Now before we engage ourselves
in Zechariah chapter eight, I want you to find Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12 to start off
with. Now as you recall, in this chapter
of the book of Zechariah, The people of Judah had been
brought back from a 70-year captivity. They were commissioned by God
under the headship of a man named Zerubbabel, and a man named Joshua. Zerubbabel, he was the civil
leader, he was the governor, he was a descendant of David,
the tribe of Judah. Joshua was the high priest and
under their leadership the people were commissioned by God, commanded
by God, to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and to rebuild the
city of Jerusalem, the walls of Jerusalem. And the people
came and they began that great work and then they sort of Got
tired and got scared and began to doubt all kinds of reasons
that people quit. Same reasons that we quit today,
whatever godly endeavors that we engage in. And on this occasion,
a delegation of men from the town of Bethel had come down
to Jerusalem to see how the temple was progressing and to pray at
the temple and to bring gifts. And they ask about ritual feast
that they had kept and fast, rather, while they were in captivity
of 70 years. They had developed, while they
were in Babylon, they had developed four occasions of fasting, all
in memory of the defeat of Jerusalem. They'd done that for 70 years.
And one of the things that concerned them And this is how the natural
man thinks. Now, one of the things that really
concerned these fellows from Bethel about these ritual fasts
is something like this. It's kind of like, well, we've
been keeping the fast, and of course, those fasts weren't commanded
by God under the law. Wasn't anything wrong with fasting
now? But they weren't commanded under
the law. These are things that they had developed, and it became
a tradition. And you know men love their traditions.
But they had been doing this diligently, but they had not,
they had not been blessed by God as they perceived they should
have been blessed. That's the way the natural man
thinks. I mean, you know, we've got in mind, you know, how we
believe God should bless us. And if we don't get our way,
then we just say, well, God's not blessing us. And in chapter
eight, Zechariah gives them an answer. Now first of all, over
in chapter seven, he started the answer and he told them that
one of the main problems, one of the main problems with their
religion, their ceremonies, their fast was a common problem and
that's this, that their hearts just were not right with God.
I don't care what you do or how you do it or how sincere you
are, if your heart is not right with God, It is to no avail,
isn't it? There's no blessing there, no
matter how it comes out, if your heart's not right with God. And
the only way your heart can be right with God is a heart that
is purged by the blood of Christ. Now that's set down in scripture
from the very beginning. That's how God preached the gospel
to Adam and to Eve. And it takes the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, as applied by the Holy
Spirit to the conscience to make the heart right with God, the
heart purified by faith. But these men, they had a lot
of religion, they had a lot of ceremony, they had a lot of religious
exercise. But as I said in the last message,
it was religion without Christ. We really don't perceive how
sickening religion without Christ is to a holy God. You know that? We really don't. We see something
of it if we know the Lord. We who are sinners saved by the
grace of God. But we don't see the depth of
how sickening that is to our Heavenly Father. Religion without
Christ. Religion without grace. Religion
without heart. You remember the Lord said of
his generation, they draw nigh unto me with their lips, with
their words, but their heart is far from me. Religion without
love. And so, Zechariah told them they
had religious ceremonies and exercise, but they didn't have
a broken and a contrite, sincere heart of faith in the Lord. They'd
lost sight of the reason that we as the people of God are to
do any religious exercise. We're going to take the Lord's
Supper. Why are we taking it? What's this all about, you see?
Well, I can give it to you very simply, and I love the way the
scripture puts it. Men complicate it. And I'd do
the same thing, but for the grace of God. They're complicated.
It's like that preacher, he was preaching on a particular passage,
and he got tied up in his own doctrinalization of things, and
he came down, he told a fella, he said, boy, that was deep,
wasn't it? And the fella said, well, it really wasn't deep,
you just made it deep. And that's the way man is by
nature. We just make things more, but here's the reason we're taking
the Lord's Supper. He said it, this do in remembrance
of me, period. This do in remembrance of me.
