Turn with me, if you will, to
Zechariah, the ninth chapter. Zechariah, chapter nine. When will sinners turn to Christ? That's the question I want to
answer in this message. When will a sinner turn to Christ? Does the Word of God answer that
question? Indeed, it does in many places,
and answers it with distinct clarity. It's not something about
which anyone needs to guess. The Word of God tells us exactly
when sinners will turn to Christ. It will not be hurried, and it
will not be delayed. There is a time when sinners
will turn to Christ. Here in Zechariah 9, verses 12
through 17, Our text begins with a very gracious call, a call
issued by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He says, turn you to
the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Now the only stronghold
for our souls is Jesus Christ himself. And he himself throws
open the door of the stronghold and says to sinners, turn you
to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Let all who need mercy,
let all who hope for redemption and grace turn to Christ. I urge you, oh God help you,
turn to Christ. You who are lost, Turn to Christ. Turn you to the stronghold, ye
prisoners of hope. Turn to Him, and everlasting
salvation is yours. Turn to Him, and if you turn
to Him, you have eternal life. To you who are troubled, cast
down, heavy hearted with care, overcome with sorrow, born down
with grief, the Savior says to you, His children, turn you to
the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. He constantly bids us
turn to him. Come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He tells us, come to
me and you shall find rest unto your souls. Not only does our
Savior open the door and call us to turn and take refuge in
Him, He promises grace to all who do. Even today do I declare
that I will render double unto you. Surely no one can refuse
such a sweet, gracious call. Surely no one will refuse to
heed such a kind, tender, warm, earnest invitation, at least
It would appear that no one could. It would appear that no one would.
But the fact is, no one will hear, and no one will heed, and
no one will turn. No one. No sinner, ever, left
to his own accord, left to his own will, by his own choice,
will turn to Christ. Not only that. Such is the depravity
of our fallen, corrupt nature that even we who have turned
to Him and turn to Him continually, even we who believe Him, will
not turn to Him ever of our own accord if left to ourselves by
our own choice, by our own will. It won't happen. You and I who
have tasted that the Lord is gracious, Recognize that even
in our times of greatest need, we only turn to Him when He graciously
forces us to turn to Him. I'm not talking about folks who
pretend to be religious. I'm talking about folks who struggle
with flesh and spirit. That none can and none will come
to Christ. That none can and none will ever
turn to the stronghold of their own accord The scriptures universally
assert, no man can come to me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And that's talking about Darwin
Pruitt and Don Fortner as well as Judas or anybody else. No
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. Yet, many have turned. I have. Many of you have. And
we are assured in the word of God that many more shall yet
turn to the stronghold. That being the case, I want to
know, when will sinners turn to Christ? Is there something
that I can do to get sinners to turn to Christ? Is there something
you can do to turn yourself to Christ? Let's look at the answer
given in scripture. When will sinners turn to Christ?
It's given distinctly right here in Zechariah chapter 9. First,
we see that the prisoners of hope will turn to Christ the
stronghold when God the Holy Spirit is given to them. Then
and not till then. You will turn to him when God
the Holy Spirit comes to you in saving power and grace. He
is the declarer spoken of in verse 12. Even today do I declare
that I will render double unto thee. Now, obviously, there is
a promise here of a double portion, as we've seen. But there's another
translation, and perhaps a more accurate translation. Young's
literal translation translates those words like this, even today
a second announcer I restore to thee. Remember, the context
is talking about our Lord Jesus coming as our king to save his
own. John Gill suggests that the words
might be translated like this, another declarer, discoverer,
a shower forth do I render unto thee. Now hold your hands here
and turn to John chapter 14. And you will see that that translation
of these words is exactly what our Lord Jesus gives in John
chapter 14. When he, Zion's king, has come
now, come into Jerusalem, come to redeem and save his people,
he says, I will give another declarer to you. I will give
another revealer to you. I will give another instructor
to you. John 14, 16. I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another comforter. The word translated
another here, is unique. In Galatians chapter 1, Paul
speaks of those who make a mix mash of works and grace, those
who depart from the gospel of God's free grace to some system
