Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to our first reading, Zechariah
chapter 3, and reading for our text, the first two verses. 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 brand plucked out
of the fire? Zechariah 3 and the first two
verses. and that which is on my spirit
is Satan's opposing of God's people. Zechariah prophesied
at the same time as Haggai and their work was to encourage the
children of Israel that had come back from Babylon in the building
of the temple again. and had much discouragement from
those in the land, and for 16 years the work had ceased. In spite of the opposition that
we have set before us here, and that came in the form of men,
of enemies, and of Satan himself, the temple was rebuilt, and rebuilt
in a quick time once that work began. and it is an encouragement
to us. The references that are here
in our text is that here is Jerusalem that 70 years before was destroyed,
it was burnt with fire, and yet they, after their captivity in
Babylon, they were brought back to their land, and here is Joshua,
the high priest, and he's referred to here as a brand plucked out
of that fire and he is here now being used to re-instigate the
worship of God and to rebuild again the temple. Later on in
Ezra's time, this was going to be much more established, especially
in the true worship of God. But here we have the picture
of Satan resisting and standing up against the people of God. God is building His church, the
building here literally is being done, but Satan is resisting. But we have the Lord's answer
and rebuke to Satan. The Lord said unto Satan, The
Lord rebuketh thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuketh thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? So on one hand we have Satan's
resistance, on the other hand we have the Lord standing up
for his people, resisting Satan and overcoming him. The people of God will know,
right through to the end of time, what it is to have an adversary
in Satan. This chapter is a beautiful chapter. It's a chapter that points to
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the branch. In verse 8, I'll
bring forth my servant, the branch. It is that stone that shall the
churches shall be built upon, the seven eyes, the seven churches,
in Asia, and it shall be the iniquity of them removed in one
day. We remember that which was done
at Calvary in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one
of the people of God, their sins were all put away in that one
day, that one time. Right the way through time, They
are called by grace, they are brought into this world, they
are converted through the work of the Holy Spirit, and they
come to faith in different times, in different ways, and different
ages, but in one time, in one day, on the cross of Calvary,
the Lord there put away all of his people's sins, from Abel
right through to the very last, There is no other sacrifice or
sin, there was no other time that was put away. And there
it was done, there it was brought to pass that the seed of the
woman should bruise the serpent's head and that he should bruise
his heel. So, as this applies also, not
just to Joshua here, the vision that was seen of him, but every
one of God's people, I want to, for our encouragement, firstly
set forth what a powerful adversary opposes God's people. That is
Satan, a powerful adversary opposing God's people. And then the promises
of help, God's promises of help for his people. In this text,
the first verse is the The adversary that we have, Satan standing
up to resist, but in the second we have the Lord rebuking Satan
and the help that we have against him. But firstly, the powerful
adversary, may we be reminded of this. You know we, each of
us that do know our own heart, have an adversary within. We
have a wicked and evil heart. But we also have an adversary
in Satan. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. And we start right at the very
beginning, when God created man, He created him pure and holy,
without sin, and gave him the commandment that he should eat
of every fruit of the tree of the garden, except of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden.
In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And right
then Satan resisted. Satan came in, hath God said,
and slurred against God, made out that he had a wrong motive
of preventing them from that tree, that he would know that
if they ate of that, they should be, as God's known, good and
evil. And he came into man, who at
that time was not for them, was pure, capable of falling by a
willful fall and disobedience and rebellion, and through Satan's
temptation that man fell. From that position of being pure,
not a sinner, as we are. And we are to be reminded of
this, the very origin, the very way that sin entered into the
world and death by sin, and Satan's hand in that, and yet our willful
disobedience and rebelling against God. We would also remember how
immediately in the garden the Lord gave then the promise of
the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. And
right through time there will be that conflict between God's
seed and the seed of Satan. We see it right in Cain and in
Abel, the working in those two brothers, and how while one sought
to serve the Lord in the way that he had shown, and to set
forth the blood offering and sacrifice of the coming Messiah,
the other sought from the fruit of the ground, that which was
cursed, to bring unto God. and in the end murdered his brother. But the promise, and in these
Gospel times, we can survey from the Garden of Eden right through
to the Garden of Gethsemane, and we can see in the cross of
our Lord and see in the Church of God all of God's promises
coming to pass. And however much time Satan has
sought to destroy the Church of God, to cut off that line. He has not succeeded, it has
not happened. And the Lord has triumphed above
Satan and his promises have come to pass. And the Lord Jesus Christ
has come and he has risen again from the dead and ascended up
on high. And we have to remember that,
remember those Great two times as it were, the time when sin
entered into the world and then at Calvary when it was dealt
with. And both times as Satan was seeking
to destroy the Lord, if you like, to bruise his heel. And even
when the Lord was born, how he sought in killing all of the
children in Bethlehem to erase, to get rid of that holy child. And again in that, he did not
succeed. But we see what an adversary
He is, and how He sought against the Lord to fight against Him. And He will with the people of
God. So I want to just think of some
of the ways that Satan is set before us in the Word. He is
an accuser of the brethren. Remember in the book of Job,
we have Satan going amongst the children of God, and how that
he accused Job, and that he served God, really, you might say, for
the loaves and the fishes. Our Lord said before Satan, had
he considered his servant Job? And he said, doth he God, doth
Job serve God for naught? Hast thou not made an hedge about
him? Now Satan, he knew that in the
natural way, and so much today, men will follow God, they'll
follow religion, while everything goes well. A prosperity gospel
is preached in many churches. As long as everything goes smoothly,
as long as we have everything, then they'll follow the Lord.
