Good evening and Zechariah chapter
three tonight. This wonderful chapter as we've
seen it unfold before us has so many blessings for the church
as all of the book of Zechariah did for the church in the Old
Testament. I have found the church in all
ages in the scriptures. We didn't have to wait for the
day of Pentecost. The church had been here long before the
day of Pentecost. Man by the name of Abel and we
know he was the first one to enter into glory but there's
going to be many after him and here in the book of Zechariah
chapter 3 this chapter starts in the very beginning the adversary
is Stifled I just can't appreciate that enough but in chapter 3
in verse 2 it says the Lord said unto Satan the Lord rebuked thee
and I appreciate that power about our God that he is dealing with
a created being he's dealing with Something he has created
it is his devil. It is his Satan He has him in
complete control and he's only able to do what he has permission
to do how much effect he has today and I don't know, but I
know this, that the problems that are caused in society is
not the problems of the devil, they're the problems of a fallen
heart. That's the problem we're dealing with, and that's what
God deals with in our salvation. And the second thing that I find
here is that the Lord caused iniquities to pass from Joshua
to himself. That's what happened at the cross.
He took our sin. It was imputed to Him. It was
passed from us to Him. And when He took care of it at
the cross, He took care of it completely. There was nothing
left over for anybody else to take care of. And He was successful
in all that He set out to do. No one that goes to hell Did
Jesus Christ ever have a thought of saving? That would be ridiculous. That would be the most demeaning
God. That would be a God we wouldn't
want to worship. But the God of the Bible is the God that
He causes us to worship, and we are caused to hear Him when
He teaches us, and we're caused to do this because He raises
us up from our spiritual dead. Another thing that we notice
in here, not only did the Lord cause iniquities to pass from
Joshua, But he clothed him with Christ's righteousness, a picture
of it. He was given a new robe, a clean robe. And this robe covered
him, just like the righteousness of Christ covers the church.
It is imputed to us. The righteousness of Christ is
imputed to us. It's put there on our account. It's on our account that we're
sinners, but it's also on the account that he determined to
do that. And then we find that he was
given, in verse 4 there, that Joshua was given a fair miter.
Now that word fair there means clear, unmixed, or unalloyed. There was one cloth. You remember
in the Old Testament, it tells us in the book of Leviticus that
you're not to wear a cloth of this sort with a cloth of this
sort. You cannot have two kinds of
material. It's not that that's the wrong
thing, it is that don't ever try to mix works and grace. That's
what the Lord is sharing with us in that passage of scripture.
And here, with this fair miter, this clear miter, it was of one
cloth, it was of one type, and it was unalloyed, it was unmixed. And as a result of that, we find
that our helmet of salvation is not part ours and part God's. This miter or this turban that
was given to the priest was of one material and it was pictorial. It told the account, it shared
the story, it declared the gospel in the fact that we're not saved
by works in grace. We're saved by unalloyed blood
of Jesus Christ. There's nothing mixed with it.
So we have a fair minor and the church says hallelujah We have
a complete salvation in Christ Jesus the Lord and it's not dependent
upon what we do It's not dependent upon our merit because once you're
saved you'll see I don't have any merit I don't have any good
works before we're saved we have all of this stuff that we want
God to recognize but When we're saved, when he gives us the new
birth, we recognize we don't have any of those things. And
so we're so thankful that grace and grace alone is what God saves
us by. The salvation without human mixture,
without human merit. And then in verse eight of this
third chapter, it shares with us someone of prominence is coming. Now he had come into the garden.
He had saved Abel by his blood. But he is coming, and we find
that Zachariah, prior to the birth of the Messiah, prior to
the birth of Christ, is declaring someone of prominence is coming.
And his prominence is declared as the branch, that he is of
God, that this is the God-man. This is not just somebody coming,
this is somebody of prominence. All the births that had ever
taken place on this earth were somebody. but not somebody like
this somebody. This somebody is the branch.
