Okay, we continue in the book
of Zechariah and we're coming this week to Zechariah chapter
7. We pray that the Lord will be
pleased to enable us to rightly divide the word of truth, to
rightly, to see the truth of it. There is, so many people
can look at the scriptures and come to completely the wrong
conclusions and it's because they do not have the key, they
don't seek the key, they haven't been given the key as Christ
gave to those disciples after his resurrection in Luke 24. He opened their hearts, he opened
their minds, he opened their eyes that they might understand
the scriptures. that they might understand the
Scriptures. That's what we want, is to have
the right key to see what this is saying, because you might
find when you first read Zechariah chapter 7 that it's quite an
obscure passage. What's it possibly talking about? Well, let me remind you that
the whole of Scripture is giving us the message, the answer. I've
called this message, How Shall I Come to God? The whole of the
Bible gives an answer to that. It gives the answer that it's
through Christ and Him alone. But how does this chapter help
us? Well, it's, again, another layer
upon layer, a precept upon precept. More confirmation. If you ever
wanted confirmation, the Scriptures give it over and over and over
again. They confirm the truth of God. Isaiah 42, is it? No, 45. End
of 44, start of 45. In about, somewhere between about 730-ish BC, something
like that. I'm not very accurate, but it's there or thereabouts. About 730, 740
years before Christ, God gave the message to Isaiah that a man would be raised up as a
great emperor who would bring his people back to Jerusalem. And the emperor was Cyrus, the Medo-Persian emperor. There
was to be the Babylonians, there was to be Nebuchadnezzar and
those kings, and then in one night, Cyrus was to come and
take the kingdom away. And it's shown to us in The book
of Ezra, I'll just read four verses from the start of chapter
one of Ezra. Now this is, as near as I can
tell, 539 years before Christ came. And it's the fulfillment
of what Isaiah prophesied 150 to 200 years before, and it's
this. Now in the first year of Cyrus,
king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled. What was that word of the Lord?
You're going to Babylon for 70 years, but then you'll come back.
That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be
fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of
Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and
put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth,
and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which
is in Judah. Who is there among you of all
his people? His God be with him, and let
him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. and whosoever remaineth in any
place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him
with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts beside
the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
Why did a heathen pagan king, a potentate, he would be a man
to be greatly feared, why did he say that these captive Jews
should go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Why did he say that? Answer,
because his heart was in the hands of God. Because as Proverbs
says, the heart of the king, whoever he is, whichever king
he is, the heart of the king is in the hands of God. So thousands
of Jews captive in Babylon for 70 years, exactly as the prophecy
had been, Jeremiah had prophesied it, For 70 years there, thousands
of them left and came back to Jerusalem, to that area. And
that was a long and tortuous journey in those days. And they
came and they restored the worship. And they laid the foundation
of the temple. And they faced opposition and
they set up an altar and they had sacrifices. But the opposition
came and stopped them. Stopped them. The king changed.
Another king came upon the throne who'd forgotten what was said
before. You know how fickle politics is. And in no time flat they
were so discouraged that the work ceased for 20 years. until
the second year of a king that followed, King Darius. In 519 BC, God raised up two
prophets, Haggai and Zechariah. And to Zechariah, he gave eight
visions in one night and followed that by a dramatic portrayal
of salvation with Joshua the high priest crowned with silver
and gold crowns and It then says, behold, look at the man, look
at the man, behold the man who is the branch speaking of Christ. It was a dramatic portrayal of
Christ, once and once only. And so the work progressed. And
more returned from Babylon. More of the Jews returned from
Babylon, dribs and drabs. Two years after that night of
visions, we have Zechariah chapter 7. So between the end of chapter
6 and the start of chapter 7 is a space of about two years. Now the message so far of the
book of Zechariah is this, that the kingdom of God will triumph. The kingdom of God will triumph.
This is what it's all about. The kingdom of God will triumph.