So basically what it says, if you have anything on your heart
and mind and your very inner man, but Christ and him crucified
and his blood and righteousness, you're doing it for the wrong
reason. Well, that's what was happening here. But what he does
here in chapter eight, he begins here, and I'm just gonna look
at the first eight verses tonight of Zechariah, but like I said,
I want you to look at Genesis 12 now. He gives them the issues
of truth that God uses to make a sinner's heart right with him.
These are issues of truth. They're issues of God's grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the nation Israel, was really,
as a nation now, they were really only blessed even in a physical
way, in their physical temporal blessings now, as they were used
of God to accomplish his purpose to save his people, his church,
spiritual Israel, by grace through Christ. And that's stated over
in Genesis chapter 12. You know, this, the first three
verses is the beginning of the covenant that God made with Abraham.
This was done about 400 years before the Hebrew children were
brought out of Egypt and established as a nation at Sinai. And listen
to what he says in verse one of Genesis chapter 12 and verse
one. He says, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out
of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto
a land that I will show thee. And he says, and I will make
of thee a great nation And I will bless thee, blessing, and make
thy name great, that thou shalt be a blessing. I will make of
thee a great nation. I will bless thee, that thou
shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that cursed thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. Looking beyond the physical and
the temporal there, to the eternal and the spiritual. Now what we have here back in
Zechariah 8 is the conditions for blessing. That's what I've
entitled this message, Conditions for Blessing. Now we can all
think about our blessings, can't we? Oh, how we've been blessed. Well, we've been blessed freely. We've been blessed unconditionally.
We've been blessed by God's grace. The Bible says we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. But never, never lose sight of
the fact that there are conditions to these blessings. What are
they? Now that's what Zechariah 8 is talking about. Now there's
a historical reference here in Zechariah 8 to the prosperity
of Jerusalem when the city and the temple were rebuilt. These
people here in Zechariah's day were beginning at that time to
experience a time of physical temporal blessings. You remember
back when we looked at this in the beginning, they were building
their own houses, luxurious houses. You know, money, lack of money
wasn't there, but they weren't in poverty or anything like that.
They were being blessed physically, financially, all of that. But
two things here make us look beyond the historical to the
spiritual. You see, the physical blessings,
they only last for a little while. You may be blessed today with
good health. You may be healthy as you can be. But I'm telling,
and you know it's true, it's not gonna last. It's not gonna
last. You may be healthy up before
the second you hit the ground. It's just not gonna last. You
may be financially secure, but it's either gonna leave you or
you're gonna leave it. One of the two, isn't that right?
So it's not going to last. So when we talk about these blessings
here, we've got to look beyond the physical. We've got to look
beyond the temporal. We've got to look beyond the
nation to the eternal. And that's what Zechariah is
basically talking about. These two things that make us
look beyond the historical to the spiritual. The church. The
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's number one I've already
said. These historical blessings were only temporary. They were
only temporal. They didn't last long. There
was a time of physical prosperity in Israel, but it didn't last
long. It didn't last long at all. Now some say this speaks
of a time of prosperity coming later on for Israel, even in
our future. But I want you to remember what
our Lord said when he stood before Pontius Pilate. He said this,
he said, my kingdom is not of this world. He told his disciples,
the kingdom of heaven is within you. It's a spiritual kingdom.
It's not a temporal earthly kingdom. It doesn't have to do with physical
things. Even though we do experience
physical blessings, the issue of it is eternal and spiritual. It's of the heart. The second
thing that shows us that we've got to look beyond the physical
here and what's happening in Israel in this particular day
and age is that it also speaks of the salvation of the Gentiles.
