May it please almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the prophecy of Zechariah chapter three and we'll read
verses one and two. The prophecy of Zechariah chapter
three and reading verses one and two. 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. The Lord said unto Satan, The
Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord of the chosen Jerusalem
rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? Zachariah's prophecy was written
when Judah were returning to Jerusalem and they were beginning
to rebuild the walls in the temple and every effort by Satan and
his people like Samballot were endeavouring to stop the building
of the temple and the building of the walls. And of course As
we read the history, which we can do in Ezra and Nehemiah,
we find that he was really quite successful one might say initially,
but thankfully he was not successful eventually. And to the glory
of God, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt and we're told They
were built in troublous times and it was a difficult age in
which they were rebuilt with all the enemies trying to stop
them. And also, of course, the temple was also rebuilt. So we should be very thankful
to believe that all the efforts of Satan are all limited. He can only perform that which
Almighty God allows him to do. And here we have this statement
with regard to Joshua, and of course it wasn't the Joshua which
took on the leading of the Israelites after Moses. This is another
Joshua, but it's the high priest, and he was standing before the
angel of the Lord, who it would seem very clearly to indicate
this was the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And in
that time, at that time, we read Satan standing at his right hand
to resist him. Well, we should believe that
that's Satan's objective. It always has been to resist
the Church of God from hearing the words of the Lord Jesus.
He's always standing to resist. the true Church of God having
fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't
want us to listen to His Word. He doesn't want us to hear His
voice. And He does everything possible
to resist this situation occurring and this situation to develop. So how true it was in Zachariah's
day, How true it always has been, really, right from the time when
Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, were deceived by the same
Satan, who came and questioned the Word of God. And that's just what he continues
to do today. He questions the Word of God. He questions the Word of God
to his people. the glorious truth that the Lord
grants to his people. It's always Satan's determination
to discredit such statements and to, if possible, bring an
evil heart of unbelief. He is a great adversary and we
should not think that the devil gives up. He never gives up this
side of the grave. And we can expect a continual
battering by this adversary, a continual warfare in our little
life as we travel through this world. But the good news is that
he will not succeed. Ultimately, he may succeed in
a temporary way. He will never succeed. Ultimately,
Quite simply because the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered sin
and death, hell and the grave. And what a mercy to have known
to believe that we are more than conquerors through him. Satan does not want us to understand
that truth. He doesn't want us to know about
the truth. He wants us to always doubt the work of God in our
souls. He always wants to question it. And therefore, as we read here,
there was this devil standing at the right hand of Joshua the
high priest, very close. And my friend, you know, he often
keeps very close to us. We need to be very aware of him
because he's very able and he's very clever. And naturally we
are no match for him. We should never think we are. But there is one glorious truth. They overcame through the blood
of the Lamb. And that is the only way that
you and I will be able to gain the victory over Satan. Through
the blood of the Lamb. That means through the finished
work of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who accomplished
all that he was required to do by his Father and our Father
in heaven, and he finished the work. And when he spoke those
wonderful words on Calvary's cross, it is finished. Well, may we tonight be able
to counteract the evil one, the devil, as he stands on our right
side to resist us, to tell him, Christ has died, yea, rather,
is risen again. Of course Satan hates to hear
that. He cannot stand hearing about the blood of Christ, because
there is full atonement in that. What a mercy for us, therefore,
if God gives us that strength, that understanding, and that
ability to answer the devil as he comes in, sometimes like a
flood, indeed, to try to drown us, try to defeat us. You know, if you and I rely on
our own ability. Sometimes we might think, well,
I know the word of God quite well and I think I can resist
the devil. Never try and resist him by ourselves. Remember what the Apostle Paul
so gloriously said, I can do all things through Christ that
strengthens me. Two things really. That means
the honour and glory goes to Christ and that means that he
would not fail and that's the same for us today. And so may
we today go in the strength of the Lord God and make mention
of his righteousness even of his only. Well the Lord in his
mercy towards the Church of God has recorded these things for
our instruction and for our encouragement. You see the Spirit of God came
and revealed these things to Zachariah and he showed me. He showed Zachariah. Zachariah
was able to write them down under the influence of the Spirit of
God. So today we are able to read them and we are able to
be encouraged as we fight the battle of life. And it is a battle
at all times with Satan. As I said, he never gives up. He's always tempting us. He's always trying to deceive
us. He's always trying to make us
doubt the Word of God, the truth of God. Well, what a mercy if
we understand the support of Almighty God, because the devil
will not succeed. He may pretend he has succeeded,
but he will never succeed, because the Lord Jesus Christ succeeded
in that work that his Father gave him to do. And so we read,
he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel
of the Lord and Satan standing in his right hand to resist him. Well, how true that was and how
true that is. It's a current statement, really.
