The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of Scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. This morning we're going to be looking at the 14th chapter of Zechariah. So we're going to go to the Minor Prophets. It is a prophetic passage.
Zechariah chapter 14. Let's hear the word of the Lord. Behold the day of the Lord cometh and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. And then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the mount of olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, ye shall flee, like as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah.
And the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at evening it shall be light. And it shall be in that day that the living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the hinders sea, in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem.
It shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananil unto the king's wine presses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance. And so shall be the plague of the horse, the mule, the camel, the ass of all the beasts that shall be in the tents as this plague.
And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not up that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of the tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And in that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord.
And the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts. And all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and see therein, And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. We come to Zachariah chapter 14. We come to a difficult passage.
I want us to begin in prayer. Father, we thank you for your mercies through Christ our Lord. We thank you for the text that is set before us. We pray, Father, that you would grant us light and life from above. We pray in Christ's name, amen.
And so I can give my disclaimer on the passage already. James Montgomery Boyce, who was late pastor of 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia, said this in his commentary, Martin Luther did two commentaries on this prophet. One in Latin that was published first and the second in German, which he may have intended as a definitive edition of the first. In the first of these, there is no treatment of chapter 14. The manuscript stops at 13.9 with no explanation.
In the second commentary, chapter 14 is briefly treated, but he begins with these words. Here in this chapter, I give up, for I am not sure what the prophet is talking about. And so anybody that has had to deal with this passage has felt the same thing that Martin Luther felt as well, the difficulties of the passage, but despite the overwhelming difficulties we press on because all scripture is given by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness. T.V. Moore writes, this chapter is one of those portions of scripture which, like sealed orders to a vessel which are not to be opened until a certain latitude is reached, can only be read in perfect comprehension after the church has reached a point in her history, yet future.
Until the seal is removed at the appointed time, we can only conjecture the full meaning of the predictions and await for the clear light of the future. And I agree with Pastor Moore, he was a pastor in Richmond, Virginia in the 1800s, he said it is evident that no events have yet occurred in history to which these predictions are applicable without forcing it. And I agree with that as well. Now, there are plenty of positions on Zechariah chapter 14, and if you disagree with my position, that's fine, because I may disagree with my own position eventually, I'm not sure. But as far as the timing of some of these things or the exact working out of how the Lord does it, we need to approach the text with humility knowing that we don't know how the Lord will work everything out as far as the details in the end.
But I do believe that this text has enough in it, clues to show us that this is talking about the final days. This chapter seems to be referring to the last great events in the church militant issuing in the triumph of holiness in the church triumphant. The powers of evil molesting the church, the Lord of glory defending his church, the wicked cursed for eternity, and the saints confirmed in eternal blessedness in a state of perfect holiness. As Paul said to the Thessalonians to the end, that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all the saints. The text begins with the day and as we read through the text, No doubt you saw that it was spoken of the day, the day, in that day, over and over again.
Look at verse 1. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh. And when it talks about the day of the Lord, it is talking about a day of judgment. Sometimes throughout the Old Testament, It could be judgment against Edom, it could be judgment against Moab, there were lesser judgments all pointing forth to that final and great judgment, the day of the Lord. In chapter 14 verse 4, and his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives." That which was predicted in the book of Acts, we'll look at that later, of the Lord's second coming.
And then in verse 7, it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord. So it's a day that's known only to the Lord. In verse 8, and it shall be in that day that the living waters go forth from Jerusalem. And as I read these hints within the text, I begin to see Revelation chapter 20 and 21 and 22 with the waters going forth from the throne of God. Verse 9, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth and in that day there will be one Lord, no more idols.
Even as he says at the very end in that day in verse 21, there should be no more Canaanite in the house of the Lord. And that is why T.V. Moore and Hengstenberg, and these are some of the men that I can recommend to you on the text if you want to do further reading, Christology in the Old Testament by E.W. Hengstenberg, excellent on this text and on the whole book of Zechariah that you can study. T.V.
Moore, which is a Banner of Truth volume, the Geneva series, excellent works. But it is a day in which there is holiness confirmed in the saints, the damned are separated forever from the Lord, And it is a day which only the Lord knows, which also gives me a clue in the text, because they knew from Daniel when there would be an end to the 70 years of captivity. They knew when Jerusalem would fall. There were hints. So they escaped to the mountains.
