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ប្រតិចារិក
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Well, we're coming this morning to Zechariah. You recall last week we took some time to set up the historic context of the prophets. We refer to Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi as the post-exilic prophets coming after that time of Babylonian exile. Jeremiah had predicted that captivity would last for 70 years. And at the end of 70 years, God raised up Cyrus, a pagan, Persian king, to allow all of the exiles to return back to their homeland. And Israel and Judah was included in that Persian decree. The first responsibility, remember when they left, the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down. The temple had been destroyed and the first order of business then when these expatriates went back to their homeland was to rebuild the temple. That had important messianic implications for there had to be a temple in place when the Lord Jesus Christ would come in the fullness of time. So they had a very important part in God's redemptive plan and God's redemptive purpose for his people. At first, the work went very well, but then the opposition came, both from the outside first, but then the apathy set in on the inside, and it wasn't long before the work of the temple came to a stop. At that point, God raised up Haggai and Zechariah, these two prophets to inspire the people, to motivate the people, to encourage the people, to get that temple rebuilt. Haggai, the elder statesman of the two, was a realist. Didn't mince any bones. didn't disguise any words. He just flat out told the people it is time to get the temple built. Quit thinking about yourselves. Quit putting yourselves in first place. Quit looking at what you've done and comparing it to what was and feeling sorry for yourselves. This is the time to rebuild the temple and be encouraged because the temple that you're building, even though in terms of its grandeur, in terms of its majesty, would not compare to what Solomon had built. But this was going to be the temple in which Jesus was going to come. And so the glory of this temple would be far greater, even than Solomon's temple. Now, Zechariah was the younger of the two. And whereas Haggai was in many ways the realist, Zechariah was the idealist and he wanted the people to get a vision of what God had in store for his people in the whole scope of redemptive revelation. Remember, I think we noted last week that as covenant theologians, we believe that all history is redemptive in its purpose and its focus. And the scripture then becomes the interpretation of that redemption for us. And they were playing then a very crucial part. God had a purpose to reverse the curse. in the coming of the Lord Jesus and even from that fullness of time as we look forward to the next fullness of time when Jesus comes again. This time apart from sin under that complete redemption, that complete salvation. All is working even today. God accomplishing his redemptive purpose for his church and for his people. Now Zechariah was given a great vision of what God was going to do not only in that day but even looking to the day in which we live and even in many ways beyond in the second fullness of time when the Lord would come the second time. But he encourages the people. If you get encouraged, he was the prophet of hope. Hope in what God has in store. And if you can be encouraged with what God is going to do, then that's going to motivate you to get busy and do what God wants you to do right now. He's in control of the whole operation of history, including our time. And that's an important lesson. It's easy for us to look back at biblical history. Easy for us to look back at world history and see, yes, there was the hand of God. How clear was the hand of God working in causing this to happen, causing this to happen, bringing everything to that fullness of time. And we can look forward to the future and say, yes, we believe that Christ is going to return and there's going to be glory. We can see all of that for the future. But sometimes we tend to be a little blind to the present. I've often asked my students, as we look at the history of the ancient Near East, as what God did here, what God did here, it was so clear that God was in absolute control of everything that he was doing. I often ask the students, at what point in history, at what point in history did God stop? manipulating governments. At what point in history did God stop controlling and working all things out to his glory? Well, the obvious answer is that he never did. But yet so often we live like he has. And we get the impression sometimes that God is pacing back and forth before the throne of glory. What to do? What to do? There's a Democrat here, Republican here. Oh, you know, I know exactly what God does. This is not the Minor Prophets, but this is good for us to remember. What is God doing when He looks at all of the stuff that is happening in our world? We get so discouraged, we get so nervous, we get so scared sometimes when we look at the stuff that's going on around us. We get nervous and we get... God's on His throne and He's having a good laugh. He's having a good laugh. Read Psalm 2. The Lord is in his heaven. Here's all this conspiracy taking place upon the earth. And God sits in his heaven and he laughs. But yet he says, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. So