You're good to go. Once again,
it's just a delight to be here. I had a wonderful visit with
your pastor this afternoon, and I had a wonderful meal with some
gentlemen. I'm thankful. Would you turn
with me to the Gospel according to Zechariah? I started calling
all of the Old Testament prophets the Gospel according, because
it truly is the Gospel. It is found here. In the book
of Zechariah, would you turn there with me? I'd just like
to read a few verses before we go into our message. The book
of Zechariah is just filled with passages of Scripture that share
with us the glories of our Savior and the glories of His salvation
for His people. what protection He has for them,
and what it cost Him to give us that protection. What glory
we have in His resurrected being and person. And here, one of
the outstanding verses that came to me was Zechariah 1 and verse
9, because this verse of Scripture shares with me that it's okay
for us to ask God, what do these things mean? Would you look at
that verse with me? Zechariah 1 and verse 9. And
then said I, Zachariah said this, Oh my Lord, what are these? It's okay. God shares with us
in that verse of Scripture, it is okay for us to ask questions
about God's Word. We are so finite, and He is so
infinite, and His Word is so precious, and yet we read passages
of Scripture that we say, what does this mean? Nine times, I
believe it is, in this book alone, Zechariah asked questions similar
to that, about what does this mean? What is this? And if you
look at this, there's a vision and it has some horses in it,
and most people just immediately jump into that as going to be
end-time stuff. That's not what it's about. It's
about the glory of God, about His omniscience, His omnipresence,
omnipotence, His glorious salvation, and all those things are contained
in it. Well, jumping down to chapter 2 and verse 5, would
you look at that? We sing a song from time to time
that came from this passage of Scripture in the book of Zechariah
chapter 2 and verse 5. For I, saith the Lord, will be
unto her a wall of fire about. What protection God has for His
church, for every one of His individuals, every saved person,
every sheep of His fold, every one of His elect has this wall
of fire protecting them from all things. And that wall also
gives us the information, if we go over there to the Old Testament
in another place, where it says, there are more for us than there
are against us. That's what the prophet was used
to pray about his servant. And that servant saw those things,
and he was so overwhelmed of what God had on the behalf of
this prophet and on the behalf of the saints. So as that verse
says, I'll put a wall of fire about, and will be the glory
in the midst of her. I'll be the church's glory. I'll
put a wall of fire about the church, and I will be the church's
glory. That's why we worship the Lord.
He is the glory of the church. He is the reason for our existence.
There is no other reason in this world or in this universe that
there should be any existence of anybody able to worship the
Lord in truth and in the Spirit except the Lord Himself. Give
that to us. In chapter 2 and verse 8, we
read these words, For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the
glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoil you, for
he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. The apple
of an eye is being able to see your reflection in someone else's
eye. That's pretty up close and personal. And that's what the
Lord said about His church. You touch the church and you're
touching the apple of My eye. What was it He said to Saul of
Tarsus? Why persecutest thou Me? Now,
He was persecuting a bunch of folks, but those bunch of folks
were the Lord Jesus Christ personified in this world. So, He that touches
you touches the apple of My eye. In chapter 3 and verse 4, We
read these words, And He answered and spake unto those who stood
before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him.
And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of
raiment. Now I read that and I just said,
Hallelujah! Isn't that what God is so good
in doing is removing our iniquity and clothing us, taking our old
self-righteousness, and clothing us with the righteousness of
Christ. He takes the old garment away and gives us the new garment.
Well, let's move on through here. And we find in chapter 3 and
verse 8, the Scriptures share this. He says, Here now, O Joshua,
the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee,
for they are men wondered at. Behold, I will bring forth My
servant the branch. promises throughout this book
as well as all of the other Old Testament books about the coming
Messiah, the Promised One, the Redeemer that would be here at
the appointed time. When it was in the fullness of
time, God said for the Son, not before, not after. There was
a purpose in exactly when Jesus Christ was born of a virgin there
in Bethlehem. It was God's exact appointed
time, and when He comes again, it will be at God's exact appointed
time. There is only one thing that
restrains the Lord Jesus Christ from coming back tonight. That
is, the last sheep hasn't been saved yet. That's it. I don't have to look for anything
else. I don't have to read the newspaper to find something that's
going on over in the Middle East. I just know that when that happens,
we'll be in the air. Chapter 4, verse 6. Look at this verse of Scripture.
