Title: Faith and Repentance
Text: Zechariah 12: 10
Date: July 28, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
From where does faith and repentance come? To whom is faith and repentance given? What is faith and repentance? These are three questions Christ, the GodMan, Mediator declares in this verse prior to his incarnation.
Zechariah 12: 10: And 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 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 that is in bitterness for his firstborn…13: 1: 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.
Jesus Christ the Son of God is speaking. Notice, the speaker says of himself ’and they shall look upon ME whom they have pierced”—The one speaking is Jesus Christ--who is both God and Man in one body. Jesus Christ is God come in human flesh.
I. AS WITH EVERY FRUIT OF GRACE, FAITH AND REPENTNACE IS THE GIFT OF GOD IN, BY, THROUGH AND FOR CHRIST JESUS THE SON OF GOD.
Notice the Lord says, “I will pour…the Spirit of grace and suppications.” This glory was given to Christ by God in the covenant of grace. God promised Christ—this one who is the GodMan—the Mediator between God and his people—that after Christ fulfilled all the will of God for his people—God would exalt Christ to his right hand. God promised Christ would receive of the Father the Holy Ghost. Christ Jesus, the resurrected Lord and Christ pours out the Spirit of grace and supplications.
II. THIS GRACE IS GIVEN TO ALL THOSE GIVEN CHRIST OF THE FATHER
Notice Christ says, “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” If God our Savior meant all the natural sons of David and just one of those natural descendants are not saved by Christ then God lied.
David was a picture of Christ the King—the man after God’s own heart. The promise God made to David is a type of the promise God made to Christ Jesus his Son.
2 Samuel 7:16: And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.
That earthly city of Jerusalem typified God’s heavenly Jerusalem—the city of the living God which is made up of his elect from every nation and people on the earth.
Galatians 4:26: But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Hebrews 12: 22: But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23: To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
David himself knew this and Peter preached this very thing on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 2: 25: For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Hear what Christ says in our text: “I will dispense grace to MY HOUSE—my offspring, those given me of the Father, my church, my people, my Jerusalem.” Each one chosen and given to Christ by God, each one redeemed by the precious blood of Christ shall be given the Holy Spirit of grace and supplication. The Holy Spirit gifts Christ’s reddemed with spiritual life, faith, repentance, love, joy—fruits of the Spirit by Jesus Christ. All his children shall be made to know that salvation is in Christ by his grace when God the Holy Spirit regenerates us—giving us life to behold all the mercies of God are ours freely in Christ.
III. WHAT IS THIS GIFT OF FAITH AND REPENTANCE?
This is the sure effect of grace. Remember the Lord says, “I will and they shall”. This he says of all his house and city.
FAITH
They shall look upon me. God the Holy Spirit makes a sinner truly behold Christ in the heart.
Whom they have pierced. True faith beholds, “I myself pierced Christ?” When do we really understand and believe something of who God is? that God is just? that God will not clear my sin? when do we even have some glimpse of what our sin is? When “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.”
This is what Philip preached the Ethiopian Eunuch out Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 53:4: Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Galatians 3: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
2 Corinthians 5: 21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Note: the word “sin” is translated from the exact same word. On the cross Christ was made, what he was not in himself. Christ is the only way God could be just and the Justifier. The only way I could be made the righteousness of God is in Christ. This becomes personal by the Spirit of God
Application: FAITH is being brought to see that all these days of my rebellion, I have been crying out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Yet, it was for this ungodly wretch that the just God of heaven and earth pierced him.” They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.
REPENTANCE
With faith comes repentance. This is repentance “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 firstborn.”
Repentance involves mourning because of our sin—but it is much more than that. A man can sorrow over his sin because he is caught. He can sorrow over his sin because he fears the judgment of God and hell. Such is repentance to be repented of. But true repentance is to mourn for Christ, as one mourneth for his only son. True repentance is to be in bitterness for Christ, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Illustration: Think how you love your firstborn. Would you mourn to know you and you alone had slain your firstborn?
True repentance comes when the hideousness of what we are is beheld in what Christ bore in his own body on MY behalf. Then a sinner will take sides with God against himself.
Luke 7:29: And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. 30: But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
2 Corinthians 4: 2: But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty
Repentance is to be turned from self to God, it is turning from being amongst our dead, self-righteous, self-willed, self-sufficient flesh, from all our false religion and former companions and taking sides with God against all we are and have ever done. Repentance is to stop disagreeing with God’s word against me (that all I am is sin) and to take sides with God. It is to justify God’s counsel against me, “renouncing” all that is false—against the truth of God.
Psalm 51: 3: For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me….17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
What a revelation from our Redeemer—justice is satisfied by Christ! (Read Zechariah 13: 1.) This is what makes a man leave all his false refuge and plunge himself into the arms of Christ. This is what makes a man forgive, and love and deal in a gentle spirit. Brother Henry Mahan says “repentance is a change of mind, of Masters, of motives, and manners.”
AS THE BELIEVER CONTINUALLY SEES CHRIST WE CONTINUALLY ARE GROWN BY THE SPIRIT IN FAITH AND CONTINUALLY REPENT TO GOD OUR SALVATION! (THAT IS WHY WE CONTINUALLY DESIRE TO HEAR CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED PREACHED).
Acts 8: 36: And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37: And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
When a baptized believer comes out of the waters of baptism, we do physically, what we are declaring we have already done by the Spirit of grace and supplication—we take off the wet clothes and put on dry clothes. The believer is declaring in believer’s baptism that by the grace of God, given us in Christ, the Spirit of God has made us a new creation in Christ. Therefore we are consecrated to him. We have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27: For as many of you as have been baptized into [unto] Christ have put on Christ.
Romans 6: 3: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into [unto] Jesus Christ were baptized into [unto] his death? 4: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into [unto] death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7: For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Amen!