S E R M O N S

Will you take your Bibles and turn to the prophecy of Zechariah. We will continue to look at the introduction that I want to present to you in Zechariah one, verses one through six. This is actually the second part of this introduction. And certainly, may I remind you that my responsibility to you is to be the voice of the Lord on his behalf; that you might have the mind of Christ and that he might be exalted in your life. Also, that you might be protected from sin and to enjoy the fullness of all of the blessings that are ours in Christ. And the key to this is the systematic interpretation exposition of Scripture, so that we might know what God has said and apply it to our lives. And now, in the providence of God, we find ourselves beginning this study of Zechariah, where we will look at it verse by verse over the next many months. It's sometimes called the apocalypse of the Old Testament. In other words, the book of Revelation of the Old Testament. Let me read the passage to you, Zechariah, one, beginning in verse one.

"In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying,

'The LORD was very angry with your fathers.

Therefore say to them, "Thus says The LORD of hosts, 'Return to Me,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'that I may return to you,' says the LORD of hosts. 'Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets proclaimed,' saying, "Thus, says the LORD of hosts," 'Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.'" 'But they did not listen or give heed to me,' declares the LORD.

'Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, "As the LORD of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has dealt with us."'"

We are examining this section of scripture under three real basic headings that I hope will be helpful to you. We're looking at the anger of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord and the judgment of the Lord. The last time we were together, I gave you an in-depth historical overview of the context of all of these things. But remember, Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai, another prophet. We'll look at that more in a moment. These were God's messengers that he sent to the 50,000 Jewish exiles that returned to Judea after being in Babylonian captivity for 70 years.

By way of review, we looked at the anger of the Lord the last time. Verse two, "'The LORD was very angry with your fathers.'" And he said to them, to return and so forth. Don't be like them, etc. And as you may recall, their ancestors - in other words, the exiles - are looking back now at their ancestors, and they realize that they yielded to the satanic ideologies and practices of their pagan neighbors; they conformed to the surrounding cultures, rather than confronting those cultures and remaining separate from them, and they gradually encountered the cultural abominations of polytheistic idolatry, that of the Canaanites. And we read, for example, what the main problems were with those cultures in Deuteronomy 18 verses nine through 12. They are called the detestable things of those nations, and he warned them not to practice those things. But unfortunately, they, little by little, succumbed to the culture.

May I remind you of what they were? Number one, the sacrificing of children and the fire to appease Molech, which included all manner of gross sexual perversions that would be part of their pagan rituals. They practiced witchcraft, seeking to determine the will of God by examining and interpreting omens and dreams and so forth. They practiced soothsaying, which was basically attempting to control the future through the power of evil spirits.  They interpreted omens; they looked at various things to somehow tell the future based upon signs. They practiced sorcery; inducing magical effects by drugs and other potions that they would make up. They conjured spells; they would pronounce spells on people, and demons would help carry those spells out. They were mediums; one who supposedly would communicate to the dead, and they would communicate with someone, but it wasn't the deceased, it was demons. And then there were spiritists that were intimately acquainted with the demonic, with the dead, and they would call upon the dead investigating things from the dead, so to speak, to try to understand various things that they would want to do or hear. And of course, all of these types of things are common in our culture today, because Satan continues to cause us to believe these lies.

And then later on, we find Solomon comes along and he disobeys the Lord. In First Kings 11 one, it says, "Solomon loved many foreign women." Big, big problem. And we read that he had 700 wives and princesses, "....Egyptian, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite." And he had 300 concubines. And his wives led him astray. First Kings 11, beginning at verse four, "When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David had been." And we looked as well as well in Isaiah five, where we have the sins of Judah that God cursed them for; and by the way, they are the same types of things that we see today in our culture, which explains the moral degradation and free fall that we are experiencing as God has abandoned us to the consequences of our wickedness. Those things included six woes, greedy materialism, drunken dissipation and a party lifestyle, defiant debauchery, where they flaunted their immorality and taunted dared God to judge them. They redefined morality, calling evil good and good evil. They celebrated their gross immoralities, "being wise in their own eyes, clever in their own sight." They had corrupt leaders, drunken authorities and judges who would justify the wicked for a bribe and take away the rights of the ones who were in the right. And of course, all of this continued to lead them away from the Word of God and the proclamations of the prophets, and it produced within them an apathy towards God; and as a result of that, God judged them. First, the northern kingdom of Israel was brutally conquered by the Assyrians. The atrocities that they committed against the people are beyond anything that you can imagine. And then a little bit later, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians. And Jeremiah prophesied the length of their captivity in Jeremiah 25 verse 11, he said, "This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years." And that 70-year captivity was calculated based upon the violation of the Sabbath rest for the land that was required of them that's articulated in Leviticus 26. The exact number of the violated Sabbaths were 490 which would have been from about the period of Saul all the way to the Babylonian captivity. And that probably began around the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, when Jerusalem was first captured, and the treasures of the temple were taken out. And it ended with the decree of Cyrus that would allow them to return.

And what I want you to see, dear friends, is what a reminder we have here that God is serious about his standards of holiness. He is serious about what he says in His Word, regardless of how the culture will mock Him; and how easy it is for the culture, for the world in which we live, to begin to shape us into its image, as we are warned about in Romans 12 two. And for believers, we can very easily be seduced by the things of the world. We can begin to grieve the spirit and quench the Spirit in our life. We begin to forfeit divine blessing; and we literally begin to live in the dismal swamp of divine chastening, and everything in our life begins to deteriorate. That's what happened in those days, and it happens again today. And of course, for nonbelievers and especially for pretend Christians, it results in a permanent hardening of the heart; a resolute rejection of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the truths of his word. And often that will lead to an unwitting apostasy that Jesus warns about in Matthew seven, where he says that, "'Not everybody who calls me LORD, will enter the kingdom.'" And sometimes it's a witting, deliberate apostasy that can exclude the possibility of repentance, as we read about in the unregenerate Jewish people that rejected the Gospel in Hebrews six. And Jesus made it clear in Matthew seven that the tragic fate of the majority ofpeople who call themselves followers of Christ, who call themselves Christians, will be that they will be ruled by their flesh, they will love the world, they'll be blinded by Satan, and they will never inherit the kingdom. And so often this is the result of false teachers. And they had the false teachers in those ancient days like we have them today; false prophets.

In fact, Peter reminds us of what they're like here in our church age. In Second Peter two, beginning in verse 18, he says, "For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last State has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,' and, 'A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.'"

