“The Case for Christ - Zacharias’ Prophecy (2)” - (part 9)

Once again, turn in your Bibles to the first chapter of Luke.

As we saw last week, Zacharias prophesied, in verses 68-79, of John and of Jesus as part of God’s fulfillment of the promises to David and Abraham.

God was going on in His salvation course - out of the old and into the new.

He had given His Word and He sealed His Word with an oath.

And so, as He was able to perform the mercy promised to the fathers and to remember His holy covenant, so He was also able to bring forth these promises of His divine plan in a fresh, new, and living way.

It was Zacharias who was given the light of how it would come about: by a righteousness and holiness wherein the ‘delivered ones’ would be able to serve God without fear all the days of their lives. (vs 74-75)

This was to take place in Christ as Galatians 3:16 declares: ‘Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, ‘and to seeds’, as of many; but as of one, ‘And to thy seed, which is Christ.’

‘For, He [God] hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ (2 Cor 5:21)

Christ was the One Who would give the new view to the old economy of things.

Zacharias could now speak of God’s salvation as though it was already accomplished, for - after a time of reflection and quietness before the face of God - his tendency to disbelieve God’s Word was changed and his absolute confidence in the promise of God was fixed.

The deep thankfulness in his heart, in knowing that God was actually sending the Messiah soon, was spoken out in ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel!’ (v 69)

We can scarcely appreciate this acknowledgement unless we put ourselves in his place and in the place of all those who were waiting for the ‘consolation of Israel’.

They all fed much on God’s promises and were obliged to walk by sheer faith without the inward dynamic of divine power and strength.

They looked forward to deliverance - yet, the only justification for their hope rested on God’s covenanted Word.

Many, many years had passed since the first revelation of His promise had been given.

The waiting seemed to them, no doubt, endless!

With such a long stretch of time, one could have the tendency to think that God was failing in His promise, that His prophetic revelations were only words - and nothing more.

Yes - it is easy to think there is something wrong with God when we do not see immediate results. 

It makes us think that His Word really cannot be trusted - does it not?

But - let me assure you - there is nothing wrong with God nor His Word.

The wrong is with us who do not understand Him nor His Word - with us who will not open our hearts fully unto Him.

That is where the wrong lies.

We need to understand that God will not, and does not, invade a heart that is not fully open to His Son.

Let me remind you that the dwelling place of His Son is a place that finds preparation for His residence in a willing heart.

Only holy hearts are equipped to receive holy things directly from the Holy One of God.

When that has happened, we know for sure that He does not fail in His Word, and, to us, His Word becomes more important than ‘fine gold.’

Peter, in 1 Peter 1:2-4, gave such a stirring testimony to this when he greeted his readers with: ‘Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, Who - according to His divine power - hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us unto glory and virtue...

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.’

Then, he, in 2 Peter 3:9, also testified: ‘The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness: but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’

So - by this time, after a preparation of his heart to receive God’s Word, it is not at all surprising that Zacharias - and all of the others who were waiting for the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises - could hardly contain themselves when the actual fulfillment of God’s promise was right at their door.

Of course, he, nor any of the others, could not at this point see and know what the apostles saw later of the ‘length, breadth, depth, and height’ of this amazing new covenant about to be inaugurated.

What he was given was only the transitional view from the old into that new and living way.

As we go on, in verses 76-77, we note that Zacharias did understand that John, his son, would announce the coming of Christ, the Son of God.  

John, the Baptist, as he had become known, in his noble and distinguishing office of forerunner, would sound the note of the ‘...knowledge of salvation unto His[God’s] people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God...’. (vs 77-78)

And why was this new way being brought in?

The defect of the old was that it was open to being broken - certainly not on God’s part - but on the people’s part - they did not keep their end of the agreement - they broke it.

It was made significantly evident that their service unto God was not in holiness and righteousness.

But the new covenant was being brought in - not so much that they kept on disregarding their part of it. 

Oh no - it was because God had united the people unto Himself.

God had made known to them: ‘...For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself,...’ (Deut 14:2).

And, in His unchanging faithfulness, He would not reverse the relationship that He Himself had established from the very first.

Since, then, the people were so impotent in keeping their part of the covenant, a new one was brought in.

God was following the course set up with the Triune Council of God by bringing in the new for the old.

The old - a covenant of commandment and requirement - had been laid before the people to accept and follow as the pattern of what God required and offered for a relationship with Himself.

It was given to them by external means - written on tablets of stone.

It was to be taken into the heart by a circumcision of the heart in which they would love the Lord God with all their heart, mind, and soul. (Deut 30:6)

If it was not taken into and received in the heart, the burden of guilt was upon them, for the law convinced them as being transgressors and, under that law, ‘...whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.’ (Jas 2:9-10)

All that was true of the old agreement.

Now - what would be so different about the new?
  
We go back to Zacharias’ statement in verse 77.

