once came into this world in
human flesh. Few, very few know who he is. Few, very few know why he came. And very, very few know what
he accomplished while he was here. But all men were compelled
in God's providence to acknowledge that once he came. They cannot
deny it. They have to live with it, no
matter how confusing or condemning it is. All men everywhere have
to live with knowledge of the fact that God's own Son once
came into this world in human flesh. But we want much more
than that. We want to know Him. Oh, that
I may know Him. To know Him is life everlasting. We want to know Him and we want
to know everything we can know about Him being taught by God
the Holy Spirit upon the pages of Holy Scripture as He is revealed
in this book. So today I want us to go back
a few pages in Zachariah's prophecy, back to chapter 2. And I want
to talk to you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. While
the incarnation of our Lord is still fresh on our minds, let's
look once more at one of the many prophecies of our Lord's
coming, found in Zechariah 2, verses 10 and 11. Sing and rejoice, O daughter
of Zion. And here's the reason. For lo,
I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. Many nations,
people from many nations, shall be joined to one Lord, and they
shall be as one body my people. and I will dwell in the midst
of thee. And when this is done, thou shalt
know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee." May God the
Holy Spirit teach us His message in these words and graciously
apply it to our hearts. Here the Lord God, the triune
Jehovah, calls for us to rejoice not only in the fact that Christ
came into the world, but to rejoice in the character in which he
came, and to rejoice in the work that he accomplished. Now notice
it is the Lord Jehovah who said, Lo, I come. And it is the Lord
of hosts, Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, who sent him in the first
part of verse 11, The Lord, Jehovah, declares that by His coming He
will save a great multitude of sinners. And then in the latter
part of verse 11, He tells us that those to whom and for whom
He was sent shall know by these things that the Lord had sent
Him. Now here's the first thing I
want you to see. The Lord God here calls for all His saints
to praise him in song and rejoice in heart at the prospect of Christ's
coming. Remember, this passage was written
200 years or more before the Savior came into the world. But
in the prospect of his coming, he says, sing and rejoice, O
daughter of Zion. I have shown you many times,
but in a bare repetition. The daughter of Zion here, of
course, refers not to any physical people, but rather to God's spiritual
people, His church, the church of His elect. God had established
his temple and his worship in Jerusalem upon Mount Zion. And Jerusalem being joined to
Mount Zion, Mount Zion is spoken of as God's church and his church
is spoken of as the daughter of Zion. This is what the scriptures
say concerning God's church, this daughter of Zion. The Lord
loveth the gates of Zion more than the dwellings of Jacob.
The Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. He says concerning Zion, this
is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. He says, I will abundantly bless
her provision, bless her ordinances, bless that which I have given
her. I will satisfy her poor with bread. The poor in heart
shall be filled. The poor in spirit shall not
go away from Zion hungry. I will also clothe her priest
with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. The Church of God then, having
the promise of salvation given by God himself, is called upon
to rejoice. Sing and rejoice, O daughter
of Zion. The Old Testament saints were
often called by God's prophets to sing and rejoice in the prospect
of Christ's coming. called to sing and rejoice, not
just in the idea that somehow God would assume human flesh
and come into this world, mysterious and profound and wondrous as
that is, but to sing and rejoice that He is coming to bring salvation. That's the great thing about
which we are called to sing. That's the great thing that creates
joy. Turn with me, if you will, to
Jeremiah 31 and just listen. If God called His Old Testament
saints, those who lived in the prospect of Christ's coming,
to sing and rejoice because of what He would accomplish when
He came, how much more ought we to sing and rejoice, give
praise to Him and rejoice in our hearts? He says, Cry out
and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One
of Israel in the midst of thee. Now look at Jeremiah 31 verse
7. For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and
shout among the chief of the nations. Publish ye praise ye,
and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold,
I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from
the coast of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame,
the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together.
A great company shall return thither. And look at verse 9.
