? Save the world for me ? ? Save
the world for me ? ? Save the world for me ? ? This is my vocation ? ? And I
will rise up for you ? ? Rise up for you ? ? The way I want
you to be ? ? The way I want you to be ? ? The way I want
you to be ? ? The way I want you to be ? Thank you, Joey. Good morning.
Let's open up this morning's service to number 361, number
361, sweet hour of prayer. If you could please stand, number
361. ? Sweet hour of prayer ? Sweet
hour of prayer ? That calls me from a world of care ? And bids
me at my father's throne ? Make all my wants and wishes known
In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. And oft escape the tempter's
snare by thy return, sweetheart of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer,
sweet hour of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear. To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the way, soul to bless. And since He bids me seek His
face, Believe His word, and trust His grace, I'll cast on Him my
every care, And wait for the holy hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, may I thy consolation share. Till from Mount Pisgah's
lofty height, I view my home and take my flight. ? It's from a flash of drop and
rise ? To cease the everlasting price ? And shout while passing
through the air ? Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer Oh, what a day that'll be. Farewell, farewell. To leave this world, see him as he is and be made
like him. We look through a glass darkly
now, don't we? But then, face to face. What Job say, when I awake in
his likeness, I shall be satisfied. Good morning. Let's open our
Bibles together to Zachariah chapter three, Zachariah chapter
three. Titled this message, a change
of garments or a change of raiment, a change of raiment. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time. our blessed and merciful Heavenly
Father. We come into Thy presence confessing that we have no righteousness
nor right in ourselves to come before Thy holy throne and thankful Lord at the same time
that we have a throne of grace, whereby thy dear son, our savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the anchor of our soul, our sin bearer, our advocate, our substitute,
stands in our stead and presents to you his righteousness on our
behalf. Lord, what hope and comfort.
And peace we have in knowing that. We are accepted in the
beloved. We pray that you'd be pleased
this hour. To make. This house a house of prayer. That you would cause us in our
hearts too. To seek thy face. And thy glory. We pray for your Holy Spirit
too. To open your word and to open our hearts and. To open
the windows of heaven and pour out thy spirit of grace. Calls us Lord to look upon the
one whom we have pierced. And to long and mourn after him. As one mourn it for his only
son. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Zachariah chapter 3, I remind
you that this Joshua that is spoken of is of course not the
Joshua that we're so familiar with who led the children of
Israel across the Jordan into the promised land after the death
of Moses. That Joshua represented the Lord
Jesus Christ as he leads us across the river of death into the promised
land. But that Joshua lived 900 years before this Joshua. This
Joshua was the high priest that accompanied the children of Israel
when they came back from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild
the temple in Jerusalem. And this Joshua, like the previous
Joshua, pictures the Lord Jesus Christ and His church, and His
church. We'll begin in verse one to remind
us of the verses we dealt with a couple of Sundays ago. 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. Satan was always there to resist
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's there as the accuser
of the brethren to resist us. 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? We don't have power over Satan. He would, he would ravish us
in a moment, but he's nothing. He's nothing to our God. It's
the Lord's devil. And so, when we're contending
with the devil, we do like Michael did over there in the book of
Jude when he said, the Lord rebuke you. The Lord can handle you. And that's our response to all of his wiles, all of his
fiery darts, all of his temptations, and all of his accusations, we
say, the Lord rebuke thee. And Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. Now when the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world, the scripture says that He took
on the likeness of sinful flesh. When He went to Calvary's cross,
He bore in His body all the sins of all of His people. You and I have no way to understand
the extent of the condensation that
the Lord Jesus Christ would make to step down from his lofty throne
as God and be clothed in the likeness of sinful flesh. We cannot begin to comprehend
it. But he did. He did. Born of a woman, born under the law, God's sinless
savior, and our advocate with the Father. He put on filthy
garments. when he went to the cross. We
see a little bit of that in the Mount of Transfiguration when
the veil of our Lord's humanity was taken away and the scripture
says that his raiment was bright as light and And yet we see now
that he has taken on to himself our filthy garments. These filthy garments are also
a representative of each one of us. The scripture says in
Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6, we are all as an unclean thing and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So there we are,
we're dressed in the filthy rags of our own sin. The Lord Jesus
Christ bearing those filthy rags on Calvary's cross. Joshua is
