The children of Israel had been
in Babylon for 70 long years. At last, they were brought again
to their own land and began earnestly the work of rebuilding the city
of Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem that had
been laid waste. And after just a short while,
the work stopped. Everything came to a screeching
halt because they all got involved with other things like planting
vineyards and building houses for themselves. The foundation
stone had been laid and the Lord God said he who laid the stone
would lay the topmost stone the mighty Zerubbabel would finish
his work. But it didn't look like it. It
looked like this is it. There were those who mocked,
even the ones who endeavored to do the work and continue with
it. And God sent his prophet Zechariah
to these people. And in 14 chapters, he kept telling
them one thing. over and over and over again. A better day is coming. A better day is coming. A better day is coming. In Zechariah chapter 14, the
prophet closes his prophecy with these words at the beginning,
behold the day of the Lord cometh. He's talking to us about the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In these 21 verses, he concludes
his prophecy by announcing the coming of Christ and all those
things for which he came into the world their accomplishment
being fulfilled. Now this day of the Lord is the
day that is spoken of throughout the Old Testament scriptures
and often in the New. Every time you read this phrase
in the New Testament, the day of the Lord, you can mark it
down with certainty. It is talking about the final
climax of all things, the consummation of all God's purposes with the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and in great glory. But the Old Testament prophets
use this phrase, the day of the Lord, almost always to describe
the whole day of the Lord that began with the first advent of
our Lord Jesus Christ and concludes with the last. The Old Testament
prophets, whenever they speak of the day of the Lord, Don't
advance right to the end of time, but rather speak of the day of
the Lord as this last day, the coming of Christ to accomplish
redemption by the sacrifice of himself and the coming of Christ
in power and in great glory to make all things new and speak
of it as one great day that consummates with Christ coming. This is much
like the visions John had in the book of Revelation. If you
read the book of Revelation properly, you'll recognize that God gave
his servant John seven distinct visions. The visions were not
given to be mixed together. The prophecy idiots like to take
the pictures in Revelation, those visions, and they like to put
them together. What do you imagine you'd get?
If you took seven negatives of this congregation right here,
just this building right here, and then you started shoving
them together. Try to make something out of
that. And that's exactly what prophecy
folks do when they start trying to pick one thing from one vision,
one thing or another, and make them fit together. The visions
that John had were seven distinct visions. each one beginning with
the first advent of Christ and reaching all the way to its end
with the second coming of our Lord Jesus and each vision assuring
us of the certain conquest of Jesus Christ our Lord and his
people over all evil. So when you read the day of the
Lord in the Old Testament, especially as we're looking at it this morning
here in Zechariah 14, Remember that Zachariah is describing
for us the coming of Christ, his first advent to redeem us,
and includes with that the coming of Christ in his glorious second
advent in that day which Paul speaks of when he says, then
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom
unto the Father, to God, even the Father. Now, without question,
Zachariah speaks of the day of the Lord in this 14th chapter
of his prophecy. He has in his mind's eye these
last days, this entire gospel dispensation. As you read this
chapter, recognize that there are some things that clearly
must be understood as finding their fulfillment in the ultimate
consummation of time. when Christ comes again in the
eternal day of the Lord. And there are some things that
clearly do not speak of our Lord's second coming, but must clearly
refer to his first coming and that which is accomplished in
this present gospel age. And then there are some things
that obviously have reference to both. Now, before we look
at these 21 verses together, and we'll come back to it several
times before our studies in Zechariah are done, the Lord willing, but
I want us to look at the whole chapter together at one time.