When it goes wrong, when there's tribulation and trial, then they
forsake the Lord. And this is what Satan thought
would happen with Joe. And he knew, and it would be
true in many, many people. We read of our Lord in the parable
of the sower, where there is the one that was sown upon the
stony ground, and because there was not much earth, it sprang
up quickly, but then it soon withered away. And his interpretation
Those that receive the word first with joy, but then comes tribulation,
persecution because of the word, and then by and by they are offended
and they walk back no more. Well here, Satan was permitted
by God to touch all that Job had and later his health as well. And God did it really to prove
Satan was a liar in that sense, to prove also that Job did not
just serve God for the things that he'd been given, and to
prove the grace of God that God had given to Job. And God was
going to use it also for Job's refining and blessing and the
searching of his heart, teaching of his friends as well. There
was many things that the Lord brought out through the book
of Job. It is a book that has been a
comfort to many of the Lord's dear people who have known those
trials and troubles that come. This was not chastening. This
was the tribulations and trials brought about, in one sense,
because of Satan's enmity and hatred for the people of God. We read at Calvary that the accuser
of the brethren is cast down. He accused them day and night. And in one sense that accusation,
especially the Old Testament saints, where is the blood? Why are they in heaven? How can
they be in heaven when no blood has been shed yet? But as soon
as that blood is shed and the Lord has come, then Satan has
nothing more to say. But when God promises a thing,
it is as good as done. So Abel and all those Old Testament
saints, all recorded in Hebrews 11, they lived by faith, they
died in faith, trusting that Christ would come and that he
would put away their sins by the sacrifice of himself. They
saw it through the types and shadows of the Old Testament
and the blood of bulls and of goats that pointed to Christ's
one sacrifice. But don't be surprised if Satan
comes in this way to us as an accuser of the brethren. Was not our Lord accused of being
the prince of devils and casting out devils? Was he not accused
of being an imposter? He was. Many accusations, false
accusations, were laid at our Lord. And so there will be with
the people of God. Satan is known as that, the accuser
of the brethren. He is also a provoker. We read
that at the end of David's life, King David, that Satan stood
up against Israel and he provoked David to number Israel. We can
compare the account in Chronicles with that in Samuel, where we
read in one hand that it is Satan, on the other hand it was the
Lord. Well, in the book of Job as well,
we read the Lord is in control, not Satan. And though the Lord
uses Satan and has him in control, Satan's thinking he is doing
his attacking and his work, but the Lord turns it about for good.
If we had someone in our town that was vandalising and they
were smashing places up. That evil was their work, but
if we had a property that we wanted demolished, we wanted
it taken down, and we led those people to them, we didn't let
them know really that we wanted that knocked down, and they would
think that they were causing havoc and destructing this place,
But actually they were doing just what we wanted them to do.
And Satan, so often, is in that way. And instead of gaining what
he hopes to have gained, he actually turns about for good. But, and we think of the case
with David numbering Israel. David had been told that he should
not build the temple of God, but his son should. and he prepared
with all his might in his lifetime, but where was the temple going
to be built? And it was through numbering
of Israel and the Lord answering David in the threshing floor
of Aaronah the Jebuziah on Mount Moriah, the same place as what
Abraham offered up his son, that there was where the temple was
built. And so we see the end that the
Lord had in view and dealt with the children of Israel for their
sins at the same time. But it doesn't change that Satan
at that time was a provoker, one that was provoking even a
man after God's own heart to do something that was wrong.
