The title of my message this
morning is Light in the Evening or Sunrise at Sunset. You'll see the obvious reason
for the title as we get to it in Zechariah chapter 14. This chapter begins with this
word, behold the day of the Lord cometh. Now remember, Zachariah
is describing every believing sinner's experience of grace. I keep stressing this fact because
most of the commentators I have read and most of the thoughts
I've heard men express concerning this 14th chapter of Zachariah
seem to totally ignore the context in which this chapter is found.
The day of the Lord Zachariah is describing is this gospel
day of grace and salvation. He began to describe it in earnest
in chapter 12 and verse 10. He's talking about that day in
which the Lord God comes to his people in the saving operations
of his spirit. In this day of grace, we're told
in chapter 12 and verse 10, he pours out his spirit, the spirit
of grace and supplications, causing the heaven-born soul to look
to Christ in repentance and faith. And as the sinner looks to Christ
in repentance and faith in that day, Christ is open to his soul
as a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness by God the spirit. As we told in chapter 13 in verse
one. In this day, the Lord God turns
his hand toward the little ones for whom Christ suffered and
died. We read that in verse seven of
chapter 13. In this day, our Almighty Savior
divides the spoils of His victory with His redeemed. That's what
we're told in the next line of chapter 14 and verse 1. Thy spoil
shall be divided in the midst of thee. Now, the spoils of our
Redeemer are our spoils. When He led captivity captive,
and took possession of gifts that he gave to men. Those gifts
are specifically identified as the gifts of salvation and grace
and the gifts of his daily providence bestowed upon us in salvation
and grace. Hold your hands here and turn
to Psalm 68. I'll show you. Psalm 68. The psalmist here describes
Christ's ascension, his exaltation and glory. He said the chariots
of God are 10,000. And we know this is what the
psalmist is talking about because the Holy Spirit tells us plainly
that this is what he's talking about in Ephesians chapter 4.
Psalm 68 verse 18. Thou has descended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Yea, for men like you and me
too. Yea, for the rebellious also.
for this purpose, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles. That is the promise of the spirit,
that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord
who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Now, Paul, And roll that over
in your heart. Blessed is our God who daily
loads us, piles up in heaps with benefits. The God of our salvation. Now read on. He that is our God. He and he alone. is the God of
salvation. And unto the Lord belong the
issues from death. He who is our God, He is the
God of salvation. This God who died for us in human
flesh and rose again to Him belong all that comes as the result
of His death, the issues of death. Christ having satisfied divine
justice, the Lord God said by His prophet Isaiah, He shall
prolong His days. He shall live again, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong. And this is what our prophet
is speaking of in Zechariah chapter 14, verse 2. The Lord Jesus divides
his spoils to his people in this day. In this day of the Lord,
in this gospel day, the gates of hell often appear to threaten
God's church. but they shall never prevail
against us. That's what's promised in verses
2 and 3. Then in verses 4 and 5, Zechariah uses very highly
symbolic figurative language to describe the accomplishments
of our Lord Jesus Christ in his work of redemption upon the earth,
focusing our attention upon the Mount of Olives. The gates of
hell can never prevail against us. for many reasons, but none
greater than this. The gates of hell shall never
prevail against God's church, against the building and the
completion and the success of God's church, because Christ
has finished his work on this earth as our Redeemer. Look at
verse four. And his feet shall stand at that
day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on
the east. And the Mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west.
