A Look Ahead

So this morning we did look back at last year with Haggai's first oracle as sort of a model of how we should look back the metrics as I said

We used to look back on the year gone by We look back at that year 2022 and we saw that however things went for us last year.

What was it? It was God's doing It was God's blessing whichever way things went for you

It was God's blessing if you would just see it and see that he is teaching you and drawing you closer to himself

Closer to the image of Christ. It's not just things that happened the things that God Intended it's all his doing and this afternoon.

We're going to look at Zechariah's first oracle verse 1 through 6 and He was more than just a contemporary of Haggai and as I said, they were partners as I call them partners in prophecy and partners with Haggai causing the people to prosper through their preaching and Both of them

Haggai and now Zechariah They were focused on getting the people to restore the Lord's house after a sack by the

Babylonians They both had this one singular focus which wasn't so much to just to do the work for the work's sake

Before what it symbolized for what it meant to keep their word to follow the dictate to the

Lord to do that for which the Lord Brought them out of exile That's why the house of the

Lord was so important in that sense And of course in the most important sense that temple of the

Lord Where proper worship was conducted was also the place where he chose his name to reside So for all these reasons, it was crucial that these exiles get back to work and finish that temple

So that's sort of the context of Zechariah along with Haggai. I want to tell you my message this afternoon is

Not really an exposition of the text so much though I'm true to the text as far as it goes but more of a devotion more of a devotional set of thoughts that will lead us into thinking about in terms of What I preached this morning about Haggai What that means to us as we look forward if Haggai was to look back and we look back and see

God's hand in everything Zechariah's a look forward and also with God's hand in everything

But the look back this morning the look forward this afternoon through Zechariah Well, what's the good work that the prophets would have these people to do what's the first step actually in getting this good work going or doing or Progressing again and The question is the same for us as individuals as we look at last year and say, okay, here are my errors here's where God should have been the number one priority and Here's where he wasn't here's why things went awry for me in this or that way or here are good things that I have that didn't come from my

Devotion to him but from my own flesh All meant to teach us To put

God in his proper place But what's the first thing we do if you look back on?

2022 You usually find that there are things that you did wrong that you want to correct more than we find that things are right

We're gonna keep going God willing. There's some of those and So with the people in Haggai's and now

Zechariah's day, what is the first step? What is the first good work that needs to get done before they can get going again and for us as?

We look ahead to next year in the context of what we saw in ourselves last year, what is that first good work?

What do we have to get going to get this thing on the right track? Well, it's verse 6

It's verse 6 So they repented and said as the Lord of hosts purpose to deal with us for our ways and deeds

So he has dealt with us his repentance. It's turning in both the Hebrew and the

Greek. It means the same thing It means turn around a 180 degree different course. I was going this way now.

I'm going diametrically opposed path turning repentance determined mortification of sin

Now I do have one point of expositional if you will expositional explanation if you look at your

ESV In the

ESV the phrase So they repented Do you see that so they repented if you follow the single and the double quotes in this whole phrasing this whole sentence

It's it's quoting what the fathers in the previous age said Okay, that's the way the quotations in our

ESV make it look So did they not overtake your fathers?

So they repented and that's still part of that quotation of the Lord speaking through Zechariah The whole problem with their stiff -necked refusal to hear the prophets to really hear them was they wouldn't hear them or repent

So what I've done is I closed the quote after the Lord's words. Did they not overtake your fathers?

So they repented cannot be those ancients. It's the people here who are hearing the

Word of God. Do you understand? It's so they repented is the people who are hearing Zechariah Not the

Lord talking about those the fathers and that's fairly important So did they not overtake them after that those who heard

Zechariah's Word as the Word of the Lord? Sort of like the Thessalonians and Paul the

Apostles day They're the ones who repented and confessed God's judgments good and right

Their father's refusal to do that to repent and confess God's judgments good and right They are the reason that the people in Zechariah's day were in the situation they were in Because the father's refusal to repent it's the people who heard

Zechariah Who repented and confessed the goodness of God? So what we have here

This brief message this morning and it will be brief. What do we have here? We have a model of true repentance a model of true repentance hearing the

Word of the Lord Prophetic Word of the Lord through the mouth of a man Zechariah acknowledged to be a prophet of God It's a model of repentance

We hear the same Word of God through this Through the scripture the faith once for all time delivered to the

Saints So when we hear this Word of God as they heard this Word of God as the Thessalonians and Paul's days heard the

Word of God The model of repentance is first to confess God's judgments true and right so they repented and said

Zechariah 1 6 as the Lord of hosts his purpose to deal with us for our ways and deeds

So he has dealt with us in other words God's right We did sin. They did sin.

It's fallen upon us to pay for the sin, but they did and we have God is right

Oftentimes we repent of something repent because we know we did wrong We're paying the price for it things got tough.

