The title of tonight's message
is taken from verse 13. And there's really a startling
truth that's brought forth there. Listen to verse 13. He says,
it shall come to pass. He's talking about something
that hasn't happened in Zechariah's day. It's going to happen in
the future. And he says, it shall come to
pass that as you, Israel, were a curse among the heathen, Oh,
house of Judah and house of Israel, God calls his people a curse
among the heathen. What does that mean? Well, he
says, it shall come to pass that so will I save you. Think about
that, save you from yourself. And you shall be a blessing.
That's the title of tonight's message. You shall be a blessing. And fear not, but let your hands
be strong. You shall be a blessing. Last
time in the first eight verses of chapter eight, we talked about
conditions for blessing from God. God blesses his people in
Christ. But there are conditions for
blessing, and I gave you four conditions. Here they are. Number
one, God must be honored. And the only way God can be honored
In this way, to bless a sinner in mercy and grace is through
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. God must be honored
in every attribute of his character and nature. Secondly, God must
come to us. Salvation is not a matter of
man working his way unto God. It's a matter of God coming to
us. He said, I bring my righteousness
near, it shall not be far up. Hannah, in her prayer in 1 Samuel
chapter two, expressed it like this. He lifteth the beggar from
the dung heap. Salvation's of the Lord, he must
come to us. And he came to us in the person
of Christ. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God became man. God-man. And then thirdly, the
third condition for blessings is this, there must be peace
and safety. Peace with God and security in
God. And we find that in the finished
work of Christ. He said on the cross, it's recorded
in John 19 30, it's finished. The law cannot condemn us anymore
for there's there, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who
are in Christ. Sin cannot be charged to us.
He was made sin, Christ, who knew no sin, for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect. We're safe in Christ. We're washed
in His blood and clothed in His righteousness. We have peace
with God and we're safe in Him. And then the fourth condition
for blessing is this, God must do the work. All of that's a
work of God. It's not our work. For by grace
are you saved, through faith in that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
all the conditions of salvation were and are fulfilled by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto the Father by him. He's able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. He's able,
he's the author and the finisher of our faith. Christ met all
the stipulations, requirements, and conditions. Now, why did
He do that? Well, it's to the praise of the
glory of His grace, that's first and foremost, that God might
be glorified. You can read about that in Jeremiah
9, you can read about it in 1 Corinthians 1 where the Apostle Paul quoted
Jeremiah. When he talked about how salvation
is totally by the free and sovereign grace and mercy of God in Christ,
that Christ is of God, the Father, made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And the reason that it's set
up that way is that no flesh should glory in His presence.
All glory to the Lord. So that's the first reason that
God set it up this way. But here's the second reason.
The reason God set it up this way is that His people, sinners
saved by grace, might be a blessing to others. You shall be a blessing. We read this last Sunday evening
when I was talking about Zechariah 8, the first eight verses. But
in the covenant that God made with Abraham, the first record
of that covenant is Genesis chapter 12. Then he reaffirms it in Genesis
17, or Genesis 15, then Genesis 17. But in Genesis chapter 12
and verse 2, he says, and I will make thee a great nation. Israel
for a while, a very little while, was a great nation. The eternal
spiritual fulfillment of this promise to Abraham is in spiritual
Israel, the church. We're a great nation, not because
we're so great. You know why we're a great nation?
Because we have such a great God and Savior. That's why. A nation is only as great as
its leadership, as its foundation, as its heart. And Christ is our
foundation, He's our heart, He's our leader, He's our head. And
He says, I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless
thee and make thy name great. What is our name? Remember Jeremiah
23, 5 and 6. His name, Christ's name is Jehovah
Sikhanou, the Lord our righteousness. And then Jeremiah 33, 15, 16.
She shall be called the church, the Lord our righteousness. The
church, his bride takes his name. And thou shalt be a blessing.
Now he's talking to Abraham. Thou shalt be a blessing. And
he said, I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that
curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed. Not just the Jewish nation. How is that fulfilled? Well, you can read about that
in Galatians chapter 2 and 3. The blessing of Abraham which
shall come even on the Gentiles, he says. What is that? That's
the new birth that brings a sinner to Christ for all of salvation. And so he said, you're going
to be a blessing. But the nation Israel, in and of itself, now
listen to me very carefully here, the nation Israel, in and of
itself, according to their character and their conduct, their behavior,
their history, read about it, they were not a blessing. I know
they were inadvertently a blessing, for this way, Through that nation,
the Lord God sent His Son into the world. He was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh. But you want to know something?
