Okay, let's stay right there
in Zechariah chapter 11. Zechariah 11. And this prophecy
of God, of the Lord given through Zechariah to the nation of Judah
is a prophecy that rings forth with a solemn, serious truth,
even a sad truth. And I've summarized that in the
title of tonight's message. The title is The Tragic End of
Rejecting Christ. The Tragic End of Rejecting Christ. And anytime I come to passages
like this, I always think about it in this way because I can't
think of any thing worse for a human being, a sinful human
being, than to come before God at judgment without Christ. That's just something it's really
too hard to think of. Any sinful human being coming
before God without Christ. The Bible says in those cases
our God is a consuming fire. And it is tragic. Now, this chapter
here is a direct contrast to the prophecies of chapter 9 and
chapter 10. In chapter 9 of Zechariah, he
prophesied of the glorious, triumphant calling of the Gentiles out of
God's elect people. God's elect among the Gentiles.
And what a joy that is to consider for us. that God would be gracious
to sinners such as we are. And we should never doubt God's
mercy in that way. You know the person, I think
about this a lot too because you know, we don't want to be
presumptuous. And I think a lot of times people
have the issue of faith and assurance and presumption confused. Because
a presumptuous spirit is any notion of assurance that's not
based upon a right ground. In other words, if you have an
assurance of salvation that's not based upon a proper ground,
a God-honoring ground, based upon God-given truth, then that's
presumption. But my friend, it is not presumption
for a sinner to have a strong consolation and assurance of
salvation if that's based upon the Lord Jesus Christ. the grace
of God in Christ the forgiveness of my sins by his blood that's
not presumption that's faith that's assurance that I have
a perfect standing before God based upon the righteousness
of Christ imputed that God will not and cannot hold my sins against
me and the reason he cannot is because of his promise of his
nature of his glory you see he'd be dishonored Do you know God
would be dishonored if he failed to forgive one sinner for whom
Christ died? So the issue there, the assurance
there is not based upon me or you, it's based upon the honor
and the glory of God, you see, and that's not presumption. But
then the person who says something like this, well, I'm just too
sinful for God to save me. Let me tell you something, do
you know that is just as wicked the presumptuous sinner because
what you're actually saying is that I'm just too bad Christ
isn't able to save me his blood is not good enough his blood
is not powerful enough and that's what that's the estimation of
of the unbelievers in this prophecy of Zechariah 11 that he's not
good enough to save me that's basically what they're saying
but in chapter 9 here he speaks of triumph and glory and the
salvation of of his people out of the Gentile nations. In chapter
10, he spoke of his glory, of saving his people, God's elect
out of the Jewish nation, grafting them into that olive tree, the
people of Judah and Ephraim. And God has an elect people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Well, chapter 11
is the opposite. It's a direct contrast. Because
here we have a prophecy 500 years prior to the actual event, some
say 550, of the tragedy of the nation Israel's rejection of
Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. Rejecting Christ and the awful
consequences that followed. The fulfillment of this prophecy
is stated all through the New Testament, but I'll give you
two examples of the fulfillment of this prophecy. And of course
you read, as Brother Doug read there, you know the fulfillment
of it is in Judas Iscariot, 30 pieces of silver, but that's
not what I'm gonna refer to now, we'll get to that later. But
the fulfillment of it, John, the Apostle John spoke of it
in John 1 in verse 11. And it's speaking of the coming
of Christ into the world. And he says in verse 11, he came
unto his own, and his own received him not. Many commentators will
add a word there, say he came into his own nation. And that's
not a bad translation. He came into his own nation,
and his own nation received him not. That's what Zechariah 11's
talking about. But it also goes on to say in
verse 12, and Zechariah 11 includes this part too, and that's a diamond
against the black background, a diamond in the rough, you might
say. He says, but as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God. And realize that word power there
is not ability, that's right, that's entitlement. We have a
title, we have a right to, if we're in Christ, if we rest in
him, we have a right under God to call ourselves children of
God, to claim that title. And he says, to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
but of God. Now that's a fulfillment of the
prophecy of Zechariah 11. Paul spoke of it in Romans chapter
10, a passage of scripture I refer to quite often because it speaks
so well of our day. Not that John 1 11 doesn't, it
does too. But he says in Romans chapter
10, verse one, he says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
for Israel is that they might be saved. So he's talking about
the nation Israel. is lost. And obviously he's not
talking about every individual Israelite because Paul himself
was an Israelite. He's talking about the nation
as a whole. That's what Zechariah is talking about. The nation,
the physical nation as a whole. Not spiritual Israel, but physical
Israel in Zechariah 11. So Paul says, my heart's desire
and prayer for them is that they might be saved. He says, for
I bear them record, they have a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge.
