Number 12, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel sayeth the Lord which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him, behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege, bot
h against Judah and against Jerusalem." Now, the first thing that I want to point out in this passage is in verse number 1 where the Bible talks about the Lord being the one who stretches forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man with him. Now, a lot of people will take scriptures like this that use poetic language to describe the earth as for example having a foundation or that the heaven is stretched forth as a curtain as it says elsewhere and they'll use this say, "Well, you know, the Bible's not really scientifically accurate. The Bible is teaching a view of the earth that's not compatible with what we know about the world that we live in."
If you would flip back to Deuteronomy chapter 32 and I want to show the first time this idea really comes up in the Bible of the foundation of the earth or the foundation of the world and this is something that you'll see repeatedly in the Bible, the foundations of the earth or something like that and some people will attack the Bible and say the Bible's not scientifically accurate, when in reality, exactly the opposite is true. The Bible is beyond science. The Bible knew the things that we know today before the scientists discovered them. For example, if we look at the Bible, we'll see statements like the fact that God is the one who sits upon the circle of the earth. We'll find statements such as the fact that he hangeth the earth upon nothing. People are just mixed up about these statements about the foundation. I'm going to show you what the Bible actually teaches here. In fact, I was just out soul winning today and I brought up to a lady that I was talking to just the accuracy of the Bible when you think about medical practices.
The Bible thought thousands of year ago to wash your hands in running water in order to be free from germs. Remember Elisha poured water on the hands of Elijah. That's how they were taught to wash up and the Bible goes into great detail in Leviticus 15 that if someone has a sore and there's blood or pus coming out of that sore or wound or whatever the issue, that they were to wash the bed, wash the sheets, if they sat on a chair, wash the chair, bathe their flesh in running water, change their clothes, wash their clothes. We see that germs are something that the Bible understood existed and so God laid out a sanitation that was really only understood in modern times about 200 years ago. If you go back a few hundred years, doctors would literally wash their hands in a basin of water, not running water, but in a basin of water and then the next doctor comes and washes his hands in the same water and then the next doctor comes and wash their hand. Hospitals were some of the most unsanitary possible places because they're just spreading germs, spreading infection.
Even the fact that God talks about the importance of keeping all human waste outside of the camp, outside of where they live whereas we look at Europe and the dark ages where all the waste is right there in the city and all the plagues and sicknesses that are spread by the lack of sanitation. God had it right all along. The Bible has been shown to be right over and over again and the Bible is right about the shape of the earth and about our standing in the universe. Now, look at the Bible in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and this is the first time we see this idea of the foundation of the earth that I could find. It says in chapter 32, verse 22, and this by the way, also not coincidentally, the first mention of Hell in the Bible, the first time the word Hell is used. Look at verse 22, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell and shall consume the earth with their increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."
When we see this term, the foundations of the mountains, it's associated with Hell. We see that Hell is kindled in God's wrath and that is where the foundations of the mountains are set on fire. Everybody got that? Now flip over to Jonah chapter 2. Jonah is toward the end of the old testament, those little books of the minor prophets after the great big books, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and if you find Jonah chapter 2, the Bible reads in verse 2 and said, "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me." Watch this. "Out of the belly of Hell cried I and though heardest my voice." Do you see that? In verse 2, he says, "Out of the belly of Hell cried I and though heardest my voice." Now look at verse 6. He says, "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains," which is similar to what he said in the first mention of Hell where he talked about the foundations of the mountains being set on fire of Hell.
He said, "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about me forever, yet as thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God." Now you stay there in Jonah. I'm going to quote for you Matthew 12, verse 40 where Jesus said, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." So, Jonah obviously did not literally go to Hell. Jonah is where? He's in the belly of the whale. He's not in Hell. He's in the belly of the whale, but when he prays unto God, he says, "Out of the belly of Hell cried I and thou heardest my voice." He says, "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever." He's prophesying of the Lord Jesus Christ one day, who as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, would somebody be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He's prophesying that.
Sort of like when David said in Psalm 16, "Thou will not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt though suffer thing Holy One to see corruption." The Bible clearly tells in Acts chapter 2 that he was not talking about himself because he said, "His sepulcher is with us unto this day." His body did see corruption, but he said this spake he of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in Hell, neither did he see corruption. So when David said, "Thou will not leave my soul in Hell," he's not talking about himself. He's talking about Jesus. When Jonah said, "Out of the belly of Hell cried I and thou heardest my voice. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about me forever." He's not talking about himself. He's prophesying of Jesus in this passage. There are many other examples like that.
For example, you know, the question is asked in Acts chapter 8 where he says, you know, when Isaiah 53 is read, he said, "Is the prophet speaking of himself or is he speaking of some other man." It's that famous passage from Isaiah 53 and that's where Phillip shows him that he's speaking of Jesus in Isaiah 53. Psalm 16 is no different. Jonah 2 is no different. Genesis 22, Psalm 22, these are all passages that prophesy and foreshadow the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, notice what the Bible says here in Jonah chapter 2, verse 6. Look down at your Bible. "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever." What does that word about me mean? Did you ever memorize the prepositions as a kid, aboard, about, above, across, after, against? Who had to memorize that list as a kid? We are the ones who got a real education. There's only about five of us here tonight. We know, only "a" and I don't remember beyond "a". We had to memorize that list.