That was in spite of them. Now that doesn't give us any
bragging rights because we're believers. Because you know as
well as I do, if you know yourself, if you've been convinced of sin
by the Holy Spirit of God, that God saves all of us in spite
of ourselves. Isn't that right? were sinners,
saved by the grace of God. But the nation itself was not
a blessing. And the Lord says it here through
Zechariah. Look at verse 13. It shall come
to pass that as you were a curse among the heathen. That's the
opposite of a blessing. Now a lot of people try to spin
that and they say, well, other nations looked upon them as a
curse and that is true to a point. but I want to show you something
else here this promise that he's talking about here in Zechariah
8 in the first eight verses and in these verses here tonight
is mainly and ultimately eternally to spiritual Israel the church
of the living God and I'm going to prove that to you from scripture
here it's revealed that one of God's purposes in blessing his
people is that we be a blessing to others Well, what does he
say? Well, the first thing that he
brings forth is this. Number one, first of all, the
strength and power of God's grace is at the forefront here. That's
number one. The strength and power of God's
grace. He says in verse nine, listen
to this. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I hope you don't get
sick of me saying what that means. If you know him, you don't get
sick of it. It's your hope, isn't it? Some people translate it
this way, the Lord of a great army. And that's okay. That's what host means. But what
it is, what it's talking about is the Lord himself, not any
army that's with him. but it's talking about how it
identifies god in himself as a great army he's he's a great
army it's it's like uh... i know ron you've done this as
a teacher to and i used to do it too when uh... we tell our
class our class that uh... this is uh... uh... we're gonna
vote on something something they wanted to do rather than what
I as a teacher wanted to do and you'd vote on it and they'd all
raise their hand they wanted their way and you'd count them
then you'd raise your hand and count more than what they had
because you meant you had more authority than they did and that's
the way this is you see God has more power in himself more authority
more ability more of everything in the goodness and grace of
God than the whole universe put together. He's the Lord of hosts. He's invincible. He cannot be
defeated. And this is Jehovah here, the
covenant God. This is the God of salvation.
This is the God who saves sinners, not just in Judea, not just in
Jerusalem, but he saves those who come from the east country
and from the west country, an infinite number of people that
he alone knows, infinite in our minds, And he says, they shall
be his people and they'll dwell with him in truth and righteousness.
And so what does he say? Now here's how it all happens.
Look at it. Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these
days these words by the mouth of the prophets. The prophets
of this day were Zechariah and Haggai. But he's, I think he's
referring to all the prophets of God who spoke to the people
of Israel. They spoke the word of God. That's
what the mouth of the prophets of God spoke. They spoke of God's
power and God's grace and God's goodness in the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he mentions a specific
time here. He says, which were in the day
that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid,
that the temple might be built. Talking about Zacharias day. What he's talking about here
is how his people are to be used as instruments of his grace operating
not by their own strength or their own power or their own
goodness but operating by the strength and the power and the
goodness of the Lord that's what he's saying let me read you some
scripture Ephesians 6 and verse 10 Paul wrote finally my brethren
be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might You see,
if we try to operate and act and walk and live, fight, war
in our own power, we're defeated. But when we seek the power and
the strength of the Lord, His grace, His mercy, His love, His
power, His truth, we cannot be defeated. Why? Because He's the
Lord of hosts. He's a great army in himself.
Listen to this one, 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 13. I'm just reading this to you
because I've got a lot and we don't have time to turn to them
all. But 1 Corinthians 16 and 13. Paul writes, watch you, be
on your guard. That's what that means. Stand
fast in the faith, quit you like men. In other words, act like
men. Now ladies, that doesn't exclude you. But what he's talking
about is spiritual fortitude here. As one old writer said,
spiritual guts. And he says, be strong. Be strong
how? I'm not strong in myself. Paul
wrote this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Listen to this, this is verse
nine, 2 Corinthians 12. And Paul was talking about his
thorn in the flesh, and we don't know exactly what that was, and
to me it's useless to speculate over it, but it was some weakness
in the flesh that Paul had that he had to live with while he
was here in this physical body. We all have those. And Paul sought the Lord three
times to remove that thorn, but here's what the Lord said in
2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9. He says, my grace is sufficient
for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee,
Paul, for my strength, God's strength, is made perfect in
weakness. In other words, God's strength
is completed and finished when the sinner realizes his weakness,
his impotence. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, Paul said. That doesn't mean
he was some kind of a masochist who liked to hurt and suffer.
