Okay, we'll get right out of
today. We've got quite a bit of ground to cover here. We'll
be in Zachariah. The name of the message is Christ
in Zachariah. Christ in Zachariah. And today
we'll look at various scriptures in the book of Zachariah. We'll
look at various scriptures in the book of Zachariah. for our morning study. And we'll
see how the Lord Jesus Christ is all through this book. He's all through this book. The definition of the name Zachariah
is Jehovah is renowned or remembered. Jehovah is renowned or remembered. And this is a significant book.
As we read how our Lord remembers His covenant, He remembers His
promises of grace, and He remembers His chosen people, and He also
remembers His promises concerning the coming of the Messiah. Our
great God does not forget His covenant to His people. He never
will. He never will. These are His
people who were given to Him by the Father before the foundation
of the world. And we believe and are thankful
that He remembers our sin no more. Though He remembers the
covenant and He remembers His people, we as His people rejoice
that He remembers our sins no more. That they're covered in
Christ and by His precious blood. Now Zachariah came out of the
Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel, which is found in Nehemiah 12,
16, and I'll just read the verse. It says, "...of Ido Zachariah."
So he came out of the Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel. Turn,
if you would, to Ezra chapter 5. Ezra chapter 5, verse 1. Zechariah was a prophet during
the time of Haggai. They were contemporaries. Look
at Ezra 5.1, it says, Then the prophets Haggai, the prophet
and Zechariah, the son of Ido prophesied unto the Jews that
were in Judea and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel,
even unto them. Then the prophets Haggai the
prophet and Zechariah the son of Ido prophesied unto the Jews
that were in Judea and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel,
even unto them." So the scripture declares here that Ezra tells
us that both Haggai and Zechariah delivered a prophecy to the Jews
who returned to Judea. John Trapp comments on this scripture
in Ezra. He says, these two gods sent
being Haggai and Zechariah, within two months of each other, In
the 18th year of the people's return out of Babylon, which
happened to be in the second year of the reign of Darius in
520 BC. And then he makes this statement
that I thought was really neat. Christ usually sent his prophets
and apostles by twos for mutual comfort and greater confirmation.
I thought that was interesting because during the times of the
New Testament, Christ always sent his disciples out in tubes. So they were sent, Zechariah
and Haggai were sent to stir up the Jews who had grown slack
in rebuilding the temple, in which the true worship of God
would be restored. And they were also sent to encourage
them to look and to expect the Messiah, to expect the return
of the Messiah. And remember, they had been taken
away into captivity. And look at it in Zechariah 1,
verse 1, the foundation of Zechariah's ministry is laid in divine authority. Matthew Henry says the Word of
the Lord came to him in verse 1 of this book. Look at this.
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the Word
of the Lord unto Zechariah. So the foundation of his ministry
is divine. His divine authority to prophesize. Now in this wonderful book, Zechariah
uses the expression, in that day, 20 times. And this refers
to the Gospel age which began with our Savior's first advent
and which is in effect even now. And will continue on until His
second coming. In the Gospel day, turn if you
would to Zechariah 12, verse 10. In the Gospel day, the Lord
is pouring out His Spirit. His Spirit of grace upon chosen
sinners and showing them the necessity of the sacrifice of
Christ. Look at Zechariah 12, verse 10. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace
and supplications, and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Now we say
as believers, praise be to our great God and King, that there
was a fountain opened. That there was a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.