About can be used metaphorically speaking if we talk about something, but it also has a very literal meaning of being around something. The Bible talks about being compassed about. It means that you're surrounded. So, when the Bible here says, "The earth with her bars was about me forever," it means it was surrounding me. It was around me. Now this is exactly what Jesus is saying in Matthew 12:40 when he says that he was in the heart of the earth. If you're in the heart of the earth, then the earth with her bars is around you at that point. It's about you. Does everybody see the consistency?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Between Jonah 2 and Matthew 12:40, which is pointing us to Jonah 2 and referring back to Jonah chapter 2. So, "The earth with her bars was about me forever" is a reference to the heart of the earth where Hell is located. So when the Bible talks about the foundations of the earth being on fire, we're talking about below our feet in the bedrock. That is the foundation of the earth because we have to understand that what does the Bible define earth as? The Bible defines the earth as the dry land, because if you remember in Genesis chapter 1, God divided the dry land and the sea and it says he called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called He seas and He saw that it was good and so forth. We've got to use the Bible definition here. When the Bible talks about the ends of the earth, it's not saying you're going to come to the edge of the earth and fall off. When the Bible says the end of the earth, it's talking about where the dry land ends and you have a great ocean.
You're living in Israel. The ends of the earth are going to be if you went all the way to Eastern China and that's where the earth ends and now you have a great ocean of if you went west to Spain and Portugal. That is one of the ends of the earth there and we could look all the times up in the Bible that talks about the ends of the earth. It's not that the Bible is scientifically stupid or inaccurate. No, it's just people don't understand the Bible. They don't want to believe the truth. It's like I preach about on Sunday morning. They're willfully ignorant of the truth, because if they would take the time to study, they would see that the foundation of the mountains is something that is set on fire of Hell, because Hell is that which is in the center.
Now, if we were to just look at a diagram of the earth, even drawn by an atheist, drawn by anyone who knows the basics of science and geology, we would see that or earth has a crust and then the theory is that there's a mantle and a core and that's the way it's drawn for you in a science classroom. Not only that, the crust is one to ten miles in thickness depending on where you are on the earth. If you think about the fact that the diameter of the earth is approximately 8,000 miles and that the crust is one to ten miles thick, that means that where we're standing right here, if we were to go down ten miles, you would reach fire and brimstone in the form of what's known as the mantle, magma, fire and brimstone, just ten miles beneath our feet and you would have nothing but fire and brimstone for 7,000 some odd miles until you got to the other side, you'd have this other little thin layer of crust, one to ten miles thick.
Did you know that the bedrock is so difficult to penetrate that in 2016 with all of our technology, we have never penetrated the bedrock and reached the mantle. Forget reaching the core. Forget journey to the center of the earth. We as mankind have never even reached the mantle. We have not even discovered, to use the Bible word, the foundations of the mountains. We've not even uncovered the foundations of the mountains, because we'd never reach the mantle. There are plans in the works to try to penetrate the crust and I read an article that talked about how there's a group of scientists that's receiving government funding to drill down into the crust and reach the mantle for the first time in human history and they're saying hopefully in the mid-20s or late 20s, like 2025 or something.
I'll bet most people think we've already reached the mantle, but no, 2020's the goal to penetrate the crust. Look it up. It's so hard because they keep having to change out the drill bit, literally. Have you ever tried to drill through something that's really hard and you have to keep changing out the drill bits and they overhead and everything? They're going to a place in the ocean where the crust is pretty thin and then they have this giant drill bit that's more than a mile long and then they have to keep changing the drill bit on it and this drill to try to drill into the mantle. It's a really difficult thing to do because the bedrock is so strong. Now, the word core ... You say why do we call what's inside the earth the core? Because core is French for heart. For example, you've heard of Richard the Lionhearted when you read about Robin Hood. Richard Core DeLeon is what he'll be called many times because core is French for heart.
When the Bible says that the Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth, synonymous with that would be Jesus Christ would be in the core of the earth for three days and three nights, referring to the fact that his soul was not left in Hell. It was resurrected. Therefore, the Bible is crystal clear that the earth has a heart and that that is where Hell is located. Hell is located in the heart of the earth. The Bible knew this thousands of years ago. If you're living in Israel and you're looking around at all the mountains and valleys and fields and farms, what would make you think that just everywhere you step there's fire and brimstone below you all the time.
I mean these people weren't writing the Bible from Hawaii and seeing the volcanoes. Think about that. The Bible was right because it's written by God and God's the one who created it so he knows that the whole thing is fire and brimstone, but it blows my mind how the average person that has never even stopped to think about the fact that this whole earth is filled with fire and brimstone and that if we used an apple as a model for the earth, the skin of the apple is way thicker than the crust is. I mean if it were to actually be an accurate representation of the earth, the skin would have to be much thinner because the crust is only one to ten miles thick out of 8,000 miles of diameter. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that just a mind blowing fact? What is it that's keeping it so hot down there? For thousands of years it just keeps on burning, thousands of degrees.