And even when Joab, who wasn't one of the Lord's people, spoke
what was right and tried to stop David from doing it, David would
not hear. It should make us be very careful
and really realize what a strong, powerful, if the Lord give him
permission, Satan can be to be provoking us to do things that
are wrong. Don't just think, well, I'm a
child of God, so Satan can't make me do what is wrong. No,
he can. He did with David. We think then
of the tempter of our Lord. When our Lord was baptised, the
Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted of the devil. In
one sense, it was a proving that he truly was the Son of God,
the second Adam. The first Adam was tempted once
and fell. The second, our Lord Jesus Christ,
suffered 40 days without eating or drinking, fasting, and then
Satan comes along and what does he tempt him on? Food! Adam had
all of the Garden of Eden, everything to eat, and he was tempted on
one forbidden thing and fell. Our Lord had nothing to eat for
40 days and then was tempted in a way, if thou be the Son
of God, command these stones that they be made bread. a wonderful
opportunity to prove that he was the Son of God. But to be
Satan's servant, and to use the miracles to bring about that
to relieve his hunger, and Satan came those three times, and the
Lord answered him each time. With the Word of God, it is written,
it is written. And when Satan tried to answer
as well with the Word of God, the Lord then, it is written
again. Compare Scripture with Scripture.
Satan will take Scripture out of its context, and he will then
cause us to walk in the wrong way. But if we can compare Scripture
with Scripture, then we can see where he is erring, where he
is tempting us. in the wrong way. And Lord Jesus
Christ stood that test, a wonderful, wonderful witness that he wasn't
a fallen man, he wasn't a sinner. He was a pure, spotless, eternal
Son of God. We compare the temptation of
Satan in Eden to Adam, the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness. It's vital for us to truly know
that as one of our hymns says, our captain stood the fiery test
and we shall stand through him. But then we have the account
of Peter, Satan desiring to have the people of God that he might
sift them as wheat, he might toss them about really shake
them about so much and bring them to confusion and bring them
to deny the Lord. Peter had said so affirmatively
that though all men forsake thee yet will not I and that he was
sure he would not deny the Lord. But our Lord said to him that
Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift thee as wheat,
but I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Satan desires
to have you, desires to have not just Peter, but every one
of the children of God. But Peter is going into that
fire and into that situation, so the Lord says, I prayed for
thee, singular, I prayed for thee specifically at this time. It's a beautiful encouragement.
to us of the Lord's intercession and prayer for his people. But
Peter went into that, and you might say, was that prayer answered?
Because Peter denied his Lord those three times. But our Lord
didn't pray that he wouldn't deny him, he prayed that his
faith would not fail. And Peter came out of that trial
still a believer, still a follower of the Lord. You know, if we
had a tree, a small tree perhaps, growing up, straight up, and
the wind came along and it blew that tree over, when the wind
stopped, the tree comes back up, straight again. And we find
with Peter, in her temptation, he denied his Lord, but afterwards
he comes up and he's still following the Lord. And that is a great
encouragement for the people of God. That though they fall,
yet shall they arise. Though they are tempted, and
Satan, as soon as he tempts and then he falls, then he turns
accuser. And he accuses them of doing
the very thing that he tempted them to do in the first place. And we had to remember that.
What happened to Peter, it was Satan desiring to have a child
of God to do with him as he wants to do to him. We think then of
Paul when he writes to the Thessalonians and he says to them that Satan
hindered us. The paths that they were walking,
the place that they were going, they realised that Satan was
hindering them and stopping up their paths. Now we need to be
Why is that today? You know, sometimes we might
think, well, maybe because our way is hindered, then it is not
right. We should not go in that way.
And sometimes that can be true. But other times it is right,
and it is Satan hindering us. Jonah could perhaps have said,
well, my way is right. I've got the fare, and I've got
a boat, and it's going where I want to go. But it wasn't right. we would remember that Satan
can be a hinderer. And to recognize that, if we
know the way the Lord would have us to go and have us to walk,
then we more easily recognize when it is Satan that is hindering
us and stopping up our way. Again, we would say on that,
the Lord overrules those things for good. He turns them about
for good. We think of the hindrance that
was through the King of Moab bringing Balaam to come and curse
the children of Israel. It ended up with them being blessed. Blessed not just once, but blessed
three times, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in three
places, and seven times a complete blessing. and the beautiful,
even spoken through Balaam, the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well that was a hindrance as
it were that was worth having, to have that blessing. But then we have that which is
said by Peter, your adversary the devil, that goeth about as
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, leaving no doubt
whatsoever that the child of God does have an adversary in
the devil, not just in men, but principalities and powers. The devil would love the church
of God to believe that he doesn't exist, that he's just an imagination,
that he's just a Something that can easily be accounted for.
