All Eyes on Christ

Q: What does the Bible say about the importance of looking to Christ?

The Bible emphasizes that all eyes should be fixed on Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as the source of salvation and hope. The scripture in Zechariah 9 illustrates the importance of turning our eyes toward the Lord, as it speaks of the ultimate salvation that Christ brings to His people. This is a call for all nations to look to Christ, recognizing Him not just as a historical figure but as the Savior who has fulfilled God's promises. The prophet Zechariah foretells that all tribes will turn their gaze to the Lord, emphasizing the universal need for humanity to focus on Christ for redemption and hope. This reflects the sovereign grace that God extends to His elect, encouraging them to look away from self and the world to the One who alone provides eternal life and salvation.

Q: How do we know that Jesus is the true Savior?

Jesus is confirmed as the true Savior through prophetic fulfillment and His sacrificial work on the cross. The prophetic writings of the Old Testament, such as those found in Zechariah 9, provide clear indications of the coming Messiah, His life, and His redemptive work. This chapter, written 550 years before Jesus' earthly ministry, details His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, symbolizing His role as the King of salvation. Furthermore, His fulfillment of these prophecies, coupled with His sacrificial death for the sins of His people, confirms His identity as the true Savior. Hebrews 10 quotes Psalms to illustrate that Jesus, our covenant surety, accomplished what was required for our redemption, satisfying divine justice once and for all. Thus, faith in Christ is grounded in both fulfilled prophecy and His perfect work.

Q: Why is the message of Christ's kingship important for Christians?

Christ's kingship is vital for Christians, as it signifies His authority and the comprehensive salvation He provides. The concept of Christ's kingship reinforces the understanding that He is not merely a savior but also sovereign Lord over all creation. In Zechariah 9, it is proclaimed that Christ comes as a King, lowly yet majestic, and this duality exemplifies His humility and authority. For Christians, recognizing Christ as King means acknowledging His rule in all aspects of life—spiritual, personal, and communal. His kingship assures believers that He is actively governing the world, directing all events toward His ultimate glory and the good of His people. Furthermore, it encourages total surrender to His will, acknowledging that true life and liberty come from yielding to His righteous rule. Believers are thus reminded that their identity and purpose are rooted in serving this sovereign King.

Q: What does 'looking to Christ' mean in a practical sense?

Looking to Christ means trusting Him for salvation and relying on His grace in everyday life. Looking to Christ is a profound biblical concept that entails faith in Him as the sole provider of salvation and strength. It is an invitation to shift our focus from our circumstances, pride, and self-reliance to Jesus, recognizing Him as the source of hope, peace, and salvation. This is illustrated in the analogy of a child looking to a parent for protection and provision—similarly, we are called to look to Christ for all needs. In practical terms, this involves daily prayer, reading of Scripture, engaging in worship, and living out faith in community, enabling believers to build a dependency on His grace and guidance. It emphasizes an active faith that is alive in relationship with Christ, who is always present to help us in our weaknesses and uncertainties.

