Okay, well we are still in the
book of the prophet Zechariah for another week. This series
which began with a message in Hosea several weeks ago is turning
out to be one with just the odd message from all of these so-called
minor prophets. But we're staying a little while
in the prophecy of Zechariah. Not only is it not so minor at
14 chapters long, but it is so relevant and so rich, so full
of the things of Christ. We are living in very strange
times. All the world will know that
the queen of this country died last Thursday and a new king
was installed and has been sworn in. There's a new king and in
the same week in this country, I think never before has this
been done, there is a new prime minister. all in the one same
week. And the Queen who died on Thursday
was the one who we all saw inviting the new Prime Minister to form
a government just two days before. Strange times. And I'm sure all
of these are well-intentioned. You know, people go into government
generally for good intentions. But basically, the whole situation
is hopeless. Because we live in a fallen world.
What do I mean by a fallen world? I mean a world that rejects the
sovereignty of God, that rejects the existence of God. And it's
a world which is reaping that which has been sown. What has
been sown? The seeds of hopelessness, hopeless
prospects. So many people are despairing.
of life, of the situation. They see no prospect of improvement,
no prospect of increasing prosperity. In fact, the very opposite. It
more and more feels as though life in this world is a few short
years and then death. It never was long. Three score
years and ten, says the scripture, after the huge ages that the
pre-flood people used to live to, three score years and ten. And if by strength, says God,
they happen to live to four score years, then they're not getting
any better. As Ecclesiastes 12 says, they're
the evil days, the evil days that come upon us. Why? Because
the body starts to creak. and to grow weak, and the things
that used to be easy and good are no longer easy and good as
they are in your youth. Fleeting happiness, you might
say, is life. Fleeting happiness in a sea of
sorrows. Generally speaking, it's a veil
of tears, a sea of sorrows. But here, in Zechariah chapter
9 and verse 9, If I turn to the right page, Zechariah chapter
9 and verse 9, we read, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee! Rejoice greatly! Here is a call
for great rejoicing. It's a call from God to his people,
the daughter of Zion, to rejoice greatly. Last week, in Zechariah
chapter 6, we were told to behold the man whose name is the branch. This week, we're told, behold
thy king. Behold thy king. The man whose
name is the branch, and thy king that we're told to behold, these
are one and the same. Who is it? It's the promised
seed of the woman. What do I mean? Genesis 3, 15.
After the fall, when Satan beguiled Eve and the man fell into sin,
and in chapter 3 of Genesis, verse 15, we read about God coming
to pronounce his verdict. Satan, the serpent, you know,
cursed because of what he had done in beguiling Eve. But God promised there that the
seed of the woman, one who would come from that woman who was
beguiled, one who would be made of a woman when the fullness
of the time was come, That one would come and he would deal
with what the serpent had done in bringing about the fall. He
is the Messiah, the promised one of God. He is the branch,
the man whose name is the branch, of which we read so much in scripture.
see last week's message. This is Christ Jesus. Jesus, Saviour. Same name as
Joshua, Saviour. Christ Jesus. God, our Saviour. Jehovah Jesus. That's no blasphemy
to say that, that is absolutely true. Our God is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is Jehovah Jesus. He is the
only Saviour. the only Saviour. He is the Saviour
of His people. What does He save them from?
The condemnation of sin, the condemnation that is due to their
sin. He saves His people from the curse of sin, from the curse
of the law, which says that the soul that sins, it shall die. The wages of sin is death, but
He is the one who gives the gift of God. The gift of God is eternal
life through Christ Jesus our Lord. the pinnacle of this life. I've said that for the majority,
it is an experience of fleeting happiness in a sea of sorrows,
a few short years, and then death. But do you know the pinnacle
of life, the pinnacle of life experience, is to know God. It's to know this God who is
revealed in Jesus Christ. It is to be at peace with Him
eternally. Oh, how blessed for your soul,
your immortal soul that must meet God, for it's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment, to know that you have
peace with God eternally. And how do we know? The Bible,
from cover to cover. is God's declaration to His people. Will you hear it? Can you hear
it? It's His declaration of His accomplishment of that state
of eternal peace that Christ has accomplished in becoming
man. God become man. God incarnate. God contracted to a span that
He, through the suffering of death, might conquer him who
has the power of death, that is, the devil. And he's done
it. It is all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's chosen multi-ethnic
multitude. Multi-ethnic of all tongues.