What's keeping it so hot? You know, scientists have theories about it's working as a nuclear reactor and so forth down there, but it's truly an amazing thing. I believe it is kindled by the wrath of God. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says, "A fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell." The lowest Hell. So Hell is beneath. The Bible talks about Hell being beneath us in the lower parts of the earth, but it also refers to Hell as being in the heart of the earth and the core of the earth. This is what the Bible teaches. There's a really ridiculous thing that's come along in the last few years and I never thought that this would happen, but there's this idea now that the earth is really flat and we've been lied to all these centuries and that it's not a sphere at all. It's actually completely flat and it's actually a great disc.
Who's heard of this thing? This flat earth theory? Now, it's so ridiculous right on the surface. You wonder how can anyone believe in this, but this is what happens when people are uneducated and I'm not talking about the world's education. I'm talking about actually just reading the Bible or reading books. To sit there and say NASA's lying to us, the world's really flat. The thing that's so ridiculous about that is people knew that the earth was round way before NASA ever came out. You trust NASA? I trust the Bible. We don't have to trust NASA because people have been sailing around the world in ships for centuries. They'll say, "Well, you know, but you can still do it if it's flat. You can still go around in a circle because it's a big disc."
Here's the thing. That only works for the northern hemisphere. See, if you look at the flat earth model, the northern hemisphere stays the same and then it's like they peel out the bottom of the earth. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? To make it a flat disc. Basically, all the geography in the northern hemisphere stays the same, but the southern hemisphere, now things are just ridiculously far apart now because you've peeled it outward. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Everybody have a picture of that? According to their model, Chile at the bottom of South America would be much further away from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa or much further away from Australia than what the globe would show because on the globe they're not that far apart, but this would make them really far apart if you peeled it out into a big disc the way that they show you. Of course these distances are not representative of reality because people have been sailing around the tip of Africa for hundreds and hundreds of years now in order to go from Europe to India. You can even read about missionaries like William Carey.
That would require you to read books, though, wouldn't it, instead of watching YouTube videos? You could, for example, read books about William Carey that talk about the journey that he took and the exact route that he took from England to India and how close they came to the coast of Brazil as they came along Brazil and then whipped around under the tip of Africa and then up to India because they knew that the earth was a sphere and that Brazil and Africa are the distance apart shown on a globe. That's all part of a great big conspiracy where the government is just hiding this from us and spending billions of dollars just to deceive us because if we knew the earth was flat, then we'd all believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior and they don't want that to happen, so there's this big lie about the fact that it's a globe. They use the word ball, which is not the right word. No offense to the Ball family, but a ball is a toy that you play with. A ball is something you throw around with a bat and glove.
The correct word would be a sphere or a globe. The thing that really infuriates me about this movement of people on the internet saying, "The earth's flat" and you say, "Pastor," and I say, "Why would you even bring this up? It's so ridiculous, why would you bring it up." Yeah, but when they put up a video and it's gets a quarter million views and it has way more likes than dislikes, 3000 likes, 500 dislikes or whatever. It's unreal. That's why I'm addressing it because it's a big issue. There have even been people in this church that have come through here and said it's flat and I'm just blown away by it because this is a movements that's out there. This is what infuriates me about it, though, is that they'll say the Bible says it's flat.
You know what that does? That basically is blasphemous to the Bible because then it makes people think that the Bible is a book of lies because there are actually some people in this world who are smart enough to realize that there's no way the earth could be flat and then when you go around saying that the earth's flat according to the Bible, "The Bible says it's flat," then what you're doing is you're saying that the Bible is a book that is scientifically stupid and scientifically inaccurate is what you're doing at that point. Actually you're giving a bad name to God's word. It's interesting, I wanted to bring this up because Paul and I, we just flew to Montana and we did an interview with Pastor Chuck Baldwin up in Kalispell, Montana and you how it is when you're sitting on an airplane? It's not fun is it?
You're kind of crammed in there and you're in coach and the altitude's messing with you, so you want to find something to pass the time, right? You're looking for some good entertainment, so Brother Paul recommended that I watch this documentary on Antarctica and it was called "Antarctica, a Year on Ice" and he said, "You've got to watch this. It's really interesting." I pull this thing up and I start watching it. It was a fascinating documentary where this guy goes through what's it's like to live in Antarctica. He lives there year round. There are actually about 8,000 people who live there in the summer months. You know the summer months when it's only like 20/30 below 0 or whatever. A lot of people work there in the summer months, but in the winter it gets so cold that a lot of machines can't operate. They can't really do much and most people can't handle it.