This somebody is given by God. This is somebody that was in
the covenant of grace. This is somebody, and his name
is Jesus, and he shall save his people from their sins. So again,
the church was recognized here. The wonderful blessings of grace,
as Zachariah declared it, we have the branch coming. We find
there that this branch in verse 9, the stone that I have laid. So here's a stone. We have a
sure foundation. We have a place of rest. And that's where we're going
to go tonight. is a place of rest, and it's all because of
all of these other things that God has given us in Christ Jesus. He's given us everything in the
Lord. He has put his hand up and shushed
sin. He has shushed the Satan. He has put him to shame. He has
declared, and he's put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Well, it goes on here in verse 3 and in verse 9 it says, one
stone, there's one sure foundation. Now when we studied about the
temple, there were lots of foundation stones, but they all rested on
one. There was not multiple stones
that the temple rested upon. Now, the church is made up of
many stones, lively stones, living stones, but there is one foundation,
and that's Christ. There is one Savior, and that's
Christ. And then we notice there in verse
nine that it also speaks about, it says there were eyes, seven
eyes, and we find that that is the providence of God. You know,
the church is dependent upon the providence of God. Sometimes
we don't recognize it as the providence of God. Sometimes
we think about it, well, why would God let that happen? Well,
he let it happen because he wants it to happen. He has purposed
it to happen just like it's happened. And his providence, we live in
his providence. We live for his providence. We
live for, in his purpose, and we live for his purpose. So he
has everything purposed. Nothing is mistaken. Nothing
is an accident. He is doing all things after
the counsel of His own will. So it is a wonderful thing for
the church to realize that all things that fall out have fallen
out for the fervence of the gospel, for the glory of the church,
and for the glory of God. That's what we will sing about
in eternity, is all His good providence. how he put us, he
put our grandparents, he put our great, great, great, great,
great grandparents in the right place so that at the right time
we would be born so that we could hear the gospel, may not have
paid attention to any of those folks. I was discussing tonight
on that Zoom meeting with those folks about Peter and how God,
the Lord Jesus spoke about Peter. You're gonna deny me three times. You're gonna go off crying. But
I prayed for you and it just struck me. He never said a word
about Judas None of that was ever brought up. He went the
way as it was determined But God had his eye, had his leash
on Peter and all of the other of the apostles and would not
let them go. They could go so far, but it
was all for the glory of God because it says that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. They all left him, that he would
be a sacrifice that would be sacrificed alone. Well, Providence,
we say, boy, it sure was rough on those disciples. Yeah, probably
was, probably rough on Peter, but it was all according to Scripture. Some days I can recognize that
very easy because things are going well. Sometimes things are going poorly
and I can't recognize it as well, but it's always that way. Well, God's providence and providing
for the saints and all these glorious blessings in Christ,
they're summarized in the last verse of this chapter, but it's
just the beginning of the next chapter then, as it tells us
in verse 10, in that day. Now, someone wrote this. I was
reading some preacher, but he wrote these words. He says, this
is our grace day. We live that we may glean soul
profit. I like that. We live that we
might glean soul profit, spiritual profit. We live that we might
glean spiritual profit. Why do we meet? I need your fellowship. But beyond that, or above that,
I should say, I need soul profit. I need to be fellowshiped in
my soul, in my spirit, and that comes from God. So as we look
at this last verse of this chapter, it shares with us these words.
Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 10, in that day saith the Lord
of hosts. Now I think that day is the day
that God has determined before the foundation of the world that
he will make himself acquainted with every one of his elect ones.
It's our grace day. It's the day that we've been
fighting all our life. Because we are natural critters
believing that we can make an appearance before God in a good
way on our own works. It's just natural. And yet the
Lord comes through the preaching of the gospel, through the scattering
of the seed, and that seed that God determined to fall on good
ground is providential seed. That it would be cast where he
has the ground prepared, and he is going to do some production
there. He's going to accomplish that. So often I run into people, that
think that they are going to produce the new birth by what
they do. And that is just as backwards
as it can be, and natural man is backwards as they can be.
The new birth is not produced by what we do, but what we do
is produced by the new birth. That's what the Bible tells us.
It's an act of God. So it goes on here, it says,
in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man
his neighbor, under the vine and under the fig tree. Now in
other words, the results of all of these things, the results
of the first three chapters of the book of Zechariah and the
results of the remaining chapters of the book of Zechariah is going
to be peace given to God's people. Peace like a river. Now this
peace is in our soul. We're going to have afflictions
in this life. We're going to have afflictions
in our body. We're going to grow old. We're going to grow weary.
We're going to have aches and pains. But that never touches
our spiritual well-being. Our spiritual well-being is based
upon God and God alone. I have to, for just a moment
tonight, look once again. We've ran into this name a number
of times already, and we're gonna run into it a number of more
times in the book of Zechariah. The book of Zechariah has this
name over 50 times, and that is the Lord of Hosts. Zechariah,
short book as it is, has this. The name is the Lord of Hosts. Over 50 times is that name mentioned
here. And we're gonna find verses where
it's mentioned three times. We're gonna find verses where
it's mentioned two times, and we're gonna find verses where
it's mentioned one time, but this book is filled with that
because God wants us to know. He wants us to know that the
God that we're dealing with and the God that saves us, the God
that we're dealing with in our lost estate, and the God that
saves us is all-powerful. He rules, uninhibited, No one
can stay his hand. No one can say, what doest thou?