Well, sadly, this was the fate of most of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, and later on, most of the Jewish and Gentiles in the New Testament. And again, very often, professing believers who have a knowledge of the gospel, can entangle themselves in the things of the world, and they can become like Peter described, "Dogs that return to their own vomit," and pigs wallowing in the mud.

So, God warns the returning exiles, do not follow the rebellious footsteps of your ancestors, even as he warns us today. Verse four, "'Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaim,' saying, "Thus says, the Lord of hosts, 'Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.' But they did not listen or give heed to Me," declares the LORD.'" And of course, we know, as a result, they experienced the curses that he promised in Deuteronomy 28 verses, 15 and following which, in varying ways, are still in effect on the Jewish people in Israel today and will continue until they repent and place their trust in the Messiah, when the Lord returns.

And again, may I encourage you to guard your heart, your mind. Folks, this is so, so subtle. This is how it works; you begin to tolerate little sins in your life. You begin to ignore certain things in Scripture. And you find something out here that you think, "Oh, I like what that preacher said, yeah, it may not be exactly what the Bible says, but that makes sense to me" And you begin to compromise a little here and a little there, and then you begin to teach these things to your family, even if it's just by living them out. And your family starts to conform themselves to the wicked ways that you are adopting. And then that moves to the community, and then it eventually moves to the entire nation. But it always begins with just a little compromise, and little by little, what happens is, we begin to drift away from the word and the will of God, and we begin to embrace things that are dishonoring to him. We begin to pursue the fleeting pleasures of this world, and we start to think like, and act like, and look like the ungodly people in the world. And of course, Romans, one tells us how that will end. It will move down through everything from gross immorality, down to God giving people over to a reprobate, that is, a depraved, worthless mind that will believe things that are utterly insane. And that's where we're at today. The whole transgender insanity is a prime example of that. Folks, sin is intoxicating, and because everybody's doing it, and nobody wants to be isolated and rejected, many times, what happens is we just kind of fall in to the way of the world; kind of a social interconnectedness begins to form within a culture. It's kind of a group think. And don't you see that today with the whole...we saw it, for example, with the whole coronavirus craziness. And then with the woke crowd that we have today.

The secularists, by the way, call this destructive phenomenon, "mass formation." In fact, the social and psychological dynamics necessary for any kind of totalitarian rule to take root, like cultural Marxism in our country today, depends upon this. They have to promote propaganda to begin to get you to think their way. They begin to indoctrinate you through government, through media, certainly through our public schools and colleges. They gaslight you. They cancel you if you disagree with them, to try to silence opposition. And while the secularists may call it "mass formation," what God would call it is "mass depravity;" where people begin to all think alike; a manifestation of the wrath of divine abandonment, whereby God lifts his restraining grace upon individuals and communities and nations and allows them to live out the wickedness of their heart and succumb to the temptations of the enemy. And we see this so rampant in our culture today.

Well, this is what happens when individuals harden their heart and eventually, the leaven of sin influences the whole lump of a person's life, their family, their community, their nation, and God abandons them to their wickedness and judges them. This is what happened to the ancient Jewish people, the wrath of divine abandonment. And then he brings in the Assyrians to the north and the Babylonians to the south. And ultimately, his wrath continues in an eternal hell. So that's a bit of review about the anger of the Lord.

But now let's look at the mercy of the Lord. Aren't you thankful that he is merciful, that He is gracious, that he is long suffering? Notice verse two, "'The LORD was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Return to Me,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'that I may return to you,' says the LORD of hosts.'" And folks, here we see his mercy being manifested, really, in two ways: first in his call to repentance, and secondly, and we have to look kind of beyond this passage to see this, but the second reason is that he commands them to rebuild the temple, which I'll explain in a moment.

But first of all, notice his call to repentance. He wants them to return to him. My what a merciful invitation, a call to repentance. You see, God's warnings are always an act of mercy, showing us his desire to bless us and to be in fellowship with us rather than to judge us. And I might point out that there's a word play here in verses three and four, Israel is called to return to the one true God in humble obedience, that he might return to them in intimate fellowship and blessing rather than judgment, but if they refuse, then they're going to return to their land in shame and misery and in sorrow. The same principles apply today. In fact, as I was meditating upon this passage, my mind went to the loveless orthodoxy of the church at Ephesus that we read about in Revelation two. You remember that? Paul brought the gospel to Ephesus, and some of us were just there not too many months ago to see these things; to see the ruins. He did this at the close of his second missionary journey in AD 52 and you will recall, he left Priscilla and Aquila to continue the ministry, and they met the mighty, Old Testament preacher, Apollos, that co-ministered with them. And then on Paul's third missionary journey, he returned, and he spent three years with these dear people, establishing the church, and many idol worshipers came to Christ. And remember, idol makers were furious because they weren't able to sell as many idols, and they threw him out of town. And later, while a prisoner in Rome, Paul writes them a letter, and eventually left Timothy in charge of the church. So Ephesus was kind of the mother church of all of the others. And they what they did is they unwittingly abandoned their love for Christ. Revelation two beginning in verse two, he says, "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance." By the way, the possessive pronoun "your" is singular, something that you can't see in the English; it's unable to express in our English language won't express this. But this indicates that ultimately, the Lord is addressing the pastor, the pastor who is responsible for the spiritual life of the church that he is shepherding. "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false. And you have perseverance, and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love, therefore remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else, I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent." Notice the phrase, "You have left your first love." The term "left" in the original carries the idea of abandonment. You have abandoned, you have forsaken. You've laid aside. You've departed from your first love, that agape love. That selfless, sacrificial love that chooses to love without reciprocation; a love that initiates, not one that merely reciprocates. And what is the first love that he's speaking of? It's that passionate love, that fervent love, like that chaste and pure love of the newly wedded bride and groom. You have forsaken that; you've replaced that with something else. And this is what happens unfortunately in many marriages.

But this is what happened to the ancient Israelites - if I can go back and forth to help you see the parallels. They departed from the place where they had originally been, their passionate love for Yahweh had been replaced with a mechanical, dead orthodoxy, bereft of love for God. And their service to the Lord had become a greater priority than an intimate fellowship with him. Their worship had become emotionless and just perfunctory, obligatory. Worship that just a duty rather than a desire; a habit, more than a passion. What should have been first had now become secondary. And as a result, there they became increasingly vulnerable to the values and the lifestyles of the pagan culture, and they drifted into their idolatry and their immorality, and this is what happened in Ephesus. It's interesting. 40 years had elapsed from those first days. The second generation took over, and everything handed down to them was kind of no big deal. They didn't appreciate what God had done, they took things for granted, and a cold fog of mechanical, perhaps dead, orthodoxy enveloped that church, and some were unregenerate tares amongst the wheat. Others were saved, but they didn't possess a deep love for Christ.