And what knowledge are they missing? Verse 3 says, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, trying to work their way to righteousness,
to acceptance before God by their works. He says, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God, which he defines in verse
four of chapter 10, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. So they haven't submitted themselves
to Christ. And having not submitted themselves
to Christ, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment of
the law for righteousness. Paul wrote that in Romans 1,
16 and 17 about the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed.
Well, what is the gospel? It's the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. Now, back in Zechariah 11, that's
what he's talking about. Nothing worse than rejecting
Christ. As he had spoken of the glorious
triumphant powerful, invincible calling of the Spirit of God
through the gospel and the preaching to God's elect among the Gentiles
and among the Jews. God will save and regather His
chosen people. He'll restore them and strengthen
them so that they'll walk in His name. They'll walk by faith
in Christ and walk in His name. He shows us that but for the
grace of God, everybody would perish. Those whom God saves
are not saved because they're better. The ones that are saved
in chapters 9 and chapter 10 of Zechariah are not saved because
they're better than the ones in chapter 11. That make sense? They're not saved because they
made a decision. So we who claim to be saved by
God's grace in Christ should never take it for granted. nor
underappreciate the grace of God. Hebrews two and verse three
I think of quite often. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? This is a great salvation that
we have. I made this statement the other
night. If grace ever stops amazing us, we're in trouble. But we
have a tendency to grow weary, don't we? And faint, that's the
flesh. But this text shows us not only
the tragedy of unbelief, but it does show us the amazing grace
of God. The first three verses describes the ruin of the land
when God's judgment is unleashed upon them because of their rejection
of Christ. Let's read it. He says, Open
thy doors, O Lebanon, and that the fire may devour thy cedars. Some commentators say that's
a direct reference to the destruction of the Jewish temple at that
time because The cedars of Lebanon, that was wood used in the construction
of that temple at that time. It may or may not be. But what
is, usually when you see Lebanon and cedars, it's talking about
flourishing. And what is being prophesied
here is that all flourishing of the land will cease at this
time. This is a direct result of their
rejection of Christ. Now that's old covenant language.
Because you know, the Lord told them from the very beginning,
this has been going on for 1,500 years, so about 1,000 years here,
500, 550 more when the Lord came. So at this time when this is
fulfilled for about 1,500 years, they were under that conditional
covenant, which said if you followed the ways of the Lord, the land
would be bountiful. The land would flourish. And
the cedars of Lebanon are a symbol of flourishing. So he says, now
that's gonna stop. The fire is going to devour those
cedars. What fire? The wrath of God.
The Bible says, he that believeth not, he that is not submitted
to Christ, and his blood and righteousness is the only way
of salvation, the wrath of God abides on that person. Now he's
talking about their one who lives and dies in unbelief. He says
in verse two, how fir tree. The fir tree's personified here,
something that is dying. That's what that means. For the
cedar is fallen, just an emphasis, because the mighty are spoiled. Those who are esteemed among
men are spoiled. That's what he's saying. And
then he says, how ye oaks of Bation. A lot of times in the
Psalms, you'll read about the bulls of Bation. Bation was a
flourishing place. The best cattle came out of Bation. Here are the oaks, the best wood.
