The promise of the Messaiah in the book of Zechariah

Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Zechariah. We're going to be looking at Zechariah's second message.

Zechariah only preached two messages to the children of Israel. We're going to be going through this second message which spans chapter 7 through chapter 14, but the primary focus and the primary theme of Zechariah's second message that brought such encouragement and hope to the children of Israel while they worked on building the house of the

Lord. If you're looking for the theme to write down for today, today's message from the text itself, the theme is going to be

Jesus. Some folks don't understand how in the

Old Testament you can have Jesus, but friends, the

Old Testament, hand in hand with the New Testament, is necessary to give us the full picture of why

Jesus came and who Jesus was. In this text today, we're going to be looking at just a few verses out of probably primarily the 8th through the 14th chapter, but really, the 7th chapter and the 8th chapter,

I want to encourage you to read on your own throughout this week. The 7th chapter basically tells us, gives us the message that the

Lord sent through the prophet Zechariah. The question was asked, should we mourn, should we fast in such and such a month?

And the Lord addressed the issue of their hearts which has always been the issue, which if you've been at Sunday school, you know that that's been the part of the lesson that's been taught to us last week is this, that it matters the condition of your heart when you worship

God. When we come to God's house to worship Him, we come, and I'm not excluding worship outside of God's house, but I'm speaking primarily about coming, gathering together to worship in God's house.

We ought to come as believers in the Lord with our hearts and our minds set and ready to worship the

Lord. We ought not to, it ought not to be a guilt trip ordeal when we come to God's house to worship

God where we feel bad if we come and we're not ready. If you'll just come ready, your worship will be that much fuller and that much freer.

In chapter 8, the prophet begins to say some things, but before we go any further, let's go to the

Lord in prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, as we come before your throne, as we learned in Sunday school this morning,

God, I want to ask your will be done.

I want to ask you, dear God, through the person of the Holy Spirit to speak unto the hearts and to the minds of the people in this place through your word.

And God, I want to admit to you publicly how bad I need your help to stand and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ today.

Help me not to add to, dear God, to take away. Help me not to read into the text, dear

God, today, but to simply read from and out of the text of this word of God that we have before us today.

And our prayer is that you would be exalted, that you would be glorified, that you would be magnified, dear

God, as our songs have been this morning for us to help us to recognize and to know that you are a holy

God. And you, and you alone deserve glory, honor, and praise.

Work your work in the hearts and the minds of the people in this place today.

For your people, I pray that their hearts as the hearts and the minds of the children of Israel were encouraged by the word of God, that the hearts and the minds of your people in this place,

God, would be encouraged by your word. And that God, if there's anybody here that don't know you, dear

God, today, that don't know salvation full and salvation free, that you, by the power of your

Holy Spirit, would regenerate them, give them life, faith, and hope, dear

God, that they can go into eternity knowing that they have had their sins forgiven them by the price that you have paid on the cross and by the fact that you have raised again on the third day.

Lord, you are our hope today. And I praise you for that, for it's in Jesus' name,

I pray, amen. As I mentioned in Zechariah, the seventh chapter, the first part of the second message, remembering this, just to give you a little bit of a timeline, it took the children of Israel four years to build, to reconstruct, to rebuild the temple that was broken down.

They had waited about 18 years through much struggle, through much trial, through much heartache, and through much pain.

And then in the second year of King Darius, they began the work. And in that same second year of King Darius, Haggai, the prophet, preached about four messages over the course of somewhere between seven to nine months, encouraged the people of God.

The book of Ezra tells us that they were moved, that they were stirred up to do the work of God by the word of God that was preached by Haggai and by Zechariah.

About two months after Haggai preached his last message, still in the second year of their work that was being done, about two months after that,

Zechariah preached the first message, which we went over last week, and I know it was somewhat of a whirlwind.

I know that because my wife told me that. She didn't like the way I preached that message.

