I have entitled this message
from Zechariah 14, I've entitled it Holiness Unto the Lord. I couldn't think of a better
title because as you can see in the last two verses, as God
reveals the final end of all things to Israel in Zechariah's
day through the prophet, that the one thing that here that
is mentioned twice that identifies and distinguishes the people
of God who will be the inhabitants of the new earth is holiness
unto the Lord. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. I love that passage in the book
of Isaiah. Where I believe he's speaking
of his conversion, some disagree, but it doesn't matter. We can
certainly as believers have a fresh realization of the thrice holy
God. And that may have been what happened
to Isaiah. But I know this. He saw the holiness of God high
and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And in light
of that holiness, what did he say? He said, woe is me, for
I'm undone. That means I'm cut off. And that's the reason I believe
it's his conversion. He's talking about his conversion
experience. Not that it happened six chapters into his prophecy,
but that he's relating it as it took place in the past. He's
recounting that for our benefit. And it is for our benefit. Because
the people of God who know Christ and are in Christ, we're not
cut off. We were in our minds by wicked works, Colossians 1.
Alienated, that's what that means. But we're not now, we're brought
near unto God. But either way, he says, I'm
cut off, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. And that's what
we are, even as sinners saved by grace. In that sense, we're
sinners. Our sinlessness can be seen only
in Christ. And that legally and spiritually.
Legally as we stand in Him, clothed in His righteousness imputed,
and spiritually as our hearts are purified by faith, by the
blood of Christ, as we look to Him and see that we have a right
and title to enter into the holy presence of God because of Christ,
because of what He accomplished, because of who He is, God in
human flesh, and because of what He did at Calvary. And then Isaiah said that an
angel flew, or a seraphim flew, a messenger flew, and with tongs
took a coal from the altar. That's the altar of redemption,
the altar that pictures the sacrifice of Christ. And he said he brought
that and he put it on my lips. The cleansing of a sinner by
the blood of Christ. Holiness unto the Lord. Well, the first thing that I
want us to see tonight in this section of Zechariah, as he concludes
the message, is number one, the defeat, the final defeat and
final destruction of all the enemies of Christ. Now, Zechariah
had set forth in prophecy without fail and without any corruption
and without any doubt The eternal salvation and security of the
people of God in Christ. Safe and secure in Christ. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. Look at verse 11, he says, the
men shall dwell in it, talking about Jerusalem, the heavenly
Jerusalem. And we won't turn to Hebrews
12 tonight, we turned there last time. But that's where he talked
about how we've not come to a physical mountain, a physical city, but
to a heavenly, Mount Zion, a heavenly Jerusalem. And it says, and there
shall be no more utter destruction. in the physical jerusalem under
the old covenant jerusalem was destroyed built back and then
destroyed again built back and destroyed again but in this heavenly
jerusalem there'll be no more utter destruction it's an eternal
city it's eternal life we'll never never be destroyed again
and this is what he said but jerusalem shall be safely securely
inhabited. God has a people. And there's
not going to be any vacancies. There's no way that those for
whom Christ died will not be citizens eternally and unchangeably
of the heavenly Jerusalem. And later on we learn from the
scriptural revelations as it progresses that we will occupy
the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And by whose righteousness
will we be there eternally? By Christ. Yes, we will be righteous
in ourselves then. Yes, we'll be perfectly sinless
in ourselves then. But our song of redemption will
be worthy as the lamb that was slain. Now don't you love that? I'm telling you, that sentence
tingles up my spine. Worthy is the Lamb that is loved.
And I'll tell you something, I can tell you everyone who's
going to be singing it there will start out singing it here. No doubt. But now he begins in verse 12
to set forth in prophecy the eternal destruction and death
of all who oppose Christ. All who oppose his gospel. All
who oppose his church, look at verse 12, this shall be the plague. The plague there is the plague
of God's wrath against sin. God's just wrath against sin. And there's several plagues described
here, and I'll tell you why I believe that he puts it in a multiple
way, because it's an utter devastation. It's a complete destruction.
In other words, it's not just a destruction of one part and
another part left. This is a wiping out of the whole
lot of opposition against Christ. Unbelief, sin. I told the folks
yesterday at the funeral service, there's only two ways to die.
