Well, we're in our 25th session on what it means to be Reformed, and I've been trying to take you through the five solas of Scripture. We spent a number of sessions studying sola Scriptura, which means that it's by the Scriptures alone that We live our Christian life and we organize our church and we live our life within that church. Everything related to our faith and our practice is based upon the scriptures. It's not based upon our opinions. or our personal preferences, but it's based upon what the Lord would have us to do. And then I've taken you through sola gratia, that we are saved all of grace, and that salvation is not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. lest anyone should boast, I've taken you in the past few Sundays in a rather roundabout fashion in regard to the doctrine of election, because I think it's very important for us as a church, and indeed for many Reformed churches, to come to the place where they see how great the plans of God are in relation to saving many people. from among the nations, indeed even saving whole nations in what I have called and what other theologians have called the latter-day glory of the church. Now, the reason that I'm doing this is not because most Reformed Baptists are post-millennial. Most Reformed Baptists are amillennial. And most people outside Reformed circles are premillennial. But I believe that if we all were to study the Bible more clearly and more carefully that we would all come to see what I have been trying to show you over the last few Sundays, and that is that God in His electing love, grace, and power has a purpose to save a number of people which cannot be numbered, and to present them before Him faultless on that last day. He has such great promises that they stagger the imagination of people when they read them, and I think many people just simply cannot believe them. They are simply that great. But I would remind you that our God is infinitely great, and that He is infinitely glorious, and He's certainly well able to save the whole world if He purposes to do so. Salvation is of the Lord. Now I want to turn you this morning in a study that I'm entitling, Many People Praying for Christ's Kingdom, to Zechariah chapter 2. In fact, I'm going to have two sets of verses here from Zechariah, the book of Zechariah, that show us these great promises that the Lord gives to his people and to his elect. in terms of his doing a work in them and among the nations. Zechariah chapter 2 verses 10 to 13, and I think I would like to have somebody read those verses for me if they would. Who would like to read these verses? Zechariah 2, Abe, and verses 10 to 13. Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion. For behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst before the Lord. Many nations will show themselves to the Lord in that day and will become my people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. The Lord will possess Judah as his possession in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. Amen. Thank you Abe for reading that. Now, I want you to take notice here of something that in verse 10, the daughter of Zion, and Zion is a picture word of the temple that's being built here in New Testament times, the New Testament church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sing and rejoice, O daughter, of Zion. For behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst.' Well doesn't God dwell in our midst already? Well He most certainly does. But look at what it says in verse 11, it says, Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. and I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you." Now last week I attempted to show you that the Lord has definite plans for the conversion of the nation of Israel. That even after 2,000 years, that God's promises have still not been fulfilled completely in Ezekiel 37. And I took you through Ezekiel 37, verses 1 to 14, and we saw the valley of dry bones, and the flesh and the sinews coming on those bones, which is where the nation of Israel is in the present day. But I said to you then that the breath has not come into these bodies, these people. God has got to bring them up out of their graves spiritually, not only resurrected the political nation in 1948 brought these Jews back into their own homeland after 2,000 years, but now they await something greater is what I'm saying to you. And what I'm saying is that the thing that is greater is their conversion and their being brought into the church, which will be a catalyst to the future millennium of Revelation chapter 20, and I've been trying to show you the connection between the doctrine of election and the time period of the millennium, the thousand years of the book of Revelation. I'm attempting to stir everybody up in the church over this, perhaps start a mild riot, and I hope it's not against me. But I'm hoping that people will reconsider their millennial views. If they would only read plainly the Bible instead of trying to systematize, as so many have done, and merely work according to principles of truth rather than historic fulfillments, I think that we would see a lot more action in this area. But we haven't come to it yet, but I'm hoping that we will. There's a plain declaration here of God that there yet awaits in the future, in the latter part of this present evil age before Christ's second coming, a time in which God will choose certain nations to come into the kingdom of His Son, and many among those nations will be saved. And that is, by the way, an impetus for each one of us to pray. This is not an impractical study. and that I'm going to attempt to show you here. We pray in the Lord's Prayer a phrase which may be very familiar to many of you, but maybe perhaps you've never really thought about it. It says in the Lord's Prayer, thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now when you stop and think about that, what are we praying for? We're praying that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ would come with power in a greater sense than it is, that we wouldn't just merely stand by and not pray for God to do greater things in relation to the promises of His Word among the nations. The Great Commission is go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you to the end of the age." He's always with us. But does that mean that the kingdom of God has to stagnate and fall down and grow weaker as the church age goes on? Well, I'm not saying that it's not dark in the present day. I'm not saying that this whole church age won't be an evil church age, as it's described. It will be. But I'm saying that within those parameters, the Bible is telling us something very profound and powerful here, that the Lord is not constrained to save by many or by few. And that's what I'm trying to bring to your attention, so that you will begin to have the hope that the Puritans, many of them had, once I derived myself this eschatology that I teach to you. And we need to see these things more clearly. I want you to look with me over at Zechariah chapter 8 and verses 20 to 23. Zechariah chapter 8 and verses 20 to 23. Who would like to read that for me? Alright, Maria Elena. Zechariah chapter 8. And verses 20 to 23. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, people shall be calm, inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of Hosts. I myself will go also. Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem. One more verse, I'm sorry. Yes, now this, I hope that you can see pretty clearly that you will not rationalize this away somehow. That this is not something that has ever happened in the history of the world. This did not happen at Pentecost, it was fulfilled there, and that's the end of it. I hope that you can understand that Pentecost was merely the beginning of the church age, and that the great things that happened on the day of Pentecost are something that could happen in an even greater sense in the time period of the millennium that I'm trying to talk to you about here, and this is something that you and I need to believe. People shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities, And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also. And notice the participation here. People shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city saying to another, saying, let's continue to do this. In other words, it starts out small in prayer meetings of people who are devoted to come and pray for the furtherance of the kingdom of God and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon us in greater measure than we've yet seen, and it builds upon itself. in a mighty way. And notice what it says here, I myself will go also. In other words, it's not something that just other people, other Christians ought to do. It's something that all of us ought to do. That we all ought to be praying, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That we all ought to be praying that Christ's kingdom would come in a greater, more glorious way. Because God's promised that He's going to do these great things. And He does not do these things apart from means and the means that he will use is prayer. Dear Christian, even your prayers. Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come and seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and pray before the Lord." And look at verse 23. This is exactly what I've been trying to talk to you about. That is the conversion of the Jews being a catalyst to the conversion of nations. This is what he says here. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, in those days, 10 men from every language of the nations, 10 men from every language of the nations, shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man saying, let us go with you. for we have heard that God is with you." You see, that's the way it is in revival. And you and I haven't seen much of this in our day. Now, if you're like me, I was converted back in the 1970s and there was what I would term a mild revival that took place back then. Revival isn't when you just put up a tent and you hold meetings, like in a crusade. That's not revival. Revival is the pouring out of God's Spirit, so that people really begin to take an interest in spiritual things, and in their own soul, and their own soul's salvation. So that in the first and second Great Awakenings, you would read many pastors writing about the revival that was taking place, and they would say, well you know, we had about 70 or 80 people in the church here a few years back, and then suddenly God came. And God showed up here, and people began to come, and they began to attend with a conviction that they needed to be saved, and they were in agony over it, crying out over it. These things really happened. These are historical facts. These are tastes of the thing that I'm trying to show to you and plead with you to receive, really. Because if you do receive it, you will begin to pray more about the state of the church in our day. I believe that the state of the church in our day is very, very dark and very bleak. And whoever said that post-millennialists believe that the world is getting better and better haven't understood what post-millennialism is. They haven't understood what it is when God pours out His Spirit when the church is almost dead. But that's what we're coming to, dear brethren, in our own day. In our own day, we're coming to the place where many churches are becoming dead in terms of their knowing God and having the influences of the Holy Spirit working in their midst, working in their hearts. Now, I grant you there are many people who love the Lord in this country. And I grant you as well that there are many churches of people that love the Lord in this country. But what I'm trying to say is that if you look at Europe, you see very few churches anymore where there used to be strength and there used to be many people who knew the Lord. Even in Great Britain, things look very bleak over there and the Muslims are building mosques by the hundreds. over there. What does all that say? What all that says is that we desperately need the Spirit, that we cannot do these things ourselves or by ourselves. Indeed, if the Lord did not uphold us in every church, in every place, we would all fall down spiritually. We would all be weeping and crying out because we didn't know where the Lord had gone. The question is, is the Lord of hosts with us? and the Lord of Hosts is with us. But sometimes the felt sense of His presence is not there and neither is the power evident in the midst of the preaching of the Word of God to see many people saved or many people even come to church. What happened to the 1950s? In the 1950s in our society everybody went to church generally. On a Sunday morning the churches