We begin this morning a series on the book of Zechariah, and it will be very helpful if you will be reading the book of Zechariah, perhaps the first chapter several times and moving on to the next several times, and also to pray that the Lord will bless this series in this little so-called minor prophet, only minor because it is small, Now, if you're new and you're not familiar with your Bible, you find the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and then you just back up one and turn to the book of Zechariah. And I love to hear the pages turn. Before reading the first six verses of Zechariah's prophecy, let us go before the Lord. Almighty God and our Father in heaven, we bow before thy sacred presence and we come under, very consciously, the authority of thy word. give to us hearts that hear, give to us repentance toward Christ, give to believers that ongoing faith and repentance that this text calls upon us to have, use this word, Heavenly Father, for the glory of the name of Jesus Christ and the extension of my kingdom and to bless this congregation with a deeper love for the Lord Jesus and a deeper love for the word of God. And should there be sitting under the preaching of the word today or at any point as we move forward, someone who does not know Christ, We pray that they will find a fountain opened for the cleansing of their sin. And we ask and pray these things humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man, our lovely savior, amen. Please take your copy of God's word and stand. We will read the first six verses of the prophecy of Zechariah. This is the word of the Lord. In the eighth month and the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, the Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, thus declares the Lord of hosts. "'Return to me,' says the Lord of hosts, "'and I will return to you,' says the Lord of hosts. "'Do not be like your fathers, "'to whom the former prophets cried out, "'Thus says the Lord of hosts, "'Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.' "'But they did not hear or pay attention to me,' "'declares the Lord.' "'Your fathers, where are they? "'And the prophets, do they live forever? "'But my words and my statutes, "'which I commanded my servants, the prophets, "'did they not overtake your fathers?' "'So they repented and said, "'As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us "'for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.'" The word of the Lord, please be seated. people of God, why Zechariah? Why does this pastor turn to this book in this time in the life of the history of our congregation and in the place in history in which we in God's providence find ourselves? Why turn to the book of Zechariah? The reason is because we live in a hopeless world, and the world, I mean this world system, is getting darker and darker, and the hopelessness is more and more apparent. And unhappily, true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can buy into that hopelessness and fall into spiritual lethargy and depression. But this book is all about hope. It is all about the hope that points to Jesus Christ, to where God's plan is leading to the return of Christ at the end of the age, his glorious return. That's why we're turning to the book of Zechariah. That is why I want you, God's people here, to be filled with hope. I want your hearts to be filled with that certainty of faith that is forward-looking to the coming of Christ that determines how we live in the midst of this present evil age. And by hope, remember, I mean a future orientation that pours into your life by the blessed work of the Holy Spirit through His Word that fills you with the certainty of faith in an uncertain world. Now, before we can look at these first six verses, we need to know a little something about the book of Zechariah. The date is sixth century BC. Zechariah ministered for about 50 years. The setting, and remember, the name Zechariah points to this God of hope because his name means the God who remembers, or God remembers, or Jehovah remembers, a fitting theme for the book. And it comes as an encouragement to us. He was a contemporary of Haggai, preached about the temple at the same time period after returning from the Babylonian captivity, the returning Jews did not prosper as they had hoped, and the temple that they were called to rebuild was just lying there, but it must be rebuilt before Messiah comes. And the preaching of Zechariah in particular helps to renew them in this messianic hope and to this future outlook of the coming Messiah as the temple would be rebuilt. Now, Haggai had preached very directly about this and in opposition to those who would have kept them from building the temple. Zechariah does this too, but Zechariah is given by the Lord a different aspect to his calling. He wants to help them to see the flow of God's redemptive plan And He caused them to believe in the promises of God as they find themselves in their particular place in redemptive history. Is not God, He says, 53 times, 53 times in this book. Is not God the Lord of hosts? Is He not the Lord of armies? Can He not, through His almighty power, accomplish His purpose and His will through you? And so it must be important that he calls himself the Lord of Hosts 53 times by divine inspiration. God can keep his promises. He will keep his promises, but he can keep his promises because he is the Lord of Hosts. And he will give his people a glorious future and that promise will be fulfilled. Now, that's just what you and I need also, don't we? We need to see our place in redemptive history. Our place in redemptive history was not that of Zechariah and the people of God, but there