congregation, we come now to the ministry of God's word. So I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn in them to the second to last book in the Old Testament, the book of Zechariah. And we're gonna be looking this morning at chapter one, verses seven through 17. And as you're turning there, I'll just remind you, especially those who are visiting this morning, we've spent three weeks on chapter one, verse eight, and identified the rider upon the red horse the deep and the myrtle trees. And now we have our interpretive key to now look at these eight visions. We're gonna look at one this morning and understand what it meant for post-exilic Israel and what it means for us today as the new covenant people of God. So this morning, I will read in your hearing, Zechariah chapter one, verses seven through 17. Listen carefully, for this is the word of the living God. The prophet says, on the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Shabbat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berekiah, son of Edo, saying, I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees by the deep, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, what are these, my Lord? The angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are. So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, these are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, we have patrolled the earth and behold, all the earth remains at rest. Then the angel of the Lord said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah against which you have been angry these 70 years? And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who talked with me said to me, cry out. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease. For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, thus says the Lord of hosts. My city shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem. Thus far, the reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever, and we are thankful for it, are we not, congregation? Let us bow our heads this morning in solemn anticipation that the Lord would send his spirit from heaven upon our pleas to work this word of God into our hearts. Would you bow with me? Father God, a man is never more dependent than when he stands in the pulpit and depends on you, Father, to do the work of the Word. And here I stand, Father, begging you to send your Spirit from heaven that this Word might become like fire within our bones. And as we have already heard in the prayers and comments this morning from other pastors, Lord, it's no secret. We are well aware in the events of the last few weeks, perhaps even the last six months, politically here in America, of what the writing on the wall is for Christians who genuinely devote themselves to the triune God and who genuinely desire and are determined to meet together with your people to worship, knowing that and proclaiming that and taking joy in the fact that Christ and not Caesar is the head of the church. But Father, we know, for the writing is on the wall, what that may mean. And Lord, I pray that you would give us, in the midst of this satanic deep, the confidence to trust in you, just as we heard from the psalmist this morning in Psalm 46. Whatever the waves and billows be, that you are our captain, Jesus Christ, and you will lead us through. You will navigate us through the waters of the deep. You will bring us out of them, just as you brought the children of Israel out of the deep of the Red Sea, just as you brought life and order out of the chaos of the beginning, you will bring us through your myrtle community. So Father, we believe, help our unbelief this morning we pray, in Christ's name, amen. When my family and I lived in Louisville, Kentucky, we attended a church. It was a church that was composed of many, many spiritual giants as far as I'm concerned, men and women and teens who loved the Lord with all of their heart and were willing to lay down life and limb for Him and His message. There was a man, his name was J. Max Stiles, I believe he's still there, who has been a missionary all over the world. He's one of those kind of missionaries at large. And this is the kind of man, and I think we have some of these in our congregation, I thank God for this, the kind of man who, he will turn any conversation, he doesn't care what it's about, he will get to the cross, he will get to the gospel, and just with no fear. I mean, perhaps he might have some fear, but if you're looking, you can't see it on his face. And he would tell many stories, but he tells the story of a time that he was in Guatemala amongst a indigenous people of Mayan descent called the Ixil people. And he was with a group of students, and one of these students was from Colorado, and she was a translator, and she was translating the story that this Ixil woman was telling. And she told this story as they got to a ridge and they came to a cave. And as the translator was translating, she basically said, as this woman was speaking in this indigenous language, some offshoot of Spanish, this is the cave where they killed my grandfather. This is the cave where they killed my grandfather and 20 other Christians as they were in a prayer meeting. Sorry. This is the cave where they killed my grandfather. And there was silence among the students and J. Max Stiles, some students were crying as she went into detail of how helicopters, government helicopters surrounded this cave. And then they sent in troops and they began to shoot these people. But then they decided that they wanted to save their bullets so they took out their knives and they savagely killed them. There was silence. There wasn't a dry eye in front of that cave. And it was the