Well, we come this week, having
had a week last week in the Gospel of Mark, we come to chapter 11
of Zechariah, and it is a difficult portion. You'll have thought
that when you heard Peter read it out before. But it must speak
of Christ and of the kingdom of God. It must do. All these
scriptures speak of me, said Jesus. The purpose of the book
of Zechariah and the purpose of the prophecy of Zechariah
given by God at that time 520 years before Christ came into
the world, so two and a half thousand plus years ago for us
today, but the purpose of it was to encourage the builders
to press on to completion of the restoration of the ruined
temple, the temple and the city that had been destroyed by Babylon,
by Nebuchadnezzar, to restore it. Because why? Why had it got
to be restored? Because when completed, that
temple was a picture of the triumphant kingdom of God. It was a picture
of it. It would also be, in the purposes
of God, the scene of redemption. The stage on which Christ would
come and accomplish redemption. That's what it would be. That's
why it had to be completed. Jerusalem, the temple, and Calvary
was all part of the purpose of God. Of course, absolutely central.
And then, when he had accomplished what he came to do, it would
all be destroyed. It would all be destroyed in
A.D. 70. And how do we know that?
The prophecy of Daniel, chapter 9, 26 and 27, tells us that the
city would be destroyed. And it was, by the Romans. The
Romans destroyed it. And the temple, sacrifice, the
temple... the Jewish religious system of
the Mosaic Covenant, the temple sacrifice was ended. Why was
it ended? Because Christ had fulfilled
it. What need more was there for it? He had fulfilled it.
You don't, you don't, you know, if you have a design for a house
and you build the house and it's all finished and you move into
it, you don't keep poring over the details of the design. It's
finished, it's fulfilled. So it was ended. It was ended. And the headline of Zechariah
chapter 11 is this, God will remove from national Israel,
I make a distinction, when I say national Israel, I mean the physical
descendants of Abraham at that time, not the Israel of God,
the people, the church of God as Galatians 6.16. But God will
remove from national Israel the gospel. He will remove from national
Israel, because they possessed, they had the oracles of God.
What advantage was there in being a Jew? Much every way. To them
was given this truth of God, the pictures, the types, the
gospel in type and picture. He would remove that from them.
He would remove its doctrine, its ordinances, its redemption
pictures. Why? because they and their leaders
valued it so lightly. They treated it with contempt. They rejected it. Thus, ever
since, God has removed, God has broken his covenant from all
religion which despises the truth of God's redemption. What do
I mean by God's redemption? I mean this, threefold. Firstly,
God the Father, the triune God, God the Father, before time,
elected, chose, by sovereign grace, by nothing other than
his sovereign will, he elected a multi-ethnic multitude of Adam's
children to make them his people. that they be his people. Why?
So that they might populate his eternal kingdom of bliss. God
the Father elected. This is sovereign grace. This
is particular. This is he focused on them. Why?
Because he's God. He's God. He can do what he does. But they were sinners. So they
couldn't populate his eternal kingdom. So God the Son undertook
to be made man to be made man, to be loaded with the sin debt
of that multitude chosen in him, and to pay its price to the justice
of God with blood, for the life is in the blood. He gave his
life for his people, and before time, the Holy Spirit. the Holy
Spirit. God the Spirit undertook to regenerate
all those sinners that Christ shed his blood for, to call them
in time, in his time, at the appropriate time, to bring them
to the knowledge of truth, to keep them safe and bring them
finally to eternal glory. Now you show me a church, show
me a preacher that proclaims that message, and show me a people
that believe that message, and there you have God's people. There you have God's true church.
And all the rest, I don't care what it calls itself, all of
that fuss and nonsense in Rome yesterday, all of that, all pleading
the righteousness and goodness of that man, When in actual fact,
you know the true testimony of the true people of God is I'm
a poor sinner and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ is my all
in all. It's all false. It's all false. It has no part in the kingdom
of God. So my first point is the price
of redemption. You might have noticed, if you're
listening carefully, we're talking about price down in the middle
of this chapter. The price of redemption. Let
me ask you, what value do you put on redemption? What value
do you put on the doing and dying of Christ to release you from
the curse of the law, to release you from the curse of sin. Does
the price of release from the curse and the bondage of sin
that will confine you to hell for eternity, does that have
a value in your mind? Does it figure in your life values?
