Zachariah will be looking mainly
at verses 6 and 7. The Scripture says, And the angel
of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my
charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, shall keep my
courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that
stand by." The title of the message this morning is, The Ways and
Promise of Christ. The Ways and Promise of Christ. Now, in the beginning of this
chapter, from verses 1 to 5, we have this vision of this man,
Joshua, the high priest. This man is performing the service
of God and he is coming before the Lord, but there's a problem.
He has filthy garments on. You can see that in verse 3.
Now Joshua was clothed with these filthy garments and stood before
the angel. We saw this on Wednesday evening
as we studied this passage, that Joshua is a picture of every
called, redeemed, and chosen child of God. Every sinner saved
by grace is pictured here by Joshua. This man Joshua, was
under great conviction of sin, and he comes before God clothed
in his filthy garments. This is how sinners come to God.
If there's any sinners that are going to be saved by the grace
of God, this is how they all come. They come as they are. They come with no pretense. This
man Joshua, you won't find a word he speaks throughout this whole
chapter. He comes in silence before God
as a guilty sinner. He comes seeking complete mercy
of God. And I tell you, everyone who
comes to Christ for free mercy will find it. Everyone who seeks free mercy. If you've got something to add,
you won't be accepted. You must come completely as you
are. Not demanding anything. Joshua
is not demanding anything of God. He comes as a sinner, guilty. He comes seeking only mercy before
God. And this man, what does he find? He finds mercy. He comes and
he's rebuked by Satan. Satan says, yes, look at this
man, he's a sinner. He's guilty of sin. But yet the
Lord says to Satan, The Lord rebuke thee. The Lord that chose
Jerusalem, the God of election, rebuke thee. The God that plucks
men as brands out of the fire, rebuke thee. And the Lord Jesus Christ, here
being the angel of the Lord, He answered and said, Take away
the filthy garments from him. And he said, 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 on his head. And they set a fair mitre." What
is that? It's a crown. It's a crown that only the priests
could wear. Holiness unto the Lord was engraved
on it. So anyone who comes to Christ
seeking free mercy, finds free mercy. from the Lord Jesus Christ. This man Joshua was a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of this, we know this,
that his filthy garments were taken away. See this, that faith is not trying
to do something. Faith is ceasing to do anything. That's what faith is. Faith is
ceasing from all your works, ceasing from trying to earn God's
favor. Friends, the act of faith will
not save you. But rather the object of faith
will save you. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Behold my servant, God said, whom I have chosen. Behold Jesus Christ lifted up
as the brazen serpent. Remember when the Israelites
were bitten by the serpents. Moses was commanded to make a
serpent of brass and set it on a pole. That was a picture of
Christ. We've been bitten by sin. And
he says, look and live. Look to Jesus Christ and live. Behold Him who is the fountain
open for sin and uncleanness. Forsake your thoughts, forsake
your feelings, forsake your sighs and prayers and tears that cannot
bear your awful load. Look unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith. He is the God-man mediator, and
He alone honored the law, and His blood alone satisfied the
law, the justice of God. Come now! If you've not come,
why would you wait? Come now! Believe now! Trust
now in Christ! Stop trying and believe! Every sinner who believes on
Christ, confesses his sin, takes his place before God as a guilty
sinner, seeking only mercy in Christ, he says, I'll take away
your garments and your filthiness. So then, we see Joshua here.
He is not a man that is unsaved, but rather a man that is saved. So then, we have the Lord here
speaking to Joshua. And the Lord says, the Lord protested. unto Joshua. Thus saith the Lord
host, if thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my
charge, then thou shalt judge my house, and shalt keep my courts,
and I will give thee places to walk among them that stand by."
Now this protest of the Lord is rather an oath, an oath. The protest of the Lord, the
angel of the Lord of heaven and earth gives an oath here. He
swears. Even so, the Lord promises to
all His saints this same thing. Now this promise is not made
to the lost, but to those whose sins are put away, to those who
are given the robe of righteousness of Christ, and upon whose head
the crown of holiness rests. These promises before us are
not given as a condition of salvation, but rather they are evidences, evidences, proofs of our salvation. Believer, who among us does not
desire proof? I'll tell you what, if you are
walking along and everything seems to be going so well and
you don't ever question anything, I'll tell you, you're ignorant.
You're ignorant of the gospel. The Scripture says, make your
calling and election sure. Is there anything else more important
than your soul? Is there anything more important
than to make your calling and election sure? Is your calling
of God or are you deceived? Is your election of God or is
it based on something you've done? Are you saved? I tell you, I desire evidence.