And there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain
shall remove toward the north and half toward the south. And
ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley
of the mountains shall reach unto Azael. Yea, ye shall flee
like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of
Uzziah king of Judah and the Lord my God shall come and all
the Saints with thee Now if you're like I am when you read those
verses You kind of scratch your head and say what on earth is
that talking about? What on this earth is that talking
about? This is what it's talking about When the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's darling son, came into this world in human flesh to
redeem and save his people, the day of the Lord came. And how often while he walked
on this earth. Did he appear upon the Mount
of Olives? Indeed, the Mount of Olives is
that last sacred spot of ground upon which his holy feet stood
while he was upon this earth. For he ascended up to heaven,
having accomplished our redemption from the Mount of Olives. Let
us often in our soul's memory go with him to the Mount of Olives. Go with him to that hallowed
spot of ground and take wings for our souls and ascend with
our exalted Savior, gazing in amazement with those disciples
who stood and watched him as he ascended up into heaven. Oh,
how astonished they must have been. How astonished we ought
to be. Let us ever contemplate the glory
of our Redeemer in his ascension and in his exaltation. He who wept and sweat blood in
Gethsemane as he anticipated his suffering and death when
he had finished the work of redemption from that same place in the Mount
of Olives ascended up and sat down on the throne of grace,
the throne of sovereign dominion over all things, possessing all
power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the
father has given him. And these whom he represents
in heaven, he is now for them executing all His sovereign pleasure,
His goodness and His mercy. That's what's transpiring in
this day. Jesus Christ, the King reigns
and rules and brings to pass and manages and disposes of all
things exactly according to His purpose of grace for His people. Remember with joy and expectation
too. the promise of the angels who
attended him as he ascended up into heaven. This same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Soon he will come
again. And I'll be honest with you,
the more I contemplate his coming, the more I realize I know so
very little about all the things that will attend His coming.
But He is coming in His glory to be glorified in all His saints
and to be forever admired of all them that believe. What a
day that shall be. Our Lord Jesus has taken away
the wall of partition that stood between Jew and Gentile. The
Mount of Olives, like the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, stood
as a high mountain, but it now has been made to cleave in the
midst. The law, like those mountains
surrounding Jerusalem, seemed to keep us from God and from
his worship and from his sanctuary. But the prophet cried, and I
think maybe there's a reference specifically to this. Who art
thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become
a plain. Before our mighty's irrevable,
before the power of his grace revealed in the gospel, the mountain
of the law is laid flat like a plane. And now the spirit of
God as a mighty river of grace gushes out to chosen centers
in freeness and in abundance. The covenant of peace stands. Grace stands. Mercy stands. But the mountain, the high, dark
mountain, the thundering and the lightning of that mountain
now has been leveled by our Redeemer. He has fulfilled the law. He's
taken away our sins. And we now come to God freely. A new living way has been opened. into Jerusalem, into the throne
of God himself. And we see it and it is brought
to pass. The mountain is divided one half
towards the north and the other towards the south, divided from
east to west. There is a great valley. And
in that great valley, there is a broad way open between God
and his people. And now we come freely to him. And Gentiles, like Jews, have
free access to Him in this Gospel Jerusalem. The Word of the Lord
goes forth from Mount Zion in this day. And the Word of the
Lord has free course throughout all the world in this day. And
thus the Lord Jesus prepared for every mountain Now the way
of the Lord is prepared for every mountain or in every mountain,
and the way is made plain, so plain that wayfaring men, though
they may be fools, shall not err as they walk therein. The
valley of the mountains is the place where Christ is found.
The valley of the mountains. You remember when Zechariah opened
his prophecy? He saw the Lord Jesus walking
in a deep valley among the myrtle trees, walking in the deep valley
with his church. That's where he is found, and
that's where he abides. This valley, we're told, reaches
to Isaiah. I tried to figure what that's
talking about. And when I looked up the meaning of the word, I
got some help. The word means the separate place. This valley of boundless free
grace reaches to all those who have been set apart by God for
himself. When God makes in the mountain
away, as Isaiah described, we now by his grace being called
by his spirit, flee to the valley. And fleeing to the valley, being
awakened by his spirit, we find refuge for our souls in the covert
from the tempest, in the rock that is higher than I. We find
refuge in the city of refuge, Christ Jesus the Lord, and our
souls dwell in safety. When the Lord God comes in saving
mercy, when he brings his elect into the valley of grace, he
performs one Now the wonders are described
in verses 6 through 11. These wonders are set before
us in marvelous, majestic, highly symbolic, figurative language.