Usually in a relationship is when this happens and we repent but prior to repentance

We do have to have this confession that the reason I am stirred up this way is

God's Spirit God willing working in my spirit and not letting my conscience be free

Until I take care of this Again, usually it's a relationship. Usually you have to go to a brother sister and resolve things.

But the first step here prior to that is God's judgments are true and right

It's because God's judgments are true and right there were stirred up in the first place We feel this need to go and repent.

It's because God is right and The second step in this model of repentance if you will is they repented of their sin, which was apathy towards God Apathy towards God and this was a little problem back in Hagi As you're taking care of your own houses

You're putting panels in your houses my house the Lord's house the one you were released from Babylon to take care of it's a mess

You being apathetic towards God Is usually what it is means to not have

God as our top priority as a number one the way we Discussed it and explained it this morning

So they repented first they confessed God was true and right and Second then they repented of their sin of their apathy towards God if we don't confess his judgments as true

Then what do we have what we're calling repentance if it does not have as a first step that God is right

Well might be mere regret for bad consequences of poor decisions it might be

I sinned against this person who's so close to me and I'm paying the price for it and my relationship with him or her is now cold when it should be warm and I want things to be better So I'm gonna go do something called repentance

Maybe with a small R and I'm gonna go try and make things right Well, really what I want is just peace in the home

Or my friendship restored is something like that No, we have to begin with this that God is right

Then what God's Word said is right and then what I have done is I failed to follow Him and failed to give him his proper place

You see if we confess from the heart that the repentance is based upon God's true and just judgment

Then it is he who gave us the pricks of conscience It's he who worked on our conscience against our own spirit

And then we can join with the voice at the altar that we see in Revelation 16 7.

Yes, Lord God Almighty true and just are your judgments and then we're on the path of repentance and restoration

So we look back on 2022 and there are things we want to correct and there are for all of us

If you're one of those who stops and makes resolutions on a day like this Which I do have to admit is not biblically required of anybody

Though resolution is required and repentance of sin is required and getting on the right path is required

This is just a day when we often do it and that's the only reason we're using it that way Confession of sin does not true confession cannot occur in a vacuum or be the result of our own efforts

It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in you People hearing

Zechariah They repented hearing the Word of God We don't hear the

Word of God the same way they did but this Bible you have in front of you That is the

Word of God. That is the prophetic word. That is the way God by his spirit will prick your conscience give you the spiritual

Discernment to know how you have sinned to whom you must go to reconcile and To give you even the strength and the wherewithal and the determination to take care of it

Now it cannot occur in a vacuum. It cannot be the result of our own efforts It's a work of God by his

Holy Spirit to do this. It's a good work. It's a holy work It could be a hard thing for us to take care of but it's a good work

And 2023 is a great time to gird up your loins and Be determined to make short work of things like this when

God is stirring you up this way. What does he say in verse 3? He says return to me says the

Lord of hosts and I will return to you Says the Lord of hosts with that title for God repeated there

So when God when sin is pointed out When God sends the pricks directly by his spirit working on ours or less directly by our

Circumstances as we said in the message to hi. Hey guy There's a look at where they were and say well

It's a circumstance that reveals these things to us or they should have seen it that way When God does send those pricks of conscience those goads as Paul calls them in Acts What do we have do we have hard times

Restless nights, maybe hard times maybe restless nights But the

Lord is sovereign and only he can move a conscience to acknowledge sin It's the Lord.

You see it's the Lord calling you to repent Calling us to that the Hebrew word

Shub the Greek word metta not. Oh, they both have that same idea that explained earlier

I've just completely about face and going a determined 180 degrees away from whatever course you were on and towards Well towards what?

Towards whom? Well towards first of all a father in heaven whose spirit broke your pride

Who crushed your arrogance who undid our self -sufficiency and? Then what do you leave you wallowing in with the prodigal son with the pigsty?

No, he brought you he brought me. He brought everyone who believes in his son Jesus Christ to his senses

And there we are turned repentant and we're dressed in filthy rags that were used for the worst kind of filth and to be disposed of and there we are

On the road back to him covered in sin and shame and we look up to God and he says look up sinner

And what do we see? When we do this when we repent when God's judgments are true and right and we do repent of things

Whatever it is that he put on our spirit We say look up sinner

Look up raise up your shamed. Eye and see who stands there waiting for you to return Was he say return to me and I will return to you

Who is standing there waiting for us to repent waiting for us to come to him waiting for us to give?

to be given the strength and the Determination to take care of our sin and to see repentance and works that are meet with repentance

Who stands there waiting for us to return to him? Who calls us out and says return to me and I will return to you.

It's the Lord It is he Jesus Christ who paid for that sin. It's he the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered for our iniquity

He's the one who's standing as we come up Crawling on the road as it were with the prodigal dress still in the ragged clothes still stinking of the pigsty

As Jesus who bore the awful load on his shoulders because of our offenses Is he's the one who?