He rules in such a way that no one goes unnoticed by God. He rules. I like what is mentioned
over in 1 Samuel chapter 17. Would you read with me there,
1 Samuel chapter 17? This is David, and this is the
account of David and Goliath. David's answer before Goliath
before anything is done 1st Samuel chapter 17 verse 45 oh I'm in first Kings. Maybe I should
go to 1st Samuel 1st Samuel chapter 17 and verse
45 We find David saying this to Goliath now David Saul attempted
to put his armor on him, and it's just no no no It's not mine. It doesn't work But here he says
this day David said to the Philistine verse 45 thou comest to me with
a sword and with a spear and with a shield but I come to thee
in the name of the Lord of hosts and the God of the armies of
Israel whom thou hast defiled. I come to you in the name of
the Lord of hosts. Now I've mentioned a number of
times when we've looked at this name that Nebuchadnezzar had
one of the best passages of scripture in the Bible with regards to
the definition of this name. And that's found in Daniel chapter
four. In Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar shares this about his experience.
Now, I don't know whether Nebuchadnezzar ever was acquainted with the
God of heaven. But he had some things to say,
just like we find Pilate had some things to say. What I've
said, what I've written, I've written. God was behind that. But here in the book of Daniel
chapter 4, we find These words, two verses that are so filled
with the glory of God. And this is the God, the Lord
of hosts that we're dealing with in the book of Zechariah. This
is where our peace comes from. He is able to give peace, he
has power to give peace. Daniel chapter 4, and there in
verses 34 and 35, says that all the inhabitants, now this is
a pagan king speaking. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he, God, doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
This is the God of heaven. In verse 34, at the end of the
days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my
understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. What a statement is recorded
in the book of Daniel. Now, whether Daniel overheard
this statement by King Nebuchadnezzar or not, it doesn't tell us, but
the Holy Spirit prompted him to say that, and that's recorded,
and that's what we have here. The Lord of hosts that we find
mentioned over 50 times in the book of Zechariah, that name
means Jehovah is the Lord. He is the Lord of our salvation. This is the God of our salvation,
is in charge of the armies of heaven and the armies of this
earth. go over, and we're not going to do that, but I'm just
going to mention in the book of Numbers chapter 1, the name,
this word armies, or this word hosts is translated three different
ways, three different ways in one chapter. One time it's armies,
in another passage of scripture there it's hosts, and there are
quite a number of times at the conclusion of verses that share
with us the number of young men between this age and this age
that can go to war. That word to war is the same
word that we find hosts or armies. So if we look at over there,
here is this many that can go to war. Well, let's put it in
context and say the Lord goes to war for us. He is the Lord
of our salvation. He has the battle. He's going
into the battle on our behalf. He went up against sin on our
behalf. He went into a great war there
over our sin. And he was successful with that.
Well, every other He is successful over death. He goes to war against
physical death with Lazarus and he comes out victorious. He goes
to war over spiritual death and he comes out victorious. We call
it a grace that cannot be refused. Let's just put it this way, he's
going to be victorious. All of his lost sheep will be
found and he will cause them to know that he is their shepherd
and they are his sheep. He is successful in every venture. He has never lost a battle. He is the Lord of hosts. Now that is who we're looking
at here in the book of Zechariah. It brings it out. It's the Lord
of hosts that said, Satan, shut up. The Lord of hosts. He has the ability, he has the
power, he has the word. This is the God that created
all the worlds by the word of his mouth, and he is able to
do this very thing. Zechariah 3 in verse 10 is one
more example when the Lord of hosts declares in that day, in
that gospel day, there shall be peace. Let's look for it. Because it's going to happen.
