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- peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the glorious corporate worship of our
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- God. Please stand. Brethren, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the
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- Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the
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- General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
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- O people of God, what a privilege it is to come and worship him. Please pray with me.
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- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we cling to your precious promises to meet with us, your people.
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- We pray that our worship would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight through the perfect merits of a perfect mediator, the
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- Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you fill this place with your spirit and powerfully work among us through these means of grace you have appointed.
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- And we ask these things in the name above all names, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin, if you're able.
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- Let us now confess with one voice. Almighty God, we acknowledge and confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed.
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- We have not loved you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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- We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Feed them within us our sorrow for the wrong we have done and the good we have left undone.
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- Lord, you are full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
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- There is always forgiveness with you. Restore to us the joy of your salvation.
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- Find up that which is broken. Give light to our minds, strength to our wills, and rest to our souls.
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- Speak to each of us and let your word abide with us until it has wrought in us your holy will.
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- Amen. Please stand. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
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- This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
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- If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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- But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
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- And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Oh, brethren, take heart today.
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- If you be in Christ, your sins are forgiven. Hallelujah. Amen. Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 34.
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- The God of Abram prays. Number 34. Hebrews chapter 3.
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- Hear now the word of the Lord. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession,
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- Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses was faithful in all his house.
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- For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house.
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- For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant.
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- For a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
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- Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works for the years.
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- Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
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- So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
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- God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
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- For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said,
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- Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. For who, having heard, rebelled?
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- Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was he angry for forty years?
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- Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey?
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- So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. This is the word of the
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- Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us now confess the historic, orthodox, apostolic faith in the singing of the
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- Apostles' Creed. Again, find the one that has the number 44.
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- The king of love, my shepherd is.
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- And Alyssa is going to play through that again for us one time. In unison.
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- All who come, give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ our
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- Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, God forever.
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- Amen. The Lord says, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
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- Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
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- You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
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- You shall not take the name of the
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- Lord your God in vain. Incline our hearts to keep this your law.
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- Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for yourself, the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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- We ask that you would be with us as we walk in this life, that we would walk in a manner that is pleasing to you.
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- Father, help us to remember that this commandment is more than just that we bear your name.
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- I pray that you would help us to walk one that would cause our enemies to blaspheme.
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- Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
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- Your father and your mother. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
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- You shall not kill. Have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
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- You shall not commit adultery. Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
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- Our Father and our God, we thank you for what you have given us in husbands and wives and your ordained way of life.
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- Forgive us, Lord, where we have transgressed this commandment to not commit adultery.
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- Lord, we know that you look to the very heart and that even our desires need to be brought into subjection.
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- We ask that you would do this and that you would convict us. In Jesus' name, amen. You shall not steal.
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- Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
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- Have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law. You shall not covet.
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- Have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law. Father, we ask that you would do this.
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- You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength.
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- Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law. Amen. Joyfully stand and take up the
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- Psalm of the Month, Psalm 22. On the top it says,
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- To all my brothers I'll declare. Psalm of the Month, Psalm 22. The burden against the land and Damascus, its resting place.
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- For the eyes of men in all the tribes of Israel on Hamath, which borders on it, and against Tyre and Sidon, though they were very wise.
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- For Tyre built herself a tower, heaped up silver like dust and gold like the mire of the streets.
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- Behold, the Lord will cast her out. He will destroy her power in the sea and she will be devoured by fire.
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- Ashkelon shall see it in fear. Gaza also shall be very sorrowful.
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- And Ekron, for he dried up her expectation. The king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
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- A mixed race shall settle in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of the
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- Philistines. I will take away the blood from his mouth and the abominations from between his teeth.
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- But he who remains, even he shall be for our God and shall be like a leader in Judah and Ekron like a
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- Jebusite. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns.
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- No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with my eyes.
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- Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
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- Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, the occult, the foal of a donkey.
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- I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem.
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- The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the great ends of the earth.
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- And now the focus today. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant,
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- I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope.
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- Even today I declare that I will restore double to you, for I have bent
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- Judah my bow, fitted the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons,
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- O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man.
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- Then the Lord will be seen over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning.
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- The Lord God will blow the trumpet and go with whirlwinds from the south.
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- The Lord of hosts will defend them. They shall devour and subdue with sling stones.
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- They shall drink and roar as if with wine. They shall be filled with blood like basins, like the corners of the altar.
