February 12, 2023 – Sunday Service

Corporate Worship and Call to Praise

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name.

Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. The world also is firmly established.

It shall not be moved. He shall judge the peoples righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in all its fullness. Let the field be joyful and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord, for he is coming.

For he is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth. Come now, let us worship him. Please pray with me. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we come into your gracious and glorious presence as sons and daughters because of the love you have shown us, your people, in sending your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and filling us with your spirit.

We ask that our worship would be pleasing in your sight through that perfect mediation, through our great high priest, the Lord Jesus, and that our hearts would be turned to you as your people. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin if you're able. Let us now join together with one voice confessing our sins.

Jesus.

Forgive my sins.

Forgive the sins I have, remember,.

Forgotten, temptation,.

And those times when I have been stubborn in the face of correction. Forgive the times I have been proud of my own achievements and those when I have failed to boast in your works. Forgive the harsh judgments I have made of others and the leniency I have shown myself.

Forgive the lies I have told to others and the truths I have avoided. Jesus, have mercy on me and make me whole, amen. I, please stand, I'm sorry, please stand. I, even I, am he, the Lord says, who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins.

Oh, brethren, take heart today. If you be in Christ, your sins are forgiven, amen.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Please turn to the hymnal and number 529. Love divine, all loves excelling, 529. Please take up the bulleted insert and find Psalm 8. Gonna ask Alyssa to play through this one time. Psalm 8. Please remain standing for the reading in Jeremiah chapter 52.

Jeremiah 52, the word of the Lord. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamtulah and the daughter of Jeremiah of Levanna. He also did evil in the sight of the Lord.

According to all that Jerochakim had done for because the anger of the Lord, this happened in Jerusalem and Judah till he finally cast them out of his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the 10th day of the month that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it. And they built a siege wall against it all around.

So the city was besieged until the 11th year of King Zedekiah by the fourth month city at night, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around and they went by way of the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and they overtook Zedekiah and the plains of Jericho.

All his army was scattered from him. So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced judgment on him. Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes.

And he killed all the princes of Judah and Riblah. He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon and put him in prison till the day of his death.

Now in the fifth month, on the 10th day of the month, which was the 19th year of the king of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar Adon, the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem.

He burned the house of the Lord and the king's house, all the houses of Jerusalem that is, all the houses of the great. He burned with fire and all the armies of the Chaldeans were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.

And then Nebuchadnezzar Adon, the captain of the guard, carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the craftsmen.

But Nebuchadnezzar Adon, the captain of the guard, left some of the poor of the land as vine dressers and farmers. The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord and the carts in the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all their bronze to Babylon.

They also took away the pots and shovels, the trimmers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered, the basins, the fire pans, the bowls, the pots, the lamp stands, the spoons, and the cups.

Whoever was solid gold and wherever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. The two pillars on one sea, the 12 bronze bowls which were under it, and the carts which King Solomon made for the house of the Lord.

The bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. Now, concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was 18 cubits, and a measuring of 12 cubits could measure it in circumference, and its thickness was four fingers.

It was hollow. A captain of the capital of bronze was on it, and the height of the capital was five cubits with a network and pomegranates all around the capital of all the bronze. The second pillar with pomegranates was the same.

There was 96 pomegranates on the sides, and all the pomegranates all around on the network were 100. The captain of the guard took Syria, the chief priests, Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.

He also took out of the city an officer who had charged of the men of war, seven men of the king's house, or king's close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and the 60 men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city, and Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

And then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hema. Thus, Judah was carried away captive from its own land. These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive in the seventh year.

3 ,023 Jews in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away. From Jerusalem, 832 prisoners. In the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar Adon, the captain of the guard, carried away captive of the Jews, 743 persons.

All the persons were 4 ,600. Now it came to pass in the 37th year of the captivity of Jeruchim, the king of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 25th day of the month, that evil Mordoch, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jeruchim, the king of Judah, and brought it out of prison.

And he spoke kindly, and he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jeruchim changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life.

And as for the provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Jeremiah, the Exile, and the Return from Captivity

I was mentioning to Mark this morning that when we started Jeremiah, as the reading, it seemed like it would take forever to get through it, and now we have completed it. And children, for some context, we are in Zechariah in our sermon series, and this comes on the aftermath of the exile.

