Bringing Israel Home – Part 2
Zechariah 12:1-13:9 (13:7-9)
March 19, 2017
Last time we met we began continued in this section in Zechariah
Which deals with Israel’s future,
Namely the means in which God will bring them back to Himself.
We likened this operation to that of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
There we have a son who insults his father, and then squanders his wealth, but in the pig pen the Bible says he came to his senses and returned in humility to his father.
Well that is precisely what we are seeing here.
• We have a son (Israel) who has greatly insulted their Father (God), namely by rejecting their Good Shepherd (Jesus) who was sent to deliver.
• And in this rejection they then found themselves in squander (instead of a pig pen, it is under the reign of Antichrist)
• And we found that God is using this act to bring Israel to their senses that the might return to Him.
And we actually started working our way through this passage last time.
We saw the first point which was:
#1 GOD’S SUPERNATURAL DEFENSE
Zechariah 12:1-9
And just to outline it simply we saw this:
• Jerusalem is attacked and under siege by the world.
• But God supernaturally defends her (it actually harms those who attack her)
• The clans of Judah recognize this and they begin to return to God as well
• God also delivers the clans of Judah and Jerusalem
• God makes their warriors supernaturally powerful to defeat their foe
It is God rising up to deliver Israel
Even though they most certainly do not deserve it.
Simultaneous to God’s supernatural defense we also began to see
That God was using this to draw Israel back to Himself.
For we began the second point:
#2 GOD’S SPIRITUAL DELIVERANCE
Zechariah 12:10-13:1
As Israel came under siege they also began to cry out to God.
This went hand in hand with His deliverance.
In this process not only did they recognize God had left,
But also that they needed God’s Son whom they had pierced.
We actually worked through Isaiah 63 & 64
Where we saw the thought process behind Israel’s return.
The main point being however exactly what Zechariah said:
(10) “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”
In short, through all this affliction God will drive Israel back to Jesus.
Now, if you’re sort of putting all that we are studying together,
Then you know that this was precisely the promise
John stated in the book of the Revelation.
Revelation 1:7 “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”
No doubt those 144,000 Jews who are sealed during the tribulation are a tremendous evangelistic crew directing right at their Jewish relatives.
God will use the events of the end surrounding this foolish shepherd known as Antichrist to bring Israel back to her senses and cause her to return to Christ.
AND THIS IS REALLY WHERE WE LEFT OFF LAST TIME.
What we see tonight is THE EFFECT that this return will have on Israel.
And this is so important to recognize.
Too often times today we hear of “so-called” salvation
That doesn’t seem to really have any effect on a person’s life at all.
That is to say, they seem to be the exact same person
They were after conversion that they were before conversion.
And of course that just should not be!
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Far too long we have heard salvation described in terms of
“A Decision to Follow Christ” or “A Decision to Accept Christ”
We even sing, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”
(and I don’t necessarily dislike that song, so long as we understand the truth)
When salvation is portrayed as a “decision”
Then all the emphasis is on the will of the sinner.
And that reality makes not only salvation the sinner’s decision,
But also things like discipleship, faithfulness, and even security.
The sinner who must “decide” to follow Jesus, is also left with the burden of continuing to “decide” this every day.
And what we’ve often seen is that
A person may very well “decide” to follow Jesus
Under the conviction of a church service and then
As soon as that very afternoon “decide” to go back to their old life.
The reality is that true salvation is not a decision of the mind.
Salvation is a regeneration of the heart.
SALVATION IS NOT SOMETHING THAT THE SINNER DECIDES, SALVATION IS SOMETHING THAT GOD ORCHESTRATES.
In salvation God moves a dead soul to life.
In salvation God regenerates a dead heart of stone into a living heart of flesh.
In salvation man doesn’t change his thinking, God changes his heart.
(And obviously when God changes the heart, it will change man’s thinking,
And this is why man then decides to follow Christ)
THE POINT TO BE MADE is that
We not settle for the decision apart from the regeneration.
For when God truly regenerates a person; when God truly saves a person;
What we find is a totally new creation.
We find that God’s Spirit moves into that old man
And totally transforms him from the inside out.
This sinner is certainly now deciding daily to follow Christ, but only because God has transformed his heart into a heart that beats for Christ.
And if we wanted to really chase this rabbit tonight we could take a journey through the book of 1 John.
This is really John’s argument throughout the book.
(James does the same for that matter)
There is concern over whether or not true regeneration has concerned.
For example, listen to some of these statement from John:
1 John 1:6-7 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
1 John 2:3-4 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;”
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
1 John 3:7-10 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
1 John 3:15 “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
1 John 4:20 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.”
And of course John uses all of this litmus tests to help the reader
Determine whether or not true regeneration has occurred.
1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Now we’ve already strayed a little farther than we probably should have,
But I just want you to understand the point that we are making.