I desire proofs. And the Lord graciously gives
these things to us. He gives us these proofs. This
is the same thing as if you go over to Hebrews. Look at this.
People often get hung up, if then, they say, well, that's
a condition. That's not what he's talking about. He's not
conditioning his salvation on these things. Go over to Hebrews
chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 14. Listen, for we are made partakers
of Christ. if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. Now, as our being made partakers
of the nature of Christ, is that conditioned on our holding Him? Is that conditioned on our doing? No, that's not. What is that? That's an evidence. My holding
on to Him is evidence that I'm partaker with Him. My holding
on to Him is just evidence. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Evidence of things not seen. So faith is evidence. So the same thing is true in
our text. It's meant for our assurance.
I was thinking of this illustration. If a man nearly drowned, A man
was underwater, he nearly drowned, and someone comes along and resuscitates
him and gives him breath. There's a fear. They call this
fear aquaphobia or hydrophobia. Fear of water. Because that man
nearly drowned, he develops a fear of water. And so then as soon
as he gets near the water, he starts to panic. He starts to,
his heart begins to race and his mind is filled with that
experience of drowning. What then will comfort this man? What then will comfort this man?
Well, ask him, are you breathing? Are you breathing? Well yeah,
well that's evidence you're not drowning, isn't it? That you're
breathing. And so it is with believers in
Christ. If you are a believer in Christ,
if you are, your sins have been removed by Christ, then there
will be evidence of it. There'll be evidence. And that's
what the Lord gives us here, evidence. I like this, John Newton,
a man of God, wrote Amazing Grace. Great preacher. He wrote this
tune, "'Tis a point I long to know, and oft it causes anxious
thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not?" If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure could they be worse
who never heard His name. Does this not cause you often
anxious thoughts concerning your faith and interest in the gospel? Are you truly alive? Well, if you are, the Lord here
tells us what will happen. The Lord swear. This is the Lord
swearing unto Joshua. He says, "...if thou will walk
in my ways." I want to give us three ways this morning, three
evidences by which we may know We walk in His ways. If you are
saved, you will walk in His ways. There's no question. You will. This is the Lord swearing. He
said, I swear you'll walk in My ways if you walk in My ways.
What is it to walk? What is He saying? Well, to walk
in His ways is our conversation, our life. I don't know how many
people profess faith in Christ, but I'll tell you, there is no
real change in them. They profess faith. They say,
I believe. But yet there is no change in
their way of life, their conversation. But we who believe, I'll tell
you this, there is a change. I knew this when the Lord saved
me, either I changed or the world changed, but something changed. Something changed. If we walk
in the ways of the Lord, we will not walk as we once did. Whereas
we were once rebels against God, ignorant and spiritual blindness,
going about to establish our own righteousness, but now the
Lord Jesus Christ has conquered our souls. He's conquered our
souls. He set up His throne room in
our hearts. captured us, and we are his most willing subjects. Most willing subjects. In Job
24 it says, they are of those that rebel against the light.
They know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
Let me ask you, do you hate the light of the gospel? Do you still
hide yourself in darkness? Are you still a rebel against
Christ? But we who are saved love the
light. Love the light. Jesus said this
in John 3. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought
in God. Believers in Christ, we come
to the light. What's the light? The light is
a person. We come to Christ. We come to
Christ not to hide our sins, but to confess them. We come
to be forgiven of our sins. We come to find mercy with Christ. We don't come trying to manipulate
Him or to hide this from Him or that. We come to be exposed. I come to be exposed before God
to find my righteousness not in myself, but in my Savior. I find my righteousness wrought
in Christ. That's where I find it. Believers
in Christ are followers of Christ. Jesus said this, My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them. And what do they do? They follow
me. They follow me. Believers, we are the sheep of
Christ, given to Christ by the Father. We are purchased by the
blood and called by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is my shepherd. Not Jesus may be my shepherd.
Jesus is my shepherd. I am His sheep and I follow Him. Do you follow Him? I tell you,
if you don't follow Him, I don't care how loudly you profess faith,
you don't have it. If you don't follow His ways,
you're deceiving yourself. Therefore, if we are saved, most
surely we'll walk in His ways. To walk in the ways of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the desire of every chosen, redeemed child
of God. I desire to know His ways and follow Him. What are His ways? I'll tell
you, the way of faith is His way. The way of faith. We who are followers of Christ
follow Him by faith. One who is saved by grace We follow Jesus Christ by the
way of faith. And this faith that we have,
this is a grace of God given to his people. This is the only, this is the
main evidence of anyone who is a believer in Christ is faith.