He mentions that in verse seven. He said, I will save my people
from the East country and from the West. And who's he talking
about? Look over at verse 22. Look at the last two verses of
chapter eight. He says in verse 22, he says,
Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of
hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten
men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, not
just the Jews, but God's people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. even shall take hold of the skirt
of him that is a Jew saying, we will go with you. There's
a unity here. There's a spiritual heart unity
between Jew and Gentile here. And what is that unity? Well,
he says it, for we have heard that God is with you. Now, anytime
you think about God being with you, who do you think about?
His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God
with us, God with me. So this is a union of Jew and
Gentile under the headship of Christ. So it forces us to look
beyond the temporal, beyond the physical to the eternal. And the issue brought forth is
stated in verse seven, look at that. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts. Here's the issue. Behold, I will save my people. My friends, that's a comforting
thought to the people of God. He's going to save His people.
He's not going to leave any vacancies in His kingdom. And this is an
encouragement for the people of God not to faint, not to grow
weary. It's an encouragement for the
people of Zechariah's day. Don't grow weary in rebuilding
the temple and rebuilding the city and doing what God has commanded
you to do. It's a word of encouragement
for us not to grow weary in our daily walk, in our lives here
on earth as we stand as witnesses for the glory of God in Christ.
God has a purpose, God has a plan, and it's all conditioned on the
power of God and the goodness of God in Christ. And I'll tell
you what, just like Israel, if we as individuals or as a collective
body, if we're used for His glory in the fulfillment of that purpose,
and I'll tell you what, there's no greater blessing than that.
We're truly blessed. Look at verse one of Zechariah. He says, again, the word of the
Lord of hosts came to me saying. How many times have we seen that
identification of the Lord as the Lord of hosts? There he is,
Jehovah, the covenant God, the God of all grace. That's how
he identifies himself to his people. He's the one who saves
sinners by grace. through His Messiah, His Christ. He's the Lord of hosts. He cannot
be defeated. This God who saves cannot be
defeated. The Lord of a great army. An
army that's invincible because He's the Lord. He's the Lord
of Hosts. This is truth here. The Word
of the Lord of Hosts. This Word of the Lord is about
one thing. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who is the very embodiment of
the Word of God. He is the Word of God. In beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with us. And
the Word was God. He is God. He's the Word made
flesh to dwell among us. And it says here in verse two.
Now here we begin the conditions for blessing. Here's number one.
He says, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion
with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury,
great zeal, great fervor. What is the condition for blessing?
Here's what he's saying. For men to be blessed, blessed
of God, eternally, spiritually, God must be honored. That's the first condition. God
must be honored. Man by nature does not honor
God and cannot honor God. How is God to be honored? Well,
he mentions it here. He talks about his jealousy.
And he says here he's jealous for Zion with great jealousy. What is this jealousy that is
attributed to God? You know, when we think about
jealousy in ourselves, we usually think of something negative,
even something sinful. except when it comes between
the love of a husband and a wife, we're jealous for our wives and
they're jealous for us, and that's okay, because that's a jealousy
of love. But what about jealousy when
it's ascribed to God? Well, jealousy, listen to me
now, jealousy describes God's honor and God's glory connected
with his right of ownership of his people. He owns his people,
lock, stock, and barrel. We belong to him and to no one
else, and he will not share his glory, you see. He's jealous
over Zion with a great fury. Oh, this is no light matter to
God. This is his honor. This is God's reputation right
here. Did you know that? His reputation,
his honor, and his glory is on the line. You see, God is entitled
to your worship, worship the Lord of glory. You're not entitled
to anybody's worship. If anybody worships you, you're
not entitled to that. You're robbing, you're seeking
to rob God of his glory, and he's jealous of his glory. And
see, God is entitled to our love. Love the Lord God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and spirit. God is entitled to our obedience
in every way. God is entitled to our respect. Nobody else is entitled to that
as far as worship goes. God deserves all of this from
his people and he's jealous over it. It's his honor, it's his
reputation. With great fury, that describes
the magnitude of his love and his determination to save his
people from their sins. The Bible says Christ set his
face like a flint. That means he wouldn't look to
the left or to the right, straight on. For the glory of his father
and the salvation of his people whom he calls his bride. You
men consider your own love to protect your wife. you wives
to protect and to honor your husband and to protect your children. Think about that. Think about
what somebody would try to harm your children. How jealous you
are because they belong to you. That you have a right of ownership.
