Well, as I said earlier, we're
looking to start a series in the prophecy of Zechariah, which
I don't know how long it will take, I don't know how it will
develop, but we look to the Lord to give guidance and leading.
But this week, to start with, I just want to look at the first
six verses. of chapter 1 and I've entitled
the message, Be Reconciled to God. You won't find those words
in the first six verses, it comes, that call to be reconciled to
God comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20, but it's
exactly what Zechariah 1 and the first six verses says. All
around, there's talk of world peace in the news. Oh, the striving
for world peace, when in actual fact, the world seems to be doing
all it can to foment war all over the place. They talk of
world peace, a new year, oh, that it might be a peaceful year.
They talk of these things, but there's no way of achieving it
in the control of sinful man. But above all, never mind world
peace, above all, We all, you, need peace with God. You need
reconciliation with God. You need to be reconciled to
God. Be reconciled to God. Because
why? We're mortal. We're mortal. We're going to die. We're appointed
to die. It's appointed to man to die once, and then the judgment. And we're going to face the judgment
as God's enemy. If you ignore him, if you disbelieve
him, If you take sides with this unbelieving world, you've got
to face him as his enemy. Yet he's the only source of life. Our God is the only source. You
only have life because there is a God, and he has spoken.
This God that nobody can see or has seen in His essence as
Spirit and God, He has spoken by His Word, by His Spirit. He comes and He speaks by His
Word. This book, the Bible, He speaks
by it. Will you listen? Will you listen?
He has pronounced that He is willing to make peace with any
and all who turn to Him. Now, I'm not going to get into
details about how that can possibly work in line with the doctrines
of sovereign grace. Of course it does. It's all completely
compatible. But if you read these verses,
these first six verses of Zechariah chapter one, God there is saying
quite clearly that he is willing to make peace with any and all
who turn to him. He will turn to them, but it's
only on his terms. You know, you can only make peace
on acceptable terms of peace. What are the terms that God proposes
for this peace? with those that are by nature
his enemies, by nature sinners, incompatible with his nature.
What are his terms? Answer? The Bible, from cover
to cover, is those terms that God has set down for peace with
him, for peace in God's Christ, and nowhere else, because we
only have peace with God in his Christ. The One set forth to
be the manifestation of the unknowable God, the revelation of the unseen
God. Peace with Him, peace with God
in the Christ of God, and nowhere else. And in this book, His Word,
from the book of Genesis right at the very start to the book
of Revelation right at the end, there is one consistent message. One consistent message. And it
is this. that God has made peace, not
for everybody in the world that ever lived, God has made peace
for an innumerable multitude chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He's made peace for that innumerable
multitude by himself, God incarnate, God, the unseen, unknowable God,
made known, made known. made known to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he came, and God, that infinite
God, who can comprehend God? Whose thoughts are higher than
our thoughts? We cannot get anywhere near it, but this, that infinite
God was contracted to the span of a man, to a baby even who
grew into a man. God incarnate, God in flesh,
satisfying divine justice. It's divine justice that we have
offended, all of us, with our sin. But for that multitude,
God incarnate came and satisfied divine justice. So that divine
justice says, as the judge might say to the defendant, the accused
in the court, when he's found not guilty, you are free to go.
The court has nothing against you. You are free to go. Justice
is satisfied that you can go free. And that's what God's justice
says to all who are in God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
that it's said that every village in England has a road leading
to London. I remember where I grew up in
the northwest of England. as a tiny little hamlet of just
a few dwellings. I don't know if it's still there.