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- The Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over his land.
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- For how great is its goodness and how great is its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women.
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- May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most excellent word.
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- Please pray with me. O Lord, we rejoice in the salvation that is ours in Christ.
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- We thank you for the treasure, the unsearchable riches of your word.
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- And we pray and ask, O Lord, that you would fill the message with your spirit, that the people would receive it as it is, the very word of God.
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- And, O Lord, that they would be strengthened and comforted and encouraged as they live the faithful and victorious
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- Christian life. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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- Please be seated. The title of the message today is longer than usual.
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- It's the first half of verse 16. The Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people.
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- The Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people.
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- We have embarked on a very lengthy sermon from Zechariah that spans three chapters.
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- Chapters 9, 10, and 11. Two weeks ago on Palm Sunday, you'll remember we considered verses 9 and 10.
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- And the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem prophesied in Zechariah 9 and coming to fulfillment one week before the resurrection, the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry before the cross and his burial and resurrection.
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- When we take up the text again today, there is a comfort offered from our God to the people of God who were facing many hardships and trials like many of you are.
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- They were called to great and lofty things, but they felt discouraged by the troubles that lay before them.
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- Today, I have a simplified outline and a more expanded one. The first one is very easy to remember.
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- I want you to consider what God does. And then secondly, what we are to do, what we do, what
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- God does and what we do. That's the simplified version of the message outlined today.
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- The more expanded one is first, the Lord remembers the covenant sealed in blood.
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- The Lord remembers the covenant sealed in blood, and that's found in verse 11.
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- Second, he bids his people to return to the stronghold, and that will be found in verse 12.
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- He bids his people to return to the stronghold. Third, he promises victory over powerful foes, and that's found from verses 13 through 15.
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- He promises victory over powerful foes. The fourth point is the title of the message, that first half of verse 16.
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- The final point is the Lord will prosper his people and the work of their hands, verse 17.
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- What God does and what we do in response to what
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- God does. God remembers his covenant, which is sealed in blood.
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- He calls his people throughout history, in context in Zechariah, before Zechariah, after Zechariah, and in our own day.
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- He calls his people to return to the stronghold of his salvation and love.
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- The people of God receive salvation over mighty foes.
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- And marvelously, and strangely, and peculiarly, they become the weapons of his warfare.
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- The instruments of his conquest. Their righteous lives become the crown jewels that adorn our living head, and his crown,
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- Christ the Lord. And he prospers the work of their hands, fills their hearts with gladness, and they return those fruits that he's provided with thanksgiving, and joy, and offer them as articles and acts of worship.
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- Let's consider our text again in verse 11. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, why does
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- God save Israel out of all of her troubles? Why does he deliver and save and redeem an obstinate and stiff -necked people?
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- Why does he take wretched sinners like you and me, and why does he redeem us?
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- He does so because he remembers his covenant, sealed in blood.
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- The first thought that should come to the mind of the Jewish reader in this setting was probably the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.
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- We're not going to go there, but that might be a place for you to write a note if you want to read later on this
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- Lord's Day afternoon. Genesis 15 and the covenant made with Abraham. They would also remember the covenant which was ratified outside of Mount Sinai.
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- They will remember the institution of the sacrificial system, and the
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- Torah, and the explanation of it. That God would provide a way for sinners to approach him, and it would be through this mechanism of tabernacle, and priesthood, and sacrifice, and blood.
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- They would probably also remember back to the
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- Exodus Passover, Exodus chapter 12, where God delivered them out of Egyptian bondage.
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- A formative event in the life of the people of God. But a couple of more obscure references would be found very early in Genesis.
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- The first that I'm thinking of would be the clothing of Adam and Eve, our first parents, in skins.
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- A sacrifice was made to cover the wicked nakedness of Adam and Eve, and it's a bit opaque there in Genesis.
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- But God acted, and he did something to clothe them, to atone for their sin, and it involved the slaughter of animals.
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- And we have a fuller picture given in Genesis 4, when Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice, a lamb to God.
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- The blood of a lamb to God, and it was pleasing in God's sight. God communes with us, his people, by means of covenant that is sealed in blood.
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- If there is no blood, if there's no sealing of this covenant, we have no relationship with God.
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- This is how God has purposed to deal with us, his people.