I'm not talking about a slavish ownership or some kind of a of
a masterful abuse or anything like it. I'm talking about love.
That's the way God is. God's fervent love in Christ,
here in his love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing
sacrifice who made satisfaction for our sins to his justice. The propitiation for our sins.
He that spared not his own son, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? You want to know how jealous
God is over his people? Over Zion? He sent his only begotten
son to die in our place in order to preserve his honor and his
glory. And this expresses his covenant
love for his bride, the church, and that he will not allow anything
to come between him and the objects of his love. Who shall separate
us or what shall separate us from the love of God in Christ?
Romans chapter 8 and verse 35. Nothing. Nothing that you can
even imagine in this universe can separate his people from
that love. The Bible says that sin could
not separate us from the love of God in Christ. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter five with me. And listen to how this is put.
Now these things are put here for a reason. This is not just
a random putting together of words for some kind of a literary
effect. What you have here is the wisdom
of God. And look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. First of all, sin could not keep God from expressing his
jealousy over Zion, his people, the salvation of his people.
And it says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, look at verse 18. Listen to this. He says, and all things are of
God. Now the all things he's talking
about there are the all things that have become new. God is
the author of salvation. He's the originator of salvation.
Salvation's of the Lord. Who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Sinners reconciled to God through
Jesus Christ. Now how did he do it? Look at
verse 19. To wit. Now what that means is
he's going to define and describe what he just said. Some translations
say namely. All right, here it is. Now listen
to how this is put now. This is important. That God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. God was in Christ. Now you know, a lot of times
we'll read scripture, we know Christ is God. We know he is
very God of very God. He's the God man. And here it
says God was in Christ. What does that mean? Well, it's
the same thing that he said in Colossians chapter 1 and Colossians
chapter 2 when it says this. It says in Colossians chapter
1, I can't remember the verse, but it says, In Him, it pleased
the Father that in Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. And
then in Colossians 2, 9 it says, For in Him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now, What that's speaking
of is Christ as the mediator, as God-man. Hear what he said
in Colossians 2, 9. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead, how? Bodily. God-man. In the God-man, in Messiah, dwelt
all the fullness, all the glory, all the honor, of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Meaning this, if you want to
know the Father, you've got to come through Christ. If you want
to know the Son, the Alpha and the Omega, you've got to come
through Christ. If you want to know the Spirit,
you've got to come through Christ. You cannot know God. I cannot
know God except through Christ. Well, here in 2 Corinthians 5,
19, God was in Christ. God, the Godhead, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, engaged himself, everything that he is, in his
honor, in his glory, every attribute of his nature and character as
God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, to do what? To
reconcile the world unto himself, his people all over the world,
Jew and Gentile. And how did he do it? He says,
not imputing, not charging, not accounting their trespasses unto
them. He doesn't charge them with their
sins. He says, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
That's the gospel of his grace. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ, verse 20, as though God did beseech you by us as we pray
you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God, for he hath
made him sin, to be sin, or sin, Christ, who knew no sin, for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's where God's jealousy is shown forth, right
there. He gave his only begotten son, by making him sin, by charging,
accounting all the demerit and all of the responsibility of
the sins of his people to Christ. God had to be honored. He's jealous
over his glory. And in his jealousy, he gave
us the righteousness of God imputed to us, accounted to us, so that
he might be both a just God and a savior. And that's where his
jealousy resides. His honor and his glory connected
with the right of ownership through the redemption by blood. There's
no other way. That's his covenant love. Sin
could not separate us from God because God is jealous for Zion.