It certainly was when I was growing up. This tiny little hamlet of
a couple of farms and a few dwellings in a little country lane, five
or six miles off the main roads. And there was a stone at the
side of the road there with an arrow on it saying London, 240
miles. Every little village has a road,
a sign of a road leading to London. Well, it's like that with the
Bible. Where do we go? The Bible, everywhere in it,
every part of it. If you look and you dig deeply
and long enough with God's help, you will find the road that leads
to Christ. Because these scriptures, as
he said himself, John 5, 39, these are they which speak of
him. It's the same story. We're at
the start of a new year, but we're not going to have a new
story. We're having the same old story, for that same old
story is ever new. Let's go searching. for spiritual
treasures. Do you know, it always amazes
me, just along the south coast from here, we've got what's called
the Jurassic Coast, and there's been lots of cliff falls and
stuff like that, and it reveals fossils. And I sometimes look
on the webcam, never mind just go there, I sometimes look on
the webcam at Chalmers, and you will see now, if you look on
it now, you will see, I don't know, 30 or 40 people, I would
guarantee it, there'll be 30 or 40 people searching for fossils
along that coast, as if it's going to give them some truth
of life, as if it's going to give them some truth that will
make their souls feel better. And it isn't. It's going to tell
them lies. It's going to confirm them in
their delusion. Well, let's go like fossil hunters, but not
looking at that pointless treasure. Let's look for treasures in the
scriptures, spiritual treasures in the scriptures. So this prophecy
of Zechariah, it's the next to the last book in the Old Testament.
There's only Malachi comes after it. So it's the next to the last
book, and it's from about 500 years before Christ himself came
into the world. Israel, the nation of Israel,
the descendants of Abraham, had symbolized God's people in this
world. They were very blessed, as it
says in Romans, you know, what advantage is there in being a
Jew? What advantage is there in being
a physical descendant of Abraham? And he says, Paul the apostle
says, there's much advantage in every way. Why? Because the
word of God was given to that people. and to that people alone. The word of God was given to
them. They were given the prophets by God to speak God's word to
them. God spoke through prophets. They
were given the gospel, the good news of salvation from sin in
symbol, in picture, in type, in the temple, in the priesthood,
in the in the animal blood sacrifices, all of that was picturing salvation,
redemption from sin, from the curse of sin, and peace with
God. All of it was done, there was
the priesthood, there was the proclamation of the truth of
God. But the people, despite all of their advantages, fell
again and again into idolatry, seeking after false gods. And
God promised that if you carry on in idolatry, Jerusalem will
be destroyed, the temple will be destroyed. The nation itself
was split in two. The northern ten kingdoms were
subsumed into the kingdom of Assyria, the empire of Assyria,
leaving Judah and and Benjamin down in the south as the only
ones left that were holding on to the temple worship and even
they went into idolatry and Jeremiah prophesied and Isaiah prophesied
that they would go into exile and Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon came
and took them into exile. Exile from Jerusalem. Jerusalem
was destroyed. Its temple, the glorious temple
of Solomon was destroyed and they went into 70 years of captivity. But God had said he wouldn't
leave them there. God had said 200 years before by the prophet
Isaiah that he would raise up an emperor, an emperor of a new
world empire called Cyrus. He actually names him. And I
literally believe this true. All of the clever dick theologians
say it can't possibly be true. How could he have got that so
right? It's all a con. But no, it's
true. God said, I'm going to raise
up a man called Cyrus, who will be the emperor, and he will send
you back to Jerusalem. And the history of it is recorded
in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, before the Psalms in the Bible.
It's recorded there, the rebuilding of the temple, then the rebuilding
of the walls around Jerusalem, all in accordance with what God
had promised. Cyrus was raised up. He was a
heathen emperor, but he was raised up by God. But they came back
and the work faltered. And they met opposition from
the local inhabitants who didn't want Jerusalem and its temple
to be restored. The work faltered, the people
lost heart. So God raised up two prophets,
the prophet Haggai and the prophet Zechariah. And if you look just
before the passage we're looking at this morning, that's the prophet
Haggai, just two chapters. And Zechariah, they were to stir
up the people. They were to stir up the people,
and they did stir up the people. Their prophecies stirred up the
people, and they got the bit between their teeth, and they
went, and they finished the work. And Jerusalem was defended, and
Jerusalem was inhabited, and there was a new temple in place
of that old temple. So what, you might say, that's
a very interesting thing to a historian, but what does it matter to me?
Well, well, think of the picture. The scattered, exiled people
of God, symbolical people of God, were gathered back to God's
symbolical kingdom, which was the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem. I'll say it again, the scattered,
exiled, symbolical people of God, for they were his people,
albeit symbolical, amongst them were his true people, but they
were gathered back to that which symbolized God's eternal kingdom,
and that was Jerusalem and that area. in exactly the same way,
in exactly the same way, God has a scattered multitude, a
scattered elect multitude, spread amongst all nations. He says
it from every tribe and tongue and kindred, from all nations.