When God regenerates a life there is a definite change that must occur,
Otherwise we have good reason to question the validity of the conversion.
WELL TONIGHT, after seeing Israel cry out to the One whom they pierced
We begin to see God’s transformation take place in their lives.
What you will find is that after this moment
Israel will in fact be totally new and totally different.
Now, for the sake of our outline we are still in that second point.
GOD’S SPIRITUAL DELIVERANCE
And Israel just cried out to Jesus in repentance.
Well, look at GOD’S RESPONSE to this in chapter 13.
(13:1) “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity.”
Perhaps you are familiar with the old hymn
“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”
The picture is that of the washing of regeneration.
Pictured here as “a fountain” being opened.
God is taking these repentant sinners
And washing them of all their “sin and…impurity”
It is the equivalent of what the father said to the prodigal upon his return.
Luke 15:22-24 “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
It illustrates what John said in his epistle:
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
It was the exact thing being demonstrated by John the Baptist as he preached repentance and people were coming for baptism.
On this day, God poured out His Spirit upon Israel
Which caused them to repent,
And upon their repentance
God opened a fountain for cleansing and renewal.
God took this wayward prodigal,
Caused him to come to his senses,
Brought him home,
And then washed him off.
It is the joy and beauty of regeneration
For the first time in her history Israel is finally clean.
• How many times has she ceremonially washed?
• How many times has she offered some goat or bull?
But on this day, after finally turning to the true sacrifice for sin,
Israel is not washed with water,
But is washed and regenerated by God’s own Spirit.
Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
This is a glorious day!
Incidentally, it is not the first time Zechariah mentioned this coming day.
We actually already saw it back in chapter 3.
Remember chapter 3 was the chapter about when God justified Joshua the High Priest?
Satan was accusing him and Joshua was filthy,
But the Lord rebuked Satan, and cleansed Joshua.
The explanation was given later:
Zechariah 3:8-10 “’Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you — indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch. ‘For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.'”
That is what we are seeing.
Israel is being redeemed.
So you’ve seen God’s Supernatural Defense
And you’ve seen God’s Spiritual Deliverance
Now let’s look at the effect this regeneration will have on Israel.
#3 ISRAEL’S SINCERE DEVOTION
Zechariah 13:2-9
Well the first thing that jumps out at us is that
When God transforms the heart of Israel
They will never again turn to another god.
(2) “It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.”
Do you remember the first and foremost commandment that God gave to Israel?
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Of course this is the passage Jesus quoted
When He was asked what the greatest commandment was.
God’s most sincere desire was to be loved before and above all others.
And if you’ve noticed,
He also spelled that out clearly even in the Ten Commandments.
1) No other gods before Me
2) No graven images (don’t dumb God down)
3) Do not take My name in vain
4) Remember My Sabbath
All of those commands can easily be summed up in
“Love the Lord your God”
Of course the problem was that false prophets would soon arise
And do their best to call the children of Israel away
To follow their own sinful lusts and worship the false gods of the nations.
In part God allowed this test:
Deuteronomy 13:1-4 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”
Of course the problem is that Israel failed this test continually.
False prophets throughout their history continued to lead them astray.
Psalms 106:34-39 “They did not destroy the peoples, As the LORD commanded them, But they mingled with the nations And learned their practices, And served their idols, Which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood. Thus they became unclean in their practices, And played the harlot in their deeds.”
Even by the time Jesus arrived Israel was saturated with false prophets knowns as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Chief Priests.
The presence of all of this idolatry only served to prove that
Israel’s heart never truly belonged to God.
But on this day, after regeneration occurs, God “will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered”
On this day Islam will be called “Was”lam.
And God “will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.”
We read earlier about those false prophets being a test to Israel.
Here is what God said should have happened
To those false prophets who brought the test.
Deuteronomy 13:6-9 “If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. “But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”
Did you catch that?
I don’t care if it’s your sibling, your child, or even your spouse.
If anyone causes you to pull away from God, that person shall be put to death.
WHAT IS THAT?
It is the same thing Jesus said when He arrived.
Matthew 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
The idea is that our love for God transcends every other relationship.
And on this day, after God regenerates Israel,
This love will be firmly in place.
(3) “And if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD’; and his father and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.”
There will be a new found and devoted love for God
And an absolute intolerance for anyone who works against that.
False prophets and false gods will be removed from the land.
And not only will there be a wholesale assault on false prophets,
But the false prophets themselves will now lose their boldness
And go into hiding and early retirement.
(4-6) “Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy robe in order to deceive; but he will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth.’ “And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’”
All of these symbols and cosmetics indicate the office of a prophet.
• The “hairy robe” was indicative of Elijah and it was a costume the false prophets would wear in order to distinguish themselves.
On this day, they are getting rid of that robe!
They will instantly begin to say, “Not me! I’m not a prophet!”
However, Israel is so intent on ridding them from the land that
They will begin to investigate.