That's what it says. Revelation says, of every tongue
and tribe and kindred. Every tongue and tribe and kindred.
A people that were the Jews in the Old Testament as the set-apart
people for God. even though they were not all
Israel that were of Israel. They thought that they were in
that privileged position just because they happened to be born
genetically into that line. But no, the people that God chose
in Christ before the foundation of the world is a multi-ethnic
multitude, a multitude that no man can number. and there made
the righteousness of God by union with Him, with the Lord Jesus
Christ, betrothed to Him before the beginning of time. Are you
seeking for divine truth? Would you like to know the truth
of God? Would you like to know the true
bliss of this life in knowing the living God and Jesus Christ
whom he has sent? Well listen to this, John 17
verse 3, this is Jesus himself in his high priestly prayer the
night before he went to the cross, a few hours later, six, seven
hours later, He was nailed to a cruel tree, the tree on Calvary,
the cross on Calvary. And He said this in His prayer,
this is life eternal. Remember what I said, that the
pinnacle of this life is knowing God. This is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. Because we only know the true
God in knowing Jesus Christ. As Philip, the disciple, said
to Jesus that night before, he said, show us the Father, and
that will suffice us, that will be enough, that will satisfy
us. And Jesus said to him, Philip, have I been so long with you,
and you have not seen me? He who has seen me has seen the
Father. What a claim, what a claim. This
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Do you aspire to that pinnacle
of abundant life? It's abundant life. John chapter
10 verse 10, I am come, said Jesus, that they might have life. Who? His people might have life,
that multi-ethnic multitude. I am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Abundant
life, real life, true life. lived life, lived life knowing
the source of life, for life is in God alone, life is from
God alone. There is no life without our
God. And this is why Christ came,
that his people might have abundant life, where the world all around,
through spiritual ignorance and blindness, does not see God to
be so blessed that you have your eyes open to see the Living God,
not physically, but by faith, to see the salvation that He
has accomplished, not in any mysterious way, but through His
Word, by His Spirit, applying the truth to your heart. Well,
let me try and show you more of the wonderful truth revealed
by God's Spirit in this chapter 9 of Zechariah. We see the triumph
of gospel grace. The triumph of gospel grace. In a world that seems so despairing,
as politicians flounder to accomplish any triumph at all, we have the
assurance, as the believing people of God, And you who might not
be believing yet, hear the call. We have the assurance of the
triumph of gospel grace. For since the fall in the Garden
of Eden, all people are naturally alienated from God by sin. You and me. That's our natural
state before God. Ever since the fall, when Adam
disobeyed God and listened to his wife, and for the love of
his wife, he fell into sin. And the Bible exposes it for
what it is. You read the Old Testament and
you read a very gloomy account again and again and again, but
it is just this. It's because of the reality of
sin. The root of sin is unbelief. Because the devil said to Eve,
has God really said? You don't believe that, do you?
The root of sin is unbelief. And unbelief is calling God,
who cannot lie, a liar. You're telling God he's a liar
because you don't believe him. You don't believe his word. That
sin, that's the root of all sin. Isaiah 59 verse 2 says this,
your iniquities, you people, like you and me, you people,
your iniquities have separated between you and your God and
your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear and
his justice is strict. And all sin must pay a penalty. There is a penalty for all sin.
It demands the payment of a penalty. God would cease to be God if
every sin did not strictly receive its just wages. I said already,
Romans 6, which verse, the last verse of Romans 6, the wages
of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Christ Jesus our Lord. But the wages of sin, what
we deserve for what we are, and you say, well, that's not my
fault that I'm made a sinner by being descended from Adam.
