Well, we come this week to Zechariah
chapter 13, and I'm just going to look at the first six verses
of this very rich chapter. And I wrestled long with what
to call the message, and I ended up with the title, Ye Cannot
Serve God and Mammon. And it's similar to what we read
in Revelation chapter 18 and verse 4. Come out of her, my
people. You can't have feet in both camps. So, chapter 13. Now, Remember the context of
Zechariah. We've been looking at this since
the turn of the year, so it's a long time now. Remember the
context of Zechariah. It was about 550 to 500 years
before Christ came into the world. And it was after the Babylonian
exile of 70 years when the The symbolical Old Testament
people of God were overrun by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian
Chaldean Empire, and they were taken into 70 years of captivity,
exactly as Jeremiah the prophet had said. And then God raised
up a heathen king, Cyrus. Talks about it in Isaiah, 800
years before Christ came. I will raise up my servant Cyrus
and he will send them back to rebuild Jerusalem. So we're in
the phase of the temple being restored and they've come across
problems and Zechariah was raised up, and Haggai as well, but Zechariah
was raised up to encourage them to complete that temple in Jerusalem. Because why? Because it pictures
the kingdom of God triumphant. In the early chapters, God gives
to Zechariah in one night, nine visions. And the visions are
that God's kingdom will be completed. Excuse me, it will triumph over
the world, over Satan, over Babylon. And it's all symbolized by the
restored temple and Jerusalem rebuilt. And why was that? Well, as I've said many times,
Jerusalem and that temple was the physical scene on this earth
where God would come into this world to accomplish the redemption
of his people. And so the prophecy unfolds with
gospel pictures. For example, in chapter three,
Joshua, the high priest, stripped of his filthy clothes and clothed
with the garments of salvation. The elect of God being gathered
from all the earth, from all the earth, not just from Israel,
from the Jewish people. God gathering his elect from
all the earth. It's here in this prophecy. It
prophesied the end of the Old Testament covenant types when
Christ would fulfill them all. It prophesied the day of salvation. It kept talking about, in that
day, in that day, in that day of salvation. Today is the day
of salvation, says 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 2. It's the salvation
that calls each one of God's elect in their appointed time. Now is the accepted time, says
that same verse in 2 Corinthians. And so this thing continues into
chapter 13. and it's underlining the separation
of God's people into his kingdom and out of this world. So I have
two points this morning. We have, the first point is wounded
for his friends' transgressions. Wounded for his friends' transgressions.
And then secondly, separation from Satan's kingdom. So first
of all, wounded for his friends' transgressions. Last week we
were looking at chapter 12 and the first verse of chapter 13,
and God told us by Zechariah, his prophet, that he makes a
stark distinction between his people, chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, and the world in general, the
rest. He brings each one of his elect multitude, for it is a
multitude that no man can number. It's a little flock, but at the
same time it's a multitude that no man can number. And he brings
each one apart in their time, each one to look in repentance. Look, they shall, verse 10 of
chapter 12, 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. This is repentance. They'll look
in repentance and faith on God. They'll look on God. This is
so clear. They'll look on God. You know,
when the Jehovah's Witnesses tell you that Jesus is not God,
that's utter blasphemy. The Word of God couldn't be clearer.
They will look on God. How will they look on God? What
will they look at? They'll look at a man who is
the God-man in a broken in a pierced, in a wounded, in a bleeding human
body. God in a human body. God contracted
to a span. They look at him there, paying
their debt to divine justice with the currency of his own
precious blood. His people, His people, this
multitude, all of them, are brought to sense their sin. They will
mourn over Him. They will look and they will
see what their sin has done. They will sense their sin to
some extent. I know some are overcome, some
are more, it's different for each one. each one knows the
vile offense of their sin to God. You see, God is pure, God
is holy, God is omnipotent, and anything which rebels in any
way or contradicts in any way the person and being and word
and edicts of God, it's sin, and it's vile. It's disgusting
in his sight, and it deserves hell. It has a hellish dessert
under divine justice. And we can see the import of
it and the vileness of it, because if it is to be removed, what
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
says the hymn. Its removal needed no less than
the death of the God-man. It needed no less. God himself
in his spirit couldn't die for sin, but he had to become a man,
and he did. You shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. It took the
death of the God-man as the substitute of his elect multitude. In their
place, in my place condemned he stood. And it's each one of
that multitude, each one apart, personally, individually, is
brought to sense, to some degree, the evil that is sin. the evil
that is rebellion against God, its incompatibility with the
person and the being and the kingdom and the nature of God,
its hellish consequences and the price of its removal. He
brings each one to look at what? Sin piercing that man on the
cross. No, my sin piercing that man
on the cross. My sin piercing the Son of God. For what reason? To redeem me. What is redemption about? It's
the procurement of liberty. To procure my liberty from the
curse of the law, from the curse of sin. He brings me to mourn. Blessed are they that mourn.