Those were days which they knew. But this is a day which only the Lord knows, which is why it pushes me to believe that this chapter is dealing with the final events of the church. And so I wanna break it up into, there's two sections in here. There's the triumph of the holiness in the day of the Lord, when the Lord comes to save his people and destroy his enemies. Verses 1 through 5 talk about that.
And then at the end of verse 5, it introduces us into another day, which is that eternal day that is springing forth. And from verses six through 11, we have that day, and then it goes back to verses 12 through 19, what happens to the damned? And then in verses 20 to 21, which is really our text, and what I wanna come to, and make sure we have enough time before we leave the triumph of holiness when the even on the bowels of the horses shall be holiness to the Lord but let's look at some of the previous in verse 1 We'll work our way through but I'll keep track of our time. I'll get you to your next session on time and also make sure we have enough time to look at those last two verses. Behold the day the Lord cometh and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." Or in the Hebrew, a day comes to Jehovah.
As Hengstenberg said, the designated day comes to the Lord not only insofar as he introduces it, but also chiefly that he is glorified in this day. And so Paul said to the Thessalonians, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe. The phrase the day of the Lord is used 29 times in the scriptures. Pusey writes, in that day, God himself will be judge and no longer leave man to fulfill his own will and despise God's. God's glory and holiness and the righteousness of all his ways will be revealed.
We know that the day of the Lord is a day when the proud are based. Isaiah says the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that's proud and lofty. The day of the Lord is a day of destruction Isaiah says how ye for the day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. It's a day when sinners are destroyed out of the land Isaiah says behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate and he shall destroy the sinners out of it. It's a day of vengeance over the controversy of Zion In Isaiah chapter 34 and verse 8, for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance in the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
The controversy of Zion has been going on from the From the time in which man fell in the garden, and in which he said that the seed of the woman and the seed of the evil one, there would be controversy until that time in which all things were cleared up. It's a day of great convulsions among the nations, And it's a day that will take many people by surprise as far as the outcome of that day. The prophet Amos said, woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.
And so there will be those who will desire this day and desire the coming of the Lord and will want the coming of the Lord to come. And yet when He actually does come, it will be a day of darkness for them. They will not be prepared. For many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils, and done many wonderful works, and I will profess to them I never knew you, depart from me. So for some who longed for the day and wanted the Lord's return, they will find that the day is a day of darkness rather than light.
Look at verse 2 of Zechariah 14. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. We first note that it is the Lord's doing. I will gather the nations against Jerusalem.
History is not out of control, but it is the working out of God's providences and purposes, even when they are dark providences. Amos says, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord has not done it? Even Satan is the instrument of God to accomplish the purposes of God. He was ordained to try Job's faith and he is ordained to try the faith of the church in history as well.
And we read in Revelation chapter 20 and verse 7. If you want to keep your finger in Revelation 20 as well as Zechariah 14, we'll be back and forth. It says, when the thousand years are expired, Satan will be loosed from his prison. He'll go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up the breadth of the earth and they surrounded the camp of the saints.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, says Zechariah." And if we have any problem with the fact that the one text says that Satan would deceive the nations and bring them and the other text says that the Lord will gather them, we know that the Lord is the first cause of all that comes to pass, that Satan is only his instrument. Why does the Lord ordain enemies to molest the church? He does it to purge away the dross of the tears in her midst. He does it to purify the true believer to make him holy to the Lord. Because if you've had strange providences in your own life, dark providences, times which are very very difficult, you know that in those days and in those times in which the Lord was doing a strange work in your life.
It was a time in which you considered your soul. It was a time in which you confessed sin. It was a time in which you returned to the Lord. And God would display the holiness of his people upon the stage of the world. You see, there is a triumph of holiness here even in the enemies of the church coming and molesting the church.
Because when they molest the church, whether it's in the sudan or whether it's in afghanistan or whether they're beheading them in syria or wherever it is it is to the glory of god in the triumph of holiness because holiness is to be devoted to the lord fully completely And so in that hour of martyrdom, when on a college campus they put a gun to somebody's head and say, are you a Christian? And they say, yes I am. And he pulls the trigger. And he goes to the next one. It's the triumph of holiness because they are devoted to the Lord.
No matter what happens they will not deny him. And so it has happened all over the world. So God ordains enemies to molest the church because it is the triumph of holiness. It is to show that there is a Lord of glory who owns a soul in such a way that he will not turn away from his master under any circumstance. John Owen said, the use of the furnace to take away dross and the issue of afflictions and trials to take away sin.
