You see, God must be a God of judgment. Because he loves. You see, he loves so much. that the day is coming when he is going to protect those who are the objects of his love from evil. Forever.
And the only way you can do it is to destroy evil, you see?
So even that is an act of love. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. There's a lot of talk these days about injustice. Politicians, social scientists, and so many others confidently propose solutions to problems like poverty, hunger, and crime.
Of course, if you're a Christian, you know that while sin remains on earth, so will injustice. But there is reason for hope. In fact, a day is coming when all wrongs will be made right. All sickness, suffering, hate, and injustice will be swept away. Today, John MacArthur is going to take a look at that glorious future, a time of peace, joy, and justice inaugurated by Christ's return.
So stay here on Grace to You as we continue John's study, The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ. Here's John with today's lesson. Let's look at the Word of God, Zachariah chapter 9. People ask me very often, Mostly people who don't know Christ. They say, What's wrong with the world?
Why is there all this injustice? Why is there all this turmoil? Why is there all this war? Why all the disease and the pain and the agony, and why is this chaos existing in the world? There's a very simple answer.
The king is absent. And therein lies the chaos. The king is absent. Well, he came once. And he came once and promised to right the world.
He said he was the Messiah of Israel. He said he was the prince of peace. He said he was the king of kings. He said he was the lord of lords. And he was going to take back this world from the usurper that had had it for a long time, whose name was Satan.
And he offered his kingdom to people, but they rejected it, didn't they?
So he went away. And he said, I'll be absent a little longer. But I'll be back. And so we say very often as Christians, the king is coming back. And when he comes back.
War will end. Injustice will end. Anarchy will end. Confusion will end. Pain and disease and all the other things will be brought to a bare minimum.
The world will be righted when Jesus comes again. He will seize the reins of the government of the world. And he will rule with a compassionate rod. There are two elements that we find in Zachariah's prophecy and in all the other prophetic books in the Bible that write about his return. One is positive and one is negative.
One says that he comes with great salvation, and the other says that he comes in great judgment. These two elements of the coming of Jesus Christ were caused for the response of John in the 10th chapter of Revelation. In Revelation chapter 10, we read I saw another mighty angel come down with heaven clothed with a cloud and a rainbow, and John goes on to describe. This angel in verse 1, and then in verse 2, he says, And he had in his hand a little scroll open. And by the way, that little scroll was the title deed to the earth.
The title deed to the earth, Jesus was coming. And he had the title deed to the earth. He's the king. He's absent, but he has the right to reign, and he's going to come back with that title deed, and he's going to take over the earth. In fact, as he unrolls the title deed that is mentioned in the book of Revelation, you have the unrolling of the seven seals.
But he enrolls that title deed and takes back the earth. John's reaction is interesting. Look at verse 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, Take the little scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth. And I went to the angel and said unto him, Give me the little scroll.
And he said, Under me Take it. and eat it up. And it shall make thy belly bitter. But it shall be in thy mouth Sweet as honey. And I took the little scroll out of the angel's hand and ate it up.
And it was in my mouth, sweet as honey. And as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. Say, what is this? The little scroll is a title deed. And John says, when I saw this vision, in my vision the angel said, eat this.
In other words, John, take in the reality of the coming of Christ and his repossession of the earth. And John says, first he said it would be sweet. Why? Because when Christ comes back, everything is made right, and salvation reigns all over the earth, and Israel is redeemed, and an innumerable number of Gentiles are redeemed, and the kingdom is come, and Christ receives his due honor. But I hadn't eaten it very long before it became bitter because I realized that when Jesus came, not only was all that good going to happen, but there were going to be people eternally damned, there were going to be nations eternally destroyed.
And those are ever and always the two sides of the return of Jesus Christ. And that's why Christians are sort of mixed when they think about it. We rejoice that He comes, and yet we are disheartened when we see the world that He comes to. And we know the judgment that awaits.
Well, Zachariah is a little different from John. And as we approach Zechariah 9 through 14, the last five chapters of Zechariah, we find these same two elements of the return of Christ are emphasized. That which is positive in the salvation of Israel and the restoration of the earth and the kingdom and all the glory that God deserves and His Son is finally going to attain, and comparing with that the terrible, fearful. Eternal judgments that fall. And in contrast to his first coming, When men succeeded in killing him, At his second coming, He will destroy his enemies all over the face of the earth.
And then And only after that judgment. He will begin to minister healing. to a sick world. And the wonders of his salvation will come to pass. These are the two emphases of Chapter 9.
