Armerding, Carl: The Lord's Coming-01 ~ His Coming And Israel

Of Zechariah. Now read through the first verse of chapter thirteen. The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I'll make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of, the Lord of hosts, their God. In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, like a torch of fire on a sheep, and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left. And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. It shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart. The house family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart. And the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart. And all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Now, so far in this series, we have been working up to this point. We began last Lord's evening with the promise of our Lord's coming as given to us in the fourteenth chapter of John. Well, perhaps we have the, shall I say, the briefest account or description of that coming that we find in all of the New Testament. There the Lord Jesus is content to tell us that if he goes away to prepare a place for us, he'll come again to receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also. And in those few words, he gives us the promise of his coming. We notice that in the epistles we have more details of that. For example, in First Thessalonians four we get the same terminal points, the Lord himself coming and our going to be with him forever. But in between we have these added details that the dead in Christ are going to rise first, we who are alive and remain are going to be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now, these are details we didn't get in John fourteen, but they all fit in between those terminal points. And from First Corinthians fifteen we learned that we shall all be changed at that same time. The corruption must put on incorruption, referring to the resurrection of the dead, and the mortal must put on immortality, referring to the change that overtakes the living. And in the third chapter of Philippians, Paul gives us even further details when he says, our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look to the Savior, the Lord Jesus, who shall change these vile bodies or these bodies of humiliation and fashion them like unto his own body of glory, according to the working whereby he is able also to subdue all things unto himself. So you see, you get a lot of details in the epistles concerning the coming of the Lord. Then we notice that these details, which we have just been noticing, there are at least five of them, they do not fit into the other prophecies concerning the coming of the Lord, where it speaks of his coming in judgment. We were noticing in Matthew twenty four the post-tribulational coming of the Lord, entirely different from this. And even that passage which is sometimes taken to refer to the rapture, that is where two are in one bed and one should be taken and the other left, we discovered that the illustration which the Lord Jesus Christ uses determines the meaning of that statement. He uses the illustration of the flood. He says, as it was in the days of Noah, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered in the ark, and the flood came and took them all away. Even so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man. Two shall be in the bed, one shall be taken and the other left. And we take it that those who are taken are taken in judgment, and those who are left are left behind for blessing. Tonight, I think we're going to see some of the ways in which God will prepare some to be left behind for blessing in this passage of scripture which we have read. We want to think now, and especially in terms of Israel and the Lord's future dealings with them, quite different from the rapture. It's true the word rapture is not found in the text, but I don't know how else you would find a synonym for the expression caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. It's just a matter of a synonym, is the word rapture. So often we're accused of inferring things here, and it's pure inference, we are told, but there are many other things in scripture which are inferential. Take, for instance, the doctrine of the Trinity. That is inferential. There is no statement in the Bible which says there are only three persons in the Godhead, and yet we believe that. We infer that from the fact that these three persons are mentioned together and equally one with the other. So we infer the doctrine of the Trinity. Again, we've been told that there's no such word in the Bible as the imminent return of the Lord, but I don't know how in the world you can explain the attitude of the Thessalonians who turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven. What are they waiting for? If this thing is still two thousand years in the future, why wait for it? Why look for the Savior from heaven if it isn't imminent? And what do the words, behold, I come quickly, mean if they do not mean that his coming is imminent, that is liable to happen at any time. So, even though these are things which we infer, we believe we have solid ground for our inferences. But now let us turn, as I say, to this chapter. The nation of Israel has a double future. It has both a political and a spiritual future. And the first part of our chapter deals particularly with the political side of things, and the latter half of it deals with the spiritual side. And we want to look at these, each by themse- by itself. You notice how God is introduced in this chapter. Most remarkable description of God, the most remarkable title. As a matter of fact, many of these titles in the Old Testament are very wonderful. We find a greater simplicity in the Old Test- in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus, God is called the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or he's called our Father which art in heaven. But here, God is described as the