Why? For they shall be comforted.
What is it that comforts them? My sin. Oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin not in part, but the whole
is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more. Verse six asks the
question, look at this, isn't the word of God amazing? We read
some very difficult verses there, and then verse six, and one shall
say unto him, written 520 or so years before Christ came,
540 before he actually died, one shall say to him, what are
these wounds in thine hands? What are these wounds in your
hands? And he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the
house of my friend. What are these wounds in the
hands of the man who is God? What are these wounds? Answer!
Those wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Isaiah 53 verse 5 says, He, Christ,
our Lord Jesus Christ, God in flesh, He was wounded for our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. It's with His stripes that His
people are healed. But these transgressions of God's
people they must be acknowledged by God's people, and they must
be repented of by God's people. So in Psalm 32 and verse five,
this is what the Psalmist said, and this is the testimony of
all who believe. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
O God, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess
my transgressions unto the Lord. And this is it, this is the gospel.
and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. He forgave the iniquity
of sin. If we confess our sins, says
John, in 1 John chapter one and verse nine, if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us, wash us clean from all unrighteousness, wash us
clean from the filth that keeps us out of the kingdom of God.
What is sin? It says in the Catechism, sin
is the transgression of the law. What is transgression? Crossing
the line. It's crossing the line of divine
righteousness. My sin is the crossing of the
line of divine righteousness. And if I can put it this way,
in the economy of the justice of God, It must be balanced. You know, in an economy of money
and goods, you know, the right way of dealing is that the value
of some money balances the value of the goods that are being sold.
In the economy of the justice of God, Sin and its debt and
its cost must be mirrored, must be balanced, must be doubled. It says in Isaiah 40, he's received
double for his sins. You know, he said, oh, he's the
double of his brother. It's that double, it's the likeness
of it. It must be balanced and mirrored
with a penalty, with payment, with redemption. But who's rich
enough to pay it? I pointed out Psalm 49 last week.
Psalm 49 verse 6, they that trust in their wealth, they that have
got lots of money and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom to free him from the curse of the law. The redemption,
the purchase of their soul is precious, it's incredibly expensive,
you'll never ever do it. Riches can't ever do it. The
redemption of his soul is precious. It's precious. Nobody is able
to pay. And Psalm 143 verse 2 says this,
in thy sight, in God's sight shall, now we're included in
this, no man living. In thy sight shall no man living
be justified. And it's echoed in the New Testament,
in the writings of Paul, in chapter 3 of Romans, chapter 3 and verse
19. Chapter 3 in verse 19, Paul writes
this, now we know. that what things soever the law
saith, God's justice, God's righteousness, whatsoever things the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, subject to it, under,
we live under the law of this land, and if you transgress the
law of this land, you pay the penalty for transgressing the
law of this land. Same with the justice of God.
It saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped. What's your excuse? There isn't
one. Every mouth is stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, by the things that you might do to earn it, no flesh shall
be justified in his sight. For by the law, this is all it
does, makes you know that you're a sinner. It doesn't cure you
from that sin. And so Job asks the question,
and I know you say you're saying the same things over and over
again. I'm saying the same things over and over again because we
need to hear the gospel over and over and over again, line
by line, precept by precept. Job asked the question, how then? If this is the situation, how
then should a man be just with God? How should a man be counted
righteous with God, fitted, qualified for his kingdom? And the answer
is this, in verse 6, what are these wounds in thine hands? Those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends. God in flesh. These are the hands
of God, the literal, physical hands in the body of Jesus, the
Saviour. God in flesh, wounded in the
house of his friends, he says. Wounded in the house of his friends.