And so he tells them, I want you to do three things. I want you to remember, repent and return. It's the same type of dynamic that he's telling the exiles. I want you to remember and repent and return. Verse five of Revelation two, "Remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first..." "Remember," the grammar indicates, keep on remembering. Don't ever forget from where you have fallen. It's the perfect tense. So it indicates that this decline has occurred over a long period of time. And this is what God was saying to the returning exiles, and obviously what he says to each of us, and we must all guard ourselves against this unwitting departure, because every time you look at a screen, every time you turn on television, every time you go to work, every time you interact with people all around you, what are they doing, unwittingly and perhaps wittingly, they are drawing you away from the purposes of God. We have to guard against that. This is the great danger of the sophisticated deceptions of Satan and false teachers. I'm constantly reminded, as I pray for each of you, on a daily basis of what Paul said in Second Corinthians 11 three, "I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, that your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." And this is why John tells us in First John two, beginning in verse 15, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world." In other words, do not have an affection, or a devotion, to the things in the world. The world here, the "cosmos."  The satanically controlled systems that operate all around us; the invisible, spiritual world that is ruled by Satan and his demons that promote the values and the beliefs and the morals contrary to the word and the will of God. All of these things are designed to lead us into rebellion against God, to blind us from the great truths of the gospel that we might be saved, and to enslave us in our lusts. "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world."

So again, the Jewish ancestors of the exiles failed miserably in this regard. But according to His great mercy and grace, God's calling them back, "return to Me" in repentance. But the mercy of the Lord can also be seen in his command to rebuild the temple. Here's where I'll introduce you, just briefly, to Haggai. First let me take you to Ezra, okay, just for a moment. You remember, if you read in Ezra, the enemies of Judah opposed the exiles from rebuilding the temple. And the old people who remembered Solomon's temple saw what they were building,and the text says that they "wept aloud" when they saw the foundation of the house of the Lord being laid because it didn't come close to comparing to the matchless splendor of Solomon's temple destroyed some 50 years earlier. So, construction stopped because of the fierce opposition of their enemies, which included especially the mongrel race of the Samaritans that now lived there.

By the way, the Samaritans were basically ancestors from the Babylonians and the Assyrians; they were colonists that settled the area. This included many that the Assyrian king Sargon the Second had conquered. And these people intermarried with a lot of the Jewish women that escaped the original deportation. And so they blended, you know, the syncretistic worship, all of the pagan idolatry, a lot of the same type of stuff you see even in evangelicalism today. And they had this superstitious blend of Judaism and paganism. And the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other, so the Samaritans tried to stop them from building the temple. And so, for 16 years, what did the people do? They decided to focus on building their own homes. So, God sent Haggai to communicate his frustration to the people. Haggai one, beginning in verse four, he says, "'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate? Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied."'" In other words, God is judging them for this. "'You drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put it into a purse with holes.' Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Consider your ways!'" Again, a call to repentance.

And he goes on to say, "'Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,' says the Lord." And then God describes his judgment for their disobedience. He says, "'You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?' declares the LORD of hosts, 'because of My house, which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. Therefore, because of you, the sky has withheld its dew, and the Earth has withheld its produce. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.'" In other words, your priorities are out of whack here. You're not listening to me, and so I'm chastening you. He's calling them to repentance and obedience.

And then the Lord encouraged them in verse 13 of chapter one, and said, "'I am with you.'" And he goes on, and he promised that while the Temple of Solomon would indeed be far inferior, nevertheless, he urged them to be courageous. He assured them of his presence and his protection, and he promised that he would be faithful to his covenant blessings. He went on to say that that an exceedingly greater, more glorious temple is going to be built in the future in verses six through nine. In fact, let me read this in Haggai two, beginning in verse six, "'For thus says the LORD of hosts, "Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea, also in the dry land."'" Here, by the way, he's speaking of the second coming. "'"I will shake all the nations, and they will come with the wealth of all nations, 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 will be greater than the former," says the Lord of hosts, "and in this place I will give peace," declares the LORD of hosts.'" And of course, we have a detailed description of the millennial temple in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48, and that will be built by the Lord in the millennial reign when Christ returns to this earth. And that millennial kingdom will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state. It will be that time when the Lord will finally rule and reign upon this wicked earth with his glorified saints and the kingdoms of the world that have opposed him will finally be overthrown.

Now, this is why it was so important to rebuild the temple. It's because number one, this was where God dwelt among his people in that day; this is where they offered sacrifices. By doing so, the Old Testament believer identified himself outwardly with the covenant God, and with the covenant people. And sacrifices would temporarily satisfy the just wrath against them and point them ultimately to a final and a perfect sacrifice; none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the need for a temple in God's plan of redemption was exceedingly important, and it has been all throughout redemptive history. You will remember that it began, first of all, with a tabernacle in 1444, BC, with Moses. It was a mobile temple, you might say. And then that eventually, in the nine hundreds, turned into Solomon's temple. It was planned by David, and later on it was, it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. And then Zerubbabel's temple, that we're talking about them building now, that was started really in about 516 BC. And that was later destroyed by Antiochus Epiphanes in 169 BC. And then you have Herod's temple, which was basically a restoration of Zerubbabel's temple and an expansion of that, that was built some 500 years later, and then the Romans come along in 70 ad, and they destroy that. But where's the temple now? Well, presently, you're looking at it right here. He's dwelling within believers, the hearts of believers, and he will continue to do that until the Lord returns.

But we also know there will be a tribulation temple. It will be constructed by the Jews. The Antichrist will allow that to happen, and it will be desecrated and destroyed. And then there will be the millennial temple that will be constructed by the Messiah, as I just mentioned, by the way, in Zechariah six, we will read more about that. And then finally, there will be a heavenly temple. There will be an eternal temple of the Lord's presence. It will be a spiritual temple where the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb, will dwell. And we read about that in Revelation 21 and 22. And these last two temples, beloved, that are yet future, were a second reason why it was so important for the exiles to build the temple, even if it was inferior, and that's because he wanted to animate their hearts with the promises of coming glory. I mean, folks, if you have no hope, you have no hope. How miserable we would be. And all of this was part of God's plan and purposes for Israel, both then and in the future. And for this reason, he raised up Zechariah to ignite the hearts of the people both then and now. So he speaks the revelation of God concerning the future glory of the Messiah's reign, as we will see as we get into this, his reign upon the earth, and therefore, how their humble temple points to the glorious, future temple where Christ will rule and reign.

