It would be a wonderful day if the
Lord came for his own, and thank God
for that blessed and sure hope.
And may every one of us who know
the Lord live in the joy of that
blessed promise when the Saviour said, I will
come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also.
It will be much better to be there
than even here.
May God grant the hope will be real
to our hearts and encourage us.
We turn to chapter thirteen today in the
book of Zechariah, reading the contents of this
chapter, nine verses, where the Spirit of God
writes, In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and
for uncleanness.
And it shall come to pass in that
day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I
will cut off the names of the idols
out of the land, and they shall no
more be remembered, and also I will cause
the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass
out of the land.
And it shall come to pass that when
any shall yet prophesy, then his father and
his mother that begat him shall say unto
him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest
lies in the name of the Lord.
And his father and his mother that begat
him shall trust him true when he prophesieth.
And it shall come to pass in that
day that the prophet shall be ashamed every
one of his vision when he hath prophesied.
Neither shall they wear a rough garment to
deceive, but he shall say, I am no
prophet, I am an husbandman, for man taught
me to keep cattle for my youth.
One shall say unto him, What are these
wounds in thine hands?
Then he shall answer, Those with which I
was wounded in the house of my friends.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the
man that is my fellow or my equal.
Set the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered.
And I will turn mine hand upon the
little ones.
And it shall come to pass that in
all the land set the Lord.
Two parts therein shall be cut off and
die, but the third shall be left therein.
And I will bring the third part through
the fire, and will refine them as silver
is refined, and will try them as gold
is tried.
They shall call on my name, and I
will hear them.
I will say, It is my people, and
they shall say, The Lord is my God.
May God bless the reading and the hearing
of his word, and by his Holy Spirit
may he direct our hearts and our minds
to the coming event when our blessed Lord
Jesus will return in power and great glory.
We've had the joy of going thus far
through the prophecy the past week, and we
have seen the divisions of that book which
I would name briefly again.
Chapter 1 verses 1 through 6.
The call of God for national repentance.
A message through Zechariah to call the nation
to repent, forsake their sins, and seek the
Lord.
We found the second division in chapter 1
verse 7 going to the end of chapter
6.
A series of 8 visions given to the
prophet in one night.
With consolatory as well as comforting words concerning
the future of Jerusalem.
For contrary, or in contrast I should say,
to the prophecy of Haggai, the ministry of
Zechariah relates particularly to the city of Jerusalem.
Haggai's ministry pertained in particular to the house
of the Lord, or the rebuilding of the
temple.
But Zechariah goes further to bring before us
the coming restoration and the prosperity of Jerusalem
in the day that the Lord returns to
the earth.
The consummation of that second division was so
blessedly typifying to us in the coronation of
Joshua the high priest, the coming coronation of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he
shall sit as a king and a priest
upon his earthly throne.
The third division of the chapters we found
in chapters 7 and 8.
A question that was brought to the prophet,
and was answered by the Spirit of God,
to tell that they would not have fasting,
but in the ultimate end, when God's purposes
would be fulfilled, there would be nothing but
joy, gladness, and a time of feasting.
Our last section that we've already commenced in,
from chapter 12 to the end of this
wonderful book, or chapter 9 rather, to the
end of this book, consists of two great
burdens.
Whenever you read the word burden in relation
to prophecy, it usually signifies a prophecy of
a threatening character.
We've already seen the first burden, bringing the
children of Israel in the last conflict against
the nations into ultimate victory, and also bringing
them, as we saw in our preceding message,
to the day of their reconciliation, to the
great national day of atonement.
Look with me in chapter 13, where we
commence today, where we have the continuation of
chapter 12, which brings before us in its
confirmation the cleansing and the great day of
atonement for the house of Israel.
In that day there shall be a fountain
open to the house of David, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for
uncleanness.
We rejoice in the knowledge that fountain will
be the fountain of cleansing blood, which they
will acknowledge was shed upon the cross of
Calvary, when the Messiah of Israel, rejected by
his own, was crucified, and upon that cross,
nevertheless, in the language of Isaiah 53, and
may I still repeat, Isaiah 53 will be
the national confession of repentance and conviction and
acknowledgement that he was wounded for our transgressions,
that he was bruised for our iniquities, that
the chastisement of our peace was upon him
that we by his stripes may be healed,
and they will acknowledge all we like sheep
have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way,
yet Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
Beloved of the present day, it's the most
difficult task to bring one of the earthly
people of God to the acknowledging that Jesus
the Son of God, dying on Calvary, was
their own Messiah.
