In Zechariah chapter seven and
eight, what we have is a message, or you might say several messages,
it depends on how you divide them. Really doesn't much matter
because it's really one message. It's a message of reality and
truth, wherein God through the prophet Zechariah lays bare the
reality of sin to his people. God doesn't hold back. He doesn't
sugarcoat it. He doesn't try to excuse it.
He just simply says it as it is. We're sinners. We cannot
save ourselves. We don't deserve salvation. We
can't earn it. If salvation is to come our way,
it's by the sovereign grace and mercy of God and nothing else
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He exposes their sin. He exposes
their hypocrisy. But he doesn't leave them there.
He calls them to repentance. And that repentance, which is
the gift of God that comes to sinners through the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's both these chapters. And
what he does here, and I want you to see this. Before I get
into these verses in chapter 7, I want to read two verses
from the New Testament. The first, and these two verses,
these two passages of scripture in the New Testament bring forth
in the clearest language the issue that God brings before
the people through Zechariah here, the problem. There's a
problem. And the first passage that I want to read is the one
I just read at the opening of this service in John chapter
four, verses 23 through 24. I want to read them again. where
the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to an ignorant, lost sinner,
which is, that's all of us by nature, isn't it? Before God
saves us. He says, the hour cometh and
now is when true worshipers, now that's what I want to be.
I want to be a true worshiper. I don't want to be a false worshiper.
I don't want to be fake. I don't want to be hypocritical.
But he says in John 4 and 23, the hour's coming when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. I've entitled this message Spirit
and Truth. Spirit and Truth. So he says
they'll worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father,
listen to this, the Father, God the Father, seeketh such to worship
him. That's what he's seeking. Now,
we know that seeking of the Father is not like our seeking. God doesn't grope in the dark.
God has an objective and an object. He knows exactly what He goes
after and He has what He goes after. We know that. Verse 24
says, God is a spirit. Literally, that would read, God
is spirit. You don't have a visible representation of God. You can
know something of God by His works. in creation, in providence,
and especially in salvation by grace. But God is spirit, and
they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now that was the problem in Zechariah's
day here that he's talking to these people in chapter 7. They
sought to worship, but it wasn't in spirit and it wasn't in truth.
That's the problem. The next verse I want to read
is in Philippians chapter 3 in verse 3. This is one of those
verses that I say is one of the best definitions of a Christian,
a believer in the whole Bible. Philippians 3 and verse 3, where
the Apostle Paul writes, for we are the circumcision, and
of course you know what he means by that, we are the born again,
we're spiritual Jews, that's what he's talking about. Circumcision
of the heart. And we worship God in the spirit. And I always make a note there,
that involves two things. Worshipping God in the spirit.
Number one, it means to worship God as God reveals himself to
you. You see, a lot of people try
to worship God as they think he is. A God according to their
imaginations, the prophets called that. They've conjured up in
their imaginations a God that is not like the God of the Bible.
But to worship God in spirit means to worship God according
to spiritual truth. And that means to worship him
as he, whatever God says about himself in this book, that's
the way it is. Now I may not understand it all.
I don't understand it all. And you don't either. We may
not be able to wrap our minds around the infinite majesty of
God. Aren't you glad that you can't?
But that's what, whatever, if God says he's sovereign, he's
sovereign. And his people love it so. If
God says man is responsible, man is responsible. Whatever
God says is truth, you see. And that's what it means to worship
God in the spirit. Secondly, it means to worship
God from the heart. In other words, this is not just
outward show. This is not just sham religion.
This is not like the Pharisees, you know, you make white the
outside of the cup, make clean the outside of the cup, but inside
full of hypocrisy. So he says, we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit. And the way you can know you
worship God in the spirit is by these two next phrases in
Philippians 3 and verse 3. He says, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, which means literally to have confidence in Christ
Jesus, glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. And to have no confidence in
the flesh means to have no confidence in religious exercise and ceremony,
too. Now that's important for Zechariah
chapter seven. Now, let's go over to Zechariah
seven. Read verses one and two. It says,
and it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, that's under
the Persian rule in Babylon, you see, that the word of the
Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month,
even in Chisholm. You remember upon their return
from the 70 year captivity, they'd been in captivity 70 years, the
Babylonians had been conquered and the Persians had taken over
and God by his sovereign providence enabled the people of Jerusalem
and Judah, Judea, to come back to their homeland. There were
about 50,000 of them that came back and they were commanded
by God to rebuild the temple. And the priests were to lead
the people in reestablishing the true worship of God. That
was the priest's duty. To lead the people in the realities
of the covenant, in the true worship of God, as God prescribed
in the old covenant, in the law. That's what they were to do.