Well, the proof is there. You commit sins every day. You
commit sins, I commit sins in thought, word, and deed every
day. And the wages of that sin is
death, eternal separation from God, alienation from God, you're
naturally the enemy of God. But Zechariah was inspired of
God, God's Spirit, to prophesy concerning Christ who would come
and pay the penalty that is due to the sin for his elect multitude
in their place, that they the people for whom he paid the penalty,
he for whom he took their sins upon him and suffered the punishment
due to it, that those people, that multitude, might go free. As he says in the synagogue in
Nazareth, wasn't it, where he came? Or was it Capernaum? I
can't remember. But they handed him the scroll
of the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he said, he read the words
about being, proclaiming liberty to the captives, release from
prison to those who are in prison. And he said, this day is this
scripture fulfilled in your hearing. Why? Because he had come to pay
the penalty that would cause them to go free. If you are accused
of some crime for which the punishment is a fine, and somebody else
stands up even in these days and says, I will pay that fine
for them. Once that fine is paid to the justice of the realm that
we live in, you go free, because the realm has no more requirement
of you, for that penalty has been paid in your place. Now,
all Scripture speaks of Christ coming to pay the penalty for
his people. John 5, 39, Jesus said, these
scriptures are they that speak of me. He, with the disciples
on the Emmaus road, beginning at Moses and the prophets, the
first books of the Bible, he expounded to them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself. He opened their understanding. that they might understand the
Scriptures and see there the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it
is profitable for doctrine. But do you know, Zechariah is
especially rich. And that's why I'm picking out
two or three messages from this rich store. In Zechariah chapter
9, the first eight verses, most commentators see only historical
prophecies concerning Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes. But if you look through the lens
of Christ, and his gospel, and his purpose, you see heathen
peoples, Gentile peoples, being subdued by gospel grace. When Peter was reading it earlier,
there's times when the scripture almost shocks us, as it says
in verse six, and a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut
off the pride of the, oh, shock, we go, oh, shock, what was that
word he just said? Yes, yes, there it is, there it is. What
it's meaning is, one who by nature is not numbered among God's people,
but yet by grace is made a member of his people. You see, look,
I will take away his blood out of his mouth and his abominations
from between his teeth. But he that remaineth, even he
shall be for our God. He will be converted to God.
He will be for our God. He shall be as a governor in
Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. The foreigners would be the people
of God. It says it again and again throughout
Scripture. And I will encamp about mine
house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because
of him that returneth. And no oppressor shall pass through
them any more, for now I have seen with mine eyes. What has
he seen? We'll see it in a minute. There
it is, clearly. God is talking about converting
heathen peoples from their ways by showing them the truth of
God and gospel grace in Christ. Even he shall be for our God. What has he seen that's persuaded
him? End of verse 8. Now I have seen with mine eyes
by faith By the sight of the soul, he has seen the glory of
God. What is the glory of God? It
is redemption which is accomplished. It is salvation accomplished.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, says God. I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. It's sovereign.
but it's totally effectual. God accomplishes the salvation
of his people and he gives his people sight of the soul to see
it. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
8. By grace are you saved. What
is it that saves you? Grace, the grace of God. God
choosing a people before the beginning of time, and putting
them in His Son, that His Son might go and pay the penalty
of their sins, and make them the righteousness of God in Him,
and clear away their sin debt, so that the sins will be looked
for and they will not be found. That is accomplished in Christ. And he says, by grace are you
saved, but how do you know it? By grace are you saved through
faith, through the sight of the soul, through what you see of
what he's accomplished. And where did you get it? It's
not of yourselves, he says. You didn't have it. You know,
you weren't better than others because you had faith and they
didn't. God gave you it. It is the gift of God. It is
not of yourselves. It's faith, soul sight, seeing
the glory of God in Christ. Because in God, in Christ, in
the gospel of His grace, there is purpose, there is hope, there
is salvation from sin's curse. And in this world of hopelessness,
for those who see the living God in Christ and trust Him and
walk in His ways with the hope of eternal glory, there is a
confident hope. And therefore the prophet says,
I have seen with mine eyes. And what has he seen? Rejoice
greatly, your king's coming to you. He's seen the king of his
people coming. Who is called to rejoice? It's
the daughter of Zion. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation. The daughter of Zion. The daughter
of Jerusalem, that's the church. That's the church of the living
God. That's the bride of Christ. She. She. She whose name we saw
last week in Jeremiah 23 and 30. She whose name is the Lord
our righteousness. Because she's married, betrothed
to the one Christ whose name is the Lord our righteousness.