I might add as a footnote, but probably a very important one, there is a parallel here with the way Christ is building his visible church today. When you think about it, the visible Church of which we are a part is far from perfect. It has a lot of inferior, components to it. It lacks in purity and power. But isn't it interesting that it is being sanctified by the power of the Spirit, and it reveals the presence of the Lord in this dark world, and it is pointing to a glorious future kingdom. So we see that even now. So, o, the mercy of the Lord towards his stubborn people; he calls them to repentance, and he commands them to rebuild the temple.

And then finally, and we will close with this. This morning, we see the judgment of the Lord. He says, "'Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets proclaim, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.'"'" By the way, thisis at the very heart of the gospel, the good news that we as sinful people can be reconciled to a holy God. We have to repent and we have to believe both are gifts from God. What did Jesus preach at the beginning of his ministry? We read about it, for example, in Matthew four and verse seven, his very first word was, "'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. '"And as we look at repentance biblically, we see that repentance includes a brokenness over sin for having offended a holy God, and a longing to be restored to fellowship with him and to enjoy the fullness of his blessings. It is a turning away from sin that we cannot do apart from the empowering work of the Spirit of God. It's a conscious, determined change of direction. It is a surrender to the will of Christ. And that happens when he literally causes us to be raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, and he, by his power, changes the very desires of our heart. Second Corinthians 7:10, Paul describes it as that, "sorrow that is according to the will of God, that produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation."

But not only is there repentance, there must be faith, which is that gift of God that causes the soul to turn to God and trust in the person and in the work of Christ to provide forgiveness, to provide righteousness, to provide eternal life. Please understand that repentance and faith make up the single act of conversion. And in Zechariah one in verse four at the end, he tells us, "'But they did not listen or give heed to Me, declares the Lord." How sad. Like so many people today, they hear the gospel, and they think it's silly, they reject it. But then in verse five, he says, "'Your fathers, where are they?'" Obviously, they're dead. They've been dead a long time ago. "'And the prophets, do they live forever?'" Obviously not, even God's faithful servants die. But where he's going here is, the threats of divine judgment that they prophesied, they don't die. In other words, he's telling them, don't think for one minute that what was prophesied in the past is dead and forgotten. Don't think for one minute that the word of God somehow kind of peters out. No, no. It lives on. The prophetic words of divine judgment that were uttered to their fathers did not die with them. So he's telling them, Do not turn a deaf ear to my warnings, lest you suffer the same fate.

In verse six, "'But did not My words and My statutes statutes…" here is a term referring to the determined purposes of God to punish sin, "...did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants, the prophets, overtake your fathers?'" Didn't that happen? Overtake is an interesting term. It was a metaphorical hunting term, and it implies the unstoppable judgment of God, pursuing and overcoming those who think that they can run away from God in rebellion and get away with it apart from judgment. But notice says, "'Then they repented and said, "As the LORD of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has dwelt with us."'" As the Lord of hosts purposed. This term is fascinating. It carries with it, the idea of a a predetermined plan that was decreed in eternity past. And what he's saying here is that God's promised decreed judgments are perfectly timed and perfectly just. And he's essentially saying to them, "Hey, folks, look, you've just returned from exile, surely you can see how God pursued your ancestors. So don't trifle with God's words. Don't trifle with his warnings. Don't neglect his call to repentance and faith and obedience. Return to me, the one true God. Do this in humble obedience that I might return to you in intimate fellowship and blessing, because I long to lavish my love and blessings upon you. But if you refuse, you are going to return to the land in defeat and misery and shame and sorrow." Dear Christian, please hear me. Do not be deceived, whatever you sow, you're going to reap right? So hear the words of the Lord, whatever they might be in his word, apply them to your life; know the word, know the will of God. Meditate upon them and live them out. And as a result, he will reward you. He will bless you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear his word, as we read in Isaiah 66 God says, essentially, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What can you do to impress me? The answer is nothing. But to this one, I will look, to Him who is humble and contrite of heart, and who trembles at my word. And folks, you must tremble at his word.

If you're here without Christ and you're living consistently with the wicked ways of the world, the only thing that will change your heart is the Spirit of God who will bring conviction to it. And know this, that the wrath of God abides upon you, and you will die in your sin unless you repent, and unless God does a miraculous work of grace. And I plead with you to do business with God if you haven't already, because a day is coming, as Jesus said in Matthew 13, beginning in verse 41 when, "'The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

Please hear me, I have friends and I have loved ones who are in hell right now. Some of them are weeping because they realized what they have done and the hopelessness of their situation. And there are others who are gnashing their teeth in absolute fury that God would dare judge them the way he is. The reason he does this is because he is holy beyond anything that we can possibly imagine. I hear people talk about, well, I can't believe God would send anybody to hell. That's because you don't understand the holiness of God. And frankly, I don't either. It's beyond anything I can...you know, the thing I think of is, can any of you create a strand of DNA? Can any of you create an eyeball? Can any of you create a circulatory system or hang the stars in the sky? No. Folks, we are an atom on an amoeba's hind end, when you think about us in comparison to God. And do you really think we're going to dare judge God because his standard of justice doesn't jive with ours? How dare we do that? So I plead with you. You must come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will save you, as he's done with so many. I'm going to close in prayer. We're going to sing, have a benediction, and then anybody that wants to leave you can, but we're going to stay another, maybe 5-10, minutes to hear the testimonies of the seven people to be baptized, then we’re going to go out and we're going to do that. So let's pray right now and then we'll sing, okay?

Father, thank you for this time together. Thank you for the power of your word. Speak to our hearts. May the truths of your word bear much fruit to the praise of your glory. I pray in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to the Old Testament, Book of Zechariah. This morning, we will embark upon a verse-by-verse study of this amazing book that is sometimes called the apocalypse of the Old Testament, the book of Revelation of the Old Testament. And this morning, I want to begin an introduction that will require me to continue it the next time we're together, but I want to read the first six verses of Zechariah, if you will follow along. Zechariah one, beginning in verse one. 