We mentioned last week. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? This monumental thing, is it
nothing to you? Look at Psalm 49 and verses 6
to 8. In Psalm 49 verse 6. It says this about this world
in general, they that trust in their wealth, oh they have such
confidence in their wealth, they that trust in their wealth and
boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, now listen,
however rich they are, they can be as rich as Elon Musk or whoever
else it might be, however rich they are, none of them. can by
any means redeem his brother from the curse of the law. None
of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God
a satisfactory ransom for him. He can't do it. This world cannot
do it. Why? For the redemption of their
soul is precious, meaning it's infinitely costly and it ceaseth
forever. It will never, all the efforts
of man will never ever accomplish the redemption of a soul. When
you find it, true redemption, and when you know in your soul
that you are redeemed from that curse, when you know that there
is not a judgment awaiting you other than confirmation that
you are in Christ, when you find it, as Jesus said, it's the pearl
of greatest price, and all else concerning eternity is absolutely
worthless. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2. 1
Peter chapter 2 and verse 6. He says this where for it is
also contained in the scripture He's been talking about them
being built into a temple lively stones. It's contained in the
scripture behold I lay in Sion whether it's Sion or Zion doesn't
matter. It's the same thing It's it's
the from the Greek translation or from the Hebrew translation
behold I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone elect meaning chosen,
precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. That's Christ. He's the foundation
stone of his living temple, of people built of living stones.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, what's the value of it? He is
precious. He is precious. But they reject
it. The Jews rejected it. The stone
which the builders disallowed, that same one that they despised
when he walked this earth, is made the head of the corner.
In Jerusalem, in this completed temple, when Jesus ministered
there, the Jews, the religious leaders, the Herodians, the scribes,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious leaders, the upholders
of the Old Testament Mosaic Covenant, they rejected Christ, the stone
which the builders... They were the builders, and yet
they rejected the chief cornerstone. They despised his redemption.
What did they value him as? they valued him as a lowly slave. Exodus 21 verse 32 in the law
of Moses, there's all sorts of details of law about what was
the penalty for this and what was the penalty for that. If
somebody had an ox and it crushed another man's servant, a man
or a woman, and it crushed them and killed them, that man owning
the ox that killed that other person had to pay 30 pieces of
silver. Wow. Interesting, eh? The price
of a mere slave, a lowly slave, was 30 pieces of silver. Look
at verses 12 and 13 of chapter 11. I said unto them, if ye think
good, give me my price. What's it worth to you? And if
not, forbear. So they weighed for my price
30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast
it unto the potter, a goodly price that I was prized at of
them, I was valued at of them. And I took the 30 pieces of silver
and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. Any bells
ringing? Any bells ringing when you hear
those words? They should be. Look at Matthew chapter 26. Matthew
chapter 26 and verse 14. Then one of the twelve, called
Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto
them, What will ye give me if I deliver him, if I deliver Christ
unto you? And they covenanted with him
for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a mere slave. And
from that time he sought opportunity to betray them. Chapter 27 of
Matthew, verses 3 to 10. then Judas, which had betrayed
him, when he saw that he himself, when he saw that he was condemned,
repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that
I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is
that to us? See thou to that. And he cast
down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went
and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the
silver pieces and said, it is not lawful for to put them into
the treasury because it is the price of blood and they took
counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers
in wherefore that field the potter hear that again was called the
field of blood unto this day then was fulfilled that which
was spoken by jeremy the prophet saying and they took thirty pieces
of silver now you might say Well, they got it wrong, didn't they?
Because it wasn't Jeremiah, it was Zachariah. And that's absolutely
right. Jeremiah doesn't say anything. But Jeremiah is regarded, Jeremy
is regarded as the symbolical head of the prophets, the symbolical
representative of the prophets. So maybe we can take it as that. It's in the prophets that it's
said. 30 pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued,
whom they of the children of Israel did value. They valued
him, those leaders, they valued him as contemptible. It was written
in accordance with the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Hence it must be fulfilled. But they are riddled with guilt
because of it. The Jews, national Israel, them
in general, despised the covenant God had given them. Because in
that covenant, clearly, in all those types, those animal sacrifices,
the priesthood, the day of atonement, the Passover, all of those things,
the sacrificial lambs, all of it, It was, of course, picturing
the only way to God, which is Christ. And they despised it.