The kingdom of God that Satan usurped in the fall in the Garden
of Eden, that kingdom will triumph. Satan's kingdom will be destroyed,
will be rightly judged. God's kingdom will be triumphant.
And how is it going to be pictured? They will finish that temple
in Jerusalem, which is a portrayal of the kingdom of God, because
it portrays the meeting of God with his people. I will be their
God and they shall be my people. And it portrayed how sinners
were going to be fitted for the kingdom of God, because Christ
the branch, the branch out of the root of Jesse, out of a dry
ground, out of the dry ground of unpromising humanity, Christ
the branch. would come and he would accomplish
the redemption of his people from their sins. He would satisfy
the justice of God. God would be just in that sin
must be punished and was punished, but God would be just in that
sinners would be justified. God's elect, his innumerable
multitude, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the earth,
will be justly qualified to inherit that kingdom of God, to populate
that kingdom of God. Is this not what we're here for?
Is this not what we're rejoicing in? Is that we have a hope that
we will be in that kingdom? But it's only by God's religion
and not by man's religion. How will you and I come to God
and find acceptance? I was reading the other day when
I was preparing that a few years ago, I don't know which Pope
it was, but a Pope in Rome was asked the question, does it really
matter what you believe? And his answer basically was,
so long as you're sincere, it doesn't matter. God will accept
you. So long as you're sincere, any sincere attempt, God will
accept it. Don't worry about it. And so
thinks the majority of people. It'll be all right with me. God
can't be that unreasonable. It'll be all right with me. The
question we must ask is this. What does God say? To the law
and to the testimony. Isaiah 8 verse 20. To the law
and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, there is no light in them. There is no truth in
them. So, We have here an account of some of these people coming
back from Babylon, and we're two years after those visions
given to Zechariah, and the work is progressing and they want
to get involved. But they've got a sincere question.
They're asking a sincere question. Look at it, in verses 2 and 3
of Zechariah 7. They sent to the house of God,
some of these people that had come back, they sent Chereza
and Regimelech and their men. So it's a delegation of people.
And they sent them to the temple to pray before the Lord. and
to speak to the priests, to inquire of the priests who were in the
house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets that were there,
asking, should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself,
as I have done so many years? You see, all the time that they
were in Babylon, They didn't have the Temple of Jerusalem
there. Obviously, it had been destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar. It had been razed to the ground. It had been made a ruin. Its
treasures had been taken away. That magnificent temple had been
destroyed. And there they were in Babylon,
and the daily sacrifice had stopped. And the remembering of the Day
of Atonement had stopped. And all of those pictures of
salvation in Christ had stopped. As man is so prone to do, they'd
invented their own religious practices that they thought,
well, this will be all right. They had a ceremony of weeping
in the fifth month and separating themselves. inventing their own religion.
And they're asking, we've been doing this and it's been going
all right and we've been getting satisfaction out of it, should
we continue to keep the religious practices that we performed in
Babylon? Will that be acceptable to God? And I'm reminded of the Samaritan
woman by the well when Jesus met her and the disciples had
gone to buy some food and there he is and he asks the woman for
a drink and she starts talking and uh... she says uh... she
says that when he when he when he pointed out her condition
as a sinner who he was she she said our fathers meaning uh... uh... jeroboam and and and uh... those in in in the northern parts
of Israel, the northern tribes, they said, we can worship in
this mountain here. But you Jews say Jerusalem's
the only place that you can worship. What's the right answer? What
will give us assurance of what we're doing? And you know what
Jesus answered there. He said, woman, hear me. The day is coming
and now is when neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain, but God
will have those who worship Him to worship Him in spirit and
in truth. What will give assurance to you
and me that your immortal soul is destined for God's kingdom
of righteousness and peace and eternal bliss? Because that's
the only thing that will enable me to lay me down at night and
sleep in peace, knowing that whatever happens, if I'm taken
that night or the next day or whenever it is, I'm in that kingdom
of God of righteousness and peace. Will religious traditions that
have stood the test of time help you? Oh, look how many people
are so religious and they're wrapped up in their Anglicanism
and their Catholicism or whatever ism it is. They listen to the
pronouncements of the synods. Nobody can question their denominational
practices. It doesn't matter. what says
the scripture it's what what is our denomination put together
this is the thing that we must do not what does the scripture
say what does our catechism say what does our catechism say oh
you know we're sixteen eighty nine all these things seem so
important all these confessions surely all that matters is if
we're sincere about it isn't it surely the only thing that
matters is that we've got to be sincere about it look what
he says in verse three Look, we were sincere about these things.