But we thank God for those who do
and have acknowledged him as such.
But in that day, they will see the
fountain, open for cleansing, that streamed from the
pierced side of the Son of God.
And in that day, to the house of
David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the fountain
of his precious blood will be for their
sin and for their uncleanness.
If you would desire, and I commend it
to be done, read the twenty-third chapter
of the book of Leviticus, and you may
recall one of the great feasts, the annual
feast of Jehovah, was the great day of
atonement.
When in repentance annually they were to come
together for the forgiveness of the nation's sins.
And beloved, how greater will be that national
day when they see him whom they have
pierced, and acknowledge he was wounded for their
transgressions.
And what a cleansing it will be for
the nation.
But may I insert a plea for any
precious soul who may be with us today,
not knowing that cleansing power of Christ and
his precious blood.
We would just say in the words of
the good old hymn, have you been to
Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the
Lamb?
And God grant that if you have never
been washed in that precious blood, plunge in
by faith today, and your soul will be
cleansed.
Hallelujah for such a Savior.
But now as we go to verse two,
there is not only a moral and spiritual
cleansing from sin and defilement, but as we
read in verse two, going down through verse
six in particular, there will also be a
purging of the land.
There is not only iniquity and the sins
of the people taken away, in that day
of the godly remnant that will come through
the fires of the great tribulation.
There is to be a cleansing of the
whole land.
For as you note in the context of
this section, the land must be and will
be cleansed from all idolatry, as well as
the ministry of false prophets.
We have noted again and again in our
study, that there has been the ministry of
false prophets.
We noted particularly in a recent study, that
one of the greatest times of idolatry in
Israel, as well as the greatest of all
false prophets, will be when the wicked, false
Messiah, the Antichrist, presents himself with his credentials.
That are accepted.
For the Savior said, I am come in
my Father's name, and ye receive me not,
but another will come in his own name,
him ye will receive.
And beloved, may I state again, the greatest
time of idolatry, the greatest time of apostasy,
in the history of Israel, is not in
the past, it is in the future.
And take the solemnity of that truth to
your heart, and realize not only for Christendom,
not only for the failing days, of the
Christian testimony, but for Israel, Judaism, as well
as Christianity, the greatest day of apostasy lies
before the world.
And for Israel in particular, when they receive
the one who is the false Messiah, the
wicked shepherd, or the foolish shepherd.
But in the day of cleansing, the land
will be cleansed too, from every idolatrous practice,
and from every false prophet.
Note the words as we read them quickly.
The new testimony will be kept clean, for
says the Lord, it shall come to pass
in that day, saith the Lord of hosts,
I will cut up the names of the
idols out of the land.
They shall no more be remembered.
Hallelujah for such a day.
When the memory of the false shepherds, the
memory of the false prophets, the memory of
the idolatrous practices, will never again be brought
to mind.
You know, when the Lord cleanses, he does
a good job, does he not?
And then reads further, also I will cause
the prophets and the unclean spirits to pass
out of the land.
Do you remember the Lord Jesus saying about
a man who had an evil spirit, and
then when he was cleansed, the evil spirit
was taken out?
And when those wicked spirits, taken out, found
no place to go, they came back again.
And went into that cleansed land, and they
were worse than they had ever been before.
It was the parable that signified by the
Lord Jesus, that Israel has been cleansed from
idolatrous practice as a nation, since the days
of the Babylonian captivity.
But when the wicked spirits return to the
land in the days of the great tribulation,
the latter state of Israel in apostasy and
idolatry will be the greatest of all.
But says the Lord Jesus, the unclean spirits
I will cause to pass out.
Follow through.
We have an hypothetical case presented to us
in verse 3 as we go on.
For God declares how we will keep the
testimony clean.
It shall come to pass that when or
if any shall yet prophesy, then his father
and his mother that began him shall say
unto him, thou shalt not live, for thou
speakest lies in the name of the Lord.
And his father and his mother that began
him shall trust him through when he prophesieth.
And it shall come to pass in that
day that the prophet shall be ashamed.
Every one of his vision, when he hath
prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment
to deceive.
Let me say a word about that third
verse in particular, first of all.
For as you look at these words, one
can recognize this hypothetical case reminds us of
the solemn words of Deuteronomy chapter 13, which
you may read from verses 6 through 10.
And may I say, now listen to this
divine principle.
In Deuteronomy chapter 13 and verses 6 through
10, God declared that his people were responsible
to be obedient to the revelation of his
divine truth.
And that even if one of their own
children prophesied against the word of the Lord,
they were to be put to death.