Turn with me, if you will, to
Zechariah 9 again. The title of my message this
morning is, All Eyes on Christ, Zechariah 9. The burden of the
word of the Lord in the land of Hadrik and Damascus shall
be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes
of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. When I began preparing
this message and read that opening verse of this chapter, I thought
to myself, I am so thankful, that at least once a year the
eyes of all men everywhere, like it or not, the eyes of all men
everywhere are turned toward the Lord. This day, throughout
the world, Every man, woman, and child in the world is compelled
by divine providence to acknowledge the fact that once Jesus Christ,
God's darling Son, took on himself human flesh, lived on this earth,
and died upon a Roman cross, died to put away our sins, to
save His people from their sins. That can be said of no other
man who ever lived. Once every year, all men, Hindu,
Buddhist, Jew, Christian, Muslim, all men have their minds turned
toward the Lord. For us, this is a time of great
joy. I hope you all recognize, you young
children as well as older, we place absolutely no significance
upon any of the religious traditions connected with what's called
Christmas Day. There is absolutely no possibility
that the Lord Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem on December
the 25th. That is nothing but papal superstition left over
from Babylonian idolatry, and it is carried over now by papal
idolatry. We place no significance whatsoever
upon December the 25th, but we rejoice to remember the incarnation
of Jesus Christ our Lord. There is this day joy in Israel. You remember in 1 Chronicles,
Chapter 12, the mighty men of Israel, all the wise men of understanding,
came to Hebron to make David king. And there was joy in Israel. Well, there should be. At last
the civil war in the land was ended. At last David had come
to where he should be on his throne, and the king God had
promised and God had purposed, the man of God's right hand with
whom God was pleased, that man sat on his throne. And the people
had a three-day feast. For three days they partied in
celebration of the fact that David now sat on his throne. How much more might we rejoice
and give thanks to our God and feast before him this day? because Jesus Christ, David's
great son, the Son of God, our Savior, the Messiah, has come. He has finished his work. Warfare
is over, and he sits on his throne. The prophet Isaiah spoke of it
in these words, O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee. I will praise thy name, for thou
hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth. He will destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil
that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory,
and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from all faces, and the
rebuke of His people shall He take away from all the earth,
for the Lord hath spoken it. And in that day it shall be said,
Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him. He will
save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. So I say, let all Israel rejoice. Christ has come. And the eyes
of all are surely fixed upon Him, just as ours are. That's
the message of Zechariah chapter 9. This chapter was written 550 years before our Lord Jesus actually
rode into Jerusalem, as is described in the gospel narratives in Matthew
21, for example. riding on a wild ass's coat,
he rode into Jerusalem just exactly as the prophet Zechariah here
describes him. Zechariah not only gives us a
detailed, exact description of the way the Lord Jesus would
come to his people 550 years later, but he gives us a complete
description of his person and his work, of his glory and his
beauty, as the God-man, our Savior, the King of salvation. This ninth
chapter begins with a phrase that normally implies great heaviness
and sorrow, the burden of the word of the Lord. But here, you
can almost read it, the joy of the word of the Lord. And you'll
see that clearly. There's nothing in this chapter
but good news. There's not a single word of
woe, of condemnation, of wrath, of judgment, but it is all good
news. The prophet here speaks of God's
salvation as it is brought to and wrought in his elect among
the Gentiles out of the four corners of the earth. The burden
of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus. Now watch this. shall be the
rest thereof. The burden, that which seems
to many to be a great matter of heaviness and sorrow, that
which seems to many of you here today a matter of great heaviness
and sorrow because it is a word of wrath and condemnation provoking
your guilt and provoking your own rebellion against God. But
it shall be the rest thereof. When? When the eyes of man as
of all the tribes of Israel, as it is with all God's elect,
shall be toward the Lord." Read this blessed promise in connection
with the last verse of chapter 8. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take
hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take
hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go
with you, for we have heard that God is with you. The burden of