But he's saying this, here's why I glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest on me. In verse 10 he went on to say,
he says, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. That's not physical
pleasure, that's satisfaction. He says in reproaches, in necessities,
the fact that I'm in need a lot of times, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then I'm strong. When I'm weak, who am I looking
to? I'm looking to Christ. I'm leaning upon Him. I'm drawing
my power and strength from Him. Remember in Philippians 4 and
verse 13, Paul wrote, I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me. We read there in Colossians chapter
1 at the opening of the service, verse 11. He said, I'm strengthened
with all might. That's what we are in Christ.
We're strengthened with all power according to His glorious power
to all patience, that's endurance, and longsuffering, that's putting
up with everything, and joyfulness. 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and verse
1, listen to this one. He says, you therefore my son
be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. He's our strength. Let your hands be strong. What
does that mean? That means look to Christ. That
means rest in Him. That means see Him as your foundation,
as your righteousness. 2nd Timothy 4, 17. He writes,
notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me,
that is in his battle with the world, the flesh and the devil,
that by me the preaching might be fully known that all the Gentiles
might hear. I'm preaching the gospel to the
Gentiles. And he said, I was delivered out of the mouth of
the lion. God delivered me. And then one more, 1 Peter 5
and verse 10, But the God of all grace, who has called us
to his eternal glory by Jesus Christ after you've suffered
for a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle
you. When he says, let your hands
be strong, what is he talking about? He's
talking about the grace of God. Now, how do you know that? Well,
this prophecy is an encouragement for them to continue to build
the temple, but again, not by their own strength and their
own power, but in the strength and the power of the Lord God. How do you know that? Well, look
back at Zechariah chapter four. Turn back just a page to Zechariah
chapter four. And you remember what he said
here in verse six. He's talking about a man named
Zerubbabel. Remember Zerubbabel, he was the
civil governor appointed by the Persian emperor, the king, to
be the governor. Zerubbabel was from the tribe
of Judah. He was in the kingly line. He
didn't occupy the throne of Israel because no king occupied that
throne at this time, and really, no king from then on did, up
until the time of Christ, because even Herod was not of the tribe
of Judah. He was a usurper. But Zerubbabel was in the line
of Judah, he was a type of Christ, the king of his people. And he says in verse six, then
he answered and spake unto me saying, this is the word of the
Lord unto Zerubbabel saying, now what's he talking about?
He's talking about rebuilding the temple. The same thing he's talking about
in Zechariah eight and verse nine. laying the foundation of
the temple. Zerubbabel was the man appointed
of God to be the leader in the rebuilding of the city and of
the temple. He and Joshua, the high priest, were to lead the
people in those grand endeavors. And here's what he says, the
word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, verse 6, saying, not by might
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. It's
not in your power. but it's in my spirit and he
says in verse seven, who art thou, O great mountain, before
the rubble thou shalt become a plain. In other words, there's
gonna be great obstacles that are gonna be successfully dealt
with. And he says, and he shall bring
forth the headstone, that's the cornerstone, that's the main
stone of the foundation of the temple, that's not a tombstone
there. Thereof with shouting, and here's what he'll cry. Listen,
look at his song. What did he say? Grace, grace
unto it. This is grace. That's what Zerubbabel
was to say. This is not the works and efforts
of men. This is the power of God. This
is grace. And that's the way the church
sings of her salvation. You say, well, you know, the
Lord has brought us together. We can't bring ourselves together.
The Lord keeps us together. We can't even keep ourselves
together. We can't. It's grace. Grace. The Lord hath
done this work. It's not by might or power. It's
not by clever cunning. It's all of grace. My grace is
sufficient. Now go back to Zechariah 8, I
want you to notice one more thing before I leave verse 9. Did you
notice here? He says, let your hands be strong,
you that hear in these days, these words by the mouth of the,
you that hear. Don't let that slip by you. Do
you hear these words? You remember back over in chapter
7? Remember in verse 11? It says, but they refused to
hearken, they refused to hear. They pulled away the shoulder,
remember we talked about that, how they shrug their shoulder
at the words of the Lord, that's defiance. Stop their ears that
they should not hear. Well, this message of prophecy,
this message of encouragement is to who? Those that hear in
these days. Do we hear? Remember what Christ
told his disciples? when the multitudes refused to
hear the words of grace, the words of the Lord, the words
of righteousness, the words of salvation that he and his disciples
preached, and they rejected him, because that's what all of us
by nature do, so that if we hear, what does the Lord say to us?