now clothed in filthy raiment. Isaiah 64 verse 6 goes on to
say, we do all fade as a leaf and our iniquity has taken us
like the wind away. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've each gone into our own
way. Now, natural man can't see house
filthy his rags are what we can see how filthy they are but we
know that they are we know that our righteousness is ours filthy
rags you remember when when uh... the children of israel came across
the jordan river led by joshua and the first city they came
upon was jericho and uh... the lord had intended jericho
to be a uh... A city that was to be dedicated
to the Lord. All the spoils that came out
of Jericho were to go into the treasury of God. And nothing
was to be kept. And Joshua warned the people
not to take anything out of that city. And they routed the city
and destroyed the city, and then they moved on to another city
by the name of Ai. And they thought, well, Ai will
be nothing compared to Jericho. Ai is just a small town. Jericho was a big city. And to
their dismay, Israel was routed at Ai. And it was clear that someone
was guilty before God for the judgment and for the punishment
that the Lord had given to Israel. And so Joshua got the children
of Israel together to find out who was guilty, who had sinned
against God. And you remember they finally
realized that it was Achan. And Joshua confronted Achan and
what did Achan say? He said, I saw and I lusted after
the Babylonish garment. And he had a wedge of gold and
200 shekels of silver. And he had kept that for himself
rather than giving it to the Lord. And God judged Israel for
that. As a result of that, Achan was
taken to the Valley of Achor. Achan, his sons, his daughter,
his cattle, and his tent was burned in the Valley of Achor. Achan's name was taken completely
out. What did Achan do? He took a
Babylonian garment. Now, I remind you that the children
of Israel had just come out of the wilderness for 40 years,
40 years. And they were wearing the exact
same clothes that they were wearing when they left Egypt. How appealing do you suppose
that Babylonian garment was? But scripture says that their
clothes did not wear out. They wore the exact same clothes
for 40 years, day in and day out. And when Achan saw that
Babylonian garment and the colors of that garment and the brightness
of that garment, he lusted after it and he took it to himself. And God judged him as a result
of that. What does that Babylonian garment represent? Well, it represents all that
Babylon represents, the religion of good works. And Achan was
not impressed with the clothing that he had, so he lusted after
this Babylonian garment and took it to himself. And as a result
of that, he suffered the judgment of God. The natural man is going to look
to his good works and he's going to think he's got something going
for him. He doesn't realize that his good works are filthy garments. He can't see it. He doesn't know
it. And he won't see it until God
in his mercy enables him to cast an eye towards the Lord Jesus
Christ. only as we see Christ in His
glory, in His holiness. What did Isaiah say? I saw the
Lord high and lifted up. And the seraphim hovered over
him. The seraphim were not able to look upon him. He was so glorious.
They had to hide their eyes and they cried, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. And Isaiah's first words out
of his mouth is, woe is me. I am undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. Five chapters prior to that,
Isaiah said six times, woe unto you, woe unto you, woe unto you.
Isaiah didn't have any trouble pronouncing judgment against
everybody else, but when he saw the Lord, when he saw the Lord,
he said, woe is me. I'm undone. I've got filthy garments. And Those garments have got to be
cast aside. You remember when Bartimaeus,
he was in Jericho also, and Bartimaeus heard that the Lord Jesus Christ
was coming his way. And he cried, Son of David, have
mercy upon me. And the people tried to shut
Bartimaeus up. And he continued to cry. Now, Bartimaeus was blind. He couldn't see how filthy his
raiment was. I suspect that he could smell
it. And when they said to him, Bartimaeus, be of good cheer,
the master Colophy, the scripture says that he cast away his garment
and fled to Christ. casting away that babylonian
scarman casting away that filthy garment but here's here's joshua
representing the lord jesus christ war are filthy garments in his
incarnation and uh... in his substitutionary death
he wore the filthy garments of our sin and uh... until we until we see him without
those filthy garments, in his glory, seated at the right hand
of God, we'll never come to him. We'll never come to him for our
filthy garments. You know, in the book of Deuteronomy, the
Lord gave a law, and he said that when you make fabric, you
are not to mix flax with wool. Now most of our fabrics today
are blended fabrics from different fibers, but God gave a law to
the Old Testament Israelites that they were not to blend fibers
in putting together their raiment. What's the message of that? Just
before that, it says that you're not to plow your field with an
ox and an ass in the same yoke. What is the Lord? Is the Lord
that particular about fabric and about plowing? No, those
are gospel pictures, aren't they? Fabric that is made, the robe
of righteousness or a robe that men use to cover their nakedness
that's mixed with law and grace is not acceptable to God. If it has any If it has any works
in it, it's no longer of grace. Otherwise, works is not works.
And the two animals that weren't to plow together, that's a gospel
preacher and a false prophet. You're not to listen to both.