So here we are in the ninth month. It's the month Chislew on the
Hebrew calendar. You see it there in verse one.
Correspond probably around this time of year for us, around November
and December. That's the time of year. This
was two years after the night visions. You remember we just
finished up the night visions that Zechariah had in one night. He had those night visions. And
then you had that interlude of prophecy. prophecy of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the branch, showing that all of those night visions,
all of that word from God given to Zechariah and the people and
all those visions, had something to do with the glory of the person
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ who was to
come. And so two years after that, and two years before the
completion of the temple, in this time of Chislew, in the
ninth month. Here's where we are. And what
happened here? Well, it says, when they had
sent unto the house of God. Now the word, the house of God
there is literally the word Bethel. It's Bethel. That's what Bethel
means. You've heard of Bethel, that's
where Jacob had some great visions. The house of God, that's what
Bethel means. It's also a place that was noted
for its idolatry. When the kingdom split after
Solomon, you remember Rehoboam was the rightful heir to the
throne of Israel, but Jeroboam, his brother, he got popular because
he wanted to lower taxes. He promised people he'd lower
taxes, so he split the kingdom and then he went crazy. He became
an idolater. He set a golden calf in Bethel
and it became a place noted for for idolatry, but apparently
there were several who came out of the captivity, that 70 year
captivity, who returned to their home in Bethel. And literally
what this says, it's kind of misleading in the translation
here now, don't get mad at me if you're a King James only person,
I'm sorry, it's just the way it is, words are words. You know,
but literally what it says, it said when they had come from
Bethel or sent from Bethel. In other words, what you have
here is you have two men leading a delegation of men from Bethel
to Jerusalem, to the temple to inquire of the Lord. That's what's
happening here. These men were named Cherezer
and Regemalek. Those were Babylonian names.
Now what does that mean? It means they were Jews who were
born in Babylon. So they have Babylonian names.
But this Cherezer and this Regemalek, both Jews born in Babylon, they
came from the city of Bethel, the city where Jacob worshipped,
but also the city where idolatry had cast its sad, ugly shadow
over that place. And they came from there with
a delegation of people, it says in verse two, and their men to
pray. You might see in your concordance
there if you have one, to entreat the face of, that means to come
to God. To find out, they wanted to pray
before the Lord. They had a question. So they
came to the temple to ask the priests and to ask the prophets.
Look at verse three. It says, and to speak unto the
priest, which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, And again,
anytime you see that title, the Lord of Hosts, that's the Lord
of a great army, invincible God. That's what it's speaking of,
God and His invincibility. God who cannot be defeated. God
who cannot be hindered. That's what that means. So they
came into the house of the Lord of Hosts. Now that is the temple
in Jerusalem. And they wanted to inquire of
the priests and the prophets, saying, now here's what they
wanted to know, should I weep in the fifth month separating
myself as I have done these so many years." There's the question.
To the priest and the prophets, what are they talking about?
Should I weep? Well, most commentators, and I agree, say that they're
speaking of ritual fasting, ceremonies that they had developed over
the time period that they were in captivity in Babylon for 70
years. He mentions them over in chapter
8 and verse 19. Look there for a second. He says,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth month. You see that? The fast. Fasting.
You know what fasting is. Giving up food for a period of
time. He says the fast of the fourth
month, the fast of the seventh, the fast of the tenth. These
were ritual fasts. that they had taken part in on
these particular dates, over here in Zechariah 7, 3, in the
fifth month, or in the fifth month that they had taken place,
they had engaged in these ritual fasting. And here's what they're
asking. They're saying, is it wrong for me to go ahead and
do that? Here we are back in Judea. Here we are back in Jerusalem.