of religious works and free will and such nonsense. He said, I
marvel that you are so soon departed from the gospel of Christ to
another gospel, to another gospel which is not He said, you departed
to a gospel totally unlike the gospel of Christ, which is a
gospel that is in no way like the gospel of Christ. Here the
Lord Jesus says, I'll pray the Father and he will send you another
exactly as I Another of my same nature. Another of my same character. Comforter. Another one who comes
to you, and ministers to you, and cares for you. That he may
abide with you forever. Look at verse 26. But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
that is, send by the authority of what I have done, and send
because of my finished work. When He comes, He will teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever
I have said unto thee. Now, there's much that can be
said concerning that, and should be said concerning that. But
this every heaven-born soul knows by experience. When God the Holy
Spirit comes in the saving operations of His grace, He brings to your
heart what the Son of God taught. while he walked on this earth,
brings to your heart the blessed good news of redemption accomplished
as it is taught right here in this book. Are you sure that's
what he's talking about? Well, let's look at one more
text. John 16, verse 8. And when he has come, he's still
talking about this other comforter. He's still talking about the
blessed Spirit of God who will teach you all things. When he
has come, he will reprove the world of sin. We commonly translate
that word convict. And convict wouldn't be bad if
you understood and used the term in its proper meaning. But religion
gives things different meanings, you know. We start using things
and suddenly everybody thinks about it. If a fellow is convicted
in court, that doesn't mean that he's sort of persuaded that maybe
he ought to do this or ought to do that. If he's convicted,
judgment is passed. It's over. It's over. And so
the word reproved might properly be translated convict. But it
does not mean that the Spirit of God will come and he will
sort of teach you. Maybe you ought to pretty please
come to Jesus. That's not Holy Spirit conviction.
That's religious tomfoolery. I hear folks talk about the convicted
work of the Holy Spirit. Well, I'm just convicted, I ought
not wear pants, maybe they'll say. I'm convicted, I ought not
wear shorts. I'm convicted, I ought not go
to the picture show. I'm convicted, I ought not eat bacon. Whatever,
whatever it is. You may be, you may be sort of,
maybe a little bit convinced you ought not do it, but God
the Holy Spirit didn't convict you of those things. Some preacher
convicted you of those things. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. When God the Holy Spirit convicts,
He convinces of these things. Look here. When He, the Spirit
of Truth has come, He will convince the world, not everybody in the
world, but God's elect in all parts of the world. He will convince
them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin. What
does He mean by that? Because they believe not on man,
he will convince them they are lost, doomed, damned sinners. And nobody can ever convince
you of that but him. Nobody. Nobody. Of righteousness. Oh, he'll convince you that you
ought to start acting righteous. You've been convinced of that
since you drew your first breath. No, that's not what he's talking
about. That's not what he's talking about. He'll convince you you
can't. He'll convince you you're not.
He'll convince you of Christ's righteousness finished. Because
I go to my Father. And you see me no more. When
the spirit of truth comes, he convinces men and women of their
sin and guilt before God. He convinces them that Jesus
Christ, the Redeemer, has finished the work of redemption as Jehovah's
righteous servant, that he has gone to the Father because the
work's finished. He brought in everlasting righteousness.
And he'll convince you of something else. And of judgment. Of judgment. Oh, the Holy Spirit
convicted me, and I sensed judgment was coming. God convinced you
of that by nature. Your conscience has been telling
you that all your life. That's not what it's talking
about. He comes and convinces you, Larry. Judgment's done. Judgment is done. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Holy Spirit
conviction is the convincing, the convicting of our hearts
of our sin, our guilt, our depravity, our helplessness, before God
Almighty, at the same time convincing us that Jesus Christ has brought
in everlasting righteousness as our substitute and Savior,
that He died to the full satisfaction of justice as our Redeemer. All right, back here in our text.
Zechariah 9. God our Savior that he will give
us this other Redeemer, this Restorer, this Second Declarer,
God the Holy Spirit. And he announces his grace in
his word, graciously inviting sinners to turn to the stronghold
by the preaching of the gospel. This message that we're reading,
he gave it to Zachariah to preach, just as I'm preaching it now.
