Good morning, good to see everybody
here. Let's open this morning's service with a hymn from the
Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number 42. We're here to praise
the name of Jesus, so let's stand and let us praise the name of
Jesus. Number 42. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
prophet, priest, and sovereign king. To him render adoration,
laud and homage to him bring. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
God incarnate from above Came to save His chosen people Sent
by God in covenant love Let us praise the name of Jesus, who
upon Mount Calvary shed his blood and sealed our pardon, died for
sin to set us free. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
risen, conquering, gracious Friend, Advocate and Mediator, all our
hopes on Him depend. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
for he brought us to his fold. Come, exalt his name and worship,
may the Savior be extolled. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
till we see him face to face. Then throughout the endless ages,
praise him for his love and grace. Please be seated. Oh, that the Lord would give
us the grace to worship him this morning. in the power of His
Spirit and according to the truth of His gospel given to us in
His Word. That's our prayer. That song
expresses our heart's desire to the Lord this morning. When
we sing, we're offering up prayers, aren't we? And that's our hope. We're going to be in Zechariah
chapter 3 if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. next to the last book in the
Old Testament, Zechariah chapter 3. I want to thank again Michael
and Robert for being faithful to preach Christ last Sunday.
It's a good trip to Lexington. It's cold. Glad to get home.
I got off the plane, I asked Todd, I said, what is that white
stuff on the ground? So we're very thankful, thankful
for you and thankful for your prayers and thankful for the
family, our brethren in Lexington and the others that were able
to come from other churches. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and ask his blessings on our time together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we're very hopeful and thankful that we're able to come
into Thy holy presence, looking in faith to Thy dear Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, for all our acceptance, all our righteousness,
and all the hope of our salvation. Father, we do desire and pray
that you would be pleased this hour. To open the eyes of our
understanding. We pray that you would. Increase
our faith and give to those that are yet strangers to your grace.
The faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Enable us Lord
to hear his voice and to follow after him. We ask it in Christ
name. Amen. Zechariah chapter 3, the
Lord is speaking to Joshua. Now, this of course is not the
Joshua that led the children of Israel across the Jordan into
the Promised Land after the death of Moses. And yet, this Joshua
was the high priest that served the Lord when the children of
Israel came back from Babylon to Jerusalem. uh... so that's all you need to know
about the history of this joshua the concern that you and i have
is who does this joshua represent and uh... what is the lord not
saying about the historical events that took place thousands of
years ago but what is the lord saying to me from this passage
of scripture and we know that joshua translated means Jehovah
saves. It is exactly, it's the Hebrew
name for the New Testament name Jesus. It means the exact same
thing. When the Lord told Joseph that
he was to name the child Jesus, he said, for he shall save his
people from their sins. So Joshua's name and Jesus represents
the work of God in saving his people from their sins. God does
all the saving. He does all the saving. And what
comfort and what hope we find in looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ, as we just sang, for all the hope of our salvation.
He's not looking to us for any of it. He has provided it all
by Himself. He entered into a covenant promise
with the Father before time ever began, and He committed Himself
as the surety of His people to provide everything necessary
for their salvation. And then 2,000 years ago, He
was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was incarnated, born
of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were cursed
by the law. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world and did everything that God requires for the salvation
of his people. He provided all their righteousness
to the father. Everything that we have hope
for in our acceptance before God Almighty is in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. David said, I will mention thy
righteousness even thine only. And the Lord has called the Lord
our righteousness. And so We have no righteousness
outside of Christ, not that would make us accepted in the presence
of God. All the hope of our justice,
our sin being paid for, was accomplished in the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our Joshua. He is our High Priest. He intercedes
on our behalf before God Almighty. So this passage of Scripture
is not about a High Priest that served Israel thousands of years
ago when they came out of Babylon. It's not even about that Joshua
that led the children of Israel across the Jordan into the Promised
Land. It's about the living Son of God. It's about the Lord Jesus
Christ himself, our Joshua. Now, I have to tell you that
in studying this chapter and in reading all the people that
I respect, the question that I kept asking myself, does Joshua
represent Christ here or does it represent his church? And
after much time in prayer, I've come to this conclusion. The
answer to that question is yes. The answer to that question is
yes. He represents the Lord Jesus Christ and all those found in
Him. The only hope that we have of
our acceptance before God is to be found in Christ, is for
God to put us in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ
himself as our high priest to intercede on our behalf and present