Satan stands at our right hand to resist us. Perhaps never more
so than when we try and pray to God. He comes in, Lynn. and endeavours to crowd out our
thoughts in prayer, to bring into our minds every thought
that he can. He tries every avenue so that
if he can, he can stop us praying because he wants to resist us
from praying to God. And yet, you know, prayer is
our lifeline. Prayer is. our spiritual breath,
how necessary it is that we are able to pray unto Almighty God
and to realise, no, Satan is there always, endeavouring to
stop us. Praying, reading the Word of
God, he'll make all manner of reasons why we should just do
this and just do that and then perhaps pray and then perhaps
read. But you see, what a blessing
it is when God enables us to resist the devil. Resist the
devil, as we read in the little book of James, where we read
this wonderful, encouraging word when he says, submit yourselves
therefore to God, not to the devil, to God. Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil. And we can
only do that really with God's help. But God does help and God
does come in time of need. Resist the devil. He will flee
from you. So if we point the devil to the
cross of Christ, he hates that because he knows he was conquered. He perhaps thought He gained
a victory when Christ died, because when he rose from the dead a
conqueror, he knew then he was utterly defeated. Well, we're
told about the devil, then he will flee from you. And on the
other hand, these words are very encouraging. Draw nigh to God,
and he will draw nigh to you. You might think, well, I don't
think that's possible. Well, as God gives us grace,
it is possible. As God gives us desires, it is
possible. And if, therefore, we find in
our hearts, perhaps deep down, a true desire to pray to God,
to read God's Word, to draw near to him, it may not be easy. It may be a very substantial
effort because the devil doesn't want us to do that. One of his
greatest things that he brings before us is perhaps when we're
not well, we may be ill, we may think, well, I'm really not too
well. I really, I can't read and I
can't pray. And of course, sometimes we are
too ill to actually read or pray. the devil will always bring that
as an excuse why we should not do such things. And then you
see this word is very strong and very powerful, draw near
to God and he will draw near to you. That is true and I know
it's true from my own personal experience and you may know it's
true from your personal experience when God has very graciously
enabled you to draw near to him. And he hasn't cast you off, he
hasn't turned away from you, but he's come perhaps and touched
your heart, taken away a stony heart and given you a feeling
heart, a heart of flesh, so that you can then rejoice in Christ
Jesus. Well, draw near to God and he
will draw near to you. It's a very great truth. And
it's a wonderful thing to be found in that position. Do not forget, therefore, the
old devil is standing by us as close as he can get to resist
us. But what a mercy it is if we
are given grace to stand firm with the truth of God and indeed
to be sober and to be vigilant We don't want to give the devil
any room. He's there all the time and he's
waiting for an opportunity to enter into our heart. He is very
active. He never sleeps. He never gives
up. He's very active. Peter tells
us in his epistle, first epistle, And the fifth chapter, verses
eight to nine, encouraging words. He tells us, be sober, be vigilant. How needful that is, to be vigilant
in the things of God. Gives a reason. Because your
adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. He's always on the lookout for
those who perhaps may be wandering away from the fold of God, a
little bit fed up perhaps with religion, fed up with the things
of God, and they therefore wander away. He's on the lookout for
such, to pounce upon them just naturally like we see in nature
with a flock of sheep, and we see wolves going around, not
so much in our country, but in other countries, waiting for
one to just stray away, then they can pounce on that lamb
or that sheep and overpower it. Well, here we have this, be vigilant
because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour. whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. We're not alone, we're
not by ourselves, because the whole Church of God, the true
Church of God, is continually attacked by the evil one, Satan. If you're not attacked, you need
to question the reality of your religion, because if you're not
attacked, it means the devil is happy with you, happy to believe
perhaps that you're deceived, happy to leave you alone. What
a blessing it is if the devil knows that you are one of the
children of God, and therefore he attacks you. and he worries
you, and he pesters you, and endeavours to make you give up
the great and blessed things of God, and to pretend that God
will never hear your prayers, God will never answer your prayers.