Jeremiah is the beginning of it, going into exile. So this is 70 years prior to the Zechariah passages that we're working on now. So it's really interesting in context for us as a church to hit that at this point.

Thank you, brother, for your reading. Please take up your bulletin if you need it, and let us confess our faith in the singing of the Apostles' Creed. Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 691.

It is well with my soul. 691. Sorry, Alyssa. Please make preparation. In seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Great is your reward in heaven, so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Amen.

Please stand. I ask you to take out the bulletin and find the Psalm of the month, Psalm 33, the inside fold of Psalm 8, Psalm 33.

Please turn in your Bibles, if you would,.

To Zechariah chapter 8, Zechariah chapter 8. I'm just going to read the portion we'll be covering today, which will be verses 9 through 17. This is God's holy and infallible word, Zechariah 8, 9. Thus says the Lord of hosts, let your hands be strong.

You who have been hearing in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets who spoke in the day the foundation was laid. For the house of the Lord of hosts, that the temple might be built. For before these days, there were no wages for man nor any hire for beast.

There was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in. For I set all men, everyone against his neighbor. But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts.

For the seed shall be prosperous. The vine shall give its fruit. The ground shall give her increase. And the heavens shall give their due. I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these.

And it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong. For thus says the Lord of hosts, just as I determined to punish you and 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. Do not fear. These are the things you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor. Give judgment 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 the things that I hate, says the Lord. May the Lord be pleased with our study of his word.

Please pray with me. O Lord, who is a pardoning God like you, who redeems a wicked people out of the pit like you, who takes people who are soiled in sin and clothes them in fine linen, who takes a people who are not a people and makes them a people.

O Lord, we rejoice that you are a loving and redeeming God. And we pray that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, our response of faith will also be obedience and a comprehensive faithfulness of life.

The title of the message will cause people who have had God as their God in response to his grace in covenant renewal, which we've just considered recently, are bound to comply with the stipulations of the covenant.

This is no works righteousness, but grace produces fruit. Faith yields faithfulness. And we, as the people of God, like our spiritual forefathers must respond to the gracious working of God in redeeming us and delivering us from many bondages, comprehensive whole of life.

First point, let your hands be strong. It's interesting that do not fear, let your hands be strong pop up in total four times in our section. Do not fear, let your hands be strong. The first point, let your hands be strong.

Maybe put do not fear in parentheses. Second, what Zechariah is speaking of here is the dawn of a new day. Second point is the dawn of a new day. Third, the curse reversed. The third point is the curse reversed.

And fourth, covenant obligations, which will find our covenant privileges. I'm gonna say those really quickly again, and I will hopefully hit them in the message. First, let your hands be strong. Do not fear.

Second, the dawn of a new day. Third, the curse reversed. And fourth, covenant obligations. Thus says the Lord of hosts, verse nine. Let your hands be strong. The hands of man are the instruments of work.

The livelihood of history passed through working hands. When we say with Paul and others, we lift up holy hands to pray, we're lifting up our very lives to God in worship. The very means by which we have sustenance in bread, and particularly in an agronomy economy.

We need to work and to cultivate the ground and be husbandmen of animals, and we need to build things and cultivate and grow things. All of this is accomplished by the work of men's hands. What's hard for us in the time that we live, we live in the information age, and we do labor with our hands, but our hands are really clean and sterile.

They're not in the dirt. We don't have the same close connection to the ground and the land and the fruitfulness and all the labor and toil it requires to survive. The livelihood of history passed through working hands.

And here the imperative is connected to boldness and diligence. In performing the work, this great work of the temple rebuild, and reestablishing Jerusalem's and Judea's fruit bearing, both spiritually and materially, the people need to be bold and they need to be diligent.

The declaration we just learned last week of covenant and its renewal in last week's text, and they shall be my people, this is from verse eight, and I will be their God, has a further description. Look at it, verse eight.

It says, in truth, in faithfulness, in righteousness. The good news of Jesus Christ coming into the world to save sinners is accompanied by an obligation. Repent and believe. It's not enough for us to say Jesus came in the world to save sinners.

We also have to implore our hearers to repent and believe. There is an imperative that flows out of the indicative. There is a corresponding activity that accompanies grace. Faith, faithfulness, receiving the gift of faith, and the corresponding obedient faithfulness that the Lord has brought them back into the land.