We wept. It was emotional. We wept. Should I weep in the film? It was a sincere thing. It wasn't
just an outward form, they're saying. And so the answer comes
from the Lord, a clear answer from the Lord in verses four
to seven. And this is Zechariah himself
speaking. Then came the word of the Lord
of hosts unto me, Zechariah, saying, speak unto all the people
of the land and to the priests, saying, when you did all of these
religious practices, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth
and the seventh month, throughout all those 70 years of captivity,
was it at all for me? Was it at all with your hearts
aimed at me? And when you did eat and when
you did drink, didn't you do it just for yourselves and drink
for yourselves because you were having a good party? should you
not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former
prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and when the
cities thereof round about her and the men inhabited the south
of the before you were taken away into captivity the prophets
had spoken shouldn't you have listened to what those prophets
said shouldn't you have inquired to the law and to the testimony,
what has God said? Shouldn't you have inquired what
was the message that God gave to Isaiah? What was the message
that God gave to Jeremiah? What was the message that God
gave to Micah? And so on and so forth. Shouldn't
you have inquired about that? Your religious observance was
focused on yourselves and not on God. But God's call is this. Zechariah chapter one and verse
three. God's call was this. This was
the first message that we heard when we started these studies
several weeks ago. Did you ever inquire? Did you
ever turn to the Lord? Did you ever inquire what the Lord's
word was by the former prophets? So he reminds them. in verses 9 and 10. Verse 8,
the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, look, this
is the thing. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying, execute
true judgment and show mercy and compassions every man to
his brother, and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless,
the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil
against his brother in his heart. Oh, right, so there we know what
we're supposed to do. We've got to be really good people,
haven't we? We've got to be absolutely honest, and we've got to be so
kind and merciful, and oh, we've got to look after the widows,
and the orphans, and the strangers, be kind to them, and never imagine
any evil. Well, let's do all of those things
and God will accept us. You know, it says in there, where
it says, execute true judgment, if you've got a margin Bible
with a marginal alternative translation, it says, judge the judgment of
truth. Judge the judgment of truth. How do we interpret these things?
How do we interpret them? You know, we've got to rightly
divide the word of truth. There's a right way to divide
it and a wrong way to divide it. Oh, that God would show us
how to rightly divide this word of truth. When it says these
things that religion says, oh, well, I'll just try harder to
do all of those things. I'll try to be a better person.
I'll turn over a new leaf. I'll stop oppressing the stranger.
And I won't imagine any evil against my brother. And then
God will accept me. No. Judge the judgment of truth,
which begs the question, what is truth? What is truth? I mentioned last week that Pontius
Pilate said, behold the man. Well, he also asked the question,
what is truth? What is truth? Jesus Christ and
the gospel of redeeming grace is truth. Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Judge the judgment of truth. Judge and think in accordance
with the gospel. Let me refer you to some scriptures. You don't need to turn to them.
I'll turn to them. But Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 17. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge
the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Verse 23
of the same chapter. The princes are rebellious and
companions of thieves. Everyone loveth gifts and followeth
afterwards. They judge not the fatherless,
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Then in
Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 5, you see, he's saying these
are the right things to do, but how do we interpret how we do
those things? Jeremiah chapter 5 and the first
five verses, run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof,
if ye can find a man, if there be any, that executeth judgment,
that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it. And though they say,
the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely hypocritical religion. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon
the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but
they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but
they have refused to receive correction. Why? Because they
had hard hearts. They have made their faces harder
than a rock. They have refused to return.
Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish, for
they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of the
Lord. I will get me unto the great men, and I will speak unto
them, for they have known the way of the Lord. and the judgment
of their God. But these have altogether broken
the yoke and burst the bonds." You see, he's saying, shouldn't
you have looked at what these prophets said? Look what they
said. And it's summarized well, which
is where I want to turn to now and spend a bit of time, in Micah,
that we read right at the start, in Micah chapter 6 and verses
6 to 8. Shouldn't they have inquired
what the Lord had required of them? Verse 6 of Micah chapter
6. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord? How shall I come to God and find
acceptance with Him? If you hear that word acceptance
ringing in your mind and you know anything of the scriptures,
there's only one place to find acceptance, and that's in the
Beloved. Accepted in the Beloved, the
Beloved, the Christ of God. Accepted in Him is how we are,
not in what we do or the good people that we make ourselves,
accepted in Him. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord? and bow myself before the high
God. Worship him rightly. Acknowledge
him for who he is. Shall I come before him with
lots of religious practices, with burnt offerings, with calves
of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased if I
brought a few rams, but let's bring thousands of rams, then
the Lord will be pleased. Or with 10,000 of rivers of oil. Oh, what about this one? The
heathen all around were known for sacrificing their children
to pay the price of their sins as they saw it with their god,
Molech. They would sacrifice their children.
They would give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul. Will I give my firstborn for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
And God, of course, always said that was an utterly evil, wicked
practice, and he wanted his people to have nothing to do with those
sinful practices. And you say, well, we don't do
that these days, do we? You think about it. you think
about what this generation has been doing with its children
for years and years and years. I'm not going to stand on a political
soapbox, but I think if you think you know what I'm referring to.
Shall I give of my firstborn for my transgression the fruit
of my body for the sin of my soul? There's a great day of
reckoning coming. Verse eight, what should we do?
He says, He's shown you. He showed you, O man, what is
good. God has shown you what is...
What should I do to come before the Lord? How shall I come before
the Lord? He's shown you. He's shown you. His word is replete
with what you do. He's shown you what is good.
What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly? and to love mercy and to walk
humbly with thy God. To be accepted, to be judged
worthy of God's kingdom, you must do justly and love mercy
and walk humbly with thy God. And you say, well, isn't that
what the other passage was saying? It's just down to me. Like the
rich young ruler came to Jesus and he said, what should I do
to inherit eternal life? What should I do? And Jesus said,
well, you know what the commandments say, do this and live. And he
said, I've done it all, ah, ah. And then the Lord put his finger
on the one thing he hadn't done, and he went away sorrowful. What
must I do? What moral value must I build
up to be able to acquire eternal life, to be qualified to enter
that kingdom of God? Well, here's the answer right
from the Lord. What must I do? Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly. Well, how are you doing? And
what about me? Am I doing justly and loving
mercy and walking humbly? Am I doing all those things well
enough? Is my godliness good enough? Is my sanctification
good enough? Is it of a high enough standard?
But you see, that's to miss the key point. We need to rightly
divide the word of truth. Because look, what does it say?