It gets down to 700 some odd people, 600 some odd people in the winters that actually stay there year round, 6/700 people. This guy documents that whole thing because he's one of the diehards. He's done I think nine winters down there. His wife has done eight winters or something. This guy is hardcore. You could tell that the guy was just a photographer, that this is kind of a pet project of his, but he really did a nice job on this documentary. I thought it was great and it was on YouTube, so we downloaded it and we watched it on the airplane. I'm watching it on the airplane and he's going through the fact that in the summer months, the sun never goes all the way down. You've heard of Alaska and Norway being the land of the midnight sun, where in the summer the sun never goes down or in the winter they'll have months of just total darkness.
Here's the thing. It's the same in Antarctica, same exact phenomenon, where you have months of just total light and months of total darkness. These flat earthers will sit there and say, "Oh, well we have this model of the earth that works." It's a flat earth and it's like a disc and then they show the sun going around in a circle above the disc, going like this. In the winter, it gets closer to the outside of the disc. I'm sorry, I'm mixing that up aren't I? Basically the sun gets closer to the middle in the summer and then further out in the winter. In the winter, it's going around the outside of the disc and in the summer it's going in the inside of the disc and they say, "See, this explains all the seasons. This explains everything. This explains Alaska and Norway and all the phenomenon." Here's the thing.
The southern hemisphere again is completely ruined because they don't even believe that Antarctica is real. They believe that Antarctica, because remember they're peeling the globe out? They basically believe that Antarctica is like an ice ring all the way around the outside, that that's the edge of the dome. You know the dome and disc? Because we're in a giant snow globe according to them. Basically, you've got this ice ring, so in that model then, if you're on the edge of that ring and they got the sun going around in a circle, you'd basically just have the sun go by you for a few hours and be in darkness the rest of the time. Thing about it. Is everybody thinking? I know this is complicated stuff, but here's their disc, right? If the sun's going around in a circle and you're on the edge of that circle in Antarctica, then you'd see the sun pass you by and then you'd have to wait a long time to see it again. Sometimes it'd be closer than others, brighter than others, higher in the sky than others, but that's what it would be.
This guy, I'm watching this film, nothing to do with this foolishness of a flat earth, but I'm watching this film and I get around minute whatever and I nudge Paul. I say, "Paul, this movie just disproved the flat earth." This is what the guy does. The guy literally does a time lapse where he points the camera at the sun and he follows the sun all the way around. For 24 hours, he shows the sun go around him and it kind of goes up and it kind of goes down, but it goes around him. Okay? Basically, think about this. If the earth's a globe, which we know to be true, it makes perfect sense. He's on the bottom. He's in Antarctica and so there it is. The sun's going around. It's not that the sun's going around him, it's that the earth's spinning. The sun's here, the earth spins, so from his perception on the earth, the sun is going around in a circle. He documents it. You can watch him do a time lapse where he shows the video of the town that they're in in Antarctica and you can watch the sun go around.
He condenses it down to 60/70 seconds, but according to the flat earth model, that wouldn't happen that way, but according to the globe that we know to be true, it makes perfect sense. Anyways, it was pretty interesting to learn about Antarctica, just the wonders of God's creation. It's really an amazing place. I thought it was just all ice down there. Actually, there's a lot of dry land that's not even covered in ice. It's fascinating. Anyway, I don't want to spend the whole night on that. You know what? It's worth it to get up and educate you on it because of the fact that this movement is spreading like wildfire because of just people's ignorance, people's foolishness and people's gullibility .They're just so gullible that they'll just believe whatever's told them. Just watching the whole documentary, he shows so many pictures of the sky because he's a photographer, he's really into the time lapse, so you see the stars moving and you see the Northern Lights.
It disproves it like 20 times, but that was the most dramatic when he shows the sun go around it. That wasn't his goal with his documentary, but this guy really killed two birds with one stone on this documentary, whether he knows it or not. Anyway, let's go ahead and go to the next group. We've got to get into Zechariah 12 here. I've got to crank through this material because there's some really important material that has way more value than what I just talked about for the last however many minutes. You've got to cover this stuff, right? Zechariah chapter 12, verse 2, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling until all the people round about." Again, a good definition of the word about, isn't it? Round about. I said round about. It says, "When they shall be in the seed both against Judah and against Jerusalem and in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people, all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
So what's God saying here? God's saying that no matter who comes to attack Jerusalem, he's going to defend it at that particular time. There are other times when the children of Judah or the children of Israel were not right with God and he allowed them to be invaded. He allowed them to be defeated, but in this particular case in Zechariah, he's trying to encourage them and he's trying to tell them that he will protect them if they serve him, if they follow him and that's a theme that we've seen in the first eleven chapters here. It's important that we don't just jump into Zechariah 12 and forget what we've read for the last eleven chapters.