The temple's being rebuilt. Should we continue to keep these
ritual fast? like we did the whole 70 years
we were in Babylon. That's what they're asking. Well,
how did these fasts develop? Well, the fifth month, the seventh
month, and then he mentions two additional fasts over in chapter
eight, the fourth and the tenth month. All of these fasts that
they had developed as religious ceremonies, all of them were
related to the fall of Jerusalem that took place back in 586 BC. Remember the fall of Jerusalem.
And here's the way it happened. In the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar
surrounded the city of Jerusalem. He besieged the city. That's
when he was breaking down the walls. That's when he was coming
against them. And they proclaimed a fast for that day on the tenth
month so they could weep and sorrow over that event and remember
it. Then in the fourth month, Nebuchadnezzar
actually entered the city. And that's when he came in to
conquer the people of Jerusalem, the people of Judea. And so they
proclaimed a fast to commemorate that. Let's weep in sorrow, rend
our clothes, all of that, see, that's associated with a fast.
In the fifth month, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple. Now you
can just imagine those people when they first come back from
the Babylonian captivity and they saw that temple laid in
total ruin. Well, while they were in Babylon,
they commemorated that with another fast. And then in the seventh
month, the Jewish governor at that time, his man named Gadolai,
he was killed and the remnant fled away. You can read about
that in 2 Kings chapter 25. But each of these were events
in Israel's history, Judah's history, that were associated
with their fall. And they decided to commemorate
those things with a monthly fast on these particular days. While
in captivity, the Jews observed these dates as fast. Well, now
that the temple's going up, now that we're back, is it right
or is it wrong for us to continue to do that? Well, in the rest
of this chapter comes the answer that God has through the prophet
Zechariah. And he instructs Zechariah to
give an answer to the whole nation. Look at verse 4. He says, Then
came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, Speak
unto all the people of the land. Don't just answer these two fellas
and their delegation from Bethel. This is a message that everyone
needs to hear. I find that so a lot of times
when people ask me questions or if I get a letter that asks
a question. Sometimes they're silly questions.
Sometimes they're foolish questions that really just take your mind
away from the scriptures and from the preaching of Christ.
But sometimes they come across with some pretty good questions
that really all of us need to think about and consider. And
that's what this is. That's what this is. And so he
gives the answer. But as we go through these verses,
what you're going to see is there were some major problems with
their rituals. Now does that surprise you? Think
about us today and the rituals of religion that people have
developed over the centuries under the name of Christ, under
the name of Christianity. Aren't there some major problems
with every one of them? Oh yes, there are. We just finished
keeping one, didn't we? Major problems. And the problem
was not with the ritual itself. The problem was not with just
fasting on a particular day. I'm sure that in your mind, you
might think of times in your lives where you've had a great
tragedy or great sorrow. There's nothing wrong with you
weeping over that. That's not the issue. The issue
is not the ritual itself. Here's the problem. The problem
is with the heart. There's the problem. Look at
what he says in verse five. He says, speaking to all the
people of the land and to the priests saying, when you fasted
and mourned, when you deprived yourself and you wept in the
fifth and in the seventh month, that's two of them. There were
four altogether, but that's two of them. Even those 70 years
when you were in captivity, did you at all fast unto me, even
unto me? What's he asking there? Did you
do it to worship God for the glory of God? Is that what you
were doing? He says in verse 6, and when
you did eat, he goes on, he doesn't even just deal with the fast,
he deals with everything in their life when you eat. And when you
did drink, did not you eat for yourselves? See what he's saying? And drink for yourselves? Wasn't
it just to fulfill your own selfish pleasure and honor? It wasn't for the glory of God,
you see. He says in verse 7, He says,
should you not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by
the former prophets? Now the former prophets there
are the prophets who preached to their fathers before they
went into this captivity in the beginning. Prophets like Jeremiah,
he was one of them. And he says, when Jerusalem was
inhabited in prosperity, see there was a great, during Jeremiah's
prophecy, during his ministry, you read the book of Jeremiah,
Israel was prosperous. And you know, when you preach
a message of repentance to a people who are prosperous, by nature,
what do people, how do they answer? Well, why should we repent? Things are going so great. God's
blessing us, Jeremiah. We must be doing something right.