the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach. and Damascus shall
be the rest thereof, when the eyes of men, as of all the tribes
of Israel, shall be toward the Lord." Who is that man? It is that man who is a Jew,
upon whose skirt sinners lay hold And he is himself the Lord,
our God, our Savior, that one toward whom men everywhere look. Now obviously, obviously, Zechariah
is not here talking about the mere observance of the fact that
Jesus Christ once lived upon the earth. Somehow people have
the notion that because men and women decorate for the holidays,
and they put up Christmas trees, and they observe Christmas, and
they go to Christmas mass, or they go to Christmas programs
or Christmas services, and they want to fight to make Wal-Mart
employees say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. They
suppose they must have some interest in God. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Nothing could be further from
the truth. That's not what Zachariah is talking about. In these verses,
Zechariah is talking about men and women beholding Jesus Christ
the Lord by faith, being toward the Lord in hope, being turned
toward the Lord in confident expectation. In fact, in verse
17, we are plainly told that this is a prophecy of God the
Holy Spirit bending the hearts of rebel sinners to the Savior
in this gospel day by the omnipotent power of his irresistible grace. He said, when I have bent Judah
toward me. Oh, blessed Savior, send forth
your Spirit in the power of saving mercy today to perform this great
work in the hearts of chosen redeemed sinners and make the
burden of the word of the Lord a rest unto our hearts. The eyes of man, the eyes of
man shall be toward the Lord. Now without question, the prophet's
words first and foremost must be understood of that one man
specifically mentioned in the previous verse, him that is a
Jew, the Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, who is God with us, upon whose
skirt we take hold, trusting his righteousness alone for acceptance
with our God. The eyes of our glorious head
and our representative, Jesus Christ himself, always were and
always are toward the Lord. From everlasting His eyes have
been toward Jehovah, the Father, our Father, and His Father. Before
the world began is our covenant surety. You can read it in the
40th Psalm. The Lord Jesus said, Lo, I come
in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to
do thy will, O my God. Turn back there, in fact, and
read Psalm 40. Read this 40th Psalm with me, beginning at verse
6. These are words spoken by our Savior before he came into
the world. They were spoken by him as our
covenant surety, declaring that which was upon his heart from
everlasting. He said, sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. What do you mean God doesn't
desire sacrifice and offerings? Exodus? through the book of Deuteronomy,
those last four books in the writings of Moses, commonly called
the Law, are full of instruction about sacrifices. I mean, God
said you can't come to me, He said you come this way. You must
come in the morning this way, in the evening this way, on the
Sabbath day this way, at the end of the month this way, on
every 49th year this way. This is the only way you can
come. You bring these sacrifices and you can't bring any other
sacrifices. You must come with these sacrifices
by this priest to this altar. You can't come to me any other
way. I'll only meet you on the mercy seat. And the Lord Jesus
said sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. What a contradiction,
only if you don't understand the sacrifices and offerings. Those sacrifices and offerings
were strictly enforced by law, by law from God himself, because
all those sacrifices and offerings required in the law were but
symbols and pictures of one great sacrifice and offering, and that's
Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Savior says, you didn't require
the blood of bulls and goats. What fool, other than a religious
fool, would ever imagine that God's justice could be satisfied
and righteousness could be established by offering the blood of a calf,
or the blood of a goat, or the blood of your sons and daughters?
And yet, folks imagine that they can come to God and win His favor
by sacrifices, by sacrificing a little time. In a little bit,
folks are going to put ashes on their head, you know, quit
eating spinach for a few days and call it a sacrifice. Now
I feel close to God because I've done something. You fool. You fool. You might as well take and rip
the baby out of your wife's womb and offer it to God. He won't
have it. In fact, he said, such sacrifices
are as though you had offered a man's blood. Well, what is
our Lord saying? He says, Mine ears hast thou
opened. You required one sacrifice, me,
one servant, me. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book that is written to me. I delight to do thy will,
O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Not only the law of
your predestined will and the law of your commandments of righteousness,
but all the law portrayed in these sacrifices. I delight to
