Well dear Grace, let's continue to worship our God by considering His word this morning. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 2. Zechariah chapter 2, for those of you who are visiting, we have been working through the night visions of Zechariah. And Zechariah is the second to last book in the Old Testament. And this morning, we find ourselves in the third vision of Zechariah, the third vision of Zechariah. So we're gonna hear from Zechariah chapter two, verses one through 13. Zechariah chapter two, verses one through 13. So let's listen carefully, for this is the word of the living God. The prophet says, Then I said, where are you going? And he said to me, to measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length. And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, run, say to that young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. and I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst. Up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. Up, escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. Behold, I will shake my hand over them and they shall become plunder for those who serve them. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people. and I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you, and the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. Thus far the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Would you bow your heads with me this morning? Let's ask the Lord for help as we come to the ministry of the word. Father God, we thank you for the pictures that your prophet Zechariah has given us, and we pray, Father, that you would enlighten our minds and hearts this morning to understand this picture, and it's in its simplicity, Father. And we pray that we would see Jesus. We pray that we would see His program, His purpose, and His love for His people. And we thank you, Father, that you have given us such rich promises that break in from the future into the now time, that we might take them up, Father, and fight for joy, and fight against despair, and fight against anxiety, and fight against sin, and all the dissonant voices that call to us from this world. Help us to hear the voice from heaven as Christ speaks to us, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. Well, when I was a teacher many years ago in San Diego, one of the things that we did at the beginning of every year is we had professional development. And in professional development, that's the week or two where the kids are not there and it's just development of faculty and so on and so forth, the headmaster gave this exercise. And what she was doing was trying to show how different people think in different ways. And she led us through this exercise where she basically said, okay, imagine you are coming into an empty room. And as you come into this empty room, okay, if you are already imagining how you're going to furnish that room and what things are gonna be on the wall and what things are gonna hang from the ceiling and what paint you're going to put on the wall, then I want you to come stand over here. and almost everybody went over there. The only people that didn't go over there was myself and one other female. And she said, now, if when, on the other hand, you come into a room, you don't see or envision everything that's gonna be in there, but you just see an empty room, come stand over here. And she and I came and stood over here. And it just goes to show that some people think with a different part of their brain and see things in a planning sort of way, in a creative sort of way, that others don't. And I think it's something like a sculptor when he looks at a block of marble. That sculptor doesn't just see that block of marble, that sculptor sees that which is going to be chiseled out of that block of marble. And I think the same thing goes for architects, some of whom we have in our own congregation. They come to an open field and they might take out their measuring line and they might make measurements and after making those measurements in their mind's eye they can see that building that is going to be erected with all of its beauty and all of its color and all of its splendor. And that is really the theme that we see here in the third vision. God comes to us as a builder, and we've already seen this in the second vision a little bit, but God is taking out his measuring line, and he is in that post-exilic stage of Israel's history saying, I'm going to build up a temple again. But beyond that physical temple, God is giving to all his people a picture of the ultimate temple, the ultimate city, the ultimate Jerusalem that's coming in the new heavens and the new earth, and he's presenting it to us in sort of a trailer form. You think of movies, right? You watch the trailer of the movies, and that trailer of the movies gives you a little taste of what is to come. And in some respects, that's what the Lord is doing here. He's giving us a trailer of the new Jerusalem. And He wants us to go with Him on this journey, if you will, this vision, if you will, and have our appetites whetted. He wants us to see the splendor of the new Jerusalem so that we can be so filled with it. that we remember our identity as Christians, that we remember that all that we see round about us is not the permanent and ultimate state, but there's something better coming, there's something bigger coming, there's something more comforting coming that will soothe our anxious hearts and take away the pain that so often grips it in this now time. And is this