This is the elect of God, chosen of God from before the beginning
of time. As Paul puts it in Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 4, and then again in 2 Timothy chapter 1
and verse 9, it couldn't be clearer. God before the beginning of time,
before anything was done, chose a people for his own glory. A
multi-ethnic, innumerable multitude, loved with everlasting love. He says, I have loved you, his
people, with an everlasting love. Therefore, with cords of love,
I have drawn you, all united with God in Christ. Christ is
the God-man in whose image Adam was made. You know, it says Adam
was made in the image of God. Whose image was he made in? He
was made in the image of the God-man, who is Christ, who is
known also in Scripture as the second Adam. and the people were
betrothed to Him, pending that eternal marriage supper of the
Lamb at the end of time. Read it in Revelation chapter
19. The marriage supper is ready, and the people of God are prepared
and clothed for it. How are they called to rejoice?
To what degree are they called to rejoice? They're called to
rejoice greatly, greatly. Rejoice greatly, with shouts
of joy. You read it elsewhere in the
scripture, in Isaiah chapter 12 and verse 6, we read this,
Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy
One of Israel in the midst of thee. Do you see how in the purposes
of God in the Scriptures, in this firm foundation that is
such a blessing to us, that the same Holy Spirit inspired in
different ages, different writers, to come forth with exactly the
same theme of Christ coming to accomplish redemption and therefore
rejoice with shouts and with gladness in an age which is an
age of such despair and hopelessness and the fleeting grasping for
things that you know are not going to come true. We know that
our politicians, despite all the promises and commitments
that they make this week, they are powerless, truly, to do anything
really effective about it. But this is accomplished. This
is accomplished. And you can't keep silent. If
you know it, If you're an object of it, if you're someone who's
experienced it, you can't keep silent. Rejoice greatly in this
hopeless world, in this barren land where there is no water,
as the scripture says again and again. There is nothing of value
that is lasting to see. This is what we're told to do.
Behold, thy King comes to you. Behold your King. Who is your
King? The Lord Jesus Christ is your King. Behold your King.
You citizens of Zion, by faith, you who have believed the Lord
Jesus Christ, look at Him and rejoice greatly. Why? Why should you look at him and
rejoice? Why should you look at him? I mean, we look at our
newly proclaimed king in this country, and I can honestly say
I do not wish him ill at all, but what do I see of comfort
and assurance when I look at this king? When I look at God's
King, set upon His holy hill of Zion, I see that He is just
and having salvation. That's why, to rejoice greatly,
He is just and He has salvation. He maintains perfect divine justice
regarding sin, because every sin meets its just reward, its
just penalty, because He took it and He bore it and He paid
for it. And yet, and yet, God remains
perfectly just, but He's able, because of that, to save sinners
from their sins. There's an eternal dilemma. an
eternal dilemma that Job posed the question about. How should
a man be just with God? And we know that in a man's own
efforts, it's utterly impossible. Jesus said at one time, talking
to the disciples about the rich young ruler who had come, and
he said, how hard it is for a rich man to pass into the kingdom
of heaven. He said it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go into
heaven. So you say, oh gosh, does this
mean just material monetary riches? No, no. It means those who are
rich in their own perception of their own goodness and worth.
whether that be physical riches or moral uprightness or whatever
it might be. It's impossible on the basis
of that to go into heaven. It's as impossible as it is for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And so the disciples
said, well, who then can be saved? This is impossible. And Jesus
said, yes, it is impossible with men, but not with God. For with
God, all things are possible. For how is it possible with God?
He has taken the sins of His people that would keep them out
of heaven, and He has loaded them on His beloved Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. God made flesh. God contracted
to a span. And in that situation, He made
Him who knew no sin to be sin, the sin of His people for us,
that we, His people, might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Everything that God requires,
He makes His people in Christ. All the sins of saved sinners
were paid for by the Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. Your King who is God, your King who is, we read in
Revelation, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is
perfectly just. He never ceases to be just, for
He would cease to be God. And yet, in complete Conformance
with that, He is able to save sinners from their sins, from
the curse of sin. As Isaiah 45, 21 says, He is
a just God. Yes, He remains perfectly just.
and a Saviour. A just God and a Saviour. Romans
3.26 puts it this way, that God might be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. He remains perfectly just, perfectly
in conformance with his own unchangeable law and justice, and yet is able,
because of what Christ has done, to justify, justly justify, to
declare without sin and without condemnation and without penalty
to pay for, to declare that, that they are the people of God.
