Zechariah chapter 1, and reading from the first verse. In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers, Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings.' But they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. The Bible often mentions our fathers. meaning of course forefathers, our forebears, and it refers to those in the past who have lived before us. There is a strong sense of history in the Bible, unlike in our modern day when it seems that individuals belong to the present and although there is an interest in family trees and that kind of thing, The Bible emphasises the fact that we belong to a succession of people, those who have been from the beginning until now, and especially in terms of the Lord's people and the universal church, we belong to a company of people who from the beginning to now call upon the name of the Lord and belong to his church and we are identified with them, our Christian forefathers. Well here in Zechariah it is of course Israel's fathers who are meant, you have it in verse 2, the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. And then in verse 4, be not as your fathers. Verse 5, your fathers, where are they? Verse 6, did not my words take hold of your fathers? An interesting story concerning W.P. Nicholson, the Ulster preacher and evangelist, the Tornado of the Pulpit so he was called. And such was his preaching that in the 1920s there was something of a revival in Ulster. And in the Harland and Wolfe shipyard where he worked, there were so many conversions and changed lives that men in a stream brought tools back to the shipyard that they had stolen. And they had to have a shed to hold all these stolen tools that became restitution. And it was called the Nicholson Shed. But W.P. Nicholson, when he was at college training, The practice was that students would be given a verse, any verse from the Bible, there and then, and they would have to preach a sermon on it. We wouldn't do that at the seminary. It's quite a thing to spring upon a student. But anyway, W. P. Nicholson was given verse 5 of this chapter, your fathers, where are they? And in typical W.P. Nicholson fashion, he said, well, I don't know where my fathers are, but I know one thing. If they're unsaved, they're in hell. If they're saved, they're in heaven. Amen. And of course, it's true. Now, in this place, those who lived before the Babylonian captivity are in view here. the fathers from that time because this is now the returned remnant and Zechariah is ministering to those who have come back to Jerusalem. And in verse 6 they are described as those who have known the effect of God's word on them my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets did they not take hold of your fathers and they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. And they're acknowledging that the preaching of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets before the exile, warning the people to turn from their sins and turn back and be restored by God's mercy, Well, now the generation that went into the Babylonian captivity, the survivors who have come back, very old now, and the new generation grown up who have come back, they're now acknowledging that the words of the prophets of that time came true. Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. And so they acknowledge the truth of it. and that they did not preach falsehood in that generation. But the Babylonian captivity came and took them away according to the threatenings of the Lord. But God in his mercy has brought them back according to the promises of that time. And now there is a remnant who are restored. And the Lord's word took hold of the fathers. Now, we can understand these words more generally as we apply them to ourselves. Did not those words take hold of your fathers? Because isn't it true that God's word is to take hold of us too? and it's a helpful way of describing our relationship to God's Word, or rather perhaps its relationship to us. It takes hold of us. Let's look first of all at the Word itself. My words, did they not take hold of your fathers? And you notice the close connection. God speaking my words. And that is a reminder to us of what we might call the divinity of scripture. God speaking my words. The Bible is an extension of God himself. 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Five words translating one word in the original God breathed. Now you see when we speak, words go out of our mouth, on our breath, and can you separate your words from yourself? and neither can you with God. He speaks and it is divine words and there is divinity in the spoken, inspired words of the prophets and apostles and then afterwards written down as scripture. Thomas Watson said, the two testaments are the two lips by which God hath spoken to us. Do you have that high view of the Bible? That whenever the Bible is read, God reads. Whenever the Bible is preached, God preaches. Whenever the Bible comes to us, God comes to us. And they take hold of us. My, he says, my, words. And therefore there is this particular regard here, my words. When it's plural, It often means a message, as here, the messages of the prophets, warning of the captivity, coming true in the Babylonian captivity, promising return, coming true as he brought his people back, the messages. But when it's the complete Bible, it's usually my word, singular, because of the unity of Scripture. The Bible is not just a collection of words. It is His Word. The scripture of truth. And what it should do to us is take hold of us. It should affect us. After all, dear friends, this is the word of the living God. This is a message from heaven. This is the Lord here giving us revelation and then having it written down under divine inspiration so that what is the product of it is exactly what he wanted to say to us for all time. and thank God for a translation of the Bible in our English language in our case. I think it was William Gurnall who said that the word of God as it is, is like a sword in its scabbard. But the word translated is when the sword is drawn out of the scabbard and it can be used. And we're so thankful We have the Bible in our language, and we're concerned that every nation under heaven should have the Bible in their language. That's why we're so thankful and privileged to support the work of