Someone will see the cultic scars or tattoos on the arms and say, “What are these..?”
And those former false prophets will make up a story
So as not to be uncovered.
The point being that false prophets will be removed.
And I don’t mind telling you that
This reality gives great comfort to my heart.
I don’t know if people genuinely realize it
But America is under extreme spiritual and theological attack.
(No, it’s not primarily abortion or homosexuality)
We have all heard of those horrific days in the past when the word of God was made off limits to the people.
• Days like the dark ages when the Catholic church literally chained the bible to
the lectern so the common man couldn’t have it.
• Days like communist Russia where the Bible was illegal, and people literally
fought and scrapped for just pieces of the written word.
America is under attack just like that.
(But I thought we have access to the Bible?)
True, our attack has not come from choking out access to the word,
But by diluting it with massive amounts of deception.
We have churches popping up on every corner,
And you don’t have to have any credential or experience to start one.
Just claim to hear from God and you’re in.
I was at my mom’s earlier this week and she has Dish Television.
I was flipping through one night, and I couldn’t believe the number of religious television stations that do nothing more than propagate false doctrine.
• I saw Joel Olsteen’s wife preaching…
• I saw Creflo Dollar preaching…
• I saw Kenneth Copeland’s daughter and wife preaching…
• I even saw that Jimmy Swaggert has his own television station now…
And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
I scroll through Facebook and I see all sorts of quotes
Posted from Joel Olsteen, Joyce Meyer, Joseph Prince, Creflo Dollar, and a host of new ones I didn’t even previously know.
But they’re all doing the same thing.
They are eager to rise to the top, get their television program, fill the role of a prophet and start blaspheming the true gospel.
The true gospel is not being censured,
It’s just be choked out by all of the weeds growing around it.
Well, that day will come to a screeching halt for sure and certain.
Especially in Israel, they will go on a full out war
To remove the false prophets from the land.
They will love God only and God’s word only.
Now, do you see what I am talking about when I talk about Israel’s Sincere Devotion?
• These weren’t just people who decided to follow Jesus for a little while.
• These were people who were fully and totally regenerated to love God with their whole heart.
And that love is evident.
• They want nothing more to do with idols…
• They want nothing more to do with false doctrines…
• They only want God and His gospel.
They didn’t just decide to love God,
God poured His love for Him into their hearts.
THE POINT there being that
We are not seeking to get men to make a decision for Christ,
We are seeking for men to hear the true gospel
So that God can do His work of regeneration in their lives.
This is done by God’s Spirit through the preaching of God’s gospel.
That is what will finally bring the prodigal Israel home.
And then we get to the final 3 verses,
Which serve as a summary of the entire process.
(7-9) “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,” Declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones. “It will come about in all the land,” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”
God is describing His total redeeming work
Which He will do in bringing Israel home.
It begins with a “sword against My Shepherd”
• It all started with the death of the Good Shepherd.
• It all started with the slaughter of the Son of God.
This of course was of absolute necessity
Since He would be the propitiatory sacrifice for sin.
However, the death of the Shepherd
Also indicated the scattering of the sheep.
“Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; and I will turn My hand against the little ones.”
This refers to the breaking off of Israel.
• They rejected Christ, and as Paul outlined in Romans 9-11, they were broken off that the Gentiles might be grafted in.
And as the sheep were scattered
God would unleash severe persecution upon them.
(8) “It will come about in all the land,” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it.”
And here we can see the persecution on Israel throughout the ages.
• Holocausts under Stalin and Hitler.
• The continual attacks in the Middle East.
• And certainly the persecution of the foolish shepherd.
And God promised that “two parts in it will be cut off and perish”
The rejection of their Shepherd can only mean destruction for the sheep.
AND YET GOD WILL SAVE A REMNANT.
“But the third will be left in it.”
And this “third” God will redeem and restore, and bring back home.
(9) “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”
The end result is that God will bring this prodigal to his senses
And then bring him safely home.
Now, the question is: WHAT ARE WE TO GAIN FROM ALL OF THIS?
(especially since it deals with Israel)
Well again I remind you of the name of the prophet
And the theme of the book.
“The Lord Remembers”
This is God’s faithfulness put on display.
He honors His word, He keeps His promises.
Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Now, you may not be Jewish,
And that statement may not seem to mean much to you.
But, are there any promises from God that you are counting on?
Then, even though you may not be Israel,
The issue of God’s faithfulness is of extreme importance to you.
God’s faithfulness to Israel, is a great encouragement
That God will remain faithful to us.
• God does not forget His people whom He foreknew.
• The Lord Remembers.
• And that goes for all of His people and all of His promises.
There has never been a prodigal that the Lord could not bring home,
Even if that prodigal was as rebellious as Israel.
God has a means and God has a plan.
He can and He will accomplish His purposes.
This is the encouragement to you and me as well.