The law could not separate us from God. The Bible says in the
book of Romans, in chapter 8, it says in verse 3, it says,
for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh. Well, what is it the law cannot do? I'll tell you what
the law cannot do. The law cannot save you. The law can show you your need
of salvation, but it can't save you. The law cannot wash away
your sins. The law can show you your sin,
but it can't take care of the problem. The law can show you
the standard of righteousness and holiness, but it cannot make
you righteous and holy. So what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, what does that tell you?
I'm the problem, you're the problem. God, what? Sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, God-man, And for sin, as a substitute
for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh. He puts sin to death.
I love that book by old John Owen. The Death of Death and
the Death of Christ. What happened there? Christ kept
the law perfectly. He obeyed it unto death. Why? Because God is jealous for Zion. That's the condition. That's
it. God must be honored. How's God
gonna be honored? Through Christ. Christ met that
condition. Christ fulfilled that condition.
Death or the grave could not separate us, for through his
death we have life. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? Satan could not separate us,
for he was cast down. When Christ died on the cross,
he said, now is the prince of this world judged and cast down.
Now Satan cannot even accuse us. Why? Because of the blood
of Christ, his righteousness charged to our count. God is
jealous for Zion. God has engaged himself, his
honor, his glory in Christ to save his people. He's zealous.
Now back here in Zechariah, it says who's he jealous for? He's
jealous for Zion. That's a symbol of the church.
That's the bride of Christ. Now, as I said, historically
speaking, there's an application to the nation of Judah as they
belong to God as a nation under the old covenant for a while.
But that was set up to have its finish, to be fulfilled by way
of abolishment. But prophetically and eternally,
is speaking of the church, God's elect out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation, all redeemed by the blood of Christ, all justified
by His righteousness and purity, and all powerfully and irresistibly
called to Christ under His headship by the Holy Spirit as we're brought
under the preaching of the gospel. God is jealous for Zion. Go back to Zechariah. Here's
the second condition. Look at verse 3. He says, thus saith the Lord,
I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
And Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth and the mountain
of the Lord of host, the holy mountain. Secondly, for men to
be blessed of God, God must come to us. He must come to us. We'll never go to him. We'll
never go to him. Look over Romans chapter 10 with
me. Look at verse six. This issue
of salvation, that's what Paul's talking about here. This issue
of attaining righteousness. That's what salvation is, isn't
it? In the Bible, that's what salvation is. It's attaining
righteousness. That was set forth from the beginning.
Now this issue of salvation, this issue of attaining righteousness
before a holy God is not an issue of a sinner going to God. Now
listen to me. I'm not saying sinners will not
come to God. They will. By the power of the Spirit. Every
one of his people are going to be called out and they're going
to come to Christ. But that's not the condition. You see, there
has to be man. If it were, we'd all be lost. What is the condition? God must
come to us. That's what he said there. I
will return to Zion. Zion won't return to me. God
makes the first move here, see. He's the originator. But look
here in Romans 10 and verse 6, he said, but the righteousness,
Romans 10, 6, which is of faith, that's the righteousness of Christ,
which we receive by God-given faith, speaketh on this wise,
say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to
bring Christ down from above. It's not a matter of a sinner
working his way up. And then he says, or, verse seven,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring Christ
again from the dead. It's not an issue of a sinner
trying to work his way down, either way. But what saith it,
verse eight, the word is nigh thee. Now something's coming
near here. He says, even in thy mouth. Well, what's he talking about
here? The word in our, that's the gospel. That's the gospel,
the glory of God. He says, and in thy heart, it's
not just something we say. It's not like those that Zechariah
was preaching to, or our Lord was describing when he said,
they draw nigh unto me with their lips, but their heart's far from
me. He's talking about, it is in our lips, but it's in our
heart. It's a heart matter. It's the
circumcised heart. And he says, it's the new heart,
and he says, he says, the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth
and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. God must come to us. Turn over
to Isaiah chapter 46. I like that, whenever we talk
about God coming to us, coming near, I like to go to this passage
here, this prophecy in the book of Isaiah, chapter 46, verses
12 and 13. And where he makes it clear what
this prophecy is all about, this prophecy of Christ, he says,
hearken unto me, you stout-hearted that are far from righteousness,
proud, self-righteous sinners who are far from righteousness.