And the same two, as I said, that flow all throughout the Bible. The judgment work of Christ. is not an easy work to speak on. Because you see, even Isaiah in Isaiah 28:21 calls it God's. Quote Strange work.
Because to Isaiah it seems to be so contrary. To the greatest attribute of God, which is His love. the supreme quality of his nature, But you see God must be a God of judgment. Because he loves. You see, he loves so much.
that the day is coming when he is going to protect those who are the objects of his love from evil. Forever. And the only way you can do it is to destroy evil. You see?
So even that is an act of love. To protect and preserve the full manifestation of his love to his people forever. And so he will come in judgment. to destroy sinners and sin. But the other side of it is that he will come to save.
So much of the Bible talks about the judgment part of it. You can't deny it, it's all over the Bible. The major prophets, the minor prophets. They all talk about it. I was thinking of Joel 3:12.
Let the nations be wakened and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat, which incidentally is a valley that is created when Jesus hits the earth. His feet land on the Mount of Olives, and the earth splits, and a valley is made there, the valley of Jehoshaphat. And the nations are gathered. And he says, There will I sit to judge the nations round about. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
Come, get down, for the press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened.
The stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. There, you see the two sides: the great judgment, but the Lord also is the hope of his people. There are times in the New Testament That this judgment is presented Matthew 24, Matthew 25, Revelation 14, 14 to 20, many places.
But the other side of it, of course, is salvation, and that's presented too. When Jesus comes, it won't all be judgment. It'll be salvation for his people, and the fullness of that salvation, all it could possibly mean. Listen, for example, to Luke 21:27. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass, listen, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption. What? draws nigh. It isn't just judgment, it's judgment on the ungodly and on sin, but it's redemption. For those who are God's own.
Paul in Romans chapter 11, verse 26 says that that's the day in which all Israel will be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Savior or the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Romans 11, 26 and 27.
So there's a deliverer coming who shall remove sin and grant salvation. Dear weeping prophet Jeremiah talks about this day and what's going to happen when the children of Israel enter into the covenant of God. In Jeremiah 31, And verse 3, the whole chapter, really, but verse 3: The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Listen, again I will build thee, and thou shalt be billed, O virgin of Israel.
Thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of those who make merry. There's coming a day when salvation returns.
So we come then to chapter 9 again. And we have to see these two sides in this chapter. The side of judgment and the side of salvation. And we're going to see them in chapter 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. That's why I took the time to cover it so you'd understand.
We left off at verse 8. After finishing off with Alexander, He turns to Christ in the middle of verse 8. I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passes by, and because of him that returns.
Now, that was Alexander. God says, I'll encamp around my city. He'll pass by on his way to Egypt. He'll return back again, and he won't harm you. And then he turns to the future in a sweeping jump in the middle of the verse and says, and no oppressor shall pass through them anymore, for now have I seen with my eyes.
And here there's a leap into the end of the age, and when Christ comes, he says, there'll never ever be on that be another oppressor in the land of Israel. We know that couldn't be fulfilled by Alexander, could it? Because there were plenty since then.
Some even now.
So he jumps into the future and he says, There's coming a time. When the other conqueror, the divine conqueror, not the human one, comes. And after him there'll never be an oppressor again. For now have I seen with my eyes. In other words, that means God says, I have seen all I am going to see.
of of oppression. I've seen all I'm going to allow. I've seen enough. And when Jesus comes, it'll be over. And that introduces us.
The second part of the chapter: not the human conqueror, but part two: the divine conqueror, verse nine.
Now watch this comparison. Verse 9. Here we go. You ready? Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Get happy, Israel. O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. Stop right there. He says, hey, people, get happy.
The king is going to come. And boy, you know, when Alexander came, he was hot stuff. You know, the white charger and the whole bit. But look at the comparison. This is incredible.
He is just. and having salvation. Notice those two things? Justice refers to what aspect of his coming. Judgment.
Salvation refers to the saving aspect. He is just and he has salvation. The same two things. But look, Lowly riding on an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. riding on a donkey and a baby donkey, some conqueror.
Something wrong here. With that humble statement is the Conqueror introduced. They would have reacted perhaps by saying, I never saw a conqueror in my life riding around on a donkey's colt. Where's the white steed? But this is a different conqueror.
Now, I want to show you several things. First of all, his character in verse 9. His character In verse 9, the character of this conqueror You know, it's amazing as you look at the text because against the background of the invincible marching army of Alexander comes one who doesn't inspire fear and he doesn't inspire dread, and nobody's shaking and nobody's quaking. But he inspires praise, and apparently, as we shall see, he inspires peace. This is a different conqueror.