They'll steer you. The false prophet will do nothing
but confuse the message of the gospel. Here's Joshua dressed
in our filthy garments, putting aside his garment to cover our
nakedness. He bore in his body our sins. Look at verse 4, 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 thy iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe
thee with change of raiment. Now that's what you and I are
in need of. There's no exception to this filthy garment. Listen to what the Lord said
in Psalm 14, verse three. They are all gone aside, they
have all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Now, the natural man cannot see
how filthy his garments are. until the Lord Jesus Christ is
revealed. What did Daniel say? Daniel said,
when I saw him, my comeliness, my beauty, my strength was turned
in me into corruption. And that's what happens when
Christ is lifted up, that men see themselves as being dressed
in filthy garments. Lord, I've got to have Joshua
take my filthy garments upon himself. I've got to have him
take my sin before God and satisfy God's justice. I've got to have
a change of arraignment. It goes all the way, this matter
of dressing our nakedness goes all the way back to the garden,
doesn't it? When Adam and Eve first sinned, what did they do? They tried to cover their nakedness
with sewed together fig leaves. And it wasn't sufficient. It
was a filthy garment. The Lord had to slay a lamb and
cover their nakedness with the fleece of a lamb. This is the
picture that's given to us over and over and over again in the
Word of God. Joshua's standing before the
angel of the Lord. He's got a filthy garment on.
And the Lord says, take away his filthy garment and give him
a change of raiment. Give him a robe of righteousness. Listen to what Job said in Job
chapter 15, the heavens are not clear or clean in his sight. The heavens are not clean in
the sight of God. How much more an abomination
and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. If the heavens
are not clean before God, what does that say about you and me? Filthy garments. The natural man can't see it. Paul thought. Philippians chapter
3, Paul thought that his garments were sufficient. He said, I'm
of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day. I'm a Hebrew
of Hebrews, concerning the law, I'm blameless. He was a Pharisee
and he thought those things were gained to him. He was wearing
his garments proudly. And then what did he say? That
which I thought was gain became loss, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, and do count them as dung. Those garments I was wearing
that I thought were so beautiful I now realize are nothing but
dung. They're filthy. They need to
be taken off. And the only way that they can
be taken off is if the Lord Jesus Christ wears my filthy garments
before God and suffers the wrath of God's justice, that he might
give unto me a new garment, a wedding garment. You remember the story
the Lord told about the king who put on a wedding for his
son? And the tradition was that there
would be someone at the door giving each guest a wedding garment. The wedding garment would have
been just a plain white robe. And one man is, after the doors
are closed and the wedding is underway, the king notices that
there's a man in the crowd that doesn't have a wedding garment
on. And he approaches him and he says, what are you doing here
without a wedding garment? And the scripture says, and the
man was speechless, speechless. Now I'm sure that when he walked
up to that wedding feast, he looked at what he had on and
he thought, you know, this looks better than that white robe.
I've got my Babylonian garment on. I've got my mixed fabric
on. I've got some works involved
in my, and when the king found him, the scripture says he called
his servants and he cast him out into utter darkness where
there's weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth. When John sees the church in
the book of Revelation, he sees them all robed in white. And he asked the angel, he said,
what are these that are robed in white? And the angel said,
you know, for their white robes are the righteousness of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
impute to us his righteousness. Why? Because we have filthy garments.
He's got to change our raiment But the only way that he can
do that is to wear our filthy garments himself, like this Joshua,
and suffer the full wrath of God's justice for our sin. We can't clean it up. And between
getting the old garments off and the new garments on, what
is our state? Naked. Naked before God. God sees it all. We're like Bartimaeus. We've got to cast our garment
down and flee to the Lord with nothing. And then he takes his
robe of righteousness, which our Joshua, you know what Joshua
translated means. Joshua means Jehovah saves. Jehovah
does all the saving. Everything that God requires,
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. Genesis chapter 41, Joseph is
falsely accused and he's in, the scripture says, a dungeon.
Now I can only imagine what an Egyptian dungeon would have looked
like 3500 years ago. but joseph was there and hadn't
shaved hadn't changed clark and just imagine the stench of that
dungeon and how long he had been there and then you remember faro
god gives faro a dream and faro can't get any of his soothsayers
or any of his false prophets to interpret the dream for him
and finally the butler says wait a minute i remember there's a
man down in the dungeon and uh... And he has the spirit of the
gods and is able to interpret the dreams. And so Pharaoh sends
for Joseph and the scripture says they brought him out with
haste and he shaved and changed his raiment. He couldn't go before
Pharaoh the way he was. He had to be cleaned up. What
a picture. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
haste and bore our sins when he went into the dungeon of our
sin. But when God called him out,
he changed his arraignment. He changed his arraignment. And
the Lord makes it clear that you and I are gonna change our
arraignment. This is not only a picture of Christ, it's a picture
of us in Christ. What does the scripture say in
1 Corinthians chapter 15? That this mortal body is going
to be made immortal. This corruptible body is going
to be made incorruptible. We're going to see him in the
splendor of his new raiment and we're going to be made like him.
