Let's look tonight, if you will, to the book of Zechariah. It's next to the last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 3. I will try to speak loud enough that everyone may hear me. I've become very much aware of this recently. Some of the people in the church saying they're not able to hear me and nothing worse than sitting in a service and not being able to hear. So if I am too loud, I'll apologize for that.

Let me just tell this. This is one bad thing about getting old and preaching. A lot of stories come to your mind. But we've been in the same building for 45 years, and we just sold the church building, and we're going to be meeting in a school, the Lord willing, for a while, while the new building is being built, and we're going to be in a library. One of my great-granddaughters told her mother, she's in the second grade, I believe, she said, Mama said, We're going to meet in a library?" And she said, yes. She said, you know, pawpaw gets loud sometimes. It's supposed to be quiet in a library.

Zechariah chapter 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 spake 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 matra upon his head. So they set a fair matra upon his head, and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by.

And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if thou wilt walk in my ways, and 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. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree."

Zechariah lived about 500 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, and he was a contemporary prophet with Haggai, the book that is before Zechariah. And both of these men prophesied after Israel came back out of 70 years captivity in Babylon. God raised up the nation of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar the king, to correct the nation of Israel because of idolatry. And he sent them for 70 years into Babylon. And then God raised up the Medes and the Persians to conquer Babylon. And you remember the story about Belteshazzar, how he saw that writing on the wall, many, many tickle thy kingdom is weighed in the balances and found wanting. And that was a night that the Medes and the Persians came through the the riverbed actually into the city of Babylon and conquered the city.

And then God caused the heart of the king of Persia by the name of Cyrus to issue a decree that those Jews who were living out of the land of Palestine, they could go back if they so desired. And at the same time, that king gave a command to build the house of the Lord. You know, the scriptures tell us, we all are familiar with this verse of scripture, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it, whithersoever he will. We're familiar with that verse and we think, Well, that especially applies, and we apply it as preachers to kings and presidents and prime ministers, but it's true of every man. Every man's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And he turneth it whithersoever he will. That's true of all men, but it's amazing when you read the history of how God raised up one kingdom to chasten the nation of Israel, and then raised up another kingdom to defeat that kingdom, and then give a decree to rebuild, or to build, not to rebuild, but to build God's house in Jerusalem.

And that house is a house, the temple of the Lord, that the Lord Jesus Christ was brought to when he was about six weeks of age. And as the prophet before, Haggai, had said, to this house shall the desire of all nations come. The desire of all nations. God told Abraham, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. There's only one Savior that God has ever provided and sent into this world. And we refer to Him as the Savior of the world, not in the sense that He saves everyone who has come into this world, but there's only one Savior. No matter where a person is born, no matter what nationality we may be from, there's only one Savior. And that's Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we know in heaven, we read about this in Revelation 5, how that all the kindreds of the earth, every tongue and nation and people, they all sing and praise the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us unto God by His blood.

Well, that gives us a little background of Zachariah. He ministered during the building of this second temple. They'd come back and relatively speaking, they were a small group of people compared to when Solomon built the first temple. And they were discouraged. They had laid the foundation And then, I think it was about 20 years, not much was going on, not much building.

They had three enemies, which are named in the book of Nehemiah. And they had the Sanballat and Tobiah and Gishom the Arabian. And it's amazing that only three enemies are named of the Jews at that time. And the fact that every child of God, we too, have three enemies. We have the flesh, that's that old nature that we still have. When the Lord saves a person, he creates a new man within, but that old man, he's not eradicated, is he? He continues to exist.

And so we've got the flesh and the spirit against each other. And, of course, the flesh is one enemy, the world is another. It's always pulling at a believer. The world, the things of this world, the philosophy of this world, always pulling. There's always that undertow, like in a river, pulling at believers back to the world and the way of the world and the things of the world.

And then, of course, Satan. And much of Zechariah's ministry was to encourage the people, to encourage the people in the work of building the temple of the Lord. And in this ministry, God gave him eight visions. And the vision that we read here in chapter three was the third of the eight visions. And it's mainly given to encourage the men and the people of Israel to build the temple.

Now, I'm going to divide my message tonight into three parts. First, God's people have a real enemy. You read about him in verse one. He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Satan is the enemy of every child of God. And in this vision, Zechariah saw that Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.

Now we've got to understand that Joshua, the priest, as a priest, He's a type of all of God's people. As a high priest, he's a type of the priests, the Levites, the priestly tribe. But he's a type of all the people as a priest and as a high priest, the type of the Levites. And this, I believe, tells us how Satan worked to discourage the people not to build, not to be engaged in the Lord's work like they should have been. He discouraged the people in this.

And here's the temptation, I believe, as I see it, the discouragement. Insinuating into their minds, into their thoughts, it's useless. It's useless to go on building this temple. God will never accept such a sinful people as you are. God, the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, is a God of purity, a God of holiness. Why, even the heavens are not clean in his sight. He charges his angels with folly. And then even if you finish this temple, the priest, they're not worthy. They're not worthy to officiate or to carry on the work that was prescribed in the Law of Moses for the priest to do. They're not worthy to serve the Lord. God's not going to accept, in other words, to discourage them in continuing in the work insinuating that you're not worthy, the priests are not worthy. Why go on? Why do all of this?

And I ask us today, isn't that the way that God or Satan will discourage us many times? Because like I said earlier, relatively speaking, When Solomon built the temple, Israel was at the height, they were at the zenith of their power after David had died and Solomon became the king. They had many people, the population was great, many nations were subservient to them, but now they're just a small group of people. I preached through Ezra, I believe it was, several years ago, and I counted up, you can read it, the numbers that came back that are given there, and it seemed like it was less than a million people, I can't remember for sure, but a small number of people that came back, they were free to come. But you know, even as I said, God stirred up the heart of Cyrus to issue that proclamation, But he also stirred up the hearts of the people to come back. And it was a small group of people.

And we see ourselves today, there's been days, there's been days, there's been times when the sovereign grace of God was the truth that was proclaimed from almost every pulpit in America. And now we see we're small groups here and small groups there And the discouragement comes to us, you know. Just a small group, what's the use? Why continue to maintain these truths when, why not just go along with the world, you know? Why not just give in and go along? Similar thoughts and suggestions come to us.

And as an individual child of God, do you ever have thoughts How could you be a Christian? How in the world, what makes you think you're saved? If you were saved, do you think a saved person would do what you just did? Do you think a Christian could say what you've said? Discouragement. Discouragement. And how about this? Why is it that I don't love the Lord Jesus like I should? We sang that hymn at the beginning of the service when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. Why? Why don't I have the love for Christ that I should have? And I think things like this are insinuated into our minds, into our thinking, and it's all to discourage us in serving the Lord and following Christ like we should.

Well, my second part is I want to look at the encouragement here that Zachariah was given. And I see five truths here, five truths.

First of all, the Lord rebukes Satan. That's the first thing that we say, the Lord rebukes Satan. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem. The Lord rebuke thee. God's people, when these thoughts come into our minds, let's remind ourselves that we're not trusting in our worthiness. We're not trusting in our works. We're trusting in the Lord.

The Lord rebukes Satan. The Lord, as our representative, as our head, our federal head, in the covenant that God made with him and us and him from before the foundation of the world, he dealt with Satan. He dealt with Satan. And he took care of it. Yes, he did.

Yes, the very first prophecy concerning Christ, you are familiar with this, in Genesis 3 verse 15, the seed of the woman, the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, but the seed of the woman. He's the only man who was ever the seed of the woman. All of us here and everyone outside of here, we're all the seed of some man, not Christ. He was the seed of the woman.

God did something once and only one time when a virgin conceived and brought forth a son so that he did not partake of Adam's sin. He was not included in that covenant of works that God made with Adam and he didn't fall. He didn't inherit a sinful nature like all of us. But the prophecy was, the seed of the woman shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel.

And yes, God's people, we freely confess our filthiness. It's like this priest was dressed with filthy garments. We confess it, that it's not us, it's not our It's not our righteousness, it's Christ. It's not just the outside, either. That's the thing about this man, Joshua, as a type here. He was clothed. He had on dirty clothes. But our problem originates from within. It's not the outside. You can dress up the outside and look pretty good. Especially on Sunday morning, you can put on your Sunday go-to-meeting clothes and look real good. But the problem is the heart. Out of the heart, the Lord Jesus Christ said, proceed these evil thoughts. And this is what defiles a man. You know, that's one big difference between true salvation and religion. Religion always starts with the outside. And they never get to the inside. But they always start with the outside. They clean you up. Tell you what to wear, how to cut your hair, if you have any. I mean, they've got it all worked out, you know. And everybody looks the same. And like I said, you can look pretty good. That Pharisee that went into the temple to pray, I thank thee that I'm not Like this guy over here, this publican. He probably looked pretty good, religiously. But his heart was defiled.

Yes, we don't profess, we don't claim to have the righteousness of our own, our works. The Lord Jesus said from the cross, it is finished. What does that mean? It's not hard to understand, really, is it? When you have a job and, you know, you drive that last snail or type that last sentence and put a period at the end, it's finished. It's finished. And when the Lord Jesus Christ cried from the cross, it is finished. What does it mean? It means that He is Jesus. That name was given to Him. Why? Because He shall save His people from their sin. It's finished. Father, I've finished the work which Thou hast given me to do. What was that work? It was to glorify God. To do what the first man, the first Adam, failed to do. The last Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ, he finished the work. Well, notice that's the first thing that should encourage us. The Lord rebuked thee, Satan. The Lord dealt with my sin at the cross. He dealt with yours if you trust in him. He dealt with our sin.

Notice the second thing. The Lord chose his people. The Lord has chosen Jerusalem. You see that in verse three? Now God chose his people in Christ, and when he did, he made Christ our surety. What is a surety? It's a surety of a better covenant, we read in the letter of Hebrews. What is a surety? It's a person who is a guarantor for someone else. And in God's covenant of grace, The Lord Jesus Christ agreed. Agreed. Struck hands, if you please, with the Father that he would be the people's substitute that the Father gave to him and pay their debt. We owe the debt of obedience. He paid that. And we owe the debt of sin.

One of my favorite parables that the Lord told, and he told quite a few parables, was the one he told to the Pharisee, Simon, after that lady, woman had come in and washed his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, anointed his head, his feet, and kissed his feet. And that old Pharisee said, you know, They say he's a prophet. If he were a prophet, he would know who that woman is. He would know what kind of a woman she is.

But what Simon didn't realize, one of the things, is the Lord knew what he was thinking. He said, Simon, I've got something to say to you. Say all. The man had two debtors. One owed him 500 pence and one owed him 50 pence. Now it's true that the man that owed him 500, that was 10 times what one man owed. But both of them had nothing to pay. Not a cent. And I suppose at that time they had debtor's prisons or something similar to that. He could have made those men the The creditor could have taken those men and used them as servants or something like that.

But what did he do? He frankly, that's freely, isn't it? He freely forgave them both. Freely. Being justified freely. I like that word freely, don't you? But then, have you ever considered, our Lord asked this question, which of the two will love Him most? He didn't say, we'll both love Him. That's taken for granted. Both of them would love that man that forgave them their debt. And when the Lord saves those that He's chosen, we love Him because He first loved us.

The third thing that is mentioned here, they're plucked out of the burning. Notice that again in verse 4. I'm sorry, verse 2. 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 brand plucked out of the fire? The Lord plucks brands out of the fire. It's not the burning brand that plucks the hand, but the hand plucks the burning brand.

Have you used that word pluck recently? I doubt it. We don't use that word very often, do we? I used to hear it when a lady would go out on Sunday morning, maybe, and she'd catch a chicken. Some of you maybe remember that. She'd wring that chicken's head, and then what would she do? She'd pluck those feathers. Pluck the feathers. And I looked up that word, pluck, and it means to pull with sudden force. I've also heard that word used like this. The noise that chickens make when they're out scavenging for food and insects and worms. Pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck. Pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck.

And I'll use John Bunyan's illustration here. He told about that mother hen. She's out there and they're doing that. And she's pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck. Pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck. And she's got those bitties, those little chickens around her. And all of a sudden, she spies a chicken hawk. And she plucks! And the pluck sounds the same to you and to me, but not to those chicks. They run and they gather under the hen's wings, and they're safe. And you know there's an effectual pluck. There's an effectual pluck when God's sheep hear His voice and they follow Him.

You know, if a person only hears my voice tonight, this is what you prayed at the beginning of the service, that people might, someone here tonight might hear His voice. And hearing my voice, you might hear His voice. Come! Pluck! Irresistible grace, isn't it? And soon as those little chicks hear that effectual pluck, they run. And yes, men who are dead in trespasses and sins, when they hear the voice of the Son of God, they live because He passes by and He says, live.

And the fourth thing is, the Lord causes the iniquity to pass from His people. You see that in verse 4. So the Lord rebuked Satan, the Lord chose Jerusalem, the Lord plucked the bran from the burning, and yes, in verse 4, the Lord, He is the one that removes, causes the iniquity to pass from His people. He cleanses or washes his people. If you look a few pages over to chapter 13 in Zechariah, you see this promise. In that day, verse one, in that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness.

You know that fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath its flood lose all their guilty stain. Who loved us, Revelation 1, who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. I saw, again, I think it was yesterday morning on the television, an advertisement of something in a can, I forget the name of it, but they showed a spot on the carpet and they... And that spot just disappeared. Just sprayed that down there and it just disappeared. And you see all kinds when you go into the grocery store, a whole aisle there of cleansing agents, all kinds, take off the rust, take off this, that, and the other. But I tell you, there's no cleansing agent to remove sin but the blood of Jesus Christ. None. And thank God his blood washes whiter than snow. Whiter than snow.

And then the fifth thing, the Lord covers his people with the change of Raymond. Notice that is also in verse four. Behold, I have caused an iniquity to pass from thee, that is, through the blood of Christ, and I will clothe thee with change of Raymond. The Lord covers his people. Someone asked just a few minutes ago, I believe it was, they had heard someone say that when we die, we die naked, not God's people. Not God's people. No, when a person is saved, he's clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And that righteousness will always clothe us. Even when we stand before God Almighty, the thrice holy God, Can you imagine what that's going to be like, to appear before Him? Well, dressed in the righteousness of His Son, we'll be accepted, we are accepted.

Well, the last thing, and I'm going to just mention this, in the last verse 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. In that Old Testament dispensation, for a person to be under the vine, under their own fig tree, it meant two things. It meant, first of all, peace. If there's war, people are not sitting out under the fig tree. Peace. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Let the potsherds of the earth strive with the other potsherds. Broken pieces of pot, let them fight it out if they want to. But don't fight with God. I want peace with God. Don't you? And I have it. Christ is my peace. He's made peace through the blood of his cross. He is our peace.

And not only did it mean peace, but it meant safety. Safety. And in the hands of our shepherd, no one is able to pick us out of his hand. I trust the Lord will bless these thoughts to us tonight.