one, first of all, who stretches forth the heavens, secondly, as the one who lays the foundation of the earth, and thirdly, making it very individual and personal, who formeth the spirit of man within him. I'd like you to notice these things. He stretcheth forth the heavens. He measures them, as it were, with his span, as we read in the fortieth chapter of the book of Isaiah. And when you and I think of what's out there in the heavens, which men are trying to explore tonight, they're even seeking, as we know, to get closer to the planet Venus to see what it looks like. Uh, we, we ask ourselves, uh, how much, how, how much have we lost in not considering the fact that it's God who has stretched all this out like he would a curtain, and he's able to do it. He's the only one who is able to do it. Secondly, he lays the foundation of the earth. And how interesting it is, for example, when you study a subject like geology, to discover these layers and these foundations of the earth, and to discover his footprints in those foundations. I remember when as a student I was called upon to examine some of the life types, the fossil life types found in some of the strata of the Earth's surface, and I came across the, uh, the fossil of a little creature called a trilobite, so called because its body was made up of three lobes, trilobite, incidentally related to the sow bug that does so much damage in, at least in our eastern gardens. And I was looking at this thing through a magnifying glass, and uh, suddenly I paused to laugh. And my professor was standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. He said, what's so funny about that, Armerding? Well, I said, uh, it's very interesting to me, doctor, to see, uh, in this little creature with its three lobes the mark of the triune creator. He looked at me, he said, uh, what do you say? Well, I said, I think I can see in these three lobes, in this little creature, the stamp of the being that made it, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The professor looked perplexed. He thought perhaps I was just imagining things. So I said, you know, doctor, we also have that stamp on us. Spirit, soul, and body, and in that order. That's the way the scripture puts it in First Thessalonians five. Yes, man is a tripartite being, and in being a tripartite being, he bears the stamp of his triune creator. There it is upon him. And how interesting it is to find a reference to that in this statement here, who formeth the spirit of man within him. I remember some years ago ministering the word down in the state of Florida, and uh, Dr. Barnhouse, the late Dr. Barnhouse, was there at the same time ministering, and someone came up to Dr. Barnhouse and asked him, if, if after the spirit leaves the body, it has anything by which it could be identified. And Barnhouse looked at me, he said, uh, you take that, Carl. And I said, all right. I said, I've got a scripture for you, lady. I didn't know her name. I said, it says in the twelfth chapter of Zechariah, he formeth the spirit of man within him. And I said, I'm content to believe that that spirit retains its form even after it leaves the body. She had never seen this scripture before. I believe that our spirits do retain their form, for it says God forms the spirit of man within him. And I wouldn't be surprised that those who have already gone on before, whose bodies are now in the grave, are able to recognize each other over there. Someone once raised the question, do you think we'll know each other in heaven? That question was put to Mr. Paul J. Loazzo in my hearing one day, many years ago. Mr. Loazzo was one of the founders of the Bible Track Depot in New York City, and I remembered Mr. Loazzo's answer. It was very quaint. He never lost his French accent. He said, do you think I will be a bigger dunce in heaven than I am here? Of course he'll know as much over there as he knows here. I was quite, uh, disturbed when visiting a dear old saint in Albuquerque a few days ago. She's ninety seven years old now, and, uh, she's looking forward to when she'll go home and one of the ones that she would like to meet, of course, is her beloved husband, whom I had the honor of laying away his precious remains. And she said, you know, somebody was in here the other day, and they told me I might be in heaven for a thousand years without ever seeing Will. That's her husband. I said, don't you let anybody torment you with that. I said, the book says we shall know even as we are known. What it says. And then I told her this story. Yes, this is the God with whom you and I have to do, who not only stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, but who has a personal interest in every one of us. And I'm what the theologians call a creationist. That means that each one of us here tonight has something directly communicated from God. We had physical life before we were born, but something was communicated when we were born, and I believe that is the communication of the spirit that God, who is the Father of spirits, gives at that moment. And from that time on, you're considered a human being. You're not stillborn. You're born, God gives you his, gives you the spirit, and he is the father of spirits. Bible calls him by that name. So this is a all a very interesting introduction to what we have here. And I think it also adds to what follows, because we know that the one who is, could be described, rightly described in a way like this, he must be able to tell us something about the future of his beloved people. You know, there are a lot of people that pretend to tell us about the future, but, uh, we find that their knowledge is very limited, and so often it's just purely a supposition. I remember when reading The Origin of Species by Darwin years ago, how again and again Mr. Darwin would make this statement that, uh, if so and so, and, uh, he couldn't be positive. He couldn't be positive. I came away from the reading of The Origin of Species with the idea that