do thy will, O my God. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. Our Savior, as
our covenant surety, had on His heart and in His mind the will
and the glory of the Lord turned to the Lord for us as He came
forth into this world. He quotes this very psalm in
Hebrews chapter 10, giving us these very same words as He's
coming into the world. I can almost picture As our Lord
Jesus breaks his mother's will, as he comes into this world,
he cries, Lo, now I come to do thy will, O my God. And all the
while he was upon this earth, he said to his parents, Wish
you not, I must be about my father's business. And then at last, our
covenant surety. when he hung upon the cursed
tree, had his heart set toward the Lord Jehovah, his Father
and our Father. He said as he approached the
cross, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. But as surely as our surety's
eyes are turned toward the Lord, the eyes of God's elect, the
redeemed of the earth, the eyes of man, the eyes of every chosen
sinner, chosen of God and loved of God, as the tribes of Israel
must and ultimately shall be toward Jehovah the Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, looking to him alone for redemption, grace,
salvation, and eternal life. is looking to Him. Looking to
Him. As a child looks to his father. The days are gone now. For some of us, our children
are grown. But when they were little, they looked to us for
everything. With nobody else to clothe them
but us. Doctors that got dirty, they didn't look up at... Faith
learned early not to look at me. She looked up to her mama.
They looked to us. Because there's nobody else there
to take care of them. They got hungry, they looked to us. There's
nobody else to feed them. They needed something to calm
them when they were fearful, they looked to us. I remember
West Virginia, the lightning seemed to get real close to the
house. Faith was a little girl. Man, when the thunder would roll
and the lightning flash, even if I didn't see it or hear it,
you'd bank on it. Half a second, that little girl
was on top of my chest. Just snuggled down as tight as
she could be. How come? There was nobody else to care for her.
Nobody else to protect her. That's what it is to look to
Him. Salvation is looking to Christ. Oh, look away. Look away. Look away from yourself. Look away from all else. Look away to Jesus Christ the
Lord and live. Our text asserts, the eyes of
man, as of all the tribes of Israel, that is to say, all the
host of God chosen, shall look as one upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Israel looked upon the
serpent Moses raised up before them in the wilderness. That's
just as it should be, isn't it? It is he whom God the Father
has exalted. It is He to whom the triune God
has given all preeminence. It is He who is all and in all. Where or to whom else should
we look but to Him for wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, for pardon and forgiveness and justification,
for peace and preservation and everlasting glory? Shall not
the eyes of the chosen be toward him, toward him whom God the
Father unceasingly looks to? Shall we not trust him whom the
triune God trusted from eternity? No mortal can imagine, let alone
describe, the infinite complacency and delight with which the Father
sets his heart toward him. He looks on him. He has looked
on him, and he shall forever look on him alone to magnify
his law and make it honorable, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to satisfy justice, to save his people, to put away their sins,
to glorify him, Therefore, our Lord Jesus said, doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life for the sheep? I lay it
down that I might take it again. If God the Father loves Christ
as our God-man mediator for undertaking and accomplishing by the sacrifice
of himself our everlasting redemption, Did you hear that? That's what
he said in John 10, 17. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I have undertaken to save my people, and I have
saved my people by the sacrifice of myself. Therefore doth my
Father love me, if the Father loves him for having redeemed
us. Oh, my brother Claude, how we
ought to love him. If the Father constantly beholds
Him with His heart toward Him with complete complacency, satisfaction,
and delight, if He beholds Him rapturously as our Redeemer,
how much more ought we who are redeemed by Him to rapturously
behold Him? O Spirit of God, let my heart,
my eyes, My whole soul be fixed upon my Redeemer. Then shall
the word of the Lord be rest to this sinner. Set my heart
toward Him. Bend my heart toward Him until
every affection of my being goes out wholly to Him and constantly
to Him. Some of you. Now, hearing my
voice, are yet unbroken, unbent, unbound. Your eyes are turned
to yourself and to the world. To put it simply, to vanity. Just vanity. Oh, may God the
Holy Spirit turn you toward Christ. Set the eyes of your soul and
your heart upon Christ. May He give you faith to behold
Him In this chapter, God the Holy Spirit not only gives us
this prophetic description of our Savior's first advent, He
describes how the Lord Jesus comes to sinners in the mighty
operations of His saving grace. He tells us how the Son of God
