leading us and laboring through the difficulties of what we need to take and what stanzas to do. Criticism from the floor when he skips a stanza. All kinds of stuff. It's just a hard job. Brother, we're going to double your pay. Dr. Gingery used to mention how much he was paid to lead singing in Greenback. It was nothing. But anyway, turn with me tonight if you would to the prophecy of Zechariah. Last Lord's Day evening, we just sought to introduce Zechariah. He is again among these three post-exilic minor prophets. He was contemporary with Haggai Haggai was probably significantly older. The portion that we will look at this evening, probably in the earlier years of his ministry, Zechariah exercised a link to that ministry, perhaps something in the neighborhood of 50 years. And the latter portion of his prophecy in some of those get quite specific with regard to Israel's future. And things that are still future for us are probably written near the end of his ministry. But what we begin to look at tonight, and I say begin because there are eight visions that come in rapid sequence in the opening portion of his prophecy. Dream that will get through this evening. My original thought was for tonight and for next, but I'm not thinking. A little time that one is really the third chapter, which is the one we mentioned last week. the high priest's change of garments. I think there's been many a soul touched by Dr. Barrett's lectures on that third chapter over many years. And while I mention his name, I am going to shamelessly steal, repeat from our brother tonight as we come to this portion of Zechariah. Zechariah 1. I want to begin reading verse 7. I'm going to go down through verse 17 because this is the first vision. And then I plan to break into the message and read a couple of the subsequent visions that we'll consider together tonight as well. But Zechariah 1, beginning in verse 7. Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sabbat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom. And behind him there were red horses, speckled and white. Then said I, O my Lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will show thee what these be. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest. And the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?' And the Lord answered, and the angel that talked with Me with good words and comfortable words. So the angel that communed with Me said unto Me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease. For I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts. and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, My cities, through prosperity, shall yet be spread abroad. And the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem." Lend our reading. Again, trust the Lord to bless the public reading of His Word. Let's bow our heads together as we begin to consider His Word. Heavenly Father, we rejoice to come in this evening hour and gather with Your people. We could almost say it were enough to be gathered to sing, to worship a God who's worthy. But yet, Lord, we do come again to Your Word, that central point of all our gatherings. and we ask that You would help us tonight. Lord, these portions, some things were hard to be understood, and yet, there is help for us. And we pray that You will then give us that help. Minister to us. We pray it all in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. One of the things that we suggested last Lord's Day evening is that Zechariah with his lengthy ministry actually came to be martyred at the end of his ministry as we find record in the Gospel account. The last, as it were, the bookends of the prophets that were slain in the Old Testament Scriptures. And to me, in many ways, it's a remarkable fact Because Zechariah, though he with the other prophets, did not hide the Lord's displeasure with various of their sins. Haggai, you remember, was pointing out people that had drifted into sin from their original discouragement because of the ceasing of the building of the temple. and drifted into that realm. Well, if we can't go forward as it were with the Lord's work in this way, we'll just still focus on our own lives. And the Lord challenged them for that. But Zechariah overall was a prophet of hope. Zechariah's prophecies, his preaching was with regard to a downcast and a small and despised remnant. And yet, he prophesied glorious things. how He came to be despised and thus cut off and martyred is a testimony to the depths of sin. How quickly people even who have been blessed can pass into sin and even to apostasy. But as we come to these eight visions that really are made up of the opening half or portion at least of Zachariah's prophecy, it is highly possible that all of these visions occurred in one night. We just have the occasion put before us in the first vision. The Lord spake again and the Lord spake again. And so these visions, whether that's entirely understanding or not, Dr. Barrett puts it forth, But these are visions that God gives the promise to put before His people. Those that speak, we come to this one, we'll see in a moment, the angel of the Lord Himself. It wouldn't qualify, I guess, as a true Christophany, a theophany, Christ pre-incarnate appearing in the Old Testament because, well, it's a vision and not one that appears tangibly to awake and conscious people. But nonetheless, the angel of the Lord. As I said, I don't know how many I'm thinking tonight we'll come to the first three of these visions in our thoughts. Some of them are more lengthy. We read already in chapter 1. The second vision is the remaining few verses of the first chapter, so it is much more brief than the first. And then the third vision I hope that we come to tonight is longer again as the first. But this vision then that we come to this evening the man among the myrtle trees." We have taken time to look in the past and look at the angel of the Lord and how it is for us pre-incarnate appearances of Christ. This vision and others have some difficulties, if you will, because the angel speaks at one point and is spoken to by the Lord at other points, and yet in our understanding of Trinitarian doctrine, These aren't problems for us at all. But this man that is among the myrtle trees, identified as Christ, and if we can look at the myrtle trees, this grove of trees down in the hollow in the bottom as it's described, has Israel itself. Fragrant and yet in a difficult place. There are horses. There are nations that are depicted by these that are seated. And if we read and see the description as these that walk to and fro through the earth, we find them sitting at ease. We find them described in verse 15, yet in a further way, I'm very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease, for I was but a little displeased and they forward the affliction." What is the picture that's before us here? This vehicle describes the 70 years that Israel, this people, have been in captivity. God has solemnly used the nations to bring this captivity to pass. These