You either die in your sins or you'll die in Christ. to die
in your sins is to die under the sentence of condemnation
and eternal death to die in Christ as Revelation 14 tells us is
to die blessed to die in the Lord blessed eternally blessed
but he says this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord now
the Lord there is Jehovah so the the covenant God of grace
who saves sinners by His grace through Christ is the one who's
going to measure out this judgment of complete destruction. Because
the enemies here are against His redemptive glory. You see,
if you don't stand in Christ, your only hope of salvation and
forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life and glory you
stand in opposition as an enemy to the redemptive glory of God
and God will not trifle with his glory he will not share his
glory he's a jealous God and it says the Lord will smite all
the people that have fought against Jerusalem that's any sinner Any
sinner who dies in his sins, any sinner who's found in his
sins, any sinner who doesn't have Christ, who's not submitted
to Christ and his righteousness alone. And he says, their flesh
shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, their
eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall
consume away in their mouth. What's that all about? It's a
sudden destruction. In other words, this is not eating
away slowly like a cancer. But this is a sudden destruction. The flesh shall be consumed while
they stand on their feet. Their eyes will be consumed right
in their sockets and their tongue shall be consumed away in their
mouth. These instruments of the flesh which they use to deny
and oppose and ignore the redemptive glory of God will be consumed
by the wrath of God. And verse 13, it shall come to
pass in that day that a great tumult, a great trouble. You know the Bible often speaks
of the Lord as being terrible. And literally what we would say,
the proper language that we would use in our day would be awesome.
Awesome. God is an awesome God. Stand
in awe of God Almighty. And this tumult is the result
of the terror of the Lord in his wrath. He's awesome in his
wrath. Now we know him, thank God we know him to be awesome
in his mercy. Our God is a merciful God and
it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Did you see
this? They're gonna be consumed in
every way. Well it's of the Lord's mercies that I'm not consumed
and that you're not consumed. And that's the only reason. In
other words, the fact that we will stand in that day and be
accepted of God and enter into the eternal bliss of the heavenly
Jerusalem is not because we are better people than these here.
Because if that's the cause, then Jehovah wouldn't have to
be involved. We wouldn't need the God of grace.
That's right. But there's going to be an awesome
tumult here. From the Lord shall be among
them. He says, and they shall lay hold everyone on the hand
of his neighbor and his hand shall rise up against the hand
of his neighbor. They're going to seek help from each other.
That's what he's saying, but they're not going to find it.
They're going to turn against each other. In other words, it's going
to be every man for himself. Every man for himself. You can
read about these plagues that he mentions here as described
in the book of Revelation if you want to start at chapter
15 and read from there. We haven't gotten there in our
Bible study lessons yet. Revelation chapter 15 and 16
describe these plagues. And I believe they're called
plagues because later on you're going to see he kind of gives
it the same awesome weight that by which he brought Israel out
of Egypt before, with all those plagues, the 10 plagues that
God brought upon Egypt. And then he, by that, through
Moses, he brought the Hebrew children out of Egypt. And that's why he mentions Egypt
later on. And then look here, he says, Judah, verse 14, look
here. He says, and Judah also shall
fight at Jerusalem. And what he says there, some
translations have that, and Judah, or thou also, O Judah, shall
fight against Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the heathen
round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and
apparel in great abundance. He's talking about the spoils
of war here. Those who seek to spoil God's
people shall be spoiled by God's people. That's what he's saying.
And then Judah and Jerusalem. Now they're the people of God
in type and picture here. The redeemed of the Lord. The
armies in heaven, the chosen. The called and the faithful who
will follow the lamb wherever he goes. That's what the scripture
tells us. They'll follow the lamb wherever
he goes. That's what the book of Revelation tells us. And they'll
follow him as he makes war against Babylon and as he makes war against
the beast and the false prophet. That's the book of Revelation.
See, all this is, this is similar now. And they shall take them
captives, Isaiah said it this way, whose captives they were.
And they shall rule over their oppressors, Isaiah 14 too. Ezekiel
spoke of it in chapter 39 and verse 10. They shall spoil those
that spoiled them and rob those that robbed them. But what's he talking about here?