Then He answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word
of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by
power, but My Spirit saith the Lord of hosts. As we travel through
this book, just reading a verse of Scripture here and there,
this book is packed full, just like all of the other books of
the Bible are packed full of the glory of God in the person
of Christ Jesus. Here it says here, we're not
saved, and we don't accomplish a thing by our own might or by
our own power. It's always the work of God in
His people, the work of God in the church. That is what we live
for and live on. He must work in us both to will
and to do of His good pleasure. And when He does that, something
is accomplished. In chapter 8 and verse 12, would
you read over there with me? Chapter 8 and verse 12. The Scriptures
share this. And this wonderful book of Zechariah. Chapter 8 and verse 12. For the seed shall be prosperous." Speaking about the benefits to
the church. The seed shall be prosperous,
the vine shall give her fruit, the ground shall give her increase,
and the heaven shall give their due, and I will cause the remnant
of this people to possess all these things. precious promises, as we heard
read, that God has for those who love Him. What glorious,
eternal blessings are for God's church. We have every spiritual
blessing in Christ Jesus. And they're summed up in that
verse of Scripture. Here we are blessed. There we
will be blessed. There is these great and wonderful
spiritual blessings that God has for us. Chapter 9 and verse
9. Notice that with me. Chapter
9 and verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon the colt, the foal of
an ass. And 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 even to sea, and from the
river even to the ends of the earth. as He speaks about this
King coming. We read that as fulfillment of
the Lord Jesus Christ entering in, riding upon that foal of
that ass, as promised here. And then we find out when He
does that, He is declaring that He is a King of kings and Lord
of lords. That His whole purpose is being
fulfilled here as He goes down to Jerusalem. He went down there
on purpose. This purpose was ordained in
the eternal covenant of grace, that He would come down to this
earth and live for thirty-three and a half years on this earth,
and be among men and women, and He would do so many wonderful
things, and yet His eternal purpose was to go to the cross, to have
our sins imputed to Him. and that He would lay down His
life a ransom for many. In chapter 10 and verse 8, the
Scripture shares this. Chapter 10 and verse 8, I will
hiss for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them, and
they shall increase, they shall have increased. Redemption, redeeming
and redeemed ones all have to do with a price. There's a problem. When we talk about redemption,
there's already an identification of a problem. When it comes to
redemption by Jesus Christ, there's a problem, and that problem is
our sin, and it's our nature. When we hear about a Redeemer,
someone who is going to pay a price for our redemption and redeem
us out of the hand of the bondman, we have already been expressing
a problem, and it's a serious problem, and there is nothing
in this world that can take care of that problem except the blood
of Christ. That is the redemptive price.
That is the price that He paid and must be paid on the behalf
of His people. Nothing else will do. It must
be the blood of Christ. So He will provide redemption,
and He is the Redeemer that actually redeems His people from their
sins, and He pays the redemptive price, therefore He can say,
You are redeemed. Bought from the hand of the fowler,
I brought you back." Chapter 11 and verse 12, we have here
that the Lord Jesus would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah 11 and verse 12 and
13, And I said unto them, If ye think
good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. So they weighed
for my price thirty pieces of silver. Now notice this next
verse, And the Lord said unto me, Cast it into the potter a
goodly price. that I was prized out of them. And I took the thirty pieces
of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord."
In the book of Leviticus it says if there's going to be a redemptive
prize for a male between the ages, I believe it's twenty and
sixty, it's fifty pieces of silver. And a woman between those ages
was going to have thirty pieces of silver. Now if Jesus Christ
actually needed to be redeemed, to be having a redemptive price
paid for him. There would have been 50 pieces
of silver, but we have here 30. What does that mean? That's the
price of his bride. He redeemed His bride and pictured
it here. And then we go over to the New
Testament there in the book of 1 Peter and it says, not by silver,
we're not redeemed with silver and gold from your vain conversation,
but we're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. So the redemptive price cannot
be silver and it cannot be gold. But we have the picture and the
type and the shadow that Jesus Christ redeemed His bride because
He didn't have a problem. There was no problem, sin issue,
with Jesus Christ. But He did come to take care
of the sin issue of His bride. Chapter 12 and verse 10, Chapter
12 and verse 10, And I pour upon the house of David, and upon
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication,
that they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. You know,
all my religious life I was taught that He's talking here about
everybody in the world going to look upon Him whom they pierced. Who pierced? The Lord Jesus Christ. Was it the goats? How? You pay their price. Who will
look upon Him whom they have pierced? The church will look
upon Him whom they have pierced. It was their sins that caused
His body to be pierced, not the sins of those who are eternally
lost and damned to hell. He didn't pay any bit of their
price. He didn't pay any of their charge. He paid only for His bride. And that's who look upon Him
whom they have pierced. And they look upon Him thankful
for His grace and His mercy because He did not lay our sin to our
charge, but God laid our sin to His charge. And we walk away
unscathed. and I say hallelujah. Chapter
13 and verse 1, another song came from this passage of Scripture. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And here that songwriter read
this passage of Scripture, in that day there shall be a fountain
open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness. And what is that but the blood
of Christ? We are washed and cleansed from
our sin by the blood of the Lamb. Then we look here Chapter 13,
and verse 6, And one shall say unto him, What are the wounds
in thy hands? Then he shall answer, Those with
which I was wounded in the house of my friends. He came unto his
own, and his own received him not. He came unto the world,
and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his
own knew him not. Now a lot of people say, he's
talking about Israel there. He's talking about the church
there. We didn't know him. We couldn't have recognized him.