Look at Zechariah 13, verse 1. And this fountain was opened
when the Son of God shed His blood to cleanse His people from
all their iniquities. Look at Zechariah 13, verse 1.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Look at this. For sin and for
uncleanness. Oh, our great King, He's a fountain
opened. He's a fountain opened for sin
and uncleanness. And the prophet Zechariah assures
us that the eternal purpose of God shall be accomplished. It
shall not fail, shall it? Never. What Christ set out to
do, Isaiah says, He shall not fail. And He didn't, did He? He came to save His people from
their sins, and what did He do? He saved His people from their
sins. He did it. He accomplished it. The fountain
opened. The Lord's people, look at Zechariah
14, 16. The Lord's people shall be saved
with everlasting salvation. And all His enemies shall be
defeated. He shall not fail. Zechariah 14, verses 16-21. And
it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations
which came against Jerusalem shall go up even from year to
year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the
Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whosoever
shall not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem
to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall
be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go
not up and come not and have no rain, there shall be the plague
wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up
to keep the feast of the tabernacles. This shall be the punishment
of Egypt and the punishment of all nations. that come not up
to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day there shall be upon
the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord. And the pots in
the Lord's house shall be like bowls before the altar. Yea,
every pot in Jerusalem and in Judea shall be holiness unto
the Lord of house, and all they that sacrifice shall come and
take of them and see their end. In that day there shall be no
more of the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of house. Our
God will not fail. What He sets to do, what He covenants
to do, what He decrees to do, He shall not fail. Now there
are numerous references, and we're going to look at these
different references to Christ in this prophecy. So let us look
at these and pray that God the Holy Spirit will comfort our
souls, that He will illuminate the Scriptures and teach us of
Christ, more of Him. More of Him. John the Baptist
said, He must increase and I must decrease. Oh, we want to learn
more and more of Christ our King. So the first reference is found
in chapter 2. The first reference to Christ
is found in Zacharias, is that Christ measures His church. He
knows the number of His elect. because He chose them. He chose
them. And their names are recorded
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Look at Zechariah 2, verses 1-5. I lifted up mine eyes and looked,
and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hands. Then said
I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure
Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the
length thereof. And behold, the angel that talked
with me went forth And another angel went out to meet him, and
said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem
shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for the multitude of men
and cattle therein. For I say that the Lord will
be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory
in the midst of her. Oh, the Lord knows the exact
number of His people. Their names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. And oftentimes I've heard this
lie propagated where folks say, well, when you believe, then
your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's just a lie
from the pit of hell. God's people, their names were
written, His elect's names were written in the Lamb's Book of
Life from before the foundation of the world. From before the
foundation of the world. And we were chosen in Christ
by the free and sovereign grace of God plus nothing. And it makes
us rejoice. So God knows His people. And
this is why we can have confidence preaching. We don't know who
the elect are, but He knows every single one of His sheep. Every
one of them. Every one of them. And He will
not lose one of them. The second reference to Christ
is found in Zechariah 3, verses 1-5. He is the angel of the Lord
who commands the salvation of His people. Look at Zechariah
3, verses 1-5. And he showed me Joshua the high
priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing
at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem. Chosen Jerusalem. Rebuke thee. Is not this a bran plucked out
of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake
unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. Oh, take away, take away the
robe of our righteousness. Right, brother? The filthy garments of our own
righteousness. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. And I will
clothe thee with the chains of Ramah, the righteousness of Christ,
beloved. And I said, let them set a fair
mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon
his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the
Lord stood by. Beloved, Christ alone can save
his people from their sins. Only Christ. No one else. No
one else. The third reference to Christ
in Zacharias is found in verse 8. Hear now, O Joshua, the high
priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they
are a man wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth
my servant, the branch." Christ is the perfect servant whom Jehovah
promised He would bring forth into this world. I, being God,
will bring forth my servant, Christ, the branch. Now how do
we know that He's called the branch? Because in Jeremiah 23
verses 5-6 it says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that
I will raise unto David a righteous branch. And a king shall reign
and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
In his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely.
And this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord of
Righteousness. Now, Christ is called the branch. Look at Zechariah 6, verse 12. He's called the Branch and He's
also the Man. Speaking of His incarnation,
right here in Zechariah 6.12, Christ is called the Branch.
Zechariah 6.12, And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the
Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the Man. The Man. Who's this? The Man, Christ Jesus. whose name is the branch, he
shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple
of the Lord." Now remember we looked at before, last week's
message, we looked at where he said, destroy this temple, and
in three days, I'll raise him. Oh my, what a great God we have.