Well, even the people of God at one time fought against Christ,
didn't you? I know I did. I can remember
reading about Saul of Tarsus. On his trip, he had a business
trip, a religious business trip to Damascus. And he had one purpose
in mind, and that was to wipe the name of Jesus Christ and
his followers off the face of the earth. As we say quite often,
Stan, you mentioned, yeah, he wasn't on his way to a prayer
meeting, was he? And so even the people of God
at one time fought against him. But what did he do? Well, as
one old writer put it, In the Old Testament, he put a bridle
in the mouth of the wild ass's coat and he tamed him. By the
grace of God, he brought us to bow. That's what he's talking
about there. But look at verse 15, he says,
and so shall be the plague of the horse or the mule, the camel,
the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in the in the tents
as this plague. In other words, this tells us
that even their livestock and their tents and their beast of
burden and labor shall be plagued. They'll be destroyed. There'll
be no help from anyone else. Their silver and their gold won't
do them any good. That'll be given to the people
of God. It will turn only, it will only turn them against each
other. But now here's the key now. Rest
assured Rest assured, this is the issue. And this is the issue
for the people of Zacharias day, it's the issue for us today,
and it's the issue for the people who are dwelling on this earth
when Christ comes again to implement all of this destruction, this
utter destruction. And that's this, without Christ,
all who are without Christ shall be consumed by the holiness of
God. To them, As the Apostle Paul
wrote by inspiration of the Spirit in Hebrews 12 and verse 29, our
God is a consuming fire. But now look at verse 16. Now
here's the second thing. Here's the salvation of the remaining
remnant. God always has a remnant. I love
that. And it's always a remnant of
grace. It's never a remnant of people who deserve to be saved.
It's never a remnant of people who have earned the blessings
of God and the favor of God. It's never in the Bible from
Genesis to Revelation do you read of a remnant of people who
have finally, finally done what God wanted them to do. You never
find that in the Bible. Whenever it talks about a remnant,
it's always a remnant according to the election of grace. Now
that's Bible fact. And this is what he's talking
about, look at verse 16, and it shall come to pass that everyone
that is left, that's the remnant, that's the remaining, the surviving
remnant of grace, left of all the nations. Now this proves
to me, and I hope to you too, that this is talking about heavenly
Jerusalem. Not just a physical city, because
it's a remnant left of all the nations, of people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And that's what the book of Revelation
teaches too. Not just the Jews, but the Gentiles
too. And it says, which came against
Jerusalem. You see, now do they deserve
salvation? No, they came against Jerusalem
too. Saul of Tarsus did not deserve salvation, did he? And you know
what, he's the first one to tell us that, and how many times did
he tell us that in his epistle? Well, I don't deserve it either,
and you don't either. But here this people, which came against
Jerusalem, now there's going to be a change. There's going
to be a change of heart here. And I want to tell you something.
The Bible tells us that man cannot change his heart. A change of
heart is an act of God. Am I right? That's why we must
be born again. So there's a change. Well, who
brings about this change? God does. It's in Christ. It's by the power of the Spirit.
And what is that change marked by? Well, look at it. Shall we
even go up from year to year to worship the King? They're
going to worship Christ. They're gonna worship the king
of kings. They're gonna submit to him as the only way of salvation.
Here's what the king says. The king says, I'm the truth.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the father but by me. If you worship him, you submit
to that. You don't look for any other. He said that it's by his righteousness
alone that sinners are justified. If you worship the king, you
submit to him as the Lord your righteousness. And he's the Lord
of hosts. Now what does that mean? That's
invincible grace. That's irresistible grace right
there. See, they're going to go up from year to year to worship
the King, the Lord of hosts, the Lord that cannot be defeated.
You can't defeat him, I can't defeat him, the enemies can't
defeat him. And when he comes in irresistible
grace by the power of his spirit through the preaching of the
word, you can't defeat him there either. Because he's going to
convince you of something. That's called conviction. It's
the power of God now. This is the power of God unto
salvation. And they're gonna worship the king, the Lord of
hosts. And it says here, to keep the feast of tabernacles. You
see that? to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Now hold on to that thought, and we'll come back to that.