causes chosen sinners to look to Him. As I've told you so many
times, Whenever we read the scriptures, particularly historic narratives
and prophecies that have application to historic things, let us first
and foremost find from God the Spirit how the prophecy, how
the narrative speaks to us about our Redeemer and His grace. Let
me show you seven things here. Seven things that I assure you,
seven things I promise you. Seven things God the Holy Spirit
here shows you, He will do for you if ever He causes you to
turn to Him. If ever the Son of God comes
to you in saving mercy, if ever He's pleased to pass your way,
spread His skirt over you, and say to you, live, these seven
things He will do. He will do them. There are no
exceptions. Do them to everyone. First, when
the Lord Jesus comes to save, He will destroy you. I never pay too awful much attention.
When I get letters or telephone calls or somebody comes by to
visit with me or meet me at the church and kind of nonchalantly
says, well, I sure would like to be saved. I don't pay too
much attention to it. I don't get too excited about
it. Somebody says, well, I believe the Lord is beginning to speak
to me. I don't pay too much attention to that. But if you meet me at
the door this morning, you wait around after everybody else has
left, and you say, Pastor, I'm lost. I'm going to hell. I'm fire from the inside out. And I tried, and there's not
one good thing I can do, because there's nothing good in me. Now let's sit down and talk.
I've got something you need to hear. The first thing Christ
does when He comes to save is to destroy. Read it in verses
2 through 8. He only saves those who need
saving. All the fitness He requireth
is to feel your need of Him. This He gives you. This He gives
you. Tis the Spirit's rise in thee. Did you ever notice in the scriptures,
when the scriptures speak of His work, remember how Hannah
prayed? She said, the Lord killeth and
maketh alive. That sounds strange, doesn't
it? He first gave you life, didn't
He, didn't He? So you're sitting here, and one
of these days He's going to kill you. You're going to leave him.
Well, can't we talk about anything physical then, can we? Oh, no. We're talking about spiritual
things. He'll never give you life till he slays you. He wounds,
and then he heals. He strips, then he clothes. He
empties, then He fills. He brings you down that He may
lift you up. He causes you to fall before
Him in a basement that He may exalt you in due season with
His grace. That's what's portrayed here
in verses 2 through 8. First, He destroys the wisdom
of the wise, we're told in verse 2, making them fools. He takes the wise in their own
craftiness. We are become Fools, for Christ's
sake. You'll never learn anything as
long as you think, like Paris and Sidon, that you're very wise. You'll never learn anything about
God until you find out you don't know anything. You'll never learn
anything about yourself until you find out you don't know anything.
You'll never be made wise until you are made to know your ignorance. He destroys the riches that men
and women ignorantly imagine they have by which they think
to make themselves secure. Tyrus built a stronghold, heaped
up silver like dust and fine gold like mud in the streets. What's that talking about? Is
it evil for a person to try to make better in the world, to
provide some security for his old age? No. No, that's not evil. That's perfectly all right. That's
all right. What's he talking about? Michael Campbell is horribly
evil for you and me to try to find a refuge for ourselves from
God and to heap up riches of righteousness and good works. Until He makes you poor in spirit,
He'll never fill you with His mercy. But in verse 4, He comes
to chosen sinners, and when He does, He casts them out in His
wrath and devours them with fire, that He might gather them with
mercy and feed them with grace. Look at verse 5. Our Lord abases
and humbles, turning your hope and your expectation to shame.
See what he says of Echrod? Her expectation shall be ashamed. Ask a man why he hopes to go
to heaven when he dies. I'll tell you what he'll do.
I'll tell you what, 99 out of 100 baddest folks. Let's leave
the other folks alone. Let's just talk about our own
kind. 99 out of 100, I'll tell you what they'll do. Why do you
hope to go to heaven when you die? What makes you think you're
saved? Well, I remember. Well, I used to be. I don't do. And I believe in Jesus. I remember
hell. I had a wonderful experience
when I was a little boy. When I was a young man, I trusted
the Lord. I got saved. What about folks
who know God? The others don't. Oh, I trust
Christ. That's all. But what do you know?
I trust Christ. What's your experience? I trust
Christ. Well, what's your confidence?
I trust Christ. But there's got to be more! Any
more is an expectation I once had, of which I am now utterly
ashamed. A hope I once entertained, of
which now I'm totally ashamed. Look at verse 6. If ever the
Lord God saves you by His grace, He'll humble you in the dust,
break your pride, and cause you to lie as a hopeless, helpless,
fatherless bastard before Him. Can't talk like that. Until he