They rejected the chief cornerstone. In the Mosaic covenant, God dwelt
with his people. In that covenant, he dwelt with
his people, in the tabernacle, in the holy of holies, in the
temple. He redeemed them from sin's curse. How? In the pictures
of the sacrifices. He interceded. How? He gave them
a priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, to intercede. He united them,
the tribes, in brotherly love. And God portrayed himself as
what it says in verse 7. a good shepherd with two staves. Look at verse 7. I will feed
the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And
I took unto me two staves, the one I called Beauty. and the
other I called bands, and I fed the flock. If you have a marginal
Bible, you will see that bands can also be translated binders,
beauty and binders. A shepherd usually only has one
staff, but God calls one of these staffs beauty and the other one
binders. What does that remind us of?
Psalm 23, verse four. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Two. Thy rod and thy staff, they
comfort me. These picture the gospel. These
rods, these staves, beauty and binders, picture the gospel.
How do they picture the gospel? Well, you know, with this book
of Zechariah, it's complicated, it's mysterious, we have to do
a bit of you know, cryptic analysis. If you ever used to listen to
that BBC radio program called something like Round Britain
Quiz, and some really intellectual people used to get together,
and they'd set them a real poser of a question, and they'd go,
oh, think about it. Ah, that used to do this, and then that
would be a link to something else. Well, we have to do a little
bit of that. So Isaiah 52 and verse 7. Isaiah 52 and verse
7. And you probably know this already.
How beautiful. upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth
good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion,
thy God reigneth. How beautiful. Let's compare
that with Romans chapter 10. because it says exactly the same
thing in verse 15. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. So I think we can be pretty clear,
beauty is talking about the gospel. Beauty is talking about, it pictures
the gospel. It pictures that. It's the Lord's
doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes, it says. What is marvelous
in our eyes? I'll tell you. This is the core
of the gospel. How God, who is infinitely holy
and just and absolutely righteous and cannot tolerate sin, how
God is just and yet is perfectly holy in justifying sinners. That is beautiful to behold. That is beautiful to behold,
but they rejected it. They rejected it. They had some
confidence in their flesh and their system. But the true concision,
the true circumcision of God has no confidence in the flesh
because they rejoice in Christ Jesus. And bans, verse 14, I
cut asunder mine other staff, even bans, that I might break
the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Verse 14, the bands,
that represents the gospel binder that holds the people of God
together. Between all of those that God has redeemed, there
is this binding. Do you know, whenever we've been
on our travels and visited Christian friends, true Christian friends,
do you know, You barely need to get to know
them, you're instantly in their fellowship, you're on the same
page, you're singing the same tune, you know what they're thinking. This is it, the binder, the binder
in the gospel. Gospel ordinances of church fellowship,
of gospel preaching, of loving gospel preaching. You know, you've
been in situations where you're hearing the pure gospel come
from the mouth of a man God set up to do it. And I remember it.
And people who claimed to be good, solid, reformed Baptist
Christians, sitting and listening to it and going, oh no, I don't
like that, I can't stand that. And you think, we're not on the
same wavelength. These are not the true people
of God. He gives manner to feed the souls of his people together.
He gives us the Lord's table to remember together. It's like
God's sheep flocking and binding together. But Israel... national
Israel, was plagued with false shepherds. It was plagued with
false shepherds. The builders of God's picture
kingdom, if I can put it that way, despised the chief cornerstone,
who was God himself in Christ. And they, like so many religious
folk, what had they done? They'd made a refuge of lies. If you look in Isaiah chapter
28, They'd made a covenant with death. Which verses? 14 to 18. Isaiah 28, verse 14. Wherefore,
hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men. This is God talking
to these people in national Israel, these leaders of those, these
are the false shepherds. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and
with hell we are at agreement. when the overflowing scourge,
when the day of judgment shall pass through, it shall not come
unto us, it won't do us any harm, for we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion. Oh, look, here it is again.
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not Be
moved is basically what it means. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies and the waters. See, he's going to get
rid of it, that refuge of lies, that covenant that they'd made
with death. They thought they were all right, but God's going
to sweep it away. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with hell shall not stand. You have an
agreement with hell that we're not going there, but it won't
stand. It won't stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. You see
how clear that is? So those who thought that they
were the covenant people of God, verse 10, I took my staff, even
beauty, and cut it in sunder, that I might break my covenant,
which I had made with all the people. I've written a little
article in the bulletin saying how shocking I presume some people
will find it. that God breaks a covenant. But
it's quite clear, isn't it? There are the words, that I might
break my covenant that I had made with the people. I've called
this message, The Covenant Broken by God. He broke that covenant. God broke that covenant for all
except, verse 11, the poor of the flock. So it was broken in
that day. And so the poor of the flock
that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord.
the poor of the flock, and he broke it. How did he break it?