But it takes something more. than the written word. It takes
something more than hearing this man or any other preach the gospel
to call the lost, ruined, doomed, damned, spiritually dead sinner
to turn to Christ. The sinner will turn to Christ
only when the Holy Spirit, the declarer, the restorer, comes
in the saving power of his free grace to you. on the day of Pentecost,
the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled. and the prophecy of this word,
declaring that Christ has accomplished his work, he's ascended on high,
and he's the king of glory. God's given him power over all
flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
him. To declare that in a public manner, he poured out his spirit
on that day. And that was a once and for all
with finality event. God the Holy Spirit was given
to his church. just as Jesus Christ was given
to redeem and save us. But that which happened on Pentecost
is a pretty good, no, a very clear demonstration of what God
continually does for His church, for the saving of His people.
The King of glory pours out His Spirit upon all flesh. Oh, son of God do that today. And He causes young men to see
and young women to worship. He causes it by the overwhelming
power of his free grace when the Spirit turns the hearts of
the captive to Christ the Redeemer. It is only when the sinner is
born again by God's Spirit that he turns to Christ. Only when
he is turned will he turn. Sometimes people who are not
familiar with things of God as they should be, will come in
here and wonder, well, why don't y'all have altar calls and invitations
and all that stuff that preachers use to get folks to make a profession
of faith? Why don't you do any of that?
Because our altar is in heaven. It won't do you any good to come
down here and go into a confessional booth with some priest. That
doesn't have God's safe centers. Our altar is in heaven. And I
can't take you there. I can't take you there. But God
can. God the Holy Spirit comes and
lifts the heart from death to life by omnipotent mercy. You see, our turning to Him is
not that which causes him to turn to us. Our turning to him
is that which is the result of him turning to us. Our coming
to the stronghold is the result of the stronghold having come
to us. Our believing him is the result
of him giving us life. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. and causes to approach unto thee. Isn't that a good word? How come you come to Christ?
Because you can't help it. You can't help it. That's all. You can't help it. What happens? God the Holy Spirit gently, and
with almighty force, moves you to the Savior. by revealing Christ
in you. Let's look at chapter 12, Zechariah,
verse 10. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Here it is. And I will pour upon
the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the
spirit of grace and supplications. I will pour on them my spirit,
causing them to pray, to supplicate my throne. And they shall look
upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him as one is in bitterness for his firstborn. It pleased
God to reveal His Son in me. And when He revealed His Son
in you, that's when you believed His Son, not until then. So I
said, well, you folks believe God saves sinners against their
will. No, no. He just works on their willer.
He gives them a new willer. I've told you the story, but
I like to tell it. Shelby and I hadn't been dating just a couple
of weeks, and I told her I wanted to marry her. And she looked
at me like, well, you're crazy. You don't have any idea what
you want. As a matter of fact, she about said that in so many
words. And I proceeded to charm the girl. I mean, I would drive
across town to walk her a half a block into her class, carry
her books, put on her coat, go to the door and get her, open
the door for her, be sure she's seated comfortably, and took
her to McDonald's every time I could get 50 cents together.
And after a couple of years, well, after a year, I ended up
in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, my great-aunt's house, everybody
going to bed, and I knelt down by the sofa and asked her to
marry me. And you know what she did? She
jumped at the chance to say yes. Why, you'd have thought I was
the best looking thing she'd ever seen in your life. I was. In her eyes, let me tell you
something, Christ whom I despised, whose vicious I hated, with whom
I would have nothing to do one day, made himself known to me. And I've never seen anything
so lovely as he. He called and I refused. He stretched
out his hands and I would not. But then one day he called and
I dropped in his arms. Turn you to the stronghold, you
prisoners of hope. When can I turn? When will you
turn? If you turn, it's because He has given another revealer
to you, even the Spirit of Truth. Let us seek such grace continually
that we may turn to Him. Three times in Psalm 80, the
psalmist cries, Turn us, O God of hosts. and we shall be turned. Turn us unto thee, O Lord God
of hosts, and we shall be turned. Turn us, and we shall be turned. Prophet Jeremiah says, Turn thou
us unto thee, O Lord, and we will be turned. Renew our days
as of old. Well, the first thing that's
required then is that the Spirit of God come to us. Here's the
second thing. The sinner will turn. Every chosen
sinner will turn. I don't have any question about
that. You don't either. Every redeemed soul will turn.