That's the way people are. That's the way we all are by
nature. What do I have to repent of? I'm not such a bad fellow,
Jeremiah. Look, I'm rich. I've got everything
I need and more, so God must be blessing me. So he says, he
says, when the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited
and in prosperity and the cities thereof round about her, when
men inhabited the south, that's south of Jerusalem and the plain,
in other words, it was a widespread prosperity throughout the land.
But you see, it was a delusion because the people were in disobedience. There were false prophets abounding
who were speaking peace when there was no peace. The priests
were not leading in the ways of the Lord and the obedience
of the covenant. They were very religious, but
it was religion with no Christ. It was religion with no grace.
It was religion with no truth. It was religion with no heart. It was just religion. And God
hates it. And here Jeremiah came along
and he told their fathers this and they laughed him to scorn
and they put him away. They threw him down in a well
to get rid of him. And what happened? God sent him
into captivity for 70 years. And so Zechariah is reminding
the people of his day. Why they went into captivity
in the first place? It was because of sin and unbelief
and hypocrisy. They observed. Back then they
did this. And what he's saying to these
men of Bethel and to the people, remember he says, speaking to
all the people, this is a problem that everybody's got now. This
is not just a problem with one or two in this day now. They were keeping these fasts,
these religious fasts, and I'm telling you, it probably looked
impressive. They wore their religion on their
sleeve, but they observed these things not for the glory of God,
not to show their need of Christ. Do you know that's really what
a fast was ultimately for? Fasting. It was to show the sinner's
need for Christ and nothing else. I don't need anything but Christ
for my salvation. I don't need anything but His
righteousness. I don't need anything but His blood for my complete
forgiveness. That's what a fast ultimately
was sent to. But their fasting wasn't for that purpose. It wasn't
for the glory of God. It was for their own selfish,
self-righteous purposes. It wasn't for the glory of God.
It was not with a broken heart or a contrite heart. mourning
over sin. They fasted like the Pharisee.
Look over in Luke chapter 18. You ever notice how the Lord
in his wisdom, he exposes these problems of sin and unbelief. And it's not just a problem of
one group of people. It's a worldwide problem. It's
not the problem of just one generation, it's a problem in every generation.
Right here, look at verse nine of Luke 18. He says, he spake
this parable unto certain, certain men, which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went
up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
thee that I'm not as other men are. extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. Now notice the Pharisee was thanking
God for these things. You understand what's going on
here now? This is important. Don't miss this. This Pharisee,
all that he was bragging about here, he was not saying, I did
it of my own power. He was not attributing it to
himself. He was attributing it unto God. I thank God I'm not this, I'm
not that. Look on, he says in verse 12,
I fast, there's that fasting again. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
Think of it like this, read it like this. I thank God I fast
twice a week. I thank God I give tithes of
all that I possess. Now you have to admit, That 99%
of religion today that comes in the form of Christianity,
that's their testimony. I thank God I do this and don't
do that. Have you ever been in a testimony
meeting? That's exactly the way they talk. I thank God I did
this, didn't do that. Now here's the point. Now listen to me very carefully
here. Don't we all thank God that we don't go the depths of
our depraved minds? I do, don't you? Don't you say
that if God were to remove his hand of restraint from me at
any moment, I would sink into the depths of depravity? And
I thank God he doesn't. We all say that, and I do too,
and there's nothing wrong with that, except, except like this
Pharisee, if you think that that makes up your righteousness before
God then it's evil I thank God that he's kept me from the lowest
forms of crime and sin that a human being can imagine but I know
this that is not my righteousness before God that's what the Pharisee
was saying I thank God that he's enabled me to obey him whether
it's in a fast or giving or whatever. But that is not my righteousness
before God. What is my righteousness before
God? Not my fasting, not my giving, not my not doing this and not
doing... My righteousness before God is
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Period. That's it. He's it. He's all my righteousness. We sing that, don't we? I stand
in him complete and worship him. No religious duty, no good work,
no act of self-denial forms any part of the righteousness by
which I stand before God whole and complete and accept. It's
Christ and him alone. And that's what the publican
was saying there. The publican, he stood far off and beat upon
his breast and said, God, be merciful, be propitious to me,
the sinner. He was preaching, he was pleading
Christ. Well, these back here in Zechariah
7, they were keeping a fast and they wouldn't miss it. They would
not miss it. But my friend, they kept it with