Well, you can always respond and tell the devil he's a liar,
he always has been, and he always will be. your hope is not in
yourself, your hope is in the finished work of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can tell him you've got
no confidence in your flesh, but you have got a confidence
in what Christ has done, in the glorious work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a mercy it is then to understand
that. And there we find then Satan
standing at the right hand to resist us. There he is, day by
day, and we are sometimes foolish enough to think, well, if I just
get past this difficulty, then it will be plain sailing and
it will be easier. You should never think that. The devil is always on the lookout,
and we can believe he would always be an adversary, right down to
the last breath that we have upon the earth, if possible,
to snatch us from the blessed arms of the Saviour. But we can
believe, by the grace of God, we are safe in the arms of Jesus. It's great safety there. It's
a wonderful place to be, a wonderful place to know that you and I
are resting there. The same word is true underneath
of the everlasting arms. You know, the devil will hope
that he can deceive us and make us fall, fall into the pit, but
we can believe indeed that underneath to support us in our time of
need are the everlasting arms of almighty God. and their strong
arms, and they will support us, and they will not leave us, and
they will not forsake us. And so may we be able to realize
that we have such a God, such a kind God, such a gracious God. And as we read on in this chapter,
this second verse, it tells us, 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? Well, you see, the Lord was very
conscious that Jerusalem was a place where his church was
in that temple, which was being rebuilt. And the Lord had chosen
that place for the place of the temple. And the Lord had blessed
that place. That was the place where the
sacrifices were offered. That was a place where the blood
was shed. There was a place of the Holy
of Holies. That's where the Lord came down
and met with the high priest in the Holy of Holies. That was
a place of blessing. And so we can realise how the
Lord comes and speaks in this way. O Satan, even the Lord for
the chosen Jerusalem rebuketh thee. What a mercy it is when
God rebukes Satan on our behalf. When the Lord speaks to Satan,
again you see the devil cannot then resist the Word of God. We go back in our minds to the
time when the Lord Jesus was baptised, a wonderful occasion,
when his father said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased, hear him. And then we're told he was led
up into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. Now this
can often be the case when people are following the Lord Jesus
Christ and are baptised, then you see the devil comes and tempts
them, perhaps pretends to them that all their religion is false.
Well of course it's not, of course it's generated from Almighty
God, But nonetheless, the devil does try and tempt us. And yet here we have this wonderful
statement, the Lord has chosen Jerusalem. The Lord has chosen
the whole Church of God. That wonderful statement in the
15th of John, where Jesus says, ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. and redeemed you and called you
that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit
should remain. What a blessing that is, what
a wonderful truth it is and how comforting that is to realize
it was God's choice upon us that caused us to hear his voice. And again those words are true
Not that ye loved God, but that God loved you. What a mercy it
is to know that God loved us first. And because God loved
us first, then we responded with our love to the Saviour. The
Lord rebuked thee, O Satan, even the Lord of the chosen Jerusalem
rebuked thee. Well, if you and I have been
chosen as one of those, who are the household of faith. We shall
never lose that faith. The devil will pretend we might. Once in Him, in Him forever,
there is eternal safety in Christ. My friends, the Saviour did not
shed His blood in vain. He did not shed His blood so
that you and I should be lost. but he shed his blood in order
that you and I should be eternally safe, eternally saved. No possibility of falling out
of grace. Grace is the free unmerited favor
of God. And what a mercy it is when you
and I have the evidence of it in our hearts that God has chosen
us. Well, may it be a blessing to
us to know that the Lord has chosen us. And if so, we can
understand the Lord is on our side. On our side, God before
us, who can be against us was the testimony of the Apostle
Paul when he wrote to the Romans and how true that was. If God
before us, if God has called us, God has spoken to us, then
we are amongst those whom God has loved with everlasting love. We are amongst those whom God
has chosen and therefore we are amongst those, if God be for
us, who can be against us. Satan will try and prove to us
that we are not amongst the household of faith, that we are not amongst
those who have been called and chosen by God. But if you and
I look back in our spiritual lives, we look back to what we
might term the beginning. And what do we find there? We
find that God did that for us, which we could not have done
for ourselves. What happened? God made us spiritually
alive. We were spiritually dead. The
dead person has no life. The same spiritually. A dead
person spiritually has no life. And that's where we were. Perhaps
that's where we are now. I know not. But my friends, it's
a blessing if you and I do know the Lord has come and given us
that wonderful favor of spiritual life. The Apostle Paul speaks
about it so very wonderfully and beautifully when he wrote
to the Ephesians. And in the second chapter of
the Ephesians, he uses this statement, and you Hath he quicken, that
means made alive, you hath he quicken, who were dead in trespasses
and in sins, wherein in time past, here we have the evidence
of the difference, wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. Well, that'll be a great blessing,
won't it? If you and I can look back in
our little lives, humbly before God, and realize there is this
time, a time passed when we walked according to the course of this
world. But now God, through his sovereign
grace, And the line in the hymn is so beautiful. Sovereign grace
or sin abounding. Our sin abounded, but grace did
much more abound. What a wonderful thing that is.
And the grace of God turned us. The grace of God changed us. The grace of God brought life
into our souls. And therefore we can come and
we can rejoice in this wonderful power from almighty God. According to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that
was the devil of course, that is the devil, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That was how we were born. That was how we remained until
the Lord brought spiritual life into our hearts. But God, who
is rich in mercy, for His great love with whom He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ."
