about. Tonight, we're going to
be looking in Zechariah, the book of Zechariah. If you go
to Matthew and go back two books, that's where you'll find Zechariah. Zechariah's name means Jehovah
remembers. Jehovah remembers. And what does
Jehovah remember? Well, there's only one thing
he doesn't remember, and it's his people's sin, because he's
cast them as far as east is from the west. So what else does he
remember? Everything except his people's
sin. He said, I don't remember them.
I've cast them as far as east is from west. I put them away.
They're gone. They're gone. Now, Zechariah starts out with
a question. He said, where's your fathers?
Where's your fathers? They would not hearken unto me.
Now understand this is a message while the children of Israel
in Babylonian captivity, they've been brought back from Babylon
captivity. It's during the King Darius's reign over the children
of Israel. The 70 years have been accomplished.
70 years is how long the Babylonian captivity was prophesied to be
for by Jeremiah. He says unto them, so where is
your fathers? They would not hearken unto me. Where are they
now? Where are they now? And he says, did the prophets,
did my prophets live forever? Yet their words, did they not
come true? My words, my statute, and it was all according to their
works. That was the issue. The fathers had betrayed the
Lord. They had gone on the way that they wanted to. And the
Lord continually told them, if you'll walk in my statute, you'll
have favor with me. But they, they did not, they
would not. And therefore ended up in Babylonian captivity. Now
I had this thought, and I've never actually entered into this
in the entire time we were going through the Old Testament, knowing
that it was 70 years of Babylonian captivity, but is that not the
number of a man's life? The scripture says clearly, three
score and 10, and if by reason of strength, four score, that's
80. This captivity is a picture of our flesh, and the captivity
that we have to our sin, and the bondage that we have under
the law, and this is what it's likened to, and so now, We see
that we're just waiting on the glory that Christ has fulfilled
to be revealed in us. We're just waiting for those
three score and 10 to expire so that we can be awake in his
likeness. He can bring us back out of the
captivity that we are in. And he certainly has. And we're
certainly going to see that one of these days. He asked him the question. Did my words not come true that
I told you my statutes according to your works? Have they not
come true? And they had the answer. Yes, they had looked back and
they could see the 70 years had expired and here they are back
in Jerusalem. How did it not come to pass? The Lord makes
his people have the same confession and that confession is truth,
Lord. And they're made to see truth.
And what's the first thing they see? I'm the one to blame. For
my captivity, I'm the one because of my sin, because of what I
am, I'm the one that's responsible for all of this. Unless the Lord
chooses to have mercy, I have no hope. And when we confess
that before the Lord, he said he's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We
confess Christ is all. And he shows us Christ is all. Now he has a message of mercy.
Jealousy is declared. This is what Zechariah is announcing. It's not a message of judgment
to the Lord's people anymore. See, the time has been fulfilled.
Everything necessary has been accomplished. The angel of the
Lord appears unto Zechariah and says in chapter 1 of Zechariah
in verse 14, So the angel that communed with me said unto me,
Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealous
for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. Now it would
remind us that the Lord being jealous is not like man's jealousy.
He has a perfect jealousy. He is fiercely protective of
his bride. That's what that word jealousy
means, fiercely protective. Then he goes on to say in verse
15, I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at
ease, for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward
the affliction. Therefore doth saith the Lord,
I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built
in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched
forth upon Jerusalem. Pry yet, saying thus saith the
Lord of hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread
abroad, and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose
Jerusalem. I understand the situation that's
taken place here as far as what we can see historically. The
children of Israel were in captivity and some of them were crying
out for mercy. Even in the book of Daniel, we know that Daniel
fasted for 21 days needing an answer. Lord, when's this captivity
going to end? And the Lord finally came and said, I heard you the
first time you prayed. Now I've come for your words.
And he gives him visions and understanding of everything futuristic
that's going to take place. And it was all pointing to Christ.
We know that. So now the children of Israel have returned, but
it was only because God had given the king the necessary liking
unto Israel. He didn't have any favor, the
previous kings didn't have any favor towards Israel. Now that
he has, he says, you can go back and you can build the temple
for your worship. And the time had to expire for
them to have favor. They didn't do anything to earn
their freedom. There was no war that was fought
by Israel against Babylon. There was no, it was God that
changed the heart of the King. It's that simple. It's that simple.