nothing, nothing is going to frustrate God's purpose. Nothing is going to frustrate God's glory. Everything is working. Now, Zechariah gives us a panoramic view of what God has in store for his people. I think we noted at the close of our discussion last time, these visions, the book begins with a series of visions where the prophet is in a trance, most likely, All this was internal. It was in his head. I don't mean by that he was making it up. This was God speaking to him. But this was the way God was speaking to him in that ancient day. A vision. Do you see this? Do you see this? Look at this. First a man on a red horse under a myrtle tree. Now the language here is going to be extremely symbolic. You don't take this literally. You don't take this literally. It's filled with symbolism. Here are these colored horses, and here's a myrtle tree, and a man on a horse, red horse under that myrtle tree, and then four craftsmen that are smashing things. And then a man with a... No, these are visions that have an important lesson for the people to learn. But I say the bottom line, I don't have time to go through each of these visions, although I'd be so tempted to, to get the particular message. But the point is, from the beginning to the end, See what God has in store for His people. And if you get that vision of what God has in store for His people, for His kingdom, then, hey, you're going to get busy right now. Your hands are going to be inspired and motivated to do what God has for you to do right in this present time. Now, we're going to learn that God's purpose for His people were greater than their expectations. I love the vision that you have there in chapter 2, for instance, with the man with the measuring line. And God tells in this vision, this man with the measuring line, he goes out to measure the borders and the boundaries of Jerusalem. Now that was an act of faith. Remember when this was taking place, the walls of Jerusalem were torn down. The temple was not yet there. And here is a man who takes the promise of God, yeah, the temple is going to be built, the city is going to be built, and he goes out to measure the borders of the city. An act of faith. But the Lord says to this man, put your ruler up, put your measuring line up, because Jerusalem is going to be so big that it can't have walls. The Lord is going to be the protection. The Lord will be the fire round about you. And the population is going to be so expansive that you can't contain it. God's purpose for His people is greater than our expectations. That was true then, and it's true now, as we see the advancing of the church. Jesus Christ. So some wonderful pictures here. So a message of hope. Things that appeared to be too great to be true, but behind every word, behind every word, the foundation of this hope was the Lord Himself. I think it's over 50 times. I think it's over 50 times in this relatively short prophecy that the Lord of hosts says something, the Lord of hosts does something. I mentioned to you last week that these names of God, the titles of God are never haphazard. They are always part of the divine truth, the propositional revelation that God is giving. What does that reveal to us about the Lord? Jehovah, there's the covenant name. There's the Salvific name of God for His people. But He's Jehovah of hosts, of armies. He's the Commander-in-Chief, the Commander-in-Chief of all of creation. There's nothing that God can't command to do His will, to accomplish His purpose. Promises that appear to be so great, this can't happen. But not to worry, because behind every word of promise was the authority of this commander-in-chief who had all authority, who had all power at his disposal to accomplish his purpose, Jehovah of hosts. And God was going to be jealous indeed for his people. Now that's the foundation of hope, the Word of God. based upon who the Lord is. And as you read Zechariah, as you read Zechariah, and I hope you do, I hope that your appetite for these short prophets are increased. And again, I get discouraged sometimes when You know, as believers, even conservative evangelicals, sometimes our creed, well, always, our creed is better than our practice sometimes, right? We say we believe the Bible from cover to cover. We believe in the absolute authority of God's word from cover to cover. What if, and I've often thought of this, what if the government came to us and said, you Christian Jew, you can have your Bible, you can have your Bible, but You can't have the book of Zephaniah. You have to take out the book of Zephaniah and turn that into the local authorities. You can have the rest of it, but you can't have the book of Zephaniah. We would raise up... I can just see Christian leaders and churches right across this land raising a stink to high heaven. You see that down here? A stink to high heaven. Raising a stink to high heaven about the government interference. You can't do this. We believe the Bible from cover to cover. Yeah? Zephaniah part. And rightly so, we should. But I've often wondered if we could somehow surreptitiously, that means secretly, Charlie. If somehow we could surreptitiously get into the houses of believers and just Take out the book of Zephaniah. How long would it be before they knew it was gone? How long would it be before they knew it was gone? probably a long time. But this is part of God's Word. So I hope this little series that you're going through on the Minor Prophets, Shorter