerusalem, and worship your God, for He is God. What a good admonition. Worship
God. Go back home and go back to God. Go back to the sacrifices that
you offered to Him. And so a bunch of them did. Over
42,000 of them went back. One of the men who went back,
who was an older man at that time, was Haggai. A much younger
fella, he was just a boy, was this man, Zechariah. And immediately the people began
to rebuild the brazen altar, and they start worshiping God
again, start offering the sacrifices. Listen, if you understand the
tabernacle, understand the temple, and understand those truths that
God taught to the forefathers of Israel, it was this, God can
only be approached by a bloody sacrifice that pictured the Lord
Jesus Christ who would come. And therefore, he instituted
this. He said, every morning, all of
you get together at 9 a.m. and offer the morning lamb as
a sacrifice to God. Listen, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. Now, that morning sacrifice
didn't put away anybody's sins, but it pictured what God's Lamb
would do when He would come. He'd put away the sins of His
people. Every morning, offer a lamb. Every afternoon, 3 p.m.,
offer another lamb. That's the only way you can draw
near to God. You want to worship God? Would
you be accepted by God? I'm talking about all of us here
this morning and those of you who are watching. Would you be
accepted by God? Would you be received by God? It's got to be on the basis of
an innocent victim dying in your stead. Something's got to be done about
sin. And you see, all of those offerings
that Israel offered, those folks, when they got back to Jerusalem,
the first thing they did, they built the brazen altar, they
rebuilt it, and they began to reinstitute the sacrifices because
this is what they understood. It's the only way to come to
God. In addition, during the day,
various Israelites would have brought their own personal sacrifices
unto the Lord for their sins. And when they brought those animals
to die on that altar, they were saying, in effect, I should have
been crucified. I should have suffered and died.
I should be put up on this brazen altar. But I put this animal
that I bring in my stead. I bring it to die. on account
of my sins, and I look forward to, I believe in, I have confidence
in the Lamb of God who is going to come, that seed of the woman
who is going to fully and finally put away the sins of all that
God gave Him, the covenant of grace. He's going to die under
the wrath of God, but He's going to be raised again. and he's
going to be exalted. And that's what an Israelite,
that's what he was saying in his heart when he came and brought
his sacrifice to the priest. Well, things went well for a
good bit, but then opposition arose and came from the Samaritans. They began to mock. they began to make light of what
these Jews were doing. You come back to rebuild the
walls? You come back to rebuild your city? What are you doing
there? What are you burning on that
altar there? Well, it's a lamb. It's a goat. It's a bullock. It's two turtledoves. We bring this on account of our
sins because God said this is how we approach Him. And such
was the mockery of those Samaritans, they stopped offering the sacrifices. And they stopped building the
walls. And they stopped building the
temple. They stopped rebuilding the city. And it didn't stop for just a
little bit. Eighteen years. There was no
building. No building. It's like the people had, they
got so discouraged, they just stopped. They just quit. Too much opposition. Too much at stake here. It's
too costly for us. We'll just cease offering the
sacrifices. Well, God raised up an older
preacher, first of all, Haggai. Keep this in mind. He didn't
start preaching. He didn't start prophesying.
Until 18 years after he got back and the rest of them got back
from Babylonian captivity back into Jerusalem. 18 years. And he began to preach to encourage
the people. And he preached to the people.
Come back. Let's go back to the Lord. We're
way off base here. We left Him. He didn't leave
us. God's still right where He was. God's still on His throne. God still reigns. He's still
gracious. He's still merciful. We're the
problem. And He encouraged the people
to begin again. Let's worship God again. What
do you say? Let's worship God again. And then two months after
he began preaching, and he only preached for about six months.
He had a pretty short ministry. Two months after he began preaching,
God raised up this man, Zechariah. And he said the same thing that
Haggai said. You see, all of God's preachers
see eye to eye. All of God's preachers preach
the very same message. Our only hope is in the Lord
God of glory. He's the only one who can save
us. He's the only one who can receive us. He's the only one
who can make us whole. And He does it through the substitute
of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the message was, come back
to the Lord. Let's come back. Did you notice? You don't have to turn to this.
I can find it quickly. In that passage that I asked
Matt to read to us, here's what he said three times. Here's what
the psalmist said. It's a psalm that they said.