And we know that that's what the Lord done for us, for his
people. The, the Lord put away our sin. Therefore there is no
wrath anymore. There is no bondage to sin anymore
in God's eyes for his people. He's, he's put it away. Now we
can worship. And he says, I've returned to
Jerusalem out of mercy to build my house. for the purpose of
worship. This is what the Lord's saying,
and he must be the doer of it. Now, previously he told Ezra,
build my house, go build another temple. And we see the picture
of the first temple. First of all, we see the tabernacle,
which represents us being in the wilderness, worshiping God
in this wilderness, but it was never a permanent monument. It was never a permanent building.
It was taken down, it was re-erected. And the children of Israel, everywhere
they would go, they would have to re-erect the tabernacle. Well,
whenever Solomon finally built the tabernacle, that was a picture
of worship by works, worship by, if you do, then you'll live.
We heard about that Sunday. Well, we see the picture all
throughout the Old Testament is everything was based upon
that. Everything was based upon that until the second The second
temple had to come, the 70 years of captivity that the children
of Israel had. And then the second temple was
erected and the Lord saying unto them, my house shall be built
in it. And I'm going to be the doer
of it. I'm sure there were men that used a trowel and men that
used shovels and whatever else. And I wrote an article on this
actually, but I was working in my garden and And there's my
seeds are coming up and my plants are doing good. And I'm like,
this isn't Florida. This is fantastic. Things are not dying. I'm seeing
life coming forth and I've already got little sprouts of things.
And that shovel's not bragging about how much I used it, is
he? It's lifeless. The utensils that are used are
not saying, what an awesome job they did building the garden.
They didn't. It was by the Lord's grace, He
allowed me to do that. And isn't that a picture of us
coming together, just being an old bunch of rusty shovels, begging
the Lord to use us, begging the Lord to put His hands upon us
for His glory and for His honor, for the furtherance of His kingdom.
And that's the picture here. These men were not bragging.
The ones that were laying the brick were not saying, we're better
than the one sweeping the floor. No. They were doing it unto the
Lord and it was His doing. He put it in their heart to do
so. Now, upon the Lord's word, we
see the king's return. What's the king going to do?
We're not talking about a physical kingdom here. I understand the
temple was necessary for the Lord to come to. That's literally
the temple where the veil was written twain from top to bottom.
But this is all a physical Jerusalem. This is all Zion, the Lord's
doing, the Lord's work in salvation for his people. And what is the
king going to do when he returns? Is he going to ask permission
for anything? This is the king of the universe.
What is he going to do? He's going to reign. He's going
to sit on his throne. He's going to rule in righteousness. He's going to claim his people.
Now in The end of chapter one, he tells us that this man is
going to, a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. And in
chapter two, it begins by saying that he measured with the line
in his hand. He measured Jerusalem. This is the Lord. Now understand
whenever he's talking about measuring, you and I measure something to
know the size of it. The Lord was measuring it to
reveal the size of it, not to learn the size. He had already
determined the size. It's exactly as big. as he purposed
for it to be. I heard somebody say one time,
best example I can give us of that would be, Jesus loves you
so much that he's counted the number of hairs upon your head.
But that's not the God we serve. The Lord loves his people and
made them and everybody have the exact number of hairs on
their head that he hath purposed. See, there's a big difference,
isn't there? It's the Lord purposing. He numbered them. He says, you're
going to have exactly 2,327 or whatever it is. That's by His
purpose. This is the difference. He measured it not in order to
determine the size, but because He already knew the size to reveal
it unto us. It's going to be His hand and
nothing, nothing can change it. It's finished. Because He does love His people,
because He loves Jerusalem, Israel, He says at the end, then the
Lord shall yet comfort Zion and he shall yet choose Jerusalem.