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I
lead them. They shall come with broken heart,
and as they cry to me, I will lead them according to their
supplications. I will call them to walk by the rivers of waters
in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble. For I am a
father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." Look at another
detailed declaration of this call to rejoice and give praise
to God, Zephaniah chapter 3. I recall vividly the first time
that these verses I'm about to read to you jumped into my heart. You'll remember our brother John
Housen. He was a man whose latter years
of his life was confined to a wheelchair or a bed. He watched every video
message that we sent out before it was sent out, making sure
it was clear and no problem with it. was continually doing things
to promote the cause of Christ, to send the gospel of God's grace
around the world. And this man who could hardly
move, I'm talking about a man who typed with a pencil between
his fingers. He typed out a card and sent
it to me one day. And at the bottom of the card
just had this reference, Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 14. And when
I read these verses, I thought, my soul, how I ought to rejoice in the
Lord God who has caused this man to rejoice in his salvation. Zephaniah 3.14, Sing, O daughter
of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! For the Lord hath
taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy, the
king of Israel. Even the Lord is in the midst
of thee, and thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it
shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion let not
thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. Last week we saw Zechariah giving
the same admonition in chapter 9 in verse 9. Blessed be his
name. It is the will and pleasure of
God. So much the will and pleasure
of God that His people rejoice and be happy in Him. That throughout
the scriptures, throughout the scriptures, through the Old Testament
and the New, He calls for us to sing and rejoice. And He does so repeatedly, giving
us reason upon reason upon reason to sing His praise and rejoice
in Him. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Rejoice,
children of God. Rejoice and be glad in His salvation. Triumph in His praise and rejoice
in Him. Surely, if the people of the
Most High God ever had called for singing and rejoicing, it
is now. For Christ has come. He hasn't just come into the
world, He has come to me. He hasn't just come to me, He's
come to you, my brother, my sister, in the marvelous wonder of His
grace. He hasn't just come to you and
me, He's come to us in this place. Oh, how often He has come here
with us, and met with us, and made Himself known to us. He
who is the only begotten of the Father, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, this one who is full
of grace and truth. In Zachariah's day, the saints
of God were called to rejoice and sing because they were informed
that he was coming. He was soon to be manifested
in the temple that they were, at that time, rebuilding. He
would come into that temple and be the glory of that temple.
From the first revelation of Christ, way back in Genesis 3,
we'll look at it in a minute, when he was announced by God
to our fallen parents as that one who would bruise, who would
crush the serpent's head to the advent of our Redeemer at Bethlehem. There was a space of 4,000 years. 4,000 years. And during those
4,000 years, the people of God kept up the sacrificial worship
that God required in His law, and maintained that worship as
a memorial of Him who was soon to come. Who would soon come
here to suffer and die as our sacrifice for sin. And throughout
that time, he uttered his glorious voice by the ministry of his
prophets, declaring that his delights are with the sons of
men. And when the church of God heard
his voice, she was enraptured with it. And she cried, it is
the voice of my beloved. It is the voice of my beloved,
as the prophets would Speak of His coming. Declare what He would
do. She would lift her heart with
praise and say, it is the voice of my beloved. The inspired psalmist
records the words of our Redeemer to His Father. The words of Jehovah,
the Mediator, our Savior, the Son of God, to Jehovah, the Father,
our Father. When He said, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O my God. And hearing those words, the
bride he had espoused to himself from eternity said, Behold, he
cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. And
at the time Zechariah spoke these words, God's people building his temple
were looking for him to come. Looking for Him to come not only
to visit them again in His grace at Jerusalem, but looking for
Him to come visiting His people in grace throughout the world.
And they are called to sing and rejoice. Now, that's the first
thing. God calls us to sing His praise
and rejoice in Him because of Christ's coming. But second,
I can't proceed any further without calling your attention to the
fact that this passage displays, as it is often displayed in Scripture,
never any attempt to prove it, never any attempt to establish
it. It's just declared and displayed
throughout the Scripture that there is one God, and only one
God. There are not many gods but one
God who subsist and exist forever in three distinct persons and
yet one God. Now this is stated numerous times
in scripture in various ways. One time it is stated in absolutely
the same language I just gave it to you. You find it in 1 John
5 and verse 7. I want you to look at it. I know
you can probably quote it. I want you to look at it. If you happen to have a modern
translation with you, it's not there. Any modern translation is not
there. You won't find it in any of them.
The New King James does put it in there, but it has a footnote
that says it ought not be there. And most of the modern study
Bibles that you'll have will have a note saying, well, this
really ought not be in the text. And they suggest that it was
not in the more ancient manuscripts. That simply is not so. Why have
folks chosen to leave it out? Because Satan by subtlety and
craftiness has convinced men that this passage, this one passage,
that clearly and distinctly states the doctrine of the Trinity,
and I hate to even use the term doctrine, that simply and clearly
states emphatically that we worship one God in the Trinity or triunity
of his sacred persons. Satan has managed to convince
folks it ought not be in Scripture. Okay. There are three that bear
record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. Now look at the next line. And
these three appear to be one. No. These three are manifest
as one. No. These three function as one. No. And these three are one. Our all-glorious, incomprehensible,
triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the living and
true God. Because the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit, through three distinct persons, are one God,
God's incommunicable name, Jehovah, is used in the Scripture with
reference to all three. God the Father is called Jehovah. God the Son is called Jehovah,
and God the Spirit is called Jehovah. Throughout the Scriptures,
these things are established for us and illustrated for us.
