Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Okay, we are still in Zechariah. We're gonna be in Zechariah 12 and 13, so you can turn there now.
[00:00:13] And while we're doing that, I want you all to think of the best feelings.
[00:00:24] You know, things that feel amazing. That's really broad, but I want you to shout out what feels good. What are some things that feel good? Actually get to do the psalms of the day. Actually getting to do the psalms of the day. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, I'm sure that feels good. Yeah.
[00:00:47] Getting an A on the test. Okay.
[00:00:50] Yeah.
[00:00:52] PR in a race. A PR in a race. These are all really good.
[00:00:56] Getting a PR on bench press. PR on bench press. Yes. Which one's better? Who can tell?
[00:01:02] Is it. Are you raising your hand? Okay.
[00:01:08] Getting to play on the football field.
[00:01:12] Oh, nice. Well, that is a really good feeling.
[00:01:17] Lead roles in a play. Okay. These are all good. Oh, okay. You really wanted to share.
[00:01:23] What.
[00:01:25] What about One Direction?
[00:01:27] Just looking them up. Feels good.
[00:01:30] Okay. Okay. I should have seen this one coming.
[00:01:34] What are you about to say? Is it about a band?
[00:01:37] Kind of. So, like, fishing around on the guitar and then finding out, like, something like, really close. Ah, okay.
[00:01:44] These are all really good. These are kind of.
[00:01:47] Not all of them. A lot of them are kind of the feeling of accomplishment. Which is funny because when I wrote that question, I was thinking of, like, things that, like, physically feel good.
[00:01:57] And so the first thing I thought of was when you're like, super dirty, like filthy, nasty, disgusting, sticky, and you get into the hot shower, you know that? No, no, no.
[00:02:10] I'm sure there's a lot, but we don't have time to take them all. I would love to hear them later. I think that's what I was thinking. I was thinking of a much needed shower and just how wonderful that feels.
[00:02:22] Maybe some of you guys in here don't know what that's like, but you should try is just wonderful. And I thought of that because one of the main points of these chapters is to point Israel to the washing of their sin that's provided in the Messiah's death. And I thought, well, that is definitely a better feeling. It's certainly a better shower.
[00:02:46] Much greater washing.
[00:02:48] So this is the sort of cleaning, this cleaning that they desperately need. Cleaning from sin. That's one of the main points, main topics of these chapters.
[00:02:59] But to kind of review a little bit. Zechariah, the prophet who spoke the words of God to the remnant of Israel who had returned from. From exile because they violated their covenant with the Lord, they've now been rebuilding the temple. And this book, you may have picked up on this. I hope so. It kind of repeats a lot of the same themes. We kind of see them tracking throughout over and over. For example, there's this theme of the temple. They're building this temple, yet its glory is not that great. It's not as good as the old one. And it's definitely not as great as the one that is to come. The one that is to come we've talked about is Christ.
[00:03:37] And this Christ, another theme will be that he's both a priest and a king, both in the same person.
[00:03:44] We've also had this theme of shepherds and sheep. Well, this priest, king, new prophet, this messiah, Christ, he will be the good shepherd. He will be the king of Israel, he'll be their priest, and he will shepherd the lost sheep of Israel and really of the rest of the world. We've seen multiple passages, and there's still more to come of other nations being brought into this sheepfold.
[00:04:10] Now chapter 12 begins a new section. It's the last section of the book. And really 12 through 14, I think, go together. But we're sticking to 12 and 13 tonight.
[00:04:20] And these chapters take us in a couple different directions. So first, chapters 12 and 13, Yahweh saves his people through judging the nations. And in doing this, he's moving them from a Davidic king. And what I mean by that is a human king in the line of David. And he's moving them to a divine, a heavenly king. We see Yahweh himself will be their king, Israel.
[00:04:45] This is important because Israel had rejected Yahweh as their king in 1st Samuel 8. And so many, many years later, the Lord is saying, I will be your king again. I will be the king.
[00:04:58] Chapter 14, as we'll see, will show a move from Yahweh is Israel's king to Yahweh as king of the nations, and amongst other things. Now, these two themes, Yahweh is king of the nations and of Israel, are not contradictory. They work perfectly together. And for us to kind of read them in this order is kind of a very typical way the Bible talks about this.