not what Abraham did? The author to the Hebrews says that Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer, you might even say architect and builder, is God. And this is what Zechariah wants us to see this morning. He wants us to see that God is building a city. We might have thought that in the garden when Adam and Eve fell, that all hopes of that city was lost, but to the contrary, out of the ashes of despair and loss, God furnished a ruby of hope in the first telling of the gospel, Genesis 3.15, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent, and that ruby only becomes brighter and bigger and more beautiful as redemptive history moves forward. So I just want to leave with you two thoughts this morning, just two very simple thoughts. And here's the verse thought, as we think of this theme of the builder. Remember what's coming to you. Remember what's coming to you. We see in verse two, he says, then I said, where are you going? And he said to me, to measure Jerusalem. to see what is its width and what is its length. The Lord of Hosts comes to us and he's saying, I'm going to build a city and I want you to imagine this with me. I want you to imagine what shall be, because what shall be is very, very important. God is preparing a place for you to inhabit. God is preparing a place for you to inhabit. And we hear the echoes and the whispers of this in the language of Jesus in John 14. He says something similar. He says, let not your hearts be troubled. believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself "'that where I am you may be also.'" Now what's interesting about this language that Jesus gives as a builder of sorts is that he begins this phrase by saying, let not your hearts be troubled. Now why is that interesting? That's interesting because he knows that his disciples' hearts were troubled in that time, and he knows that the source of the trouble in the hearts of his disciples were temporal things. And yet, in order to comfort them, he doesn't give them a temporal resolution or a temporal solution, he gives them a future solution. I'm going to prepare a place. And if I go and prepare a place, when I come back, I'm gonna take you there and we're gonna be in that place together. Not you by yourself, not me alone, but all of us together. And what He is saying to them and what He is saying to us, dear children of God, is that future promise of a place that is even now in some way being built, a way that I can't totally comprehend, is supposed to extend into the now time and give us comfort now. Now this really is what theologians and teachers and authors mean when they talk about having an eternal perspective. Not so much a temporal perspective, as Paul says, because temporal things are passing away. The world and its passions are passing away, but the one who does the will of God endures forever. And part of the will of God is that you embrace this kingdom that is to come. But not only is God preparing a place for you to inherit, but we could think of it the other way. God is preparing you to inhabit that place. He's preparing a place for you to inhabit, but He's also preparing you to inhabit that place. Have you ever walked by or driven by something that's being built? And you wonder, I wonder what they're making there. I'm just so curious. There's no sign up. The only sign that's usually up is the sign of this construction company, right? And you're like, that doesn't help me. I wanna know what they're building. And I think that that's a very good analogy for kind of our sanctification. Because the Lord has a funny way, a curious way of throwing things into our life. throwing wrenches into our plans, slowing things down, speeding things up, turning the heat up. And so often we're focusing on the thing in front of us. I can't believe I can't find my keys. But maybe the question we should be asking is, what is the Lord trying to teach me by not being able to find my keys? That's that curiosity that takes us to a different level and looks at things from 30,000 feet and says, I know that the Lord has something in store for me through this trial, what is it? And that's what the mature Christian is asking. The mature Christian isn't so much asking in a cul-de-sac kind of way, God, why are you doing this to me? That question might be there. But the mature Christian will proceed to, Lord, what is it you're trying to teach me? Is there some comfort in my life that I'm holding on to so tenaciously, I'm white-knuckling it, and you're saying, I don't want you to white-knuckle that, I want you to white-knuckle the promises that I give you, and so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna throw things into your life that's going to challenge the sufficiency of that thing, so that you let go of it and grab on to me. Too often we take a posture of anger or victimhood when God throws us into the furnace of affliction, but instead we should be focusing on what the Lord is trying to teach us, how He is trying to grow us. I know that in my own life when I get impatient with my children, with my wife, I know that one of the things the Lord is trying to teach me is patience. One of the things the Lord is trying to teach me is to help me see the person who's in front of me and not so much look at the problem as much as the person. The Lord is trying to teach us these things. So God is preparing a place for you to inhabit. God is preparing you to inhabit that place. But then also, what's interesting about this passage is that God is preparing a place for all. Notice, notice, if you look at verse, let's see, verse four. Run to say to the young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. Now I want you to jump down to verse 11. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people. and I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you." What this is prefiguring, beloved, is the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God. Now you must understand that in that time, among the Jews, such a thought was incongruous. Because in the old covenant, basically, if you wanted to be part of the people of God, you had to become Jewish. Not that you would be born again in a physical way and not be born as an African or a Portuguese or whatever, but you'd be born as a Jew. No, you had to take on the customs of Moses and circumcision and follow the law of God. But this idea that Gentiles, just in a flagrant way, would be part of all peoples, all nations would stream into it, was something of an incongruous idea. But Zechariah takes it even further in Zechariah 9-7. You don't need to go there, but I'm gonna read this from the King James, because I think that the King James version gets it more accurate. Speaking of that time when nations will come into Jerusalem, when God brings everybody together, it says, Zechariah 9.7, sorry, let me turn there. Zechariah 9.7 says, Starting in verse six, a mixed people shall dwell in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of Philistia, that's the Philistines. I will take away its blood from its mouth and its abominations from between its teeth. It too shall be a remnant for our God. And in the King James it says, and he shall be as a governor in Judah. ESV translates it a little differently. What is this saying, coming back to Zechariah 2? In that day, God is saying, when all the people will be as one, a Philistine will be as a governor in Judah. Now you have to understand just how scandalous that was. Who was one of the greatest enemies of God's people? Goliath, the Philistine. And the Philistines were synonymous with wicked people. And here the Jews are hearing from the prophet of God that in that day there will be no walls and there will be this open village and everybody will inhabit the city of God. Now, I tried to think through what would that be like us hearing today? Well, it would probably be like hearing something like this. Your local drug dealer will be a governor in Judah, okay? The prostitutes and the tax collectors will be governors in Judah. Jesus said something similar, didn't he? The prostitutes and the tax collectors will enter the kingdom of heaven before you. Now, make no mistake, not as prostitutes, not as local drug dealers, not as tax collectors, but those whose lives were once marked by this, but then they repented and believed in Jesus Christ. Those people will be those who inhabit the city. And what does this point up? It shows, it points up the magnificence of grace. That God's grace is so strong and so broad and so deep and so wide that it could break through the habits and the lifestyles of even the most wicked people in the world. That's what the gospel does. Christine and I were, at the park yesterday, and we were talking to a man who, you know, claimed to be a Christian. We had a wonderful conversation. He's from Greece, and we could tell that he didn't know his Bible very well, and he was more caught up in icons. He was Eastern Orthodox, and we were just talking about the gospel, and he had this kind of blank look on his face, and he was trying to tell us, like, you know, there are some people, you know, who You know, think that they identify as a woman, and even though they're a man, and that's okay. I mean, it's not okay, but it's just kind of what it is, and you can't really change that. And we said, no, dear friend, the gospel changes things like that, you see. The gospel will come into the life of somebody who is riddled with sin and sinful habits and sinful behaviors, and it breaks the shackles of those habits and proclivities. There is nothing else in the world that can do that, beloved. There's nothing else in the world that can radically change somebody from being a murderer to repenting of his murder, from being an idolater to repenting of his idolatry, from being an adulterer and a drug addict and so on and so forth to one who repents of those things. Only the gospel can do that. I think that's really what Zechariah is getting at here. But what's interesting is He presents the new heavens and the new earth as a place without walls. I always find that very interesting. We hear a lot of debates today about walls going up and whether that's a good idea and a bad idea. And the fact of the matter is, no walls is a great idea in a world where there's no centers. But in a world where there are centers, there's reasons for walls. But in the new heavens and the new earth, it'll be marked by, in this kind of picturesque way, no walls. But instead, the glory of Israel will be in their midst. So God is preparing a place where he will be the center and the wall of fire and the glory in her midst, and that is coming. So the second thing I want us to see this morning is this. Remember who you are in a land which promotes eschatological amnesia. Remember who you are in a land that promotes eschatological or heavenly amnesia. Okay, what do I mean by that? Look at verses six and seven. This is very interesting what the prophet says here. Zechariah chapter two, sorry, I got into another book here. Zechariah chapter two, verses six and seven. After he has given the vision, now