Ixil woman who put her arms around the translator, and it was comforting her. And J. Max Stiles said, this is holy ground. Let's pray a while, and they prayed. I have a question for us this morning. What do you offer a person who has suffered such an act of meaningless violence and injustice? Whether it is the senseless slaughtering of Christians who were just going to a cave, assembling, not in a building where there's indoor plumbing, but are going to meet the God of heaven and to ask him to bend his ear down to the saints as they lift up their ardent cries to him. and they're senselessly slaughtered by the satanic deep and his hordes and his henchmen. What do you tell them? What do you tell them that's gonna give them hope? Do you tell them, well, let's, this is a socialist society, this is a communist society, let's try to get a capitalist society going in some grassroots effort. Let's vote in the right politicians. No. That's not going to undo the injustice. It's not going to balance the scales of justice. It's not going to give enduring hope. Well, you say, well, what does telling somebody that their sins are forgiven going to do? Well, that's what I want to talk about this morning. You see, the message of the gospel is so much more than your sins are forgiven. It is that, and I bless God for that. It is that your sins are covered under the blood of Jesus Christ if you repent of your sins and believe in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to your account. But if you stop there, you will have no enduring hope for a woman like this Ixil tribe woman who lost her grandfather and other members of her family to senseless violence. No, you need to go all the way to what the gospel promises. It goes beyond a right standing before God. It takes you into the new heavens and the new earth where the judge of all the earth will do right. The judge of all the earth will do right. And kings and kingdoms that rage, they will be put down. They will be put down. Why do the nations rage? Why do they set themselves against God's anointed? But as for me, I have set my king on Mount Zion, the holy hill. Bow the knee, kiss the sun, lest he be angry and tear you to shreds. The son of God is reigning on his throne, beloved. And frankly, I am sick and tired of hearing of all the political turmoil. I don't care. I don't care. I care, I care about my children's life and what it will mean for them, trust me. I've spent endless minutes, hours on my knees in prayer to God that he would do something, but at the end of the day, when I stand in this pulpit and when I go out into my sphere of influence, I'm not campaigning for a politician. I'm campaigning for the king of all the universe and the message of hope that he brings to break into the hearts and lives of people who shake their fist at him. That is the message of the gospel. Don't sell it short with just your sins are forgiven. Yes, that is true, but bring to bear the breaking in of the eschaton and the promise of the gospel and give it to people unashamedly with all its power. How much hope-filled, awe-inspiring hope of the new heavens and the new earth has energized your evangelism this week? How much hope-filled, awe-inspiring hope of the new heavens and the new earth has energized your discipleship relationships? How much hope-filled, awe-inspiring hope of the new heavens and the new earth, listen to me, has gone with you into this sanctuary right now, such that, as we say over and over and over again, this is not a social gathering. This is a breaking in of the new heavens and the new earth upon the people of God, the myrtle community who embody the sojourning identity of the people of God from the beginning of time until the end and the promise of the new heavens and the new earth in their breast as the Holy Spirit of God, the environment of heaven dwells within their midst. We are standing shoulder to shoulder in this place and we're looking over the stormy banks of Jordan into the new heavens and the new earth. And if you don't bring that into this place, and all you can think about is what's gonna happen on Monday morning when Northam is gonna ramp up efforts to enforce the mask mandate, you're missing your identity and promise that Jesus Christ has given you through his conquering blood. Pointing people to the fullness of the gospel is what Zechariah is doing here, although in veiled form. In verse 13, we read that Zechariah is given gracious and comforting words. They are gracious and comforting words, and that's what I wanna talk about this morning. But before we get to these gracious and comforting words, I wanna ask, the question, in what way are they gracious and comforting words? And I wanna submit to you this morning that there's two ways, or on two levels, that they are gracious and comforting words. And this is gonna be very important as we get into this text of this post-exilic prophet. They are first gracious and comforting words to post-exilic Israel. You might call it on that first horizon. The first horizon of Zechariah's day. The horizon of the post-exilic community. Zechariah is crying aloud. Like a later prophet in the New Testament, John the Baptist, he's crying aloud in his time, in his wilderness, in his way as an Old Testament prophet, and he's giving gracious and comforting words to Israel. And indeed, those gracious and comforting words had already began to manifest themselves and blossom because out of the captivity and judgment of exile, they were being brought out. They were trickling back into the land of promise that God had promised to their forefathers. And so already, Already they were beginning to see the manifestation of these gracious and comforting words. They