No. No, Satan exists. He is a very
real adversary, and a powerful adversary. And we ourselves have
no might or power against him. But our power and our strength
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want to say to those of
you that may be so tempted, tempted in things, tried, maybe you've
fallen in some respects. Maybe there's those times that
you've been accused and found it very, very hard to bear that. Other times you've done those
things you so regretted doing, you maybe like David and look
back, why didn't I listen? Why didn't I listen to that?
advice, or to even think, as David no doubt did, he said,
it was me that sinned, I didn't open number the children of Israel.
What have these done? You see others suffering because
of our own actions. And yet you see this path and
you might think, well, mine is unique and mine is because I
am not a child of God and because the work of the Lord is not in
me, why I've fallen these times and why I've walked in these
ways. with the Word of God, and it says, no, the people of God
have an adversary, and He does attack them, and sometimes He
is permitted to go long ways with them, but He will never
destroy them. And when the Lord is building
His church, as building this, the second temple here, it will
be built. The foundation of God standeth
sure, the Lord knoweth them that are His. He shall bring forth
the topstone, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it. He will complete
the work and he will save his people in spite of Satan and
all his oppositions and all the things that he brings against
his people. But sometimes it can be very
hard and we reel to and fro, stagger like a drunken man. Feel
it, it's just wave after wave temptations and trial. If you've
read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you'll read at one time there
that Pilgrim, he thought that it was him saying and thinking
all of those things coming into his mind. But he didn't realize
that it was Satan suggesting them all and tempting him and
putting those things into his mind. He is an adversary. And we are then to be encouraged
to answer him or to walk in the way, thinking of God's promises of
help. And I want to look at this in
the second place, God's promises of help for his people. Perhaps it would be a good place
to start with, dear Peter, You know, Peter was told that when
the Ark converted, or when the Ark restored, that he was to
strengthen his brethren. And so in 2 Peter and chapter
2 verse 9, we have Peter telling the accounts, telling of how
God dealt with Noah, how he dealt with Sodom and Gomorrah, how
he delivered Launt, And he says, the Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust until
the day of judgment to be punished. The Lord knoweth how. And how precious that that is.
The Lord knoweth just how to deliver you in your trial and
your difficulty and your temptation And you might look at all the
different ways you think, I don't know how to get out of this,
how to be delivered from it, how to escape, maybe from the
habits of sin, the temptations of sin, the occasions to sin.
How shall it be that the Lord knows how to do it? And that is a great comfort for
the people of God. The Lord knew how to restore
Peter, he knew how to keep him and how to bring him again to
be of use and of blessing. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. We read in our second reading,
in Ephesians chapter 6, of the whole armour of God. Put on, on verse 11, put on the
whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand. What against? Against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. And so we exhort you to take
unto us that whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, having done all to stand. Do you notice that
which we have set before us here? The truth and the blessed breastplate
of righteousness. One thing that Satan will all
the time try to bring back to is accusing of our sin. And we
may say, like Luther, when he was presented with the whole
catalogue of his sins, and Satan said, look, here are all your
sins. And he said, yes, they are all
my sins, but right on the bottom, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth from all sin. There is the answer. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we are seeking for heaven
on our own righteousness, then we have no answer to Satan. But
when we are seeking it in Christ's righteousness, then we have an
answer. It is Christ that died, yea,
brother, that is risen again. And the truth of God is to be
our strength, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. We're walking in the ways of
the gospel and taking that shield of faith, wherewith ye shall
be able to quench all the fiery dance of the wicked. The helmet
of salvation, the salvation of the Lord, It is from everlasting
to everlasting, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. What a blessed thing that we
have, and we haven't got time to properly look into each of
these parts, but it is with a Christian in complete armour that is given
by God for him to wield, praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit, watching thereunto, This is the path for the child
of God that God has given to him, the promises of help, the
promise of that armour of God. Then we have that which is spoken
of in James, because in James chapter 4 verse 7, We are exhorted,
submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he
will flee from you. We might say, well, what strength
have we to resist the devil? Well, we might have no strength
at all against someone that comes and fights against us. But if
we resist, that resistance is seized. It's a very different
thing just going along with someone or resisting that person. And the Lord sees and knows that
resistance. And we have this promise, He
will flee from you. There's a beautiful illustration,
really, of the difference of having the Lord on our side in
the book of Esther. In the book of Esther, we have
first, through Haman's wickedness, a sentence of death on all of
the Jews. And there's great sorrow and
weeping and wailing because of that sentence of death. That
came from the king, with the king's seal on it. But then through
Esther's intercession, That first letter could not be
disannulled. The king couldn't say, well,
no, there won't be a rising up against you. They won't have
any opposition at all. We will stop that. He couldn't
do that. The same as Darius couldn't stop
Daniel from going into the lion's den. But what he could do was
to send another letter and give authority from the king to fight,
to resist, to stand against all that would come against them.