And he says, for the forest of the vintage is come down. Now
you might look in your concordance and that forest of the vintage,
it says defenced forest. What it means is invincible forest. In other words, they're impregnable.
These forests, in other words, the situation says that that
situation which was so plush and thick that it couldn't be
penetrated, gone. It's all gone. There's no flourishing. There's no blessing. Now what
is this talking about? It's simply saying there's no spiritual,
eternal blessing, salvation, flourishing without Christ. That's it. Whatever you think
of yourself, as far as a relationship with God and eternal matters
and spiritual matters, it is absolutely nothing without Christ. And what you think so highly
of is going to be spoiled and brought down and burn up. And
so look at verse three. Now, some say this was literally
fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. by the
Roman Empire, the Roman army, and that could be. That's certainly
the culmination of it. That's when the Emperor Titus
sent his armies in and he destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. He
tore it down and he slaughtered the Jews and the survivors were
scattered throughout the world. Lebanon and Bashan and Jordan,
that represents the whole land there, you see. and the destruction
of those cedars and those oaks and all that was literal there's
a literal application of that but that literal application
teaches a solemn serious spiritual message and again he that believeth
not shall be damned that's it and then he talks about the shepherds
look at verse three he says there's a voice of the howling of the
shepherds What he's talking about here is those who are put in
positions of leadership in the nation Israel, who led the people
in their rejection of Christ. You can think of the Pharisees,
you can think of the Sadducees, you can think of the Herodians,
you can think of the civil leaders, the Sanhedrin. That's the shepherds
here, and they're gonna howl. That's what he said. They're
not gonna rejoice. You see, this is not the sound
of rejoicing here. This is the sound of despair.
This is the sound of destruction. Why? Look at it, verse three.
For their glory is spoiled. Now what is their glory? What
is my glory? What is your glory? Look over
at Romans chapter nine with me. The apostle Paul, when he was
speaking of this, Before he spoke of the fact that
Israel had rejected the Messiah in chapter 10, he brought it
up in chapter 9 in verse 31. Now here's their glory spoiled.
This is a good commentary on their glory being spoiled. And
here it is, he says in verse 31 of Romans 9. He says, but
Israel which followed after the law of righteousness, now that
was their glory. They're following after the law
of righteousness. I'm trying to do the best I can
to keep the law in order to make myself qualified for the blessings
of God, for salvation, in order to work my way to righteousness.
That was their glory. And I've told you, they had basically
three things that they would invoke as proof of this. Their
physical connection with Abraham, obviously it didn't have anything
to do with that, but I guess they were proud of it anyway. and their
circumcision, and their keeping the law of Moses, which they
didn't do, but they claimed to do it. And it says here that
they followed after the law of righteousness, but they hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. They fell short, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. They missed the
mark. Now why? Well, Basically, what
he's going to be telling you here is the only way that a sinner
can attain righteousness is to find it in Christ. Isn't that
right? You can't find righteousness
anywhere else. But in Christ and his obedience
unto death, they looked for it in the law and they didn't attain
it. Why? Because they sought it not by faith. They didn't
look to Christ. That's what that means. They
rejected Christ. They would not submit to him
and his righteousness. as the only way that God could
be just and justify. And he says, but as it were by
the works of the law. Now here's their glory being
spoiled. They stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written,
behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone. You know who that's talking
about? That's Christ. That's a prophecy of Christ from Isaiah.
And he says, on a rock of a fence, and whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. But they didn't believe on him.