"In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Ido saying, 

'The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 

Therefore say to them, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Return to Me,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'that I may return to you,' says the LORD of hosts.' 

'Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets proclaimed. Saying, "Thus, says the LORD of hosts.," 'Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds'" 'But they did not listen or give heed to me,' declares the LORD." 

'Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?' 

'But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, "As the LORD of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so he has dealt with us."'"'"

Now you might be asking, why are we studying a prophetic book written 2504 years ago? Well, there's several reasons, but I want to give you two of the most prominent reasons. First of all, because it is part of the word of the living God, and he has given it to us. We are told that all scripture is inspired by God, Second Timothy 3:16, "and it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." But secondly, as you will see over time, the primary themes and issues in this book are as contemporary as the daily news in our culture. And thirdly, given the current state of affairs in our world today, the prophecies of this book concerning the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that are yet to be fulfilled, could easily come to fruition in our lifetime. 

Our country is in a civil war, and it's going to get much worse. Historically, we know that Marxist tyranny always disguises itself with names like compassion, equality, social justice, equity, outcomes, diversity, inclusion, and of course, the promise that everybody is going to share in the material wealth and prosperity of the country. And that's true. I've been to those countries where that happens, and they're all equally poor. And as we witness the steady deterioration of the economic and moral foundations of these United States that are not at all united - they're irreversibly divided - it is important to be encouraged by the promises of God that he has given us in his word. In fact, if you look at the constellation of prophetic signs that are revealed in Scripture, you can see that we are living in the very last days. The entire world is a powder keg right now. We see militant Islam aligning itself with communist countries, especially Russia, ready to come against Israel. In fact, Israel, has been attacking Hezbollah since about 24 hours ago, and it's getting worse. And they are going to continue to come together until we see the battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39; all of this is ready to happen. The world is being prepared for the global rule of the Antichrist and the pre-kingdom judgments of the tribulation that will ultimately destroy the world. And only the Lord, when he comes, can save it. 

And like never before in history, the biblical prophecies of Christ's return and the establishment of his earthly kingdom are set in place, and you are going to see that as we study this book. Dear friends, the stage is set for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The drums are rolling and the curtains are about to be pulled back. Jesus said in Matthew 24:37, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like in the days of Noah." And what were those days like? Days of unmitigated evil and rebellion in the world. Days of granite indifference and apathy towards God's judgment, which is a perfect description of the world in which we live today. These dark days pose a real danger for believers. It's very easy for believers to get discouraged, to get distracted and feel defeated and disillusioned in times like these. It is easy to lose sight of the character of God, to lose sight of the promises of God, to allow our worship just to become ritualistic, perfunctory, for our praise to become halfhearted, for our service to be minimal. In days like these, our courage can very easily give way to compromise and our holiness yield to worldliness. Perhaps this describes you well. It certainly described the Judean exiles that were allowed to return back to the homeland of Judah after 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Imagine being taken away from where we live, living in another country, another culture, being under their domination and coming back to our home, and it's all ruins. 

I want to give you some history. It's very important that you understand these things, because I found that many Christians don't. Their exile was God's promised judgment because of their disobedience and their violation of the covenant. In Deuteronomy 28 verses one through 14, I read just a little of it a few minutes ago, there were blessings that God promised for obedience. For example, in verse 14, he said, "Do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today to the right or to the left to go after other gods or serve them." Don't do that. And if you do, Deuteronomy 28 beginning in verse 15, all the way through verse 68 are curses for disobedience. For example, verse 15, "But it shall come about if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." And the list is absolutely horrifying. 

The 70-year captivity was calculated based on their violation of the land Sabbath - the Sabbath rest that was required of Israel. You read about it in Leviticus 26, and the exact number of Sabbath years is 490 years. That would have been the period from about Saul all the way to the Babylonian captivity. And that period probably began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Jerusalem was first captured and the temple treasures taken away. And it ended when Cyrus, then 70 years later, allowed them to return. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied the very length of this captivity. We read about it in Jeremiah 25 verse 11, "This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. 

Beloved, I hope you understand that God is serious about His commandments. These are not suggestions. These are his holy, righteous commands. And because they disregarded God's law, as we would see in Ezekiel 10 and 11, In Ezekiel's vision, the glory of the Lord departed from their midst, and it did so in various stages. First, the glory of the Lord was his Shekinah, that that dazzling, brilliant, ineffable light of his presence. And it first rose up above the threshold of the temple; Ezekiel details all of this, as I say in Ezekiel 10 and 11. And then it moved to the east gate, where it stopped, and it hovered. And then it moved from the midst of Jerusalem, stood over the Mount of Olives, east of the city, and then disappeared. By the way Messiah's return will be westward. It will be the exact reverse order of the way his glory departed. We know, according to Zechariah 14:14, that he will descend upon the Mount of Olives, and then he will enter in through the Eastern Gate, according to Ezekiel 43 verses one and two, and then his glory will fill the house of the millennial temple: Ezekiel 43 and verse five. And Zechariah 14 nine, tells us that at that point he will be king over the whole earth and all ofthe people who live in the kingdom will worship the Lord of hosts, and they will even celebrate the Feast of Booths, Zechariah 14 verse six. 

Now I want to give you a sample of what's in the book. Zechariah's prophecy really describes the covenantal faithfulness of the Lord - of Yahweh. His covenantal faithfulness towards his disobedient people. In fact, Yahweh is God's covenant and personal name, and it conveys his loyal faithfulness to his covenant promises. We read about this, for example, in Exodus, three verses 14 through 16. His name is Yahweh, the great "I AM, "which means he is the one that always has existed and always will exist, underscoring his ever-present faithfulness to his covenant people Israel, even in the midst of their rebellion and disbelief. In fact, in Zechariah one verse 14 and chapter two verses eight and nine, he is presented as the jealous protector of Israel. And dear friends that is continuing even to this day, despite his judgment against them. And this will continue until he returns as the Promised Messiah and reigns upon his throne in a renovated Jerusalem on a renovated earth. And then he will say to them, according to Zechariah 13 nine, "'They are My people.'" And Israel will say," quote, "'Yahweh, is my God.'" And his desire is to see Israel repent and be reconciled. And you will see this all through the book of Zechariah. It's a constant theme, and this is what he wanted the exiles to understand. He wanted them to remember what their fathers had done with their sin and what he promises to do. In fact, Zechariah's very name means "Yahweh Remembers." Yahweh remembers, and this will be another dominating theme that Yahweh remembers, and he will keep his covenant promises. 