[00:05:18] The Lord's progression is seen in the New Testament clearly. Jesus comes to the Jews first.
[00:05:26] He sends his disciples during his life to minister to Jews. He then commissions his disciples to go to Jerusalem, which is in Israel, and then Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. So we see this progression starting in one place and working its way out salvation comes through Israel, but to all peoples.
[00:05:49] And the main idea of Zechariah 12:13 is, King Yahweh and his people will defeat their enemies.
[00:05:58] King Yahweh and his people will defeat their enemies.
[00:06:01] Therefore be washed by the cleansing blood of Christ and devote yourself to him.
[00:06:10] Read the first nine verses of chapter 12 and then talk about those the oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.
[00:06:19] Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him.
[00:06:27] Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves, and all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
[00:06:46] On that day, declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah, I will keep my eyes open when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
[00:06:59] Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, the inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.
[00:07:06] On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left, all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place in Jerusalem.
[00:07:23] And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah. First, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. On that day, the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them.
[00:07:47] And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
[00:07:54] So again, the main idea, King Yahweh and his people will defeat their enemies. Therefore, be washed by the cleansing blood of Christ and devote yourself to him.
[00:08:02] The first point of the sermon is, be courageous.
[00:08:07] Be courageous in the surety of Yahweh's victory.
[00:08:12] Be courageous in the surety of Yahweh's victory.
[00:08:15] So Zechariah, here at the beginning of these chapters, says that the Lord is powerful. And he gives a number of examples.
[00:08:24] So just in the first verse, we see three. He stretched out the heavens.
[00:08:28] So the Lord stretched out the heavens. This makes me think of, you know, stretching out a poster, maybe of a band you like, maybe the Beatles, maybe one Direction or really honest, if I'm being honest, the first thing I thought of was Nicholas Cage stretching out the Declaration of Independence, looking for a treasure map on the back of it in a national treasure.
[00:08:50] You know, you think of that image and you think of God stretching out the skies.
[00:08:56] He is mighty to do that. Also, verse one tells us he founded the earth. That's another way of saying he created it.
[00:09:03] And it also says he formed the spirit of man within him.
[00:09:07] So what we're seeing here is from the skies to the earth, to everything in it, He. Even into the spiritual, metaphysical realm. God created everything, every square inch. And even things that are immeasurable, like spirits, God made.
[00:09:25] Now, as you know, we continue to go through this passage, I want you to keep this kind of on your mind, maybe on the front of your mind. Because if God is this powerful, should he not govern and command every aspect of your life?
[00:09:42] Does he not warrant that? Does he not deserve all worship and glory and devotion?
[00:09:47] I want you to remember that this powerful Lord will unilaterally, we see in this text, destroy all the enemies of his people.
[00:09:57] So verse 4 says, he will strike every horse and rider with panic and madness. Horse and rider. These are warriors.
[00:10:06] He will strike them with panic. Verse nine says he'll destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. But even though the Lord is able to do this, and he is, he could, at the snap of his fingers, at a breath, could make this a reality, you might have noticed he doesn't do this alone in this text, right? Verses 2, 3, 6 and 8. 2, 3, 6 and 8 all show ways that the Lord will use his people.
[00:10:33] He will use them to accomplish his plan, to accomplish his victory.
[00:10:39] So the Lord will make his people powerful and mighty.
[00:10:44] So therefore, what should we do? We should be courageous. Because Yahweh will win.
[00:10:51] Be courageous in the surety of his victory.
[00:10:55] Now, on your own, we'll be honest. You are weak.
[00:10:59] You are weak. This is not a passage meant to flatter you, that you're strong, you're dangerous, you are powerful.
[00:11:05] No, on your own, you're weak. But by the lord's power. Verse 8, the feeblest among you, so the weakest, the lowest of you shall be like David and the house of David, which. Which was strong. David was the premier king. He is the king that everyone even today thinks of when they think Israel.
[00:11:25] And David will be like God or the angel of the Lord. He is going to make his people strong, but it's by his power to accomplish his ends.