Think about how clear it was in the early chapters where he says pretty much that if you follow my word, you're going to be blessed, you're going to be protected, etc., and if not, you won't. He's explaining that whatever enemy comes against them, he's going to protect them. God gives us the same promise in the new testament where he talks about how he will be a shield unto us and he will protect us and he will surround us and be our fortress and our strong tower. The word of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. There's so many scriptures about God's protection and God's care over us. That's what being taught here because you have to get the context of Zechariah. Remember, they've been in captivity. They've been defeated and taken to a foreign country. Now God's bringing them back to the promised land in the days of Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah and so he's saying, "I'm going to bring you back. I'm going to establish you in Jerusalem and then I'm going to protect you from all the enemies that would come against you."
A lot of people will blow this part at the end of verse 3 out of proportion where it says, "Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" and they'll say, see, everybody in the whole world, in this chapter, it's documenting a time when all the people in the world are going to comes against Jerusalem. That's not what that says. That does not say at a future time all of the people in the world will come against Jerusalem. There are other scriptures that talk about times when the surrounding nations would attack Israel or when Gog and Magog in the nations of the earth would come against his rule. This is not one of them. This passage is not one of them because this passage says that in that day, I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people, all the burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces. He said whoever attacks them is not going to win, is not going to prosper.
He says this, "Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." What does that mean, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it? Well, to get some examples of what he means by the word though, let's look at Amos chapter 9 and while you're turning to Amos chapter 9, I'm going to read for you from Psalm 46, verse 1, where the Bible reads, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed ..." Are you getting this? "Though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, we're not going to fear." What's he saying there? He's saying even if. In our modern vernacular, we wouldn't use the word, though, even if. How about this? Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. What's Job saying?
Even if God slay me, even if God kills me I'll trust him in our modern 2016 vernacular. Look at Amos 9, for another example, verse 2, though they dig into Hell again, again a reference to he fact that Hell is literally beneath us in the earth, "Though they dig into Hell, then shall my hand take them, though they climb up to Heaven, thence will I bring them down." Let me ask you this? Is the Bible saying that there are people who literally will dig into Hell here or that they will literally climb up to Heaven?
Or is he just saying, "Well even if they did that, I'd still get them?" He's just trying to be dramatic and say, "Look, I don't care where they go, I'm going to get them." It's the same thing as Zechariah when he says, look whoever attacks Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, even if it's everybody in the whole world. He's just saying, I don't care who it is, I don't care how many people they bring, they're going to be defeated. Now you say why do you make such a big deal about that? Go back to Zechariah 12, I'll show you why that's really important, because people will twist this passage and they'll try to take Zechariah 12 and they'll try to put it in the end times. They'll try to put it at the second coming of Christ, they'll try to put it in the book of Revelation and create this whole doctrine about how God's going to defend the nation of Israel over in the Middle East.
I mean, the nation in 2016 that's over there, you know, all those blonde-haired, blue-eyed white people over there that call themselves Jews? Basically God's saying that he's going to defend them. They try to take passages like this and make it an end times thing, to advance a political agenda that says America must support Israel. What does the Bible teach? The Bible teaches that Israel is anti-Christ because of the fact the Bible says, "Who is a liar, but he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-Christ that denyeth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denyeth the Son, the same half, not the Father, but he that acknowledge that the Son that the Father hath the Father also. According to the Bible, if you don't have the son, you don't have the father.
Now this shouldn't be complicated to us as Christians. As Christians, wouldn't you think everybody would know John 14:6, that "No man cometh under Father, but by me? Who here would say, I'm pretty familiar with that verse? I've heard that verse for many years now? That's a real popular verse. I would put that as one of the top five versus in the entire Bible. Who thinks that that's probably a top five most, you know, John 3:16, John 14:6. I would say those are both top five versus. What does that verse say? "Jesus sayeth unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh under the father, but by me."
Now, is he talking just to Gentiles there? Actually he's talking to a Jew there when he said that. He said it to Thomas, who was Jewish and he says to him, "Thomas, no man cometh under the Father, but by me." Yet, somehow people think the people over in Israel today are praying to the Father without Jesus, thereby denying John 14:6. According to John 14:6, they can't access the Father unless they go through Jesus." "Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus, the Son" and give him the glory, great things he hath done, but yet they're Jews so they can actually bypass that. You believe that? I don't believe that for one second. Yet, they'll post a picture of an Israeli soldier saying that he's praying to the Lord. The lord of darkness, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Flies. It's not the Lord, Jehovah God, because you've got to go through Jesus to get to him.
That's why this is important because people are twisting these scriptures in Zechariah 12:13 and 14 and trying to use them to advance a political agenda known as Zionism, that is contrary to the teachings of the New Testament, so we need to study to show ourselves the proof. Let's read the rest of the passage and I'm not just expecting you to just trust me here. I'm going to prove it to you for the Bible, that this passage is talking about that which is in the past, not that which is in the future, because keep in mind this is written centuries before the time of Christ. Look at verse 4 and let's keep reading. "In that day sayeth the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the people with blindness and the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God."
What is the strength of the inhabitants of Judah? It's the Lord. The Lord's their strength and the governors are realizing that. What we're talking about here is the day that Zechariah lived in. We're talking about Jerusalem being re-established. The wall is being rebuilt in the days of Nehemiah. The temple is being rebuilt. Ezra is there. Haggai and Zechariah are preaching and Zerubbabel is that governor. Right? Zerubbabel, the governor here, is one of the governors of Judah where the Bible says that they're going to say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be be my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God. That's where the strength comes from. It comes from the Lord. By the way, you can't separate the Lord from the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm going to prove that in just a moment.
This is back then. This is before Jesus' first coming. Let me ask you this, when Jerusalem was re-established and when they came back from Babylon and set up the nation again and Israel was back in the promise land once again after 70 years of captivity? were there enemies that wanted to shut that down? Were there enemy nations that wanted to put a stop to that? Remember all the enemies. When they rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, they had to hold a weapon in one hand and a work tool in the other hand and that's literally how they built because there was so much of a treat to their security. That's what we're talking about. Then, of course, we know that later on the Greeks would come in and attack and so forth. There was time when God allowed the Greeks to come in and defeat them, but then, of course, they defeated the Greeks. This, we know, historically as the invasion of Antiochus Epiphanies, the Greek leader that came in and did that.
When we read here in verse 6, it says, "In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of fire in a sheaf and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right and on the left and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in their own place, even in Jerusalem. What's he saying? This is before they're security in the promised land. Zachariah's preaching and giving them encouragement and assurance saying, you are going to be reestablished in the promise land, Jerusalem's going to be blessed by God once again and chose by God once again. This already happened, hundreds of years before Jesus walked on this earth. It happened, so don't try to put this in the new testament and let me prove it to you further. What does the Bible say next? It says, "In that day ..." What verse are we on?
Congregation: 7.
Pastor: 7? Okay, thank you. "The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day, shall the Lord defend that inhabitants of Jerusalem and even is feeble among them that day, shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them and it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." When he says here the house of David, he's talking about the governors. He just finished saying, "The governors are going to be like the fire that burns everybody up" and the governors are of the house of David, because Zerubbabel and his family are of the house of David. That's what that reference is to.
Now look at verse number 10. It says in verse 10, "I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born." Now, I'm going to tell you the false doctrine that this verse has used to teach and then I'm going to show you why it's wrong.
This is a verse that people will use to teach a false doctrine, and the TV preachers love this, because they love to talk about the current events and Israel and, of course, they are paid by the Jewish media that puts them on TV in the first place that owns all the TV stations and is their meal ticket in the first place, but what happens is they get up and preach and say, "Here's what's going to happen. In the end times all of the nations are going be against Israel and God's going to defend Israel from all these nations. Then when Christ returns and the children of Israel see Christ return, they're all going to realize what have we've been doing? Where have you been all our life and they're going to receive Christ as Savior." I've heard this my whole like. Who's heard this? When Jesus comes back, the Jews will accept them as their Savior. Here's the problem with that.
There's a guy that's coming that's going to claim to be Jesus and the Jews are going to accept them as their Messiah and it's the anti-Christ, so these TV preachers are preparing people for that, by saying that when Christ returns, the Jews will accept them. That's a really dangerous teaching, because really the anti-Christ is coming and the Jews are going to accept him. Here's the thing about it. It doesn't make any sense because of the fact that if the Jews reject him now, why would they believe on him then? "Oh, well, because God's going to do a work in their heart." What are you, Calvinist? They literally think that if you're just lucky enough to be a Jew, when Christ returns, you just get automatic salvation because God gives you a new heart. That stinks if you just missed it.
All the Jews in the 20th century that hate Jesus, reject Jesus, they go burn in hell because they didn't believe in Jesus, "Because no man cometh under the Father, but by him," but if you're lucky enough to be a Jew that makes it to the second coming of Christ, well then you are just automatically are going to get save because you're going to see him. We're not saved by sight. We're save by faith, not sight. Don't sit there and tell me, "Oh, but when they see him, they'll believe." Oh, really? That's kind of like the rich man told Abraham when he was burning in hell in Luke 16.
Remember the rich man's in Hell and he says, "Send Lazarus to go warn my family for I have five brethren and I don't want them to come to this place of torment." Abraham said what? "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. Nay Father Abraham, but if one return from the dead," he said, "They will be persuaded. Send Lazarus from the dead so that they'll know it's the truth," and he said, "If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one comes to them from the dead."
Think about that. Guess what? Jesus raises a dead body to life right in front of them. Lazarus, remember? He said, "Lazarus, come forth." Different Lazarus, but he brings Lazarus out of the grave, and you know what? Then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him how they might destroy him. So did they see and believe? So why would today's Pharisees see and believe. "Come down from the cross that we may see and believe." No, "A wicked and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet, Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." You know what the sign is that the Jews need to believe in? The resurrection of Jesus. You know what the Jews need to believe in tonight.
You say, "Don't you love the Jews?" Of course, I love the Jews. That's why I want to tell them how to be saved. It's by believing in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's not by seeing Christ coming in the clouds and having a sudden nationwide change of heart. That is a lie. That is a fraud. That is false and that is a weird teaching that people just automatically get saved because they're Jewish. Wrong. You make the decision to get saved. You have to choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to put your faith and trust in Jesus and call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. It's not automatic. Yeah, God gives you a new heart after you believe in Jesus. Okay?
If you would, let's keep reading because that's what they're teaching. They're saying, "Well, look at this scripture right here." "God," in verse 10, "is going to pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in bitterness for his first born." They're saying, "See, they're going to mourn for him and be like, "Oh, man I'm so sorry, why didn't we believe in him." That's what they're trying to twist this as, so they're trying to put it in the end times. Let's prove that it's not in the end times. First of all, keep your finger there in Zechariah 12 and go to John 19. Go to John chapter 19. John chapter 19.
I'm going to prove this beyond any shadow of a doubt. If we were in court right now, I'd be proving it beyond a reasonable doubt, but since we're not in court, I'm proving it beyond any shadow of a doubt. All right? Even more proof. Go to John chapter 19 and the Bible reads in verse 30, when Jesus therefore received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished and he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was in high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and they might be taken away.
Then came the solders and break the legs of the first and of the other, which was crucified with him, but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out blood and water and he that sought their record and his record is true and you knoweth the he sayeth true that you might believe for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken and again in other scriptures sayeth they shall look on him whom they pierce."
The Bible talks about the fulfillment of this scripture being the fact that Jesus Christ's side was pierced when he died on the cross and that they would look upon him whom they had pierced. What they will say to this is they'll say, "Well, no, it's when Christ comes back, you know he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so amen." They'll say it's not when they looked at him on the cross and looked upon him who they had pierced, it's at the second coming they're looking upon him whom they pierced. Does everybody understand. They're saying it's at the second coming. I'm saying it's at the first coming. Who's right? Let's go back to Zechariah and find out.
Now the question is this, first of all. Were there those who mourned for Jesus? Were there those who mourned for Jesus in great numbers when Jesus was hanging on that cross the first time and they looked on him whom they had pierced. Here's a scripture from Luke 23 that says, "And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Syrinian, coming out of the country and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus and there followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him. The Bible says that when Jesus was walking up to Golgotha, there was a great company of people mourning him and bewailing him and sad that he was being crucified.
What does Jesus say to these people? Jesus turning unto them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children, for behold the days are coming in which they shall say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bear in the past which never gave suck, when they shall begin to say to the mountains fall on us into the hills, cover us for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry." So the Bible documents a great company of people, mourning and weeping for the Lord Jesus Christ when he was crucified. Now, the scripture that they're talking about in Revelation chapter 1 when it says, "Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so amen."
That's not saying they're going to wail because of him like, "Oh, we're so sorry, we're waiting to get saved now." They're going to wail because of him because the Bible says they're going to wail and say to the mountains, "Rock fall on us," which is what Jesus just said. He said, "You're going to be wailing when the rocks and mountains are going to be a blessing to you if they would fall on you and crush you. Don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves." They're not going to be weeping for Jesus at the second coming. They're going to be weeping for themselves. Does everybody understand that from the scripture? You say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, I'm still not convinced that you're right. This is not what the TV preacher told me," but let's see what the Bible says in Zechariah that can give us the timing.
Does everybody understand both sides? I just gave you both sides. Hey, here's what they're saying. Here's what I'm saying. Okay, who's right. Verse 10 of chapter 12, "And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of Grace and of supplications and they look upon me whom they've pierced." Again, another proof of the deity of Christ since it's Jehovah God speaking. "And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born. Here's the first key to the timing, verse 11. In that day, shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem. We're talking about the same thing, right? As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo, and the land shall mourn every family apart, the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart, the family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives, the family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart, the family of Shimei apart and their wives all apart. All the families that remain, every family apart and their wives apart.
Let me ask you this. Do these verses 12 through 14 have significance or is God just filling up space here. I mean is he just, let's just make the book of Zechariah a little longer or do these versus have meaning that is significant to what we're reading. Now think about this. If we go with what I'm teaching, is it possible that versus 12 through 14 could actually happen? That the house of David could mourn separately from the house of Shimei, which is separate from the house of Levi? Yes, because at the time of Christ, they still knew what tribe they were. Remember what Paul said? "I also am an Israelite." He said, "I'm of the tribe of Benjamin," multiple times. Paul knew he was of the tribe of Benjamin. The Bible does mention other people of being of this tribe, of that tribe. He talks about people being a Levite. They still have the priesthood after the order of Aaron. They have the Levitical priesthood in place.
When the Bible says the house of Shimei, which tribe does that represent? Well, Shimei was a very prominent Benjamite. Okay? David was a prominent one of the tribe of Judah and, of course, Levi. Who were the three main tribes of the southern Kingdom? The southern kingdom of Judah, which later became know as Judea, was predominantly populated by the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi. There were, of course, people sprinkled in from other tribes. There's one person in the New Testament that we see. There's a woman of the tribe of Asher, that's down there because some of them got saved and didn't want to live in the wicked northern kingdom, so they crossed that border into Judah and they came to Judah. There's an Asherite here and in there there's going to be sprinkled in, but it's predominantly by and large Judah, Benjamin and Levi. At the time of Christ, you could have the tribe of Judah apart, you know the Shimei apart, you could have Levites apart. That makes sense. Verses 12 through 14 makes sense now in that respect.