nations, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Zachariah will live even to the Greek period of these four successive empires that we find here and in Daniel. These were instruments in God's hand. God had prophesied in the books of Moses that when Israel went into apostasy, they would be scattered abroad among the heathen. When they repented and returned, God would bring them back to the land. All of this we've seen remarkably first thought up by the Gentiles when it was God's time and God's purpose to work thus with Israel. But for all of God's using these Gentile nations to chasten His people, they are not free from their own sin and how they pursue it. And we see that they helped forward the affliction. They were eager and ready to put down this despised people. But there's a man that is in the midst of his people. There's a man who will only let that despising, that abusing of his people go, but so far. And what is described here, and if I can borrow the words of our dear brother, is the reversal of fortunes. These nations that have oppressed Israel are for a season at peace. They have prosperity. They have power. They have dominion. But yet it will not last forever. The Lord of hosts, we read in the end of this, verse 17, my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad. And the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem. God one day will disturb the peace of contented Gentile nations. He will yet again bless and choose His people. Whatever persecutions Whatever trials, whatever oppression the Lord in His sovereignty sees fit to let His people, whether it is national Israel in these Old Testament days or the New Testament church in the times in which we live, God will not utterly cast His people away. He will remember the remnant of His heritage. He will visit the sin of those that persecute His people. He will let their seeming triumph pass away. And He will bless His people. You come to the second vision. As we read together there, Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns. And I said unto the angel that taught with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered in Jerusalem. and the Lord showed me four carpenters. Then said I, what come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns of Judah, so that no man did lift up his head. But these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horns over the land of Judah, to scatter it." This more brief vision is simple enough to understand. Horns in the Old Testament Scripture are frequently used of power. Used often of the power and strength of nations. These horns are the nations that have come against Israel. Now, it may or may not be significant that there are four of these. There are four empires in the book of Daniel that we see and we believe. Those four empires comprise what is described even in the New Testament as the times of the Gentiles. It may be instead that these four horns represent the four directions of the compass as we speak, the four corners of the earth. Whatever it is, it is the sum in total. It is the apparent strength of the nations that oppress God's people that is in view and described in that powerful way. Again, I've said I wasn't ever going to be a farmer. I guess if the Lord had called me to it and given me strength, He would have given me a desire for it as well. But livestock and large animals, powerful indeed. these large and powerful nations that have afflicted. Perhaps if we see that final form of Gentile power that is yet future for us, who's able to make war with the beast, we would read in God's Word. But all that power is easy enough for God to deal with. These four horns that come against God's people There are four carpenters. Four that are ready to simply cut off the horn, remove their power, and let God's people be released. God's power is more than a match for the powers of Gentile nations. But I want to come to chapter 2 and read this chapter together as well. This third vision that comes to Zechariah in the night. If we find in the first vision a reversal of fortunes, the Gentile nations that are currently at ease will be put to trouble and Israel blessed. If God, as we see in the second vision, has power enough to dispense with the power of the Gentiles, here as we come to the third vision, we see described blessing that is beyond even our greatest expectations. Read with me chapter 2. I lifted up mine eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. And said I, whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the moulding of men and cattle therein. For I saith the Lord will be under her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." Ho! Ho! Come forth and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, saith the Lord. Deliver thyself, O Zion, and dwell with us with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you. For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his hand. For behold, I will shake my hand and they shall be a spoil to their servants. And ye shall know that the Lord of hosts is with them. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion. For lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know Me. Silent, O all flesh before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy habitation. The third vision, as we suggest, is that of blessing. And blessing that is beyond expectation. Here we have the vision of a man with a measuring line. It's remarkable as you see the instructions given to him to go and to measure Jerusalem In the opening five verses, we find that God's purpose for His people is greater than expectation. If you think about it in this season, it's going to take faith for a man to go forth and begin to measure the dimensions of Jerusalem. This Jerusalem is still in many ways a pile of rubble. They're building homes. They're clearing little spots. They've begun the work of the temple. It's not precious. It's not beautiful. It's not thriving. It's not something that the Queen of Sheba will want the nations to come and see. Why go and measure? It's only going to prove to be discouraging. It takes faith for the man with the measuring line to go out and measure the city. And he's told in these opening five verses to go forth to measure it. And Jerusalem is going to be as a town inhabited, as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. Walls are for the protection of a city. Walls are to keep out the marauders and the villains and those that would come and fight against them and carry them away. There's going to be a day in which Jerusalem won't need walls. There's going to be a day in which God Himself will be a wall of fire round about Jerusalem. He'll be the glory in the midst of her. And if it takes faith for one to be sent to measure the city and look at it in its current state, what kind of faith does it take to be told that there's going to be a point at which this city is going to be too big to measure? God's blessing is going to be beyond what certainly they currently see, and even beyond what they could expect. From verse 6 to 