But look at verse 17. Now, he says, and it shall be
that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth
unto Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, even
upon them shall be no rain. Rain here is an emblem of the
blessings of salvation. Showers of blessing. Well, those
who refuse in this last hour now, in this last day, who refused
to come up and worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and keep the
feast of tabernacles, there'll be no blessings. You know what
there'll be? Curses. The plague. And so he puts it in perspective
like in verse 18 here, look here. And if the family of Egypt, now
why is he mentioning Egypt specifically? Because he's drawing an analogy
of the deliverance of his people from spiritual bondage, the bondage
of sin and Satan and hell and death, to the deliverance of
physical Israel out of Egypt and the plagues thereof, you
see. For example, take the Passover. Now God said, he gave them specific
instructions about the Passover, when it was to be done, how it
was to be done, a lamb without spot, without blemish of the
first year. The lamb was to be killed, how it was to be killed,
how the blood was to be caught, how it was to be eaten. And remember
what he said, you're to put the blood of the lamb over the doorpost
and the lentils. And he said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now what that means is when I
see the blood, there'll be showers of blessing. Grace reigns down
upon those where the blood of Christ is found. Isn't that right? But where there is no blood,
what was there going to be? No showers of blessing, no rain,
nothing but curses, death. So he says in verse 18, and if
the family of Egypt go not up and come not that have no rain,
there shall be the plague, the curse, the wrath, wherewith the
Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast
of the tabernacles. And then he says, this shall
be the punishment of Egypt. and the punishment of all nations,
now not just Egypt, the physical country, but all nations that
come not up to keep the feast of the tabernacles. Now, why
this analogy? Three times to the feast of the tabernacles,
all right? Well, basically, now follow along what he's saying.
All who refuse to worship Christ, to follow Christ, to serve Christ,
will be punished with the plagues of Egypt forever and ever and
ever. And that lack of rain symbolizes the lack of spiritual and eternal
blessings. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, but nowhere else. And those left of all the
nations, they're God's remnants saved by his grace in this gospel
day. Now we were once enemies of Christ,
described as having come against Jerusalem before conversion.
Even God's remnant of grace were his enemies, children of wrath
even as others, that's what the Bible calls us. That's by nature. Romans chapter 5 and verse 6,
listen to this. He says, you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, his
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. What's the emphasis here in Zechariah? What's the emphasis there? Grace,
grace, grace. Salvation not by the works or
the will of men but by God's grace. And here their worship, the worship
of the people of God and the faith of the people of God is
described as keeping the feast of tabernacles. Now what was
the feast of tabernacles? Well you remember that? Sometimes
it's called the feast of booths or tents. Tabernacles, a tent. And that was the feast that the
Jews were required to keep every year that commemorated Israel's
time in the wilderness after they were brought out of Egypt.
They were delivered from Egypt now and they wandered in the
wilderness in tents for forty years. What happens to us here is described
in Zechariah when God brings his people out of the nation.
We're delivered from Egypt and we wander on this wilderness
of the earth for whatever time period. 40 is the biblical number
for testing. That's what we're going through
trials, aren't we? All right. Now in this feast,
the feast of the tabernacles, we can see several types. For
example, when I think of the word tabernacle, I think of John
1, 14. The word was made flesh and dwelt, and you know the word,
the Greek word for dwelt there is tabernacle. The word was made
flesh and tabernacled with us. And so I think of it as a type
of Christ incarnation. He was made flesh and tabernacled
among us. We dwell in him as our tabernacle. And so I think of a type of Christ.
But also, the result of his dying in the flesh That bodily tabernacle
that he inhabited as God in human flesh, by the result of the dying
of his humanity, his body, what happened to us? We were delivered
from sin. He put away our sins. He bore
them away on the tree, in his own body on the tree. He finished
the transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting
righteousness. He redeemed us. He bought us. But we still remain
at present in the wilderness of this world, don't we? Persecuted,
pursued by the enemy. Now we're safe and secure in
Christ, our tabernacle. But we're still dwelling in the
wilderness, aren't we? Now to keep this feast of the
tabernacle spiritually is to simply trust Christ, our incarnate
God and Savior. discerning the Lord's body, knowing
our need of Him, and knowing the blessedness of His accomplishments
as our Redeemer. That's what it is to keep that
feast. You remember some of them fell away in the wilderness and
longed for the flesh pots of Egypt. Spiritually speaking,
they weren't keeping the Feast of the Tabernacle. But to keep
the Feast of the Tabernacles spiritually is to testify that
this world is not our home. This world is not our salvation.
This world is not our safety or our security. And we're strangers
and pilgrims in this world. We look for a heavenly country,
a heavenly city, whose builder and maker is God. Now this Feast
of the Tabernacles, it was the last feast of the year. for the Jews. It was the final
feast of the year. The feast by which the year was
brought to its final conclusion. And so it also looked forward
to the final end, consummation of the promises of the kingdom
of Christ. And it's interesting to note,
you know, in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, there
were seven feasts that the children of Israel were required to keep.