the Trinitarian Bible Society, aren't we? That great work which seeks to send the word of God among all nations. But it should take hold of us. You have the phrase, don't you, if someone is very enthusiastic about something, you say, oh, he's very taken with it. Are you taken with the Bible? Does the Bible take hold of us? And so the word itself here, my words, my statutes, did not they take hold of your fathers? And you see in taking hold of them, what it did? It sent them into the captivity because God's threatenings are true. It brought them out of the captivity and back to Jerusalem because God's promises are true and verified in all that he makes his word come to his people as and fulfills them for his sake. And God is the God that cannot lie. So the word itself, but look now at secondly, converting grace. My words, did they not take hold of your fathers? And when we're converted, isn't it true that the gospel word takes hold of us for the first time? And it's the first taste we have of it. We may well have heard it many times. It's gone over our heads. It's passed us by. We've been able to dodge the application of it. It's something that we've been able to put out of our minds again and again and again. But when we are converted, it comes to us and it not only touches us and affects us, It takes hold of us and it has us in its gracious grip and my what a thing that was. Can you remember the first time you heard the gospel in an enlightened way so that you knew that God was speaking to you and that this Savior was a Savior who died for your sins that the gospel was calling you to trust in him and you felt affected no you felt held by it you felt dealt with by it as the sinner you were and you came as a sinner to Jesus the word got a hold of you and what a wonderful thing that was it takes hold of the mind to Timothy 3 verse 15, made wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. You see the Bible in saving us doesn't just bring us to a book, it brings us to a saviour, it enlightens, makes him real to us. And the written word, the preached word, brings us to the living word, the Lord Jesus. And how glad we were to come when we realized who he is, when we realized our need of him. And we were held, we were drawn, we were brought. Strange the way it happens, isn't it? Remarkable. Sometimes it's that we're transfixed under a sermon, Sometimes a Christian person speaks to us and shares the gospel with us for the first time and we've got to listen and we can't help but listen. Another time we're given a tract, we open it, the instinct is to throw it away, but no, we've got to read it. In each case, different ways in which the Lord deals with various individuals. I heard only the other day of someone who wanted to complete a questionnaire. It was offered by an organization called the Navigators and they were offering young people a questionnaire. And the first question, do you believe in God? Do you believe in the Bible? And that kind of thing. And yes, I'd like to complete that questionnaire. And one question leads to another and of course the truth begins to close upon the person and they've got to think about what they're saying. In my own case as a 16-year-old lad, the Young Life campaign worker offered the young people among whom I was that evening, would you like to complete this questionnaire? And for some reason, some reason, I just felt I wanted to do it. Ordinarily, I'd have said, nah, rubbish. But why? Well, I discovered why. Because when we got down to the question, why did Jesus Christ die on the cross? And that question and the answer of scripture got a hold of me. I couldn't discount it. I didn't really know. I was wanting to hear it though and wanting to be told and that was the beginning of grace. The Bible takes hold of you and a change comes upon you. It gets hold of the mind and you begin to be enlightened and you begin to understand for the very first time and it takes hold of the heart. Romans 6 verse 17 the Apostle writes to the Christians there and he says ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered unto you. The heart went for it. The heart was opened like Lydia, and the word was received, and it took hold there. And it's more than an intellectual thing, isn't it? It's a heart experience thing, when you are brought to the Savior by means of this word, and the heart is affected. And oh, we come to love Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. And it takes hold of the will. And that is the last part to fall, isn't it? And to give in and to surrender. But that's what the word gets hold of as well. You remember our Lord said to the Jews of his time, ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. It's in the will, isn't it? The stubborn refusal. Ah, but the change that happens. willing in the day of his power and we are willing and we surrender the will and whereas before we said no now we say yes and we ask him to be our savior and the word takes hold of the will and we're fallen we're given in we're surrendered Everything is given up to him and we're set on our Christian way. I remember a few years ago I saw a beautiful illustration of this. It was a morning service And the message preached that morning was not particularly evangelistic, as we would say. But the Lord is not tied, is he, to certain means. But there was some reference to the mercy of God and Christ and salvation. And there was a young boy in the congregation. It was the summertime, and in the church it had quite big windows, and you could see out through the windows. And after the service, I noticed a boy sitting on the grass outside, all on his own, looking serious, just staring in front of him. And you see, what had happened was that the Word had taken hold of him and he needed to get alone and sit down and think about it and he was really deeply affected. Not so long ago, that boy was baptized. And you see what had happened. The Word had taken hold. What a wonderful thing that is, isn't it? The Apostle Paul, he speaks of being apprehended of Christ Jesus. The Word got hold of him when he said, Saul, Saul, and called him by his name, and thus eternal counsel ran almighty love arrest that man I felt the hours sorry I felt the arrows of distress and found I had no hiding place and it must be in Christ who is speaking and you see often it