Without this, it's impossible to please God. The scripture tells us the just
Those who are justified, those who are without sin, those who
are innocent before God, shall live how? By faith. The just shall live by faith.
When one experiences the grace of regeneration, the new birth,
the soul is made conscious of depravity. I've told you this
before. Depravity is not just a doctrine. It's an experience. I know what I am. Like Martin Luther said, my name
is sinner. And everywhere you find sinner
in this book, that's my name. That's my name. We know who we
are. When the grace of God comes,
He reveals to us this, and then He gives us faith that clings
to Christ. My soul rejoices in God who justifies
me through the blood-bought redemption of Christ. This is my hope. This
is my life. This is my faith. This is where
I rest my soul. Is this where you rest your soul?
Do you rest it on Christ? You see, this way of faith is
no one-time decision. How many preach such foolishness
as though, oh, you just make a decision for Jesus and everything
will be all right? Friends, faith is no decision.
Faith is a grace, a gift that only God can give you. Faith is not a one-time product
of man's will, but of the grace of God. And this grace of faith
continues and prevails over all the circumstances of time and
providence. Everything we do or cease to
do must be done by faith in Christ. So then, by faith, every son
of God will continually look to Jesus Christ I'll ask you,
believer, have you believed enough? Is your faith fully perfect? No, we confess. We confess. This is why I know that I don't
have faith in my faith, because my faith is so weak. I have faith in Christ. as all my salvation. Therefore,
believer, when the fiery darts of the enemy and the wicked one
come, what do we hold dear? The shield of faith quenches
his fiery darts. When our bodies are persecuted,
And when we are in a dark way and we cannot see the providence
of God and what God is doing, faith in Christ gives us strength
to endure. Faith in Christ lights our way. For all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. Are you in the way of faith? Second of all, the way of love.
His people walk in the way of love. Whereas once we only loved
sin and self, now we are given a new heart to love God. People think this is natural
to love God. That is not true. It is supernatural
to love God. Matter of fact, if you ever loved
God, it's because God first loved you. You can't love God. Those who are saved by the grace
of God are given a new heart that loves God, listen to me,
sincerely. Sincerely. Go over to 1 John. 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 1. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. There's the way
of faith, isn't it? Whosoever believeth. And everyone that loveth Him... Here's the second way. Everyone
that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of
Him. Listen, by this we know that
we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. I'll tell you, listen to me,
there are many who love God sentimentally, but only His people love Him
sincerely. Those with sentimental love are
those who love Him only by their lips and carnal affections. These people are easily moved
by sights and sounds and idols, but who have no love for the
truth. These, our Lord said, are they
who draw near me with their mouth, and their lips do honor me, but
their hearts are far from me. People say, Oh, Lord, I love
you. Oh, preacher, what a great message. Oh, how I love Jesus,
how I love the gospel. These whose mouths profess love,
but their minds, their bodies, and affections rest in their
sin, self, and pleasures of this world, listen to me, they're
liars. You can tell me all day long how you love Jesus, but
I'll tell you, if your heart, your mind, and your body are
not in service to Christ, you are a liar. You are not in His way. You do
not love Him, you still love self. If a man come to me and he says,
oh, you know, I just love my wife, and he gives all these
flowery words and sentiments and says, oh, I love her, I love
her, and all the while he's living with another woman. Do you think
he loves his wife? You know he doesn't. You know
he doesn't. That man's love may be sentimental,
but it's not sincere. We who love God sincerely walk
in the ways of prayer, study, worship, and witness for the
glory of our God. Do you not understand? Listen
to me. I live for God. The only reason I have breath
and the only reason I have anything in this world is for the glory
of God. And you say, well, you're a preacher.
It doesn't matter. It should be for every believer
in Christ. The only reason you live is for God. All you have and all you are
should be in honor to God who saved you, who loved you with
an everlasting love and called you by effectual grace. Everything
we have are lives we owe to God. The Apostle said in Romans 12,
is it not our reasonable service? I beseech you therefore by the
mercies of God that you present your bodies. This is where rubber meets the
road in Christianity. You can have all the flowery
words you want, but I'll tell you what, if you do not present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, you don't see that's reasonable.