He was as hidden from us as he was to those folks when he went
through the crowd. They were ready to take him out
and stone him to death. And he walked through them and
nobody recognized him. Why was it that Judas was given
30 pieces of silver to identify the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He is not recognized by our flesh. He is recognized by our spirit,
by our regenerated being. And so, He was wounded in the
house of His friends. My goodness, we would have just
as easily raised our hand against Him. We were just like the rest
of the folks out there in the streets. Crucify Him! Crucify
Him! But you know, in reality, we're
having Him purchase us by that crucifixion. After it's all said
and done, we say, Lord, I don't understand why You would do that,
but thank You. Thank You. Chapter 13 and verse 9, And I will bring the third part
through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and
will bring them as gold is tried. And they shall call on My name,
and I will hear them, and I will say, It is My people. And they shall say, The LORD
is My God. The Lord is my God. That's what
we have the privilege of saying. You know, we hear that verse
of Scripture so often taken out of context. Our Father who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Most people just assume that
He is their Father, and yet He is only the Father of the church. He says, they are My people and He is our God. Zechariah 14, verses 8 and 9,
And it shall be in that day that living water shall go out from
Jerusalem. This is pictorial language. It's figurative language. It's
blessed language. It's poetry in motion. I love
short poems. I cannot read a two-page poem. I'll get lost. Short poems, yes. I love Carl Sandburg, his poem
about good fences, and the road not taken, and all those. They're
just short, pithy statements. And you know, he says so much
in such a short amount of paper. He says, more in those, it's
like our hymn writers. They say so much in such a short
amount of paper. They're not John Gills when it
comes to hymn writing. They are short and succinct and
to the point. And that's what we have here
in the book of Zechariah, Haggai, all of the Old Testament prophets,
they have these pictorial, metaphorical statements about the glory that
we have. And here he says, There shall
be half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward
the younger sea. In the summer and in the winter
shall it be, and the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day shall there be one
Lord, and His name..." Did you notice that? One. There shall be one Lord, and
His name, One. Well, look with me in Zechariah
14, verse 20. In that day shall there be upon
the bells of the horses, or upon the harness, the bridles, holiness
unto the Lord. That takes us right back to Leviticus.
Did you know that that's on the miter of the high priest? Holiness
unto the Lord. Holiness unto the Lord, and the
pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the
altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and
in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts." Who are those
pots? That's just another picture for
the church. We are holiness unto the Lord. He is holiness unto the Lord.
And the pots, is it a blessing to have this treasure in earthen
vessels? This is decaying and falling
away. But He has placed this treasure
in earthen vessels, in us. I'm thankful for that. Well,
would you go back to verse 1 of chapter 1, and I'll quickly sum
this up. There are three questions that
I had to ask myself in chapter one and verse one. In the eighth
month, in the second day of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Ido, the prophet,
saying. Three questions. I want to ask
them and give some answers to them. Number one, where was Zechariah
when the word of the Lord came to him? Where was Zachariah when
the word of the Lord came to him? Number two, when did the
word of the Lord come to Zachariah? And number three, who was this
Zachariah that the word of the Lord came to? The first question,
as we look at this, where was Zechariah? The Lord could have
brought Zechariah up to the third heaven, but He didn't. Where
was Zechariah when the Lord spoke to him and gave him the Word
of the Lord? Now this is so important. The Word of the Lord. We have
it. Right here. This is the Word
of the Lord. It's often misunderstood. It's
often taken out of context. But we have the Word of the Lord. We pray continuously as we read
it. And as pastors and preachers
preach from it, we pray that we give the sense of this Word
and we declare it clearly and succinctly, and that we don't
make the mistakes that we made in religion with the Word of
God. We wanted to go out as clear as possible the Word of the Lord,
and that's what it is. We will not say it is any less,
we will not say it is any more, because there is nothing better
than having the Word of the Lord. And where was Zechariah when
God came to him with His Word to write down? So we have this
glorious book. of Zechariah. Zechariah was right
here on this earth when the Word of the Lord came to him. The
world was so changed as a result of the fall, and that's where
Zechariah was when the Word of the Lord came to him. Right here
in this sin-cursed earth. That's where the word of the
Lord came to him. The fall of Adam in the garden of Eden. Every
Adam of the universe was affected by the fall. There was nothing
that was left unscathed by the fall. Every blade of grass, and
every tree, and every animal, and especially Adam and Eve were
affected by the fall. They died there in that instant
spiritually. Adam lived for another 900 plus
years before he died physically. But you know what? He couldn't
have a thought after the fall like he had before the fall.