By virtue of the ‘knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins through the tender mercy of God’, the new covenant, forseen in Jeremiah 31:33-34, and later repeated in Heb 8:10-13, was expanding the scope of God’s ‘tender mercy’.

In those two passages, we read: ‘But this shall be My covenant that I shall make with the house of Israel: after those days, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

And they shall not teach every one his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.’

The first thing we notice is the aim of the covenant - and, here is where God remained faithful in His promised relationship with them.

The object of the old was: ‘I shall be their God, and they shall be My people.’

The object of the new covenant is: ‘I shall be their God and they shall be My people.’ 

There was no difference there - God was speaking and establishing a relationship with His people in both covenants.

What was different was - not the object of the covenant in the first place - but, rather, its kind.

It had a new character altogether, one that could never be broken on the side of man’s part in it!

And why could it never be broken?

And, here we see the evident change in this covenant of grace and magnanimity on God’s part.

The new covenant was to become internal, implanted in the innermost being by the Spirit of God.

The mediating act of Christ would make this possible.

The people needed only to believe, to receive, to accept, and to embrace Him.

And what they would embrace would become a new animating life principle - an internal life covenant with God.

And the Spirit of God would put the laws into the mind and write them on the heart. 

And on what basis would this take place?

Look at the ending of the Jeremiah and Hebrews passages: ‘...for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.’

The tender mercy of God was willing to restore fellowship with Himself on the foundation of absolute forgiveness of all sin.

The basis of the new covenant was to be just as Zacharias said in v 77, ‘by remission of sins’.

It would be complete, unconditional forgiveness of sin through the agent of Jesus Christ that would restore everlasting fellowship with God.

And how was it to operate?

The vital feature of the old was human mediation - the priests of the temple would perform various rites and ceremonies and the people either took its purpose into their hearts for a cleansing of the heart or it became to them just a perfunctory duty. 

But - for the new to operate in its fullness, it would not depend on anything nor anyone else - only upon Jesus Christ.

It would not be dependent on man. 

Let me say that again: it was not going to depend upon any man.

No - no - no - it has done away with all the old ways - in the new, there would be immediate access to God through Christ. 

In Heb 9:14-15, we read:

‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And for this cause, He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.’

The new would not depend on law, on the temple, on sacrifices, on the ark of the covenant, on human priesthood, on any particular nation, on any special country.

This is one of the most majestic, imposing features of the new agreement: it gives clear knowledge of God without human mediation.

Again, this was just as Zacharias said, it was ‘...to give knowledge of salvation unto His people...’.  

Look at 1 John 5:20 with me - 1 John 5:20.

‘And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ.  This is the true God, and eternal life.’

Christ was given that we may ‘...know Him that is true.’

Let me point out something here that is very important.  

The middle section of both the Jeremiah and Hebrews passages say: ‘They shall not teach every one his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’...’.

The phrase ‘they shall not teach’ has been, of recent years, misconstrued and misapplied. 

It is easy to think that, since we have received Christ into our hearts and lives, we no longer need teaching from anyone in the things of the Lord.

If that were so, the passages, such as 1 Cor 12:28-29 and Eph 4:11-12 which instruct the Church concerning the need for teachers and pastors, would not have been included in the Holy Scriptures.

We need to go on to the very last part of that prophecy to understand it properly.

God continued saying: ‘...I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.’

You see, the knowledge this passage speaks of is that knowledge that comes through God’s tender mercy in which He imparts to the heart the new birth.

It is an inward experience of grace to ‘know the Lord’.

It is knowledge imparted: it is called the new birth, being born from above, a birth that places one into immediate relationship to God because God has fully forgiven and remembers past sins no more.

It has been stated: ‘...what grace forgives, divine omniscience forgets’!

We can liken it to the birth of an infant who, from the moment he is born, immediately becomes part of a family. 

And, from this point onward, provision is made for the infant to move on with life.

The same thing is true of one born from above.

God’s provision to move forward in the full knowledge of Him is supplied by the provisions He has made to the Church.

In it, He has called pastors and teachers for the growing life in ‘...doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness...’.(2 Tim 3:16)
 
It is this new birth knowledge that is set forth in this prophecy of Zacharias where the regenerate spirit becomes the bearer of divine action ‘in righteousness and holiness to serve God without fear’.

For this, according to Zacharias, God’s people will be given ‘the knowledge of salvation...by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God...’.

‘For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.’ 
(Heb 7:19)

Lord willing, we shall continue next week in looking at the next part of Zacharias’ prophecy.
 
In the meantime, let me encourage you to read through Hebrews - pay particular attentention to chapter 10 - in relationship to this message tonight.

I pray these things we have looked at tonight will become your portion in a very special way this week - let the Spirit of God do His work freely in making them real to all of our hearts as we go about our various duties and work this week.

May the Lord bless this to your hearts.

Amen!  So be it!

Let us pray!