Let us not forget the land promises and their significance to the people. This process has been in the works and in motion since the exodus. We just read in Jeremiah that the people have been carried away.

Now they've been brought back. Now the promises of the land are there. So the people are encouraged to be strong, to do the work that has been given them to do. Let your hands be strong. I want you to turn back one book to the book of Haggai.

Please turn there, just one book to the left. Book of Haggai. These two prophets are contemporary to one another. You may remember in the early chapters of the Night Visions, I made some reference to Haggai.

I'm going to come back here periodically as we consider the rest of the book. What's being referenced in verse nine of Zechariah eight is articulated with maybe more depth in Haggai two. Let's look at Haggai two beginning at verse one.

In the seventh month, on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came to Haggai, the prophet saying, speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people.

Same language as our section. Zerubbabel's governor, Joshua, great type of Christ, is the high priest. Hold your finger there. Look up at verse 15 of chapter one. It says, on the 24th day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius, our prophecy beginning in chapter seven started in the fourth year of King Darius.

This prophecy had already been articulated to the people of God by the prophet Haggai. It's in their minds, and Zechariah is saying, now we're progressing to the fulfillment, at least in part, of what Haggai promises in chapter two of his book.

Listen to what he says. Speaking to the remnant of the people, this is what it said. Verse three. Who was the left among you who saw the temple in its former glory? There's a couple very old people who were carried away to Babylon while the glorious temple was in Jerusalem.

A handful. And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? They see some of the grandeur in these early plans and development as the temple's being built. It doesn't look as grandiose.

It doesn't look as big and as powerful as Solomon's temple. Yet now, be strong, Zerubbabel, says the Lord. That language that's a drumbeat in our section. Be strong. Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest.

And be strong, all you people, of the land, says the Lord, and work. For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you.

Do not fear. Be strong. Do not fear. It seems impossible. Build the temple. Start planting the seed in the ground of Judea. Start raising animals again on the plains. But now the question is, is these developments, are they limited to this portion of Israel's history?

We have been reading Zechariah in a very Christological way. Sometimes you may be asking, does he have the liberty to do this with this particular part of the text? Well, I believe this is the burden and the message of the prophets to get us to Christ.

Look at what Haggai says after this. For thus says the Lord of hosts. Once more, it is a little while, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations. And they shall come to the desire of all nations.

You know who that is, children? It's capitalized strangely there, isn't it, in the Bible? The desire of all nations is the Lord Jesus Christ. So obscure books like Haggai and Zechariah are preaching the glory, the gospel, the coming of Christ.

I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts. In my mind, immediately, when I was considering this passage, runs to John 2, the arrival of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to cleanse the temple, the presence of God himself filling the temple in the person of Christ.

This is psalm of the glory that he speaks of. And what we learn in the progression of Revelation is that God is building a spiritual house. We've said this a number of times, but it bears repeating. A house made up of the people of God from every tongue, tribe, and nation.

The Lord is shaking the nations, and they are going to come in, they're gonna come to the desire of all nations, and I will fill the temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts. If you have a vision for this, it's very exciting.

Verse eight says, the silver is mine, the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. It's interesting that this description is worked out in Zechariah when the Babylonian captives send the gold and the silver back.

They recognize, this is what Haggai's talking about, the silver and gold belong to the Lord, let's send our money to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former.

The second temple and its architecture and spectacle was not greater than Solomon's temple, but the temple that Christ builds far eclipses the glory of the temple. In this place, he says, in the church, in the living stones, the dwelling place of God and the Spirit, in that place I'm going to grant peace, says the Lord of hosts.

So Haggai and Zechariah provide, Jeremiah provide a lot of context to explain the events. Now let's turn back to Zechariah chapter eight. Haggai's prophecy two years prior to the current prophecy. Haggai's in the second year of Darius.

Zechariah prophesied in the fourth year in this section beginning at chapter seven, the fourth year of Darius. The temple project has more significance than the people realize. The glory of God will fill the temple with the incarnation of Christ.

He is the desire of all nations. Do you remember the dying words of Jacob in Genesis 49? "'The scepter shall not depart from Judah "'until Shiloh comes, "'until him shall be the obedience of the people.'".