Now may I point out that in our
book of Zechariah, in this verse, the truth
of God will be supreme to the hearts
of his people in that day, above their
family relationship.
Now that's a searching fact.
How many of us even today are willing
to keep the truth of God, no matter
the compromise that may come from the dearest
upon the earth to us.
But in that day, in Israel's glory, God's
truth will be more important to be obeyed
than compromising with even their own children.
And as Deuteronomy commands by the word of
the Lord, such a false one should be
put to death.
Now this is an isopodical case if it
ever appears in the millennial kingdom.
It shall come to pass that prophet will
be exposed.
And as verse 4 declares, he may have
the hypocritical garment of a prophet, outwardly wearing
the rough garment to deceive, indicating that he
professes to be a prophet of God.
But then when challenged, he shall say, I'm
not a prophet, I'm a husband man.
Man taught me to keep cattle from my
youth up.
In other words, one will be so ashamed,
he will seek immediately to evade the accusation
and deny his outward profession.
Now when you come to verse 6, I'd
like to give you two particular lines of
thought.
For there is a division, there is a
difference of opinion and conviction in the minds
of not only rabbinical, but even Christian teachers
regarding the setting of these words.
In the grammatical context, they belong in relation
to the false prophet.
And they'll challenge him, saying, what are these
wounds in thine hands?
And he shall answer, those with which I
was wounded in the house of my friends.
Now let me give you a realistic case
in the Old Testament of false prophets.
You'll all remember the time when Elijah challenged
the prophets of Baal.
And you'll recall as they were to prove
who was the living God, by fire coming
down from above upon the sacrifice beneath and
devouring it, the prophets of Baal prayed.
They not only prayed, but as time went
on and there was no answer, then in
their frenzy they cut themselves with knives, to
indicate the fervency of their petition in relation
to their God.
And it was often the custom of false
prophets to thus manifest themselves in their fervor,
and to thus cut themselves in their body.
And if there is such a one in
that coming day, he'll be challenged, what are
those wounds?
And he will answer, these which I received
in the house of my friends.
Perhaps he may have been chastised by his
own parents in his youth as a result
of his false ministry.
Or he may have inflicted those wounds himself.
Now that's one interpretation that is held by
many good men.
David Barron, one of the greatest Hebrew Christian
Jews, as well as our brother Charles Feinberg,
who teaches the book of Zechariah in a
most blessed way too.
And there have been others.
But all acknowledge, whether they follow that teaching
or not, they acknowledge it is a very
abrupt change, transition, if you're going to separate
it from the context that precedes it.
But then on the other hand, the other
teaching is worthy of emphasizing too.
For I'm sure that all of us have
heard again and again, and perhaps ourselves may
have quoted, that the words would remind us
of the good shepherd, our Lord Jesus.
And we do find, though there is a
break in the context at the end of
verse 6, we do find that great shepherd
comes before us, as we shall see in
verse 7 particularly.
And surely we can and do and would
acknowledge the true shepherd was the smitten shepherd.
He also was wounded.
Yea, he was even smitten unto death in
the house of his friend.
He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.
And thus we do acknowledge that if the
words apply to him, they are true of
him who was wounded in the house of
his own friend.
But the next verse brings before us, in
contrast to the false shepherd, the true shepherd.
Now beloved, may I point out something.
And this is a precious corroboration of the
great teaching of God's truth.
We saw in chapter 12, that there will
be a vision of that one whom they
have pierced when they see him face to
face, that will convince them that they pierced
him.
As we read in chapter 12, remember the
words, they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced.
May I pause for a moment of reflection
with you.
My beloved friend, you and I who belong
to the Lord, and you who may not
belong to the Lord, your sins and mine
pierced that blessed one upon the cross of
Calvary.
As you and I can and do acknowledge,
my sins were laid on him.
Jesus bore them on the tree, and our
sins pierced the blessed Son of God.
And beloved, it's a wonderful sign, wonderful truth,
when the heart finds and the soul has
revealed to it that on that cross he
was, let me quote Isaiah 53 verse 5
and 6, verse 5 particularly, in this respect,
he was wounded for my transgression.
He was bruised for my iniquities.
The chastisement of my feet was upon him,
and with his stripes I am healed.
And there is a poor, guilty, undeserving sinner.
The believing sinner can acknowledge, my sins were
borne in his own body there.
And my beloved, that's one of the most
wonderful looks that the soul ever receives in
its history.
When the soul looks to see the Lord
Jesus, and says he loved me, and he
gave himself for me.