How did he break that covenant of that mosaic system that was
there in place with national Israel and their false shepherd
leaders? How did he do it? By the dying
of his son. The doing, the dying, and the
rising of his son. Christ ended that mosaic covenant. Christ ended it. that Mosaic
Covenant with Old Testament National Israel. In Romans chapter 10,
we see it clearly in verse 2, Paul speaking about Old Testament
National Israel. He says, I bear them record that
they have a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge,
not according to the truth of God's Word. For they, being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Why? For Christ is the end of
the law. Christ is the end of that Mosaic
system for righteousness. You don't become righteous by
following that Mosaic system anymore. You only ever did in
that he pictured the truth. Christ is the end of the law.
His coming ended it. History shows that his coming
ended it. Prophecy foretold that it would end it, and it ended
it emphatically in A.D. 70 when it was taken away from
them. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth, to everyone that believes, believes. What is the
work that we must do to do the work of God? Believe on him whom
he has sent. So verse 14, he broke that covenant. I broke the brotherhood between
Judah and Israel. When God broke the bands of brotherhood
between Judah and Israel, and it applies to all the tribes
of Israel, he broke the brotherhood of Abraham's physical seed and
took from them as a people forever the Old Testament covenant of
gospel in type and picture. And it's true, isn't it? You
know, there are Jews today, obviously. There's all the talk of Second
World War history and the terrible treatment, and that is an absolutely
appalling thing. But the fact remains that no
Jew today can trace his ancestry to any one of those tribes. The
brotherhood of Judah and Israel is broken. But it's not just
Judaism. Let's not just point the finger
at Judaism. It's judgment on all Christ-rejecting religion. Whether it be Old Testament Israel,
with its pharisaical religion, or all religion today that rejects
and despises sovereign, redeeming grace, God pronounces his judgment
on it. They think they have a covenant
with God. a system that will get them to heaven. And God says,
I've broken it. If ever there was any trace of
any truth in it, I've broken it. Looking forward to the completed
temple that these guys were building, that these guys were restoring
in Zechariah's day, looking forward to that completed temple with
its Lebanese cedars and its oaks of Bashan, fire will devour it. Verses one and two. Open thy
doors, temple that's now being built, 500 years later, well,
nearly 600 years, actually. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, meaning
the cedars of Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree, for the cedar
is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled. Howl, O ye oaks
of Bashan, for the forest of vintage is come down. And it
did in AD 70. The Romans flattened it. It flattened
it. And it's never been restored.
You see, God has his true sheep in verse four. Thus saith the
Lord my God, feed the flock of the slaughter. In the middle
of it all, he has his true sheep. He always has. What does it mean,
the flock of the slaughter? In Romans 8, 36, that chapter
which talks about all things working together for good, Paul
writes this, as it is written, as true believers in this world,
As it is written, for thy sake, the sake of God's truth, we are
killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter, the flock of the slaughter, counted as fit for
slaughter by these false shepherds. Why? Why do these false shepherds
slay them? Look, verse 5, whose possessors,
the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them. Why do
they, how do they slay them? with seeming impunity, how do
they slay them? They slay them with false teaching,
with false doctrine that leads to eternal death, not to life.
God says he will cut off three false shepherds. Look in verse
eight. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month, and my soul
loathes them, and their soul also abhorred me. What do you
think he might be talking about? Well, I think I think he's talking
about that Jewish system. So he's talking about the scribes,
the Pharisees, the Herodians. You read about them, and if you
read the Gospel accounts, the passage we were reading this
morning had Herodians in it. Who were they? They were those
who were the elite of that national Israel society. They thought
they were the true defenders of the principles of Israel.