Jacob is prophesying in Genesis 49 about the arrival of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people need to be bold and diligent in the work he has given us to do. Your hands need to be strong. Mitch is wrestling three little children, covenant children in the pew today.

He's got to be bold and diligent. Are you wanting to raise a faithful family? Do you wanna have a godly marriage? You want your children raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? You're God's people.

Do not fear. Let your hands be strong and persevere in that work every day. Mark and I want to, and I hope it's your vision for you, we want to build a church that our great, great grandchildren will attend and thrive in.

We need to let our hands be strong. Do we care about the future in that way, that we're going to be building something that we'll never see? This is 500 years before Christ in Zechariah 8. Do you want the men and women of the church to be discipled?

Let your hands be strong. Have a discipleship group with men and women. Disciple people individually. Encourage them to disciple others. Go to the campus of UCF and preach the gospel there. Make disciples of the nations.

The glory of God is coming to the temple, but the temple is going to be made by masons and carpenters. They have to go and put the mortar, they have to put the studs, they have to do all the process of building the structure.

It's interesting that the Lord allows us to do these things, isn't it? Prosperity, what we're going to learn in a little bit is really connected to work. And young men, you need to get a vision for this.

Prosperity comes with opportunity for you to perform work. That's how you prosper. God doesn't send bags of gold coins to Jerusalem. He doesn't do it. He makes a barren, desolate ground fertile. He sends rain.

So you have to go out and hoe and weed and water and pluck and do all that and chase the birds away from your crops. The temple must be built. Do you remember last week? And they shall be my people and I will be their God.

The Lord has blessed them and us. We are to respond to his love with obedience, diligence, fearlessness, and faithfulness. The temple must be built. We get this message every week in Zechariah. In Zechariah's day, the temple had to be built.

May I say the temple today must be built. The people of God must be built up. We are in a temple construction project of our own in Christ, living stones, temple. God works. He builds his church, right?

He's the one who does it. There's no building of the church unless he does it. And we work. You ever read Ephesians chapter four? The way men are saved is through the foolishness of the gospel preached.

People have to be discipled. They have to be led. We are working to build the temple of God. God's building it just like he is in Zechariah. But we have a work to perform. Now, as we consider verse 10, we have to understand something of the lack of resources.

Look at verse 10. For before these days, there were no wages for man nor any hire for beast. We learned last week that the land was desolate. So we don't have to hire people to come and collect the harvest because there's no harvest.

I got some really fine oxen here to plow your field, sir. Would you like to hire my oxen? No, I have no need of your oxen because the ground is dry. I'm not gonna plant my seed in dry ground. It's going to be eaten up and wasted.

The period, about 20 years, there's no need to pillage and to steal. There's no peace from the enemy or whoever went in or out. And even the people of God were set one against each other, one another.

For I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor. This is what exile and this is what sin does. It causes destruction. There's no peace. The people are harassed by many enemies. They're at odds with their neighbor.

All of this as a result of covenant unfaithfulness. You see, we have obligations we have to uphold or we suffer temporal consequences from our God. Well, we're on to my second point, the dawn of a new day.

Look at verse 11. The intervening period, the early days of the temple rebuild have been very difficult. But now there's a promise from God, verse 11. I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts.

How will things be different now from that time of desolation and barrenness? Look at what verse 12 says. The seed shall be prosperous. The vine shall give its fruit. The Carlys brought in the wine today for us for communion.

And my suspicion is they went to a store and purchased it off the shelf. These people had to go through the entire process of planting and watering and cultivating to squeeze the grapes through the wine press to get wine.

The wine is gonna, the vine is gonna give its fruit. Physical prosperity is coming to the land and it's picturesque and indicative of a spiritual prosperity that's more significant. My favorite passages in all scripture is John 15.

I am the vine, you are the branches. The vine shall give its fruit. The cursed ground shall give her increase. You remember those, the fall in Genesis two. This is a dawning of a new day, a reversal of the curse.

The heavens shall give their due and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all of these things. This land's fruitfulness is more than the physical sustenance of the nation. It is the spiritual vivification, the life-giving breath of the people.

The people in covenant with God must remain bound to him in love and obedience. We've seen, we just read in Jeremiah, we know the consequences of disobedience, it's exile, it's desolation, it's barrenness.

