Zechariah and the third chapter. I want to read for you the first
five verses. Zechariah 3, And he showed me
Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord,
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord
said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord
that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a bran plucked
out of the fire. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and said
unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. And I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair
mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon
his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the
Lord did buy. I call this brands plucked from
the fire. And there are several characters
in this text, and my prayer is that the Spirit of God would
help us to recognize them and to distinguish them. One is this
man, Zachariah. He's the prophet. of the Lord. We read that the Word of the
Lord came to this man Zechariah, and he is given a vision. He is given this Word of the
Lord. And the name Zechariah means
something like remembrance, but not just any remembrance. Remembrance
that is associated with the Lord, remembrance of the Lord. And he is God's preacher for
a set time, but he is more so a picture of God's Spirit who
is to take the things of Christ and show them to his people. And then the second character
is a man who is here distinguished as Joshua. He is Joshua, maybe
not Joshua the one whose name is on a book, but he is Joshua
here described as a high priest. He's most likely somebody that
Zachariah knows or would recognize. But he's really representative
of every sinner that God saves. He takes that name of priest
because the priest is one who is representative of a people
before God. And his name means, just as most
all these biblical names have significance, his name means
Jehovah is salvation. That would be the name of everyone
of the Lord's people. Jehovah is salvation. And as I said, He is this representative
man who is called a priest, which is what all of God's people are
called. It says in the Revelation that
He hath made us kings and priests unto God and the Father. And to him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. He's made us a kingdom
of priests. And Peter says, ye also are in
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. Not the blood of animals. not
the things that were materially so in the Old Testament economy,
but he says in Hebrews, by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips. giving thanks to His name. A kingdom of priests, a sinner
saved by God's grace. Even here a picture of the whole
church in which we see both the natural state of His people and
also the saved state of His people and even a picture of our justification
before God. This man, Joshua. And then there's a third character. And his name is the name of that
great destroyer. His name is the name of that
one who would be as the most high. His name is Satan. And if you notice, he not only
exists, he not only is a real figure, but he is very present
on this occasion as he always is with all the Lord. He's very present, he's very
near on this occasion and in this picture, and he is always
so, always That's what he's doing here. He is accusing. As a matter of fact, the apostle
describes him in this way, as like a roaring lion going about
seeking whom he might devour. He is the great accuser. And he is described in Revelation
12 when John says, And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and
the power of his Christ for the accuser of the brethren. He's the accuser of the brethren. which accused them before our
God day and night. He accused them day and night. Unending accusation before God. And that's not even the sad part. The sad part is that his accusations
oftentimes, so far as what they are in themselves, they are very
true. What could he have accused me
of before God this week, and it have been true. Even this
day already, and it would be, without a doubt, absolutely true. He is the accuser of the brethren. And his accusations, as is pictured
here, are constant and relentless. And as I said, apart from Christ,
they are so true and accurate. Do you think that you're a Christian? You say that you believe God
and yet you are so full of obvious unbelief. You say that you love
God and you deal with him and treat him as such. You say that
you are this or that or the other. Just look. He's always present. He's always the accuser. And then there is this fourth
character. And he is described as the angel
of the Lord. He's not just an angel of the
Lord. He is THE angel of the Lord. And that word angel simply means
a messenger, so that the one who speaks here is none other
than the Lord Jehovah. the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the angel, the messenger, and Malachi describes him in this
way, God saying, Behold, I will send my messenger, my angel. When we fell in our father Adam,
All that had to happen for us to all perish was for God to
be silent, for God to send us no messenger, for God not to
have any word of grace for us. But here He is. He's the angel,
the messenger of the Lord. Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom
ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant. He's not just any angel, and
he doesn't have just any message. He's the angel of the covenant. His blood is the blood of the
everlasting covenant. His message has to do with a
covenant that was made within the Godhead. His message has
to do with this covenant of grace. It has to do with this covenant
within the persons of the Godhead, all of which David could certainly
have been accused by the devil, couldn't he? On so many occasions
he could have been accused and just like all of us, those accusations
would have been totally accurate as far as his person was. But David laid down on his deathbed. He had to look just like all
of us had to look. Always at our past. Always at
what we've done. Always in what we've failed to
do. He had to look around him at
all his situations and all his family, all his failures to him. But it was this covenant that
gave him hope. He said, although my house be
not so with God, nevertheless he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. ordered in all things, and sure,
and this is all my salvation, all my salvation. I've not seen
Him yet. He's coming. He's promised by
all the prophets. God has revealed Him to me and
sealed to my heart that He's coming. He's the Messiah. He's the Savior. He's the coming
Redeemer. He's the mediator of this New
Testament, this New Covenant. That's all my hope. He's the
angel of the Lord. And like I said, Satan, in his
true character, he's always accusing. He's right there on this occasion,
this representative occasion, he's there before God, he's there
before the Lord's people, and he's doing what he does best
and only. He's accusing God. Right. You call him one of your children.
You view him as one of your priests. You look at him as if he's somehow
got your favor. You call yourself a just God. How is it that you could ever
do what you do toward him? He accuses God. But you know
what the angel does? He rebukes him. He rebukes the
devil. I hear all these people talking
about rebuking the devil. We're going to rebuke the devil,
cast out the devil. They'll say in that day, did
we not do many great things in your name? Did we not rebuke
the devil, cast out devils in your name? Lord said, I never
knew. But this angel of the Lord here,
he rebukes the devil. He did on the earth. When he
was here on this earth, he was the only one who could, those
sent out by him, the only ones who could rebuke the devil. But he told them, he said, don't
you be so happy because the spirits are subject to you. Don't rejoice
in that. Rejoice simply in this fact that
God has written your names in his book. He's written your name
in heaven. He rebuked the devil. When he
was tempted there in the wilderness, in what men call the great temptation,
he responded to Satan in his holy self and his mighty self,
and as a man he said, Get thee behind me, Satan. When the devil
spoke through Peter, Peter tried to get the Lord not to do what
he came to this earth to do. He rebuked the devil, said, Get
thee behind me. And so here is the angel of the
Lord, and when accusation is made against this one, this one
who represents the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is his body, when accusation is made against this Joshua,
Notice how he describes himself. If you look back in verse 2,
it says, And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee,
O Satan, even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem, even the LORD
that hath chosen Joshua rebuked." Because this is one of the Lord's
chosen. This one is chosen in grace. This one is chosen in Christ
before the world began. This one is of that Jerusalem
which is above. That's the church. He rebukes
this accuser and he says, That's who the Lord chose. You're talking
about the Lord's chosen. You're talking about my people.
Can you just imagine that? That before the world began,
God in grace chose you in Christ Jesus, chose you to be a part
of this heavenly Jerusalem, and at every turn where Satan accuses
you before God Christ's rebuke. I chose him. I chose her. Don't
you talk about my children. Don't you talk about my Jerusalem. That city that bears my name. Don't you talk about these that
were chosen in me before the foundation of the world. Chosen
to salvation. I always loved that 13th verse
of 2 Thessalonians 2 where Paul says, in contrast to what he
has just said about so many in this world, he said, but we're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. We're
always thankful for you. I'm always thankful for the Lord's
people. They don't always do what I think
they ought to do. But I don't want to be found
as an accuser like the devil himself is toward them. I don't
want the Lord to have to rebuke me. for my words and my feelings
toward his people." He said, we always give thanks for you.
Brethren, beloved of the Lord. You ever stop and think of your
dealings with your brethren? You say an unkind word, you think
of a suspicious thought, you do this, you do that, and the
other, toward those that the Lord loves? He commands us to
love them. Paul calls them brethren beloved
of the Lord because he says God has from the beginning chosen
you to obey. They're every one. They're everyone
chosen of God in Christ before the world began. Chosen by God.
Just like this Joshua here. And so when Satan accuses him,
and maybe justly so in one sense, the Lord rebukes him. And he
describes himself as the one who chose him. Don't you accuse
those that I've chosen. Because they're not only chosen
so that they could be looked at and referred to or referred
to themselves as some kind of elite ones, but they are sinners,
chosen sinners that I chose to save. Chosen to salvation. But then how does he describe
Joshua? You see, that's what some people
don't seem to realize. that the Lord in His love for
His people, the Lord God, the thrice holy God, in that salvation
that He has accomplished for His people, He does not gloss
over their sin. He doesn't try to make them to
be something that they're not. He doesn't stand up like preachers
do in our day and brag on them because of what he sees that
they do in the flesh. He doesn't in any way do that. But as those who are saved by
God's sovereign amazing grace, he shows that they are rescued
by his omnipotence. They didn't do anything to gain
God's favor. They didn't have anything about
them to draw God out to them or gain His favor or anything
like that. They lay there in the condemnation
of their sin just like brands in a fire. What does the fire
symbolize in the scripture? Well, it symbolizes sin for one
thing. Sin's like a fire. Burns in our
breasts like a fire. An all-consuming fire. that you and I try as we would,
reform as we would, put on our best face as we would, nevertheless,
we cannot put that fire out. We'll do our little things. We'll
try to stomp it out over here, but it's like trying to stomp
out a forest fire. It burns and it burns and it
flares here and it flares there in one aspect of our life or
another aspect of our life, in our thoughts, in our words, in
our conduct, on every hand. But fire also symbolizes something
else, and that's God's judgment. The Lord judges sin. He's going
to judge sin. Sometimes I see, and it seems
like at this present hour, it is the greatest that I've ever
known it in my 68 years. On every hand, unimaginable rebellion
against God, against his truth, against his church, against everything
that traces its way back to God. You can mark it down. He's going
to judge that scene. That fire is never going to be
put out. When He speaks in that hour and
delivers on them the sentence, there won't be a time when they're
judged for right or wrong or this or that. Outside of Christ,
every person outside of Christ is already condemned. There's
coming an hour when there'll be a pronouncement. of that judgment,
that unending judgment that is described by that name in scripture
that represents eternal, unending torment. But do you notice these? They were plucked. They didn't
jump out of the fire. If we do any jumping, it's like
the old saying, it's out of the frying pan into the fire. These
were plucked from the fire. They would have burned like every
other one of these brands. They would have consumed themselves
and then the consuming fire of Almighty God would have consumed
them for all eternity. They were plucked from it. They
didn't hold up their hand and say, Lord, get me. No. He said,
this is a brand plucked from the fire. Do we understand that? Every sinner that God saved,
every one of His people is very clearly represented in this picture. Is not this a brand plucked from
the fire? In other words, if God leaves
us to ourselves, if He leaves us to our own devices, as He
has left A multitude will perish. He can leave you and your own
devices this day, just for one day, and you won't make it till
three o'clock. You'll self-destruct. He plucks
his people from the fire. Is not this a brand plucked from
the fire? And I just have to say this,
isn't that always our situation? Maybe you're not like me. But
in truth, isn't that always our situation? Don't we always have
to be rescued? Aren't we constantly in need
of being delivered from ourselves and our sinfulness? Are we not
always just like blind children stumbling again and again into
the fire? Absolutely. Verse 3 says, now
Joshua's clothed with filthy rag. That's the way he was naturally.
He's dressed up in his, as we say, Sunday go to meeting clothes. He's dressed up in his best,
in his own natural eyes. He ain't fooling Satan. And he
didn't have to fool God. But he's clothed in filthy garments. And you see, Joshua's dress is
the same as ours. You all look so neat this morning,
all fresh and cleaned and pressed and nice garments on. But in
ourselves, and you notice it says here this was before the
angel. This is how we are naturally
before the angel, before the Lord. got filthy rag, filthy
garments. Why? Because our garments are
always spoiled and defiled by the flesh. Because man at his
best state is altogether vanished. All ungodly sinners, all described
as God describes us using the leper in Isaiah 1, from our head
to our toes, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. As Isaiah says in chapter 64
in verse 6, but we are all as an unclean thing. And all our
righteousness are as filthy. He didn't even say all our sins
there. We don't have any righteousness,
but what he's saying there is all our imagined righteousness. We say things like this, well,
I know I'm not perfect, count on it. I know I'm not perfect,
but I'm not like so-and-so. I'm not like she is. I'm not like he is. I know I'm
not, you know, I leave a lot to be desired, but at least I'm
not like this one. That's what the Pharisee wrote.
Lord, I thank you I'm not like other people, especially like
this man over here. I do these things. I tithe, I
give. I read recently on a social media
post where somebody was supposedly being thankful that they had
tithed because they found 10 dollars. Where do you start with
somebody like that? The fact that the New Testament
doesn't even teach tithing. It teaches giving. That whole
principle of false religion. You do something for God, He'll
do something for you. You give God something, He'll
give something back to you. Filthy rag. Filthy We're just
like Adam and Eve was when they fell in the garden. Put on all
those fig leaf aprons. Some seem to be able to sew them
together in their minds and make them a lot prettier than somebody
else's, but they're all just fig leaf aprons. They will not
hide our naked selves. This is just a fact Joshua had
on filthy garments. You know who said that? Suppose
that there were a million people standing there close by on that
occasion, and all of them looked at Joshua, they held a vote,
and a million, all million of them voted. Joshua was pretty
good then. Joshua cleans up good, doesn't
he? But he was standing before the
angel. And the angel said, Joshua, you got on filthy, gone. I've
said this, and I'll say it one more time. The only way that
any person ever knows truly and believes that they are a sinner
is when God enables them to believe what He says about them. I don't
feel like I'm such a bad person, they say. We're sinners because
God says we are. Joshua had on filthy garments
because the angel said that he had on filthy garments. But what
does the angel say then? And he answered, verse 4, and
he spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away
the filthy garments from him. I wonder why that was said. Why
didn't he just say, Joshua, take this garment off, put this other
garment off? Because you and I, We want to
hold on. We've held on to what we think
is righteousness so long. We've clung fast to these filthy
garments so long. Imagine them so beautiful so
long. Here we are, we've lived all
our life, and our life is made up of a series of various attempts
to please God. Here, our life is made up of
all these various experiences, like when we were in Sunday school
and that person tried to cause us to say a sinner's prayer. We repeated the prayer. We were
told if we did that, we were saved. preachers that plead for
people and work on their emotions to get them to come down the
aisle and then tell them that they're a Christian, that the
Lord has saved them. I hate that. I hate it. As the psalmist said, I hate
it with a perfect hatred. The idea that anybody would take
a small child who doesn't even know really how to write their
name, has had no experience of life whatsoever, has no ability
even mentally to comprehend what is being said, Tell them if they
repeat a few words or change positions, they're saved. That's
the meanest people in this world. That's the meanest people in
this world. You ought to love them people.
Why did the psalmist say, Lord do not I hate them to hate you?
He said take away the filthy garments from him. That's a hard
work. It's so hard in one sense that
only the Spirit of God can do it. And it's a work that's hard
on the sinner at the first. You mean to tell me preacher?
I remember a lady asking me this so long ago. I didn't hardly
know much, but I knew this. She said, you mean to tell me,
preacher, I have nothing to do with my salvation? All I could
answer at that time was, you did the sinning. God must do
the saving. You mean to tell me that I'm
really wretched? I wish you wouldn't use that
language. You mean to tell me that that was a false religion?
You mean to tell me that my Jesus, he was what Paul called another
Jesus? Are you sure that my gospel was
another gospel? What about that spirit? It was
another spirit. The spirit of Antichrist. to
get you to rest somewhere, believe something, to do something, anything
but trust Christ alone. You mean it's not by works of
righteousness which we have done? Why have we got to be told? that
we have no works, no righteousness. There's nothing about us to recommend
us of God. It is to strip us of that false
hope so that we might look outside and away from ourselves to the
one who is the true hope. I don't want you hopeless. I
want you hopeless in yourself. But I want you to hope in Christ.
He's the only hope there is. Take them away from Him. But
not only strip them in the sense of causing them to cease being
His hope, but take them away from Him in the sense also, in
the greater sense, of grace, do not impute them. Do you know
there's only one who could say that? There's only one who could
say that to you. There's only one who could command
it and be done. Take away his filthy garments
from him. Take away his or her sins away
from them. Isn't that what David and Abraham
both expressed? Blessed is that person. to whom
the Lord will not impute sin. Don't charge him with his sin.
Take away that filthy garment. Don't hold him accountable for
his sin. Don't hold her responsible for
her sin. That's what he's saying. Make
them my responsibility. That's what the angels say. That's
what Christ said. In that everlasting covenant
when he stood as the surety of his people, he stood as the one
who took the responsibility for their sins upon himself. That's
why the scripture says The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of all. Somebody said, I read recently,
some woman said, the Bible doesn't say that the sin was imputed
to Christ. Where in the world could you
ever get that kind of notion? If the angel took away his filthy
garments, took away his sin as the picture is demonstrating
here, that sin didn't just disappear, he took it on himself. hath laid on him the iniquity
the Lord has imputed to him charge to the substitute charge to the
surety all the sins of all his people all his Joshua's for all
time made to me we have an expression it says this it'll be on your
head what does that mean means you'll be responsible. The Savior
said, it'll be on my head. You remember the little book
of Philemon? Philemon had a runaway slave,
Onesimus. He was cast into prison, and
guess what? Paul was there. Paul preached
the Gospel. The Lord opened Onesimus' heart
to the truth, caused him to believe the Gospel. Paul writes Philemon
a letter. Philemon was a brother, but the
letter was about Aeneas. He said, I know he was your slave.
I know he was a runaway. I know he did you wrong. I know
all these things. And by the way, he didn't stop
there to dispute slavery, did he? But he said this. He said,
if he owes you anything, put it on my account. If he owes
you anything, put it on my account. That's what Christ said. All
that my Joshua's owe you is owed against the justice of God, the
thrice holy God. Take it off of him. Make him
mine. Make me responsible. Did that
really happen? Well, you listen to Christ, the
substitute on the cross. He says, For innumerable evils
have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken a hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth. Hebrews said,
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What Nathan said to
David, he said, The Lord put away your sin. That's what he
says to all his people. He said, I remember them no more.
I put them behind my back. I've cast them into the sea of
forgetfulness. I've borne your sins in my own
body on the tree. I've even made an end of all
yours. Take that filthy garment off
of you. Take it off. And then look at verse 4 again.
And unto him he said, Because I've caused thine iniquity to
pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment. I've stripped you. but I'm going
to clothe you. God never strips a sinner that
he doesn't clothe. Never does. Because I've caused
your iniquity to pass from you. Do you notice that Joshua, he's
passive in all this. He's standing there before the
angel of the Lord, and all this is being done for him. And the
angel is the cause. He's the one who has the garments,
the filthy garments taken away. He's the one who clothes them
with new garments. I'll clothe thee. I'll clothe
thee with the change of Raymond. And I said, let them set a fair
mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon
his head, clothed them with garments. That's what the priest was to
wear. He was to wear that what was called the Holy Crown, but
actually it was more like a turban. But there was a piece that was
to hang right there on the front of that crown, a piece of gold. And guess what it said? Holiness
unto the Lord. Holiness unto the Lord. The angel
clothes this Joshua, just like God made for Adam and Eve a true
covering and clothes. and tunic when he covered them
with the skins of those sacrifices. Just like the father did for
the prodigal when he was brought back to the father's house, he
put on him best robe. Why would we ever want to hold
on to filthy garments when we can wear the best robe? Isaiah
61 God says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be
joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness
as the bridegroom. decks himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewel." You read in
Ezekiel chapter 16 at that Abandoned, aborted, infant, laid out dead
and bloody in a field. And the Lord says he passed by.
I passed by and it was a time of love. It was a time of love.
And I washed her and I cleaned her up and she became so beautiful
that she had a name that was renowned for beauty. from my
comeliness which I had put on her. In the Revelation it says,
Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage
of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready and to
her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. What's the righteousness of saints?
Christ. He is the Lord our righteousness. God's imputing His righteousness
to us is all our righteousness, all our covering, all our garment. Our wedding garment, there can
be no other. In John the first chapter he
says, And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for
grace. What is His fullness that we've
received? His righteousness. His fullness
of righteousness. For God has made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. If we're in Christ, Sometimes
I think about that, and that expression comes to my mind as
it's so often spoken of in the New Testament, especially in
Paul's writing. The love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus. Paul saying in Philippians 3,
Oh, I want to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
but the righteousness which is by faith in Him. I want to just
hide in Him. What a wonderful, what a wonderful
covenant. Is this us? Is that us? Is that
me? That's me. By God's grace, that's
me. And all the ugliness of it, that's
me. And all the beauty of it in Christ,
that's me. I was just going my way, as we
say, doing my thing. Happy as a lark on the way to
hell, thinking it was the road to heaven. But all I was was
that brand laying in the fire burning. And in mercy, he had
reached down and plucked me like a brand from fire. And this picture
of Joshua, I'm just going to be honest with you, it's me every
day, every day. There's a reason to accuse me
every day, every minute. Satan does accuse me every day. My conscience, listening to him,
accuses me every day. But the angel of the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He constantly pronounces, declares by the good
news of the gospel, my justification. He has taken away all my sins. I'm still full of sinfulness,
but all the responsibility. I can sing that little chorus
we used to sing a lot. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. My sins are pardoned and I'm
free. They're all taken away. He's
covering me with the new garment. I didn't make it. I didn't have
a hand in it. I didn't design it. But it is
a designer garment. A one-of-a-kind design. It's
Christ himself. His blood. The Lord, our righteousness. So in the midst of all these
accusations, on the one hand, I hear the words of the Lord
coming through the Apostle John. I write unto you little children
that you sin not. That never changes. Sin not.
But I do sin. And so the accusations come.
And the accuser of the brethren is always there to accuse me.
And when I think logically, I say, well, you're right. You're right.
And then the Spirit of God says, no, he's wrong. He's wrong. The
angel of the Lord has taken away my sin. And the angel of the
Lord has put a new garment on me. I write unto you little children
that you sin not, but when anybody, when any man sins of these little
children, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. His advocacy is always based
on His righteousness. And he looks at Satan, the accuser,
and he says to the glory of his name, I chose him. He's one of
the Lord's chosen. You can call him what you want
to. Is he not a brand lit from the fire? Yes, he is. The object
of God's free, omnipotent, sovereign grace in the crucified Christ. That's why he gets all the glory.
Father, this day, how could we do anything but praise you and
thank you for your grace to us, for your salvation of our souls,
for in the Lord Jesus Christ plucking us like brands from
the fire and for always doing it because we're always in need
of being saved, rescued. We thank you and we praise you
in the name of Christ. Amen.