There's a uniting with this Saviour. There's a uniting with this One
that we read about, the Angel of the Lord, this great and glorious
God, who spoke to Satan and rebuked him, that One who speaks encouraging
words to the Church of God today, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved,
and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. What riches there are, riches
of grace that direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ, direct us
to view his saving work, that work of redemption, what a blessing
it is. And it's something the devil
will try and resist. He'll be standing by us to resist
us. if he can, and pretend to us
this is not the work of God, this is of our own generating,
but you know it won't be because you and I will know it's not
something we could have produced ourselves, it's that which God
has done in us and for us. Yes, and we're able to believe
the great truth of God, even the Lord, the chosen Jerusalem
rebuketh thee, and he says then, is not this a bran plucked out
of the fire? There we were, perhaps being
consumed by the things of the world. Consumed by them, entered into
them, perhaps enjoying them. There we were. We couldn't extricate
ourselves. Temptation was just too great
and too powerful. What a mercy though, if we have
in our lives a but God, who is rich in mercy. Rich in mercy,
wherewith he has loved us. The Lord saw us ruined in the
fall, and yet loved us, notwithstanding all. How humbling, what a mercy,
what a blessing to know that in our little lives, the Lord
reached down from heaven itself and plucked us out of the fire. Indeed, as we read in Loving,
it's this brand, plucked out of the fire, plucked out. Otherwise we would have been
consumed by this evil adversary who thought perhaps he got us
within his grasp, but he could not hold us. What a mercy that
is. What a blessing that is. He's
held many people. He's consumed many people. They've
gone to hell. Many people who have been taken
in by his evil thoughts and evil desires. But what a mercy to
have been blessed with this grace of God, this spiritual life,
to have the evidence therefore that you and I have indeed been
plucked from the burning. You know the Apostle John, when
he was on the Isle of Patmos, and the Lord came and revealed
glorious things to him, he tells us many things but he
tells us this in the 12th chapter of the book of the revelation
and the 10th verse he said and i heard a loud voice saying in
heaven now is come salvation it's a lovely word isn't it salvation
i hope you think it's a lovely word and strength and the kingdom
of our god and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day
and night. The devil is the accuser of the
brethren. He's always there to accuse us.
But here we have this great and wonderful truth, cast down, defeated,
you see, not able to rise again. What a mercy it is to realize
we have that situation. Now we must realize the devil
was allowed to test our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we
think perhaps that our lot is hard, our lot is difficult, we
may think the adversary keeps on pestering us, standing there,
resisting us to have those good thoughts. Let us not forget how
he endeavoured to conquer our great and glorious Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we see him in the Garden
of Eden, sorry, the Garden of Gethsemane and in the Garden
of Gethsemane there, where agony passed through. We're told of
being in agony. He prayed more earnestly. Lovely
example, isn't it? Now we may perhaps sometimes
be in agony of soul because of the temptation of Satan. What
a mercy it is then if God gives us grace to pray more earnestly,
pray more earnestly. And his sweat was, as it were,
great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And we know,
of course, that the Lord Jesus prayed to his father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will,
but thine be done. And it's a great blessing to
have a humble submission to the will of almighty God in our lives. And yet to plead with our God
that he would indeed support us and he would give us grace
therefore to be able to resist the devil as he stands there
trying to resist us from turning to the Lord. And Satan standing
in his right hand to resist him. Remember the devil's powerful,
but remember this, the Lord Jesus Christ is more powerful. And therefore may our hope be,
not in what we've done, but indeed in what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done, his finished work. The devil has always been a liar
and he always will be. You know that Lord Jesus spoke
of those who were followers of the devil, and he told them this,
ye are your father the devil, the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Don't
believe the devil, there's no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, He speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father
of it. So, my friends, never listen
to the devil. Always listen to God speaking. And God speaks through his word. You're not sure, perhaps, what
direction to take sometimes. Read the word of God. You may
not get direction immediately. You may have to read and read
and read, but be sure of this, the Lord will give you direction. Those that seek shall find. The Lord will be gracious. He
will direct us. He will encourage us. And what
a blessing it is that we find the answer in what the Savior
has done. that we're led to the Lord Jesus
Christ and in his finished work. Well, may God graciously direct
us and graciously instruct us to realize that we do have an
adversary. He was always keen to conquer
us. Let us never give up. Let us
always remember that we are more than conquerors through him.
And so these words are very wonderful. And he showed me Joshua, the
high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan
standing in his right hand to resist him. The Lord said unto
Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that has
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plaque? out of the fire. Amen.