You will recall Moses reminded the people to obey God's law, knowing that the Lord will fulfill all of his promises. In Deuteronomy four verse 31 we read, "For the Lord, your God is a compassionate God." He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them." Now you must remember if you're going to understand Bible prophecy, you must understand Israel's role. Israel was chosen by God to proclaim the existence and the excellencies of the Lord our God, the one true God. They were chosen to be the nation through which the Messiah would be revealed. They were to represent him as a kingdom of priests, mediating between God and men, interceding for  sinners through the sacrificial system. They were chosen to preserve and to transmit Scripture - the divine truths revealed through the prophets; to be the nation that would demonstrate his faithful, loyal, enduring love and to show his grace toward penitent sinners and manifest His justice and righteous anger towards those who refuse. However, God knew that all of these things would require his divine intervention. We tend not to do the things that God has asked us to do without his help. And we see this, for example, in Zechariah chapter two and chapter five, that he would have to, in his own time, refine Israel, restore Zion, which is Jerusalem, he calls the apple of his eye, rebuild the temple, reveal his glory to the nations, destroy all of the nations that had come against her, as we read in Zechariah one verses 18 through 21. And that he would ultimately have to establish his earthly kingdom, as we see in Zechariah 14. So these are the themes of hope that Zechariah was commissioned to reveal to his very disheartened people. For indeed, Yahweh remembers. 

Now make no mistake, God has not abandoned Israel. Jeremiah 29 beginning in verse 10, says, "For thus says the LORD, 'When 70 years have been completed, for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord." By the way, many people misappropriate that passage and claim it for the United States of America. Folks, this has nothing to do with the United States of America. It is a pagan country under the judgment of God. This has to do with the theocracy of Israel and his covenant promises to them. 

He goes on to say that, "'I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'" And ultimately, these promises will be filled be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom under Messiah's reign, and at that point, the Abrahamic, Davidic and new covenant promises will all be realized spiritually as well as materially. 

Now, more context, you've got to have these things in order to understand what Zechariah is going to tell us under the inspiration of the Spirit. The Babylonians, under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Judah in three military campaigns. The first one was in 605 BC. Then again, in 597 and finally, in 586, and at the last one, the temple was destroyed. The city of Jerusalem was reduced to rubble. And as Jeremiah predicted, in Jeremiah 25, the Judeans were taken into exile for 70 years. And eventually, in 539 BC, God moved upon the heart of Cyrus the Great to issue an edict to allow them to return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.

And so the next year after that, in 538 BC, 50,000 Judeans returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel, and he was the governor, and Joshua the high priest, along with the prophet Haggai. And a couple of months later, Zechariah. Zechariah was actually born in Babylon. When he began his ministry, he was called a quote "young man," according to Zechariah two four. Nehemiah 12 tells us that he was both a "prophet and a priest." He was the son of Berechiah, who was the son of Iddo, the text tells us. It’s interesting these names, Berekiahmeans "Yahweh blesses;" a name that really foretold the blessings that God would bestow upon Israel. And Iddo means, "In its time." A reassuring name that would really forecast the certainty of God's promised blessings but according to his predetermined time. Zechariah's prophetic ministry spanned about 50 years, and according to Jesus' words in Matthew 23 verse 35 he was eventually murdered, quote, "between the altar and the sanctuary in the temple."  

Zechariah began to write his record, this book, in 520 BC. Again, that's 2504 years ago. Verse one, "In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet." The "word of the LORD," literally, the word of Yahweh. And actually, aswe look at the grammar here, the idea here is this is a reference to the second person of the triune Godhead. This is Jesus, the Son of God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the divine logos of John one, for example. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Verse 14, 'and the word became flesh and dwelt among us." So what we have here, in Zechariah prophecy, is the Son of God the Messiah, revealing himself in these great truths and these great promises; revealing his own purposes and his plans to his servant, Zechariah, so that he would give them to his people, so that in 2024 at Calvary Bible Church, we would hear them as well. Is that not amazing? 

And then we know that two years later, he received additional revelation in chapter seven and verse one, we read, "In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev." Now, over the next couple of weeks, I want to examine just these first six verses with a lot of other history to help you understand and get a foundation. And I want to do it under three headings. We're going to look at, first of all, the anger of the Lord today. Then the next time we're together, we'll look at the mercy of the Lord, and then finally, the judgment of the Lord. 

So bear in mind, this first category, is the anger of the Lord. Again, notice verse two, "'The LORD was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Return to me,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'that I may return to you.' Says the LORD of hosts. 'Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets proclaim saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds."' But they did not listen or give heed to me," declares the Lord." Now, why was the Lord so angry with those previous generations? What on earth did they do? What did they do to kindle his wrath against them? And as you will see, the parallels between their sins and the sins of the wicked world in which we live today are undeniable. In fact, if God didn't judge the United States of America, he would owe Judah an apology. Of course, that's not going to happen, because God is infinitely holy and just. In fact, some of the judgments that were meted out upon ancient Judah, both then and now, are already plaguing our own nation, though it is going to get exceedingly, in fact, unimaginably worse during the time of the tribulation. 

Now, more Old Testament history, forgive me, this may be a bit boring to some of you, but others of you will appreciate it. You simply must have this foundation. If we go back in the Old Testament, we will see that in 1445 BC, God gave Moses the law. And then you have the conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, that happened in about 1400 BC. And as you study the history of Israel at that time, it was cycle, after cycle, after cycle of sin, and then judgment, then repentance, then blessing, then sin, then it just went on and on and on in the period of the Judges. Sound familiar? In fact, I got my picture right there next to that note. 

Well, God knew that they would eventually need a king, and so he set in place the qualifications for an eventual king, we read about it in Deuteronomy 17 verses 14 through 20. I won't read all of it, but beginning in verse 17, he says that, "'He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver or and gold for himself. Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.'" Can you imagine that? "'It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.'" Well, eventually, they got their king. They got King Saul in 1051. That was followed eventually by King David in 1011; David reigned for 40 years. Solomon then comes along and follows him, and he reigned in 971; he also reigned for 40 years. The problem with Solomon, according to First Kings 11 one, is he violated much of what Moses communicated. It says that Solomon loved many foreign women, big problem. And we know, according to Scripture, that he had 700 wives and princesses. They were Egyptian, Moabite, ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite. And on top of that, he had 300 concubines. And his wives led him astray. How dangerous it is to be unequally yoked. Young people hear this, how dangerous it is to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. 