Do you have a notion of your natural hopelessness before the
justice of God. Ephesians 2 verse 12 says this,
that without Christ we're without hope, having no hope and without
God in the world. Oh, look at the billions of people
who know nothing of the true God. They're without hope. Their
only hope is a few fleeting years and fleeting happiness occasionally
in a sea of sorrows. Without God in the world is a
dreadful state to be in. God who made all things, God
who made you, God to whom you must give account, God whom you
must meet in judgment. To have no hope and be without
Him in this world is a dreadful state. With your sin separating
you from God, justly condemning you to hell, and impossible for
you to make any amends, then seeing the One, in whom your
debt is cleared, and your salvation from hell is made certain. Rejoice
greatly, he says, rejoice greatly. Look at him, look at this king,
he is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass,
and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. What strange words for
this time. This is about somewhere between
400 and 500 years before Christ came. He says, look at your king,
He's lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal
of an ass. About 500 years, four to 500
years before Christ's earthly ministry, Zachariah prophesied
exactly what we read at the start of the service in Matthew chapter
21. Matthew chapter 21. Jesus sent
some disciples to go and find an ass tied, and a colt, the
young of that ass, the female ass. Loose them and bring them
to me. And if any man say, ought unto
you, you shall say, the Lord hath need of them. You see, he
controls all things. He controlled this. And straightway,
The person who owns the ass and its colt will send them, because
he knows who it's for. All this was done 450-500 years
later, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,
the prophet Zechariah, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion,
Behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass,
and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went and did
as Jesus commanded them, and they put their clothes on the
ass and they set him thereon. It was the cult of the ass, I'm
pretty sure, that he rode upon, for reasons I'll tell you in
just a moment. How was God's justice maintained
and salvation accomplished? How was it maintained and salvation
accomplished? Look at verse 11 of Zechariah
chapter 9. How was God's justice maintained
and salvation accomplished? As for thee also, by the blood
of thy covenant, or whose covenant is by blood, I have sent forth
thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. By the blood
of the covenant, or by the one whose covenant is by blood, I
have released the prisoners from the pit. Release them from a
pit. Blood for release. Blood for
release. 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's the blood, the blood of
Jesus Christ, of which the animal sacrifice is blood, was all just
a picture. Jesus, the man, Jesus, the king,
the man whose name is the branch, the king we're to behold. He
went to pay the sin penalty of his sin with his own lifeblood. Where would he do it? At Jerusalem,
the place where Abraham took his only Isaac, willing to sacrifice
him as a picture. The supreme king rode in humility. Can you see this? The supreme
king. The king of the universe, that
he should have the preeminence. There is none higher. There is
none other name under heaven, given whereby we must be saved.
He is the highest name. The supreme king rode in humility
on an ass's colt. Why on an ass's colt? Because
it had to be one that was never ridden before. The law of Moses
demanded that, that it had never to be ridden. So it wouldn't
be the ass herself She'd been used for work, and now she'd
had this foal, this colt, and he was to ride on that. And the
people cried in Matthew 21 and verse 9. Look what they said. The multitudes that went before
and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna! Hosanna means save me,
Lord, save me. They cried to him coming into
Jerusalem. We call it Palm Sunday, where
they strew palm leaves and branches and clothes on the road for him
to walk over as he rode on this colt of an ass. They followed
crying, Hosanna to the son of David, to David's greatest son,
great David's greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said
this in fulfillment of scripture. They said, blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he that cometh. Hosanna
in the highest, save me in the highest. And when he was come
to Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying, who is this? And
the multitude said, this is Jesus. the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Oh how lowly, just the prophet
of Nazareth of Galilee. Yet blessed is he that comes
in the name of the Lord. Later that week, that same week,
most of them cried out, crucify him, crucify him. When Pilate
said, I find no fault with him and would release him, crucify
him. Why did he come riding on an ass's colt? Because it is
a picture of fallen, stubborn man. Look at this in Job chapter
11 and verse 12. For vain man would be wise, though
man be born like a wild ass's colt. Hear that? Is that not
it? It's a picture of man in his
fallen, stubborn state. You know, you look at donkeys
and you think, what cute little animals. There's lots of them
in the new forest just up the road from us. What cute little
animals. They're very stubborn. They're very unwilling, they're
very stubborn. Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse
24. Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 24 says
this, a wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the
wind at her pleasure. In her occasion, who can turn
her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves.