And there is nothing, nothing that was good about Jerusalem
at this point. There was nothing like the former
glory that it had prior to it being under siege. There was
nothing good about Judah. This is all by grace. It has
to be, there's no other explanation. If the Lord had left them what
they deserve, they would still be Babylonian captivity. By mercy,
he turned the king's heart and brought them back to Jerusalem.
What comfort there is in him choosing. Jerusalem here represents
all of the elect of God. It represents Zion, his finished
work. It's God's chosen people that are now in his sanctuary
built by his hand. We know what a sanctuary is.
It's a holy place. Well, what is that sanctuary?
It's the cleft of the rock we heard about Sunday. It's the
Ark of Noah. It's the hiding place for the Lord's people.
That's the sanctuary. for the Lord's people. He am
Christ. That's why we don't boast in our salvation. We come as
mercy beggars with no confidence in this flesh. We don't boast
of ourself in any way. Scripture says, whenever men
stand before the judgment throne, they will say, I've done this.
That's boasting in the flesh. That's boasting and having confidence
in what they've done. The Lord said, no, it's not what
you've done. This is my Zion. This is my people. This is my
work. And I finished it. There's the
rest that we have in the Lord, because if he doesn't do all
the saving, if he doesn't do all the electing, if he doesn't
do all the calling, none of us will be saved. None of us will
be called, but he did. He finished this city, his beautiful
city of God. He finished the work, this prepared
place, this rest for his people. He did it all. He did it all for his glory.
Well, that was my introduction. And now we've arrived at my text.
It's difficult going through these little books. Well, first
of all, who's sufficient for these things? Second of all,
we kind of have to understand what's happening in order to
understand what's going on. So anyways, we're in Zechariah
chapter two and verse five, and let's read a few verses. For
Isaiah, the Lord will be unto her, Jerusalem, his people, a
wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst
of her. Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north,
saith the Lord. For I have spread you abroad
as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord. Deliver thyself,
O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus
saith the Lord of hosts. I want to stop right there just
for a moment and point out the fact that whenever he says, deliver
thyself, O Zion, that dwelleth with the daughter of Babylon,
the only way that she could deliver herself is if she had been delivered. This is not him giving her an
invitation. He's saying, I've done all the
work, come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden. He says,
seek ye my face. This is what's happening here.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, after the glory Hath he sent
me unto the nations which spoiled you? For he that toucheth you,
toucheth the apple of his eye. He that toucheth you, toucheth
the apple of his eye. For behold, I will shake mine
hand upon them and they shall be a spoil to their servants.
And ye shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. Sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I 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,
and I will dwell in the midst of thee. And thou shalt know
that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall
inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose
Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before
the Lord, for he is raised up out of his holy habitation. What a thought is found in this
text that the Lord has given us, that he that toucheth you,
toucheth the apple of the Lord's eye. That's what I've titled
this, the apple of the Lord's eye. Now, I wear contacts and
there is nothing more sensitive on your body than the apple of
your eye. It's the iris. It's the very
center of it. And I have to touch my eye every day. And I hated
starting to do that for the first time. You can ask my wife how
much I whined about it, and I murmured about it, complained. I was a
baby about it. I hated it. I've kind of gotten
used to it now. We do, by nature, get used to
it. But there's nothing more sensitive than the pupil of the
eye. This is the apple. This is the
core. This is the center. As soon as you touch it, there's
pain. There's nowhere else on the body where you can immediately
feel that kind of pain or be touched there, and it must be
taken care of. All work stops. If you get a
piece of dirt or something in your eye, work's done until that
gets out. There's no continuing. It gets all your attention. What
a thought to think that the Lord says, if they touch you, they're
touching the apple of my eye. What a thought is that? How precious
endear in regard to being part of the Lord's body. Is it for
us to be compared to the apple of his eye? There's also a twofold meaning
to this. It's the apple of his choosing. The apple of his choice
elected before time we I preached a message one time to you all
about election or selection, and there's a big difference
whenever you go to the market to get your groceries and you
go to the fruit section You're going to select the best produce
to your eye. You're going to determine what
the best, you're going to feel the bread you're selecting at