Blessed are your ears, for they hear. Blessed are your eyes,
for they see. I tell you what, we take that
for granted. I do. I mean, I do. And I'm sad that
I do. I'm sorry that I do. The fact
that I can hear with a hearing ear and receive and submit in
meekness by the grace of God, His word of salvation in Christ
and feed upon that is a miracle of God's power and grace. That's
why we must be born again. We won't hear if we don't have
spiritual ears. We won't see if we don't have
spiritual eyes. God gives us a new heart. to
know and love and desire the things of the Spirit of God,
to know Christ more, to love Him and to follow Him, to love
His truth. That's a miracle of God's grace.
Think about blessed are your ears for they hear. And because the Lord has blessed
us in Christ, let's engage ourselves to preach His gospel, not in
our own power and wisdom, but in His, just like Zerubbabel
when he laid the foundation of the temple. Not by might, not
by power, but by grace. Let your hands be strong. What
is that? That's to work in the power of
the Lord. And you know what? He'll make
the work successful. Now look at verse 10 of Zechariah. The second thing he brings forth
here, now the first thing is the strength and power of God.
His grace in salvation. The second thing he brings out
is the impotence and vanity of false religion. Look at it. He says, for before these days
there was no hire for man. That literally means the hire
of man became nothing. What does that mean? That means
whatever he was working for, it came to nothing. It was for
naught. Nor any hire for beast. He could
engage the beast to work for him to accomplish his goals,
but it came to nothing. In other words, there's nothing
on earth in man or beast that could accomplish what he was
working for. What's that a picture of? It's
a picture of man trying to work his way to righteousness, to
salvation. Man nor beast can do it. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's our
ruination in Adam, you see. That's our depravity. We can
clean up the outside, we can become moral and religious, but
what we're working for, salvation or reward, it all comes to nothing
because man's works are not good enough to save him or to keep
him saved or to earn his favor and blessings from God. He can't
do it. Look on, he says, neither was
there any peace to him that went out and came in because of the
affliction no peace now this this phrase because of the afflictions
an interesting phrase it probably should read more like this it
would say that there wasn't there before neither was there any
peace uh... to him that went in or came out
because of the adversary or the enemy well who is the adversary
Who is the enemy? Well, Satan. He's called the
accuser of the brethren. He's the one who brings the charges. And as long as we can be charged,
there's no peace. You see what I'm saying? The
only way there's going to be peace with God is for the sin
issue on my account to be taken care of. for sins to be removed,
for justice to be satisfied, for righteousness to be established.
And as long as I'm trying to work my way to righteousness,
there can be no peace. When Satan accuses, those charges
stick. But if I have Christ, If I have
the grace of God, if I'm washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness, what happens? The charges don't stick. There's
peace between me and God. Justice is satisfied. The debt's
paid. I stand before God in the righteousness
of Christ. Imputed charge accounted to me
so that I can say with confidence and with peace in my heart, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justify. Who can condemn me? It's Christ
that died. You see, false religion won't
do that for you. False gospels won't do that for
you. Works religion will not do that for you. You may have
a sense of peace in your mind, but it's a false peace. It's
a euphoria. It's like old Karl Marx said,
that's an opiate for the people. That's what false religion is.
I agree with him in that. False religion is an opiate.
It's a drug. It makes you think you're safe.
It makes you, you know, what does they say? When you get that
drug of alcohol, you get so much and you feel 10 feet tall and
bulletproof. But let me tell you something. There's nobody
that's 10 feet tall and they're no one bulletproof. No matter
what they say or think or do. It's what false religion do.
It makes a sinner think he's saved when he's not. It makes
a sinner think he's forgiven and righteous before God when
he's not. You say, that's what he's talking about there. But
look here now. He says in verse 10, he says,
for I set all men, everyone against his neighbor. Now, what does
that mean? Well, as I said, it's the grace of God in Christ that
saves us, that brings us together, and that keeps us together. False
religion will not do that. Legalism will not do that. In
fact, false religion is a divisive thing because it sets people
at competition, trying to get more by what they do, thinking
more of themselves, honoring man, not Christ, exalting man,
or sometimes it beats him down. Judah was full of internal divisions
and contentions at this time. And God set these forth as a
punishment for their unbelief and their idolatry and their
self-righteousness. He reminds me in the days of
our Lord when He talked about offenses, talking about divisions. In Matthew 18 and verse 7, He
said this, He said, Woe unto the world because of offenses.