I pity those who read the language of these verses and see nothing
except what they try to make to be some kind of a literal
interpretation for they have missed altogether the great message
here described. In that day, which Zachariah
calls the day of the Lord, a river of living waters shall flow out
of Jerusalem to every thirsty soul. Our Lord Jesus spoke of
that water. He said, he said to the woman
at the well, if you knew who you're talking to and who's talking
to you, If you knew me, you'd come and drink of the water I'm
talking about and it would be in you a well of living water,
springing up and everlasting life. Our Lord Jesus spoke in
the last day, the great day of the feast, as he saw the thirsty
souls coming back from their ceremonial religious exercises
at Jerusalem. And he cried, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me. Come to me and drink. Drink. And the water that I give him
shall be in him a well of living water. He brings waters flowing
to our souls. And Christ, when he does that,
is enthroned in the heart as king alone. All the obstacles
that stood like great mountains keeping us from him, he has removed
and turns into a plain, makes everything level. Every mountain
brought low, every valley exalted. And destruction is destroyed. Death is put to death. And all the inhabitants of God's
Jerusalem dwell safely. Now that's what we see in verses
8, 9, 10, and 11. But in the remaining time this
morning, I want us to look at the wonders described in verses
6 and 7. Here the Lord God declares by
his prophet that in the day of grace as we walk with Christ
in this valley at evening time it shall be light. Look at verse
6. And it shall come to pass in
that day that light shall not be clear nor dark. Now that's the first thing we'll
look at. This day of grace is a day that is a mixture of light
and darkness. But it shall be one day which
shall be known to the Lord. Though these are troubling days
in many ways, this day, the whole of it, is known by our God. And here's the third thing. It shall be a day which shall
be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come
to pass that at evening time it shall be light. All right,
here's the first thing. In verse six, we're told that
throughout this day of the Lord, throughout this day of grace,
Yes, it includes the whole gospel age, but I'm talking to you folks
who are living right here, right now, October 7th, 2007, this
day. As long as you live in this world,
Larry Chris, as long as we live here throughout this day of grace,
this day while God heaps up his benefits and loads us with his
benefits daily. Throughout this day of grace,
there is a terrible mixture of light and darkness for God's
people. Young's literal translation translates
verse six like this. The precious light is not It
is dense darkness. Paul gives a commentary on this. He says, now we see through a
glass darkly. You ever pick up a thick, shaded
piece of glass, something like the bottom of a Coke bottle,
and try to look through it? That's kind of how we see things.
We see through a glass darkly. This dense darkness of this day
is described by Joel in very much the same symbolic language
as is used here. Turn to Joel chapter 2 for a
moment. Now, there's no question Joel
is talking about this day. He's talking about the very same
thing that Zechariah is describing and we know he's talking about
this day of our experience of grace Because the Holy Spirit
tells us by his servant Peter in Acts chapter 2. This is what
it was all about Joel 2 verse 30 The Lord God says I will show wonders
in the heavens and in the earth Blood and fire and pillars of
smoke Now, I can't imagine anyone, had we
not been duped with religious foolishness, thinking about the
moon literally dripping with blood. That's not what he's talking
about. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about darkness and judgment. The sun shall be
turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great
and terrible day of the Lord come. It certainly happened at
Jerusalem and it continues to this day. And it shall come to
pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be delivered. Paul put it this way, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. He's quoting this passage
in Romans 9. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant
whom the Lord shall call. Look at chapter 3 of Joel, verse
14. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley
of decision. The sun and the moon shall be
darkened and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord
also shall roar out of Zion. That's exactly what he said in
chapter two. The Lord shall go forth out of Jerusalem. His word
declared from Mount Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem.
