through 6. Zechariah chapter
1, verses 2 through 6. Zechariah had a message of repentance. The Lord hath been sore displeased
with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn you unto me, saith the Lord
of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
Be you not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have
cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn you now from
your evil ways and from your evil doings. But they did not
hear nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. Your fathers, where
are they? And the prophets, do they live
forever? But my words and my statutes,
which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not take
hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, like
as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our
ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. Now keep this in mind. We're
told that they prospered in building the temple. They prospered through
the prophesying of these two men. In other words, as these
two prophets prophesied, it did them good, and they continued
to build the temple. The first thing I want to point
out is that Zechariah, who was one of these prophets, and his
prophesying caused the men to prosper in building the temple,
that his message was a message of repentance. You notice that
in verse three, that God commanded him, therefore say thou unto
them, thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn ye unto me. Turn, turn. I remember hearing a message
many years ago on repentance, turn or burn. Turn, repent or perish. Turn or burn. The message that
Zechariah was giving to these people was a message of repentance. You know, the New Testament opens
with a message of repentance, doesn't it? John the Baptist,
who was the last of the prophets, he came, the scripture says,
preaching, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was a clarion call that
John the Baptist began his ministry with, repent ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And then after the Lord was baptized
by John, in Mark's gospel, we read that he began to preach.
And what do you think, what do you suppose he was preaching?
Repent ye, this is in Mark, repent ye and believe the gospel. When Paul When the Apostle Paul
met with the elders of Ephesus for the last time, this is recorded
in Acts chapter 20, they knew they would never see each other
again in this world. And Paul reminded them that he
had not shunned to declare unto them the whole counsel of God.
And he made this point, testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That tells us that repentance
is an integral part of the gospel. Repentance is. What does it mean
to repent? Well, the best definition, I
suppose, the most common definition is a change of mind. A change
of mind. But surely it means a change
of mind which results in a change of life. A lot of people change
their minds about a number of different things. We change our
minds a hundred times a day maybe. But repentance is a change of
mind that results in a change of life. I think the best scriptural
illustration is our Lord's words if you look with me in Matthew
chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21 and beginning
with verse 28. Matthew chapter 21 and verse
28. But what thank you, a certain
man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, son, go
work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will
not. But afterward, he repented and
went. You see that? He repented. He
changed his mind, but changing his mind resulted in action. He repented and went. The father came to the second
son and said, likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir,
and went not. Whither of them twain did the
will of the Father?" In other words, which one repented? The one who at first said, I
will not, but then changed his mind. He repented and he went. And I'm just convinced tonight,
my friends, that this is a very sad truth. a truth that is missing in so
many places today. The truth about repentance. People
are asked, do you want to go to heaven? Well, only a fool
would say he didn't. Do you want to go to heaven?
Well, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And people believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and their life is no different. There's
no change. There's no repentance. Paul said, I, when I was at Ephesus,
I testified to everyone, Jews and Greeks, repentance toward
God, first of all, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
These two go together. Sometimes it's asked, which comes
first? Well, they come together. It's
like asking which, when the bullet goes through the wall, does the
hole come first or the bullet first? You know, they're Siamese
twins. Repentance? and faith, faith
and repentance. And everyone who is saved by
the grace of God is granted, is given both repentance and
faith, both faith and repentance. If you have faith tonight, you
have repentance. You can't have faith and not
have repentance. But look back here to Zechariah
at his prophesying in these first six verses. I have several things
I want to point out to us. If you've turned back here to
Zechariah chapter one, the first thing that I notice here is the
Lord was displeased. Notice that in verse two, the
Lord hath been, and not just displeased, but sore displeased
with your fathers. The Lord is displeased with sin. And I say sins, plural, the Lord
hath been sore displeased with your fathers, that is sore displeased
with the sins of the fathers. And in verse four, he seems to
divide their sins or that which displeased the Lord into two
categories. If you notice in verse four,
turn you now from your number one, evil ways and number two,
Turn from your evil doings, your evil ways and your evil doings. Now, it's suggested by some of
the writers that the evil ways was the sin of idolatry, the
sin of idolatry, the nation of Israel and their idolatrous life
and practice. When you read the 10 commandments,
If you read them in Exodus chapter 20, the second commandment is,
thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, any likeness
of anything in heaven or earth to worship. And of all those commandments,
you read them, it seems like that second commandment, that
commandment which forbids idolatry is is greater than any of the
others, because God says there that those who practice that,
they hate Him. They hate God. That's what He
said. Those who practice idolatry,
they hate God, and to that particular disobedience, to that command,
remember, is attached the greatest punishment, that God will not
forgive them to the second and third generation, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers onto the second and third generation.