Prophets, will increase your appetite for them. So I say the focus of hope here. The foundation of hope is the Word of God and the power of God. But the focus of this hope is the Lord Jesus. This book is extremely messianic. Every book Remember what the Lord Jesus said, everything in the Old Testament speaks concerning Him. Sometimes not always in a direct prophecy as it were, but in one way or another, every book of the Old Testament is contributing to that redemptive message. But Zechariah, you don't have to look hard. And you don't have to look far to see the great messianic texts and prophecies that Zechariah has in store for us. Not only in the broad picture of getting the temple ready, preparing the way for Messiah, but some very specific prophecies. In many ways, I think Zechariah is the most messianic of all the prophecies, percentage-wise. I think there's probably more direct, specific statements of the Messiah, of the coming Christ and Zechariah, than Isaiah, that we often think of as the most messianic of the prophecies. Great, great titles. You'll see, for instance, in chapter 3, this is one of my favorite ones. This is a vision of Joshua, the high priest, Great picture of justification. But he said, I'll bring forth my servant. This is at verse eight. I'll bring forth my servant, the branch. The branch. And look at chapter six, another reference in verse 12. Behold the man whose name is the branch. That's a messianic title. It's a messianic title. It occurs in Isaiah chapter four, the Lord The branch, and a great picture of the glory that will come. Jeremiah refers to the branch who's going to be the king, that will reign prosperously. The branch. It has connections with the House of David. We think of a branch. Yesterday, sometime this last week, when one of these storms went through, there was a big branch that fell down in Charlie's yard. And we, with Mike's help here yesterday, we drug that branch into the neighbor's yard. I guess I didn't ask any questions. Bridget says, take it over there. So we took it over there. Big branch. But that's not this word. This word more is the idea of a sprout. Just a little sprig. You've seen when a tree's been cut down maybe. A tree's been cut down and it appears to be dead. No life in it. But all of a sudden here comes a new shoot. You've seen that? A little new shoot of life comes out of that. It's inconspicuous. Yeah, it's inconspicuous. And it's something that we had when I lived in Carolina, we had a tree in our front yard that would all of a sudden, in the oddest places, start having these new shoots of life, right? These new shoots of life coming out. Didn't bother me, but Sander didn't like it. And when I, you know, eventually you give in and you go out and cut them off. Things to discard. That's this word. That's this word. Just something so insignificant. So insignificant. But it shows that there is still life. It shows that there is life where there appeared to be death. Where the Davidic house seemed to be defunct. Here comes this new shoot of life. Here comes Jesus. Here comes Jesus. He's the man. He's the servant. He's the king. He's the Lord Himself. A great picture. of the branch, and I could develop that. But think through that. You'll see in chapter 9, you'll see in chapter 9 the text that we often think of on Palm Sunday, right? A very specific prophecy of the coming of the King to Zion. Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous, having salvation, humbled, mounted upon a donkey. That was fulfilled specifically in reference to Jesus on the day that we call Palm Sunday. You look at chapter 12, they're going to look upon Me, that one that they pierced, and the New Testament applies that. explicitly to the Lord Jesus in that coming day when Israel will look on that one whom they pierced. A reference to Jesus. Chapter 13. Chapter 13 has a great text again that is applied by the New Testament specifically to Jesus. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against that one that is my equal. And you smite the shepherd, the sheep are going to be scattered, fulfilled. That part of it fulfilled when the Lord Jesus was hanging upon the cross. A very specific prophecy. But a great statement there as well concerning who Jesus is, and the Lord Jehovah commanding the sword to awake against his shepherd. Oh yes, Jesus was put under the trial of Pilate and Herod, but it was the sentence of heaven itself that caused the sword to be let loose against that one who is Hebrew literally, that one that is my equal. This is just Jehovah speaking concerning this one that is hanging now upon the cross, this one that is my equal, God himself. Great, great pictures of who the Lord Jesus is. So when you read Zechariah, when you read Zechariah, you come to him as the prophet of hope. Idealistic, idealistic, Looking at the overview, a panoramic view of God's purpose for His people from that day when everything seemed to be so hopeless. The city was in ruins. The temple had been razed to the ground. There was nothing but rubbish all over. But God says through Jeremiah or through Zechariah, things are going to be really good. All right. I've got a purpose for you. I've got a purpose for you. I've got a purpose. The church of Jesus Christ is going to advance and not even the gates of hell are going to be able to withstand against the advance of the church of Christ. And Zechariah gives us that prophetic picture of what's