And the more we work hard to get there by our works, the farther
away we get. And he says in verse 13, I bring
near my righteousness. God's righteousness. You see,
that's the condition. God must come to us. We have
to have his righteousness. Ours won't do. And you know why
ours won't do? Because it's not righteousness.
It's not even close. I bring near my righteousness,
it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry,
and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory. He's returned to the earth. You
know, back in Zechariah 8, when he says, I am returned unto Zion
and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, you know what that's
speaking of, don't you? That's the incarnation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the birth of Christ, that's
the life of Christ, the Word made flesh and dwelling among
us. If He hadn't come to this earth,
if He hadn't returned undesigned and did His great work, there'd
be no salvation, there'd be no blessing. Christ had to come. His dwelling speaks of His mission
and the accomplishment thereof. What did He do? He redeemed His
church, shedding His precious blood, establishing righteousness
by which we're justified. Christ is the foundation of the
church. Christ is the chief cornerstone
by which everything is measured and held together. Christ is
the head of the church and Christ is the heart of the church. He
says here in Zechariah 8.3, he said, I'll be in the midst of
Jerusalem. He's the center. He's the lifeblood of the church. That Jerusalem speaks of the
heavenly Jerusalem prophetically. We're citizens of a heavenly
Jerusalem. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And you notice
there in verse three of Zechariah eight, it says that she shall
be called a city of truth. Well, how is Jerusalem gonna
be a city of truth? You know, when our Lord actually
came to earth, when he actually was made flesh and dwelt among
us, as God-man, Jerusalem at that time was anything but a
city of truth, wasn't it? It was a city of lies, religious
lies. But what's he talking about here?
He's talking about the heavenly Jerusalem. And how are we a city
of truth? I'll tell you exactly how. Christ
said it this way in John 14, 6, I am the way, I am the truth,
I am the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He
is the truth. You see, This is in the context
of salvation as it's worked out and revealed by Christ. The Bible
says in 1 Timothy 3 that his church is the pillar and ground
of truth. How? As we set forth Christ. Does
that mean that every individual believer is always going to tell
the truth at every time? No. No. You remember when Paul
was admonishing the church at Colossae, he had to tell them,
he said, quit lying to each other. That's right. But how are we
a city of truth? As we set forth Christ as the
only way of salvation. As we set forth Christ as the
only way of forgiveness. His blood, His righteousness
is the only way of justification. He says the holy mountain here
in verse 3. Holy, set apart, sanctified. How? By the blood of Christ.
It's not because of what we wear or don't wear or do or don't
do. It's Christ. He's our identification. He is our banner. He's what sets
us apart. It's the grace of God in Him,
you see. That's the condition for blessing.
It's not what we do for Him. It's what He's done for us. Here's
the third one. Go back to Zechariah 8 now. In verses 4 and 5 now. He says in verse 4, Thus saith
the Lord of hosts. There's that title again. There
shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem.
Well, we got a lot of folks here who are glad of that. No pun
intended, but that's right, isn't it? You say, well, he's not talking
literally there. Why not? Why not? Old men and old women dwell in
the streets of Jerusalem. Age has nothing to do with it.
The weakness of age has nothing to do with it. Even, I think
about, we were together last night in James, that song, The
Lord Remembers Me. And every time I hear that song,
I always think about someone who gets Alzheimer's, a believer. Because when you get Alzheimer's,
you forget everything. You forget even your own name.