But before we do, I readily acknowledge there are things in this prophecy,
as in most of this book, that I just don't understand. I just
don't understand. And the things I don't understand,
I have decided a long time ago, it's a whole lot best for me
not to express an opinion about. Some years ago, some smart aleck
who thought he was a theologian said to me, he said, I think
we ought to preach on those things we don't understand. I said,
would you say that again? The things I don't understand,
I'll leave those alone. Until God the Holy Spirit teaches
me something, I'm not going to pretend that I understand anything
about it. Those things that he has taught
me, I declare to you. Let me show you these things,
these eight things in this chapter. Number one, Zechariah speaks
of the spoiling of Jerusalem, a time of great misery, of great
trial, of great woe. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will
gather, now notice his words, God speaks, and God says, I will
gather. This is, he may use Satan to
do it, but this is God's doing. I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the
houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city
shall go forth into captivity, and the residue, the remnant
of the people shall not be cut off from the city." Now, perhaps
Zechariah has one of two historic events in his mind's eye prophetically,
things that were yet to come to pass. In 168 BC, the Syrian
king Antiochus Epiphanes laid sage to the city Jerusalem. ravished
the city, destroyed it. Antiochus commanded his soldiers
to slaughter a hog and sacrifice it on the altar in the house
of God. And that hog that they slaughtered,
they roasted and demanded that the Jews eat the unclean thing,
that which was considered unclean by the law. And those who refused,
Those who said, no, we will not do that. Those who insisted we
will worship God as he has said, had their tongues cut out of
their mouths. They were scalped. Their hands
and feet were cut off and burned with that hog on the polluted
altar. The women were ravished. Antiochus
and his men utterly destroyed the city. Horrid, horrid, horrid
butchery. The sons of Ishmael were the
same then as they are now. Beast, vile, violent beast. And then in 70 AD, Zechariah
may have had in his mind's eye the things that transpired when
God sent his armies under the command of Titus into Jerusalem. This is what our Lord Jesus spoke
of in Matthew 24. It is that which he described
in the parable given in Matthew 22, when he spoke of the wrath
of God coming upon the Jews to the uttermost because they filled
up the measure of iniquity, crucifying the Lord Jesus, murdering their
own prophets and persecuting the saints of God. Which of those
events Zachariah had in mind, I really don't know, but it is
certain. that he had in his mind's eye
a remnant called here the residue of the people. A remnant according
to the election of grace who would be preserved and kept upon
whom no harm would come even in the greatest of calamities.
Will you hear me? Hear me. God's remnant is always
safe. Not a dog shall bark against
the children of God's Israel. Nothing, nothing evil shall happen
to the just. If we read Zechariah's prophecy
with a spiritual eye, and I'm certain that it must be read
and is intended to be read this way. Referring to the great ongoing
battle of the ages, the battle between the seed of the serpent
and the woman seed, between Christ and Satan, between God's church,
the true Jerusalem and Babylon, all false religion. Then we have
a promise, a blessed promise suited to God's elect in all
ages. And it is just this. Antichrist
shall do no harm in Zion. It won't happen. I despise the
heresy. I despise the corruption of religion. I despise the worship of free
will. I despise the religious perversity
of our day. I despise almost as much the
political perversity turning against religion. I despise it,
not because I want somebody to set the Ten Commandments up in
the courthouse. I wish they'd set up something
like love one another. be kind one to another, forgiving
one another. But the reason for trying to
tear down the commandments, the reason for trying to put away
with all sense of Christmas and Easter and all those pagan holidays,
and the holidays are pagan, they're just pagan. But the reason for
trying to get rid of it is the very same reason that Babylon
opposes the gospel of God's grace. It is antichrist in opposition
to God. But hear me, No harm comes to
God's people. Not yesterday, not tomorrow,
not today. No harm shall be done to God's
people. Though his witnesses are described
in Revelation as being slain in the streets, he seems to silence
the voice of his prophets at times, and he does, and he does. I visit places where once the
gospel sounded out with power and clarity, where today there
is no word from God. It looks as though his witnesses
are slain and they lie dead in the streets for three days, but
after the third day, they will revive. and those who danced
and laughed at their slaughter will find themselves slaughtered
by the very message they declare. Here's the second thing. Look
at verse three, and you'll see why I'm inclined to think the
Zachariah is describing our Savior's first advent here. And this great
battle that rages through the ages between Christ and Antichrist,
between Jerusalem and Babylon. The second thing here, we see
Christ Our Savior intervening as our mighty defender. He is called the captain of our
salvage. The Lord of hosts is a man of
war, Moses said. The Lord shall go forth as a
mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, ye war. He shall
prevail against his enemies. That's how Zechariah describes
him in verse 3. Then shall the Lord go forth
and fight against those nations. Now, wait a minute. He's the
one who stirred up those nations. We just read it in verse 2. He's
the one who sent those nations. Then shall the Lord go forth
and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day
of battle. These words are spoken for the
comfort of God's saints in every time of great woe. When it's
time for God to arise, that his enemies be scattered. And those that hate him made
to flee before him. When it's time for God to arise
and scatter his enemies. and calls them to flee from before
him, God will arise. He will have mercy upon Zion.