There was the feast of Passover, that was the beginning of the
year. the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of the First
Fruits, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast
of Atonement, and then the Feast of Tabernacles. These feasts
were called holy convocations, holy unto the Lord, solemn assemblies
of worship. And each feast was symbolic,
portraying some specific aspect of our redemption by the grace
of God in Christ. Now three of these feasts, the
Passover, along with unleavened bread, they were connected. And
Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles had something special. In those
three feasts, God required every man in Israel to go up to Jerusalem
to keep that feast. Those three. Passover, Pentecost,
and Tabernacles. And these three feasts specifically
portrayed three great aspects of redemption. and grace that
cannot be separated. For example, you know what the
Passover portrayed, our redemption by the sacrifice of Christ, our
Lamb, our Redeemer, our Passover. We keep the feast of Passover
continued. You know, we keep that feast,
every one of us in here who know Christ, we don't set aside that
day of the month. How do we keep it? By continually
looking to Christ. living by faith, feeding upon
Christ our Passover, who sacrificed for us. And then Pentecost, that
was typical of the ingathering of God's elect. As the result
of Christ's death on the cross, all of his people, all of his
sheep would, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the preaching
of the gospel, be gathered into the fold. That's Pentecost. Remember
what took place at Acts chapter two of Pentecost. God gathering
in his sheep. He's doing that today. The harvest
of redeemed souls, that's what Pentecost was about. By the effectual,
invincible, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit. And then
the Feast of Tabernacles. That typified the consummation
of God's purpose in redemption in resurrection glory. The gathering
of all the redeemed in the heaven and the resurrection at the second
coming of Christ. You see, when the Lord's finished
his work, when all his purpose of grace has been accomplished,
every one, every one of Christ's sheep, every member of his church
will be with him in glory. And that's what that last feast
was. So look with that in mind, look at verse 20 and 21. Now
here's the third thing. The final end of all things in
and by Christ. He says, in that day shall there
be the bells of the horses. That's bells that were on their
harnesses. That's what he's talking about.
And those bells on the horses are going to have engraved on
them, holiness unto the Lord. That's what it's going to be.
In other words, that same holiness that brought about the plague
of God's just wrath against all who stood against Jerusalem,
against Christ and his church, will be the salvation of God's
people in and by Christ. And here he describes the worship
and the service of God's people in eternity when our Lord's made
all things new. It'll all be holiness unto the
Lord. And look, it says, even the pots,
that's the cooking pots. That's what he's talking about.
You know, there's a marvelous wisdom in God's Word that just
amazes me, that continually amazes me. Even their little cooking
pots, the lowest, meanest vessels that they use in their everyday
living. Even those shall be like the
bowls before the altar." That's the bowls that caught the blood.
Remember when they sacrificed the lamb on the altar and they
kept the blood in the basins or in the bowls. Those bowls
were holy in the sense that they were set apart and to be used
for one purpose and that is for the service of the tabernacle.
You weren't to take those bowls out and use them for anything
else, you see. But even those cooking pots in
the houses will be like those bowls before the altar, holiness
to the Lord. Verse 21, yea, every pot in Jerusalem
and in Judas shall be holiness unto the Lord and all they that
sacrifice, what is it to sacrifice? It's to plead the blood of Christ,
shall come and take of them and seed therein, cook therein. That's
what he means. holiness under the Lord. Now
this holiness under the Lord, let me read this to you, and
I'll hurry. It reaches back to the high priest. Remember in
Exodus 28, when Moses was describing the garments of the high priest,
in verse 36 of Exodus 28, there was a mitre or a turban to be
made and put on the head of the high priest, and it says in verse
36, it says, thou shalt make a plate of pure gold. and grave
upon it, you know, engrave on it, like the engravings of a
signet. In other words, this is what
marks and identifies this high priest. Holiness unto the Lord. And it says, and thou shalt put
it on blue lace. That's an emblem of heaven. See, his service was to God,
not to men. And it says that it may be upon
the miter, upon the turban, And upon the forefront of the mitre
shalt be, where his forehead was, that's a symbol of the mind,
the heart. It's actually a symbol of the heart, because the Hebrews
didn't separate the head and the heart like we do. That came
out of Greek thinking and Romantic poems. But the Hebrews, the head
and the heart were together, the inner man. And so this was
to be upon his mind and upon his heart. this holiness unto
the Lord. And it says in verse 38, it shall
be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity
of the holy things. Aaron may represent the people
of God who had been set apart, which the children of Israel
shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always
upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord.