He said, Turn us again, O God, and cause our face to shine,
and we shall be saved. Here's what's got to happen.
The Lord, if we're going to return to the Lord, He's got to return
us. He's got to turn us. Again, He
said the same thing. In verse 14, Psalm 80, He says,
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven,
and behold and visit this vine. And then again in the last verse,
verse 19 of Psalm 80, turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause
our face to shine and we shall be saved. The message of Haggai
and Zechariah was turn to the Lord. The message of Asaph and
of all the Scriptures is this, if we're going to turn to the
Lord, the only way we'll ever turn to the Lord is if He returns
us. He's got to do the turning of
us. You see, we're under the grace of God. The only way we'll
ever turn is if He is merciful to us. Notice here in Zechariah
1. Look at verse 3. I'll just back up to verse 1. Zechariah 1. Look at verse 2. The Lord hath been sore displeased
with your fathers. That's an interesting expression,
sore displeased. He's very, very displeased. In fact, the root word for both
sore and displeased is identical. The Lord hath been displeased,
displeased. The Lord's not pleased with folks
who don't worship Him by means of the appointed sacrifice. He
can't be pleased with you. Therefore saying to them, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye unto me." The only hope we've got is to
turn to the Lord, to turn to Christ. Now this affects both
believers and unbelievers. First of all, unbelievers, unconverted. Your only hope of salvation,
your only hope of forgiveness is to turn to the Lord, your
God, and you can only turn to Him through the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that God would turn us, would
turn you. Peter says in 1 Peter 2, He said,
you were a sheep going astray, but you have been returned to
the shepherd. Who returned you? Who turned
you? Who must turn you? You see, the
Scripture says in Isaiah 53, verse 6, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We're going the wrong way, folks.
We're going the wrong way. and the Lord hath laid on Him,
the Lord hath made to meet upon the head of the scapegoat of
our Lord Jesus Christ the iniquities of us all." We're going the wrong
way. Our Lord described it this way,
on the broad road that leads to destruction. We're going the
wrong way. Those of you who are yet lost in sin, who know not
the Lord Jesus Christ, who have not received Him as prophet,
priest, and king, those to whom God has not been gracious, you
are lost, you're going the wrong way, and the Savior says, return
to Me. You say, well, how can I return? I've never been there. We went
the wrong way in Adam. Our only hope is to go the right
way. Go to Christ. Preacher, what must I do? I'm
a sinful person. I'm ungodly. The Word of God
says to me very clearly my condition. All that sin and come short of
the glory of God. The Word of God says there's
not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
Preacher, what am I supposed to do? Especially in light of
the fact that God is absolutely holy. Holy is the sparkling jewel
in the crown of God's attributes. In fact, I would say the holiness
of God is more than an attribute. It's His very nature. It affects
all that He does. What other characteristic of
God is ever repeated three times? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. He cannot accept anything that
is depraved, sinful, polluted. Then how can I come to God? Through
Christ, who said, I am the way, I am
the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And here's what Zechariah, he
calls and I call to you who know not the Savior. I say, turn. Here's what the Lord says, turn
ye unto Me. That's not complicated. You're
going the wrong way. Turn unto Me, He says. I think of the prodigal son. Wasted his living. All of his
inheritance, wasted his money, rather, on riotous living, the
Scripture says. And then the Scripture says he
came to himself. That's the Spirit of God working
within a man. And he said to himself, in essence,
I'm such a fool. Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going back. I'm going to return to the Father. That's what by the grace of God
you've got to do. Now you hear me. All of us have
gone astray. We're like that prodigal son.
Oh, that the Spirit of God would work within our hearts and convict
us. I'm going the wrong way. Can
you continue the route that you're going? Oh, you'll arrive at a
destination, but it's not one where you want to go to. You'll
be separated from God forever. Separated from life and light.
