Zechariah 9. Zechariah 9, verse
9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. Just in case I forget to call
your attention to it, do you remember when we read John 12,
15? That word, rejoice greatly. The Spirit of God inspired John
to write, Fear not. The two are mutually exclusive. Rejoicing in Him. and fear. 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 a 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
to the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea,
and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for thee
also, by the blood of thy covenant I sent forth thy prisoners out
of the pit wherein is no water. when the Lord Jesus entered into
Jerusalem as he was making his way up to Calvary's tree to suffer
and die as our substitute. He fulfilled this prophecy found
here in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9. And having fulfilled
this prophecy, the consequences of the prophecy being fulfilled,
as they're described in verse 10, are a matter of absolute
certainty. Now, I'm not guessing about this.
We know that Zechariah 9-9 was a prophetic description of our
Lord Jesus Christ as he made his entry into Jerusalem up to
the cross and up to glory as our crucified substitute who
is now enthroned as the king of glory. We know that because
God the Holy Spirit tells us that in Matthew chapter 21, Luke
chapter 19, and in John chapter 12. John adds one thing to the
thing that neither Matthew nor Luke were inspired to tell us.
John tells us that when the disciples They'd seen the Lord Jesus fulfilling
this prophecy, but it just went over their heads. It just went
over their heads. Listen to the words. These things
understood not his disciples at the first. But when Jesus
was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written
of him, and that they had done these things unto him." In other
words, after the Lord's death and his resurrection, after his
ascension on high, his exaltation, his enthronement as our great
king, these things began to fall into place, and the disciples
began to understand the things that our Lord did and said while
he walked on this earth and preached to them for three and a half
years. For those early disciples, I suspect things were sort of
like reading a good novel. You start to open a book and
you read the first chapter or two and you wonder, why was that
fellow introduced? Why did he do that? Why did this
thing happen? Why did that thing take place?
And then when you get to the last chapter, everything falls
into place. And you, oh, now I understand. Now I see why all these things
took place. Now I see why the author introduced
this person, why the author introduced this event, why he told us about
that. Now it all falls into place.
That's how it was for the disciples after the resurrection. Lights
went on everywhere. There must have been a hundred
things about which those men said to themselves, that's what
the master meant. That's why he did that. That's
why he said what he did. That's the meaning of his words.
Let me give you some examples. They didn't have a clue what
he meant when he said in John 2, destroy this temple and in
three days I will raise it up. They didn't have a clue. But
don't laugh at them, I wouldn't have either. You wouldn't have
either. What on earth is he talking about?
Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. But when
they saw him raised up, and not just raised up from the dead,
but raised up before their eyes into glory. Now I understand it. Now I understand
it. They saw him glorified and understood. They didn't have a clue what
he meant when he said in that passage we read in John 12, except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. But now that he's ascended, now
that he's enthroned, now that redemption's work is done and
the Savior is glorified, That's what those two Greeks meant.
That's what they represented. That's why the Lord brought them
to Him at that particular time. So that we might understand that
He who is the Life Bread is buried and dead and now brings forth
fruit in abundance all over the world. Our Lord Jesus said to
them in Matthew 21, the stone which the builders rejected,
the same has become the head of the corner. What's he talking
about? That foundation stone been laying there since the days
of Nehemiah. They relayed that thing there.
Nobody's going to pick it up and set it up on top of this
land. What's he talking about? That's it. The foundation is
the top stone. The beginning is the end. The
start is the finish. And it's all Him. It's all Him. Our Lord Jesus said to them in
John 16, now can you imagine how Perplexed they were. A little while, and you shall
not see me. And again, a little while, and
you shall see me, because I go to the Father. No wonder Thomas
said to him, Lord, show us the way. Where on earth are you going?
What on earth are you talking about? He said, if you'd seen
Father, you'd seen me. But now they saw both the Father
and the Son in the glorified substitute, and they understood. He spoke of his death. For three
days we didn't see him. And then we saw him again. And
we saw him go to the Father. That must be what he's talking
about. Our Lord Jesus said to them in Matthew 22, if David
didn't call him the Son of Man Lord, how is he his son? How
is that possible? He was telling us that he whom
we knew as the Son of David is the God of David. There he is.