He came unto his own, says John in his gospel. John chapter 1
and verse 11. He came unto his own. Who were
his own? The symbolical people of God.
Old Testament Israel. He was born a Jew. He came to
his own. But his own received him not.
They rejected him. They crucified him. Look what
they did. Peter tells them in Acts chapter three, in Acts chapter
three, read this. This is after Christ has died
and is risen again. And they're going up to pray
in Jerusalem, Peter and John, and they see this lame man and
they heal him. And the crowd is absolutely amazed. They're staggered. And verse
12, when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel,
why are you amazed at this? Why look he so earnestly on us,
as though we by our own power or holiness had made this man
to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son
Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him. He rejected him,
came to his own, but they received him not. You delivered him up,
You denied him in the presence of Pilate, when Pilate was determined
to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and
the just, and you desired a murderer to be granted unto you. And you
killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead,
whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong. You see what he's saying
there? You did this, you rejected him.
But all his people are his friends. In John 15, Jesus tells them,
I call you no longer servants, though you who believe me, I
call you no longer servants, but I call you my friends. He
was wounded in the house of his friends. He was wounded in our
house. Are you a friend of Jesus? What
a friend we have in Jesus. Are you a friend of Jesus? Am
I a friend of Jesus? This is the house, this world
in which we live. And this is where he came and
he was wounded in the house of his friends. Our sins, the sins
of his people, not the world's, not the sins of the world. You
know, I've told you before, Stainer's Crucifixion, I used to like it,
and then I read the words clearly. For sins of man since the world
began. No, no, sorry, that's not what
the scripture says. Not the world's sins, the sins
of his people. For the transgressions of my
people was he stricken. Isn't that what it says? So why
don't people believe it? They believe idolatry. They believe
falsehood. They listen to false prophets.
We'll come to that in a moment. No, it was the sins of His people
who nailed Him to the cross, who pierced His side. God made
Him to be the sin of His people. God made Him, who knew no sin,
to be made sin, that we, His people, might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He bore in his own body on the
cursed tree on the cross of Calvary. The sins of his people is what
he bore. He called them his own. He said
in Psalm 68, is it, or 69, my sins have overwhelmed me. Whose
sins? His sins, he never committed
any sin. So whose sins were they? They
were the sins of his people made over to him. And he bore them
on the cursed tree. And he was guilty under the justice
of God on that cursed tree. And the wrath of God and the
justice of God was poured out on him to pay the price of those
sins. And verse 1 of chapter 13, a
fountain. was opened. A fountain of cleansing was opened. A fountain! That speaks of the
vast... It's not just a trickle. It's
a fountain was opened. A vast capacity of the redeeming
power of the precious blood of Christ. Other scriptures liken
it to the cleansing power of water, the washing, the cleaning
of water. Ezekiel 36 verse 24. For I will
take you from among the heathen, and I will gather you out of
all countries, and I will bring you into your own land. Then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from
all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will cleanse
you. I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit within you and take your stony heart out of
your flesh. Yet again, it's stressed. It is opened, the fountain is
opened. What for? Who for? For the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Ah, the Jews, you
say, in the Middle East. No, no, no. It's opened for the
house of David. What does scripture mean when
it says the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem?
You see, it's their sin, the house of David. Don't talk about
the rest. It's the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
It's their sin. It's their uncleanness for which
the fountain is open. So who are they? They're the
elect of God. The citizens of Jerusalem, not
the pile of stones in the Middle East. We speak of the Jerusalem
which is above, as Galatians calls it, which is free. The house of David, the children,
they said, we have Abraham to our father, the Jews. Who are
the children of Abraham? Who are the children of Abraham?
The scriptures say that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you are one of Abraham's children. Galatians 3 verse 7, they which
are of faith, they that believe the gospel of grace, the same
are the children of Abraham. In Ezekiel 36 verse 24, didn't
we just read it? What did it say? It said about
where is he going to gather his people from? I will take you
from among the Jews. No, it doesn't say that. It doesn't
say that. It doesn't exclude them, but
it doesn't say that. He says, I'll take you from among
the heathen and I will gather you out of Israel. No, it doesn't
say just that nation, all countries. and I will bring you into your
own land. What is your own land? It's the kingdom of God. It's
the kingdom of God. It's the church of Jesus Christ.