So what does that mean? They'll be ashamed. That's what that
means, for their glory is spoiled. Look back here, Zechariah 11,
3. Their glory is spoiled. He says, a voice of the roaring
of young lions. In other words, they've got a
loud bark, but not much bite. They can talk a religious talk. That's what he's saying. These
are prophets who boast loudly. of their own works, of their
own righteousness, of their own abilities, but there's no substance
to it. There's no power to it. They're
like young lions roaring. There's no power there. You see,
Christ is the power of God unto salvation. Christ is the wisdom
of God and the power of God. And then he says, for the pride
of Jordan is full. What is the pride of Jordan?
Well, we just read it. Here's these religious leaders. Some
people say the young lions refer mainly to the civil leaders,
and that could be. So you've got shepherds and young
lions, all the leaders led them in rejecting Christ. Think about
it, the religious leaders, the civil leaders, they all led the
nation in rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, their pride
is spoiled. Now, I ask this question, what
is our glory? Well, our glory is Christ, isn't
it? Paul wrote in Galatians 6, 14, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote in
Philippians chapter three, he said, for we are the circumcision
which worship God and rejoice, glory, literally, in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, beginning at verse
four, he begins what we call a prophetic parable. And it's
a parable that sets forth in this kind of language, symbolic
language, the rejection of the good shepherd. Christ is the
good shepherd. Remember, the Bible teaches Christ
as the good shepherd, as the great shepherd, and as the chief
shepherd. And in all three of those, he
completes the salvation of his people. The good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. That great shepherd of the sheep
calls his people in, and the chief shepherd guides them and
leads them as it's portrayed in Psalm 23. Well, here in this
parable, all the way down to verse 14, he talks about their
rejection of the Good Shepherd, their rejection of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the consequences, and it's summarized in their
statements. You know, Christ, in Luke chapter 19, you don't
have to turn there, but he set forth a parable, and the parable
basically was teaching of how God the Father sent his Son into
the world, to save his people and to lead them. And you remember
in that parable it said in Luke 19 and verse 14, those unbelieving
sinful men, which we all are by nature and which we would
still be but for the grace of God, they made this statement. They said, we will not have this
man to rule over us. That's what this parable teaches.
And then in John chapter 19, when Pontius Pilate presented
Jesus of Nazareth to the people and said he found no sin in him,
no wrongdoing in this man, and he presented him to them, they
made this statement. He asked him, he said, is this
your king? And they made this statement. They said, we have
no king but Caesar. John 19 and verse 15. That's
what this parable sets forth. Look at verse four. Here's something
I want you to take note of. Verse four, he says, thus saith
the Lord my God. That's Jehovah, now the God of
the covenant. He says, feed the flock of the
slaughter. Now there's a lot of debate over
who the flock of the slaughter is. It says in verse five, whose
possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty. I believe
we have right here in this chapter the identification of the flock
of the slaughter. Go down to verse 11 quickly. Or verse seven, I'm sorry. Go
to verse seven. He says, and I, now this is the
Lord speaking. And he says, and I will feed
the flock of slaughter. Even you, O poor of the flock. Now keep that in mind, I'll go
over to verse 11. He says, he said it was broken in that day,
talking about his covenant with the nation Israel. And so the
poor of the flock, now they were identified back in verse seven
as the flock of the slaughter, in verse four, the poor of the
flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord.
Now who's he talking about, the flock of the slaughter? That's
his remnant. his remnant, his small remnant of redeemed people
in that nation, even at that time. When the whole nation rejects
Christ, when the leaders, the civil leaders, the religious
leaders, and the majority of the people reject Jesus of Nazareth,
God still has a remnant. Might have been just 11 at one
time, we don't know. But there were others, there
were others. But it was a small remnant. And he calls them the
flock of the slaughter, but that shouldn't surprise us, that's
the true people of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ. That's
why I read Romans chapter eight and verse 35 there, where he
talks about who shall separate us from the love of Christ, and
he made this statement in verse 36 of Romans eight, as it is
written, and it's written in Psalm 44, for thy sake we are
killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
That's what we are. That's what the people of God
are. We're counted sheep for the slaughter. It's given unto
us to suffer for Christ's sake. And this small remnant who did
not reject Christ, by the grace of God, did not reject Christ,
we read in John 1, 11 through 13, who were born, not of the
will of man, not of blood, not of the will of man, nor the will
of the flesh, but born of God. They were blessed of God. with
salvation, with forgiveness, with righteousness. But here
they're called the flock of the slaughter. Why? Because of the
persecution that comes from their possessors. Look back at Zechariah
11 verse five. Who's their possessors that slay
them? Well, that's the leaders of the nation who had the responsibility
to the flock given to their charge And what do they do? Well, it
says in verse five, whose possessors slay them. Who were the greatest
enemies and opponents of Christ and his flock? The Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the Herodians, the civil leaders of Israel.