As I mentioned, I think we probably should plant a garden. God says he's gonna cause the remnant of this people to possess all these. We're too detached from the agronomy of scripture. We take it for granted that grocery store that's just full of produce and meat.

Do you remember how crazy people were and how they acted when there was a run on toilet paper and hand sanitizer in COVID? People were trampling each other for Purell and toilet paper. What would happen if there was a real famine?

We know nothing of this kind of suffering. Some of our parents and grandparents in the Great Depression, they had a brush with this, but not a real famine. 10 of men out of work, 15%, pretty bad. But a famine?

There's no produce in the stores. There's nowhere you can drive to go and get it. There's no meat to be had. There's no vegetables or grain to be had. That's famine, like Joseph saved his family from.

What would happen if there was a real famine in our time? The desperation of desolation for Zechariah's audience is now passing. The Lord is bringing prosperity to the sea. The vine is yielding its fruit.

The ground is giving her increase. The heavens, the skies, the rain clouds have come. And the Lord in his mercy will cause the remnant of his people to possess all of these things. It's a dawning of a new day.

These things are all no big deal to us, but there could be a time in our future where I can't order up groceries on my phone. There might not be any groceries. That'd really throw a spanner in the works, wouldn't it?

If there's no way to go get it, what will we do? All of our technology, all of our ability, what would we do? Well, it moves us to the third point. That's the reversal of the curse. Look at verse 13. Shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing.

Do not fear. Let your hands be strong. The Jewish people have suffered greatly even in modern times. Anti-Semitism is rising again. They are, at times in history, and no doubt the church, maybe more so now, are a byword, pejorative, a curse word, those Christians.

Remember the Romans? Those Christians, those Jews. The name of God's people has been and continues to be associated with cursing. Their name was uttered with disgust. We have it in our culture today. Go into the secular workplace.

Oh, you're a Christian? Really? I wonder if our disobedience is partly responsible. Their disobedience made them an object of scorn. They're getting carried away, and the pagan nations are mocking them, saying, as we've sung recently, where is your God?

God removed his hand of protection, and they were smited on the cheek. But now, verse 13, just as you were once a curse, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear. Let your hands be strong.

With certainty that I promise your destruction, as we read about in Jeremiah, for thus says the Lord of hosts, just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and it happened, they were punished.

I would not relent, and God did not relent. In these days, verse 15, I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear. He punished them, he chastened them, he did not relent for 70 years, but now he's determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, and he admonishes them again, do not fear.

Let your hands be strong. Well, that brings us to our last point, and that is covenant obligations. The Lord has established for us who are Christians today, we declared our union with Christ and our forgiveness of our sins, so we have some security in our lives.

We also have a responsibility. They shall be my people and I will be their God. In truth and faithfulness and righteousness. And the two obligations they have in terms of their working in the world is first to build the temple and to be a blessing.

In verse 16, they're also admonished to do other things. They're to speak the truth to their neighbors, they're to pronounce righteous judgments in their gates, there can be no corruption, no deceit in the magisterial process of justice and truth and peace.

Their relations with their neighbor, we've already covered, they have to have just weights and honest measures. They're not to commit murder in their hearts, verse 17, let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor.

Do not love a false oath, that's making an oath with no intent of keeping it. There can be none of that among God's people. He says, for all these things, I hate, says the Lord. So here's the picture.

The people of God have come through a very rough period in their history, a period of their disobedience and their lack of faithfulness, their unbelief has been punished by oppressors. Now they've come back into the land and they're beginning to see on the horizon the future of the temple being built and a promise of a new day where God would be with them and he would be their God and they would be his people.

They are his people. He loves them, but they're required to obey. I'd like to close by going to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Can you turn there with me? The covenant has been renewed at Moab, Deuteronomy 28.

Now it shall come to pass, this is verse one, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

You obey the voice of the Lord your God. They'll come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of your God. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed you shall be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks this is a very practical religion with very practical blessings.

Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face.

They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and all of which you set your hand. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Brethren, think about how many failures existed. I've been reading the Old Testament, your reading plan between Deuteronomy 28 and Zechariah 8, astounding. He loves to forgive his people. Blessing his people is the normal course of action.

Judgment is really the anomaly, if you think of it. It's strange, but it's true. He's more eager to bless his people than to chasten them. Verse nine, I love this, he says, the Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself just as he has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.