But listen to what He said. He says, For it must needs that
be that offenses come. They're necessary. But woe to
that man by whom the offense cometh. Think about that. Think
about it. Do you know division is common
to false religion? But sad to say, there can even
be division among believers. And I think that's one of the
highest crimes in God's Word. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and
verse 18, listen to this. He's talking to the Corinthian
church there about their divisions over preachers, over incomes,
over personalities, And he said in verse 18, he says, for first
of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there'd
be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. What he's saying
there when he says, I partly believe it, he says, it's not
surprising to me. That's what he means. But listen
to what he says in verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 11. He says, for
there must also be heresies. That word heresies there is schisms.
divisions. There must, he said, listen to
that, there must also be also heresies among you. Why? That they which are approved,
what is that? That's a justified center there.
A true believer may be made manifest among you. Somebody said, well, what does
all that mean? Well, I'm not sure all the implications, but
I'll tell you what, it tells me this. that where there are
divisions among professing believers, I don't want any part of it.
How about you? Huh? You think that's not a high
crime? You remember Proverbs chapter
six? You all familiar with that? Proverbs chapter six and verse
16. The Lord says, these six things doth the Lord hate. Yea,
seven are an abomination unto him, and he lists these things.
a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift
in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and
he that soweth discord among brethren." God says he hates
that. Hates he that soweth discord
among brethren. You see, false religion brings
discord, not among brethren, they're brethren in the flesh,
but even God's people have to be on guard against this. Think
about that. Well, look here. Look at verse
11. Now, from here to the end of
this section, here's what he's showing. This is the third thing,
the power of the new covenant in Christ. This is the power
of God's grace, this is the power of the Spirit, this is the power
of Christ, the power of the new covenant in Christ. This was
to give encouragement to Judah in their present day as they
could hope in the future. The future glory of the kingdom
of God in Christ. Listen to what he says in verse
11. He says, but now I will not be unto the residue of this people
as in the former days, saith the Lord of hosts. The residue
here refers to the remnant. brought out of captivity, settled
here in the land, and now rebuilding the temple. There was just about
50,000 of them that came out of Babylon, and this is the remnant. And he says, I'm not going to
be under the residue of this people as in the former days,
as it used to be. That refers to the conditional
covenant under which the nation existed and failed miserably. The old covenant, saith the Lord
of Hosts. Look at verse 12. Here's how
it's going to be in the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Here's how
it's going to be under the new covenant. Here's how it's going
to be in the days of Christ. He says, for the seed. What's
that seed there? That's his children. That's his
offspring. The seed shall be prosperous.
You may have in your concordance there that word prosperous means
peace. Means peace. Remember he said up there, he
said, neither was there any peace to him that went out and came
in. Well, here there's going to be peace. That means fruitfulness. And this reference to the prosperity
of the land, you see, Israel was in a sad condition. And that
was indicative of their spiritual condition. But it's not going
to be like that under Christ. by the power of His Spirit in
the spiritual kingdom of Christ under the New Covenant. There's
going to be spiritual peace with God, justified sinners. There's
going to be eternal prosperity of the remnant of grace. Look
on, he says, the vine shall give her fruit. Spiritually speaking,
that's talking about the same thing that the psalmist was speaking
of in Psalm 1. That tree that's by the waters
will always prosper. His leaf will never fade. The
ground shall give her increase, the fruit of the ground. What's
that speaking of? Speaking of the fruit of Christ
in his death, burial, and resurrection. The seed of wheat that fell into
the ground and died brought forth much fruit. That's his people,
the salvation of his people. The heavens shall give their
due. God's going to rain blessings upon his people from heaven.
All the covenant blessings will be poured out upon them. through
Christ. And he says, and I will cause
the remnant. What's that remnant? Well, the Bible teaches us what
that remnant is. That's a remnant of according
to the election of grace. Anytime you see that remnant,
that's what it's talking about. The remnant of this people to
possess all these things, we'll own them. You see, Israel's prosperity
under the Old Covenant was a temporal and temporary prosperity. It
was a physical thing. It was only for a short period
of time. It was like borrowing something.