And acknowledges, my sins were laid upon him.
Jesus bore them on the tree.
God who knew them laid them on him,
and believing, I'm free.
May I pose again and ask to the
conscience, have you looked upon him whom your
sins have pierced?
For as the poet wrote, there is life
in a look at the crucified one.
There is life at this moment for thee.
Then look sinner, look unto him who was
nailed to the tree.
What a look!
My mind goes back to the boyhood days,
when as a poor sinner, if I could
take you to the spot where I knelt,
and for the first time I saw him
on that tree for my own sins.
Blessed moment, blessed moment.
But oh may I point out to you
in our thirteenth chapter, the great truth of
verse seven.
For in this great truth of the seventh
verse, we have something even of a different
character presented to us.
And that is not that my sins were
laid upon him, but that even his God,
and our God, smote him, the one who
was the true shepherd.
Note the words.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the
man that is my fellow or equal.
Set the Lord apostle, smite the shepherd, and
the sheep will be scattered, and I will
turn mine hand upon the little ones.
O beloved, may I say, O may I
say, and this is a truth beyond our
comprehension.
May I say, though you and I are
guilty, and though Israel as a nation was
guilty of slaying their Messiah, it was overruled
as an act of God who smote the
true shepherd himself.
Some of the deepest words to my soul,
incomprehensible to my mind, they're found in that
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah in verse ten.
Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him.
My beloved, I cannot fathom the depth of
meaning in those words.
That the very heart of the Father, the
very heart of the Eternal God, found pleasure
in bruising his own son.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the
man that is my fellow.
And we would turn away from all the
claims of false shepherds, and would see the
acknowledgement of the God of glory, that the
true shepherd was the one who was his
equal.
May I point out that you have the
humanity, and you have the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ declared in those two expressions.
My shepherd, my equal, wonder of wonders, God
in his sovereign act of love divine, and
in the purpose of his determined heart, gave
the one who was the darling of his
bosom, and he was smitten.
My beloved, may I say as you contemplate
with me for a moment, that sword of
justice with its flaming, that flaming sword in
the garden of Eden, that bought the way
to the tree of life, and drove man
out of that garden of blessing.
There was no one who ever braved the
judgment of that sword, until that blessed Eternal
Son of God came down from the glory,
and in that body of humanity said, I
am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth
his life for his sheep.
And as the good shepherd, he faced the
sword of judgment from the God of glory
above, for you and for me.
Smite the shepherd.
And as you read Matthew 26, how verily
the Lord tells of it taking place, as
they came and took him away from the
garden, and would have taken his sheep.
And he pleaded for them to be kept
and to be saved, and he went forth
to meet the sword of divine justice on
the behalf of the sheep.
O beloved, that smitten shepherd, O thank God
for the precious truth, when blood from a
victim must flow, this shepherd in pity was
led to stand between us and the foe,
and he willingly died in my stead.
And what love to your heart and mine,
that that shepherd went himself to bear the
stroke of justice, which was aimed at you
and me.
Hallelujah, what a Saviour.
I cannot fathom how God could and did
smite the man that was his equal.
Now, may I say this as I quote
the words of another?
There is that about the life and about
the death of the Son of God, that
only God the Father is able to comprehend.
And all that we can do is to
take our shoes from our feet in adoring
wonder and worship, making no attempt to penetrate
what is impenetrable, to define what is indefinable,
or to comprehend what is incomprehensible to human
creature mind.
Beloved, worship alone can flow from the heart
that recognizes who the person was that died
on that cross to save you and me.
God's shepherd, God's equal, I and my Father
are one, and it was He who was.
And beloved, know, know what followed, and smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered,
and I will turn mine hand upon the
little one.
There's two applications we give.
There is no question in relation to the
context pertaining to Israel.
When the shepherd was smitten, the sheep of
Israel became scattered.
But there was a handful.
I will turn mine hands upon the little
one, and now for the nucleus of that
little company of disciples, the blessed Lord sent
the message of redeeming grace and the gospel
of His salvation to gather and bring into
the flock those that were not even of
Israel, to bring them to itself.
But the day is coming, as the context
declares and as our study has indicated, when
He will gather the sheep again.
May I point out this precious truth?
If you will trace the resurrection day, the
first resurrection day, and its ministry, the ministry
of the Lord Jesus in that day, the
sheep had been scattered, the handful of disciples
had been scattered and fled.
But the ministry of our Lord Jesus that
first resurrection day was to bring them back
together.