It's okay, that husband, and I told her not before last, she was my favorite and best counselor because she truly is.

Husband, you ought to be able to trust what your wife tells you. You ought to be able to confide in the words of your wife.

She is truly my, and I told her she was the prettiest counselor that I had.

I said, really, because most of my other counselors, sir, and Kenny, and Tim, and Rob, they're dudes, and I'm not going to say they're pretty.

I did send him a kissy emoji on accident. But Zechariah, in the first message, in the last part of the second year there of King Darius, he encouraged them, and if you'll remember, we talked much last week about how, in the message, there was an interwoven kind of a fabric and a meaning and a context.

Not only was God saying to the children of Israel that in their present time, he was going to help them and encourage them to rebuild.

That was the principle. But also, there was this constant future forward -looking of the coming of the

Messiah, and the Messiah is Jesus Christ. And in this second message, he preached two years later.

The people of God worked and built on that first message of Zechariah for two years, and then

God sends his second message through the mouth of Zechariah, the prophet, which was the fourth year.

So they had worked two years, had quite a bit of good preaching in the first two years, and then had to wait another two years to get this last message of hope and encouragement from the

Lord. And in chapter 7 there, as we told you, the Lord addressed the condition of their heart.

And in chapter 8 here of Zechariah, the Lord begins to move further and begins to remind the children of Israel of just how zealous he is for them, how desirous he is for them.

And the call, as it has been before, has been to return unto me, says the

Lord. And the Lord, in chapter 8, in verse 3, thus says the

Lord, I will return to Zion, this is the Lord speaking, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, the mountain of the

Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. And he was speaking to them of the encouragement of the city being rebuilt and being restored to its former glory.

As we move on a little bit further in chapter 8, if you'll jump down to verse 14 there, the word of God says this, for thus says the

Lord of hosts, just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the

Lord of hosts, and I would not relent. So again, in these days,

I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

And the Lord says, do not fear. Here we see the immutable character and the immutable nature of our holy

God, that just, he said, just as I was set to punish for the sin and the iniquity, so I am set to forgive and to restore you as my child.

This is good news today. It was good news then, and it is good news today.

God is faithful and God is true unto his word. His word is steadfast.

If he says every sin deserves a just punishment, mark it down, every sin will get a just punishment.

And as he said, I will forgive, he also will forgive. In verse 16 there, and we're just gonna move through these, and then we're gonna get into the prophecies about Jesus.

But in verse 16, he incites them to holy living. He said, these are the things you shall do.

Speak each man truth to his neighbor. The word of God has not changed.

God's stance on truth has not changed. We are called to speak truth unto one another.

He said, give judgments in your gates for truth, justice, and peace.

Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor. And do not love a false oath, for all these are things that I hate, says the

Lord. And so we see the mind of God concerning the lives of his people.

And the principle there is timeless because of this. This is the principle that is taught there.

What God called his people to do then, he calls his people to do today.

This is a immutable principle that travels time in all of eternity.

And so if we move forward just a little bit in chapter nine, we're going to begin to read and begin to see here the prophecies that were given.

Now we spoke a lot about dates and we spoke a lot about times, this being in the fourth year of the

King of Darius and probably somewhere there about the year 500 or so.

So we know this and this is what's so incredible and so wonderful and so amazing about the word of God that this message that Zachariah is preaching have preached to the children of Israel to encourage their hearts and their minds was some 500 odd years before the coming of Jesus Christ.

And yet he is speaking as you'll see in the text that we're going to read to you, both the direct quote from Zachariah and it's fulfillment in the

New Testament that 500 years cannot change or thwart what

God has set in motion and that is the sending of his only begotten son to die on the cross for the sins of the world.

This is good news. In chapter 9 in verse 9, the word of God says, unto the children of Israel, unto us as well, rejoice greatly,

O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, and listen to what he says, behold, your king is coming to you.