Never is there an attempt to prove His existence or to prove
the triunity of His being. But all three persons in the
Godhead are fully engaged in the saving operations of His
grace. Jude tells us that we are sanctified by God the Father,
preserved in Christ Jesus, and called by God the Spirit. In
Ephesians, the first chapter, the Apostle Paul, writing by
the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, speaks of God the Father
as the source of all grace, of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
as the mediator or the medium, the channel through which all
grace comes to sinners, and of God the Holy Spirit as that one
who brings grace to our hearts in the experience of grace by
the mighty operations of His grace. We say we believe in the
Trinity. Why? Because God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit is God our Savior. These three persons in the Godhead
have ordained from everlasting that Jesus Christ, the God-man
mediator, be given all preeminence so that throughout the Old Testament
all the prophets bear witness of Him, pointed to Him, and spoke
of Him. And throughout the New Testament,
all the writers of the New Testament tell us who He is, what He has
done, where He is now, and what He's doing, and what He shall
do in time to come. Because it pleased the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell, so that now All the fullness
of the grace and the glory of Jehovah the Father, and Jehovah
the Son, and Jehovah the Spirit shine forth to sinners in the
face of Jesus Christ. And now, God forever dwells with
us and we with Him in sweet communion and union that can never be destroyed. That's the language of Colossians
2. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. Let us never, never, never imagine
that The glory of Christ, the God-man mediator, is in any way
an eclipse or the diminishing of the glory of God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. But rather, the glorious revelation
of Jesus Christ and all the work of Christ is the revelation of
the glory of God. That three-in-one God who reveals
Himself in operations of grace throughout the Scriptures in
Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, that brings me to this third
thing. We are here called to sing and
rejoice. Because Jehovah sends His Son. And Jehovah the sent one. says,
Lo, I come. There again, we see God the Father,
Jehovah, sending His Son, and God the Son, Jehovah, coming,
being sent to His Father on an errand of mercy. He says, Lo,
I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee. Now, I know it
doesn't appear like I do, but I try to read and study. And
I've read a lot of good men commenting on this passage of scripture.
And there's one point on which all are agreeing. The text, in
its immediate reference at least, speaks of the Lord Jesus, our
God and Savior, returning to his people in the favors of his
grace when he regathered Israel out of Babylonian captivity and
visited them again in his grace. But then there's considerable
division among the men who are much smarter than I am and much
more capable of interpreting scripture than I am. You read
one and he says, this is talking about our Lord's incarnation. And you read another and he says,
no, this is talking about our Lord's second advent. And you
read another and he says, no, this is not talking about the
incarnation or the second advent. This is talking about Christ
coming to sinners in this day of grace, in the mighty operations
of his grace. Well, I don't see any reason
to limit it to any of those things. No, no. This is talking about
Christ coming. Anytime He comes. To anyone to
whom He comes. For any reason He comes. He says,
lo, I come. Certainly, our Lord is here speaking
of His incarnation. The Incarnation of the Son of
God, the Word, the Only Begotten of the Father was set before
the Old Testament Church fully expressing and fully declaring
in God's first revelation of grace that He would come in human
flesh. Turn back there if you will,
Genesis chapter 3. This is the first declaration
of the gospel, and what a great time it was to declare it. Before
driving Adam and Eve, our fallen parents, out of the garden. Before vanishing them from His
presence. Before executing their fully
deserved curse upon our parents and upon their race. The Lord
God preached the gospel to them. The Lord Jesus comes in the garden,
seeks out Adam and Eve, clothes them with skins of a victim that
He had slain, picturing His own sacrifice. And He says, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. Who's He talking to? He's talking
to Satan. He's talking to the serpent,
but he's saying it in the presence of Adam and Eve. He says, Thy
seed, or it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel. The seed of the woman, you will
bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. And Eve understood
what he was saying. No question about that. Eve understood. God promised me. He promised
Adam that he's going to send my seed to crush the serpent's
head. To undo all the serpent had done. Well, how do you know she believed
that? In chapter 4, Eve conceived and she bore a son. And she said,
I've gotten a man from the Lord. I've got the man! There he is!