[00:11:38] Now, I know Some of you are itching to do this. I'm not saying we should go on a crusade. We'll kind of put a pause on that plan. No crusade this week.
[00:11:47] But you can still be courageous in other ways that we don't feel like we're in a battle all the time. We don't feel the maybe intense persecution that you might imagine happens all over the world. We can still be courageous. How can you be courageous?
[00:12:04] Well, simple enough. You can share the gospel and defend your faith.
[00:12:08] You can share the gospel and defend your faith.
[00:12:12] Maybe you don't feel like you're in an intense battle, but that might be a little scary to you.
[00:12:18] And let me just encourage you by saying it doesn't matter if you know all the answers. It doesn't matter if you can explain what Zechariah 12 means.
[00:12:25] Trust God to guide you and just be courageous and bold to do it. You know, don't worry about being weird or looking stupid or having people gossip about you. That'll probably happen at some point. Might happen anyway. Be courageous. That's why you need to be courageous. But you can be courageous because we know Yahweh wins.
[00:12:45] We can also be courageous in this way. You might need to be willing to miss out on normal things, maybe things that your. Your peers do, your friends.
[00:12:54] Now, I'm going to list some things. I'm not saying that you need to do all of these things. That is not the intention. I just want you to examine yourself and think, do I need to do any of these things in order to be courageous for the Lord?
[00:13:09] So maybe it is time for you to finally shut down social media.
[00:13:13] Maybe it's time for you to give up your smartphone with full Internet access so you can get to anything whenever you want.
[00:13:21] Maybe it's time to slow down even your sports if it steals your ability to follow Christ. Well, it might be time to distance yourself from friends who influence you poorly.
[00:13:31] It might be time to change your wardrobe even in favor of modesty. It might be time to do any number of things in any number of ways. I don't know what they might be, but whatever it is to follow the Lord, be courageous. You can do it because Christ will do it. He wins in the end.
[00:13:50] So do you trust the God who spread the skies, who formed the spirit in men and women? Do you trust him? You can be courageous.
[00:14:02] Okay, back to the text. Look at verse 10 now.
[00:14:08] And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy. So that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.
[00:14:27] On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as as the mourning for Hadad Ramon. In the plain of Megiddo, the land shall mourn each family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves, and all the families that are left, each by itself, and and their wives by themselves.
[00:14:59] On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
[00:15:11] So point two is, be cleansed of your sin.
[00:15:15] Be cleansed of your sin.
[00:15:20] These verses depict the feeling of Israel.
[00:15:25] As they see what their sin has done, we see what it ultimately will come to and what has already come to pass.
[00:15:34] They have pierced someone.
[00:15:37] And when we see the word pierce, we can think of struck, crucified, killed. They have pierced Someone. And verse 10 tells us that someone is Yahweh himself.
[00:15:47] They have pierced God.
[00:15:51] But that might be interesting. Yahweh cannot be hurt or struck. We cannot hurt him.
[00:15:57] He cannot be pierced unless he puts on flesh.
[00:16:02] And that's exactly what God the Son did.
[00:16:05] This is clearly fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, as he is pierced for the sins of his people.
[00:16:12] And it is the wickedness and sins of Israel that hung the Lord God on the cross. That's what Zechariah is telling them. It is your sins that have hung him there.
[00:16:21] And to look upon the one true God pierced on the cross brings upon them widespread shame and weeping and mourning and sorrow.
[00:16:31] And so in verses 10 through 13, that whole chunk pretty much, they mourn.
[00:16:38] A lot of them mourn. We have lists of all of them mourning.
[00:16:42] And as we read these verses, we shouldn't conclude that none of our sins hung the Lord on the cross, none of our sins pierced Christ.
[00:16:52] Israel is the focus because this is written to Israel, and also because it was to Israel first that the Messiah came. But we should rightly mourn also that our sins too were the cause of him being pierced.
[00:17:07] Isaiah 53, 5 confirms and says, but he was pierced for our transgressions.
[00:17:13] He was crushed for our iniquities.