They were the greatest opponents, the greatest persecutors of the
church at that time. And it says, whose possessors
slay them. That's what they wanted to do.
That's what we all want to do by nature, isn't it? That's the
ruination that we have in Adam. It's our natural opposition to
Christ until God saves us. And it says, and they hold themselves
not guilty. You remember even Saul of Tarsus,
when he was going about to persecute Christians, he, in his mind,
he held himself not guilty because what did he say? He said, I thought
I was doing the work of God. And that's the way the Pharisees
were. That's the way the Sadducees were. What did they do? It says
in verse five, they that sell them say, blessed be the Lord
for I'm rich. And I'll tell you what, when
the Lord came to this earth, the religious leaders were rich.
They were well off. And they sold, they made merchandise.
He said that, he said you make merchandise of men's souls. He
says, you say you're blessed of the Lord because you've got
it well on this earth even though you reject God's Messiah. You
reject. You will not submit to God's
grace and salvation and the righteousness of the Lord. And you call yourselves
blessed of the Lord because you have these material things and
these positions. And he says, and their own shepherds
pity them not. In other words, these shepherds
do not pity the people, the flock of the slaughter. God interjects,
look here in verse seven. He interjects here that he'll
no longer have pity on the people of the land, but he'll give them
up to those who strike the land. Now I want you to notice as you
read through here, all this language indicates an abolishment and
an end to the old covenant. That physical covenant that God
made with the nation Israel. Look in verse six, he says, I
will no more pity the inhabitants of the land. God did pity them,
for a temporary period of time as a nation. But that's gonna
cease. Now let me show you how this
refers to that physical old covenant and not to the everlasting covenant
of grace. Because in the everlasting covenant
of grace, God's children are loved with an everlasting love. It'll never cease. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing. And I'll tell
you what, now listen to me, that even includes my sin. If our
sins could separate us from the love of Christ, then we would
be separated from that love. But they cannot. And that's why
Christ went to the cross. He closed that gap and that barrier
with the red sea of his blood. And we cannot be separate, but
now here there's a separation between God and that nation according
to that terms of that old covenant. I'll no longer pity the inhabitants
of that land. Look at verse six, saith the
Lord, below I will deliver the man, everyone into his neighbor's
hand, talking about the Gentile nations that were against him,
especially Rome, and into the hand of the king, that was Caesar,
and they shall smite the land and out of their hand I will
not deliver them. There'll be no deliverance there. Now it
wasn't that way back in Egypt, 1500 years before, because God
had made a promise to Abraham that he would deliver him out
of that land, but no longer now, this is it. This is the final
culmination and finishing of it. When the Lord Jesus Christ
comes into the world, and the nation rejects Christ, the Lord
lets them go their way and have what they want, and that's why
we have to pray, Lord don't let me go my way. Don't let me have
what I want. Give me a heart for Christ. When
the Lord lets them go and lets them have their way, then it's
over. He says in verse seven, listen to this, he said, and
I will feed the flock of slaughter. Now that doesn't mean that God's
gonna separate himself or forsake or not deliver his remnant, because
I'm gonna feed the flock of slaughter, he says. He's gonna feed his
remnant, his people. redeemed ones, his elect, with
the grace of God, with the word of God, with the comforts of
redemption in Christ. Even you, he says, O poor of
the flock, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. You see, they're not gonna occupy
and look for an earthly land. It's a heavenly land. And he
said, I took unto me two staves. Look at verse seven. is called
beauty. That word beauty means favor.