That is good news right there for what Jerusalem needed was a solid, formidable, substantial

God that would be able to come and set up in their midst and would be more than the simple man.

But he would be, as we know him, the God -man, fully God and fully man.

But he said, behold, your king is coming to you. And then he says this, he is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Now at that time, that may not be or seem to be.

I was trying to put myself in context of these folks in reading this and that statement right there about the donkey and the colt, the foal of a donkey may not have really struck hope up in them as it should us today, because what we have is what's called hindsight and hindsight is 20 -20.

And so 500 years before the coming of Christ, we have the word of God telling the children of God about the coming of their king, the coming of the

Messiah, the coming of the one who was just and right in all of his doings and the one in whom would bring salvation unto the world.

And he said lowly and riding on a donkey. So how does that bring hope to me? Why does that bring hope and encouragement to me?

What is the principle here? The principle is what God has said, God always fulfills.

If you would flip over two chapters in your Bible or two books, not two chapters, two books in your

Bible, you'll go to Malachi and then you'll see the first book of the

New Testament and that is the book of Matthew. And turn to chapter 21 of the book of Matthew.

In chapter 21 of the book of Matthew at beginning in verse 1 of that 21st chapter, let's read what the word of God says.

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage at the

Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.

Loose them and bring them to me and if anyone says anything to you, you shall say the

Lord has need of them and immediately he will send them.

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet

Zechariah saying tell the daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foe of a donkey.

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them and set him on them.

And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road, others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Then the multitudes who went before him and those who followed cried out saying,

Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Praise the

Lord for his steadfast and faithful word of truth.

He spoke this word to them 500 years before.

If we go down just a little bit further, I want you to notice in verse 11 there, back to Zechariah.

In Zechariah 9 verse 11 and 12, notice what the

Lord goes on to say, As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, now keep in mind the way that these two particular statements are phrased,

God is not saying that because you made an agreement with me, but God is saying because of the covenant, because of the agreement that I have made with you and allowed you to be a part of,

He said because of your blood covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

And then verse 12 there is a statement that just so stuck and so stung me.

He said return to the stronghold. We think of a stronghold being as something that keeps you bound where you don't want to be.

But as we finish this statement, we'll see that this form of speech is just beautiful.

He said return to the stronghold. He's speaking to the children of Israel in the context of this, to return to Jerusalem, return to the place that He is going to set up as His place, as a light to the nations.

And He says return to your stronghold. And then He uses this term, you prisoners of hope.

How good is that? I would much rather be a prisoner to the hope of the living

God than to be a prisoner to fear and doubt. Amen. And I want you to know the

New Testament teaches us this same principle. Paul said, whosoever you give yourself to, that's what you're going to be a slave of.

You're going to be either be a slave to sin, or you're going to be a slave to God. You're going to be a prisoner to sin, or you're going to be a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul repeatedly referred to himself as a slave of Jesus Christ.

And I'm here to tell you today because of what God did in my life on March of 1987, ever since that day

I've been a prisoner of the hope of God. I got born again that day, not by works of righteousness that I did, but because of His mercy, and because of His grace, and because of His great love.

Are you a prisoner of hope today? Oh, praise God. People look at you like you're crazy if you tell them that.

But I am. I am a prisoner of hope today. Oh, what a statement.

And they were truly those who had been redeemed by Him are prisoners of hope. He said, even today

I declare that I will restore double to you. It wasn't a play on their greed or their desire.

God was confirming His word to them. As we move on to chapter 10 here in the book of Zechariah, if you'll just glance down at verse 6, notice what the

Lord tells them. He said, I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph.

I will bring them back because I have mercy on them.

Praise the Lord. And then He said, they shall be as though I had not cast them aside for I am the

Lord their God and I will hear them. That again is a picture of restoration.