The time of Christ's coming shall be a day of trouble, such as never was. And what shall be the issue? Daniel says, many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly. Their trials and troubles, their great tribulations shall be purifying and cleansing. Though the design of Christ in the issue at the appointed season be the peace and deliverance of his saints yet in the carrying on of his work great trials and tribulations may befall them all and many shall fall in the way and perish as to the outward man.
So that as God is doing his work upon the earth and persecution comes and the saints go into prison like Richard Wurmbrandt for 14 years he spends in a prison. He said they had to deal with the people who were in charge of the prison. The people in charge of the prison got to beat them, and they got to preach the gospel to them. He said we both liked what we were doing. And for fourteen years he spent there in obscurity, And was it to no end?
No. So then when he comes forth out of the prison, faithful to Christ, and then he begins the great work of the voice of the martyrs and a work that goes on all over the world, and it is the triumph of holiness. He was devoted to Christ. Verse 3 Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. The phrase as when he fought in the day of battle probably is referring to that the great battle that he won as Moses sang about at the Red Sea because they always referred back to that great day.
That was the great picture of God's deliverance of his children out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. And he says that the Lord will go forth and he will fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. Moses and the children of Israel sang this song the Lord is my strength and my song he has become my salvation he is my God and I will prepare him a habitation my father's God I will exalt him the Lord is a man of war And then in verse 13 of Exodus 15, thou and thy mercy has led forth thy people, which you have redeemed, you have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation. So here we have God triumphing in holiness when he destroys his unholy enemies from off the face of the earth. It is the triumph of holiness.
Those that are not devoted to him are devoted to the curse. They are taken off from the earth. As the psalmist says in Psalm 37, verse 7, Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself because of those who prosper in the way, because of the man who brings evil devices to pass. Cease from anger, forsake wrath.
Fret not yourself in any wise to do evil." What are we to do? What are we to do in this land when we see evil encroaching and when they come upon us? Are we to return evil for evil? He says, no, do not fret, cease from your anger, forsake your wrath, for evildoers shall be cut off. Don't become like them.
But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. You will diligently consider his place, you will look for him and he won't be here on the earth. And you will be astonished because you will look around, we who only know what it is to be the remnant in the earth and all about us surrounded by those who are in darkness. The day will come when we will look around and we will not be able to find a wicked soul among us.
And it is the triumph of holiness. All will be devoted to the Lord because the Lord will take them from off the face of the earth. Just like in the Old Testament when they had someone who committed a capital crime and they hung them. And it says by evening time they had to take the body down and bury it because this was one who was accursed. Capital punishment was that man can't do anything more with this person, we need to send him to God.
That's what it was about and when they were hung in order that the the good earth of the Lord would not be defiled they would take this one who was devoted to the curse and they would bury him by nighttime because they didn't want him on the face of the earth anymore. Look at Zechariah chapter 14 in verse 4. Here is a further description of the Lord going forth to fight against the nations and his feet shall stand that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west." And then in verse 5, and you shall flee to the valleys of the mountains and the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal, you will flee like you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall come in all the saints with thee." I think we have here again, this is the end times, this is the final day, this is the second coming of the Lord this is Acts chapter one when they're standing up gazing at the Lord who has bodily ascended into heaven and the angels say this same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
He will come in the same way. And they returned from Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet. They were on the mount of olives when he bodily ascended up. And here in our text they have a picture of him coming down to the earth once again onto the Mount of Olives to defend his people, to destroy his enemies. As for the description that is given in verses 4 and 5, again I believe with TV Moore whether you want to make this an actual literal earthquake in which actually all the land is leveled down or whether it's figurative, it really doesn't matter to me because I'll wait to see what the Lord does when he comes.
The point of passages is that he will come and he will come as he has been prophesied and he will defend his church and he will destroy his enemies and look at the end of verse 5 it says and the Lord my God shall come and all the holy ones with him Peter said of lots escaped from Sodom the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and reserve the unjust to the day of judgment. So the angels came and they jerked Lot and his family out of there and they jerked Lot, that righteous man who had vexed his soul day by day by their conversation and took him out of there while he destroyed the wicked. God knows how to do that. How he will do it is up to the Lord. But he knows how to do it.