he was a man who was not too sure of himself, who could not say with the assurance of one who reads the word of God, I know, I know, I'm assured of this. Like the Apostle Paul can say in Second Corinthians five, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were deserve- dissolved, we know that we have a building of God eternal in the heavens. We have it, and we are confident. These are things that are peculiar to our Christian faith. We can speak with assurance. And so now we find God speaking, first of all, as I said, about the political future of his people, Israel, this people whom he chose when he chose Abraham to be their great ancestor, giving to Abraham his son Isaac, and Isaac becoming the father of Jacob and Esau, and Jacob in turn becoming the father of the twelve sons of Jacob, one of which was to be the ancestor of Messiah, Judah. Yes, God's interested in that family, very much so. This is the line to which the Messiah was to come, the woman's seed. And now let us notice what he has to say, first of all, about their capital city in verse two of our chapter. He gave them a land. He gave them the land by promise to Abraham, you remember? It was very interesting in going through the Israel Pavilion in Brussels in nineteen fifty eight at the World's Fair over there, to discover that the Jews had taken all the promises concerning the land, but they said nothing about confessing their sins. I was very much interested in these promises made to Abraham, and this is the basis on which they're going to claim the land of Palestine, or Israel, let's put it that way, but I told you the other day they don't like you to call it Palestine because Palestine is derived from the same word as Philistine, and of course we know the Philistines were the implacable enemies of God's people. So, out of deference to them and in accordance with the scripture, we'll call it the land of Israel. God had promised to give that to Abraham, but he also told them that he would expel them from it if they didn't obey his commandments, and that's exactly what he's done. But the day is coming when he's going to bring them back again. We're going to see that in a few minutes as I look at some other scriptures. But first of all, let's look at this capital city of this land, which has now gone out of their possession, so to speak. And suddenly the capital city of that country becomes an object to be sought after by many nations, many nations. It's a matter of record, isn't it, that the Kaiser of Germany, for example, peace be to his ashes, uh, you remember how he, he wanted this city. Uh, he actually wanted to get a railway built down there so he could go in that way and, and claim that city. And on one occasion he visited the city. And when we visited the city in nineteen thirty eight, the city of Jerusalem, we were shown a doorway which was cut in the wall of Jerusalem so that His Majesty the Kaiser could ride in on horseback. General Allenby didn't choose to go in that way, and when he took the city in nineteen seventeen, he walked in, but not His Majesty the Kaiser, not he. But he wasn't the first one and the only one that wanted this city. I believe that in the Second World War, Hitler would have liked to have had that city, and he sent Rommel along the north coast of Africa, and his objective was the city of Jerusalem, but he never got there. He never got there. It's wonderful how that city now surrounded, as it were, by nations which are hostile to Israel, Egypt and uh, Iraq and up in Syria, all of these are opposed to Israel, and yet not one of them moves in to take it. Oh, it's true that the Arabs claim the sacred part of the city, that's right. But there is the Jew, instead of staying down in Tel Aviv, where he built up a great city right alongside of the city of Jaffa, he wants to be up there in Jerusalem. Nothing else will satisfy. But God says, I'm going to make this city of Jerusalem like a cup of trembling, or as it might have been rendered, a cup of intoxication. And I wondered about this. And one day, as I was riding along a lonely road down in New Zealand, where we spent three years, I said to the friend who was driving me, I said, Bruce, is there a place around here where we can get a cup of tea? Yes, he said, right over the hill there's a pub. A pub is what we used to call a saloon. We now call them cocktail lounges. Uh, the lights are dimmer, but the smell's the same. Uh, he said there's a pub over the hill where you can get a cup of tea. Well, I said I'm not going in a pub for a cup of tea. Oh, he said they've got a little tea room off to one side, he said, where you don't have to pass into the bar. I said, very well. So we went. But where I was sitting in the tea room, I could look into the bar room. There was a semi-circular bar. Two or three men were standing around it, and one of them was swaying rather, uh, uncertainly from side to side. He would sway and sway, and he gave very great evidence of being much under the influence of liquor. There was a glass of liquor before him, and I can see him yet as he poised his hand to reach out to get this glass, and he lunged forward, and as he did, his hand missed the glass. And he pulled it back slowly, and he took aim again, and once more he lunged forward, and again he missed it. And I said to my friend, I said, I've got an illustration of Zechariah twelve two. A cup of intoxication. They are drunk with the desire to get it, but like that poor man you see in there, they lunge forward and they miss it. They missed it. And while it is true that the Kaiser actually rode into the city, he never could take possession. Rummel never reached it along the north coast of Africa. Mussolini would like to have had it. When we were in Jerusalem in nineteen thirty eight, Mussolini was beaming his Arabic, uh, broadcasts from Italy, broad- beaming them into It- into Israel, trying to get people stirred up against the Jews and against Lord Samuel, who was in the High Commissioner, uh, because