in store for God's people. The ironic thing is, the ironic thing is, now Zechariah I say was the younger of the two. Haggai's message was done in just three or four months, at least in written prophecy. Zechariah ministered from 520 to about 480 BC, a very lengthy ministry. The first part of the book, the first part of the book through chapter eight, first part of his ministry, but beginning in chapter nine, there's some years that have passed. The temple by that time has already been built. But struggles are going on. And I say the ironic thing is this prophet that was so hopeful, this prophet that was so encouraging, ultimately, ultimately was martyred. Ultimately was martyred. We don't see that from Zechariah. How do we know that? How do we know that Zechariah was martyred? Because Jesus told us. Jesus told us from the blood of Abel, to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah. So he identifies the one he's talking about very specifically as that one that marks these two extremes of the martyrs. You killed the prophets, he said. You killed the prophets from Abel, the blood of Abel, all the way to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah. So notwithstanding, Notwithstanding, I could almost see him killing Haggai. Haggai was not flowery. He was in their face. He was in their face. You can see them blowing Haggai. But here's Zechariah. He was a prophet of peace and of hope. But in their unbelief, ultimately, he was martyred. So Zechariah. That brings us to Malachi. It brings us to Malachi, the last of the post-exilic prophets. Malachi, almost a hundred years, almost a hundred years have passed between the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi. Haggai, Zechariah, contemporaries. Malachi, I say almost a hundred years have passed. And in that hundred years, what had changed? Here's Zechariah predicting a time when Jerusalem was going to be inhabited without walls. Here's Zechariah telling the people that the cities are going to be safe and secure. The old men and the young are going to be playing in the streets and it's going to be a happy place, a prosperous place. That was their word. That was the word. And the people were encouraged by that word of hope to get back to the business of the kingdom, building the temple. But now I say a hundred years have passed. Oh, the temple was built. This is the time of Nehemiah. So the walls were in the process of being built. But what had changed? They were still under a foreign domination. The Persians were still in control. And it wasn't going to be long before the Greeks would be in control. Where's this grandiose promise? Where's this word of hope and encouragement that these prophets were... Nothing had changed. Nothing had changed. And the people were not in the blessing that they thought they deserved. They had done this, they had done that, they had been doing, but they weren't being blessed. They weren't being blessed as they thought they ought to be blessed. And so, discouragement, you know, set in. Apathy set in. But a coldness set in. a coldness and a spiritual dearth came on. And religion and church life was just becoming a matter of routine. What's the use? All right, what's the use? Oh, yeah, we still go through all the motions. In many ways, I think the chapter three sums up You know what's going on here? Verse 13 says, your words have been stout, have been hard against me, says the Lord, but you say, how have we spoken against you? And you've said, it's vain to serve God. What's the profit of keeping his charge or walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? You call the arrogant, blessed evildoers are prospering. Here we go to church all the time, we bring all these sacrifices all the time, we go through all these religious motions all the time, and we're still the ones being oppressed. And the wicked have the upper hand. We're still under that foreign domination. What's the use? What's the use? Well, they're not going to give it up, but their religion had died. They were just going through the form and just through the mechanics of their worship. a dead religion, a dead religion. Now what caused the death? What caused the death? In the little book that I wrote on the post-exilic prophets when I I approach Malachi as an autopsy. I think I call it an autopsy of dead religion. Let's cut into this and let's see. And Malachi was just, as a pathologist, was just cutting in to these people. What's going on here? Exposing the corruption that caused the death of this religion. Now, Malachi was a logician. I say Haggai was the realist, and Zechariah was the idealist, and Malachi was the logician. Logically and irrefutably, his logic was impeccable. His logic was impeccable. Not the impassioned preacher that Haggai was, not the visionary that Zechariah was, but he was more like the lawyer that could just look at the case and hear, pick it apart, pick it apart. And he does this. He does this in a series, I'll give you the technical word here, it won't hurt you, in what we call a dialectic. What is literally called a dialectic. What he does all the way through the book, when you read it you pay attention to this. He'll make a proposition. He makes a proposition. They deny that proposition and then he proves the validity of the proposition that he had made. All the way through. What's the first one? We can just illustrate this here. Verse two of chapter one. I have loved you, says the