First Kings 11, beginning in verse four, "When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and he did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain, which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods." Well, eventually, then, according to Old Testament history, in 931 the kingdom was divided, Israel to the north, Judah to the south, and you have a series of mostly wicked kings violating all of these commandments. The people are polluted by the surrounding cultures; they did not come out and be separate from them. They compromised with the culture around them. They drifted away from God's laws, and they gradually embraced the cultural abominations of the polytheistic idolatry of the Canaanites. In fact, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, beginning in verse nine, there's a list of what is called the "detestable things" of those nations. He gives nine of them, and here's the types of things they embraced. Number one, they sacrificed children in the fire to appease Molech, which was also a worship that included gross sexual perversions connected with this pagan ritual, including homosexuality. Secondly, they practiced witchcraft, seeking to determine the will of of the gods by examining and interpreting omens. They practiced soothsaying, attempting to control the future through power given to evil spirits. They interpreted omens, trying to tell the future based upon signs. They practiced sorcery, where they would indulge in in magical effects by drugs or some other kind of a potion. They conjured up spells binding other people by magical muttering. They practiced being a medium where one would supposedly communicate with the dead, but actually they're communicating with a demon. They practiced being a spiritist, one who has an intimate acquaintance with the demonic spiritual world. And finally, they would call up the dead, investigating and seeking information from the dead that demons would very gladly give. 

They also violated God's laws for morality. I think of Leviticus chapter 18 beginning in verse 21 here's just some of them, "You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these things, the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled." Unimaginable wickedness, and all of those things exist in our culture. Isn't it interesting that the abomination of child sacrifice and bestialityare bookends of the abomination of homosexuality. It's hard to imagine the depths of perversion that a depraved heart will sink. And today in America, we even have child sacrifice, it’s called abortion, the barbaric dismemberment of a child that is made in the image of God, concealed in a mother's womb. People who have no fear of God and scoff at his law, think they are above the law, and as a result, they their conscience become seared as with a branding iron. They become comfortable with this depraved practice, this brutal murder of millions of pre born infants every year; a sacrifice to the god of self on the altar of personal expediency and corporate profits and so on. In fact, the ancient child sacrifices were made according to Jeremiah 7:31 in quote, "The high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom." This is an east/west valley at the south end of Jerusalem. And the term "Topheth" comes from a Hebrew word "Toph" for drum. And the reason they called it that is when the people of Judah sacrificed their children to the idol of Molech by throwing them into a burning fire, they would beat drums very loudly to drown out the screams of the children. You know, it's incomprehensible that anybody would commit such ghastly crimes against innocent children. But dear friends such is the power of satanic deception. 

Some have said that abortion is a sacrifice to Satan. And this very well could be true. Satan is the master counterfeiter. In fact, I was reading a Roman Catholic philosopher, Dr Peter Kreft, that said, quote, "Abortion is the parody of the Holy Eucharist. That is why it uses the same holy words, 'this is my body,' with the blasphemously opposite meaning." I find it interesting,this is what you will hear them say, "This is my body." Jesus said, This is my body given so that you can live. Women say, an abortionist will say, "This is my body. You must die so I can live." 

In Isaiah five, there is a list of the sins of Judah in a series of six woes. I've preached on this at length before. I'll summarize them very briefly. God cursed them because of their greedy materialism, their drunken dissipation and party lifestyle, their defiant debauchery, where they flaunted their immorality and taunted God to judge them, because of their redefined morality, calling evil good and good evil, because of the fact that they would celebrate their haughty humanism, being wise in their own eyes, clever in their own sight, and also because of their corrupt leaders; drunken authorities and judges who would justify the wicked for a bribe and take away the rights of the ones who were in the right. Sounds like the morning news. Sothese are, in general, the categories of wickedness that ignited God's wrath. 

Well, eventually the northern kingdom fell to Assyria, that happened in 722 BC, and God's judgment on Judah wasn't far behind because of the wicked kings. There was one good king, notably - King Josiah. He ruled in Judah in 641. And of all the kings in David's line, including David himself there was really no king that approximated the royal idea that you would read of, for example, in Deuteronomy 17 more so than Josiah, although he wasn't perfect. Second Kings 23:25 it says, "Before him, there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him." And so he was a great king, but he also had multiple wives, so there were problems as well. But Josiah has a lot of reforms, and I should say, had a lot of reforms in his reign. I'm not going to read you all of it, but in Second Kings 23 verses four through 21 you read of his reforms. Let me give you a sample of it, "Then the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal." Baal, by the way, means lord, or it means master, the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanite nations. And Baal worshiped involved all manner of gross immorality, rituals, orgies, all of these types of things, and the construction of idols. And so he had them remove all of those vessels made for Baal that they had been put in the temple of the Lord. And even for the Asherah - Asherah was an idol, the fertility goddess. Bring that out. And he says, "and for all of the hosts of heaven." This was referring to the ancient worship of the sun and the moon and the stars. This was the ancient worship of astrology. We still have it today in the zodiac signs and horoscopes, which, by the way, no Christian should have anything to do with any of that that is satanic. Stay away from it. "And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests from the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places..." Down a little bit further, it says, "He broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes, which were in the house of the LORD where the women were weaving the hangings for the Asherah." Jumping way down to verse 19, "Josiah also removed all of the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD; and he did to them, just as he had done in Bethel. All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem. Then the king commanded all of the people saying, 'Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.'" 

Now that is really interesting, because the Passover had not been celebrated since the time of the judges. Well, Josiah makes all of these great reforms, boom. After he goes, his son, Jehoahaz, succeeds him. He's 23 years old. He reigns for three months. We read in Scripture that he "did evil in the sight of the Lord." He has problems with Pharaoh Neco, and Pharaoh imprisons him and makes Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king and his stead and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was 25 years old. He was a vassal of Egypt. He reigned for 11 years, and "He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done." So just after you get everything cleaned out, what happens? Boom, they go right back. Then the Babylonians invade Judah. This happened in 605 and Jehoiakim submitted to Babylon as a vassal at first, and then he rebelled. And then Jehoiakim became the king of Judah at 18, he reigned for three months, He did evil in the sight of the Lord." You may recall that Nebuchadnezzar then takes him captive and makes his uncle, Mattaniah, king, and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was 21 years old. Zedekiah reigns for 11 years, and "he did evil in the sight of the Lord." He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar; Nebuchadnezzar's had his belly full of it, so he returns to Jerusalem. He laid siege to Jerusalem for two and a half years, and he finally breached the city and utterly destroyed it and the temple, and this was the final conquest in 586, BC. 