[00:17:17] Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
[00:17:20] And with his wounds we are healed.
[00:17:23] It is through the mourning of the Lord's death, the weeping and sorrow over the Lord's death, that these Jews, and also us, can be given peace with God and salvation.
[00:17:37] This is where peace with God and salvation begin, with the mourning and weeping and. And hating of your sin.
[00:17:44] And it was true for Israel. It is true for us as well.
[00:17:48] We also see something interesting about who's mourning. Verse 12 we read of David's house and Nathan's house. So David was the king, and David had a son named Nathan as well. In verse 13 we read of Levi's house and the shimei. So Levi was the head of the tribe that became the priests, the Levites. And he also had. There was a shimei in the line of Levi. And so what I think is Zechariah is doing here is he's showing us that David representing the kings and Levi representing the priests, all mourn for the death of the Lord.
[00:18:25] So yet again we see this theme again, that the one to come is a greater priest than the priests, he's a greater king than the kings, and yet they strike him, they pierce him, and he still reigns as a priest king today.
[00:18:44] But now, what do these verses mean for you? What do they mean for you? Well, you should mourn for your sin that nailed the Lord to the cross. This should break you.
[00:18:54] This should crush us.
[00:18:56] So what holds us back from mourning and hating our sin? I want to think about that and I want you to think of your sins in particular.
[00:19:06] Do you sin with impunity? That means you don't care, you are arrogant about it. Or does it bother you? Does it lead you to repentance? So what is holding you back from hating your sin? Do you love your sin?
[00:19:20] Maybe you do. Maybe you love your sin, you just can't imagine giving it up.
[00:19:26] Do you not see it? Do you not see your sin?
[00:19:30] Are you in denial that you really do need a savior?
[00:19:34] Or maybe do you think too much about other people's sins and you assuage your guilt. You calm yourself by the comparison game, whatever it is, you need to stop that and hate your sin, repent of it, and mourn it. God gives his spirit of grace to prompt you to hate your sin. And when you hate your sin, you must plead for mercy. Because we need this mercy, because we've pierced God on the cross, we've hung God on the cross, killed him. And so we really do need mercy, all of us, because it was all of our sins that Nailed him to the cross.
[00:20:09] But look at chapter 13, verse 1.
[00:20:14] On that day, there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
[00:20:25] So this, of course, reminds me of one of my favorite hymns written by William Cooper. There is a fountain filled with blood. I bet some of you know that. Maybe a lot of you.
[00:20:36] The first couple of lines say, there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
[00:20:47] The only way to wash you of your sins, the sins that pierced the Lord to the cross, the only way to wash you of those sins is to bathe in his redeeming blood. That's the only wash, the only shower that can cleanse you of your sins.
[00:21:03] You need to trust in the Lord, and it is by faith in him that that redeeming blood washes you of your sins. And when you do this, your mourning, the mourning that Israel is doing, turns to joy.
[00:21:18] Your weeping turns to laughing. Your pain turns to healing.
[00:21:23] Your sin turns to salvation, and your death turns to life.
[00:21:29] That's what happens when you trust in Christ and are cleansed by his blood.
[00:21:34] So be cleansed of your sins.
[00:21:37] Now look down chapter 13, verse 2. We'll keep reading.
[00:21:42] And on that day declares the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land so that they shall be remembered no more.
[00:21:50] And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father, mother who bore him will say to him, you shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.
[00:22:07] On that day, every prophet will be ashamed of his vision. When he prophesies, he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive. But he will say, I am no prophet.
[00:22:17] I'm a worker of the soil for a man sold me in my youth.
[00:22:21] And if one asks him, what are these wounds on your back? He will say, the wounds I received in the house of my friends.
[00:22:29] So point number three is, be kept from idols. Be kept from idols.
[00:22:37] So the main idea of this section is somewhat clear.