It doesn't just say, do justly, love mercy and walk humbly. It
says, do those things with thy God. So let's look at each one. Do justly with thy God. Do justly with thy God. What does that mean? It means
this, side with God in condemnation of your sin. As David said in
Psalm 51, he didn't say, against Bathsheba have I sinned, or against
Uriah the Hittite have I sinned, or against the people in lying
to them. No, he said, against thee, speaking
to God, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. When we do justly with our God,
we confess before him that all my righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. We agree with his judgment that
in me, in my flesh, as Paul the Apostle said, there dwells no
good thing. Side with God who alone is just
and the justifier of his people by the substitution that he has
set forth in his Son. side with God in his justice
and his judgment, that the only people truly fitted for the kingdom
of God are those who are made the righteousness of God in him. Made the righteousness of God
in God, who purchased his church with his own blood, who bore
his people's sins and paid its debt by pouring out that lifeblood
on the cross. Yes, yes, I'm not saying that
it doesn't show itself. You bear, the child of God seeing
this, doing justly with God, will bear the fruit of justice
in dealings with others, in fairness, in forgiveness. But that's the
result, that's not the cause. If you're God's child, he has
satisfied his justice for you in his son. Secondly, Love mercy
with your God. Love mercy with your God. How
do we love mercy with our God? I mean, yes, be merciful, but
how do we love mercy with our God? By recognizing this. that it's only God in Christ
clearing his people's sin debt that enables God to be merciful
to sinners. God cannot be merciful in the
sense that he sweeps the sins of people under a carpet and
says, okay, we'll just forget about those. No, he deals with
them. He deals with that sin. He pays its penalty. His justice
is satisfied. He cannot, he cannot overlook
sin. God is merciful to sinners deserving
hell in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Love mercy with God means
love Christ. It means love Christ by whom
God's mercy is enabled. Cling to him, heed his voice,
follow him. And having experienced mercy,
how can you be unmerciful to others? You know, Jesus told
that parable, didn't he, of the servant that owed his master
an enormous unpayable debt and he was about to be sold and his
family sold off and put into poverty. And the man pleaded
with the master and the master was gracious to him and forgave
him his debt. And then that one who had been
forgiven a great debt went out and found somebody that owed
him a tiny little bit. and was unmerciful to him. Impossible,
said Jesus. Impossible. If you've been shown
mercy, you will be merciful to others. And thirdly, walk humbly
with thy God. Walk humbly. Oh yes, Uriah Heep,
in whichever of Dickens' novels it was, was very humble, wasn't
he? He was very humble. But walk
humbly with your God, seeing by faith something of the majesty
of God. It reminds His people daily that
we are nothing except for His grace. It's only by His grace
that we are anything at all. Seeing by faith something of
that majesty of God causes us to walk humbly with our God.
To Him, not to us, be all the glory. What does the Lord require? I quote it so often. The Jews,
the Pharisees asked Jesus, what must we do that we do the works
of God? And Jesus replied, this is the
work of God. This is doing justly, loving
mercy, walking humbly. This is what it is. Believe on
him whom he has sent. The Philippian jailer, the rough
man, in a night, in an earthquake, and the testimony of Paul and
Silas, and he cries out because he sees his soul hanging over
a lost eternity. What must I do to be saved from
this? And the answer comes back so
quickly. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. You and anybody else in your
family, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one more thing. I want to point out, and it's
in Isaiah 58. Again, we could have, if we'd
had the time, but we don't. We could have looked at Isaiah
58, which is a very, very similar chapter in terms of the right
way to approach God. not a hypocritical way of approaching
God. And at the end of that chapter,
I'll just point this out, verse 13, if thou turn away thy foot
from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable,
and shalt honor him, not doing your own ways. So people think,
oh, it means, right, we've got to make Sunday a day of austerity
and deprivation. not go here, there and everywhere.
We were once in a church where that was read out at the start
of the service, meaning this is the way that you've got to
keep Sunday. You know, Sunday is not the Sabbath day in its
Christian form. Christ is the Sabbath day in
its Christian form. He is the one. He is our Sabbath. When we were looking at Hebrews
about a year ago, in chapter 4 of Hebrews, I think one of
the messages I brought from that was Christian Sabbath day, Christian
Sabbath rest, that was it, Christian Sabbath rest. It's our rest from
striving for righteousness by our works and trusting in all
that Christ has accomplished. That's true Sabbath rest. We, as I've already quoted it,
Philippians 3 verse 3, we are the true circumcision, the true
people of God. Who are the people who are going
to God's kingdom? The true people of God, yes. Well, who are they?