that point. That's not what God did. He didn't see what the best
was. No, he took the dead dogs. He
took the worst. He took the ones rotten to the
core in order for his glory to show forth in them that we have
no glory. That's what the apple of his eye also represents. He chose the ugliest ones to
make them beautiful, to call them his beloved. to say I love
you with an everlasting love. That's the reason for all his
creation was his salvation, for his bride, for his glory. And when men talk about salvation,
men say that there is something to be done. But what responsibility
do we have in salvation? What does God say our responsibility
is? And so many times men will say,
I think this, and I think that, or I believe this, or I believe
that, or I believe this is what he's saying here. I wanna know
what God says. I wanna know the truth. It's not for debate. It's not negotiation. We don't
worry about things like that, do we? It's just declared. The
truth is just declared. What does God say? I've got to
have the truth. It's the only thing that can
save. What is my responsibility in
salvation? Well, there's three parts. I can say
it that way, three parts to salvation, and it's the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. Those are the three that make up in the
covenant of grace. We're just the benefactors of
everything they did. I'll explain that to you. Among others, the
Father had three distinct responsibilities in salvation. Three, to elect
a people, to make Christ's soul an offering for sin, and to resurrect
Christ after he had died. Those are the three obligations
or responsibilities that the father had. Now the son, among
others, he had five responsibilities. Distinct ones. Number one, become
a man. Fulfill the law's demands. Become
the sinner substitute bearing the elect's sin on the cross
of Calvary. shedding His blood, satisfying
justice, and thereby putting away His elect's sin and then
dying in their stead. That's the five responsibilities
that the Lord had among others. Among others, God's Holy Spirit
has three distinct responsibilities. Call those, call those for whom
Christ died. Make the preaching of the gospel
effectual and give faith and repentance. That kind of all
goes hand in hand with being called, doesn't it? But that's
the three primary responsibilities that the Holy Spirit has. So
what is our responsibility in this? Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing to be
done. The Father fulfilled His responsibilities. The Son fulfilled His responsibilities.
And in time, the Spirit fulfills His responsibilities. It's finished.
There is no responsibility for you to do. There's nothing to
do. Somebody says, well, the Lord
says you got to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that's the Holy Spirit's job to give faith and repentance.
That's why we believe, right? Well, somebody says you got to
make a choice. No, that's God's job. That's the Father's job
because He made the choice in the choosing. Well, you have
to You have to take the first step and God took the rest. No,
God did it all. He took all the steps, didn't he? He brought
his people back to Jerusalem. He built the kingdom by his own
hands, his own work. Gave us a sanctuary in Christ
where we rest. He done it all. What a glorious
thought that the father rested on the Sabbath from the foundation
of the world. What does that mean? That means
when the Lord The father had done his, he trusted Christ first,
is what that means. The father believed Christ first.
The father knew Christ would not, could not fail, or he would
not have been God. He rested on his son. What do we rest in? What do we
rest on? We rest on the son. We rest on
the same thing the father rested on, the Sabbath. This means that every time Christ
was manifest, Every time God was seen, it was Christ manifested.
When Abraham was called, it was Christ. When Jacob wrestled,
it was Christ. Whenever the fire that led the
children of Israel through the wilderness, that was all Christ.
It's all him and his doing. The father remained seated. The
father remained seated because he was confident in his son,
resting in his son's finished work. Was Christ not seen as
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? Christ was seen
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The Father rested
on His Son, confident that He would finish. The work was finished
before time. Now, I don't understand that,
but that's what the Scripture clearly declares. It was all
given us in Christ before time ever began, according to 2 Timothy
2.9. It's just evident that he cannot
fail because he's immutable. It's the essence of who he is.
He's unchangeable. He's unmovable. Men will talk
and give an example, but what they're really saying is when
God's unstoppable force meets the immovable power of our free
will, our free will always wins. It's just silly. It's not true.
No, he moves that which he will. He's unstoppable. He's immutable. He's immutable. And none can
stay his hand or saying to him, what doest thou? He's God and
his people rest in that. His people rest in his finished
work. I have my phone on airplane mode
and it just went off and I have no idea how that even happened.
So I apologize. I'm going to turn it off next
time. Be done with it. You love having our Lord. being
unchangeable. I can't change Him. He can't
change. He can't lie. What confidence
we have in Him making a promise. The Father said, I'll elect them.