All of our Savior's words and deeds shine with new light and
clear meaning in the light of His resurrection and exaltation,
in the light of redemption accomplished by Him, in the light of satisfaction
accepted by God the Father. Not only that, once the Lord
Jesus was enthroned as King, once He poured out His Spirit
upon His people, the Old Testament scripture just popped open before
them. They just literally popped open
before them. When our Lord Jesus rode into
Jerusalem on an ashes coat, John tells us the whole thing went
over their heads. They didn't have a clue what
was going on. But once the Lord was raised
from the dead, Zachariah's prophecy flamed with light as they realized
we were witnesses Right here, just a few days ago, we were
witnesses to what Zachariah wrote 550 years ago. We saw it. How thankful we ought to be. How thankful we ought to be for
God the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us as the Spirit
of truth, the revealer of Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered
why the Lord Jesus called him the Comforter? Ever wonder? Well, he's the one who comforts
us. But how? How? Our Lord Jesus explained
it. The Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever. I have said unto you, oh, thank
you, Spirit of God, for taking the things of Christ and showing
them to me in this blessed book. Without him, there is no understanding
of anything written in this book. I received a letter this week.
A friend asked me, she was confused, she said, how is it that men
were born again? before the Holy Spirit was given.
How could they be born again if they didn't have him? And
the difficulty is one that's confusing to many. But the fact
is, our Lord Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. But we were redeemed by his blood before ever he came
into this world and revealed himself in his office capacity
as our Redeemer and Mediator. And God the Holy Spirit worked
among his people in the Old Testament, but he was revealed distinctly
and came distinctly in his office capacity as the Comforter, the
one who reveals Christ to his people when the Lord Jesus was
enthroned in glory. And that's exactly what Joel's
prophecy and Joel 2 told us would happen. When Christ was come,
when the King was enthroned, God would pour out His Spirit
manifestly, and men and women would be taught the things of
God. Now, let's look at Zechariah 9, verses 9, 10, and 11, and
I want to show you four or five things that I have found just
delightful, and I believe things God the Holy Spirit has shown
me. Our text begins with a command to rejoice. Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. I remind you, Zion is just another
name for God's church. It's another name for Jerusalem.
The daughters of Zion, the daughters of Jerusalem, are those who are
the citizens of Zion, the members, the people of God's calling,
the people of God's choice, the people of God's choice. Both
those who are manifestly, he is, manifestly members of Christ
by regeneration and God-given faith, and those who are secretly,
he is, who have not yet been born of God and have not yet
been called by His grace. Zechariah doubles his words. He says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter
of Zion, and shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, so as to give us
emphasis. He says, I'm calling on you now
by the Spirit of God to rejoice. I mean rejoice. And here's the
reason. Behold, thy King cometh. Zechariah is not talking about
Zerubbabel. He's not talking about Judas
Maccabeus. He's dead sure not talking about
Alexander the Great. He's talking about our Lord Jesus
Christ, Messiah the King, Messiah the Prince, as Daniel calls him.
This is the sum of all good news. Behold, thy King cometh. Cometh for what? He didn't say
he's coming to be king. He said your king is coming. What's he talking about? Didn't
the Lord Jesus enter into Jerusalem so that he could become their
king? Not only alive. He has no interest. He has no
interest in the political nation of Israel. No interest. Except
as they serve his kingdom, the Israel of God. Would the God
folks understand this? There is no distinction whatsoever. given among men because of their
physical birth or physical connection to Abraham any more than there
is to your grandchildren because they're physically connected
to you. No connection at all. No, no. He comes as the king
to redeem and to save his people. Read this book. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
For this cause Christ Jesus came into the world, that he might
seek and save that which was lost. Christ has come into the
world to save sinners. Behold, thy King cometh. Now
here's a reason to rejoice. He's coming to save, and he who's
coming is the King. This is the very context in which
we find this call to rejoice in Jeremiah 31. Turn over there
for a moment if you will. Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah is talking
to us in the context here about God's everlasting love and the
covenant of grace that was built upon that everlasting love and
the redemption that flows to sinners because of everlasting
love in that covenant of grace. And he tells us that this blessed
fact, thy king cometh, ought to swallow up every other thought. Jeremiah 31 and verse 12. Therefore
they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow
together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine,
and for oil, for the young of the flock and of the herd." Well,
that's talking about the millennial age, when you're going to have
string beans as long as your arms, and pumpkins big enough
to live in. No, it's not talking about carnal things. How do you
know? Read the next line, for their souls, shall be as a watered
garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all. No wonder the
Spirit of God moved men on that day when the Lord Jesus rode
into Jerusalem on an ashes coat to cry, Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. I can't
tell you how I have been praying as we gather here this day Oh,
blessed King, come here today. Behold, thy King cometh. Now, let every believer, let
every believer, are you a believer? Do you trust him, Bobby Estes?