in verses six through 13, he's gonna give what's called an oracle of salvation, a message of salvation, a message of hope. And he says, up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. Verse seven, up, escape desire on you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. Now this is interesting because God is addressing these people as those who are in the land of Babylon. Now there's two things going on here. What you have to remember is this is post-exilic Judah. So some of those who were in captivity had already come back to the land. On the other hand, some were still in the land of Babylon. Now you say, well, wait a minute, Babylon wasn't in control. Persia was in control. That's right. But Persia didn't necessarily pluck some of those captives from Babylon and take them to Persia. Persia just took over Babylon and that became their kingdom, but they kept them there. But some of those Jews came back and some of them stayed back in Babylon. And I think God through this is addressing two types of people. Number one, those who were already in the land but saw themselves as captives or victims." What do I mean by this? Well, it's interesting in verse 6 and 7, he says, "'Up, up, flee from the land of the north,' declares the Lord, for I've spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens,' declares the Lord." Some of those who had come back were in the land, and they saw the walls being built, and they perhaps even saw the walls of the temple being erected, but in their hearts they still saw themselves as captives. They still saw themselves as victims. They couldn't get away from that mentality that was created in those 70 years of exile of You are a victim. You are a captive to Babylon. And that identity shaped them. And that's how they thought about themselves. And perhaps they even thought, woe is me, woe is me. And they couldn't get away from that identity. And what God is saying here through the prophet Zechariah is, up, up, get away in your hearts, as it were, from an identity that sees yourself as shackled to this identity, that sees yourself as shackled to these sins. And I think we act the same way sometimes. I think that whether it is anger, or whether it is a battle with pornography, or whether it is gossip, or whether it is an addiction, or whatever the case may be, sometimes we take on this victim mentality, or this kind of defeatist mentality, that that's just kind of who I am. That's just kind of who the Lord has made me to be, and you know, I try as I may, I've tried generation, or year after year, and even my family, going back generation after generation, has tried to overcome this, but we can't, and it's this victim mentality that people have, and God is saying, Up, up, flee from that mindset. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. You see, God doesn't want us, listen to me, God doesn't want us to stay walking in the sins in which He found us. He wants us to be sanctified. You know what that means? That means that we're gonna have to be killing sin. That means that we're gonna have to be making plans to kill sin. That means that we're gonna have to be intentional. That means that we're gonna have to be intentional in our own spiritual life. We're gonna have to be intentional in of fostering unity and love and communication in our marriages and in our other relationships. It means that we are going to intentionally not put ourselves in places where we are susceptible to a particular sin. All of this, beloved, takes planning. And it's something that you have to start with getting out of a victim mentality, well, this is just who I am, I can't do anything about it, woe is me, and say, no, this is not me. No temptation has come upon you except that which is common to man. God has given me the ability, God has given me the spirit, God has given me the power to overcome these things. I remember talking to a man years ago who was struggling with pornography, and he said something that I've always remembered. He said, you know, I'm so steeped in this stuff that I can't imagine a world where I'm not looking at this stuff. It was almost like air to him. It was like an air supply to him. And that's the very thing that we need to get away from. We need to get away from this mentality that I can't do without it. No, you must do without it because it's not who God has created you to be. So that's the first kind of person, but then this is interesting. There's a second kind of person that he's addressing in verses six and seven when he says, up from the land of the north. There were people who were still in Babylon. They were under Persian dominion, but they were too comfortable to leave. Josephus tells us in Antiquities that some of the people didn't come back right away at Cyrus' decree because the little life that had been created in Babylon, quite frankly, was very comfortable. They had their possessions, they had their little routines, they had everything that was there, but it's not what God wanted for them. God wanted them to be in the land. God gave them the promise that they would be in the land, but they didn't want to leave it. And I think that that's an analogy as well for us. Some of us are in sinful relationships. Some of us are in sinful circumstances. And the fact of the matter is, it's not that we can't get out of them, it's that we don't want to get out of them. We're happy in them. And what we need to realize is that happiness is a feigned happiness, it is an artificial happiness, it is a superficial happiness. God has something