is one people of God throughout the ages. And we have a place in redemptive history between the ascension of Christ and the return of Christ. And we constantly need to be informed about our place in redemptive history so that it helps us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that all these things might be added unto us. This will keep our hope vibrant. Now, another thing to keep in mind about Zechariah as we turn to this great prophetic book is that it's filled with wonderful Old Testament predictions of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just overflowing with them. Christ's priestly work, Christ's kingly work, His humility, teaching about His deity. his building of the temple, his lowly coming, his rejection for 30 pieces of silver, smitten to save his people, and in glowing apocalyptic language, the ultimate hope of the return of Jesus Christ at the end of the age, that and more all fills this little book, no minor prophet indeed, this little book filled to overflowing with prophecies about Jesus Christ who would come. No wonder then Luther, Martin Luther, called this book the quintessence of Old Testament prophecy. Well, now let's turn to this hope-filled book and be filled with hope ourselves in the process. And let me say, it's going to require patience on your part as we go through this book. because there is a great deal here, and it uses forms of literature that are largely foreign to us. And the night visions of Zechariah, for example, will be somewhat unusual to us. I ask, will you commit to patiently hearing the prophet Zechariah, to hearing God through his prophet Zechariah for your day, for your time, for your life, for your service to Christ? And if you will, you will grow, I suspect, Leaps and bounds. Now, the first verses, these verses we read this morning, these first six verses deal with the theme of repentance. Well, does this surprise you? Pastor, you've just told us that this is a book about hope and he starts with repentance. Why? Well, the reason that he starts with repentance is because your heart cannot be filled with hope, with the certainty of faith, if you have an unrepentant heart. And so he has to begin with them where they are. Hope can only dwell in repentant hearts. And so he hits hard right from the start in order that he may be tender. and he calls them to repentance so that their hearts may be ready to receive the message of hope that he will proclaim for the remainder of the book. And what I really think is happening here is these first six verses just summarize a lot of preaching that went on before he turned to the message of hope. So we come to these first six verses and the first thing that we want to see together is God's call to return, God's call to return. Verse 1, in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, The time of his prophecy is here in the eighth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came. That's the second year of Darius the first, the great 522 to 485 BC in the eighth month, which historians tell us was November 520 BC. So that's when the prophecy began. God gave him the word. And Gentile rule is very important in this book because God is overseeing history to bring about the promised hope that he holds before them, even in dark times, and even when it seems to contradict his promises, he is ruling even through Darius or through Osiris. Darius succeeded Cyrus the Great, and under these rulers there was relative calm and order, and in 536 BC, which is one of those linchpin dates in Old Testament history, Cyrus had given the decree that Jews could return to their native land, having been taken away in Babylonian captivity. and that they could begin the rebuilding of their temple. 50,000 Jews returned to Babylon, and ultimately this was God's call to them after 70 years of captivity because He had told them, you are going to be in captivity seven years, and then I'm going to call you back. God is fulfilling His promise already. And in the midst of this, there is this call to restore the temple where the Lord is worshiped and sacrifices offered, all pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ, the mediator, the sacrifice for our sins. And the Jews lay the foundation for the temple, but because of the opposition of the Samaritans, about which you can read in Ezra chapter four, and also because of their spiritual lethargy. Did you hear that? Because of their spiritual laziness, lethargy, the work of building the temple languished. And the mere mention of this recent history would bring to mind the former apostasy when God had brought His Word to their fathers and their fathers had rejected it and they had to go into captivity and they had refused the Word of the Lord. Despite God's goodness, there was spiritual decline. Are you, Christian, growing? maturing, following the Lord, zealous for His kingdom and for His cause, or are you wrapped up in yourself and have you become cold in heart? So there is a call to repent to these people of God right from the start, and without doubt that call to repent needs to be heard in our day and in our time as we sometimes imbibe the hopelessness of the world around us rather than living upon the promise of God. Well, that leads us to the second thing, the call of the God who remembers, the call of the God who remembers. Now look at verses one and two again. In the eighth month and the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Udo, saying, the Lord was very angry with your fathers. And I have no doubt that the name of the prophet has significance for us because the name of the prophet, Zechariah, means whom the Lord remembers or Jehovah remembers. Yes, he remembered the