That's where he brings his people, in the accepted time, in that
day, in that day of salvation, either a literal day or a period
of time, either in a blinding flash as it was with the Apostle
Paul on the road to Damascus, or in a gradual realization as
it is for some, either one step or via a convoluted route. Grace
brings God's people out of the world, out of spiritual darkness,
into God's marvelous light. And it's a monumental change. It's a colossal change. It's
a huge change. So my second point is separation
from Satan's kingdom. Look again with me at verses
two to five. Now let's just read these words. It shall come to
pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off
the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more
be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets
and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall
come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father
and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt
not live, thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord, and
his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through
when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the prophet shall be ashamed, every one of his
vision, when he hath prophesied. Neither shall they wear a rough
garment to deceive. But he shall say, I am no prophet.
I am an husbandman. I'm just a farmer. For a man
taught me to keep cattle from my youth. Now you say, what? We're in the middle of lovely
gospel words, but what on earth is this? What on earth is this
all about? Let's see if we can unfold it.
Politicians make much of change. Don't you get tired of hearing
a certain politician in our day in this country saying that we're
going for change, the people have voted for change, change,
change. Yeah, but they rarely, rarely accomplish anything that
makes a jot of difference. You know, you have to understand
the difference between pressed men and volunteers. You know,
they pressed a lot of men into the service of the Royal Navy.
in the Napoleonic Wars. And they weren't very willing
because they were pressed. But if you get a volunteer, he
said, I'd sooner have one volunteer, said one military leader, than
ten pressed men. Because the heart is right. It's
a heart change that is needed. God makes his people willing
in the day of his power. God makes his people willing.
He so aligns his people's affections with his kingdom that their love
of the world and its hatred of God fades away. And the biggest
change is the removal of idols. Look in verse two, I will cut
off the names of the idols out of the land. What's he talking
about? What are the idols that he's talking about? And how does
it apply to us today? Answer? It's false religion. You say, what, all of them? I'm
afraid so. It's a lonely road, is the truth
of God in this world today. False religion. False religion. It calls itself Christian. Oh,
they're all right, aren't they? They call themselves Christians.
Oh, they have a nice gathering, don't they? No, no. False religion. It's idolatry. It's the ideas
and the practices of false religion. It's the ideas and the practices
that go contrary to this word. It's the leading of false prophets,
false preachers, unclean spirits. It's all cut off, says God. The
enemies of the true gospel become his people's enemies. We no longer,
and aren't we grateful for this, we no longer live under the law
of the Old Testament. This was defined back in the
books of Moses and it's reiterated here. We no longer live under
a law which demands physical death for even close family members. The mother and the father, anyone
who's prophesying falsely in the name of the Lord, they're
to thrust him through with a spear, they're to kill their own children,
those who try to deceive and entice away from God. But we
won't be influenced by it. Let's go back to Deuteronomy
13, and you'll see where this, where this comes from, Deuteronomy
13 and verse 6. If thy brother, the son of thy
mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or
thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly,
saying, Let us go and serve other gods which thou hast not known,
thou nor thy fathers. namely, of the gods of the people
which are round about you, nigh unto you, far off from you, from
one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth, thou
shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall
thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou
conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be
first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand
of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with
stones that he die, because he hath sought to thrust away from
the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt
from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall fear, hear
and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness that is among
you. You say, how cruel, how terrible,
what a vicious thing. You know, it's appointed to man
to die once, all of us, and then the judgment. And outside of
Christ, there is nothing but eternal death. Think on those
things. Think on those things. Those
who try to deceive and entice people away from God, we will
not be influenced by it. So much religion that is paraded
as Christianity is in actual fact nothing more or less than
Old Testament Baal worship in its 21st century guise. Because
why? Because it denies. What was the
title of last week's message? particular redemption accomplished. That's the gospel, that's the
message of this book. The redemption, the salvation
of the people, the multitude that God loved from before time.