God gathers his scattered elect multitude from all nations into
his glorious, eternal, spiritual kingdom. What is his eternal
spiritual kingdom? It's his church. It's his body,
his believing people. How does he gather them? How
can he gather sinners to himself? He has made peace for them. How has he made peace for them?
He's made peace for them in the blood of the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ, where he, as the substitute of his people, paid
the price of sin. That's the background to this
book, 500 years before Christ. And it's of interest to us, and
it's of the most relevance to us because of that very thing,
because it speaks of God gathering his scattered elect out of the
world into his church, into his church. So come with me and see
how God speaks peace to his people in Zechariah's prophecy. There
are some difficult things I'm sure we will find, but with God's
help we will see what he's saying. So first of all then, verse 1
of chapter 1, look there. In the eighth month, in the second
year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the
son of Berechiah, the son of Ido, the prophet. It's Zechariah
that was the prophet, not Ido was the prophet, saying what
he says. It was two months after Haggai
had spoken. Look at Haggai. Just turn back
one page. Haggai, chapter one and verse
one. In the second year of Darius, Darius, pronounce it however
you want, In the second year of Darius the King, in the sixth
month, same month, sorry, two months earlier than the eighth
month when Zechariah spoke, the word of the Lord came to Haggai,
the prophet, and to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, et cetera.
So there was just two months difference between them. Haggai
was two months ahead. Haggai was raised up to get the
people to do the physical work. Zechariah was raised up to get
the people to turn in their spirits spiritually to the Lord. Who
is Darius? He's following on from Cyrus.
He's Darius the Mede. Of the great empires of the world,
there was the Egyptian empire, then there was the Assyrian empire,
then there was the Chaldean, the Babylonian empire. And the
Babylonian empire, in one night, when Belshazzar was having his
feast, the writing came on the wall of the feasting house. You're
weighed in the balances and found wanting. And the doors were opened. The doors of the city were opened,
mysteriously, miraculously. and Cyrus and the Medes and the
Persians, the Medo-Persian Empire, came in and took over. And Darius
was one of those kings, Darius the Mede. It was in his reign
that this happened. The Persian Empire which was
the kingdom of Satan, wasn't it? All those empires were Satan's
attempt to crush the kingdom of God, to destroy the kingdom
of God. All of them from the foundation,
from Nimrod onwards in Genesis 11, they were all Satan's attempts
to destroy the kingdom of God, to make it of non-effect. It's
the empire of Satan, the kingdom of this world, yet God ordered
all things for his eternal purposes. In this, Persian empire, kingdom
of Satan, kingdom of the world, God ordered all things for his
eternal purposes of grace. It says, and I quote it regularly,
but in Proverbs 21 verse one, This is what we need to understand.
In these days of fear and turmoil in world history, it says this,
the king's heart, the ruler's heart, the king's, however evil
they are, and there are some evil people in the world and
some evil people in authority, But the king's heart is in the
hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he, God,
turns it, the king's heart, wherever he will. He makes the king do
what he wants to do. Back in ruined Jerusalem, at
God's behest, the people of God had gone back at God's behest
By the hand of God's instrument, Cyrus, the heathen emperor, and
then Darius, back in ruined Jerusalem, God who dwells in unapproachable
light, whom no man has seen nor can see, he spoke to his people
by the prophets. Hebrews 1 verse 1, God. who at sundry times, and in diverse
different manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. God speaks to his people. The devil will tell us, though
people never hear it as the voice of the devil, but it's true,
The devil tells us we are living in a purely material world. Everything is just purely material. It is explained purely by the
laws of physics as we know them. It is explained purely by the
rational reasoning of fallen man. But God has spoken. God has spoken. Have you heard
him? Has he spoken to you? As man
made in the image of God, because that's what we are, Genesis 1
tells us that, as man made in the image of God, you and I are
accountable to God. I know I told you this, but I'll
tell you again, it's just come to my mind. I once worked as
a teacher and had many discussions with a dear lady, a biology teacher,
who's passed from this life now, and we used to argue We used
to debate about evolution and about creation. She once said
this famous line to me. It was written notes via our
pigeon holes in the staff room, whereas you'd send emails today,
it was written notes there. And she said this, she said,
I hope evolution is true, because if it isn't, it means that I
am accountable to an almighty God, and the thought of that
appalls me. That's the reason they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge. You are commanded, I am commanded
from heaven to be holy because God is holy. It says that, Peter
quotes it in his epistle. Be ye holy for I am holy. And
we're not holy, we're sinful. We've fallen short of the glory
of God, all of us, each and every one of us. And God's view of
it, it says it in verse two. The Lord hath been so displeased
with our fathers, so displeased with them. Who are our fathers?