And there will be panic in that day fleeing, fleeing as there was in the celebrated earthquake in Uzziah's day. Amos talked about that earthquake. In Amos 1 and verse 1 the words of Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, two years before the earthquake." The earthquake was so renowned that's all they had to say. Two years before the earthquake. You remember that earthquake.
And it is here used in this prophecy to describe the chaos that will take place in the souls of men when the Lord returns. Pusey writes, interpositions of God, even in man's favor, are full of awe and terror. They are tokens of the presence of the all holy among the unholy. Fear was an accompaniment of special miracles in the Gospels. When the demoniac was healed, fear fell upon the people.
When the disciples saw the Lord walking on the water fear filled their heart when Ananias and Sapphira fell dead fear came upon the Saints Paul says to the Hebrews for we know him that says vengeance belongs to me I will recompense saith the Lord and the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The triumph of holiness is that these are separated from the wicked because who is he among the gods? The gods must go. And look at the end of verse 5, it says, and the Lord my God shall come.
And here, Zechariah changes now. He changes from a description of the suffering saints and the Lord coming to deliver the suffering saints out, And now the Lord has come. And this is the beginning of a part of the description of the great eternal day that will break upon the saints. And the Lord my God shall come, Zacharias says. He's my God.
And his holy ones will come with him. Here's the triumph of holiness when God returns with all of his holy people. Look at verse six and seven. In verse seven, look at that first, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord." This is a day that's known to the Lord, which indicates it's not known to men. In Matthew it says, but of that day and hour knoweth no man, not the angels in heaven, my Father only.
In Acts He said to them, it's not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in His power. And in Mark chapter 13 and verse 32, He says the same as Matthew, only he includes in this neither the Son. Neither the Son. And so we have that as a man, and Mr. Washer dealt with that very beautifully last night about the manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ is oftentimes neglected.
That as a man it is said that neither the Son shall know that day because there were things that the son did not know. He was a child and it says that he grew in wisdom. He was a real man and he had to grow in wisdom just like we have to grow in wisdom. He had to pursue knowledge, he had to give himself to it, and he did it perfectly, which is why at 12 years of age he was debating with them in the temple. Matthew Henry says, the divine wisdom that dwelt in our Savior did communicate itself to his human soul according to the divine pleasure.
Only as the divine pleasure he gave himself holy to his Father's will. Paul said to the Thessalonians of the times and seasons, you have no need that I write to you for you know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. So we don't predict the day. There's somebody in California that's predicted the day two or three times, and every time he predicts it, I know the Lord will not come on that day. I'm certain of that.
But can you imagine the hearts of the saints while they are passing through these tumultuous times in which they have come and they have persecuted the church, ravished the church, molested the church, and then the Lord comes, and he comes down to defend his saints. And it is a time in which the light is not clear. Our text says in verse 6, And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear, nor dark, but a day known to the Lord. The light is not clear in that they had the light of prophecy, and yet, just like in the days of our Lord, the saints had a dimness about them concerning the incarnation of the Lord. They had a dimness about them even concerning the death of the Lord and his resurrection until it was revealed to them.
And so it shall be in the midst of these killing times. It's a day known only to the Lord. But it is a day that is going to dawn upon them the eternal day. In Revelation 21-11, having the glory of God and her light was like a stone most precious, like a gem that sparkles. And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it.
And the lamb was the light. What kind of light is that? You can tell me. What kind of light is that? We've never known such a light.
And yet that light will dawn upon the world. T.V. Moore says the meaning is as obvious as the image is beautiful and in the experience of many a Christian has it been true as it will be in the great sunset of the world that when the gloom has thickened through the waning noon seems deepening into the blackness of night then is a sudden sunburst of the bright revealing of the face of God so that in the evening time there is light." The text says in the evening time there is light. That's not the time for light. But it is in the eternal day because night is passing away.
The twilight is there, the night is passing, and the eternal day is coming. There is in that the triumph of holiness because all darkness is fading away and all will be devoted to the Lord. And it says in verse 8, and it shall be in that day that the living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them to the former sea, half of them toward the hinders sea. In summer and in winter, perpetual blessing, this is the eternal day. Summer and winter time, it's perpetual blessing.
Up at the Biltmore, which is not far from here, if you drive up through that great estate you'll see this massive river that you follow the road up through there. Why? Because they built near water because you had to have water because water was life, water was blessing. And so he says in this text in verse 8, in that day the living waters will go forth out of Jerusalem because that is the blessing of God of the eternal day. Jeremiah said, my people have committed two evils.