Now, let's move forward. Keep moving forward. In verse 8 there, notice what the

Lord says to them. And this is such a vivid picture if you just make certain when you read the word of God that you don't read it as though you're reading the

Daily Times or some magazine, but know that when you open up the word, this book right here, that you are reading the inspired, inherent, infallible word of the living

God and that the words that are written within it are there for a purpose.

Notice what He says here in verse 8. He said, I will whistle for them and gather them for I will redeem them and they shall increase as they once increased.

In the commentary on this, the shepherd would whistle for his flock. We think a lot of times, if you'll just consider what the

New Testament teaches about how Jesus is not only the good shepherd, but that He is the great shepherd, that He is the chief shepherd.

And the Lord speaks to Israel, reminding them that they are but sheep of His pasture.

And He says, I will whistle for them. I wish I could whistle like some, you know how some people put their fingers in their mouth and go, whatever.

I think Keenan can do it probably. But how they can do that, the shepherd, the one who would keep a fold of sheep, my friend, the sheep became so attuned to His voice, so aware to the words of His mouth that He had nicknames for different sheep and He could call the nicknames of certain sheep out and those sheep would move and come and do what

He said. But the whistle was for the flock as a whole. When the flock, the sheepfold heard the whistle, they were all immediately gathered to the one who made the whistle.

And the Lord was reminding the children of Israel and here's the principle here. And He reminds us today that one day after a while, if you'll have it this way,

He is going to whistle and His church will be gathered to Him. I know this because the

Word of God in the New Testament tells us so. Jump over to 1

Thessalonians in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 in the

New Testament. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 in verse 13 through 18.

Here's what the Word of God says. The Apostle Paul is speaking to the people of Thessalonica and encouraging them to have hope in Christ.

And he says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who are asleep in Jesus.

In verse 15 He says, For this we say to you by the

Word of the Lord, by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the

Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the

Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Comfort one another with these words. He said that the shepherd will whistle and the sheep will be gathered.

If we move forward, back over to Zechariah again, and I'm trying to slow down as I go through it this week, give you a chance to turn and make sure

I'm telling you where to go so that you ain't confused. But back to Zechariah chapter 12.

Back in Zechariah the Word of the Lord continues in chapter 12 verse 1,

The burden of the Word of the Lord against Israel thus says the

Lord, who stretched out the heavens, who lays the foundations of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him.

The Lord is declaring His sovereignty. The Lord is declaring His omnipotence.

The Lord is declaring His omniscience. When He says, remember that this, the

Word of the Lord, is the Lord who stretched out the heavens, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who puts the very spirit of man inside of Him.

And so moving on in verse 10 there of chapter 12, we see another messianic prophecy.

We see the messianic prophecy concerning Jesus Christ and He says this,

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication.

Then they will look on Me whom they pierced.

Now, again, contextually, in their context, they likely, truly, because they do not have the fulfillment that we have, maybe not have the hope that we have, but the truth is there that the

Word of God came and said they will look upon Him whom they have pierced.

Some 500 years later, if you'll go back over to the

New Testament, to the Gospel of John chapter 19. John chapter 19 and verse 31.

We're going to read through verse 37. This is what the

Word of God says, Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the body should not remain on the cross on the

Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him.

When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced

His side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out.

And He who has seen and testified and His testimony is true, this is

John speaking, and He knows that He is telling the truth so that you may believe, for these things were done that the

Scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of His bones shall be broken and another

Scripture says they shall look on Him whom they have pierced.

500 some odd years after the fact, Jesus came,

Jesus died, and Jesus rose, and Jesus is the hope of the world.

In chapter 13, back to Zechariah, praise the

Lord. Back in Zechariah chapter 13, nearing the end of this great second message that God gives to the children of Israel, in verse 1 there, the

Word of God says, In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and He declares that it will be for sin and uncleanness.

The old song, William Cowper wrote a song, I can't remember exactly what year it was, but the song, we sing it from time to time,

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may

I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God are saved to sin no more.