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- There's something else I'd like us to consider. The second half of verse 11 says,
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- I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. In ancient times, there were pits dug for the purpose of gathering water, on the one hand, and to house prisoners on the other.
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- I believe that's the language intended here by the descriptor, the waterless pit.
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- This should hearken our memory back to Joseph being sold into slavery.
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- You'll remember that his brothers threw him down into a waterless pit.
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- It was out of that pit that they brought him out, and he became enslaved, and ended up coming to Egypt to serve
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- Pharaoh. Ironically, the selling of Joseph into slavery becomes the means that God would use to save the nation of Israel out of the pit of their famine.
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- But after 400 plus years under Pharaoh's tyranny, the people of God would cry out.
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- They were in a pit. Pharaoh had them enslaved. They were prisoners, and they were delivered by God's mighty hand out of a waterless pit.
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- I should point out that you and I have been brought out of a miry, waterless pit.
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- You and I were doomed for destruction. You and I had no means of escape.
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- These pits were bottlenecked, so a person could be dropped in, but there was no climbing out of the pit.
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- They have to be rescued. They have to be delivered. God rescued Adam and Eve, and he rescued
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- Abel, and he rescued Abraham, and he rescued Isaac from death on the mountain by providing a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice that would be acceptable to him.
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- God provided salvation to the nation Israel because his death angel was marching through the land, and the people would die lest there be blood.
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- Surely, God loves to rescue people from the pit.
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- He says, I will set your prisoners free. The whole picture of salvation, the idea and the language of deliverance and salvation has a component that is referred to this way, setting the captives, setting the prisoners free.
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- We have this very vivid image readily available to the Jewish people, the blood of the covenant being set free from the waterless pit.
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- The Lord remembers his covenant sealed in blood.
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- Abraham was circumcised, and he remembers.
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- In fact, that word, bereath, becomes covenant in language. The essence is to be circumcised, to have this blood cutting is what it actually meant to be in covenant.
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- God is dealing with his people in this way, by means of blood. He is promising the recently delivered exiles from Babylon that they would be freed from the waterless pit.
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- There is another group of people. You will remember that only a small minority of the exiles had returned to the land.
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- A small percentage, 10 to 15 percent probably, had come back to the land.
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- The Lord essentially says to those exiles still in Babylon, you don't realize it, but I have delivered you from the pit.
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- I have brought salvation. You need to come home to Israel. You need to come home to Judah.
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- But they would say, you have no fortified wall, you have no fortified city, you have no standing army.
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- How will we be protected? How can we go back safely to Jerusalem?
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- This is a very real cause of their concern. The Lord says, look at verse 12, return to the stronghold.
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- You are still prisoners if you stay in Babylon, but you are prisoners of hope.
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- I suspect Paul, as we studied Philippians this morning, was a prisoner of hope.
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- He was in a Roman jail, but he was filled with hope. Either he's going to keep preaching
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- Christ and blessing the church, or he's going to go to be with him in glory.
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- The Lord calls his people into his presence and says, return to the place of safety and security.
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- Come and huddle under my wings. Let me draw you to my bosom that I might protect you and save you.
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- The people had lost many things. This is reminiscent of the language of Isaiah.
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- The second part of verse 12 says, even today, I declare that I will restore double to you.
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- They lost land and possessions and honor and all these things. And the Lord says, I'm going to give you back all of that and more.
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- I'm going to restore double to you. The Lord does wondrous things for us when he delivers us and saves us.
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- He calls us back to the stronghold of his protection. I want to ask you, is the
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- Lord your God, your protector? Are you building a life where you are fortifying your own walls?
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- Are you seeking to preserve and protect yourself and your children?
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- We live in dangerous times. We're on the cusp of some very dangerous things happening in our culture.
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- The Lord calls us and he calls his people and every generation to come back home.
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- He bids the majority of Israel and he calls all of the people of God now to return to Jerusalem, to return to Mount Zion and the city of the living
- 01:01:51
- God. He calls us to come dwell in his presence. Brethren, in this place, in communion with God, coming to worship him in his presence, we are secure.
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- We are more secure than if we had armed guards on the outside protecting us from without.
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- This is the stronghold. This is the place where heaven comes down and the people of God are lifted up.
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- This is a secure place here, dwelling in God's presence.
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- Like our spiritual forefathers in Israel, we sometimes don't prize and value these things as we ought.