This is not a foreign tyrant, but Israel's own king. He is not cruel and oppressive. He is righteous. He is not slaying, he is saving. He is not rich and powerful.
He is poor and meek, and he doesn't ride a steed. He rides an ass is cold. What Zechariah says, get ecstatic. That's what the Hebrew says: ecstatic rejoicing. Flip out.
Get happy. Hoop it up. And he tells them why. There are four elements to his character. A is his character.
Four elements. First of all, he's a king. Behold thy king. Trump. The absolute monarch.
I love this. Thy king. Israel's king, Israel's Redeemer, the promised seed of David, the Messiah, the one who is to reign, the one of whom Isaiah said unto us, the child is born, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. He's the king. And so it was announced at his birth.
He's the king. And so it was announced at his death. Placarded on the cross, Jesus of Nazareth. The king. And he was.
Though they said it in jest. He was the king. The king is coming. People listen. It's going to be so good for this old world when the king gets back, don't you think?
To make it all right, to fix it all up. When he takes it back from that usurper Satan. Second thing it says about him. He's not only the king, but he is just. He is just.
His character is royal, and his character is righteous. His character is royal and his character is righteous. That means he deals justly. He deals righteously. He will do what is right.
No more will anybody say you can't get no justice. No more. He is righteous. Won't it be great to have a world where all decisions are made by one who is absolutely righteous? And just Scripture talks so much about that.
I wish we had time to go into all the thoughts that it has. Third thing. He is not only Royal He is not only righteous, But it says He has salvation. He is a Savior. He is a king.
He is righteous. He is the Savior. He is royal. He is righteous. He is redeeming.
He comes to save. And what did the angel say? When he was born, thou shalt call his name what? Jesus, why? For he shall Save his people.
From their sins. That's why we come to the table, isn't it? He's a Savior. We need a Savior, don't we?
Somebody to save us from our sins. Alexander was no savior. Alexander wasn't even righteous. He was a puny king. compared to Christ.
And then it says: lastly, in discussing his character, he is not only a king and righteous and a savior, but he is. Meek. He is meek. And It simply says Lowly. Do you see it there?
Lowly. Humble. Quite different from Alexander. The word in the Hebrew means poor. And the same Hebrew word is used in an economic sense to speak of somebody with no money.
That sounds like Jesus, doesn't it? You know, when they crucified him, they took all of his belongings. You know what they had? One robe. That was it.
Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests. Matthew 8, 20 says, But the Son of Man hath not any place. What? To lay his head. You know where his home was?
The Mount of Olives. That's where he went every night and communed with the Father and slept under the stars. If he stayed in a home, it was the home of Mary and Martha, Lazarus, or somebody else who kept him there. He had nothing. The word means poor.
in the Hebrew language when it refers to economics. When the same word is used to speak of somebody else other than economic, it has to do with them being sick. or wounded or afflicted. But the whole idea is of a person who has nothing, who is miserable, who suffers alone. That's him.
That's him. Meekness. And Zachariah ties that meekness into a very explicit prophecy. And he says, when he does come as king, just, savior, lowly, it'll be riding on an ass, on the colt, the foal of an ass.
Now early in Israel's history, very early. It was respectable to ride around on a donkey. But by Solomon's time, it wasn't. See, Solomon brought into Israel horses. He was really big on horses.
I've been to his stable. You say it's stable. Is it still there? Yep. You know where it is?
It's right on the shelf overlooking the valley of Megiddo where Armageddon will be fought. That's where Solomon's stables were. And I'll never forget looking at them. They were massive stables. And from that time on, nobles and soldiers and important people rode horses, and the donkey lost its dignity.
You were really admitting your poverty. by putting around. On a donkey. Jeremiah 17, 25, Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding chariots and horses.
So Jeremiah 17, 25 acknowledges that kings and princes rode horses, not donkeys.
So you see, this would be a strange prophecy. The king is coming riding on a donkey's colt.
Well That's an amazing prophecy. Did it happen? Look at Matthew 21. Matthew And when they drew near to Jerusalem and were come to Bethpage. Under the Mount of Olives, which is of course east of the city.
Then Jesus sent two disciples and said to them, Go into the village opposite you, and straightway you shall find an ass tied and a colt with her, loose them and bring them to me. How did he know that? Just like you knew everything. Just a part of the information that God has. Total information.