an evil heart, without truth. In verse seven there, he points
out that the Lord had scattered their ancestors to Babylon because
of the same problem. Again, religion without Christ. You know, we could meet here
in this building and read scripture every night of the week, and
it would do us absolutely no good if we're not led to see
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We could get on our knees and
pray till our knees were bleeding and it would do us no good unless
we see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of
his finished work. Do you understand that? We could
give all, we could go empty our bank accounts right now, pool
it and give it to the poor and it would do us absolutely no
good as far as making us righteous before God. Wouldn't do it. You see what I'm saying? Fasting,
you see, remember what he said here, when you fast, when you
deprive yourself, when you don't eat, or when you eat and when
you drink. What the Holy Spirit engaged
the Apostle Paul to write in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and
verse 31. He says, whether therefore you
eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. You know, in the Bible, there's
no specific commandment from God for us to fast. Most scholars
agree that there was only one fast commanded by God under the
law, the old covenant, that is. It's recorded back in Leviticus
23 in verse 27, and there's another place, but I didn't write it
down. I forgot where it is, but in Leviticus 23 in verse 27,
it says this. It says, on the 10th day of the
seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement. So there's
the Day of Atonement, you know what that is. That's the day
that the high priest went into the holiest of all, the holy
of holies, with the blood. All picturing our salvation and
our forgiveness and our justification by the Lord Jesus Christ, the
shedding of his blood. That is our salvation. And he goes on, he says, it shall
be an holy convocation unto you. This is consecrated, this is
special, he's saying. And you shall afflict your souls
and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord." That is
a judgment offering. Justice. That's what that picture...
But what is it to afflict your soul? Well, most scholars agree
that's a fast. What was fasting? It was an act
of self-denial. And let me say something about
self-denial. You know, the scripture says,
Christ said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself. Now let me say something about
that. This thing of self-denial is more than you picking a day
of the year or a week of the year and saying, I'm gonna give
up chocolate, or I'm gonna give up this or that, or I'm gonna
give up TV. Actually, Actually, self-denial
is more than just giving up things that you want or enjoy. You know what self-denial is
in scripture? I'll tell you exactly what it
is. Now listen, it's giving up self. Now remember what we read in
Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3? We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh." No confidence in self. That's what that is. Remember
how Paul lists all the things that he did in the flesh? I was
a Hebrew of Hebrews. Deny yourself. I was a Pharisee
of Pharisees. It's denying myself. Salvation
is not in or of myself. It's in Christ. All of it. Do you know fasting was an act
of self-denial? It's an act of repentance. It's
an act of sorrow and sin. But mainly, it's an act that
is designed to show That all we need for forgiveness is the
blood of Christ. All we need for justification
and acceptance before God is the righteousness of Christ imputed.
That all I need for life and eternal glory is life from Christ
by the power of the Spirit. All I need is Christ. Nothing
else. Now fasting is fine, but it's
not required. But no act of fasting will make
you holy or righteous. No act of fasting will ever wash
away even one sin. You see, that was the problem
here. They thought their fasting made them something special,
something holy. You see, that's not what makes
God's people a peculiar, special people. Christ and the grace
of God in him is what makes God's people peculiar. It's what makes
us, we're holy in Him, we're righteous in Him, we're forgiven
in Him. And anything I do by way of ceremony
or ritual or holiday or worship that doesn't point sinners to
Christ and Him alone is a sham religious exercise. Fasting was
not, listen, it's an act of self-denial expressing from the heart our
total dependence on God alone. He's really all we need. It was
never to be an act to draw attention to ourselves. Look over at Matthew
chapter six. Remember how Christ dealt with
this in the Sermon on the Mount? And he also mentioned giving
and he mentioned prayer here. Prayer is not an act that we
do to draw attention to ourselves. If it is, than when it's not
in spirit and in truth. Look at Matthew 6, look at verse
16. He says, moreover, when you fast,
be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. In other words,
don't go around with a big frown on your face because you want
people to know that there's problems and troubles and you're going
through some ritual. For they disfigure their faces
that they may appear unto men to fast. I want you to know I'm
fasting. Next time somebody says that,
just say, well, big deal. Maybe you'll lose weight. That's
about it. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. Now, what is their reward? They want to be seen
of men. That's their reward. They get it. Men see them. But