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- Return to the stronghold. Come to the place. The temple's being rebuilt.
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- This is the place where God is going to dwell. And the picture, of course, forward is that he's going to dwell in the person of Christ.
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- And he's going to make the church, the people of God, his dwelling place because they are united to him.
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- Whatever has been lost in exile, he's going to restore double to you.
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- I'm going to ask for the attention of the younger among us. This, of course, all applies to every one of us.
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- There is a strong pull of the world that grabs a young person in their early years, in their teen years.
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- They want to experience worldly enjoyments and pleasures. I can tell you now with 30 plus years after spending some time in the world prior to that, whatever is lost in your pursuit of earthly things, earthly pleasures, evils, what he gives and what he grants to us as people is twice as good as what is lost.
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- And this is a faith proposition that we have to believe because nearly everyone who grows up in the church says, my parents are a little radical and they're crazy about some of this stuff.
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- And they say, do we have to be this extreme? We're not extreme enough.
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- We need to shed the worldliness that's in our lives. Every one of us, every man, woman and child needs to to put to death that worldliness and pursue the pure, greater, better things in Christ.
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- He's going to give us more than we could ever ask for. Why would we give ourselves to vain pursuits which have no real and lasting value and in fact, become an occasion of our shame that we have to repent of and have to hang our head and mourn over because we have sinned.
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- Babylon for the people of God. Can you imagine Babylon seemed better than dwelling in the house of God?
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- It's true for us in our time as well. This is full hearty.
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- It's a great deception. But the Lord is promising. Come back to me.
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- Come with full devotion. Come into my presence. Worship me. Gather with God's people.
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- Live as God's people. And I will restore double to you. Powerful promise for us in Zechariah.
- 01:05:43
- Now there's a turn that I'm excited about in our text. Look again at verse 13. We have the promise of a king, a warrior, king, savior in Zechariah nine.
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- But he doesn't come rattling his saber. He has not assembled an army and strong horses and mighty steeds and chariots.
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- He's not done that. This dominion that's going to extend from sea to sea, verse 10, and go from the great river to the ends of the earth.
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- How is this going to be accomplished? You know,
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- Islam seeks converts through fear. A knife to the throat.
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- Convert to Islam. The church doesn't wield the sword and put it to people's necks and say, convert to the
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- Lord Jesus Christ. We do wield the sword of the Spirit and call every man everywhere to repent and believe this glorious gospel.
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- But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're spiritual. And he does something here.
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- It's very powerful. Look at verse 13. Judah, southern kingdom, always seems to be in God's favor.
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- They were less disastrous than the northern tribes. So he says, effectively,
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- I'm going to use Judah as my bow. And here's the part that's really astounding.
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- He says he's going to fit the bow with Ephraim. And I take that to mean the arrows.
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- It's going to be Ephraim. Now, if you've been reading your Bible this year on the Bible reading plan, many of them, maybe not yet.
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- Some of them. But the northern kingdoms, the northern tribes of the northern kingdom of those tribes, those 10 tribes, represented by where the kings from Ephraim.
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- The kings of the northern tribe come from Ephraim. Where are they in this setting?
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- They have been completely obliterated. They have been completely dissolved. In fact, most of them have been incorporated into Assyria.
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- God is saying, in Christ, I'm going to reunify my glorious kingdom.
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- And even better still, my kingdom and my authority and my reign over this kingdom is going to extend beyond Judah and Ephraim.
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- And it's going to extend to all the nations of the earth. It's going to go to places like Asia and Africa and South America and North America.
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- God is going to use his people to be the instruments, the weapons of his warfare.
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- I find this to be very exciting. It's a work that only
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- Christ does. But we get to participate. And I was thinking, is there something in Scripture that illustrates this that might help us?
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- And as I was thinking of this, I thought of the instance of David and Goliath. One man, who turns out to be a great champion, goes out to fight the most formidable foe.
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- And the cowards, no doubt in some measure, are mocking and jeering as this boy goes out to face
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- Goliath. You know the story, though.
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- David goes and he has a sling and he has stones and he topples the giant.
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- And he cuts off the head of the Philistine, who was the great champion of his people, who had mocked
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- Israel and said and disparaged the name of our most holy God. David himself goes and he defeats
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- Goliath. But what happens then? The cowards, they go and they take up swords because they are emboldened and strengthened by the courage of their hero,
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- David. And David kills Goliath. And they go and they wipe out the
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- Philistines. And they come back and they're celebrated as heroes. Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousand.