And you know that. British English society has exactly
that sort of thing, this, this, this, you know, we are the pure,
we are the right, we are the proper, we are the proper breed,
you know, we do things the right way, we know the way to do things,
we know how to blow our nose in the right way, and all that
sort of stuff. They thought they did things exactly right. They
were the conservatives, maintaining the status quo, thus they were
always opposed to the gospel of God. You see them all around. As then, so today. False religion,
calling itself Christianity, but denying the biblical gospel
of redemption that we've gone through. Catholicism, with its
popes and their idolatrous denial of redeeming grace, and their
trust in the things they do and their flesh. Methodism, where
we live, there's a thriving Methodist church down the road, And it's
just full of social bonhomie, we're all friends together, and,
uh, are you feeling run down, says the big poster? Well, come
in for a service. And it's all this kind of social
bonhomie, but a total denial of redeeming grace, of sovereign
redeeming grace. Anglicanism, with its robes and
its rituals, but its underlying corruption. Islam, with its dark
works-based denial of the gospel. If ever they thought they had
a covenant with whatever their idea of God was, he says he has
broken it. Look at verse 10. I took my staff,
even beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant
which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in
that day, and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me
knew that it was the word of the Lord. He did it. He did it.
And verse 14. I cut asunder my other staff,
even bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah
and Israel. And it's a repeated theme throughout
the Old Testament. For the sake of time, we won't
look at Ezekiel 34, but we could read reams and reams of scripture
that say exactly the same thing. The false shepherds, national
Israel, it's all cut off. But turn just to Matthew chapter
23, Matthew chapter 23, and see what Jesus said. No wonder they
hated him. See what Jesus said in Matthew
23 and verse 15. Can you imagine this? There are
the crowds of people who were enthusiastically following this
man. Where did he get his teaching
from? And there were the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians
watching and hating everything he did and trying to plot a way
of getting rid of him. and finally doing it for 30 pieces
of silver. And this is what he says, this
is what he says, verse 15. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, you hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make
one proselyte. And when he is made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. woe unto
you blind guides which say whosoever shall swear by the temple it
is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple
he is a debtor ye fools and blind for whether is greater the gold
or the temple that sanctifies the gold and and so he goes on
the woes against that religion he pronounced it clearly It's
ultimately, all of it, the whore of Revelation 17. You know, when
John saw that gloriously, gorgeously decked woman in Revelation 17,
and at first he thought he was looking at a picture of the church,
because in the vision in chapter 12, the woman is clearly the
church, but here is a woman who's gorgeously arrayed in red and
scarlet and but she has a name which is Babylon and mystery.
She's the whore of false religion, which is buoyed up by multitudes
of people. She floats on a sea of the peoples
of this world and it's false. It's Christ denying idolatry,
aspiring to heaven. without the necessary qualification,
exactly as Nimrod and the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Exactly
as that. It's an aspiration to eternal
bliss, to eternal peace, without satisfaction of the justice of God. But God
has a remnant according to the election of grace. Amongst this
people that were condemned from whom he was withdrawing that
covenant, he has a remnant according to the election of grace, is
what Romans 11 verse 5 says. Even among the Jews, even among
false religion, even as we've seen in other parts of the scripture,
even from, in Isaiah, even from Egypt and Assyria. God has his
people, has his remnant, according to the election of grace. He
has his flock for the slaughter. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. The people of God, who this world hates, who they
despise, they despise us as not worth even a slave. In Christ,
whom this fallen world slaughtered at Calvary, that's where our
hope is. Those people he snatches from
the fire of judgment. He redeems them with his precious
blood. He feeds them with manna from
heaven. He keeps them following unto death all the way. He keeps
them following the truth unto death and then he takes them
to glory. Now where will you be found come the day of final
reckoning? Where will you be found come
the day of final reckoning? And this is how I want to link
this to Philippians chapter three that we read at the start. Paul
said of that Old Testament covenant that God broke, he said this,
we read it earlier, he said it, he said in verse seven, what
things were gained to me, what things? Well, verses five, he
said, if anybody thinks he's got things to boast about, me
more. Verse five, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was
amongst those that had this covenant with God, this covenant with
death, this agreement with hell. Concerning zeal, I persecuted
the true people of God, the sheep for the slaughter. Touching the
righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. But when
he was stopped dead in his tracks on the road to Damascus, what
things were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ. Yea,
doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may
win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law. not that which I earn, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. It's Christ's faith. and what he faithfully did in
the covenant of grace that makes me righteous. It's what he did.
This is why we stick to this translation, this King James
translation. Because all of the modern ones
say faith in Christ. It's not your faith in Christ
that achieves anything. It's the faith of Christ that
has done it. And we apprehend it by our faith
in Christ. That's how we apprehend it. Which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of death. Where do you want to be found? I want to be found
in him, says Paul. I want to be found in him. Is
that your hope? to be found in Christ, to hear
the words of welcome come that great momentous day when he says
to the sheep of the slaughter, to his flock, he says, come ye
blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. Amen.