There is no longer any enmity between God's people and God. He's put enmity away. We're no
longer at war with God. We're on friendly terms with
God. We get to call Him our Father. We get to pray. Pray earnestly
to this great God of heaven the Lord of hosts we find that in
Turn with me to first Kings if you would first Kings chapter
4 in first Kings chapter 4 we have this comment about Solomon's
kingdom first Kings chapter 4 during Solomon's kingdom Now it wasn't
this way under David David was a man of war but under Solomon
Now both David and Solomon are a picture of our Savior. Christ went to war against every
enemy of the church. Christ went to war against every
enemy of God. And he will bring peace. But
Solomon shows with us this characteristic and this attribute of God that
he is the Prince of Peace. That he is the only one that
can actually give peace to a bean. There's no longer this warfare
going on. In 1st Kings chapter 4 verse
25 it says, and Judah and Israel dwelt safe, safely, every man
under his vine and under his fig tree from Dan to Beersheba
all the days of Solomon. Now, I don't think that everybody
just sat under a vine or a fig tree, but it is a metaphor for
what we have in Christ, and that is peace. Peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of Isaiah chapter
2, would you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 2? In Isaiah chapter
2, we have this wonderful statement. As again, a gospel preacher,
preaching the gospel, shares this, that God is all our salvation. That he is the only savior, he
is all our salvation. Look for no other salvation,
he is all our salvation. Be contented with this God, because
he brings peace. Here in Isaiah chapter 2 and
verse 4, it says, and he shall judge among the nations and shall
rebuke many people. they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more. Now that's not talking about
what happens in the natural heart against natural people. It will
not have peace in that area until Christ comes and settles the
issue at that judgment when he says, welcome those on my right
hand to the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. I've already given you soul peace, now come in and
have your body at peace. But the rest will never have
peace, they will never have this. And it says, I used to sing a
song when I was in elementary school, read book that we sang
patriotic songs out of and southern songs out of and one of them,
not going to study war no more, not going to study war no more.
Well in this life, that's the way of life. But in our soul,
God has brought peace. He raised us from the spiritual
dead and we are attached to Him. We are the branches, He is the
vine, and our sustenance belongs in Him and to us. So this is
a wonderful thing about this sitting under our vine. It's
at peace. God has brought it. He brought peace with that great
adversary. He told Satan in the Garden of
Eden, I'm gonna beat your head to a pulp. Now you're gonna have
your way with me, but I'll beat your head to a pulp. Guess what? He was successful at it. He was
successful at it. I'll put down sin by the sacrifice
of myself. And guess what? He was successful
at it. All that he has ever intended
to do, he has been successful at because he is the Lord of
hosts. In the book of Micah, Micah chapter
4, Micah chapter 4, would you turn there with me? right after the book of Jonah.
Micah chapter 4 verse 1. In Hebrews chapter 1 it mentioned
in the last days, in these last days. Now that's when it's spoken
about Christ's crucifixion. Here in I just wanted to say
that because there's many times in the Bible. It says in the
in the last days You know never do we have the statements that
are being made? About the last days mentioned
in the Bible about the last days. It's created in men's minds if
we see the church in the Old Testament all that settled I We're looking at it from a spiritual
application and not looking at it for a physical fulfillment.
And guess what? Those saints in the Old Testament
understood that this is a spiritual thing. This is spiritual. We're not looking for that. Abraham
looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. A spiritual
city. How many years before the birth
of Christ? All right, Micah chapter two,
excuse me, chapter four. But in the last days it shall
come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall
be established in the top of the mountains. And it shall be
exalted above the hills, and people shall flow into it." What? The church? Hallelujah, the church. And many nations shall come and
say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to
the house of the God of Jacob. Not to some stone temple, but
to the living God, the Lord of hosts. to the house of God of
Jacob. And he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth in
Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall
judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off,
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears
into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But they
shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree.
And none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of
hosts has spoken it. Did you see that? None shall
make them afraid. You just aren't saved because
you just trusted Christ. Can't make you afraid. In religion,
oh my gosh, maybe I better go check out what my profession
was about. On the day that I was saved,
I was visiting with a young man today and he just keeps going
back to when he was 16. He made a profession of faith.
I've been there. I've said many times since the
Lord saved me, I knew about Christ. But I didn't know him. He made
himself acquainted to me as the most high God. That's something
I didn't have to learn. I found it in scripture. This
is it. This is it. So we're going to
not be afraid. They shall sit every man under
his vine and under his big tree and none shall make them afraid. This is my place. I have peace
that passes all understanding. Nothing can make me afraid of
that because the Lord said I will lose none. Oh, you have unconfessed sin.
Sorry, Christ has already taken care of the problem. I do have
unconfessed sin. Every day I'm full of it. Some
man said he thought he'd probably send a million times in his life.