The only hope is, return ye unto Me, God says. Turn to Me. How can I come to God? Through
the Lord Jesus. That prodigal son said, I'm going
home. I'm going home. And you know
what he discovered? Even before he got there, there
was the father who had his arms wide open to receive him because
he loved him. Am I speaking to somebody this
morning here or on the internet? God has convicted you of your
awful transgressions against Him. And you understand, to a
degree, God's absolutely holy. He can't receive you unless you're
holy. Did you know that? People say, how in the world
can I be holy when I'm a sinner? I drink iniquity like water.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, we are holy and righteous in Him. And in Him, God accepts sinners. No other way to be accepted by
God except in Christ. Does this fit you? Am I talking
to somebody this morning and you say, Jim, I get what you're
saying. I'm going the wrong way. Oh God,
turn me. Turn me and I shall be turned. And I'll tell you, you'll know
if God's doing the work in you because you'll turn to Christ.
The Savior said, come unto Me. and I'll give you rest." Can you come to Christ? That's
not complicated. You say, you preachers make things
so difficult, make things so complicated. No, the Lord said, turn ye unto
me. It's not difficult to understand
what he's saying. Turn ye unto me. Not turn ye to the church. Not turn ye to the Ten Commandments. Not turn ye to the rules and
regulations of religion. Turn ye unto me. That's what God said. Oh, that God would work a work
of grace in your heart. And notice what he says in verse
4. He says, Don't you be like your fathers, unto whom the former
prophets have cried, saying, Thus said the Lord of hosts,
Turn ye now from your evil ways and from
your evil doings. Turn away from these gods that
can't save you. Turn away from this Jesus who
needs your permission to save you. Turn away from these false
gods. Look unto Me and be ye saved,
saith your God. I am the Lord. Nobody else can
help you. Nobody else can save you. You
see, here's what the message of sovereign grace does. It backs
us up in a corner and says to us, there's no way out except
in the Lord. And then you run to Him. And you'll find a Father who
is very welcoming to you through the Lord Jesus. So it's a message
to those who are unconverted, but it's also a message to the
people of God who, and sadly, the people of God can become
somewhat indifferent. at times somewhat cold. It's
a sad fact. We're all on fire for the Lord.
Really? You know what it means for your
love to grow cold. What's the cure? The Lord says,
return to Me. Come back to Me. Are all those
Jews in Jerusalem? What are we supposed to do? And
they gather together and they hear Haggai preach. And then
they hear Zechariah preach. And the very first message Zechariah
preaches is, thus said the Lord of hosts, listen to it, turn
ye unto Me. People of God who've grown cold,
maybe a little indifferent, and listen, we all have our times
of coldness, sadly. That's just the way we are. Don't
you realize the war of the natures within you as a child of God? The war of the new nature, the
new man and the old man. You know the struggle. You know
something about that. Paul did. Romans chapter 7. He said, the good that I would
do, I don't do. And then what I don't want to
do, that's what I do. We know about these things. And
sometimes it's like the evil kind of controls us much too
long. Well, the Lord said in Romans
6, sin shall not have dominion over you. Grace has dominion
over you. And the Lord uses His Word and
the grace of God, the grace of the message of the Gospel, to
draw us back in. And the Lord says, come back
to Me. Come back to Me. That's where you got off base.
That's where you went wrong. To all these Jewish people, you
know why you got into captivity? Because your love went cold. And now here you've built the
brazen altar, you started worshiping again, but people made fun of
you. And you stopped. What'd you quit
for? I got discouraged. We all get
discouraged. There's not anybody in here who
doesn't know something about the spiritual ebbs and flows
of your life. And the Lord said, here's the
cure. Turn ye unto Me and do it now. Do it now. There's no other hope for any
of us. Look what He says in verse 4. Oh, and let me just say this.
In verse 3, he says, Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts,
and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. You turn to
me, I'll turn to you. Now look at verse 4. Don't be as your fathers unto
whom the former prophets have cried. Well, what did they cry? Look
at the middle of verse 4. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings. That
was their message. You see, all of God's preachers
down through the ages have been preaching the same thing. Our
only hope is in the Lord. Come to the Lord. But here's their problem. And here's some of us who've
got this problem. But they did not hear nor hearken unto Me. Will you hear what the Lord says?