That's just reasonable. For us who are saved, that's
reasonable, because we love God. We love His Son. I remember a man that told me
this when I was getting married, a dear friend of mine. He said,
Fred, love is not just a feeling. It's a commitment. Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceptive. But I'll tell you, if you love
God, yeah, your feelings may come and they may go, but your
commitment will never go. Give me Christ, else I die. I must have Christ. Therefore,
we give ourselves to prayer and study. You know, this apostasy
always begins in the closet. Isn't that what the Lord said?
When you pray, enter into your closet. You know where apostasy
begins? It begins with people sacrificing
prayer and abstaining from prayer. Do you sincerely love God? Then
why would you neglect to meet Him in prayer? Why don't feel like... What does
that have to do with it? What does that have to do with
it? Matter of fact, when you don't feel it, that's when you
need it the most. Prayer. Pray always, the Apostle
said. Neglect not the way of love.
in our study or worship. Was this not always the way of
Christ? Where did you find Him? In the Scripture, where did you
find Him usually? He's always in the temple, or
He's preaching, or He's praying. Isn't that what He's doing? Isn't
that His way? Did He not leave His example
for us to follow? Prayer? Preaching, witnessing,
worshipping always. That was His way. This is the
way we follow. And we do it out of love. We
do it out of love, not out of a legal sense. I don't come here
to preach to you because I'm legally bound. I come here because
I delight in the glory of God and I desire you to come to glory
with me. That's what I desire. I desire
you to believe and comfort yourselves in the gospel. Do you love the
means by which to commune with God? Do you love prayer? Do you
love worship? Do you love worship? Are you walking in these ways? These are the ways of those who
follow Christ. I hear some people say this who
are either cold or dead. They say, well, I don't need
to go to church to be saved. No, you don't. But if you are
saved, will you not desire to be where God is? If you say you
love God, would you not desire to be where He's present? where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them." If we love Him, walk in His way. This is what
He's provided for us, for your growth. Jesus said, I'll be in the midst
of my people. Listen to me. You show me your
faith by absenting yourself from the worship of God. I'll show
you my faith by my desire to worship God. Remember, faith without works
is dead. And what is our motive to love
God sincerely? Because he loved me first. That's
my motive for being here because he loved me first. When did he
love me? He always loved me. He said,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, have I drawn thee. Our love is but a dim reflection
of His great love. As the moon reflects the light
of the sun, even so does the believer's heart reflect the
love of God. I can only show you a reflection
of His love for me. I can't show you the fullness. I don't know the fullness of
it. I've not yet obtained to that. It is the greatness of God's
love and grace that moves our soul to gladly follow Him. Are
you following Him? Do you love Him? And as John says, if you love
Him that begot you, you'll also love them that are begotten.
This is the way of love. Not only to love God sincerely,
but also to love the brethren. There are times when I study the Word of God,
prepare a message, And I feel as though it is not
fit to be preached. But I preach it anyway because I love you. Because I know this, you need
it. You need it. And you who walk in his way,
you should love me. You should love me. And you should
love one another more than you love anything else in this world.
I'm talking about your children. I'm talking about your earthly
family and your friends and all your possessions. You should
love me and these people more than you love any of that other
things. Jesus asked Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these? I'll ask you, do you love the
Lord more than these? And if you love the Lord, you
most definitely will love me more than these. And I will love
you more than these other things. Do you walk in the way of love?
The third way is the way of righteousness. In the Shepherd's Psalm we read
this, He leadeth me in paths of righteousness. We confess
that Jesus Christ is all our righteousness and therefore by
grace He has charged our sins to Christ
and not imputed them to us. But yet I'll tell you this, everyone
who believes, you have been given a righteous nature, a new nature. This is what I told you before.