were beginning to build the wall. There were plans in place to begin to build the temple and Zechariah and his contemporary Haggai were beginning to exhort the people, stay the course, put on a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other and let us build this temple so that we can worship our great God. But, but, it's clear. It's clear that the ultimate fulfillment of these gracious and comforting words was not to be seen in the post-exilic time. Because what we know is that Israel doesn't stay in the land. We know that, don't we? We know that they don't stay in the land, we know that the temple is eventually destroyed, and we know that the Jews are scattered into the four corners of the earth. So if there's any manifestation of these gracious and comforting words, it is only temporary, it is only earthly, it is not enduring, it is not perennial, it is not ultimate, it is not final. So that's why I want to focus this morning on the second horizon, the way in which these gracious and comforting words are for the church, for all peoples in all times and all places who name the name of Jesus Christ. And that's really what Zechariah is getting at, even if he doesn't totally understand that that's what he's doing. These gracious and comforting words on the lips of Zechariah are pointing ultimately on that second horizon to the new heavens and the new earth. But they will be typified in the return of God's people into the land, the building of the temple, the building of the walls, and the reuniting of God's people. These are all pictures. They are all types. And I'm going to say that over and over and over again because if you don't understand the life of Old Testament Israel as types and pictures and shadows of Christ, of the people of God, and of the new heavens and the new earth, you're never going to understand the Old Testament. That's what they are there for. And so if I could lay down a principle, what I'm going to call a hermeneutical principle would be this, the prophets will often depict, paint, picture Israel's experiences as earthly, temporal pictures of either our spiritual pilgrimage or of eternal realities. Okay, let me say that again. When prophets like Zechariah are talking about Israel's experience in this time of post-exilic Israel, Palestine, He's doing so as a picture. Think of yourself in kindergarten and you're seeing pictures because you don't know yet how to write. You don't know yet how to add and subtract and do those things. So he's given us pictures. The Old Testament people of God was the kindergarten people of God. It was the people of God in kindergarten being taught about something greater that would come. So these experiences of Old Testament Israel are earthly temporal pictures of either the church's spiritual journey, eternal realities and if you just want a text to verify that I'm just gonna read it you don't need to go there but Paul says this in Romans 15 for for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through the through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope So let's look at these gracious and comforting words. But before we do, very quickly, I just want to review from Zechariah 1.8 very quickly. The rider upon the red horse is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord. The deep is the satanic kingdom. Okay, in all ages and in all times, any kingdom, any manifestation of opposition to the people of God, whatever it looks like, whether it's the flavor of Babylon or the flavor of Medo-Persia or the flavor of the Greco-Roman world, any opposition to the people of God is represented by the deep, its billows and its waves and its sinking waters. And then the myrtle trees represent many things, but basically they represent the redeemed people of God. They are us, they are pictures of us as we embody the identity of a pilgriming people, just as they would meet in the booths, in the Feast of Booths, recognizing that they don't have a permanent home, they're moving through the wilderness and they are pitching their tent, they're putting their little booths up, waiting for the ultimate booth, the ultimate building to be to arrive, but then also of our, the myrtle trees represent the eternal reward of the new heavens and the new earth. So now I want you to look at three things this morning. The first thing is this, first thing is this. In verses 9 through 11, We see the state of the world report. Boys and girls, listen very carefully. The rider upon the red horse is the angel of the Lord, and he tells these other, you might call them spies, you might call them patrolmen on the other horses, go out and reconnoiter the earth. Go out and spy upon the earth and bring back a report to me. And so these horsemen, they come back with a report. Look at the text, Zechariah 1. He says, verse 10, so the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, these are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth. Verse 11, and they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, we have patrolled the earth and behold, all the earth remains at rest. So boys and girls, what remains at rest? All the earth, all the earth remains at rest. Now the question we need to ask ourselves is, is that a positive report or is that a negative report? Is that a positive report or is that a negative report? Well, before we get to that question, let me just give a little aside, okay? Notice that the angel of the Lord is the one who carries the jurisdiction to go out and send these patrolmen and reconnoiter the earth as if he seems to own the whole earth. Isn't that interesting? He seems to be the one who's saying, go out and look at my land and see what is going on. Go out into my kingdom