himself before the Father in our stead for all our righteousness
and all of our justification before God. So we can see what
the Lord says here about Joshua as it relates to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we can have hope in knowing
that God has made his people to be kings and priests. Now a priest is one who enters
into the very presence of God. And Peter called the church a
royal priesthood, a holy nation. And so when God puts us in Christ,
He gives us access into His very presence. He gives us access
before the throne of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. and he
gives us royal status, kings and priests. He makes us to be
the children of God. Now what higher position could
there be than to be a child of God? There's no royal label that's
ever given to a human that even comes close to being a child
of God. And so the question I wanna try
to answer from these first verses in Zechariah chapter three is
exactly whom does the Lord defend? Now I'm interested in the answer
to that question. Because either God's for you or He's against
you. Either He's defending you or
He's standing in judgment of you. The Lord Jesus Christ said
in John 17, when He was praying for His church, He said, Father,
I pray not for the world. I pray for them which Thou hast
given me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou hast
given them to me. And I pray that Thou would keep
them from the world. So the Lord Jesus Christ, the
world stands in enmity with God. And the Lord Jesus Christ stands
either in opposition to a person or he stands to defend a person. chapter three verse one and uh... he showed me joshua all how dependent we are on divine
revelation if the lord doesn't reveal himself to us we will
live this life and leave this world blind as to the nature
and person of god he must show us himself, he must reveal himself
to us. And he must show us our interest
in him. He must show us our need to be
found in him, not having our own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that righteousness, which is by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God has to show us that. I know
I quote this verse a lot, but it's just so clear when the Lord
spoke to Nicodemus, who probably had the majority of the Old Testament
committed to memory in Hebrew. He was extremely religious and
a leader of the Jews. If you lived during Nicodemus'
time, you would have said, if Nicodemus is not going to heaven,
none of us have got a chance. That is what Judas said about
Nicodemus. And yet when the Lord Jesus Christ met with Nicodemus,
the scripture said that Nicodemus came to him by night, which speaks
of Nicodemus' darkness and blindness. And Nicodemus, you remember,
said, Lord, we know that Thou art Son of God, for no man can
do the things that Thou doest except God be with him. He was
trying to flatter the Lord Jesus Christ. He was saying to the
Lord Jesus Christ, I know you're a prophet. I've got that discernment. I've got that understanding.
And what the Lord said, Nicodemus, you don't know anything. You
don't know anything. Nicodemus, except you be born
of the spirit. You cannot see the kingdom of
God. You can't have any understanding
of who I am or what I've come to do unless the Spirit of God
opens the eyes of your understanding, unless He takes out your heart
of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. Nicodemus, you've got
to be born again. You've got to be born from above. And that's what the Lord is saying
here. He showed me Joshua. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? To whom? He showed me Joshua, the high
priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. Here's who the Lord
defends. He defends Joshua and all those
found in Joshua. all those who are trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ for all their salvation. He's done it all and
he did it all by himself. He bore all the sins of all of
God's elect in his body upon that tree and put them away once
and for all by the sacrifice of himself, all by himself. Say,
how do I know if I'm Joshua? How do I know if I'm in Joshua?
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for. It's the only evidence
you have. How prone we are to try to look to ourselves to see
some evidence of our salvation. And as soon as we do, nothing
but discouragement and fear set in to our hearts. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. Behold my servant, mine elect,
whom I uphold, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have put my
spirit." Now over and over again we're told to look to Christ.
And that's the only hope that we have, that we're in Him. that we're in Joshua, that Joshua
is our priest before God, our high priest, our great and high
priest who has interceded on our behalf and presented himself
to the Father for our righteousness and for our justification. He showed me Joshua. Has he showed
you Joshua? Has she showed the Lord Jesus
Christ to you? Well, you have to answer that
question. Who am I trusting for my salvation?
Am I looking to an experience? Am I looking to a feeling? Am
I looking to a change in my life? Am I looking to something else?
Or has God caused me to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ alone
is the hope of my salvation? When the Ethiopian eunuch asked
Philip, what must, what doth hinder me to be baptized after
Philip preached the gospel to him? First time that eunuch had
ever heard the gospel in his whole life. And he wanted to
follow Christ. And what'd Philip say? If thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And what'd the Ethiopian
say? I believe I'm saved. I believe, I believe, you know,
I've had this really nice feeling since you've been talking to
me about God. Now he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. There's my only hope. My only hope is that he's the
anointed one, he's the Christ, his name is Jesus. And his very
name says that he must save his people. He cannot fail, Isaiah
chapter 42, nor be discouraged until he hath brought judgment
to the Gentiles. Our God is not a failing God.
You listen to the Jesus that men talk about out there. What
do they say about Him? Oh, He loves everybody. He wants
to save everybody. He's doing everything He can
to get everybody saved. But bless His heart. He comes
up against a brick wall when He comes up against man's free
will, and there's nothing He can do about it. His hands are
tied. And consequently, most of the folks that he loves and
most of the folks that he died for are going to end up in hell
because he's not powerful enough to save them. Now that's a pretty
weak God, and that is not our God. Our God is omnipotent. He possesses all power and all
ability. He's not trying to get anybody
saved. What's Isaiah 42 say? He doesn't cause his voice to
be heard in the street. He doesn't lift up. He's not
begging men. He's not trying to get a following.
He's got a people and he accomplished their salvation. When he said
it is finished, it was finished. That's our God. You see, the
only way that you and I will know that that this is for us
and that the Lord Jesus Christ is defending us is if we believe
on him. Believe on him. 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. Now actually the word resist
here you might have it in the margin of your Bible is the word
accuse. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. What does Satan use to accuse
us? He uses our sin, doesn't he?
He uses our sin. He doesn't even have to bring
it all out to accuse us. All he's got to do is bring a
little bit of it out and we start thinking, the only way that he's able to
accuse us of our sin is by putting us under the law. That's the
only way. So he stands us up against the
law of God and he says, there you are, there you are. How can
you be saved? Look at you. Look how far short
of God's standard you fall. What's the child of God say?
I can't resist Satan. He's more powerful than I am.
These religious people that talk about fighting Satan and going
up against the devil, they have no idea what they're talking
about. The Lord said unto Satan, the
Lord rebuke thee. The Lord rebuke thee. Turn with me to, let's see, I think it's in Jude. Yes, Jude, verse 9, right before
the book of Revelation. I want you to see this. So many figures of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Scripture, and here He's figured as Michael,
the archangel. here he's the one, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one, Michael's name means like God. And the archangel, he's over
all the angels. And so the scripture says, yet
Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he
disputed about the body of Moses. Now, the body of Moses is the
law. And one of the reasons why the
Lord buried Moses' body and none of the Jews knew where they was
is to show us that the Lord has put away the law. But the thing
about this passage of scripture, he's not talking about the physical
body of Moses. Michael the archangel was contending
with the devil over the law, over the law. And Michael the archangel would
not bring a railing accusation against the devil, but said to
the devil, the Lord rebuke you. So here we have a picture of
the devil accusing the Lord Jesus Christ of not fulfilling the
law. And the Lord Jesus Christ responds
to the devil by saying, you take that up with my father. You ask
him if he's not satisfied with what I've accomplished. I'm not
going to fight with you over that. You ask the father and
see what he says. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
completely confident that the father would say to the devil,
this is my beloved son. In him I am well pleased. I saw the travail of his soul
and I'm satisfied. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. So when Satan came against the
Lord Jesus Christ, he accused him of not fulfilling the law. What's he accused us of? The
same exact thing. And what is our response to be?
Don't get in a fight with the devil. You'll lose every time. You'll lose every time. Just
say to him, take it up with my father. He'll let you know whether
or not the law has been fulfilled. I know I haven't fulfilled it.