E 'er since, by faith, I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supplied, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

And then that last verse in that song says this, When this poor, less spring -stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song,

I'll sing thy power to save. In that song there, he spoke about how it may seem as though our praise and our worship seem so feeble, but one day, like the angels of God, but different because the angels of God don't know what it is to be redeemed.

We as God's children, when we get our glorified bodies, we'll be able to praise

Him as He deserves. He said there will be a fountain opened that day for the house of David, and it shall be in that day, says the

Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered.

Now again, contextually speaking, in their present circumstance, because they still were living, breathing human beings, just as you and I are living, breathing human beings, we are going to have to battle with sin every single day.

But the Lord promised them a day in the which where sin would no longer be an issue,

He promised them a day in the which sin would no longer be a battle or a part of our lives, for in that day when

God makes all things new and we are with Him, we shall not have to struggle with sin as we do, but until then, we must fight with every bit of our being against sin.

Moving forward to verse 7 there, another messianic prophecy given.

In verse 7, the word of the Lord said to the children of Israel, Awake, O sword, which is a sign of judgment, against my shepherd.

This is what the Lord says, against my shepherd. He is not speaking of an earthly king.

He's not speaking of an earthly shepherd. He is speaking of His only begotten

Son, the Lamb of God. He said, Against the man who is my companion, says the

Lord, strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

Then I will turn my hand against the little ones and it shall come to pass in all the land, says the

Lord, that two -thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one -third shall be left in it.

I will bring the one -third through the fire. I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested.

And we'll come back to the last statement that He makes there, but before we do that, while we're going to be in the

New Testament, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 26 for considering the statement that Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man who is my companion, says the

Lord of hosts, strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. In Matthew 26, verse 26, and we'll read through verse 31 right there, the word of God says this, and as they were eating,

Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

Then He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until that day when

I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. He's speaking of this time of perfection.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written.

500 years before, He said, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

That is exactly what Zechariah told them. But remember, he goes on just a little bit further and then if you'll turn to John chapter 1 in verse 12 and 13, over in Zechariah, the

Lord says, they will call on my name and I will answer them. The Lord said, I will say, this is my people and each one of you will say, the

Lord is my God. In John chapter 1, you'll notice in verse 12 what the word of God says, but as many received

Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who would believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

God is stating His ownership of His people. God is stating to His people that He will be their

God and that they will be His people and not as just a matter of fact statement, but that it will be known.

It will be more than just something that's passing knowledge but it will be the truth of God within us.

The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if you can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, you are being able to say that because of the work that God has done in you.

And it is a certainty. It is a certain hope. Let's go down just a little bit further.

Back to Zechariah chapter 14 and we're almost done. Zechariah chapter 14 and we're just gonna focus on verse 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 and then we're gonna turn over to the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So if you want to have your finger marked in Revelation chapter 21, we'll be going over there shortly.

But the word of God says through the mouth of Zechariah, He says this in verse 5 of chapter 14,

Zechariah, Thus the Lord my God will come and all the saints with you.

What a statement to them remembering their condition, remembering their seeming hopeless state as far as physically speaking was.

The Lord is looking forward. The Lord is pointing forward in time and saying, The Lord my God will come and all the saints with you.

And in verse 6, He says this, And it shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light.

The lights will diminish. Now this wasn't a statement of gloom and doom. This is a statement looking forward in time as we're gonna read from the book of Revelation where the natural world as we know it where lights are necessary, where the sun is necessary for us to function in the day and the moon is necessary for us to function at night.

This is what He's talking about. There will be a day where there'll be no need for the sun. There'll be no need for the moon.

Verse 7, It shall be one day which is known to the

Lord. That's Jehovah. Neither day nor night, but at evening time it shall happen that it will be light.

When it seems like the lights ought to be off, the lights are still going to be on.

When it seems like the moon ought to be out, the sun is still gonna be shining. There's an old song, it may not,

I guess it's an okay song, but the sun will still be shining in glory land.