And the Son said, I'll redeem them. And the Spirit said, I'll
regenerate them. That's all the promise we need. What do we say
to that? Truth, Lord, you're going to
have to do it all. We're in Babylonian captivity down here. You're going
to have to bring us to Jerusalem and reveal the glory that you
did with your own hands. Because all I can do is produce this
wretched sin that I am. He cannot fail. It's impossible. It's impossible. I'm thankful
he doesn't try. He doesn't attempt. Salvation was never an attempt.
Did you know that? Salvation was on purpose. It wasn't an
accident. He didn't attempt and say, yes,
I got it right. Okay. No, it was, nothing could
have stopped him. You know, Christ doesn't hope
or doesn't wish. He doesn't beg and doesn't plead.
He speaks. and says, he that hath an ear
to hear, let him hear. Well, Lord, you're gonna have
to give me an ear because these ears can't hear you. I'm dead.
You're gonna have to give me eyes of faith to look at you
and behold you. And thanks be to God, all that
he commands obeys. His purpose was by his choosing
before time. And I love the thought that everything
will conform to his will. Rest, rest. You know, the glorious
part of the gospel is he says, you're the apple of my eye. All
the work that he did, Christ was fixated on one purpose and
it was to honor his father for the salvation of his bride. What was he focused on? What
was that pupil on? It was for the redemption of
his people. That's the apple of his eye. The scripture says
the treasure that's hid in the field, he bought the whole field,
didn't he, to have that treasure. And his people are eternally
justified because of it. Justified means that we never
sinned. I've heard preachers say that
justified means just as if I had not sinned. That's not what that
means. I've said this before, but I love saying it because
it's so true. The Lord sees us as never sinning one time. It
never happened. That's how sufficient Christ's
blood was for his people. They're gone. They disappeared
while he paid for them. He absorbed the wrath of God
and put them away by his own blood. They didn't just magically
vanished. No, he put them away by his death. He's the only one that can make
something really disappear. He did it. They're gone. They
cannot be found. They cannot be brought up. When
our accuser goes up to the father and says, so-and-so's doing this,
or this man or woman's doing this, if they've been bought
by the blood of Christ, the Lord says, no, they haven't. No, they
haven't. The blood's put that away. It's
gone. I see nothing but perfect righteousness. In my people,
that's the mystery, the glorious news of the gospel. We know that his people, because
they are in Christ, cannot sin because they are born of his
seed. Well, when did that happen? Well, the scripture says before
the foundation of the world was ever laid, eternally justified. To say God's people were not
eternally justified before time is to imply that Christ could
have failed. Christ was going to attempt something, but the
Father saw us in Christ before the first tick of the first clock,
before the first sunrise. He saw us in Christ. He saw us
in Christ. And whenever he, what did he
rest in? He rest in the Sabbath, didn't
he? Rest in his Sabbath because it was impossible for God to
fail. The other side of the account
of redemption is, is if men say that all men are, if Christ died
for all men, then they are all eternally justified. We see how
that doesn't make any sense. Can't be, if he died, he didn't
try, he did something. So if he did something, what
did he do? He justified his people and fulfilled his responsibility
in the covenant that he obligated himself to do. And so if he put
away the sins of those for whom he died, and he died for everyone,
the only possible conclusion to that is everybody's going
to go to heaven. Everybody's in Christ. But that's not the
truth, is it? That's not the offense of the
gospel, is it? The gospel's offensive because
it takes you and I out of the equation, and only the Lord's
people can rest in that. The natural man hates the things
of God. I won't have this man reign over me. No, I have a choice
in this. I get to stay in Babylon if I
want to. The Lord says, no, not my people. You're gonna come
to Jerusalem, and you're gonna worship me in spirit and in truth. And we say, truth, Lord, I'm
gonna come to Jerusalem and worship you in spirit and in truth. Hence
what he does for his people. Scripture is very clear, whosoever
will let him come. And Christ makes it clear, you
will not come to me. And this is why we're mercy beggars.
