Join Dr. J. Vernon McGee as he guides us through foundational aspects of faith, examining the profound holiness of God and His desire for His followers to reflect His character. Through a careful look at the prophecy in Zechariah, we explore ideas of holiness, divine justice, and the unfolding future events foretold in scripture. Reflect on God’s righteous demands and the consequences of straying from His path.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. As our five-year journey through the whole Word of God continues, we’re traveling through the Old Testament book of Zechariah, beginning in chapter 13. But first, here’s Dr. McGee with a special introduction on God’s holiness and how we can reflect His character.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, last time I was talking about the holiness of God. And the reason for that is that There will be a holy people on this earth in the millennium. And heaven for the believer means that he will be a holy person. And holiness is just something that we today try to avoid. We don’t talk about it. It’s not preached about very much. And today it’s how we can do things, how we can become wonderful people when we’re not wonderful people. Well, God wants us to be holy. And he says, be ye holy as I am holy. Well, how in the world can we be holy when we are farther from God in respect to holiness than any other of the wonderful attributes of God? We are so unlike him here. Now, we were saying last time that holiness is part of the character of God. that he did not become holy by going to school and graduating and majoring in holiness. And there are people today that they try to act cultured and educated. But instead of acting cultured and educated, why not be cultured and be educated? And you won’t have to act like that. And God doesn’t have to act like that. God is holy. And we see on the positive side of the holiness of God, in Hebrews 12, 29, it is said our God is a consuming fire. And in the little epistle of 1 John, we didn’t dwell on that when we went through it, But you have contrasted the three definitions of God. And you have God is light. That is, God is holy. You have God is love. And then you have God is life. And John in his gospel tells us that the Lord Jesus said that God is a spirit. And you put those four together, you come up with a fair explanation and an understanding of who God is. Now, light doesn’t only reveal evil. Light consumes evil. God is a consuming fire. And the holiness of God explains God’s actions with people. God is righteous and God is just. Righteous to demand conformity to his standard. Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord. And he is just and righteous to exact a penalty for failure on our part. Justice demands that God punish the guilty. And believe me, he makes that very clear in Romans 2, 6, who will render to every man according to his deeds. And he will by no means clear the guilty. He has to deal with that. And we find in the case of Abraham, when God was revealing himself to Abraham about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, why God had quite a little talk with him about it, because it was something Abraham wouldn’t understand. And Abraham said in Genesis 18, 25, That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked. That be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? You see, Abraham was getting the wrong conception of God. God does punish sin. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbids. There’s no such thing as unrighteousness with God, Paul says in Romans 9, 14. And you find that when Paul was speaking to that man, Felix, in Acts 24, 25, and as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way, for this time, when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. Well, Paul reasoned of righteousness, that our God is a holy God, a righteous God. And that is what he says in Scripture, he’ll be no means clear of the guilty.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, thank God today for his forgiveness. In fact, let’s do it together now. Father, thank you for your forgiveness and your gift of eternal life through your Son, Jesus Christ. Would you impress your word and your character on our lives as we give ourselves to studying it? In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. We’re off to Zechariah 13 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, as we come back to this 13th chapter, we are following a program here, as you have, I’m sure, observed. And we saw that in that day is the way the chapter opened. And it’s just a continuation, actually, of chapter 12. And it gives a progress report in prophecy of what will take place in that day. It began with the Great Tribulation, the appearance of that man of sin, the worthless shepherd, who actually brought in the Great Tribulation period because he’s a world dictator, he promises peace, and he’s unable to give that because only the Lord Jesus can give that, as we saw last time. And in that day refers to that day, And it’s at the second coming of Christ there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. In other words, it’s the one who was pierced. They shall look upon me whom they pierced. We were told back in chapter 12, verse 10. and the one that died for them. And at the first coming, they rejected him. They did not accept him at all. That was certainly true at that time. Now, as we move on into this chapter, we see it shall come to pass in that day, and that’s getting a little monotonous, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols, out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. Now, we dwelt with that just a little the last time. He intends to remove the idols. And I’d like to read in this connection a verse of Scripture that that’s found over in the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation. And I’d like to just read there verse 20. We are told, “…and the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone.” Now, apparently, the demons at that time, the unclean spirit, that’s mentioned here. I think the unclean spirit actually refers to all demons all over the world, not just in that particular land. But this will be a final casting out of them, and they are put out forever. And it’s logical to believe at