It denies it, it denies it. You go to any of the churches
around here. If you find one that doesn't deny it, then tell
us and we'll go there. Particular redemption accomplished
by Christ alone, it denies it. This religion, this false religion,
this idolatry ignores or distorts scripture. It practices or allows
to be practiced things that God calls evil. I think you know
what I mean, the sort of thing I mean. They encourage, they
tolerate that which God calls evil. How can that be truth? That's idolatry. It's false religion. And we don't kill it physically,
but we kill it spiritually. We kill it and have nothing to
do with it. God's true child, snatched out of the world, washed
clean from sin, in precious blood, cannot compromise with this false
religion. In fact, this is the sentiment
of the true people of God against this world and its hatred of
the things of God. In Psalm 139, verses 21 and 22,
it says, This is the sentiment of true believers. There must be a separation of
the people of God from conformity to the world,
from conformity to its values, and its aspirations, and its
morals, and its religion, because it's all, all of it, I don't
care what the label is, all of it, apart from the truth of God
in Christ, is basically the same works-based, free-will rebellion
against the sovereignty of God. And God's people, living as the
world, are taken each in their accepted time out of this world,
out of Babylon, out of the pleasures of Babylon and the pleasures
of Babylon are taken out of them. I remember one guy coming to
know the truth and he believed the gospel of grace and he had
friends in the world and he kept on going with the friends in
the world for a while but over a few weeks and months it just
faded away because the pleasures of Babylon were taken away. The
world and its religion and its brand of Christianity extols
the virtue of ecumenism. Oh, let's all just get on. Scripture
doesn't do that. Scripture calls for separation. Look at Isaiah chapter 48, Isaiah
48 and verse 20. Go ye forth of Babylon, flee
ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing, declare ye, tell
this, utter even to the end of the earth, say ye, the Lord hath
redeemed his servant Jacob. Isaiah 52 and verse 11, depart
ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing,
go ye out of the midst of her. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 17,
the verse, the chapter that's got the day of salvation in verse
two, but in verse 17 of that same chapter, 2 Corinthians 6,
wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
A separation. And then we read it at the start,
Revelation 18, four. I heard another voice, come out
of her, my people. Come out of Babylon, because
Babylon is fallen. It may take some time for some
to come out, of false notions of the truth. Verses four and
five, I think, are talking about those that once were prophesying
the wrong things and then realized the error of their ways and said,
I'm ashamed of what I was talking about. Ashamed prophets who had
preached falsehood and they say, I wasn't a true preacher or a
prophet, but God brings some out of falsehood into truth.
For example, Martin Luther in his Catholicism was brought out
of that into the truth of the grace of God. J.C. Philpott was an Anglican minister
and he was brought out of it into the truth of the knowledge
of God. I hope I don't embarrass him by saying so, but Greg Elmquist
in Florida, a brother of ours, was involved in one of these
mega ministries, huge great churches, absolutely, totally swept up
with it until he heard the truth. And he believed the truth and
came out of it completely. And I could say me as well, because
I've been in all sorts of false religion in the past, but God
brings to a knowledge of the truth. So in summary, let me
just summarize this. The gospel of God's kingdom,
the truth of particular redemption, it cannot sit comfortably side
by side with this world, with its philosophy, with its religion,
with its aspirations. Nevertheless, we have to live
in it. We live in it, but we're not
of it. We use it, we enjoy it, we use its resources and enjoy
them. It's all in the providence of
God. But the goal of God's redeemed people is not this world, it's
the celestial city. This is what we seek, for here
we have no continuing city. Whatever we enjoy now, and there's
nothing wrong with enjoying. Read the article I put in the
bulletin by Don Faulkner. We don't have a holier-than-thou
separation and making out that we're holier than others around
us. There's all sorts of things that we're perfectly legitimate
to enjoy in this world, but in our basic philosophy and hopes,
we're not of this world. All of us, all of us, everyone
without exception, you and me included, are going to leave
this world sooner or later, either to the eternal glory which was
purchased by the blood of God in the person of his son, or
to eternal loss, How's that come about? Confirmed by your unbelief. The loss is yours because of
your unbelief. Think on these things.