He's going to show favor to his flock of slaughter. That's eternal
favor. He favored us before the foundation
of the world in the covenant of grace in Christ. He chose
us and gave us to Christ. He favored us on the cross when
he sent Christ to take our sins unto himself and die in our place
as our substitute, shedding his blood as the full payment for
all our sins. He favored us by giving us righteousness
whereby we who are sinners can stand before him eternally and
unchangeably justified. in Christ. He favored us when
he protected us. You know, his hand, he told Jeremiah,
he said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. His hand
has been on us all our lives, even in spite of ourselves. And
then he favored us when he brought us under the preaching of the
gospel of God's grace and give us life by the Spirit and a heart
to hear and to love the good news of salvation. That's favor. Let me tell you something about
that favor. It's unearned and unmerited and undeserved. Every
bit of it. And let me tell you, let's take
it further than that. The next breath we take, that's
the same way. That's unmerited, unearned, and
undeserved. It's favor. And he says, and
the other I call bands. Now bands means union. It's togetherness. And I fed the flock. In other
words, The nation Israel, because of their rejection of Christ,
they're going to be scattered all over. But that flock of slaughter,
the poor, they're going to be together. Now, we may be separated
geographically. but spiritually in the kingdom
of God as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem with an ever-present
abiding position in the household and family of God because of
Christ and what he accomplished we'll always be together forever
and ever and ever never be separated and we'll be fed God himself
will feed us now look at verse 8 he says three shepherds also
I cut off in one month and my soul loathed them. I'm not sure
how the, it really wasn't the translators. If you have in your
concordance there on that word loathed was straightened for
them, I'm not sure how they came up with that. I looked that up
and studied it. And I'm simply saying that God's
soul, his soul and his inner being, he hated them. That's
what it means. But three shepherds also I cut
off in one month, and my soul loathed them, and their soul
also abhorred me, hated me. It was a mutual hatred. So don't
ever go around talking about how God loves everybody and all
that. It's just not biblical. But this
verse has been tough for a lot of commentators. There's about
40 different interpretations of this three shepherds here.
Let me give them all to you. No, I'll tell you what I'm gonna
do, I'm gonna give you the right one. I'm gonna give you the right
one. Three shepherds. Well, he says in one month, I'm
gonna cut off these three shepherds. One month means a short period
of time. That's just symbolic of a, it's not a literal 30 days,
but it's just a short period of time. Not gonna take long
at all. And what are these three shepherds?
Well, even in Israel under the old covenant, During their time
as a nation under that covenant, there were basically three offices
of leadership. There was the king, and there
was the prophet, and there was the priest. And they were the
three shepherds. Now when Christ came into the
world and occupied that land himself, those offices were still
intact, but they were corrupted. Who was the king? Well, he was,
as one commentator said, he was a bastard king out of the Edomians,
I think. It's Herod. He wasn't of Judah.
So it was a corrupt kingship. And up until that time, you know,
there had been really no king on the throne. Zerubbabel is
about the last one we read. He was really not a king, but
he was from the tribe of Judah, so it was a corrupt kingship
against God. And then there was no prophet
in Israel, but there were false prophets. And then the priesthood
was corrupted. The priesthood in the temple
was controlled by the Sadducees, Caiaphas and Annas. They were
Sadducees. They were political people. They were like the liberals
of today. They were in cahoots with Rome.
They wanted to make it a Greek world. They didn't even believe
in the resurrection of the dead. And then you had the Pharisees.