It's sad, sad, sad. But one thing that you believers,
you who dwell in Christ, can take assurance of right now in
your right mind is that he will always remember you. He'll never
forget you. And that's the condition, you
see. What's he saying here? He's saying this. Look back at
verse four, he says, old women and old men shall dwell in the
streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staff in his hand
for very age or for a multitude of days. In other words, well
look at verse five, and the streets of the city shall be full of
boys and girls, that's young people, and what are they gonna
be doing? Something that we just would
not let our children do, they'll be playing in the streets. Would
you let your children play in the street? I hope you wouldn't.
Not a busy street anyway. Playing in the streets thereof.
What's all this talking about? Well, here's what he's saying.
For men to be blessed of God, there must be peace and there
must be safety. That's what he's saying. There's
a condition for blessing. Without peace and safety, there's
no blessing. I don't care how rich you are, if you're not at
peace and you're not safe, you're not blessed. I don't care how
healthy you are. If you're not at peace and you're
not safe, you're not blessed. There must be peace and safety.
And that's what he's talking about. Here's a church who is
a body of believers where all ages dwell, old and young. Length
of days, shortness of days means nothing as far as you're being
blessed. If you're cut down in the prime of youth, if you die
in Christ, you're blessed above all people. If you live to be
as old as Methuselah and die without Christ, you're cursed. You've heard me say it before
about Methuselah. 969 years old. The oldest recorded
man that's recorded in the Word of God and the last three words
that is said of Methuselah and he died. And that's it. You see,
length of days, gender doesn't mean anything. Old men and old
women will be cherished and respected. That's the wise and the mature
in the Lord and in his word. Physical age may hinder them.
Physical infirmities may slow them down in the things of this
world, but not in the things of the Lord. Young people also
will occupy their place in the church. They'll be playing in
the streets. That speaks of freedom and safety in Christ. They're
not a prey for the wicked. You can't even take your little
boys and little girls to the mall without keeping an eye on
them all the time. Afraid somebody will come along and snatch them
up today. But here they'll be playing in the streets. Nobody's
gonna snatch them up here. They're safe in the arms of Christ. Mutual love and respect between
the old and the young. Safety, peace, peace in Christ,
peace with God. In the cleft of the rock, death
will not upset that peace. It will not even disturb it.
Old saints still have their staff here in their hand. Multitude
of days. You know what their staff is?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And we lean on him. We lean heavily
on him. We depend on Him. Children playing
in the streets of Zion, representatives of fearless peace. There's no
war, there's no danger where children play in the streets.
The Bible says in Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. Christ is the Prince of Peace.
He is our refuge. He is our rock. How many names
we could go through to understand how peaceful and how safe we
are in him. But let's go on to the fourth
one. Look at verse six. In these last few verses, listen
to this. He says, thus saith the Lord of hosts, there he is
again, he cannot be defeated. If it be marvelous in the eyes
of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also
be marvelous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of hosts. Now that word
marvelous If you have a concordance in your Bible, you may see the
words hard or difficult. And that's really a better translation.
It would read this way. If it be hard or difficult or
even impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people in
these days, should it also be hard or difficult or impossible
in the eyes of the Lord, saith the Lord of hosts? Well, look at verse seven. He
says, thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will save my
people from the East country and from the West country. And
I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
I'm going to save them and I'm going to bring them in. Does
that seem hard and difficult, impossible to you? It sure does.
Well, is that the way it is to God? Absolutely not. I'll save
my people. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpret God with us. He is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him. He's able, he's able, he's able.