It's calls out to the Jews in Zechariah's day and to the church in our day

Return to me and I'll return to you. There's a divine motivation here The motive is to be restored to this warm intimacy with our

Heavenly Father to say with David Restore to me the joy of your salvation and that road to restoration and joy begins with repentance

So if you look back on 2022 With the metrics with the eyes with the view of the

Lord from his scripture that was suggested this morning What do we do in 2023

Return to me says the Lord and I will return to you In any one of the things any one of the areas that the

Lord might put on your heart This is his call Return and I'll return

I Wonder sometimes of our resistance to repentance is because of a warped view of our father.

I Wonder sometimes that that view of our father is one who will simply look down on us with a stern gaze

So yeah, you finally came to your senses didn't you look at you dressed in those prodigal's rags and such like that We look at scripture and and we see his holiness, which is indescribably pure We look at Isaiah 6 we hear the chorus.

Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty and close the text and what are we? We're terrified of God. We said

I cannot approach a God like that. You cannot we say how can I stand with my sin before?

That God he won't accept me. He will not Those are true except but God that great word but as Opposed to all those fears as opposed to that thought but God who is rich in mercy because of the great love

With which he loved us Sent his son to die for those things We too often forget that while it is his holiness that brings his wrath against our sin

It is his love for sinners that brought him to send his son Jesus to reconcile us to himself

By reconciling the father's holiness with our sin And he did that in Jesus the

Holy One of God I wonder if our repentance is

Sometimes staunched or slowed by such a view of God as that Do you remember the scene in Braveheart Braveheart has this great scene where his son who was

Kind of a weak -willed kid While his father was away in France fighting

The Northern Army in Scotland the British Army in Scotland got wiped out and the father blames him.

So here's the son He's sitting in this room. He's at this table He's terrified to meet his father and he hears him walking up this aisle or the hallway towards him because he's dressed in armor says that Have you seen this?

and with every step He gets more and more terrified until finally

Patrick Magoon who plays the king did a great job Comes in but is that your view of the father?

That he's this wrathful stern Terrifying King who's just going to Criticize you beat you down Tell you how bad you are

You know that could not be the God who says return to me and I will return to you The Lord put sin on your heart

Has the Lord given you knowledge of something that you have not resolved last year?

And what does he say? Well, he didn't do it last year. So forget about it. You're never gonna get there. No, he says return

Return to me and I'll return to you Return to me and I'll give you the strength to repent and to get back on the right path.

Let's go the right direction Know that King who's so terrified his son in brave heart and too many of us have had fathers that we view that way

That's not the same guy said return to me and I'll return to you It's not the same God who told James to tell us in his scripture what draw near to God and he will draw near to you

There's not he who loved the rich young ruler even after he rejected him it is not he who in the parable ignoring appearances and acceptable standard gird up girded up his loins and ran to his son and Ran to meet him and showered him with kisses and embraces

Which the filthy son could not escape because his father held him so close The father who scared his son to death has no point of contact with Jesus The father in that movie

Braveheart nothing to do with Jesus Christ Did you think of things in 2022 and say

I need to repent and correct this But it's too late.

I've let it go for too long. There's nothing I can do about this If you think that way you need to change your thinking

You really do Because that would have no point of contact either with the Jesus Christ who says what he says come to me all who labor and Are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm lowly and gentle Gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light

So God is the one who calls us to repent God is the one who calls us to look back and see where we went awry and get that back on the right path

And how do we do that one? God is right God's judgments are true and just to repent

Go to him Tell him where we've gone wrong. He already knows Here he knows and his embrace is ready as it was for the prodigal as it is in Jesus Christ Come to me come to me.

I will give you rest rest from your labors rest from your sin Rest from being scared of God No, God's the one who calls us to repent if he calls us to repent

How could he reject us when he's the one who called us? Is that even possible?

So let us when we pray We think of 2022 We look forward to 2023 and as we pray this afternoon as we go to him because of the merits of his beautiful son

Who's redeemed us from our sin and given value to our repentance? Let us go to him in full hope and trust that he has and will turn to us

They loved us. He's embraced us that he's even kissed us because of true repentance Was this possible only but possible only by faith in his son

Jesus Christ If Christ hadn't died for our sins if Christ isn't the one who died and Was buried and was raised on the third day repentance would mean nothing but because of him

Because he did die for your sins because he died and was buried and because in order that God would certify to you and Confirm to our weak spirits that he did indeed pay the price for his sins.

He raised him up on the third day So because of all these things repentance has true value and It's not so much a command return to me and I'll return to you.

It's a beckoning It's the prodigal son's father who couldn't wait to see his son in filthy rags smelling of pigs and covered with sin coming to him

And the father says, okay. We'll get a shower first before I can't get you smell. No He embraced him so tight and showered him with kisses

So many times that the poor kid couldn't escape and take that shower until afterwards. That's our

God That's the God who wants to hear from us. That's the God who says return to me and I'll return to you

That's the God who James promises draw near to God and he will draw near to you