9, we also see the truth put before us that God's protection of His people inspires confidence in their service and in their duty. We have the picture here of those that would come and touch God's people, and that is like touching the apple of His eye. Here it is, that center of the eye, the pupil itself. I knew at one time, Kevin may know. These are one of those facts you can look to him. How quickly does a human eye respond and blink when something flies into it? It's fast. He'll know I'm sure in an hour or two, but it is in that way, something so vivid to us, how sensitive our eyes are to anything outside God says those that would come against My people, it's like touching the apple of My eye. That is an amazing thought to consider with regard to the preciousness of which God holds in His people. We talked this morning about some of the transitions of emphasis and thoughts within the church, and bondage theology a little bit, and then the antinomian response to that a little more. But what a remedy in coming to understand grace, bondage tendencies. God set His love upon us while we were yet sinners. He loved us because He loved us. He chose us because He chose us. But in setting His love upon us, we are the apple of His eye. And for these that would seek to hinder them, God gives the warning. He will come suddenly to the defense of His people. And in this view of protection, it's interesting that he challenges the people that are in the north. You get the map of the Middle East out and you look at Jerusalem and it's really more of an east-west thing than a north-south thing. But if you understand in the ancient world and what we speak of as the Fertile Crescent from Mesopotamia through Israel and then down into Egypt They traveled and would have traveled from the north into the holy land. And so, even those as patterned from the east would come from the north and approach the city. And it would be from the north that those returning would come. If you remember in Jeremiah, the people were told, anticipating captivity, to go. to build houses, to live there, to seek the welfare of the city whereunto they were sent. But then when they were called to return, for some decided to stay and keep the comforts of the new homes they had built. And it was that smaller remnant that came to live in this despised and troubled land. But here the call is to those that are still there. Come. Be from the land of the north. Come into this place that God has promised to bless. That God has promised to protect. It's the apple of His eye. And this encouragement of God's love and protection is even a motive for separation. For identifying with His people. To be numbered among them. Whether they're despised here. Whether they're persecuted here or not. They're special to God. Protected by God. And then from verse 10 to the end of this chapter and its vision, we see that God's presence with His people is reason for joy. We see here, it says, sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion. Verse 10, For lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. The root of the word to dwell here is the same as the Shekinah glory. It is pointing us here then to that glory of the presence. We speak often of the abiding presence of the Lord's people. I remember the early days in Greenville when I was a student still at BJ. Dr. Cairns very often would close his prayers in the evening service with the phrase, be the abiding portion of all your blood-bought people. And I asked him once going out the door, was that a particular reference? And he said, well, it's just kind of more a combination of a lot of different truths, but the presence of the Lord in and among His people. That abiding presence. And here, God promises that presence to His people. And that then is a source of joy. And if we read in v. 11 again following, "...And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of thee. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me. And the Lord shall inherit Judah, His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again." Here we find, as we've seen harbingers of throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, the promise, the prediction, the understanding of the inclusion of Gentiles among God's covenant people. Of course, the New Testament Scriptures, the New Testament church is the fulfilling of this promise, the in-gathering of a people. Here is a new Jerusalem, new borders, as it extends to the ends of the earth in that commission we read and act. It is whether the ultimate fulfillment of these promises brings us to a new Jerusalem here where our scholars and prophecy teachers have to wrestle and work through some of the questions. But the bigger question, the bigger truth, there's no doubt about it all. God is blessing Jerusalem in a totally unprecedented way by sending the Good News of our King to the ends of the earth. And we, as we see here, are joined to them and the Lord dwelling in the midst of us, even tonight. We come to the last verse of this vision and we will close tonight with this. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for He has raised you out of His holy habitation." Be silent. A hush. A calm at thoughts of the Lord's purpose, the Lord's protection, the Lord's presence among the people. I found it interesting just to read that in our brother's book on the exilic prophets. You probably have caught it. I've highlighted it. I've preached on it. I've repeated it. But this last couple of years when troubles, the downward spiral of sin in our culture just seemingly escalating out of proportion, to have a calmness, God is on the throne. None of this catches Him by surprise. He's able to save a people even out of the deepest darkness of the sins of our age. Again, we read that remarkable thing in Corinthians. Such were some of you. But you're washed. We can, with Zechariah speaking to Jerusalem in troubled days, Days, yes, of release from Babylon, and yet, where's the promise? Where are all these things we've anticipated? What we're seeing now is small. It's small enough to be despised, and yet, these visions will bring us... Let us hush. Let us be calm in the presence of a God who protects His people and promises to dwell in their midst. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, we ask tonight that You would be pleased to grant us grace as we would read and see these prophecies given of days gone by and yet living in the fulfillment of the mercy of the Lord. Corners of the earth have been given the knowledge of the Gospel of God. Lord, bless our Departures to our homes and our varied occupations. Lord, we stand in need of help as pilgrims in this crooked and perverse generation. Let us shine as lights. Let the joy of the Lord be our strength. Lord, may it be such that men ask a reason of the hope that lies within us. Lord, take up something even of these perplexing symbols at times in the prophets and encourage us in Your purpose, Your presence, and Your power in the midst of Your people. We pray it in Jesus' worthy name, Amen.