And He sought Peter, He found Mary, He
found the two walking away from Jerusalem to
Emmaus.
And through that day He ministered until at
the end of the day, in Luke 24,
in John 20, He had them gathered in
the upper rooms, and He came into their
midst and He showed them His hands and
His side.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw
the Lord.
Our risen Lord has been gathering His sheep,
praise be to His name, and over the
world He has gathered His own and brought
them to Himself by His redeeming grace.
In relation to Israel, thank God the burden
of the prophecy is that He will bring
back the scattered sheep.
But notice we read the last two verses.
Not all of Israel individually will be saved,
but note the words.
It shall come to pass that in all
the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein
shall be cut off and die, but the
third shall be left therein.
And I will bring the third part through
the fire, and will refine them as silver
is refined, and will try them as gold
is tried.
They shall call on my name, and I
will hear them, I will say, It is
my people, and they shall say, The Lord
is my God.
Now may I repeat what we have stated
before?
There will be a spared remnant.
There will be a spared remnant that in
that day of His return will be brought
back into the land through the refining of
the great judgment time of the tribulation, and
brought to be gathered together in that blessed
day of our Lord's return.
They go through the fiery furnace of testing,
but that remnant will be brought through the
fire.
May I say there are three purposes for
the great tribulation?
First of all, in relation to Israel, there
is the purpose of refining and purifying that
nation that the Lord will have a godly
remnant as the nucleus of the nation.
Second, the Lord will also, according to Matthew
25, 31 through 46, and according to Revelation
7, He will have a spared company of
Gentiles, blessed be His name, even in that
particular day of trouble, that they too may
enter into the millennial kingdom as the blessed
of the nation.
The third reason for the great tribulation, and
this is the most solemn, it will be
the time when the ungodly will be punished,
and the godlessness of the earth, the iniquity
of the world, and the godlessness of the
nations will be judged, and all the ungodly
will perish.
May I add, my beloved, the solemn fact,
when the great tribulation is finished, there will
not be left alive on the earth one
ungodly person.
Now, if you read your scriptures, covering it,
whether in Matthew, whether in the Revelation, another
contemporary, even New Testament scriptures, you'll come to
that conclusion.
But the Lord's desire and intention is a
remnant for Israel, a saved remnant out of
the nation, and the judgment of destruction for
the rest.
May I say humbly, I gratefully acknowledge that
my salvation will take me out of this
world before that awful day comes, by the
way of the rapture.
But note, I want to denote in closing,
what the divine fruit is going to be
in that remnant to come.
Verse nine, I will bring the third part
through the five.
Now, I cannot literally dogmatize on a third
coming through, for if you will read Isaiah
six, you will find Isaiah speaking of only
a tenth.
But one thing is sure, a small remnant,
a fraction of them will be the nucleus
in that blessed day.
But now I want you to see the
fruit that will be produced in that remnant.
At the end of verse nine, the last
part, first, they shall call upon my name.
Did you ever read Psalm 50, verse 15,
wonderful promise?
When the Lord said through the psalmist, call
upon me in the day of trouble, and
I will answer thee, and thou shalt glorify
me.
And in that day there will be a
number that will call upon his name.
And then second, he says, I will hear
them, I will answer them.
And third, I will say, it is my
people.
God will acknowledge them.
And fourth, they shall say, Jehovah is my
God.
O my beloved one, the day that will
be when the godly remnant will not acknowledge
their Jehovah, and he will acknowledge his people.
May I close by asking, beloved friend, do
you belong to him?
The joy of being able to say, my
Lord, my God, I am his, I am
his forever, through the wounds of the one
who died on Calvary for my soul.
Shall we pray?
Blessed Father, we thank thee for that one
who out of the fullness of that glorious
presence of God came down to the earth,
and in the darkness of this scene, born
of a woman, glorified thee in every thought,
in every word, in every deed of his
life.
Sinless, holy, and pure, he glorified thee below,
but he glorified thee in a greater way,
and magnified thy love in all of its
fullness, when he permitted himself to be smitten
upon that tree of Calvary.
And the sword of justice against sin pierced
his own soul.
Surely we acknowledge as thou hast written, yet
it pleased Jehovah to bruise him, when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall
prosper in his hands.
We that know him would say this moment,
thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank you, Lord, for making me whole.
Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy
great salvation, so rich, so free.
Our prayer as we close, Father, it is
that someone who has never seen that Savior,
pierced for their sins, will at this moment
look to him and acknowledge he loved me,
and he gave himself for me.
We ask it in our Savior's name, for
his glory.
Amen.