Lord, make me draw nigh unto you. Lord, cause me to seek your
face. Lord, give me the grace to need
you more and more every second of every day. Cause me to be
completely dependent upon you and leave the cares of this world
behind. I was speaking to someone, I guess, yesterday, and we were
talking, a statement was made, said if one person could come
back from glory, and all they could say is one word, I'm talking
about a believer, somebody that's the Lord's, they could come back
and tell you one word. What word do you think it would
be? Rest. Rest. If they could tell you
three, they would tell you why. It is finished. That's what they
would tell us. But we don't need them to come
back from the dead. We already have that affirmation by His
Holy Spirit through His gospel. That's what He declares every
time the gospel is preached. Rest. It is finished. It is finished. You're the apple
of mine eye. No wonder David tells us in Psalm,
if you want to turn to Psalm 17, the same expression. Did we make ourselves the apple
of his eye in any way? No. Why, oh, why would he make
a wretch like you and I the most fixated object of his focus,
not in wrath, but in mercy? because of grace alone, isn't
it? It's gotta be because of grace, because of his choosing,
because of his doing alone. There's no other explanation.
There's no other explanation. Psalm 17, verse eight tells us,
keep me as the apple of thy eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy
wings. From the wicked that oppress
me, from my deadly enemies who can pass me about. They are enclosed
in their own fat. With their mouth, they speak
proudly. They have now come past us in our steps. They have set
their eyes bowing down to the earth, like a lion that is greedy
of its prey. And as it were a young lion lurking
in the secret places. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him,
disappoint him, cast him down, deliver my soul from the wicked,
which is thy sword, from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from
men of the world. which have their portion in this
life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure. They are
full of children and leave the rest of their substance to their
babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness." He says, keep me, keep me as the apple
of thine eye. Hide me under the shadow of your
wing. This is begging. Is this not what we do daily?
Is this not our plea? Lord, keep me as the apple of
thine eye. If you don't keep me, there'll be no keeping. If
you don't hide me, there will be no hiding place for me. I
can't fabricate one. I can't make one. You're going
to have to keep me and you're going to have to hide me. Somebody
said to me recently, no one should beg for what the Lord's already
given freely. And I thought to myself, well,
you don't know a whole lot about grace. I'm just going to tell
you, we are beggars. We are beggars. When we see the
demands of the law, yes, we lay hold of eternal life, but we
don't do it arrogantly and pridefully. We don't do it with any confidence
of our flesh. We literally come running and
saying, Lord, hide me. Hide me in the shadow of thy
pavilion. Lord, lead me to the rock that's higher than I. Lord,
cause me to run into the high tower, which is Jesus Christ.
Hide me from your wrath. Hide me under the shadow of your
wing. Make me the apple of your eye. Or show me that you finished
the work for me. If he does that, there's rest,
isn't there? There's rest. And he says, what does he want
to be hid from? What does he want to be kept from? He says,
the wicked, the deadly enemy, and the lion. Well, who are they? Well, that's this right here. The deadly enemy that we're facing,
that's us, isn't it? We're going to kill ourself if
we can. We would. In the flesh, hates the Lord,
hates everything about him, but the Lord in mercy. He gives us
a new nature, doesn't he? A new heart. He doesn't just
leave this old one ticking. He gives us a new one of flesh,
takes out the heart of stone. Deliver me from my enemy, myself. Deliver me from this wicked one.
Who's that? Well, that's our sin, isn't it?
And who's the lion? Well, that's Satan. authority
over these things. We can't do anything to change
self or sin or beat Satan. The Lord, you're gonna have to
do it all. Hide me, make me the apple of your eye. Make me the
apple of your eye, Lord. I love David's wording in verse
13. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him. Disappoint him, that means prevent
him also, but I like that word disappoint. Disappoint this flesh
and thinking it has a self-righteousness. Disappoint Satan and thinking
he has a claim upon me. Disappoint this old man and cause
the sin to be prevented, be put away. Cause it to be gone. Deliver
my soul. That's what he says next. If
it's delivered, he's going to have to be the one that does
it. He makes it clear that he's only going to be satisfied when
he awakes in the Lord's likeness. We're not satisfied in this world,
are we? We're not satisfied in this world, not with what the
world has to offer. Many people, they're buying what the world's
selling, not the Lord's people. We're not all in when it comes
to the world, we're all in when it comes to Christ. We're pilgrims
and strangers, as we heard recently. We're 70 years in Babylonian
captivity, aren't we? That's what we are down here.