If you believed on Christ, you've changed. And the reason you've
changed is because God has given you a righteous nature that loves
righteousness. Isn't that just make sense? If
you're righteous, you will love righteousness. If you are righteous,
you will hate sin. This righteousness that we have
causes us to hate sin. Be not deceived. You cannot love
sin and this world and Christ. You cannot serve your sin and
serve God. All who walk in the ways of Christ
walk after righteousness. We desire to love Christ, to
believe on Christ, and listen, obey Christ. In our text, he
says, if thou will walk in my ways, if thou will keep my charge. What is his charge? It's his
commandment. What is his commandment? Love
one another as I loved you. His commandments are not grievous
unto us. Are the commandments of God grievous
to you? Therefore, we love His law and
we love His commandments, and they're not grievous to us. So then, why can we not do what
we want to? Believer, you want to walk in
righteousness, don't you? You desire it. You thirst after
it. You hunger for it. Why is it
that you can't? Because the old man is still
in us. Therefore, if you are walking
in the ways of faith and love and righteousness, there will
be a warfare in your heart, in your very being. There's a constant
struggle between the old man and the new. In Romans 7, the apostle says
it this way, he says, For the good that I would do, I do not,
but the evil which I would not do, that I do. Now if I do it,
that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwelleth in me. I find a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law
of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" Is that not something you identify with
if you're walking in the way of Christ? It is. You're walking
in the way of Christ. There's a struggle. There's a
struggle. Daily, constantly, are we fighting
against the sin of our flesh? Listen to me, the way of Christ
is hard. If you want an easy path, there's
a broad way. There's a broad way to go. Everybody
goes down that road. That's easy. In the book of Pilgrim's
Progress, there was a man named Ignorance. And he was walking
along and Christian met him and he was talking with him, but
their experience was completely different. Christian had dealt
with troubles and difficulties and trials and ignorance. He
just went around everything. Everything, every trouble he
found a way around to make it easy for himself. I'll tell you,
believing on Christ is not easy. If any man listen to the words
of Christ, if any man hate not his father and his mother and
his sister and his brother and his own life, he cannot be my
disciple. I'll tell you, if you would believe
on Christ, you should count the cost. You know what it's going
to cost you? Everything. Everything. Now for a man who has nothing,
that's a good trade. You see, I don't have anything.
So that's a good trade. Are you walking in the way of
Christ? Are you walking in the way of faith? Then look at the
promises quickly with me. Here it is. Then thou shalt judge
my house. and thou shalt keep my courts,
and I will give thee places to walk among them that stand by."
Believer, let us see our joyful privileges in this. As Joshua was given charge over
the house of Israel, he was discerned between truth
and a lie. Believer if you're walking in
the ways of Christ, you shall be easily you shall easily discern
a truth from lie You'll be able to judge Judge you'll be able
to discern a This is what it says in Ezekiel,
and they shall teach my people the difference between the holy
and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean
and the clean. All who follow and know the voice
of Christ will not follow another voice. There is one gospel. It is the gospel of free, sovereign
mercy. The gospel of the blood and righteousness
of Christ, and there is no other gospel, and any gospel of free
will, works, religion, is immediately discerned as a lie. If you're
following in the way of Christ, you see that. You clearly see
that. This is the promise of us who
believe, us who love God, and us who walk after righteousness.
We know the truth. We know that salvation is by
the grace of God. And I don't care how men decorate
their lie, the foul stench of works religion, we can smell
it a mile away. I tell you, sometimes I can't
put my finger on what's wrong, but I know something's wrong.
I know when something's wrong, and so do you. This is a discerning
spirit. Second of all, the second blessing,
we shall keep his courts. What does this mean? It means
we have full access into the court of God. Full access. That high priest
was allowed to go anywhere in that holy place and once a year
he was allowed to go into the most holy. But he was allowed
to go. And so are you. You who believe. The scripture tells us over in
Hebrews, it says, come boldly before the throne of grace that
you may be able to find help in time of need. Okay believer,
who has needs? Who needs mercy? Who needs grace? Who needs forgiveness? Who needs
love? Who needs to understand the Word
of God? Come boldly and come freely! That's what it's His promise.
It's His promise. You walk in His ways, you shall
be able to enter into His presence. Enter into His presence boldly.
And thirdly, He said, I will give you, I will give thee places
to walk among them that stand by. What does this mean? It means
he'll give us success. Success. You know what my prayer is every
time I preach? That the gospel go out successfully. And you know what? It does. It does. This is the promise
of Christ that His gospel shall prevail and His people will follow
Him in faith and love and righteousness. And also, this is the promise
that I shall see glory. Do you realize that there is
a 100% chance that I'm going to heaven? There's a 0% chance that I'll
miss it. Where do I find such assurance? Not by looking in the mirror. I find it because the Savior
promised it. I find assurance because God
purposed it. And He said He would do it. I find my assurance in that God
accepted the blood offering of Christ. That's where my assurance
is. That's where my hope is. And
all those that have gone before me, that have made it to Canaan's
side, I'm following close behind, and I'll be there soon. Will you? are you walking in his ways then the promises are yea and
amen in Christ the hope of my salvation I pray that your hope If you've not been walking in
His ways, I pray that God give you such grace to walk in His
way. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Listen, no man comes to the Father
but by me. I pray God I have the blessing
to the preaching of His word. The stand will be dismissed in
prayer.