The heavens and the earth shall shake. But the Lord, while the
heavens and the earth shake, will be the hope of his people
and the strength of the children of Israel. Sometimes the darkness and distress of
the day and the experience of the day in which we live is such
that the heavens and the earth's shaking beneath our feet and
all around us. And our souls are brought into
utter confusion. Perhaps this word from Zachariah speaks of the providence of God
as a great mysterious thing. Turn, if you will, to Ezekiel
chapter 1. Providence, remember, is but
the outworking of God's eternal purpose. You see in Revelation
10, our Lord Jesus standing with the book in his hand, the book
they took from him that sat on the throne, opening the pages
of the book, turning them one after the other. It is but the
fulfilling of God's everlasting purpose. That which comes to
pass in time every day is just the turning of another leaf in
the book. That's all. But oh, how confusing
it is to our feeble minds. Ezekiel 1 verse 15 Now as I beheld
the living creatures Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living
creatures with his four faces He's describing God's providence
as a wheel a wheel with wheels inside the wheel the appearance
of the wheels and their work was likened to the color of Bell
a wondrous thing and and therefore had one likeness. All the wheels
and all the living creatures all had one purpose. And their
appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle
of a wheel. When they went, they went upon
their four sides, north, south, east, and west. And they turn
not when they went. Providence going in every direction. Everywhere. ruling everywhere,
but moving with a straight course, exactly according to God's purpose. As for their rings, they were
so high that they were dreadful. And their rings were full of
eyes, full of wisdom, round about them four. And when the living
creatures went, the wheels went by them. These living creatures
probably represent heavenly angels sent forth to be ministering
spirits to those who shall be the heirs of salvation. The wheels
went by them, and when the living creatures were lifted up from
the earth, the wheels were lifted up. That part of the wheel that's now on top will soon be
on bottom. And that part that's on the bottom,
running in the mud, will soon be on top. That's a pretty good
description of God's providence. All the changes that take place,
rapidly sometimes, slowly sometimes, surprising all the time. God
brings prosperity and God brings poverty. God brings health. and God brings sickness. God
brings joy at the birth of a child and God brings sorrow at the
death of an only son. God brings his people into times
of great tranquility and he brings his people into times of great
trouble. He gives peace and he gives war. Listen to what he
says. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. There's one part of the wheel
that's always the same. Never turns. Never turns. That's the axle. The wheel runs
and runs and runs. Axle stays the same. That's God's
sovereign purpose. Will you understand? No matter
how the wheel of providence seems to turn, no matter where it appears
to go, no matter what it brings to you or where it takes you,
God's purpose is still the same. His purpose is a purpose of love
and grace and mercy to his people. When the wheel moves real fast,
The only thing you see is the external circle and confusion. By now you probably have guessed
I like Westerns. Every Western has certain elements,
if it's a good Western. If it's not a very good Western,
it doesn't have these things. It's going to have a gunfight
and it's going to have a bar fight. And somebody's going to
get thrown down some stairs and thrown out of a window or thrown
through a window somewhere or the other. And there's going
to be somebody chasing the stagecoach. There's going to be somebody
chasing the stagecoach. Now, for you folks who are too young
to remember the old westerns before the days of modern photography,
I don't remember exactly what caused this, but I remember as
a boy sitting watching the stagecoach being chased. And man, if they'd
be running this way, and the wheels rolling so fast, you remember
they used to look like they was rolling this way. They'd look
like they were turning backwards. The spokes inside the wheel.