Have you ever heard that song? It's still gonna be shining in glory land. Verse 8,

And in that day it shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, half of them toward the western sea.

In both summer and winter it shall occur and the Lord shall be king, there it is again, over all the earth.

In that day it shall be the Lord is one and His name is one.

Now all those 6, 7, 8, and 9, those four verses, those statements that are bunched together there, again, to them may not have struck the chord that it should in the hearts and the minds of believers today, because we have the word of the living

God to tell us the interpretation of what this thing means. In Revelation chapter 21, in verse 22 through 27, concerning what we just read to you there, this is what the word of God says,

Revelation chapter 21 verse 22 through 27, Speaking of the new

Jerusalem, But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the

Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.

The Lamb is its light, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and all the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it.

Its gates shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, but there shall by no means enter in anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the

Lamb's book of life. That is the fulfillment. We still haven't seen this yet, by the way.

Where is the promise of His coming as was spoken about this morning? It's still an imminent return.

We are still expecting Jesus Christ to come. And when He comes, He will call the church out of this world for some time, when after that, when

He determines on His timetable and on His schedule, and according to His words, the earth as we know it, and the heavens will melt with a fervent heat, everything will be burned up, and God will make the new heavens and the new earth.

And that's what we're reading about right here. Jump over to chapter 22, verse 135, and we're closing.

And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the

Lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, and there shall be no more curse.

That's what the Lord promised them. And the Lord's word does not change, but the throne of God and of the

Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve

Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the

Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forevermore.

Listen, God's people, in just the words that God spoke to them through Zechariah, without these details, were moved and incited to serve faithfully the true and the living

God. Now, we have the full description of what was promised to those who were in the dark, so to speak.

We have the description of what God promised them, and that ought to make us serve the living

God with joy and gladness. It certainly does me.

Spurgeon said concerning the sermons preached about Christ, I told you the theme of the message was

Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said the motto of all true servants of God must be, we preach

Christ and Him crucified. A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it.

Know Christ in your sermon, sir, then go home and never preach again until you have something worth while preaching.

Amen. That's the desire that we want you all to have, to know when you hear the word of God, to know that you should have

Christ preached every single time the word is proclaimed. Spurgeon went on to say, leave

Christ out? Oh, my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning

Christ's name in it, it ought to be his last. Certainly the last that any Christian ought to go hear him preach.

Hey, man, that's the truth. If you've got a sermon turned on through the week, if they ain't preaching

Christ crucified, you ought to turn them off. If they're not exalting the name of the one true and living

God, you ought to shut them down. And last thing Spurgeon said, a sermon without Christ at its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution.

However grand the language it will be, merely much ado about nothing if Christ is not there.

And I mean by Christ, not merely His example and the ethical precepts of His teaching, but His atoning blood,

His wondrous satisfaction made for human sin and the grand doctrine of believe and live.

Hey, man, I'm thankful for the word of God and I'm thankful from beginning to end,

Christ is there. Are you saved today? Stand with us. Are you saved today?

I don't know your heart and I don't know your mind and I can't give you the faith and grace that you need to believe, but I know the one who does give faith and I know the one who does give grace and I know the one that regenerates hearts and I know the one that regenerates minds.

His name is Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.

He was buried and according to the scripture, He rose again on the third day.

That is what you should believe in today. Believe the gospel. Repent of your sins.

Turn to Christ in faith. Well, preacher, how are we going to know if nobody comes up front, somebody gets saved because they'll continue to walk in the faith.

You don't have to walk the aisle to prove that you've been saved. You'll walk it out in your life.

And if you don't walk it out in your life, you are proving by testimony to the truth of the word of God that you have not been saved.

So be saved today. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of hope.

Jesus is coming back. Are you looking for Him? Are you living like you're looking for Him?

Amen. I hope so. I can't tell you for sure if you are or not. I can tell you I am.

I love you all with all my heart. Let me look at you.