Well, once a second is more than a million times. And that's just
the way we are by nature. But God has taken that by the
horns and overthrown it by his power. And he subdued sin by
the death of the Son of God, put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And the church has said, thank
you, Lord, all the way. This reminds me of what we've
studied over there in the book of Leviticus on that wonderful,
once every seven years, there was a time of rest, the land
rested, the people rested. But that 50th year, when the
horns blew and everybody knew that this is the year of Jubilee. People that had never heard that
sound still knew, this is the year I'm free. I'm no longer
in bondage anymore. All the mortgage I paid out,
I mortgaged myself and I mortgaged my family. All has been taken
care of. I'm back to where it once was.
And that's where we are in Christ. We're back to that fellowship
that we once had in Adam. That wonderful passage, and they
shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all
the land. Well, what does that mean? Well,
Hebrews tells us in chapter 3 and chapter 4 of the book of Hebrews
that all our peace is dependent upon rest. and he is our rest. So we get to sit under the fig
tree and under the vine. It's kind of interesting that
over in the Old Testament, chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, it
was a fig tree that represented a warfare started between man
and God. A warfare had started. They brought
up the flag of warfare by attempting to cover themselves with their
own righteousness. And that's where the war is continuing
among religious people, among everybody. The whole world is
filled with people at war with God because of attempting to
bluff him with the fig leaves. Well, the Lord comes along. as
the Lord of hosts and takes those fig leaves and strips them off
and they are naked before Him with whom we have to do, but
He doesn't leave us there. He clothes us with Himself. The blood of the Lamb cleanses
us from all sin. Turn with me, we just have a
few minutes left, but would you turn with me over to the book
of Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7. Let's go over some of these verses
that declare what Zachariah was declaring over here, that there's
going to be peace. There's going to be rest. We
get to enjoy that peace that God has decreed, declared. He
is the Prince of Peace. Well, he saved me, but I still
ache in my shoulder. All right. That's the way it
is. But I don't ache anymore in my
soul. I get to read the scriptures,
and I get to have encouragement from the scriptures, where before
they were just a playbook. If you do this, and this, and
this, you'll get this. And now it is he, and he, and
him, and him, and him, the Lord of hosts. Hebrews chapter 3,
verse 7, it says, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts
as in the provocation in the days of temptation in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
years. Wherefore, I was grieved with
that generation, and said, They do all err in their, where? hearts, and say, have not known
my ways. And they have not known my ways.
So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Those who had this warfare will
not enter into rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the
living God. Now that's almost the same message
that Paul was bringing to the Galatians. Don't fall into this
trap. It's either Christ or it's not. It's either the Lord of hosts
or you're in charge. And if you're in charge, here's
the place you are right here. But exhort one another daily,
why it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin." Now, everywhere these writers wrote,
they understood that there were some people that had covered
themselves with fig leaves with the attempt to make it look like
robes of righteousness. Well, let's go to chapter 4,
verse 1. Fear, lest a promise be left us of entering into his
rest, any of you should seem to come short. For unto us was
the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached
did not profit them. Why? Deuteronomy 26 and verse
4, I think it is. I did not give you a heart to
believe or eyes to see. or ears to hear, that's the problem. When he does that, Lord of hosts,
Lord of hosts, my God, my Savior, not mixed with faith in them
that heard it, for we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished before the foundation of the world, the works of Christ
were already prescribed, finished in the covenant of grace, and
we get to see them played out in time. For he spake in a certain
place on the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. And in this place again, if they
shall enter into my rest, seeing, therefore, it remaineth that
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief. Again, he limiteth a certain
day, saying to David, today, for as long a time as it is said,
today, if you'll hear my voice, harden not your hearts. And if
Joshua, that should have been Joshua translated there, if Joshua
had given them rest, they would, then would he not after have
spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. And that's what Zechariah is
telling us over in Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 10. Brethren,
invite everybody over. We're going to sit under this
tree and under this vine because the church is at peace. We don't study war no more. We
don't study how we're going to make ways with God. We're not
studying religion. That religion is wrong, but we're
right. We are at peace with God, the Lord of hosts, who has done
everything on our behalf. The fig tree in history is not
good. Genesis chapter 3, the fig tree
is not good. What a delight it is to read
about this fig tree as a place of peace because it's put behind
us. It's behind us. We have this
robe of righteousness now. Well, we're going to stop there
and Lord willing, next time we'll pick up chapter four and it's
just more of the same. It gets better and better as
we go through this glorious gospel according to Zachariah.