You can see clearly that wheel's moving that way, but the spokes
look like they're going like this. That's kind of the way
we see God's providence. Because we try to focus on the
spokes. rather than the outside of the
wheel. We try to focus our attention and our minds on small things,
individual things, rather than the whole machinery of providence. Let us observe the hand of God
in all the details, but never forget that the wheel is moving
according to God's purpose to accomplish our soul's everlasting
good. If God will teach me this and
seal it to my heart, day by day, I can declare as we read in Isaiah
50, I shall not be confounded. I will not be confused. I won't
have to have any tranquilizers. I'll get along all right. I'll
get along all right. My God is in control. My God is in control. Still, the dispensations of God's
providence are neither clear nor dark. Neither day nor night. In the church of God, where the
sun of righteousness has risen, it cannot be all darkness. And
yet, short of heaven's eternal glory, it can never be clear
day. I'm 57 years old. I might get
smart. I might get to be 80 or 90. But
I'm beginning to learn. Man, this is tough. It's tough. It's tough on anybody. I'm beginning
to learn there are some things I don't know. There really are. That might astonish you. There
are a few things I don't know. And folks come and ask me things
and I'm learning to say I don't know. I can't explain it. I can't explain what you're going
through, Bob. I can't explain it. I can't explain things that
trouble your heart. I can't explain it. But I can
tell you to trust God our Savior. He's doing all right. I can tell you to stay yourself
upon your God. I can tell you to trust the Lord
and walk before Him confidently. Look at Isaiah chapter 50, verse
10. We read it a moment ago, but
I want you to look at it again. Neither day nor night. That's
pretty much the way it is with us in our daily experience, isn't
it? Even in the experience of grace.
We're not children of darkness. We're children of light. And
yet, there's so much error, so much corruption, so much darkness
in us and about us. Isaiah 50, verse 10. Who is among
you that feareth the Lord? Do you? David, do you fear Him? Do you worship Him? That's God's
people He's talking to. That obeyeth the voice of His
servants. You walk before Him with reverence, obeying Him.
That walketh in darkness and hath no light. That looks like it just can't
be, doesn't it? It looks like it can't be. to anybody except
folks who experience it. It is. We who fear the Lord and
obey his voice walk in darkness and have no light. We walk in
the light as he is in the light and the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanses us from all sin and all the while we walk
in darkness and have no light. The word is not to be understood
absolutely. We walk in absolute darkness and have absolutely
no light. Rather, the word light here means
brilliance or clear shining. That's it. Now when we walk in the light,
but there's no clear shining. There's no brilliance. Oh, we
always had the light of God's Word, but not always the light
of His countenance. Read the Song of Solomon. We
always had the light of His truth, but not always the light of His
favor. Is your mercy clean gone forever? David cried just as his Savior
did, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And while you
and I dare not utter the words. We turn through the Psalms and
read them because they echo the cries of our hearts. Lord God,
have you forgotten to be gracious? We always had the light of God's
goodness and grace in Christ, but we don't always have the
assurance of it. We always had the light of God's
promises, but not of his presence. The fact is true believers often
walk in darkness. No, no, we always walk in darkness. No brilliance, no dazzling shining
light. I can identify with John Berridge
who once wrote, for my own part, since first my unbelief was felt,
I had been praying for years for faith. I want to believe
God, don't you? Oh, I want to believe God. He
said, I've been praying for years for faith and praying with some
earnestness, but am not yet possessed of a half a grain. We struggle with indwelling sin,
inner corruptions, spiritual trials and conflicts, temptations
from Satan, horrible falls, worldly trouble and worldly care and
worldly sorrow. Now watch what it says. Who is
among you that feareth the Lord? and obeyeth the voice of his
servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light. Let him trust
in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. If I can't trust God in the darkness,
I don't trust him at all. If I can trust Christ only in
the light, My trust in Christ is not in Christ at all, but
in myself and my experience. God's promises were made for
the darkness. Did you hear me? God's promises,
all of them were made for the darkness. Oh, may God give me
grace to trust you. People these days talk about
trusting him. When you can look in yourself and find evidences
to trust him and you look in yourself and you can find experiences
that will give you some assurance that you can trust him. Trust
him with no evidence. Trust him with nothing to validate
and confirm his word. Trust him with no support. at all. That's what it is to
trust him. I remind you again, I keep, for whatever reason, and probably we'll find out soon,
I keep mulling over our Lord's words to Peter. This night, you'll
deny me. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. Let him that walketh in darkness
and hath no light trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon
his God. Lean on him. Now watch this. In the midst of these heavy,
cloudy days, we have this blessed assurance. But it shall be one day which
shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night. So here's the
second thing, and I'll just make the statement and move on. With regard to all that we experience
in this day, the Lord knows. The Lord knows. Child comes home from school
and child terribly distressed and troubled. Got some terrible,
fearful apprehension. And daddy picks his baby up and
sets that little girl on his knee and tries to console her. Wants to find out what's wrong.