Okay, now let's test these verses against what the TV preachers are telling us, what the Zionists are telling us, which is that this is about the second coming of Christ. Here's the problem with that. How can the house of David mourn apart today when no one knows what tribe, they don't know if they're of Judah. They don't know if they're of Benjamin. They don't know what tribe they are. They're all mixed and they just call themselves Jews and it's just a mixture where no one knows what tribe they are and we asked an Orthodox Rabbi and he said no one knows what tribe they are, it doesn't matter. He said the priesthood, the Cohanes, they know, according to him. That's sketchy, but he claims, well, they know, but do the Benjamites know, those of Judah, any of the other tribes. No we don't know. Look it up on line and see if they know what tribe they are. Look up these tribes. They don't exist.
There's no 12 tribes of Israel over there today. It's just a bunch of people who are Jews. There's Jews and there's Palestinians. That's what they talk about. They don't talk about Reuben, Issachar, Simeon, Asher, it doesn't exist, my friend. How could this verse be referring to the second coming of Christ when these groups no longer exist. These distinctions no longer exist. Then they'll say, "Well, they may not know what tribe they are, but God knows. God knows they're of Judah, God knows they're of Benjamin. Yeah, but this says that they're separating into those groups, apart. You know what apart means? They're not in the same place. Over here, you've got those of this tribe and over here you got ... How could you do that today. I mean, maybe they could separate into like the tribes of Germany and the Tribes of Poland. Those are the real tribes over there. The Spanish apart. Look, if this verse said the Spanish apart and the Germans apart and the Polish apart, like that would make sense.
The Sephardic apart and the Ashenazis apart and the Palestinians apart. Is that what it says? No. So, this scripture could only have meaning at the time of Christ. That's when it was fulfilled, where they looked upon him that he was pierced and they mourned for him. At the second coming, they're going to mourn for themselves and beg for the mountains and rocks to fall on them. That's what the Bible actually teaches. Okay, you say, "I'm still not convinced." Okay, look at chapter 13, verse 1. Remember the chapter divisions were put in after the fact. Those are a feature of our English Bible and they're very helpful, but you know you can't get too hung up on that chapter division. We keep reading here. In that day in verse 1, so we're talking about the same thing in verse 1 here, in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Okay, let me ask you this. When was that fountain opened? How about when they pierced his side and blood and water came out. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, saved from wrath and make me pure. How about this? There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's ... What are we talking about here? Look at verse 1. "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and ... What's that fountain? It's the blood of Christ. That blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin, that washes us from our sins in his own blood. That's what we're talking about. Okay, keep going, verse 2, "And it shall come to pass in that day sayeth 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 unclear spirits to pass out of the land."
If you keep on reading, everything fits Christ's first coming. In fact, even later in chapter 13, he talks about smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, which is about Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane getting arrested. This idea of taking this and just warping it into the New Testament with no support in the book of Revelation whatsoever, it falls apart. It's not scriptural and if we take the scripture for what it actually says in chapter 12, we clearly see that this is about something that already took place in the past. Why is that important, because the Bible teaches from cover to cover that God's going to protect you and God's going to be your God and you're going to be his people and he's going to be your refuge and your fortress when you believe in him and that if you don't believe in him, you don't have those benefits.
To sit there and apply this to a group of people that don't believe in him, and say, "Well, it's because he knows they're going to believe in him later, so he blesses them and protects them and puts them in the land now." No, no, no, that's just made up false doctrine. That's totally made up and it's totally false and it really damages the doctrine of personal salvation, which tells us that it's up to us to personally receive Christ as Savior, not to just wait for some lightening bolt to hit us of all of a sudden God just makes us get saved. It's false. People say, "Oh, but that's what happened to Paul." That's not what happened to Paul. Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and he got saved three days later. He did not get saved on the road to Damascus.
He called upon the name of the Lord three days later. He asked the Lord what he wanted him to do. He said, "Go to Ananias, Ananias will tell you what to do." Ananias preached Christ unto him. That's when he called upon the name of the Lord. That's when his sins were washed away three days later. He was saved by hearing the gospel preached unto him from a human being. Sort of like the Lord appeared unto Cornelius and sent him to Peter and said, "Get the gospel from Peter and Peter gave him the gospel. We'll close with that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you that your word is perfect and that no matter what science comes out with, you were already ahead of science. You know the end from the beginning. You've always taught that the earth is a sphere and that hell is in the core, not that it's not at the North Pole or something of that nature, Lord, but that it's in the center of the earth and so we pray that you would please just help us to read our Bibles, study to show ourselves approved and to beware of all the false doctrine that's out there, Lord. Help us to just study our Bibles and know what to believe and why from an in depth knowledge of your Word and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