Has he given you faith in him? All right, read it as God's Word
to you personally. Mmm, thy King cometh to thee. thy king cometh to thee." And
it is intended of God that it be read just that way. Remember
whenever you read our old King James translation and you come
across the word T-H-E-E-V, It is always singular. But he's
talking to the daughters of Jerusalem. He's talking to the daughters
of Zion. He's talking to Zion, the whole church of God. He's
talking to every believer. And he would have every believer
to understand he's talking specifically to you. Behold, thy king cometh
to thee. There is no king like our king.
He comes, king of kings and lord of lords. And He comes specifically,
oh my soul get hold of this, He comes specifically for your
benefit. He comes for your benefit, for
your everlasting benefit, for your spiritual benefit, for your
eternal benefit, for your personal benefit. Babylon may mourn and
Egypt may howl, Let Zion rejoice. He cometh to thee. He who is
our king, the king of Zion, is king in his church and king over
everything. He is the king of saints. He
reigns. Rejoice in him. I read at the
beginning of a service this morning, Psalm 149, a portion of it. You
remember the words of verse 2? Let the children of Zion be joyful
in their King. Be joyful in their King. There's
nothing said there about being joyful in what our King has done
or will do or is doing. Those things in their proper
place are truly sweet subjects of praise. But the subject of
Zion's praise first and foremost is Christ Himself, our King. Let us never forget His goodness,
His mercy, His grace. Let us never forget all that
He has done for us, is doing for us, and shall do for us.
These are all matters to be received with thanksgiving and praise
and gratitude because they are things that flow to us from His
mercy, love, and grace. But that which is the consummate,
all-consuming, Object of our praise is Christ Himself. I'm thankful for what that lady
does for me, but I love her. Did you hear that? I'm thankful
for what Christ does for me, but He's got my heart. Oh, I'm
so thankful for the resurrection. I am the resurrection, He said.
I'm so thankful for God's salvation. Me too. The Savior is He who
is called God's salvation. It's not just a doctrine. It's
not just an experience. It's not just something we have.
It's Him! Oh, I'm so thankful for redemption. Me too. He is redemption. I'm so thankful for righteousness.
Me too. He is righteousness. You understand
this? Let Zion rejoice in her King. This is what Paul tells us in
Philippians 4. Turn over there. Philippians chapter 4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Now he's not talking about silly,
giddy, pretentious, put on religious fakery. Folks walk around, well
bless God, I'm so happy in Jesus, isn't this wonderful? That's
not what he's talking about. Sometimes your heart breaks.
Sometimes your eyes burn your cheeks with tears. Sometimes
you have trouble and difficulty. And if you laugh at it, you're
a fool. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about
real joy. He's talking about joy that abides
in your soul when there's pain and heartache and woe in the
experience of your life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice. What's
he talking about? Let your moderation. Remember,
John gave us that word rejoice? Fear not. That's the word. Your moderation. This particular
word is only used one other time in the New Testament. It speaks
this way. Of the gentleness of Christ.
Let your gentleness. Your unruffled ease. Your undisturbed peace. Your quietness from within. Be known to all men. How come?
Because He who is my joy is at hand. He's right here with me
in the midst of the storm. Be careful for nothing. It's
impossible to take anxious thought for anything while you rejoice
in Him Who is your King? Be careful for nothing. I'll
get tied up. I better leave that alone. Be
careful for nothing. Quit pacing the floor and biting
your nails and worrying. Quit. Quit. Rejoice in the Lord. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God. Tell Him your heart. Tell Him your heart. Because
He knows my heart, yes, but He tells you to tell it. And it'll
do you good to tell it. It won't do you any good to tell
me a little bit of that. And I know you well enough to
know you're only going to tell me a little bit anyhow. You're
only going to tell me the part you want me to know. And how
do you know that? Because that's the way I am.
I'm going to just tell you the part about me I want you to know.
Don't do God that way. Tell Him your heart. Everything
will be all right. With prayer and supplication,
Let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God
that nobody on this earth can understand or get a handle on
or comprehend or explain will keep your heart. Like a guard
keeps watch over the city, like a guard keeps the prison, he
will, by his peace, keep your heart. through Christ Jesus. Now, go back to our text. Don't
just read the prophecy personally. Read it just like it's written
in the present tense. Behold thy King cometh unto thee. For four thousand years he was
the coming one. For four thousand years the promise
spoke of his coming. Now he has come and he has come
to me. I like to read the Word of God
personally. It's not much benefit to my soul. It might be to my brain, but
it's not to my soul to read the Word of God abstractly. It doesn't
do me any good to read the Scriptures and read them as talking to Skip
and Sandy. I read it as talking to me. You
understand me? Read the Word of God personally.