thou, listen to what he says, but thou, when thou fastest,
now, there's no command to do it, but if you choose to do it,
when you do it, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that
thou appear not unto men to fast. Now, the average so-called Christian
today would say, well, what about my witness? That's not your witness. You see, your witness is the
gospel of Christ. And he says, but unto thy father
which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. In other words, he didn't hide
it. You see, fasting was an act of devotion to God. This act, go back to Zechariah
6, it's between ourselves and God, and it's never, never an
issue of public display. Do you know, listen to me now,
do you know that we today, we keep a perpetual fast, but spiritually,
showing forth our faith in Christ, showing forth our continual need
of Christ, showing forth our continual need of the grace of
God. And he's all we need, not anything
of ourselves. God is spirit. And they that
worship him, the true worship in spirit and in truth. The two
greatest indictments brought against men are lies and hypocrisy. Remember he told that woman at
the well before he told her about true worshipers, he says, you
worship you know not what, you worship in ignorance. That's
what these fellas back here were doing in Zechariah 7. Men love their own inventions,
their own traditions, ceremony, ritual, outward form. Why? Because it makes them feel good
about themselves. It entertains them. They want to do things like genuflect
and baptize infants, but it means nothing. These men were so concerned
about their rituals, but they had no concern about what God
commanded. Men prefer fasting to faith in
Christ, a sad countenance to saving power of Christ. They
prefer sackcloth. and religious rituals to the
robe of Christ's perfect righteousness. Why? Because we all like to draw
attention to ourselves because we value the opinions of men.
And when it comes to salvation, the Bible tells us that it doesn't
really matter what the opinions of men are. The world will not
know us. It didn't know Him, our Savior. You know, faith in Christ, true
faith in Christ and true worship is such a self-emptying, self-loathing
thing that none but those who are taught of God and born of
the Spirit can really rejoice in that. That's right. Man by nature won't do it. What'd
our Lord say of his generation? He said, this people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. But here comes the prophets like
Zechariah. Men of reality. They despised
and denounced the emptiness of mere ritual and ceremony. That's
hypocrisy. Isaiah expressed it in Isaiah
chapter one. You remember when he talked about
how God through him said, I'm tired of your new moons. I'm
tired of your feast days. Away with them. For what purpose
do you come before me? It's not to glorify God. It's
not to point sinners to Christ for all of salvation. It's to
bring attention to yourselves so that you can look like you're
somebody when you're nobody. Our Lord expressed his hatred
and contempt for it in the Pharisees. He said, Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! You may clean the outside of
the cup and of the platter, but within you're full of dead men's
bones, extortion excess, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
you like whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly,
but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
That's why he told his disciples, for except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You know,
the righteousness that God requires, we cannot perform. We cannot
do it. It's righteousness performed
for us by Christ and given to us by God's grace. And I want
to tell you something, fasting 365 days a week won't get it. And true godliness is not outward,
but it's inward. It's of the heart. God looketh
on the heart. Well, where are we going to find
all that? Christ meets all our needs. His righteousness imputed
to us. The life of Christ within us
by the power of the Spirit, the heart of faith. He provides all
those things. Fasting won't do that. Fasting
won't make us righteous. Fasting won't give us spiritual
eternal life. Fasting won't put away our sins.
Only the blood of Christ. Look at verse 9. Go back to Zechariah
7. Now what he's saying here is
it indicates they were using religious exercise and ceremony
to cover their sin, their lack of love. their lack of love to
God and lack of love to their brethren. He says, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, true justice,
be people of justice. Now let me tell you something,
when it comes to a relationship with God, we don't even begin
to be people of justice until we look to Christ. Do you know
that? Christ is the only one who established
by his obedience unto death the judgment and justice of God.
by the establishment of righteousness. So there is no justice between
God and a sinner without Christ. The only justice that a sinner
will receive apart from Christ is damnation, the wages of sin. So be people of judgment, justice. Well, treat each other justly
too. Do what's right. He says, show
mercy and compassion to every man to his brother. Don't use
religion to make up for your lack of compassion and mercy
towards your brethren, he mentions the two most neglected classes
of people in the ancient world, widows and orphans. That's why
the Bible constantly brings up widows and orphans. Because they
were the two most neglected classes of people in the ancient world.