He will awake us in the days of old. He will come forth from
his holy place to the deliverance of his people. The wicked whom
he gathers against us in his providence are here specifically
called those whom he gathered Because the psalmist says the
wicked are his sword. They are his sword. And these
who are his sword are turned against his people. But those
who turn upon us and turn against us shall be turned upon and turned
against by God Almighty. Christ is our defender. I spoke
to a dear friend yesterday. I often have it happen, fellas
call, somebody's yacking. Somebody's attacked them. Somebody's
slandered them. Somebody did this or did that.
And my counsel is always the same, ignore them. Don't defend
yourself. Don't do it. Don't do it. You'll
get in the flesh. I'll put it very politely. If
you get into a spitting contest with a skunk, You might win the
contest, but you're going to smell like a skunk. Just ignore
them. Just ignore them. How come? Christ
is our defender. And if he doesn't defend me,
I ought not be defended. It's just that simple. Turn to
Psalm 76. Let me show you a great song of praise that speaks of
this very thing. Psalm 76, in Judah God is known. His name is great in Israel.
It's not known anywhere else. In Salem also is his tabernacle
and his dwelling place in Zion. That's talking about us. There
break he the arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword and
the battle. Here where he dwells. This is
where he conquers his enemies. And that word Selah, that's really
just a great big period. It means stop and think about
this for a while. Right here, this is the place where God does
his work and saves his people. Thou art more glorious and excellent
than the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled.
They have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might
have found their hands. These mighty, mighty soldiers. God puts them into a stupor,
and they're reaching for their weapons, and they start to rant
like crazy fellas. They can't find their hands.
Read on. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep. Thou, even thou art to be feared,
and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou
didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven. The earth feared
and was still. Now watch this. When God arose
to judgment, mark this, to save. He arose to judgment to save
all the meek of the earth. Roll that over a while. Now here's
the conclusion of the matter. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Go ahead and shake your swords.
Go ahead and roar and growl and bark and snarl. Go ahead and
say and do. The wrath of man shall praise
thee. And the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Back to
Zechariah 14. Without question, verse 3 refers
to the first advent of our Savior, when he made bare his holy arm
in the redemption of our souls, and makes bare his holy arm in
the saving power of the gospel, calling out his elect. These
things were typified by numerous interventions of God in the Old
Testament. He stepped in at the Red Sea.
and may bear his holy arm. He said to Jehoshaphat, you don't
have to fight in this battle, just stand still, watch me work.
Over and over again we see it typified. Let me show you the
fulfillment of the prophecy and the type, Isaiah 53. What he
has done, he is doing and he shall do. In Isaiah 53 you know our Lord
is here being described in his sacrificial sin atoning work.
By which he prevails over the enemies. By which the God of
this world is judged and cast out. By which our sins have been
put away. It begins in chapter 52 verse
10. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm. Where do you see it? Where do
you see it? In the shaking of the mountains,
in the giving of the law. Oh, no. Where do you see it? In the flood, in Noah's day.
Oh, no. Where do you see it? In the overthrow
of Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Those are
but the hiding of his power. The Lord may bear his holy arm
in the eyes of all nations and all the ends of the earth shall
see the salvation of our God. Let's see it, verse 8, chapter
53. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for his sin, when he has suffered
and died in our room, instead bearing our sin under all the
fury of God's holy wrath, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. He's going to rise from the dead
and live again. And the pleasure The pleasure,
the will, the purpose of the Lord shall prosper in his head. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Now watch this. By his knowledge. By his knowledge. Not by our
knowledge of him, by his knowledge of his people and his work. Shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now watch the next
line. Therefore, will I divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and bear the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors. That work of our Redeemer, by
which he accomplished redemption for his people, makes bare God's
holy arm. There is another bearing of his
arm. You're experiencing it right now. For I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvage. Oh God. I keep praying. Speak through this worthless
empty vessel by the power of your spirit. and make bare the
holy arm of your omnipotent grace by this which is the power of
God unto salvation. And he will yet make bare his
arm and the fire of God will come down from heaven and devour
the adversaries. Zechariah 14 verse 4. Here's the third thing. Zechariah
speaks of our Lord Jesus standing upon the Mount of Olives. What on earth is he talking about?