It's intended of God that you should. Behold, thy King cometh
unto thee. This is how the church sings
in the Song of Solomon. The voice of my beloved. Behold,
he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. Open his word. Here he comes. Pours out his spirit. Here he
comes. Come together in his house. Here
he comes. We come together tonight in the
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. eat the bread and drink the wine,
here He comes. In providence, in every step
of providence, in every event of providence, in every affair
of our lives, He's coming to you. He comes in grace. He comes in mercy. He comes in
love. He comes to save. He comes to restore. He comes
to revive. He comes to uphold. He comes to forgive. He comes
to pick you up when you've fallen. Behold, thy King cometh all the
time to you. He comes all the time to you. Oh, hear this now. Thy king cometh
to thee, and he bids you come to him. Come unto me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. And you shall find rest unto
your souls. He is just, and have him salvation. He is just that he might justify
us. And because he is the just God
and our Savior, he is mighty to save. He has salvation, righteous
salvation, for unrighteous men who need his salvation. He came
having salvation. What a word. He had it. in his
heart from old eternity. He has it in his hand. Having
entered once into the holy place with his own blood, he obtained
eternal redemption for us, and now he has salvation in his hand
to bestow on whom he will, to scatter wherever he will, exactly
according to his will. Zechariah continues to describe
our King. telling us how he came to redeem
us and how he comes to save us, lowly and riding upon an ass
and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. He comes, this mighty
king, as no king ever came in a public display in all of history. He comes riding upon an untamed,
wild ass, dragging beside that wild ass, the wild ass's coat,
on which never sat a man. And he comes with no banners
waving. He didn't have an advance committee
to go in and set up the revival meeting. He didn't have an organized
religion to pave the way for him. He didn't have any troops
leading the way. He didn't have any guards around
him. He just comes riding upon another man's untamed ass with
absolute calm and serenity. Never was there such a high one
who came in such loveliness. Never was there a man who came
from such height to such depth as Christ Jesus when He who knew
no sin was made sin for us that He might make us the righteousness
of God in Him. But what's the significance of
Him coming riding on an ass and pulling beside him the ashes
coat. You remember in Galatians chapter
4, Paul uses a historic event. An event surrounding the lives
of two historic figures, Sarah and Hagar. And he says these
things are an allegory. Now when he said that, he was
not telling us that Sarah and Hagar were fictitious people. They were real, live human beings. They really did live, they really
did have sons, and they really did die, and their sons really
did fight each other. They were really at odds with
each other. But he says, if all you understand is that this explains
what's going on over in the East right now, you've missed the
boat. You just missed it. No, no, no,
no. These things are an allegory,
an allegory. What is an allegory? An allegory
is either a real or fictitious thing that is used to teach something
else. In the scriptures, an allegory,
in this case, is something that really happened. But it really
happened to give us a picture, an object lesson in something
that is spiritual, teaching us the gospel of God's grace, teaching
us how Jesus Christ the King comes and stays centered by His
grace. And that is true of all physical things revealed in Scripture. Now be sure you got that. You
be sure you got that. Every historic event Every physical
transaction, every physical law, everything written in the scripture
of things pertaining to men came to pass and is recorded in the
scriptures as an allegory to show us, behold, thy king cometh. Now we must never spiritualize
scripture. I mean by that. Read a text and
say, well, this is what this means to me. I don't give a flip
what it means to you. And you shouldn't. It doesn't
matter what it means to you. What does it mean? That's all
that matters. What does God the Holy Spirit intend that it means?
If we make the scriptures, twist them, use them to say what we
want them to say, we might as well take their daily newspaper
and call it the Word of God. That's treating it with the same
irreverence. Yet, when we read the scriptures,
We ought always to look for God's intended spiritual message in
the scripture. And that intended message is,
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. Well, how on earth does
this story about our Lord Jesus coming into Jerusalem, riding
a wild ass's coat, have anything to do with God's salvation? Surely,
surely that's not the case. Several years ago, Will was just,
I think, two years old. He came over one morning, whenever
he's here, he always comes over before everybody else. I've got
to get over real early so I can study before he gets here. But
he crawled up on my lap. I had my Bible open, studying.
He pointed at that. He said, Poppy, is that where
Jesus lives? And I gave him a longer answer.
But the long and short of it is this. This is right where
he lives. This is right where he lives.