were full and yet many people didn't know the Lord. That's an astounding thing, but what was that? That was a carryover from past generations of teaching good Bible teaching and good morality and decency and honoring the Lord. Generations of people that were affected by the Second Great Awakening and the institutions of this country were built based upon the revival in those days from 1800 to 1830. You and I need to understand that Christians need power. And for people to be converted, there has to be an exercise of power. It isn't simply that people come to know the Lord because they've raised their hand and said, now I want to be a Christian. I want to follow Jesus. As though it depended upon them to follow the Lord. You and I need to understand that unless the Lord comes with strength and power, that we will be weak. as Christians, but that if He does come, that we will be very strong in the way that He wants us to be strong. Listen to, I want to read to you here just a little bit from Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards has not read much anymore because his works are in two volumes by Banner of Truth in print that's about this big. And so people don't really read his works. I've been trying to read his works by them the Yale edition with the bigger print, but they are very expensive. I think that if Edwards' works were more available, that people would read them more. They are available online, by the way, if you want to read him. But let me read to you from his treatise. People used to take a greater interest in these things that I'm telling you about here this morning. Listen to the name of the treatise. The treatise is a humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people an extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion and the advancement of Christ's kingdom on the earth pursuant to the Scripture promises and prophecies concerning the last time. That's just the title. I mean, people knew how to write back then, didn't they? But people today, they don't know what to make of something like that. Well, let me read to you a little bit from this treatise, which, by the way, This treatise formed the basis of what was called the Concerts of Prayer back in the 1740s when Jonathan Edwards had interaction in letters between himself and some pastors over there, Erskine and others, about the state of the church and its need to be revived. He says, and he's talking about this chapter Chapter 8 of Zechariah. In this chapter we have a prophecy of a future glorious advancement of the Church of God, wherein it is evident something further is intended than ever was fulfilled to the nation of the Jews under the Old Testament. For here are plain prophecies of such things as were never fulfilled before the coming of the Messiah, particularly what is said in the last two verses of the chapter of many people and strong nations worshiping and seeking the true God, and of so great an accession of Gentile nations to the church of God, that by far the greater part of the visible worshippers of God should consist of this new accession, so that they should be to the other as ten to one. a certain number for an uncertain. There never happened anything from the time of the prophet Zechariah to the coming of Christ to answer this prophecy, and it can have no fulfillment but either in the calling of the Gentiles in and after the days of the apostles, or in the future glorious enlargement of the church of God in the latter ages of the world. so often foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and by the prophet Zechariah in particular in the latter part of this prophecy. Tis more probable that what the Spirit of God has chief respect to is that last and greatest enlargement and most glorious advancement of the church of God on earth and the benefits of which especially the Jewish nation were to have a share, and a very eminent and distinguishing share. There is a great agreement between what is said here and other prophecies that most manifestly have respect to the church's latter-day glory. As that in Isaiah 62 to 4, the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about and see, all they gather themselves together they come to thee. That whole chapter beyond all dispute, he says, has respect to the most glorious state of the church of God on earth. So Isaiah 66, 8, shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her, Isaiah 66, 12. I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream, and Micah 4 at the beginning. But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it, and many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the house, the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks. And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. see also Isaiah 2 at the beginning, he says, there has nothing yet been brought to pass in any measure to answer these prophecies. And as the prophecy in my text in the following verse does agree with them, so there is reason to think it has a respect to the same times, he says. Oh my. And all I'm saying is when you think of election, dear Christian, don't just think of individual Christians because God can do this great and mighty thing on a greater level. God is capable of doing things on many different levels. Individual, corporate church, and churches among the nations, individual believers among the nations, and nations at large themselves coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, that appears what he's promising here. is conversion work on a very large level, but not before a very dark period of time comes to the church where it seems as though that many things are going to be lost. And I'll talk about that more next Sunday, and hopefully that will be my last study in relation to election and eschatology. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your goodness in giving us these promises. We pray that we ourselves would be those who, as a church and as individual members of it, we would be more in prayer for your kingdom coming in this glorious way. For we know, dear Lord, that many things have happened among the nations already, but yet many more are yet to come. And so not knowing all of the things related to these things, we do pray that your kingdom would come. in a mighty way, even in our day. For we pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. You are dismissed.