He couldn't think straight like he did before. He did something
he knew exactly what he was doing. He was not caught up short. He did what he did knowing exactly
the effect it would have on this world because God had spoken
to him so clearly and so distinctly that the day you eat, you shall
surely die. And you know what? Adam understood
that. He wasn't an idiot. He understood every syllable
of God's statement to him. And when he did what he did,
he knew exactly the effect it would have on his family, and
on every generation down to this generation, and every generation
from this point forward until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back.
He knew exactly what he was doing. He disobeyed God on purpose. But God already had taken it
in hand, because He had a lamb slain from the foundation of
the world on purpose. Now, Zechariah lived in this
world just like you and I live in this world, and he saw all
the problems that you and I see in this world. He saw the problems
with his children, he saw the problems with his parents, he
saw the problems with the schools, he saw the health issues, he
saw everything. He also was weary with living
in this world, but God came and gave him His Word, and in that
Word he was declaring, don't lose hope, Jesus is coming. at the right time, He will be
here. And He will do exactly what He
said He would do in the covenant of grace. He would rescue His
church and rule over them with spiritual blessings flowing out
from the throne to every corner of the earth. In Isaiah chapter
1 and verse 6, we find the prophet Isaiah had this to say, and we
say, people, that's just about Israel. No, he's talking about
everybody. And he said, from the sole of
the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been bound
up, and you know what? Humanity hasn't come up with
a solution to the problem, because it's a spiritual problem, and
all we can come up with is physical solutions. Put them in a better
home, and they'll live better. Hasn't worked. Pay for everything
hasn't worked. We have people now that are preparing
to live to be a hundred years old. So what? Methuselah lived
to be 965 years old, and you know what's on his tombstone?
And he died. That's the problem. Every high priest in the Old
Testament died. And that's the wonderful thing
about our high priest. Eternal. The world was in gross upheaval. It makes grace that much more
precious. When we find out that God's Word
came to Zechariah at the right time, there for him to share
with us these words in 2020, it makes us to realize that grace
is so much more precious when it would come down to earth in
such a condition as it came down to. In John chapter 1 verse 14
it says, "...the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory." So the Word of God came down to Zechariah. We have a copy of a translation
of that, but in reality the glory of that Word coming down to this
earth is that Jesus Christ would come down and tabernacle among
us. You know, he's the only one that could look around and see
the hearts of everybody around him, and if we had that, we'd
look around and see he was in a graveyard. The people he looked at were
dead. Born that way. dead in trespasses
and sin. He's the only one that could
look at the heart and see all the deadness in all of humanity. It didn't matter what those guys
were doing down at the temple. It didn't matter what those guys
that were pretending to be doctors in those days. It didn't matter
who, what, where or what was on the throne. They were dead
in trespasses and sin, but He came for the glory of God and
to give to the church the only remedy that was possible to bring
us out of our deadness, and that is the precious blood of Jesus
Christ. Now, when did the word of the
Lord come to Zachariah? Did you notice that over there?
It was during a king by the name of Darius. Have you ever read
anything about him? Man, that guy was a pagan scoundrel. If we did any research at all,
we would find out that there's probably never ever been a born-again
believer that's been President of the United States. Some have
been religious, and some have had some biblical principles.
But when you read their writings, you find out what they were trusting
in, and they were not trusting in Jesus Christ alone. We live in a pagan society, if
you please. All of the religion that is going
on around us that has no hope for anybody that's involved in
it. We have pagan rulers over us. And yet we find out in the
book of Proverbs that God said, the heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, and He turns it whithersoever He wills. As
rivers of water, as irrigation ditches, if you please, He turns
their hearts to His pleasing every time. without exception. They are doing exactly what He
has purpose for them to do. And nothing goes on without His
purpose. And He is doing it for the glory
of God and for the furtherance of the gospel. And He will bring
His gospel to lost sheep wherever they are as He turns the hearts
of those pagan kings over us. There's a pagan king ruling during
the time that Zachariah is given the Word of the Lord, and guess
what? It didn't alter the Word one bit. He gave it just as simply
and powerfully as if there had been a reigning king on the throne
that knew everything about God. It didn't change him one bit.