Every sinner for whom the refuge and the stronghold is provided
will turn. Every one of them. But they won't
turn until they're bent. And the bending is never pleasant
work, not for the one bent. Look at this, verse 13. When
I have bent Judah for me, we can't turn to the stronghold
We won't bow to Christ until our Lord God bows us to Him. You must bend before Him, your
Lord and Savior, or you must perish before Him. You cannot
come to Him except you bend to Him. And you won't bend to Him
until He bends you. It won't happen. Mama and daddy
can tell scare tales and get you to make a profession of faith
if they're so foolish. Preachers can mentally massage
your brain and get you to make professions of faith if they
care so little for your soul. But the only way you're going
to bend in your heart before God is for God to bend you. They put religious restraints
on folks. I had this actually happen to me. You've heard folks
talk about it. I had it happen to me. I've got to be a little bit
rebellious when I was in the fourth grade, never will forget
it. I really wanted the attention of the teacher. I couldn't get
it any other way, so I tried meanness. I'd slap you down in
my chair, slap you down in my chair. I mean, I could slap you
down like you wouldn't believe. I was the biggest boy in the
class. Finally, she got fed up with it one day. This is back
in 1958, I think it is. Yeah, 58. You could get by with
it. You know what it's going to be? That old gal came. and
got the girl jump rope and tied me up. She tied me up, but I
was bent just as much as ever. I was slouched down in my chair
in here. And religion can tie you up and
make it appear outwardly that you are bent before God, but
all the while you're still standing up as a stiff-necked rebel before
Him. until he bends you. And he bends
you from the inside out, not the outside in. He bends the
heart. Christ is the refuge, and he
throws open the door. He is the door, and he bids sinners
come into the door. But it's a very low door. You
can only get in on your knees. bemoaning yourself before him.
O God, in tender mercy break the iron sinew of my neck, the
softening power of grace impart, and melt my hard and stubborn
heart. He healeth the broken in heart
and bindeth up their wounds. To the broken the Lord God is
merciful. Now, what is it to be broken
before God? It is to bow to Christ as Lord, bemoaning yourself for
your sin, acknowledging that you have no
rights before Him. It's not just surrendering all
rights to Him. Rex, it's acknowledging you don't
have any. Yes, we surrender to Him, That's
not it. Darwin, I don't have any rights
before Him. I'm nothing before Him. And I
have nothing before Him. And that never changes. That
never changes. When He conquers, He conquers
everything. To be broken, to be bent by Him
is to have the precious blood of Jesus Christ sprinkled on
your soul. cleansing you from all sin. You
enter into this door, into the stronghold, and as you enter
in the door, I see something. I see blood sprinkled on the
doorpost and on the ladder. And as I go through the door,
the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us. Isn't that
a great word? Oh, but He did that at Calvary. Yes, He did that at Calvary.
He did it before the world was too. But He does it all the time. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now, notice who those sinners
are who are bent by grace. When I have bent Judah, I love
this. As a matter of fact, I had a
tough time, because we're so conditioned to think otherwise,
I had a tough time every time I wrote these words down, writing
them down right. I wanted to write him, I had
bent Judah unto me. That's not what it says. He did
that, but Merle, he bent you for him. Made you who hated him
to be for him. Made you who ran from him to
be for him. Made you who despised him to
be for him. Who? Judah. He says, Judah is
his sanctuary. In Judah is God known. I will
stretch out mine hand upon Judah. Who is Judah? Judah is all his
elect. Now, Brother Mahan last week
preached to us about God's provision and the sure result. Let me show
you the results. And I'll just have to run through
these. I may come back to them another time. There are ten of
them. Verse fourteen. When the center is bent, the
Lord shall be seen over them. Everybody talks about the man
upstairs, talks about me and Jesus got a good thing going,
such blasphemy. If you're ever bent before Him,
you will see Him in His glory over. And his arrow shall go
forth as lightning. The word of God is not bound,
but runs swiftly through all the earth, and like an arrow
shot from a bow, pierces your heart before you know it. And
as lightning, it shines forth from Zion unto the ends of the
earth. And the Lord God shall blow the
trumpet. The gospel we preach is like
the jubilee trumpet of old, proclaiming liberty to the captives, the
cancellation of all debt, the complete restoration of the fallen,
the complete restoring of that which was lost. It is the announcement
of these things. But hearing me blow the trumpet will never do you any good. Oh,
but when God Almighty takes this worthless, empty, dirty pipe
and puts it to His lips and blows the trumpet, jubilee begins in
a man's soul. And He blows it with the effectual
power of the whirlwinds, like the tornado, the spirits compared
to the wind. The wind blows where it listeth.