When you find this little donkey with a colt, bring it. If anybody says, you shall say the Lord has need of them. Straightway he will send them. In other words, he says, I'll not only take care of the fact that the donkey's there, but I'll take care of the questions the man might have. Just tell him the Lord sent for them, and we'll work on his heart, and he'll let you go.
All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. What prophet? Zachariah, we just read it, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king comes unto thee, meek and sitting on an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. Just exactly as was prophesied. And he got on.
Verse seven? They said him on it. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. They cut down branches from the trees, spread them in the way. The multitude that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the king of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
Hosanna to the what? The king. He was a king. Writing. A donkey.
Prophecy explicitly fulfilled. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Today we continued John's study titled The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ.
Well, as John pointed out today, the Old Testament talked a lot and talked specifically about what Jesus' first coming would look like. Isaiah said he would be born of a virgin. Micah promised he would be born in Bethlehem, and the book we're currently studying, Zachariah, said he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. But does the Old Testament have as much to say about Christ's second coming as it did about his first? Here's how John answered that question.
Yeah, I think in all truth uh you could say that the Old Testament says more about his second coming than it does about his first coming. And that is why the apostles and prophets had such a difficult time Preaching the life and ministry of Jesus Christ to the Jews because the Jews' understanding of the Old Testament was primarily related to the glorious arrival of Messiah. And so the apostles had to tell them: you need to go back to the Old Testament and find that he had to suffer and die and rise, and then would come the glory of his kingdom after that. Yeah, I think there's much more in the Old Testament that speaks to the ultimate triumph of Messiah than there is to his humiliation.
However, having said that, The elements of his humiliation are Are extremely precise.
So you have very, very detailed elements of the incarnation, the first coming of Christ. But when you come to the second coming, you have these massive Old Testament pictures of the fulfillment of the covenant of the king, the sovereignty, the bringing of the kingdom, and all the glorious elements of his return to take over the earth, to reign, and then to bring in the new heaven and the new earth. Yeah, it almost seems like those prophecies of the first and second coming are kind of blended together in ways in the Old Testament. If all you ever read was the Old Testament, it would be easy to conflate the two and think it was all one event. Yeah, no, that's true because the prophets don't say, okay, now I'm talking about the first coming and now I'm talking about the second coming.
There's not a clear demarcation between those. That's true. That would be true in the prophets. That all kind of is one package, and I think the Jews ignored the part about the suffering and they tended to attribute. It to something other than the Messiah.
In fact, they thought God may be talking about them as a nation. But when the New Testament comes and Jesus comes in humiliation and in his incarnation. It becomes crystal clear that he is fulfilling the elements of his first coming as laid out in the Old Testament. The second coming is. Still to be looked forward to.
You think that's going to happen literally as it's described by the.
Well, yeah, and I think that the test is that. the first coming was exactly specifically and literally what the Old Testament prophets said it would be. Why would we not think the second coming will be equally literal and specific as the Old Testament prophets said it would be?
So we're looking forward to a real coming of Christ, a real series of Holocausts that are going to cover the face of the earth. Horrendous things are going to happen. Armies are going to gather. The Old Testament is very specific about rulers and armies and leaders and how it all plays out in the Middle East and around the nation Israel and powers from the north and powers from the east and Armageddon and all those kinds of things.
So yeah, I think absolutely specific fulfillment. You can't ignore that. That is the end of the story. And if you use the same rules of interpretation that led you to believe in the doctrine of justification and apply it to prophetic passages, you're going to come up with a premillennial, pre-tribulational view of the return of Jesus Christ. And we're responsible to proclaim that, to proclaim his glory.
And what a great responsibility that is. Friend, to help you keep developing your skill as a student of Scripture, especially the prophetic texts. Keep in mind that we have thousands of free study tools available at our website that can help you do just that. Take advantage of those resources when you get in touch with us today. Our web address is gty.org.
That's gty.org.
Now, one resource at the website is the Grace to You blog. Look for the series of articles titled How to Prepare for Christ's Return. It's a great supplement to the lesson you heard today. You can also read daily devotionals from John. You can follow along with a reading plan from the MacArthur Daily Bible.
And don't forget, John's entire sermon archive, that's more than 3,600 sermons, is available to download in MP3 and transcript format. free of charge. That includes all eight messages from John's current study called The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ. All of that and much more is free at gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Bill Johnson. Thanks for joining us today. Remember to watch Grace to U television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378, that's NRV TV, or watch online at gty.org. And be back tomorrow as John MacArthur shows you how Old Testament prophecy can be. Can build your confidence that God will be faithful to keep all of His promises.
It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on grace to you.