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- All these soldiers are so excited for what they had done. But we have to realize that God himself used
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- David. But it was God who won the battle. And a greater than David, a second
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- David, has come. And he has accomplished a great victory.
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- And so now we, though we be cowards, we run behind our great champion, wielding the sword of the
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- Spirit, preaching Christ in him crucified, making disciples of the nations, living the
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- Christian life with great zeal and holiness. And the kingdom advances.
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- He's fitted the bow with Ephraim. They're not a people anymore. And he's calling them out to be his people.
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- He's taken weak Judah and made them his bow and even greater.
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- He raises up your sons, O Zion, to go against your sons,
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- O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man. That's the last half of verse 13.
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- Now, textually, we have to ask ourselves. Verse 9 we know is about Jesus.
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- Is verse 11 through 17 about Jesus or not? Contextually, this is about Jesus.
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- But there's something that's going to happen a few hundred years down the line in the intertestamental period.
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- There is going to be a military accomplishment of, in the
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- Maccabean era, of defeating Greece, the sons of Levon.
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- So there's a closer fulfillment. But what
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- I think is happening here is the anticipation of the gospel going and triumphing among the
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- Gentiles, who are often called the Greeks. So the picture is militaristic.
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- God's people are going to go marching out to war and they're going to wage the good warfare.
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- They're going to be the instruments, the mighty sharp instruments in the hand of God. And they're going to conquer
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- Greece with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's going to make them like the sword of a mighty man.
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- They're going to take the fame of Christ's name and broadcast it all over the earth.
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- It's exciting to think that God has won a battle.
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- He's continuing to defeat his and our foes. We know on the last day, the enemies of God will be silenced.
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- Isn't it exciting that he allows us who bear some of the weight of the effects of the curse to now go be participants in this warfare to reverse the curse and make the name of Christ known.
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- To preach Christ to the world, to the nations. To speak of his great victory over sin and over death.
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- I failed to point out that in verse 11,
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- Jesus himself was put down into a pit. Last week we very powerfully sung and we heard that Jesus didn't remain in the pit.
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- We do it down in the pit with him. And he carried us up out of that pit. This whole picture has been replayed countless times through scripture.
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- He delivers us from the waterless pit.
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- He makes us the weapons of his warfare. And finally, consider the last section beginning at verse 14.
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- The Lord will be seen over them. If time were permitting, we could go back and recount the creation account.
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- There's a picture of the spirit hovering over the waters.
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- Not insignificant. We could also go back and recount the history of the exodus when
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- God hovered over his people. Children, do you remember this? During the day, there was a pillar of cloud.
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- It provided shade, but it also demonstrated God's presence was with them and he hovered over them.
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- At nighttime, a terrible thing to be in the wilderness when the beasts are roaming about.
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- The Lord was a pillar of fire. He hovered over his people as they slept. Beautiful picture.
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- I love this imagery. Then the Lord will be seen over them.
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- I want you to turn back with me to Acts 7. I not intended to go here, but I would like to go here.
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- This is the martyrdom of Stephen. You see, the
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- Lord hovers over us. It's ironic today we talked about, do we see
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- Jesus? We see Jesus high and lifted up. The world out there has no eyes to see.
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- I begin reading in verse 44 of Acts 7. This is a little bit of the picture. We get to peer into the heavenly realm and the glories that are afoot there.
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- The world doesn't see it. Stephen recounting the history and then making a very powerful exhortation and rebuke of the enemies of God.
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- Verse 44. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed, instructing
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- Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen. Which our fathers, having received it, in turn also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the
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- Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of Noah, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the
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- God of Jacob. But Solomon built him a house.
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- However, the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says.
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- Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the
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- Lord? What is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things?
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- And here's the strong rebuke. You stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.
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- You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
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- And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by direction of angels and have not kept it.
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- Now pay attention. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
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- But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said,
- 01:19:26
- Look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
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- The Lord, our God, hovers us over us. He covers us.
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- He's there in the heavens. We can't visibly see him, but we have spiritual eyes.
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- We do see the exalted, reigning, risen Christ. I see heavens, the heavens open, a standing
- 01:20:04
- Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And this will be why they will take up stones and kill him.