So this name branch is given to our Savior again over in Jeremiah
23, 5 and 6 if you want to write that down for reference. The fourth reference to Christ
is found in Zechariah 3, 9. He is the all-seeing foundation
stone upon which God's church and kingdom is built. Look at
this. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon
one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. Other foundation can no man lay
than is laid which is Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 3. He is the foundation stone, beloved.
The fifth reference to Christ is found again in verse 9 where it says, He is
the one, look at this, who would remove the iniquity of His people
in one day. Look at the latter part of the
verse. And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one
day. One day. Praise His mighty name. He paid
all that God demanded for the sins of His people on Calvary's
cross. Everything. Everything. We're going to look at that this
morning. We're going to look at the death of Christ. It's a death like no other death. Oh, the sinless one. Dying in
the room of sinners. The just one. Dying for the unjust. My oh my. The sixth reference is Christ
our Savior is typified in Zerubbabel. Turn to Zechariah 4, 6-9. I always have trouble saying
His name, sorry. 6 to 9. Then he answered and spake
unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might nor power. Now look at this. Now think of
this, beloved. There are so many folks out there
who think that salvation is by their might or their power. But
this Scripture plainly declares that it's not by might nor power.
And we know in John 1, it says, not by the will of the flesh
or the will of man, it's by God. Look at this. Not by might nor power, but my
spirit saith the Lord, you must be born again. You must be. You must be born again. Who art
thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become
a plain. Now remember this. Remember this
when we see a great mountain and think of a mountain of our
sin. Think of the mountain of our sin that was against us. We stood before it, didn't we?
A mountain of sin. And we can even think of this
during trials and tribulations we go through. But think of this,
the mountain of our sin that was before us. What's he done?
He's made it a plain. He's gone. Oh my, what a great
God we have. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shoutings crying,
Grace, grace unto it. Oh my, what a picture of Christ.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands
of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall
also finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has
sent me unto you. Christ Jesus our Lord, God in
eternity, purposed the salvation of sinners in eternity past. And He is the One who will finish
it, and He has. And Christ Jesus our Lord, who
is God incarnate in the flesh. And remember, again last week
we saw, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and what? The Word was God. And then later
on in John 1, the Word became flesh, and what? Dwelt among
us. We looked in Colossians this week, in Colossians 2, all the
fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily. He's the God-man. There's again that, I don't like
to use those theological words, but there's the hypostatic union,
right? The God-man. Let's just bring it down to the
language where we can understand. He's the God-man. He's the God-man. Fully God and fully man. The perfect, the perfect man. The all-sufficient Savior. The
all-sufficient Savior. So God purposed the salvation
of sinners in the eternity of past and He is the one who will
finish it. Matthew says this, I will build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What God has decreed shall come
to pass. The seventh reference to Christ
in Zacharias found in chapter 9. Turn there if you would. Christ
is that king who made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding upon
an ass's colt. And this is fulfilled in Matthew
21 verses 1-7 for further study if you want to look that up. Look at this, Zechariah 9, verses
9-13. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just. And look at this. Heaven's salvation. He has it, doesn't he? It's only
in Christ. lowly and riding upon an ass.
Now think of this. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. And he's condescended and become
a man. And he's despised and rejected
the religious who's who of the day. They hated him. They despised
him. They didn't want to have anything
to do with him. And yet he's the king of glory. What condescension. What condescension. And upon a colt, the fowl of
an ass. And I will cut off the chariot
from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow
shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen."
And boy, has he ever done that. And his dominion shall be from
sea even to sea, and from river even to the ends of the earth.
He's an almighty sovereign king. As for thee also, by the blood
of thy covenant I have set forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein there is no water." We were slaves and prisoners to
sin. And He has set us free, beloved.