sins of the fathers for which many of them did not repent, though some did. the form of rebellion, but ultimately, this is the greatest comfort that can come to you, people of God, that God can say, my prophet's name is that I remember. I made my promises to Abraham, your father. I made my promises to God's people through the ages. I have made my promises to you in the time and setting in which you live. I remember my word. I remember my promises. I'm going to do what I say I will do. Jehovah remembers. The one from whom the word comes to us also, his very name is an assurance that God never forgets his people, always remembers mercy, does not forget his promises, does not leave nor forsake his true believing people. Take courage, take heart, people of God in this hopeless world. We have the prophet's ancestry, the son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo, which means the grandson of Iddo. There's no Hebrew word for grandfather. When you sometimes see something like this, in this particular instance, undoubtedly it means the son of Berekiah, the grandson of Iddo. And Iddo was one of the priests who returned from the exile. You can read about that in Nehemiah 12 and in Ezra chapters five and six. So Zechariah was not only a prophet, he also was a priest. And you'll find a lot in this book about the priestly office of Jesus Christ, who is our prophet, priest, and king, and the priest-king Jesus Christ in this book. But as a prophet who also is a priest, Zechariah has a heartfelt longing to see the temple rebuilt that God may be honored in his priestly service, which points ahead to the Messiah. And the prophet's call? Well, the word of the Lord came to him. It was not his word, he didn't make it up. It was God's infallible Word that came to him to bring the Word of the Lord to the people of God in his day, in their time of need. And God continues to call ministers of the word to faithfully proclaim his message to his people, not prophets in the Old Testament sense, but ministers to proclaim the written word. Because you see, Zechariah became a writing prophet. And as a writing prophet, Zechariah's prophecy is also God's word, not only for them then and there, but for you here and now. It has a message for you also right now. And these first six verses are not dispensable for understanding Zechariah, and certainly not dispensable for understanding God's holy, righteous character, and that his blessing is upon those who know him, and that he calls to return to him and live by faith and repentance. Now, Zechariah's introduction takes a very serious turn in verse two, doesn't it? The Lord was very angry with your fathers. The Hebrew there is actually very intense. It could be translated something like wrath was God with your fathers in wrath, or angry Jehovah was with your fathers angry. It uses the term angry in the original twice. Many had rich privileges. Many showed themselves to be ungrateful. And God says that he had severe displeasure because of that. Some were totally unbelieving. Some were believing who could respond to the call of repentance. God does not overlook sin. He just is holy and he doesn't overlook our sin. It must be under the value of the blood of Jesus Christ or be subject to his wrath. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can remove that wrath, and those who die in unbelief will know God's unmitigated wrath. Not all who are among the people of God externally are truly internally part of the people of God. And the Bible knows that, there are wheat and there are tares, there are people, the saddest way for a person to go to hell is sitting week after week after week under the preaching of the gospel and never believing it. Well, there's that. God's anger has different ends, the eternal punishment of the wicked, but also the chastisement of the children of God, which also and prevailingly is taking place here, because whom God loves, he chastens, Hebrews 12, 29. Adopted sons and daughters of God are scourged by God in His fatherly love for us to help us to grow, to help us to stay the course, to become Christ-like. And so God's anger then has different ends. Child of God, his discipline of you always bears good fruit. It is an evidence of God's love for you, of his fatherly care for you. And so here, the threat of captivity was fulfilled, the people have returned, and God is now saying through Zechariah, do not disobey my voice coming through the prophet. Now, as did your fathers, when they had to be taken into captivity in order to begin to learn something of what it meant to be faithful to the promises of God. Do you know the sad thing to me in what God is saying here? He says, don't do what your fathers did. Don't follow the ways of your fathers. Don't be unrepentant as were your fathers. And that hits home, because you see, Father, You cannot regenerate Your children. You cannot make them follow the Lord. But these fathers obviously fell short in not talking the talk and walking the walk. They obviously fell short in not teaching their children about who God is, and how He must be first in everything to them, and in their family worship, and in their lives, so that God can actually say, this generation is in danger because of what the last generation did. And I find that incredibly sad and a great warning for us. that a generation of fathers can influence the next away from the Lord, but a generation of fathers that lives for Christ also can be used of the Lord to bring children to Christ, and that should be the norm in the covenant community. Third thing, the call of grace, verse 3. The call of grace, verse 3. Therefore, say to them, thus declares the Lord of hosts, return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts." In grace, he calls them to return. This attitude that they have in their hearts, they must repent. And so here see God's grace and tender, loving call to those in rebellion. And he speaks to the people of God just as we read in James chapter four. The words really are almost identical when the Lord says, This is James 4, verse 7 and following. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near unto you. Almost the same words. You see the same thing in Malachi 3, verse 7, the next book over. T.V. Moore, 19th century Presbyterian exegete said, if men expect God to return to them in prosperity, they must return to him in penitence. The flower averted from the sun must turn toward it to catch its genial smile. So he's saying turn toward the sun, toward the light, toward the vibrancy of your promise making and keeping God. He uses the term shuv, which is just the Old Testament word for turning, for repenting, that corresponds to metanoia, the Greek term for repentance, metanoia, the verb I repent, and it means to change your direction, change your trajectory, turn from the direction in which you are going. Turn, repent, change direction. And this is the command of the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Armies. This is authority indeed behind a call to repent. I am the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Armies. And three times in the introduction he uses the term Lord of Hosts. Again, 53 times in the whole book. The Lord of Hosts. The God who is, the God who is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, who rules everything, the God who is the Lord of armies says to every unrepentant heart, turn, turn, turn, repent. What is more needed in American pulpits today than the preaching of repentance? I mean, churches in America need to hear the word, the term repent. And that supported buttress backed up by the authority of God through his neglected word. Preaching repentance has rightly been called a distinguishing mark of God's true preachers. And indeed that is true. You remember in Luke's gospel at the end, before our Lord ascends up into heaven, that he says, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. But that leads us to probably the most important section that we will see, God's call, this is the fourth thing, God's call to repentance in light of history, verses four through six. Let's read these verses again. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, thus says the Lord of hosts, return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord your fathers. Where are they and the prophets? Do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, as the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us. God's call to repentance in light of history, first of all, in view of the sins of the fathers, verse four. Four times in these verses, verse two, verse four, verse five, verse six, he speaks of your fathers. Do not be like your fathers. They would not listen to the pre-exilic prophets. They turned a deaf ear to the word of God. They did not hear, as he calls them in verse six, my servants, the prophets. They brought God's word faithfully in their day and time, and they even said, shavu na, that little particle na is an intensifier that means urgency. And so they were urgent with the people of God as they saw them going down the wrong road and living the wrong lives outside of the promises of God's Word. They were intense in saying to them, repent, repent. Just as New Testament, New Covenant preachers should be intense in preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins, so that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 11, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Well, the prophets did that. Called them from their evil ways. It uses the word derek, that is way, their evil ways. also showing, it says, in their evil deeds. Is this message different now? Again, Matthew 4, 17, Acts 20, 21, 26, 20, 1 John 1, 6 through 9, over and over and over again, all through the New Testament, this call to repentance, this call to repentance, which is a grace, not a work, this call to repentance. Where do we attempt to be a law unto ourselves, as did the people of God then? We should ask ourselves, each of us, where am I walking in a way that is offensive to God? I need to hear His call, His blessed, gracious call, His loving call to repent, to turn. And so in view of the sins of the fathers, he calls them to follow the word of the Lord, but also in view of the brevity of life, he calls them to repentance in verse five. Did you notice? Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? By which he's saying to them, passing opportunities may never come again. He's saying passing opportunities to hear and respond to God's word, we have only so long to hear and respond to God's word and to live for the Lord. Life is brief. And young people, let me speak to you because young people generally, with exceptions, Generally, they have little sense of this, the brevity of life, how important to follow the Lord now, to remember your Creator in the days of your youth. And I think middle-aged men, it seems to me, sometimes suppress the truth of the brevity of life, and others do too. Unless the heart is Holy Spirit-taught, And then you realize that your life is but a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away. And then it comes to your mind, oh, I need to spend my life on that which really matters and that which really counts. And then that verse of the Lord Jesus becomes powerful in our lives. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. I've been focused upon all these things. No, I need to be focused on him. upon His kingdom, His righteousness, and leave to Him the things that He will add. So the call to believe and repent is now. The opportunity will pass. God's servants will not always be here to call to repentance, and already for a long while the pulpit in the United States of America and in the West generally has massively turned from the preaching of the truths of the Word of God. Sound preachers, how long will you have them? You see what he says here. Your fathers, where are they? They're not here anymore. And the prophets, do they live forever? As Merrill Unger said, he's stressing here the fact that spiritual opportunity neglected is spiritual opportunity lost. Let me repeat that. Spiritual opportunity neglected is spiritual opportunity lost. So maybe you're lost here today. You say, I'll look into this tomorrow. The call to repentance you see is addressed to the people of God, but the call to repentance is the call to repentance. It's addressed to sinners as sinners. Oh, I'll look into it tomorrow. I'll look into it another time. Maybe tomorrow I'll do it. Well, you may not have tomorrow. As Thomas Watson, the Puritan said, while men spin out their silver thread, death cuts it. God's Word is permanent. God's Word lasts forever. God's Word stands. And we had better build our lives on what is permanent rather than what's going to be burned up in the last day when Jesus Christ returns. And that's God's message through the prophet. He says to them, in effect, you have what your fathers did not have, the example of your father's rejection of God's word that led to their exile and judgment. Learn now from the prophet who is preaching to you this word of God. Don't be like them. Follow this word and the prophet's godly example, Haggai and Zechariah. Learn from this. But also in view of God's power, the power of His Word, He calls them to repentance. And I find this very hopeful indeed when He says in verse 6, that my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, now who is the they? Is this the fathers that repented? Or is this a summary of everything that we have in this passage being preached to his present audience? Well, I can't prove it, but I think that's what's happening. I think what he's saying here is, this is a summary. The prophet Zechariah preached to the people and they repented and said, as the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us. And he has dealt with us in mercy, in calling us to repentance. So he says in verse six, but my words and statutes which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? Did you see that word overtake in verse six? Deuteronomy 19, six, lest the avenger of blood and hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him. Deuteronomy 28, 2, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. But it goes on to say in Deuteronomy, if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I commanded you to this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. So he says at the end here, exactly as the Lord of Hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so as he dealt with us, and the way he chose to deal with them was relentless, gracious, merciful pursuit. So if you have in your heart what shouldn't be there and you know you need to repent and God is continually coming and continually coming, he is pursuing in his goodness and his mercy and in his grace. just like some bloodhound that will not let his quarry go. Or maybe the better image would be some little child that constantly wants to run out in the road and mom or dad is right behind him all the time. God in his tenderness and mercy pursued, pursued, pursued because it speaks of their ways, the trajectory of their lives, their deeds, the way of life shows in deeds because sin will out. So do you see, Zechariah must preach these things before he brings this message of hope that fills his book. goes on to preach the message of hope, but he has to start here. He will not offer false hope. You must have a repentant heart, a cleansed heart, a circumcised heart, as the Old Testament calls it, a Regenerate, growing, sanctified heart. Hope belongs to those who trust in Christ. Hope belongs to those who are believers in Christ. Hope belongs to those who hang on God's word. Hope belongs to those who live in the truth. And if you find yourself slipping into the hopelessness of this world, maybe one of the reasons is because you have an unrepentant heart. What a rarity nowadays to hear truth. That's what he brought to them. He just brought the truth and God used that truth. Now I want to bring this to a conclusion with some really important observations gathering some profound implications lest we forget them. The first thing is this, people of God, we must not disregard the word of the Lord preached by his servants. You know, we're soon to have a Reformation conference in October. Dr. Master will be here to preach to us and teach us. The Reformation was all about a return to the Word of God. It emphasized the reading and the preaching of the Word of God, especially as the means that God has appointed of saving sinners and keeping His people in the way. Ministers today are not prophets, but we are prophetic. We take the written word and apply it to the people of our day and of our time. T.V. Moore, if I may quote this wonderful exegete again, said, whilst God is love and whilst the preachers of the gospel must preach this glorious truth, they must not conceal the fact that God is a consuming fire and angry with the wicked every day. It is a sign of a sickly piety when men are willing to hear nothing of the wrath of God against sin." Next thing I want to bring to you is just to