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- Brethren, we have a truncated understanding of God's investment in us.
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- Can you imagine? And I think there's an already not yet to this passage. The Lord will be seen over them.
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- The Lord has been hovering over his people and he hovers over us today. And someday the sky will be cracked open and the whole world will see.
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- But we know that he hovers over us. And the weapons of his warfare are the people of God.
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- And the imagery is very powerful. The second half of verse 14, it says, And his arrow will go forth like lightning.
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- I don't know about some of you, but watching the early
- 01:21:18
- Star Wars movies, I always laughed at the speed of those guns.
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- You can see the bullet fire. You can dodge out of the way. How many miles?
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- How much ground does a bolt of lightning cover? How fast is it?
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- It's so fast that it happens and it's done.
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- And then you hear it goes faster than the speed of sound. It's shooting his fierce, fiery arrows who carry the gospel, who carry the image of the risen
- 01:22:03
- Christ with them, who bear the burdens of the saints. He shoots them out into the world and they clap like lightning.
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- The image continues this warfare. The Lord will blow the trumpet.
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- You know anything about military history, the importance of sounding the call into action. Of course, the apocalyptic implications of that kind of language found in Revelation.
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- The Lord God himself will blow the trumpet. And he's going to call the whirlwinds out from the south.
- 01:22:45
- The Lord is promising victory over powerful foes. Brethren, the
- 01:22:52
- Lord of hosts will defend them. They shall devour and subdue with sling stones.
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- And one of the images here, I believe, is that the Lord is their shield. He's their defender.
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- And they're slinging stones at his people and they're intended to harm and wound the people of God.
- 01:23:17
- But God himself defends the people and they fall to the ground and the people of God trample over the stones that were intended to harm them.
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- You see, it's often the case when men intended for evil.
- 01:23:37
- But God intends it for the good. Back to the Joseph narrative.
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- They shall drink and roar as if with wine. They shall be filled with blood like basins, like the corners of the altar.
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- The Lord, their God, will save them in that day. As the flock of his people, that covenantal language, that great shepherd image we talk about so frequently found here in verse 16.
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- Because of the time, I'm going to emphasize that next part. They shall be like the jewels of a crown.
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- What has God done? He remembers covenant. He sets the prisoners free.
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- He calls his people back to the stronghold of his protection.
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- He restores double of all that is lost. He makes his people, he makes you the weapons of his warfare.
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- Every faithful word and deed. Every bold proclamation of the gospel.
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- Every covenant marriage. Every covenant child. Every psalm sung.
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- Every sermon preached. Every sacrament applied and consumed. Every sin repented of.
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- Every act of love. Every burden carried. Every saint built up.
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- Every widow and orphan relieved. All of these are victory blows that the
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- Lord makes us the instruments of. The fiery arrows of conquest and we bring
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- Christ in him crucified to the world. The Lord is seen over us.
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- He hovers over us, his people. He sends his arrows out like lightning.
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- He blows the trumpet and calls his people to action. He brings calamities like a whirlwind upon the enemies.
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- The Lord defends them and the
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- Lord will save them in that day. But I want you to focus on this for a moment.
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- The flock of his people will be like jewels of a crown.
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- This is so beautiful to ponder. We think about Christ and his crown rights over all things.
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- It would seem that the language of Zechariah is this. Because the people of God are so united to Christ.
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- And they are now been given good works that they might walk in them.
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- Their lives, their testimonies, their fruit become like jewels in the crown of Christ.
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- That's exciting to me. I'm so insignificant. I have so many failures, so many disappointments, so much sin.
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- But I and my faithfulness, you and your faithfulness could adorn the crown of Christ.
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- That we would be the rubies and the emeralds and the diamonds that shine because of the salvation that has come in Christ.
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- He lets us be the weapons of his warfare and he allows us to adorn his.
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- It's lifted like a banner over his head. The last point, finally.
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- The Lord's going to prosper his people in the work of their hands.
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- It says in verse 17, for how great is its goodness. The picture of all that's happened here in salvation.
- 01:28:07
- God redeeming his people, saving his people, securing them in his land and the land. How great is its beauty.
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- Grain is going to make the young men thrive. And new wine the young women.
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- If you know anything about the sacrificial system, the grain offering and the drink offering are very important.
- 01:28:33
- It's all found, ironed out and teased out in Leviticus. But I want to make an application to us today.