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water. When Jesus talked to the woman at the well, he said to her, if you knew the gift of God, you would ask of me and I would give you some water, some living water. And why does the water go forth from Jerusalem? In the Old Testament, the waters of life flowed for the temple in Jerusalem. There were the oracles of God.
There was the truth of God. There was the light of God in the world, in this one little strip of land over there in Israel. And there out of the temple of God was where the peace of God was known and the truth of God was known. And in the New Testament, there they are and the apostles on the day of Pentecost and they're preaching in Jerusalem and the peace of God and the light of God is going forth once again from Jerusalem to the world. And in this last day the Lord again returns to that same place to send forth the blessings of God, this time from the new Jerusalem.
For God is dwelling amidst his people now. He is their God and he will be their people. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God in the Lamb Revelation chapter 22 and verse 1 and it will be a constant state of fruitfulness in glory as he says here this river goes forth in summer and winter, so in glory it is. And the description is of a tree of life bearing 12 manner of fruits, yielding her fruit every month. And there's no more curse.
There's no more curse because there's no more sin. And because there's no more guilt and there's no more consequences of sin there's no more death there's no more crying there's no more pain the last enemy to be destroyed is death and death shall be swallowed up in victory And it says in verse 9 of Zechariah 14, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. There'll be one Lord. Here is a blessed day, when there is one Lord and there is one name, only one name spoken. The apostle Paul said, Though there be those that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, for there are gods many and lords many, but to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
And the day will come if we can imagine it. Who can imagine such a day when men shall not possess idols upon the earth? When There will be no calls to prayer made for Allah. There will be no vain repetitions made to marry. There will be no prayer wheels turning for the Buddhists.
No chanting of the names of false deities who cannot see and who cannot hear and who cannot help them. No ritual bathing in the Ganges, no bail worship, no religious sex trafficking. His name shall be one. The one true and living God, and all will be devoted to the King. It's the triumph of holiness.
Verse 10, and all the land shall be turned as a plain, and it shall be lifted up. That is, Jerusalem shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place. And I don't have time for these, but just to say that the picture given to us by the prophet is that everything else is lowered and Jerusalem is exalted because there's where the king is, because he shall be preeminent. In verses 12 through 9 it describes the plague, eternal death. This plague, what is this plague of which he speaks in verse 12, and this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that fought against Jerusalem, all who hated the Lord and the Lord's people.
What is this plague? This plague is a fixed state of unrighteousness, the greatest of all plagues. To be fixed in a state of unrighteousness and to never have hope. As he says in Revelation, he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. It is everlasting death, it is unending barrenness, it is everlasting thirst, it is everlasting blindness, separation, it is the loss of all things, it is confusion and it is chaos.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Zechariah says earlier in his book, after the glory he hath sent unto me in the nations which has spoiled you, for he that touches you touches the apple of my eyes, Zechariah said earlier in the book. And he will deal with those who touch the apple of his eyes, those whom he has set his love upon. And it says that their flesh consumes away from them while they stand. It is a terrible vision of eternal death where the worm never dies, the terrible gnawing of the conscience of the damned. There is nothing worse than to have a terrible conscience that you have done wrong, like the pit and the pendulum, where the man couldn't stand it anymore and he confessed his sin.
He said, I killed him. He's beneath the floor because his conscience was killing him. And so the damned shall be like that forever and ever. Their flesh shall consume upon them while they stand. That is, they shall exist, but they shall exist in eternal death.
And they shall wish that they could die, but they cannot. And it says in the last verse of Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 24, it's the last verse of Isaiah after he talks about the new heavens and the new earth. And in that last verse Isaiah says, and they shall go forth, that is the righteous, and they shall look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not die and neither their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh. It's an interesting text. I do not know if that means that we shall in the New Jerusalem be able to see as well the justice of God being carried out.
And we would think that would despoil our happiness. It will not spoil our happiness even as it was spoken last night. No, they shall be in a whoring of all flesh. They shall say yes. And it says in Revelation that the smoke ascends.
And as the smoke ascends, he says, hallelujah. Hallelujah to God. Pusey writes, it is the act of God and his individual justice to each one of those who gathered against him one by one Their eyes their eyes which said let us look upon Zion with joy and her desolation Their eyes are taken away. They are forever blind to the glories of Christ, forever blind to the beauty of holiness. In their tongue that was used to slight the king of glorious consumed away in their mouth.