Now, here's the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that's born of
the Spirit. But it's not just any whirlwind. It's the whirlwinds
of the South. Warm, reviving, comforting, winds
that bring serenity. And when He does this, sinners
live before Him. The Gospel has made the power
of God to salvation. Look at verse 15. The Lord of
hosts shall defend them. What are you going to say about that?
Blessed defense. I'd meet no other. And he, or
they, shall devour. Devour what? Jesus Christ, the
bread of life. He shall eat my flesh and drink
my blood. And they devour him. And nobody
lives before him who doesn't. And subdued with sling stones. What was it God used to bring
Goliath down, that mighty giant that opposed his people? What's
going to bring down that huge giant? Couldn't have been any
bigger than that. Couldn't have been any bigger
than that. Just a little pebble in a worthless
piece of leather sling. thrown by the power of God. And that's just what he continually
uses to bring down the powers of darkness and of hell. And
they shall drink and make a noise as through wine. We will act like none of us has
ever had any experience with such. You just saw such on television.
But did you ever notice in those old westerns how loud the saloons
were, how loud they were. I meant banging on the piano,
folks screaming and hollering, and somebody get up and dance
on the bar, dance on the table, somebody just start to sing,
who battered out something and couldn't sing a lick. Why? Because they were drunk as skunks. And that's exactly the illustration
that's seized upon here by our God, He says, when my people
are turned. And I pour upon them my spirit,
and I satiate their souls with Christ. And I fill them with
the feast of fat things, with wine upon leaves, loyally pined. They will sing like somebody
who's plumb drunk with new wine. Their acknowledgement of His
praise and their gratitude, their thanksgiving, their glorious
praise to Him cannot be silenced by any means. They will rejoice
in Him and give thanks to Him continually. Now watch this,
verse 15. They shall be filled, filled
like bowls, and as the corners of the altar. In the Old Testament,
they had those bowls. And they'd bring their fine flour,
mingled with oil, and they'd fill up the bowls. Sacrifices
of praise to Christ. On the Day of Atonement, the
high priest would slit the throat of the goat to be sacrificed
and fill up the bowl and carry it in before God. And
when God saves sinners by His grace, When He pours His Spirit
on them, when He gives them the sweet wine of His grace and Christ
the bread of life, He fills them with sacrifices of praise to
Him. Because He fills them with the
blood of His Son. Oh, the precious blood. Fills
them with atonement and acceptance with God. Look at the text again. Verse 16. And the Lord God shall
save them in that day. He shall save them as the flock
of his people. He gathers his flock. They're
his flock. It is the flock. They're all
one flock. And they are his people. people
he's come to save. For they shall be the stones
of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon his land. Oh, wondrous grace. The Son of God stood and digs
out from the dung heap of fallen humanity a worthless scam of
dung and transforms it into a polished diamond and sets it in his crown
as the king of glory. That's Bobby Estes. He says,
look here! Here is my glory! I am gracious. And he sets it up in his land
like a banner, an ensign of one who has conquered and taken the
land. And says, look here, look here. All is well, my people. Then
he cheers the hearts of his people. He says, look here, look here.
Take a good look at this piece of dung I've transformed. into
the diamond of my grace, look here, look here, and turn you
into the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. One more thing, look
at verse 17, and you'll see the reason for it all. For great,
oh how great is his good and great. Oh, how great is His
beauty. And unlike Him, God make Him
yours. Amen.