70 years, Lord, you're gonna have to deliver us. Lord, you're
gonna have to do the work, all of it, if we're going to be saved.
What glorious words came from the cross when Christ bowed his
mighty head. He said, it is finished. I've
already done it. He's already done it. That's
the good news of the gospel. I've already done it. Now he says, if any touch you,
they touch the apple of my eye. If any touch you, touch the apple
of my eye, my beloved. Let's go back to Zechariah in
closing. Zechariah chapter 2. Look at verse 10. Sing and rejoice,
O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come and I 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. And I will dwell
in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts
hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah
his portion in the holy land and shall choose Jerusalem again.
Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for he is raised up
out of his holy habitation. Many people believe that he's literally speaking of the
physical Jerusalem here. He's literally speaking of Judah,
the physical Judah, but that's not what he's referring to, is
he? He's referring to the children of faith, the children of promise
by the faith of Abraham. And as time went on and Israel
gained different tribes, he's shown that his favor was towards
Judah because that's where Christ's lineage was going to come through,
but he had a remnant. And he just literally said here,
in that day shall be many nations, many nations. It's not about
our bloodline. It's not about a place. It's
about a person. It's about, that's what we worship,
isn't it? We worship His, the work of His hands. That's what
Zion represents. That's what Jerusalem represents.
That's what we're going to gather together, is at His feet because
of His finished work and worship Him. He said that where I am,
there you may be also. I had someone tell me that they
don't rejoice in what I preach. Told me that. don't rejoice in
the gospel that you preach." And I didn't respond. It was
over a Facebook message. And I said to myself, how do
you respond to that? But I thought, well, maybe it's
not for you. That's a scary thought, isn't it? Lord, make this for
me. Make this gospel all my hope.
Cause me to see that I'm the apple of your eye. If you don't,
I have no hope. I have no hope. And thanks be to God. He says
unto his people, sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion. This is not
an invitation. This is not an offer. This is
a command. We're going to sing. Why? Because
your sin's been put away. Your sin's gone. And he says,
sing. What's going to come from the
heart? It's going to be rejoicing, isn't it? My burden's gone. He took it. My sin's gone. It's been put away by his own
blood, his own work. Now we can sing with the new
song David said that the Lord puts in his people's mouth. Those who have been made sinners
rejoice, not in what we do, but in what he's done. Not in our
keeping, but that he keeps his people as the apple of his eye.
Not our choosing, but his choice. We've been given to Christ. been
given of the Father to Christ before the foundation of the
world to redeem, and he did it. He was successful. Now he's done
all the work. He saved his people, his Judah. He's built his Zion. So what
is there left to do? Nothing. Rest. Rest. Because of his work, his people,
or his portion, His chosen, I thought about us, I mentioned Sunday
about rotten apples, and I think that's really good because we
look pretty to each other on the outside, but inside we're
just rotten apples. Chose a bunch of rotten apples as his glory,
as his portion. He changes them, don't he? Makes
them into something new. Not only outside, we're still,
according to the flesh, we're still sin, but he gives us a
new man that's perfect in his sight. A new nature that he's
pleased with. So what do we say to these things?
Look in verse 13, be silent. There's nothing left to say.
There's nothing left to do. Be silent, O all flesh. The man says, no, it's about
my bloodline. Be silent. No, it's about what I do. Be
silent, all flesh. He said, all flesh. And that's
the point, isn't it? He's telling this flesh to shut
up. There's nothing for it to say. There's nothing for the
flesh to say. It's the spirit. The Lord has
done all the work in giving us a new nature. Be still and know
that I am God. What shall we say to these things
of God before us, who then can be against us? Why do we fret? Why do we murmur? Why do we complain? Why are we scared and troubled? With the apple of his eye, rest. It's finished. Rest.