[00:22:42] I think it is, keep yourselves from idols. Now, we see a lot about these prophets and their mother and father piercing them and them kind of being ashamed they're not going out to deceive people anymore. I think these prophets are mentioned kind of alongside the idols on Purpose. So it seems that these prophets were not truthful. They lied, right? Their father, mother says, you speak lies in the name of the Lord. It says they won't put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive. So these are false prophets. It's not saying. These false prophets, kind of the function of them would be kind of like an idol anyway. People would look to them and listen to them, and they would kind of just tell you what you want to hear. They would make you feel good. And people like that. People like people to scratch their itching ears. They like people to tell them what they want to hear. And so in a way, these prophets are also kind of idols. I think that's why the Lord says, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so we must be kept from idols. Now, this reminds me of First John, 5, 21, the last verse of First John says, Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
[00:23:51] That's the last verse in the book. It's a book about how to know that you've been saved by the Son of God. And he ends with this warning about idolatry.
[00:24:00] Now, what that and also this passage here in Zechariah should do is it should warn us to take idolatry very seriously.
[00:24:08] It's introduced early on in the Bible. It's continued to be an issue, something brought up even into the very later chapters of the Bible. It is a pervasive issue. Idolatry, though we don't have, typically, many of us, probably none of us have a household idol, a God that we bow down to and pray to, it's still an issue.
[00:24:31] So I want to answer three questions.
[00:24:33] Why what? And so what? Why what? And so what?
[00:24:37] Why so? Why do we cling to idols? Why do we cling to idols? You know, it kind of puzzles the mind. If you read through the Old Testament, if you're honest, I think if you are reading Genesis all the way through Second Kings and you see the people of Israel just constantly running back to idols, you might be a bit confused by that. I mean, they've seen God deliver them from Egypt with 10 plagues. They've crossed the Red Sea on dry land. They've conquered the Promised land.
[00:25:08] Men like King Solomon had close relationships with God. God even grants him great wisdom. And even he turns to idols.
[00:25:16] Even when Moses is on Mount Sinai and they can see the cloud of the Lord at the top, and they know the Lord's up there because they're too afraid to go up there, what do they do? They turn their Gold earrings into a golden calf.
[00:25:28] So just like them, we do this too. But why? Why do we turn to idols and so quickly?
[00:25:37] Well, it's a simple answer. Our hearts are full of sin.
[00:25:41] Our hearts are full of sin. They just want it.
[00:25:45] They want our hearts. They want idols.
[00:25:49] We create them when there's a lack of them. We find them when they're hidden. We want idols, and it's repulsive behavior. But the Bible tells us that we are not against that. Like dogs to vomit, we eat up what we've just expelled.
[00:26:06] And so I want us to walk away knowing that it's kind of in our sinful nature to idolize.
[00:26:13] We need, therefore, to be watchful and careful to avoid idols.
[00:26:19] This is a warning to look for them in your life and to get rid of them, dash them.
[00:26:26] So that's the why. What you know, what is an idol? What is idolatry? How do I know if I'm doing this? Well, an idol can be understood as anything that is receiving your worship and devotion, especially your utter worship and devotion. Anything you are exalting in any way above the Lord, whether it's your attention, your time, your love. What is getting more of that than the Lord?
[00:26:50] Now, you can admire things, you can admire people, but you should be careful to not make idols of them.
[00:26:57] It can be quick and sneaky.
[00:27:01] Serving and being devoted to anything but the Lord is idolatry. So we could list for days the potential idols. You know, tv, good grades, success in sports celebrities, social media popularity, being liked, food, a special diet, a special exercise plan, comfort, sleep. And it could go on and on and on and on. All of these things, some of them, a lot of them, not even inherently bad, can become idols very quickly.
[00:27:32] So what?
[00:27:33] So what?
[00:27:34] All of those will pass away.
[00:27:37] They will be turned to nothing. They are worse than nothing. They are not eternal. And the warning is, whatever you put your devotion in, whatever you put your love and care towards, whatever you trust in, that's what you're entrusting your life to, whatever it or he or she is, they have your. Your life in their hands. So if your idol passes away and is destroyed, which it will eventually, then you will pass away.
[00:28:08] Only the eternal Lord God is worth trusting. He's the only one that stands the test of eternity to keep you safe and secure in his hands. So keep yourselves from idols.
[00:28:23] Now, look at these last three verses.
[00:28:27] 13. 7.