Now, why would God allow his chosen people to be treated that way? Because of all of that kind of wickedness. In fact, Jeremiah tells us in Jeremiah 19, beginning in verse four, here's why, "'Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Benhinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and before the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. I will also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters, I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.'" And that kind of cannibalism actually took place, just as God promised. 

So Babylon's first invasion of Judah, as I said, was in 586 BC. But while Babylon is enjoying all this power, Persia is gaining power as well, and eventually Babylon falls to Persia. That happened in 539 BC, and Persian king Cyrus then gives the edict to allow the Jews to return in 638. Soon after that, as I said, or kind of along with that, Haggai goes with them; few months later, Zechariah goes and he receives the word of the Lord in 520. 

Now, why all of this history? And I'm sure you're not going to remember all of it, but I hope you get the flow. Beloved, let me tell you why. I want you to understand the level of sinfulness that permeated the hearts of those people and continues to permeate the hearts of other people who reject the one true God, and have no fear of God. And secondly, I want to show you what happens to people who turn away from the commandments of the Lord; who compromise with the culture. This is what has happened in evangelicalism. I would submit to you that the majority of evangelicals today are thoroughly apostate, consistent with Matthew seven. Second Timothy four, Paul said to the young pastor, Timothy, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires." And then he makes this fascinating statement, "And they will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto myths." The first portion of the phrase is in the active voice in the Greek; it means that they will deliberately hear the truth, they won't like it, they will scoff at that, they will reject that. They will want something different, and as a result of that, it says "they will turn aside to myths." That's in the passive voice, which means you're not going to deliberately say, Oh, I love these myths, but rather, the myths are going to take you over, unwittingly, and destroy you. You're going to be ruled by your sinful flesh, because of Satan's lies that appeal to your heart; you will unwittingly reject the truth, you're going to be unaware of your desertion, and you're going to allow the myths of false doctrine and satanic lies to take you over and destroy you and your family, your marriage and your country. 

Think of all the ostensibly evangelicals today who embrace all of this wickedness, the social justice gospel, all of the woke, the LGBTQ, the abortion abominations. This is why even believers are warned in Romans 12 two, "Do not be conformed to this world." Literally meaning, do not allow the world to shape you into its image without you even know it's happening. But rather, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Think how quickly people lose their fear of the Lord and his righteous standards. You can go all the way back to the beginning. God judges the whole world with a flood. And then right after that, Noah's son Ham sins against him, and Noah curses Ham and his son, Canaan, father of the Canaanites. Canaan is the father of Nimrod, Nimrod builds Babel, the Tower of Babel, and the judgment begins once again. 

Think of the Exodus, a miraculous deliverance. The people see all that God did there with the plagues on the Egyptians, they crossed the Red Sea. They see it parted, and what happens within just a few years? They build a golden calf and call it Yahweh. I think of think of the prohibitions in the Mosaic law that were given by God to somehow help them understand the glories of his holiness and how important it is to be separate from the pagan cultures and not be polluted by them. But they would ignore that; ignore the laws, and then judgment would come over and over again. Josiah cleans house, immediately his sons, I mean, it just goes right back down the toilet. In fact, even during the millennium, the Lord himself will be ruling on this earth, we will be ruling with him, and at the very end, Satan will be released, and there will be a massive rebellion against the Lord that he will put down. Dear friend, unless the Lord our God intervenes in the hearts of sinful man, no one would ever be saved. The gospel is all of grace. 

I think of our country. We are a product of the Protestant Reformation. So many of those people that came over here early on, could sit in this room right now and hear what comes from this pulpit and say heartily, "Amen." And look how quickly everything turned. They built Harvard, they built Yale, they built Princeton, to train men of God to be expositors of his word. And now look at those institutions, sins like leaven right? It leavens the whole lump. It's not satisfied with just a little portion. No, it's going to take over everything. And look at our country today, all of the religious syncretism, the idolatry. We've got, Hinduism, Sikhism, Mohammedism; all these phony perversions of Jesus. I shake my head. I shudder at the way liberals love the idea of universal truth, which is just theological syncretism. In fact, at the Republican National Convention, the lady Harmeet Dhillon gave a formal invocation of Wahe Guru she called the one true god, which is the supreme deity of Sikhism.  Unbelievable. Even conservatives promoting all of this satanic deception of universalism. Isn't it amazing? 

Approximately 250 years after our founding as a country based upon biblical truth, we are now a country that celebrates things that God utterly abhors. The Democratic National Convention had a mobile abortion and vasectomy clinic outside of the DNC in Chicago. Unimaginable. 

Folks, in closing, I want you to understand that Satan is doing everything he can, and this has been his strategy throughout history. He's doing everything he can to destroy the two institutions that God has given us and promised to bless - the family and the church. And without the family and the church, there's no foundation of a society. And by the way, familiesand churches cannot coexist with a Marxist country. Dear friends, guard your heart, guard your family, guard your children. Satan's deceptions are so incredibly brilliant. Look what happened to all of the ancient people and look how God judged them. 

And I want to close by answering a question that I hope some of you are asking, What must I do personally? Well, I'm glad you asked. Number one, you absolutely must be saved. You must see the horror of your sin and the glory of the cross and cry out to God for his saving mercy. Repent of your sins and he will save you and transform you and justify you. 

Secondly, you must be sanctified. You must grow into likeness of Christ. And that simply cannot happen apart from the in depth, systematic study, preaching, teaching and application of the word of God. 

And thirdly, you must be submissive. You must be submissive to the word of God. Be a student of the word of God. Cultivate a habit of personal holiness, of personal worship, private worship and prayer. Feed your mind on the preaching of great Bible expositors. Listen to great podcasts. Fellowship with godly believers, avail yourself of the various means of grace. And then in the midst of all of this, you will find that God will encourage your heart, he will strengthen you, He will bless you, He will give you joy and happiness come what may. So this is my warning to you, prepare yourselves and watch what God will do. Amen? 

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. May they bear much fruit in each of our heart to the praise of your glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen