All right, let's go to the book
of Zechariah again this morning, Zechariah chapter 3. Chapter 3. As you look through
the Scriptures, you always find on every page gospel truth. And you see the Lord Jesus and
His work of salvation throughout the book of God. Anyone who reads
this Word of God honestly and without a prejudiced mind toward
the Scriptures will have to honestly confess this book teaches salvation
is of the Lord. and that from beginning to end. The Bible begins by telling us
in the third chapter that salvation is of the Lord. Adam fell. He
became a transgressor. And we all fell in Adam. But Adam didn't seek the Lord.
Adam wasn't... He didn't come to the Lord repentant. He didn't seek out God, but God sought out him. The Lord revealed to him that
in due time the seed of the woman was coming who would bruise the
heel of this seed of the woman. But in that, the very head of
the serpent would be bruised. And then our Lord demonstrated,
illustrated the means of salvation. As our father and mother, Adam
and his wife, stood there, no doubt trembling before God, in
their rags of self-righteousness that they had made, Typical of
a sinner thinking his sins are hidden from God due to his works,
due to his obedience. He stripped those rags of self-righteousness
off of him. Then the Lord killed animals. Innocent of the transgression
of Adam, He shed the blood of those animals. The Lord did. And this is the
Son of God doing that. We should remember that because
every appearance of the Lord to a person, man or woman, at
any time, is always through the Son of God. God's not going to
speak to and He's not going to have anything to do with any
son or daughter of Adam except through the Son of God, that
is, the Mediator, Christ the Savior. And when our Lord killed
those animals and then shed the blood, He skinned those animals,
He wrapped Adam and his wife in those garments of an innocent
victim. Can't you see that salvation
is of the Lord right there? It's got to be of the Lord. It
wasn't Adam. It wasn't Eve. It's the Lord doing for them
what they would not and what they could not do for themselves. And as you work your way all
the way through the Old Testament, you find that glorious truth
repeated over and over again. And we see it here certainly,
and that's the third chapter of the book of Zechariah. We
see the salvation of the guilty illustrated in the salvation
of Joshua. Here we see the greatness of
salvation. Here we see the glory of salvation. And here we see the miracle of
salvation that the Spirit of grace has led His prophet to
write. And I draw your attention this
morning, though I'll mention several verses in this chapter,
I want to especially have you look at verse 8. Here in Zechariah
chapter 3 verse 8, Here now, O Joshua the high priest, thou
and all thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men
wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth
my servant The branch. My subject this morning is the
wonders of grace. Men and women wonder that. The Lord has His servant right. Take a look at this man, Joshua. Look what I've done for him.
And look what I've done for the other priests. Look how I saved
them. Look how I forgave them. Look
how I shed the blood of atonement to put away their guilt, to take
care of their iniquities. Oh, what a wonder they are. And you who believe the gospel,
All of you here in this room, those of you who are watching,
do you not often think to yourself, I'm a wonder of grace. Look what
God has done for me. And this is the subject, really,
of all of the third chapter. Joshua represents all of the
people of God. filthy, unworthy of God's presence,
unfit for God's presence. That's us. That's all of us. He shows us Satan, the adversary
of God's people. But he also, he shows us one
who is the mediator, one who stands between the guilty and
the holy God, even in this passage of Scripture called the angel
of the covenant, the angel of God, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an accurate fact that all
of us are alienated from the Lord because of our sinfulness,
because of our guilt, because of our transgressions, because
of our iniquities, and I'll work on those various words in the
message this evening. It's all true. We're unworthy
to stand before the Lord. We're unfit for His presence.
You see that about yourself, don't you? Don't you understand? Don't you
realize that in your sinful and guilty condition before God,
you can't come into His presence? Not as you are. Why? God's a consuming fire. He'll consume you. God's holy. Holy and reverent is His name
is what the Scripture says. He's holy, He's reverend, and
we're just the opposite. He's high and lifted up. We're
low, filthy, in degradation and in
iniquities. And yet, look what God did for
Joshua. He said, Go ahead and strip those
garments, those filthy rags off of him. And then robe him with
raiment, raiment pure and clean. That's the righteousness of the
Son of God. And as Zechariah looks at Joshua
in this vision, this is the fourth vision that God has given to
his prophet, as Zechariah in this vision sees Joshua, my,
what a transformation. In the first part of the vision,
he sees Joshua filthy, polluted. He's thoroughly sinful. And then
at the end of the vision, there's this very same man, but he's
altogether different. Now he's washed. Now he's robed. Now he sits among the people
of God. He's very fit for the presence
of God. And the Spirit of God has Zechariah
to write these words. These men, including Joshua,
all of these are men to be wondered at. Oh, what a wonder of grace. Oh, what a wonder of mercy that
the Lord would save somebody like me and somebody like you. The beginning of the chapter,
and I mentioned this last week, begins with the words, and He
showed me, and He manifested to me. And if the Spirit of God
would give us understanding, if He would give us spiritual
eyesight, if He would give us spiritual perception, We will
understand that this portion of Scripture has nothing to do
with this man Joshua doing anything from the Lord or for the Lord. He has no hand in this. He has
no voice in this. You'll read through this third
chapter, you'll not find Joshua speaking up on his own behalf.
You'll not find Joshua doing anything to help himself. He
just stands there in his guilt. And Zechariah says, and the Lord
showed me, He manifested to me, this man in his condition standing
before God with an adversary at his right hand. One who had
a mediator. He sees his filthy condition,
number one. He sees that he has, in verse
3, he's clothed with filthy garments. What this shows is no sinner
is worthy or acceptable in the presence of God upon the basis
of our personal goodness or personal righteousness or holiness. We
realize, Lord's Day morning, we're all is an unclean thing
and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our righteousness,
he doesn't say our wickedness. He doesn't say our bad deeds.
He says in all of our righteousness, all of our good deeds. Listen,
we're such polluted people. that we can do nothing that is
not polluted as we are. We have a phantom that's polluted
within us. Sin isn't just something we do,
it's what we are. You understand that? It's what
we are within. And therefore, everything that
comes out of the heart is polluted as well. We have heart trouble. Some of you, I was talking a
little bit ago, got physical heart trouble. And that's a very
unpleasant thing, and some of you go into the doctor for heart
trouble, you go to a specialist, so forth and so on, but you got
much more serious heart trouble than just physical heart. It's that heart of flesh that
is non-receptive to the things of God. It's deceitful above
all things. It's what Jeremiah said. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
It's hopelessly wicked. Who can know it? So, you see
the news report on television, they report on somebody who's
done something horrible. You say, well, I'd never do that.
Well, now hang on a minute. You're as capable of doing anything
that any other son or daughter of Adam has done. You still got
that in you. And if you say, well, I've lived
a pretty good life. I haven't done any outward wickedness
that I can think of, and I've kind of behaved myself. If you've
behaved yourself, it's because God kept you on a very short
leash. I tell you what, if he'd give
you enough rope, you'd hang yourself. David, King David, cocky, arrogant. I'm the king. I'm the king. I'm the sweet psalmist of Israel. Looked over there one evening
and he saw a beautiful woman. Oh, is this the man after God's
own heart who lusted after her? and then decided he would satisfy
his burning lust and then found out she was pregnant and tried
to cover it up by bringing her husband back from the battlefield
saying, spend the night with your wife. You need some R&R. And he said, I'm not going to
do it. He said, I'll sleep at the door. David said, man, I've
got to do something. Is this one of God's men? Well,
he is. He is. He said, I've got to do
something. He called his general in and
said, hey, when you get back out to the battlefield, you give
the signal and everybody retreat. Leave him out there by himself.
And the general said, hey, That's unfair. You shouldn't do that."
David said, good men die in battle and bad men die in battle. They
gave the signal and everybody backed off. As you arrive out
there, David covered it up with murder. He thought he covered
it up. You see, that awful, awful sin
nature, That something is real within all of us. Don't ever
say what you wouldn't do. By the grace of God, you won't
do something to bring embarrassment to your family or to the house
of God, to the people of God. Oh, may God restrain us. Our condition. Conditioned. Filthy garments. In fact, Zechariah
is told that this man, he's like a bran plucked from the fire.
Just a dry stick with no sap, no life. And he gets pulled out
of the fire, out of the fire of his lusts. Out of the fire
of Satan's fiery temptations. and ultimately out of the fire
of God's wrath. This is a stick, a brand that
God Himself has taken hold of and pulled him out of fire. That's
what He did for you. You would have perished. you
would have spent eternity enduring forever the wrath of God's fiery
vengeance, were it not for the fact that an omnipotent, the
sovereign hand of grace reached down and pulled you out before
the fire engulfed you. Isn't that a wonder? Aren't you
somebody to be wondered at? He has an opposition, of course
this man does. Satan is the accuser. Got a lot to accuse us of. Oh
yeah. But this man has a mediator. He's got somebody standing between
him and a holy God. Go ahead and accuse all you want
to. And most of what you're accusing me of and over is true. But my mediator is going to speak
for me. I've got somebody who appears
in the presence of God right now for me. Isn't that something? Isn't that a wonder of grace?
That there is in the presence of a holy God one likened to
ourselves, the God-man. He's like us and He's like God. He is the sinless perfect man
who lived and died and was buried and who rose again and who ascended
back to heaven and is yonder in heaven and He is my representative
before God. I've got good counsel. I've got
a good advocate. I've got a good lawyer. For when
the accusations are raised against me, look at James Ferguson Byrd,
look at all of his sinfulness, look at all of his filth. My
advocate says, but I died for him. I bear five bleeding wounds
for him. I paid his debt. He is not in
debt to the justice of God. I establish righteousness for
him. And when I read portions of scripture
that teach me of my glorious Savior and all he's done for
me, I'm just filled with wonder. He did all that for me. Aren't you thankful that there's
no condition to be met by you for this salvation? Aren't you
thankful there's someone else who met every condition for your
salvation and He finished it? At the cross of Calvary, He sends
His Spirit to quicken us, to regenerate us. You say, yeah,
but we've got to believe. He gives us a gift of faith.
He leaves nothing undone. In fact, we learn here in the
third verse, or in the second verse, that this Joshua and all
of Jerusalem, these are chosen people. Why does God deal with
us in such mercy and grace? He chose us unto salvation before
the world began. I mean, two things you ought
to remember that happened outside the boundaries of time. The very first one, our election
unto salvation in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the
world. There's no argument against that.
That's Bible. There are many, many Scriptures
that teach the election unto salvation of a people that God
ordained unto everlasting life. It says here that the Lord has
chosen Jerusalem, the city of God, the people of God. Jerusalem
didn't choose Him. Not in a physical sense. Israel
didn't choose the Lord. God said, I'm going to be your
God. I'm going to give to Israel My Word. I'll teach them how
I save sinners. And My Son is going to come through
the ranks of, and through the lineage of David of the tribe
of Judah. Jerusalem didn't choose herself. The Lord chose Jerusalem. And
you who believe the Gospel, You didn't choose the Lord. This
is not to be laid to your account. Well, it's all because of me.
No! It's all in spite of you. I'll
put it that way. You see, the election and the
salvation happened before a time ever began. And there's something else that
happens outside the boundary of time, and that's going this
way in the future, glorification. That happens outside the boundary
of time too. I know when we die, the body
goes back to the grave, the soul goes back to the Lord, and the
soul is glorified. But this body, Unless the Lord
comes back soon, it must die and be buried. But on the other
side of time, our bodies are going to be raised. Glorification. And we'll be presented to God
Himself people who are spotless and blameless body and soul. Now that takes place outside
the bounty of time too. So you see, our salvation began
before time began and our salvation will end when time is no more. You don't have anything to do
with that. And everything between over here and out yonder, all
of it in salvation is of the Lord. You can understand that,
can't you? You can grasp that. And you say,
I'm a wonder of God's grace. The declaration then goes forth,
a strip Joshua of his self-righteous rags. And he stripped. You haven't been stripped of
your self-righteous rags? I tell you what, you see yourself,
to some degree you see yourself. I better rephrase that because
we don't really see how bad off we are. We really have no idea. We just have a little inkling,
just a little inkling of how bad off we are. But when God shows us that, is
there any hope for me? Look what I am. Let me tell you
something, there's no sinner too far gone but what the grace
of God came finding. Isn't that right? Because you
see, it isn't that there's some more far gone than others. We're
all gone astray is what Scripture says. Isn't that what Scripture
says in Romans 3? We've all gone astray. Everyone's
gone his own way. But the Lord hath laid on him,
Isaiah 53, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So the Lord says, strip him and
clothe him. Then Zechariah says, put a miter
on his head. I said last week, a plate of
gold upon the miter, the turban of the high priest of the Old
Testament. It said, holiness to the Lord.
They put that on Joshua. They put that on Joshua's head.
Holiness to the Lord. You mean this man who's filthy
in his sin, now he's holiness to the Lord? Absolutely. That's a wonder of grace. Sometimes
you hear people say that they think growing in grace is progressive
holiness or progressive sanctification. That's not the same thing. You
see, sanctification means to be set apart and to be holy. There are no degrees of holiness. You either are or you're not. See, if you stay with me here,
and I know there's some song in our songbook. It's a screwy
song. More holiness give me. What?
More than the holiness of Christ? More holiness give me? Or another
one. We used to sing this back in
my days in false religion. Take time to be holy. Take time
to be holy. I don't even know how you do
that. Went singing, didn't even think about take time. Well,
you take time for this, take time for that. Now you need to
take some time to be holy. You can't begin to make yourself
holy nor increase your holiness. Christ is our holiness. You see, here's the question.
Just how holy has a person got to be before God will accept
him? Progressing in holiness? Well, I'm gradually getting holy.
Now, that's not going to cut it. Really, that kind of thinking
leads to self-righteousness. You look down on others. I stand holy before the Lord.
How can that be? 1 Corinthians chapter 1. God has made the Lord Jesus to
be my wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. He is my
holiness. And He's my redemption. It's
what the Lord does for us. And the Lord keeps us. He keeps
us saved. Look here, here's a verse that
gives some people a little difficulty. It shouldn't, but it's in verse
7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
if thou wilt walk in my ways, if thou wilt keep my charge,
then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my
courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that
stand by. That is, you'll go to glory.
This seems to say, and it's regrettable, that they translated the word
as if it should be translated since. You see, if presents the
idea, here's the condition though. Here's the condition. You've
got to obey the Lord. You've got to live by the law.
You've got to make yourself a holiness. No, that's not what it's saying.
You've got to keep yourself. No, you can't keep yourself.
What this is saying is that all of God's people, we are lovers
of the truth. We seek to walk before God in
a godly way. But here's the certainty and
glory. We shall dwell among the righteous
there. And then he says, we're a people
to be wondered at. Here's a passage I want you to
look at. Look at Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah
chapter 8. Men wondered at. women wondered
at." What a glorious statement. Joshua pictures every sinner
saved by the grace of God, polluted, filthy, unfit for the divine
presence, ungodly, unholy, unthankful, but washed, robed, miter on your
head, holiness to the Lord. Isaiah chapter 8. Verse 18, and we know that it
says, when it says, behold, Isaiah 8, 18, behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me, we know that's our Lord Jesus
speaking according to Hebrews 2, verse 13. And we won't take
time to look at it, but Hebrews 2, 13. Behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me, when He given to them, before
the foundation of the world. There's the election of grace.
are for, he says, first of all, for signs. Our Lord Jesus, of our Lord Jesus,
it says in Isaiah chapter seven, here's the sign that God will
show you. A virgin shall conceive and bear
a son and shall call his name Jesus. Our Lord Jesus, He's a
wonder in Himself. He's a wonder in His person as
God and man. It's a wonder that He came into
this world. It's a wonder that He put Himself
in positions where men would accost Him, would treat Him cruelly,
would mock Him, and then according to the decree of God, would arrest
Him and put Him to death. He's one to be wondered at. The
presence of our Lord Jesus in this world is a great sign of
the love of God for His people and the grace of God for His
people. But not only does He say, hath given me are signs
and for wonders, but these people themselves are for signs and
wonders. I've never much like the program
that this guy was on. I sure liked the singing of George
Beverly Shea. And he sang a song, oh, the wonder
of it all. You remember that? Oh, the wonder
of it all, that God would love me. That's a wonder. That's a wonder. Oh, the wonder
of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves
me. You know that? Sing it with me.
Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think
that God loves me. Isn't that a wonder? And then
that He would die for us. That He would come down here
and lay down His life. He'd take our place. He took
the place of the guilty, of the vile. Behold, I am the children whom
the Lord hath given me for signs and wonders in Israel." I tell
you, we're a wonder to the angels of God. I know we are. Hey, they
were around when they saw our representative fall and all of
us fell in him. I bet they thought, well, they'll
be banished forever. After all, a third of our group,
they rebelled against God. There's no hope for them. There's
no hope for Adam and all of his seed. Now, hang on a minute.
You don't understand the grace of God, angels. And they don't. We're a wonder to the angels.
When our Lord Jesus came to this world, what a wonder to them.
Can it be? Our Creator? He's coming to this
world to save sinners. And we're a wonder not only to
the angels, but we're a wonder to those around us. Maybe you
attended another church with friends. for years perhaps, and then you
heard the pure, undiluted gospel of grace. And you said to your
friends, I can't go with you anymore. I love you, but I can't go hear
that. I want to hear about Christ and
Him crucified. and they just wonder it. They
wonder what's wrong with you. What happened to him? What happened
to old so and so? Or maybe you lived a wicked life
out in the world and the Lord, He changed you and you have different
interests, you have different friends, you want to worship
the Lord and they wonder at you. What in the world happened to
him? Well, he got religion. No, he got more than religion. He got the grace of God. That's
what happened to him. The world doesn't understand
us. The world knew Him not, therefore
it knows us not. But the greatest wonder is that we think about our years
of unbelief and disinterest, and now we see and know the love
of God in Christ Jesus. God's free, His sovereign, amazing
grace. And we sing, who am I that a
king should bleed and die for? Who am I that he should pray? Not my will, thine Lord. The answer, I may never know
why he ever loved me so. But to an old rugged cross, he'd
go. For who am I? I'm a wonder to
myself. John Newton. He wrote Amazing
Grace, you know. We love to sing that. His mother raised him under the
Gospel, but then she died. He was at an early age. He became
a slave trader by day and a drunkard by night. God saved him by His
grace. He said, when I get to heaven,
there will be three wonders, three amazing things that I'll
find. He said, number one, there will
be people there that I didn't expect to see there. He said,
that would be a wonder to me. Never thought they'd be here,
but you can't read anybody's heart. So I tell you what, so
and so, I've got my doubts about them. Who appointed you to examine
somebody? You're not the judge. You can't
read the heart. He said, there'll be people there
I didn't expect to find there. He said, and the second thing,
there won't be some people there. I thought for sure they'd be
there. But he said, the greatest wonder
of all will be to find myself there. Don't you feel that way? Oh, the grace of God to us in
Christ. Newton, he died when he was 82
years of age. His memory was failing. He said, right now I'm still
in the land of the dying, but I'll soon be in the land of the
living. And with his memory nearly gone,
some of his last words were these. I only remember two things. I'm a great sinner. And I have
a great Savior. I tell you what, that's what
you need to know. That's what I need to know. And
may God give us grace to remember that to the day we die. All of
God's people are people to be wondered at. And within that
word wonder, by the way, is the idea of a miracle. Miracle. We're living, breathing, walking
miracles of grace of people to be wondered at. Let's get our
psalm books. We'll sing a closing song.