Well, with Adam. Our first father, our first parents,
selling out to Satan in the Garden of Eden. With our ancestors down
the generations, with our parents and grandparents and wider family.
with the culture that has moulded us into the thinking, breathing
beings that we are. That culture, God is sore displeased
with it. That culture, that godless culture
that denies God. It says in Psalm 7 verse 11,
that he, our God, is angry with the wicked every day. What is
it to be wicked? It's to disbelieve God. It's
to call God a liar. The world, the culture that we
live in, is all an offence to God. It's utterly incompatible
with his nature. It demands his justice that fall
upon us and separate us from him for eternity in hell. Do
you realise your eternal peril? Do you realize that you're on
the broad way that leads to destruction? You're on the broad way that
leads to a lost eternity in your natural state of alienation from
God? Do you realize that? Oh, that
you might be getting some echoes, because as that hymn says, A
sinner, one who knows he's a sinner, all have sinned but not many
know and acknowledge it. A sinner who knows he's a sinner
is a sacred thing, a holy thing. Why? A sinner, a sacred thing,
it's a contradiction. How can that be? A sinner is
a sacred thing because The Holy Ghost, God's Holy Spirit is the
one who by revelation from on high, spiritual revelation, has
told him that he's so. Has shown him that he's so. Shown
him that God is a consuming fire against sin. Shown him that God,
it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God for judgment. And so then, as Paul says in
2 Corinthians 5 and verse 11, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Flee from the wrath to come was
what John the Baptist said. Flee from the wrath to come.
Knowing the terror of the Lord, what it is to enter the presence
of God as an unredeemed sinner, answerable for your own sins,
is a terrible thing, a fearful thing to fall into his hands.
So knowing that terror, says Paul, we persuade men Persuade
men to do what? Answer, hear what he says via
Zechariah. And here we have, in verse three,
a command and a promise. In verse three of Zechariah chapter
one, therefore, say thou unto them, You my prophet, you my
prophet, therefore say thou unto them, thus saith the Lord of
hosts. Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord
of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
Look how many times he says, he uses the title, the Lord of
hosts. The Lord is in small capital
letters, which means the hidden essence, I can't put it into
words, The being of God, the holy God himself, the Father,
thus says the Lord of hosts, turn to me, turn to me, and if
you turn to me, I will turn to you. God, who would justly condemn
you to hell for eternity because you're a sinner, makes the most
wonderful proposition to you. Do you hear that? God, who would
be just to turn you into hell for what you are in his presence,
has made the most wonderful proposition. He says it here. He says, turn
to me and I will turn to you, just as you are. Oh, well, what
do I need to do to be fit to turn to him? No, just as you
are. There are no conditions of fitness
specified. God calls on his preachers to
whom he gives his word by his spirit to declare his command. It's a command that he gives,
a command that you turn to him. Who? gives that command. The
Lord of Hosts gives that command. To whom should we turn? The Lord
of Hosts is the one to whom we should turn. There's no higher
authority. In religious terms, how can there
be? This is no religious bishop or archbishop or other authority
that's giving this command. They're weak and frail and failing,
as we see all of the time. No, it's not religious authorities
that give this command to turn to God. But it's God himself,
the Lord of hosts, who cannot lie. Sinner. Sinner. I'm not fit to turn to God. No,
you're not. But he says, turn unto me, just
as you are. Turn unto me, as that old hymn
says, just as I am, without one plea, but thy blood was shed
for me, O Lamb of God, I come. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling. No fitness does he desire, but
to feel our need of him. Won't he destroy me? I'm a sinner,
turning to God. No, he says, and I will turn
to you. Did he not mean it then, about
being angry with the wicked every day? Has he gone soft? Has God
gone soft? Not a bit of it. So who's he
calling to? I want you to turn, and this
just gives us a taste of what we're gonna come across in this
book, but I want you to turn to chapter 10, Zechariah chapter
10, just for a moment. And in verse five, well, let's start with verse
three. Let's start with verse three. He's talking about false
prophets. My anger was kindled against