In her month, they shall find her. See, we're like a wild ass,
willful, committed to its own ways. God came. in the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet without sin, to redeem his people. He took on him the likeness of
sinful flesh, that in that flesh he would do what he as God, as
spirit, could not do, which was to suffer and to die, to pay
the penalty for sin. So he became man, and he rode
the cult of the ass because it had to be previously unused for
any human labor in accordance with Moses' law. For fallen man,
thy king, came in humility. Notice the kings of this earth.
In this country, and they say no country does it better than
this country, when the new king is installed and crowned, I don't
know when that will be, and when the funeral of the queen will
take place a week tomorrow, there will be enormous pomp and ceremony. not humility in any way, but
this king, the king of kings, came riding on the colt of an
ass, as a man, on the picture of a fallen, stubborn man, to
redeem that man with his blood. He is, as Matthew 11, 29 says,
meek and lowly of heart, though he is supreme, though he is above
all things, though nothing can stay his will and say to him,
what are you doing? He is meek and lowly of heart. He displays His supreme divine
power in His earthly ministry, in His miracles, in stilling
the storm, in raising the dead, in healing the blind. In all
of these things He displayed His supreme divine power. He
ordered all events exactly in accordance with His Word for
the accomplishment of His covenant promises. Not like earth's tyrants. supreme but meek, calling sinners
his friends. He said, you are my friends,
sinners. They called him the friend of
sinners. he elevates hell-deserving sinners to the throne room of
heaven. And from the riches of heaven
to the obedience of death, he came to accomplish that. As Philippians
2 says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Taking the
form of a servant, he became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter
8 and verse 9, 2nd Corinthians 8 and verse 9, For ye know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, there
was nobody richer, Yet for your sakes, the sake of his people,
he became poor. How poor he became, that ye,
through his poverty, might be rich. Oh, the accomplishment
of grace, the blessedness of grace. And by this he has created
peace. In verse 10, Zechariah chapter
9 and verse 10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and
the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off
and he shall speak peace unto the heathen and his dominion
shall be from sea to sea and from river to the ends of the
earth. He has made peace through the blood of his cross, is what
Colossians 1 verse 20 says. It's the blood of propitiation. Propitiation is that which turns
away the anger of God. God is angry with the wicked
every day, says Psalm 7. angry with the wicked every day.
Our God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing. Not it
was, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. Yet peace to the heathen. You know the thoughts that God
says he has towards his people? Thoughts of peace. Jeremiah 29
verse 11. And he is the one whose dominion
is total. Total dominion. Don't fear when
you look at this world, child of God. The one who is on the
throne, the king that comes to you, is totally in control of
everything. This world is decaying towards
its end. But the king of God's kingdom
is triumphant. Have you beheld him, as this
calls you to do? coming to you in His Word. How does He come to you? You
won't see Him riding on an ass's colt today, but He comes to you
in His Word, as you read it. He comes to you by His Spirit,
as the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and applies them to
you. He comes to you through the testimony
of His witnesses. You know, Revelation talks about
His two witnesses. those who minister the gospel
of grace in preaching, and the people who believe it and tell
others they witness to it. Have you heard him calling you
to come to him? He says that. The verse before,
which says that he's meek and lowly of heart. Matthew 11, 28.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. I will give you rest. He has bought that rest at great
cost, and it is his to give to whom he will, not just for now
in this life, but for eternity. Rejoice greatly, O my soul.