And she can't explain. She can't explain. She's just
hurting because she's afraid. She's terrified. Something's
bothering her. And Daddy snuggles her up in his arms next to his
chest and he says, all right, son. All right, honey, Daddy
knows. Daddy knows. What's that mean? Daddy'll take care of it. You
don't have anything to worry about. Daddy'll take care of it. Will
you hear me, children of God? Your father, You don't have anything to worry
about. You don't have anything to fret about. Listen to the
scripture. He knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. The Lord knoweth thy walking
through this great wilderness. He knoweth what is in the darkness
and the light dwelleth with him. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. He knoweth our frame. He remembers
that we're dust. Thou knowest my down sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts
afar off. The foundation of God stands
sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. Back in Zechariah again. Here's
the third thing. Zechariah promises us that there
shall be light in the evening. But it shall come to pass that
in the evening time, at the evening time, it shall be light. First and foremost, This speaks
concerning the experience of a sinner engulfed in darkness,
trembling with fear, terrified with guilt. in the evening time,
when he's in the greatest darkness, when all creature confidence
is gone, when all hope in self is perished, when all thought
of doing anything to bring himself to God is gone, when he decides
finally, I give up! I'm at my wit's end! I cannot
approach God! The light shines. The son of
righteousness rises in a man's soul with healing in his wings. And God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, shines in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of his son.
As it is in the beginning, so it is throughout this day of
grace for God's people. It is our weakness. that displays Christ's strength.
And in our weakness, his strength is made perfect. How often we
cry like Jacob. You remember how God had arranged
things. Joseph is sitting on the throne in Egypt, just waiting
to take care of his family. Just waiting to be gracious.
And Jacob cries, all these things are against me. You take my boy
back over there and you're going to bring down my gray hairs to
the grave. All these things are against
me. Totally ignorant of the fact that all those things were for
him. God removes such ignorance from
me. The Lord often brings darkness that his light may be more strikingly
brilliant in the evening. He hedges up our way with thorns
that his almighty hand might remove them and be seen plainly. And it is blessed, it is blessed,
it is blessed to be brought low that Christ may be seen high
and exalted. It is blessed to be brought to
utter extremity that God may work opportunity by his hand. Are you stripped, humbled, convinced
of your nothingness? Then look away to Christ and
hear his promise. At evening time it shall be like
when the poor and needy seek water and there is none. and their tongue faileth for
thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will
not forsake them. And certainly, this is a promise to God's saints
in the evening time of life in this world. I've often told you, as a young
man, I had the privilege to go visit one of the deacons that
served with me when I was pastoring at Lookout, Brother Harold Martin. I was 26 years old, 27 maybe,
and Harold was dying. He knew it, I knew it, his family
knew it. So I flew out to Washington, D.C. He stayed with his daughter
who lived nearby Washington, went to visit with it. and spent
the day with him in the hospital, the last day of his consciousness. And he was just fading in and
out of consciousness. The last words the man spoke, the last words he spoke in the
evening of his life were words of great life. Preacher, he said, it's good
to come here and know that everything is under the blood. It shall be light in the evening. And when at last we leave this
world, this day of grace is done, the day of glory begun, we shall
stand with our God in glory and there'll be no need of the sun
and no need of the moon for the lamb shall be the light of the
city and we shall see his face and walk in the clear shining
light of his glory forever. Amen.