[00:28:28] Awake, O Lord, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the Lord of hosts, Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered I will turn my hand against the little ones in the whole land, declares the Lord. Two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.
[00:28:47] And I will put this third into the fire and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.
[00:28:54] They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, they are my people. And they will say, the Lord is my God.
[00:29:05] So our last point is, be calling upon the name of the Lord.
[00:29:09] Be calling upon the name of the Lord. Always be calling upon the name of the Lord. Here again, the Lord through Zechariah, returns to this familiar theme of shepherds and sheep and flocks.
[00:29:22] So I think we're looking again at the wicked shepherds. We talked about them before, these wicked shepherds representing the faithless leaders of the people.
[00:29:31] And the sheep are the people that follow them.
[00:29:35] But the Lord will strike these bad shepherds, these bad leaders. He's guaranteeing that. He's promising that. And what happens when he does that? The sheep will scatter. That makes sense. There's no one leading them anymore. They're sheep. They're going to run and scatter and be lost.
[00:29:52] So I think at least one warning we can take from this even into today. This is something Israel should obey at the time. Something we can obey today is, be careful, students, that you don't follow bad shepherds, don't follow the wicked, evil shepherds.
[00:30:09] There are a lot of people in the world, in your lives, online, especially teaching and writing things. Everybody's got something to say about everything, and you got to say something about everything or else you don't care about whatever you didn't talk about. There are a lot of things being said and written and spoken all the time. Everyone's got a podcast now, you know, and so it can be really hard to determine who's good or bad to follow. It really can. And it's not always black and white, you know, people are imperfect, people make mistakes.
[00:30:41] People are mixed in what. What they're saying and teaching. So you should ask a trusted person. You know, we have pastors here that you can ask. You have parents that you can ask. You can always ask me something. Just my opinion, you know, my two cents.
[00:30:55] But just. And you should know this, but it's easy to kind of be deceived and have things told to us that we want to hear, but just never trust someone online to know what they're talking about.
[00:31:05] Sometimes they do, but just don't give it. Give them your trust right away.
[00:31:10] Even if they say they know Greek and Hebrew and they have these degrees hanging on the wall behind them, it don't mean a thing.
[00:31:17] It really doesn't. A lot of these degrees just make you dangerous. It makes you have the vocabulary enough to be dangerous. And so just be careful that you don't follow bad shepherds. It really is so easy to fall into that.
[00:31:31] So I would encourage us to follow primarily our shepherds here at Arrow Heights, our pastors and being devoted to their teaching.
[00:31:39] Because we don't want you to be scattered when those bad shepherds are struck.
[00:31:44] When something goes down, when something bad happens or at the end of days, we don't want you to be scattered.
[00:31:50] And I think we can likewise even be cautious when we're following good shepherds, good and faithful men teaching the word soundly, because even sometimes those men can fall. And we ought not, just like with idols, put our trust in men, but only the Lord God alone. We don't want to put all our eggs into one basket, all our hopes into one teacher.
[00:32:15] Now, you could always read more dead people.
[00:32:18] Dead people can't make any more mistakes.
[00:32:22] At least I think maybe there will come a day. But you can read some dead people who have finished the race, or you can just appreciate the teaching of good teachers, the wisdom of wise men, but don't put your hope and trust in them. Trust in the Lord alone.
[00:32:42] Now, kind of returning back to the text, in verse 8, we see that 2/3 of the people will be cut off, right? 2/3. I don't think we should think really calculated about this and literally, necessarily, but we should take away that a large chunk, probably even the majority of people will not love and follow and trust in Christ. Of course, we can't know. We can't know a number.
[00:33:08] Our job is to put every effort to bring in as many people into the kingdom of heaven as God would have us to.
[00:33:14] But we need to know and expect that there will be hostility. There will be people in the world that do not love the Lord.
[00:33:22] But I want us to focus even more on this one third. He says one third shall be left alive at the end of verse eight.
[00:33:29] In verse nine, then he says, they will be refined and tested.
[00:33:35] This one third that remains will be refined and tested. They will be precious like silver and gold.
[00:33:42] I think what this means is if you trust in the Lord, if you trust in Christ, you can be in that number.