She was mistaken. Terribly mistaken. He was not
the one. But she was fully expecting him
to come. The promise was repeated to Abraham.
when God declared that in His seed all nations of the earth
would be blessed. We know that He's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit tells us in Galatians
3, He's talking about Christ. Indeed, all the prophets, all
the prophets beginning in Genesis all the way through Malachi,
all the prophets bear witness of Him. This is what the book
says. To Him give all the prophets witness. Oh, you mean all the
prophets sort of vaguely gave folks the idea that somehow God's
Son was coming in? Oh, no. No, no, no, no. All the prophets bear witness
that through His name, whosoever in all the nations of the earth
believeth in Him shall receive the remission of sins. And the
saints of God who lived in that typical legal mosaic age anticipated
this one great, wonderful, astonishing display of grace, trusting Christ
as their Redeemer. You mean, Brother Don, all those
Old Testament saints trusted Christ? The saints did, the other
folks were just religious. But those who are born of God
did, they rejoiced to see His day, just like Abraham rejoiced
to see His day. As the coming of Christ drew
near. Let me give you some hint. Let me just give you a refresher
course in Old Testament prophecy. As the coming of Christ drew
near. Remember, it's a space of 4,000 years. 4,000 years from
Genesis 3.15 till you get over to Matthew
chapter 1. Four thousand years. But as the coming of Christ drew
near, little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept,
all the great details of our Lord's incarnation were given
with distinct clarity in the Old Testament scriptures with
such distinct clarity that there can be no mistaking that the
Old Testament prophets referred to Jesus Christ of Nazareth and
there can be no mistaking of it except the man willfully shut
his eyes to what's stated in this book. The scripture spoke
plainly, Isaiah 7.14, behold a virgin Shall be with child. A virgin. Oh, what does that
mean? Is there any idiot here who doesn't
know what that means? Oh, what does that mean? A virgin. A woman who's never known a man. Shall bring forth a son. Call
his name Immanuel. God with us. But when is he going
to be born? Daniel gives us the time frame,
and God, by the prophecy given in Genesis 49, gives us a specific
time frame, saying the scepter shall not depart from Judah. That is, civil government shall
not be destroyed in Judah until Shiloh has come. And just after
our Lord Jesus finished his work on this earth, Seventy years
later, after he came into this world, civil government in Judah
was destroyed. Where is he going to be born?
Micah chapter 5, verse 2. Bethlehem. Well, there's two
of them. No, there's just one in Ephrathah. Bethlehem. Well, is there any indication
that this is coming to pass? Jeremiah tells us plainly, in
chapter 31 and verse 15, that when he is born, after his birth,
there would be a massacre of infants by a tyrant who would
cause weeping among the people of God. Zechariah, we have read,
describes the blessings that would follow his coming. But
he was to come for another reason. The Lord Jesus God's darling
Son came into this world to be made sin and to die in the place
of sinners. To die by the hands of wicked
men and to be raised up again and given authority and dominion
and power as a man to give eternal life to as many as the Father
had given Him. Well, surely that wasn't prophesied
in Scriptures. Read it again. Psalm 22, Psalm
40, Psalm 69, Isaiah 53, all speak of our Lord being made
sin. suffering the wrath of God in
our room instead, dying under the penalty of sin as our substitute
until the justice of God is fully satisfied. And as the result
of that justice being satisfied by the shedding of His blood,
by His knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify many, and he
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. For God sets Him on His holy
hill of Zion. He has made Him their power and
dominion, dividing the spoils of His victory around the world
among His people. Our Lord Jesus Christ then in
the fullness of time came. He came into the world to save
sinners by the sacrifice of Himself. Why? Was he born at Bethlehem? Why? That he might die at Calvary. Why did He come into this world?