and to the farthest reaches and tell me what we have to deal with today. Before we go any further, I want you to rest in the comforting reality that Jesus Christ has complete jurisdiction over all the earth. He does not need to ask permission from anyone to go and reconnoiter his land. The square inch, all the square inch under which he claims this is mine, he has jurisdiction over all the earth. But now what's the problem here? Before I answer the question, is this report that the earth remains at rest, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, let me just contextualize things for a moment. This is 520 BC. It was about 70 years prior that they went into exile. Now it's 70 years. They've been in the land for about 15, 20 years, but still the temple is not built. The wall is slowly being built, but animals jump on top of it and it starts to topple down. It's not going very well, okay? What were the people of Israel expecting? I'll tell you what they were expecting. Turn very quickly to Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 10. You cannot understand whether this report by the patrolman is a good report or a bad report until you look at what Jeremiah prophesied would happen after the 70 years. Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 10. Now this is Jeremiah prophesying before they go into exile, okay? And he says, this is very important, Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 10, this is in the midst of many prophecies that he's giving to the people of God, but I just pulled out one to give you a context. He says this, then fear not, O Jacob, my servant, declares the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from this land of their captivity, Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid." And what you need to know is that word quiet is the exact same word that in Zechariah 1.11 the patrolman used to describe the state of the earth. So what do we see here? The people of Israel were expecting the fulfillment of a promise that says, I will bring you back into the land and I will give you peace. You will be at rest. Every Israelite will sit under his olive tree and there will be peace throughout the land. Peace, peace. And then the patrolmen go out and they say, the whole earth remains at rest and in peace. Who is the earth? The earth is the satanic kingdom. The earth is all the kingdoms of the world that should be not at rest, but be in turmoil amidst themselves. You see, the nation should not be the ones at rest. It should be Israel, according to this prophecy, that should be at rest. And so this is a negative report. This is not a good report, you see. And the people of Israel are concerned because I would be too. If God gives you a prophecy and then he says in 70 years it shall come about, and then 70 years come about and what you heard and what you're seeing are not matching up, you would be disturbed as well. Lord, why aren't the nations in turmoil? Isaiah 57, 20, but the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. That's what the patrolmen should have seen. Well, so then the question remains, when will Jeremiah 30, verse 10, this promise be fulfilled? Well, I want you to look at verse 12 and consider secondly what we're calling the eschatological delay. Not seeing what Jeremiah prophesied is an eschatological delay. The promised peace that would surround Israel, no enemies, no attacks, but they would be in peace just as was promised to their forefathers is not happening. There's a delay in the delivery of this promise. So, in verse 12, who is it that cries out, how long? Well, note this very well. It is the angel of the Lord. This is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, and he says in verse 12, O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah against which you have been angry these 70 years? Once again, let me ask a question. Is there no way in which this was being fulfilled during that time? Well, yes, there's a preliminary way. There's a kind of a limited way in which it's being fulfilled. I mean, after all, God did say he was gonna send them back in the land, rebuild the temple, and the temple rebuilding is going along. It's not going along as planned, but it's going along, and Israel is receiving some semblance of return to normalcy. But it won't be everything they long for. Nations are still at rest. That is, they have no intention to recognize these nations, Medo-Persia and the other nations, they have no intention of making the kingdom of Israel, if you will, the center of all things. You say, well, why would they do that? Well, that's what God promised. That's what God promised in the book of Isaiah. That's what God promised in the book of Jeremiah. If you go and read the prophecies of Isaiah, it says, and Jerusalem will be the center of the world, and all the nations will stream into it, and Israel will teach them their law from Mount Zion. But that's not happening, and they're expecting it to happen, Israel is. We'll turn very quickly to Haggai, just a few prophets over. Haggai chapter two, verses six through nine. Because something very interesting happens here. Haggai chapter two. verses 6-9. Remember that Haggai is a contemporary of Zechariah and Haggai gives a prophecy in that time. This is what he says in chapter 2 verses 6-9. Listen, he is telling the nation in that time For thus says the Lord of Hosts, yet once more in a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations so that the treasure of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of Hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of Hosts. But once again, we never see that happening. And that is why in Hebrews 12, verses 26-29, The author to the