[00:33:50] You can be refined like silver, tested like gold.
[00:33:55] Now, the refining will be painful. It sounds painful. The testing will be tough.
[00:34:01] But at the end of it all. And this refining and testing, I think, refers to the Christian life. At the end of it all, you'll come out sparkling and dazzling.
[00:34:11] You'll be full of eternal worth.
[00:34:14] What this is teaching us is that the Lord wants to make you precious and he knows how to do it. But the process is hard.
[00:34:22] The Christian life is rightly, by John Bunyan, called a pilgrimage. It's a difficult journey, full of many trials, many difficulties, many temptations.
[00:34:33] But if you lean on the Lord and follow this good shepherd that's replacing the bad ones, then you can endure it and you will make it to the heavenly city.
[00:34:42] If you trust in him and follow him, you will make it.
[00:34:46] Now, why am I so confident in that?
[00:34:49] Because verse nine guarantees it.
[00:34:52] They will call upon My name and I will answer them.
[00:34:56] I will say, they are My people, and they will say, the Lord is my God.
[00:35:01] So, students, if you now can truly say that the Lord is your God, then He can truly say that you are of his people.
[00:35:10] And that's the whole point.
[00:35:13] Only his people will be with him in glory. He will only dwell with his people.
[00:35:19] And we want to be his people. We want to be a sheep in his flock.
[00:35:25] We want to join Him. We want to follow and love Him. So what do we do? Well, the instruction is clear.
[00:35:32] Call upon his name.
[00:35:34] Call upon his name.
[00:35:37] You know, I don't want to be vague. I don't think this just means to, you know, go outside and speak his name into the night. Sorry, Phil Wickham.
[00:35:46] It means you cry to him, you pray to him, and you proclaim his name to others.
[00:35:53] You regularly and actively call upon his name.
[00:35:58] This phrase, call upon the name of the Lord or even of other gods in the Old Testament is common. We see this construction a lot. It typically really refers to the proclaiming of his name and characters aloud and to others and publicly.
[00:36:14] We, at least when I read it, I would always think of prayer. Call on his name. That means prayer.
[00:36:19] And that is included. That's part of it. But again, these terms, I think more point us towards a public profession and proclamation to others.
[00:36:29] So what does this mean?
[00:36:31] It means that you can't be an inward, private believer. You can't be inward and private and be a Christian. Your faith cannot be private and just for you.
[00:36:42] You must be an outward, public Christian, actively calling upon the name of the Lord with your thoughts, your deeds, your words, and all that you do.
[00:36:53] And if you're a believer, if you've turned from sin and to Christ, then your Heart has proclaimed Him. And now the way you live must also call upon his name.
[00:37:04] And if that's you, he promises here to answer you. He says, I will answer them.
[00:37:10] I will answer them. And he will answer them by telling them that they're his people. And they'll say, you are my God. Again, this calls us back to earlier in the book, when God predicts that this will be glory.
[00:37:23] They shall be his people, and he will be their God. What a wonderful promise from the Savior that He will hear us. He will call us his people. Though our sins pierced him to the cross, he bore our sins in his body on the cross.
[00:37:38] But we can enter, we can be his people. We can be a sheep in his flock if we call upon his name.
[00:37:46] So trust him, follow Him, Turn from any idols in your life. Be cleansed from sin. And as you live for him, be courageous.
[00:37:56] That's what these chapters are thrusting us to do. They're not obscure chapters in an obscure book. They are commands and promises that we can love and obey even today.
[00:38:08] And remember, King Yahweh and his people will defeat their enemies. Therefore, be washed by the cleansing blood of Christ and devote yourself to him. Let's pray.
[00:38:19] Father, thank you for your word and for your wonderful, magnificent grace and mercy that we who have pierced the Son of God can be considered one of your children, one of your sheep, one of your people, and you can be our God. Lord, we pray that any in this room who do not know you, that you will call them to yourself, that they would repent from their sins and trust in Christ.
[00:38:48] God help us to understand this passage and what it means for our life. Even more as we get into our small group, we pray this in your Son's name. Amen.