You know, when they had that letter, even though that day
was still coming, that the enemies would rise up, they were joyful,
they were pleased, and many of them became Jews because of the
fear of them. And how much more in a Gospel
day, when we have the authority of the King of Heaven to stand
against Satan, to resist him, and to fight against him, though
we have no might nor power, Yet we have the King of Kings on
our side, and we see that effect that it had with the Jews. And
so may we be encouraged in that same way to resist the devil. And then fourthly, there's the
promise that the Lord will not suffer us to be tempted above
that which we are able. That is in 1 Corinthians 10 verse
13. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation
make a way of escape that he may be able to endure it. And his reminder in the earlier
part of that, that no temptation hath overtaken you but such as
is common to man. And we would remember that sometimes
we think, well, we're the only ones that attempted like this,
only ones that have tried like this. The Lord said, no, this
is common amongst the people of God and very often amongst,
right through the world as well. The Lord will not suffer you.
He knows your strength and knows that grace and help that he will
give. So we have, again, passage that
we mentioned with dear Peter, what a promise we have, the Lord
saying, I have prayed for thee. In that very time of temptation,
that's what it was with Peter. I have prayed for thee now. Satan is trying to take all of
the people of God, but all the people of God are not having
temptation at the same time or the same level or the same manner
But when they do come into those times, they are to know that
the Lord that prayed for Peter is the same that will pray for
them. He is one that is a voice that speaks for us in heaven's
high court for good. He makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God. And we are to remember
that. We have then a beautiful promise
in Romans 16 and verse 20. Romans 16 is an interesting chapter. In the book of Romans, we have
many beautiful doctrines, very deep teaching, yet profound,
simply set forth. But at that last chapter, suddenly
there's people. Many people are mentioned. The
people of God. And we think all doctrine, all
teaching, it comes down to people. And may we be found amongst the
people of God. And Paul has a word to them,
to those that were obedient. He says, your obedience is come
abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf,
but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple
concerning evil and obedient people. And what does he say
about that obedient people? The God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly. Satan was still attacking, still
annoying, even those that were the obedient people of God. And yet what a promise they had.
Bruise under your feet shortly. In this life, And beyond death,
Satan shall have no more reach to the people of God at all.
A complete deliverance from Satan's hand. Let me have a beautiful
promise. We'll finish with this in Isaiah
59. It's a beautiful word for the
people of God, when the enemy shall come in. Verse 19 in Isaiah 59, So shall
they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory
from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard
against him. Then we have, And the Redeemer
shall come to Zion. That standard, our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, The Word of Truth lifted up as a standard. Some
of us know what it is to have temptation come so urgent, so
quickly upon us, and as soon as that temptation has come,
the Word of God has come into our minds so quick, and it's
stopped that temptation dead. And it's a blessed thing when
we have the Spirit of the Lord lifting up that standard against
Satan. We are encouraged. We are in
the day of grace, but that day of grace will soon be done. And
Satan knows that his time is short, and more and more he seeks
to attack and take the children of God. How much we need the
Lord's protection, the Lord's care, the Lord's help. Thinking
of Bunyan's pilgrim, We think of how they went out of that
narrow way and then into the hands of giant despair. How needful
we be regarding Satan's attacks that we be found in the King's
highway and walking in his ways. Be mindful of that adversary
that we have and reliant solely upon the strength and help and
blessing of the Lord. Salvation, says Jonah, is of
the Lord. And he that roared at Calvary,
who bruised Satan's head, he shall overcome for his people
in time and bring them at last to be with him, where there is
no more Satan, where there is no more temptation, where those
battles, those conflicts are all over. Remember this, Satan
will not fight against those he's already got. He's already
got them. He's already got their hearts.
He's already had them in his clutches. And as soon as those
start to pay attention to the word preached, start to read
their Bible, start to be concerned for their souls, then Satan,
he will start to attack that soul. he will start to discourage
them and fight against them, because he knows that he will
lose them. And he knows as soon as they
start seeking the Lord, whose they are, because their seeking
of the Lord is because he has died for them and suffered for
them. May we be encouraged in the Lord
and encouraged that, tempted and tried though we are, Yet
it is not a sign against us, but a sign for us. We're held
to resist and to cry out unto the Lord and to look to the Lord
in all of our temptations and all of our trials. Remember,
in our text, in this portion, the temple was built. Resisted
they were. But the Lord prevailed, and the
Lord at last, he came to that temple. He walked in that temple. May we truly know the blessing
of the Lord with us also. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.