that time, as the book of Revelation says, the devil is put in the bottomless pit for that period, and then We have here the false prophet and the beast, that is, Antichrist. They’re put in the lake of fire. Well, I would assume that these demons are put one place or the other. At least we’re told they are removed from the earth at this particular time. And I would say it’s a tremendous step. Idolatry and false prophecy together with their demonic dynamics And that is, here the unclean spirit or the demonic dynamic that’s given. And I think we’re seeing a special manifestation of that at our particular time in history. And he will remove these at that time. And I think it has reference to the fetishes that they were putting up. The golden calves were not put back at Bethel. and in Samaria. Actually, that type of idolatry apparently had not returned, but certainly these little household images were something, and they’ve dealt with the Zodiac also, by the way. We’re seeing today a return to that type of thing. You would think that we’ve come out of paganism and heathenism, that the world would not go back to it. But the world’s going back to it because we are gradually moving into the darkness, again, because of a lack of knowledge of the Word of God. And that is the picture that is given to us here. And that is the explanation of why we see that demonic dynamic being manifested In our day, and that is the thing that really gives energy to the occult. There’s no energy shortage in that particular connection at all. And this is the total and complete extermination of idolatry and also of the putting out of the demons. And I would say that it covers really the entire earth. Now, we are told here in verse 4, and I want to move down to that. We saw verse 3 last time. And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophet shall be ashamed every one of his vision. When he hath prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. Now, the thing that interests me here is there are two things, really. The fact that the prophets actually, when the Lord comes, they’d be ashamed to attempt to prophesy at that particular time. This false vision, they actually now are really confused since the Lord Jesus has come and made a liar out of every one of them. Now, the second thing that you note here is this mantle that they wear. It’s called here a rough garment to deceive. And the prophets used that in Israel. It’s generally a hairy garment. It was the kind of a garment, actually, that you find mentioned several times in In Scripture, Esau was a hairy individual, and he resembled that type of a person. It looked as if he had on a hairy garment or one of these hairy things. And actually, Elijah wore such a mantle himself. And you remember, that was the mantle that fell upon Elisha. so that what we have here is not something that’s introduced that’s brand new, but something that we know something about. Now, he mentions that here, and that these are going to be removed. Why? Whether there be prophecy, it shall fail. It’ll be fulfilled. And the false prophets will be made liars. Theirs will not be fulfilled. Now, I read here, verse 5, but he shall say, I’m no prophet. I’m a farmer. For man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. In other words, the office of prophet will go out of business. The man that were false prophets are going to have to go back and become farmers again. That’s where you remember Amos was, and he returned back to it after his prophesying was over. And so in that day, that is the thing that will take place. Now, when we come here to verse 6, And actually, I’d like to read verse 6 and 7 together. And both are startling verses. In fact, this is the thing that the critic has tried to get out of the text to begin with. They said it’s shocking to find this prophecy given at this time. And it is. And that’s the amazing thing and the wonder of it. And it’s no excuse to reject it. It’s to alert us. Listen to this. I’m reading verse 6. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? And he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friend. Now, that, again, may I say, is a very wonderful verse of Scripture. I was wounded in the house of my friends. Now, that’s been translated by some of the higher critics, wounded in the house of those who love me. Well, they didn’t love him the first time. They hated him. And he made the statement, they hate me without a cause. Well, he’s coming to his friends. He came unto his own, and his own received him not, but to as many as received him. He gave at that time the authority to become sons of God. Well, when the Spirit is poured out, they are going to receive him when he comes the second time. That is, the remnant will receive him, and they will wonder. They say, well, where did you get those wounds in your hand? He said, well, I was wounded here before. I came before. Came the first time. Now, let me read the seventh verse. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who’s my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little one. He refers back to the time when he was smitten. In fact, when he was here, the Lord Jesus quoted this verse. We’ll turn to that in just a moment. This is a remarkable passage of scripture. And of course, we immediately identify it back in chapter 12 with verse 10. They shall look upon me whom they pierced and they shall mourn for it. Now, he is called in a song, the stranger Galilee. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that song. He’s not the stranger of Galilee to those who know him. And even when he comes to his own people a second time, he’ll not be the stranger of Galilee. Now, the first time he came, he was the stranger of Galilee to his own people, but not to those who know him. And that’s the reason I don’t think Christians should sing that song, stranger of Galilee, why to know him is life eternal. And Paul says, my ambition at the end of his life, he says that I might know him. Power of his resurrection, fellowship of his sufferings. Now, when he came the first time, they didn’t know him. And this matter of mistaken identity, that’s been the source of plots for writers of both comedy and tragedy down through the years. Shakespeare and the comedy of Arabs. Dickens and the Tale of Two Cities. That’s the plot. Many dramatic productions are based on this idea. The Count of Monte Cristo, for instance, becomes even more tragic, though, when it’s in real life. And it’s a real-life story. I read of a mother who had not seen her daughter for 17 years. She went to meet her in New York and walked right past her. It took some time for them to meet again because the mother didn’t recognize her own daughter. And when I held meetings quite a few years ago up in Ridley, California, I met a mother who had come from Russia. She’d not seen a daughter since she was a baby, or she wouldn’t have known that daughter at all. I think the greatest tragedy of the ages are expressed in actually just 11 words. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. What a picture. And you remember John the Baptist elaborated upon that. This is John 1, 26. John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. And the Lord Jesus said, Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. What a tremendous statement that was. And then Paul in 2 Corinthians, the third chapter, verses 14 and 15, he wrote, But their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth. Notice that. The veil is untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. You’ll notice it’s upon their heart. But Paul says when it’s removed, what? When the heart gets right, you can turn to him. He’s a stranger only to those who don’t know him as Savior. Now, Zechariah, therefore, speaks of that here. And so in his first coming, they didn’t know him. But there was redemption is the high word of his first coming, and revelation is the high word of his second coming. It was reconciliation at his first coming, recognition at his second coming. It was the incarnation at his first coming. It will be identification at his second coming. It was the mystery at his first coming. It’ll be manifestation at his second coming. And in his first coming, it was propitiation. And in his second coming, it will be proclamation. What a picture that we have here of this. And no wonder, one shall say unto him, and I think just as Peter spoke for the other apostles and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, one shall say unto him, what are these wounds in thine hands? How did this come about? You’ll answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friend. I came unto my own. The woman of Samaria said, how is it thou being a Jew? And you remember he told his apostles, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And a remnant at that time accepted him and received him. But it’s only a remnant. And it’ll be a remnant that is second coming, to tell the truth. I think a much larger remnant, but it will be a remnant because at that time, the Spirit of God is to be poured out up to the present. That has not happened. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost on just about 120, and it was a feast day in Jerusalem, and there were a whole lot of people there, friends. Now, I read in verse 7, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who’s my fellow. Don’t tell me that both Old and New Testament doesn’t teach the deity of Christ. My fellow, he’s the one that is even with me. Now, he says, saith the Lord of hosts, Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. Now, who would have thought that that referred… to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it does refer to him, because when you go to Matthew, the 26th chapter, verse 31. Now, turn there and read that. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it’s written, I will smite the shepherd and and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. Now, he made that applicable to himself. So what the Lord Jesus is saying here, and those of you now who deny that God has a future purpose with Israel, then may I say that in this series of prophecies that we have here that relate to his first and second comings, Did the Lord Jesus Christ lie or didn’t he? He says that Zechariah was referring to him when he said, “‘Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.'” And when he comes a second time, they say, “‘What is the meaning of these nail prints, the wounds in your hand?’ Why, he said, “‘I received those in the house of my friend.'” And then the prophecy goes on because then they’re going to know him. And as we said back in chapter 12, that’ll be the time of the greatest day of atonement. Verse 8, will you listen? It shall come to pass that in all the land saith the Lord, two parts in it shall be cut off and die. The third part shall be left in it. And I take that’s the remnant. A third will be saved. Verse 9, and I will bring the third part through the fire. I will refine them as silver is refined. I will test them as gold is tested. They shall call on my name. I’ll hear them, and I will say, it’s my people. And they shall say, Lord’s my God. Isn’t that a wonderful statement? And that’s the reason that 144,000 are sealed at the time of the Great Tribulation period. These are the ones that are going to say at that time, I will take a stand for him. They’re the ones that are going to be faithful to him. They’re the ones that are going to go through the Great Tribulation. Why? He sealed them, by the way. They’ll make it, and they’re his. What a wonderful passage of scripture. And you want to know something? I’m going to make it and you’re going to make it if you have trusted Christ as your Savior. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
What a great promise. Those saints who are living in the great tribulation period are sealed. They’re protected by God. Our journey through Zachariah continues this week. Why don’t you invite a friend to join us? Point them to our app or send them over to ttb.org or tell them about a Christian radio station in their area that carries through the Bible. And if we can help you find resources to deepen your study of God’s Word, call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE. That’s 1-800-65-BIBLE. And remember, you can also drop us a note through our app or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. I’m Steve Schwartz, praying that God blesses you as you walk with Him in His Word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
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