It seems to me that he's talking about our Savior's first advent
and the consequences of it throughout this gospel age. Read with me. 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 of it toward the south. And ye shall flee
to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains
shall reach unto Isaiah. Yea, ye shall flee like as ye
fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of
Judah. And the Lord my God shall come
and all his saints with thee. Now, let me pause here for a
few minutes. The Mount of Olives was situated
at the east of Jerusalem, separated only by the Brook Kidron and
the Valley of Jehoshaphat. You remember David, that great
type of our Redeemer, when he was fleeing from Absalom, went
weeping up to the Mount of Olives. And as he did, he crossed the
Brook Kidron. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the
great fulfillment of the picture, went up to the Mount of Olives. and crossed that same brook,
Kedron, as he goes into Gethsemane and on to Calvary. You might
be surprised to discover something that I was surprised to discover
this week. This Mount of Olives that must
have been so memorable to David. He must have often spoken of
it. He certainly memorialized it in the Psalms. His son, Solomon,
utterly polluted. When Solomon was old, he married
many strange wives, and they turned his heart to idolatry.
And Solomon and the Mount of Olives made higher places for
Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and Moloch, the abomination of
Ammon. So polluted Did Solomon corrupt
the Mount of Olives? That in the days of Josiah, it
was called the Mount of Corruption. But Josiah, that good and godly
king, another picture of our Redeemer, in his days, destroyed
the idols and removed the corruption from the Mount of Olives. In
the light of those facts, it's not at all surprising to find
our Lord Jesus in his earthly life and ministry constantly
on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives seems to
be pivotal throughout his ministry. Luke tells us that the Lord Jesus
went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives. This is where he liked
to go. Most men, especially fellows
who live in the country, have a certain place they like to
go meditate. Our Lord Jesus, his want was
to go to the Mount of Olives. You remember when the Pharisees
sought to kill him in John chapter 7? The Lord Jesus left them seething,
and we read in John chapter 8, verse 1, that he went to the
Mount of Olives. And he went to the Mount of Olives
on that occasion, specifically on an errand of mercy, there
to meet a woman taken in adultery, taken in the very act, and to
forgive her her sins. Our Savior gave his Olivet Discourse,
all that you read in Matthew 24 and 25 from the Mount of Olives,
speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem. His glorious second
advent, the parable of the fig tree, the parable of the wise
and foolish virgins, the parable of the wise and foolish servants,
and finally, the great separation on the day of judgment of the
sheep from the goats. After establishing the Lord's
Supper, while Judas went out to betray him, the master and
his disciples sang a hymn. You remember where they went,
Darwin? went out to the Mount of Olives. Always focal in his
mind. Our blessed Savior went to Gethsemane
at the base of the mount and from there to Mount Calvary.
And then we read in Acts chapter two, chapter one, that 40 days
after his resurrection, he was standing on the Mount of Olives
when the disciples saw him ascend up to glory. The Mount of Olives. Why do you reckon it's called
the Mount of Olives? Because it was covered with olive trees,
from which comes olive oil. Olive oil was used to light the
lamps in the tabernacle and in the temple. Olive oil was used
to anoint all the priests and kings in Israel. The good Samaritan
came to that man who was beaten and left for dead, stripped and
robbed, and he picked him up and he poured in oil and wine,
picturing our Savior's work of grace. And our Savior was anointed
for his burial with that spikened, very precious that Mary brought,
a perfume of oil. In all these things, oil, portrays
the Spirit of God and the grace coming from the Spirit of God.