That was upon the priest's forehead. Well, certainly That speaks of
Christ, our great high priest, bearing our sins. This holiness
under the Lord. How are you going to always have
holiness under the Lord upon your heart and mind and have
any peace? Have any security? There's only
one way. Looking to Christ, bearing our
sins as our great high priest. That's why we When we pray, we
come under the throne of grace through our great high priest.
And it speaks of peace of the kingdom in Christ. In the fallen
sinful world, like for example, he mentions the horse up there,
the horse with the bells. You know, in the fallen sinful
world, the horse was an emblem of warfare and destruction used
to accomplish man's sinful lust and purposes. But here it's an
emblem of God's holiness and glory in Christ. One who is a
bearer of peace according to the holiness of God in Christ.
That's what's going to be, when you hear that horse coming, those
bells ringing, it's not going to, you're not going to, you're
not going to be afraid of being destroyed. Like a warrior coming
to destroy, you're going to hear holiness unto the Lord. You're
going to look to Christ. And the pots here refers to the
everyday activity of cooking and eating as an emblem of the
daily lives of the saints in this world and our daily lives
in this new heaven or this new earth. What's it gonna be like? Well, even our daily lives in
this new earth will be totally, perfectly dedicated to the holiness
and glory of God in Christ. just like the bowls before the
altar. Think about it. Paul wrote it this way in 1 Corinthians
10, 31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you
do, do all to the glory of God. Now that's a struggle for us
now, isn't it? Not then it won't be. We won't have the flesh to
deal with. In this sinful world before,
God separated the holy things from the profane. But what he's
saying here in the new earth, there'll be no separation because
there'll be no profane. Be no sin. All holy to the Lord. Even the pots you cook with.
Daily activity. And every pot that you see therein,
use them or cook in them, it'll be for the glory of God. I honestly
don't know how all that's gonna work out, but I know so. But
I thought about this. You remember when Belshazzar,
back in the book of Daniel, when he took the vessels of the temple
and used them for unholy purposes? And the writing on the wall,
you're found weighed in the balance and found one and he was destroyed.
Well, see, there won't be any profane thing like that. It'll
all be to the glory of God. And then look at verse 21, the
last part. It says, and in that day, there shall be no more the
Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Now that word
Canaanite there refers to unbelievers. And what he's saying is in this
new earth, by this time when God brings things to its final
consummation, by this time Christ will have already separated the
sheep from the goats. Judgment and righteousness will
have already been finished and all who are in Christ will occupy
their place in the new Jerusalem, the new earth. But now the word
Canaanite actually means a trader, T-R-A-D-E-R, a merchant. That's
what it actually means in the realm of buying and selling.
It's the same word that's used by Hosea the prophet in Hosea
chapter 12 and verse 7. Listen to that verse, Hosea 12
and verse 7. And Hosea is talking about the
misplaced confidence of the people of Israel. Their confidence is
not in the Lord, but it's in themselves. And he uses this
language, Hosea 12, 7. He says, he is a merchant. The
balances of deceit are in his hand. He loves to oppress. He's
talking about the religious leaders. He's a merchant. He's a Canaanite.
And he uses false balances when he buys and sells or deceives. You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about self-righteous, legal, works religion that judges
salvation and blessedness and spirituality by a false balance,
a false scale. You see, in the new earth, the
true and right and only standard of all holiness and righteousness
will stand alone and there'll be no more merchants, there'll
be no more false balances, there'll be no more Canaanite. There'll
be no more false, self-righteous, legalistic works religion. False gospels. There'll only
be Christ, the Lord our righteousness. Now, With all that in mind, remember
what Peter said there in 2 Peter chapter 3. He said, seeing then
that all these things shall be dissolved, like Zechariah prophesied,
what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation
and godliness? Looking for and hastening unto
the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat. Nevertheless, we according to his promise That's salvation
by grace in Christ. We look for new heavens and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. You can just as well say it this
way, wherein dwelleth Christ and his people. All right.