SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/21/2016 8:07 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro. To Zech 13
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 13:1-9
Message
of the verses: “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. 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. 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. 4 “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; 5 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.’ 6 “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.’
“7 "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. 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. 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.’"
As we begin this introduction we
can see from the first verse that we will be looking at the cleansing of
Israel, and so we can conclude that forgiveness is going to play a big part in
this 9th chapter of Zechariah.
Now as I usually do in my introductions of chapters when we are using
the sermons of John MacArthur to aid us in understanding the verses I will give
some quotes in the introduction.
“Now remember the setting. In chapter 12 we learned that in the future time in a period called "that day" which is the day of the Lord and we told you that's the time of the great Tribulation, that during the great Tribulation, the nation Israel, the remnant that remains after all of the slaughter of the Tribulation is going to repent and turn to Christ. Verse 10 of chapter 12, it says, "And they shall...in the middle of the verse...they shall look on Me whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son." Now here you have them seeing Christ, repenting of their sin, weeping in sorrow and that's the foundation upon which the cleansing of chapter 13 occurs. You see the sorrow, don't you, in verse 11, a great mourning, verse 12, a great mourning, verse 13, mourning, verse 14 mourning, all this weeping and mourning and repentance when they see Jesus Christ and it is this that is the foundation for the cleansing that comes in 13.
“And that's a simple point, folks, you ought to
make sure you understand. There
is no forgiveness until there is repentance. There is no salvation until there
is sorrow for sin. There is no cleansing until there is an awareness that
cleansing is needed. And as they mourn and as they see Christ, they are doing
what is required by God for cleansing.
“So, we saw in the first nine verses of chapter 12
the tremendous holocaust of Armageddon, and born out of that slaughter of
Armageddon is going to be the vision of the returning Christ as He comes in His
glory. And the remnant
that is left at the end of the slaughter is going to see Jesus Christ and
they're going to mourn and they're going to weep and they're going to repent
and then you come into 13 and immediately it says "For them will be opened
a fountain to cleanse them." Because
cleansing always follows true repentance, true sorrow for sin. And
Now as we come to the thirteenth chapter, Zechariah by the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit outlines for us the elements of this cleansing. There are six. But
Israel is going to be cleansed and there are six elements to this cleansing. And
we'll see them as we go.”
The highlighted portion that is also in italics is
a very important part of this SD, something that we all need to follow,
something that is not only important for our salvation, but also for our daily
walk with the Lord. As we looked at our
study in the gospel of John we also saw this important principle in the 12th
chapter when Jesus took the time to was His disciples’ feet to show them the
need to keep a short list with the Lord and to repent of your sins to the Lord
when you have sinned against Him as 1 John 1:9 tells us.
10/21/2016 8:28 PM
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