I've never kept one of God's laws one time. You want to bring
accusations against me for not having kept the law? Those accusations
are true, and I'm sure they go much farther than what you are
accusing me of because I can't keep the law. But you take it
up with my father. He'll rebuke you. He'll stand
in my stead. I'll have all the hope of my
righteousness and my salvation in him. Now, the other thing
for us to remember is that the devil is God's devil. And though
we are impotent, you and I are impotent when it comes to going
up against the devil. The Lord's devil is on God's
leash. And you remember when Satan went
before God to accuse Job? And anytime that Satan put his
hand on Job, he had to get permission from the Lord. You remember when
the Lord told Peter at the Last Supper He, when Peter said, Lord,
they might deny you, but not me, not me. And the Lord said,
Peter, Satan has asked to sift thee. Satan came to me and asked
me if he could sift you. Peter never would have been,
have fallen that night to those temptations had the Lord not
given Satan permission to do what he did. But be of good cheer, for I have
prayed for thee that your faith fail not. And though Peter failed
that night, as you and I fail often, the Lord had prayed for
him that his faith fail not." You see, the truth about the
child of God is regardless of how much the Lord allows Satan
to tempt them, and to discourage them and to accuse them, they
never lose their faith. They never lose their faith. If you had asked Peter, after
he fell that night, do you believe that you're a Christian? Peter
would have said, absolutely not. I have blown it. I've lost everything. If you had asked Peter, Do you
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? He
would have said, absolutely, absolutely. The child of God,
regardless of how much they may fall in sin, never stops believing
that Jesus is the son of God. Peter, I pray that your faith
fail not. And if the Lord's prayed for
you and he's prayed for me, then we cannot not believe. just can't you know years ago
I used to say try stop believing we all start we all try stop
believing all the time don't we that's what sin is it's the
unbelief is the easily besetting sin that that that that that
plagues us all isn't it it's the it's the root of all of our
problems and yet we can't not believe We just, once God makes
you a believer, you're a believer. You're just a believer. And a
believer always believes. The Lord said to Satan, rebuke
thee. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuke thee. How do I know if the Lord's on
my side? I'm in Joshua. I'm dependent upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to fulfill the law of God. I have no strength against
the devil. I can't keep God's law. And I believe that the only hope
of my salvation that is, is if he chooses me. If you think you
had anything to do with your salvation, then if you're an
honest person, you can't really have any hope. because you must
be concerned about whether or not you did it right, or whether
or not you were really sincere when you invited Him into your
heart, or whether or not, you know, did I really mean it? Or
was it just kind of a foxhole decision that, you know, that
got up there? You see, the child of God knows,
Lord, if you don't choose me, I won't choose you. I won't choose
you. You must put me in Christ. The
Lord said to the disciples, you did not choose me. I chose you. I chose you. Those whom the Lord
defends are those who trust Him for electing grace for redeeming
grace, for sanctifying grace, for glorifying grace. They're
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Joshua, as their Jesus
for all of their salvation. The one who has chosen Jerusalem
let him rebuke thee. Is not this the brand that was
plucked out of the fire? Now we've all had the experience
of being around a campfire and a stick gets in the fire and
it's burning just a little bit, starts getting charred, and we
pull it out. Pull it out. And what happens to that stick
when you pull it out of the fire? It goes out, doesn't it? goes
out. That's all a brand plucked out
of the fire is. Now the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the full
wrath of God's fiery judgment on Calvary's cross. Just like
on Mount Carmel when Joshua prayed for the fire of God to fall and
consume that sacrifice, the fire of God's wrath, when the Lord
Jesus Christ said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The father, when he saw the sins of his people on his son, had
no choice but to send the fire of his wrath. He had no choice. It pleased
God to bruise him. Now the question that you and
I have to ask ourselves is, if God sent his consuming fiery
wrath on his own darling son when he saw sin on him, what's
he gonna do to us if he sees sin on us? If the Lord should mark iniquity,
who should stand? We don't take our best work and
put it before God for the hope of our salvation, do we? As we
know, all of our works are sinful. That's why we have to be found
in Joshua. And when God was satisfied, the
fire of his wrath was quenched by the holy sacrifice that the
Lord Jesus Christ made of himself. And as a brand plucked from the
fire, the Lord Jesus Christ was risen by the power of God from
the grave. He died for our transgressions
and was raised again because of our justification. He's the
brand that was plucked out of the fire. You say, well, is this
talking about Christ or me? What's the answer to that question?
Yes. Yes. Let me ask you a question. Do
you believe this about yourself? Do you believe that if the Lord
Jesus Christ doesn't provide everything necessary for your
salvation, I mean everything, that if God judges you based
on the best thing you've ever done, that you're going to hell
for it? You are a hell-deserving sinner. Those are the ones that he defends. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. You see, we're the brand that
was plucked out of the fire. And if God didn't intervene,
if you didn't pull that stick out of the fire, that stick's
going to get burned up, isn't it? That stick can't get out of the
fire by itself. Do you believe that if God didn't
pluck me out of the fire, If he didn't break down the gates
of hell, if he didn't come in to where I was held captive in
sin and in darkness and bring me out by his grace, I'd be consumed
by the fire of wrath of God's justice. I'm a brand plucked
out of the fire. If you believe that about yourself,
you have reason to hope that the Lord Jesus Christ is defending
you. He's defending you. The natural
man doesn't believe that about himself, does he? All right, let's take a break. Thank you.