Will you hearken to what the Lord says? And the only way we
will ever hearken to what the Lord says is if He gives us ears
to hear what He has to say. See, here's our problem. All
of us have a natural problem. We don't want to hear what the
Lord has to say. And really, this has been the
issue with the Israelites, with the Jews. This is one of the
reasons that they wound up in captivity. And Jeremiah preached
forty years. Forty years. And he told them,
stop listening to these false preachers. Forty years he warned
them. You're listening to the wrong
voices. You're listening to men who put
the responsibility totally on you, and if you don't do it,
it won't get done. Stop listening to those voices. But they wouldn't hear. They wouldn't hearken unto me. Here's our problem. It is one
of sin and one of absolute rebellion against God. Christ said about
the Jews, He said to them, and ye will not come unto me. that you might have life. Where
is life? Is it in Christ's everlasting
life? Forgiveness? Well, what's the
issue then? We won't come. We won't turn. Well, preacher, if by nature
we won't come and we can't come, what's our hope? Our hope is
in the fact that though you cannot come to the Lord, He draws people
by His mighty grace. So the Savior said, no man can
come to me. That's what we're talking about,
coming to Christ, right? That's what we're talking about, coming
to Christ. No man can come to me except,
oh, I'm thankful that word's in there. It doesn't just say,
no man can come to me, and then that's the end of the statement.
Well, that leaves us absolutely hopeless. No man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me. He sent me to be the
Savior. He sent me to be the substitute.
He sent me, the Lamb of God, to lay down my life to satisfy
His justice. No man can come to the Father
except by me. And he says, and the Lord has
to draw you. Oh, draw me now, Lord. That ought to be the cry of all
of us. Don't you think that's right? Lord, draw me. Draw me to Christ. Draw me to
Yourself. He says, verse 4, Turn ye now. but they wouldn't listen. It's
hard finding anybody who wants to listen to the truth. That's evident from the empty
places in here this morning. And then he tells them this.
Look at verse 5. Here's what he reminds them of. Their fathers, their forefathers,
They're all dead. He reminds them of an appointment
that everybody must keep. Your fathers, where are they? Those people who refused to listen
to the earlier prophets, where are they? Your grandmothers and grandfathers
and great-grandparents and going all the way back. These people
who refuse to hear, they refuse to hearken. Let me ask you a
question. Where are they? Well, I know where they are.
They're separated from God. That's where they are. They're
enduring the anger of the Lord. And then he says, and the prophets
that you listened to who lied to you. They told you peace,
peace, but there was no peace. They said everything's alright.
Jeremiah preached judgment is coming and the false prophets
said, no it's not. God's a God of love. He's not
going to punish anybody. It's those men you listen to
who lied on God. Where are they? Do they live
forever? No, they don't live forever.
They exist forever. But they don't live forever.
They perish too. But I'll tell you something that
will last forever. The Word of God. And that's what
he talks about in verse 6. But my words and my statutes
which I commanded, my servants the prophets, the Word of God
lasts forever. And that can be looked at in
two ways. That is, Christ is the Word of God. He lasts forever. And the written Word of God lasts
forever. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but not my words. They last forever. Well, what was the issue? What was the issue? Here were
people who would not hearken, they would not listen. And you
need to understand what didn't happen. Now look at this. He says, my words and my statutes
which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did not take hold
of your fathers. What's got to happen? What's
got to happen before people will really be interested? People
will really follow Christ, fall in love with the Son of God,
cast aside all other hopes for salvation and righteousness and
acceptance. What's got to happen? The Word
of God's got to take hold of you. That's what's got to happen. And that's both the incarnate
Word and the written Word. The Lord Himself's got to grab
hold of you. And if He ever takes hold of
you, He will get your attention. And if the Word of God ever grasps
you, if it ever arrests you, if you're ever arrested by God's
free and sovereign grace, you'll say, I'm a welcome prisoner of
grace. The Word's got to take hold of
you. So, here's what this means. Our only hope, your only hope
of ever returning to the Lord is if He gets a hold of you. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me. Draw him. Draw Me, Lord! What's that song we sing sometimes?
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord. Draw me! Well,
that's my prayer this morning. Draw me, Lord. Draw me with free
and sovereign grace. Draw me by Your mighty power. Oh, may You be a magnet upon
my cold, stale heart. And draw me to Yourself, and
then I'll live for Your glory. And then the things of God will
be of monumental interest to me. And that's when the Son of
God will be made real to me as the only Savior of sinners who
saved me by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary and He who
died, arose and ever lives to make intercession for me. Draw
me, Lord. Draw me to Yourself. Let's get a psalm book and turn
to it for our last hymn, which is 118, When I survey the wondrous
cross.