makes you know you're a bastard, he'll never make you his son.
Read it. And a bastard shall dwell in
Ashdod, and I will cut off the prime of the Philistines. A bastard
is one with no father. No father. Oh, obviously somebody
sired them, but they have no father. That's one who has no
claim to a father. One who has No reason to expect
anyone to treat them as a father. Thank God he once made me a pastor. Folks have been trying to convince
me all my life I was one of his sons. And I was pretty well convinced
until Christ revealed himself in me. And when he makes you
to know that you are a fatherless pastor, Then he sends his Spirit
into your heart, making you the sons and daughters of God whole. Blessed humiliation that brings
us to be seated among the sons of God. Verse 7, in a word, this
is what he'll do. When he comes to save a sinner,
he'll destroy every false god that he may be your God. He'll
take away the blood, your blood, the blood of your sacrifices,
out of your mouth, your abominations. What's that talking about? All
your religious feasting and fasting and sacrificing. Your abominations,
those things upon which you feed yourself with delight. He'll
make those things to be pulled from between your teeth. But
he that remaineth, listen to this, even he shall be for our
God. Mr. Spurgeon once said, the first
thing we have to do in preaching the gospel is get folks lost. But I can't do that. I can't
do that. I can preach you low, but I can't
make you low. I can preach you empty, but I
can't make you empty. I can preach you helpless, but
I can't make you helpless. I can preach you lost, but I
can't make you lost. Oh, but if God's Holy Spirit
will speak by His Word, He will. He will. He will destroy your
high opinion of yourself that keeps you from Christ. And your
high opinion of yourself needs to be destroyed. Nothing else
keeps you from Christ. Nothing else. It's not your sin
that keeps you from trusting the Savior. Sin never kept anybody
from Him. It's your high opinion of yourself
that keeps you from Him. When the Spirit of God comes,
and the Lord Jesus has swept away every refuge of lies, He
Himself will be your strength, your shield, your rock, and your
salvation. Look at the 8th verse. If you fail to understand the
first seven verses, just as I've explained them, the eighth verse
won't mean a thing to you. But if you understand what I've
been talking about, he says, I will encamp, not but, not yet,
but and, and. This is the follow-up to all
I've been talking about. I will encamp about mine house because
of the army, those who would seek to destroy, because of him
that passeth by, and because of him that returneth, and no
oppressor shall pass through them any more. For now have I
seen with mine eyes, I give them eternal life. And no man shall
pluck them out of my hand. I and my Father are one, and
no man shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. Next, in verse
9, we see that when Christ comes to save, He comes as your King. Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee. He doesn't come asking you if
you won't pretty please let Him be your King. What foolish nonsense
men invent in the name of religion. Jesus is your Savior, won't you
let Him be your King? You're not going to make Christ
King. He is King. And the only way He ever comes
to you is as the sovereign King, demanding total surrender. Total
surrender. To believe on Christ is to bow
to Him as King, losing your life to Him, that you may save your
life. Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee, and he is just. He is just. Everything he is,
is just. Righteous in all his being, holy
in all his works, good in all his ways, he's just. If he damns
you, he's just. If he saves you, he's just. Everything
he does is justice and truth. He is a just God and a Savior,
and he will call you to bow to his justice. just as David did,
confessing your sin before him, that thou mayest be clear when
thou speakest, and just when thou judgest. But look at this,
because he is the King, because he is just, because he has satisfied
all the justice of God and fulfilled all the righteousness of God,
he comes as the King, the just God and our Savior, the just
one, having salvation. He has salvation in his heart
and he has it in his hand. He's had it in His heart and
in His hands forever as our covenant surety. He obtained it with His
own blood when He entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. And the Father has sent Him
on His throne, and He has received gifts from Him, yea, for the
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. And
He, the sovereign King, has this salvation to give freely to poor,
needy sinners. Having salvation. It was accomplished
when he died at Calvary, and he has it now to give to whomsoever
he will. And yet he comes lowly, riding
upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. He comes
to us, this great God, our King. He who alone is God, our Savior. This holy and just One, the just
God, our Savior. He comes to us as one. completely
and totally and absolutely identified with us. Lowly, riding upon an
ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. Not the kind of white