They will never sing his praises. They are forever silenced as guilty before God. We will have to move past the rest of that section. There is in verses 17 through 19 a picture of, in verses 16 through 19, it talks about the Feast of the Tabernacles. I believe this is figurative because the Feast of the Tabernacles are not going to be reinstituted.
That was done away in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what the Feast of the Tabernacles was, was that it was a time of rejoicing. They remembered that they were pilgrims and strangers upon the earth, but now they had been gathered into the Promised Land, and that's why he uses it here, because the saints have been gathered in. And it is this feast of tabernacles spiritually. It is that we are rejoicing because we were pilgrims and strangers on the earth and molested by the unbelievers.
But now the earth belongs to us. And God takes away all their treasures as the text points out. And he gives it to the saints, because the saints shall inherit the earth. But now let's go on to our text, where we're really supposed to be. We'll finish out here, but we needed to lead up to it, in the final triumph of holiness.
Look at verses 20 and 21. The final triumph of holiness is the Saints being fixed in a state of holiness and the Canaanite no longer found in the house of the Lord. He's gone. What does holiness to the Lord mean? Jeremiah says this, Jeremiah 2 in verse 1, because we want to understand what does this word mean?
Holiness to the Lord. Because in verse 20 it says, In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, holiness to the Lord. Jeremiah 2 and verse 1, Moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem and say, Thus saith the Lord, I remember you. I remember the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals when you went after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to the Lord.
He says, I remember this time. It was a time in which Israel was holiness to the Lord. They had left Egypt. They had trusted God. And though we had those incidences of rebellions among him, yet there were the saints there too.
And they trusted the Lord and they were with the Lord in the wilderness and the Lord was treating them like a little child he was bringing them along and when the cloud came down and it stayed there they stayed like stay child and they stayed and when the cloud lifted up they said now it's time to go and they went and they were fed manna from above and water out of the rock and God took care of them he says I remember those days they were the days of my espousals when I belong to you and you trusted in me and you were devoted to me you were holiness to the Lord and everything in the temple was holiness to the Lord They would take the blood from the basins and they would take the utensils and they would sprinkle the utensils with blood. And therefore these utensils now, which could have been common utensils, belong to the Lord in the service of the Lord. And That's what a Christian is. A Christian is someone whom God has sprinkled with his blood, the blood of his son, so that a Christian is not common anymore.
He is devoted to the Lord. He is not profane. He is sacred. He belongs to the Lord. He is holiness to the Lord.
We have a picture here when he says about this, here in the old King James they capitalize it, Holiness to the Lord. Because in a very special way the high priest was set apart for the service of God he had garments given to him And when Aaron was set apart for the service of the Lord, he had these garments and they said the garments were for glory and for beauty. To magnify the glory of God and also the beauty of holiness. Because Aaron represented the Lord Jesus Christ. And he had the names of the tribes inscribed because they were upon his heart.
But he also had a plate, and this plate was on the tiara, and the tiara, the plate was just above his forehead and it was visible. It was the visible testimony of who this man was and it was holiness to the Lord. That testified to all who saw the Holy, this high priest, that he belonged to God and to God alone. And it was evident by that in that when Aaron's sons died, Nadab and Abihu, and they were killed because they brought strange fire, that Aaron was not allowed to touch them, Aaron was not allowed to go to the funeral. Aaron belonged to the Lord and it was set right over his forehead.
It was upon his mind and his heart. The Lord Jesus Christ was and is holiness to the Lord. As that plate was inscribed in gold, that incorruptible metal, so this truth, holiness to the Lord, was incorruptibly inscribed upon the heart, the mind, the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. From his inmost being, he was holiness to the Lord always. Both outwardly and inwardly, he was a perfect display of the holiness to the Lord.
He longed only to do his Father's will, to make known the glory of his father. He was zealous in the work of God. When he ran the money changers out, it was remembered by them the Old Testament prophecy, the zeal of the Lord has consumed him. He was and is in a perfect sense holiness to the Lord despite the cost to his person. And even as he grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, how does the Lord Jesus Christ grow in favor to God?