the shepherds, the prophets, and I punished the goats. For
the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Judah. God talks about him having a
flock. Jesus talked about him having
his sheep, his flock. Now go down to verse five. And
they shall be as mighty men which tread down their enemies in the
mire of the streets in the battle, and they shall fight because
the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded. And I will strengthen the house
of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring
them again to place them, for I have mercy upon them. And they
shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord
their God, and I will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be
like a mighty man. All these are terms of the ancient
people, but they're terms which mean the people of God, the church
of God. They shall be like a mighty man. And their heart shall rejoice
as through wine. Yea, their children shall see
it and be glad. Their heart shall rejoice in
the Lord. Now listen to this. I will hiss
for them. and gather them, for I have redeemed
them, and they shall increase as they have increased, and I
will sow them among the people, and they shall remember me in
far countries, and they shall live with their children and
turn again, and I will bring them again also out of the land
of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria, and I will bring
them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and place shall
not be found for them, That's God saying how he calls his elect
out of this fallen world, symbolized by those people. He calls his
elect, I will hiss for them. It means, I think it means, he
will whistle for them. You know, like you might whistle
for your dog, or the shepherd rounding up his sheep. I will
whistle for them, I will gather them, I will call them to myself.
He calls those whom he has, look there in verse eight, why does
he call them? Sinners. unfit for his presence. I have redeemed them. I have
redeemed them. What does that mean? It means
he's purchased them. What has he purchased them from?
He's purchased them from the curse and the bondage of sin. They're scattered throughout
the world, in world society, in world's fallen empires, the
kingdoms of this world, but called, hissed for, whistled for by the
preaching of the gospel. by his spirit speaking to his
preachers, whistle for them to say, turn unto me and I will
turn unto you. In Ezekiel 16, there's a lovely
picture of a child born in filth and dirt and it's blood and it's
not properly washed and salted and done all the things for it.
And God says, and when I passed by and looked at you, that's
us, you and me in our sinful state. He said, it was the time
of love. God says to his people in their
sin, it is the time of love. And he whistles for his sheep
to turn unto him. He whistles for them. Turn to
John chapter 10. John chapter 10 and verse 11. Jesus, our God incarnate, says,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. The good shepherd doesn't just
round up some sheep and that's okay. No, he has to die for those
sheep so that they might be his sheep, that they might be acceptable
to God in him by the fact that he's redeemed his people from
the curse of the law. He came to redeem them from sin's
curse, for cursed is everyone. that continues not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Galatians
3.13, but Christ has redeemed us, his people. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. How has he done that? By being
made a curse for us. And he died. Cursed is everyone
that hangs on the cursed tree. Cursed is everyone, that's quoting
Deuteronomy. Cursed is everyone that hangs
for shame on the cursed tree. the substitute for his sinful
people, bore their sins in his own body on the cursed tree and
hung there and poured out his lifeblood as payment to the justice
of God for the sins of his people. And when he calls, when he calls,
look down at verse 27 of John 10. When he calls, he says this,
my sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. God
has his sheep. Christ died for the sheep. God
died for the sheep. God purchased his church with
his own blood, it says in Acts 20 verse 28. He purchased the
church with his own blood, and he calls, and he says, my sheep,
hear my voice. How does he bring his voice?
By his spirit, through his preachers, through his prophets. That's
how he brings it. Are you hearing his voice now?
Are you hearing it? Are you willing to turn to him?
Are you willing to seek him? Look what he says in Isaiah 55.
Turn back over there. Isaiah 55 and the first three
verses. everyone that thirsteth. Are
you thirsty to be at peace with God, to be reconciled to God?