Hebrews picks up that prophecy from Haggai, and he catapults it into the future and says, oh, this shaking's gonna happen, yes. We may have seen something of it in the post-exilic time, but nothing like it's really gonna be in its ultimate fulfillment. And the author to the Hebrews says in chapter 12, verses 26 to 29, at that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised Yet once more, quoting Haggai, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. What did the author of the Hebrews do? He took that prophecy by Haggai, and he said, here's the fulfillment, people of God. It's in the new heavens and the new earth, when on that day, things that cannot be shaken will be seen all around. You will be surrounded by it. No political kingdom, no king, no dominion will be able to shake it. So this is an eschatological delay, but you might be asking, well, why did God not fulfill it in Israel's day? I'll tell you why, very simply. Two reasons, two reasons. Number one, Israel was still under the Mosaic Covenant, and the Mosaic Covenant was and is a covenant of works. And we know that, not for heaven, a covenant of works to come into the land and remain in the land in peace. God made a covenant with them. If you're obedient, I will give you the land, but if you are not, I will spew you out. If you've studied history for two seconds, you know that that's exactly what God did. He spewed them out of the land. They could not keep the covenant of works that God had given them, and yet when they came back into the land, listen to this, they came back into the land, they had new hopes. Remember in the book of Nehemiah? All right, it's a new leaf. We're turning over a new leaf. Build the temple, build the walls. And oftentimes the book of Nehemiah is preached in such a way as, man, this is a good proof text for working. I mean, look, and it is, you know, on the first horizon. But you know what, the book of Nehemiah is actually very depressing. Israel comes in, they're like, alright, we learned our lesson, 70 years in exile, no more idols, okay, no more idols, don't worship those idols anymore. Let's just worship the triune God, let's do exactly what he says. And by the time you get to the end of Nehemiah, what's going on? The people of Israel are intermarrying with people who are not of the people of God. They're bedding down in the temple of the Lord. I mean, there's just sin going on all over the place. And what does Nehemiah do as the leader of God? You budding pastors, I don't recommend this. He goes up to them and punches them in the face and pulls their hair out and is rebuking them. Once again, don't recommend this, okay? Nehemiah is not an encouraging book. You know what Nehemiah is an echo of? Do this and you shall live. Nehemiah is an echo of do this and you shall live. In fact, beloved, listen to me. The very last word in the Old Covenant, Malachi 4, verse 6, is harem, curse. It's the very last word of the Old Testament. Why? Because as the Old Testament pages close, here's what we're left with. Israel must keep this covenant of works in order to receive on the anti-typical level, the spiritual level, the promise of heaven that the land on the first level typifies. But as we close the book of the Old Covenant, no one is able to do it. Israel has failed. She has been spewed out of the land. She is in exile. She is scattered throughout all the four corners of the earth. But as the pages of the New Testament open, we hear a voice crying out in the wilderness, and he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Behold the true Israel. If this teaches us anything, it teaches us two things. Number one, Israel did not get the full fulfillment of God's promise because she did not give the obedience that was necessary to get it. But number two, the true Israel who can get it and can give it is Jesus Christ. And what's so fascinating in Zechariah 112 is the one who's praying that the Lord would stop delaying this promise and give it is Jesus Christ, and he's the one that's going to accomplish it. Isn't that fascinating? Jesus prays to the Father for that which He will be sent to accomplish when He becomes man. So Israel can't give obedience, but the one who is praying for it can and does. So that brings us finally to number three, the gracious and comforting word. So I want you to notice, I want you to notice here, In verse 12, the angel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ, he cries out, how long? Verse 13 is basically a summary answer of verses 14 through 17. What's about to come is gracious and comforting words. Now we don't have the Lord of hosts, i.e. we could say the Father answering, but what seems to happen here is that the Lord of hosts does answer, Okay, the angel of the Lord, but he gives that answer to the interpretive angel, the angel who was talking with Zechariah. And so starting in verse 14, the interpretive angel takes that answer from the father and he gives it to Zechariah and he says, Zechariah, cry out and tell them these gracious and comforting words. So that's what's going on. And what we see under this head is two things, very important, that the angel of the Lord is the executor of the covenant's dual sanctions of blessing and curse. And we're going to see that. First, as he's giving this answer, we see in verses 14 and 15 that God is angry with the nations. Look at verse 14 and 15. Zechariah chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. So the angel who talked with me said, cry out, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, and I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease. There it is again. For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. What's going on