He grows in favor to God that as a man, as he is presented with each new trial and difficulty and temptation, he perfectly makes his way through it because he is ever holiness to the Lord and he will ever do the will of his father, even though the cost gets greater and greater his whole life. And even as God brings us along too, but it is only as we obey him and we find ourselves holiness to the Lord that he will make the cost greater and greater as we are found faithful to him. And here it says that even inscribed upon the bells of the horses this Hebrew phrase, upon the bells of the horses, holiness to the Lord. The point is obvious and powerful by choosing this insignificant piece of equipment and inscribing on this insignificant piece of equipment holiness to the Lord. The bells of the horses were for ornaments.
They have pictures of them in the East. They use these bells and they drape over a cloth and put bells on them. They were ornaments for the horse. They were absolutely unnecessary. Parts of the horses harnesses.
Hengstenberg says, here in a very deep truth is contained with the fall of man originated a distinction between the holy and the profane, the sacred and the common. For we know that Adam, all that he had and all that he was, was holy to the Lord in paradise. But Hengstenberg says, but God has purposed to abolish this distinction and give sole dominion to that which is holy while the prince of this world strives on the contrary to abolish that which is holy. In the last day, all things will be perfected in holiness. In heaven, we shall only and always help each other on to God in worship and service to God.
So that it says in verse 20 that the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. The pots that were used by the priests that weren't sanctified in a way in which the basins were, the basins which caught the blood were considered more holy, while the kitchen of the priests, they had pots and things that they used to boil things in and for the sacrifices that were their part. But here he says that distinction is taken away. That the pots in the Lord's house should be like the bowls. In other words, everything will be a holiness to the Lord.
There will be no sacred and profane because it will be all sacred. It will all belong to the Lord. Verse 21, and every pot in Jerusalem and in Judea and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord. So he descends now away from the temple and away from the basin that catches the blood and away from the pots that are in the priest's house. And now he says, in every household, In every household, every pot in Jerusalem shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts and there shall be no more Canaanite.
Canaanite symbolizing the unconverted. There are no more unconverted in the house of the Lord." Hengstenberg says, here's an instance of an idiom whereby the ungodly members of the theocracy themselves are meant in mockery of the arrogance founded upon the outward participation of the same, are thus designated as heathen or uncircumcised." Isaiah used to call the princes of Israel the princes of Sodom because they were uncircumcised in the Lord. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. So let us now be holiness to the Lord. We see what our end shall be.
The end of the Lord is graciousness and goodness. The end of the Lord is holiness, and this holiness is a perfect peace flowing out of Jerusalem. And this holiness is one king with one name, and this holiness is all of our joy. And so we are to be holy to the Lord. What does it mean to be holiness to the Lord?
It means to be devoted to Him entirely. So it means in your calling, whatever your calling is, that you are to be devoted to the Lord in it. It means in your marriage that you are to be devoted to the Lord and your spouse is devoted to the Lord and your children are devoted to the Lord. They belong to the Lord, they don't belong to you. And your wealth doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the Lord and your cell phone it belongs to the Lord.
Holiness to the Lord and your PC at home perhaps you should write on it holiness to the Lord so that no wickedness is seen upon it Or perhaps in the morning when you do your devotions, do you do your devotions on your PC? Some people do their devotions there, but they have so many problems because when they open up that PC, it opens up their mind to their email and to everything else. And they cannot concentrate truly upon the Lord. Perhaps you need to just shut that PC down and get your old Bible out and just be holiness to the Lord. It all belongs to him.
So we have seen number one God will purge his church to the very end his church shall suffer the molestation of the world why because he loves his church because they are his children because they belong to him he will discipline them why does he discipline us why does he bring us through great trials because otherwise we would be wretched. We need it to be holiness to the Lord. Secondly, God will fight for his church and holiness shall triumph in the destruction of the unclean on the earth. Thirdly, holiness shall triumph when King Jesus shall reign unopposed with his scepter of righteousness upon the earth. Fourthly, holiness shall triumph when the saints are fixed in that eternal state of righteousness and holiness.
And knowing this is the end for which God created the world to be holy and blameless before him in love, let us seek to be holy to the Lord, devoted to magnify his name. All we are and all we have. Father, we thank you for your word. We ask that you would take your word now and that you would strengthen our hearts with it, that we would be holiness to the Lord. We thank you for that great work of our Lord Jesus Christ by which you shall bring all this to pass.
In whose name we pray, Amen. Www.ncfic.org where you can keep up to date on what is new as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge. The N-C-F-I-C exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life. You