Turn you to the stronghold. Look at this. Ye prisoners of
hope. I like that. Ye prisoners of
hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. when I have bent Judah for me,
filled the bowl with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion,
against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty
man. He is the King who made his triumphant
entry into Jerusalem. The eighth reference to Christ
is found in Zechariah 9.11. which is His blood of the covenant
redeemed the prisoners out of the pit of sin. Look at this.
As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have set forth
thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water. We
had no hope. We had no hope, beloved. We were
lost with absolutely no ability to save ourselves. None at all. The Lord Jesus Christ becomes
a man and redeems his people from their sins. Now that became
a reality for me, right, when the Holy Spirit regenerated me.
But 2,000 years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price for
my sins before the law and justice of God. He cried, it's finished. He paid it all. He did that for
all the elect of all the ages. As I said, we don't know who
they are, but we proclaim that He is the One who can set the
prisoners free. And then we become prisoners
of hope, don't we? It's so terrible. It's amazing.
It's incredible. Look at Zechariah 9.16 will be
the next reference to Christ. You know, He gets all the glory
and He gets all the honor. Because He saved His people.
Look at Zechariah 9, 16. And the Lord, their God, shall
save them. Well, who saved us? The Lord Jesus Christ. We couldn't save ourselves. The
Lord God saved us. Saved us from all our sins. Not
just one or two of them, but all of them. And the Lord God
shall save them. In that day, there it is again,
the Gospel day, as the flock of His people, for they shall
be the stones of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon His land." The ninth reference to Christ
in Zechariah is found in chapter 13, verses 1 and 7. We looked at this earlier a little
bit. Christ is the fountain open for the cleansing of sin. And
also Christ is the good shepherd whose life was given for his
sheep he came to save. Now we know that that reference
is also in John 10. If you read John 10, Christ makes
it very evident and very plainly in his words who he lived for
and who he died for. He gave his life for the sheep.
And note when you're reading scripture, I love this. I was
reminded of it again, listening to Brother Henry, that the Lord
spoke mostly in one and two syllable words. The King of Glory spoke
in one and two syllable words. It's incredible. Why? Because
we're sheep. And he gave us words that we
can understand by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, of course.
But he speaks just in one and two syllable words to his people. Look at this, the ninth reference
again is Christ is the fountain open. Look at Zechariah 13.1.
In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
For all of God's people, all His elect, there is a fountain
open. It's incredible. For what? For
sin and uncleanness. It's the fountain of His blood,
beloved, which was shed at Calvary's cross. And what does it do? It cleanses
us from all sin and all uncleanness. And it doesn't leave any spot,
does it? None. It's beautiful. It's incredible.
And then look at verse 7. We see the good shepherd giving
his life for the sheep. Look at this. We'll look at this
in our sermon, too, this morning. Look at this. This is pointing
right to the cross. Awake, O sword. The sword of
God's justice comes out. The sword of God's justice, the
sword of God's wrath, and it's plunged into Christ the Beloved,
our great substitute. Look at this. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd. Not against us, who rightly deserve
it, right? Against the shepherd? Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow.
And that's the next point we'll look at. He's called Jehovah's
fellow. Saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little
ones. Oh, I'm not going to get too
deep into that verse right now, but we're going to be looking
at that more this morning too. God's justice and wrath fell
upon Christ fully, fully for His people. The tenth reference
to Christ is found again in Zechariah 13, 7 and 6, 12, where Christ the God-man is called
Jehovah's Fellow. And a Waco sword against my shepherd
and against that man that is my fellow. Christ is God incarnate in the
flesh. And then again, and speak unto
him, verse 12 of chapter 6, and speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, Behold the man. Again, what a direct
reference to Christ. Christ is the shepherd of his
people. He's God's fellow. And he's the man, right? He's
fully man. He's real. Jophesus says that
he really lived and he was a real man. He's a Jewish historian. He wrote about him. People who
deny that he even lived, they have no clue. He was a real man. Fully man. which had all the
fullness of the Godhead dwelt in them bodily. Now think of
this, too. I remember reading this by, I think it was A.W.