it was still under the British mandate. But they didn't get it. They didn't get it. And you'll notice that in the next verse, he, he speaks of it as a burdensome stone. And I think Britain found that out in the twenty five years of her mandate. She found out what a burdensome stone that city could be. It was certainly that in nineteen thirty eight when I was there. Things were really tense. Remember one night we were speaking just outside of the YMCA in the city of Jerusalem when a terrific bomb went off, and we realized that there was trouble ahead. One of our daughters went into the city one night. We, we were staying outside in a place called Abutor, and she went into the city. She said, I've got some prints, picture prints I must pick up tonight because tomorrow is the Sabbath and the store will be closed. So she went into the city to get this, and when she got on the bus, uh, to go back, someone threw a bomb into the bus. She escaped injury, but there were several badly wounded from this, from this bomb. The police, of course, closed in around the bus, took the wounded off, and then turned to our terrified daughter and said, where are you going? She says, I'm staying out at Abu Torch. He says, we're going out right out that way to the hospital. You get right in here. And so here she was riding with these wounded people, came into the house white as a sheet. Trouble was ahead. A few days later, we left to go north up to Samaria. There were dead camels lying on either side of the road. The road had been mined, and these camels had been blown up. Yeah. It was, it was a time of terror in nineteen thirty. a burdensome stone. It was all the British could do to keep even a semblance of order. We were walking through the main city, taking some pictures one day, and I heard two shot shots behind me. We went back to investigate, and here were two Jews lying dead upon the pavement. I said, what is the meaning of this? Well, they said, two Arabs were killed day before yesterday, and the Arabs came back today and killed two Jews to even the score. Way to done. All of this was happening while we were right there. A burdensome stone. Then there's a third figure used in the sixth verse. You notice there it is likened to, that is the governors of Judah are likened to a hearth of fire among the wood, like a torch of fire in a sheaf. I call your attention to these figures of speech to show you that anyone who meddles with this and attempts to make it his own or even to destroy it is going to discover that he's up against forces greater than the little handful of Israelites that are over there tonight. When I say a handful, I mean comparatively. But you notice that God here predicts, as he does here in the ninth verse of this chapter, he says, it'll come to pass in that day that I'll seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, all of them. Because Jerusalem is one day going to be inhabited in its own place, even in Jerusalem, and you notice that in the end of the sixth verse? How anyone can spiritualize this and say this refers to the church. This is a plain statement that God has predicted that Jerusalem is one day going to be the capital city again. Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. What could be plainer than that? You certainly have to do a lot of spiritualizing to make that mean anything else, except what you and I would understand by that the city is going to be that capital city that God has ordained, the navel of the earth, the great center. It's not only a geographical center, it certainly is that. Have you ever noticed when you look at a map of the Eastern Hemisphere that you could put the leg of a compass in the city of Jerusalem and describe a circle which would take in Europe, Asia, and Africa? Jerusalem is at the very heart of it. Yes, it's at the geographical center. Not only is that true, but it is the center, it is the linguistic center of the, of the Eastern Hemisphere. Here's where the great linguistic strains meet. It is also the great racial center. It is here where the great racial strains meet. The black races of Africa, the yellow races of Asia, and the white races of Europe, here they meet. This is the meeting place. It is also the meeting place of the three great monotheistic religions of the world. When I say monotheistic, you know what I mean? People have recognized one God, and the three great monotheistic religions of the world are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. There they are. And they, we each claim this is their center. This is it. But I, to you and me, this is more, the more important thing is that it was right within the shadow of this city that our blessed Lord was born. It was here that he walked the streets. It was outside of her northern gate that he suffered and died upon the cross of Calvary. It is on the Mount of Olives just east of the city, that he went home to heaven, and he's coming back there again, according to the fourteenth chapter of this same book of Zechariah. Yes, it's an important place. But now let's take the remaining time we have tonight to look at the spiritual side of things. You'll notice here it says, uh, in verse seven— Well, let me go back a little further to the fourth verse of the chapter, where you have this remarkable statement that God says he will open his eyes upon the house of Judah. This means that God is beginning again to take a special interest, not only in Israel as a whole, but in the tribe of Judah in particular. Then you notice down in the seventh verse, it says, the Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. First, he looks at them. Secondly, he says he's going to save the tents of Judah first. I pondered over this for a long time, but on this visit to Jerusalem, to which I've already made reference, I was walking down the street with a very learned professor, Dr. Aharoni. He claimed to be of the, not only the tribe of Levi, but of the family of Aaron, and his name Aharoni, of course, would