Are you thirsty to have that life-giving water of the Holy
Spirit? Everyone that thirsts, oh, everyone
that thirsts, if you hear me, if you know you're thirsty, come
ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk.
For what money? I haven't got money. Without
money, and without price. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread? Why do you spend, why do you
waste your money for the things of this life? Why do you keep
trying the broken cisterns? I tried the broken cisterns,
Lord, but ah, the waters failed, and even as I stooped to drink,
they mocked me as I wailed. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn't
satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good,
and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear,
and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Just look down a few more verses
to verse six, just a couple of verses. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. What a blessed, glorious, gracious
call from God to his people. He whistles for his people. He
hisses for them. He calls them. He calls them
by preaching. And he makes promises that he
will make his people, his people, his flock, willing in the day
of his power. Psalm 110 and verse three. I will make my people willing
in the day of my power is what he says. He calls to them. You
say, what if I'm not one of his redeemed sheep? I can't come
until I'm certain that I'm one of his redeemed sheep. No, you
only know that you are one of his redeemed sheep. by turning
to God and believing on his son. Let me turn you to John chapter
three, just for a moment. John chapter three in verse 14.
Listen to this. This is the words of God himself,
clothed in flesh. He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man, he himself,
be lifted up. He's speaking about a cross,
lifted up on a cross to die. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Look, just as Moses said,
look to the serpent on the pole, the serpent in the wilderness,
look and you will be healed of the snake bites. Whosoever believeth
in him, that here is God dying to pay the penalty for my sin,
that I might have peace with God, that I might have eternal
life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. You know who it is that comes.
He says, just a couple of chapters later in John chapter six and
verse 37, he says, that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. What if
I'm not amongst that elect multitude? What if I'm not amongst the scattered
sheep of God? Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Verse 44, no man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him and I will
raise him up at the last day. The promise is true, what he
says. In Zechariah 1 and verse 3, turn to me and I will turn
to you. Now quickly, just to close, verses
four to six, be ye not as your fathers unto whom the former
prophets have cried, saying, thus saith the Lord, turn ye
now. But they did not hear nor hearken to me, said the Lord.
There's an admonition here, and we'll close with this. The culture
you and I have come from rejects God totally. It ignores his call. It continues headlong to a lost
eternity, along with everyone else. Strength in numbers? No,
there's no strength in these numbers. There's just a broad
way that leads to destruction. Don't be like them. Be ye not
as your fathers, he says here. Be ye not as your fathers. Come
out from among them. Revelation 18, verse four. I
heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people. Come out of this lost, fallen
world. that ye be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive
not of her plagues. Perhaps you are somewhat like
Saul of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus, doing his religious
business as he thought he was, and he was stopped dead in his
tracks by the call of the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts,
who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
It's hard for you to kick against the bricks. Will you heed his
call? and turn unto him, turn unto
me, and I will turn unto you. You say, I don't know what to
say. I'm unskilled in these things. I don't have the words. What
do I do? Do I close my eyes, put my hands
together? What do I say? Well, can I suggest something
like this? Something like this. It's for
you, if you seek the Lord, you say, teach me, teach me, Lord,
teach me what to say. But something like this. Lord
God, source of my life, ruler of everything, acknowledging
who God is, I want to know you, but I know I don't know you.
I want to follow where you lead me. Teach me your ways. Show me my sin. Show me that
I'm a sinner. By your Holy Spirit, teach me
that I'm a sinner. Show me my need of forgiveness. Show me the poverty of my soul. Show me how bankrupt I am in
terms of spiritual currency for eternity. and do as you have
promised. You have promised that if I turn
unto you, you will turn unto me. Turn unto me! Shine your
divine light into my dark soul. That light comes in the face
of Jesus Christ. Grant me the gift from the Holy
Spirit of repentance to rethink to be godly sorrowful for my
sin, to seek the Lord, to believe the Lord's word, to have faith,
that gift which is from God alone. Show me your Son, show me God
revealed in the Son of God, and show me the cleansing power of
his precious blood, and speak peace to me, and set me in your
eternal kingdom. He will not refuse you. He won't. Amen.