A holy, spotless, innocent man? A man without the taint of sin? A man through the womb of a virgin
who had never known a man so that he has no contamination
of original sin? Why did He come in such a specific,
miraculous manner? Not just to show that God is
the God of miracles! He could just as well have caused
his son to be born out of a cash womb. It wasn't just to show
that God's a God of miracles. It was to display that this one
who comes is the man, who is the woman seed, who has crushed
the serpent's head by the sacrifice of himself. And he did it for
one reason. We'll make it two. for the glory
of God, because He loves us. That's it. That's it. But this
certainly is not the limit of this prophecy. At the appointed
time of love, our Savior comes by the power of His Spirit to
chosen, redeemed sinners, every one of them, in the saving operations
of His grace. All the while I was preparing
this message, I kept praying, Lord, cause chosen sinners here
today to hear the voice of the beloved Redeemer saying, Lo,
I come. Lo, I come. Lo, I come. And when He comes, He speaks
life to the dead. causes the dead to hear His voice. And they that are dead live. People often ask, how does a person
get saved? No doubt you folks who have been
off work for a week or two, you go back to work Through the religious
shenanigans that have gone on, you'll hear somebody say, well,
I got saved over the holidays. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Went down to the church and got
saved. No, you don't get saved. God saves. There's a big difference. There's a big difference. How?
Christ sends His Spirit to dead sinners and gives them life. Adam, when he was created out
of the dust of the ground, God just brought some dust together
like we would modeling clay and shaped a man. And there he lay.
There he lay. What's going to cause the dust
to live? The God of glory stooped down from heaven and breathed into his nostrils. You
know what that word is, Larry? He spirited into his nostrils.
That's the word. That's the word. The word spirit
is just the word breath, wind. That's all. And Adam opened his eyes because
his heart was beating. Well, I preach that scientifically
impossible. I know it. I know that. But you
can't prove that. I can't. I can't. But you can. If God breathes into your soul
the spirit of life, you won't have any question about it. You
won't have any question about it. And then our Savior comes
in all the works of His providence. We could learn to trace His steps. Every rising sun, He says, Every
trial, every heartache, every difficulty, every trouble, it
is Christ coming to you. You remember our Lord sent his
disciples across the stormy sea? They weren't on that stormy sea
in Mark chapter 6 by accident. He sent them right into the eye
of the storm. And they had toiled all night
long. And they were about ready to
give it up. I mean, these fellas, they knew what could happen on
that sea. They knew the trouble they were
in. They'd toiled all night long. And as the sun rose, those fellas
were oar in hand. They saw the Lord Jesus walking
across the water. And they were good, strong, baddest.
They thought they'd seen a ghost. And they were even more terrified. How often, my soul, how often
have I been as terrified as if I had seen a ghost when the Lord
has come to me in a way I didn't expect? You know what his first
words were? His first words were, It is I, be not afraid. It is I, be not afraid. Lo, I come. We should know more
fear. We should know more fear. I use the word should. Merle
Hart in as big a capital letters as I possibly can, because I
know we do, but we should. No more fear. Any coming of our
Lord in providence than His coming through the womb of the Virgin
in human flesh. Whenever He comes, it is to reveal
to us His grace and the glory of our God. He comes to us. Thank God He comes to us when
most we need Him. When our souls are heavy and
our hearts hardened, hardened, hardened with sin and unbelief,
when we would abandon Him, when we would turn from Him, He comes
to us as He came to Peter. To reveal His love for us, yes. And to confirm in our hearts
His work of grace in us, causing us to say, Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You. Around
here we don't talk much about our love for Christ. Because
your love for Christ. Forget I said that. My love for
Christ. My love for Christ. Oh, how I wish I loved him as
I should. But we love him. We sure do. In spite of everything that appears
to the contrary. Because he loved us. And because
Larry, he keeps on loving us. And then, certainly, this prophecy
refers to the coming of our Lord Jesus again. Somebody said, do
you believe in the second coming of Christ? Well, of course I
do. Of course I do. I just don't believe all the
nonsense folks talk about it. Soon. Soon. He's not coming in secret.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, he's not going to be a secret
thing. People talk about the rapture. These fellows have made
a mint selling books left behind. Or be terrible gonna walk out
one day see folks raising up out of the grave you wonder where
they went No, when God raises the dead from the grave, you're
gonna know where they went You're gonna dead sure no cause Christ
is coming again in his glory with all his saints To be admired
of all them that believe forever when he shall burn up the earth
with unquenchable fire and destroy them that believe him not. Oh, I thought, Savior come, come to me today. Come to every one of these, your
people, in mercy. Come to chosen sinners. Oh, God,
to these standing on the brink of eternity, who know not our
God without hope, without grace, without mercy, who cannot and
will not seek your face, who will not and cannot come to you.
Oh, come. and give life to the dead for
the glory of God. Amen. Take your Songs of Grace book
and turn to number 8.