bear that out. He was a Russian Jew, as we would say, and could speak, oh, I don't know how many languages fluently. He could write in English, he could write in French, he could write in German, he could write in Russian, he could write in Hebrew, he could write in Greek, he could write in Arabic, and he could speak these languages. A very learned man. He lived in a nice part of Jerusalem. His daughter Bathsheba, like himself, had a PhD degree. They were cultured people. They were friendly with a Christian family there that we knew, the Barclays. Mr. Barclay was member, uh, Mr. not Mr. Barclay, he was in Barclays Bank. His name slips me for the moment. Anyhow, he was manager of Mark Barclays Bank and a fine Christian man. And he, uh, would invite the Aharonis over for tea, and the Aharonis would invite them over for tea, and we went out to see them. They were very friendly, but not Christian. As I say, I was walking down the street with Aharon- Dr. Aharoni, and we noticed some of the sheds in which the new arrivals from Europe were living. They were just living under sheets of, uh, old kerosene tins that had been flattened out, anything to give them shelter from the elements. And I called his attention to these people. You know, he looked down his nose at them, even though they were his blood. God says, I'm going to see to this, that the glory of the house of David do not magnify themselves against Judah. Oh, how God has to work to keep us from being proud, doesn't he? That's what he says here in this seventh verse. And even among an afflicted people such as they are, how easy it is to see this subtle thing, pride crop- cropping up. I saw the same thing coming out of Germany when Hitler was in power. Jews were on the train as we left, uh, Bremen to come on into Holland, to go to the hook of Holland, to take a ship over to, uh, to England. Here were these Jews sitting there trembling with their heads down, and you could see they were the most dejected people. When the train crossed the border of Holland and the crew was changed from, uh, German, from from Germans to Dutch, then they began to look up a little bit more. By the time they got on the ship going across the British English Channel, I tell you, the whole pride was right there. It was right there. They were the chosen people. You could see it. They never lost sight of that fact. Never. Yes, God has to do something to prevent that, and so he saves those who don't even have a fixed home. He saves them first. But now let us notice how he does it. Verse ten, He says, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit. That should have been printed with a capital S. That's the Holy Spirit. He, the Holy Spirit, is called the Spirit of grace very appropriately in the epistle to the Hebrews, where it says you've done despite to the Spirit of grace. This is the Holy Spirit. This is he. God is going to pour out his spirit again upon his ancient people. You know, sometimes people who stress the spirit's importance in our present age or dispensation in which we live, they leave the impression that the Holy Spirit is going out of business after the church goes home to glory. Nothing is further from the truth. The Holy Spirit was busy before the church ever began. He was busy convicting men. He was busy striving with men, as we have it in the sixth chapter of Genesis. My spirit shall not always strive with men. He filled men. He filled men who built the tabernacle, for example. David could speak of having God's spirit and prayed that the spirit might not be taken from him. So they had at least a temporary possession of the Holy Spirit. The distinctive work of the Holy Spirit in this age in which we live is that he takes believers and baptizes them into one body. For by one spirit, we're all baptized into one body. Whether we be bond or free, Jew or Gentile, makes no difference. And this is true of every Christian in this age. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not something that you have to seek. It's something that God does for you. The moment you trust Christ, you're in that body. There it is. But that work will cease when the church is complete. But the Holy Spirit will go on convicting men, converting men. And here we find him being poured out afresh upon the nation of Israel. I'd like to give you a couple of more scriptures in this same connection here. Will you keep your bookmark here in Zechariah twelve and turn back to Isaiah, for example, chapter thirty two, Just to show you that this is not an isolated passage to which we refer. Uh, Isaiah thirty two, uh, verse uh, thirteen. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers, yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city, because the palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be left, the forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild asses and a pasture of flocks, until, until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest, and so on, which I think refers to the millennial reign of Christ. But notice, here is this scene of devastation on the one hand as a result of their sins and their idolatry, and now God says, I'm going to pour out my spirit upon them. If you turn to the forty third chapter, forty fourth chapter of the same book, Isaiah chapter forty four, is another verse, verse three. Just to show you that this refers to Israel, we read verse two. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb which will help thee, fear not, O Jacob my servant, and thou Jashurrim whom I have chosen, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. Pour out your spirit. Let's turn to Ezekiel thirty six for some more verses along the same line. Thirty sixth chapter of Ezekiel. Uh, here's a very familiar passage of scripture to most Bible readers, by Bible students. Uh, notice this in Ezekiel thirty six verse twenty five. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will cause, I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. And so I could go on into the next chapter, where you have, of course, the picture of the dry bones and the Spirit of God coming into them. But now, turning back to our passage of scripture in Zechariah twelve, let's see what the effect of this will be. Verse ten of our chapter, Zechariah twelve verse ten: I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications, because any desire after spiritual things will be a result of the spirit being poured out upon us and upon them, and they shall look on me whom they have pierced. What a remarkable prophecy this is, isn't it? Written these four hundred years more, nearly five centuries before the crucifixion of Christ. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And this, of course, is confirmed in the New Testament, isn't it? We have it in the first chapter of Revelation, for example. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall, shall see him, and they also which crucified him. Those who put him to death. They're going to see him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of him. This is the effect of the Spirit being poured upon them, first of all, to turn their eyes toward the Lord Jesus. And David Barron, one of the finest commentators on the book of Zechariah that I've ever read, converted Hebrew, has pointed out that the word for look here is the same word that you have back in Numbers where it says, he that looks upon the brazen serpent shall live. It's a long contemplative look as they gaze upon the one who still has in his body the marks of his passion on Calvary. They shall look upon me whom they've pierced, and they're gonna mourn. They're gonna mourn. Yes, it's going to produce repentance. It's going to produce contrition, because God doesn't save people in any other way except through faith in Christ, and they're going to have to acknowledge that he was their true Messiah, and that are only saved by looking by faith to him. This is it. Wonderful prophecy, this. And we read, we find that this morning is likened to a previous time of mourning in their history. The morning referred to in verse eleven is the morning over Josiah, who was mortally stricken, as you know, in the Valley of Megiddo. And Dalitz, one of the finest commentators on the Old Testament, has said that that was the sunset of the Jewish kingdom, when the, when Josiah was killed. But notice that this morning is going to be like the mourning of one who mourns for his only son, and the bitterness like one that's in bitterness for his firstborn, and these two titles so beautifully fit our Lord Jesus Christ, don't they? The only son, the firstborn. Then you'll notice how individual this mourning is. We read in verse twelve that the land shall mourn. That would speak of national mourning. Then we read about the household mourning, every family apart. And then we read about the wives apart. You might have wondered just why they're singled out. I believe that this indicates that this mourning will be intensely individual, because there's no relationship so close as that of husband and wife. My dear father who begat me, my mother who bore me, my brothers and sisters who were born of the same mother, very, very dear to me. My own children whom I've begotten, and now my grandchildren, they're very dear to me. But there is only one in this world of whom it can be said, as far as I'm concerned, who is one flesh with me. They twain shall be one flesh. And yet, I can't be saved by her, and she can't be saved by me. This must be an individual affair. Just as individual as that. I remember when we lived in the city of Albuquerque, I was pressing this upon a man there to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. He said, uh, well, he said, uh, my wife is up there in your church. He said, uh, I understand you call the ladies in your church sisters. I said, yes, that's what we call them. Well, he says, seeing as how I'm married to one of your sisters, I must be a brother-in-law to your church. I said, well, Charlie, if you can find me a text where it says being a brother-in-law to the church will save your soul, I'll quit talking to you. Later on, he found out that he couldn't be saved through his wife's faith. He had to be saved by his own personal faith in the Lord. And then how lovely this is as we come to the first verse of chapter thirteen, to find that God has not only provided us a savior, as we see there in chapter twelve verse ten, but also provided means for keeping clean after we're saved, in chapter thirteen verse 1. As the late Dr. Ironside, who preached so often from this pulpit, has shown in his book on the Minor Prophets, this first verse of chapter thirteen doubtless refers to the labor, as chapter twelve verse ten refers to the burnt, to the, to the brazen altar where the sacrifice was offered. This refers to the labor where the priests washed their hands and feet to cleanse themselves from the defilement by the way. What a wonderful thing this is, and then to see in it, shall I say, a foreshadowing of all that you and I have in Christ tonight. And now somebody says to me, yes, but what is the present day value of this? This is it, beloved, as far as I see it. That you and I should be so exercised before God that we could say with the Apostle Paul, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And I trust that our consideration of this chapter tonight will give us a deeper interest in God's ancient people, Israel, that we may be more concerned about reaching them with the gospel, we realize what a wonderful future is in store for them, not only politically, but even more spiritually. This, to me, is the great, the great subject of this chapter, and we could have gone on and spoken of it at length, greater length, looking for that day when the blindness which has happened unto Israel will cease and their eyes will be opened to see the Messiah, and seeing him by faith to be saved, just like you and I were saved when we trusted him as our own personal savior.