Yes, it's impossible for us. He says, I'll bring them and
they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and they shall be
my people and I will be their God and it'll be in truth and
in righteousness. You see, if in your eyes the
task seems hard or difficult, even impossible, are you so foolish
to imagine it's the same way with God? You know, this is pitiful,
but even we as believers, sometimes we measure, foolishly measure
God's ability by our own. You remember when the rich young
man came to the Lord in Matthew 19? And he walked away sorrowful,
and his disciples asked this question. They say, who then
can be saved? You know what they were saying,
don't you? They're saying, well, if that
fellow's not saved, that moral religious fellow, if he's not
saved, who can be? It's impossible. And the Lord
said, with men, it's impossible. Men cannot save themselves, men
cannot put away sin, men cannot conquer death and hell, men cannot
conquer Satan, men cannot make themselves righteous, but with
God all things are possible. Abraham asked the question, is
anything too hard for the Lord? God will save his people, salvation's
of the Lord, he's able. Don't ever measure his ability
by yours. False preachers come in the name
of Christ and they try to encourage their congregations by getting
them to realize and make use of their full power and potential.
It's for nothing. God's preachers come in the name
of Christ and seek to encourage themselves and their congregations
by realizing and resting in Christ whose full potential has been
set forth in the salvation of his people. He will save his
people from their sins. In the day of the Babylonian
return here, there were people who looked
upon the task as being impossible, but it was God who gave them
the power to do the work. Did you notice here too, in verse
seven, he says, behold, I will save my people from the east
country and from the west country, the east and the west. You know, in that day of that
return, there were no children of Israel returning from the
western part of the world. What's he talking about, save
his people from the eastern part and the western part? He's talking
about God's elect all over the world. But why didn't he mention
the north and the south? Because usually when we think
of the whole world, we think of north, south, east, west. Well,
because this is symbolic language. And in symbolism, north and south
symbolized things that were evil. North symbolized Babylon. The
south symbolized Egypt. We've already seen that in several
passages of scripture. But the east here, the east and
the west, they span the globe. You cut the world in half. You've
got east, you've got west. Speaks of the whole world. And
it represents, symbolizes, pictures the work of Christ. the work
of God the Son incarnate, coming into the world to save his people
from their sins. He came as the rising of the
sun from the east. And he finished the work, the
setting of the sun in the west, the sun of righteousness. East
and west also represent infinity. That's a symbol of the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. Think about it. If
you decided today that you were going to make a trip around the
earth and you said, I'm going to go north, and you start up
north, there's going to come a point where you're going to
be going south. It's called the North Pole. You're going to be going south.
But now, if you were going to make a trip around the earth
and you were going to go east, do you know you'd always be going
east? You'd never go west? Now, if you turned around and
went the other way, you'd go west and you'd never go east.
It's infinite. You see, we have a North Pole and a South Pole,
but we don't have an East Pole and a West Pole, do we? I'm not
trying to give you a physics lesson here, I'm just trying
to show you something about the wisdom of God in the creation
of the Earth. East and West represents infinity. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega,
no beginning and no end. And let me tell you something,
He saves His people with an eternal salvation. Has no beginning and
no end, as far as He's concerned. East and west represent infinity.
Psalm 113 and verse 3 says, from the rising of the sun to the
going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised. So that's
the whole word. And he says in verse 8, I'll
bring them. He's going to save them by his grace, by his blood.
He's going to bring them in. He's going to call them by the
Holy Spirit, give them life. They're going to be born again.
They're going to be called by the gospel, given faith in Christ. And they'll dwell in the midst
of Jerusalem just like those old men and old women and those
children. They're going to dwell there safely and eternally in
Christ and they shall be my people. And he's jealous over his people.
He won't let you go. And I will be their God. He won't
stop being our God. That's a relationship there.
That's not just his deity as creator. That's his relationship
with his people as redeemer. And he said it'll be in truth.
Won't be based on a lie. It'll be based on his honor and
in righteousness. The righteousness of God in Christ. That's the conditions for blessing.
And it's all of God. And Christ met every one of those
conditions. Do you know that? Somebody said, well, doesn't
God require us to believe? Yes, he does. He requires you
to believe that Christ has met all the conditions. Is that right? He requires you to believe in
this point that you rest in Christ, that all the requirements, stipulations,
conditions have been fulfilled by him alone in his obedience
unto death. All right.