Doesn't say that about any of those other commandments, does
he? But idolatry, making a graven image for the purpose of worshiping. We take pictures, we have photographs,
but we don't take a photograph to worship, do we? That commandment
is not against an image, having an image, but an image to worship. There was images in the tabernacle. There was an image of the cherubim
on the mercy seat. No, but the commandment was thou
shall not make unto thee any idol, any image to be used in
worship. And God says that those who do
that hate him. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me." That's what it says there in Exodus
20. Evil ways, the sin of idolatry. We know that that was the crowning
sin of the nation of Israel, the reason they were sent off
and chastened like they were into captivity because of the
sin of idolatry. They were not long out of Egypt,
were they? Before they had already fallen
into that sin. Before Aaron had a golden calf
made and said, behold your gods. Almost seems unreal that that
could happen. After seeing all the miracles
and signs that they had seen, after walking through the Red
Sea on dry ground, then to have a golden calf and say this is
your God? So, evil ways, it's suggested
referred to the idolatry, but they're evil doings, they're
immoralities. Now the Jewish nation had been
guilty of both, both evil ways and evil doings, we know that. Now the second thing we see in
this prophesying, not only was God Displeased because of their
evil ways and their evil doings, but they wouldn't listen They
would not hear the prophets notice that in verse 4 But be ye not
as your fathers unto whom the former prophets have cried saying
thus saith the Lord of hosts turn you now from your evil ways
and from your evil doings, but They would not hear They hardened
their nets stiffened their necks, they would not hear the prophets
of God." Oh, they'd hear the false prophets and listen to
them. But the true prophets of God,
they would not hear, they would not hearken unto the Lord because
the Lord was speaking through those prophets, through those
men. In Hebrews chapter 11, we read
that long list of those who who honored the Lord by faith, and
some of them were those prophets that they didn't listen to. They stoned. They said they were
stoned. They stoned some of the prophets. Sawn asunder. They believed that Isaiah was
actually sawed in pieces, his body, tempted, slain with the
sword. They would not hear. Number one,
God is sore displeased with your evil ways, your evil doings,
and Your fathers would not listen to the messengers, to the prophets
of God. And then notice the third thing
here. The Lord testifies to the truthfulness of his word. Your
fathers, Zacharias speaking to these Jews, your fathers, where
are they? Where are they? The prophets,
do they live forever? But my words and my statutes,
which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not take
hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, like
as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our
ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. There are two ways, I believe,
to look at these words, these questions. Where are your fathers?
Where are your fathers? Well, they're dead. They died
in battle, or they died in exile. They've been 70 years out of
their land. Where are your fathers? Well,
they're gone. And then some believe, and the prophets. Well, our fathers
died, so did the prophets. What's the difference? What's
the difference? And both are true. Both their
fathers died, both the prophets died, but God's word is truthful
and it's everlasting. We live in a day, and of course
I'm sure it's been like this for a long time, but people want
to think the truth never changes. And truth is as sharp as a razor
edge. It cuts. The sword of the Lord
has two edges, doesn't it? The Old Testament law, one edge,
and the gospel, the other edge. The truth never changes. We change,
men change, God doesn't change, and God's word doesn't change.
And you know, people think, well, We're living in a day, well,
yeah, they used to say that was wrong. Well, if it was wrong
100 years ago, it's wrong today, right? It's not gonna change. All right, here's the second
part of the message. So first of all, Zechariah had
a message of repentance. And number two, Zechariah had
a message of encouragement. And we see that in verses seven
through 17. Now, three months later, we saw
that he began prophesying in the eighth month, but three months
later, you notice in verse seven, upon the fourth and 20th day
of the 11th month, God began to give Zechariah a number of
visions. I believe there are nine of these
visions that God gave unto him. And we're looking tonight at
only the first vision. But this vision, the truth of
the vision rather, was given to encourage the elders who were
building on that temple. And it's given for us, you and
I today, who are involved in this spiritual temple that the
Lord Jesus Christ is building, to encourage us. Because what
we see in this vision, we know it speaks to us today as well. And I'll just point out a few
things to us about the vision. Let's read the vision, verse
eight. I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse
and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom
and behind him were there red horses speckled and white. Then said I, O my Lord, what
are these? And the angel that talked with
me said unto me, I will show thee what these be. And the man
that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are
they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the
myrtle trees and said, we have walked to and fro through the
earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest.
Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how
long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities
of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these seventy
years? And the Lord answered the angel
that talked with me with good words and comfortable words,
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, and I'm very sore displeased
with the heathen that are at ease, for I was but a little
displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore, thus
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. Cry yet same, 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. Number one, the myrtle trees. He saw a man, he said, by night,
a man riding upon a red horse and he stood among the myrtle
trees. The myrtle trees represent Judah,
the nation of Judah at that particular time. She's not pictured by giant
cedars, by strong oak trees, she's pictured by humble, myrtle
trees. And the only thing that I would
point out about the myrtle tree is that when its leaves are crushed,
it puts off a very sweet, very sweet and pleasant aroma. Israel then and the Lord's church
in this world is never going to be any different. Israel of
old was a little nation among the nations, and now they're
reduced to even less. when this took place. But Israel
of old and the spiritual Israel of God, the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, is pictured by the myrtle trees. It's overshadowed
by the powerful, the proud, the godless powers of this world. Remember the Lord Jesus said,
fear not, little flock. Little flock. for it's your father's
good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. That's the myrtle
trees, picturing Judah at this time. Number two, the man on
the red horse. You notice he stands among the
myrtle trees, and we find out in verse 11 that this is the
angel of the Lord. Well, all through the Old Testament,
the angel of the Lord is the Lord, the eternal son of God
who appeared before he came into this world as a man, he appeared
in the, in the farm of a man. And he's referred to as the angel
of the Lord. He appeared to Moses at the bush
that burned, but was not consumed. And the thing I like about this
is number one, he's in the midst of the church. The Lord Jesus
Christ and God is encouraging them. He was in their midst.
I have returned, he said, to Jerusalem with mercies. What
an encouragement to these Jews that were building on that temple. God says, I'm in their midst.
The Lord is in their midst. And what an encouragement to
you and I. The Lord Jesus Christ has promised
to be in our midst and is in our midst. Got to believe that
and know that's true. That's what he said, where two
or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst. And
then he was riding on a horse to show us how quickly he can
come to help us. How quickly he can respond when
we cry unto him. as a horse can quickly move. Then the third thing, the different
colored horses, the red, the speckled, and the white. And
you notice the prophet asked, what are these? And the angel
who talked with the prophet said, he didn't say, I'll tell you
what these are. He said, I'll show you. I'll
show you what these are. And when he showed them, we see
these are they that walk through the world and report to the Lord
who sent them. They, of course, represent the
angels of God, who we're told in Hebrews 1 and verse 14, are
ministering spirits set forth to minister for them who shall
be heirs of salvation. Now, these that we read about
in this vision, They report back to the Lord, and they say, the
world is at rest. And I was just thinking, Assyria
conquered Syria. Babylon conquered Assyria. The Persians conquered Babylon. And now, at this time,
the world is at peace, it's at rest. These great powers, there
was one ruling power. And Darius, of course, was at
the head of that nation. Now, here's a fourth thing. The
angel of the Lord interceded for Jerusalem. Notice that in
verse 12. Then the angel of the Lord answered
and said, O Lord of hosts, how long? He intercedes for them.
And doesn't this remind us that we too have an advocate with
the Father, that he ever lives to make intercession for us,
that he's always there, and he's always heard. He's always heard. And then the answer returned, the answer that was returned
are these good and comfortable words. Verse 13, and the Lord
answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable
words. What are these good words, these
comfortable words? Verse 16, and therefore thus
saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem. And I'm not only
returned, but I'm returned with mercies. That's good news, isn't
it? Aren't you glad that He is a
God of mercy? And any time I mention mercy,
I always remind myself, if I deserve mercy, it wouldn't be mercy.
If I deserve grace, it wouldn't be grace. No, God be merciful to me, the sinner. God saved me by your grace. God said, this house shall be
built. That's what God told him. These
are the good words. This house shall be built. That's
one of God's shouts. It shall be built. And all hell and all the demons
of hell and all the powers of this world could not keep that
house from being built. Just as our Lord said, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against His church. This won't happen. Why? Because it's founded on
a rock, and Christ is a rock. I trust the Lord would bless
these words to us.