happens when we're running away take hold if you have a margin Bible at that point against that phrase take hold it is overtake the literal meaning of it in other words we want to get away we want to escape the application of it we want to get out away from the challenge of it and we run away but the word comes after us and the word overtakes us and the word gets a hold of us some of us perhaps were like that no one's going to make me a christian i don't want to be saved i don't want to give up my life And we thought, didn't we, that to become a Christian would be the worst possible thing that could happen to us. It would be the end. And we ran away. But the Word ran after us. And we couldn't get away. And it found us. And what a mercy it does. Some people, they run away to the other end of the world, even, to get away from a good Christian home, because they don't want to hear the gospel anymore, and only to find that they meet a Christian there, and the word comes to them again through that Christian, and they're saved in that place. Last Wednesday evening, as you know, it was my privilege to preach at the chapel in Chippenham for TBS. and I preached on the text, cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. And I mentioned the case of Luke Short. You may have heard of him. It is a remarkable and encouraging account. Luke Short was a young man who sat under the preaching of John Flavel, the Puritan, in Dartmouth, Devon. but he was never converted and he emigrated to America for a new life. He lived to be a hundred years old and he got away from Flaval's ministry, from the gospel. And the story goes that one day, by then he'd become a prosperous farmer and probably retired and things. He was leaning on the gate of his farm field and he was just looking out over the field and suddenly there came back to his remembrance the things he'd heard from John Flavel and as a result he was converted at a hundred years old in a foreign land. He lived a few years longer as a very useful Christian Sometimes long afterwards, you see, you cast your bread upon the waters, you receive it after many days. He went out at, I think, 18 years old, and 85 years later, converted. Never give up hope, dear friends, because the Lord is greater than all the unbelief and the gospel rejection and the hard-heartedness of sinners. The Word takes hold, and it can take hold, and we trust it will take hold. And those of us who are praying for unconverted loved ones, praying for unconverted friends, praying for unconverted strangers whom we meet, we're praying the Word will take hold. And we have a hope, just as it did for us, just as it did for so many, for these Israelite fathers so it will be and then we lay hold of eternal life Through Jesus Christ we lay hold of the hope that is in the gospel Oh, my dear friend has the word got hold of you Has it affected you? Do you feel in the grip of it? Don't run away But realize that God is speaking and Realize that the Lord Jesus is a Savior who can save you, even tonight, and he is available, and he invites you to come. It's the universal tender of the gospel, whereby Jesus, through preachers, says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and you'll only have real rest. when you get under the yoke of Christ and you find rest for your soul. May you find it. May the word bring you, hold you, and bring you to Jesus. Converting grace. Let's see, thirdly and finally, it's true of real religion as well. My words, did they not take hold of your fathers." What is Christian experience really but the Word of God getting a hold of us and as the Holy Spirit teaches it to us, applies it and imparts it to us, we're held. Like Martin Luther, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. And we want no other guide in life, do we? We want no other rule to go by. We want no other authority at all. And we're not interested in pragmatism, doing something if it works. And we're not interested in the standards of this present age in terms of living standards, in terms of morality, in terms of Christian service, We want the Word to be regulative in everything. It's either that we go by the Bible or we do not. But it holds us and we can't help but want to go that way, can we? And when we do, we are blessed and made a blessing. And again, these three categories, the Word comes to the mind. John 14 verse 26, but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." And the first application, of course, is to the apostles, that the Spirit, when he comes, will teach them and give them understanding of all that the Saviour had taught them And the second thing is, bring all things to your remembrance, what I have said, so that they will have that full knowledge of the implications of all our Saviour's teaching, that they might write it down in the Gospels and the Epistles. But for us, He teaches us. And when He teaches the mind, We see truth. It's enlightening. See things we didn't know before. It's a wonderful discovery. But he also brings all things to our remembrance. What we did know, but had perhaps passed to the back of our minds, is brought to the forefront again at key times. And what a blessing that becomes. And so it's things new and old. things newly understood and things old brought back again. And so the Word holds us and helps us along. We're dealt with and graciously blessed when the Word is like that to us, the mind, and we rejoice because of it. And the heart. Psalm 119 verse 111. Thy testimonies are the rejoicing of my heart." The word taking hold of our affections. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2, those who received the love of the truth. And can you go with that? Do you love the Bible? Love the Word? Even as you love God? Even as you love Christ? Because it's His Word. No separation. We love the Lord no more than we love His Word. And it's a wonderful evidence of grace if you can honestly say, I love the Bible. I don't always understand it, I don't profess to have as great a knowledge of it as I could wish. But one thing I know, I believe it all and I love what I believe. It's precious to my heart. It dwells in my heart in all wisdom and it warms my heart. It directs my heart. It brings me into love with my Jesus and into love with holiness and into love with his church and his word and everything to do with him. The word affects me like that. I can't help but be like that. I love The truth is I love the Lord himself. Thomas Watson said, read the scripture, not only as a history, but as a love letter sent to you from God. Well, love letters are poured over, aren't they? Read again and again. And not only the words, but between the lines and the implications, what lies behind the words. Can't get enough of it. Well, when the Lord helps us in our Bible reading and our hearing of the word, oh, the word rejoices the heart, takes hold of our hearts. And it shows us that our religion is real. Because you see, if we love someone, we love the person, but we love their words, don't we? And imagine a courting couple that have to live miles apart. And the only contact for them at the moment is, say, by mobile. And so they speak to each other. And one says to the other, it's just lovely to hear your voice. And you see, that's God's word. Lord, I was deaf. I could not hear the thrilling music of thy voice. But now I hear thee and rejoice. And all thine uttered words are dear. It takes hold of the heart and warms the heart. And it takes over the will. Because you see, God's will is expressed in the word, isn't it? Everywhere. And we find that we go with it. And we want to be one with the Lord. in everything. It's the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, Romans 12 verse 2, and that's how we're not conformed to the world, we get conformed to the Word instead. And it keeps us. And so the will is in subjection to the Word. And nothing is a problem to us. we honestly would say that. The so-called disciples in our Lord's day, they responded to some of his teaching and said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? And they went back and walked no more with him. But we wouldn't do that. To whom can we go? Thou only hast the words of eternal life. And there are words. We believe them. We love them, we submit to them. And so James 1 verse 22, doers of the word. It takes a great grace from God to get us from this place of the word taking hold of the mind and even taking hold of the heart, but then taking hold of the will. Even in Christians, isn't it? It's terribly possible, and we pastors have seen it in pastoral ministry, how you can sit down with a given Christian, you can quote the Word of God, show them their duty. I know, pastor, and I know it's true, but it's the will. Won't repent. won't give up that sin, won't come away from that backsliding, that thing that holds them instead of the Word holding them. And who can capture the will and bring obedience but the Lord himself? And I've seen some people in the grip of sin And I've seen firsthand, as every pastor does, the hole that sin has, the slavery it brings a person into, even the Lord's professing children. And I wish I could just pluck them out of it and just bring them away and just get them to do what they need to do, repent and give up and stop doing it and come back. but only if the will is captured by the word in a divine way will that happen and they say yes and there is repentance and there is sorrow and saying sorry to God and confessing sin and reformation which is the chief evidence of repentance a change life but how wonderful if you have a will that is in submission breathe on me breath of God until my heart is thine until I will one will with thee isn't it to be one and united with his will to say thy will be done and be done by me Notice in James 1 verse, what is it, verse 23, I often think about this, it's a great encouragement to obedience. If you're challenged about this and you think that coming right out for God and being faithful, separated unto him, means to lose, well, there it is in verse 25 actually. not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work of obedience to the Word, this man shall be blessed in his deed." You see, there's a blessing in it, not even a blessing for it that follows it, which is true, but in the very obedience that the Word calls for. If we yield it, There's a blessing right there and then in the doing of it. You never know real blessing until you obey and do the Master's will and you prove His best. And so the mind, the heart and the will. And let me conclude with this. You'll notice that they have here made a testimony. They return, verse six, They returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. They said, and it's a good thing to make a testimony of this, that I found that the word is so blessed to me. It's true. I've proved the truth of it. God is faithful. He's kept his promises. Have you said that? If there's someone who hopes they're a Christian this evening, but has never said anything to anybody, make a start by saying it. Saying you hope that the gospel has come to you in a saving way. You hope you know the Lord Jesus. Don't be a secret disciple. they returned and said. And the whole history of these people is about the effect the word had upon them. Did it not take hold of your fathers? And I wonder if future generations will say the same of us. Are those people the Emmanuel Church. One thing about them was this, they took the Word of God seriously. Not so much that they possessed the truth, the truth possessed them. And they honestly sought to follow the Word wherever it led them. Whatever you might say about them and their peculiarities and distinctives, not shared by all Christians, But at least they're honestly trying to do the Word of God and do the will of God in that Word in obedience with an eye to His glory. We're not setting loose by it. We're not being conformed to the fads and the fashions of the age. we're not being pragmatist as I said earlier. Do something if it works, even if it's unscriptural, but let's get the people, let's get results, let's make things happen. My dear friends, that's fatal, that's disobedience, that's carnality, that's worldliness. The world is full of pragmatists. who are prepared to ignore principle and do anything, even if it's wrong, as long as it gets results, and then you can say it was successful. That's not our way. When the Lord Jesus gave the great commission to baptize all nations, he says, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. be subject to his word, and you have the enjoyment of his presence as a church, as families, as individuals. May it be so. For the glory of his name. Amen.