Lord. All right, there's the proposition. But you say, how have you loved us? It's not Esau, Jacob's brother declares the Lord, yet I've loved Jacob, but Esau I've hated. And he goes on to demonstrate his election of Jacob and his covenant rejection of Esau, giving the evidence. Proposition, I loved you. Ah, come on, you don't love us. You don't love us or we wouldn't be in all of this distress and whatever that we're in if you really loved us. And now he proves, here's the evidence. Here's the evidence that God indeed has loved them. Now all the way through, all right, you're gonna see that he makes the proposition. They deny the validity of that propositional statement. And then he gives the evidence proving the reality of that proposition. And the first one really brings us to the heart of the issue, I've loved you. I've loved you." Well, come on. You show your love to us. The city's in ruins. We're not being blessed the way that these other prophets said we were going to be blessed if we did the work of God. We're not getting anything out of this. What's the prophet? What's the prophet? Basically, the charismatic notion here of what religion was. You give God this, He'll give you more. You worshiped again. You worship to get. And that's the idea that they had. They were going to worship God to get something in return from God. God had become for them an instrument. God had become an instrument to satisfy what they desired. They were breakers. I mean, they were breakers, sure enough, of the third commandment. What's the third commandment? We're not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain. Now that's not just talking about cussing and cursing. You ought not do that. But it goes far beyond that. You're not to use the name of the Lord for empty purposes. You're not to manipulate God. We're not to manipulate God to make Him do what we want Him to do. The name of God is not just God or Jehovah or Jesus. It's the person of God. The name refers to the entirety of the person, all of his character, all of his being, all of his perfections. We're not to use God. That's the essence of that third commandment. You're not going to use God for your own desires. But how many Christians even? How many Christians are guilty of that? The psalmist tells us, delight in the Lord. Delight in the Lord and what will He do? He'll give you the desires of your heart. delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires you've ever had. I don't know how many times in my relatively short life I've heard people use this, the idea that, well, if I put God in first place, put God in first place, delight in the Lord, then He'll give me what I want. Put it in my context. If I delight in the Lord, then He'll let me kill a nice buck this year. That's what I want, right? I want to kill a nice deer. And if I delight in the Lord, then He'll give me what I really want. No, no, that's idolatry. You see, that's idolatry. You do not use God. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. The parallelism there of thought. If I delight myself in the Lord, what is the desire of my heart? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. And God will not disappoint His people. You only get disappointed with God. You only get disappointed with God when you want Him to do something that you want. Irrespective of who He is or what He wants. God will not be used. God will not be used. God is the only being that has intrinsic worth, intrinsic value. But we tend to use him so often as an instrument to an end. I pray to get this. I do this. If I go to church every time the doors are open, then the Lord will bless me. And we define those. What is blessing? How do we define blessing? Whatever it is that we want, right? Whatever it is that we want at that particular time. And that's where these people were. They were going through the motions. They were bringing the animals to the Lord. God, you want sacrifices? You want animals? Hey, I'll give you all you want. We used to bring the best, but that didn't do any good. That didn't do any good. We went into captivity. So they just started bringing anything. Animals that were maimed or animals that had some kind of defect. They were supposed to bring the best, but now they're bringing those that were just eh. The Lord won't know. He'll just throw him a token. Give God a trinket. Give God a trinket. And if we give God the little trinkets that He wants, then He'll be satisfied. We can fool Him to think that we're... We don't worry about bringing animals anymore. But you know how many in the church today How many in the church today? Not this church, but I'm talking about church. Yeah. Just throw God a little, OK, I'll go to church on Sunday. I'll go to church on Wednesday. I'll go to church, whatever. Whenever the doors are open, I'm going to be there, because that's the trinket God wants. And if I do that, then God will like me. God will like me. And if God likes me, then God will do this for me. And then when God doesn't do that for me, what's the use? What's the use? God will not be used. God is incapable. I grew up hearing that statement that God can do anything. You ever hear that one? God can do anything? That's nonsense. That's nonsense. There's a whole lot God can't do. A whole lot God can't do. God can never do anything contrary to His nature. God can't do anything contrary to His nature. And God is incapable of disappointing His people. God is incapable of disappointing His people when His people are seeing Him as the chief end. Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. But when something else is our chief end, we're going to start judging God in terms of our own perceptions. And if He doesn't do what we think He ought to do, then we're disappointed. Oh, we're disappointed in the stuff that we didn't get. God will not be used. And that really I think in many ways is the primary message of Malachi. God will not be... These people thought God owed them something. A hundred years we've been doing this. We've been doing everything that these... But nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. And so therefore, therefore... So they were bringing polluted stuff. They're bringing polluted stuff into the altar. So he jumps on the priests and he rebukes the priests, but the people were guilty of this. He gets them to their family. Bunch of divorce was going on. Families were breaking apart. Families were breaking apart. And there's a lesson there. This is in chapter 2, verses 10 and following. Families were breaking apart. That happens when religion is not real. I dare say religion is no more real. Religion is no more real than it is in the home. Religion is no more real than it is in the home. into the environment of other believers so we can put on our religious face, right? We know what to say, but what goes on in the home? What goes on in the home? My wife is here. She knows me better than anybody else on the face of this earth. And she knows my hypocrisy sometimes. There's nothing more real than goes on in the home. The home is the index of true religion. And these people, their homes were falling apart. And that became evidence then. This is evidence. You say you're all right. No, look at what's happening in your homes. Can't be right. Can't be right. Gets into the ties. I mean, this is a good one, right? Even people who, even some of my dispensational friends who don't like anything of the Old Testament. Love Malachi 3. Bring your tithes in. Everybody believes in that one, every preacher anyway. Don't know anything else about the book, but bring your tithes into the storehouse. That one part applies. But there's a principle there. We can laugh at that, but there's a principle here. They were robbing God. Oh, they were giving the trinkets. They were giving the trinkets. But the real spirit, and this goes far beyond just putting something in the offering plate as it goes by. This is the giving of oneself and all of one's possessions and all of one's energies, as it were, unto the Lord. So you could look at this book as dealing with revival. What's the answer? If the problem here was dead religion, what's the answer to a dead religion? A live religion, right? So how do we, and so as he does this autopsy, as he does this autopsy, this is what's killing you, this killed you, this killed you, this killed you, this killed you. What's gonna revive? What is it that's going to revive? And the book closes. The book closes with the solution to that dead religion. Look at verse 16 of chapter 3. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them. A book of remembrance was written before him of those that feared the Lord and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. In the day when I make up my treasured possession, I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. coming, verse 4, and this takes us again to the messianic arrival. The Lord is going to come into that temple. What's the answer? The fear of God. Those that feared me? What does it mean to fear the Lord? What does it mean to fear the Lord? The fear of Lord, basically, if I could just sum it up in just a simple observation, the fear of the Lord is living in the conscious awareness of the reality of God. That's the fear of God. To live in the conscious awareness of the reality of God. It's not being afraid of God. Oh, it involves reverence, sure enough. It involves reverence, sure enough. The awe. And it's not without significance in that the fear of God is always linked to the knowledge of God. The more you know God, the more you'll fear God. Knowing God, fearing God, always go together. But it goes beyond just the reverence. Let us have the reverence for God. Let us be in that awe of who the Lord is and what the Lord is doing. Worship, it affects our worship. But it also dictates our ethics. It dictates what we do and how we live. Job was a man that feared the Lord. And what did he do? He turned from evil. He feared the Lord and he turned from evil. The fear of God living in that conscious awareness of the reality of God. Factoring God in to all of the issues and all of the circumstances of life. Factoring Him in. And the Lord says, you fear me. Those that feared the Lord, those that became aware of Him more than the tough circumstances that were about They became aware, and they factored God in. They factored God in. If I were to ask, if I were to ask for a show of hands, I'm not going to do it. If I were to ask for a show of hands, how many here believe that God is real? We'd all raise our hand. We'd all raise our hand. Now let's cut through the confessional statement for a moment. Let's cut through it. In everyday existence, are we living? in the reality of God. Are we factoring God in? If we factor God into the issue of life, I'll behave a certain way. If I factor God into this, I'm going to behave a certain way. If I factor God in, I'm