So what he's saying here is when this happens, when this destruction
happens, he's going to cut off all three offices, prophet, priest,
and king, and the earthly offices, and there'll be no more. And
it's not going to take very long to do it. Why? Because he hates
them. They dishonor him. They're a
stench in his nostrils. but it's a mutual hatred. They
hate him too. They hated his son. If you hate
his son, you hate him. If you hate the son, you hate
the father. You cannot get into the father and be accepted and
have a have a close, loving, blessed relationship without
the Son. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now Christ fulfilled all these offices, prophet, priest,
and king. He's the fulfillment of it. He's
the true king of kings. He is that prophet of whom Moses
spoke. He's the embodiment of the word
of God. And he's the great high priest.
He's the fulfillment of... So what I'm saying is this, those
earthly offices are going to be cut off, those three shepherds,
those leaders of Israel that led in opposition to Christ.
But don't worry, he's not going to leave you without a king,
little flock. Flock of the slaughter. The poor
of the people. He's not going to leave us without
a priest. He's not going to leave us without a prophet. We have
one who embodies all three. Christ, our prophet. Christ,
our priest. our king. Look at verse 9. Now, again, that shows that the
old covenant is over when this happens. It's over, folks. There's
no king. The scepter departs from Judah
when Shiloh comes. There'll be no king. There's
no more, listen, the prophecy is fulfilled. That's what Daniel
meant in Daniel 9, 24 when it says Christ sealed up the vision
and the prophecy. And that's why the book of Revelation
says, anybody that adds unto or takes away from these words.
See, there's no more revelation. Now, I always caution people
to understand now, there's no more revelation, there's new
illumination. I mean, the Lord will give us more light on what
he's already revealed. But the revelation is complete.
He's spoken to us by his son, Hebrews chapter one says. And
then there's no more earthly priesthood. Christ is our great
high priest, that's over. Well, look at verse nine and
I'll quit here and then we'll pick up here next time. But he
says, then said I, I will not feed you. That's the nation now
that rejected Christ. And listen now, don't just pick
on the Jews. That's any sinner who rejects
Christ, wherever they are. But he's speaking of that nation
here in prophecy, all right? And he says, then said I will
not feed you, that that dieth, let it die. You know, before
this, the Lord always pulled them out of the pit. Always pulled
them out of captivity. They went into captivity, he
pulled them out. Remember the Babylonian captivity
that they went in, he pulled them out. But he says, no, that
that dieth, let it die. The wages of sin is death. Gonna let it die. It's over.
And that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off. Cut off means
alienated from God. You remember when Isaiah saw
the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple?
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, Isaiah 6, and he said, for I
am undone. Remember he used that word, it's
translated in the King James, I am undone, that means cut off.
That means I'm alienated from God. There was a time I was alienated
from God. In my mind, the scripture says
by wicked works, But he says, now that which is alienated,
let it be alienated, let it be cut off. What's he talking? There's no hope of salvation.
Oh my soul, no hope. Could you imagine that? But you
see, that's the way it is if we don't have Christ. No hope
of salvation. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And without him, there's no hope
of salvation. Without his blood, no hope of
forgiveness. Without his righteousness, no
hope of acceptance before God. I'm accepted in the beloved.
Without the beloved, no acceptance. And then he says, let the rest
eat every one the flesh of another. Well, I'm going to stop there. Most historians, and you know
the famous Jewish historian Josephus has some pretty graphic stories
about that. When Rome came in to destroy
the city of Jerusalem, that there was even cannibalism, literally
cannibalism going on because the people were starving so badly. And we might say, well, I would
never go to such depths. You don't know what depths we
would go to. if the Lord would remove his
hand of restraint from us people. But the thing about it is, there's
a devouring of each other spiritually there too. Because what happens
is when that destruction comes, people try to comfort each other,
but it's sad comfort. It's just a devouring comfort.
It's a destructive comfort. It won't work. Because again,
without Christ, there is no hope. Without Christ, there is no salvation.
Well, I'll pick up there next time. All right.