They were just outcast. And he says, and oppress not
the widow, nor the fatherless, nor the stranger, that be the
foreigner, there's the third class that Jews by nature hated
was the Gentile, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil
against his brother in your heart. What's he talking about? Well,
Christ said it to the Pharisees of his day in Matthew 23, 23.
Remember, he says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, justice, mercy,
and faith. These ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone. You see, you cannot use religion,
not listen, listen to it. You can't even use the religion
of grace to cover up a bad heart. Lack of love and compassion and
mercy. The only way that we receive
love and compassion and mercy from God is by His grace, undeserved
favor, unearned favor in Christ. When God justifies a sinner,
he justifies the ungodly. He doesn't save those who deserve
salvation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. By faith in Christ, our substitute,
we execute true justice, taking sides with God against ourselves,
and the offering that by which alone justice can be satisfied,
the Lamb of God. Preaching the gospel of Christ,
proclaiming the needy souls the Lamb of God, we show mercy and
compassion, the mercy and compassion of God in Christ. Looking upon
one another in Christ, we cease to imagine evil against our brethren
in our hearts, each esteeming his brother better than themselves.
And you know it's a warfare, isn't it? Look at verse 11. Now listen to this, he says,
but they refused to hearken, they wouldn't hear, and they
pulled away the shoulder, What does that mean? Well, that's
an act of defiance. They refuse to hear. That's why
the Bible says, if you do hear, and that hearing there means
obey, blessed are your ears for they hear. Man by nature won't
hear, will he? To pull away the shoulders, an
act of open defiance. I heard an illustration, I think.
It's like a little boy, he was sitting in a classroom, and they
had invited the parents to come in and observe. And the parents
were sitting in the back of the room. Here's this little boy
in the classroom, and he starts cutting up. And his daddy got
up, he was in the back of the room, come up and put his hand
on his shoulder. And you know what the little
boy did? He did that. You ever done that? Get your
hand off me. That's what he was saying. That's
what God's saying here. When God sent his prophet to
correct them, they pulled away the shoulder. I don't want to
hear what you're saying. I've seen people do that. Pull
away the shoulder. Read the word of God to them.
Tell them what God's word said. And act like they don't even
hear you. Just get up and leave. Don't want to hear that. I don't
want to hear that. That's what that pulling away
the shoulder is. That's defined. That's us by nature, isn't it?
If we don't pull away the shoulder, why is that? Well, Ezekiel said
in Ezekiel 36, God's put a new heart within you. He's put a
new spirit within you. That's right. Taking away that
stony, defined heart that pulls away the shoulder. That's right. You see, Whenever you read things
like this, don't ever think that we're better than these fellas. Because we're not. If we don't
refuse to hear and if we don't pull away the shoulder, it's
because God has been gracious to us. Did you know that? He
goes on, he says, they pulled away the shoulder, they stopped
their ears that they should not hear. Verse 12, yea, they made
their hearts as an adamant stone. Hard, hard hearts. lest they
should hear the law, the truth, and the words which the Lord
of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore
came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts." This is why God brought
his wrath down and brought him into captivity. Verse 13, therefore,
it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear,
now God cried the truth through his prophets, they wouldn't hear,
so they cried. Now when they cried, God would
not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. You know, right there is the
most severe form of God's judgment against sin. That speaks of a
day when men cry out to God, but he will not hear. The day
of grace is over. Look at verse 14. He says, But
I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they
knew not, put them in a foreign land, Thus the land was desolate
after them, that no man passed through nor returned, for they
laid the pleasant land desolate. They made that delightful land
of desire, land flown with milk and honey, to be a place of desolation. That's what Adam did when he
fell, and we fell in him. This beautiful, plush earth was
made a curse. Do we realize that our only hope
of eternal salvation of righteousness and forgiveness of eternal glory
is in Christ and Him alone. And to believe in Him and rest
in Him above all things. Everything outside of Christ
is cursed, desolate. You remember those five foolish
virgins who when the bridegroom came, they didn't have any oil
in their lamps? Let's not be like them. Let's
seek the Lord and His salvation. Don't be stubborn. Don't be hard.
We know it takes an act of God's grace. That's true. But my friend,
he is gracious. He is to his people. All right.