Pink, and he brought this out. That when the Jews were wandering
in the desert, and when they set up the temple, you couldn't
tell where they had the holy of holies, or where they did
their high priesthood. You couldn't tell that building,
that structure, from any of the other ones. They all looked the
same. But inside, beloved, Inside, think of this, Christ was a man. Scripture declares that there
was nothing that would draw you to him. But inside, all the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt bodily. See, the Jews, they've been looking
on the outside. They didn't have a clue who he
was. And we wouldn't have a clue who he was either. But for the
Holy Spirit revealing Christ to us. It's incredible. This is why we cry out all the
time. Salvation's of the Lord. It's all His doing. We go out,
we proclaim the Gospel, it goes out. Right? We proclaim the Gospel, and God
does the same. He does the same. The Holy Spirit
takes the words of the preacher, or the teacher, or a missionary,
whatever, Whoever's preaching or teaching that word and they
will use it He'll use it for his glory to draw in his sheep
if he's so pleased He's so pleased faith cometh by hearing and how
hearing by the Word of God the salvations of the Lord and they
are doing We're receivers We're receivers of God's grace We're
acted upon We're made willing And then we flee to Christ Man,
if you're saved, rejoice that God didn't leave you where you
were. I came out of Catholicism and then went into Baptist Catholicism,
basically, when I got into Landmarkism. Then I became a Calvinist and
I knew all kinds of doctrine. I could tell you, I'd argue with
you about all different versions, I'd argue, but I had no grace,
no grace. I didn't know Christ. I knew
doctrine, though. Man, I could sit down and go toe-to-toe with
you. But there was absolutely no grace. Vicki can attest to
this. She lived with me. I was the one who was saying,
oh, how can that person be a Christian and be like that? Oh, my. And then God showed me
grace. And everything changed, beloved.
He made me well in the day of His power. And I realized by
His grace, by His Holy Spirit showed me that there was a fountain
open for my sin and that it wasn't about everybody else's sin. It
was about mine. Brother Newell, you know exactly
what I'm talking about. Because everybody thought we
were Christians, didn't they? We knew we weren't. We are now,
by the grace of God. I am what I am. I am what I am. Oh my. The 11th reference and
the last reference to Christ is found in Zechariah 14, verse
4. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ will
come again to this world. in great power and glory. And
someday every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Zechariah 14, verse 4, And His feet shall stand in that
day upon the Mount of Olives. which is before Jerusalem on
the east. And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof
toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a great
valley, and half of the mountain shall be removed toward the north
and half of it toward the south. And then look at verse 9. That's
Him coming in great power. Look at verse 9. And the Lord
shall be King over all the earth. Now remember, it says in Scripture
in the New Testament, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess. And the Lord shall be King over
all the earth. In that day shall there be one Lord, in His name
one. Our God is sovereign right now.
Don't let anybody deceive you. He's sovereign right now. I believe
in the present reign of Christ. He's on the throne. He's King. He's not coming back to rule
and reign. He's King right now. He's the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. And He shall come back one day. And it'll be a
very public coming. It's not going to be a secret
thing. It'll be very public. And every eye shall see. Oh,
my. What a great day. What a great
day. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Gracious
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time that we've had
to look through Your Word. We pray that You'd be with us
in the be with us with the preaching of the Gospel this morning and
this evening. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would
move and illuminate, teach us more and more of Christ Jesus
our Lord. Oh, Lord Jesus, that You'd be glorified, that You'd
be magnified, that our eyes would be set upon You from the cares
of this world, from the cares of our lives. and that our eyes
would be set upon you for this time. May we leave this place
rejoicing, we who believe, rejoicing that you are King, and that you
are our Savior, and that you are our Redeemer. We pray that
you would use the preaching of your word for your glory. In
Jesus' name, amen.