What a glorious day that's going to be. That's what's being pictured
here. It's the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ wearing our filthy garments and then the Lord taking those
garments away from him and giving them, putting on him new
raiment, a resurrected body. In Matthew chapter 27, the Roman
soldiers were mocking the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture
says they placed a scarlet robe on him and they put a crown of
thorns on his head and they smote him and pulled off his beard
and mocked him as king of the Jews. And then the scripture
says that before they sent him to the cross, They took that
robe off of him and they put his own raiment on him. And he went to the cross with
his own raiment. And after he died on the cross,
the scripture says that the Roman soldiers, according to prophecy,
cast lots for his possessions. But when they came to his coat, They noticed that there were
no seams in it. It was woven of one piece of
fabric. And so they said, let us not
rend his raiment, but let us cast lots for it and we'll see
who gets it. We can't tear it. What is that
a picture of? Well, his own raiment is his
righteousness. And you can't rend the righteousness
of God. You can't divide it. You can't
add to it. You can't take anything away
from it. Turn to me to Isaiah chapter
63. Isaiah 63. This is our Joshua who wore our
filthy raiment and was changed. Changed his
raiment in order that we might have the hope of ridding ourselves
or being rid of this filthy raiment that we have and being given a glorious resurrected body of
righteousness. Nothing will be there but righteousness.
Look at Isaiah chapter 60. Who is this that cometh from
Edom? Now the prophet Isaiah sees a
man coming out of Edom. Now the Edomites were pagans. So what was this man doing in
Edom? Well he was in the city of Basra
and Basra translated means sheepfold. So this man comes out of Edom
and he's been in Basra which is the sheepfold. It's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ taking down the gates of hell and going
in to bring his sheep out. And he says, Who is this that
cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra? this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength,
I that speak in righteousness mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine fat? Why is your garments all stained
with blood? I have trodden the winepress
alone. And of the people there was none
with me, for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them
in my fury. And their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
my heart, and the year of my Redeemer is come. And I looked,
and there was none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me." What a glorious
picture. They asked this man, come out,
why are you all stained in red? And he said, I had to accomplish
the salvation of my people. And I trotted the winepress of
the fury of God's wrath alone. This is the blood. This is the
blood of the Lamb. that God required in order for
our raiment to be, to be changed. Oh, the, the raiment of the flesh
is appealing to the natural man. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is ever present with me, ever present with me. This raiment
that I carry around with me, this body of death, who shall
deliver me? Who shall deliver me? To will
is present with me, to be perfect is present with me, but how to
perform that which is good I find not. I find not. I can't, I can't
change my clothes. And the Lord said, Joshua, wore
your filthy garments? He wore them. Go back with me
to Zechariah. He went in to eat them. Listen to Revelation chapter
19. The bride has made herself ready and to her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen and white. And that's the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ who's been given his righteousness. We have
no righteousness outside of him. No, no notice. And I, but halfway through verse
four, behold, behold, that word behold means I've seen something
I've never seen before. This is glorious. This deserves
my undivided attention. Behold, I have caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee and I will clothe thee with the 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 stood by. And God gave him a name that
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. And in Revelation chapter four,
the 24 elders, which are a picture of the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, are all seen seated around the throne and around the lamb,
and they all have crowns on. They all have crowns on. And as they're worshiping the
lamb, they take their crowns and they cast them at his feet. God has made us to be members
of the royal family of God, kings and priests. And He's clothed
us with a robe of righteousness. How did He do it? Our Joshua. Our Joshua wore our filthy garments. He wore them. He wore them in
His incarnation. He wore them in His substitutionary
death. He's seated now at the right
hand of God. We're going to see for all of
eternity for all of eternity. When we're clothed in a new body
and we're seated with those 24 elders and we take those crowns
and lie them at his feet, one thing we're going to know, we're
not going to remember any of our sin. Not going to remember
a bit of it. But we're going to see in his
body those wounds that will say to us, this is the reason why
you're here. This is the reason why you're
here. I wore your filthy garments, your raiment. God was satisfied. He put away that sin. And he
gave me a new raiment, a change of clothes. And you stand perfect
and righteous before God in your Joshua, in your Joshua. And verse six, and we'll close.
And the angel of the Lord, now that word protested means testified
or witnessed. So the angel of the Lord is now
testifying or witnessing to Joshua saying, thus saith the Lord of
hosts, if that will walk in my ways and if that will keep my
charge, then thou shall also judge my house and shall also
keep my courts and I will give thee places to walk among these
that stand by. Oh, our Joshua walked in his
ways perfectly, perfectly. He kept the law of God perfectly. And he leads the people of God
and God's people. God, I said, this Joshua represents
not only Christ, but it represents his church. His people walk perfectly
in him. They do. They walk in faith,
looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of their faith. And the Lord says, if you've ever looked to Christ
for your righteousness, if you've ever had a change of raiment,
that can never be changed. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. My sheep will hear my voice and
they will follow after me. This is the testimony, this is
the witness of God because of what Joshua did in wearing our
filthy garments. All right, let's take a break. th th