Zachariah is using highly symbolic figurative language to describe
for us the superabounding grace of God that flows out to sinners
because of Christ's finished work on this earth. He came down
here in our nature. He suffered all the fury of God's
wrath in the room instead of his people. He ascended up to
glory having finished the work. and Mount of Olives splits in
two with a great valley in between and a river of grace running
in it. And the Lord God comes here with
all his saints and bathes our souls in this fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein, this fountain open for
us for sin and for uncleanness. And here we are taught to worship
the Lord our God. When our brother died, Surely,
you're stretching it. For the sake of time, let me
give you some references. Read Joel chapter 1, Joel chapter
2, and Joel chapter 3, and then turn over to the book of Acts
chapter 2, and listen to Peter say, fellas, the Spirit of God
has come because Christ the Son of David is seated on his throne.
having redeemed us according to the will and purpose of God,
and now Joel's prophecy has been fulfilled. This is what Joel's
talking about. This is it. You may think, well,
Brother Dodd, why? Should we interpret this spiritually?
Why should we view these things as being allegorical and not
literal? I am not suggesting, I am not
suggesting that the Lord Jesus will not literally come again,
stand on the Mount of Olives and split it open. I don't care
whether he does or doesn't split open the mountain physically.
I'm interested in what's taught here. When the Lord God came
down at Sinai and gave his law upon the mountain, The mountain
quaked, was covered with darkness, and thunder and lightning were
heard and seen in the mountain. And Moses said, I did exceedingly
fear and quake, because God caused the mountain to skip like rams,
the psalmist said. Now, I don't know about you,
but somehow I got a hunch. Larry, when David speaks of the
mountains skipping along like rams, he wasn't intending that
we should literally imagine the mountains were skipping like
a schoolboy. I just got a hunch that wasn't what he intended.
He's simply telling us this was glorious. This was wonderful. Oh, but here is something indescribably
more glorious, indescribably more wonderful than the giving
of the curse and the giving of the law. This is the giving of
grace, for where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and
our great Redeemer has removed the curse and removed the corruption. We brought into the mountain
of His holiness, and now the mountain splits. and filled with
grace, an overflowing, superabundant river of grace for his own. And
yet, clearly, Zechariah's vision reaches further to the second
coming of our Lord, because the angels did say in Acts 2, or
Acts 1, rather, that when Christ comes again, he'll come back
just like you saw him ascend from this very place. Look at
verse 6. Here's the fourth thing. This day of grace, this last
great day, is a perpetual period of mixed
darkness and light. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it
shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day,
not night, but it shall come to pass that in the evening time,
it shall be light. This book we have in our hands. God's word is perfect. But the light we're given to
read it. and understand it is not perfect. Beyond that, our experience in
this world is such that we must confess
in all things we see through a glass darkly, darkly. Yes, we walk in the light as
he is in the light in the blood of Jesus Christ. God's son cleanses
us from all sin. And yet there's much darkness. He that walketh in darkness and
hath no light, the prophet said, let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. When you see the light of his
glory and the light of his grace, And when you don't, trust Him. When you see something clearly
and you see much that confuses you, trust Him still. The experience
of God's people in this world is a mingled state of grace and
corruption. I don't have to prove that to
you, do I? not to you who know his grace,
for you know your corruption. We often lie down in sorrow,
but the evening time shall bring light. We go through our times of trial. But in the evening time of the
trial, God sends light. We go through times of temptation
and trouble. Horrible evil erupted within
us. Corruptions unimaginable just
springing from our hearts and our souls are shrouded in darkness. But in the evening, when the
way of escape is made clear and Christ has delivered us, light
shall come. We have heavy cares in this world. Paul spoke of the care of all
the churches. I don't know how to express what
I want to express here. Pastoring is caring for immortal
souls. Yours, your sons and daughters,
the care of all the churches, heavy, heavy care. But in the
evening, God sends light. In the evening of time, when
the time has come for me to leave this world of darkness, God sends
light. I think it was Brother Larry,
one of his messages recently referred to a time when Spurgeon
was preaching on dying grace. And it was a Jew. He said somebody
came to him after the service and said, Brother Pastor, I fear
I don't have that grace. Mr. Spurgeon said, are you dying?
He said, well, no. He said, you don't need it yet.