It wasn't going to keep it forever. wasn't set up to be forever.
But the spiritual blessings of salvation, of forgiveness, of
righteousness in Christ, of eternal security, of all the blessings
that we have in Christ, we own them. They'll never be taken
away. Why do we own them? Because Christ bought and paid
for his people. He redeemed us. They'll never
be taken away. Look at verse 13. He says, It
shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the heathen,
O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and
you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands
be strong. Israel had become a curse among
the heathen by their own unbelief and idolatry. Jeremiah has talked
about it in Jeremiah chapter 2. He said that my people have committed
two great evils. Remember that? He said they've
rejected the fountain of living waters, they've rejected Christ,
and they've hewned out cisterns for themselves. They tried to
make their own way, they tried to dig their own wells. Instead
of living upon the fountain of living waters in Christ, they've
tried to do it themselves. and they became a curse. They
profaned the name of God. Ezekiel spoke of that in Ezekiel
36. He says, you profaned my name
among the heathen. You haven't represented God aright. Every unregenerate man and woman,
every unbeliever is cursed and is a curse. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. They misrepresent God. They point sinners to a
false way that leads to death. That's a curse. But my friend,
salvation in and of the Lord means this. You shall be blessed
and you shall be a blessing. How? How are we going to be a
blessing to people? By pointing sinners to the way
of God's grace in Christ. That's how. Pointing sinners
to the right way. I gotta tell you this, this is
coming up in the bulletin this week, but when you read it, you'll
wonder who I was talking to. I was talking to Brother Bob
McSweeney, who was talking to our dear brother Earl Henderson.
Earl's one of our older stalwarts in the faith. Loves and knows
Christ. And Bob was talking about doubts
and unbelief, which we have to fight, even believers. You read
that tonight in 2 Timothy there. If we believe not, he's still
faithful. We have our fears and our doubts. Bob asked Earl, he
said, Earl, do you ever doubt your salvation? Do you ever think
you're lost? And Earl told him, he said, he
said, well, Bob, he said, I do have those kind of thoughts,
but he said, I keep coming back to this. He said, I can't be
lost because I know the way. And that's right. You know, to
be lost means you don't know the way. Do you know the way?
What is the way? Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but I know the way. The lost sheep are those who
are out of the way. They don't know the way. But
my friend, if we know the way, if we know Christ, now I know
there are people who think they know the way, but they don't.
But we know who Christ is. That's what this is all about
right here. You're gonna be a blessing, cause you'll show sinners the
way. You appoint them to Christ, not to the preacher, not to the
baptistry, not to the denomination, not to religion, not to their
works, but to Christ, the Lord our righteousness. The crucified
one who died was buried and rose again. And he says in verse 14,
or verse 13, he says, fear not, but let your hands be strong.
Now there's the strength right there. Verse 14, for thus saith
the Lord of hosts, as I thought to punish you when your fathers
provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented
not. In other words, God didn't change
his mind. His justice is going to be satisfied. God's going
to be honored. He won't repent. And he says
in verse 15, he says, so again, have I thought in these days
to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, fear ye
not. In what days? In the days of Christ. That's
what he's talking about. In the days of the Lord. And
so he concludes this section by saying, these are the things
that you shall do. I love the way that's put, don't
you? You know, when you parents, if you ever have one of your
children defy you, You ever looked at him and said, I'll tell you
what you're going to do. They tell you what they think they're
going to do. You look at him and say, I'll tell you exactly what
you're going to do. And I hope you mean it when you say it.
Well, this is what God's saying to his children. Here's what
you're going to do. And here it is, you're gonna
speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. You're gonna
preach and witness the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Now
true, yes, we're to be truthful people in every area of life,
but this mainly refers to the gospel, the blessing, you see.
He says you're gonna execute the judgment of truth and peace
in your gates. You're gonna tell sinners how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. The gates there, that's
where in Jerusalem they would set up their court. And that's
where crimes were, criminals were judged, tried and judged. Well, you're gonna tell sinners
how God tries and judges in Christ. And he says, and let none of
you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor. The evil
of false religion, the evil in any way. And he says, and love
no false oath, that's swearing. People swear by their God. They swear by their hearts. They swear by themselves. That's
a false oath. God swore by himself, we enter
into his oath by the promise of Christ. And he says, for all
these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. That evil, that
false religion, all of that the Lord hates. All right.