This book is all about him. Oh God help you see this. Read
the scriptures looking for him. And as the risen Lord calls the
scriptures to pop open to his disciples. He calls his word
to pop open to you. And the scriptures will blaze
with light that once were all darkness. Turn to Job chapter
11. Even the small details. Things
that you look at and say, well, that was just intended to be
a record. I have on occasion had smart aleck preachers. They'd
hear something like this preached or read something I'd written
and they'd say, well, what do you think the significance of
the tent pegs were in the tabernacle? And I'd say, well, I suspect
they were intended to hold up the tent. What do you think?
And they were intended to show us how God holds up the tabernacle
he pitches. A heapsight more than holding
up that tent. A heapsight more. Our Lord came riding into Jerusalem
on a wild ass. What does God intend for us to
learn from that? Job 11, verse 12. Vain man would
be wise. Now watch this. Though man be
born, you will do no violence to the scriptures. As you read
this, to leave out that word life. You'll notice it's in italics. This is how Larry Brown was born.
A wild ass's coat. Not like one. A wild ass's coat. Oh Pritchett, we live in polite
society. You ought to say donkey. When
you get more polite than the word of God, your politeness
has got something wrong with it. He didn't say donkey. And the translators
could have translated it donkey. The word donkey was in common
use in their day. He didn't say donkey. He didn't
say mule. He didn't say something kin to a horse. He didn't say
a burrow. He said, man is born a wild ass. Well, that's not very complimentary,
not to the ass. Exactly right. You see, the wild
ass is foolish, senseless, stubborn, given to lust, debauchery, wild. As the wild ass will not bear
the yoke, so none will ever bear the yoke of Christ, except the
Son of God, by night's disgrace, break his own wild ass by riding
him as the King of Glory. Didn't tame him, he breaks him. Religion tames fellows. Christ
rides them till they're broke. He breaks them. Man by nature,
like a wild ass, Jeremiah tells us, used to the wilderness, snuffs
up the wind at her pleasure. Who hath harnessed the bands
of the wild ass? In the movies, we, I don't, you
may not like westerns, I didn't watch those, sorry, those spaghetti
westerns, want to get a chance to? Two mules for Sister Sarah. We
can see an old man riding a donkey. And you think, well, that's such
a gentle little animal. You can buy them now on the internet.
Folks get them, and they're, oh, it'd be good to have one
of those. You better check with somebody who's already bought
one before you do. They're not gentle little house pets. They're
mean. They're mean. Try to ride one.
Try to get him to carry a load. I mean, just strap over him a
couple of empty milk cartons. Try to get him to carry it. Try
to get him to pull something for you. until he's broken, he'll
buck and kick and bite, and if everything else fails, he'll
just sit down. He's called a wild ass. That's you. That's you. Just try to get one of these
wild asses to worship God. Watch him kick. I go like I do
occasionally with some of these sweet religious folks sitting
in churches, these religious wild asses, and tell them the
truth about man. about God, about Christ, about salvation, about
redemption, about grace, and watch them buck and bite and
kick and sit down and pout. But when the King of Grace comes
and mounts the wild ass, The wild ass is gladly ridden by
him wherever he'll take it. That's the good news of grace. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. Now look at verse 10. This is
the sure result. And I will cut off the chariot
from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bull
shall be cut off, and shall speak peace unto the heathen. Does he ride the wild ass? He takes the weapons of warfare
away from them. He subdues the enmity, the anger,
the hatred, the violence of the wild ass against God. He disarms us by his almighty
grace. Turn to Isaiah chapter 2. Let
me show you. If you want to read it at your leisure, the fourth
chapter of Micah says almost identically the same thing. Isaiah
2, verse 2. And it shall come to pass in
the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. That looks
to me like the same thing he told us in Zechariah, doesn't
it? Almost identical. And many people shall go and
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths. This is how to do it. Out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall
rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more. This sword, this sword, I have
taken. and beaten it into a plowshare. This spear I take daily, this
spear I used once to fight against God and beat it into a pruning
hook. This heart, proud, angry heart,
fighting everybody, finds brothers and sisters, husbands and wives,
sons and daughters, and embraces them and kisses them in every
nation, kindred, tribe and tongue, no matter what color their skin
is. He comes and subdues the enmity of the heart, giving us
a new heart. And when he does, when he rides
us in his triumphant grace, he speaks peace. He speaks peace. Folks, they
come make your peace with God. You can forget that. It ain't
gonna happen. Well, I've made my peace with
God. Try it out someday. If you've made your peace with
God, you will soon unmake it, I promise you. Oh, but if the
King comes and throws on you the saddle of His grace and rides
you into subjection until you are gladly ridden, I redeem you. Your iniquities are gone. Iniquity
is put away. Reconciliation is made. You're
mine, and I'm yours forever. Oh come, King of Grace, and ride
us forever. Amen.