underscore their sin. What was their sin? Well, it was spiritual lethargy, their zeal for Christ. as thus far revealed in the Old Testament had slowed down and grown chilly or perhaps altogether cold. Cold hearts here, anyone? Just going through the motions as a Christian maybe? Do you remember a time when you were really zealous for Jesus Christ? Do you remember a time where you You couldn't wait to get up in the morning to serve the Lord Jesus who saved you from your sin. Do you remember a time when you put Him first and responded immediately to His Word? So the Word here is, build the temple, restore the worship of God. But the point is, the ringing call was a call to zeal in the service of God and for the agenda of his kingdom. He says in verse 14, God says, so the angel who talked with me said to me, cry out, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. He's zealous, jealous for his people, and he wants us to be as well. And so I warn you, listen, I've been preaching this text for a week and a half to myself, right? I don't exclude myself as preacher. I'm a sinner just as you are, but nonetheless, I'm called to warn you. I warn you to make it personal. If you are on a trajectory that God disdains, Do not leave this room until you make it right. Deal with it now. The issue is a submissive heart to the authority of God. Don't toy with Him. Don't play with His Word. Deal with it now. Leave this place with a cleansed heart. But let me add that in all probability it seems to me that another sin was spiritual depression. And here I am not talking about those who have physical issues that bring about a depression that's organically the issue. I'm talking about those who have neglected the word of the Lord, neglected the word of the Lord, declined, declined, declined, and you're in spiritual depression. They were into the world's perspective on things. And so deeply that they had all but lost hope. And they aren't getting up and serving and rebuilding that temple because they're just lethargic and depressed. How can God's promises be fulfilled? I mean, look at all these stones, look at the opposition. We need to build houses for ourselves. The answer, how can the promises be fulfilled? He is the Lord of hosts. People, He is the Lord of armies. And so, there is power in His call to all of His true people. Power. through that Holy Spirit who has raised us internally from the dead, raised us in our hearts from the dead, who will raise our bodies in the last day, who works in our lives in sanctifying righteousness, grows us, matures us. There is power when God calls His people to believe and to repent. So if you are here and you were lost or if you are here and you're a believer but you're spiritually lethargic, slipping spiritually, then hear the words of Jesus Christ our Savior in John 6, 37, all that the Father gives unto me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Can you backsliding Christian, can you not pray, Lord restore unto me the joy of your salvation? A passage that I hear misquoted so often, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. No, no. It's restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Because God is the Savior. Only He can restore. So go to the Lord and listen. Let me tell you, in this Christian life, there is nothing in this world that is not against you. I'm talking about the world system. The world overflows with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. The devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And my greatest foe is me." Right here, my own heart. I'm my greatest enemy. But who determines your salvation? God or man? When you begin to think that way, you will say, nothing will deter me. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He will keep us people. He will bring us to repentance. He will keep us moving and give us the victory, pardoning our sins of deepest die. And let me tell you, Zechariah is a prophet who prophesies of the coming Messiah who forgives sins. Just turn over to the 12th chapter and just notice the words. Zechariah 12, verse 10. Where God says, and this is Zechariah 12, 10, and I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy." In other words, those pleas for mercy, they come from the Lord. I will do this, you see, so that when they look on Him whom they have pierced They shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps for or over a firstborn. Now turn to chapter 13. Look at the first verse. Chapter 13, verse 1, on that day there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. That has a context, of course, but the point is, don't you see here a gracious, merciful God? who redeems and saves His people, who stirs us up by His mercy so that we actually long to repent and want to follow Him, and we change, and we grow, and we mature, and we can continue to come to Him as believers, as sons and daughters of God. Yes, the wrath of God already spent, but we come to Him and we trust Him that He will continue to forgive us our daily sins that we sin against our Heavenly Father. And if you are lost and do not know Christ, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains." That's the word you need to hear. That's the promise of God to believing, repenting sinners. First John 1-7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, that is Jesus and you, and the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us from all sin. I would say that the call to repentance in these first verses is a call that is full of hope, wouldn't you? And now we'll turn to the rest of the book. And with your prayers, we will begin to see how this hope is worked out in this wonderful prophetic message. Amen and amen.