here? I'll tell you what's going on. Way back in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 32, Moses sung about how at the beginning when God partitioned out the nations and was creating the earth, this is around the time of the Tower of Babel, he was putting the nations here and putting the nations there and putting the nations there. And interestingly, if you look at the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 32, it's fascinating, he puts a fallen angel over each one of those nations, very interesting. And that is their patron God for those nations. the patron God that they end up worshiping throughout history, and some of them are still worshiping today. But it says in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 8 and 9, but Israel is mine. So all the nations are dispersed, but Israel is mine, and I am her covenant Lord. I am her suzerain, her covenant Lord, and she is my vassal, my covenant servant. suzerain, vassal. Does that mean he never punishes her? Oh no, he does. And in fact, because she would not keep the terms of the covenant under Moses, he punished her by sending her into exile under Babylon. Well, who raised up Babylon? Was God just wiping his hands of it? No, God's the one that raised up Babylon to punish his people. But here's where the jealousy comes in. Zechariah says, I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion because the nations whom I'm angry at, they furthered the disaster. Another way to translate that is they helped for evil. What does that mean? Well, let me put it this way. They went beyond their jurisdiction in their punishment of Israel, and they did more than the Lord raised them up to do. They got haughty. They got exalted. They said, oh, God, the sovereign God has raised us up. We will punish Israel, and we will do more. And God, in effect, is saying, Babylon, I raised you up to punish my people. I didn't tell you to force them to break the first and second commandment by worshiping your golden idol. And if they didn't do it to throw Daniel and the three youths into the fire, I never told you to do that. I never gave you jurisdiction over that. You have gone beyond your jurisdiction, and so I am angry at you, and I am jealous for my people." Why? Well, God, how could you be jealous with them? You're the one that punished them. Yes, but Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31, or 29, 11. Yes, but I know the plans I have for Israel, even though I punished them according to the statutes of the Mosaic Covenant, I still in mercy remembered the promise I made them in the Abrahamic Covenant, such that through my prophet Jeremiah, I say I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. So Babylon, you exceeded your authority, you exceeded your jurisdiction. And oh, Medo-Persia, you've done the same thing. You said, Cyrus, that you would send them back into the land, and from your treasuries, you would help rebuild the temple and the walls. And you started out well, but then when they got in, there were reports coming from their enemies saying, oh, they're trying to take over the world. So you stopped the construction, and you stopped giving them the money, and you did not fulfill the plans that I sovereignly intended that would happen for them. You have gone beyond your authority. You have helped for evil. And I would say this, any nation that does that today, God is angry with them. And let me just say this, let me say this, Babylon was judged, Medo-Persia was judged, the Greco-Roman world was judged, Augustine wrote a whole book about it. Each one served, listen to me, each one of those nations served as a pseudo-Suzerain. a pseudo-Suzerain. They were trying to say, oh God, you called us to be a punisher of your people, but they took more power to themselves, and they were trying to assume to themselves the position of God's suzerainty, but God said, no, you are a pseudo-Suzerain, and even today, that same term can be applied to anti-Christ. That's what they are, they're anti-Christ, who would persecute the people of God. I just saw this week, I don't know if the story's true, it probably is. I read a story that said, globally, the most persecuted people around the world are Christians. I read a story that said that, and I don't deny it. And beloved, it has happened in every age, and I think many of us are recognizing that we may be going into a season where it's gonna get ramped up, it's gonna get hotter. We're like the three yewts, outside the furnace, and we see the fire, we feel the fire, and perhaps fear is welling up in your heart. Well, I just wanna remind you, number one, when the nations exceed their authority, their jurisdictions, and start to persecute the people of God, and oppress the people of God, the rider upon the red horse stands by the deep and he is angry with the nations and he will judge the nations and he will guard and protect and preserve his myrtle community. So that is the curse upon the nations, but now look in verses 16 and 17 upon the blessing upon the myrtle community. Notice that he says in verse 16, I have returned with mercy." This is interesting because in verse 3 of the same chapter, remember he gave that call to the people, return to me says the Lord of hosts and I will return to you says the Lord of hosts. But we know that Israel did not return to them, but we know that the true Israel on behalf of his people did return to the Lord and made restitution through the atonement of His blood on the cross of Jesus Christ. And so now God is able, because of that action, to say, I am coming to return to you. And I am not returning to you with judgment, but I am returning to you with mercy because of what Christ has done. And look at verse 16, it says, this is interesting, fascinating. It says in verse 16, How should we understand this house and this measuring line in the second horizon? We should understand it as the new heavens and the new earth. God has stretched out his measuring line. We actually see this in Job chapter 38 verse five when it describes God stretching out his measuring line to create the earth. And then the next time we see it, this figure of stretching out a measuring line is in Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 38 through 40 when he's talking about that eschatological kingdom. And Jeremiah 31 happens to be the classic prophecy of the new covenant of the people of God. So what he's describing here is the new Jerusalem of which Jeremiah spoke. building, this house that he is building is the new heavens and the new earth. And what's interesting is, it's not just Jerusalem, he says, all my cities. He is claiming ownership over all the earth. So just as it was the Lord God who stretched the line over the earth in the beginning, so it is he who does so again as he builds the new Jerusalem in his creating of the new heaven and new earth, the event which Jeremiah and Zechariah prophesied. But in the new heavens and the new earth, it is not a physical temple, it is a people. And John tells us that in Revelation chapter 22. In the new heavens and the new earth, what will populate that cosmos is Christ and his temple people. So for now, beloved, listen to me. We continue to exude the identity of the myrtle community as we do not see this place as our own. We are the age that are crying out, how long? We are the age, the church age. And this church age is succinctly described in Revelation 20, where it describes that time between the ascension of Jesus Christ and the second return of Jesus Christ. John metaphorically describes this as 1,000 years. It is not meant to be taken literally. It is meant to be taken as the time between Jesus' ascension and return. And if you study it carefully, nowhere Nowhere in Revelation chapter 20, which describes this age, does it depict the church as a political dominion. Nowhere does it describe the church as having triumphed. In fact, in fact, it depicts the church as martyrs whose blood are being shed. Revelation 6 10 Christian martyrs are still rising, raising the cry of how long under the altar. The martyrs were told to wait a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been. So this is a time when believers are being beheaded, Revelation 20 verse four, for the testimony of Jesus Christ. You should not expect things to get better. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Now, don't get me wrong, it'll ebb and flow, right? There'll be fits and starts, okay? There'll be times when God will, through his common grace, pour out upon kingdoms of the world, maybe revival, that will happen. And I don't know when Jesus Christ is coming back, but here's what I do know. When we look out into the world, we should not look in a hopeful way for Christians to be received and accepted in a loving way. It's just not gonna happen. It's just not going to happen. Until the final trumpet sounds and there is delay no longer, and the time has arrived for the dead to be judged and the saints to be vindicated, we cry out, how long? It will continue to ring from the soul of the church. Until he who promises, yea, I come quickly, does come, the church in the wilderness by the demonic deep will be pleading out of the depths in its great tribulation. We continue to say, amen, come Lord Jesus. But during that time, beloved, listen to me. You take this image with you into your prayer closet. You take this image with you as you go into this week. By that satanic deep is the rider upon the red horse. nor in anything that it does, but my hope is in the world which is to come, it's actually going to make your life easier. In what sense? That you don't expect great things from this world. You don't expect great things from this world, but you expect great things from the rider upon the horse in the world to come. Until then, this light momentary affliction of this age will continue to work for us a far greater and eternal weight of glory. So beloved, as we go into this season, this unknown season, where it's already starting to happen, restrictions are threatening to disrupt our corporate gatherings. Who knows what's gonna happen? Well, look further into the future. Look further into the future, beyond a year, beyond the next four years. Look to the new heavens and the new earth. Let's pray. Oh, Father God, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the gospel, Father. We thank you that it's not just getting out of trouble, though it is that. But we thank you, Father, for its robust nature, that it gives us new heavens and new earth. As I've been saying, Father, it creates in us a new ambiance of heaven on the inside, and then that new creation on the inside breaks out into everything around us and spreads like wildfire when your Son is sent from heaven to make all things new. Behold, I am making all things new. And this promise is trustworthy and true. Father, help us to cling to that this morning, tomorrow, as we go into this week, as we talk about it in our home groups this week, Father, and help us to prop up one another's drooping arms and drooping limbs and direct our gaze to the new heavens and the new earth so that we could be faithful men and women who wave the flag of Jesus Christ, not a political flag, but the flag of the cross, for it is under the cross that we conquer. We thank you, Father, that you've not just made us conquerors, you've made us more than conquerors. It is in Christ's name we pray, amen.