so much better for us and we would pay attention to it to our delight. I want you to look at verses eight and nine now. It's very interesting, verse eight and nine he says, For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. You know, this phrase is where we get the phrase apple of his eye. I believe it came from the Bible. And I want you to see here, dear congregation, how precious this is. God sees you as exceedingly precious and valuable not because of anything within yourself, but because He looks at you through the lens of Jesus Christ, who has robed you with His righteousness in such a way that His law-keeping and submission and obedience is your law-keeping and submission and obedience, and His blood-atoning sacrifice is that which covers you. God does not see the sin. He only sees the righteousness of His Son, and that's why. In the same way that God can say from heaven when Jesus was baptized, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He says of us, these are my sons and daughters with whom I am well pleased. Why? Because they believe in Jesus Christ and therefore they are the apple of his eye. Are you the apple of God's eye this morning? Well, I'll tell you this, if you do not turn from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ, you are not the apple of His eye. And rather, this next phrase in the text is for you. Look at verse 10. 9. Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who serve them. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. This motif of a shaking of the hand, it's something that we see throughout scripture where God brandishes his arm or his hand to reveal his power, and it is almost always in the context of judgment. He saved the people of God by brandishing his arm and his hand at the Red Sea, but that same arm and hand is the arm and hand that caused the waters of judgment to come down on the Egyptians who were the enemies of God's people. And here's the thing, a day is coming, beloved. A day is coming, dear friend, you who do not believe in Jesus Christ, where if you are not the apple of God's eye through faith in Jesus Christ, you will be the subject over which God will shake his hand in judgment. You see, God judged Jesus Christ so that all those who believe in him would not have to be judged, and you could run for refuge to him and be safe. The author of the Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 that God is going to shake things once again. Listen to this, Hebrews 12, 25. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake, not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of all 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. Dear unbeliever, please listen to me this morning. I come to you as a servant of the Most High God, and I beg with you. I beg you and I plead with you. Do not be the subject or the object over which God shakes his hand. God is coming again to shake all things, I promise you that. And if you don't believe me, let me just humbly submit this. For hundreds, even thousands of years, a promise went out among the people of God that Jesus Christ would come, the Messiah would come. And for thousands of years, people, especially those people round about Israel said, you guys have been saying this for millennia and he still hasn't come. And then 2,000 years ago, a virgin was found with child. A virgin was found with child by the Holy Spirit. And that child was born, and salvation was brought to the world through his sacrificial death. There once again, and they're saying, you've been saying that for millennia. But just as the track record of his first coming came true, so the track record of his second coming will also come true. Jesus Christ will come to shake the heavens and the earth, and the question is this, will you be an object of his shaking, or will Jesus be the object of his shaking? And if Jesus was the object of his shaking 2,000 years ago, then you will not be shook. The things that cannot be shaken will remain, and you will be one of those things which cannot be shaken in the new heavens and the new earth. And this is why, this is why in verses 10 through 12, the prophet breaks out in ecstasy, as it were, and commands the people, sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. So this morning, dear people of God, Go to the Lord God at the foot of the cross. The glory is there at the foot of the cross. The glory is there because that is where God and man meet. It is a reminder of Eden where God and man walked in unhindered and unfettered fellowship. And it is a foreshadowing of that place, the new heavens and the new earth, where we shall once again do the same under the banner of the conquering Christ. Let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for this third night vision. We thank you that Christ is our righteousness. We thank you, Father, that we shall not be shaken because you shook him. We thank you, Father, that you will be the glory in our midst. We thank you that even now you are preparing a place for us. And I pray, Father, that our hearts would turn to that place, even in this time. I pray that in submitting to the instruction of our Lord, that our hearts not be troubled, that we will remember that you are preparing a place, and remember that you are preparing us for that place. Help us, Father, to give room, as it were, to the Spirit's work in our life. Help us to hear the voice of your Son speaking from heaven, for we ask all these things in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand, we're gonna sing the Gloria Patri.