The grace that's needed, God gives in the time that's needed. And in the evening time of this
life, he will send light. Look at verse eight. Here's the
fifth thing. I got to hurry. Zachariah assures us that throughout
this day of grace, Living waters will flow out to God's elect
from the Lord Jesus. It shall be in that day that
living water shall go out from Jerusalem these living waters
Come to the relief of our darkness and our languishing spirits Free
grace flows in all directions through all the earth as the
Lord appoints and it flows in summer and in winter The water
that I give shall be in you a well of living water, springing up
an everlasting life. Sixth, verse nine, Zachariah
tells us in that day, the Lord shall be king over all the earth. There shall be one Lord and his
name one. Peter said, God hath made that
same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Look yonder,
seated in glory. There is the man Christ Jesus,
the King. And now there is one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one church of the living God. His name is
one, and his people are one. And when Christ establishes his
throne in the hearts of sinners, subduing them by his grace, He
makes all things new and destroys all their enemies. And that's
what's described in verses 10 through 15. Move on down to verse
60. In verses 16, 17, and 18, Zachariah
tells us that all true worship is keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.
Now, I know religious folks around the world like to play church,
and so, you know, they have solemn, solemn assemblies, and they'll
pretend to keep the feast of Passover, and they'll pretend
to keep the feast of tabernacles, and they'll play games. You know,
when I was a boy, the church used to have old-fashioned Sunday.
They played games then. They didn't have the nerve to
play the kind of games they play now. Everybody dressed up like they
lived on a farm out in the country somewhere, and they wore stall
hats and went to church chewing grass and bibbed overalls. And
if they had a horse, they'd get a horse and ride it to church.
They played games. Now, they have real old-fashioned
Sunday. They're going to keep the Feast
of Tabernacles. They're going to celebrate the Passover. No,
the Feast of Tabernacles had distinct reference to one thing,
Christ the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched did not mean.
The word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. It's talking about
God Almighty taking up residence in humanity. And true worship
is the celebration of the humanity of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ,
the Lord, who in the body of his flesh accomplished redemption
for us, and in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now, one more thing. In verses
20 and 21, Zachariah brings us to the end when Christ delivers
up the kingdom to the Father. And in that day shall there be
upon the bells of the horses 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. And all that sacrifice shall
come and take of them and see therein. And in that day there
shall be no more Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts.
Again, we know that the language is figurative because the Canaanites,
the land of Canaan was destroyed a long, long, long time ago.
Now, I don't know any Canaanites. You don't either. Well, what's
he talking about? Well, certainly, it has reference
to this gospel day. We come and worship our God,
our Redeemer, in holiness. The only way that priest could
go in to the holy place was with an effort that had this plate
right on the front of it. On his mitre it said holiness
to the Lord. And he made atonement for the
iniquity of his holy things in the name of holiness to the Lord. and you and I come to God almighty
and bring him ourselves and our lives and we are accepted offering
gifts and sacrifices acceptable to God by holiness to the Lord
by Jesus Christ our Lord and when the believer comes when
a sinner is given life and faith in Christ He comes to Christ
with everything. Merle, you either come with everything
or you don't come. Everything. Time, money, family,
life, everything. Horses and bells and wash pots
and cooking pots. I beseech you, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to the Lord. Christ is that holiness that
is ours by which we come to God. Holiness. Walk before me and
be ye perfect, saith the Lord. Be ye holy, for I am holy. They shall be holy. And we come to Him. You just
brought your gifts for the week, monetary gifts. What do you reckon
God wants with American dollars? You handle many of them. If you're
smart, you wash your hands. It's filthy. But what do you
reckon God wants with that? You really think He needs it?
No. But bless God, we bring with
our filthy hands. our polluted gifts for his glory,
and God smiles and says, I'll take that. How come? Because Christ is our holiness,
and he accepts us and everything we seek to do for him in that
holiness. But clearly, these last two verses
reach beyond now. These days of mixed darkness
and light. These days of battle and war
and strife. These days of confusion. These
days of heaviness mixed with joy. Oh, blessed be his name. There's a better day. And in that day there shall in
no wise enter into the land anything that defiles or makes a lie or
loves abomination, but only that which is follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Oh, hear
me, immortal soul, hear me. Come to Christ today. Believe
on the Son of God today. Come to the valley, in the mountain,
rivered in his blessed sacrifice. Wash and be clean. and walk before
God forever in holiness, the perfect holiness of His own Son. Amen.