There is only one hope, and that's the God of glory. Not a king,
not a ruler, but the God of glory. That's our only hope. Darius
was a terrible king, but he was the king. In Persia,
when these people were allowed to go back to Jerusalem from
their 70 years of captivity, there are two groups that go
back. One under Cyrus, and one under this guy. But they get
to go back. Because why? God purposed it.
He moved upon kings to let His people go. And He does the same
thing today. He moves in such a way that He
releases us from the sin that we owe against and sets us free
in Jesus Christ. Alright. Now, one other question
before we close. Who was Zechariah? that the Word
of the Lord came to. Was Zechariah especially trained
to be given the Word of God? Was his life so clean that God
came down and said, you know, you're so clean, I'm going to
give you My Word. You know what? Zechariah was
just a sinner saved by grace. We heard read tonight over there
in the book of 2 Peter 1 and verse 21, that holy men of God. Now how do we become holy? Only
by God. We can't create our own holiness.
We don't know the first thing about doing it. And every time
we begin to pretend to do it, we're getting ourselves farther
in the hole. Because we just can't do it. It's an impossibility to replicate
the holiness of God. God's holiness is God. If there's anything we learn
from the Law, it is God is holy. And He demands that kind of holiness,
and the only way we get that kind of holiness is God gives
it to us. And He does it because He redeems
His people. Would you turn with me to the
book of Numbers chapter 16 verse 38? Numbers 16 and verse 28. Here we have Moses speaking about
the Word of the Lord to him, what it was. Numbers 16 and verse 28. And Moses said, Hereby ye shall
know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, Now
notice the last phrase. Numbers chapter 16 verse 28. For I have not done them of my
own mind. Everything I've given you came
from God. Do you think for a moment that
these words were Moses' words when he gave the law? Of course
not. They were God's words. Therefore, we can take great
validity in them. They were the Word of God." David said in his last words,
it's recorded in 2 Samuel 23, verse 2, "...the Spirit of the
Lord spake by me, and His Word was in my tongue." You know,
David knew something about this. When he gave us most of the Psalms,
he understood The Spirit gave me these words. They were not
my own. And then he says, concerning
He hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Sure! And this is all my hope and all
my salvation. There is no salvation outside
the covenant of grace, and He is the author of the covenant
of grace, and He dispenses the covenant of grace as He so pleases,
as it was determined before the foundation of the world. There
were some names written down in the Lamb's book of life. Those
names represented people that were given to Jesus Christ. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me, and he that cometh unto me I will in no wise
cast out. The Father had them written down,
and there's no names been added since. Now, we used to sing a
song in religion, there's a new name written down in glory. Oh,
what hogwash. What hogwash! What terrible slander
against God's Word! All those names were written
down before the foundation of the world, and all those people
that those names represented were given to the Son. And you
know what the Son must do, volunteered to do, for all those folks that
were given to Him by the Father, He must lay down His life a ransom,
a payment price for them. And all of them shall go free. And they will constitute the
glorious body of Christ, the church of the living God, those
who all can say from their hearts, now we try, then in reality,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And there in the book of Zechariah
1, we have two other names mentioned. Why are they there? Zechariah
was caused to write the Word of the Lord, and he gave his
dad's name and his granddad's name. Why? He's just saying,
I'm just like everybody else. Given enough time, the right
documents, every one of us could trace our line. right back to
Adam. And we would find out that all
of us fell in Adam. When he sinned, we all sinned. And we sinned so horrifically
that if justice was served, there would not be one person
saved. Jesus Christ took our justice. He had it imputed to Him. And in justice, God Almighty
bore down on Him like no one else has ever been borne down
on. Over there in the book of Isaiah,
He was bruised by our iniquities. That word, it means more than
just some black and blue marks. Oh, He was greatly imposed upon
by the justice of God, and so when He cried from the cross,
it is finished. To the church, that means a great
deal. Payment is made. I am free. I can worship Him
in spirit and in truth. That's what He requires. And
I get to do it. Not like I want to. But I'll
get to do it. Well, grace, grace makes all
the difference. Not what we think, but who He
is. Who He is that gave this word
of redemption. Jesus Christ the righteous.