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- We have grain. We have these things are a symbol of God's provision, a symbol of the fruitfulness.
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- Because grain and and wine require good conditions.
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- They require cultivation. They cry require rain at just the right time.
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- The Lord has prospered the work of his people. They leave the battlefields in this beautiful picture and they go home and.
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- The grain sprouts up. And yields an abundant harvest. The grapes that have to be tended and dress those those grapes, they are.
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- Of an excellent vintage and they make. Wonderful, sweet new wine.
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- I wonder if there is a strong connection that should be made for. The Lord remembering the covenant that sealed in blood here.
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- We are united to the great champion. We are united to the victor.
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- And we take these things of grain and of wine. And we have the
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- Lord Jesus Christ communicated to us. The Lord remembers.
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- The covenant sealed in blood. He bids you his people to return.
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- To him. To come to the stronghold of his love and salvation and protection.
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- He has promised that you will have a powerful glorious victory over.
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- Your foes because of his mighty working and him using you as a faithful sharp instrument.
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- And brethren. The Lord surely has saved his people.
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- His work on the cross has accomplished our salvation. Therefore, I think we should come to the feast.
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- Should fare sumptuously and rejoice in the salvation of our
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- God. A few quick words of application will close here.
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- As the Lord has remembered the covenant sealed in blood. We too are called to remember the blood covenant.
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- We have the privilege of renewing covenant with him here. His promises are sure and they will most certainly.
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- Come to pass. Like the exiles of Babylon, we too must return.
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- To Christ. To the stronghold to his church. He camps around us.
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- In our text. He hovers over us. He is our mighty warrior king.
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- He is an impenetrable defense. Surely we can sing. He is a mighty fortress.
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- Mighty fortress is our God. Next, the
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- Lord's promise to vanquish his foes is in large measure accomplished through his people.
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- This is very exciting because, as I said a little earlier, every diaper changed, every meal prepared, every dish washed, every bit of our
- 01:33:04
- Christian lives pushes back the darkness. We should revel in those things.
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- We are the weapons of his warfare. We must use the means of grace empowered by the
- 01:33:21
- Holy Spirit. The Lord's salvation makes the righteous as precious stones.
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- Bright, vibrant, shining jewels of his crown. You are called to live this life of faith in such a way that you might be crown jewels adorning the glorious head of our living head, the
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- Lord Jesus Christ. Shed all of that sin. Turn from all of that nonsense and pursue
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- Christ and his righteousness. Finally, the
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- Lord's salvation ensures the fruitful blessing of your labors in faith.
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- God remembers his covenant shed in blood, sealed in blood. He calls his people to return to him.
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- When they return, they find that they have received salvation, that they have become the weapons of his warfare.
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- They become the instruments of his conquest. They are so righteous that their lives become the crown jewels that adorn his head.
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- He promises to prosper all the work of our hands when it's done in faith for the glory of the
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- Lord. What a treasure we find in an obscure book like Zechariah.
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- Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, thank you for your mercy and your kindness.
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- I'm so thankful that you remember your covenant, which has been sealed in blood.
- 01:35:14
- Oh, Lord, I pray that your people would flee to you and run to you and find salvation and comfort and hope and encouragement in these dark days.
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- They will also be reminded of their victory over all of these powerful foes.
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- That you have saved them and made them the people of your pasture. Oh, Lord, I pray in the power of your spirit you would impress this upon us in Jesus name.
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- Amen. Let us now continue our worship with the presentation of our tithes and offerings.
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- Please stand and let us pray.
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- Our gracious God and Father, we thank you, oh Lord, for the many blessings which you have caused to shower upon us like rain.
- 01:36:47
- If we were to consider all the things which you have given us, we would surely say that our cup runneth over.
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- We thank you, oh Lord, for your care of us through all of our lives. We thank you for this opportunity to return a portion which you have given us to the service of your local congregation.
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- We pray, Father, that as these funds have been received through faith, that they would be used by that same faith.
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- We ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Let us now glorify
- 01:37:24
- God by the singing of the Gloria Patri. Let us give thanks to the
- 01:38:18
- Lord. It is good and right so to do. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you, oh
- 01:38:31
- Holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved
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- Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.
- 01:38:44
- That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearance.
- 01:38:55
- Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.
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- You are the sovereign majesty whom we have been called.