ass that a mighty conqueror comes riding on. Not the kind of white
ass that the kings of ancient orient times used to ride on.
No, no, no. But a wild ass's colt. How lowly,
how poor! You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich.
The Son of God, this Just One, this Holy One. Merle Hart, when
He comes to us, He comes to us as one, just, exactly as we are. A real man who was once made
so low that he was made sin, that he might make us the very
righteousness of God in him. That's the Savior I can trust. One who is truly touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. And not only does he come in
lowliness as the just one, the King, our God and our Savior. He speaks peace. Look at verse
10. He says, He'll cut off the chariot from Ephraim, the horse
from Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off and He shall
speak peace to us poor heathens. He doesn't come to make peace.
He comes to speak peace. Every now and then I'll get a
call from someone, I'll be sitting down and chatting with someone,
and they'll tell me, I don't know whether I'm saved or not.
And every time I hear those words, words from Rothbard keep ringing
in my ears. He said, the only man who'll
try to convince a lost man that he's saved is another lost man.
I said, I ain't going to try to convince you. The fact is,
if I can convince you, somebody will come along and unconvince
you. Well, how on earth can a man know whether or not he's saved?
If this King comes to you and speaks peace by the blood of
His cross, you'll have peace. He's the only one who can speak
peace to you. How does He do that? He blows
the gospel trumpet. That is, He causes the word preached
to be effectual to your heart, causing you to have peace. This
is what it says. When Christ comes, He will be
your deliverer. Verse 11, As for thee also, by
the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out
of the pit wherein is no water. How did he do that? By the blood
of thy covenant. Blood atonement sets us free. He declares to prisoners of hope
that they shall receive the Lord's hand double for all their sins,
we're told in verse 12. You remember when Elisha asked
Elijah to give him a double portion of his spirit? He wasn't being
greedy. He was asking for that which by law in Deuteronomy 21
is given to the firstborn. He said, Elijah, I pray that
I will be like you, a firstborn son of God. And the Lord Jesus
says, this is what I'll do for my people. When I set you free,
I will make every one of you firstborn sons. had in a double
portion from the hands of the Lord. How did He set them free?
Verse 13, when I had bent the heart of Judah for me. Christ set sinners free by bending
their hearts. By bending their hearts for Him. For Him alone. O Spirit of God,
come reveal Christ and bend our hearts afresh. A good friend
of mine, Harry Graham, once asked me, I was just a boy sitting
on his hearth, and he said, Don, you know how to tell the difference
between tares and wheat? And whenever Harry would ask me a
question, he was always wanting to teach me something, so I perked up
and listened. I said, no, Harry, what's the difference? He said,
you can't tell until harvest time. At harvest time, the tares
stand tall. The wheat bows its head. And
when Christ puts his sickle in the earth in the harvest of his
grace, he causes his wheat to bend for him. And he reveals
himself. He reveals himself in verse 14.
The Lord shall be seen over them. Over who? Over those who had
been bent toward him. It doesn't say He comes and asks
you, won't you pretty please bow to Me? He will bend you to
Him. And when He has bent you to Him,
He will be seen over you. Then in verses 14 and 15, He
blows the trumpet of His grace, causes the jubilee trumpet to
be heard setting the captive free. In verse 16, He saves them
as the flock of His people. The good shepherd always saves
his sheep. Every one of them. And then he
says in verse 16, Then they shall be as stones of a crowd. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. I will spare
them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Imagine
that, Bob. He makes us Diamonds with which
He makes His crown to sparkle as our Redeemer. Diamonds and
rubies and sapphires SPARKLING in the crown of His glory as
our Savior and our King. Now, what do we say to all that? Verse 17, How great is His goodness! How great is His beauty. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Amen. In hymn book number 249, let's
stand together. Just as I am.

All Eyes on Christ

What does the Bible say about the importance of looking to Christ?

How do we know that Jesus is the true Savior?

Why is the message of Christ's kingship important for Christians?

What does 'looking to Christ' mean in a practical sense?

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All Eyes on Christ

What does the Bible say about the importance of looking to Christ?

How do we know that Jesus is the true Savior?

Why is the message of Christ's kingship important for Christians?

What does 'looking to Christ' mean in a practical sense?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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