going to worship him a certain way. It's going to have practical implications. And here is the secret then. Here's the secret. Here's the secret to revival. Malachi is the prophet of revival. If Haggai was the prophet of service and Zechariah the prophet of hope, well then Malachi is going to be the prophet of revival. How do we get life from this dead religion? Just going through the motions, just going through the routines of all that religion is. I fear God. Fear God. Factor God in. Factor God into all of the circumstances of life and then get ready for Jesus. He's going to come. He's going to come. And the book ends. Here's the very next to the last word. Here's the very next to the last word. I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day the Lord comes. Who is this Elijah? It's the Baptist. Jesus said, here's Elijah. So the next voice after Malachi, the next prophet that comes, the next word after Malachi is the Baptist who says, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. So you come to the end of Malachi, the next word. The next word is going to be Jesus. I've often thought, you know, as I just looked at my Bible here, it says Malachi, and then on the next page, if there were two pages, if I could take out two pages from the Bible, rip them out, it'd be the one in my Bible that says Old Testament and the one that says New Testament. Rip them out, because it gives us the impression that now we're entering into a whole. No, no, it's one book. It's one book from beginning to end. It is one book with one author, with one message. And no matter where I am in the process of reading that book, it's with the eye. It's with the eye to Christ. Well, hey, thanks for putting up with me. while I'm on vacation here. Two things. Can you discuss that a little bit more about why John the Baptist was called Elijah? And then a quick one too, is that word that you were referring to when it says branch, is that Nazar? No. That's a different word? That's a different word. This is the word Zemech. Alright, Zemech. But it's interesting. My time is gone. I'm okay. Pardon me? I thought you said pious people. Never crossed our mind. Yeah, the word that occurs in Isaiah 4 and Jeremiah 23, 33, and then Zechariah 3 and 6 is the words of Mac. Now, in Isaiah 11, he's also called the branch, but it's a different word. Now, the imagery is much the same. The imagery is much the same. Still the idea of that which is insignificant, that which is worthless, seemingly, Netzer, right, you knew the Hebrew word. That's very good. But I think that's what Matthew has in mind. Remember at the end of Matthew, chapter two, is it? Yeah. Talking about Jesus coming from Nazareth. Coming from Nazareth. And he'll be called, because he's in Nazareth, he'll be called a Nazarene. We'll play on words there without question. Play on words without question. But I think what Matthew is saying, because he's from Nazareth, he'll be called a branch, okay? Nazareth was kind of like the backwater, the boondocks of Israel, right? The word, the city of Nazareth, village of Nazareth, it's not even mentioned in the Old Testament. Not mentioned at all. Just a little village, insignificant there in Galilee. You don't expect anything good. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Insignificant place. The humility, the humbleness of the Lord's coming. And then Matthew, very insightfully, plays on that and say, yeah, he's gonna be called to branch. I would not be unhappy if Nazarene, which was not a, Anything about Nazareth. We're translated there. And you have to understand the theological imagery. He's from Nazareth, therefore he's called the branch. Insignificant. So that's, yeah. Same imagery, but a different word. Different word completely. Why is John referred to as Elijah? I think the spirit of Elijah. Here's what Elijah, historic figure, bold, kind of a wild man. prophet, right? Elijah was in the northern kingdom at this time, kind of a loner, but powerful, right? The spirit of Elijah. And so here comes John. He's outside of the normal expectation where prophets or religious leaders are to be, and with that same authoritative spirit. I think you have the same thing in Revelation chapter 11, whatever that means. You have those two witnesses that are in the spirit of Moses and the spirit of Elijah. So used symbolically. I don't know if I'm answering your question. I guess I'm not quite sure what the implication of being a John Wayne would be, but... Well, I was trying to think of some, you know, I'm sure there's a better reason for us saying, or he's a maverick, or she is, you know... But that'd be the idea, yeah. Oh, yeah, my dad liked John Wayne, remember? He's that cowboy guy, right? Yeah. You're a cowboy. Right. I got you. Yes. Right. Yeah, I think so. Good. Well, good. Hey, thank you. Other questions? All right. Well, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we give thanks for the word that we have before us. Let us not take it lightly. Let us always remember the treasure that we have and see it to be that honey in the honeycomb. to be that which we are to fill ourselves with and to live in the light of. So bless, Lord, these people as they work for the kingdom in this portion of the vineyard that they have been set. Use them well for the cause of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Zechariah and Malachi
ស៊េរី Minor Prophets
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