We are the true circumcision, not those that go through religious
external motions, but those who worship God in the spirit. who
rejoice in Christ Jesus. How many times does the New Testament
say rejoice? Again I say rejoice. Rejoice
in Christ Jesus for he is all my hope. Rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. That's the thing. But look what they did. Back
to Zechariah, just to close. Back to Zechariah and verse 11
of chapter seven. but they refused to hearken.
God's saying this is why he sent them into 70 years of captivity.
They refused to hearken and they pulled away the shoulder instead
of taking the burden and stopped their ears that they should not
hear. God has spoken but they put their fingers in their ears.
They made their hearts as an adamant stone lest they should
hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts has sent in
his spirit by the former prophets. We've been reading them. Therefore
came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. He sent them into captivity. Therefore it has come to pass
that as he cried, they would not hear. So they cried, and
I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts. They cried to him,
oh, save no, too late, too late. I scattered them with a whirlwind
among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate
after them, that no man passed through nor returned, for they
laid the pleasant land desolate. The people refused. that message
from God, that gospel message from God, and people today refuse
the gospel message. Instead, they trust religious
activities. They trust superstitions. I mean,
you don't have to go far. People we know, people that we
count as dear friends, in a way, they have such superstitions
about what's going to make it right for them with God in eternity. They say their prayers. They
do their penances. They read their Bibles. They
perform their rituals. They go through moral reformation.
They undertake good works. They perform charitable giving. Anything but Christ alone. I know I've said this many times
before, and I won't mention her name, but a sweet old lady talking
to her. This is best part of 40 years
ago. And she said this to me, which I must say, honestly, it
really shocked me. She said, I try to witness to
all of my neighbours and tell them what I believe. She said,
because, she said, I don't want to go into the presence of the
Lord empty-handed. Honestly, I kid you not, that's
what she said. I don't want to go into the presence
of the Lord empty-handed. And immediately what rattled
through my mind at that time was the words of the hymn that
we're going to sing to close with shortly. Nothing in my hand
I bring. Nothing, simply to thy cross
I cling. Not as an object of idolatry,
but to that which was accomplished on that cross do I cling. Except
Christ, who is made unto me wisdom from God, and righteousness,
and sancti... Hold on, let me get it right.
Christ who is made unto us wisdom from God, and Oh dear, righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that's it. That is the key thing,
and it's trusting Him. Because how are we going to please
God and be acceptable enough to God to go into His kingdom? How are we going to be acceptable
to God? How are we going to please Him?
Only with faith. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. So will you heed the call of
God? In closing, turn back to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs
chapter 1 and verse 23. Let me just read these verses
down to verse 33 to you. This is a people who have got
the word of God, the clear message of God, yet they stick their
fingers in their ears and turn away. And this is what God says,
turn you at my reproof. I'm talking to you, says God,
but turn away, you know. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you and I will make known my words unto you, because I
have called and ye refused. I have stretched out my hand,
and no man regarded, but ye have set at naught all my counsel.
You have ignored what God said, and would have none of my reproof.
I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes,
when your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall
they call upon me. But I will not answer. Did you
hear that? He says to them, to people who've
ignored him, God says, they'll call upon me, but I won't answer.
They'll seek me early, but they won't find me. For that they
hated knowledge, and they did not choose the fear of the Lord.
They would have none of my counsel. They despised all of my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be
filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple
shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet. If you go to hell, it will be
because of your stubborn, hard, stony heart, refusing God. It says here that they made their
hearts, in verse 12, as an adamant stone. That is an extremely hard
stone. I've put a little piece in the
bulletin, and as I say, I've searched, is there any truth
in this? But John Trapp, who was a commentator in the 1600s,
he commented on this, that the adamant stone was a stone that
was like diamond, so hard, couldn't be softened. But if it was soaked
in goat's blood, it would soften and crumble. Now, I can't find
any evidence that that is literally true, but nevertheless, it's
a very good parable of the fact that the stony hearts of sinners,
like you and me by nature, when we're soaked in the precious
blood of our scapegoat, the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of that
scapegoat, that turns a stony heart into a heart of flesh.
May that be the experience of each and every one of us.